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Entries from December 31st, 2008

Happy New Year

December 31st, 2008 No Comments

I’ll be doing some blog improvements over the New Year’s break and will be back with regular posts again next week. Cheers!

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Credit Scoring Changes in 2009

December 31st, 2008 No Comments

Here’s a must-read about coming changes in credit scoring from personal finance expert Liz Pulliam Weston. Lenders will start using the new scoring system by late January. The new FICO scoring system (the one most lenders use) will be more sensitive than ever to the gap between how much credit you have and how much [...]

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Oniomania

December 24th, 2008 No Comments

I go for weeks without reading The Writer’s Almanac. More often than not when I check back in, the perfect poem is just waiting. This is by Peter Pereira, from “What’s Written on the Body.” clipped from writersalmanac.publicradio.org Not so much the desire for owning things as the inability to choose between hunter or emerald [...]

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A Season for Giving

December 24th, 2008 No Comments

Image by AKIHIRO FURUTA via Flickr Here’s thoughtful advice on giving from Kahler Financial Group, a financial planning firm based in South Dakota. Whether or not you agree with Rick’s policy of not giving to individuals asking for money, you’ll get something out of his approach to thinking through the who, what, when, where, and [...]

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Best and Worst of December ’08

December 23rd, 2008 4 Comments

[polldaddy poll=1220619] Image by ViaMoi via Flickr Best stock-up item: Humidifier filters. Because every year, Target stocks them for about a week, and then you must order them from the company online. And meanwhile breathe into your hand under the covers to save some semblance of your mucus membranes. Worst shop-with-the-kids experience: Losing my toddler’s [...]

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Coupon or No Coupon? Sites to Try for Grocery Savings

December 22nd, 2008 8 Comments

Image by ninjapoodles via Flickr Your money or your time? These days, the grocery store is sucking up more of both as we troll sales, cut coupons, and compare unit prices (ugh) on ever-shrinking packages. Here are some sites to win back more of each for yourself: The Grocery Game: Serious Coupon Pros Only Try [...]

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8 Things You Don’t Know About Your Credit Score

December 17th, 2008 8 Comments

Thanks to Saving to Invest for including this post in this week’s roundup of articles at Personal Finance Carnival #184. As a follow-up to my post about checking your credit, here are eight things you might not know about what affects your credit rating: 1. Your credit score is always changing. The three credit bureaus [...]

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Five Things to Know About Checking Your Credit Score

December 15th, 2008 2 Comments

Image via Wikipedia Credit card companies are raising minimum payments, lowering limits, and closing dormant accounts — all of which can affect how you look to lenders, landlords, and potential employers. So check your score now if you haven’t lately. Here are some things that might surprise you about credit scoring: 1. Anyone can develop [...]

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Global Warming Foils Mass Transit Meant to Cool it Down

December 14th, 2008 2 Comments

Totally OT post. It poured rain in Minneapolis today. Later, of course, as the day reverted to “winter,” (our Moose are dying off in this state, and snowfalls aren’t what they used to be here) it made for ideal driving conditions. So icy, in fact, that the light rail to and from the airport couldn’t [...]

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A Black Hole for Christmas? Why Thank You, Congress

December 12th, 2008 No Comments

. Could a bailout to GM and Chrysler have prevented near certain failure of those companies by month’s end? Now a moot point, along with questions such as, “Who’s to blame for the industry’s current state?” A group of Republican senators decided that it was more important to nix the whole deal over whether GM’s [...]

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