Personal Finance

3-Step Financial Checkup

December 23, 2011

So where do you stand financially? Are you on track to meet your goals? Given your age and income, have you saved and invested as much as you should have? How much house can you afford? These were some of the questions I began asking myself several years ago. The problem is, it was difficult [...]

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2011 Holiday Tipping Guide

December 14, 2011
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Photo: Muy Yum ‘Tis the season to tip! It’s a wonderful time of the year and it’s also pretty darn confusing. Sometimes it’s difficult to figure out when a tip is even appropriate, let alone how much you should give. That times are tough and you might not be able to be as generous as [...]

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What To Do When Your Check Engine Light Comes On

December 9, 2011
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Photo: f2point8 We recently bought a car for our kids to drive. It’s a beauty, too. We’re talking a 2004 Mercury Sable with 170,000 miles. And after just a few short weeks of ownership, the dreaded “check engine light” came on. Now we did what most probably do–we took it to a repair shop. I [...]

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Straight Talk from WalMart Review

November 11, 2011

Cell phone bills can easily get out of hand. With two teenagers in the house, we have four lines. Add in texting and data packages, and the cost easily exceeds $150 a month. One option we’ve covered in the past is prepaid cell phone plans. And one pay-as-you-go option worth considering comes from STRAIGHT TALK™. [...]

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How to (Quickly) Sell Your iPhone 4 For Cash

October 4, 2011

Rumor has it that Apple will announce the release of the iPhone 5 today. And like many (41% of existing cell phone users, according to one dubious study), I plan to purchase the new gizmo as soon as the crazy lines at the Apple store die down. But this raises one big question–what do I [...]

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My Real Life ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’

September 26, 2011

Many have said that Robert Kiyosaki’s ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ book is a piece of fiction. Apparently, he never had a rich dad and a poor dad as described in his book, or at least that’s what many believe. But I did. My parents divorced before I was two, and both remarried. My father, who [...]

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I’m Stuck Between a Rock and Comcast

September 14, 2011

It’s no secret that I don’t like Comcast.  Just over a year ago, I wrote a post on just how frustrating it was to get anyone from Comcast to stick to an appointment and vowed never to pay them another dime for service.  The problem, however, was that no other cable or internet company offers [...]

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Don’t be a Victim of Identity Theft

August 29, 2011

More and more people are becoming victims of identity theft and there appears to be no limit to the efforts a person will take to steal someone’s personal information. Sure there are plenty of ID theft prevention companies out there and your bank and credit card company have all approached you with their own program [...]

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Kids With Jobs = Kids With Futures

August 25, 2011

One of the most important things my parents taught me when I was young, was self reliance.  At the time, I hated them for it because I thought having a job before I was in college was stupid.  Anything I wanted should be provided for by them and rather than earn money on my own, [...]

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