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Today, indulge me a little. I want you to take a minute, close your eyes, and think back to that BC time – you know, Before Children. Remember those days? Now, eyes still closed, allow yourself to drift back a bit further to your single days, before your spouse entered the picture. Meditate for a moment on the person you were then.

I read a post recently on a discussion board, Momster.com. This post details the feelings of entrapment, financial inequality and neglect stay-at-home-mother (SAHM) Wyjo feels because her fiancé hoards all of the money that “he brings in.” This situation can actually occur more often than one would think, so I thought we could all brainstorm some solutions to Wyjo’s situation.

The Situation

Going entirely paperless may be great for Mother Nature, but it may create a nightmare for your loved ones later. Those online payments mean user ID’s and passwords, and if they are not written down, your loved ones may have trouble putting your finances in order.

If something were to happen to you right this instant — say you keel over in excitement from all the great information on MomVesting — who would know what you owe and to whom? Would they know your login information? Probably not. That’s the problem with going paperless.

As we continue to define finance terms, we come to a term that is tossed around a lot lately: volatility. Generally, when something is volatile, it means that it is unstable and could at any moment take off in one direction or another.

The measure of volatility in finance is similar: it measures how much a stock is expected to vary over a period of time. But it is also a little more complex than that, so let’s look at everything that is involved.

This weekend, I will be out on the lake, fishing and playing in the sand. How about you? How did you spend this weekend? I know a lot of people’s minds were on something else that the media was covering this weekend, but it looks like we’re all still here blogging.

So, without further adieu, let me share with you my favorite recent posts:

Investing

Balance Junkie “Opportunity Cost and Opportunity Lost”

Investing in your health takes time. It’s necessary, but sometimes fitting in that daily hour (or even thirty minutes) can seem taxing on your busy schedule. So how can you find time to put some of the work back in your work out?

Audiobooks

I run twice a day. Once in the morning to jump start my brain, and again in the evening to unwind and spend time with my puppies. Although I love the sound of nature, sometimes I can’t enjoy my runs because I have so much else going on: I want to learn about this; I’d love to read that.

As promised, here is the first post (of many!) about some specific states' 529 college savings plans. We are focusing on regions of the United States, and maybe because I'm still cold here in Buffalo, NY, I chose to hone in on our opposite coast (where California's warmth is calling my name!). While here, we focus on California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii and Alaska, all to bring you the West Coast 529 highlights.

Alaska

Have you ever folded on a financial issue because it was easier? Maybe you wanted a different outcome but were too tired of having the conversation to continue, or perhaps you didn't want to make waves in some financial decision that was "kinda sorta ok with you." If this has happened to you, don't worry: it happens to everyone and is not the end of the world...or the end of the discussion.

Every Christmas, my father-in-law dumped out his spare change drawer and gave the cash to my husband and me. Generally, his simple spare change savings tactic amounted to a very generous $200 gift to us. And that’s just from one farmer’s change.

Now imagine if you and your family were to do the same; every time you spent money, you saved the change. Perhaps you put it into a large mason jar or (if you had a really good year) into a five quart ice cream pail. How much do you think that change would amount to at the end of the year?

Doing the Math

In 2005, it was super-simple to obtain a mortgage. Most lenders were happy to accommodate any borrower. In the days of easy money, no down payments, and huge appraised values, we were all skipping toward financial freedom...until we came to a screeching halt. The housing crisis opened our eyes (and the eyes of our lenders) to the problems in our easy-money system.