One expense you have control of in ways you never thought
This article is by staff writer William Cowie. What do you spend most of your money on? For most people, their two biggest expenses are their home and car(s). If you remember the post comparing...
View ArticleHow to negotiate when you hate negotiating
This article is by staff writer Kristin Wong. In an ideal world, you wouldn’t need to go negotiate. In an ideal world, the weather would be perfect, there would be no war, and your employer would...
View ArticleSaving your sanity (and your budget) this summer vacation
This article is by staff writer Lisa Aberle. I am writing this article in silence, thanks to my kids’ 7 pm bedtime. And tonight is the last early bedtime night because – sob! – tomorrow is the final...
View ArticleThe high cost of keeping up with the Joneses
This article is by staff writer Holly Johnson. In late 2004, Kim Parr and her family upgraded their lifestyle with a brand new home in a rural area. As an optometrist with a higher-than-average salary,...
View ArticleImprove your negotiation skills with BATNA
This article is by staff writer Sam. Sam spent 13 years working in Equities on Wall Street and discusses financial independence strategies on Financial Samurai. Sam is also the founder of the Yakezie...
View ArticleOur brains on scarcity: The trap of not having enough (Part I)
This article is by staff writer Kristin Wong. (This is a two-part series. Part II is “Our brains on scarcity: Breaking out of the trap.”) I recently discovered the book “Scarcity: Why Having Too Little...
View ArticleOur brains on scarcity: Breaking out of the trap (Part II)
This article is by staff writer Kristin Wong. (This is a two-part series. Part I is “Our brains on scarcity: The trap of not having enough.”) For my last post, I wrote about the book “Scarcity: Why...
View ArticleReader Stories: 4 ways to make money with your old junk
Sharon M. shared some of her personal finance journey with us this week. Some reader stories contain general advice; others are examples of how a GRS reader achieved financial success or failure. These...
View ArticleWeird ways our brains control our money habits
This article is by staff writer Kristin Wong. I’ll admit it. I’m a sucker for money psychology studies. And it’s not just because I write about money. On a sheer curiosity level, they’re fascinating....
View ArticleThe daycare debate: A double-edged sword
This article is by staff writer Holly Johnson. As many of you know, my husband had a career crisis that left him unemployed for several months last summer. It was scary, but we learned a lot from the...
View ArticlePreventing failure before it is an option
This article is by staff writer Lisa Aberle. When I wrote an article about poverty, I wasn’t sure where Brandon and Leah, the two people I shared about, would be in the next few months. I needn’t have...
View ArticleHiccups on the way to combining finances
This is a guest post from Kathleen O’Malley, who writes about finding joy in a simple, frugal life at Frugal Portland. It happened fast. We barely talked about it, but all of a sudden, about a week...
View ArticleWhy I voluntarily slashed my salary
This is a guest post from former GRS staff writer Donna Freedman. She is currently a staff writer at Money Talks News, freelances for a number of magazines and PF sites, and blogs about money and...
View ArticleAsk the Readers: Are you reaching your goals?
This article is by editor Linda Vergon. Remember when 2014 was new? I’d rather not think about it, but more than half the year is behind us already and we’re moving into fall fairly quickly. For me,...
View ArticleStarting a garden to pay off debt: Really!?!
This article is by staff writer April Dykman. Some personal finance advice is just plain ridiculous. I’m talking about the kind of advice that’s great for filling up a webpage but that had neither...
View ArticleBad advice about having a baby I’m glad I followed
This article is by staff writer Holly Johnson. Last week I was out walking with a friend when she admitted she was scared she would never have kids. “We’ll never be able to afford them,” she said as we...
View ArticleA better way to calculate the value of your time
This article is by staff writer Kristin Wong. It’s both fascinating and useful to calculate the value of your time. Financial freedom gives you options and flexibility. But without time, that means...
View ArticleThe problem with being goal-oriented
This article is by staff writer Kristin Wong. A few months before I decided to quit my job and move, I’d made a whole timeline of accomplishments I hoped to reach within the next three to five years....
View ArticleHow not to approach rising home prices
This article is by staff writer William Cowie. My wife and I took the dog for a walk the other day in our neighborhood. About half a block up the street we met Heather and George as they were unloading...
View ArticleLifestyle inflation: How to decide if it’s ever okay
This article is by staff writer Kristin Wong. Despite that I don’t own it, I like my apartment. It’s got a mountainous view, it’s comfortable, and my neighbors are few but friendly. Sure, I’d like to...
View ArticleWill Canning Your Food Save You Money?
This article is by staff writer Lisa Aberle. When I was a child, we lived on a farm that had a grape arbor loaded with Concord grapes. Each September, my mom would can jars upon jars of grape juice,...
View Article9 Reasons You May Never Retire
This article is by staff writer William Cowie. My mom passed away a little less than a year ago. All her life she was the picture of health: She walked every day and ate super-healthy. The extended...
View ArticleAsk the readers: Should we get married sooner to lower our taxes?
This article is by editor Linda Vergon. Landen and his fiancé are planning to get married in the fall of 2015 and they’re starting to think about how to blend their financial lives together as they tie...
View ArticleWhat does your job tenure say about you?
This article is by staff writer Honey Smith. Recently, I wrote about networking strategies that can help advance your career, and that got me to wondering what a “typical” career looks like these days....
View ArticleWhat can we learn from Gen Y’s view of money?
This article is by staff writer Kristin Wong. Recently, Fidelity released another survey about millennials and money. They found that 47 percent of us are saving for retirement. To me, that stat was...
View ArticleDo nice guys finish last … financially?
This article is by staff writer Lisa Aberle. While it wasn’t a dark and stormy night yet, an ice storm was coming. The last time we’d had an ice storm, we were kidless, and we lost power for five days....
View ArticleIs living without credit cards the best way to stay out of debt?
This article is by staff writer Holly Johnson. Americans might be more responsible now than they were in the early 2000s when it comes to the use of credit. At least, that’s what the evidence from a...
View ArticleHow I use negative feelings about finances to my advantage
This article is by staff writer Kristin Wong. I have never had much patience for dwelling. Time is a limited resource and I want to use it in the best possible way. Dwelling is a waste. I also have...
View ArticleThe pros of experiencing the cons of poverty
This article is by staff writer Lisa Aberle. At the beginning of October, I slipped five crisp Benjamins into my purse. I don’t usually carry any cash at all, so I was feeling flush with $500 in my...
View ArticleA six-figure income, and you’re still paying off debt?
This article is by staff writer Kristin Wong. At another site, I recently wrote about a tool that shows you online prices in terms of hours worked. I used a random item — a fancy coffee maker that...
View Article
More Pages to Explore .....