5 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Graduated From College + MORE

How Much it Really Costs to Throw a Traditional Wedding
Club Thrifty – Stop spending. Start living.The following is a guest post from our friend Jessica at Mo’ Money Mo’ Houses. If you are interested in guest posting, please see our guest posting guidelines.

Hi! My name is Jessica and I blog over at Mo’ Money Mo’ Houses, the personal finance & lifestyle blog with a dash of sass…

We all need birthday freebies in our life.  Even though I chose a home party instead (more on that tomorrow), there are many ways you can celebrate your birthday.  Whether your birthday is in April, May or December there are … Continue reading →The post Birthday Freebies and Other Discounts appeared first on Financial Black Sheep…

Having plans to retire early has landed me a decent amount of criticism so far and I’ve only been open about my plans for the past 4 months now. I can understand why, since it goes against the social grain and it may seem like a slap in the face to so many people that have had to work very late into their lives…

I realize that the majority of people’s purchases are “needs”, but even the tightest of budgets leave a little room for the wants in our lives.  My wife and I are fortunate enough to be able to afford most of the wants we would want.  I know we could be saving more money if we were to cut these out of the budget, but they are well worth the money to us…

PPL Corporation (PPL) is a holding company for electric utilities in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and the United Kingdom.  Though it’s various subsidiaries, PPL is involved in power generation, transmission, and distribution.  PPL provides electric service to around 1.4 million customers.  In 2011 PPL completed its acquisition of Central Networks, the second largest electric distribution company in the U…

If having a small emergency fund of $1,000 or even $3,000 makes you nervous, keep in mind that you probably have much more money available to you than you think.

Image: Freedigitalphotos.net
May is the first month in well over a decade when the Eyes on the Dollar household hasn’t had to make a student loan payment. While we certainly took our eyes off the dollar in paying those loans back, I wanted to share some final thoughts on student loans and why I think it’s important to consider all of your options before you do something big like consolidating or even paying them off…

I’m ashamed to say it but it has been nearly 15 years since I graduated from college. I’m even more ashamed to stay that when I graduated, I knew more about my alma mater’s football team than I did how to land a good job, get ahead and start investing financially for my future. Nonetheless, spring, graduation and regret-free new beginnings are in the air this time of year…

Photo Credit
Happy Monday everyone. Today’s post is all about how we want to update our house so that we can enjoy it while we live here, but to also sell our house more quickly when we put it up for sale. Usually on Monday’s I post my Extra Income and Life updates, but I figured that I talked about myself twice last week and there’s only so many times in a 7 day period that you probably want to read about my life!
Next Monday I will do a full life and extra income update and weekly roundup…

Don’t forget to enter for your chance to win a 50″ Samsung LED HDTV! Giveaway ends May 31st.
My wife, son, and I got to spend a nice long weekend in our old college town.  We met in a small college town in the mountains of North Carolina and we have always been drawn to that location.  We try to go back every year to enjoy the sites and get some hiking in…

Are you taking credit for your work? Or do you say it’s no big deal?
Warren Buffett is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is widely considered the most successful investor of the 20th century. Buffett is the primary shareholder, chairman, and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway…

Being a service industry “veteran”, I get pretty agitated when I hear that people aren’t tipping because of the, “recession”, or because they’re on a budget and trying to save money. Newsflash broke-asses, if you can’t afford to tip your waiter, waitress, bartender, hairdresser (fill in the service industry professional here) stay at home!
Obviously I’m a huge proponent of saving money and being frugal when possible, that’s how I paid off $30,000 in student debt…

Hi All,

One of the things we love about being in DC is how incredibly dynamic the city is.  Over the course of the 17 years that James has lived here, and the 9 years that I’ve lived here, the city has changed tremendously.
Back in 2008, right at the crash of the economy, I returned from a year in Afghanistan to an incredible boom in the city…

In spite of the advancements in technology, gas pipeline jobs are still available. The fact is that for all the technology today, pipelines remain the most convenient and safest method for carrying gas over large distances. Pipelines are also inexpensive so it’s no wonder that they are still needed…

A couple weeks ago I said something happened that I couldn’t yet share… this is it.
Short term disability insurance is something we’re getting quite familiar with in our household… and it isn’t any fun at all! You may remember that Tori, my fiancee, was just on short term disability for a couple months last year…

One of the things I firmly believe in as a young professional is the need to always look for ways to improve yourself. Because of that, I have been a frequent reader of blogs and they have helped me out a lot! Here are some great posts I read this week:Link Love20′s Finances covered the steps you need to take to start investing…

Photo: 401 (K) 2013
When it comes to saving for college, many of us focus on a dollar amount. And it is good to have a goal, whether monthly, annually or over a lifetime, for saving for your child’s college education.
But what many of us don’t consider are strategies for maximizing financial aid for our children when they apply for college…

There is a tendency in the modern world to simply opt for the simplest method in life. When we have the choice between saving time and saving money, almost everyone in the modern world will opt for the former, spending any amount of money if it can save them a little bit work.  Which wouldn’t be so bad if that time was used for productive methods, say building a business, but when most of it goes toward computer games and television shows, it’s more than a little wasteful…

Saturday was a day that my daughter has been looking forward to all school year.
It was picture day for her dance class, and Tori and two of her closest friends were very excited to finally put on this year’s dance recital costume.  In the past we have made this day a special event by getting her hair done, and letting her put on a little bit of makeup…

Last month, the Associated Press‘ twitter account was hacked and a message stating that the White House had been bombed was tweeted. In just 5 minutes, the Dow Jones Industrial average fell 143 points or roughly 1%. Prices quickly rebounded after it was showing to be false. While this was a drop in the bucket compared to 2010′s “flash crash,” it has caused quite a stir showing how vulnerable the system is to false information in the digital age…