The following is a guest post. Following the 2013 Budget, you might be considering reevaluating your own monetary matters. It’s a new financial year, and what better way to celebrate than by taking control of your personal income and expenditure. We all say that we’d like to be more frugal; to try and set some money aside [...] Read more »
9 characteristics of a great job
Q: Did you always dream of drawing and writing, or were you about to happily settle for a so-called normal job? Was it the misery of “humiliating and low-paying jobs,” or the joy of drawing and writing, that pushed you this way? A: I pursued a normal job so I wouldn’t starve to death while [...] Read more »
5 ways to get free money
Everyone likes free money. It’s my favorite kind, personally. I’m talking about the $20 bill lying on the ground. The birthday check from Great Aunt Winifred for $5. The extra 30 minutes someone overpaid on the parking meter that you get to use when you park there. It’s all good. So why would you pass [...] Read more »
Private Mortgage Insurance: What You Need to Know
Unfortunately, if you don’t have at least 20% to put down on your mortgage when buying a home, you’ll have to buy private mortgage insurance. Also known as PMI, this insurance protects the lender when and if you fall behind on your mortgage payments. The insurance is almost always automatically cancelled when 20% of your [...] Read more »
lacrosse and Russian
I didn’t get that much out of college, other than friends, knowledge, life experiences, and the ability to blow up an opponent in lacrosse. I majored in math, and now I’m a finance and systems consultant. Related, fine. But they are two different disciplines. I studied linguistics, and while I’m able to speak [...] Read more »
free time and productivity
If you’re one of those people who think that you could accomplish a lot more with your life if only you had more free time, you’re not alone… and you’re wrong. For years I blamed the long hours I worked, exhaustion after those long hours, or the “necessary” errands that consumed what little free time I [...] Read more »
What You Need to Know about Long Term Care
This is a guest post. As millions of Baby Boomers approach old age, long term care has become a central concern for many families. Long-term care insurance is purchased to protect seniors and their families from the costs of home-based health care and nursing home costs, which are increasingly rapidly. Medicaid, which accounts for 43% [...] Read more »
never forget
This haunting picture comes from NASA. Never forget. Read more »
Where are North American mortgage rates expected to head?
The following is a guest post. This year has been a record-setter for mortgage rates. After experiencing the lowest rates in half a century, many potential homeowners are asking if now is still the time to buy. The market hit bottom with a 3.49 interest rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage in late July [...] Read more »
you may not be an entrepreneur
I’ve often fantasized about becoming an entrepreneur. It’s an easy thing for someone who works in the corporate world to do. I made a halfway move: I’m a consultant. I don’t really live ‘in’ the world that my corporate colleagues do, but I do physically sit in the same place and enjoy the same [...] Read more »
should you tip?
If you’re careful with your money, you probably face an occasional dilemma of how much to tip various people in service positions. Tipping ranges from the $3 slipped to a doorman who hails a cab to a couple of hundred for some guys who move your stuff cross-country. Before I was married, I used to [...] Read more »
Teaching Children About Finances
It seems that most parents are always lecturing their children with the old adage that says “money does not grow on trees” whenever their children seem to be asking for too many things. Money certainly does not grow on trees, but how are children supposed to know that? To all intents and purposes, some children [...] Read more »