This is a guest article by Outlaw, who lives and works in New York’s financial district and writes on the blog Credit Card Outlaw.
I don’t believe in conspiracies.
A few weeks ago someone I vaguely knew from college forwarded me an email about how the World Trade Center was likely destroyed by government “beam weapons.” I ... Continue reading this article…
At the end of every month, I review my personal finances, including bank account balances, investment performance, income and expenses, and I share some of those details here. This was the original purpose of Consumerism Commentary: to track my own finances publicly and hold myself accountable for my financial decisions. I wasn’t aware at that ... Continue reading this article…
Over the past couple of weeks, six finalists have been auditioning for the opening of “staff writer” at Consumerism Commentary. Each is providing two guest articles to share with readers. After the six writers have shared their guest articles, readers will have an opportunity to provide feedback before we select the staff writer.
This article is ... Continue reading this article…
My Honda Civic has an option for cruise control. Unfortunately, most of my driving currently takes place on the New Jersey Turnpike and local highways during rush hour and construction, so I rarely have an opportunity to activate this feature. In the slim occasion I find myself driving on a deserted country road, I activate ... Continue reading this article…
Over the next couple of weeks, six finalists will be auditioning for the opening of “staff writer” at Consumerism Commentary. Each will be providing two guest articles to share with readers. After the six writers have shared their guest articles, readers will have an opportunity to provide feedback before we select the staff writer.
This article ... Continue reading this article…
One of my favorite bloggers, and likely one of yours, is J.D. Roth. He has been writing about personal finance at Get Rich Slowly for some time now, and I was a fan of his writing at foldedspace when “blog” was still a new word. He is working on a book now, which I can’t ... Continue reading this article…
While I was in California this past week, I spent a few days at my brother’s new apartment before his wedding this past Saturday. Among the piles of books not yet placed into a bookcase was something familiar: I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi (review here). Ramit is a colleague of ... Continue reading this article…
My accountant has strongly suggested I move my business-related financial accounting out of my personal Quicken file and into QuickBooks. It has been a slow process so far, and I have determined that I have not done a great job of separating my business finances from my personal finances.
QuickBooks 2010 was released yesterday. The ... Continue reading this article…
I do not currently have children, but I have not ruled out starting a family some day. If and when I do have children, I hope I will be able to help them become smart and capable adults over time. I believe this is what my parents have done for me, and I’d like to ... Continue reading this article…
If you are reading this article, it is almost completely guaranteed that you are human. And if you are human and do not have a major cerebral deficit, you have emotions. Perhaps have is not a strong enough word; everything you do, and every decision you make, is controlled by your emotions. Even the strive ... Continue reading this article…
I’m not a big fan of “rules of thumb.” These are bite-sized nuggets of wisdom masquerading as advice, designed to apply to a mass audience. At best, they cant point someone in the right direction, but at worst, rules of thumb can erroneously send people on the wrong path or can mistakenly instill a false ... Continue reading this article…
The total net worth among Americans has risen to $53 trillion, the highest this measure has been since the end of 2007. At that point, Americans were worth $65 trillion. The increase this past quarter of $2 trillion was the first increase in this measure since 2007.
I am taking this as a good sign for ... Continue reading this article…
It’s easy to adopt one concept and use that concept to define your world. You commonly see this in religion, but I’m referring to personal finance concepts, as you might expect from Consumerism Commentary. One popular financial guru talks about The ECRD Factor. His followers — a guru can’t be a guru without a throng ... Continue reading this article…
This is a guest article by Ray, the owner and primary author of Financial Highway, where he discusses investing, saving and practical money management concepts. You can check subscribe to his RSS feed or follow him on Twitter.
I strongly believe that tracking your financial progress is crucial to reaching your financial goals. If you ... Continue reading this article…
I’m a previous customer of the Mac Bundle Box, and I’m always curious to see what’s on the offering block when it reappears.
If you’re unfamiliar with the program, it’s one of the best ways you can save money on Mac software. Not only can you get $460 worth of software for $50, but 10 percent of ... Continue reading this article…
When you were growing up, you probably became accustomed to hearing some typical thoughts about money from your parents. These parents are the ones who told you that money doesn’t grow on trees. If it weren’t for your parents, you wouldn’t know that children are starving in Africa and therefore you should eat your entire ... Continue reading this article…
The twelfth episode of the Consumerism Commentary Podcast features an interview with Ramit Sethi, author of I Will Teach You to Be Rich, the book, and I Will Teach You to Be Rich, the blog. Ramit, Tom Dziubek, and I discuss some of the stupid financial advice we have found online as well as the ... Continue reading this article…
I suggest reading these articles gathered from around the web.
Emergency Fund Is For Emergencies ONLY – 6 Ways To Leave It Alone. Matt Jabs suggests keeping your hands out of the emergency savings account except when the need is due to a true emergency, not just when you have unplanned expenses. I’ve also explored what ... Continue reading this article…
Ron Lieber, a columnist for the New York Times, spent one day focusing on the financial tasks that he had been neglected. He calls this day a “fiscal health day,” like the mental health days everyone needs to take once in a while to remain a functional human being. I think this is a great ... Continue reading this article…
My wife and I went way over our budget in a couple of categories during June. Part of it was to be expected because I’m commuting to a new internship, and part of it was planned, but unfortunately, most of the over-spending can be chalked up to a simple fact: we made some spending mistakes.
Any ... Continue reading this article…