Archive for January, 2009
“Where should I put my money now?”
Vicki, Mark and I have been doing radio interviews all week to help promote Your Money or Your Life. One question we keep getting is “Where should I put my money now?” First of all, it’s important to remember that the primary message of the book is all about the importance of accumulating a nest egg and then putting it in conservative investments that can grow without too much risk. Given that context, here is what we’ve been suggesting listeners do with any spare cash they want to invest: (more…)
Tips for hard times #1: Patience, Priorities, People
Speaking is 10% preparation and 90% listening to the audience – which is what I’ve been doing on tour. You’ve told me so much through your questions, and I’ll be blogging a lot this week to catch you all up. The meta question of course is “What do we do now… investing, saving, earning, spending, whatever?” What seemed stable – the growth economy – is still roiling, shedding jobs, toppling the Dow from over 14,000 to under 8,000. What’s a sane person to do? (more…)
GETTING AHEAD?
Tassew was my cab driver to the airport in Atlanta. I noticed he had Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents tucked beside his seat – which was quite an opener for conversation. Right away we were deep into the topic of (more…)
Tips for the Self-Employed
Thanks to all of you who have emailed us at info@yourmoneyoryourlife.info to share information or to ask us specific questions about the Your Money or Your Life program. We recently got an inquiry from a man who wanted to know how freelancers and self-employed people are supposed to apply the real hourly wage concept. The short answer is that we encourage practitioners to calculate the average from all income sources to determine one’s hourly wage each month. For a more detailed answer to this topic, visit www.financialintegrity.org. (more…)
Tools to track by
I’ll never forget a talk Joe and I gave to an audience of several hundred people. In the Q&A a young woman timidly asked, “But how do you track your expenses?” Joe looked at her in disbelief. “You take out your little book (he always had one – in his plastic pocket protecter lined breast pocket – along with a pen). And you write it down. Is that so hard?” She withered. I rescued her (more…)
Financial Illiteracy
The Seattle Times started the New Year calling you a financial dunderhead. Maybe not you. Maybe a few people you know. “Financial illiteracy has cost the nation trillions of dollars in hard-earned savings, investment and mortgage payments,” they said in an editorial titled Nation of financial dunderheads needs formal instruction. Here’s where we come in (more…)
