Question of the Week: Who Does Your Car Service?

March 5, 2010

I’m taking our car to get serviced this afternoon. I really hate spending money on car maintenance. I’m not really a “car guy.” I just need something to get back and forth with. So when I have to shell out $30 to $50 to get the oil changed, it just doesn’t feel good. I know [...]

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How Credit Card Numbers Are Generated

March 5, 2010

If you’re looking for a credit card generator you’ve come to the wrong place. While you can’t actually generate a credit card number which will be valid and accepted for a payment, you can find out more about how our current credit card numbers are validated and test the theory on the cards in your [...]

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Should You Refinance Your Mortgage?

March 4, 2010

I’m currently in the process of reviewing our home loan for a possible refinance. I know a ton of you are out there saying, “should I refinance my mortgage?” Rates are much lower than when we purchased our home, and we have the opportunity to refinance through our current lender without paying closing costs.
As I’m [...]

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You Need a Budget 3: A Principles-Based, Powerful Budgeting Tool

March 4, 2010

Several readers have expressed their love for the download-able budget software, You Need a Budget (YNAB). I had to include it in this week of budgeting reviews. YNAB 3 was recently released in beta. I downloaded the free trial version to my computer last night and gave it spin.
You Need a Budget is what I [...]

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How Good is Your 401K? Ask BrightScope

March 3, 2010

The Secret Life of Fees in Your 401K
A few years ago, I mentioned that I used a target-date index fund in my 401K. A reader came out and bashed me pretty hard for that move, saying I was overpaying to save for my retirement. I was frazzled, not because of the comment, but because it [...]

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Cheap Meals: Dine for Less but Keep the Great Taste and Healthy Foods

March 3, 2010

Cheap Meals Equals Cheap Health?
The first place people start to cut a budget is often on foods. If you think saving money by forgoing healthy foods for ramen noodles is your only option, it is not. It is critical to understand, your health can be affected by a poor diet, and poor health can mean [...]

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Budgetpulse: Free, Secure, Online Budgeting Tool

March 2, 2010

I thought I’d kick off this week of budgeting software reviews with my review of Budgetpulse. They hit the scene last year and have come on strong as a major player amongst the free budgeting tools.
With Budgetpulse you can set up a budget for your finances, manually import banking transactions, create a dashboard style view [...]

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The Blueprint for How to Make Money with a Blog

March 1, 2010

My friend Pete, from Bible Money Matters, just released a new ebook, Blueprint for How to Make Money with a Blog. I’ve had the pleasure of learning this blogging thing along side Pete for the past couple of years. We’ve shared our ideas for better blogging along the way. And we’ve been fortunate enough to [...]

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