As you may already know, this week is National Save for Retirement Week. In that spirit, I want to spend some time today discussing the peace brought on by having a sound financial plan.
It should come as no surprise that planning for the future and saving for retirement can bring a great deal of peace [...]

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“It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.”
-Franklin Delano Roosevelt

One of the greatest threats to an increase in income is simply the passing of time. Without proper awareness and discipline, slow and steady salary increases can go virtually unnoticed, and most definitely underutilized.
An example
Barry and [...]

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This is a guest post by J. Money of Budgets are Sexy. If you like what you see here, please consider subscribing to his RSS feed.
The financial snapshot. It’s a new trend, baby! Okay, maybe not… At least not yet… But if it were, I guarantee that people would be in a MUCH better shape [...]

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This morning I wrote about the high cost of hurricane insurance. Since today is the first day of hurricane season, I thought I’d follow that up with a list of tips from the National Hurricane Center on preparing for and surviving a hurricane.
While some of these tips are hurricane specific, others make good sense in [...]

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I recently ran across an interesting brochure that was put out by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards (CFP Board). This is the group that grants the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) certification. In the brochure, they list ten questions that you should ask when choosing a financial planner.
Ten questions to ask your financial planner

What [...]

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I’ve talked a lot in the past about emergency funds — why you should have one, how big it should be, etc. Today I thought I’d ask you guys about your emergency funds. More specifically, I’m curious how many months worth of expenses you keep on hand. Given the current state of the economy, I’m [...]

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Last week, while busily bullet-pointing how to prepare for a power outage, I noted that my wife and I were considering going “off the grid” one day a week as a way to save a bit of money and to spend more quality time together.
Although my wife thought it was a great idea at [...]

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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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This is a guest post from David of MyTwoDollars. If you like what you see here, please consider subscribing to his RSS feed.
It was September of 2006 when I finally gave notice at what was turning out to be a dead-end corporate gig. While it paid handsomely, it was so incredibly boring that it was [...]

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I frequently find myself musing about the possibility of an retiring early. It’s not that I dislike my job. Rather, I’m just really, really attracted to the idea of total financial independence. While we have four relatively young kids, and thus have a few more obstacles than the average family, I’m still a big fan [...]

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