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A few years ago, I lived in a beautiful farmhouse located 45 minutes from my workplace. The commute was long, but I enjoyed it. For a while. When my husband started to work in the same city, we thought we had it made: we’d carpool together. What was a dream quickly turned into a nightmare, though; the hubby’s job demanded he work overtime with no notice. Which left me stuck in town with nothing to do for hours on end.

I was inspired recently by a post at Life and My Finances. Derek bought his wife a new (adorable!) puppy, and he shares how this new family member will fit into his financial goals. Of course, he realizes that puppies are not cheap, but Derek knows that they can bring invaluable joy to his family. Derek’s post lead me to think about all the costs involved in raising a puppy, and I have to tell you, there are quite a few. Let’s look at puppy-raising costs through my experience raising a Great Dane.

One of my favorite Christmas songs of all time is "The Twelve Pains of Christmas." Yes, you read that right. It's a parody song in which different singers lament things at Christmas that are a pain to them, such as rigging up the lights and trying to find a parking space. It's actually a pretty funny take on everyday life around the holidays.

This week, I can finally make my announcement: I’m pregnant! My husband and I are super-excited about welcoming a baby to our family, and we have roughly six months until D-day to focus on finding all that baby stuff we’ll need. And stocking up on sleep now. I heard that babies can make you slightly tired…

When I was in college, I got into a couple of binds with credit cards. I was living paycheck to paycheck with little cash left for any kind of fun. So what did I do? Why I started to use my emergency credit card for non-emergencies. I racked up a sizable amount of debt by the time I graduated, and it took years to pay off. After that experience with credit cards, I vowed to never use one again.

There’s no doubt about it: saving is hard work. Especially when things are tight. It may feel impossible at times to save any amount of money, let alone enough for an emergency savings account or a retirement fund. Thankfully, there are a few ways to save without feeling like you’re giving up every fun aspect of life. Let’s take a look at a few.

Moonlighting for Savings Cash

Now that Thanksgiving has passed, many of us are starting to focus on the other big days in our holiday celebrations, whatever religion we may be. And many of us have been busy making preparations for the day, figuring out our menu and who's going to sit where. Of course, the holidays go deeper than food, drink and gifts. They are often a time to gather together with family and friends while reflecting on the blessings we have in our lives.

Start a New Tradition

Many people live with standard ownership titles to their bank accounts, like individual accounts or joint accounts. This is often perfect for the majority of account owners, but sometimes different kinds of bank accounts may fit your needs better than others. Let’s take a look at what each account entails.

Individual/Single

By the looks of my internet reading this week, everyone’s Thanksgiving was successfully full of family, fun and turkey. Mine was also wonderfully fulfilling in so many ways (one of which included giving my new stretchy pants a workout to remember).

When I was in the mortgage biz, I learned a lot about the real estate industry, most of which was labeled in acronyms. PITI, DTI, LTV, FHA, VA, RD…and the list goes on and on. So you probably wouldn’t think that one of the most important things I learned had nothing to do with finance, but that was the case.