From the category archives:
This article is presented by Kelly Whalen, Consumerism Commentary staff writer. It’s the time of year when everyone is talking about their New Year’s resolutions or goals for the year. Tops on the majority of Americans’ New Year’s resolutions for 2010 are losing weight, quitting smoking, and saving more money. While losing weight and quitting smoking seem ... Continue reading this article…
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My one goal from the beginning of 2009 was to do at least one creative thing a week. When I thought of it, it seemed pretty ambitious, then I started writing twice a week for this site, and it was automatically taken care of, so any other creative thing I did was just metaphorical gravy. ... Continue reading this article…
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Although I’ve been tracking my finances publicly on Consumerism Commentary since 2003, this is only the fourth year I’ve outlined specific financial goals for the new year. The next year is a bit of a mystery for me. I feel like some changes are necessary, particularly in my day job. Although I have some big ... Continue reading this article…
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At the beginning of the year, I set a few financial goals and resolutions representing what I would like to accomplish by the end of 2009. Like last year, my progress is mixed. I’ll get to that in a moment. I’m not a big fan of the concept of financial goal setting. Goals or targets evoke ... Continue reading this article…
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While a budget in one form or another is a must-have financial tool, it’d quickly become big and ugly if you tried to anticipate and include every expense you might run in to. You’d quickly lose interest and wouldn’t stick with your budget, right? A budget is a basic recorder of recurring expenses, and trying to ... Continue reading this article…
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Now that the halfway mark of 2009 has passed by, it wouldn’t hurt to review the financial mini-goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year and determine how far I have strayed from my path. For me, these goals are only milestones. They help my gauge my progress but numbers in my ... Continue reading this article…
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Do you have a 5-year financial plan? What about just a general idea? Do you know where you want to be financially in 25 years? Have you ever set a financial goal? If you decided you wanted to save $5,000 this year, could you do it? Far too often we get into situations where we ... Continue reading this article…
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I offered to write articles for Quicken occasionally, and the first of these articles was published yesterday. It focuses on trimming budgets and expenditures. President Obama has proposed cutting the federal budget by $17 billion. That’s a large amount of money, but it’s a tiny slice, 0.5 percent, of the total federal budget. Here is an excerpt: I ... Continue reading this article…
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April is National Financial Literacy Month in the United States. In most cases, schools do not extensively teach financial skills. Teenagers, highly susceptible to messages from the media, often do not have guidance from teachers, who are not trained to teach financial skills, or from parents, many of whom do not model healthy financial behavior. ... Continue reading this article…
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One lesson I learned this past year, after setting financial goals for 2008 and evaluating my progress as of last week, is that I shouldn’t set goals that are heavily dependent upon forces beyond my control, such as the stock market at large. My main target of a $210,000 “modified net worth” assumed the ... Continue reading this article…
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In December 2007, I set a number of financial goals or targets to be accomplished by the end of this year. In some cases I was successful while in others I fell short. It’s important to keep things in perspective; when I set these goals, the economy was in a significantly different state. The goals ... Continue reading this article…
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Last month, I began writing about the process of taking control of one’s own financial condition. It’s common to outline any process by describing a series of steps, and that is the form I have chosen for writing about this particular process. The steps I’ve described roughly follow my experience as I learned to ... Continue reading this article…
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This morning, I posted an article on one of my favorite blogs about personal finance, Get Rich Slowly. The article follows my ongoing transformation from an external to an internal locus of control philosophy and explains why an internal point of view is more beneficial to achieving financial goals. Please read Financial Success Comes From ... Continue reading this article…
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In about 6.5 months, I will be free of credit card debt for the first time since 1998. Much like Inigo Montoya and the “Revenge Business”, now that it’s over, I don’a know what to do with the rest of my life. Readers of Consumerism Commentary have proven their wisdom many times over, so I’d like ... Continue reading this article…
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I have never been a fan of a monthly budget. In early 2002, when I admitted I was spending more than I was earning, I forced myself to enact categorical limits for my expenses. It helped for a short time, but it wasn’t long before I found myself with a new spending philosophy ... Continue reading this article…
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About the author: This is a guest post by the anonymous author of the blog Father Sez, a father of four children who wishes to share with and learn from other parents with the goal of preparing children for facing the world independently. You know your financial life is in a mess. You know the steps ... Continue reading this article…
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For the first time in several years, I decided to design a budget for myself. I’ve never been a fan of budgets. While I used one when absolutely necessary to get myself on track initially, after recovering from low income and high expenses, I decided to ditch the idea when I was comfortable ... Continue reading this article…
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As January comes to a close, it might be a good idea to take a look at the year-long goals I created for myself at the beginning of the year and my progress so far. Goal 1: $100,000 in additional income. As of today, I am right on track for earning $100,000 outside of my day ... Continue reading this article…
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My mother and I have recently started the journey to retirement together. By together, I mean that she’s starting to consider retiring in the next few years, while I’m realizing just how much help she’s going to need in order to get there. I’m up to the challenge, but it’s going to be ... Continue reading this article…
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I decided this year that a rudimentary budget would help me further analyze my spending beyond my monthly income and expense reports. Since moving to my new apartment last July, my discretionary expenses have been increasing. Perhaps designing a spending plan and evaluating my real expenses against the budget each month will help ... Continue reading this article…
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