HomeEconomiser Newsletter Articles — Earning

Americans are infatuated — maybe even obsessed — with people who have what we don’t. The media encourages our coveting by presenting a steady diet of lifestyles of the apparently rich and famous in magazines, on TV’s celebrity news and on Internet sites. We dress like celebrities, talk like them and may secretly aspire to live like them.

Q. Linda Eagleson from San Jose, California wrote: Living in Silicon Valley, and having been through the tech downturn, I think an article on “Surviving Unemployment” would be helpful. Many employees never expect to be laid off. My nephew’s wife in Dallas recently walked into her office and was told that 90 percent of the employees were being terminated. She was in shock!

It’s summertime and every weekend you’ll see the signs—“Huge Garage Sale,” “Monster Yard Sale,” “Moving Sale” or simply just “SALE” scrawled across neon-colored poster board. More than 60 million of us shop at garage sales, spending close to $1 billion each year. We’ve hosted dozens of garage sales—single-family, multiple-family and huge fund-raiser sales. Each time, we’ve fine-tuned our strategies and improved our execution. You can make money, but without careful planning and preparation, you’ll spend more than you’d like to pay physically, emotionally and financially.

Is thrifty living only for people who can’t afford to pay retail? Of course not! Is it only to be employed during times of financial distress? Nope. Is living cheap just for those who are retired or on a fixed income? Sorry, the answer is no to this one too.

Our recent articles on budgeting (Is Your Money Money Disciplined Part 1 and Part 2)  elicited more response than any articles we’ve written. With unemployment up and costs for everything from gas to milk at record highs, having a realistic budget to manage household finances is more important than ever. In this article, we’ll answer some of the more common questions we’ve received.

Although I have done without many luxuries during my life in order to save toward retirement, I have come nowhere near matching your money-saving accomplishments. I was proud of having made the final payment on my house after about 20 years on an average income of less than $23,000.

In the ’90s if you were breathing, you could land a job. Today the story is much different. The job market is tighter and the competition is greater.