Even before marrying into the military, I did quite a bit of moving. Each time I moved, I learned a little more about how to expect the unexpected when it came to moving expenses. Everyone knows to budget for the truck and boxes and the first month’s rent on the new apartment. But what about all those (not so) little expenses that seem to creep up out of nowhere? Now most of my experience is in the long distance move category, and hiring long distance movers can ultimately save you money in the long run, but I really think the...
Hi. I’m Christine and I’ve never had a credit card. <Hi, Christine.> I’ve also never had a loan in my name or done anything else that would give me “credit history.” How in the name if 2013 did this happen? I know. Everyone has had a credit card or a loan. But, since I was fortunate enough not to need student loans to pay for college and in my early twenties I avoided credit cards like they were the plague I made it to my mid-twenties with zero credit history. I was raised in a “don’t buy it if you...
First the important stuff. Have you ever been in an accident and been receiving checks weekly or monthly from your workers comp carrier? Ever considered settling for a lump sum and using the money the way you want to? Well consider a structured settlement to help use the money the way you want to and have access to it the way you want. It is in essence structured the way you want, if you want more money now that is great and can be worked into it. I used to work as a workers compensation adjuster and we would urge...
When it comes to studying, it seems there is no way around leading an expensive lifestyle. Even if you are fairly thrifty with your money, if you are studying full time, you will always need help with your finances. Luckily though, there are government guidelines put in place that mean the money you lend while you are studying will, more likely than not, be the best loan you will ever take out. But try to remember, it is still debt. Once you have graduated, you will need to start paying it back, but don’t let it get you down, internet...
Whether or not you were raised with a solid education in finance and economics, one thing is for sure, you probably want to raise your kids with some understanding of money management. Here are just a few simple lessons parents can teach their kids – whether children or teens – about money before financial independence is reached. Work hard for your money.It’s important to teach your kids that money is earned, not simply deserved.To be willing to work for what you want, whether it be doing chores to earn their allowance, or getting a part-time job for some spending money...
It’s never too late, even if I say it will be alright, still I hear you say…sorry I was singing the song Never Too Late by Three Days Grace. Well here it is…welcome to the 12th edition of the Financial Simplicity Carnival. Thank you to Nick at Step Away From The Mall for starting this great carnival with some of the best bloggers from around the world! This is my second time hosting a carnival and I am super stoked at hosting this week’s carnival so without further ado here are this week’s editor picks: Glen Craig presents Education: Your...
Well I didn’t either so keep reading and you will find out. Lately I have been thinking a lot about where I would like this blog to go in the future. I have drawn out plans as to how I see it in the future. While not working on the site in the past few days I have been deep in thought. I conducted an interview for a newspaper and I have been busy at work. This time of the year is especially busy in hospital finance. Each year as the financial audits are coming to a close, the reimbursement...
One of the first posts I wrote about was writing a magnificent resume. If you work hard for your credentials you certainly want to flaunt them and I fully support that, but I do not support falsifying your credentials. Take a look at what is going on with the current Yahoo CEO. The Yahoo CEO supposedly claimed that he had a bachelor’s degree in accounting and computer science. It was found out through one of the members of the board of directors, coincidently a member whose organization is trying to get more seats on the board. When does stretching the...
Have I told you lately how much I love Craigslist? Well I love it. If you have followed my blog from the beginning you would see that I use Craigslist for everything. That fancy logo at the top, painting of my house, snowblower, dishwasher, my house, renting of our rental unit and the list goes on. Well this most recent sale was for the sale of my old golf clubs. I started out golfing right handed because that was the only clubs that we had around when I was younger. I am a natural lefty and one day I hit...
Sometimes people think that spending consciously is a total waste of time and incredibly difficult. Fortunately, this isn’t always true, and there are tons of little ways to save money. Sometimes this means going to the grocery store on a full stomach, and sometimes it means skipping on the yoga classes and buying some exercise videos at home instead. But there are even some common sense ways to save a buck or two – and you can do it right from your computer. How, you ask? By taking advantage of a browser feature that has been around for more than...
It has been a busy week here at This That and The MBA. Things are very busy on the work front as we move to completing our cost reports. This is the bread and butter in how the hospital gets paid. Without these babies nobody knows our expenses or any statistics. Here we were blessed and received a page rank of 2. Thank you big G. Here are the articles that caught my attention this week: Daisy at Add Vodka with How running a blog is like running a business Michelle at Making Sense of Cents with Lifes Little Splurges...
