I give out similar advice all the time: Take a month to write down where your money is going. By the end, you'll have a road map that tells you where you can cut back.
Your retirement comes before your children's tuition. That's because there's no financial aid for retirement, and there's still a good deal available for college.
While you're going through this process of trying to find the satisfaction in your work, pretend you feel satisfied. Tell yourself you had a good day. Walk through the corridors with a smile rather than a scowl. Your positive energy will radiate. If you act like you're having fun, you'll find you are having fun.
Getting a tax refund is nice, but having more money year-round is better. If you get a chunk of change from the IRS, you're giving the government an interest-free loan - not something they, or any bank, would ever give you. Instead, change your withholding so you get a little extra in each paycheck.
There are two things that you need to save for. First, you need an emergency cushion of no fewer than six months of living expenses. This needs to be cash in a liquid account where you can get at it in - yes - an emergency if you need it. In other words, money markets, not CDs. You also need to save for your future: that means retirement.
Every minute you spend looking through clutter, wondering where you put this or that, being unable to focus because you're not organized costs you: time you could have spent with family or friends, time you could have been productive around the house, time you could have been making money.
Weak passwords are a crook's best friend. Make yours long and complex, and change them often - not just on your bank account but on your email and social media, too.
If you're not clipping coupons before going to the grocery store, you're overspending. If you're ordering in or going out to dinner because you don't feel like cooking, you're overspending. If you're not tracking where your money is going, you're very likely overspending.
After two decades of personal finance reporting, I've heard every excuse in the book for not saving money. That said, none of them really hold up - at least over the long term.
Show your kids that needs and wants are two different things. The best way to teach our kids to be smart consumers - and savvy savers - is to model good behavior for them.
I'm big on setting goals, but I also think that if you have too many lofty ambitions and set goals for everything, you can sabotage your efforts by overextending your brain.
