Budgeting

This kitten always gets his 401(K) match. Be more like this kitten.

This kitten knows how to have fun for free. Be more like this kitten.

This kitten knows the difference between a want and a need. Be more like this kitten.

“Most people don’t know this, but right now there’s a loophole in the American banking system that enables you to exchange ordinary paper dollars for real silver coins.”

This kitten delays major purchases. Be more like this kitten.

Two proven methods to pay off your debts – with gusto. Say goodbye to the stress, ANXIETY and late fees.

Financial planning means supporting the goals of stay-at-home parents to be with their children.

Do I start planting investments and then refrain from giving for ten years?

How is the ‘financial health’ of most physicians? Most physicians put in long hours and due to lack of time neglect their own financial and retirement planning.

Franco Modigliani won the Nobel Prize for a simple technique that squirrels know intuitively from birth. You have to squirrel away some nuts during times of plenty so you can survive during times of scarcity.

I highly recommend that you plan to live on one salary for the first several years. This is a challenge that too few couples accept.

Q: I recently landed a job that will allow me to begin saving. My company offers a 401(k) and a 3% match, but I also have college debts of $15,000 and a credit card balance of $650. How do you recommend I proceed?

Although sock drawers might be able to protect wealth from physical thieves, inflation is the dastardly villain who will raid it. As a child, I did not know of such economic forces let alone that they had an influence on my humble stash.

One reason that many people buy things that they could have done without is “functional fixedness.” Teach children to prevent unnecessary purchases by making efforts to help them see other possible uses of owned objects.

My dad taught me the opportunity cost of a Barbie airplane, or what alternative opportunities I would be giving up when I bought it, like buying twelve Barbies.

For cheap or limited edition items, desire needs to undergo a trial other than the test of time and the Wait a Week principle should be modified.

If my parents had been in control of the purse strings, I would not have learned the value of money. To a child, “My Money” is valuable where “Your Money” is worthless.

With money in my pocket and impulse in my veins, I used to cherish our weekly trips to Toys ‘R’ Us. However, it was on the Barbie aisle under my parents’ guidance that I became a money-savvy kid with the millionaire mindset.

Most of us rationalize why we can’t get our finances together right now. Many Americans prolong these excuses during their entire working careers. Here are three lies you must stop telling yourself in order to build a solid financial foundation.

“Even the wealthy aren’t setting aside enough, but changing behavior is a struggle.”

Most financial planners have a difficult time helping clients reduce their spending habits and start saving.

I was asked to speak at the Leadership Development Center at the University of Virginia’s EAN Annual Conference on Thursday, August 4th 2001. I’ve collected links to all the resources I mentioned in that talk here in one place.

Money worries are harming marriages and impairing health, according to a quarter of 1,400 married individuals polled online recently by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.

Surprisingly, studies show that onetime windfalls can actually impoverish you. They make you feel rich, which inevitably leads to overspending. But wealth is what you save, not what you spend.

Couples who have worked together on a budget already agree on the big picture. Once they make the hard decisions about what will help further the family’s values, specific purchases in each category are much less critical.

David Marotta discusses what to do with your “extra” money.

Take ownership of your own financial security and increase the rate you are saving and investing by at least the 2% Social Security tax cut.

Computing your net worth annually is like taking a sextant reading to chart your course toward financial security. Net worth gives you a snapshot of how much money would be left if you converted everything you owned into cash and paid off all your debts.

Financial resolutions usually don’t even last until the end of January. Making a permanent change in our behavior requires both time and a steely resolve. We can only develop financial character one action at a time. Here are seven practices to take you from pauper to prince or princess if you add one each year.

Having found that a longer holiday season translates into bigger profits, retailers like to extend every holiday season. The holiday season is now a four-month blast of marketing genius.

Everything in wealth management begins with savings. All wealth comes from producing more than you consume. Unfortunately, most Americans are better at consuming than producing.

Everyone knows a family with financial debt. Stop the bleeding.

Sometimes we make the mistake of deliberately budgeting the impossible. If you purposefully set the required spending in one category too high, you won’t be able to trim other categories to bring your overall spending into harmony.

Many budgets are doomed to failure because of the challenge of planning for unplanned spending. Here are some of the items you either did not put in your budget or they shouldn’t be in your spending.

Get control of the spending that breaks the bank. Certain purchases that are typically both unnecessary and unplanned are budget busters. Avoiding these financial slips requires hedging some of our worst impulses and constraining our desire for instant gratification.

They say that as long as Americans keep spending, the economy will be strong and unemployment will remain low. “Spend now and pay later” is poor personal policy.

Every University student knows they should have a credit card. You have to have a second form of ID on many financial transactions. You have to have one to establish good credit. And, the more you use them, the more you will accrue bonus points toward cash, mileage credits and various “free gifts”. P.T. Barnum said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” But it doesn’t have to be you.

Everyone knows a family with financial debt. Stop the bleeding. Apply emergency medicine.

Every year problems of debt and overspending frustrate millions of families. The problem has little to do with income, a lot to do with spending. Spending less than you earn is the essential foundation that creates the capital for investing and wealth building.

No matter how rich or poor you are, thrift is an integral part of your budget. Being thrifty is a godly and biblical virtue.

You are guarding against deadweight loss when the recipient can exchange the gift or return it for cash.

In 1985, an MIT professor won the Nobel Prize for a simple technique that squirrels have known intuitively from birth — you have to “squirrel” away some nuts during times of plenty so you can survive during times of scarcity.

Both mindless eating and mindless spending rely on our subconscious need to follow scripts to pace our consumption. Community plays a huge role in regulating our financial destiny–either a path of savings that builds real wealth or a path of spending that leads to impoverishment.

We all think we can’t be fooled by something as obvious as the the difference between height and width. But our brains are wired that way, without exception.

Just remove the decimal place. The $8.50 lunch you charge will cost you $850 in your retirement.

Your time is worth more than sifting through the ashes of advertising looking for valuables.

Themed rewards tend to be toward the low end and cash rewards are apt to be higher. Get the cash.

Here are seven steps you should take to weather any financial storm.

Managing your family’s cash is key to meeting your financial goals.

This year, give your family the gift of financial peace of mind. Celebrate the season simply.