Reflection is good for you. And reflecting on your finances is a good way to establish better habits and figures out what you need to improve on. This week, here are some great posts that can help you make better financial decisions. Enjoy!

Installing Financial Red-Light Cameras from Fiscal Fizzle.
Develop a Healthy Attitude About Money and Spot Unhealthy Habits from Generation X Finance.
Investing Rules of Thumb from The Oblivious Investor.
How To Prioritize Your Debt Repayment Plan from Moolanomy. (Disclosure: I wrote this one. I’m now a staff writer for Moolanomy!)
Living within your means is good for the economy from Funny about …read more

One of the ways that banks make a great deal of money is through overdraft charges. When you exceed the amount of money you have in your checking account, the bank charges you an extra fee. This can be anywhere between $25 and $45 per transaction. That’s right per transaction. Consider that you have $20 in your account, and you make the following transactions:

$15 for a book.
$6 for coffee and a pastry.
$3 for parking.

Now, that $6 transaction put you $1 over your limit. You will be charged, on average, $39 for that transaction. And, of course, you will also be …read more

SO, I’ve had a bit of a rough go with the debit card the past few days. For me, it started on Friday, when a purchase I was trying to make with the debit card was rejected. First thing I did when I got home (after using one of my husband’s credit cards for the purchase; I don’t carry credit cards with me normally) was check my online account balance. Everything appeared to be in order.
I should have looked deeper.
I went to the bank Saturday morning to talk to someone about this. They looked at my account history and found …read more

Plastic is becoming the trend. And I don’t mean credit cards. I’m talking about the debit card. According to the Federal Reserve and the American Bankers Association, 33 percent of purchases are made with debit card. That ties with cash for the #1 method of paying for stuff. I was surprised at first that credit cards are only 19 percent. Then I thought about it.
Why we love the debit card
We are constantly being told that credit cards are the root of all evil, and to avoid them. But we love the convenience of doing nothing more than swiping a piece …read more