A couple of weeks ago I saw a ten dollar bill for the first time in months — I witnessed a friend pay a debt back to another friend. At that moment I realized how long it had been since I personally held a bill like that in my wallet. The ten actually looked strange [...]
How many of us know exactly how much money we need each month to get by? As a member of a family who has gone through a successful personal finance renaissance I can tell you that figuring this number is a notable achievement. And there are a few reasons for this: Allows You To Create [...]
We’ll be celebrating our third anniversary in our house this June. We financed our home with a traditional 30 year mortgage at 6% and then refinanced within a year to obtain 5% rate on an FHA loan. So we have a little over 28 years left if we continue to repay as scheduled. Meanwhile, after refining and scrutinizing our budget, [...]
On one hand, we are in debt. We have outstanding balances on a mortgage, student loans, and a few low-interest credit cards. Overall, the weighted average of all interest is 5.25%. But we are totally comfortable with this debt, and we are not presently accumulating more debt. On the other hand, we have opportunity to [...]
I drove home yesterday with a paycheck in my pocket. As I was driving I began to recall how different my mindstate was a year ago. Back then I would have been overwhelmed by the thrill of receiving a lump sum of money. I would have been proud of myself for having earned it and [...]
Paying the minimum payment on your credit card each month through auto-debit is undoubtedly incredibly convenient. I should know because I employed this method on all eight of my cards for several years. Besides being convenient, setting up automatic minimum payments can easily be construed as the responsible thing to do — after all, you are [...]