Money Tips Network

The sun is rising earlier these days, which means you can exercise earlier than usual, before your normal workday begins. Plus, who wants to go for a walk or jog outdoors when the temperatures regularly hit peaks in the 90s and humidity levels are sky high? Not me. There are also many advantages to switching routines to the AM hours, foremost of which is eliminating the excuse factor for skipping workouts. If you get it out of the way for the day, you'll likely stick with the routine. (Related: These At-Home Exercises Will Give You a Gym-Quality Workout for Free)

This post is by staff writer Honey Smith.

In my last post, I talked about motivation and money. Motivation is a huge yet under-discussed concept in personal finance, I think. While big wins may be the quickest way to wealth, that doesn’t mean you’ll reach your goals overnight. Even if you have become wealthy, you still need motivation to manage your money and prioritize your spending. After all, if you want to stay wealthy, then you can have anything you want but not everything you want. And if (like most of us) you’re not wealthy yet, you may have to be even more ruthless in your prioritization.

I've previously detailed my process for saving a fortune on a new car (and for those of you wondering, here's why I buy new cars). I've used this system to purchase three cars (four now) in the past 10 years, but had never shared the specifics on FMF. Well, a recent new car purchase opportunity came up and I thought I'd detail the process for you.

Background

When we moved to Oklahoma last fall, our intention was to give my wife's car (2005 Toyota Corolla with 68,000 miles) to our son and buy my wife a new car. But we got down here and a few things happened:

Susan Ladika

Saving money is always one of the top New Year’s resolutions, but halfway through the year, you’ve usually kicked that goal to the curb. Hard to believe, but some banks and credit unions actually want to help you make those resolutions stick, paying higher interest rates or bonuses if you stash money in your savings [...]

Kick start your savings with goal-based accounts from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

This blog was posted by Susan Ladika

Sharon M. shared some of her personal finance journey with us this week. Some reader stories contain general advice; others are examples of how a GRS reader achieved financial success or failure. These stories feature folks with all levels of financial maturity and income. Want to submit your own reader story? Here’s how.

About a year ago, I had to downsize from a 5200-square-foot house to an apartment. After my husband was laid off, we decided to sell our home rather than go through the heartache and credit problems that happen when people can no longer afford to pay their mortgages. As a result, we had to find a way to get rid of many of the items we had accumulated over the years.

One of the most common requests I get from readers is for detailed information on how to start a side business of some kind. With minimal equipment and ample time, how can a person construct a side business in order to earn a little extra money?

This is the first in a series of articles describing exactly how to do this. In each article, I’m going to discuss exactly how to build an income stream on the side, what effort goes into it, and (approximately) what kind of income you can expect from it.

These articles will naturally be spaced out so that I have time to actually construct each side business and keep it going until it earns a respectable income. However, with blogging, I’ve already done this and due to a lot of luck and hard work, it became successful beyond my wildest dreams. You’re reading that blog, in fact – it’s The Simple Dollar.

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found some awesome articles on things to do on your lunch break, money tips for new grads, and turning a cheap vacation into a first-class getaway.

Top 5 Articles

11 Things to Do on Your Lunch Break — On your lunch break, consider mailing your packages or reading a book. [POPSUGAR Smart Living]

Essential Money Tips for New Grads — New grads should create a budget and borrow a book or two on finance. [Five Cent Nickel]

In the old apartment Sarah and I used to live in, I had one whole wall filled with books. The bookshelf stretched from the floor to the ceiling and from wall to wall and, frankly, it was overstuffed.

That bookshelf wasn’t too surprising, though. I’ve been a voracious reader since my early childhood, reading more than a book a week for as far back as I can remember. Reading has been a big part of my entire life, progressing from Judy Blume and Roald Dahl to Margaret Atwood and George R. R. Martin.

Yet, sadly, that overstuffed bookshelf was mostly full of books that I had not even bothered to read. It was all sunk money, money that could have been working for me by paying off debts or sitting in an investment.

Why? How could that happen?

I hadn’t stopped reading. I still read at least a book a week.

This article is by editor Linda Vergon.

In honor of Independence Day, I thought it would be fun to see if we could come up with 1,776 ways to get rich slowly. After all, reaching “financial independence” these days does require some of the spirit our founding fathers had when they stood up to a tyrannical king and announced to the world that they were going to create a new nation.

Freedom is worth the struggle.

It may be difficult to properly understand the oppression that existed in colonial America in 1776, but a lot of us know what it’s like to live under the tyranny of debt; and in some measure, when we commit ourselves to tackling it, it’s like making our own declaration of “financial” independence. To free ourselves of debt requires sacrifice and struggle, but freedom is worth the struggle. Coming together to offer our own ways to get rich slowly could help someone else in their struggle for freedom.