Money Tips Network

When employers first started looking up their potential new hires on social media sites, recent grads started deleting whole Facebook accounts. That was better than having a fully documented history of bad behavior, but in the near future people are going to have to do a lot better. A blank social media history is going to be a bad social media history. (See also: 9 LinkedIn Changes You Should Make)

Here's the latest in my series of six figure interviews, discussions with everyday people who have grown their incomes to at least $100,000 annually.

My questions are in bold italics and their responses follow in black.

Let's get started...

Tell us a bit about yourself (age, marital status, kids, where you live, etc.)
 
Age 39, married over 16 years, 3 kids (age 9, 6, and 3).  Live in suburban Seattle.
 
What do you do for a living?
 
The official title is "Group Finance Manager", essentially I am mid-level finance manager at a very large software company.  I am in a small but rapidly growing and highly strategic group, so I do report directly to the CFO of my organization.
 
How much do you earn annually?
 

Perhaps you’ve experienced this.  You’re going about a typical day at home.  You’re catching up on some homework (or housework), playing with the kids, or spending time with your roommates or significant other.

Then, you hear this banging in the next room that is enough to wake the dead.  Your clothes washer is in rebellion, it’s mad as all get-out, and it’s not going to take it anymore.  So you give it some attention:  You push on it a bunch of different ways during the spin cycle to try to calm it down.  But over time, this gets harder to do, and you’re getting a sinking feeling that it could fail any day now.

It would just have been a matter of time

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

Cell phone companies want you to sign up for expensive two-year contracts. Why wouldn’t they? It’s money directly in their pocket. They’ll use every sales technique they can to get you to sign on the dotted line for a new contract.

Sometimes, that contract winds up being a good deal, but there are several things you can do to make sure that you’re getting the best deal for the services that you need. Here are five tactics you can use to make sure that you’re getting the best deal.

Use multiple methods when shopping around. If you’re at the end of your cell phone contract, the ball’s in your court. You not only have the ability to choose the specifics of a new contract, you can also jump to a new carrier.

Several years ago, I wrote an article on emergency supplies everyone should have in their home. At that time, my list was quite simple – I was new to home ownership and I was focused on the basics.

Over the years, my emergency supply kit has grown and grown. It now exists in a few tubs in our garage, with some of the water-sensitive items inside waterproof containers.

Here’s our current list. The list was generated from several sources, with the main source being the list from FEMA. Along with the items, I have a few tips on how to acquire them inexpensively.

Vital Items
These items are essential parts of anyone’s kit.

It's February, and in many parts of the country the weather is miserable. There's snow, ice, sleet, slick roads, and backed-up traffic for miles. It's not exactly ideal conditions to hunt for bargains. But if you know you need one of the items on the list below, you could get a real steal if you weather the storm. (See also: 50+ Life Hacks to Win at Winter)

What to Buy

February is the shortest month of the year. It also brings some memorable events, including Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day, Black History Month, President's Day, and the long awaited Winter Olympics, which open on the 7th. Let's take a look at the deals you can get.

Whenever I push myself into a strict diet or a strict exercise regime or a strict set of personal finance rules, I find that I thrive in the short term.

For the first week or so, I’ll hit every benchmark I have within those strict rules. I’ll exercise. I’ll eat incredibly well. I’ll avoid spending an unnecessary dime.

Then, at some point, I fail. Usually, it’s out of thoughtlessness – I just backslide into a bad routine for a moment. I’ll eat something way outside the bounds of what I should be eating. I’ll tell myself I’m going to exercise later today – then I’ll get distracted by playing with the kids. I’ll buy something small on a whim.

Soon after, I’ll realize that failure, and I’ll beat myself up over it. I’ll think really negative thoughts about how I’m hopeless for a little while, then I’ll resolve to get everything back on track. I’ll have a few more days of success, then I’ll fail again.

What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to five word summaries. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. Renting or buying musical instruments
2. Inflation and mortgage length
3. Why so much to retire?
4. Disabled daughter worries
5. Parents moving in
6. Paranoid
7. Saving for child’s college
8. Free toothbrushes?
9. Amazon Prime problems

This article is by staff writer Honey Smith.

Since I have over $92,000 in student loan debt myself at last count, perhaps I’m just finely attuned to news coverage on this issue. However, my very unscientific observation is that there have been quite a few articles on student loan debt in the news lately, particularly graduate school and Ph.D. debt. And I think that devoting more attention to this issue is definitely a good thing.

What’s the big deal, anyway? #PhDdebt