How to...
Excel Tidbits – Part 1: Using the COUNTIF Function
Thursday, August 6th, 2009I do a lot of stuff with Excel and I have learned some things that go slightly beyond the basics and make the program that much better to use. I still use Excel 2003 so this series of posts will be based on that version.
I got the idea for this post after putting together [...]
The 2009 Personal Finance “How to” Roundup
Monday, July 6th, 2009Welcome to the latest edition of “How to” Personal Finance Roundup. As you can tell from the list, this is a massive roundup. Don’t worry though. You don’t have to read all the entries now. I’d suggest you bookmark (click on the Share this icon at the bottom of the post [...]
JLP’s Kids and Household Chores Experiment
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009My wife just came off a plant turnaround. For those of you not familiar with a turnaround, it’s when a plant shuts everything down to do maintenance. Naturally, when the plant is down, they aren’t making product, which means they aren’t making money. In other words, they want it back up and [...]
A Review of “People Are Idiots” by Larry Winget (and GIVEAWAY)
Monday, January 5th, 2009People Are Idiots and I Can Prove It!: The 10 Ways You Are Sabotaging Yourself and How You Can Overcome Them*
I love the title and cover of this book! That said, DON’T LET THE TITLE FOOL YOU…this is a VERY positive book!
For those of you not familiar with Larry Winget’s work, he’s known as [...]
What a Loan with a 171.54% APR Looks Like
Sunday, March 16th, 2008How to calculate APR using Microsoft Excel or a financial calculator.
I recently heard about a loan company that specializes in short-term loans. Here’s a typical example of a loan that this company offers:
Loan Amount: $1,250
Loan Term: 36 bi-weekly payments (72 weeks)
Payment Amount: $91.66
Total Payments: $3,299.76 ($91.66 × 36 = $3,299.76)
Total Interest: $2,049.76 ($3,299.76 – [...]
How The Dow Jones Industrial Average is Calculated
Monday, December 4th, 2006Have you ever wondered HOW the Dow Jones Industrial Average is calculated? Here’s how!
According to the Dow Jones website, the index is calculated as follows:
The Dow Jones averages are unique in that they are price weighted rather than market capitalization weighted. Their component weightings are therefore affected only by changes in the stocks’ prices, [...]
How to Insert Refreshable Stock Quotes Into Excel
Wednesday, November 15th, 2006Warning: this is a really long post!
There’s a cool little tool available for Microsoft Excel users that will allow them to insert refreshable stock quotes into their spreadsheets. Here’s a step-by-step tutorial on how to do it:
10 Ways to Get the Most Pay Out of Your Job
Monday, September 18th, 2006Today’s Wall Street Journal has an extra section called Your Money Matters. The cover story for the section is an article by Perri Capell titled Ten Ways to Get the Most Pay Out of Your Job ($). Here’s some of the highlights from the article:
1) LISTEN TO YOUR BOSS
The best [...]
How to Determine if You Are “Wealthy”
Thursday, September 14th, 2006Have you ever wondered if you were “wealthy?” There is a rule-of-thumb formula used in The Millionaire Next Door for determining whether or not you are wealthy. For those who are interested, their simple formula is:
Multiply your age by your pretax income from all sources (except inheritances).
Divide that number by 10 to arrive at [...]
How to… Personal Finance Edition
Monday, September 11th, 2006Hi and welcome to the “How to…” of Personal Finance. This is a community-wide effort and was arranged as a way to put all the “how to…” posts together in one place so that they are easy to access.
UPDATE: Be sure and bookmark this list and keep coming back because I will [...]