True Confessions

Dreams and Goals

Excuse Me, Your Job is Waiting

Dressing for the Job

One of the most important times to dress for the job is for the initial interview. HR folks want to make sure a candidate will fit in the environment, but they are legally prevented from asking a lot of personal questions. Therefore, they have to look for clues as to whether somebody will, or will not, fit in the work environment.

Debt

Drowning in Debt? 6 Tips for College Students and Recent Grads

Are you a college student or a recent graduate? Chances are, you're saddled with a hefty amount of student loans as well as consumer debt, like car payments and credit card balances. Two-thirds of undergraduates emerge from college with student loans, with the average amount from federal loans alone (Stafford and Perkins loans) just above $19,000. Throw graduate school into the mix, and those numbers get even scarier.

Dreams and Goals

Don't Just Dream; Execute by Setting Goals

Some of you may not have thought about your own goals much lately. Perhaps your life has been consumed by your children’s world; their needs and wants always come first, and you constantly put your desires on the back burner. It’s a mistake to do that. Financially speaking, you can get yourself so wrapped up in another person—whether that individual is your child, partner, or parent—that you neglect yourself and fail to engage in smart, practical financial planning. You don’t want to look up 20 years from now and think that you should have managed your money better when you were younger.

Daily Life

Financial Abuse

Money is frequently a touchy subject to discuss, particularly when it comes to talking abut sensitive financial issues with spouses, family members and friends. But what do you say to a loved one when you find yourself in a financially abusive relationship? “Simply put, you’re in a financially abusive relationship anytime someone you know, trust or love takes economic advantage of you,” says money coach Lynnette Khalfani, author of The Money Coach’s Guide to Your First Million.

Spending

Reversal of Fortune

What happens when you give a homeless man $100,000? That's the premise of a new Showtime documentary called Reversal of Fortune. A man who lives under a bridge in Pasadena agrees to participate in a film about the homeless, though he doesn’t know they’re going to give him money.

Debt

Credit Card Do-Si-Do

Last Saturday, I received my monthly credit card statement, which included a $49 fee for the privilege of allowing the bank to charge me 15% interest. Irritated, I decided to cancel my VisaMasterExpress card. The first sign of trouble was that there was no customer service phone number on the card. There was, however, a number to call if the card was lost or stolen. Think about that for a second. The number to report a missing card is on the missing card.

Debt

My Independence Day

The 4th of July is all about freedom, as we were taught about a million times in school. This year, in the run-up to the big celebration, I started to wonder: What if I took a different point of view this year? What if, this 4th of July, I applied the Declaration of Independence to my life around money?

Daily Life

Heaven is a hand-me-down

I know women are supposedly born with a shopping gene. If that's true, my gene is about as recessive as they come. What's that saying, "Shop till you drop?" I'm down for the count in 20 minutes flat.

Daily Life

Pole Dance

Driving isn’t one of my strengths. There are so many more interesting things to pay attention to than the road. Like architecture, professional dog walkers and flower stalls.

Debt

Candy from Strangers

I received a check in the mail today for $7000.35 in an unmarked envelope. It came attached to a letter which read: This is a real check for $7000.35. It’s valid until December 20, 2005.

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