Budgeting, Family & Relationships, Personal Finance, Saving & Investing

Why What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You

Do you remember that old phrase of years gone by, “ignorance is bliss”? Even if you never have heard that one (although I doubt that), it is something that seems to be true. After all, you aren’t going to worry about that big pothole on the road just a few hundred feet ahead of you when you’re driving to work on this sunny morning—if you are totally unaware of it, right? How can you? You don’t know it’s there. You haven’t heard any problems about it and your mind is drifting along with the latest tunes on the radio as you sip your coffee from your freshly brewed homemade K-cup coffee machine that you made just 10 minutes earlier. Life is good. And then…kaboom! What you don’t know can hurt you.

When it comes to your finances, what you don't know can hurt you. Here are some basics to get you started on your way to learning what you need to know.

Funny thing about that “ignorance is bliss” thing, it has a tendency to sneak up on you and hit you squarely in the eye or even worse, your rear end and lower back like driving over a huge pothole does! That simply proves the premise doesn’t it? What you don’t know can and will hurt you!

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Personal Finance

How Do You Have Financial Struggles with a Six-Figure Income?

To most working families, a six-figure income seems like the antidote to all of their financial struggles. After all, $100,000+ incomes are still not the typical numbers that most people earn these days even when there seems to be more and more of those high-salaried people around us.

It can be difficult to understand, but even families with six-figure incomes can have financial struggles. Here's why that happens and what to do.

I guess the truth about that is a little bit hidden. After all, we never really know exactly what our neighbors’ and friends’ W-2’s look like and the chances are it doesn’t come up in a conversation with them. Even if it did, would they ever tell you the absolute honest truth? It has always been my experience that the answer is a resounding “no”.

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More

A New Look for Super Saving Tips

It’s hard to believe, but Super Saving Tips will be celebrating five years in May! And all this time, it’s had the same old appearance. Way overdue for a facelift, I’m happy to announce that we have a new look. Take a look around, let me know what you like or dislike, or if anything’s not working quite right. Thanks for reading!

Entertainment

How About Those 2019 Spring and Summer Free Events!

It’s mid-march 2019 and there is still snow melting all over the place as I sit and look out my living room window. Now if you are a winter aficionado, like a big ski bum or you’re into snowboarding or some other interesting-yet-life-risking maneuver, then this post may not be what you are looking to read. However, thinking more rationally, I do know that winter is about to end (it kind of has to eventually, doesn’t it?) and spring is literally just days away. Hopefully that means my outdoor time will be increasing and the times ahead will include lots of warm air, sunny skies and—wait for it—free events to attend and fill my social calendar. So despite the fact that today the temperature when I woke up was just 24 degrees F, hope “springs (and summers) eternal” that those winter days are waning quickly.

If you like to save on your entertainment budget, now's the time to search for spring and summer free events near you like festivals, concerts, and more.

Every spring and summer, my wife and I look forward to all the local township, county, and statewide events that happen just about every week and cost zippo to do— yet are really cool things. Music we love and other activities we can actually participate in too are abounding and all starting in just a few more weeks. We love the outdoor summer concert season but if you are more into a family-type fun thing, there are no shortages of those either from parks to beaches and all kinds of special community events.

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Food

Revealing My Food Budget & Why You Need a Plan!

Budgeting is nobody’s idea of a really good time. But, it is the best way to get your family’s finances under control and—dare I say it—it is actually an absolute necessity to do so! Making a budget is making the decisions as to what you can spend in each category of your household expenses. Besides trying to figure out how you’re going to make your income spread out and cover all your bases, you might wonder where you stack up compared to other folks in the U.S. Today, I am going to provide you with the numbers of what Americans spend on their food budget, and then reveal what my wife Suzanne and I have been spending on average every month on food…for the past nine years!

Your food budget comes in right under your housing and transportation as one of the biggest costs. Make sure you are saving what you can on food.

The number one thing that we all have to spend money on is…food. Since I’m a retiree, I am on the proverbial “fixed income” so it’s become even more important to my wife and I than ever. So let’s take a look at that and run some of the numbers.

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Income and Career

If Your Résumé Makes You Sound Old, You’re Screwed

Reality check, please. In case you didn’t already know it, whatever job you currently hold right now is very likely going to be one of many you will work at in your career. It’s just a fact these days that you are not going to be anything like your dad or grandfather might have been and work for the same company for 40 years, eventually retiring with a gold watch and a pension. It “ain’t gonna happen” and that’s why résumés for older workers are so very important.

There are a lot of hidden minefields in resumes for older workers. Here are some ways your resume may be opening you to age discrimination.

Because today we live in a much more uncertain world, one where the job market changes—sometimes overnight—job security is a thing of the past. And that often doesn’t matter even if you are really good at what you do!

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Credit

Credit Scores You Need for the Things You Want

Do you know what your credit score is? Most of the time, we don’t really talk to each other about our credit scores. Some don’t know what it is and some don’t want to know. There are excuses people make for not knowing their score, but frankly there really isn’t a good reason for that.

We all know that good credit is important, but do you know what credit scores you need to get the things you want? Here's what you need to know.

We do know that good credit scores matter and that the real importance of having good credit and a good score doesn’t come up until the day you really need that really important “something” and that’s when you wonder if your score is good enough to get you what you want. That will be the day you find out and then it’s way too late to do much worrying about it!

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Food

How Your Supermarket Tricks You Every Time You Shop

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The astute super saving shopper is very savvy—or at least that’s what they will tell you if you ask. I have to admit that at one time I thought that I knew it all when it came to bargain hunting my way through the grocery store. After all, I had spent decades working in retail so I did have a leg up on the shopping experience and thought I knew every trick there was to get people to buy, buy, and buy more! But then a new reality set in and I started to have my eyes opened when I began working for supermarket chains as a consultant about 15 years ago. That’s when I learned exactly how supermarkets try to trick you into buying more every week when you make the time to shop!

When you do your grocery shopping, can you believe your supermarket tricks you into spending more? Be aware of these tricks so you can be a savvier shopper.

I wrote last year about the many “tricks” that in general retailers use in your favorite shops, especially around the holidays to get you to dig deep and spend more. (If you’re interested, here’s part 1 and part 2.) But you actually are more influenced each week at the grocery store than anyplace else you shop! Don’t think that’s true? Take a look at this!

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