My mother is in the hospital. Her health, which had been deteriorating lately, took a turn for the worse over the weekend. On Tuesday, she was admitted to a local hospital, where she’s likely to remain for a week (or more).
My brothers and I have been sorting through mom’s financial documents, trying to piece together a complete picture. It’s difficult. If she had used Quicken, the job would be relatively easy, but she’s Old School, and does everything by hand.
We’ve begun to realize there are a lot of unanswered questions.

What are mom’s finances like? How much does she owe and to whom? How much has she saved? Fortunately, we’ve been able to answer this to some degree. She does have some savings (though we’re unsure if it will be enough to cover her medical expenses), and she receives regular “passive income” from the box factory.
What is her health insurance like? Mom is covered through the [...]

Yesterday, Amy Jo pointed me to a site called SmallNotebook.org where Rachel is nearing the end of a self-imposed No-Spend Month. Though the name is something of a misnomer — this exercise is more of a Spend Less Month — it’s still an interesting concept.
For the entire month of July, Rachel’s family of three set a budget of $250 to spend on food, gas, clothing, household items, and entertainment. They’re doing this “to stretch ourselves to become more mindful and disciplined about the money we spend, and to save some extra money in the process.” Rachel has been posting her progress every week:

During the first week, her family spent just $13. “Both of us remember what it felt like last year to not have enough money at the end of the month, so we’re trying to be really careful now,” she writes.
The the second week was harder than the first. Sacrifices became more difficult. [...]

This is a guest post by Christopher L. Jones, author of The Intelligent Portfolio. The following is an excerpt from his book.
During the meandering path of our lifetimes, there are many types of financial goals that we strive to reach. Some goals are short term in nature, such as having enough money to pay the taxes to Uncle Sam next quarter or paying for that trip to Hawaii next spring. Others might span decades of time, such as investing for the retirement of you and your spouse or partner.
Clearly the size of a goal matters, but there are other characteristics that have an impact on your investment plans as well. The objective with saving and investing is to accumulate sufficient assets over a period of time so that you can adequately fund a goal. When setting up an investment plan, there are a few considerations about goals that are important to evaluate.
Time horizon
One of [...]

“Look at this,” Kris said yesterday when she returned from grocery shopping. She held up two yogurt containers for me to see.

“So what?” I said. “Black cherry yogurt.”
“Look closer,” she said.
 

“That one’s smaller,” I said. “Did they change the container size?”
“Yes,” she said. “But they didn’t change the price.”
The incredible shrinking yogurt
I’ve received several e-mails lately from readers noting the same thing. They go to buy a product they’ve been using for years, only to discover that the container has shrunk. The price hasn’t changed — only the packaging. Reader David Cox, for example, wrote with the following anecdote that mirrors our own:

We went to the grocery last night and one of the items I wanted to get was yogurt. The store always seems to have their brand of yogurt on sale @ 10/$5.00. I was about to scoop up a bunch, when I noticed that they had redesigned the packaging with [...]

“The Mole” is a certified financial planner and public accountant who, in his spare time, provides a behind-the-scenes view of the financial planning industry for Money magazine. In his most recent column, The Mole explains how to deal with a bad 401(k) plan.
“401(k) providers don’t actually care how they make money,” he writes, “just as long as they make a tidy profit.” The providers can make money by:

Offering good choices to employees, but charging employers high administration fees.
Charging low administration fees, but offering high-cost investment options to participants.

The Mole notes that smaller employers can’t afford to pay high administrative fees, so they may opt for something cheaper, not realizing that they’re simply shifting the cost to their employees. If your company offers a lousy 401(k) plan, the first thing to do is talk about it with your employer. If that’s not fruitful, The Mole recommends that you:

Always taking the employer match. “I’ve seen some pretty [...]

My friend Nicole and her family visited our house for breakfast this morning. She and her husband are the founders of Green Ronin, a Seattle-based game publisher. As we enjoyed a couple lovely hours outside at the picnic table, we chatted about life and work. We talked about what it’s like to own a small business.
Because my father was a serial entrepreneur, I’ve spent most of my life around small businesses. Chris and Nicole have had a taste of the lifestyle over the past eight years. They’ve seen the bright spots and the dark, and have some strong opinions about entrepreneurship.
“What sort of advice do you have for somebody who might be starting a small business?” I asked. Here are the highlights of our conversation:

Be wary of going into business with your friends. Though it sounds like a good idea, working with friends is often a recipe for disaster. “At the very least, partnerships with [...]