Think back to when you were a little kid and wanted something from the store. Did your parents ever tell you something like “No, we don’t have the money”, but then later buy something else?

Maybe you reacted by saying “Hey, I thought we didn’t have the money!”, leaving your parents to explain.

Little kids are especially prone to taking statements like “we don’t have the money” literally. If they’re worriers, they may stress out about things, believing that their parents are down to their last dollar. » Read more

Fiscal cliff, sequestration, quantitative easing, government shutdown, debt ceiling… if you’ve been following the news with even half an ear, you couldn’t have escaped hearing the frothing frenzy over this seemingly endless parade of economic crises. Each one came to you as if the economy is standing on a ledge, about to jump. And yet, here we are, just a few months later and… well, nothing. » Read more

You know how sometimes papers just pile up on your desk? And you look at them and think ugh, because you just don’t want to take the time to go through all that?

Well, don’t take the time. Take a few minutes and just deal with one or two papers instead.

Break it down

Often what happens is that the act of starting the task is all I really needed to do to get going and finish it up.

Then there are the times when I have a whole bunch of things to do, but only a few minutes of spare time.

In both of those cases, I’ve found that breaking things down into little five-minute tasks really helps. » Read more

It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the details of managing your day-to-day finances, especially if you don’t have a clear-cut plan or habit in place for handling them.

One of the areas that often becomes a source of disorganization are the bills that arrive in the mail. If you’re not careful, they can really pile up. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Here’s how you can organize your bills in six easy steps. » Read more