Articles on Personal Finance

How The Economic Crisis Challenges Our Financial Beliefs

As the economic crisis deepens, I'm seeing more people beginning to challenge the conventional wisdom espoused in personal finance. Given how financially difficult things have bec

On choosing temporary freedom

On one side there's your typical job. It's clearer than ever that it doesn't offer the security it once did, but it still offers some, and it offers other things--predictable inco

Quick Tip: How to Sell Your Home When Your Neighbors Are Too

Drive down one of the many residential streets in the nation and it is likely you will find one with multiple listings. It may look like a lot of possibilities if you are in the ma

Details of Obama's mortgage plan released - Will you benefit?

Today the Obama administration officially released the final details of the mortgage plan that was announced a few weeks ago. Here is a quick summary on what is in the plan and h

Scams: What the FTC Wants You to Know

Consumer scams are a dime a dozen (or in some cases, thousands of dollars a crime). What are the red flags that you should always be on alert for? Can even financially savvy spen

Oprah Asks A Great Question; What Can You Live Without?

My wife brought this to my attention. I’m not an avid Oprah viewer, but usually when I tune in I hear good advice. And with the help of financial guru Suze Orman, she’s asking fami

The Gettin'-Baptized-in-the-Watah Epiphany

In an average week, an average chunky-blooded professional American could easily spend up to $140 on a combination of drinks that come with meals such as morning coffee, herbal tea

Did your car break down? Check for recalled parts and fix it for free!

I drive a ten year old car and it has been out of warranty for quite a while. Over the years I have received recall notices in the mail for various parts of the car and got fixes

Credit Scores Across the Country: Which Third are You In?

CreditKarma.com recently released a report that concluded about a third of consumer's credit scores have increased (that's good) during a period of October 2008 until January 2009.

Top 100 Personal Finance Blog Rankings: A New Wise Bread Feature

Looking for more great personal finance blogs? Check out our new Top 100 Personal Finance Blog Rankings. Find out which blogs get the most traffic, blog mentions, incoming links an

What should you do when you are asked to repay an overpayment of severance?

TechCrunch recently reported that the software giant Microsoft made mistakes on the severances it paid to its laid off workers. As a result, Microsoft sent out letters to an unknow

101 Tax deductions for bloggers and freelancers

Anyone here like doing taxes? Didn’t think so. We all have to do them; we all have to pay money to Uncle Sam (although some get away with paying much less than others). But as

Countrywide tried to steal my parents' money - How you can avoid being a victim of mortgage servicing fraud

A few weeks ago I wrote an article about checking your mortgage statement, and interestingly enough my family was recently confronted with an erroneous mortgage statement. This is

A champion of savings over spending

We're subjected to constant barrage of unhelpful advice to the effect that what the economy needs is more spending. (The stimulus program is one piece of this.) It's kind of unde

Will Obama's new mortgage plan really reward responsibility?

Today President Obama announced a new $75 billion Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan to the world. It is touted as a plan that helps responsible homeowners who have not

Looking at Your Expenses with New Eyes

A lot of people think that banks have high security, but the most fortified brick-and-mortar institution in my town is the local Comcast office. This is where you have to go to dro

The Economic Stimulus Bill: Will The Heavy Debt Be Worth It?

The economic stimulus bill has been hotly debated, not just in Congress but also on Main Street. Now that we know what will be getting funding from this package, many are wondering

Placing Prepositions: Where you from? Where you at?

Our spending and money management choices may be influenced by factors we can't control in our own minds as well as factors we couldn't control growing up. You may ask, to what are

What can you do with $13 extra a week?

On Friday both the House and the Senate passed a new $789 billion stimulus package as a continuation of the efforts by the United States Government to jumpstart the economy. A sig

Help Your Teenager Earn Their First Million

As adults, how many times have you wished you had invested money as a teenager or young(er) adult? We're all aware of the power of compounding interest, and the idea that starting