Personal Finance

Day 7: Create a Budget

Thumbnail image for Day 7: Create a Budget

Budgeting. Even the word screams BORING, right? Well, it's not the most exciting thing in the world, but it is crucial to hitting your financial goals. If you assign a value to every dollar you bring in in a month (from fixed costs to flux costs to savings), you've given yourself a path to success. So [...]

Read the full article →

Day 5: Realize Your Expected Income

Thumbnail image for Day 5: Realize Your Expected Income

There's two pieces to personal finance success: what you bring in and what you spend. The most important (and extremely simple) equation for personal finance success is what you bring in – what you spend. If that number is positive, your net worth is growing. If it isn't, you're going in the wrong direction. On [...]

Read the full article →

Day 3: Find Your Net Worth

Thumbnail image for Day 3: Find Your Net Worth

It's time for Day 3 in the posting of Automatic Finances: 17 Days to Your Financial Freedom. See the previous posts here: Introduction, Day 1 and Day 2. ****************************** After everything you've done to organize your finances, it's time to take a look at where you stand. Whatever your situation – whether your net worth [...]

Read the full article →

Day 1: Organize Your Finances

Thumbnail image for Day 1: Organize Your Finances

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm giving away my ebook, Automatic Finances: 17 Days to Your Financial Freedom! Over the next two-and-a-half weeks, I'll be posting a chapter a day from the book for your consumption. If you like what you've read, you can get yourself a PDF version of the ebook using the "buy now" link [...]

Read the full article →

The Only 2011 Advice You Should Care About

Thumbnail image for The Only 2011 Advice You Should Care About

It's January, which means it's time for New Year's Resolutions (that you won't keep), suggestions on where to invest your money this year, and plenty of predictions for the state of the economy — both Wall Street and Main Street. While the media and blogosphere churn out stories about what to do in 2011, do [...]

Read the full article →

This is Why I Love My Credit Union

You've certainly heard about the benefits of credit unions before, but tell me something … would Bank of America ever send you a check for $125 just for being a member? That's what my credit union just did, and I wasn't the only one who got one. I certainly have contributed to their success (my [...]

Read the full article →

The Upside to Celebrity Financial Advice

Thumbnail image for The Upside to Celebrity Financial Advice

Maybe you can learn something about personal finance from celebrities. In preparation for his upcoming film Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, Shia LaBeouf is claiming that he put $20,000 into a Schwab online trading account and traded his way to $489,000. (I?m not going to say that he didn?t do it, but if he [...]

Read the full article →