Ladies and gentlemen, I decided to up my blogging game to play with the big girls – you can now find this blog at WWW.BROKEGIRLRICH.COM – so if you’ve been following me, please update your bookmarks (or just delete the .wordpress from the previous address). Thanks!
Profile I am twenty-nine years old. I work as an associate production manager and my yearly salary is $38,000. I live on a train most of the year and stay with my parents for free during my vacations, so I have no rent or utilities to pay other than a $50 a month internet fee…
It’s the end of another month here at brokeGIRLrich and the end of another series. Since our theme this month was getting out budgets in order, the giveaway of the month has been The Budget Kit by Judy Lawrence (and you still have 4 days left to win it!) Author Judy Lawrence is a…
Besides this awesome series about how to create and stick with a budget, there are some other great resources at your local books store and library and even totally free advice on the internet. Some of those that I feel totally ok about recommending are: Actual books (those things with pages and the happy paper…
Making a budget and diving into piles and piles of papers (or websites) with numbers that may make you want to curl up in a little ball and dry can be daunting. For some of us (meaning me), I need to dangle a carrot in front of my face to remind me of why…
Keeping track of your budget is definitely a pain in the butt – I get it – but with all the free tools online to help you, it doesn’t have to be. 30 minutes of effort can get you set up with any of these sites. Keep in mind, if you’re going to use an…
Whether you have a mountain of debt or not, a budget is a necessary tool. If you’ve managed to avoid debt all together, good for you! A budget will still help you keep track of your cash flow and allow you to maximize it’s potential. If you do have debt, like the vast majority of…
Now that you’ve mastered your monthly budget (right?), we’re going to look at making a yearly budget. The good news about this budget is that some studies show that people who make a yearly budget have an even better grasp on their finances, since random payments that spring up…
Now that we have a snapshot of our current financial picture and a grasp on our financial goals, it’s time to get down to the nitty gritty of financial organization – the monthly budget. To start your monthly budget, enter in your current checking account balance at the top of the month, your income, your…
Up until now we’ve talked about some of the money mindset hook-ups that people have, developed a net worth statement and distinguished between needs and wants. Lots of those things aren’t fun at all, and can actually be quite depressing, but today is the day to start dreaming. Studies show that most people have never…
Something that folks of the Depression era seemed to have a much better grasp on than the Generation X and Yers is the concept of needs versus wants. Clearly defining these and coming up with an approach to pay for them is likely to change your outlook on spending. Here, in its most basic form,…
The other day we talked about money psychology because it’s so important to get a firm grasp on your money hang ups as you start to delve into sorting out your financial state. Once you start to see why you have the issues you do, you can begin to resolve them (honestly, you can begin…
Most people seem to think that if they just had a little more money, they’d be so much happier, and to an extent this is true, but in a series of studies on the matter have shown that somewhere between $50,000-$161,000 is the optimum income (Kahneman, Frank, Wicker). That area is the money/happiness pinnacle. And…
This month we’re going to look at how to set up and stick to a budget. From the mentality you’ll need to develop to actual worksheets to nifty tools to make tracking your budget easier, by the end of the month you should have a clear vision of what your finances look like, how long…
I recently came across an awesome website called Consumerism Commentary. It was started by a guy named Luke where he essentially just kept logging his net worth as an accountability tool. After several years, it gained popularity and now he has several other people doing the same thing and several professionals who provide commentary on…
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