Earn, Save, and Live Joyfully.
I haven’t written for a few days. My mind has been far away. It turns out my sister-in-law has a grade III brain tumor, so on top of all of the complications from surgery she will have to undergo radiation and chemotherapy. Her cognitive abilities have been improving ever so slowly each day since the … Read more
My sister-in-law is recovering slowly from her brain surgery on Monday. Thankfully the surgeon believes he cut out the entire tumor and that the tumor is Grade I (not cancerous). We’ll need to wait for the biopsy results to know for sure. Unfortunately, her recovery is not going as well as we expected. She performed … Read more
As I type this post my sister-in-law is undergoing brain surgery to remove a tumor doctors found after an unexpected seizure occurred a few months ago. My thoughts and prayers are with my sister-in-law, my brother, and the rest of the family. I have faith that her surgery will be a success. There’s nothing like … Read more
Lately I find myself thinking less and less about money. Once you hold down a steady job, pay for a life insurance policy, a disability policy, maintain an emergency fund, fund your 401(k) and IRA, minimize spending and shrink your mortgages from 30 years to 15, there just doesn’t seem to be much reason to … Read more
Four years ago I was awarded $12,000 worth or restricted company shares. The stock shares vested over a four year period, which means every year the ownership of roughly 40 shares of company stock was transferred to me. The shares that had not vested continued to earn dividends and those dividends were paid out during … Read more
Since my husband and I locked in on a 15 year refi in January mortgage rates have risen dramatically. Rates at the credit union, where are our loan is being processed, rose from 4.75% to 5.65% in less than four weeks. According to bankrate.com rising fears of inflation are causing mortgage rates to skyrocket. With … Read more
I checked out Gaiam’s winter clearance sale tonight and decided to purchase two items. The Yoga for Beginners II DVD which is on sale for $4.99 regularly $15.00. The Stretch Workout Kit which is on sale for $6.99 regularly $13.00 I used coupon code CSDJ to save $10 off my purchase. The total bill came … Read more
This month’s Money magazine had a great article by Jean Chatzky called “When Getting a Deal Just Isn’t Worth It.” In the article Chatzky discusses the extraordinary amount of time she spent searching for the best deal on a big screen TV. She started by reading consumer reports and a dozen reviews, then checked out … Read more
Because my medical condition is unique I often have to pay providers outside of my network for medical care. Many of the providers do not accept insurance, which by the way, is one of the reasons I continue to visit them. This means patients, like myself, must pay for services out of pocket and then … Read more
I’ve become slightly addicted to checking out bankrate.com’s mortgage rate trend index each Thursday. Each week bankrate provides expert predictions on the rise or fall of mortgage rates. A few weeks ago my husband and I finally agreed that rates were low enough to refinance the mortgage. We knew that rates could fall further, but … Read more