Hunting Happiness

SomeGal recently became eligible to participate in her employer’s 401(k) program.  Unfortunately they do not offer a match at this time, but we are big believers in automatic savings so she is contributing.  They also unfortunately limit the contribution as a percentage of salary, so she will only be able to contribute about $11K per […]

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So, SomeGal is planning a trip to the big apple this summer.   She and her mother are going and I will likely be staying home.  This is due primarily to wanting to give her some quality mom-daughter time, but secondarily to saving some money.  Plus, she’ll owe me a boys-only trip some time!
Most of our […]

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We have submitted articles to several carnivals this week and will track the results below.
Sound Money Matters is hosting the Carnival of Frugality this week. Aryn pretty wells sums up frugality: “being frugal sometimes means spending more to get a better value for a better product or to achieve the kind of world […]

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We have finally gotten serious about looking at and obtaining life insurance. We are planning on going with AIG because of their A++ rating and generally good reviews online. At this point I have had several conversations with a representative and answered a fair number of detailed questions. He indicates […]

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The official definition of a recession is like the word “peruse”. People confidently misuse or incorrectly state the definition of both. Peruse means to read or study in great detail, not to “flip through” or “skim”. See Webster’s.com for confirmation. Similarly, a commonly-stated definition of recession is two or more […]

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There is a post over on CNN.com fretting over an extended recession.
This quotation just about sums it up:
“What happened in the short space of the last five years was pretty scary — household debt rose to about 125% of income. It hadn’t ever been 100% before that. It took consumers a long time […]

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Do you know how many people on Earth live on $1 per day?  One billion.   Approximately 20% of the world’s population.  So the next time we are complaining out loud or mentally about our income and expenses, think about that.  If you think your budget is tough now, try it with $30/mo.

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Many of the personal finance books and blogs advocate getting a 15-year mortgage and avoiding 30-year ones like the plague. For disciplined households I do not think this is a cut-and-dried decision. Many sources simply quote the interest paid on each loan, completely ignoring the fact that the comparison is unfair since the […]

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Capital One has a new offer for online savings accounts that includes competitive rates plus points based on average balance.  With less than $10K, the rate is 2.75%, over $10K it jumps to a very competitive 3.75%.   In addition, you get one mile for each $20 of monthly average balance.  And if you start with […]

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More details have become available about the Chevy Volt. The Volt is a gas-electric hybrid but it has several key distinctions from anything currently on the market. It is expected to have a 40 mile range without using any gas.

It can plug into standard 110V household receptacle to charge its batteries
While is does […]

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