Spring means Spring Cleaning + MORE

JP Morgan economists Michael Feroli, Robert Mellman and Daniel Silver think the economic growth rate will hit 2.5 percent by Christmas, and that not even the sequester, higher gas prices, or the payroll tax hike will stop that.They told MarketWatch, ““If the consumer were down for the count, we’d have a different story…

Guaranteed Investment Certificates (GIC) provide a guaranteed form of income, provided you lend your money for a set amount of time. In return for the ability to use your money to make money, the financial institution pays you a small yield.However, GICs are a little inflexible in many ways. Since you agree to keep your money in the bank for a set period of time, you face sometimes-steep penalties if you withdraw your money before the term is up…

If you enjoy learning fun and innovative ways to reuse household items, you will love the following hints. Earlier we posted 30 Ways To Reuse Bottles And Containers and How to Decorate Your Home with Used Furniture. You can put your imagination and creativity to work in various other ways than those as well! This article is a compilation of many such ideas that came to my mind while writing this post…

(Guest Post by Meg from Cars X Girl)
Hi, my name is Meg and I’m addicted to cars.
No, really, I am. Cars are my passion, and the priority my husband and I share. We talk about them, look at pictures, discuss them and think about them basically 24/7/365. I joke that I basically work just so we can afford more car stuff and it even infiltrates our travel plans when we don’t mean for it to…

Did you know that if you settle your credit card debt, you may end up owing taxes?
That’s right. By settling your debt, you may be trading one set of debt for another.
In order to understand how this works, let’s take a simple example. Let’s suppose you have $20,000 in credit card debt.
You get an offer in the mail that says, we’ll accept $8,000 in exchange for full release of the debt…

Historically, investors have spent incredible amounts of time doing research to diversify their equity portfolios. Figuring out just how much should be allocated to emerging markets and small cap can be a never-ending exhausting process. The problem is after all of the time devoted to equities, the standard practice for many investors is to just buy a Total Return bond fund for their fixed income…

Is it time to dump your car loan?Besides the mortgage, a car loan is often the next biggest thing on the list.
And depending on the type of car you buy, you could spend anywhere from a few thousand to several hundred thousand dollars on a new car. Of course with that shiny new car often comes with a car loan and monthly payments…

With so many concerns over sending your kids to public school, many parents are looking for educational alternatives. No matter what your specific gripe about public education is, you can find a solution for your family that fits into your budget.
When it comes to alternative educational options, it’s important to remember that the entire family will need to make sacrifices so that a better education is the priority…

When I shop for garbage bags or toothpaste or something else that doesn’t really come with an expiration date, I really only use two criteria.
First, do I care at all what brand I buy?
Most of the time, I really don’t care. With an awful lot of products, I have found basically no difference between brands in terms of my usage…

You‘ve doubtlessly seen, heard, and read the stories of people coming out of college with student loans in excess of $50,000, $100,000 and more – often much more. If you want to avoid the same fate, you’ll have to take action up front to keep your debt situation from getting out of control from the very beginning…

We know that times are tough. I mean, really tough. Now is the time to watch every penny that you spend, so that you can purchase more in the same budget or even better, put that money in emergency funds. How can you accomplish this, especially when the prices are rising?
Well, I can tell you a number of ways to save money on household expenses…

[Insert really boring blog post about taxes here.]
Have you filed yours yet?
 

 

I just watched the first 2 seasons of The Walking Dead. Hope our freeway won’t get clogged up like this.
I was going to write about the 401(k) today, but I thought I’d better go with something else because I have been writing about the stock market too often lately. Earlier this week Mrs. RB40 went to a seminar on disaster preparedness and she proceeded to tell me that we are woefully unprepared…

Three years ago I leased a new car and thought it was a pretty darn good idea. I loved the fact that I could just basically “borrow” a car for three years and then give it back without any questions asked.
On Monday my lease expired and I turned it in.
Many of the benefits I listed in that first article still apply…

The Rent a Cow Loophole
You read that right, there is a provision in the Florida tax code that provides a significant tax break for people who want to rent a cow. This has got to be one of the strangest tax loopholes I have heard about. You may get excited about the prospect of saving a considerable amount of money this way, especially for all of you cow lovers out there, though you should know that it only applies to certain types of land such as commercial property…

We recently covered opening a custodial IRA for a minor. I’m a big fan of the Roth variety when it comes to custodial IRA’s – gifts or contributions are post-tax anyways, and it eliminates tax confusion around deducting for Traditional IRA’s. Plus – it leaves the minor with more money later on, and with significant time for compound interest to accrue…

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…

One way to make money on the side (or even to make money as a primary income) is to provide services as a freelancer.
It’s common to see freelance careers like writing, social media consultation, and graphic design, but there are other careers that you might be able to turn into a profitable freelance experience, depending on your skills and expertise…

This post is from staff writer Kristin Wong. Today I pulled out a file in my cabinet that’s been gathering dust since 2007: STUDENT LOAN. In 2007, I paid that sucker off, and I haven’t looked back since. Well, except to check my credit report. I wanted to make sure the nightmare was really over, after all…

C. DeWitt “Dee” Brown, Jr. was a self-made man, starting as a hod carrier and apprentice bricklayer after graduating high school and proceeding to build one of the largest masonry companies in the United States with multimillion-dollar projects across the country. Dee was hard-nosed and pragmatic, his 1950s crew cut and Texas twang reminders of […

As the temperatures start to increase, the snow starts melting, and the days get longer, everyone starts thinking towards Spring. While I personally prefer Summer, I’ll settle for Spring after the long, cold winter we’ve experienced here in the Midwest.
Spring also means Spring Cleaning…

Recently, I shared what I considered to be the best coffee grinders available for purchase. Now that you hopefully have the tool necessary to grind your coffee at home, it’s time to look into the right coffeemaker to brew that cuppa you wake up to in the morning…