It's time to sit back, relax and enjoy a little joe…
Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of what’s been going on in the world of money and personal finance. Here’s what caught my attention over the ...
Continue reading Black Coffee: Baseball, Donkeys, Morons, and Oxymorons
Black Coffee: Can You Feel It? There’s Change In the Air!
It's time to sit back, relax and enjoy a little joe
Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of whats been going on in the world of money and personal finance. Heres what caught my attention over the past ...
Continue reading Black Coffee: Can You Feel It? There’s Change In the Air!
Black Coffee: Use All the Lipstick You Want. A Pig is a Pig.
It's time to sit back, relax and enjoy a little joe…
Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of what’s been going on in the world of money and personal finance. Here’s what caught my attention over the past ...
Continue reading Black Coffee: Use All the Lipstick You Want. A Pig is a Pig.
Are Our Spending Habits a Product of Biology or Environment?
What exactly is it that shapes our attitudes about money?
When it comes to living within our means, why is it that some folks have no trouble exercising self-control and sticking to budgets while others fall victim to emotion and take advantage of ...
Continue reading Are Our Spending Habits a Product of Biology or Environment?
Black Coffee: Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice
It's time to sit back, relax and enjoy a little joe…
Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of what’s been going on in the world of money and personal finance. Here’s what caught my attention over the ...
Continue reading Black Coffee: Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice
Ticketmaster’s New Blog (And Why I Hate Them Even More Now.)
I recently bought tickets to see Maroon 5 for one of their upcoming shows in Los Angeles. Let me tell you, I love Maroon 5 almost as much as I love my dog - which puts them pretty far up my totem pole of most-cherished entities.
Of course, like most ...
Continue reading Ticketmaster’s New Blog (And Why I Hate Them Even More Now.)
Black Coffee: A Little Fun with My Dog and Some Peanut Butter
It's time to sit back, relax and enjoy a little joe…
Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of what’s been going on in the world of money and personal finance. Here’s what caught my attention over the ...
Continue reading Black Coffee: A Little Fun with My Dog and Some Peanut Butter
Black Coffee: Send in the Clowns (Never Mind, They’re Already Here.)
It's time to sit back, relax and enjoy a little joe…
Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of what’s been going on in the world of money and personal finance. Here’s what caught my attention over the ...
Continue reading Black Coffee: Send in the Clowns (Never Mind, They’re Already Here.)
Black Coffee: How DID We Ever Get By In the (Late) 20th Century?
It's time to sit back, relax and enjoy a little joe
Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of whats been going on in the world of money and personal finance. Heres what caught my attention over the past ...
Continue reading Black Coffee: How DID We Ever Get By In the (Late) 20th Century?
Black Coffee: A Massachusetts Yacht (In Rhode Island Harbor)
It's time to sit back, relax and enjoy a little joe…
Blogs I've Been Following This Week
Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of what’s been going on in the world of money and personal finance. ...
Continue reading Black Coffee: A Massachusetts Yacht (In Rhode Island Harbor)
The Great Debate: Do Kids Really Need Their Own Cell Phone?
Last week I shared the story about my $1055 cell phone bill, courtesy of my teenage son. The article seemed to, um, resonate with a lot readers, not only here but at MSN where it was also featured as a guest post, and on Digg, where at last count it ...
Continue reading The Great Debate: Do Kids Really Need Their Own Cell Phone?
The Ugly Truth: Why Big Spenders Are Terrible In Bed
It is a truism that most big spenders are showoffs; they feed off attention.
Ironically, while your typical big spender works 24/7 trying to impress others, most of the time they rarely do so.
There is a small segment of the population, however, ...
Continue reading The Ugly Truth: Why Big Spenders Are Terrible In Bed
Dear Diary: What I Did On My Summer Vacation
My family and I just got back from a whirlwind two-week vacation to the East Coast to see the Honeybee's family in Connecticut and do some sightseeing. We also managed to set aside a little time to visit some of my tax money in our nation's ...
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My Store-Brand vs. Name-Brand Blind Taste-Test Experiment #3
Okay. If you are a regular reader here you know the drill by now, so feel free to skip to the juicy parts!
Are name-brand groceries really worth the extra cost when alternative cheaper store-brand groceries are available? More specifically, when ...
Continue reading My Store-Brand vs. Name-Brand Blind Taste-Test Experiment #3
Drive-By Movie Review: A Simple Plan (A Movie on the Ethics of Found Money)
This is a review of the 1998 movie A Simple Plan starring Billy Bob Thornton, Bill Paxton, Bridget Fonda, and Gary Cole
Plot Summary: Two brothers and a friend find $4 million in the cockpit of a downed plane. The pilot is dead. No one is looking ...
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Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline and Others: What’s the Best Travel Search Engine?
I can't believe I'm saying this, but our annual summer vacation is right around the corner. Weren't we in the throes of a Little Ice Age just last month?
Ah, well.
I'd like to say we were going back to Maui, but unfortunately I drew the short ...
Continue reading Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline and Others: What’s the Best Travel Search Engine?
Should Low-Income Drivers Receive Subsidies to Use Toll Express Lanes?
Every day on my way home from work I zip by tens of thousands of people behind the wheels of cars stuck in hopelessly gridlocked traffic because they didn't want to pay the toll (usually between $2 and $10, depending on the direction and time of day) ...
Continue reading Should Low-Income Drivers Receive Subsidies to Use Toll Express Lanes?
The Redistribution of Health: Excuse Me, But I Think I’m Gonna Be Sick
You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time. - Abraham Lincoln
I don't feel so good.
The United States Congress stuck their middle finger ...
Continue reading The Redistribution of Health: Excuse Me, But I Think I’m Gonna Be Sick
Should I or Shouldn’t I? The Definitive Extended Warranty Litmus Test
A couple weeks ago I told you about my adventures in getting a set of four new tires for my 1997 Honda Civic and why buying extended warranties for tires is a waste of money.
Of course, the conventional wisdom out there is that it is virtually ...
Continue reading Should I or Shouldn’t I? The Definitive Extended Warranty Litmus Test
The (Dead)Beat Generation
Should you walk away from your mortgage just because your home depreciated?
So you refinanced. Or bought too much house. You divided the mortgage payments by your income, and decided you could swing something a few percentage points higher than ...
Continue reading The (Dead)Beat Generation