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Viewing entries forView all blogs (popular) | Personal finance (popular) | Real estate (popular) | Investing (popular) | Visit Items 26 - 50 of 63
    Saturday, March 8, 2008 From Money and Values - view blog entries - visit this blog
March 8, 2008 at 11:56 pm ET Do you ever buy higher-priced items because you think their higher quality makes them a good value? Are you sure they're actually higher quality?It isn't news that consumers interpret higher prices as a signal of quality; for decades, studies have been demonstrating that we expect more expensive products to be better. But two recent studies have taken that conclusion a step further-- not only do prices affect our expectations of quality, but we may actually experience identical products as being better if they're priced higher.In a study released in January, researchers from CalTech and Stanford told subjects that ... (more) Thursday, March 6, 2008 From Money and Values - view blog entries - visit this blog
March 6, 2008 at 7:25 am ET Thanks for checking out this edition of the Carnival of Ethics, Values, and Personal Finance! We have two dozen wonderful posts on a variety of relevant topics. Please link to the carnival and spread the word.Editor's Picks Shut the Stuff Up! at The Butler Project by Mark Butler. The Choice of What is Right, and What is Easy at Cash Money Life by Cash Money Life. Being a conscious consumer/investor David Gross presents The Picket Line — 15 ... (more) Wednesday, March 5, 2008 From Money and Values - view blog entries - visit this blog
March 5, 2008 at 11:18 am ET Sometimes I have a really hard time spending money on things when I don't think I'm getting a good enough bargain. I know, I know, some people would love to have that problem! But honestly, it is a problem sometimes, especially when I hold back from having fun and enjoying myself because I don't like the price (or, worse, go ahead and then fret about the cost the whole way through.) But luckily, I think I've found a partial solution. One of the great things about living in the heart of Chicago was that every three months, without fail, a new set of ... (more) Sunday, March 2, 2008 Lotsa links! (6 clicks)
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March 2, 2008 at 11:46 pm ET Free Money Finance is hosting a March Madness tournament again-- 64 great posts from the past year facing off in a series of match-ups until the winner is crowned and gets $500 for the charity of their choice. Stop by to read some great posts and vote for your favorites (in the first round, I'm playing in Game 16 and Game 24.)From the Psychology of Money department, Get Rich Slowly had a post this week called How Shopping Momentum Leads to More Shopping, highlighting research that found that after someone decides to buy an item, they spend less ... (more) Friday, February 29, 2008 From Money and Values - view blog entries - visit this blog
February 29, 2008 at 2:35 pm ET What's happening in Darfur, and what does my money have to do with it?I'm not going to attempt to explain the situation in Darfur in depth (so please read up about it yourself) but here's a short summary from the Sudan Divestment Task Force: In response to conflict with Darfurian rebel groups in February 2003, the Sudanese government, working with Arab militias called 'Janjaweed', began sponsoring wholesale ethnic cleansing of non-Arab Darfurians, almost all of whom had NO direct affiliation with the rebel groups. Since February of 2003, over 400,000 Darfurian civilians have perished. 2.5 million have been displaced due to violence, nearly ... (more) Tuesday, February 26, 2008 From Money and Values - view blog entries - visit this blog
February 26, 2008 at 3:08 pm ET If you're looking for easy ways to get greener, here's one I'd never really thought about: use revolving doors rather than swing doors when you've got the option. A group of students at MIT calculated that swing doors cause about eight times as much outside air to enter buildings as the revolving doors do. The building's air conditioner or heater has to process all that air, which of course uses energy. And while it's not a ton of energy, it's not insignificant, either: "A single person walking through a revolving door in February ... (more) Saturday, February 23, 2008 From Money and Values - view blog entries - visit this blog
February 23, 2008 at 6:20 pm ET A recent analysis involving more than 100,000 people from all around the world has drawn an interesting conclusion. In general, happier people are more likely to be successful on a wide range of measures, from income to educational achievement to personal relationships-- but on some of these measures (including income) the very happiest people come out behind moderately happy folks.Three researchers published a journal article in December 2007 with the provocative title "The Optimum Level of Well-Being: Can People Be Too Happy?" The authors summarize it by saying:Our analyses of large survey data and longitudinal data ... (more) Friday, February 22, 2008 Spent money abroad? Get $25 or more back! (2 clicks)
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February 22, 2008 at 6:42 pm ET Did you use a credit card, debit card, or ATM abroad between February 1, 1996 and November 8, 2006? Or did you pay for purchases in a foreign currency during that time period? If so, you should be eligible to benefit from a settlement of a class action lawsuit.The lawsuit claimed that credit card companies and banks were hiding their foreign exchange fees. The settlement doesn't admit wrongdoing on the companies' part, but it does create a $336 million fund for customers who've suffered the alleged damages-- i.e., anyone who was charged a foreign transaction fee during ... (more) Wednesday, February 20, 2008 The frugal fun of being a baseball fan (6 clicks)
