Engineer Your FinancesA Systematic Approach To Money

What’s Wrong With “Green”

Last night I posted an interesting article on considering “end of life” costs when calculating your retirement savings. Afterward, I started thinking about my recent posts and realized there may be an unintended trend emerging. If you've been reading my articles, there's a certain “negative” vibe to each of them. On the surface it may appear I'm a NO kind of guy and my aim is to tell you everything that's wrong. This could not be farther from the truth. I've been making an effort ...

First, set age to retire. Second, set age to die.

I debated whether it was in my interest to post such a morbid topic so early in my blogging career, but decided it's an important consideration people should think about. Life is dynamic, and retirement is no different. When people first determine how much they need to retire, they have to make some baseline assumption of how long they plan on living. Even if its not an exact age, they have to make some guess at a range. This is silly because you don't know for sure exactly how long...

Spend Less or Earn More? The ONLY answer you need to know.

Before we get into the article, I want you do something for me. Hold your hands one foot apart, palms facing each other. Look at the gap – that’s how much you’ll save by cutting expenses. Don’t move. Erase that idea from your memory. Look at your hands again – that’s how much you’ll earn with a raise. Now, move your hands two feet apart. Look at the gap – that’s how much you’ll save by cutting expenses AND earning a raise. There’s financial hubbub on whether one should focus the...

Convenience Tax: You’re Only Charging Yourself

Often people lump debt into one of two categories – “good” debt and “bad” debt. Typically good debts refer to student loans, business loans, and anything resulting in your general betterment. Bad debt includes all of life's temporary luxuries. There's another side of debt many people don't often consider. Not a separate group, it's more a subcategory to both good and bad debt . What I'll call the “Convenience Tax” refers to our preference towards making things easier. Not complet...

More Reasons ING Direct Deserves a Second Look

If you read why ING Direct has better rates, you'll know I have a slighted preference towards the bank. Besides the rate, they have other features which make it worthwhile to reconsider where you're banking. I flipped the article around. Originally, it had the shorter sections at the top, but I wanted to garner and keep the interest early on, so I'm going to focus on one specific feature. Naming Your Accounts. A relatively simplistic function, it can become a very powerful motivator, o...

Never Pay Full Price – EVER!

I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm a bargain hunter. My grandparents drive into another state for better gas prices. Unfortunately I don't have the leisure of spending hours searching for the absolute best deal out there. My time, like everyone else, is limited. But one thing is for certain, I NEVER pay full price for ANYTHING....well, most of the time anyway. ONLY SUCKERS PAY FULL PRICE. With a little bit of sleuthing and due diligence, there's always ways to get a better deal. ...