Getting Investment Advice From Jim Cramer's Mad Money Is Mad

Jim Cramer's Mad Money show on CNBC is a ratings hit. In the show, Cramer does his stock-picking shtick, pacing around the set, yelling random facts about companies. Watching, you'd think he's got some magic ability to pick the winners and losers. Indeed, that's pretty much the whole point of the show - people watch it to find out what stocks to buy and what ones to avoid. He even sells a $15 a month newsletter subscription with his picks. The problem...

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Don't Leave Money On The Table: Deduct Mileage On Your Taxes!

I know tax time has passed, but I wanted to pass along one more tax tip that you can use all year long: The government allows you to deduct auto mileage on your federal taxes and many states do as well. If you have driven your car for business and have not received reimbursement for that mileage from your employer, you can deduct the costs from your taxes. That's fairly straightforward. However, most people (outside of those in the delivery industry)...

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Two Reasons Growing Older Is A Good Thing

To many people, birthdays are depressing. Another year gone, another year closer to death. But I'm here to tell you growing older isn't all that bad. As I've gotten older, I've noticed some benefits that come with age. Here are two of my favorite: We Rule The Muzak Stores play music to keep customers in the building and to keep them in a good mood. Happy customers spend more money. The music played tends to be from about 30 years ago because people...

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How Many Accounts Is Too Many?

By its very nature, budgeting requires you to create buckets of money for different goals or expenses. You save X dollars for an upcoming vacation, Y dollars for some home repair, Z dollars for a new Tesla, etc. One reason many people fail when trying to stick to a budget is that they co-mingle funds. They might be budgeting $100 a month for going to restaurants and another $100 a month for clothing, but they keep that money in the same account. One...

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Goal Update: End of May 2016

At the end of each month, I post an update of my goals, including a brief discussion of any notable events that might have occurred during the month. The latest month's figures can always be found under the Featured menu in the menu bar at the top of the blog. Last updated: End of May, 2016 Current value: $23,161 Change from last month: +$343 Percent of Goal:  21.30% No nice graph this month. Mint has made a change and now you cannot...

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