Money Tips Network

Once a month (or so), I share a dozen things that have inspired me to greater personal, professional, and financial success in my life. I hope they bring similar success to your life.

1. Arthur Schopenhauer on buying books (and other things)

“Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them; but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

This is true of so many things in life. So often, we throw money at things that we want to be able to spend quality time with, but we lack that time and energy and focus, so the purchase itself becomes something of a mental substitute for the time and energy and focus we would otherwise spend.

Over the last few years, card issuers have invented an array of creative rewards schemes meant to entice people to sign up for their cards. These experiments have led to some massive flops (Barclays Premier, anyone?) as well as cards that have become insanely popular overnight. The big banks are always trying something new to get people to sign up for their new rewards cards and move them to the top of their wallets.

The newly refreshed is another example of what happens when card issuers think outside the box to attract new customers. This card offers a big signup bonus, an amazing 4% back on dining and entertainment, 2% back at grocery stores, and 1% back on all other purchases. You also get no foreign transaction fees and the ability to redeem points with ease.

There are some parents out there who have a hard time letting go of their adult children.

If only they had similar difficulty letting go of their money.

According to a new study by Merrill Lynch and Age Wave, parents in the U.S. spend $500 billion annually on their 18- to 34-year-old adult children. That wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t twice the amount they contribute each year to their retirement accounts ($250 billion).

Though nearly two-thirds of parents say they’ve sacrificed their own financial security for the sake of their children, more than 90 percent also say parenting is the most rewarding aspect of their lives.

Join our Tweetchat this Thursday at 12:00 pm Pacific for lively conversation and a chance to win one of two $10 Amazon GCs! Use #WBChat to participate.

This week's topic: Earning Extra Mone During the Holidays!

One money strategy I’ve used since the very first day of my financial turnaround is to carefully consider all of my purchases. I try to avoid buying things unless I’ve given that purchase some serious thought, especially expensive items, but even most inexpensive ones.

While this works extremely well for me in a bubble where my relationships with others are secure and I’m concerned mostly with my financial future and my family’s stability, it’s not exactly a good strategy in other respects.

For starters, using that approach in social situations with every little purchase can indicate to others that you’re a complete cheapskate, which can damage relationships because people interpret that “cheap” behavior as personal disrespect when none is intended. While I do advocate for not worrying what other people think, blatantly displaying character traits that others would think of as negative is not something you generally want to be doing.

HO HO HO!

Just like that, the holiday season is upon us!

This year, I intend to do most of my Christmas shopping during a three-week tour of Europe with my cousins. We're deliberately visiting as many Christmas markets as possible, so I hope to find a variety of interesting and unusual gifts for my family and friends. (They need to be small, though. I don't have much space to carry things home.)

While I'm buying new (and possibly expensive) gifts this year, that's not normally my style. I'm a fan of keeping Christmas frugal.

Being a frugal shopper doesn't mean you can't give thoughtful gifts though. In fact, my experience has shown that it's often more fun and rewarding to impose limits on gift-giving. These limits breed creativity and inspiration. “Christmas on a budget” doesn't have to mean “Christmas without fun”.

If you and your spouse or partner both have access to a 401(k) or other employer retirement plan, you might be wondering how you should divvy up your contributions between the two of them.

This can be an especially difficult and emotionally-laden question if one of those 401(k)s is measurably better than the other, in which case it may make rational sense to contribute more money to that 401(k) even if it would leave the other spouse or partner with less money saved for retirement.

So, what should you do in that situation? Should you split your contributions evenly, even if it means putting money into a bad 401(k)? Or should you contribute more to the better 401(k) even if it means that one of you will have more money than the other?

Let’s break it down.

The office supply section of the local pharmacy has a nasty habit of extracting money from my wallet.

What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to summaries of five or fewer words. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. Stock market dropping!
2. IRA maximum income question?
3. Simple small business budgeting software
4. Financial coaching services
5. Smartly using a small windfall
6. Improving communication skills at work
7. Environmental benefit of reusable bottles
8. How to find used guitars?