Ask the Readers: Do you save more or less than your parents? + MORE

Jaabir, one of the poorest richest friends I know, decided to take a vacation from not working by driving down to Indian Wells, California to watch the BNP Tennis Open last month. The tennis tournament is considered “The Mecca” for tennis fans everywhere given the terrific turnout of the world’s top pros and the intimate setting…

This episode of the Part-Time Money podcast is with Kristen Carney of Cubit.
Cubit sells demographic data: $20 basic demographic reports, a web app that people use to pull demographic data, and a consulting branch that does custom data research.
In 2009, Cubit took a small round of funding from a local Austin seed stage investment group…

This week the Canadian Couch Potato answered the question a lot of people have nowadays, How the 2013 Budget Will Affect ETFs?
If you’re looking to invest in bonds, you’ll want to check out Boomer and Echo’s post that discusses, Are Bonds A Safe Investment?
The Canadian Personal Finance Blog investigates if the Lack of Owing Money Buys Happiness?
The Retire Happy Blog shows you The Value of a Financial Mentor…

One of the many hallmarks of adulthood in America is buying a home of your own. After all, having a white picket fence and all that comes with it is the American dream. And if you listen to experts (or even your know-it-all aunt), you’ll never find a better time to buy than right now — while the real estate market is still in recovery and interest rates remain low…

I always talk about penny-pinching in this blog. The name also suggest the same thing. Here’s a guest post extended to us for posting, which talks about penny-pinching as followed by some well known celebrities. The aim is the inspire you to follow the path of frugality, even when you have enough cash to spend…

Offshore banking has been portrayed in the movies for many years as the place to offshore  savings that have been made through illegal actions. Swiss banks have been known to be used for drug and gun sales, tax evasion schemes and bribes. Today, offshore banking is becoming more legit and not just a place for underhanded illegal money laundering schemes…

We’re just past the edge. The "tipping point" is here.
Don’t worry, it’s not dangerous. In fact, if you’re an income investor, then this might be the start of a very prosperous trend.
Between 2012 and 2030, roughly 10,000 Americans will turn 65 every day. You might be among them…

During the past presidential campaign, the Keystone XL Pipeline became a political football. Since that time, the pipeline’s planned route has been changed to avoid potential harm to the Ogallala Aquifer and is currently awaiting final approval from the State Department. Many Americans, however, are surprised to learn that the Keystone Pipeline already exists, transporting […

In today’s tough economic times, it is a good idea to start a business and become your own boss instead of searching for dream jobs you might never find. As a young and upcoming entrepreneur, you will be full of zeal and spirit and will always be willing to do everything possible to make things move your way…

There are two ways for a credit card issuer to construct a rewards program. One is to offer customers points or miles with a partner such as an airline or hotel chain. The other is to develop a proprietary program. Banks run these programs, issue points, and choose the options cardholders have to redeem their points…

Hey, you know what sucks? Being under 30.
I’m not saying that from personal experience — I’ll be 30 in myself in just a few months, and I’ve enjoyed my 20s just fine, thank you. But if you read any personal finance news or advice, being a 20-something is apparently the worst — we’re saddled with student loans, burdened by a tepid job market, sinking in quicksandy credit card debt, supposedly spending our money wrong, having trouble getting health insurance, and, oh yeah — supposed to be saving as much as possible for retirement as quickly as possible…

Happppppppppy Friday y’all! Before you go out and spend a lot of money this weekend stocking up, I thought we’d talk a little about bulk purchases today and see if any of you have some sexy pointers you want to share. Along w/ other random info about your bulky life 😉
Here is this month’s 5 For Friday…

Our consumer-driven society is one that results in a great deal of waste. From food waste to packaging to disposable items, there are a lot of resources being used by humans. This consumption of resources — and the waste it produces — is not sustainable. Nor is it healthy.
You can reduce the amount of waste you contribute to the problem with a little planning and creativity…

Owning a rental property is one of the most popular ways to generate passive income, but it’s not always easy. We purchased a 4-plex through a short sale process in October 2011 and my rental income projection was quite wrong.
I finally finished our 2012 tax return and I can share the details from the 4-plex now…

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…

Pest control employment is expected to boom by 26 percent through 2020 according to the United States Department of Labor, suggesting Americans are having a problem keeping critters outdoors where they belong.But exterminators should be your last option. If you take steps to create a hostile environment for bugs and other pests, you won’t be spending big bucks on the bug man this summer…

Although my parents never had a whole lot of money, they did a wonderful job of shielding me from that financial reality while I was growing up. I couldn’t help but be aware of the difficult situation sometimes, like when my father was laid off from the factory and would spend all of his time doing freelance commercial fishing to keep food on the table, or when my parents would be really stressed about money issues…

This post is from Ollie Geiger, a personal finance writer who contributes to MoneyRates.com. Whenever we visit my grandmother-in-law’s house, we always leave with paper towels. Lots of them. Because our car is typically packed with vacation items when we visit, and because we usually have plenty of jumbo packs of paper towels waiting for us in our garage, there’s no good reason we should cram 14 rolls of these things into our back seat for the 400-mile drive home…

With the income tax deadline coming up, it’s the time of the year where tax software is flying off the shelves.  When it comes to online filing, there are two larger contenders in Canada – TurboTax (link will save you 10% off) and UFile.  On the free side, there is the underdog StudioTax which is growing in popularity and the newest addition SimpleTax…

In the recent post that detailed how my wife got an interview and offer after months of ignored applications and finger-crossing, it occurred to me that I really didn’t get in to the details of the job she accepted and why she accepted it. That turned out to be an interesting story & philosophical depiction on its own…

 
 
There are your common tax deductions and then there are others. The ultimate goal when doing your taxes is trying to minimize  the amount of money that you give up to the government and with that in mind some people get pretty creative to say the least. Check out the article I wrote on some of the weirdest tax write offs for some good examples of people trying to go a little too far in minimizing there tax burden…

People are becoming complacent about estate planning, and that leads to some mistakes. Congress finally settled the estate tax in January. People now know what the law will be and don’t have to worry about frequent changes.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t estate planning worries. Many people are overlooking other key changes taking place…

Have you ever wondered if paying off debt has intangible benefits?
When I was on my journey towards becoming debt free, I wondered the same thing.
Some of the normal benefits of course are; not living paycheck to paycheck, the freedom to travel and actually have some “fun money”.
But in addition to the main ones, I noticed there were some other intangible but very real side-affects that I experienced when paying off my debts…

Welcome to the weekly Friday giveaway roundup! Every single Friday we post giveaways ending within the next week. If you want to make sure you never miss one of these posts be sure to subscribe via RSS or Email.
Today I’m happy to announce another record number of giveaways as we have 103 Giveaways listed below! The nice thing about having so many giveaways is that you can pick and choose which ones you enter since you may not want, say a baby carrier, if you don’t have a baby…

The brunt of the Great Recession may have passed, but the lean years of foreclosures, belly-up investment banks, high unemployment and shrinking middle class may have scared straight the financial habits of many Americans who lived and suffered through it.
A new retrospective study that examines how Americans’ handling of their money has changed since 2008 shows that more people today are getting aggressive with their debts, while simultaneously setting aside more money in savings and to start emergency funds…