I recently ran across a report from the World Future Society detailing emerging trends that are shaping the world. In it, they argued that “the traditional age of retirement is losing it’s significance.” They went on to argue that:
People in the developed world are retiring well before 65. In fact, they cite data that less [...]

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It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of paying our bills online. We’ve requested e-bills from every company that we can, and we also use our bank’s online interface to send checks to payees that don’t accept electronic payments. All in all, it’s very convenient and we save a ton on postage.
When we first [...]

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Not that long ago, I put together a list of the best online discount brokers based on reader feedback. Today I’m going to provide slightly different perspective by previewing the results of SmartMoney’s 2008 Broker Survey.
Commissions & Fees
Surprisingly, the best of breed in this category was Interactive Brokers. The reason I’m surprised is that they [...]

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The other day I solicited opinions on how to reduce our long distance expenses. While we’ve relied primarily on our cell phones in the past, our current house has spotty cell phone service and having multiple dropped calls during a single conversation is incredibly annoying.
Given that DSL is our only option for broadband internet, that [...]

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While Memorial Day weekend is traditionally three days long, I played hooky at the end of the week and am stretching it to four. Yesterday was actually the last day of school for the boys so, instead of going to work, I headed over their school for a combination of field day and end of [...]

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FiveCentNickel participated in five carnivals this week. Here they are along with links to my articles that were included in each.
The Carnival of Personal Finance included “Our Allowance System: New and Improved.” Also included were “Hard vs. Soft Credit Checks and Your Credit Score” from creditaddict.com and “Teaching Kids About Money: Lead by Example” from [...]

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Last weekend, while updating Quicken, I was struck by the complexity of our finances. Care to take a guess how many bank accounts we currently have?
Seven. Yes, seven.
Here’s the breakdown:
» One credit union account (PenFed for CDs)
» Two checking accounts (both local, personal + business)
» Four savings accounts (one local, three online)
This actually sounds more [...]

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Yesterday afternoon, I received the following e-mail from a reader named Carol:
My son died suddenly on May 15, 2008. His (tax) rebate came in the mail today. What do I do with it? Are we, his parents, entitled to it? He is single with no children.
This is an interesting (and tragic) question, and I’m not [...]

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Where were you (financially) ten years ago?
Ten years is a long time, and sometimes it’s hard to believe just how far we’ve come.
Looking back…
It was the spring of 1998, and I was still in graduate school. We had just one child, and he was only 7.5 months old. After his birth in the fall [...]

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Wow. I just saw this over on The Consumerist… As of June 15th, America Airlines will begin charging $15 for your first checked bag. Apparently United’s decision to charge $25 for your second checked bag (but give you the first one for free) just wasn’t enough, so American decided to go a bit further. They’re [...]

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