Money Tips Network

Do you have a little extra money you don't know how to spend? Maybe you've been tweaking your budget so that you now have $500 saved. Or perhaps you've just received a nice little tax refund, or you've been saving your $5 bills for a while and realize that they add up to the equivalent of five Benjamins. What do you do now? (See also: 5 Savings Tricks You Haven't Tried)

It’s a common dilemma: When you are young, say just getting out of college, you tend to have plenty of free time but little money. Later, as your career takes off, you start to have more money but less time.

It would be nice to have both time and money at the same stage of your life. But if you had to choose, which would you pick? This post will look at a few ways that time-or-money choice is a fundamental characteristic of the job market.

Compensation stagnation

First, let’s start by acknowledging that, for many Americans, the choice of more money has been taken off the table. Adjusted for inflation, the total value of the compensation received by Americans grew by just 11.3 percent in the 20 years from 1992 to 2012, or less than 1 percent a year.

Jim, a reader of our Facebook page, shared some of his personal finance journey in Facebook comments a while back, and readers commented that they’d like to hear his story. We reached out and asked him if he would elaborate so we could share his story with the Get Rich Slowly website readers. This is part 1.

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.

This article is by staff writer April Dykman.

Earlier this week, I wrote about the problem with trying to buy the perfect gift. Sticking with that gift theme, there’s a question that’s been on my mind: If you’re invited to an engagement party, a bridal shower, and a wedding ceremony all for the same couple, and you attend all three, do you give a gift at each event?

See, I’ve been invited to a few weddings this year. And it seems like the etiquette “experts” all agree that each event requires a separate gift, according to tradition. Here are some examples from around the web:

As an enthusiastic home cook, my pots and pans get heavy use daily. Over the years I've experimented with a variety of materials for different methods, recipes, and cooking styles. I've certainly learned a lot about what material works best for what purpose, but it's taken a lot of trial and error. (See also: 5 Kitchen Luxuries That Are Worth It)

Today I'm sharing the basics on some of the world's most popular cookware materials and why they're absolutely great or, sometimes, not. In a follow-up, I'll be providing a list of my specific favorite pans, pots, and baking dishes for those of you who'd rather skip the pre-boxed cooking sets and get right down to business.

The following is the latest post in my "Reader Profiles" series. Each post in this series details the financial situation and challenges of an FMF reader. The purpose of this series is to help us all identify with people like us (in similar situations -- not all will be, of course, but eventually I'm sure you will find someone like you here), get to know the frequent commenters on the site, and hear some financial wisdom/challenges from people other than me.

If you're interested in contributing to this series, then drop me an email. The series seems to be very popular with readers and I need a steady stream of new ones to keep it going.

Naked With Cash is an ongoing series at Consumerism Commentary in which readers share their households’ finances with other readers. These participants benefit from the accountability that comes from tracking their finances publicly and the feedback of the four expert Certified Financial Planners (CFPs).

For more information, read this introduction.

I like doing things myself, whenever I can do it. Yesterday, when I posted a list of eight DIY tasks for spring, I relish the opportunity to do things like that. Sometimes, I even go beyond what I think I should be doing … in fact, that’s why our basement toilet has the water supply turned off right now. (I need to head to the hardware store.)

Not too long ago, I was looking at a friend’s car. The tires on that car were really low – I could tell that they were far under the recommended pressure. I figured my friend just hadn’t noticed, so I said something about it.

The response? My friend just assumed that the oil change place would take care of all of that stuff. This person didn’t actually know how to inflate the tire.

This article is by staff writer William Cowie.

In my previous post, I listed three things you need to start investing. Number three was opportunities. Sometimes those opportunities are unique, one-off types of things; however, they can just as easily be something that’s always been out there but you just weren’t aware of them because you weren’t paying attention to investing.

Let’s explore one of those little-known opportunities — one that’s legit, good, and yet often overlooked because it’s a little, well, boring. It’s name, DRIP, doesn’t help either.

DRIP stands for Dividend Reinvestment Program. Simply put, participating companies (and there are hundreds) allow you to use the dividends you earn from them to buy stock directly from the company for little or no commission. (That’s how you reinvest your dividends.)