Posted 3 days 4 hours ago by Philip Brewer
Is there a link between having a modern society and having a western society? The vast economic and military power of the United States (and before that, the United Kingdom) has made the two seem more connected than they actually may be.
Posted 5 days 5 hours ago by Philip Brewer
My brother told me once that, when he was in college, he handled money this way: "When I got paid, I set aside enough money for cigarettes, then spent the rest buying pizza and beer for everyone until the money ran out. The other people I hung around with did the same."
Posted 1 week 1 day ago by Philip Brewer
Suppose you and your friends all want to start small businesses. You've all got money coming in, you're all in a position to save up some capital, but it would take you a year to all save up enough--and you'd rather not wait. There's a solution to this problem that's so obvious its been reinvented all over the world.
Posted 1 week 3 days ago by Philip Brewer
The US Treasury pays more money to more people than just about anybody in the world. Last year it disbursed more than $1.6 trillion in 982 million individual payments. As you can imagine, they save a lot of money when they can make direct deposits instead of printing paper checks. So they're always trying to figure out what makes people reject direct deposit. One such thing is garnishment.
Posted 1 week 5 days ago by Philip Brewer
Here are two ideas you already know: You won't achieve maximum happiness by always doing the most pleasurable thing you can think of at each moment, but neither will you find it by always deferring present happiness in favor of greater future happiness. The key is balancing these two things. And the genius in this book is that it gives you tools for finding that balance.
Posted 2 weeks 1 day ago by Philip Brewer
There are a lot of ways to become rich. Some people work hard and save their money. Some people win the lottery. Some people invent something wonderfully useful. An awful lot of people who get rich, though, do it by being evil. Here's a quick look at some evil tactics, and some thoughts on whether they can work for you.
Posted 2 weeks 4 days ago by Philip Brewer
The human brain has a powerful capability to spot patterns. It's so good at spotting patterns, it can spot patterns that aren't even there. It's this fact that makes randomness--the topic of Mlodinow's new book--so interesting and so confusing.
Posted 2 weeks 6 days ago by Philip Brewer
As long as prices are free to rise, I wouldn't expect much in the way of gasoline shortages--at least not widespread, long-lasting ones. But it's actually pretty easy to produce a local, short-term one. In fact, it doesn't take much more than people worrying that there might be one.
Posted 3 weeks 1 day ago by Philip Brewer
It might seem like creativity would flourish best in the absence of any constraining routine. In fact, the opposite is true: Having a routine is very useful for protecting your creativity.
Posted 3 weeks 3 days ago by Philip Brewer
With each move by the airlines to claw back a bit of the profit that has vanished into the twin maws of competition and higher fuel prices, and with each move by the government to increase "security," air travel has become a little more dreadful. I'm glad we have a rail alternative.
Posted 3 weeks 5 days ago by Philip Brewer
Last week I saw several reports about a sharp jump in people running out of gas on the highway. The stories attributed the increase to high gas prices, suggesting that people who were short of cash simply didn't have enough to fill their tank. That's a good example of how it's very expensive to be poor.
Posted 4 weeks 1 day ago by Philip Brewer
Insurance is all about spreading the risk. A bunch of people buy insurance against the risk that a few of them will be the ones who get hit with a big bill that they couldn't pay. The model works fine for house fires and car crashes. However, it's a terrible model for ordinary, predictable expenses. Here's some tips on picking what to insure and what not to insure.
Posted 4 weeks 6 days ago by Philip Brewer
Rising fuel costs are hard on everybody, but one group gets hit especially hard: Rural folks--especially rural folks who work in town. On my previous posts on expensive fuel, commenters have said that, even after doing all the stuff I talked about, they still can't make ends meet. They've got a point.
Posted 5 weeks 3 days ago by Philip Brewer
I'm old enough to remember when a piece of bubble gum was a penny. In fact, it was a penny for most of my youth--and had been a penny for a couple decades before I was born. As inflation began to heat up in the 1960s, though, the Topps company first shrank the size of a piece of gum, and then eventually had to raise the price.
Posted 5 weeks 5 days ago by Philip Brewer
Every financial calculation that you make is influenced by your expectations for future inflation: how much to borrow, where to put your savings, and whether your last raise was a reason to celebrate or to start looking for a better job. Even small decisions, like whether to buy a couple extra cans of tomato paste, are affected. No dollar amount or interest rate is good or bad, except when compared to inflationary expectations.
Posted 6 weeks 2 days ago by Philip Brewer
Is there an amount of money that's too small to concern yourself with? People make that case, usually saying something like "Life is too short to waste time counting pennies." They're missing the point, though, because they're focusing on the wrong thing.
Posted 6 weeks 3 days ago by Philip Brewer
I eat lunch at a local fast-food place occasionally. My usual order runs to just over $4, so I was annoyed when I realized while walking over there yesterday that I'd forgotten to pick up a nickel or dime--I was going to end up with a pocketful of change. In fact, though, I needn't have given it a thought: My order cost $4.60.
Posted 6 weeks 4 days ago by Philip Brewer
The Federal Reserve has proposed some new rules to protect people from a list of abusive lending practices. The changes aren't in effect yet, and may not actually go into effect. It's worth looking at the proposals, though, to understand what's been going on just lately. If you haven't been paying attention, you probably have no idea what the credit card companies can legally do to you.
Posted 7 weeks 3 hours ago by Philip Brewer
There are a lot of budget templates out there. Any will serve the purpose, and if you've got one that's working for you, that's a good enough reason to stick with it. If you don't have a budget, though, or if you're going to be changing your budget categories around for some other reason, I've got some thoughts on what makes a good category.
Posted 7 weeks 3 days ago by Philip Brewer
Self-sufficiency is producing the actual stuff you use--your own food, your own clothes, etc. It's not a common lifestyle. Most people chose instead to follow the path of self-reliance. Rather than directly producing the things they use, they produce something they can sell for money, or else they work for someone who will pay them money, aiming to earn enough to buy what they use.
Have more to say? Join the discussions at Wise Bread's Finance and Frugality Forums.
| Posts | Cmts | |
|---|---|---|
| Fred Lee | 3 | 19 |
| Julie Rains | 5 | 21 |
| Linsey Knerl | 11 | 28 |
| Margaret Garcia-Couoh | 2 | 6 |
| Myscha Theriault | 6 | 50 |
| Paul Michael | 7 | 15 |
| Philip Brewer | 12 | 32 |
| Xin Lu | 9 | 21 |
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