Money Tips Network

Personal finance is often a “numbers game.” A person can sit down with a calculator and a piece of paper or with a spreadsheet and go through countless models and ideas about their financial future and, for the vast majority of those ideas, come up with some reasonable conclusions.

For example, if you’re paying off debts, you’re always going to end up paying the least total amount overall if you make all of your extra payments on the debt with the highest interest rate.

If you’re investing for the very long term future, the investment with the highest historical average annual return is probably the one that’s going to give you the best return over that very long time period.

These types of ideas (and many like them) are pretty easy to calculate if you have a bit of time and a bit of a head for numbers.

The problem is that they don’t take into account the uncertainty of the future, at least not in any reliable way.

It’s early December, and that means my mailbox is full of requests from readers for frugal gift ideas for the holidays, both in terms of inexpensive gifts that will be appreciated and gifts to give a frugal person.

Editor's Note: Congratulations to Nidz, Adeline, and Mami2jcn for winning this week's contest!

The holiday season can be a really expensive time of year!

Howdy. My name is Michael Robinson. While J.D. is visiting Europe with his cousins, I volunteered to share how my wife and I have leveraged the power of geographic arbitrage to pursue our dreams — and to build our wealth.

Geographic arbitrage means taking advantage of the differences in prices between various locations. You earn money in a stronger economy (San Francisco, maybe, or the U.S. in general) and spend it in a weaker economy (South Dakota or Ecuador, for instance).

Geographic arbitrage is a powerful tactic worth considering if you want to increase your saving rate so that you can better pursue your financial goals. Several times over the course of our lives together so far, my wife and I have managed to unwittingly stumble upon the benefits of geographic arbitrage.

As of early 2018, the average student loan debt for 2017 graduates was $39,400. That's a 6% bump from the year before, notes Student Loan Hero. Collective student loan debt nationwide is also up to $1.48 trillion across 44 million borrowers.

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!