Sorry readers, assuming I have any that is, I did not mean to go for a week without posting.

Topic for today is Christmas and Birthdays.

This year my fiancee and I set a firm budget for our gifts.  Amazingly, it looks like we both will be meeting our goal.  Even though I did spend a lot of money on her this year, I was also able to save a bunch while doing it.  Remember, we are working on the assumption that this money has been set aside and WILL be spent.  What I ended up doing was deciding what I was going to buy and then just kept watching for sales and such, as well as price-matching an Amazon purchase.

For her actual birthday we saved a ton of money from what we did last year.  Last year we went on a weekend trip to Duluth which ended up being way more expensive than I thought that it would be.  This year we had a vacation at home.  We locked ourselves in and watched TV and movies.  It may sound lame, but it was actually really fun.

This a debate that has been raging ever since the Roth laws were passed. Which one is better? How can you tell?

Well I have a few shortcuts for people to help them decide.

Read the rest of this entry »

With the interest rate drop yesterday, Flexo has updated the list of online savings account rates over at Consumerism Commentary.

This is the first post for the blog. I wish I could start out by making some grandiose introduction that alerts thousands of subscribers that they should read my blog. However, I am more realistic than that, and know that it will not work out that way.

Instead, I’m going to relate to you how I plan on using this blog.

The first way is going to be a journal of my financial activities that I’m in control of. Journaling decisions and actions along the way, and if/when I do research to archive it here.

The second will be to produce helpful information from my own personal point of view and debate the pros and cons with the commenters. I guess that assumes I will get commenters though.

Well there you go, my first post.

Also, don’t forget to check out my Goals page.