It’s no secret that having children can be one of the most exciting, daring, enjoyable and frustrating things any adult will ever do. It’s also a pretty well known fact that kids are very, very expensive. With the cost of diapers summer camp, football, dance class, clothes food and college (just to name a few), your standard of living will change. Below are a few tips to help you learn about your kids and how to manage money.



Read the rest of this entry

Have you ever spent way more money than anticipated on a date trying to make a positive first impression or re-kindle an old flame? Here’s three ideas I use when I try to be responsible and manage my money while planning romantic outings without appearing cheap.



Hiking and a Picnic – When we were dating, I thought my wife would be impressed with an expensive meal and a show. Then, along the way I learned to manage my money and tried a cheap dating idea. I Read the rest of this entry

In the previous post, I wrote about the importance of having an emergency fund. Today, we’ll go over a few of the quick tips I give my consulting clients when I teach them personal finance basics regarding starting their emergency fund.

I’ll discuss budgeting, goal setting, and automating your emergency fund.

Budgeting – The first step in starting your emergency fund is to have a well planned out budget that not only gives you an idea of where you are financially, but lets you know how much money you’ll be allocating towards your budget. Budgeting is one of the first lessons in personal finance basics, and when you do a good one, you’ll find areas you can cut back so that you can put it towards your emergency fund or other financial goals. You can search Google for budget tools, or look at the resource link to our budget spreadsheet.

Read the rest of this entry