FMF March Money Madness, Round 1, Posts 53-56 + MORE

Whenever I write a frugality post, I get comments asking some version of, “That’s fine if you’re happy being a hermit in your cheap apartment, but what about people who have friends?” (See also: Not Driving Your Less Frugal Friends Crazy)
I think there are three general strategies for dealing with the issues around having a social life while still being frugal…

One of the most popular posts on Financial Samurai with over 270 comments is The Average Net Worth For The Above Average Person. The “above average person” is loosely defined as someone who graduated from college (35% of the American population), works hard, plays well with others, takes full advantage of their pre-tax retirement plans, saves additional disposable income, stays on top of their finances, expects nothing from their parents or the government and is not delusional…

While TurboTax and UFile are both great tax preparation programs, there are other alternatives that will do the job and are completely free. Canadians have plenty of options when it comes to preparing their taxes, and one of the best free choices is StudioTax. Hopefully this StudioTax review will help a few more Canadians find out about this free tax software alternative…

Naked With Cash is the year-long series on Consumerism Commentary where seven readers’ households share their financial progress on a monthly basis, and February is “insurance month.” I’ve partnered with financial planners who will offer some guidance along the way. Read this introduction to learn more about the series…

There are some people who look for credit cards with the best rewards or the lowest interest rates. But then there are those who just want the card with the lowest fee and the most simple terms and conditions. In fact, President Obama actually met with credit card executives back in 2009 and asked if they could each offer a “plain vanilla” credit card…

Forbes writes that Seattle’s 5 Point Cafe has already posted a Facebook message threatening to kick the butt of any patrons wearing a pair.Seattle’s a city with a lot of tech companies and startups. It’s the headquarters of Amazon. So the owner has good reason to think Google’s glasses will see quick adoption there…

Over the years, I’ve disclosed a lot of information about my financial life including:

how much we make,
how much we spend,
our net worth,
and the contents of our leveraged dividend portfolio.

With the RRSP line item in my net worth updates becoming more significant, I’ve been getting more questions about the contents of my RRSP…

Happy Monday Everyone!
I hope everyone remembered to set the clock to spring forward. I don’t like losing an hour of sleep, but I always love springing forward. It means we are getting more and more daylight and we’ll have nicer weather soon. Anyway, today we are unveiling our new Retire By 40 Promo Video…

This post is by staff writer Sarah Gilbert. The woman on the radio sounded panicked. She lived in Los Angeles, and because of her neighborhood (weird homeless guy on the corner; busy streets all around) she didn’t trust her kids to play outside. So she spent her time driving them to activities where they would get… physical activity…

Unexpected charges being taken out of our accounts is always a nasty shock. With tough financial times for many, most of us have been keeping a much closer eye on our spending lately and this has led to increasing interest into what exact techniques companies are using to squeeze all this extra cash out of us…

Congratulations!
You’ve built up your nest egg, and your retirement is set just as you’re leaving the work force. But what are you planning to do with that egg? You’ve sat on it for years now; do you simply crack it open and see what spills out?
You spent your entire career working and stashing dollars, because Social Security isn’t enough to support your quality of life after retirement…

It’s tax season, and that rhythmic thumping you hear is the sound of filers all across America banging their heads against their desks.
One of the many maddeningly complicated decisions facing taxpayers is how to claim a deduction or credit for tuition payments made last year. Here is the breakdown of the available options:
1…

A few weeks ago, I asked everyone to fill out a survey here. Over 700 (wow!) obliged.
Thank you!
That’s a strong sample size. And the insights gained were priceless.
You can check out the full results here.
What I want to do in this post is recap some of the results that stood out to me, and how it will shape some of the focus here, going forward…

Spring means many things: melting snow, rising temperatures, and Summer just around the corner. Here at Young Adult Money it means time for another $500 cash giveaway!
My best money saving tip for you this Spring is rather simple: Plan Ahead
Planning ahead can result in cash savings in many different ways…

What up what up! We haven’t done a proper giveaway here in quite some time lately, so today we change that with a $200 Visa Gift Card giveaway courtesy of my sexy friends at RetailMeNot.com! They recently launched their new lifestyle magazine, The Real Deal, and so far it’s pretty dope.
So start thinking about what you’d do if you won that money! Perhaps a nice long shopping spree?? Pick up some presents? Pay off your bills?? (The financially prudent choice, of course, but we all need some splurge breaks every now and then too ;))…

In daily life, most of us have had experience “managing” others, whether it’s organizing a church fund drive or directing a crew of employees. Simply defined, management is the act of coordinating others to achieve a goal. The process involves planning, task assignment, monitoring, providing feedback, and, when necessary, correction…

Here we go with the first round of Free Money Finance March Money Madness (to follow all the action click on my March Money Madness category link and scroll down to read all the posts involved in this subject.) Today’s games are brought to you by the Citi® Hilton HHonors™ Reserve Card, which offers two weekend night certificates, each good for one weekend night (standard room, double occupancy) at select hotels and resorts within the Hilton HHonors portfolio, after $2,500 in eligible purchases within the first four months of cardmembership…

If you make a lot of money, all of your financial concerns will magically go away. That’s what most people think, at least.
This is what I believed for many years. I didn’t have a lot of money for a long time.
I worked my butt off to pay for college on my own while I was earning minimum wage and paying thousands to get my college degree…

Karen writes in:
“I have an offer from a credit card company in which they pledge 0% interest for 15 months on a balance transfer. The way they seem to do that balance transfer is that I give them an amount and they send me a check which I then use to pay off a credit card. I don’t carry any other credit card balances so I am thinking about just asking for a check for say $2,000 and then investing it and then paying it back at the end of the fifteen months and just pocket the return…

We all work hard for our money and, while it takes time to acquire, it disappears all too quickly. Sometimes it’s the small expenses we hardly ever think about that diminish our resources right under our noses. One of the ways we can save money is to take a look at what we’re paying in bank fees…