Five Fiscal New Years Resolutions for Families
New Years resolutions usually involve losing weight, quitting smoking, etc. Instead, this year use your resolutions to help put your financial house in order. Doing that won’t help you fit into that pair of skinny jeans or improve your breath, but it will fatten up your wallet and improve your financial outlook. Here are five [...]
Soon Just About Any Underwater Borrower Will Be Able to Refinance
The Federal Housing Finance Agency released details of a newly revamped Home Affordable Refinance Program today, with the main feature being a lack of a loan-to-value limit. Previously, the max LTV accepted under the program was 125 percent, meaning those in need of the most help were essentially out of luck. With this change, even [...]
10 of My Best Purchases
Splurges are often looked down upon in the personal finance world, but what about the purchases you make that make you money, save you money, or help you out in general in the long run? Here are 10 of my best purchases: MacBook: My MacBook is probably my best investment yet. Before I got it, [...]
The Problem with Being Fabulously Wealthy
They seem happy. The link between wealth and happiness has been covered many times, from ancient proverbs to modern science. But the recent (and impossible to avoid) news about Kim Kardashian’s failed marriage had me wondering about the opposite side of the wealth/happiness coin. Is it possible that being fabulously wealthy can make you less [...]
Weekend Favs December Three
My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr. Good stuff [...]
More Thoughts on Mail-In Rebates
As a followup to last weeks post about why I hate mail-in rebates, I wanted to highlight an article that a reader named Sun shared in the comments. It’s a few years old, but it captures the essence of why may of us hate rebates. Due to a combination of procrastination (i.e., missing the deadlines), [...]
4 Common Misconceptions Associated with Providing 401(k) Plans to Employers
Many small business employers are reluctant to provide 401(k) plans for their employees because they don’t realize how easy it is to set up plans and maintain them. Indeed, the Small Business Administration found that a majority of employees working for small businesses didn’t even have access to an employer-sponsored plan. When you don’t offer [...]