ORblogs Topic: personal finance

Personal finance is filled with tough decisions. Prepay the mortgage or invest the money? Pay down high interest debt first or use a debt snowball to tackle the small balances? Roth IRA or traditional IRA? Sara wrote recently with another dilemma I think many of us have faced: is it better to pay down debt or to begin investing for the future? I'm 28. I work at a job with no...

This piece originally appeared at Andrea's Consultant Journal in a slightly different format. Exercise is a funny thing. When you start a fitness regimen, you feel awful, especially if it's been months (or years) since you've been physically active. The first couple of weeks can be grueling. But once you make it a habit, once you find the groove, exercise can become exhilarating, even addictive....

On Tuesday evening I gave my first-ever presentation about personal finance. I spoke to a group of about 70 graduating seniors from Western Oregon University. My talk went okay. It wasn't terrible, but it certainly wasn't good. It's a start. I learned a lot, and I'll do better next time. I was the fourth and final speaker of the evening, though. Before I talked about personal finance, three WOU...

Tomorrow I'll be giving a short presentation about personal finance to a group of seniors at Western Oregon University. I'll begin by providing a brief version of my own post-college financial failures, but I want to spend most of the talk providing two or three great take-aways that these young adults can put to use as they enter the "real world". I've considered discussing the dangers of...