Money Tips Network

Let me offer up a little challenge for you.

Make a list of every adult you plan on buying gifts for this holiday season. Your partner, your children, your parents, some of your close friends, extended family members… you get the idea.

Now, go through each of those items and ask yourself how many of those people you’re not actually very excited to get gifts for. Maybe it’s due to some kind of obligation, or it’s a routine you’ve been doing for years, or whatever.

Then, go through the list again and ask yourself which ones for whom you have no idea what on Earth to give that person. Who on your list is very difficult to buy for? Which ones fill you with stress at the thought?

(We’re not including children here, nor are we including any adults you’re excited to give a gift to.)

Financial infidelity is a real thing. It can ruin relationships and financially devastate families. You've probably heard stories of people hiding accounts, buying big ticket items without their partner's knowledge, or cleaning out a joint bank account.

Note: This is a substantial re-write of an article I first published more than twelve years ago. (Yikes, I'm old!) I've opted to keep some of the older comments if they had good suggestions.

Earlier this week, I wrote about my quest for quality pajamas. I recently paid $80 to purchase a pair from Filson, a company I trust for well-made goods. It's my hope that these will be the last pair of pajamas that I ever purchase. My goal was to “buy it for life”.

This experience reminded me of two other companies that I love for their top-notch stuff.

Reselling an item online seems like one of the more mundane tasks in our digital world. So why does it still feel like fixing cataracts with a rusty safety pin?

Both Craigslist and eBay have been in existence in some form since 1995. Kids who were born at that time can not only drink legally by now, but possibly had their first drinks purchased by parents who made a living selling items on Craigslist and eBay. Now with options like Facebook Marketplace, LetGo, and other online second-hand stores, there are more places than ever to host an online garage sale.

The trick is getting people to follow through and actually buy something.

Since moving into our house five years ago, my wife and I have had tremendous success selling items online. The previous owners left our property filled with items they considered gifts but, more likely, didn’t make the cut when they downsized from a 2,400-square-foot house with a barn and various sheds to a two-bedroom apartment.

I spend a fair amount of time each week reading personal finance books and websites and other materials in order to come up with strategies to employ in my own life that might eventually turn into good material for articles, as well as to find answers to questions that readers ask. In the course of that reading, I often bump into the life stories of people who make a lot more money than I do.

I’ll see stories of families making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, or even millions a year. I’ll read about people with houses straight out of Architectural Digest, driving BMWs, going on long trips all over the world, and managing portfolios worth millions or tens of millions or even more.

When I read those stories, there’s an inner voice inside of me shouting that these people are living a lifestyle that’s unrelatable to my own and that there’s literally nothing I can learn from them.

That’s decidedly untrue (and we’ll get to why in a minute).

Editor's Note: Congratulations to Suzanne, Avigale, and John for winning this week's contest!

You hadn't planned for it, but suddenly, out of nowhere, you are engulfed by the urge...the urge to go to a Halloween event!

Yesterday, I spent $80 on a pair of pajama bottoms. (Or, as the company calls them, Alaskan guide lounge bottoms.)

On the one hand, this feels like an insane amount to spend on sleepwear. On the other hand, my last two pairs of pajamas — both $20 specials from Costco — have lasted no longer than a year because they've quickly fallen apart. They were cheap garments cheaply made.

Herein lies a question I frequently face: When does it make sense to pay more for quality?

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. Divorce mediation difficulties
2. Importance of credit score?
3. Fearing money stolen from accounts?
4. Move to city or not?
5. GnuCash
6. “Bang for the buck” coat
7. Paid off student loans, then…?
8. Inflation linked treasury notes

Major technology manufacturers have been making it increasingly difficult for the average person to repair the items they produce. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. After all, it’s us consumers who demand every new generation of smartphone be faster and lighter than the last. That doesn’t happen by magic. It takes fancy screws, special adhesives, and hundreds of impossibly tiny parts fitting together just right. The fact that we buy these devices by the millions every year shows we appreciate the craftsmanship.

What many people don’t appreciate, and what is starting to become a national issue, is the way in which big tech companies are piling on additional challenges to the would-be repairer. Manufacturers are restricting access to the tools, documentation, and software necessary to make even basic repairs, forcing consumers to either scrap their items when something goes wrong or spend the time and money to have the manufacturer fix it.