personal finance

When someone is first enter the world of finances, they will need to learn some new basic finance skills.  Unfortunately, many teenagers and young adults get to college without having a clue about some basic personal finance tasks.  You might make a lot of bad money choices, but if you have some basic financial knowledge, [...]

I believe that cash flow is one of the most powerful concepts in personal finance. People tends to know how they feel about their personal finance — e.g., whether they are comfortable or are struggling. Unfortunately, not too many people truly understand cash flow and how important it is to your finances. When you understand [...]

A few weeks ago I received an email.  In the email I was asked to give a reference for two individuals who were applying for the same job.  That’s not really unusual, right? We’ll, here’s the kicker.  (I hope this doesn’t get too complicated …) One of the key decision maker’s daughter and I are [...]

Financial independence is a term typically used to describe a state where you have sufficient assets to live a certain lifestyle indefinitely without having to work or be employed.  Whether your income is derived from interest on savings, investment income, real estate income or something else, it really doesn’t matter.  The key is that you’re [...]

If you read enough personal finance blogs, you’ll see a common theme and the number one answer to your financial dilemma — “Spend Less than You Earn”. Unfortunately, it’s easier said than done, otherwise, we wouldn’t have this rampant debt problem in our society. Fortunately, I went through this myself, and over the years, I’ve [...]

We’ve all heard stories of guys who, after busting their hump for 40 years, kick the bucket at their retirement party or shortly thereafter. These stories scare the crap out of me and make me wonder about the idea of retirement, or on the flip side, working so hard to accomplish retirement. After all, what [...]

We in the personal finance blogosphere love to fill the internet with ideas on how to save money and discuss everything under the sun that you should not spend money on. Well, today, I’d like to discuss a few things that I believe are acceptable purchases.

iPhones are often criticized as expensive and ostentatious. Why buy a smart phone when you can make calls from a $10 pay as you go phone? It may seem like a waste of money, but used properly an iPhone can be a powerful tool in your personal finance arsenal. Here is just a small sampling of [...]

To help you make the most of your 2009 taxes, here are some tax tips to help you organize, prepare, and take advantage of the available tax deductions and tax credits for 2009 tax year. Instead of trying to compile my own list, I reached out to a few personal finance bloggers to share their [...]

The other day a friend called and asked me for some advice on personal finance. I was pretty flattered because it has only been a year since I first began reading and studying personal finance. In only one year I have already seen the positive effects that studying personal finance has had on my life. [...]