My friend J.D. asked me to write a little about how and why I assemble and publish my monthly financial updates and how the idea of looking at your personal finances from a quasi-business point of view helps gain perspective. What resulted is now a guest post at one of my favorite money-related blogs, Get ... Continue reading this article…

To wrap up my latest vehicle-related saga, I picked up my car yesterday. The repairs took almost two weeks, but the shop did an excellent job. The suggestions from readers helped (thanks!) as I inspected the car before paying the bill. I took the car for a test spin to make sure there were no ... Continue reading this article…

Today was the deadline to enroll in my 2007 employee benefits, so I took some time to do so. It wasn’t necessary for me since my options are staying the same as my 2006 selections, but it did give me an opportunity to compare the prices. The HMO medical program sponsored by Aetna increased from ... Continue reading this article…

Thanks mainly to Jim’s excellent 25 Steps to a Wildly Successful Personal Finance Blog, I’ve recently received more requests from bloggers to be added to pfblogs.org, the ad-free financial blogs aggregator. In response to the influx, we added a request form to pfblogs.org to simplify the process. Each blog submitted goes through a quick review ... Continue reading this article…

The New York Times is offering free access to the “Select” portion of the paper’s website. Here is what “Select” includes: From Nov. 6 – 12, enjoy FREE exclusive online access to the Op-Ed and news columns, online-only guest columns, a collection of articles from The Archive back to 1851 and more. This section is ... Continue reading this article…

A few minutes ago, a visitor named Phil left a comment on a post from August, HOWTO Become an eBay Millionaire. I took a quick look at what Phil has and it looks pretty interesting. He buys those e-books you see being sold on eBay, which “explain” how to do a variety activities, such as ... Continue reading this article…

A few hours ago, I checked Edmunds.com to get an updated on the street value of my 2004 Honda Civic LX 4-door sedan. Once again, despite a later date and a higher number of miles, the value has hardly changed. At the beginning of the year, the car was valued at $12,074 for private party ... Continue reading this article…

Those who study music have known this for years. The discipline and dexterity required to learn a music instrument to intermediate to advanced ability affects the brain such that the performer builds skills useful in areas other than music performance. Fortune Magazine says there’s more evidence that cross-training makes you better at everything you do, ... Continue reading this article…

I’ve been planning since the middle of August to buy a new notebook computer to replace my five-year-old Fujitsu C-6631 1 GHz laptop, which is finally presenting operational problems. Well, purchasing a new computer isn’t easy. I want to spend between $1,500 and $2,500 and I want these features in addition to the standard wireless, ... Continue reading this article…