Browsing Category

Money

Bacon Rose Bouquet. Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kitchenculinaria/6878767345/sizes/l/

Celebrating Valentine’s Day on a Budget

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. Walk into any store or take a look around Pinterest and it will be immediately clear that love is in the air.

But Valentine’s Day, as sentimental and nice as the idea behind it is, can quickly become a frugal person’s nightmare. Commercialism is a frequent critique of the holiday, with cards, candies, sweets, lingerie, nights out, etc. quickly adding up.

Whether you have a significant other, friends or family that you want to show that you care, here are some ideas for having a Valentine’s Day on a budget. After all, it’s about showing the people how much you care, not how much you can spend on them.

February 4, 2013 by Nicole

Career, Life, Money, Travel

Blogs to Follow About Life, Career, Money and Travel

Just about every week around here, I share some good reads from around the Internets. You might have noticed that while I aim for variety, there are a few blogs or resources that I pull from often. These standbys are what I go to for my fix of life, career, money and travel. I figured I would share the wealth and give you the skinny on what I’m reading day after day.

January 28, 2013 by Nicole

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/68751915@N05/6757824757/sizes/l/

Frugal Living, Money

Softening The Blow of More Taxes and Less Take-Home Pay in 2013

We may have averted the looming fiscal cliff, but that doesn’t mean we’ve completely slipped by with no tax increases in 2013. If you’re like myself, you may have found that you had less cash in pocket after your first paycheck in 2013. It may not be a lot per paycheck, but it can add up. If you were already on a tight budget, it could be a downright unpleasant situation no matter how much more you are paying. It’s not an ideal situation, but it’s one that can be conquered. In fact, you can spin this negative situation into a positive one and parlay the tax increase into some positive life changes. After all, that’s what living in flux is all about.

January 23, 2013 by Nicole

Living in Debt, Money

Reducing Debt in the New Year: The Debt Movement and the NO SPEND Challenge

Reducing debt is one of the good ol’ New Year’s resolution standbys. Everyone wants to lose weight, eat better, drink less, spend less, save more, yada, yada, yada. And in an age where student loan debt, credit card debt and car loan debt are well in the trillions, reducing debt is also on the top of American’s to-do lists once the new year hits.

It’s easy enough to decide what one’s resolution will be. However, as everyone knows, sticking to resolutions is a much more slippery slope. One of my goals for 2013 is to pay off a sizeable chunk of my student loans.

January 2, 2013 by Nicole

Frugal Living, Money

Holiday Gift Giving on a Budget

Some might call me cheap. Some might call me frugal. Some might call me financially selective. Others might call me Scrooge.

Yep. Scrooge.

You see, I haven’t done a lot of gift giving over the past couple of years. In fact, I’m not sure I actually got anyone anything last year. That is, unless you count my presence , as I took vacation days from work and flew to New York from rural Missouri for a fanciful two weeks of fun with friends and family.

Now before you get all up in arms about my lack of gift giving, let me note that I’m not one who either expects or feels entitled to receiving presents. I think I’d like to change it up this year though.

No, not about the feeling entitled (*cough* give me ALL of the presents! *cough*).

November 26, 2012 by Nicole

Career, Money

The Future of Money: Financial Services Conferences

Money, money, money! That was the topic that was on my mind for the beginning of my trip to the West Coast. Well, it was much more than money that was on my mind: it was the current and future states of financial services and how technology is going to impact the space in the coming years.

In general, I’m a big fan of conferences. I find them to be a great way to keep on top of trends, meet new people, and learn a lot of things in a short amount of time. In going to these two conferences and participating in them, I also found that I’m a big fan of speaking at them.

This was the first time I had attended any financial services conferences (let alone participated in one), so I thought I would share some key takeaways and observations from my experience.

November 8, 2012 by Nicole

Living in Debt, Money, Student Loans

Why I Contribute Extra to My Student Loans Each Month

One of my major goals is to pay off my student loans by the time I turn 30. That means I have roughly 4.5 years left to pay off my loans. I don’t have light sum of loans at the moment, so it’s not going to be an easy task.

Paying off my loans at an accelerated rate is important to me for a few reasons:

October 10, 2012 by Nicole

Money, Student Loans

4 Approaches to Solving the Student Loan Debt Problem in the United States

Student loans. It seems like you can’t get through the day without hearing about them lately. Or maybe I just feel that way since I’ve been working on an app design to help solve this massive problem. Whether or not the topic of student loans has been on your radar, it’s hard to ignore the glaring (and scary) statistics that have been coming out recently.

Student loan debt in the United States has surpassed $1 trillion. That’s nine zeros! Student loan debt is a bigger source of debt that credit card debt and car loan debt in the United States.

October 3, 2012 by Nicole

Newer Posts