Lifestyle blogger – cruises, organizing, managing money, and parenting.
Overspending is one of the things that can really mess up a debt management plan. I know it trips me up again and again. Here’s a clever idea that might help. What if you were really serious about getting your spending under control? You could set it up so that your husband gets […] Read more…
I used to be the leader of the local Green Team at my company. We have teams like this at our major locations to help with recycling and other “Green” initiatives. A while back, we had a conference for all our Green team leaders to get together to share ideas. We brought together the leaders […] Read more…
Every New Year’s Eve, what is the absolute number one resolution? Hands down, it is always to lose weight. It’s like the Holy Grail of resolutions! Because of that, the diet and exercise industry is one of the richest in the world. People spend thousands of dollars each year with hopes of losing weight – […] Read more…
Adult kids don’t always have the best judgement. Plus after a couple of decades of depending on the bank of Mom and Dad, it’s a hard habit to break. But part of good parenting is to gently ease them out of the nest to allow them the responsibility for their financial lives. I have two […] Read more…
We are quickly heading into the time of year when everyone is desperate to shed their holiday pounds. This can translate into big bucks for the local gyms and fitness clubs. I looked it up. The figure is about $21 MILLION dollars a year spent on gym memberships just here in the US. Sadly […] Read more…
I don’t normally share specific details about my finances. It’s just not a great idea on the Internet, but I think I need to share a bit more than usual to illustrate this point about the power you can generate from residual income. Residual income can be many things – it can be interest income […] Read more…
Credit card debt can be a significant drain on your budget. Even if you’ve gotten smart and put the cards away (or cut them up!), you still need to find a way to rid yourselves of those pesky balances. One trap that many debt-ridden consumers get into is just paying the minimum payments. Here’s why […] Read more…
There! I said it – I think college is a huge rip-off. I know it’s supposed to be the American Dream, but I was skeptical of it when I was a kid. If anything, I’ve gotten more skeptical as I’ve gotten older. College tuition has skyrocketed FAR more than it should have. The latest stat […] Read more…
I know most people think that money is just money. But I can tell you that there is an enormous difference between paying for things with cash and with other forms of payment – including credit/debit cards, checks, or your phone. Behavioral scientists have done probably hundreds of experiments over the years that clearly prove […] Read more…
As I mentioned recently, my son got married. It was a very nice wedding, but there were several glitches that marred the day. There were enough small problems that we ended up making a formal complaint to the reception company. Which actually worked quite nicely. It was kind of ironic because my daughter-in-law and […] Read more…
So, my middle son Matt got married about a month ago. I haven’t posted the pictures from it because it’s taken a while to get the pictures back from the photographer. But it was a lovely day and we were all excited to see them married. Great weather – perfect since it was a rooftop […] Read more…
I am always surprised when I find that most people have not heard about a water alarm. These things are BRILLIANT and have saved our bacon more times than I can count. Water damage can be very expensive. We’ve had water in our basement at least 10 times now from either our washer, our water […] Read more…
This post was inspired by today’s real-life experience. One of my previous posts was about my son Matt’s big mistake (90 days same as cash – NOT!). This one is about my son Blake’s blooper. You know – this guy! Here he is showing off his new bleached blond ‘do for his first day of […] Read more…
Raising responsible teens is definitely an on-going process, so I think you need to celebrate every possible bit of progress. I had one particular issue I had been fighting ever since we started in Jr. High – lunch money. Photo credit Neither of us likes making lunches, so we had initially decided to allow […] Read more…
This post was inspired by a mistake made a while back by my now 25 year old son. This son, in fact. Yes, I know he’s a handsome fellow, but he’s not quite perfect. Like a lot of kids (okay, young adults!), he makes mistakes sometimes, especially regarding money. His latest mistake concerned a guitar. […] Read more…