Money Tips Network

Recently, I came across an article by Chip and Dan Heath in Fast Company magazine, entitled The 10/10/10 Rule For Tough Decisions. In it, the Heaths discuss a framework for analyzing choices that they originally picked up from Suzy Welch, a framework that they call the 10/10/10 rule.

Here’s how it works. Take a decision in your life – any decision. Maybe it’s whether to buy that celebrity gossip magazine in the checkout aisle. Maybe it’s whether or not to stop and get an order of chicken nuggets after work when you’re feeling hungry on the way home. Maybe it’s something else entirely.

Before you make that decision, ask yourself three questions.

How will I feel about this 10 minutes from now?
How will I feel about this 10 months from now?
How will I feel about this 10 years from now?

When you have more than one credit card to pay off, there are many ways to go about tackling your debt. You could pay off cards with highest interest rates first, or you could pay off cards with the smallest balances first.

Bundled travel deals promise savings to consumers willing to book their flight and all their accommodations at once. Websites like Expedia, Travelocity, and Cheap Caribbean allow you to shop for a hotel and flight, then book it all in one go.

Saying "I love you" is not the only way to show that you care deeply for someone.

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup!

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. Finding a mortgage lender
2. Disaster survival bag
3. Spouse won’t tighten belt
4. Healthy and cheap diet concerns
5. Transforming Debt into Wealth?
6. L.L. Bean options
7. How much to retire?
8. Talk me out of it!
9. Cash tips and taxes

Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past few years, you've heard about the "student loan crisis"

I put that in quotes because it's not a crisis IMO. It's a problem caused by people who do not understand basic financial principles. But more on that in a minute.

For now, let's begin with what Wikipedia says about student loan debt:

The Economist reported in June 2014 that U.S. student loan debt exceeded $1.2 trillion, with over 7 million debtors in default. In 2014, there was approximately $1.3 trillion of outstanding student loan debt in the U.S. that affected 44 million borrowers who had an average outstanding loan balance of $37,172.

This level of debt in and of itself is not a problem -- as long as that debt can be covered by the salaries of the graduates with the debt.

If you understand the concept of foreign currencies and their value when converted to U.S. dollars, you can understand the idea of trying to place a value on rewards points that you earn from various loyalty programs.

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup!