A reader writes:
Like most folks, we have lived on credit and have quite a lot to pay down. But several of these cards have interest rates close to 30% which makes paying them down a multi-year process. Our goal is to totally get off the credit train but keep a couple cards for convenience and [...]
Entries from July 29th, 2009
Credit Card Rate Hike? Take These Steps To Negotiate
July 29th, 2009 2 Comments
Tags: Credit bureau · Credit card · opt-out letter · rate hike · rate jacking
Fahrvergnügen? Nein
July 28th, 2009 2 Comments
Image by clevercupcakes via Flickr
Our car took a week-long convalescence last week, and the bill came to about what you’d expect for a stay at a swanky spa: $1,258.04.
Clunk, indeed. Except that’s the sound of our wallets hitting the floor.
The total is about 9 car payments; of course we finished paying off the car about [...]
Tags: repair bill · Volkswagen
Status Update
July 23rd, 2009 No Comments
Don’t you hate when a straightforward ‘to-do’ becomes a quagmire of extra steps?
Example A: Do a quick blog post. But I see I need to upgrade my Wordpress version. Which means spending some time figuring out how to backup files. And then getting an error message for the upgrade, which is going to require time [...]
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A Personal Note
July 22nd, 2009 No Comments
Ok, most of my blog posts are pretty personal. But this one concerns the slowed pace of blogging for me lately. I have been battling fatigue for a few months; I thought it was depression. It probably was. Now I think it’s the med they gave me to combat it. Some days I have normal [...]
Tags:
Great Gardens! A Confessionary Tale
July 14th, 2009 2 Comments
I have alluded in past posts to getting in over our heads in 2006 with a home equity loan. The loan was to cover getting the house painted and landscaping.
That is pretty all true. But here’s what’s true(r): The landscaping part was mostly to get me to shut the hell up about the bleeping side [...]
Money Habits: What to Teach, When
July 7th, 2009 1 Comment
It will come as no surprise to parents that my 5-year-old, who was so hot to trot for a Geotrax “Sir John,” spent his money on the first thing that caught his eye at Target — a Bakugan thingy whose world neither he nor I yet grasp, but that made his kiddy senses tingle.
The June [...]
Happiness is a Warm Sparkler: Where Spending Overlaps Joy
July 3rd, 2009 2 Comments
Image via Wikipedia
Books & Memories is a secondhand book store in Syracuse, New York, with a terrible name and dead web site.
2600 James St
Syracuse, NY 13206-2842
(315) 434-9268
But because visiting it made me enormously happy, I’ll describe it here, so that you may believe, despite the inability to click on it.
Like any good independently owned store, [...]
Tags: happiness · money psychology · Venn diagram
