Economic Downturn Hitting Closer to Home
My wife works in the casino industry – she’s a poker and table games dealer. Many of her friends are also dealers. The casino industry has been hit pretty hard over the last year. Early in 2008, one of the casinos where many of my wife’s friends work informed their dealers that all full time [...]
Looking Forward – Goals for 2009
After a disasterous 2007 (completely my fault), 2008 was a very good year for us financially. 2009 isn’t starting out to look quite as good though. Our biggest challenge will be to maintain our current level of income. My wife works in the casino industry, which is being hit hard by the recession. They are [...]
Looking Back On 2008
Although 2008 was a pretty bad year for the economy as a whole, personally it was pretty good. Both my wife and I managed to stay employed, and we did OK financially in spite of some large and unexpected expenses. Here’s a recap: The Good I managed to avoid all (most at least) of the [...]
No New Year’s Resolutions for Me
I’m not making any resolutions for 2009. I know from past experience that they are largely a waste of time. I used to come up with all sorts of grand plans which were forgotten or put aside by the end of January. I don’t think I am alone in this. The problem with New Year’s [...]
Avoiding a Layoff
I’m a state employee in a state that is facing a severe financial crisis. This fiscal year, we had to cut our budget 14%, and rumor has it we will have to cut up to 30% more for the next fiscal year. Naturally, administration is promising there won’t be any forced layoffs, but a “Staffing [...]
Minding My Own Business
Have you ever wanted to start your own business? It is something I have been thinking about for a long time. There is always something that holds me back though – mainly the need to support my family. Quitting a stable, well paying job to become self employed is a risk I won’t put my [...]
Frugality can only get you so far
Last week there was a post at Shark Investor on saving more vs. earning more. I agree with him. If you want to build wealth, you can’t do it just by being frugal. For example, my wife and I spend about $3500 per month. If we eliminate all unnecessary spending, we could probably cut that [...]
A Working Vacation
Starting next Thursday, I’m taking vacation through October 5th. Eleven whole days of nothing to do. Except for spending 3 days in paradise, I hope to get a lot of stuff done, so it’s really going to be a “Personal Finance” vacation. I hope to accomplish several things: The Wisdom Journal has a great list [...]
Take a Deep Breath
Housing prices continue to slide. Some of our largest financial institutions are failing or being taken over by the government. The stock market is on a roller coaster ride, with an emphasis on steep dives. Unemployment in the USA is at or near a 5 year high. It’s time to… sit back and take a [...]
God, Gold, Guns, Girls and Green
In a recent post on I Will Teach You To Be Rich, Ramit Sethi takes a blast at a thread on patrick.net about where to invest money. One of the replies is to invest in God, Gold, Guns, Girls and Green. Maybe it was meant to be funny, but actually, it makes a lot of [...]