Articles on Personal Finance

Could you save money by subscribing to an addictive game?

During the Christmas break my husband and I went to dinner with some of his friends from high school. One couple we spoke with told us that they are trying to save money for a dow

Not too late to get your IRS stimulus rebate--if you qualify

A lot of taxpayers missed out on getting their IRS economic stimulus rebate last year, even though they qualified. If you're one of them, you'll be glad to know that there's a way

Retirement for Stay-at-Home Parents

Many families make a sacrifice by having one parent stay at home to raise their children. If the stay-at-home parent remains at home and unemployed for the majority of his or her

Coupon Coups

Nothing vindicates a cynic by being proven right and coupons can often be used as a marketing tool for the old bait and switch. Overcome misgivings about coupons by going from coup

Why Can't You Ever Make On-Time Payments?

How frustrating is it to pay all of your bills each month when you finally get a minute to sit down and take care of things, only to find out later you got socked with penalties an

Book Review and Giveaway: Rich Brother Rich Sister

Robert Kiyosaki's latest book is a slight departure from the words of financial prowess he typically shares with his readers. If you want to know more - and to win a free copy to c

Book review: Game Over

Stephen Leeb's new book makes that case that we're running into resource limits on every front--energy, metals, water--and that this problem is going to affect everything we do. T

Organized tips on getting through tough times

If you like Wise Bread for all the tips and suggestions, here's another resource full of much the same kind of information, but organized differently. Instead of a blog, it's a bu

Rethinking The Early Mortgage Payoff

The borrow-at-a-low-interest-rate-and-invest-to-get-greater-returns mentality was so embedded in our belief system that there almost seemed to be a stigma attached to not carrying

What will be pulled off the shelves? The impact of the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act

Recently the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act is making headlines because it required that all products (including clothes) made for children 12 and under be tested for lead

Book Review: Rich Like Them by Ryan D'Agostino

One summer my mother showed me a series of articles in Money magazine by a reporter named Ryan D'Agostino who knocked on the doors of expensive homes to find out how the occupants

Bouncing Back When There's No "Bounce" Left

We all have our ups and downs. We've all faced some pretty depressing odds and come out on top. But sometimes, it feels like you just can't get ahead, no matter how hard you try

The Real Value of Forever Stamps

Considering that I pay most bills online, I don’t use a whole lot of postage stamps these days. When I do, however, it almost always involves me digging through piles of paperwork

Recession Journal Part I: 'Fast' Money in the '09

Forget about the fact that it's a recession. What you do now determines where you will be when the graph trends up again. What if you stopped dropping duckets like you dropped weig

The vicious Home Rental Scam – don’t get conned.

It seems like new variations of the Nigerian 419 scam pop up every week. The one that caught my attention recently involved renting a home, and it’s a nasty trick that could take a

The "one big lump" theory of your money

Don't get confused by the way your money's divided up. It might be split up into IRAs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s, 529 plans, and annuities. Separately from that, it might be invested in d

Books Get Recalled, Too (The Shocking Truth)

Just when you thought the world of consumer product recalls was largely limited to lead-based toys, laceration hazards, and the phenomenon of exploding laptop batteries, we can now

Plan for your wants

Budgets tend to focus on needs--food, shelter, heat, light, transportation, and (of course) taxes. They also provide for wants, but generally the smaller, shorter-term wants--cabl

Looking To Invest Right Now? 5 Basic Investing Tips For Any Market

A lot of people have been asking me recently, is this the stock market bottom? Is it time to jump into stocks? As an investor for over 20 years who's lived through 2 recessions (a

The Best and Worst Places to Stash Cash in Your Home

We all agree that a buck has value, it is also a bit vulnerable when not hidden properly. Forget the $3000 hi-tech safe, and stick with these affordable tricks I picked up. Yo