Friendly, straightfoward posts on money, debt, economics, deals and the art of living well by living below your means.
I am always looking for funds and investments that are both relatively conservative and align with my basic economic outlook. Since I generally believe stocks are overvalued and are being held up entirely by government stimulus and central bank money printing, I am inclined to keep my modest investments “safe” in CDs, money markets and [...]
Our Below Your Means Basics series this week deals has been focused on looking at your finances from a perspective of your Net Worth. We started the series discussing Income vs. Net Worth, and then took a look at debt. Today, we’ll be taking about different mechanisms of savings and ways to examine your savings [...]
Utilities and tools that promise to make your PC faster and virus free are a very big business. You will see countless infomercials and popup ads trying to sell you some product to rid your machine of slowness and nasty viruses. Unfortunately, most of these tools are not worth their cost, and are effectively somebody’s [...]
Over the weekend Barry Ritholtz published an excellent column in the Washington Post listing 7 lessons he’s learned through his interactions with high net-worth clients. The lessons reflected a number of the values we have at Below Your Means. Under #3 – Memories are better than material objects, he writes: The rule of diminishing returns [...]
Before we get started, if you are months away from foreclosure or other serious financial consequences, this is not the article for you. We do not cover issues like bankruptcy, credit repair, or debt settlement agencies. Consider consulting the assistance of your financial adviser and/or attorney. Our favorite online legal resource is Nolo.com. Nolo’s Bankruptcy [...]
While the world of personal finance is interesting, I think what is going on in Greece and the rest of the Eurozone will have a far bigger impact on everyday American’s lives than they may realize. This weekend, along with Monday and Tuesday are going to be extremely telling for how bad things could get [...]
The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that the SEC is considering fraud charges against the ratings agencies that were responsible for evaluating the CDOs, or collection of loans, that ultimately led to the sub-prime mortgage crisis. For those of you who may not be familiar with the issue, part of the strategy of selling [...]
