Finances - Humorous Homemaking

Why We Stopped Funding our Kids’ College Savings

We’re huge Dave Ramsey fans used most of his principles to become completely debt free (including our home) a few years ago. One of his baby steps (baby step 5) is to handle college funding for children. When our first child was born, we started her college fund in a 529. With small, but consistent contributions, that fund is up to roughly $5,000 (she’s 5 now). When our next was born, we started him a college fund, too. He’s 2 now, and he has almost $2,000 in his fund. Along comes baby #3 and what do we do? Well…you’d think we’d just keep the 529 thing rolling, but we haven’t. Why did we stop funding our kids’ college savings? Read on. [Read more…]

Teaching Your Kids About Money

If you’ve not already figured it out, everyone out there is teaching your kids about money, or at least trying for all they’re worth. Think about it…TV commercials scream about how your kids “need” to spend money on the latest toy or gadget. Movies (even those supposed kid-friendly ones) portray that money buys happiness and fame. Popular music teaches valuable life lessons such as, “I ain’t coming out for less than a 100 thou” (Nicki Manaj) or, “grab that cash with both hands and make a stash” (Pink Floyd). Wow, what enrichment your children can gain from popular culture…and they will, if you don’t teach them any differently.

Allow me to contrast the world’s approach with a few things God’s Word teaches about money: [Read more…]

Why I Recommend the Debt Snowball

If you’ve been around here long, you know I want you out of debt. I don’t want you to reduce your debt – I want it gone. And we’re not talking about “eventually,” but ASAP. You also probably know I’m a huge Dave Ramsey fan. The man is a no-nonsense debt assassin. He keeps it simple and to the point so you can get started immediately on what he says to do. While I disagree with him on a few minor points, one where I am in lockstep with him is his advice to use the debt snowball. Today I’ll talk about why that’s the best and fastest way to get out of debt. [Read more…]

100 Days of Frugal Christmas Gifts

Last year, starting in September, I did a fun little exercise on Facebook where each day I gave you a frugal Christmas gift idea and, where possible, a tutorial to make sure you could take the idea and run with it. Since when I started there were roughly 100 days until the big 12/25, I named it, “100 Days of Frugal Christmas Gifts” (I’m just super creative like that). Many of you asked me if there was a single place you could get all 100 of those ideas in a nice neat little package. Then after you survived Christmas, you probably forgot all about it.

So here we are, itching for Spring and you’re probably sick to death of the thought of working on Christmas stuff for 2014, but I didn’t forget you and heck, why wait until September to deliver!? As promised, I’ve compiled all 100 of those projects into a cute little eBook, also creatively named 100 days of Frugal Christmas Gifts. [Read more…]

Five Reasons Your Budget Isn’t Working (and how to fix it)

It was innocent enough – you set the goal to get this money thing figured out and then BOOM, here you are months/years later in no better place than when you started. You know you have to live on a budget to win with money, but somehow it just isn’t working. Here are the five biggest reasons I run into when I talk to people who tell me their budget isn’t working…and how to fix each one of them. [Read more…]

How to Deal With Losing Your Job

Situation

The boss just walked in and gave you the worst news. Management decided to lay off some staff. Your department is being closed and you will be on unemployment (if you’re lucky) in less than two weeks.

This scenario happens every day to someone. Every day, someone has to go home and tell his/her family that things are getting ready to be turned upside down. Eventually, when shock passes, coping with stress begins and the realization hits: I NEED A JOB! In today’s world, that isn’t usually an easy task. What do you do? Today, I’ll help you (or someone you love), get through this mess, and maybe even come out on the other side with a great story to tell. [Read more…]

Relationships and Money: 5 Things Every Couple Needs to Know

A lot of you are new around here, so I’ve been spending the past few Saturdays recapping some of my favorite content written since Humorous Homemaking was born in May 2010. One of the ways I’m determining which content is best to share with you anew, I consider the most frequently asked questions I get via email, Facebook, etc. By far, the most common set of questions falls under the heading of relationships and money or marriage and money.

