It’s been about a month since I suggested you keep track of all of your spending. Before my students completed Part 2 of this assignment, I would have them reflect on the day-to-day experiences of tracking. Some thought it was “too much trouble” keeping track…
In 1990 President George H.W. Bush told the New York Times that he didn’t like broccoli and he wasn’t going to eat it anymore. That statement generated a lot of commentary from lovers and haters of broccoli. I have to admit that when I was…
Occasionally, some of my students would ask: “Why bother setting goals for the future when things never work out as planned?” My response to them was always something like “planning for the future doesn’t guarantee the future, but it increases the probability that the future…
Society often places a great deal of importance on those who are the first or the best (or the prettiest, or the wealthiest, etc.); many records are kept of their accomplishments. To those who make the record-books, I congratulate you and say enjoy the accolades.…
If you completed the Fabulous Fifty exercise, you should have a top-ten list of the things you would like to do in your life. Look at the item that you decided was the most important. What will it take to get it done? In other…
Money management is not only important for the present, but also for the future. If you want to have a good relationship with money you will need to know something about yours: how much do you have to spend each month (i.e., take-home pay), and…
I was contemplating the old expression “take time to smell the roses” shortly before I took this picture. Plenty of bad things are happening in the world and there is a lot of negative “noise” around us. It can be discouraging, and downright depressing. However,…
If you ask people what the number one cause of divorce is, “financial problems” almost always appears in the top five responses. While it is true that money problems can be negative stressors, my research showed that financial problems are not good predictors of divorce.…
A few weeks ago my wife and I took a leisurely drive in the mountains. We had just passed through a small community, and as we approached a bend in the two-lane road my wife anxiously exclaimed “car in our lane!” Sure enough there was…
With the proliferation of Social Media in recent years, and the willingness of people to post virtually everything about their lives, the small-town experience is available to people all over the world: that is, everyone’s business is everyone else’s business. For example, many Joneses now…
