“Hey, that’s sounds very reasonable!” With those words, I dove into my first official side hustle this past week. Make that, first ‘side hustle’ since discovering the term, ‘side hustle’. When I launched Mystery Money Man a few months ago, side hustle wasn’t in my vocabulary. I really had never heard the term used before (pleading ignorance). Perhaps it’s …
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THREE LESSONS HINDSIGHT HAS TAUGHT ME
This is a guest post I wrote for Amanda over at the Frugal PhD blog. Amanda is a great writer who recently contributed to this site, with her post Conquering Your Financial FOSO (Fear of Starting Out). Be sure to check out her site! Recently, I’ve given a lot of thought to the concept of hindsight. Hindsight is something we all possess, but …
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WHY YOU SHOULD NEVER STRIVE TO BE NORMAL
A few weeks ago, I came across a blog post titled The Half-Normal Challenge by Mr. Groovy, who blogs alongside Mrs. Groovy at Freedom Is Groovy. Don’t let the funky cat sporting John Lennon spectacles fool you, the guy is a serious writer. In the article, Mr. Groovy identifies a lifestyle that’s considered ‘normal’ by North American standards. The typical …
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THE GREATEST CAR I’VE EVER OWNED
The Toyota Corolla turned 50 this week. On October 20th to be precise, according to the Automotive News article that appeared on my Twitter feed. This piece of news likely didn’t register with most people, simply disappearing into the Twitter abyss along with countless other morsels of information tucked neatly inside 140 characters. But I noticed. In fact, there was …
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YOUR DEBT IS AN INFESTATION
Hey everyone! Today, I’ve got a guest post written by my friend Chris, spreadsheet guru and blogger at Keep Thrifty. In it, Chris writes about the importance of not just managing your debt, but destroying it! Enjoy! 🙂 Let’s imagine something, shall we? Imagine you’re in your backyard with family or friends. There are small children running around and everyone is enjoying …
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UNDERSTANDING YOUR KIDS’ MONEY PERSONALITY
Parents have incredible influence over their children’s current and future relationship with money. In this post, I illustrate the importance of understanding how this influence changes over time, and that it should vary with each child. Recently, our (almost) 16 year old son got his first job. Make that, his first REAL job. Over the past couple of years he’s …
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DEBT’S SILVER LINING
“Opportunity often comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat” – Napoleon Hill Your cloud of debt has a silver lining. Do you have trouble believing that statement? It may depend on the current status of your relationship with debt. Perhaps it’s way too involved, and your debt hovers over you like a dark cloud. If that’s the …
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THIS WEEKS DIY HIGH
This post is a follow up to, “5 Ways To Save Money On Household Appliances”, which I wrote last week. Our clothes washer had stopped working, and the thought of possibly having to spend big $$$ to replace it got me thinking about the crazy amounts of money people spend on major household appliances. As it turns out, it gave me the opportunity to complete a relatively minor, yet big …
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Conquering Your Financial FOSO (Fear of Starting Out)
Hey everyone! This guest post from my friend Amanda at the Frugal PhD Blog is about conquering your financial FOSO, or Fear of Starting Out. Many of us struggle to start out or make progress on our financial goals because we feel like we’re already behind, or do not trust that we will be able to make the progress we need to accomplish our …
5 Ways to Save Money on Major Household Appliances
This is the first of 2 related posts. In this article, I’m going to share with you 5 ways to save money on your major household appliances. In the second post, I’ll detail my DIY project from the past week that inspired this article. I’ll also explain how my wife and I have managed to spend only $900 on household appliances …