Cash for Clunkers Goes “Clunk”

What’s the fastest way to spend taxpayer money? Offer it to car hungry consumers who cannot wait to put the debt hooks back in their mouths. Read more

Copying the Smart Guys in Personal Finance

Have you often wondered how the big mouth at the office or your goofy brother-in-law does so well in the stock market? Do you know a smart investor that you would like to learn from – in the privacy of your own computer?

Enter Covestor, a new site I discovered that encourages copycat investing. Read more

Unemployment Banned in District of Columbia?

To be honest, Mr. ToughMoneyLove hasn’t fully made up his mind about all aspects of Obama Care. One thing for sure that I don’t like is the way that the plan will explode the federal health care bureaucracy.

I suppose you could call it the District of Columbia Full Employment Act. Read more

The Continued Slow Deflation of the Housing Bubble

The stock market perked up last week. Does that signal the beginning of a return to the good old days? After all, the Obama economic team is feverishly pulling out all of the stops in its attempt to restart the residential real estate markets in a positive direction.

Although the tide may turn slightly, I’m skeptical about whether we are going to see a return to meaningful long term growth in residential real estate values. Read more

Want a High Paying Job? Do the Math

Being an engineer turned patent lawyer, I had to post a quick link to this article about the most lucrative college majors. Twelve of the top fifteen majors listed in the study are in engineering. The other three are computer science, construction management and actuarial science.

The characteristic common to all of them: math skills. Read more

Health Care Reform – Personal Reality Check

It’s too soon to know exactly how health care reform will look when Congress is finished with it. That isn’t stopping politicians and pundits from commenting about how good or bad it is. Read more

Landline Downsize – The Saga Continues

As part of our drive to reduce unnecessary recurring monthly expenses, Mr. ToughMoneyLove has been trying to downsize our landline telephone service to the bare minimum. I want a single residential phone line with no call waiting, caller idea, or other features. Read more

Personal Finance Lessons Learned the Hard Way

Today is the first anniversary of the Tough Money Love blog. I am honored by those who read what I have to say and thankful for all of your comments. Your input is always educational and, at times, quite entertaining. I hope that you can say the same about my writing.

I also appreciate the advice and support from my fellow personal finance bloggers. I wouldn’t be here today without it. I have been humbled by the willingness of other bloggers to share expertise and their own readers with newbies like Mr. ToughMoneyLove.

To help me celebrate, I invited my blogging colleagues to tell us about a personal finance lesson he or she has learned the hard way. Many have responded with their own versions of the hard truth.

I encourage you to read every one of their contributions (see below) for their entertainment and educational value. Read more

Personal Finance Education at the Class Reunion

I’ve returned from my 40th high school reunion weekend. I had a fabulous experience, nostalgic and otherwise. Read more

Desperation Measures for Desperate Times

I am increasingly fascinated by some of the “out of the box” and even desperate marketing strategies adopted by different industries during this economic downturn. The offers by some car companies to make your payments if you lose your job are one example. Another recently affected me. Read more

Next Page »