Certain personality types are susceptible to spending I used to work for a publishing house and never realized that one of the strategies of publisher’s is to get people to build their “collection”. My old boss was a genius. He re-published the classics, which were in the “public domain”. That means you don’t have to […]
Picking a financial steward in the age of blended families
Keys to the castle You know what keeps me up at night? Not if I’m going to run out of money or not. I’m pretty sure I have that covered. What keeps me up at night is who will manage and inherit my money if I weren’t here. In short, how can I pick a […]
The most frugal holiday movie (and it’s not Scrooge)
DISCLAIMER: This post contains an affiliate blog link where I might receive a nickel or quarter if you click on the link and purchase the item. (Bah Humbug) Bridging generations We spend so much time writing and reading about saving nickels and dimes that sometimes we forget what it’s really like to truly “Do without”. […]
Reduce your cat’s litter box size
Money saving tip #8 NOTE: This post does contain my “affiliate” link from Amazon. Which only means I might receive a nickel or dime if you click on the link below and purchase the product. (It hasn’t happened yet for me, so I’m not holding my breath) I’m really anal about messy areas of the […]
Your deepest personal reason for financial motivation?
This is personal Way back in 7th grade, I’ll never forget how I felt that day. My desk neighbor and I were kicking around our bank account balance totals. Don’t ask me why, but I think it had something to do with “Birthday money” or gifts, etc. Actually, I think we were talking about purchasing […]
Downsizing (in Hollywood) can be fun
Downsizing? Leave it to Hollywood I thought this might add some levity to the retire early community. If you haven’t seen the trailer for Downsizing the movie you can check it out here. The premise of the movie is simple. Allow modern science to shrink you down to about 5 inches tall, hence requiring a much […]
Scan your own books to save money
Scan your own books!? Ok, this is going to sound a little extreme to most people, but sometimes I have a hard time letting stuff go. As part of my very frugal nature, I don’t like to re-purchase the same thing I’ve paid for in the past. Something that I paid for, should be mine […]
Too many eggs in the retire early basket?
With all this “Tax cut” talk, it’s really making me recalculate some of my numbers for retiring early. It’s also making me wonder how much we really need for retirement. Everyone has an individual situation, but I’m thinking I might need a boost. Don’t get me wrong…living frugally totally makes sense. I tend to get […]
Happy wealth effect as your net worth grows
Negative Nellies I love writing in this space, because I’m the youngest of 8 children. My oldest sibling(s) has an entirely different idea about “Financial Independence and retiring early”. Flat out they discourage it. I don’t know if it’s because they’re concerned about my physical health, my mental health or just staying active. Maybe they […]
Learn how to cut your own hair men and save big
Frugal Money saving tip #6 The short answer is “Get your wife to do it”. Actually that reminded me of an old parable that my friend shared with me many years ago. It went something like this. “When there are 2 barbers in a shop, which one do you choose?”. ANSWER: “The one with the […]