I get TONS of questions on how to get husbands and wives to agree on money. Why? Because I firmly believe when you said “I do” you made a commitment for life. Unfortunately, the reason that commitment is most commonly broken is due to money problems. When I started providing financial counsel, I quickly learned I often provided a lot of marriage counseling too. [Read more…]

Foreclosures and Mortgage Debt: Don’t Live There

This is the official time of year for what I’ll call the “financial freak out.” Christmas is in the rear view mirror and the bills are showing up. That Christmas bonus at work (if you got one) is spent, and it will likely be March before you could hold out hope for a tax refund. Reality has set in. It’s time to face the music. The financial grim reaper is at the door. It’s time to pay the piper. With all that potential scariness in mind, I’ve decided the first several posts I write in 2014 are going to help you deal with the stress that comes with handling finances.

Last week I shared a HUGE list of tips for living debt free and in the coming weeks I’ve planned posts on scheduling your time more effectively, handling money with your spouse, plus a summary of the most frequently asked questions I get about money. I want your 2014 to be the best year possible! In this theme, today we’re going to talk about the SERIOUS issue faced by literally millions of Americans [Read more…]

Five Minutes on Christmas

Christmas is almost here! And this post won’t be long — I just want to talk for Five Minutes on Christmas. That’s great news for some of you and miserable sadness for others. Christmas is one of those holidays that has a reputation for bringing out the best and worst in people. Don’t believe me? Look around! Our area made national news for Black Friday fights in Walmart. Classy, people…really classy. But then you hear stories of awesome generosity or cool marketing ploys by creative companies.

Here’s the problem – most of us have been duped.

We’ve been indoctrinated with political correctness and similar garbage that have convinced so many that Christmas is about everything EXCEPT what it is really about. Think about it: most retailers want you to think Christmas is all about busting your budget in the name of creating happiness for everyone you’ve ever met.

“Merry Christmas” has been replaced with “Happy Holidays”…

Because we wouldn’t want to offend someone who doesn’t celebrate Christmas or acknowledge CHRIST as the message of December 25^th. But here’s reality…

Christmas is about JESUS.

It’s about THE GIFT, not a bunch of gifts. Christmas is not about good feelings, overindulgent meals, Santa, trees, cards, bells, sleigh rides, snow, lights, or anything else that we might use as a symbol of Christmas. I’ll be totally honest: I’ve loved and hated Christmas over the years.

Some years I forgot it wasn’t about me and was selfish.

One year I saved up a bunch of time and took almost the entire month of December off from work and spent it with Stacy doing whatever we felt like. Last year was my first without my Dad there. I understand why people can get hung up on Christmas. So here’s how it works for the Myers.

Christmas is a day of joy and recognition of our salvation, come to the earth in the form of a baby.
Christmas is a day of fun (remember, God called us to have life and have it abundantly!).
Not only does Christmas involves celebration and family time, but also worship.
Presents? Even though I’ll have a few to open, God has blessed me so richly that I can honestly say there is nothing I need that I don’t already have. We buy presents for our kids, but with some perspective and WITHIN BUDGET. Stacy was recently interviewed by NBC for the Today Show on our “three gift Christmas” – you should check out the article

Okay, enough of me typing – Stacy and I thought you might like to watch us talk a bit! We’re calling it our Five Minutes Christmas and sharing so that y’all can see how it works for us.

How do you feel about Christmas? Is it a warm, enjoyable time for you and your family or a struggle?

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10 Reasons You’re Destined to Stay Broke

Today I’m going to rant. I’m going to be politically incorrect. I’m going to make a lot of you extremely angry (the comments should be fun to read). I’ve heard too many people whining and complaining about how bad they have it and how hard life is. I’ve heard people give me excuse after excuse of why they can never get ahead financially and how “the man” is always putting them down. Come on, people – get with it. Life is going to happen. Life sometimes sucks (apologies to those of you who don’t like that word). Life isn’t fair, and isn’t supposed to be. For those of you who have decided to let life happen and whine about it instead of doing something to make it better, this post is dedicated to you. Without further ado, I give you: 10 reasons you’re destined to stay broke. [Read more…]