Money Tips Network

I've written a couple times about buying term life insurance and investing the difference. For those of you unfamiliar with the phrase "buy term and invest the difference," it simply suggests that you do not buy permanent life insurance and instead by the cheaper term life insurance and invest the money you saved doing so. If you do this, you'll end up having more money in the long run as well as life insurance during the time you need it.

Turns out that Money magazine's "Mole" agrees that buying term and investing the difference is the best option for most people:

The Dow Jones Industrial Average index hit 17,000 in the last week — a new record — and the S&P 500 Index followed suit. As is usual any time a stock market record is reached, the boo-birds make their appearance. “This is it!” they cry. “This is too high; a crash has to follow.” Well, something like that.

Of course, the boo-birds are right about one thing: The market always falls after it reaches a record high. The only problem is the market doesn’t drop immediately after each new record is set. It keeps going up … till it eventually does fall.

This is an open letter to the unopened mail in my home.

Dear Mailbox and Letter Piles:

Yes. I am ignoring you. You’re full of it. It being: bills,
checks, notices, warning letters and coupons and other junk. I am addressing
our relationship because dealing with unopened mail is the fourth item on my
list of 14
Declarations of Financial Independence.

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found some amazing articles on making veterinary bills more affordable, building a new job wardrobe on the cheap, and saving money when you move.

Top 5 Articles

15 Ways to Make Veterinary Bills More Affordable — To make veterinary bills more affordable, go to a college of veterinary medicine. [TheDollarStretcher.com]

How to Build a New Job Wardrobe on the Cheap — Paying attention to accessories and opting for quality can help you build a new job wardrobe without breaking the bank. [Living on the Cheap]

This little tidbit of advice gets passed around frequently, whether by employers who feel justified in their poor treatment of employees or by motivational speakers who want to see the masses take control over their professional lives: If you don’t like your job, get another one.

Many people spend years of their lives — perhaps decades — working in unpleasant jobs. I have always believed that every individual owes it to his or herself to be treated well in any employment situation, even if it has taken me more time than I would have liked, in retrospect, to move away from toxic situations myself. In general, if you are in a bad situation, change the situation. It’s good advice, but unfortunately, the advice is often given by people who are unfamiliar with any particular individual’s specific situation. And reality can be a dark cloud hanging over the world of advice full of optimistic aphorisms and motivational quotes.

Much of our day-to-day lives has personal finance implications. We’re constantly making choices that either directly spend money or use up resources that are going to have to be replaced. When we eat, we shop, we go to work – all of those things, and many many more, have financial impact.

At the same time, humans are routine-oriented people. We like patterns, and it’s not hard for us to get stuck into a daily routine filled with familiar ways of doing things. Even the craziest of lives is filled with little patterns that repeat themselves over and over again, because we tend to just do what’s familiar when it comes to the day-to-day process of living our lives.

For various reasons – marketing, bad role models, an addiction to momentary pleasure – some of the routines we choose in our life aren’t the best ones in terms of our money. Yet, they’re familiar and we understand them, so we keep using them.

This article is by staff writer William Cowie.

Have you considered how your life would freeze to a standstill if a general outage cut electric power for more than two or three days? As every summer dawns, it’s a question more and more people ask, because demand for electric power is growing inexorably, and summertime is when the grid always gets strained to the max. Many experts say all it will take is one unusually bad heat wave and a single computer glitch. The last major outage happened in the summer of 2003, and it affected over 55 million people.

For those who find themselves running out of space on their kitchen stove while preparing a holiday feast or potluck, or frequently cooking on the go, a countertop burner may be a perfect solution. While the general concept of a countertop burner, also referred to as a hot plate, hasn't changed much since its inception, modern burners come with many additional features such as an automatic shutdown and an adjustable thermostat.

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found some fantastic articles on saving on gas, upcycling ideas that will blow your mind, and how to keep your identity safe.

Top 5 Articles

5 Ways to Save Gas Money — Targeting the best day and time to buy gas can help you save at the pump. [Kiplinger]

221 Upcycling Ideas That Will Blow Your Mind — Would you have ever thought to repurpose your old maps into coasters? [POPSUGAR Smart Living]