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How Financial Security and Useful Skills Change Your Decision-Making Process
A few weeks ago, an interesting event occurred in one of my old hobbies that sheds a wonderful light on how decision making processes of people change as they achieve success in the world. Bear with me – I have some interesting points that relate to this story.
Recently, there was a very large Magic: the Gathering tournament in Las Vegas. This tournament had an attendance in the ballpark of five thousand players and offered very nice cash prizes, including a $4,000 cash prize for first place and even $1,000 cash to players who rank fifth through eighth in the final standings. There are additional perks, too, for people who play in a lot of large cash tournaments, as there are ongoing seasonal points that they can earn to earn free admission and qualification for some events that can earn very large cash prizes, on the order of $50,000.
Eight Hidden Benefits of Credit Cards
Valuable perks like price protection or extended warranties may be hiding in your wallet. Photo: Jeff Rose
In 2013, Lance Cothern and his fiancé, Victoria, purchased a $250 wedding dress from a retailer based in China. Unfortunately, while the dress arrived intact, it wasn’t exactly what the pair had hoped for.
“She loved the dress she saw in the picture,” explains Lance, who writes at MoneyManifesto.com. “Unfortunately, the dress that arrived at our home didn’t look anything like the dress we purchased online.”
Although the Cotherns initially thought all hope was lost, they called the number on the back of their credit card to see if they had any recourse. What they found out surprised them.
Five Ways to Bounce Back from a Busted Budget
Getting your budget back on track can seem insurmountable. Photo: Archives New Zealand
It happens to the best of us. Everything is going great, then all of a sudden, something knocks your budget completely off track.
It can be anything, really – a sudden job loss that drastically reduces your income, a surprise home repair, or a medical issue. And depending on the severity of your budget crisis, the impact can last for months – or even years.
At the moment, this feels like the story of my life. For two months in a row now, my own family budget has gone directly down the tubes. In May, our water heater busted and we had to get a new one. A day and $650 later, we had hot water and a budget that was proportionately in the red.
Handling the Hardest Moments of a Financial Turnaround
It’s an experience common to a lot of people. You overspend for years and don’t really think about your finances. Something changes and you begin to take notice. You start turning that ship around. You struggle, and sometimes you succeed and other times you end up reverting back to the same old habits.
I was lucky to be in that “succeed” camp. Part of the reason, I believe, was The Simple Dollar – getting into the regular routine of writing the site forced me to think again and again about my financial state, and that process helped me to overcome some of the biggest challenges of my financial turnaround.
Questions About Fast Casual, Amazon Credit, BPA, and More!
What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to five word summaries. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. Can’t save enough for independence
2. Challenges after quitting
3. Board game box repairs
4. Using Amazon credit
5. Starting a writing career
6. Stipend from parents
7. Toilet advice
8. Actually using a pocket notebook
9. Handling terminal illness
The Best Used Cars for Simply Getting Around
It’s expensive to buy and own a car — the American Automobile Association (AAA) pegs the cost of owning a vehicle at a whopping $8,469 a year, or more than $700 a month. But most of us need one to get around; in much of America, it’s just a fact of life.
Still, that doesn’t mean we need an expensive car. While AAA takes into account everything from car insurance and tires to gas and parking, the lion’s share of that annual expense comes from the depreciation of the vehicle (your car payment) and loan interest.
Using Software Development Concepts to Improve Your Financial State
In my previous professional life, I was a software developer. In fact, it was the actual software development part of my work that I truly loved. I enjoyed designing software, figuring out what the customers and stakeholders wanted, thinking about how to make that a reality, and then actually doing it. At various times, I worked on projects by myself and on projects with larger teams. Even today, I still do some programming in my spare time, as I simply enjoy it.
One of the things you figure out pretty quickly as a software developer is that you need some sort of smart methodology for taking on a large project, and the larger the project, the more important a sensible methodology becomes. How are you going to move from the relatively vague ideas produced by the people who want your software to a finished object that’s ready for use and able to be maintained in the future? A software development methodology gives you a pathway for doing that.
The Social Cost of Frugality
With many low-priced items, there are hidden costs beyond the sticker price. But frugality isn’t about buying cheap stuff, it’s about buying less stuff. Photo: Wal-Mart
Scott writes:
I’m curious to see what the Simple Dollar’s opinion is on the social cost of purchasing cheap items.
I tend to be rather frugal in my purchase of everyday goods, including clothing, electronics, food, etc. This usually means I buy the cheapest of whatever item is available. That’s normally a good thing, right?
How Your Perspective on Wealth Changes as You Achieve Financial Goals
Your views on money can change dramatically as you grow more successful. Photo: JD Hancock
I still have a big pile of my old journals, dating all the way back to junior high. Those things are literally more than half a lifetime old and, at this point, they’re probably more relatable to my oldest son than they are to me, though I can still see big glimmers of myself in those writings.
Some Thoughts on “Cutting Back” on Frugality
It’s a pretty typical story.
Person reaches a financial breaking point. Person begins to use frugality to cut back strongly on their expenses. Person pays down their debts and begins saving for the future. Person begins to feel a whole lot better about their financial state.
At that point, many people reach a crossroads. They begin to ask whether or not it makes sense to keep being so frugal. Once you have a healthy amount of savings or investments, is there really a reason to continue being so frugal?
Whenever I hear that question, it serves as a recognition to me that there are two ways to look at frugality.
Some people look at frugality as a tool. Frugality is something you choose to do to extract more money by doing things differently than you would normally do them. If you begin to feel like things are in a financially good place, it’s tempting to put that tool down and not “work” as much.
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