For the past 16 years I’ve been the accountant for our engineering company. That explains why I get crazy angry and show signs of battle fatigue and hair loss once per quarter — on approximately January 31, April 30, July 31, and October 31 of every, single, solitary year. The certified idiots public servants who [...]
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Since 1994, I’ve been making money online. From my first, fledgling website — that comprised a catalog of educational items I offered to homeschoolers and other parent — to my latest venture — a blogging network focusing on making money with blogs — the internet provides a world of monetizing opportunities. The best thing about [...]
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I have a dream laundry room. It’s so amazing that a number of people (honestly!) snuck downstairs to see it when I held a large group event. Now, it’s true that I talk about my laundry room in one of conference speeches on home organization systems. So it is famous, as far as laundry rooms [...]
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Some people are just more talented than others. And that goes for bloggers as well. Some of us (ahem) write about things we love and things we hate and things that make our hair stand on end and things we are passionate about. And we use stock photos or marginally identifiable photos we took in [...]
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For almost a quarter of a century, we have used professional janitorial supplies to clean our home. The cost-per-use is so much better than typical store brands — and they clean remarkably better, as well. Window cleaner you buy from a grocery store, for example, is diluted for use. So you have just paid to [...]
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People say you shouldn’t buy timeshares. I’m not so sure. When I was a tween, my parents bought two. One in Snowbird, Utah — a ski resort packing some of the greatest snow on earth — the other smack dab on the beach in San Diego. All these decades later, our family still uses them. [...]
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Whatever your financial goals are in 2012 — whether it is to become debt-free, create an emergency savings account, or buy a mountain cabin — your grandma’s advice still holds true. A penny saved is a penny earned. Every single time you save money on something you need, it’s as good as earning the same [...]
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My dad is 82 years old. And his favorite thing to wear is an old cardigan my mother knitted for him — about two decades ago. The former elbows of the beloved sweater are now holes six inches in diameter. I exaggerate not. I’ve been looking for a few months for a replacement, and they [...]
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Never, ever do I make a major purchase — and rarely even one over 30 or 40 dollars — without doing some internet comparison shopping. Using a shopping bot, I can compare prices all over the internet. If you haven’t done this before, you’ll be amazed at how vastly different prices on the exact same [...]
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If you’re anything like me, you’ve been spending a lot more the past few weeks than you usually do. More toys, more clothes, more gadgets, more books, more travel, more food and treats — more of just about anything. If you’re anything like most Americans, you’re using a credit card to fund a good chunk [...]
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This post brought to you by Norton Small Business by Symantec. All opinions are 100% mine. Lifestyle design is all about living the life you want. For many of us, that means creating a muse and owning a business. I started my first business in 1987 and my husband started his first in 1996. Some [...]
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Black Friday has come and gone. (We slept in, decorated the house, and went to a movie.) Cyber Monday is history. (I spent a couple of hours using some of my very best online deals.) But if you think the bargains are gone, you’re wrong. They’ve just begun! I’ve gathered some of the very best, [...]
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I’m all about saving money. In difficult economic times, it’s even more important to squeeze every penny out of your purchases. Sometimes that means selecting lower quality items. Not everything needs to last for centuries or provide professional quality results. If my preschooler wants to learn to paint, I’m not going to buy the same [...]
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This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of TracFone. All opinions are 100% mine. Long before my dad moved in with us last February, my brother, sister, and I began worrying about him. He lived alone and — for entertainment — he drove mile after mile. Every day. In fact, in the [...]
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Since my internet-bubble day-trading venture of the late 90s, I haven’t spent much time in the stock market. Sure, I have the typical mutual fund retirement accounts. But I’m not a gambler — by nature or value system. Trading without doing serious company research isn’t too far out of the realm of gambling. Of course, [...]
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Recently I took my son to an orthodontic appointment in a very nice office building. The architecture was beautiful, the landscaping plush, the furnishings stylish. Whether or not any particular business that rented space there was financially sound or reliable, the impression was certainly good. In spite of the impressive surroundings, one of the businesses [...]
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Dave Ramsey wants you to cut up your credit cards. He also wants you to pay off you smallest debt first, rather than the one with the highest interest rate. If you listen to his radio show regularly, you’ll notice a theme. Ramsey goes straight to the heart. Rather than deal with debt problems from [...]
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Too many people think investing is only for the über wealthy and those with sophisticated strategies. But everyone should profit from the power of compounding interest — and conversely avoid the debilitating effect of paying compounded interest. If you’ve always lived paycheck to paycheck, step back and take a few easy steps to prepare for [...]
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Help With College My husband and I have a total of 14 years of college education. That’s a lot of tuition and scads of (exorbitantly-priced) books and (tiny, white-walled) apartment rental and hot dogs and ramen soup. That’s a long time to be poor. It’s even longer when you have have two children while making [...]
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In the mid-1990s, I was a day trader. By that I mean I used an online brokerage account to buy rolling stocks, covered calls, naked puts, and a few other elementary techniques with my new-fangled internet brokerage account. After a few months I had some fabulous successes and some dismal failures. I made some money [...]
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