April 2009

Readers Weigh In: Is It Better for One or Both Parents to Work?

This is one of the most hotly debated topics in personal finance – is it more effective to be a one-income or two-income family? My own life is in that relatively early stage where kids are not yet a concern, but they are in the planning stages. Inevitably, the question comes up in conversation – [...]

Saving Money When You're Always in a Hurry

Today’s fast-paced world means that we are more likely to be pressed for time when it comes down to everything – including managing our personal finances. Whether you’re a busy professional, or working two jobs just to get by, sitting down to track spending and pay bills can feel like a huge annoyance. And forget [...]

Can Swine Flu Affect Your Finances?

With swine flu in full swing throughout Mexico and the United States, a number of my personal finance colleagues have taken it upon themselves to comment about how the flu can affect your personal finances. I also threw out the question in the “Twitterverse” last night and received some good reading in return. Philip Brewer [...]

How to Set Up Your First Successful Budget – Part III (Tracking & Review)

This is the last post in my three-part series on budgeting basics. I will wrap up the series by discussing strategies for tracking and reviewing your new budget to ensure that it’s working for you in the way you planned. If you’ve completed Parts I & II of this task, you should have a good [...]

Where is My Tax Money Spent? A Visual Guide

Today, I’d like to introduce my readers to a wonderful resource I found a few weeks ago that can tell you exactly where your tax money is going. Produced by Jess Backman at WallStats.com, this 6-square-foot poster of goodness describes, in painstakingly articulate detail, each branch and department of government and how much of the [...]

More Motivational Quotes for a Bad Economy

Two months ago, I put together a small collection of positive quotations for the recession and received a great deal of interest from people looking for inspiration, motivation, or just a happy moment in a world that seems increasingly bent on delivering bad news. So to follow up and spread some cheer, I’ve put together another [...]

What's Sizzling? – April 24th Edition

My wife and I spent the week beginning preparations for another wedding in our family. I’m happy to announce my sister-in-law got engaged a few weeks ago! At Fiscal Fizzle, my Personal Finance Basics series continued this week with Part II of setting up a budget. I also discussed reasons you may want to try [...]

Optimizing Your Contact With Money

Today’s post concerns itself with your relationship to money, and specifically how you interact and make contact with your own financial self. If you find yourself not spending enough time planning and organizing your finances, read on. If you’re always in front of your computer, tinkering with your finances, this is also for you. Finding [...]

Hungry for Spending? 8 Reasons to Try a Cash-Only Diet

About 6 months ago to the day, my wife and I made the decision that money was leaking out in too many places. We couldn’t plug the holes because we couldn’t find them. We needed a quick method of understanding where our money was going without having to stare at long reports. That’s when we [...]

How to Set Up Your First Successful Budget – Part II (Organizing and Setup)

This post is the second in a three-part series about setting up and maintaining a successful budget. Last week, we discussed what a budget was, how it could be beneficial (or practically essential) to reaching your financial goals, and the research that needed to be completed before we continued with Budgeting 101. The three parts [...]

What's Sizzling? – April 17th Edition

One of my favorite new features at Fiscal Fizzle is my Personal Finance Basics series, where I get to discuss the simplest of things in managing your money that many of us take for granted. This week, I started a three-part series on setting up a successful budget, which will continue for two more Mondays. [...]

5 Ways to Fight Financial Stagnation

The most common piece of advice I read about overcoming any type of stagnating goals is just “to start.” So yes, you do need to start in order to fight financial stagnation. You also need to set up some financial goals. But you already knew that, and you’re still spinning your wheels. For whatever reason, [...]

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April 2009

Selected Reading