From the category archives:

Tools

How to Write a Great Financial Mission Statement

12.02.2009 10 comments
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This is it–the one document that will guide your financial decisions for the rest of your life. Are you ready to write one?

Being Good With Money When You’re Bad With Math

10.22.2009 15 comments
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Five strategies to try if you’re bad with math, can’t seem to manage your money, and are ready to throw in the towel.

Installing Financial Red-Light Cameras

09.22.2009 9 comments
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Many municipalities are installing red-light cameras at important intersections – can we learn any lessons from this that work in our own financial life?

Tracking Home Inventory Values: The Why and How

06.15.2009 2 comments
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Tools and tips for keeping track of the value of your home inventory, and why it’s important to have the information on hand when something unexpected happens.

Creating Graphic Tools to Motivate Your Finances

05.20.2009 5 comments
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How to create four different graphic tools to help you save or pay off debt faster, and to keep yourself and your family motivated. Includes a link to a template.

Why I Use an Envelope Budget (and Free e-Book Giveaway)

05.19.2009 4 comments
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Four reasons why I use an envelope budget – paradigm shift, savings goals, irregular expenses, and eliminating guess work. Includes a free e-book from the makers of Mvelopes.

Tracking Your Finances: Tasks and Tools

05.11.2009 1 comment
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Tracking your finances is an essential personal finance skill, and one of the first we learn when first dealing with money on our own. Tracking involves more than just keeping an account register – some form of analysis should be applied to determine how and where money flows.
The end result of applying the principles of [...]

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

04.21.2009 4 comments

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 [...]

Why Consumer Reports is an Amazing Value

04.08.2009 2 comments
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One of the tools I have used over the last two years with a great degree of success is Consumer Reports. This magazine has been around for such a long time that it’s practically a household name. It’s truly a wonder why people don’t use it more often, so I’ve decided to do a little [...]

Mvelopes: Review of Free Trial

03.30.2009 0 comments

Four weeks ago, I wrote about the start of my Mvelopes trial, and several weeks ago I updated you on how the trial was going. Today, I would like to present my final review of Mvelopes Personal
(formerly known as Finicity Money Manager). Drum roll, please -
In Short
I have decided to convert Mvelopes into a [...]

Using a Monthly Report to Discuss Money With Your Spouse

03.25.2009 8 comments
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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 everything).
I’ve [...]

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