Money Tips Network

Keeping your personal information out of the hands of people with bad intentions is, unfortunately, not possible in the current digital age. Large scale data breaches have occurred with regularity, and likely will continue. It’s the reality of the world in which we now live.

We don’t do ourselves any favors in this regard, considering how much of our own personal information we choose to give away or post online. How many of us have our date of birth on our Facebook profiles just to get all of those “likes” and “happy birthday” comments?

Cutting spending is an essential part of everyone’s financial toolbox, especially if they’re just getting started on their own financial turnaround or they’re hoping to accelerate their financial journey.

The usual personal finance advice pushes people to look at the big expenses first. If you can cut out a sizable monthly bill, that’s great! For example, if you can cut out your cable bill, you’re probably saving somewhere around $100 a month, adding up to $1,200 a year. If you can trim your rent by $200 a month by moving and that doesn’t add other expenses to your life, that one single move can save you $2,400 a year. Those big moves really make a difference.

When you were going through the home-buying process, choosing a mortgage company was a big part of that.

Note from J.D.
Last October, I had a chance to read an advance copy of Grant Sabatier‘s new book, Financial Freedom, which was just released this morning. I liked it. I loved parts of it. In fact, the second chapter of Financial Freedom inspired my article about how time is more valuable than money.

Today, I'm pleased to present a (heavily edited) excerpt from that second chapter. Here's Sabatier on why time is more valuable than money — and why you can and should retire early. (Links and photos are from me. Everything else is from the book. Note, however, I've heavily edited this chapter in order to abridge it and to make it more readable in blog format.)

Editor's Note: Congratulations to Christina, Lacey, and Rebecca for winning this week's contest!

Vacations are supposed to be relaxing, or exciting, or educational, or...really, whatever you want them to be!

The following is a guest post from Barbara A. Friedberg from Robo-Advisor Pros. 

When I mention to my friends that I’m passionate about fintech and robo-advisors, I’m typically met with a blank stare. Next come the follow up questions:
“A robot advisor, what’s that?”

“What the heck is a robo-advisor, I’ve never heard of that?”

So, I begin my story; robo-advisors are a new-ish way to invest your money, get professional money management and free up time to do the stuff you really enjoy.

Now, many folks tune out as the “money and investing” topic comes up. It’s typical to get a “What have you been up to recently?” comment at this point, in a not-so-subtle attempt at changing the subject.

But, not one to quit, I explain that you can grow your wealth – a lot – on autopilot with a robo-advisor. As soon as I mention hundreds of thousands of dollars, I have their attention.

In 2013, I traveled to Ecuador for a sort of experiment. Host Cheryl Reed and mastermind Jim (J.L.) Collins had organized a chautauqua, a gathering of two dozen folks who wanted to discuss financial independence, early retirement, and finding purpose. My pal Pete Adeney (better known as Mr. Money Mustache) and I joined Jim and Cheryl as presenters. We spent a week at a centuries-old hacienda talking about money and life.

That first chautauqua was awesome — not only for the attendee but for us presenters as well. To this day, those of us who attended that first chautauqua go out of our way to see each other as we travel the U.S. When I did my short tour of the Southeast last spring, for instance, I stopped in Kentucky to watch horse races with Amy, whom I met at that first event in Ecuador. Here we are at Keeneland:

Over the last few weeks, I’ve heard from a few readers who have asked me whether or not I’ve watched Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, a Netflix series that debuted early this year. I have actually watched a few episodes (but not the full season), and what I found is that Kondo is a charming embodiment of the principles found in her bestselling book from a few years back, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.

Kondo’s focus is on decluttering one’s home using a system she calls the Konmari method. Basically, it involves going through categories of things, rather than going room by room, and asking yourself whether this category of item sparks joy in your life and, if so, which elements of that category spark joy. If it doesn’t spark joy, you should probably get rid of it.

One of the biggest challenges that people face when they have a leap forward in their careers is that of lifestyle inflation. It might not seem like a problem at first glance, but it’s incredibly pernicious.

Let’s back up for a minute. Lifestyle inflation simply means an increase in one’s spending as a result of an increase in one’s income. If you’re making $40,000 a year and spending all of it, and then you’re suddenly making $60,000 a year thanks to a raise or a promotion and your spending goes up, you’re engaging in lifestyle inflation.

There are a couple of big problems with lifestyle inflation.