Every time I get my hair cut, I'm faced with a dilemma — should I tip the barber or not? I usually get my hair cut in a small-town shop. I tip $2 on a $12 haircut. If I get to hear stories about Vietnam or histrionic political rants, I tip $3, even if I don't agree with the barber's viewpoints. (I tip because I've been entertained.) Sometimes, if I don't have enough cash, I don't leave anything at all. Are these tips appropriate?

What about when I pick up Chinese takeout? Should I have tipped the guys who delivered our new gas range last fall? What about a hotel bellhop? A parking valet? Out of curiosity, I did some research on tipping practices in the United States. There's actually significant disagreement about how much to tip for even common services.

For example, you know you should tip your waitress. But how much should you leave? Some people claim that 10% is adequate. Others claim that 20% is standard. But I suspect that most of us learned to tip 15%, and to give more for exceptional service. (The Wikipedia entry on tipping currently contains the bizarre claim that "18% is generally accepted as a standard tip for good service".) Which amount is correct? Continue reading...

I struggled with debt for years. I couldn't get a handle on where my money went. I made a decent wage, but I was always broke! Where did I spend it all? Then I read Your Money or Your Life and heeded the book's advice to "keep track of every cent that comes into or goes out of your life". The results were startling.

What does it mean to keep track of every penny you earn? Your Money or Your Life recommends that you keep a Daily Money Log. This log can take any form.

• a pocket-sized memo book
• an index card (or the hipster PDA)
• an actual PDA
• an appointment book
• a computer text file
• a checkbook register
• personal finance software
• a spreadsheet

The most important thing is to use the log. Every time you get money -- whether it's from a paycheck or a garage sale or picking up change from the ground -- write it down. Every time you spend money — whether it's paying bills or buying coffee or paying bus fare — write it down. Keep track of every penny that enters or leaves your life.

My wife — the NPR addict — pointed me to a Marketplace commentary by
Amelia Tyagi. Tyagi says not to focus on small expenses, but to focus on big expenses. You can listen to the piece in RealAudio format from the NPR website, or read this transcript:

Clip those coupons. Shift to that cheap, scratchy toilet paper. And whatever you do, don't buy any more lattes at Starbucks.

You've heard it before. Some famous financial advisor, shaking his finger and telling you how all you have to do is save $5 a week and all your financial problems will disappear. Before you know it, you will be debt free, investment rich, and lighting cigars with Donald Trump.

Good personal finance spreadsheets are hard to find on the web because sploggers monopolize the search results. Still, I've managed to collect links to a stack of them that I'd like to share.

Spreadsheets more useful than web-based calculators because:

• You can modify the fields and formats to meet your own needs,
• You can create "what-if" scenarios by making copies of a sheet, and
• You can save the data for later use.

The following links are all real sites from real people with real useful information to share.

Every year I try to review the steps in Your Money or Your Life to see how we're doing. It's been about two years since my last review, but much to my delight, I found we are following most of the steps well, and I just needed to update some numbers.

Step 1: Making Peace With The Past

Determine your total lifetime earnings

The book was written before the Social Security Administration started sending out statements. If you have earned income all your life through regular jobs, this is extremely handy. I needed the numbers from my last review in 2004, Social Security statements, and our last tax return. The combined number for me and the Spousal Unit: $865,872.

Determine your net worth

So what do we have to show for all that moolah? Often, this is a depressing part of the assessment. Until recently, I came up in the negative, which is fairly common. For the last review, my net worth was a whopping $2,869. So. Add up assets: I include anything in the house that I could sell for cash, all bank accounts, current market value on the house, investments, etc. $316,183. Now for liabilities: the balance on the house, any other loans or credit card balances, and a tax debt from being a goob last year: $231,690. Net worth: $84,473. Hey! That's not entirely bad. I can tell you this: most of that increase is because we stopped throwing money away on rent and bought a house.