Dollars and Sense

7 Weird Ways to Save in 2012

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always had a New Year’s goal to save a certain amount of money.  Usually it was for a specific item like a car, vacation, or to pay off student loans.  For some, their goal to save more money revolves around looming credit card debt, which is at [...]

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Why You Should Resolve to be Weird This Year

Have you heard these? “Isn’t the average credit card debt something like $15,000?  My $12,000 isn’t all that bad, is it?” “Yes, I pay $600 monthly on car payments, but everyone has car payments.” I have — in fact I heard these two statements in the past two weeks:  people justifying their dismal financial standing [...]

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7 Ways to Winterize Your Home

With the temperatures dropping fast, it’s time for you to start thinking about winterizing your home.  A few steps can help your home stay energy efficient without sacrificing your family’s comfort.  Most of these things can be done in a day, so take some time this week to check these off of your to-do list.

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5 Popular Christmas Gifts and Inexpensive Substitutes

It wasn’t easy, but I figured out a way to talk about Christmas and economics in the same article.  A fundamental part of economics is the fact that substitutes can alter our decision to buy something.  If the price of what we want is too high or if scarcity causes the item to leave empty [...]

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How I Got Frontier to Lower My Rates

I wish I could say that I am a savvy customer – one who is always a step ahead of each and every vendor – but that would be a lie.  I am not that person.   However, almost by accident, I recently managed to get Frontier to lower the rates on my bundled (TV-telephone-internet) plan.

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Our Ten Dollar Christmas Challenge

Our family is in the midst of “The Great Christmas Experiment” this year: we opted for a family vacation in June instead of a gift exchange at Christmas.  No, we are not anti Christmas…in fact, we love the season dearly.  It is just that when we overdosed on gift exchanges last year, we (even my [...]

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Readers’ Input Requested…Am I Too Tough on My Strategic Default Stance?

When I wrote the post What is “Strategic Default” and Should You Consider It?, I was tough on those who have used this tactic. First, a definition:  Strategic Default, according to Wikipedia, is “the decision by a borrower to stop making payments (i.e. default) on a debt despite having the financial ability to make the [...]

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The 80/20 Principle and Money

You’ve probably heard of the phrase “the 80/20 rule.”  The technical term for this common phrase is called the Pareto principle, named after…you guessed it, a man named Pareto.  In the early 1900s, Vilfredo Pareto noticed that 80% of Italy was owned by 20% of the population.  On a much smaller note, he observed that [...]

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Are Your Credit Card Rewards Really Rewarding You?

When my friends tell me how much money their credit card companies pay them each month, I ask myself, “What is the catch?” After all, credit card companies are not in the business of losing money. Is it possible…really possible…to make credit card companies pay? Even though I don’t own any credit cards, I am [...]

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