In other articles here on Sow a Dime & Reap a Dollar, I’ve discussed prioritizing spending, wants versus needs, budgeting, waiting 30 days (see links to these articles below), and a variety of other topics aimed at improving your financial future. If the content in those articles didn’t help you with tackling your spending, I … Continue reading Wait for a Windfall
As human beings, the desire to make things simpler is hard-wired into our brains. Sometimes this can lead to undesirable outcomes: for example, maybe we took a shortcut on the front end of a complex project, hoping to beat a deadline, only to realize we skipped over key information, causing us extra work to double … Continue reading ABC = Always Be Challenging
Have you ever been on the verge of deciding between a couple of alternatives and felt you lack a relevant, comparative benchmark? Maybe if you could use one final metric to compare Alternative A to Alternative B, it would make the decision easier? The good news is one such benchmark exists, and the better news … Continue reading Cost per Unit — The Universal Benchmark
This article is written in memory of my Nana and Papaw. They were born in the early 1930s and thus were members of the Silent Generation. Ironically, most people have never heard of this generation—we’re more familiar with the Greatest Generation, the Baby Boomers, or the Millennials. The Silent Generation includes people born between 1928 … Continue reading What Would Our Grandparents Do?
Following a budget and trying to pare back your spending? Thinking about making a spontaneous, un-budgeted purchase? If you answered yes to both of those questions, you can benefit from this short article! Read on… There are many strategies that can help determine whether it’s something you truly want or if you’re caught in the … Continue reading Wait 30 Days…
This article is near and dear to my heart because I lived this way for many years. The “I deserve…” mentality is a slippery slope—you won’t realize how far down the slope you are before it’s too late and you slide all the way to the bottom. The attitude itself starts off as relatively harmless. … Continue reading Be Wary of the “I Deserve…” Mentality
This article likely won’t be the most popular one among the bunch, but at the very least it’s timely given all the financial chaos going on worldwide (un- or under-employment, currency inflation, rising consumer and government debt, etc.). In the interest of full disclosure: ten years ago, I would’ve read this article and immediately dismissed … Continue reading Why It’s Useful to Prioritize Spending
You’ve probably heard the expression “Keeping up with the Joneses”, but have you ever stopped to think about what it means? Most of us have a general idea but haven’t paused long enough to consider all the implications. The Joneses The Joneses are a fictitious family from a comic strip back in the early 1900s, … Continue reading Try Keeping up with the Jacksons Instead of the Joneses
To accomplish your financial goals, budgeting should be a core component of the plan. It helps you understand where you were, where you are, and where you want to be. Compliance with each category of the budget takes you one step closer to your goals—whatever they may be. In the words of Ramit Sethi, author … Continue reading Three Budget Overages I Never Question
For this post, I want to anchor the concept of saving to an easy-to-remember acronym—SOS. Before we begin, here’s a quick history lesson to gain some context and clarity around the topic. SOS was first created in the early 1900s in Germany and is the original distress signal used in Morse code. When used, the … Continue reading Keys to Saving: Save Soon, Save Often & Save Sufficiently (SOS)
