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
It’s Hard to Sit Still in this Economy
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
Facebook is a Whole New Way to Keep Up With the Joneses
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
Fascinating Article About a Family Facing the Tax Cut Expiration!
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
CD Rates Between Banks and Credit Unions
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:
Is $1 Million Enough To Retire on at 55?
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
Investment Broker Facing Sentencing
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
Being Satisfied With What You Have
I found myself over at Get Rich Slowly today reading his post called: “Bigger Isn’t Always Better: Remembering to Appreciate What I Already Have†and a number of things came to mind. First the synopsis. JD took the long route home yesterday which included walking past a number of large “mansion†type houses. As he walked along, he found himself thinking about what it would
The Summer of Not Spending Major Money
It’s finally summer around here and I’m thrilled. The months of cold blustery weather seemed to go on forever and I can easily recall longing for the days of warmth. While the weather hasn’t exactly been “epic†heat or anything so far (in fact it’s been uncharacteristically cooler in May and June in the Pacific Northwest), the weather is still much better than the typical
Most Americans Still Unprepared for Retirement
Wow. CNNMoney has an article up today about a recently released survey from the Employee Benefit Research Institute. They surveyed 1153 US workers and retirees older than 25 years of age in January. Here are some of the results: 54% of workers said they have less than $25,000 saved for retirement 24% have delayed their retirement in the past year 27% of workers said they