Money Tips Network

I’m a big believer in a “buy it for life” philosophy. If you can buy a single item and it will last you for a very, very long time, then you have no need to buy replacements. I’d like to think that many of the household items I own – cast iron pots, well-made knives, and so on – will last through the rest of my natural life and perhaps the lives of my children, too.

However, there’s a pretty good counterargument from the “ultra-cheap” crowd. If a person can buy fifty cheap versions of an item for the cost of a single high-quality version and they do the same job, who cares if the cheap one only lasts a year or two?

This article is by editor Linda Vergon.

About four years ago, Breezy and her husband opened a checking account at their local credit union so they could save for car-related payments – insurance, gas, repairs, and the like. They liked how it allowed them to separate these expenses from the rest of their spending. Soon, they established more funds.

Right now, she and her husband have four sinking funds and she is considering adding another. The way they currently have their accounts divided is:

We've seen how many Americans find it difficult to make it on much more than this, so I was surprised when USA Today said it takes $130,000 to live the American dream.

How did they arrive at this number? Here's the basic premise:

This post comes from Mike Nickele at our partner site Zing!

First-time home buyers have enough to worry about, like finding the right house for the right price, coming up with a sensible down payment and securing a mortgage. After putting down a hefty sum for the purchase, many first-timers may not have the extra cash on hand for major fails like the furnace, the air conditioner or kitchen and laundry appliances; a home warranty can be a good fix. What’s a home warranty? How does it work and what does it cover? Let’s find out!

What Is a Home Warranty?

Let’s start with the basics. A home warranty is a home protection plan that helps cover any unexpected repairs. And, since many first-time buyers may not have a lot of experience maintaining a home, it’s a pretty good idea.

How Does a Home Warranty Work?

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found some stellar articles on websites that will save you money, fixing your finances, and tips to rule your tech.

Top 5 Articles

40+ Incredible Websites That Will Save You Tons of Money — Threadflip and NeighborGoods can help you save money. [PopSugar Smart Living]

Fix Your Finances — When trying to fix your finances, focus on the big things first and take advantage of freebies from mother nature. [Sustainable Life Blog]

I have one free download code for Quicken 2015 for Mac to give away to a lucky reader. Instructions are at the bottom of this article.

It’s been nine years since Intuit released a version of Quicken that was both fully-featured and designed to run on Apple’s hardware and operating systems. The Quicken Essentials for Mac bridged a technology gap between Quicken Mac 2007 and the Windows versions of the software, but many important pieces were missing.

I’m not thinking about my retirement savings. I’m not thinking about my debts. They’re lost in the fog right now. All I can think about is that I want a meal at that fancy restaurant or that I really want an iPhone. That’s what I see around me, with everything else greyed out and not even present in my mind. I’ve worked hard. I deserve these treats. Retirement? Debt? My future self will deal with it.

This was an extremely familiar state of affairs for me during my late college and early professional years, and it’s a state that I still fall into every once in a while.

I call it the money fog because it’s a feeling much like a fog.

When I’m in that state, the future becomes invisible. I don’t really consider the ramifications of what I’m about to do beyond the next hour or two. I simply want something and the impact of that choice is pushed out of my head.

Watching every penny is the starting point for getting rich slowly. But there are also big moves you can make that will earn or save you a lot of money. Big wins include refinancing your mortgage, negotiating your salary, improving your credit score or evaluating your car insurance. Your car insurance probably comes up for renewal every six months. When was the last time you compared insurance carriers or revised your policy to see if you could save a few hundred dollars? I thought so.

Des Toups, senior managing editor of Insurance.com (a QuinStreet site, like GetRichSlowly.org), has a lot of good information and statistics about car insurance that we wanted him to share with the GRS community. So, here’s Des!

Car insurance has only one real purpose: To stand between you and financial disaster.

Bicycling is a widely enjoyed activity that carries a multitude of health benefits along with being a very environmentally friendly means of transport. However, riding a bicycle also requires wearing the proper safety equipment to ensure that the rider is well protected when accidents happen. A bicycle helmet is an especially crucial accessory that all bicyclists should have on that'll decrease their risk of severe head injuries.

While choosing a good bicycle helmet may seem easy enough, there are actually many important elements to consider. We here at Wise Bread have done the research for you, and we're happy to present our top five list of the best bicycle helmets you can buy.