Living for today - Planning for Tomorrow
Having someone show up and build a beautiful new home for you is a lot like winning the lottery. Some people handle these windfalls better than others. In the case of this house, Dawne Kirkwood just couldn’t manage to keep it when she and her husband divorced. In Washington state everything is split down the middle during a divorce so the house has to be
I have to admit I’m still really enjoying Mint.com. For the first time in many years, I’m tracking my actual expenses against my budgeted expenses. The reason I’m doing this is because Mint has made it so easy. As long as we use our credit or debit cards for purchases, they all automatically download in to Mint and are assigned in to the right category.
I was reading MadameX’s post at My Open Wallet on the fact that she’s resorted to eating stale crackers with hummus in an attempt to get her food budget back in line. As I read that, it occurred to me that she’s probably not the only one doing this. I know that we are also cracking down on our food budget, and now that I’m
The pull to spend money never ceases. As concerned as I am about the overall economy, you’d think I’d be sitting in my home letting the cash pile up from cracking down on our spending. It’s just not that easy. I’ve been conditioned over a long period of time to crave things. What kind of things? The standard stuff. I’d love to buy a new
I’ve been sitting on the sideline when it comes to signing up for an online tool that allows me to get a consolidated view of all my investment and bank accounts. The main reason is that I didn’t want to offer up my account logins for fear of creating extra drama in my life. I finally bit the bullet yesterday and am somewhat surprised at
This is pretty interesting to watch. Peter Schiff gave this at a mortgage bankers conference in Las Vegas. The funny thing is that everything he says is pretty darned basic. Well worth watching: A couple interesting points: It was easier to get a house than it was to rent because the landlords actually checked your credit and income for a rental Home prices have traditionally
I’ve mentioned before how much I like the "deal". For me, the "deal" is anything that I can do to get a better price on something. I absolutely hate paying retail for something. When I do have to pay retail for something I find myself feeling a bit of dread as I pay the cashier. Whether I’m at the department store buying new clothes, or
I was watching a show called "Airline" recently and watched as two passengers were refused entrance on to their flight. They had been drinking too much and were somewhat drunk and belligerent. The younger of the two people started saying he wanted his money back and was directed to the ticket counter to receive it. On the way, he made all kinds of drunken comments
My wife, daughter and I were sitting at the breakfast table this morning when my daughter, who’s 5, randomly told my wife, "There are a lot of advertisements that are just trying to take our money." Over the last year or so when we are reading the paper and looking at advertisements I’ve tried to make a point to our daughter that sometimes you can
