4 Keys to Dealing with Your Landlord + MORE

This is the final post of the series on energy-efficiency programs and financial incentives. We will conclude the series by looking at offers for  Saskatchewan and Manitoba residents.
Saskatchewan: SaskEnergy Programs
Energy Efficient Rebate for New Homes
This program is offered by SaskEnergy on behalf of the Ministry of Environment to SK residents who buy or build an energy efficient home…

Update: The Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Premier Credit Card has just relaunched with a two roundtrip flight promotion after spending $2,000 in the first three months.  However this bonus EXPIRES in less than 24 hours!  (Thursday Morning, 10:00 am ET)
The Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards® Premier Card is actually the first credit card I’ve chosen to sign up for (or have been able to sign up for) in years because of my poor credit…

When I first graduated from college, when people asked me about my future, I would fire off a few vague statements about what I wanted. I wanted a great career! I wanted to have kids! I wanted a nice house!
All of those ideas were nebulous and vague. Sure, they echoed sentiments that I held in my heart, but they weren’t anywhere close to being authentic goals…

You probably know that you can receive a tax break for charitable donations. But that’s not the only contribution you can make to worthy causes and receive a tax benefit. You can also receive a tax break for your political contributions.
Charitable Donations vs. Political Contributions
While you receive a tax benefit for making federal political donations, and the percentage is higher, it might not be as large as what you see with charitable donations depending on how much you contribute…

We just asked Should You Rent or Buy Your Next Home? If you answered, “Buy,” get started, because prices are going up.  Bloomberg reports the housing market strengthened in January at its fastest pace in nearly seven years.The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values, calculated based on a three-month average of 20 cities, showed an 8…

With all the various methods for instant communication available today, keeping your job hunt a secret from your employer is more difficult than ever. And keeping it a secret is probably exactly what you need to do. In many companies, you can be fired for even attempting to look for another job. It’s often referred to as disloyalty to employer, which is a firing offense…

It’s funny how there seems to be a natural order of things and a time for everything. Ecclesiastes 3 states: There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.
I really like that verse. It keeps me feeling accepting of however things turn out. Some times in our lives are really good…

One of the most evil heroes in science fiction history is Anakin Skywalker, aka Darth Vader. He went from being a great man and good friend to betraying everyone he loved and becoming a sinister Sith Lord. Ultimately, the story of Anakin Skywalker is one of redemption…

If you’re a renter, or are planning on renting in the future, you’ll need to deal with a landlord. Though there are many different types of rental situations, there a few ways to deal with landlords that’ll almost always apply.
Be Adamant
When my wife and I moved into our first place together, we settled on a small one-bedroom apartment…

When you take on a credit obligation, or liability, you normally sign an agreement or promissory note requiring pay back of the debt. What you’ve just done is incurred what’s referred to as “contract debt.” If you default on a contract debt, such as a credit card, the creditor can and likely will vigorously pursue you for payment…

(Guest Post by fellow blogger Ben Edwards, whose new book on debt is free today through Amazon!)
Hollywood loves to speculate about how the world as we know it will end. They’ve tried to kill us off with asteroids, aliens, zombies, self-aware computers, natural disasters, and disease. These scenarios definitely make for interesting entertainment, but I’m hoping they’re wrong about all those nasty endings…

I love reading. I’m always looking for something new – or even not so new – to read. If you are serious about reading and about saving money, you can look for free books online. If you have an e-reader, it’s that much easier to download free books from some sources.
Here are some ways to access free books with the help of the Internet:
1…

The following is the latest post in my “Reader Profiles” series. Each post in this series details the financial situation and challenges of an FMF reader. The purpose of this series is to help us all identify with people like us (in similar situations — not all will be, of course, but eventually I’m sure you will find someone like you here), get to know the frequent commenters on the site, and hear some financial wisdom/challenges from people other than me…

Being able to organize and leverage resources may be the single most important skill you can attain; it also may be one of the biggest indicators of whether you will succeed in business and life.
There is an endless number of resources in the world: money, time, physical labor, hardware and software, machinery, individuals with unique skill sets and knowledge, etc…

I want to get everybody talking about their retirement portfolios because making the proper net worth allocation, deciding on how often to rebalance, and running different growth scenarios matters more over time. Contributing the maximum $17,500 a year to your 401K should be standard. If you’re making more than $60,000 a year and not maxing out your 401K, then you should probably give yourself a timeout to contemplate why you’re slicing off your toes…

I take a slightly more aggressive approach to saving for retirement than most. For now, 100% of my retirement contributions are invested in various mutual funds. These mutual funds give me partial ownership of thousands of different domestic and foreign companies. At this stage in my life, I don’t see much of a reason to not focus exclusively on stocks…

Living with others isn’t easy. Several years ago, my friends and I decided to get a house together. We were all incredibly excited and made promises to split everything evenly, from rent, to utilities, to chores. However, it wasn’t long before the problems started. One roommate was constantly late in paying his portion of the […

The world has come a long way since houses were made of dung and sticks, and people used rocks and turtle shells as kitchen utensils. Nowadays, the products we buy have been designed, redesigned, tested, retested, and then sold on the market to greedy consumers everywhere.
Fortunately, products we buy can actually make our lives easier…

A few weeks back when I highlighted my monthly budget, a few readers noticed a few absent line items.
One gigantic glaring absence, as reader, Jason, pointed out, was the cost of health insurance (and more generally, health care).
And, indeed, I did neglect to highlight that I have $36 per bi-weekly paycheck deducted automatically by my employer for health insurance (for 2)…

“What are your resolutions this year?” a girlfriend recently asked me. I thought about the areas of my life I’d like to improve upon and responded, “I’d like to work less. I think I’m a workaholic.” She paused for a bit then hesitantly said, “…that doesn’t sound like a problem…” And indeed, when I’d talked about this with my mom just a week earlier, she said, “That’s a good addiction…