I am cheap (frugal?) about some of the strangest things. I haven’t wanted to pay for DSL because there are so many places (restaurants, coffee shops, parks) in my town where an enterprising blogger can get wi-fi for free. I was pretty resigned to the fact that I needed to leave the house if I […]
SmartyPig, the new savings tool with a social networking component, has utilized some interesting marketing tactics to create brand awareness. I’d be hard pressed to name a bank product developer or personal finance blogger who isn’t aware of the product (seems like every other blogger out there has done a $50 SmartyPig giveaway at some point in the past month). […]
Here are the “answers” to the acronym quiz.
If you want to sound like a banker or financial services professional, get to know these well. The trick is being able to use them without sounding like a complete jackass. I was actually in a meeting the other day and said, “I want to see the CBA […]
The first three months of 2008 have been kind to me. Things started out rough in January, but in mid-March I received my annual bonus as well as a nice little tax refund, so on the whole, this quarter has been a good one. Since the end of the year I have fully funded my […]
About a month ago I signed up for the beta version of Quizzle, Quicken Loans’ free financial aggregator that provides users a snapshot of their personal financial situation, including home value. Quicken Loans is providing consumer access to Quizzle free of charge as a way to become the “top-of-mind” mortgage lender and capture additional mortgage […]
Five years ago, I was a personal banker at a regional bank, making about $28,000 per year. According to my historical financial records (I have been tracking my income, savings, and spending in Excel since 2000), I had about $3000 in savings at that time. When I wasn’t making much money, I seldom used credit […]
I spent most of last week at a banking conference in Chicago. It was one of the better industry events I’ve attended in the past couple of years. The panel of speakers included representation from every sector of the financial services market, from a key analyst at Goldman Sachs to a former President’s chief economic […]
I don’t balance my bank accounts in the traditional sense - and I don’t follow a strict budget. I realize this flies in the face of most financial advice, but it works for me. Instead, I pay myself first (direct deposit into my ING savings account), and access each one of my checking accounts online […]
A recent post by JD at Get Rich Slowly and some of the comments of my last post got me thinking about what it means to be “poor”.
On Feb 11, JD linked to this list on Whatever, a blog by John Scalzi. When I was young, my family didn’t have a ton of money, but […]
I finally finished my taxes - it’s always a relief to check that task off the to-do list. I’ll be getting a nice refund, which I plan to use to fund my wedding account and pay for my new laptop (my old one died a slow, tragic death).
I know that I should do a better job […]