2010 - Page 3 of 14 - Engineer Your Finances

How You Treat Your Goods Could Reflect How You Manage Money

Aug 20 2015Oct 26 2010 by Fin Engr

Disposable. It’s a word used far too often in describing items we view as single-use and easily replaceable, like disposable utensils or razors.

Reduction in material quality, craftsmanship, and of course, labor rates has super-charged almost all durable goods – making them readily available and extremely affordable. As a result, we’ve grown out of the smaller disposable items like diapers and napkins into larger products like toasters and microwaves.

Hard to believe for $10 you can buy a toaster. For that small cost, it’s not “worth” the time to fix a broken one and instead we default to buying new, allowing the product to become disposable. Once that happens it’s near impossible to realize the product’s full potential. We’re constantly replacing the item before we squeeze out all of its usefulness.

30 Ways to Wreck Your Career

Aug 20 2015Oct 22 2010 by Fin Engr

Originally a slide show on BusinessWeek, I’ve had these fatal career mistakes saved on my computer for a while. Already having sent it to a few people there was something about this particular list that caught my attention, and knew they needed to be shared.

It may have been some of the truly entertaining photos,or the fact that I’ve been guilty of close to 50% of these at some point.

Although… I’d be surprised if there’s someone out there who hasn’t committed any of these no-no’s!

I’ve left the original number as they appeared in the slide show, but reorganized them by severity.

Coping as a Live-In LandLord

Aug 20 2015Oct 13 2010 by Fin Engr

My name is Mike Choi and I look nothing like this photo, but I do run a little blog over at rentingoutrooms.com, which is my story of renting out my individual rooms to roommates. The idea is if you own your home, you can rent out an individual room in exchange for rent. This whole idea started when I decided to go back to graduate school, but I didn’t want to take on additional student loan debt to what I already accrued from my undergraduate studies. Today, I’m here to share my story of work involved making money from your extra bedroom.

Being a “live-in landlord”

I call myself a live-in landlord because a traditional landlord is someone who owns a piece of property and rent it out to tenants. However, my case is slightly different – I live in my residence and rent out the individual rooms to roommates. So that’s why I call myself a live in landlord, which is like a separate sub species of landlords.

6 Ways To Save On Electricity Bills

Aug 20 2015Oct 07 2010 by Fin Engr

Saving money is on the top of everyone’s minds these days. Between job losses, benefit losses, and the rising cost of just about everything it is easy to see why many people are seeking out new ways to save money. One of the first places that you should look for savings is in your own home and your electricity spending. Most people can cut their electric bill significantly by making small changes that cost nothing or very little. If you have some money to spend there are a few big changes you can make that will cut costs and earn your money back for you in short order.

Unplug things you do not use – Every item that is plugged into an outlet is drawing power, even if it is switched off. Go through your home and unplug everything that is non-essential. Lamps, clocks, televisions, coffee pots, and toasters should all be unplugged when they are not actually being used. You will be shocked to see how many of those items never get plugged in or only get plugged in on rare occasions.
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