Sharing insights since 2007 on carefully saving money, investing, frugal living, coupons, promo codes because the little things matter in achieving financial freedom!
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, and shoes for less than $4. The prices ended up being about 80% off the sticker price. At the thrift store, I can generally find shirts for $2-3, but if it were to have a tag on it, those nice thrift store employees mark it up a few dollars (insert eye roll here). [ continue reading… ]
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 you’ll want to take as soon as possible.
#1: Update your financial tracking
Obviously, a loss of income has us rushing to adjust our budget faster than when we gain income, but it’s still important to track any changes. Plugging those numbers in will show you exactly how far ahead you are once taxes and other changes are figured in. Having a specific rather than a general idea of how much you’re adding to your bottom line ensures getting the most financial advantages out of your raise. It also decreases the chance of your extra income getting absorbed into discretionary spending without realizing it (some call it lifestyle inflation). [ continue reading… ]
College tuition has steadily been increasing over the past several decades. In the last five years alone, it has skyrocketed by 28.9 percent.
While the four-year cost for an in-state university was around $42,000 in 2021, the price tag is projected to be around $350,000 in 18 years – which is just after the time my two kids will be college-aged.
As I take a deeper look into my financial plan, I’m torn. Should I be diligently saving for their education, or should I be investing my extra money into my own retirement account? [ continue reading… ]
Whether it’s growing up seeing the family struggle through the financial crisis, or how millennials are graduating college carrying more student loan debt than ever (probably both!), millennials (who are contributing to a 401k plan) as a group are so far showing better financial habits than baby boomers when it comes to saving in their 401k. T. Rowe Price recently released a fun quiz titled “Do You Act Your (Savings) Age?” based on a survey they conducted with more than 2,000 participants with 401ks* that uncovered differences between how the generations are going about building their path towards financial freedom. [ continue reading… ]
We’ve all heard the saying “money can’t buy happiness.” While most of us would agree that contentment isn’t tied to how much money or stuff we have, a recent study from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences identified an exception to this principle: when money buys us time.
After surveying 6,000 participants in the U.S., Canada, Denmark, and The Netherlands, the researchers found that people who spent money on time-saving services like housecleaning or transportation, versus other things, reported greater overall happiness.
An explanation for this starts with the stress created by modern life. To those of us with demanding careers or lifestyles, obligations like household chores and errands we don’t enjoy build stress and tension — especially when doing them ourselves leaves us with little time left over. That’s why every little bit of time we can spend relaxing or doing tasks we enjoy alleviates some of that stress and ultimately leaves us happier.
So, to summarize, money can buy time; and, when we have more time, we’re happier. [ continue reading… ]
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, or retirement fund? What does financial freedom look like for you? [ continue reading… ]
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