What Do You Do With Your Children’s Money?

Over the past 13 and a half months we have a couple events for my son that resulted in cash gifts, specifically, we had his actual birth, Christening and his First Birthday.  At each of those events we received very generous gifts from his aunts, uncles, grandparents, friends and pseudo uncles and aunts.  Every time…

Turn Your Resolutions Into Good Habits

New Years is a time for making optimistic promises to yourself. Whether your goal is to lose weight, get your finances on track or fulfil some other lofty plan, almost everyone has some type of New Years resolution. Unfortunately, many of these resolutions are abandoned quickly, sometimes even before the last of the Christmas decorations…

Most Readers Will Hate What I Did With Part of My Bonus

Every year, when I get my bonus I think about how I will split up the money. A couple years back I received less than what I expected and discussed what to do if you receive an unexpectedly low bonus while last year I discussed what I would do with my larger than average bonus,…

Differences Between Nontraded REITs and Exchange Traded REITs

Outside of investing a small percentage of my bi-weekly 401(k) contributions into a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) Fund, I have very little personal experience investing in these interesting vehicles, however, when I saw a FINRA Investor Alert I was curious what it had to say.  The FINRA Investor Alert was titled, “Public Non-Traded REITs…

Reflections on My Attempt To Save Money By Driving Less

Of the resolutions I made a year ago, several were concerned with cutting my costs and improving my finances. Most of these resolutions existed in the world of budgets and long-term plans, investments and credit card use. But one of them was different from the rest: my resolution to drive less in 2011 and see…

Financial Crisis Situations – What You Can Do and How You Can Prepare

No one wants to have to deal with a financial crisis, but many of us will face a shortfall of money at some time or another in our lives and so it’s worth taking action now so you’re prepared for anything that might come your way in the future. For instance, in difficult economic times,…