A Tentative Personal Finance Blog

I spent the weekend in blistering 90 plus degree weather with humidity that seemed Amazonian. It was a fun filled weekend of sports activities (softball and basketball). I felt like I was going to have a heatstroke during each athletic event. We made it through our first 90 degree days, and July […]

Yesterday I pointed out several reasons to consider buying a used car instead of a new one. For many Fools, used cars are a tremendous value purchase. But there certainly are benefits to buying new, benefits that go well beyond that intoxicating stew of volatile organic compounds.
So what do you get for that 30% premium […]

Ah, that new-car smell. For many, it’s a wonderful intoxicant, one that lures them back to their favorite car dealer as soon as it fades from their most recent purchase.
But as with other intoxicants, getting hooked on that aroma can be an expensive habit. Two years after your purchase, long after the scents of newness […]

The summer wedding season is fast approaching. When you’re invited to more than one wedding in the summer (not to mention a slew of graduation parties), your budget can take a beating. It’s estimated that guests alone will spend $500 to attend one these days (and that figure doesn’t even include plane tickets, according to […]

Here’s a shocker. I love Walmart. I know it’s almost always on the receiving end of bad press. It ruins neighborhoods. It puts small businesses out of business. It wrecks the balance of trade. It pays its workers poorly and treats them mean. It makes overseas workers into slaves. That’s what the news says. The […]

All around me there has been an explosion of newborns. I’m at that age where people are starting their lives. Most are getting married and having kids. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been to the Babys ‘R Us and the children’s clothing isle at Target this past year. […]

My wife doesn’t like to check her email, so she asks me to do it every few days to let her know if there are any important ones she needs to reply to. In essence, I’m her personal secretary. I don’t mind so much, she’s not a Luddite. She loves gadgets and […]

The AAA-Chicago Motor Club keeps track of gas prices in the Chicago area. They report that the average price per gallon as of May 10 is $3.34. If you’re reading this at work just before leaving, you might want to think about the many ways you can save money on the way home […]

One of the thing I’m always complaining about is that my wife buys too many clothes. You walk into “our” closet (it’s mostly her’s with a few shelves devoted to my t-shirts), and you’re inundated with her suits for work, rows of shoes, countless accessories… it goes on and on! To be fair, […]