Posted October 1, 2009 - 05:00 by Philip Brewer
Personal Finance, Frugal Living
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.
full story
Posted September 23, 2009 - 05:00 by Philip Brewer
Personal Finance
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.
full story
Posted April 20, 2009 - 17:49 by Torley Wong
Productivity
It's a — pardon the expression — timeless saying: "You can always make more money, but you can't make more time." The staunch followup to that tends to be that you can make better use of time.
full story
Posted April 8, 2009 - 09:54 by Philip Brewer
Personal Finance
Everybody knows that retirement accounts like 401(k)s and IRAs offer great tax advantages (and once upon a time--and maybe again someday--a corporate match). But people who have plans to spend the money before they reach retirement age worry about the restrictions on early withdrawals that come with the various retirement plans. Here's a cheat-sheet for working the angles.
full story
Posted April 6, 2009 - 09:47 by Paul Michael
Green Living, DIY
It's not often I'm taken aback by the simplicity and power of an invention, but this one does it for me. It's cheap, anyone can make one and it literally changes lives. Welcome to the water-bottle lightbulb.
full story
Posted December 27, 2008 - 13:15 by Philip Brewer
Personal Finance, Budgeting
Budgets tend to focus on needs--food, shelter, heat, light, transportation, and (of course) taxes. They also provide for wants, but generally the smaller, shorter-term wants--cable TV, a magazine subscription, an occasional restaurant meal. Instead of a budget line, the larger, longer-term wants are covered implicitly when your budget spends less than all you earn. Somewhere, though, those big, long-term wants deserve a plan.
full story
Posted August 29, 2008 - 21:38 by Paul Michael
Life Hacks, Productivity, Technology
How many times do you click on a link to an article, video, image or anything else of interest and want to visit the homepage of that site? It happens to me all the time. Sometimes finding the homepage link is fairly easy, on other occasions it's buried. And then you have to go up to the address bar, delete all of the information before the domain name and hit enter. Well, not any more with the help of this "bookmarklet."
full story
Posted August 13, 2008 - 11:58 by Philip Brewer
Personal Finance
You can always tell when inflation has become ingrained in an economy--you start hearing people say, "Buy now before the price goes up!" I remember hearing that a lot in the late 1970s, but I haven't heard that much so far in the current inflation. (This fact probably gives the Federal Reserve a certain amount of comfort.) I have, though, started to hear its close cousin, "Why save when the interest rate is below the inflation rate?"
full story
Posted December 28, 2007 - 14:02 by Joann Hong
Budgeting
This holiday season has been rough for me. I moved out to New York for a few months and thought I'd be set with my savings and supplementary, lucrative temp work. However, at the approach of the New Year I still felt the financial strains. Looking back now, I want to hit my head at some of the foolish mistakes I could of avoided as a city newbie. I've learned that you've got fast to be quick city -- I mean this in a financially saavy way-- and hopefully my experiences with rip offs can help those who are planning a trip or a move to NYC avoid learning the hard way.
full story
Posted October 14, 2007 - 10:04 by Paul Michael
Lifestyle
A friend recently told me the story of how a millionaire thinks. Not every millionaire of course, just one in particular. It's ingenius, as you will discover. But it really made me ponder about the decisions I make every day, and if I could make better ones just be exercising that underused part of my anatomy - my brain.
full story
All comments