Financial Independence Week: The Dangers Of Damaging A Relationship
I wanted to finish up this week with what I felt was the biggest danger with financial independence. From my perspective, the biggest challenge that people on the cusp of financial independence face is...
View ArticleHow To Write An Effective Letter – And Why You Should Do It, Too
Continuing on our sub-theme this week of skills that complement strong personal finance management, I want to cover the topic of how to write an effective letter. In this electronic age, many people...
View ArticleNine Social Skills To Practice – Even For The Socially Unskilled Like Myself
This morning, I got a first hand glimpse of how good social skills make all the difference in the world. I watched an individual who looked tired and angry (but other than that was attractive) get told...
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Using Google Maps To Get Free Phone Calls
I recently discovered a fantastic new feature in Google Maps that can actually save me a lot of money. Here’s how it works. Let’s say hypothetically that I’m sitting at work in the greater Des Moines,...
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We Share A Joint Account… But I Don’t Trust My Partner’s Spending Habits
Marriage and finances can at times be a difficult mix. Each person has distinctly different experiences with money, and each person may have completely different philosophies on how that money should...
View ArticleSeparating The “Wants” From The “Needs”
My wife and I have a monthly financial review meeting where we sit down with all of our bills, credit card statements, and so forth. We go through everything together, item by item, and try to figure...
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Six Things To Do When Shopping For Cell Phones And Service
In addition to our move, we’re about to switch cell phone services from a regional provider to Verizon, primarily because of signal availability in the area we’re moving to. We also happen to be not...
View ArticleParents And Finances: An Uneasy Mix
A reader wrote to me recently with the following concerns about the financial health of her parents: I’m still repairing my own finances (I’m out of debt but still working on retirement, I don’t yet...
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Twelve Important Things To Talk About When Your Relationship Gets Serious
One thing that I feel I did very right earlier in my life was building a strong, communication-based relationship with my wife in the years before our marriage. We talked about everything, building up...
View ArticleA Talk With My Niece
My niece is fifteen years old. She’s a social girl with a kind heart and just enough social awkwardness, intellectual curiosity, and introspection that after spending five minutes with her, you can’t...
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The First Money Talk: The When and How of a Conversation Every Couple Needs...
At some point, as a relationship grows and becomes more serious between two people, questions begin to arise about long-term plans, particularly as it begins to become clear that at least a significant...
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Some Notes on Our Experience with Skype – And Why It Will Work for Some and...
A few days ago, I made an offhand reference to using Skype to nearly eliminate the cost of a land line phone at home. A surprisingly large number of readers were curious about this and wrote in with...
View ArticleYou Can’t Buy Love
About two weeks ago, I did something incredibly stupid. Without even really thinking about it, I let my wife down. I made one of those careless, thoughtless little mistakes that when you realize what...
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The One Skill That Will Earn You Money, No Matter What You Do
Communication. No matter what you do in life, communication will earn you money. You’re a person working in a cubicle on hard problems. The ability to present your work to the boss during performance...
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Shared Dreams: How My Wife and I Got on the Same Financial Page
When my wife and I approached our financial meltdown, our financial planning and spending was in pure chaos. We both spent according to our whims and we tackled bills and such without any real pattern...
View ArticleTalking to a Child About Home Foreclosure
I received a heart wrenching email from a reader that I’m going to call “Peggy.” Here’s a few excerpts from that email: [...] In short, we are going to have to be out of our house by October 24. We’re...
View ArticleIs It Time to Drop Your Land Line?
Several months ago, I mentioned that we’ve been experimenting with using Skype at home for many of our telephone calls, and that I was ready to switch to using Skype as our primary phone. Skype, for...
View ArticleThe Art of the Apology
One Saturday during one of my previous employments, I received an interesting phone call from my supervisor. He informed me that one of my coworkers had took a work laptop home with her and that she...
View ArticleSome Thoughts on Building a Successful Friendship
Early this year, I posted a popular article, Some Thoughts on Building a Successful Marriage. In it, I gave my thoughts on what it takes to make a marriage work – and since your spouse is your most...
View ArticleThe First Word Is Always the Hardest
One of the most valuable personal finance tools in our repertoire is communication. Communication with your boss. Communication with your partner. Communication with your children. Communication with...
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