financial help

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 common lesson from a children’s story book has become one of the guiding principles for investing: “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” But lately, I’ve come across a few articles where people are questioning the wisdom of diversification. Today, we are going to ask the question – could you make more [...]

Tired of spending money on things you don’t use or get very little results out of? I’m referring to your gym membership. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of gyms and love going to them, but when they cost an average of $33 per person per month, it comes down to a combined [...]

When it comes to insurance, it’s all about reducing risks. The whole point of insurance is to help you hedge against the risk that unexpected events could financially devastate you — or at least cost you a great deal more than you would like to pay. If you have an auto insurance policy, you might [...]

I recently read an article in The New York Times (hat tip for bringing it to my attention: MAPping Company Success) about the increasing trend of using real money to pay for virtual goods. The article also addresses the rise of credit, via a company called Kwedit.com, to pay for virtual purchases online. This article [...]

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 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.

If you have kids, you probably know that only health care cost increases can compete with the inflation seen by education costs. This means that you are probably going to need to do what you can to help your child get the college financial aid that he or she needs. Even if you have been [...]

Investing works best if you set it and forget it.  However, at least once a year every investor should set aside some time to review their investment activities from the previous year.  February is a great time to do this investment review because if you wait too long you’ll find yourself in the thick of [...]