July 2008
46 posts
Tips on Cutting Down That Food Bill →
As the work-week steadily increases, some of us, frankly, do not have the time to fix elaborate meals, or are on such a budget that we can’t afford anything but the “basics.” Because of this, often we find ourselves in a never ending cycle of frozen pizzas and microwave dinners. Having previously discussed ways to green your life and save money,here are several tips for saving...
Four Choices To Brand Your Online Business →
Building a strong brand on the Internet isn’t easy. In fact, Internet branding is an area that most online businesses screw up rather badly.
From single freelancer to team business, brand is what gets you ahead. It gets you noticed. It makes you memorable. So why are you missing the opportunities to brand your site properly?
Simplify Your Investing: An Introduction to DRIPs →
The term DRIP refers to “Dividend Reinvestment Program.” Don’t let the term fool you, though, because DRIPs go way beyond dividends. Essentially, when you open a DRIP account with a company, they’re letting you buy stock directly, cutting the brokerage firm out of the picture. This lets you buy additional stock with any dividends you earn, all without brokerage firms taking a bite of your profit.
The Five Best Ways to Save Money on Home... →
As the economy slumps, we still need to live our lives and keep our homes a place where we want to spend time alone, time with friends and family, and make sure it’s a place where we can rest and regenerate ourselves for another day or work week. How do you keep up your home when your dollar buys less and less? Here are five proven ways to maintain your home beautifully and save money at the same...
15 Sites to Cut Your Startup Operating Costs
Clever founders always eke the most out of every buck. But economic conditions being what they are, even the best bootstrappers could use a little extra help. By now you’ve probably heard of web sites like GasPriceWatch.com, GasBuddy and MSNAutos, which help consumers find the cheapest fuel prices at gas pumps in their geographic area. Such “cost-optimization” sites are now proliferating across...
What Starbucks' Store Closings Mean to You →
A look at how Starbucks changed the coffee business in surprising ways. While it tried to become the 800 lb. gorilla of the industry, it actually ended up helping the independent stores that were so afraid of it. Conversely, its closing of 600 stores may signal the end of the good times for mom and pop coffee shops.
Is This The End of the Three Dollar Latte?
How to Get the Best Deal on Car Insurance →
It can be a work of art getting cheap car insurance, so if and when we finally manage to stumble upon a good deal we tend to stick with it. However sticking with the same insurance company year after year will probably mean you are paying over the odds. Insurance companies provide a good deal in the beginning to get you to take their policy, and then slowly creep up the premiums each year....
Budgeting 101: The Ultimate Easy to Use Budgeting... →
Everyone struggles to make their budget work. This tool will help you maximize every cent you earn. The key to any budget is to stick to the budget no matter what, and for that reason you must try and account for every little expense that you have.
Preparing a Budget? Ten Tips for Making That... →
If you’re continually seeing failure at budgeting, the best place to look is usually at the fundamentals. It only takes a fundamental mis-step or two to transform a well-planned and well-formed budget into a complete disaster.
Get Paid Today: 10 Websites That Want to Pay You...
If you are looking for new ways to cash-in on your writing, music or videos on the Internet, then these “10 Websites That Want To Pay You For Your Creativity” are waiting for you, so that you can start getting paid today.
Let’s be honest, there are two kinds of people who create content online, those that get paid and those who do not. The majority of people currently creating content on...
10 Credit Card Company Tricks To Beware
Are you smarter than a credit card company? They’ve got billions riding on their belief that you’re not. Check out these 10 methods, via the Americans for Fairness in Lending, credit card companies use to make extra money off you that you may not even be aware of, knowledge that could save you hundreds in extra fees.
Via Consumerist
Get Rich Now: How You Can Profit by Buying Real... →
Are you dreaming about getting into real estate? Do you think you need to wait until you have oodles of money sitting idle in a bank account before you can take the plunge? Are you struggling to save up that 20-percent down payment? Does it kill you to see all the good real estate deals out there that you can’t afford to snatch up for a song? You really can stop dreaming and get into the business...
Five Signs That You're Living Beyond Your Means →
Many people in America are living beyond their means, as personal savings rates are at their lowest levels since the Great Depression, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Dwindling savings mean that U.S. households are taking on more debt and are less able to absorb a financial blow like the loss of a job or a downturn in the economy. If you are concerned that your finances could...
16 Great Personal Finance Resources & Blogs
It’s one of the most common reasons for arguments and divorce in marriages. It can keep us from achieving our dreams, or it can enable us. It can cultivate the worst in people, and it can cultivate the best. Money is one the most fundamental, crude, material parts of our existence, yet we look at it like some kind of metaphysical, unknowable force.
If this describes your relationship with...
11 Tips for First-Time Homebuyers →
Buying a house is a difficult process — there are large sums of money involved, the transaction costs and hassle of moving mean that you can’t just buy another house if you don’t like the one you end up with, and you don’t have enough information to make a completely informed decision. The best you can do is to educate yourself in all aspects of the house hunt, keep a clear head, and buy a house...
Secrets of a Bargain Hunter: Save Money on Your... →
These days, we don’t have to go out and hunt bison or gather berries like our forefathers, but the hunter-gatherer mentality is still deeply rooted in us.
Coming back from town with a Wii may have replaced dragging a bleeding stag back to the homestead, but there’s the same sense of triumph and pride in having accomplished our mission. And although we don’t gather free berries...
10 Richest People of All Time and How They Made... →
Quick: who is the richest man of all time? Bill Gates? Warren Buffet? Not even close, though there’s no denying they’re very, very rich. The richest man of all time, when wealth is measured as a percentage of the national economy, was John D. Rockefeller, whose fortunes made Gates’ and Buffet’s look downright puny.
Keeping score of...
The Golden Money List: Hundreds of Tips for... →
So here it is — a list of the best money articles on Zen Habits, as a resource for anyone trying to live more frugally, get out of debt, save money, or simply create a better financial system in their lives. Bookmark it for future reference if you like. Enjoy!
The Most Efficient Power Plants →
In your standard fossil-fuel power plant, the inefficiency begins when the coal or gas ignites. In some plants, as little as 30% of the energy created ends up in the power grid. The rest, in the form of heat, blows out the smokestacks. If one could build power plants that used 80% of the energy instead, everyone would be rushing to do so, right?
Not so fast. Yes, such plants exist, but advocates...
5 Sure fire ways to save money on your food bill →
Would you like an extra £610 in your pocket each year? That is how much money the average household with children throws away annually in food it paid for but didn’t get around to eating (The food we waste report). Shocking, isn’t it? As financial expert Jasmine Birtles, from moneymagpie.com, says “it’s enough to pay for your annual utility bill!”
Every single household in the UK has the ability...
11 Reasons to Celebrate Higher Gas Prices →
As a finance and conservation nerd, I’m excited about higher gas prices. I realize that I’m in the minority in this opinion and I know full well that most people will think I’m nuts. I have to admit that I don’t enjoy paying higher prices, but since there’s nothing I can do about it and prices aren’t likely to come down, I’m choosing to focus on the positives that may result from these prices. So...
How to Beat the High Cost of Energy and Reduce... →
Rising energy prices are having an increasing impact on on all of us. But with a few simple actions you can reduce your energy use, saving you money and reducing your contribution to global warming.
America's Best Places To Raise A Family →
Forbes’ rankings are skewed toward counties with good school districts. Using research provided by the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax research group based in Washington, D.C., we started with a list of the nation’s counties with populations over 65,000. To eliminate under-funded school districts, we isolated 97 counties where more than half of per-pupil spending comes from property...
June 2008
9 posts
