Profitable Ideas: Keep Your Goals in the Right Zone, Time Marches On, and More

Weekly list of curated personal finance articles from around the web.
Achieving our stewardship goals (Good Sense Movement). Keep your goals in the right zone.
11 questions to ask the neighbors before you buy a new house (Lifehacker). This is such a good idea, and yet I assume very few home buyers do this before buying.
‘Doing God’s work’: This Korean restaurant hits 15,000 free meals (Good News Network). “We’re not rich, but when we share with others, God always provides us [with] better things somehow.”
A generation is turning to ‘buy now, pay later’ for Botox and concert ticktets (Wall Street Journal). Once you start down this path, it’s very hard to stop.
Underwater car loans on the rise: More than 1 in 4 trade-ins had negative equity in Q2 2025, according to Edmunds (Edmunds). Paying cash for cars and keeping them a long time are financial super powers.
One less summer (Becoming Minimalist). Devoting your time to what matters most—a beautiful piece that’s well worth a read.
3 simple ways to stop worrying about work (Jordan Raynor). Jordan Raynor is one of today’s best writers on the intersection of faith and work.
New Ally Bank survey reveals the hidden financial cost of friendships (Ally). The headline is a little odd (as if friendships should be avoided for financial reasons). Still, there are some good lessons here, like the wisdom of considering a friend’s financial circumstances before suggesting an overly expensive activity.
To weigh in on any of the above, just leave a comment below. And if you haven’t done so already, sign up for a free subscription to this blog.