Andrew Hale: IT Talk & Other Topics

My wife is more into Dave Ramsey than I am. However, I've recently been watching some of the clips on YouTube from his show, The Dave Ramsey Show. Sometimes, I definitely agree with him and his advice makes a lot of sense. Other times, I disagree. In this case, his advice to one caller makes sense, but I don't think that it's universal. The advice was regarding the use of Debit- and Credit-Cards.

I've written about how, from a budgeting perspective, food is my household's weakest link. To combat this, I started looking at meal planning apps or services since we save more money when we stick to a menu, particularly a monthly menu. My wife and I spent a solid 6-7 hours exploring Pepperplate and could not get it to meet our needs. I'd like to talk about what we didn't like so as to help someone else out in a similar situation.

There's a radio commercial that plays on a couple of our local radio stations that goes something like "Do you want to learn how to make up to $10,000 a month in Real Estate? With a small investment in yourself, I can teach you how to make amazing money flipping houses with other people's money in your spare time. " That's not a direct quote but it's a good example of a sketchy get-rich-quick scheme. I've known stuff like that is BS but I finally understand why. In order to make money, you either have to put in money or time. Anything that promises making nothing into something is complete and utter BS.

You may have heard of some of these, but I'd like to talk a bit about some online gig services that you can use to make money from home. These are simple jobs you can do online from home and you choose your own hours. You're not going to get rich from any of these services, but they can be effective ways to monetize your off-time, should you desire. I'll talk about the services themselves, but I'll also offer my experience with them.

Making money is great. Budgeting is fantastic. However, cutting down your finances will always be more effective than making more money.  Now, this isn't going to be some list of stupid Pinterest ideas that recycle garbage or some easier-said-than-done-post about buying the cheapest things you can. I don't know you or your circumstances, needs, limits, etc. So, instead of trying to tell you what you NEED to do, I'm going to discuss what has worked or is working for my wife and I. If you'd like to follow along and do the same things, I'm happy to help: That's why I write. Let's dive in.

I've been fired and laid-off. No matter how you cut it, losing your job is scary. Even if it's an awful job that you're relieved to never have to deal with again, losing all or half of your income sources is usually scary. What are you going to do? How long will it take to find work again? How will you pay your bills in the mean time? I'd like to talk about how you can budget in a way that will not only boost your savings potential but it will make you less dependent on your job so should that ax drop or that pink slip come, you won't need to worry nearly as much, if at all. For the scenario of this article, I'll be talking about what my wife and I did to our finances to protect ourselves from the event of losing a job.

I know, I don't write much about money, but next to IT and cars/motorcycles, I think about money a lot. Over this past year and a half, my wife and I have learned a lot about how to manage our money effectively. In order to understand and appreciate where we are now, let me explain where we were.

I'm not a penny pincher or a tight-wad. However, I, like many others, do enjoy saving money. My wife and I had started getting serious about our budgeting last year (with great results) so we've been looking for ways to trim some of our bills some more to maximize savings.

Got an interview coming up? Interviews are two-way streets so don't forget to interview them back. I've written about this and you can read it  HERE . Talking about money is something we all dread but we all need to do at some point in our lives. There's a point in one's professional career where it's basically expected to negotiate pay during the offer stage of hiring. I never negotiated pay or asked for a raise until my more recent professional positions. I'd like to tell you what I've learned about it so it can help you too.