Archive for 'Real Life Examples' Category
Delusions of Poverty: Faux Frugality On A Six Figure Income
15 December 2006I usually like the “example budget” articles run by CNN, USAToday, and others where they walk you through a real household’s budgeting problems. They’re often very instructive about both what you can do and what you need to avoid. But I thought this one from CNN about a family “just scraping by” in Nebraska on [...]
How Much Does A Chiropractor Make? Not Enough
28 November 2006USAToday has an interesting series on young people who have gotten themselves into unmanageable levels of debt. It looks like it’s going to be a good set of articles, and should give a lot of guidance for twenty-somethings who haven’t yet started to run up the big debts that lead to problems in your thirties. [...]
Mismanaging A Family of Eight
28 November 2006That’s what this article is all about - how a big family turned into a big financial problem. Honestly though, the number of kids wasn’t the source of the problems - it was the inability of the parents to rein in their spending. They kept buying and buying, and now the problem has reached critical [...]
How Much of Your Income Can You Save?
17 November 2006I’d never have guessed it, but this couple managed sixty percent - of their GROSS income. And that income is only $48,000. It sounds pretty extreme to me - I think most people ridiculously overspend, but they might be oversaving. You’ve got to have some fun while you’re younger, too - just as long as [...]
A Retrospective On Financial Mistakes In Your Life
4 November 2006The Simple Dollar has a series I recommend reading on his life up to now and the financial mistakes he’s made in it. It’s called “The Road to Financial Armageddon,” and while it’s not finished, my guess is it isn’t going anywhere pleasant. You can read the first five parts here: Part One, Part Two, [...]
How Not To Sell Your House
25 October 2006This story from CNN on a couple who mangled their home sale pretty badly is a good cautionary tale for anyone who thinks they might be moving anytime in the near future. They made a series of mistakes that have turned them into one of those “motivated sellers” every buyer is looking for:
1) They overpriced [...]
Saving Money on a Teacher’s Salary
20 October 2006This is an old article, but a good one - it’s about a teacher out in California who arrived in the U.S. as part of a family of “boat people” fleeing communists in Vietnam. He’s on track to retire by 55, on a $60,000 a year teacher’s salary (which is probably above average, but he [...]
Learning Lessons From Other People’s Finances
12 September 2006CNN has just put up a series of profiles of five different families and how they manage their finances. They’re all people who have done the right thing financially, and essentially you should read each of the articles as part of a series, because they note new facts and statistics in each one. There’s the [...]
Example of Saving Money While You’re Young
7 September 2006CNNMoney regularly does profiles of people with various financial problems or accomplishments, and today they’ve got one on Jessica Nixon, a 23 year old who started saving when she was 16. The result is that she’s got about $50,000 put away for retirement now and is busily saving for a downpayment on a house. This [...]
Example Couple: The Husband Spends, The Wife Wants to Save
28 August 2006CNN has a profile of a couple that fits this description. The husband is a spendthrift, blowing thousands of dollars on Christmas presents and his car. The wife wants to save money, but doesn’t seem to have the ability to take charge of the household finances. He seems blissfully unaware of the financial problems this [...]