Money Tips Network

This article is by staff writer Holly Johnson.

A little over a month ago, my husband and I were getting ready for a five-night trip to Jamaica. And as usual, we went to great lengths to budget for anything and everything. For starters, all but $97 of our airfare was paid with points I earned with my Chase Ink Bold Business Card, and that expense was taken care of months before. The fact that we were staying in an all-inclusive resort also meant that I didn’t have to budget for meals either, an added perk. The only expenses left to consider: round-trip transportation to and from the resort and money for tips. Once that was taken care of, I looked forward to a week of fun, mojitos, and beach time with my best friend.

When bad weather attacks

If you’re a baseball fan like me, it’s a good bet you read the Michael Lewis book “Moneyball” well before it spawned a Brad Pitt movie. The tome is a laugh-out-loud chronicle of how free-thinking general manager Billy Beane brought some respectability to his woebegone, small-market, tiny-budgeted Oakland Athletics.

But linking money and baseball is nothing new, as Lewis would likely be among the first to tell you. Throughout its history, the grand old game has been just as much about greenbacks as it has been about hits, runs and errors. No wonder the cash-rich New York Yankees, summering within a few miles of America’s financial epicenter and traditionally profiting from the game’s fattest television contract, have captured more World Series crowns than any other team.

This article first appeared at U.S. News and World Report Money.

Buying items in bulk can be a great way to save a little money. If you’re able to reduce the cost per unit of a purchase, then you’re opening the door to reducing your household expenses over the long haul.

The trick? Sometimes bulk buys don’t quite work out. You end up buying something in bulk, only to discover that it didn’t really save you money after all.

There are three big sources of bulk buying failure.

First, perishable items tend to be bad bulk buys. If an item can grow stale or rot within a relatively short period of time, you shouldn’t buy it in bulk without a plan for accommodating those problems. You can get away with buying things in bulk if you freeze them, for example, but you still need to plan ahead for their use to avoid freezer burn.

At the end of last year, I took advantage of a sale on some photography equipment. I perceived the deal to be good, and after contemplating the purchase for some time, I decided to go ahead. The sale price was manipulate through the offering of a manufacturer’s $300 mail-in rebate after a retailer’s discount of $300. This type of deal is similar to those on many other products when this particular manufacturer, Canon, wants to move their merchandise faster.

For anyone wondering about the specifics of the purchase, this was the new version of the Canon 24-70mm professional lens, offered at $1,999 instead of $2,299, with a $300 mail-in rebate. The total cost would be $1,699, or a discount of 26%. As far as I know, the deal hasn’t been offered since. Whether the new lens is worth $1,699 is another question, but it tends to be a favorite among professional photographers.

This article is by staff writer April Dykman.

When it comes to gift-giving, I like to buy gifts that are exciting, maybe something that the recipient wouldn’t necessarily buy themselves because it’s not practical.

In fact, I so enjoy finding the perfect gift that I even have secret Amazon gift lists for my family members. When I come across something I think they’d like, I add it to their list for future gift-giving occasions. (Sound crazy? I got your crazy. I also have a “Gangsta Wrap” Pinterest board full of gift-wrapping ideas, so who’s crazy now? Oh yeah, still me…)

A few days ago, I was working on an article where I referred to dividends. Since I didn’t really provide any sort of explanation of what dividends were, I went looking for an article where I explained in detail what a dividend actually is and, to my amazement, I never found a good, thorough explanation of dividends! (I ended up sticking a brief explanation into the article.)

Since dividends are a pretty big part of personal finance planning (they affect retirement savings significantly and also play a role in many other investment choices), it’s incredibly useful to know what exactly a dividend is, how they work, and how they put money in your pocket.

As always with explanations like this, I’m choosing to use simple language and simple examples. Business schools offer entire classes on these topics, so this is just a brief introduction.

Let’s dig in.

Kristin Wong

A design student from Chicago recently launched a fairly ridiculous Kickstarter campaign: He wanted to buy a burrito and graph its “deliciousness.” With an original funding goal of $8, Noboru Bitoy has blown that target out of the water. As of this post, he’s raised a whopping $1,050, all based on this simple promise: “Just [...]

Student raises $1,000 to take burrito skydiving from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

This blog was posted by Kristin Wong

Tax season is in full swing. Thanks to tax preparation software, a lot of the common mistakes (i.e., missing social security numbers) are now automatically detected. Still, they are only capable of checking for math accuracy and missing fields. They can’t optimize a tax return to get the maximum amount possible or compensate for our misunderstanding of the complicated tax code. I have been using tax software and/or tax professionals ever since I started filing in 2003. In these ten years, I have learned that no matter what software or tax professional I use, the onus is on me to know what is best for me and what mistakes to avoid. Here is a list of dos and don’ts based on the mistakes that I have personally made or have come across in recent years. Use this as a checklist to make sure you avoid them too.

In my area, the cheapest gym I can find for exercise is one that charges about $15 per month and charges additional fees for every class you might take. The $15 per month just gets you in the door and gives you access to the facilities.

Other gyms that offer training programs and such accelerate far above that. Some cost as much as $100 a month, and when you start moving into personal trainers, it skyrockets.

I think exercise and fitness are valuable, but it’s also expensive. Naturally, being the frugal guy that I am, I’ve dabbled in many different free and low-cost alternatives to gym membership. Here are some of the options I’ve tried and how they work.

Walking
Cost: Free
Advantages: Very simple, easily adjusted to your needs, easy to measure progress
Disadvantages: No individual training or contact from a trainer, no motivation from a trainer