Your Best Tactics for Tuesday after Market Mania on Monday

Use Bad Financial News as a Catalyst for Evaluating Your Money Strategies and Tactics 

If you read about Mr. ToughMoneyLove, you know that I am a baby boomer and self-proclaimed money strategist.  Being a money strategist includes facing up to hard truth in the form of bad financial news.  I use such news as a reason to re-assess the money strategies and tactics that support the financial goals my wife and I have established. Read more

How to be a Money Strategist to Reach Your Financial Goals (Part 2)

How to be a Money Strategist

In Part 1 of this article, I explained that I was a “money strategist.”  Then, using the financial goals agreed on by me and my wife, I discussed how money strategies and money tactics work together in a personal financial plan to achieve those goals.   I then proposed that anyone can and should be a money strategist.  In this Part 2, I want to suggest a plan for becoming a money strategist in your own financial life, using what we did as a teaching example Read more

How to be a Money Strategist to Reach Your Financial Goals (Part 1)

Mr. ToughMoneyLove is a Money Strategist

Setting and reaching financial goals is at the core of personal financial planning and retirement planning.  This two part article explains how being a money strategist provides a structure for me to reach my family’s financial goals.  In this part 1, we define financial goals, money strategies, and money tactics.  I provide examples of these in my financial life.  In tomorrow’s part 2, I will suggest how others can become money strategists themselves. Read more

Get Money Smart, Spend Less, and Save More this Month – Tough Money Love Style

These are Money Strategies I Actually Use

Although I am dedicated to personal financial planning, I concede that I am not a pure “frugalist” or money “hacker.”  I particularly lack a desire to find the best credit card deals because I dislike credit card companies.  I like to think of myself as a “money strategist.”  Having a good money strategy does include being aware of ways to save money or to not get ripped off.  I am happy to implement such money saving strategies as long as it doesn’t take a disproportionate amount of another resource that I value highly:  Time.  The hard truth is that time is a non-renewable resource.  Many money decisions that my wife and I make have to factor in the value of time.  So at the beginning of this my third month of blogging on personal finance, Mr. ToughMoneyLove thought he would summarize some money strategies that recently caught my attention and that you might benefit from knowing.   Unlike money smart ideas you might read on other places around the Internet, these money strategies have actually been used by the person who is suggesting them.  (That would be me.) Read more