A Personal Finance Blog for Regular Folks
Published or updated by Kevin Mulligan 1 Comment
Memorial Day is a great long weekend for most people in the United States.
But the point isn’t to take a day off just to go to the lake for a cookout.
Memorial Day, originally titled Decoration Day, is to honor and remember the men and women of the United States Armed Forces who died during their service. Take some time to think about that this weekend as you enjoy your time off.
Published or updated by Kevin Mulligan 3 Comments
Today we tip our hats to Moms everywhere.
As Jim Gaffigan says in one of his hilarious standup routines: “Women are amazing. A woman can grow a baby inside their body. Then somehow a woman can deliver the baby through their body. And then by some miracle a woman can feed a baby with their body.”
Your mother did that for you. And then she kissed your boo boos, got you to school on time, and supported you in every wacky endeavor you took on.
Even better if Mom showed you how to budget for a family, get the best value at the grocery store, and the value of time spent with family.
So thanks, Mom, and all Moms who are involved with their children’s lives.
Published or updated by Kevin Mulligan 2 Comments
The price of gold took a big hit a few weeks ago.
In the last 30 days the price has dropped from a high of $1,606 to a low of $1,360. The drop was significant and only over a few day period. The price has since rebounded a bit to $1,453 but that is still a drop of $153 or 9.5%.
Those that are pro-gold used it as an opportunity to buy even more while detractors pointed out the instability in the price of the commodity. If you were able to snag more gold at $1,360 you have since earned a return of 6.8%.
Published or updated by Kevin Mulligan 4 Comments
The alternative, virtual, and unregulated currency Bitcoin experienced quite the bonanza over the last few weeks.
The price skyrocketed to over $200 per coin, then plummeted 50%, then rebounded a bit. The fledgling new online currency has made millionaires from early adopters but is still struggling to go mainstream.
I honestly don’t know what to think of Bitcoin.
There are only a certain number of coins that can ever exist, you have to run complex equations on a computer to “mine” a coin (or purchase them from an exchange), and the coins are stored on your computer. However, real people are using them for real transactions instead of US dollars.
As great as it would be to buy a bunch of coins at $3 per coin in the early stages and watch it skyrocket to $200… I can’t imagine a sustainable currency fluctuating that much. Merchants can accept Bitcoins for payment, but how can you calculate how many coins to charge if the price is constantly changing? That $200 transaction for one coin just became a $120 transaction when the price plummets.
Published or updated by Kevin Mulligan 2 Comments
Today is Selection Sunday and college basketball teams around the country are anxiously waiting to learn their fates.
Will it be that coveted last spot in the NCAA tournament? Or relegated to the NIT? (Sure, playing in any tournament is nice, but the NIT pales in comparison to the real deal.)
If you are like me and your team is sitting in the first four out list (as of time of this writing) you see a lot of similarity to financial issues. My team, the University of Tennessee, is on the outside looking in. They lost in their conference tournament when a win would have likely locked up a bid to the NCAA tournament.
Instead they lost, but even with a loss they aren’t completely out of the running. They are just reliant on a bunch of other teams losing in order to propel them into one of those last few spots in the tournament.
Don’t we often run our finances this way?
We miss doing things right and do just enough. We cut corners, and suddenly find ourselves reliant on someone or something else to save us. That might be a relative lending us money or just hoping that our employer continues to employ us.
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