Finances Are Important… But Are You Taking The Time To Enjoy Your Life? + MORE

Caterpillar (CAT) is the world’s largest producer of earth moving equipment, a major manufacturer of engines and electric power generators for the petroleum industry, and a major producer of mining equipment.  CAT is divided into four main business segments: 1) Construction industries (29% of revenue) which provide machinery for construction and mining clients…

I noticed as I was going through the feedback from my Earth Day post last week that (a) people like being able to save the planet, (b) people especially like being able to save money at the same time, and (c) one of the most popular methods of those I suggested was to use vinegar and baking soda for many of your cleaning needs…

From Spending to Saving: Tips for Turning Debt Into Cash
Club Thrifty – Stop spending. Start living.The following is a guest post from Dona Collins. If you are interested in guest posting at Club Thrifty, please see our guest posting guidelines here.
 
A while back, my finances were a mess. Despite my less-than-perfect credit, I managed to get my hands on a high interest credit card, borrowed from some payday loan places and I took out a title loan on my car…

Preface by J. L. Moneyseed:  A couple weeks ago Mr. 1500 made a debut guest post on this site. He’s a Gen Xer, who is attempting to retire by age 43, like a boss. The clear choice for a follow-up guest post on Johnny Moneyseed had to be from a highly-motivated member of Generation Y. A Millennial…

Our Discover Card Credit bill’s statement balance in the past couple of months:
Jan 20, 2013 – February 19, 2013: $2,110.73
February 20, 2013 – March 19, 2013: $1,686.30
March 20, 2013 – April 19, 2013: $1,531.33
Bam! Did you see that decrease?

At the beginning of the 2013, I set out to decrease our bills…

Hey everyone. I hope you all had a great weekend. It was a nice and relaxing weekend for us and I’m sad that it went by so quickly. This past week was pretty boring and uneventful, but I guess that’s a good thing also.  On Wednesday, May 1st, I’ll be publishing my April goals update and extra income post, so be sure to come back for that!
Spending

I can’t think of any shopping that we did in this past week (except for food of course)…

In most areas of the country, owning a home is a significantly better investment than renting an apartment. If you have a bit of money in savings and can consistently pay your rent on time, you may be ready for homeownership.
For many, however, there is one big hurdle–the down payment. What if there’s no way you’ll be able to save enough for a down payment in the next five or six years? That was the challenge for my wife and I when we bought our first home…

This past weekend I found out the Sam’s Club was having an open house weekend. We’ve never been warehouse club shoppers and we always hear people singing the praises of places like Sam’s Club, Costco and BJ’s Wholesale. We’re only a two person household so we figured that buying in bulk might not be the most cost effective method for us as food would go bad before we had a chance to eat it all…

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Property investing involves more than just buying low and selling high. This is especially the case in the United States’ real estate market. Moreover, these days a combination of variables complicate property investment decisions with added difficulty and risk. Knowing what the best investment is, and understanding when a property is a suitable for purchase is key…

Here comes a true story about how a door-to-door salesman was able to pitch me into a sale.  It was the first and the last time that has ever happened!
It was the hottest part of the summer and I was the smart one that decided to build a fence.  In order to save about $1,500, I recruited a few friends and bought some lumber…

Image courtesy of Pong / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
When my wife gets her mind set on a mission, her tenacity at achieving a goal is unparalleled.  This is true in every facet of life, including those times when she feels that she has been overcharged, or not getting what was promised to her. I got to see my fiery wife in action again this weekend…

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 discussed common conservative investments to help you start saving…

Since turning over a new financial leaf a couple of years ago, I am always looking for ways to save or earn money. However, there are some things that I just can’t bring myself to do even if it could put some more coin in my wallet. I’d like your opinion on whether I’m wasteful or smart. Let me know if I’m crazy to refuse to save money in these ways…

Bf’s office, “went business casual” about 2 months ago. What does that mean for us? Well, about $50-$75 per month back in our pockets. Honestly, I hadn’t really given dry cleaning a lot of thought because it was something we considered a, “necessary evil” in bf’s professional work environment…

Hello All,
For the majority of Americans mutual funds are a great way to get exposure to stocks.  However, there is an ongoing debate in the mutual fund world as to whether actively managed funds are better than index funds.  If you’re unfamiliar with this debate, you might consider checking out the following video from Kiplinger – it lays it out pretty well in under 3 minutes…

This is a guest post from Darlene.  Darlene created BlogBoldly.com to help bloggers, just like you, create successful online businesses.  If you’re tired of doing it alone, (and you’re serious about your biz) join her free 20-Day Blog to Profit Course.
Let’s face it. Blogging (at first) looks easy…

If you are anything like me then you hate driving to and from work. It seems that every morning there is more and more traffic, and less and less courtesy on the roads. I don’t even have it that bad when compared to many others… I spend on average between 30 – 60 minutes stuck in the car.

I found that I used to run very short on patience on the daily commute, particularly when traffic was at its worst…

Now that you’ve made it this far, you’re almost done with Dave Ramsey’s plan.  Even though there may only be 2 steps left (and the last one is easy, I promise), this step will probably be your most difficult.  Even though this step may take awhile, you have to realize that the first 5 steps are what get you in a decent spot financially…

You care about your finances, but are you taking the time to truly enjoy your life, and your money, now?

Here in America, a religious institution serves its flock not only in their spiritual well-being but lately have started to address their personal finances as well. Many of these institutions have job fairs, and seminars on credit counseling. Churches and other such organizations have started to play a role in helping its congregation through tough …

I have finals at school, my real birthday, a new job (I will post about it tomorrow), and I still have to finish the flooring in the master bedroom. I painted, and started the floor, but wasn’t able to finish … Continue reading →The post Taking the Day Off appeared first on Financial Black Sheep…

A few months ago I shared some of my confessions from working in the fast food industry. The responses ranged from laughter to disgust to shock over some of my experiences. To be honest, I was not too terribly surprised by the response as I saw a variety of, we’ll just call them “interesting”, things in my few short stints in the fast food industry…