MoneyMerc

Weekend todo list: 10 ways to improve your finances right away

Last week I went to a talk hosted by the Cornell Young Alumni Network about budgeting.  Avi and Matt, the Co-founder and Lead Scientist (respectively) of JustThrive.com spoke about money, budgeting and the psychology of financial choices.  They also took us through their online tool at JustThrive.  I’ve mentioned Mint a number of times, but [...]

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Mint.com just got sweeter: track your spending and investments too

[Photo: QuintanaRoo] I’ve written previously about the usefulness of Mint.com for tracking spending.  Recently they’ve released a whole bunch of investment-tracking features that allow you to see all your money, investments and assets in one place.  This eliminates the need for Fidelity’s Full View, which does pretty much the same thing, but requires that you have [...]

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Don’t go broke saving money (or getting your piece of the stimulus package)

[First post of the year - work has been crazy lately, but I still intend to post at least once per month, with my goal at twice.  Thanks for reading and commenting!] photo by emdot These are tough times.  Everyone seems to be trying to save a little more, and spend a little less.  Watch out though, [...]

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Stay the course – tips for navigating in a tough market

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last two weeks (or last year, for that matter), you know some serious stuff is going on in the US and World financial markets. Here are some tips to navigate in this type of environment: Worry about the things you can control – are you more likely to [...]

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Automate your financial life

One of the biggest time-wasters for me is checking my account balances online, and shifting money back and forth between checking and higher-interest savings to maximize my interest. It’s a delicate balance, since one $30 overdraft fee can kill increased interest very quickly. Last year I solved this problem and fully automated my [...]

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Get Thee a Plan – Part 3

[This is the last of a multi-part post.  To read from the beginning, start here.] Last time we created a general plan of bullet points. Now we’ll break that down into specific actionable items, and go off on our merry way checking them off (which helps me feel like I’ve accomplished something each time). [...]

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Get Thee a Plan – Part 2

[This is the second of a multi-part post.] Last time, we talked about the need for a life plan, and how to determine what your dreams are. Since dreams have a very fuzzy connotation to me, I like think of them in a more concrete sense, that is, as specific goals. In this post, [...]

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Get Thee a Plan

[This is the first of a multi-part post] Do you have a plan to accomplish your dreams? OK, so maybe you don’t like planning. You like spontaneity. After all, it’s the spice of life. Or, maybe you do like planning, but planning your finances or what you will do with your life seems too [...]

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