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February 20, 2008 at 11:55 pm ET It may have snowed today in DC, but it feels like spring to me, because this week in Florida and Arizona there are baseball players stretching and tossing balls and swinging their bats-- spring training has arrived and the 2008 baseball season is on its way!I suppose being a baseball fan is one of those things you can make as expensive or as cheap as you like. But I usually get tremendous fun and satisfaction out of it while spending very little.Watching or listening to games at home is usually free if you're cheering for the hometown team. ... (more) Saturday, February 16, 2008 From Money and Values - view blog entries - visit this blog
February 16, 2008 at 11:52 pm ET I've been pretty sick for the past few days, which means I'm writing about one of the few vaguely personal-finance related topics on my mind-- those lovely drugs which ease my symptoms and help me get better. Way back on Tuesday, I went to the drugstore to pick up some cough syrup. I'd been coughing since Sunday night, without any other symptoms, and so I was standing in the aisle, trying to decide what to get. Picking cheaper generics rather than paying extra for identical brand-name items was a given. But I wasn't sure what combination to ... (more) Wednesday, February 13, 2008 21 Things You Didn't Know You Can Recycle (8 clicks)
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February 13, 2008 at 4:07 pm ET I just came across a great Co-op America list called "21 Things You Didn't Know You Can Recycle." Of course, there were several things on the list I did know that you could recycle! But these were the highlights for me:Appliances (#1): Check out the Steel Recycling Institute, which has a database of 30,000 steel recycling locations. (As with most of the items on the list, if they're still in working condition please try donating, selling, or swapping them first!)CDs/DVDs/Game Disks (#4): A company called AuralTech can repair most them for you if they're ... (more) Saturday, February 9, 2008 From Money and Values - view blog entries - visit this blog
February 9, 2008 at 11:41 am ET A study released yesterday found that participants who had just watched a sad video were willing to pay almost 4 times as much for a water bottle than those who watched a neutral video-- and yet they didn't think that the video or their sadness had anything to do with their decision.That part of the study actually isn't news-- it backs up a 2004 study that found the same thing. The study was also looking at how much the participants were focused on themselves (self-focused), and measured it by having them write a short essay and counting how many ... (more) Thursday, February 7, 2008 From Money and Values - view blog entries - visit this blog
February 7, 2008 at 10:52 am ET Thanks so much to Betsy of Money Changes Things for hosting our February edition of the Carnival of Ethics, Values, and Personal Finance. And if the great posts you'll find there aren't incentive enough to check it out, there's also a fun Girl Scout cookie theme complete with pictures! There were some really terrific posts submitted and included-- here are a few of my favorites: Conflicting Desires: Knowing That We Have Enough vs. Always Wanting to Better Ourselves (from Slow Down Fast Today!) How do you figure out what is "enough"? How do you appreciate the present rather than always looking towards the future? ... (more) Tuesday, February 5, 2008 Saving money with third-party accessories (5 clicks)
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February 5, 2008 at 11:58 pm ET I'm sitting here looking at my month-old power adapter for my iBook and smiling. It's been working perfectly, and it cost less than half as much as the official version that I bought to replace my broken adapter the last two times.It came down to 1) doing my research and 2) planning ahead. The first time around, I didn't even realize there were third-party adapters. By the second time the adapter went on the fritz, I was researching to see if I could buy the official version at a better price, and found out about my other ... (more) Friday, February 1, 2008 From Money and Values - view blog entries - visit this blog
February 1, 2008 at 3:49 pm ET My favorite bank, ShoreBank, has announced that as of today their $1 minimum ShoreBank Direct account has a 4.15% APY (down from 5.00%.) I was actually expecting it to go lower, so I'm considering that good news! It's still higher interest than a lot of big names in the high-yield savings business; EmigrantDirect is at 4.05% now, HSBC at 3.80%, and ING's 3.40%, according to Bankrate. A quick bit of gushing about ShoreBank for those who haven't heard me talk about it before-- unlike traditional banks which take depositors' money and lend it out to where ever they get the biggest profit (including disturbing stuff like selling ... (more) Thursday, January 31, 2008 Some great posts about money and values (6 clicks)
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January 31, 2008 at 12:44 am ET Sorry to be light on the posting this week, but work's been really hectic and I haven't had much time to catch my breath, let alone write dazzling posts for y'all. So instead, here are some links I've noticed lately: Madame X at My Open Wallet riffs off a New York Times article and gets great comments from readers on Making Choices: Time vs. Money Trent at The Simple Dollar ponders the connections between Emotional Fulfillment and Financial Success John at QueerCents asks, How Can Social Responsibility Be Made More Affordable? Pinyo at Moolanomy and some other bloggers talk about ... (more) Saturday, January 26, 2008 From Money and Values - view blog entries - visit this blog
