Living for today - Planning for Tomorrow
I was looking through our financial information this week and noticed that our college account for our 7 year old daughter is approaching $10,000. While that seemed like a decent balance for a 7 year old, I started looking at how much we’re really going to need when our daughter finishes high school. Unfortunately, it’s clear we aren’t saving enough. A conservative estimate is that
I took a few minutes to look around the Interwebs to see if I could find a consistent belief on where home prices are headed. While some people believe we are in an economic recovery and home prices will be heading up, it seems that just about the same amount of people think we have a ways to fall before we’ll see price stabilization. Yes,
Stacy Rapacon at Kiplinger put up a post about the realities that many of us Generation X and Y folks face in retirement. The younger you are, the more harsh the reality. In my case, being born in 1971, I know my Social Security benefits will most likely be reduced and delayed compared to what I have been expecting in the past. So far, I’m
Every time my sister comes to visit, I can count on her being dressed in a sweater of some sort. By nature, she’s usually cold but she knows that we don’t keep the heat up too high at our house so she comes prepared. Actually, I don’t think we are very frugal when it comes to keeping the heat on during the winter. I have
I’m such a dunce. I have been spending way too much time thinking of things to spend money on these days. I’ve dealt with at least 3 bouts of car lust over the past couple months and have been thinking about home improvement projects too. Will someone please duct tape me to a chair to bring things under control? I’m sure a psychologist could help
It used to be that people would compare themselves with their family, friends and neighbors. It makes sense, if you think about it. People are most likely to compare themselves to what and who they see on a daily basis. If your neighbor buys a new car, you might be more inclined to feel the need to get yourself a new car. I mean, if
I happened upon an article today about a Law Professor named Todd Henderson. Todd discusses how unfair the expiring tax cuts are to his family. I’m not going to try to summarize it too much. Go read it HERE. Seriously, go read it. It’s interesting but what is FAR more interesting is the comments. There is a second article related to this HERE. This was
As I’ve said many times in the past, I’m a HUGE believer in credit unions. Today I was considering tying up some of my cash in a short term CD. I logged on to my credit union and checked their rates, only to be very disappointed. Here’s what I found for a CD less than $50,000 (min $1000): 6-11 month CD: .65% 12-17 month CD:
As I often do, I found myself standing in the front yard talking to a friend of mine while I was watering the lawn. He’s 51 years old and has been working at the same company for 20+ years. A few weeks ago, he told me that he’s going to have to start driving a lot farther to work each day due to the company
ING Investment Broker, Rhonda Breard, appeared to have it all. She owned 3 luxury homes and 27 cars, trucks, boats and RV’s. She even had her own Infomercials titled, “Help Me Rhondaâ€. Unfortunately for all the investors, it was all a scam. Rhonda stole over $11 million over at least 10 years. Now she’s facing upwards of 8 years in jail. She cites the need