I stumbled upon this excellent post by Josh Kaufman at The Personal MBA. This is exactly how I feel about debt… with the exception of a mortgage or reasonable car payment. If it’s not going to make you money, you shouldn’t even consider financing.
Check out “The Nefarious Hidden Costs of Debt” at The Personal MBA… [...]
A lot of people get Christmas bonuses at work that range from a free turkey to several thousand dollars. Unexpected income usually leads to unexpected purchases! If you know you’re going to get a bonus, plan on using that money before you get the check.
Here are some productive ideas for how to use your Christmas [...]
How many times have you woken up the day after making a big purchase and regretted it? That TV, computer, furniture or car seems a little more expensive than it did yesterday. You suddenly get a funny feeling in your stomach as you realize the credit card bill’s coming in the next few weeks.
Retailers rely [...]
There are two schools of thought when it comes to paying off your debt. One says that you should start with the account with the highest interest rate, then move to the next nighest interest rate and the next until you’ve paid everything off. The other says that you should pay off the smallest balance [...]
You should know my stance on using credit cards for purchases (don’t!) but debit cards and checks can also be bad. They just don’t feel the same as using cold, hard cash. When you use real money, you tend to spend less of it. It hurts more, and you’re very conscious of how much you [...]
If you’re swamped in debt and don’t know where to start, check out these first 10 steps. No matter how much debt you have, these will help you get on the path to being debt free:
Make a Budget
Without assessing your current level of debt and bills, you won’t have a clear picture of where you [...]
I work about 7 miles from my home, so going home for lunch is not really an option. I used to use that as an excuse to eat out every day. When we started working on a budget, I had to seriously think about how much money I was spending eating out every day (or [...]