January 26, 2008 at 8:32 pm ET Employee satisfaction is correlated with higher stock returns, according to an award-winning paper by Alex Edmans, finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton business school.Edmans found that firms making it onto Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For list earned more than double the returns of the overall stock market between 1998 and 2005, and also consistently performed better when matched directly against companies in the same industries and with similar characteristics.The 100 Best list, which is two-thirds based on employee satisfaction surveys, is full of employers who offer high pay, great benefits-- like fully-paid health insurance, on-site child ... (more) Thursday, January 24, 2008 Frugal + Fine Dining = ? (17 clicks)
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January 24, 2008 at 10:58 am ET It was like a mirror-image of my regular self. I was poring through restaurant menus online, trying to find the most expensive one so I could eat there!Okay, so it's not quite as strange as it sounds. Last week was Washington DC's Restaurant Week, which means a whole bunch of different restaurants were offering dinners for the set price of $30.08 and lunches for $20.08. (Some have extended it an extra week or two, if you're interested.) Normally I never eat at places that cost that much, but the "Oooh, I love a good bargain!" part of my mind won ... (more) Monday, January 21, 2008 Martin Luther King on Economic Justice (1 click)
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January 21, 2008 at 11:03 am ET This is a re-run of a post from last Martin Luther King Day.True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.-- The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.Today, as we celebrate the life of a great man and the movements he was a part of, most of us probably know him through the canned, packaged story we're told about what he stood for and advocated, told in a way that makes us feel safe and proud of our country's progress ... (more) Sunday, January 20, 2008 From Money and Values - view blog entries - visit this blog
January 20, 2008 at 2:39 pm ET It's hard to believe, but Valentine's Day is just around the corner again, and I'm writing my annual post nice and early so you have plenty of time to get in on the sales and specials, and order all the fantastic fair trade items you want.As most of you know from earlier posts about fair trade, fair trade certification is about letting consumers know that the people who grow/harvest/make their products got a fair price and humane working conditions, which is a big step above the often horrible conditions (child labor, pesticide poisoning, intimidation and exploitation, etc) involved in producing ... (more) Thursday, January 17, 2008 From Money and Values - view blog entries - visit this blog
January 17, 2008 at 11:58 pm ET Okay, so I don't have no idea about my next steps to better align my life with my priorities. I have one idea (so far)-- get more sleep.See, there are a lot of things that are important to me but which I don't spend enough time on. But really, it's not that I don't have enough hours in the day. It's that too often (in the evenings especially, but weekends also) I'll think "I should get together with a friend" or "I should do some creative writing" but then follow it up with "No, I'm too ... (more) Monday, January 14, 2008 From Money and Values - view blog entries - visit this blog
January 14, 2008 at 12:46 am ET According to a recent study, materialism in pre-teens and teenagers may actually be linked to low self-esteem. The study, which measured materialism by looking at what kinds of pictures young people included when asked to make collages of "what makes me happy," found that when kids read compliments about themselves from their peers before making the collages, the level of materialism they displayed dropped dramatically.So the study appears to suggest that even though many young people think having consumer goods is what makes them happy, if they start to feel better about themselves their focus will shift to non-materialistic ... (more) Thursday, January 10, 2008 From Money and Values - view blog entries - visit this blog
January 10, 2008 at 9:41 am ET What do China and I have in common? We're both decreasing our use of plastic bags!The big news from China yesterday is that they're banning the thinnest plastic bags altogether, and requiring that stores charge for thicker plastic bags rather than give them away for free. They're one of many countries (and cities, like San Francisco) that have taken on this issue, either by banning the bags or imposing taxes; apparently in Ireland, the 15 cent per bag tax has led to a 90-95% decrease in plastic bag usage: In Dingle's largest supermarket, the plastic bag levy ... (more) Sunday, January 6, 2008 2007 Financial Wrap-Up (9 clicks)
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January 6, 2008 at 2:35 pm ET I've run the numbers for my financials, and it's exciting! (That's the upside of forgetting to do it on a regular basis-- you get a pleasant surprise at the end-- although I suppose you run the risk that it's an unpleasant surprise...)Savings: $38,923 (up $8,685 during 2007, or 22.3%)Retirement: $22,763 (up $6,606 during 2007, or 29.0%)Debt: $8,305 (down $5,340 during 2007, or 64.3%)Net worth: $53,381 (up $20,631 during 2007, or 38.6%)I was hoping to have the savings number above $40K, but I'll be there soon enough. Instead, I did a lot of debt repayment, and now ... (more) Thursday, January 3, 2008 From Money and Values - view blog entries - visit this blog
January 3, 2008 at 9:07 am ET Welcome to the Carnival of Ethics, Values, and Personal Finance! We've got a lot of great stuff to offer this month, from turtles to Boy Scouts and from gift cards to gardeners... we hope you enjoy them all!Giving/Philanthropy Ted Stearns presents Random Acts of Self-Control posted at Seasoned TradeLines. (A great post on reasons for giving, even when you're struggling financially.) Leon Gettler presents Kick the Kringle posted at Sox First. PT presents A Better Way to Say "NO" posted at Prime Time Money.Joshua C. Karlin presents Why ... (more) Items 26 - 50 of 63
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