Month: August 2009

It's not often that you read an article and feel moved by the words. But this is what happened when I read President Obama's eulogy for Senator Edward M. Kennedy. The words conveyed the strong bond that President Obama had with this accomplished Senator, but I thought a couple of…

Coming up with a meal idea is always tough! Trying to come up with something that is healthy, delicious, and actually inexpensive may seem nearly impossible. Here we look at some cheap, healthy, and delicious meal ideas. 1. Pasta Primavera: What a great way to get in your veggies! The…

The Federal energy-efficient appliance rebate program or Cash for Appliances program as it is more commonly known is now live in a number of states. The program will provide $300 rebates for Energy Star electric heat-pump water heaters, $100 for super-efficient clothes washers and $50 for super-efficient refrigerators. The program…

One of the largest purchases in your lifetime will most likely be your home. If you have bought one or are planning to, chances are that you have looked into a mortgage in order to afford one. As time passes, and you pay your monthly mortgage payments, have you ever…

The title of this post was based on a question I recently received from a reader - Ben - who was new to equity investing and wanted to get some basic advice on investing in the stock market. He has about $5,000 to kick start his portfolio and wanted a…

People who opt to live a frugal lifestyle don’t usually cite their health as a reason that motivates them to save money. However, there are actually a lot of health benefits to choosing to live a frugal lifestyle. Those health benefits are related to stress reduction, food choices, frequency of…

A slumping economy and the prospect of prolonged unemployment has led many workers to consider going to business themselves and because of the perceived safety, brand name and established support structures, franchising is often a popular option. In fact rather than use their redundancy payouts to pay off a chunk…

New rules for home appraisers implemented a few months ago following the housing market meltdown are causing buyers/sellers, realtors, home builders and mortgage companies further pain in the already depressed housing market. Not only are appraisal costs going up for home buyers, but nearly 60% of home builders are running…

Robinhood app I have been a big fan of discount brokers, primarily because of their low to zero trading costs and easy to use online brokerage platforms. However it looks the low cost broker wars have intensified with a strong new player in the stock trading scene, who is winning…

Recent economic figures released confirmed what most had expected: America’s economy is still contracting. The world’s largest economy shrank at an annual rate of 1% in the latest quarter (compared to 6.4% in the previous one) meaning that while the country's deepest post-war recession was not over, the rate of…