March 2009

How To Handle a Pay Cut (Financially Speaking)

With the overall economy tanking, and very sharply in many specific industries, some companies are turning to an alternative when everyone but the critical personnel has been laid off - pay cuts. A company-wide pay cut has the potential to save a large number of individual jobs at the “expense” of the many. As an example, for [...]

Mvelopes: Review of Free Trial

This post contains outdated information. For the latest, see my 2012 Mvelopes review. In Short I have decided to convert Mvelopes into a full subscription for the next three months (see billing periods below), based on my positive experience so far and my desire to continue working with the system beyond the trial period. Mvelopes [...]

What Sizzled the Week of March 22nd?

The week of March 22nd saw the conversion of Fiscal Fizzle to the Thesis WordPress theme. I hope you like the new look – there is much more styling and customization to come, in between providing you with the best financial content I can come up with. This week on Fiscal Fizzle, we discussed a [...]

Tag! 7 Things You Didn't Know About Me

I was recently tagged by Green Panda Treehouse to do a meme. This will be the first one I’ve done, so I’m happy to accept the challenge. Meme Rules Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post. Share seven facts about yourself in the post. Tag seven people at the end [...]

How to Set Joint Financial Goals with Your Partner

When my wife and I got married last September, one of the first things I resolved to do was to create a list of questions and topics we would need to discuss in order to arrive at a comprehensive list of goals for our life together. I think my wife is used to my organized [...]

What's Your Reason for Working?

There are many potential reasons for working–from providing for family to funding a secondary passion in life. Have you ever considered what your reason is?

Using a Monthly Report to Discuss Money With Your Spouse

One of the tools I use on a regular basis to keep my wife in the loop about our finances is the monthly report. Monthly is a bit of a misnomer, since I really do it twice each month (once mid-month to monitor our progress, and once at the end of the month to review [...]

Ten Reasons Why Budgets Fail

It’s the beginning of the month, and you sit down to prepare a fresh budget for the upcoming month. You’re pumped as you scan through your expected income and divide it up into neat little categories, including a large chunk reserved for savings, and another to pay ahead on your student loans. You get up [...]

Book Review: The Skinny on Credit Cards by Jim Randel

Have you ever felt like the personal finance genre was filled with books that took weeks to read and failed to help you retain any of the information contained in them? I was recently made aware of a new series of books, available both in eBook and hard copy format, that promise to change the [...]

What Sizzled the Week of March 15th?

Another exciting week is behind us at Fiscal Fizzle. This week, we explored ideas about frugal entertainment and dating, and took a look at how we can all stay a little more positive during these trying times. I have some fantastic topics lined up for next week, and hope you’ll come along for the ride! [...]

22 Ideas for Cheap Dates

Today is the 20th day of the month of March. That may seem insignificant, but those within my closest circle of friends and family know that I am not available tonight for calls, questions, or emergencies. That’s because every 20th of the month, regardless of outside circumstances or what day of the week it falls [...]

11 Ways to Stay Positive in a Bad Economy

How often have your heard about how bad things are going in the last month or so? I hear it everywhere I go. Every meeting with a client or colleague, every get-together with friends, and every informal chat with family is filled with references and discussions about the bad economy, job uncertainty, the stock market plunge, and [...]

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March 2009

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