Steadfast Finances

 Debt Reduction, Mortgages, Personal Finance Tips         1 comment

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If you’re a believer in The Stuff You Own Ends Up Owning You philosophy, it’s only natural that you should spend a few minutes of every month actually calculating how much, if any, that you’re leveraged and how much of income goes solely to repay your debts.
Yes, I know that …

 Investor Psychology, Personal Finance Tips, Strategic Planning         9 comments

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With so much financial information readily available telling us how to make more money or the nonstop investment advice telling us how to get rich quick, it’s quite obvious that many of us invest too much time and brainpower trying to get our money to make more money instead of …

 Budgeting, Cutting Expenses, Saving Money         5 comments

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Have you ever stopped to consider how much money you’re paying to keep in touch? I’m betting that a good percentage of you haven’t.
Not yet anyway!
If you actually take the time to add up the amount of money you dish out every month to pay for the Holy Trinity of …

 Budgeting, Personal Finance Tips, Saving Money         2 comments

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We’ve all heard our parents say over and over again that we’re supposed to save 10% of our paycheck, but now that you’re all grown up, have you actually taken the time to calculate just how much of your monthly income — if any — that you’re actually saving?
Even if …

 Budgeting, Personal Finance Tips, Saving Money         7 comments

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Paying bills is a fact of life. We all have them, and we’re required to pay them. Otherwise, after a few months of not paying them, you’ll probably find yourself sitting in a cold, dark house with no electricity, no water, and probably not have a house/apartment to sit in …

 Mortgages, Personal Finance Tips         16 comments

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Amortization is probably one of the most ubiquitous financial concepts that encompasses our daily lives, but yet, few of us know what it means, how it works, much less, how the monthly payments on all our stuff is calculated.
By definition, amortization is:
The reduction of a debt over time by making …

 Personal Finance Tips         5 comments

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Have you ever taken a long, hard look at your monthly mortgage bill and wondered why you’re paying so much more in interest rather than paying toward the loan principal?
Confusing, isn’t it?
How about calculating the percentage of your monthly bring home income that you can’t spend (and creditors always check …

 Career, Personal Finance Tips, Saving Money         14 comments

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This personal finance question comes from reader Gary, who recently got a surprise promotion and a 20% raise after his boss left the company. He’s married, has a 2 year old daughter that his wife is caring for full time, has a monthly mortgage payment, two monthly car payments and …

 20s Something Advice, Saving Money, Strategic Planning         62 comments

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Due to the popularity of the visualizing how your stuff owns you post from several weeks ago, I thought it would be beneficial if I documented exactly how I use a simple monthly calendar and a few personal finance metrics to visually represent how many hours, days, even weeks, I …

 20s Something Advice, Career, Strategic Planning         12 comments

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Some people can never have enough. Alternatively, some people are satisfied with just eeking out a living doing what they love.
It all depends on your goals, your upbringing, and maybe even your sensitivity to the law of diminishing utility. In other words, asking how much of something (money, time away …

 Budgeting, Credit Cards, Debt Reduction         8 comments

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I drafted this article after spending two weeks of discussions with an old friend who finally acknowledged her debt was beginning to influence her behavior. By creating a budget and drawing up a plan to aggressively pay down her debt within 15 to 18 months, she now claims she can …

 20s Something Advice, Auto Sales, Business Trends, Consumer Education         10 comments

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There are just some things that Gen Y won’t pay for: news, music, banking fees, etc. Apparently, this social media savvy cohort doesn’t find a tremendous amount of value in these items or they can simply get them for free somewhere else.
This trend seems have spilled over — perhaps temporarily …