By 2 Cents on June 14th, 2010 | Category: Money Psychology | I don’t like money, actually, but it quiets my nerves.
~ Joe Louis
Update: This article was selected for the Best of Money Carnival #56 posted at Free Money Finance. Thank you! It was also included in the Carnival of Financial Planning #147 posted at The Skilled Investor. Thanks!
Money, or the lack of it, can cause a lot of stress. It can lead to tremendous personal or family strife and even wreck marriages. This issue has really come to the forefront during the financial crisis of the past couple of years. A lot of folks have really struggled with financial, psychological, and physical health problems as a result of excessive debt levels, employment issues, and insufficient emergency funds. A lack of money is undoubtedly stressful.
But how do you explain the fact that wealthy people can experience a great [...]
Read on and enjoy … Does Money Reduce Stress?
By 2 Cents on February 9th, 2010 | Category: Family | Loving is not just looking at each other, it’s looking in the same direction.
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1939
Update: Mr. Cheap over at Four Pillars has been running a series of posts on love and money last week and this week. I have really been enjoying them. You might too!
We continue our Love & Money series today with a look at compatibility. How compatible are you and your partner? Does compatibility mean similarity, or do opposites attract? There has been a lot written about how important choosing a partner is to your life and your money. It’s also really important that we get this stuff ironed out well before we make a lifetime commitment, or at least before we combine our finances with another person’s.
Give Me a C . . .
[...]
Read on and enjoy … True or False: Compatibility = Similarity
By 2 Cents on February 8th, 2010 | Category: Family | Money is neither my god nor my devil. It is a form of energy that tends to make us more of who we already are, whether it’s greedy or loving.
~ Dan Millman
Update: This post is featured in the Money Hacks Carnival #104: Have You Ever? edition at Rabbit Funds. Thanks Adam!
This post kicks off the week prior to Valentine’s Day, so I thought I’d do a little series on Love & Money. We begin today by looking at whether the two are mutually exclusive. There are many people out there who don’t care to use a budget, manage their money, or even give their finances much thought at all. For some, it’s because they don’t see it as important. For others it’s because they think that paying attention to money makes them cheap, superficial, or unethical. I [...]
Read on and enjoy … Love & Money: Does It Have to Be One or the Other?
By 2 Cents on January 13th, 2010 | Category: Book Reviews | Sometimes people who save their money are shown as the colorless folks, the conservative ones who don’t dare. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, people who save are the ones who dare to dream, the ones who have big ideas – and who make real plans to make those dreams happen. In our opinion, savers are the ones who taste life at its richest.
~ Elizabeth Warren & Amelia Warren Tyagi, All Your Worth, p. 182
I’ve read quite a few personal finance, investing, and trading books. Almost all of them provide some value. They often deliver similar messages in different ways. I have yet to read a few of the real classics, but they’re up next on my list and I’ll post some reviews as I finish them. Having said that, I would say that this is the best personal finance handbook I [...]
Read on and enjoy … Book Review: All Your Worth
By 2 Cents on January 6th, 2010 | Category: Money Psychology | Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.
~ Andre Gide (1869-1951)
Yesterday we talked about the abundance of advice available, especially at this time of year. Experts and gurus are prolific sources of this “noise“. So what’s the difference? In my mind, an expert is someone with above average knowledge about something, whereas a guru is someone who is perceived by many to have a higher, usually more inspired knowledge. For me a guru is an expert with charisma, and they may or may not possess the skills to back up their reputation. Gurus and experts can both be helpful, but like any other source of information, caution is warranted.
Many experts and gurus have only the best intentions. They want to help people solve problems. But there are those who are more interested in personal gain. Most provide information that is [...]
Read on and enjoy … Gurus & Experts: Should You Listen?
By 2 Cents on January 4th, 2010 | Category: Debt |  Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right.
~ Oprah Winfrey
OK, so you overindulged. You read all of those articles warning about moderation or complete avoidance. You intended to follow that prudent advice. But you didn’t. I could easily be talking about alcohol consumption or debt consumption. Either way, over-consumption will put you in a precarious position.
If you’re not in that position on either front, congratulations. If you are, you’re not alone. Debt has been in the news a lot lately and if you read my post on 2010 What Ifs, you know that I think it will be a big topic this year. Sovereign debt problems are simmering in many parts of the globe and are coming to a full boil in others, particularly the PIIGS countries. This has led many to ask the question: Read on and enjoy … 6 Remedies For a Debt Hangover
By 2 Cents on December 30th, 2009 | Category: Economics |  Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.
~ Hal Borland
Yesterday we looked at some notes that I had made at the beginning of 2009. Today, we look at possible problem areas for 2010. Again, these are obviously not predictions, as I’m too chicken to stick my neck out on what I think will happen. Further, I don’t have any idea what will happen, nor do the thousands of pundits making their “here’s what ‘s going to happen in 2010 lists”. This is meant to be food for thought, and nothing more. (I don’t know about you, but I could use a little more of that kind of food rather than the calorie-filled sort I’ve indulged in over the past week!)
Debt: I think this [...]
Read on and enjoy … 2010 What Ifs
By 2 Cents on December 28th, 2009 | Category: Economics |  An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn’t happen today.
~ Laurence J. Peter (1919 – 1988)
Economics is often called “the dismal science” for its general lack of prediction accuracy. There are lots of other reasons financial experts and non-experts alike detest it. For most laypeople like you and I, it’s incomprehensible and just plain boring. I can understand all of those criticisms.
Still, there must be some value in it if thousands of people study it and governments make policy decisions based on it. Maybe it was never meant to be an exact science anyway. Maybe science itself isn’t always all that exact. After all, we can’t learn anything new without first making tons of potentially erroneous hypotheses.
What economists do best is report on general trends and that information is valuable to everyone. Now I’m not suggesting you [...]
Read on and enjoy … Why You Should Care About Economics
|
Balance Junkie Included in:
|
Recent Comments