Ben Edwards

Ben Edwards is the founder of the personal finance blog Money Smart Life. When he's not writing about money, he juggles raising kids, buying houses, and climbing the career ladder.

Ben Edwards's bio

Latest articles by Ben Edwards

5 Debt Lessons From Darth Vader

What can a villain teach us about getting out of debt? More than C-3PO can teach us about programming binary load-lifters.

4 Ways to Save Money on Photo Announcement Cards

Photo cards are a great way to send a personalized announcement, but can also be a great way to empty your wallet. Keep costs down with these strategies.

Buy a Home You Can Afford With the Mortgage Suitcase Trick

When you're thinking about buying a home, it's easy to buy more house than you need (and get stuck with a pricier mortgage). Use this trick to save.

Fly With a Little Help From Your Friends: Social Travel Planning

With these websites, you can use your friends, family, and online resources to help you plan, and even pay for, your next trip.

6 Ways to Get Paid to Learn

Lifelong learning is important, but you don't need to go back to school. Choose one of these six methods, and you can actually earn money while you learn.

Cloud Computing and Your Wallet

By providing processing power and storage elsewhere, cloud computing can totally change how you interact with your data. Discover how it can affect you.

5 Ways Being Nice at Work Can Payoff

If you think cutthroat competition is the best way to get ahead at work, hold up. Being nice is a better (and, well, nicer) way to end up on top.

Organizing Your Financial Paperwork

By reducing paperwork before you organize, keeping your financial documents in order can become quick, easy, and (mostly) painless.

3 Ways a Master's Degree Can Boost Your Career

Want a chance to mingle with upper management? Getting a master's degree gives you more than just education — it can be a shortcut to network your way up.

10 Scams to Avoid in 2011

Most of us work hard for our money, and last year, scammers worked hard to take it away from us. Here are last year's top scams and how to avoid them.

Runaway Debt, Can You Ever Pay It Back?

If runaway debt is taking over your life, here's some help from a perhaps unexpected source: rock band Soul Asylum.

Balance Transfer Dating Guide

An old credit card is a lot like an ex-lover. Follow these tips to get yourself out of debt and back on the dating scene.

The Worst Holiday Credit Cards

How many frequent flyer miles does a Santa Air card get? Not many. Here are three credit cards you don’t want in your wallet this holiday shopping season.

How Parents Save Money at Costco

Raising kids isn’t cheap, but shopping at Costco can help parents cut costs on everything from infant formula to toys.

5 Ways Money Can Buy Happiness

Don't listen to the old cliche; spending money on these five things can make you more content.

10 Financial Perks of Marriage

Have you heard the stories about how finances are one of the leading causes of divorce? What are people arguing about? Being married actually has some pretty good financial perks!