One aspect of personal finance that I haven’t studied much is taxes. Specifically how to pay as little taxes as possible, better known as tax avoidance. I decided that it was time to change this so I recently read a book about outsmarting the system, written by a former IRS agent who’d performed hundreds of income tax audits. While the book was a short read it
Hey guys. Hope you had a good week. I actually gotta out of my cave yesterday and spent the day helping out in the office at the family businesses. I might start working a day or two per week just to get out of the house and bring a little more structure into my schedule. Good Posts From the Week I discovered this post from
It always seems like it takes a tragedy or emergency in some form for most people to look at the big picture of their personal finances. A bankruptcy, a death in the family, a foreclosure, or a mountain of debt – all pretty big wake up calls. While I tend to think that I am pretty grounded when it comes to personal finance, even if
My latest finding among foreclosures in the area is a house listed for $12,000. While it’s not uncommon for foreclosed homes in my area to go for extremely low amounts (decent homes in the $20k – $30k range) homes are usually quite a bit more than $12,000. But I did recently see a much nicer and larger house in a similar area go for $14,000.
Another week gone. It’s been a good one though. The girls and I went to Chuck E. Cheese last night and there were only a couple other people there. Usually the place is so packed you have to push through a crowd. It was nice to feel like we had the whole place to ourselves. The girls will be at their dads this weekend so
It’s not quite spring yet but I feel like I’ve already caught the spring cleaning bug. I’ve tackled my closet getting rid of almost half my clothes. I’ve went through old magazines and paperwork and pitched almost everything. And, now I’m about to start on the toys…. I wouldn’t say I’m a minimalist but I definitely hate clutter. When the house is a mess I
What I am doing to earn a living now started out as just a side hustle. I started in my spare time and over the course of a year I was getting pretty busy. There came a point when I felt like I was working two full time jobs. That’s when I had to make the decision: stay at my full time job or take
Happy Valentines Day! My daughters and I are having our own mini celebration today. We’re having our version of a fancy dinner, which I’m hoping will be a lot of fun for them. Other than that just a low key weekend. On to some good posts from others. From Dear Debt: What is Your Earliest Money Memory? I honestly have no idea what my earliest
So, as you may know I got a little itch to take some of my money and buy individual stocks. While my picks have widely fluctuated I can’t help but want to put even more of my savings in stocks. This is kind of weird because as of today I’m down about 10 percent. Still. I’m finding it hard to resist the urge. So, before
I’ve been reading The Happiness Project off and on over the last couple of months. I’ve finally gotten to the chapter where author, Gretchen Rubin, tries to buy happiness with material items. While my impression is that she is rather unsuccessful at this, her findings can be summed up as follows: Buying items that increase your quality of life make you happy Shopping can make
