It is 2010 and I want the Matrix — I want a central line to Technology, one port. Because the debate over gadgets is driving us crazy.
Undisputed Need: A new computer proper with the latest souped-up hard drive and OS with wireless router/backup drive. Our current desktop is sloooow and Internet access is tethered.
Yet many [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Talking About Money'
Computer Blues: Too Much Technology
January 26th, 2010 5 Comments
Tags: Cable · DirecTV · Droid · DSL · iPad · iPhone · technology
Cash For … Nevermind
August 3rd, 2009 2 Comments
Image by Getty Images via Daylife
When word that the cash for clunkers rebate program had started, I emailed my husband:
“What if we took the $4,500 rebate on the truck and sold the Passat?” We’d like to get a hybrid. This would take us down to one car, but with HourCar coming to our neighborhood, and [...]
Tags: cash4clunkers · emissions · HourCar · hybrid · hybrids · rebate program
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 [...]
Kids: Allowance or Chores? Yes
June 3rd, 2009 10 Comments
My 5-year-old son has discovered desire’s connection to this medium called money, as well as the art of peppering discussions of commerce with persuasive key phrases:
“Mom, can I have Sir John?” (A GeoTrax character that costs around $25 at Target.)
“I think it’s in the toy insection. It’s not too expensive! I think it costs … [...]
Where We Are Now, and How We Got Here
May 27th, 2009 No Comments
If you’ve got a little time, I have seen no better example that encapsulates, in one man’s story, the mania that preceded the housing bubble and its very painful aftermath.
His story is jaw-dropping. A financial correspondent for the NY Times Washington bureau, Edmund L. Andrews’s $120,000 salary was never going to support $4,000 in monthly [...]
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Budget Buzz: Getting Over ‘I Don’t Know’
May 5th, 2009 4 Comments
Budgeting gets a bad rap as a giant drag. If you’re not someone who’s inherently organized, as I’m not, first thinking about the process feels like trying to corral the very air.
“Money? I don’t know, I just, you know, wing it.”
But winging it always left me uneasy. I’d think, “I must be overspending. But I [...]
Tags: Budgeting · money psychology
Creating a Budget for Irregular Expenses
April 24th, 2009 No Comments
It looks like we’ve finally whittled our monthly expenses down to a level where we’ll have from *$1600-$1900 left over at the end of each month.
(*Much of that money will pay for somewhat more irregular but predictable expenditures like hair cuts, clothes, and saving for vacation or gifts.)
We just played around with numbers last night, [...]
Tags: budgeting for · irregular expenses · non-monthly
Why I’m Voting for Barack Obama
November 4th, 2008 1 Comment
Since I’m already breaking one cultural taboo in talking about money, I thought I’d go for all three today.
One of the reasons I started this blog was to work out my own fraught relationship with money. I was raised to believe what Jesus said:
“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of [...]
Tags: eye of a needle · guilt · Jesus · Marianne Williamson · think big
Do You Want What It Takes to be a Millionaire Today: Career First
October 31st, 2008 4 Comments
Thanks to The Sun’s Financial Diary for posting this at this week’s carnival of personal finance.
Thomas Stanley’s “Millionaire Next Door” approach to building wealth is sane, simple, and basically foolproof if you’re consistent: Save, invest, and wait.
There’s another path that, as a self-employed person, I find more provocative.
Earlier this year, authors Russ Alan Prince and [...]
Tags: career · financial independence · hobbies · Lewis Schiff · Russ Alan Prince · The Middle-Class Millionaire
Choosing Debt
October 30th, 2008 2 Comments
Cash Husband here:
While talking to my brother recently about the financial double-whammy of having kids (higher expenses, lower income), he politely reminded me: “You chose to have kids, you know.” Which raises a legitimate and important question: If kids are so expensive, why didn’t we have a better plan in place before we had them?
In [...]
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