Money Tips Network

The past few months have been extremely topsy turvy in terms of finances for us. We replaced one of our vehicles. We went on a long-planned and fairly expensive family vacation. We did a bunch of smaller home repairs and did all of the planning for some home improvement projects (which are ongoing as I type this). We’re in the process of rearranging and repurposing several rooms in our home.

All of those things have been planned for a while, many of them planned for years, and they’ve all come to a head all at once. It has made this summer long and stressful and full of little financial lessons for us.

Here are ten key things I learned from this summer.

Editor's Note: Congratulations to Betty, Amanda, and Jennifer for winning this week's contest!

Conventional wisdom used to say that it makes more financial sense to save up and buy a home than to rent long term, but that isn't necessarily the case anymore.

Installing and maintaining an electric water heater is often a part of home ownership. Here are some tips we learned in the process of replacing one …

Some time ago, our electric water heater began leaking out the bottom.  I had an older copy of Black & Decker Complete Home Repair and it told me a couple of things.  First, there was no repairing mine; it needed to be replaced.  Second, it appeared that I could do it myself, or at least try.

We bought a unit and tried to put it in ourselves, but we ended up hiring someone to help us with it.  The folks who installed it answered a lot of our questions and shared a bunch of tips.

Tips for installing and maintaining an electric water heater

Here's what we learned from the experience:

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. Drawbacks of the library
2. Private school worth it?
3. Credit card for fixing credit
4. Abundance of green beans
5. Struggling with student loans
6. Decent dish towels
7. Tax bracket comparison
8. Thoughts on permanent portfolio?

CNBC lists two ways to improve your retirement savings as follows:

Two steps — delaying retirement until 67 and putting away at least 6 percent of your salary — can make a huge difference, according to new research from Morningstar.

Here's why these are such good moves:

Just those two actions could boost the chances that American households will have what they need in their golden years to 71.2 percent from 25.6 percent.

This article is a commentary on both the U.S. mainstream media as well as the financial intelligence of the average American.

For the media, this article was enough to get published despite being Personal Finance 01. Yep, that's right, I won't even call it Personal Finance 101 -- it's so basic.

This guest post from Brian Winch is part of the “money stories” feature at Get Rich Slowly. Some stories contain general advice; others are examples of how a GRS reader achieved financial success — or failure. These stories feature folks from all stages of financial maturity.

Today, Brian shares how he got rich slowly by building a simple, profitable business.

Hi, folks! My name is Brian Winch, and I’m delighted to share my story with you.

In 1981, I was earning a modest income at a sporting goods store, but I wanted to make more money. I dreamed of being an entrepreneur, but I was hesitant because I only had a high school education and hardly any start-up cash.

Two of my closest friends are avid board gamers. They host private game nights at their homes and public game nights at various places in the community all the time. I try to make it to some of these, but the reality of my life as a father of three makes it difficult to make it to many of them.

Later on, I’ll hear about something fun that they did at one game night or a great game that they played and I’ll have this strong sense that I’m missing out on something. It makes me feel… for lack of a better word… kind of sad and regretful. I simply feel like I’m missing out.

There’s an endless number of affordable vacation options you can piece together if you’re flexible and want to save some cash. You can sign up for travel credit cards to earn airline miles and hotel points, for example. You can book an inherently frugal vacation option such as a budget cruise or a rental condo on a beach. Heck, you can plan a frugal camping trip or a road trip and spend next to nothing on your next family vacation.

Still, there are a few other, trickier ways to save on travel if you’re hoping to game the system. One strategy involves installing a VPN on your computer with the goal of hiding your true location.

One of the biggest reasons that I still like trying frugal tactics after many years of living a fairly frugal lifestyle is that finding a true “frugal improvement” still feels like a really big win to me.

So, what’s a “frugal improvement”? Frugal improvement is my term for any tactic I use that was originally implemented to save money but wound up being a noticeable improvement for non-money reasons. For example, let’s say I used to do something that cost $30 a month and I figured out how to trim it to $15 a month and I wound up being happier with the new way regardless of the money, such that if price weren’t a factor, I’d still choose the new way.