thought of the day
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Home Economics
Can money buy you balance?
I’m not a big fan of the phase “work-life balance.” It implies that the two take up equal space, which is not the case for most people. With 168 hours a week, if you sleep 8 per night (56 per week) that leaves 112 for other things. You’d need to be working 56 hours per week for work and the rest of life to be truly “balanced.” Most people — e… read more »
The New Tupperware
A few years ago, I went to a Tupperware party in a friend’s apartment. It was a somewhat surreal experience. The official Tupperware representative was a middle-aged suburban woman sent in to this tiny apartment filled with Manhattan 20-somethings, most of whom (all of whom?) had never been to such a thing before. What I remember most about the experience… read more »
Someone else’s budget
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a young man (or woman) in possession of a desire to better his finances must soon be in want of a budget. A big chunk of personal finance literature is devoted to teaching how to examine what is coming in (let’s call it “X”) and then how to divvy up X into different budget buckets. These buckets are as… read more »
The Money Saving Mom’s Budget
In late 2010, shortly after I got a contract to write the book that would become All the Money in the World, I started asking everyone I knew for people with interesting money stories. One friend, who at the time was quite into couponing, mentioned a coupon blogger who’d paid cash for a house. I thought this sounded intriguing, though I believe my line at the ti… read more »
Hey parents, the third kid’s a bargain (USA TODAY)
(Note: This column ran in today’s USA Today)
By Laura Vanderkam
In a tepid economy, people look to save money however they can. One strategy? Not having kids. After hitting a high of 4.3 million in 2007, U.S. births tumbled, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to about 4 million in 2010.
It makes sense. Each year, the U.S. Depart… read more »
