Ben Edwards's Blog: Money Smart Life, page 3

I Don’t Have Much Money – Can I Still Invest?

What often causes people to not invest money is the perception that you need a lot of money just to get started. That’s actually not true. Even if you don’t have much money, there are still places that you can invest with very little.

This is important because the first obstacle to investing at all is just getting started. If you go through your entire life thinking that you can’t invest because you don’t have a lot of money, then you will never start.

Here are ways that you can begin investi...

I’d Like to Travel Everywhere Man

Last weekend I was working on an upcoming article that highlights the fun and affordability of some of the best regional summer events like festivals and events around the country.

I found myself wishing I had a solid month of vacation saved up so I could visit all of these festivals when the Johnny Cash song “I’ve Been Everywhere” came up on Spotify – followed by an appropriately timed ad for a travel credit card.With travel on my brain I was enticed to click on the picture of the Discover i...

Keeping Up With the Joneses is Easy Because Being Different is Hard

Many of us – maybe most of us – spend a lot of money trying to match the lifestyles and spending patterns of the community around us. We even have a name for it – keeping up with the Joneses. Why do we feel compelled to do that? I suspect that in most instances, it isn’t a conscious decision. We do it mostly because keeping up with the Joneses is easy, because being different is hard.

Here’s what I mean:

Feeling “Normal”

In reality, “normal” is a subjective concept. No one is truly normal if...

It’s Easy to Fall Behind on Retirement Because It’s Hard to Choose a Plan

Study after study about retirement indicates that Americans are worried about their ability to live comfortably later in life. Savings statistics also indicate that we aren’t saving enough for retirement.

One of the problems is that it’s easy to fall behind on retirement because it can be hard to choose the right retirement plan for you. The good news is that there are tools and strategies you can use to reduce the difficulty associated with saving for retirement.

Employer Retirement Plans

Ch...

Spending Money is Easy Because Saving Money is Hard

Spending money and saving money are like natural enemies. The more of one that you do, the less of the other that you’re able to do. If money were unlimited, you’d be able to do both without any stress. But that’s why the spending/saving balance is so complicated – most people have to make hard choices between the two. Unfortunately, saving money often comes up the loser in the conflict, which helps to explain why relatively few people in America ever save a substantial amount of money, and r...

Coasting at Work is Easy Because Working For a Promotion is Hard

A lot of people wonder why they get passed over promotions – why the promotion always seems to go to someone else. Sometimes the reason is office politics. But most times it’s because most people coast at work. They do that – often unconsciously – because coasting at work is easy. But working for a promotion is hard – which is why most people avoid it at all costs.

Generally speaking, when employers look to promote someone, they are looking for an impact person – that person who stands above...

Career Networking: Are You a Giver?

One of the things that always strikes me when I look for good advice on career networking is that a lot of the suggestions people make revolve around the idea that you need to be a giver first. This was also a theme I saw when helping put together a video about career networking using advice from attendees to the recent FinCon Expo in New Orleans.

This got me thinking about the way I network for my career, and wondering whether or not I’m a giver.

Why You Should Be a Giver First

It’s tempting...

Being in Debt is Easy Because Getting Out of Debt is Hard

Have you ever wondered why so many people are in debt? Or maybe even why you’re in debt? It’s because being in debt is easy, and that’s because getting out of debt is hard. Despite all the advice from financial advisors telling people to get out of debt, many millions are still there.

Why is it so hard to get out of debt?

Saying NO to Yourself

The basic reason why anyone is in debt is because they spend more money than they bring in. They make up the difference with debt, which gives the illu...

The Five Most Expensive Traffic Violations

The cost of incurring a traffic violation has gotten much higher in recent years. Fines in many jurisdictions have doubled, tripled, or even more. Even worse – because they are recurring –are the insurance surcharges that apply after most violations. And at the extreme, some violations caneven result injail time.

Here is a list of what are generally the most expensive traffic violations you can have, in no particular order:

1) Reckless Driving

Reckless driving is a broad category, that can be...

The “Miracle” of Being Debt-Free

Many millions of people struggle with being in debt. No matter how hard they try, they don’t seem to be able to get out of it. Like yo-yo dieting, they go from one failed strategy to another, never able to get control of their debt, and to eliminate it once and for all. The problem may not be the strategy. It may have more to do with motivation. If you have a clear idea as to why you need to be debt free it might be easier to accomplish, no matter what plan you use. There’s a “miracle” of bei...