Money Tips Network

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.

Over the past few years, I’ve worked to improve my DIY skills.  Here are a few of the projects I’ve tackled – with an eye towards saving money and doing it myself.

I replaced the garbage disposal below our kitchen sink.  This project was relatively simple.  I worried a little bit about the electrical connection, but I figured it out.  The disposal connects to the bottom of the sink via a special bracket and connects to the dishwasher via a long hose.  Prior to disconnecting the old disposal, I snapped several pictures of its various connections.  When connecting the new disposal, I referred the the pictures, and installation was a snap.

Join our Tweetchat this Thursday at 12:00 p.m. Pacific/ 3p.m. Eastern for lively conversation and a chance to win a $200 gift card or one of two $50 gift cards! Use #WBChat and #ToothFairyCalculator to participate.

 This week's topic: The Tooth Fairy! Join us as we talk about the average cost of a tooth, how the Tooth Fairy can teach kids about money, and leaving something other than money when kids lose a tooth. Let us know what the Tooth Fairy brought your kids this year and share with us the largest amount you’ve ever heard the Tooth Fairy left for a tooth!

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found some awesome articles on negotiating discounts and freebies for your wedding, ways to go broke, and working out without a gym membership.

Top 5 Articles

How to Negotiate Discounts And Freebies for Your Dream Wedding — To negotiate discounts and freebies for your wedding, try to flatter your friends into helping for free. [Money Under 30]

20 Ways to Go Broke — Not saving for a rainy day and hitting the movies frequently can cause you to go broke. [brokeGIRLrich]

Do you ever wonder if you're being too stingy or too generous — or if you're supposed to tip someone for their services at all? What about when you go on vacation: do the rules change? And what is the "right" amount to show appreciation for service providers at the holidays?

Well, wonder no longer, because it's all here in Wise Bread's guide to tipping for (almost) every situation.

Dining — In or Out

Eating at a 5-star restaurant is different than a counter-service joint. Here's the lowdown on how to tip for food-related services, based on advice from the Emily Post Institute, run by the family whose name is synonymous with etiquette.

Jerome sent me a great question for the reader mailbag, but I found that my answer was getting too long so I chose to spin my response off into its own post.

Jerome asked this:

One of the big ideas of frugality is to not waste anything. That just seems to lead to hoarding, though. Most of the cheaper people I know have garages and closets jammed full of all kinds of things that I would probably just throw out. Does frugality lead to hoarding or am I missing something?

This is a really good question that touches on a bunch of interesting issues all at once, so let’s dig in.

First of all, you’re absolutely correct in saying that one of the big principles of frugality is to avoid waste. You get absolutely no direct value out of throwing something away, but it’s very likely that you had to invest something in acquiring that thing you’re throwing away. Thus, when you throw stuff away, you’re throwing away money.