My Mind on Mortgages

Matt Jabbs wrote THIS PIECE on the Debt Free Adventure website in which he makes a couple suggestions for how to track your spending.  I’ve blogged many times about how getting control of your cash-flow is the primary driver of building wealth yet also the most elusive for so many households.  If you spend as [...]

If you’re like most people then you know that your spending habits ultimately determine your ability to generate wealth.  If you spend more than you make then you will go into debt which is not a sustainable.  If you’re able to spend less than you make then you can set money aside for savings and [...]

Talk with any financial planner and I think they’ll agree that a households ability to build wealth starts and ends with cash-flow.  If they are able to spend less money than they earn then they will be able to set aside cash for savings and investment.  That money will then benefit from compound interest which [...]

Marketplace money had a good story over the weekend about the financial impacts of living to be 100.  You can read/ listen to it HERE.  The story profiled Horte Guttman who is now 102 years old.  Unfortunately she ran out of money at age 98 despite good financial planning.  According to the story a new [...]

Each year the Employee Benefit Research Institute conducts a survey about American’s financial preparation for retirement.  The results from this years survey were just released and show a couple troubling trends.  You can read the entire report summarizing the results HERE.  But if you prefer the executive summary like me here are a few cliff [...]

I am not a wealth manager or retirement planner but I do have a passion for personal finance and as I’ve mentioned before on this blog I am currently enrolled in an Executive Certificate in Financial Planning class at the University of Portland Pamplin School of Business. I am currently in the middle of our [...]

On the way into the office this morning I was listening to Morning Edition on NPR Radio and heard this story about a new book entitled ‘In Cheap We Trust‘ written by Lauren Weber.  The book is a history of frugality (AKA “cheapness”) in the United States.  If you’re looking for some historical inspiration to [...]

I came across this video with Steve Martin over the weekend and thought it was amusing. Here is the transcript: Wife: I just can’t get these numbers to add up. Husband: Like we’re never going to get out of this hole. Wife: Credit card debt, does it ever end? Salesman: [entering from who-knows-where] Maybe I [...]

I blogged about the process of “deleveraging” balance sheets for US households back in September and October.  Deleveraging is the process of US households reducing their debt and hopefully increasing their assets. For the past few years US households “leveraged” themselves by borrowing money on easy credit qualification.  Not only did US households engage in [...]

I’ve had the conversation many times with other financial professionals and I think that everyone would agree. At the root of success or failure regarding a household’s finances is how well they control their spending. A household that spends LESS THAN they bring in will be flush with cash that they can save, invest, and [...]