It’s impossible to live within your means, eliminate debt, and accumulate wealth if you don’t know where your money goes. That’s why a monthly budget is a crucial part of any financial plan. Budgeting the old fashioned way––with a stack of receipts and a calculator, was a time-consuming bore. But today, several powerful budgeting tools obliterate any excuse for spending without a budget. Some cost just a few dollars a month, others are 100% free. Check them out: [...]

I turned 27 this year, and my mailman started delivering more wedding invitations than bills. It sounds lovely, except that those damned lacy invites end up costing more than the bills! My opinions of showers and gift registries aside, all this nuptial nonsense got me thinking: Is it safe to get married when one partner, or both, has a lot of debt? [...]

Upon becoming a business traveler, I got a no-annual fee airline miles rewards card, but I sometimes wonder if cash rewards are the better way to go. Here’s a quick and dirty face-off between cash back credit cards and no-annual fee miles cards. [...]

In just five years since college, I have experienced every living situation imaginable (read on for the list). Based upon my rental resume, one would think that once I found myself living alone, in a modest one bedroom, I would stay put. I didn’t. [...]

The 143rd edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance is up over at the Quest for Four Pillars. Thanks for picking my article, Four Reasons We Spend More than We Should, as a top post!

Here are three articles I especially enjoyed: [...]

Are you broke? Have you been broke in the last year? If so, here’s a simple tip anybody can do to start building financial security. Do this and, at the very least, you won’t be broke again. It can also psych you up to save more, spend less, and get rich. This tip is so simple you will probably laugh, but it works. Trust me! [...]

I would like to thank Casey Thomas for designing Money Under 30’s new logo.

Though I have taken this blog through several design iterations, I always just typed out Money Under 30 in the header. I always wanted a logo, but never could come up with anything myself that looked professional enough.

Recently I saw an ad Casey put up on Craigslist for design work and we worked out a deal.

He was great to work with — fast, professional, and responsive to feedback. Casey is a design student at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, but I’d say he’s off to a great start. You can check out some of Casey’s work at his website: Thomas Creative Design.

In case you missed it up above, here’s the logo:

Thanks Casey!

I just had an exciting Saturday evening with my stack of W2s and H&R Block’s TaxCut Pro.

I swear, I’m not actually so nerdy that doing my taxes is my idea of a good time, but it does feel great to have them done. (April 14th has often been a long night for me in years past). [...]

Come Friday night, whether you hit the town with friends or do dinner and a movie with your sweetie, weekends take a toll on your wallet. Here are 10 major money-sucks and what you can do about them. [...]

Nickel recently wrote about the safest banks. Data he found showed that — in general — accounts at larger banks were more prone to be targets of fraud. As my family knows from experience, however, fraud can hit account holders at even the smallest community banks.

My parents, my brother, and I all use the same local credit union as our primary bank. The perks are good — totally free checking, reimbursed ATM fees, and access to credit union interest rates on loans. No matter how small, however, no bank is immune from fraud. [...]