A meme making the rounds has us wondering - are all Americans THAT BAD WITH MONEY? My fear is that we're a nation of financial illiterates. This fear is not unfounded: beyond the fact that you've got a government that racks up debt like there's no tomorrow, you've got a populace that racks up credit card debt because frequent flier miles apparently grow on trees. So you can … [Read more...]
11 Money Moves Before the End of the Year
Lists! We love them, you love them, the world loves them. Here's one you can use to maximize your money-making before 1/1/2015. I don't know about y'all, but I sure do feel as if Christmas is sneaking up on us. (Happens every year, though, doesn't it?) Anyway, it's a great time to be planning for 2015, right? RIGHT! So we present 11 Money Moves (You Can Make) Before the End of … [Read more...]
Why You Should Track Everything
Here, we'll learn that "set it and forget it" isn't really for financial planning. What could have been a really pleasant surprise last week - an item arriving in the mail from Fidelity, asking me to get in touch with them - really got me thinking. Just how organized AM I? And, how organized are you? Here's the drill. A long time ago - twenty-plus years - I worked in higher … [Read more...]
Save on Your Winter Gas Bill Now
If you live in a Polar Vortex Climate, such as ours in the Midwest, you may want to take a look at your gas bills. Actually, we did a nice little seasonal look-see on the gas bills. We went back almost a year and wanted to figure out where there were ways to really save. We found one - and, as we often will tell you, your experience may vary. Without further ado, here's one … [Read more...]
The Auto Dealer Inquiry and Your Credit Score
We might have started a little bit of a brouhaha on Twitter last week. That's okay...we're here to set the record straight. It started here: the post called Understanding Your Credit Score. We talked about a number of things, including whether an auto dealer inquiry would impact your credit score. And, specifically, something we said about this image. Our comment went … [Read more...]