Do you know those people who need to spend money in order to have a good time?  You know, the folks who inevitably see a movie, go out for dinner, buy a new pair of pants, and buy a few books at Barnes and Noble every weekend.  Well, it’s easy to fall into the trap of spending to put a […]

Becoming financially independent is about setting goals and staying on track in order to achieve those goals.  In my view, most Americans are in poor financial shape (i.e., living on credit, spending more than they earn,  not saving enough or at all, etc.) because they have not set financial goals, partly due to not knowing how to do so (that’s my […]

NOW is the time to start preparing for the worsening economy (that’s right, you’ve read the preceding sentence correctly, the economy will get worse).  Sure, we’ve seen some pretty abysmal days on Wall Street and some radical actions taken by the US government, but beyond a deflated 401K account most Americans have yet to feel the roar of the current Recession.  […]

My parents emigrated from Italy in the early to mid 1970’s.  My father has the equivalent of a technical high school education and my mother finished her formal education in the 7th grade.  Yet my parents are one of the most financially savvy couples I know, often making smarter economic decisions then their US-born Boomer peers (with BAs and Master’s […]

The Wall Street Journal recently ran a short article entitled, “Making of a Miser: Nature versus Nurture”  The article highlights a few important points in terms of what makes people cheap: If you have two thrifty parents, you’re likely to be thrifty as well. People who lived through the Great Depression were thrifty their entire lives. People have innate tendencies […]

Bo Lundgren, ex Swedish Finance Minister, knows how to fix economic problems.   And now he’s teaching the US government how to fix its current crisis.  Lundgren was Finance Minister during the Swedish banking crisis of the early 1990’s and the solution, at the time, was easy: big government intervention in the form of cash and (part) government ownership of ailing banks.  Call […]

If you’re any where near the NYC metro area, then you’re bound to notice great tension in the air.  The tension is the by-product of recent financial news headlined by the financial giant Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy.  Today’s NY Times summarizes the current state on Wall Street well: Nervous investors tried to make sense of a rapidly changing financial landscape on Monday […]

IF you ask married people why their marriage works, they are probably not going to say it’s because they found their financial soul mate.
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Robert Stolarik for The New York Times
But if they are lucky, they have. Marrying a person who shares your attitudes about money might just be the smartest financial decision you will ever make. In fact, when it comes to finances, your marriage is likely to be your most valuable asset — or your largest liability.
Marrying for love is a relatively recent

Gregory Clark’s new book, A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World asks some pretty big economic questions: – Why do certain countries prosper while others find it so difficult to grow? – Why did the Industrial Revolution occur in England during the 17th century? – How do cultural attitudes play a role in economic development? Clark also […]

The NY Times has a terrific interactive map on how people across the world spend their discretionary income.  Some interesting findings include Japan spending more on recreation than clothing and Greece throwing money at clothing versus electronics.  Read the full article here. The US Government likes to keep unemployement between 2-5 percent, 0 unemployment is actually a bad thing (according […]