How to Prevent Credit Card Fraud + MORE

We live in an exciting era. New electronics with never-before-seen features are coming out all the time. My wife’s had the same computer for about four years, and it’s starting to show signs of wear and tear. It’s slowed down a lot and freezes occasionally. We’re nearing the time when she’ll need a new one, but how do we decide when? And where do we look?
These are a couple of things everyone should carefully consider before replacing their electronics…

I don’t really watch all that much television, but when I do watch the occasional movie it sure is great to see the action (or comedy or romance) on a quality HDTV. The problem is that a large HDTV is likely to set you back nearly $1000 and that’s just as true here in Thailand as it is anywhere else in the world…

Got this email from a fellow sexy reader, wondering how gambling may fall into the whole budgeting equation here. Which I personally find AWESOME because it A) means he’s not an addict! (Anyone who formulates a plan before betting everything on black has a good head on their shoulders in my eyes ;)) and B) means we get to talk about poker and blackjack today! Yay! Stuff we normally don’t get to talk about here on a finance blog… I believe the last time we did was with our confessions of a professional poker player series? Like, 4 years ago??? Jeez…
So let’s get this party started!
J,
Is it possible to make a direct (and logical) correlation between gross income and the maximum amount of money that one can (or should?) use for gambling purposes?
A majority of folks would probably take the stance that gambling is stupid and any amount > 0 is too much…

The Roses are trying to adopt without debt.Having children is a luxury a lot of women and couples experience on a daily basis.
However, for others it’s a difficult struggle. There are many factors why couples might not be able to have the family they long for, but one of the biggest considerations is the financial aspect…

Got a comment on my most recent blog post that I think speaks a lot of truth. Here’s that comment:
I don’t think many people buy (homes), expecting to move in less than 5 years. But it happens a lot, due to job changes, family changes, etc. […]
Exactly!!!! My hunch is that most prospective homebuyers buy their first place with the best of intentions…

If you are looking for a job, one way to get your name “out there” is to contact recruiters. Job recruiters, also sometimes called head hunters, specialize in matching openings at companies with great workers.
When you work with a recruiter, you have the chance to get your name and your resume in front of a variety of companies, and even find the perfect job for you…

Have you ever seen it on the high way? Tires blowing off and the car suddenly becomes South-bound from its earlier North bound movement (Or from East to West for that matter). And, within another fraction of second few others cars collide head-on with this one. By the time you go past too far from the scene, you realize that you just witnessed people dying…

We are co-hosting an awesome giveaway for the month of May. For the month of May, we will be giving away a Samsung UN50EH6000 50-Inch 1080p 120Hz LED HDTV ($947.99 Value). This is a slim, top-of-the-line, LED television that is perfect for any family room. This TV is perfect for sports, movies, video games, or cable television…

Ever since we stumbled past the Fiscal Cliff and the budget crisis, the stock market has been rising like a hot air balloon in an updraft (at least as of the time this post was written at the end of March 2013).
If you have money to invest, should you put it to work when stock prices are rising every day, or should you wait until the market goes down?
I’m not financial advisor or planner or trader or fund manager, but since I have money to invest, I wanted some answers to this question for my own purposes! I’d rather buy stocks at a lower price and sell them at a higher one if I can…

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…

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, better known as FAFSA, will get a makeover next year.For the first time, it will “collect income and other information from a dependent student’s legal parents regardless of the parents’ marital status or gender, if those parents live together,” the U.S…

Join our Tweetchat this Thursday at 12:00 pm Pacific for lively conversation and a chance to win prizes! Use #WBChat to participate.
This week’s topic: Hosting a Garage Sale! Learn about advertising your sale, the best days/time to host a sale, and how to price your items! Tell us about your garage sale hosting experiences and share your best hosting tips!
For an easy way to keep track of the conversation, try using our special Tweetchat Chatroom…

While chatting and enjoying a homebrew a few months back with personal finance blogging buddy, Mr. Money Mustache (who is a great blogger and all around guy, by the way), I admitted the following:
“I seriously regret ever having named my blog 20somethingfinance.”
That’s not something that is easy to admit to anyone, especially a respected blogging peer…

My small city has a lot of row houses that can be purchased for $165,000 to $190,000.  I call them row houses because they are very similar to the type of place my mother grew up in.  2 storey, 3 bedroom, laundry in the basement, driveway out front and a very tiny backyard.  They call them townhouses now but the areas I am considering purchasing in are older, not fancy and worth a lot less than the newer townhouses…

Name
Jason Larkins
Blog URL
http://worksavelive.com
Why do you think it was so easy to fall into the debt trap?
“We live in a country where status and success is determined by what possessions you have and what you can afford to do.
Happiness is often found in buying things for yourself, and in my case it was attending things such as sporting events, concerts, vacations, and partying like a rock star…

Our stock market “script” is still on track.
I’ve been calling it the “Great Migration.” As my regular readers know, it is the idea that Mom and Pop America are about to buy stocks… big time. They can’t live on zero percent interest. Out of necessity, they will migrate away from ultra-low-interest investments (like cash and bonds) and into stocks…

This is a post from staff writer Robert Brokamp of The Motley Fool. Robert is a Certified Financial Planner and the adviser for The Motley Fool’s Rule Your Retirement service. Like many living beings – including turtles, snakes, and llamas — he’s on Twitter. If you never watch PBS’ “Frontline,” you’re missing out on some of the best journalism on TV…

If you have an idea for a small business, the technological advances of the past few years have made it a better time than ever before to act on it. As traditional businesses continue to realize that e-commerce is a necessity to business success in the 21st century, many start-ups are getting a head start by opting for a Web-based approach from the get go…

Fortunes are made and lost on any given day in the market when it comes to investing in the latest technologies.
Take Apple (AAPL). Perhaps you had the fine sense and superb timing to buy in and get out just at the right times. But more likely — along with countless mutual funds, pension funds and millions of individual investors — you got in during the frenzy last year when it was hitting $700 and now are licking your portfolio’s wounds with the stock in the $400 range…

There are a lot of tactics that work well in both the personal finance world and the business world. Cutting your spending works in both worlds if you do it in an intelligent way. Investing in resources that will last for a long time is a good tactic in both worlds.
However, there are things that work in business finance that don’t really work in personal finance…

Million Dollar Journey has featured a series on scams of the modern world but credit card fraud is a topic that deserves its own column. Year-over-year statistics for 2009 and 2010 (could not find more recent data) indicate that dollars lost through credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, and Amex) stolen, counterfeited, fraudulent online and phone usage, etc…

Last week, I got an email from Laura who is currently having a little difficulty with living in a small space.
So something I’ve been dealing with is that we live in an apt in a 4-flat we own in ******, OO. It’s been great financially but now we have 2 little kids – 2 and 4 yrs old…