spending

How Old Were You When You Started Saving? (Answer and Win!)

Posted July 7, 2009 - 04:23 by Linsey Knerl

Giveaways

Feed the Pig

Share your savings experiences, and be entered to win one of two $10 Amazon Gift Cards and one of 6 prize packs from FeedThePig.org! To enter our Trivia Tuesday giveaway, simply answer tell us How old you were when you began to seriously start saving?

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The new normal economy

Posted June 30, 2009 - 05:34 by Philip Brewer

Personal Finance, Frugal Living

Chairs and table on the beach

The economy is way short of full employment, so naturally, consumer spending is down. Sooner or later employment, I think, will return to normal levels. Consumer spending will return to normal too--but don't look to the first half of this decade as "normal." Normal is something very different.

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47 Simple Ways To Waste Money

Posted June 24, 2009 - 09:12 by Paul Michael

Personal Finance, General Tips, Shopping, Lifestyle, Budgeting

Burn money

How are you doing with your money? Do you have everything under control, or are you spending a little more than you should? Well, if you'd like to blow even more of your money, this list will help you empty your bank account in half the time you usually do. Enjoy.

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Are You Doing Bad Things with Your Money?

Posted May 21, 2009 - 16:44 by Linsey Knerl

Personal Finance, Consumer Affairs

Today my middle son hit my youngest son in the face with a Ziploc bag full of pennies. It was premeditated, and as I burst into the dining room to sort it all out, I found myself saying the oddest thing: “Don’t do bad things with your money.” It was an odd time to link money to intent, but it was also strangely fitting.

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Retirement accounts and money to spend

Posted April 8, 2009 - 09:54 by Philip Brewer

Personal Finance

Statue of Athena with an Owl in Chicago's Union Station

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.

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A champion of savings over spending

Posted February 20, 2009 - 06:36 by Philip Brewer

Frugal Living, Consumer Affairs

We're subjected to constant barrage of unhelpful advice to the effect that what the economy needs is more spending. (The stimulus program is one piece of this.) It's kind of understandable: A recession is all about the downward spiral of people buying less, forcing businesses to shrink, putting people out of work, so that they spend even less. The cure, though, is not just a bunch of extra spending. The cure is to get the economy to the right size.

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Placing Prepositions: Where you from? Where you at?

Posted February 15, 2009 - 14:18 by Jabulani Leffall

Personal Finance

Our spending and money management choices may be influenced by factors we can't control in our own minds as well as factors we couldn't control growing up. You may ask, to what are you referring Willis? Well the question is this: How would Arnold Jackson have faired in his personal finances if not for Phil Drummond or would he have been fine?

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Too broke to be frugal?

Posted February 3, 2009 - 06:31 by Philip Brewer

Personal Finance, Budgeting

Collapsed barn

The first few years after I got out of college my finances were seriously out of control. I was making pretty good money, but I was spending all of it. Worse, I wasn't keeping track, so I didn't even really know whether I was getting ahead or falling behind. During that period I more than once made some seriously unfrugal choices, simply because I didn't have cash on hand.

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Recession Journal Part I: 'Fast' Money in the '09

Posted January 5, 2009 - 16:11 by Jabulani Leffall

Personal Finance, Budgeting

Forget about the fact that it's a recession. What you do now determines where you will be when the graph trends up again. What if you stopped dropping duckets like you dropped weight from dispensing with carbs? What if you misered up, stored and did without for say just one week or one two-week interval every month? What do you think of that 'Fast Money?'

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What Do You and a Credit Card Thief Have in Common?

Posted December 10, 2008 - 19:51 by Linsey Knerl

Personal Finance, Credit Cards, Consumer Affairs

I've always considered myself to be an educated credit card user. I keep my balances low, pay on time, and don't do anything that could potentially come back to haunt me.. Little did I know, that by playing it cool, I was putting myself at risk for being treated like a criminal.

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