One of the most common things we hear in the computer repair shop that I work part-time in is that the computer has crashed, and could we please make sure to get the data off of the hard drive before we reinstall windows.  And, the first question we always ask is, “do you have your [...]

In the financial sector, there is a term that you have likely heard before.  That term is Float.  I’ll try to define it as it pertains to this article. Float – To use known time delays in processing of financial transactions to allow for extended time to cover cost of transaction. Much like any other [...]

For the past month or so, I’ve been performing a bit of an experiment.  I’ve been taking 10% of all income from this and my other sites and splitting it between an investment account and my Lending Club portfolio.  The idea, of course, is to see which performs better. In order to do that, I [...]

Street Smarts: Beyond the Diploma By: Jim Randel Often, when we’ve “grown up” and graduated college, we all move on to our new lives as adults with the expectation that our schooling has given us everything we’ll need to be prepared for the wide world ahead of us.  And, just as often, we are disappointed.  [...]

If retirement is fast approaching and you haven’t spent much time preparing for it, then you will likely find your golden years to be a little restrictive when your regular income stream ceases and you haven’t planned on how to replace it. However, you don’t need to panic just yet as you may still be [...]

That’s right.  Bull.  All these experts go on and on about calculating the opportunity cost of something and adding that in to your cost analysis when deciding whether you should do something yourself, or hire it out.  Heck, even I have used it before.  But, we’ve all taken it way too far. Let me ask [...]

The banking and credit card reform laws were supposed to help us – and they did in many aspects – but one of the unintended consequences is that banks are making up for the lost revenue sources by creating new ones… fees, fees, and more fees! I just closed my brokerage account from BoA/Merrill Lynch [...]

Not to be confused with the scales that our friend Lady Justice carries around with her everywhere, the scales of finance are a bit different in function.  To truly weigh something, using a scale, you load up one side of the scale with that which you want to weigh and then put weights of a [...]

Married couples have been doing it for centuries.  Combining their finances is just something they’ve always done.  Call it tradition if you want.  Call it necessity.  Recently, it’s a tradition that has come under fire as being old and outdated.  After all, the reason that the tradition exists is because it was rather usual for [...]

Are you shocked by the recent high price of groceries?  Have you noticed a jump in your grocery bill?  I have noticed a jump of about $20 a week that I am paying now for the same groceries I used to buy for much less.  Unfortunately, I am not much of a coupon diva, and [...]