You would think high interest rates and recent years of higher inflation would devastate people’s finances, but the data keeps telling us that the economy is still humming along nicely. Still, have you thought of what you would do if you experienced a financial crisis recently? A sudden job loss or a medical emergency could leave a family without it’s usual income. Even if a healthy severance package was given or a large emergency fund existed, you wouldn’t want to keep on living as if nothing happened. You’d still want to cut your expenses as much as possible if a financial crisis occurred ..read more

I love to get most of my family’s clothes from thrift stores and yard sales, but I don’t always buy our clothes there. That’s because I can sometimes get brand new clothes at a lower price than used clothing. Here are a few of my strategies for getting super cheap brand name clothes (for less than thrift store prices). 1. Shop Right After a Holiday I seem to find the best deals right after a holiday, whether that be Christmas or even Halloween. This year I went to Baby Gap and Gymboree the day after Halloween, and I scored matching shirts for my daughters for $3-4 each, socks for $.49 each, a ..read more

Although it doesn’t top the list of things we hope to do this year, 16 percent of us have placed “finding a new job” on our 2017 resolutions list. One of the driving factors is that we’re recognizing opportunities for better pay in a more robust job market (statistics are predicting a high demand for experienced mid to senior-level workers). While your first agenda is, of course, to land a new job with better pay and benefits, what you do after you’ve been hired could make or break its potential to change your financial outlook. Once you’ve achieved that new job, here are four financial steps ..read more

Have you ever seen people who have financial freedom and thought to yourself, “I want to be able to live like that, too”? For most of us, the mental picture of financial freedom looks like someone who spends what they want when they want to, without concern about whether they will be able to afford it. While having more than enough income and control of your expenses are definitely worthy financial goals, how do you define the point at which you’ve “achieved financial freedom”? Are you chasing after an elusive dollar amount in your bank account, online savings account, investments ..read more

Typical Easter activities for kids include egg coloring, egg hunts, Easter Sunday services followed by family meals, and — the highlight of many children’s day — Easter basket goodies. There are certainly ways to save money on these prizes (statistics estimate the average American household will spend about $146 on Easter this year!), but regardless of how much you spend, Easter baskets provide a prime opportunity to reinforce a few important financial lessons with your kids. Consider how you can incorporate these three Easter basket lessons this Easter Sunday. Lesson 1: Delayed Gratification ..read more

Breast milk is without question best for your baby and for your budget, but there are cases where formula is needed. And it can be costly. Feeding your baby formula for the first year of their life can cost up to $1,000 – yikes! Here are a few ways to save money on this hefty expense. Free Samples Many states are passing laws to ban hospitals from giving out free samples of formula. However, it doesn’t hurt to ask your doctor or nurse for samples. Also, when you sign up for a formula company’s product, they will often times send you a free sample kit. It can be hard to know which formula your ..read more

What truly constitutes an emergency? Many of us tend to justify taking money out of our rainy day fund by calling something an emergency when, really, it’s not a true emergency. As you work on building your emergency fund, take a step back and consider how you will use the money you accumulate. Dr. Stephen Lesavich, the co-author of The Plastic Effect: How Urban Legends Influence the Use and Misuse of Credit Cards, suggests to create spending rules so your emergency fund doesn’t become a sort-of general fund that you raid whenever you feel like it. Here’s how to put spendi ..read more

Have you ever thought about where your spending habits come from? We all know that some of us have a hard time saving money, while others find it difficult or painful to spend their hard-earned cash. Some of your money management style comes from your upbringing — the lessons your parents taught (or didn’t teach) you either by example or instruction. What’s interesting, though, is that children often grow up with very different habits for handling money than their parents or siblings. Why is this? Well, essentially it’s because of the psychology of spending vs. saving. Researchers have s ..read more

Get in your car. Now drive 100 miles southwest from your current location. Get on any road; it doesn’t matter which. Where will you end up? If you don’t have a map, you probably don’t know for sure. You may know the approximate area, but if it wasn’t where you truly needed to go, then your trip was a waste of time. It’s the same with dreams and goals. Knowing what you want to achieve makes achievement easier and more predictable. Pursuing your goals without a plan to get there may get you close to where you’d hoped, but maybe not close enough. What if you went about your finances the same way ..read more

Gamification used to rest only on the outskirts of society. It involved people staying up all hours of the night speaking in foreign tongues, living secret lives of mystical time travel, and using weapons of intelligence to reach their destination. Dungeons and Dragons was the ultimate game. Now, gamification is everywhere. Want to shed pounds or get shredded? There’s a game for it. It’s called Fitocracy. Want to enforce a new habit you’re trying to form? There’s a game for that, too. It’s called Streaks. Offering Rewards Gamification makes our must-dos fun. It grants us the immediate satisfa ..read more