…Then I worked at a deli and the restaurant. I had been saving that money. You make money where you can and you save. Coming from that kind of background, you either learn how to save or you learn how to spend. I saved because it gave me a sense of having choices in my […]

Winning at money is 80 percent behavior and 20 percent head knowledge. Most of us know what to do, but we just don’t do it.
— Dave Ramsey, Total Money Makeover

Get in Total Attack Mode. All you have to do is execute, execute, execute now.  If your friends that are broke aren’t making fun of you, then you are not on track.  If your family says, “Look, they’ve joined a cult!” then you are right on track.
— Dave Ramsey, from his syndicated radio program, 2006-11-24

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessul men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will […]

Having financial troubles and being in debt can be so shameful, but tell someone about it.  Have someone you can share with and don’t keep it all bottled in.  Everyone needs someone to be there when you are down and out.  It could be a friend, a spouse, message board buddies, or a support group.  […]

Money itself is a teacher.  You learn the lessons that tell you who you are in many ways — through relationships, through school and work, through what gives you pleasure and pain, by trying to make your dreams come true.  But one of the primary ways you learn who you are is through your money: […]

Some people prosper when times are challenging, and some people never do, even in good times.  Some people endure serious personal financial storms and come out stronger than ever before; others get swept away.  The difference is this:  Those who do well in both good times and bad times manage their money from a position […]

Motherhood is now the single-best indicator that an unmarried middle-class woman will end up bankrupt.  In the world of financial devastation, there are two groups of people: single mothers and others.
— Elizabeth Warren & Amelia Warren Tyagi, The Two-Income Trap

Well, Mr. or Ms. Excuse-Maker, it’s time you stopped whining and started taking control of your financial situation.  It’s easy!  You just need to follow these steps:
 
1. Analyze your cash flow.  “Cash flow” is a term that accountants use to describe the flowing of cash.  To analyze your cash flow, first sit down at your kitchen […]

Without knowing where you are on the map, you won’t know whether to turn left or right going out the door, no matter how clear your goal.  It’s a real challenge to acknowledge consciously the total inventory of what you’ve created in your work and your life.
— David Allen, Ready for Anything

There’s nothing new or exotic about the problems faced by American families today.  Jobs have come and gone, couples have broken up, and illnesses and injuries have been facts of life since the first caveman kissed the first cavewoman good-bye and headed off to the hunt.  But the Two-Income Trap compounded the ordinary risks of […]

Today’s bankrupt families are deeper in debt than their counterparts just twenty years earlier, and their overall financial picture — assets and debts — is worse.  In 1981, the median family filing for bankruptcy owed 80 percent of total annual income in credit card and other nonmortgage debts; by 2001, that figure had nearly doubled […]

What happens when unforeseen disaster strikes — when Dad loses his job or when Mom asks for a divorce?  Families face events that elude all careful planning.  The first line of defense is their all-purpose passbook savings account, an account that is tax-disadvantaged.  If things get really bad, many families find that the only way […]

Thought is useful when it motivates for action, and a hindrance when it substitutes for action.
— Bill Raeder