Money Tips Network

This post comes from Jessica Henderson at our partner site LearnVest.

Never miss a new episode of Shark Tank? Invented a revolutionary evaporating kitty litter that you’re itching to debut to the world?

You’re not alone.

Every month, some 543,000 new businesses are launched—but the hard truth is that only seven out of 10 survive the crucial first two years to stay in the game.

To help you get your own big idea off the ground with your expectations in check, we asked Trisha D. Scudder, founder and principal of Executive Coaching Group, Inc.—a pioneer in the field, with over 25 years of experience—to outline the unexpected sacrifices, the rookie mistakes, and yes, the perks of being the big kahuna during the tricky early years of owning your own business.

A few days ago, I received an utterly heartbreaking email from a reader whose husband had passed away a week ago. She is in her fifties and has two grown children who are fully independent. One of them lives nearby and is helping her get her life back in order, but it’s going to be a long process.

Mostly, this reader wanted to know what information I had found in my many years of writing about personal finances that relates to handling this situation. What does she do now? How does she put her life back together, financially and otherwise?

This is not a situation I have any personal familiarity with, nor do I want to for a very, very long time. I have seen relatives and friends struggle with this very situation, however, and there are some standard financial and personal steps people should take in this situation.

Note: This article is from J.D. Roth, who founded Get Rich Slowly in 2006. J.D.’s non-financial writing can be found at More Than Money, where he recently wrote about how to be happy.

After six months of work, my guide about becoming the Chief Financial Officer of your own life is ready for launch! Be Your Own CFO will be released on April 22. Over the next couple of weeks at Get Rich Slowly, I’ll share some background on this project, including excerpts and outtakes. Today, for instance, I’ll give you a taste of what I’ve written about the importance of profit.

A few weeks ago, I was greatly inspired by this HouseLogic article where several different homemade dishwasher soap recipes are compared. I have struggled in the past with finding a homemade dishwashing detergent recipe that worked well, so I had high hopes for these recipes.

Note: I took several pictures for this post, but most of them just depicted essentially identical clean plates or depicted rather disgusting dirty plates. The two points where photographs might have actually been relevant (noted below) were really hard to clearly identify with photography.

The first thing I did was try out the recipe that was most highly recommended from that post. Here’s that recipe:

1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda
½ cup kosher salt
5 packets unsweetened lemonade mix

Try this little experiment. For the rest of the day (or tomorrow, if you’re reading this late in the day), whenever you interact with someone, take just a second and ask yourself what you could do during that interaction to make that other person walk away happier. Then, try to do just that.

Offer a compliment. Genuinely listen to their concerns and ask a follow-up question or two, showing that you’re listening even if you don’t have an answer. Offer the help they’re asking for if you can do so easily.

Try it out and see what happens. Note how you feel at the end of the day. Also, note how other people react to you. Make up your own mind whether or not this is a better approach toward other people than your ordinary methods.

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.”