Everyone keeps telling me I need a house. It is a great time to buy a house. I should stop wasting my money on rent and go buy a house. The market is perfect for buying a house. I need a house.

It is true that now is a good time to buy a house, if you are ready. Purchasing a house can be a great blessing. However, it can also be a horrible curse if you are not financially ready. So the question becomes; when am I ready to buy and stop renting? Several things need to be in place before you run out and mortgage your life for a house. Read the rest of this entry »

“The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you’re not going to stay where you are.” — JP Morgan

If this is true, then why do I feel like I should be so much further ahead? Many of us are not satisfied with where we are in life. We are not happy with our marriage, our weight, our career, or our finances. Because of this, most of us have made a decision to improve in at least one of these areas if not all of them. Personally, I made a decision to lose 60 pounds. Five years later, I only had 105 to go. What went wrong? Read the rest of this entry »

Ever wonder why your dining out budget has a tendency of blowing up in your face? Or how that nebulous “miscellaneous” category in your budget inflates to two or three times what you planned?

Before you get to supply and demand in an economics class, there are two concepts you must understand. First, you live in a world of scarcity. That means that you have a limited set of resources to work with. Sounds like your paycheck; you have a set amount of money available to use. Read the rest of this entry »

We all have heard how important it is to be on a budget – to know where every penny goes, but we still never seem to get around to making one. Most people have a reason (ahem…excuse) why they can’t seem to follow a budget. Here are some “excuses” that may be preventing you from following a budget like you should. Read the rest of this entry »