One of the best pieces of financial advice I ever received was to pay yourself first.  Before you pay a single bill, before you have any fun with your hard-earned cash, tuck away a little bit of it for a rainy day. When you are able to make saving money automatic, you create great financial freedom for yourself.  When those bills you forgot to budget for crop up, you'll have savings to draw on.  When times are tough, your emergency fund will be there.  When you find a great sale on something … [Read more...]

It was a yucky fall day.  We'd had a series of car repairs, house repairs, and doctor bills.  Extra money I "found" in our budget was consumed by rising grocery prices and a utility rate hike. We were feeling discouraged. It felt like we were never going to get ahead. And then I took a look at our annual credit report and our most recent bank statements.  In that report, I saw all of the debt we had paid off.  In the bank statements, I saw that those balances were slowly climbing. We still … [Read more...]

When the financial experts talk about getting out of debt and staying out, they often talk about cutting up the credit cards for good.   They talk about only buying things with cash. They talk about the envelope system for budgeting and how to reserve hotel rooms and rental cars without a credit card. And then there is a whole other approach to credit: Folks who use their credit cards for everything in order to earn credit card rewards.  They always pay their credit card bills in full each … [Read more...]

The debt looms over you.  It keeps you up at night. It threatens your future.  And you want nothing more than to get rid of it as soon as possible. That is a great goal.  But if your savings is suffering because of that goal, you could find yourself in even more debt.  … [Read more...]

It's time for a mid-year financial check-up. Just like your car or home needs to be maintained, so do your personal finances.  It only takes a few moments to do a financial check-up and those few moments can tell you if you're on track or if you need to tighten the belt a bit.  … [Read more...]

One of my former jobs was a 10-month position.  Each May meant that for two months I would have no income until August.  My husband was working, but as an adjunct college instructor, which meant his schedule (and income) also fluctuated.  It was a struggle to keep to a budget. My husband now has a consistent salary, but as a work-at-home mom, my income fluctuates from month-to-month based on what projects I'm working on.  My husband also has several side gigs that bring in money, but those … [Read more...]