We tend to wince when we hear about a lose of billions of dollars. But it’s all relative. Consider: CNN Money reported this morning that the super rich have lost $300 billion. We cringe at the thought. That’s a lot of money. But the impact of the loss is relative. Bill Gates might have lost $7 billion in net worth, but he’s still worth $50 billion. I’ll bet losing that $7 billion affected Bill Gates a lot less than it would affect me to lose $10,000 this year.
“Rich” is relative
In the end, whether or not someone is rich is relative. …read more

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

Find some good personal finance advice.

I like the old adage:
Pay yourself first.
J.D. Roth, over at Get Rich Slowly, has a great post on the subject of paying yourself first. Whether it’s for retirement or rainy day savings (or both), you should get into the habit of treating “paying yourself” the same way you do other bills.
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Over the weekend, I received an email from Delta regarding my flight itinerary for my family’s annual pilgrimage to New York to visit my husband’s parents. This is probably a common theme for many of you travelers, since airlines have been canceling flights like crazy, thanks to rising oil prices and other economic realities.
The trip going out wasn’t so bad: We added an hour layover to get in later. But coming back? Instead of leaving at around 11 a.m., Delta had us leaving at 6 a.m. Then, the new itinerary listed us with an eight-hour layover. This was extremely distressing …read more