What if I like paper documents? Ok, you’re a Luddite. It’s a life choice. So how do you handle your financial paperwork when you buck the cool-kid trend of electronic delivery? Have a good system If you want to find papers, you need to have a solid system for dealing with the flow of…

The gifts have been opened. Empty boxes and shredded wrapping paper fill the trash. Time for another thought experiment: What I give no gifts? Gift-giving is a social affair but also a financial one. Some people are moderate with their gifting — perhaps for them, the act of gifting is…

I am thankful for money. WHAAAT?!! YOU CAN’T SAY THAT!!! You have to be thankful for family and health and your pet ferret, Gerald. But all that takes money. I need money to have a family — kids are expensive. And my health is not free — nutritious food costs…

Creating a budget is easy-numbers in a spreadsheet, figures in an app, chicken scratch on a piece of paper. However, merging those numbers with how you live your life is not so easy. How do you make sure your actual spending behavior matches your intended spending behavior? For those who…

Blue-grey clouds drift toward me from the horizon. They smother the sun with a mass heavy with future thunder. Watching them through the plate glass window matches the ominous mood as I sit in the car salesman’s office. I re-read the loan terms — zero down, 60 months at 12%…

Stop with the spreadsheets already! If you run a business, you need accounting software. I’ve said this many, many times, which is why some people don’t talk to me anymore. Are you looking to move from a series of meticulously designed spreadsheets to actual accounting software? …

So it’s the last three months of the year, and you’re thinking you need to get a handle on your personal finances. But you’ve managed not to do any analysis or create concrete goals for 2021. Or, to put it a different way, you’re thinking ahead and preparing to track…

Another thought experiment — what if I don’t pay my debts? I’ll go to debtor’s prison. The end. Hahaha. There’s no such place as a debtor’s prison anymore. Wanna bet? Maybe a debtor’s prison is not four grey walls and a bucket for unseemly but necessary bodily functions. …

Ahh, to be self-employed or run a small business — the freedom, the mental stimulation, the crushing anxiety, and the chaotic cash flow. For some, money coming into the business coffers is either feast or famine. …