Sunday, December 30, 2007

Year in Review: My Best Posts in 2007

From my Bag Lady Prevention Career Plan to debates over cell phones for kids, I've covered a lot of topics during 2007. Here's the best of my blog:

I was on a street corner, when a reader stopped and offered kind words about one of my newspaper columns in the home & design section of the Miami Herald. Very nice man! But he concluded his praise with the comment: "What are you going to write about when you're rich and don't have to be frugal anymore?"



We laugh about the long wish lists from kids. But we all have the gimmies: Give me a new car, a new home and new hair. The Fix: "Let Go of Wanting." It's a formula I spotted last night in a pass-along copy of Bottom Line Personal.


Say Sorry and Save Money: How I'm Shedding Emotional Debt in 2008:
Unresolved worries and regrets cost me at least $6,500 a year, but saying sorry will help me reduce that debt load and convert worries into dollar signs and personal growth....


What I Learned about Money from Writing a Book:After over 25 years of writing about Wall Street, investments and personal finance, I thought I knew a lot about money. After 40 years of writing, I thought I knew a lot about words. And finally, after 49 years of living, I thought I knew a lot about life.

Typing Class Regrets: My 10 Career Goofs: An English Major's Lament! My list of Bubble Head memories is long: I took a typing class in high school. I knew, of course, that only big-hair girls who wanted to be secretaries took that class. Now, I wish I had paid more attention to the typing drills.

My Jane Austen Biz Plan: 10 Smart Career Moves: An English Major's Aria Jane Austen has made me a business maven. Tutored by Jane, I've become more than an air-head in training.

10 Reasons Why I'll Work at Starbucks: Late Bloomers Guide to Saving: Pt. 3
My latest fantasy: I wish I had 20 hours of week to work at Starbucks. (I would gladly grind coffee beans for health coverage.) My 10 Reasons for Working at Starbucks are below.

How I'm Conquering My Bag Lady Fears: My 10-Step Program
What keeps me up late at night? In addition to worrying about past mistakes and my kids and my work, I worry about becoming a bag lady. And I have plenty of company; a lot of women (and I imagine some men also) have secret fears about living on the streets without money or sanity. Even Oprah and other successful women have 'fessed up to bag lady fears.

Is it Wrong to Pay Kids for Chores?
To get our kids to do more around the house, my husband & I often link chores to allowances. But are we just bribing our kids to help clean up? In fact, a chores-for-allowance system is a bad move & I could be pushing my kids towards "financial illiteracy," according to The Financially Intelligent Parent, a book written by Eileen & Jon Gallo.

"But Mom...Half the Kids in My Class Have Cell Phones!"
There's a new school bell ringing in my house. Two of my children ('tweens) have started to lobby for cell phones. Here's a rundown of their arguments:The Whine:"Almost all my friends have cell phones...."

Do We Spend Too Much on Our Kids? A Quiz
For each child, the typical middle-class family spends about $1,200 a year on entertainment, personal care & misc. perks; and another $580 on clothes. Those annual figures --from a 2005 USDA report -- exclude food, ($1,900), childcare ($1,200), transportation ($1,600) and healthcare ($580).

Mommy I'm Bored: 25 Frugal Ways to Beat Summer Bordeom
My 9-year-old daughter does not go to camp until July 9. That's when her drama camp begins. But the plot has already thickened in my house with a steady chorus of: Mommy, I'm Bored!Here's what we're doing to cure the summer blues:

My Bare Face: How I Stopped Shrinking My Pores & My Wallet and Saved $400
I'm saving about $400 a year (probably more) by shedding my skin care routine and my skin looks better because I've jumped off a self-defeating so-called beauty product merry-go-round.

Goodwill Operates eBay Style Auction for Thrift Shopping
Many of us love thrift shops, but lack the time to hunt for treasures at second-hand stores. Goodwill addressed that problem with http://www.shopgoodwill.com/, an eBay-style electronic marketplace and auction platform. The merchandise, including antiques, is posted with photos by 71 Goodwill organizations around the country, according to Joan Dornbach, vice president of marketing for Goodwill of Orange County in California

Life Lessons from Oscar Peterson: Tribute to a Jazz Man Jazz pianist Oscar Peterson, age 82, recently passed away and the details of his life offer many valuable lessons about growth, success and development.

Lessons From A Fire; What I Learned While Stuck on A Balcony
Fire struck the apartment building in which I live. The fire left one family homeless and taught the rest of us valuable lessons. And while stuck on my seventh floor balcony, I had plenty of time to digest a few frugal and life lessons.Here's what happened: A microwave on a lower floor blew up and created a huge flame. Because he was walking the dog, my husband was already out of the apartment and my children left the apartment, exiting through smoke. But I was in the shower, and by the time, I dressed and attempted to help an older neighbor, I was not able to leave the building. The stairwells were filled with smoke.

How to Make a Part-Time Job Work: Tips From My Dad
Many of us work part-time jobs in order to pay bills, cut debt or to build up savings accounts. -Last week, I wrote about different part-time jobs. But working extra hours is a really chore if you also have other careers and competing commitments.Here are a few tips about fitting part-time jobs into a full schedule.My Dad, for example, worked full-time as a teacher and school administrator during the day. At night he worked different jobs in restaurants, a store and even on a ship dock unloading cargo.He used these strategies to make his second job work:

Pennies & Finance: What a Former Bank Teller Taught Me About Money
I'm impatient with pennies. I round up; I round down. But I should pay attention to the money-saving power of a penny, a former bank teller told me during a recent conversation. In fact, it's important to balance accounts down to the penny in order to detect hidden errors and other oversights, the teller said.

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Sharon Harvey Rosenberg is the author of The Frugal Duchess of South Beach: How to Live Well and Save Money... Anywhere!, which will be published in the Spring of 2008 by DPL Press.

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