external factors

Financial security is a common pursuit.  Whether you’re just starting out in the working world or you’re looking to retire, financial security or the pursuit of financial security is of large importance for you.  Unfortunately, a generation of Americans have been led to believe that the contributing factors to financial security come from anywhere but [...]

When it comes to personal finance, you essentially have two major areas of focus: your income and your expenses.  On the income side, you’re dependent on a number of external factors such as the economy, your employer, your tax rate, your industry, etc.  These external factors can sometimes work against you, making it can be [...]

Recently a bunch of friends got together and the term victim mentality came up. Victim mentality is a tendency to blame external or uncontrollable factors, instead of focusing on internal or controllable factors for things that go wrong. Among other negatives, victim mentality is detrimental for your financial health. Photo by Gipics via Flickr What’s [...]

Last week, the post “Lazy Man and Jealousy” made me think about the Seven Deadly Sins. I am not a Christian. My first introduction to the Seven Deadly Sins was (embarrassingly enough) from the movie Se7en (1995) staring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. However, I’ve always been fascinated by the wisdom of ancient writings. So [...]