My husband works for a university. He has a great job that he enjoys and has a great salary and benefits. However, because the university is funded by the state, raises for staff are negotiated and given across the board. The raise is not tied to performance. He has long accepted this as a way […]
Dear Mr. Dupaix, We have a wonderful marriage and great kids. We found a great way to divide household responsibilities and it works well for us. However, since I handle the finances, there’s some important information you will need. Here’s a guide of what you need to do financially for our family. As I’ve always […]
In my quest to sell my current car and buy a new car I’ve identified one of my criteria as good gas mileage. Meeting this criteria doesn’t eliminate the need to buy gas however! Save Money on Gas That’s where we’ve found that cashback credit cards come in handy. In Leaving Money on the Table […]
The car frenzy is in full swing at our house. Once I decide to do something, it’s usually pretty hard for me to think of anything else. So it’s no surprise that I’m still busy with the car search! Background First I made the commitment to sell my car, then I asked readers to tell […]
I took the first steps and committed to selling my car. I’m ready to move from a “car I love” to a family car. Now I’m moving to the planning and research phases. I revisited my old criteria that I set in the fall and updated it to reflect our needs instead of wants. Here’s my […]
So you’ve got a debt? What’s the first step in getting rid of it? Let’s take a look at one of my hot-button items in our budget and work through it. In the fall we decided not to sell my car just yet. However, now that spring is almost here it’s time to do something […]
It’s not possible to do everything. In every area of life, we’re forced to prioritize and skip doing those things that fall at the bottom of our list. This includes financial strategies. I find that I’m eliminating more items each year, essentially leaving money on the table! In balancing our life mix I showed how […]
Just as I was finalizing our budget we got hit with some unexpected expenses. While the expenses themselves weren’t completely unexpected, the dollar amounts were. Adding in large ongoing expenses can completely throw off a sound financial plan if you aren’t careful. Here’s the big three expenses that we just recently found out about:
Assess the balance in your life by creating a pictorial representation of your life. Using a pie chart you can easily see if your priorities in life are being met. Hang it up somewhere that you can see it. How does it look? Does it look the way you want it to? I completed this exercise three […]
