The stock market is a funny thing, to be sure. Bad news sometimes makes stocks go up, and good news sometimes makes them go down. It’s almost as if the stock market is a completely random system sometimes. That being said, I made my Llamafolio updates today, and was rewarded with a surprise. After being [...]
One of the biggest stumbling blocks that I keep coming across in my pursuit of greater frugality is a lack of time. The internet is full of money-saving tips. Grow your own garden, make your own laundry detergent, cook every meal from scratch using the chickens in your back yard, etc etc. If you have [...]
After reading personal finance blogs for several years now, there is little that I haven’t seen. One of the recurring themes on some blogs is quite disturbing – grown adults who accept / demand an “allowance” from their parents. I’ll cut to the chase – if you’re over the age of 18 and living on [...]
Unlucky number 9. That’s what we’ll call my latest and greatest electric bill. Well, latest and highest, at least. It’s actually 12% higher than June’s bill, which was my previous highest. What was the damage? A whopping $221.36. Unreal. Natural Gas – down, down, down I used 37% less natural gas, which amounted to a [...]
On July 8th, I pulled the trigger on a whopping 2 shares of TELOZ. Why only two shares? Well, I had a little over $40 in my brokerage “cash” account, so I felt like it needed to be spent. Since I’m a Zecco customer, I get 10 free trades per month – no commission charge. [...]
My son had his cell phone stolen about a month and a half ago. For some reason I never called Sprint about it – nothing showed up on the online statement for about 2 weeks, so I figured it was just lost. Today I happened to check my statement though, and it was ugly. Normally [...]
Which of these would you rather have? Lately, more and more folks have been picking option number two. That’s right, these days many people are feeling more confident with an ounce of pure gold in their hands instead of a ( roughly ) a thousand bucks. The spot price of gold is about $933 [...]
On the last day of December 2007, I wrote up a list of personal finance goals for 2008. Since we’re officially halfway through the year, it’s time to see what kind of progress I’m making on those goals. Pay off all my credit cards before the end of 2008. Well, halfway. I paid off my [...]
June of 2008 is done – it’s over. The economy is flaky, inflation is high, and doubts abound. All that being said, my net worth increased by a solid 7%, or a little more than $2900. My total net worth topped $40k for the first time, and sits at $40,425. The gains came from some [...]
