financing

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 [...]

Over Christmas, my husband’s parents came to stay with us for two weeks. We have an extra bedroom, but no bed for it. While the air mattress is fine for a couple of nights, we didn’t want my in-laws to have to sleep on it for two weeks. We’re not quite ready to buy another [...]

The first step to buying a used car is choosing a vehicle, or at least narrowing your options. Ask yourself: How many passengers do you regularly carry? What sort of trunk or cargo space do you need? What is the minimum gas mileage a car has that will stay within your budget? What would your [...]

While there are many different opinions as to how much debt is too much, the two ratios below are the most widely used measures of how much debt is manageable. These ratios are also known as debt to income ratios (DTI). Many of you are reading this and other personal finance blogs in an attempt [...]

We’ve all heard the stories of lotto winners who win millions, think they’re set for life, and then go broke within a decade. Or people who inherit large sums of money and end up in financial ruin, family feuds, or both. The word “windfall” can mean different things to different people — if you’re young [...]

One of the debates that goes on in the personal finance world revolves around the concept of whether or not some debt can be good. It is true that some debt (like a home mortgage) is viewed more favorably on your credit report than other debt (like a car loan). But, in practice, you are [...]

I recently came across the How to Drive Free and Retire Rich slideshow on Dave Ramsey site via a fellow blogger Pat. The slideshow basically said the normal way thinking about car ownership is all wrong and there is a better way to go about this. Dave Ramsey proposes that you save your money first, [...]

Since most colleges don’t have classes on budgeting and basic money management it’s up to students to educate themselves. This collection of 33 free student budget calculators, spreadsheets and worksheets will help students of all ages create a workable budget — plus learn some basic budgeting skills along the way!
Here’s what you’ll find:

9 Web-Based Budget [...]

Welcome to the 76th edition of Money Hacks Carnival. In this edition, I’ll be presenting some interesting and fun facts about money along with the submissions. For editor’s picks, please look for entries noted with (EP).

Money Fact #1: $1 bills wear out in about 17 months. Bills of larger denomination last longer because they are [...]

The mortgage market was in doldrums following the subprime mortgage crisis. More and more borrowers were defaulting on their mortgage payments due to the liquidity crunch. Such was the condition of the mortgage market in United States that the government had to intervene and rescue the mortgage market from further upheavals. To address the needs [...]