Posted November 19, 2009 - 15:08 by Philip Brewer
Your paycheck has probably been bigger this year because the government stimulus package to cut the amount of tax withheld from people who were expected to get the new "Making Work Pay" tax credit. But there's a problem: According to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, more than 15 million taxpayers may unexpectedly end up owing taxes.
Posted November 19, 2009 - 06:00 by Philip Brewer
Given the number of posts at frugality sites on how to make your own cleaning supplies (and the number of reads those posts get), the topic is obviously one of interest to the community. My take is that there's an easier way to save money on cleaning supplies than making your own: Use less.
Posted November 13, 2009 - 08:29 by Philip Brewer
Most people I know have a frustrated passion. There's something they'd rather do a lot more of, but making a living gets in the way. Some people simply accept that their passion will get short shrift, while other people make great efforts to arrange their life so they can follow their passion. For the latter folks, I'm familiar with three general strategies: dream job, day job, and early retirement.
Posted November 11, 2009 - 08:09 by Philip Brewer
During a recession is the worst time to be a temp -- whatever work companies have will go to employees, as a way to avoid having to lay them off. Another bad time is middle of a recovery -- things are going so well that managers figure it's safe to hire new permanent employees. Still, there are two good times to look for temp work, and we're coming up on one of them.
Posted November 10, 2009 - 09:41 by Philip Brewer
Changes in the economy have pushed more and more people into part-time, temporary, and freelance work, as more and more companies cut back on traditional, long-term, full-time employees. Recently the Newshour on PBS had a report by Paul Solman on the problems faced by freelancers in a tough economy -- and pointers to some useful resources.
Posted November 8, 2009 - 06:00 by Philip Brewer
Remember travelers checks? In the days before ubiquitous automated teller machines, they were a useful product. You could use them almost like cash -- but you could carry more than you'd feel safe carrying in cash because if they were lost or stolen you could get them replaced. Well, savings bonds have all those features but one.
Posted November 3, 2009 - 06:00 by Philip Brewer
If you're tracking your spending, you know how much money it takes to live on. If you're tracking your investments, you know about how much return you're getting from your capital. With those two numbers, you can get a pretty good estimate of how much money it takes to buy your way out of the rat race.
Posted October 28, 2009 - 05:00 by Philip Brewer
There are people out there whose livelihoods depend on the fact that most people go every day to some job or another. Business owners, investors, retired folks -- capitalists in general -- pay their expenses with profits that would be threatened if there weren't plenty of workers trading their life for a paycheck.
Posted October 13, 2009 - 05:00 by Philip Brewer
I pay almost no attention to "deals" sites. I scarcely even read the lists of deals here on Wise Bread. There are several reasons, but they pretty much come down to two things: I don't have the time, or the money, to pay attention to deals.
Posted October 6, 2009 - 05:00 by Philip Brewer
There are good reasons to go to college. And, if you do go to college, you will no doubt learn a lot. But you can learn anywhere — and probably learn more, better, and faster if you do so on your own. If you choose to go to college, make sure you know what you're paying for.
Posted October 1, 2009 - 05:00 by Philip Brewer
The most simple-minded measure of your standard of living is how much money you spend: spending more equals living better. Reality is more complex. There are a lot of ways to live better without spending more.
Posted September 23, 2009 - 05:00 by Philip Brewer
If you quit checking your 401(k) balance last year, because the market crash made it too depressing, now might be a good time to take a fresh look. It'll still be well down from the peak, but it's probably recovered quite a bit from the low. However small it may be compared to some imagined goal, don't underestimate the value of any amount of retirement savings.
Posted September 12, 2009 - 06:00 by Philip Brewer
Ordinary business transactions used to be governed by long-standing laws and customs that had been developed to make them fair to both sides. Over the last fifty years or so--basically, since credit cards became popular--those rules have been gradually pushed aside. Now, everything is governed by "terms and conditions" that the corporate party can change at any time. Do your best to avoid doing business on such terms.
Posted September 8, 2009 - 05:00 by Philip Brewer
One of the big advantages that children of the middle-class and wealthy have is that they grow up in a household where a huge amount of financial knowledge is embedded in its day-to-day functioning. Parents teach it, but it's also just there for the child to pick up, almost for free, like language and basic social skills. If you don't get this basic financial knowledge at home, it's possible to learn it other ways--but don't underestimate how much you need to pick up.
Posted August 28, 2009 - 12:00 by Philip Brewer
I don't pay any bank fees, except rental on my safe deposit box. That leaves me of two minds about the fees. On the one hand, I feel bad because the fees tend to fall hardest on the people who can afford them the least--the poor, the ignorant, the stupid, the careless, the lazy, and the unlucky. On the other hand, the fees other people pay help cover the costs of the many free services that I get from the bank.
Posted August 25, 2009 - 12:02 by Philip Brewer
The web is full of advice for starving writers. And why not? Any writer has heard the advice "Write what you know," and one thing many writers know is about being a starving writer. Oddly, most of their advice is on writing. A couple of truly great writers, though, have left us advice on the much more important topic of not starving.
Posted August 18, 2009 - 05:00 by Philip Brewer
Why would someone choose to have less than they could? Lots of reasons. There are as many ways to live large as there are people who refuse to think small. Over the time I've been writing for Wise Bread, I've expanded my list of reasons by quite a bit.
Posted August 10, 2009 - 12:00 by Philip Brewer
Especially for things people often buy on credit, like a car or a house, there's a tendency to divide the ownership into two periods--while the loan is being paid off, where the item is expensive, and after the loan has been paid off, where the item is free. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of capital costs.
Posted August 4, 2009 - 05:00 by Philip Brewer
I got a notice from one of my credit cards a bit ago, announcing that they were raising the interest rate. It's only of theoretical interest to me, of course--I use credit cards for transactions, not to borrow money--but looking at the rate they're charging reminded me that there are really three interest rates.
Posted July 29, 2009 - 12:00 by Philip Brewer
Your IRA and 401(k) (or 403(b) if you work for a non-profit) are great tools for deferring taxes, and have other advantages as well. But because they're labeled "retirement" accounts, people are much too likely to put the wrong investments in them. Here's how to use them correctly.
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