Money Tips Network

Recently, my daughter and I have been reading the "Little House on the Prairie" series, and I've been reminded of how life used to be. As we've experienced these books together, we've begun to explore what it would mean to make some of the everyday things we usually buy. (See also: Grocery Items You Should Make at Home)

You've probably heard you should throw out stuff that hasn't been used in the past year. But if you are like me, you have regretted decisions to donate, sell, or trash the nonessential as you tried to aggressively declutter. Sadly, you may have learned this lesson too late. You can easily get rid of a saved item, but you can't readily reclaim one that's been given away. (See also: Simple Rules for Decluttering)

To declutter but keep your stuff, defy conventional wisdom. Hang onto whatever your heart desires, bypassing those difficult, emotional decisions often linked to decluttering. Just be mindful about what you save and how you store your stash, using these tips.

Vacation rentals are a big part of the sharing economy — the idea that sharing things could financially benefit all involved. For example, travelers have been taking advantage of free accommodation by swapping their homes with each other through HomeExchange for decades. (See also: Home Exchanges: Free Accommodations With Perks)

This is the time of year when I annually confer with my financial adviser. As I drove to meet him in his office a couple weeks ago, I had reason to expect we’d both be in jovial moods. The stock market’s performance over the past year has been stellar, after all, and my account has tallied corresponding gains.

But as we talked, I was quickly reacquainted with reality. His role is not to be jovial or complacent. A big part of his role, as far as I can discern, is to remind me to stay on the straight and narrow with my financial goals. So after noting I’ve done a good job accumulating a nest egg, he figuratively splashed ice water in my face. “Consider what would happen if you had to retire today on what you’ve got,” he noted with admirable sternness. “You wouldn’t be living very lavishly.”

Once again, I’m finding myself nearing the end of my one-year lease with the need to make a decision about my living situation. I moved to my current apartment in the summer of 2007, at a time when I had been more comfortable living off some of the income from my business. Until that point, I remained fiscally conservative with my extra income, putting as much into savings as possible, not believing earning an income from primarily blogging would be sustainable in the long run.

Accepting the fact that I had a growing income, I allowed myself to move into a bigger apartment in a nicer neighborhood. That was seven years ago. And around this time these past few years, I’ve repeatedly considered whether it’s time for me to buy a house, leaving the world of renting behind.

This article is by staff writer Sam. Sam spent 13 years working in Equities on Wall Street and discusses financial independence strategies on Financial Samurai. Sam is also the founder of the Yakezie Network, the largest personal finance blog network on the web.

Out of the 500 or so college graduates I interviewed over a 13-year period, practically every candidate was extremely enthusiastic about getting their butts kicked working 14-hour days in finance. When you can crack the six-figure mark after your first full year, why not bear torture to get ahead, right? Just don’t tell them they are working below minimum wage if you go by an hourly rate.

We all know the importance of keeping in touch and communicating with your colleagues when it comes to professional success. However, sometimes keeping in contact with your colleagues can be expensive. Luckily, there are ways to offset the cost of maintaining communication with your professional contacts!

How do you stay in touch with colleagues without spending a fortune? Do you use any particular apps or tools? What money-saving strategies have you found to be useful useful when communicating with your colleagues?

Tell us how you stay in touch with colleagues without spending and we'll enter you in a drawing to win a $100 Skype Gift Card or one of two $50 Visa Gift Cards!

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found some great articles on cleaning tips that will save you money, awesome ways to give, and finding small appliances for cheap.

Top 5 Articles

5 spring cleaning tips that can save you money — Donating your old items can save you money when you spring clean. [Living on the Cheap]

13 Awesome Ways to Give to Unsuspecting Random Poeple (Brave Enough for #11?) — Paying for another patron or organizing a meal shower are a couple great ways to give to unsuspecting people. [Christian PF]

Sarah and I are subscribers to the “buy it for life” philosophy. In short, it means that we’re willing to pay more for a product that does its job well but, just as importantly, will last a very long time, preferably for the rest of our lives. Here are six principles of “buying it for life” that I suggested earlier, along with a few extra ones:

1. We prefer to pay more now to not have to deal with replacing an item for a very, very long time. Ideally, I’d like to not have to replace it in my lifetime – and I’m in my mid-thirties.

2. We tend to strongly favor companies that put extensive warranties or guarantees on their products.

3. We tend to strongly prefer products that are low maintenance or have maintenance we can do ourselves.