The Decline of Financial Honorableness

My wife pointed me to an article that points to the sad, sad state of our culture.
The article states the case for filing bankruptcy. I’m not against bankruptcy; it’s a much more desired alternative to debtors’ prison. What bothers me is the devil-may-care attitude this article presents toward not honoring your debts, and in fact [...]

How to Overcome Empty Hope

I was perusing YouTube recently when I came across this seemingly innocent clip of a woman who is expressing her excitement over Obama.

What really surprised me was how she really expects Obama to swoop in and save her from her obligations:
I won’t have to worry about putting gas in my car, I won’t have to [...]

Lean Like You’re Bowling

I’ve been AWOL for a bit, so I apologize to both of my regular readers (one of which is myself).  I’m back and have much to discuss.
Thank God that I was able to stay off the topic of politics for the most part during the election. My one post on the topic was enough to [...]

Capitalism v. Socialism - Which Do You Choose?

If you’ve noticed, the country is divided. Some Americans want to move to a more socialistic, government-controlled country under Obama’s leadership, and others want to remain a capitalist state that relies less on government control and more on individual rights under McCain’s leadership. There are many differences between the two, and volumes of books have [...]

Where Are We Going and Why Are We In This Handbasket?

So it’s come to pass. To prove that we have learned absolutely nothing from this greed-bloated economic state, our government has approved the near-trillion-dollar bailout of big business.
Oh, and this time around we get a few more bonuses for special interest groups, such as:

$2 million - Tax exemption for archer arrows.
$10 million - Bicycle replacement [...]

When is it Safe to Go Back into Shark Infested Waters?

When does using a credit card make sense? At what point do you say, “OK, I’m ready to start charging things again”?
I received a reader comment recently that made me ask these questions. Here is the comment:
This isn’t really a debt snowball thing technically, but I’ve got a good story.
Girl goes to college. She’s 18, [...]

Would YOU Bail Them Out? I Wouldn’t, And Here’s Why . . .

As a parent of four children, I’ve become a fan of natural consequences as a teaching mechanism.
The basic idea is this: when you see your child getting ready to do something stupid, you go against your parental instinct to intervene. The lesson your child learns from the natural consequence of his or her action is [...]

Haunted by Ghosts of Credit Cards Past

The only thing that feels better than paying of a credit card is calling the 1-800 number, sitting on the phone for half-an-hour and closing the account.
It feels so final — the ultimate closure. That is, until you realize you card has been reactivated without your approval.
This happened to us this week. One of the [...]

Apostle Issues with Internet Explorer

There seems to be a problem with viewing The Apostle of the Turtle in Microsoft Internet Explorer. This might explain why I lost 20% of my subscribers in one day. *GASP!
I will troubleshoot this as soon as I can, but in the meantime TAotT works just great in FireFox, which you can download here for [...]

How Social Norms Play Into Finances

I got this thing about crowds.
Part of me is fascinated by mass behavior. I like to watch it and study it. The other part of me abhors crowds. Nothing brings out the stupid in people like being in a public arena.
Tonight, my company threw an employee picnic party. About 500 people work for this company, [...]

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