True Confessions

Savings

Gut Strategies

Fidelity Investments, which I think of as a bank for stocks, sends me a magazine every now and then, presumably trying to help me make smarter investment decisions, but the advice only makes me feel stupid.

Spending

SaleStruck!

I have a love-hate relationship with the word S-A-L-E. It’s my favorite sign in the department stores, and I go running to the racks whenever it’s in sight. It makes me happy to know my investigation of best bargain prices has ultimate rewards and I never have to pay full price. But is this stuff on sale stuff I really need?

Daily Life

"I'll just shut my eyes"

I grew up with a single mom. She worked every day to provide for us, and she did a great job. Things were never easy. We always knew there wouldn't be enough money. Being a woman, my mom didn't get paid as much as the men she worked with. But when I got my heart set on something, she'd get her heart set on getting it for me.…

Daily Life

The New Success

So I have this coffee cup. On the cup is written a challenge: What would you do if you knew you could not fail? “Pour coffee in bed,” I immediately think. “Because I couldn’t scald my lap.” Not a very lofty goal. Let me think a little harder. What would I do if I knew I could not fail?

Daily Life

Holding the Hill

Most of my yard plunges downhill. If I pull weeds, I do it at a 45-degree angle. This idea makes me anxious. I imagine bad outcomes—say, tumbling backward end over end until the redwood tree down below breaks my fall and a couple of ribs too. But this week even I had to admit it was time to take action. The dandelions were thigh-high, their puffball-seeds sailing off every minute to sprout up and insult me somewhere else.

Daily Life

Tax Trauma

Well, we’re coming down to the wire. Just one weekend left until April 15. I guess this is one of those years when I’ll have to file for an extension on my income taxes. It’s not supposed to be this way, I realize. But things come up. This year I’m blaming the shredder.

Daily Life

Lipstick Heaven

My last tube was about to run out so I went on the hunt for “Soho,” the lipstick I’ve used for the last ten years, the color that’s perfect for me. First stop--the Prescriptives counter at my nearest Macy’s. I waited patiently for the bubbly shop girl to finish helping another customer, only to be told eventually, “We’re out. Sorry.”

Daily Life

Junk Mail

Remember when an occasional handwritten letter came in the post? Even the mail has been sucked into the giant consumerist whorl we live in. Nowadays there are only two kinds of mail�asking you for money or offering you money. And it starts right from the envelope.

Spending

Been There, Lost That

A pre-Madoff ponzi story

I don't think Bernie Madoff could have conned me. Why? Been there, lost that. “Have I got a deal for you! Give me $2000 and you can make $16,000 in a few days.” That was the too-good-to-be-true promise made in 1995 when “gifting clubs” or “money clubs” were all the rage in Los Angeles.

Debt

Debt to Donuts

Wouldn’t it be great if we could live in a world where weight and money were reversed? Dollars would fly right onto our hips and pounds would disappear faster than we could count them.

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