budget mistakes

Creating a Budget? Avoid These Common Mistakes

For the first few days, budgeting can be sort of fun:  You make a plan and sort your day-to-day expenses into neat little categories.  You review your fixed expenses, and you decide how much you’ll spend on things like groceries and the occasional nice dinner.  You happily imagine how much extra cash you’ll be able to sock away in savings or how quickly you’ll be able to knock down...

Money Mistakes That Make You Poorer

When money’s tight, it’s easy to forget basics like budgeting, saving, and paying down debt.  Broke folks tend to stop thinking about the long term and get caught up in day-to-day worries.  The problem is, though, that losing sight of your long-term financial goals can have some serious consequences.  Behaviors like making minimum credit card payments, not budgeting, and relying on less-than-legit sources of cash (like payday loans) can...