MONEY
“Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.”
—Henry David Thoreau
Paying Off Student Loans Could Tank Your Credit Score
"Should I pay off my student loans?" Little known fact: When you pay off student loans, your credit score drops. A lot. I know. I finally paid mine off after 27 years. I’ve never taken a forbearance or deferred them. I overpaid when I could. This was a major...
Are You Frugal or Cheap?
Are you frugal, a little too frugal, or downright cheap? It's an important question. I've studied it over the years. "I don't know how you do it," a friend said. "I wish I could." Lots of people looked at my spending and wished they could be as cheap as me. "You can!"...
How to Use Free and Cheap Sites Safely
Need to save this holiday season? Or all year round? It's two days before Thanksgiving as I write this. Seems like we just got done with Back-to-School sales. Then, Halloween candy hit us like a diabetic brick, and we didn't even get Thanksgiving this year--Black...
How Much Is Your Time Worth? How to Charge for Your First Consulting Job
If you're thinking "Boy, I'd like to ditch these ramen noodle lunches and start buying some steak," you may be a soon-to-be-not-broke teacher if you learn how to charge for consulting. Consulting, freelancing, "side-hustle," the gig economy...No matter what you call...
Use These 2-Minute Tips to Save Big on Things You’re Already Buying
Need some strategies to save on things you already need to buy? "We're out of dog stuff." "Stuff" is notoriously expensive heartworm and flea meds. That stuff adds up. What adds up more? Fleas. So, it was time to buy. With coupons on the site and Black Friday...
Things You Pay Too Much For: Storage
Do you have storage overkill? If you have more than two of these: Dropbox, Google, Box, an external hard drive, and Apple Storage, you're paying way too much for storage you can never fill. And you're paying every one of those bills. Remember when your hard drive...
Skip The Streaming Wars & Save a Bundle of Cash Today
Let the streaming wars begin! Disney's set to win this, hands down. Every kind in America knows Disney made a service and all the stuff they used to watch elsewhere is now exclusively there. "Mom, I'm signing up for the free trial." Declan knew the release date for...
8 Things Teachers Buy That’ll Suck Money Away
"Any teacher that won't give a kid a pencil shouldn't be teacher." The pencil is a symbol of everything that sucks your paycheck away. I came to hate pencils like I hated the credit card debt I racked up buying them--and everything else for my class. (This is the...
Silly & Expensive School Supplies Teachers Require (are you one of “those teachers?”)
Are you one of "those teachers?" The one who requires students to have a thousand specialty school supplies? If you're a teacher-parent you know what I'm talking about. If you don't have kids yet and do in the future, you will soon. You'll get a back to school supply...
Bob Cratchit’s Guide to Budget Holiday Dinner (Save some cash, eat well)
Holiday dinner should be a time of sharing, not going into debt over dinner. There’s a magic day in March or April where the average American pays off Christmas debt. Don’t let holiday dinner be part of it. We host holiday dinner. I’m a vegetarian. I’m happy to give...