I don’t know about you, but I tend to spend more money on fuel during warmer months because I drive more. Obvious, I know. In fact, earlier this month I made a 750-mile road trip from my home in northern Utah to central California for a wedding. Based on the fact that the cost of gas historically goes up and remains up between Memorial Day and Labor Day, I can only surmise that I’m not the only one who spends more time in my car during the summer. This year the higher-than-ever-before-recorded gas prices are REALLY restricting the “Sunday afternoon drive” for a LOT of people. Today let’s chat about what you can do to get the best bang for your petroleum buck. You’ll get better fuel efficiency by following these tips: Perform regular maintenance on your car Keep tires rotated and inflated to ideal pressure Glide to a stop instead of stomping on the brakes Combine short trips Drive at a moderate speed Drive friendly, not aggressively Travel light and don’t overload your trunk Keep yo...

Before you all run to Google to define deluge, let me just tell you it’s another word for avalanche. You’re welcome. We will come back to this shortly. Let’s talk about debt for a minute. You know I hate debt, but I L.O.V.E. talking about how to get OUT of it. Call me crazy, but I think budgeting to become debt free is a rush. It’s probably not going to give you the same shot of adrenaline that trying to outrun a large amount of snow, ice, and rocks careening down the hillside at you will, but, hey, you never know. Now back to mountainous winter disasters. In the finance world, there is a term called “debt avalanche.” It’s defined as paying off your debts in order from the highest interest rate to the lowest, regardless of balance. It’s also known by another term called “debt stacking”. The other icy financial term we are going to discuss is “debt snowballing,” and that is where you pay off your debts in order from lowest balance to highest, regardless of the interest rate. Wh...

I got converted to country music in the mid-nineties. I still like the sounds of my high school years (the 80s), but most of the time, I have my radio tuned to an “older” country station because Shania Twain, Brooks & Dunn, and Blackhawk are now considered classic. My, has time flown. Speaking of 90s country, there is a song by Diamond Rio called “Meet in the Middle” that tells a cute story about how to create a healthy relationship. It’s also a fun song with which to sing along. The word middle is synonymous with the word average. The Google definition of average is this: “ a number expressing the central or typical value in a set of data, in particular the mode, median, or (most commonly) the mean, which is calculated by dividing the sum of the values in the set by their number.” And, this is the example using the word in a sentence: "the housing prices there are twice the national average" (and my thoughts on that is houses are WAY overpriced, but there’s nothing I...

The word namaste is used in yoga classes, and, generally speaking,  means “the light in me honors the light in you.“ “So, what does that have to do with finances?” you ask? Nothing–absolutely nothing.  We are actually going to talk about another aspect of yoga today–flexibility.  Don’t worry, I’m not asking anyone to get on the floor, bend themselves in half, and kiss their knees (read a funny post about my sister’s yoga flexibility experience here ), because I’m not talking about THAT kind of flexibility. I’m talking about this definition: the willingness to change or compromise. The last few years have been crazy to say the least. We’ve all had to learn to be more flexible on multiple fronts, including the financial one. Summer is just weeks away. I’m sure if your kids are not yet out of school they will be shortly. Now is a prime time to go over your summer plans and, based on your families’ financial and other needs, finalize those plans. Spending money that y...

If you tuned in last week, you got a teaser for this week’s topic: How do we teach our kids to be smart about money? I have always liked object lessons. They can take a lot of planning and prep work, but well-thought-out instruction can also be very compelling. Here’s a really good one. Bring home a month’s gross earnings in cash, ones if at all possible because it makes a bigger impact. Have a list of everything that needs to be paid, including taxes, insurance premiums, retirement contributions, or anything else that comes directly from a paycheck. Remember to include all the kids’ extracurricular activities! Have your family gather around the table with the giant pile of cash, and walk them through the process of “income and outgo.” Let them count out the cash for each expenditure, see exactly where everything goes, and see what’s left over, if anything, at month’s end. (Check the Discovery Family Adventures by downloading the Goosechase app and searching for game code ADVENTU...