Money Tips Network

Laying out a few hundred dollars for a financial advisor can seem like money down the drain if everything is going smoothly. (See also: 9 Signs You Need to Fire Your Financial Planner)

Until it isn't.

This article is by staff writer Lisa Aberle.

While it wasn’t a dark and stormy night yet, an ice storm was coming. The last time we’d had an ice storm, we were kidless, and we lost power for five days. The romance of sleeping in front of the fireplace quickly cooled off along with the temperature in the house. If we lost power again, 39 degrees just wasn’t going to be acceptable with two kids.

That’s why my husband took a trip out to the shed to get our generator ready to combat a potential loss of power.

Except he couldn’t find the generator. After a few minutes of brainstorming (Did I put it somewhere else?), he called someone who frequently borrows our stuff.

“Your generator?” said The Borrower, “Yeah, when you were out of the country last year, I let somebody borrow it. I’ll give him a call.”

Is your freezer a mess? Do you frequently find old food rotting in the back of your fridge? I used to lose so much money this way. Now I take time to regularly clean and organize my refrigerator and freezer spaces, and it has made a huge difference. Even a few simple hacks are helpful here.

Quite a few parents choose to stay home because their entire salary would go to daycare if they went back to work full time after the birth of their child. If you are one of the stay-at-home parents who loves kids and wants to make money from home while taking care of your own kid, have you thought about starting your own home daycare? I have. I did some research and interviewed a mother of two who did exactly that. Unfortunately, she burned out and closed her daycare even though it was popular among the parents. I believe this is what will happen to me as well; so after giving it some serious consideration, I decided not to pursue it. Still, I thought it would be interesting to share the interview I had with the mother, in the hopes that it will be beneficial to other stay-at-home parents who are interested to earn income while they stay at home with their children.

Assign a job to every dollar you earn, whether it’s to pay bills, save for retirement — or buy a new camera. Photo: An Mai

Sometime around 2010, my husband and I realized that we weren’t making the most of our income. We knew we were wasting boatloads of money, yet we weren’t sure why it was happening or how to make it stop. In an effort to figure things out once and for all, we began tracking our spending to see where all of our money was going. And although it was a necessary step for us, it was both a painful and scary experience.

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. Claude Monet, Red Boats at Argenteuil (1875)

Whenever I look at a painting, I want it to make me feel something, whether it’s an emotional tug or a sense of awe or something else. A lot of paintings leave me feeling nothing at all, so it’s actually special when I get a feeling from a painting.

Monet’s paintings, of which this is a great example, consistently make me feel one thing. I have a feeling of the warmth and the fresh air of a late spring afternoon. I don’t know what it is about his paintings or why they evoke that sensation, but many of his paintings do just that.

Need some clever ideas for gifts or entertaining for the upcoming holidays?

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found some great articles on IKEA furniture hacks, apps that are changing how we spend money, and products to buy before Black Friday.
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