Thanks for stopping by & I hope you enjoyed my article on DIY home repairs. My parents saved a lot of money and hopefully through their experiences you have been left with some actionable takeaways.

Before I go on, I wanted to point you in two directions that I think would benefit you greatly:

1. Give MyLifeROI a shot by subscribing or getting email updates. If you don’t like what you read after a week, unsubscribe with no hard feelings. If you do like what you read, I will be glad to have you!
2. Drop a comment on the linked post and get a free copy of The Skinny On Credit Cards: How to Master the Credit Card Game. (You can enter again by subscribing and following the instructions in a RSS-only post I will send out, and also by following me on twitter and tweeting the message I mentioned in the post!)

On to JD and some links from my site!

One article I REALLY loved (via Get Rich Slowly) was written a few months ago, titled: “The $1,500 Frisbee,” alternatively titled “A Fool & His Money Are Soon Parted.”

I think that one article in particular encompasses personal finance in its entirety. The gist of the article is that JD was convinced to sign up for a particular checking account on the first day of college because they were giving out frisbees. He accepted the monthly maintenance charges as if they were normal for the next 17 years. When he finally cancelled the account he had spent $1,500 in maintenance fees. Not so free, eh?

So, Why Does That Encompass Personal Finance?

Well, as I already said, I feel that one article has so many tenets of personal finance embedded within it.

• Expenses will make otherwise good returns turn into barely-beating-inflation-returns. Know your expenses. In this case, the $5/month maintenance charge was unnecessary and wound up adding up slowly but surely, but was small enough to not break the bank.
• Our future is not determined by our past. JD assumed that the maintenance fees were normal because his parents had always paid them. It was a long lesson, but after 17 years he broke free.
• TINSTAFL. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
• You are your number one advocate. Do you think the bank reps cared that JD would wind up spending so much just because of that frisbee? Did anyone tell him, “Sir, there is a perfectly good alternative that offers FREE checking?” No. Be your own advocate.
• etc.

Because I watched my peers get sucked into these traps throughout college, I decided to start a personal finance blog a few years later. I have written a lot of articles towards the Gen Y crowd that are particularly useful.

Further Reading

Since you have taken the time to come by, I decided to take the time and collect a few different articles that I have written that have proven to be popular. Please leave your thoughts via a comment or an email!

• The Savings Account, The Spending Account & The Charity Account – One thing that my blog offers that not a lot of blogs do is that both my girlfriend and I write posts. She has only posted a few posts thus far, but I feel as if this one really lets you know about where she came from. She goes over her childhood and how her parents instilled the need to save and donate before she was allowed to spend.
• Buying a Dog Saved Me Money & Two More Virtues of Owning a Dog – One topic that JD and I agree on is that some things transcend money, and pets are one of those things. In these two posts I go over a few ways my dog will save me money over the long run and things my dog has taught me about money. Keep in mind, though, that I did not get a dog for these reasons at all!
• 11 Tips to Get Ready for Your Road Trip & Roadside Emergency Kit: What to Include – I love traveling. I love road trips even more. Some people can’t stand being trapped in the car. But driving through the south, windows down, beautiful weather, CCR blasting… great times. Or driving with a bunch of friends from your high school day with some good ol’ 90’s jams blaring… what more could you ask for? These two posts go over ways to ensure you not only prepare for the trip but make sure you are prepared if something does happen!
• Glass Door : Know Your Worth – If you can’t cut your spending, what is the next part of the personal finance equation? Increase your income! That can be much more beneficial than decreasing your costs often times. I like promoting this site because not many people seem to know about it. I don’t get anything for promoting it, it is not an affiliate program… just the satisfaction of knowing someone might get paid more because of it. Sign up and you can look up the salaries for a lot of different jobs at a lot of different companies.
• Slash Your Cable Bill w/ These 3 Methods – A series of posts that I wrote to help you break the shackles of cable TV! JD has also gone over some of these options in a post that detailed how he cut his cable bill in half. I hate paying for a cable bill, so using a combination of all three methods in my post I have completely gotten rid of my cable bill.

I look forward to seeing some of you around my blog!

Contact me if you have any questions.