personal finance

Fix your finances with this LearnVest offer.

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th-1Note: This post was originally published on May 24, then removed due to a coding error. The offer is now good through June 3.

Having trouble managing your money, paying off debt or planning for the future?

Having trouble with all three of those things? LearnVest can help.

Normally there’s a one-time setup fee of $299. But for the next seven days LearnVest will waive that fee, which includes your first month’s membership.

Face it: Money choices can be bewildering, especially if you feel that you don’t earn enough of it. But you don’t have to go without in the short term to succeed in the long term — a certified financial planner will help you personalize a spending plan.

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Is it ever too late to start saving?

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thLast week I participated in a Tweetchat with Liz Weston, J.D. Roth, MP Dunleavey and other personal finance geeks. One of the questions was, “I’m in my 40s and just started saving. What advice would you give beginners to make the most and try to catch up?”

A flood of 140-character advice poured in, but J.D. Roth summed it up best of all: “The best thing when starting to save late in life is to just DO it. Don’t worry about lost time. Just save.”

Easier said than done, to be sure. But necessary nonetheless.

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Giveaway: “Deal With Your Debt.”

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thOn Tuesday I participated in a Tweetchat sponsored by FT Press, an imprint of Pearson and publisher of books by my MSN Money colleague Liz Weston. If you missed the event, at least some of the Tweets can be found in the publisher’s Tweetchat room. A spokeswoman for the company says a .pdf summary of the questions and discussion is in the works.

To promote the chat, FT Press gave out a few copies of “Deal With Your Debt” to random questioners. (Did any of you win? Tell us!) Now it’s my turn to hand out the revised and updated version of this book, which I can happily say is written for people in the real world.

Just check the description: “Award-winning personal finance expert Liz Weston reveals why it’s simply impractical to ‘just pay off every dime’ and ‘live forever debt free’ — and why trying to do so can actually make you poorer. It’s smarter to control and manage your debt, and Weston shows you how.”

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7 PF experts, no waiting: Join us for a Tweetchat.

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thGot money questions? One of them might win you a copy of Liz Weston’s updated and revised Deal with Your Debt.

She’s hosting one heck of a Tweetchat on Thursday, May 9, and will be giving away several copies of the book to folks who submit questions ahead of time (more on that in a minute).

Even if you don’t need the book, surely you know someone who does.

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Meet my new boss (same as my old boss).

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thAs I hinted in “Thanks a million,” changes are afoot in the way I do business at MSN Money. Specifically: Frugal Nation is no more. Instead, I’ll be writing three times a week (not five!) at MSN Money Smart Spending. [Edited to add: In September 2013 Microsoft fired all its writers on the same day and went to a partner content setup.]

Relieved? Yes. But sad, too.

After all, Frugal Nation was my baby alone: For more than a year I posted five times a week, offering “save money today” advice and also bigger-picture articles about money and how we use it, abuse it and sometimes deify it.

 

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Thursday: Your financial questions answered, for free.

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thGot a money question? Let the experts answer it. Four financial advisors will host a free live web chat on Kiplinger.com on Thursday, March 21.

They’ll take questions about topics such as insurance, taxes, investing for retirement and saving for college from 1 to 3 p.m. Eastern. Ask your question before or during the chat using the Kiplinger web chat link or the Kiplinger Facebook page, the NAPFA Facebook page, or the #JumpStartRetire hashtag on Twitter.

Can’t stick around for the whole rodeo? You can go back later and view a transcript.

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Zombie consumerism.

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thLately it’s been all undead, all the time. My friend Linda B. has been recording the deeply creepy zombie series “The Walking Dead” for me, and the two of us saw the zom-rom-com film “Warm Bodies” together. Last weekend, DF and I attended opening night (and the world premiere) of “At Home With the Clarks,” described by its author as “Father Knows Best” meets “Night of the Living Dead.”

All three got me thinking about class and consumerism.

 

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10 personal finance lessons from the Iditarod.

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thEvery year in early March the city of Anchorage puts snow on downtown streets, so the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race can have its ceremonial start. For the next nine or 10 days Alaskans talk about wheel dogs, snub lines, mandatory 24s and towns with names like Ophir, Shageluk, Shaktoolik, Unalakleet, Koyuk, Kaltag and – my personal favorite – Safety.

“Safety.” Just what I’d be thinking about if I were standing on sled runners in the middle of the night, on zero sleep, with wind chills well below zero.

This year’s race was won by 53-year-old Mitch Seavey in 9 days, 7 hours, 39 minutes and 56 seconds. He’s the oldest person ever to win – and this year, he beat his own son, Dallas, who finished in fourth place.

Like they say: Youth and vigor can often be overcome by age and treachery.

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Slash your grocery bill with this free webinar.

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thWant to cut your food bill? Jump-start the process with the “Grocery Couponing 101” webinar, jointly sponsored by Savings.com and LearnVest.

The free program, designed to reduce your supermarket spending by up to 50%,   takes place from 8 to 9 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, April 4. Presenters are Andrea Deckard of SavingsLifestyle.com, Lauren Greutman of I Am That Lady and Ellen Derrick, a certified financial planner with LearnVest.

Just how much can you learn in an hour? So glad you asked.

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5 financial lessons from “Parsifal.”

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thYesterday we went to the Metropolitan Opera’s live movie theater broadcast of Richard Wagner’s “Parsifal.” It was a semi-frugal experience: The discounted movie tickets that I bought through MyPoints reduced the $22-per-head cost, and I used my giant $3-per-refill cup.

In another year DF will be old enough for a senior discount, which will shave another $2 off his ticket. But what’s an extra $2 when you get more than five hours of scorched-earth opera?

By that I don’t mean that the music takes no prisoners, but rather that the set is a post-apocalyptic expanse of cracked clay – except for Act II, in which the principals spend most of their time standing in 1,200 gallons of blood. You learn the most interesting things during the intermission interviews.

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