Have you ever heard of the cave dweller? Dumpster forager? What about Daniel Suelo? Well I have news for you they may all be one in the same. Daniel Suelo is a man who decided he didn’t need money anymore. What did you say? That is right he decided he didn’t need money anymore. So one day he walked out and put his last $30 dollars in a phone booth and hasn’t looked back. That was 12 years ago. He has been wandering the country since living off the land and others generosity. He really takes it to heart when...
The following is a guest post from Steph Medeiros with Californiamortgageblog.com. She covers trends in real estate, home financing, and jumbo mortgage loans. Comparing the Costs of Renting and Owning A Home To rent or to own…that is the question. Whether you’re thinking of ditching the renter’s lifestyle for a home you can call your own, or you’re tired of the financial and physical responsibilities that come with home ownership, you might be wondering which option is right for you. In today’s market, buyers can find some great bargains – but what about the overall cost to own a home?...
This post is a little different than the others on this site. On Friday I told some people at work that I had a personal finance website and thought that I should disclose some to you as well! To that I will let you into why I chose to pursue the finance path. I went to a liberal arts college in NY and initially had hopes and dreams of becoming a chemist. Well as I dove head first into Chemistry my freshman year of college I began to think more and more about a career path. Chemistry was great, I...
For all of you that missed the Friday edition, we were taking part of the Yakezie blog swap. Basically what takes place is that we sign up for the blog swap and we are partnered with a fellow blogger. We post an article about a particular topic, which this time the topic was the best investment advice I ever received. I traded posts with my buddy over at Short Road to Retirement. Be sure to stop over there and check out his site and also to check out my article! I don’t know if you have been following along in...
Now that I have your attention, you are probably scratching your head wondering why that would be on a personal finance website. Shame on you for thinking that!! What would your mother say? The word is in the news all over the world now. That magical word is BUDGET. The congressional budget, state budget, city budget, your personal budget, budget for that trip, some websites use that as part of their web address…this budget that budget… What in the world does the word budget even mean? According to my good friends over at Merriam Webster here are the origins of budget: Middle...
Peyton Manning – Franchise Quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts is a free agent. I am not a regular follower of football but I have heard who this gent is. Potentially the best quarterback to ever play in Indy or maybe best quarterback ever in all of football. This article isn’t going to talk about all those statistics that he has amassed, but we really could because finance covers stats and various ratios. If he was on the roster at the start of the league year he was to be owed $28 million dollars as a bonus. Did you hear that...
I was reading an article last week that made the motion that adjustable rate mortgages (ARM) are dying. For starters, adjustable rate mortgages are loans where the interest rate changes periodically. Generally they are a good option when you are buying a house and the prevailing fixed rate mortgages rates are high. This notion did not surprise me because interest rates are at historic lows for fixed rate mortgages. You would be silly not to lock in a mortgage at these rates now, the interest rates are likely not going to get any lower than they are in your life...
Welcome to March! It’s the beginning of the third month, and, if you’re like most people you’ve already gone off track on your New Year resolutions. It’s ok. Let’s grab that list and see what we can salvage from it. First, cut the number down by 90%. That means if you made ten resolutions, you will want to save one of them. Change is a process, not a moment of rebirth. If you started off with a small list, of two or three, then pick your top priority. Now, chop that resolution into a three week plan. 21 days. That’s...
After nearly 3 days of inactivity on my part on my blog I am ready to hit the ground running. Wow those last 3 days have been hectic. I woke up Monday morning to find my site acting a little funny. I didn’t think anything of it so I went about the day. Monday night I get home and try to check the site to see some the statistics and how things are going. I get a redirect that takes me to Adfly. First thoughts are this could get expensive. I have only been blogging 2 weeks if this gets...
Well I am not new to the rental property thing but I will tell you how it all started. It all started a few years ago about rental properties when we were looking to move out of our furnished apartment for rental because our landlord was driving us crazy. We were aggressively scouring Craigslist to find an apartment. Well we found an apartment, ground level which means no stairs! We decided to grab it as soon as we saw it; we definitely thought the rent was well below market value. Come to find out the gentleman was getting ready to put...
As I slowly reveal more about myself you will see that I have my hand in a lot of things. I am currently on the board of directors for a local non profit organization that works to promote awareness for endangered structures in the community. In particularly buildings that have historic significance, we are the voice for them so that they are not destroyed to make way for a new house or store or whatever. I was elected in November 2011 as a board member. Since then I have embarked on organizing their membership directory into a usable format in...
