The Downsides of Using Debit Cards

Debit cards issued by your bank enable you to tap into your checking account and are seen by some as a better alternative to using credit cards. Most of them are now co-branded with either Visa or MasterCard making them more widely accepted. So why would you not choose to use a debit card? High…

Read More

3 Tax Tips to help Black Belt Your Financial Goals

Cartoon: "Don't bug me unless I can claim you as a deduction!"

Taxes can be difficult to figure out. Here are 3 tips for those looking to Black Belt their Finances with their taxes this year. These can help you meet your financial goals. First, there are plenty of FREE tax help places such as through your local library or, for older Americans, senior centers. These are…

Read More

New Years Resolutions vs. Goals

New Year's Resolution

There are resolutions and there are goals. What’s the difference and how to achieve them? With the New Year, many make resolutions, go gung ho for a while then trail off and feel like failures and not achieve what they want. Others opt out of resolutions scoffing at the very concept. First, it’s never too…

Read More

New Year’s Resolutions You’ll Enjoy and Achieve

New Year's Resolution: cat on exercise bike

At the closing of the old year and rising of the new, many of us think about what to resolve doing differently than we have been doing. January 1st, after the holiday excess, it’s natural to want to pour ourselves into a new you. Restarting our engines. So we set a high bar and make…

Read More

Gratitude: What 3 Things are You Grateful For Today?

Rock with gratitude engraving

A friend regularly posts 3 items he’s grateful for that are low-key but important to his well-being. Playing with the cats, for example. Grading papers. Finishing a presentation. Not things to be competitive about. Others like me reply with our own lists. It does get you to reflect about what is going right even if…

Read More

Using Credit Card Rewards

Discover Card

If you pay your credit cards off every month, you can earn bonus money from credit card rewards. Because of the difficulty of black out dates and other exclusions, I don’t bother with travel cards. Instead, I go for pure cash back. For favorite is Discover credit card rewards, which normally give me 1% back.…

Read More