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A rough video to review our 5 priorities from the "Living Single on Minimum Wage" book and how they apply to your stimulus payment.  May use some of mine to upgrade editing software.  I shot this last week, had editing obstacles, but got it figured out today, so here you go ( Read more... )

Happy leap year, everyone.  Use that extra day in February to get your taxes done.  All your paperwork should come in this month and getting your taxes done early will help you get your refund earlier, or give you more time to plan and/or double check if you have to pay ( Read more... )

Article: Six Tips on How to Avoid Squandering a Financial WindfallWe discuss in the book how to make best use of unexpected income.  This article deals with not squandering larger amounts.  While your chances of winning a lottery are still slim, it's still nice to arm yourself with information.  It is more likely at some point you'll get an ( Read more... )

I read this article by JD Samson the other day I Love My Job, But It Made Me Poorer While her career seems to be going well, she's in an industry which even in the best of times is a constant roller coaster of uncertainty.  If you read the article, it may jump out to you that trying to "keep up" with those around you is always problematic.  There's ( Read more... )

Monthly budgets are to make sure that our regular income (which in the book we call expected or predictable income) covers all our predictable expenses.  We use a 4 week month to figure out monthly budgets in our book because every month has at least 4 weeks in it, thus weekly pay check earners can predictably expect 4 paychecks, biweekly earners ( Read more... )

The purpose of a monthly budget is to make sure your needs/normal expenses are covered.  We use a 4 week month to figure the budget because people who get weekly and biweekly paychecks will get at least 4 weeks of income each month.  However some months you may get an extra paycheck or a bonus check or a tax refund or some birthday money from ( Read more... )

One of my parents (of the kids I watch) gave me a Visa gift card for Christmas. I'm grateful for the extra cash, but it baffles me why people would waste money on Visa Gift Cards. For starters there's a $4.95 activation fee (may be higher in other states). And if you don't use the amount on the card within 7 months, they start charging a $2.50 ( Read more... )

I got $475 back this year. In our book, we divide income into two categories expected (or predictable) and unexpected income.

Expected income is income you regularly receive every week or month. Unexpected income is any money that you don’t expect on a regular monthly basis. Because your tax refund comes but once a year and you don't know what it ( Read more... )

I got my extra tax rebate this week.  Not sure how they're calculating it, but the letter I got implied that most single filers would be receiving between $300 and $600.  I got $338.

We recommend treating your rebate just as you should treat other unexpected income.  Think in terms of these 5 priorities.

Priority 1: Needs

Priority 2: Small Debts ( ( Read more... )

In the book, we divide income into two categories Expected (or Predictable) Income is the money you can regularly expect every month.  Unexpected Income is the money that comes in less frequently.

For our monthly budget we use our Expected Monthly Income (rounded down) and use that to cover our monthly bills (which we round up).

As someone recently ( Read more... )