Financial security can be yours, but it’s going to take some counter-cultural thinking and action. Here’s why I can state that so categorically. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services publishes the results of their regular study of Americans that reach retirement age (see U.S. DHHS study publication #1311871, June 1990 for an example). [...]
Jan 072012
I have written about envelope budgeting before, but I think the topic warrants more discussion because it is not as commonly used as traditional budgeting. I became a convert to envelope budgeting about 10 years ago after getting really frustrated with other methods. Here’s a short version of that story. Hang-ups with Traditional Budgeting Traditional [...]
“How much house can I afford?” is a question I have started asking myself lately. Here is how to make sure you stay on track to live within your means. Considering that debt is Top Financial Risk #4 and mortgages are typically the largest debt any of us have, this is a really important topic that [...]
Before you jump to buy that item with the sale sticker, you should pause to calculate its true cost. In fact, I would venture to guess that most of us don’t think about the true cost of items, which can lead to making spending decisions that we later regret (Top Financial Risk #1). Let’s look [...]
Dec 092011
I’ve assembled a list of the 9 top financial risks that we face in our personal finances. Most of these have been discussed to varying degrees in previous posts, but I thought it would serve as a good reference to hang all of our financial security efforts upon. Rather than copy the entire page here, [...]
“How much should I save to be considered financially responsible?” This was a question posed to Money Magazine that I think we all share. In fact, if you are looking to address Top Financial Risk #1, this question is very important. Before answering it, I would challenge the premise of the question. Why should it [...]
