photo credit: Ken Wilcox. Keeping finances in order is a difficult task for many people. However, it does not have to be so hard. Here are 10 tips for keeping your personal finances organized. Use accounting software. There are a number of companies that have created software specifically for the purpose of helping individuals to manage their finances. Accounting software can help you track your spending over time and ...

Photo credit: Ken Wilcox. The following post is by guest writer Jacques C. Sprenger. Please see his author bio at the end of the article. Raising a family is not a course offered in college and it should be. Many couples feel financially confused when the first baby arrives. “How can we plan ahead for our children and for us in such a way that everybody’s needs will be ...

My interest in personal finance began when I read a book on Christian personal finance – the Complete Financial Guide for Young Couples by Larry Burkett, to be exact. So when I’m given the opportunity to review a book on personal finance from a Christian perspective, I like to take it. Faith & Finances: In God We Trust is a combination story and devotional. A publication of Christian Devotional ...

This is a guest post from MD of Studenomics – a blog for normal 20-somethings that want to save money and enjoy life. You know the deal. If you enjoy this post, please subscribe to the feed for more! I recently wrote about the flip side of frugality . I got some negative responses (as expected) and surprisingly I also received some positive feedback. Today I’m going to defend ...

Are you tired of debt? Yes? I am too. So when I was given the opportunity to review Jordan E. Goodman’s new book Master Your Debt: Slash Your Monthly Payments and Become Debt-Free , I took it. An Overview of Master Your Debt Master Your Debt covers a lot of ground in 200 pages.  From how the economy got so bad to a checklist of what you need to ...

With the approach of Spring comes the gift giving occasions of Easter, graduations, weddings, Mother’s Day, etc. If you love giving gifts as much as I do, you’ve learned to take advantage of all of the inexpensive gift ideas you can come up with. After all, the point of giving a gift is to tell a friend or family member that you’re thinking of them on their special occasion. ...

Time management.  It’s one of those subjects that you either love or hate. If you love organizing and scheduling, you love it. If you struggle to find enough time in your day, you hate it. In today’s society, finding time to fit everything in is difficult, especially for working moms. 40 hours a week at the job, afterschool and weekend activities for the kids, church, family time, grocery shopping, ...

We bought our copy of TurboTax this past weekend so we could do our federal tax return. We’ve been using TurboTax for years for doing our taxes so it is second nature to us. We like to get our taxes done as early as possible. We usually have a refund but even in the years where we’ve owed money, we’ve found that getting our taxes done and filed just ...

Wow, what a week! And it’s only half over! I wanted to get a real post up today (yesterday, too), but life has gotten in the way. What started out as a calm, uneventful February is ending with a bang. On Saturday I’m giving my first ever Frugal Workshop, and the preparation has been taking a lot of my time. Mostly because I don’t think of myself as a ...

Frequently I get questions from people, asking how to save money. Often they want a rundown of all the different ways they can do things that impact their budget in a positive way. The money-saving possibilities are endless, but you really have to pace yourself when changing your lifestyle. Unless you are suddenly unemployed and need to cut the budget 40% today, it’s best to step into the frugal ...