It happens every time. I live a few blocks down from a high-end grocer and every once in a while, I’ll spend a lazy weekend afternoon wandering the aisles ogling “deals” for swanky items like “single source organic cacao chocolate bars,” “olive oil tortas” and “black cherry all natural soda.”   Usually, I can stop [...]

Last fall, I finally paid off my credit card bill in full and kept the debt off for a record two months. It was exhilarating. After months of financial dieting and careful tracking, I had finally achieved my zero debt goal. Then the holidays hit and my newfound financial discipline went AWOL. Initially, I started [...]

I have a large blended family and so budgeting for the holidays always stresses me out. This year, my family grew even larger, making Christmas-time budgeting an even bigger challenge.   As I started doing the math earlier this week trying to figure how much I could afford to spend on each new in-law and [...]

As a kid, the closest I came to learning about personal finance was playing Monopoly with my brother, who had a knack for gobbling properties and bulldozing his opponents. The lessons I learned were generally about what not to do with your money, but they’re still useful to me today: Don’t isolate yourself – you’ll [...]

  I was 18 when I opened my first Bank of America checking account, and I still have the same decade-old photograph on my Bank of America debit card.   I remember driving to my local bank in downtown Mission, Texas, after school and shyly asking to see a customer service representative about opening my [...]

  Today’s the first day of school here in Austin, TX, and in other parts of the country. However, not all schools are open yet, giving many procrastinating parents a few more days to do their last-minute school shopping.   A July survey from the market research group NDP found that most parents are pushing [...]

  I’ve got a borrowed copy of Eckhart Tolle’s “The Power of Now” audio book in my car right now, and every once in a while, I flip it on while stuck in wrenching traffic, take a half-dozen deep-belly yoga breaths and try my best to appreciate the present moment – nevermind that I’m stuck [...]