Financial Planning
« Previous EntriesMy Financial Epiphany: Change to Survive
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009For many in the Christian church, today - January 6 - is celebrated as the Feast of the Epiphany, commemorating the arrival of the Magi who traveled a great distance to visit and offer gifts to the baby Jesus in Bethlehem.
In secular terms, an “epiphany” is a sudden perception or insight into reality or essential meaning of something. [...]
My Year End Financial Performance Review
Monday, January 5th, 2009Mr. ToughMoneyLove has spent a good part of the past five months being critical of others who use poor judgment in matters of personal finance. Many of my targets have been politicians, Wall Street investment bankers, and disciples of the almighty credit score. Depending on your own attitude about these subjects, I may come across as an [...]
It’s Time to Estimate the Market Value of Your Home
Sunday, January 4th, 2009We’ve all been avoiding the scary task of checking on the current market value of our home. We have read that the median price on sales of existing homes fell 13.2% in one year, the biggest drop in 40 years. We also know that new housing starts in November were 624,000 units, down from 1,178,000 units [...]
Ways You Should Not Save Money This Year
Saturday, January 3rd, 2009The popular media are chock full of ideas on how consumers can save money this year. The frugalists who write personal finance blogs are particularly good at identifying clever and unique ways of saving money on almost anything you can think of.
Unfortunately, I have been reading articles in my local paper and elsewhere that some [...]
Personal Finance Resolutions to Avoid this Year
Sunday, December 28th, 2008Mr. ToughMoneyLove is not a fan of New Year’s Resolutions for two reasons. First, they are often used as an excuse to put off until tomorrow what could and should be done today. Second, New Year’s Resolutions perpetuate a fantasy that you are actually doing something when you are not. It’s like making a to-do list that [...]
Community Banks Still Providing Top Interest Rates
Saturday, December 27th, 2008Back in early September (before the really bad economic news started rolling in), I wrote about the excellent interest rates available at community banks. Since that time there has been a lot of upheaval and change within the banking community. A lot of that change relates to increased loan underwriting standards, making it more difficult [...]
Your Post-Christmas To-Do List
Friday, December 26th, 2008Christmas is over - now what do I do?
The pre-Christmas chaos, adrenaline rush and maybe euphoria are now slipping into that post-Christmas “Now what do I do?” state of mind. You’ve run out of safe-topic small talk to share with folks you see only once a year. It’s too soon to take down the tree and [...]