Hard Truth Finance Week in Review – Fading Summer Edition

A weekend at the lake is a great way to recharge the batteries. Summer is beginning to fade, which brings short-lived melancholy. The lake was actually warmer than the air, where the temperature here in Kentucky didn’t crack 80.  The sunset was spectacular. Overall, another reminder that being careful with your money early in life – and having a great spouse on your financial planning team – can pay off later. Read more

A Brief History of Generational Spending

Gallup published its survey of average daily spending by U.S. adults, according to their generation and annual household incomes. The results are interesting but not altogether surprising. Read more

Employers: Meet Your Sorry Workforce

If you are a business owner needing employees with intelligence, buy a robot.  The news on the human side is not good.

According to the latest data from our friends who administer the ACT and SAT testing programs, our families and schools are breeding students who are steadily moving from dumb to dumber. For many of them, any task more complex than sending a text message may be too much. Read more

Updating the Government’s Vision into our Economic Future

The Congressional Budget Office this week issued its Summer Update of projections for our national economy. Although the White House has seized on one piece of positive data ( a slight downward adjustment of the projected 2009 deficit), the overall picture being painted is quite unpleasant to look at. Read more

Expanding Our Retirement Living Options

Mrs. ToughMoneyLove and I returned this evening from a weekend visit to a new community being developed on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee. Although not explicitly marketed as a retirement community, clearly the target buyers are retirees and retirement-hopeful baby boomers. We discovered while on a trail ride that some folks we know are building a house and plan on retiring there this winter.  Read more

What Lessons Have You Learned from the Great Recession?

Many personal finance pundits are now referring to recent economic events as the “Great Recession.” I don’t understand why folks want to use “great” to characterize an economic calamity. “Awful Recession” would be more appropriate. But I digress. Read more

Extracting Personal Finance Advice from the Social Media Wasteland

I have been a user of Facebook and Twitter for most of the past year. My primary motivation was to join other bloggers who saw social media as a convenient way to spread their brand, attract more readers, and make more money.

I’m not feeling it. Read more

Cut Spending Tips that Work

Not being a frugalist by nature, I don’t spend a lot of my time searching for frugal ideas. Most of my recent cost-cutting efforts have been in reducing recurring monthly expenses. In the past few months, we have cut our landline telephone costs to the bone, killed the satellite radio, cancelled the daily newspaper (although they gave it back to us for free), and a few other things that I won’t further bore you with. Read more

The American Dream Revisited

Long time readers know that Mr. ToughMoneyLove has been a harsh critic of government intervention into the homeownership business, particularly its cheerleading of unqualified buyers into sub-prime mortgages.  I’ve written several posts on the topic including:  Homeowner Bailouts Destined to Fail, Sub-Prime Memories are Short on Capitol Hill, and Taxpayers Crushed by the Destructive Push for Home Ownership. If you think I’m wrong about the failure of government involvement, read the data cited in those posts. Read more

Californians – Are You Getting the Message?

I don’t intend to pick on Californians but news of yet another uncontrolled wildfire (this time in the north) causes me to again pose this question: Why do you live there? Read more

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