Budgeting, Planning & Family Money

Not long ago, I joined a popular weight management program to help me shed some post-baby pounds. (No comment on the fact that my “babies” were almost entering their double-digit years!) As I started learning techniques for shedding extra weight, I noticed something interesting. As my weight went down, my husband’s and my savings balance [...]

Lending money to family and friends can lead to problems, particularly if they get divorced. Recovering the money may be even harder. Q: My wife and I are in our late 60's and two years ago we loaned my son and his wife $60,000 for a down payment on a home. They bought the home [...]

Budgeting is often touted as the best path toward saving money. Unfortunately, budgeting sometimes doesn’t work in the long term, as many people don’t have the discipline to log their every expenditure and say no to spending. Instead of implementing a traditional budget, try PERK—an easy and effective money-savings plan, says Robert Pagliarini, founder of [...]

When my husband and I got married, we were young, but we were always thinking about saving money. My husband had $25 taken out of every paycheck for his employer to buy him savings bonds. (Back then, $25 was about 15 percent of our rent.) I started setting aside similar sums of money into savings, [...]

It’s January, and you know what that means: New Year’s resolutions. In addition to eating better and losing weight, many Americans resolve to get their finances under control by creating a monthly budget for themselves. Making a budget is essential if you want to build your savings, but it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy yourself. [...]