A couple of weeks ago, I was contacted by Market Place from American Public Media. A reporter had seen some of the posts on this blog about the economy (you can read some of them here, here, here and here), and wanted to interview me. I went in for a 15 minute interview at my local NPR radio station and — not surprising to me since I’ve actually worked in radio — I ended up with a couple of small sound bites at the end of a news package focused on “ordinary” people offering ideas for fixing the economy.

But it was still cool, and it was awesome that someone from a national news organization found my blog and wanted to talk to me. Listen to the clip. And then weigh in with your own ideas on fixing the economy in the comments section.

Earlier today, I wrote a post about how encouraging educational efforts can aid in the fight against poverty. But there are plenty of other personal finance blogs out there with great Blog Action Day posts addressing the issue of poverty.

Here is a sampling of some of the other personal finance blogs involved in Blog Action Day:

• That One Caveman: Educating the future
  
• Free From Broke: Causes of poverty
  
• Moolanomy: War on poverty
• Get Rich Slowly: What you can do
• Free Money Finance: You can help
• My Investing Blog: More on poverty
• Girls Just Wanna Have Funds: Women and poverty
• Cash Money Life: Poverty in America and abroad
• Wisebread: Poverty fighting superheroes
• Blueprint for Financial Prosperity: Food banks
• My Two Dollars: Conversation about poverty
• Green Panda Treehouse: Microfinancing with Kiva
• Gather Little By Little: Poverty is our responsibility
• Bible Money Matters: More on microloans
• Personal Finance Corner: Help others help themselves

Also, there are other b5 Media folks participating. Here are some of the blogs on b5 joining Blog Action Day efforts:

• Just Make Money Online 
• Help My Hurt
• Filipina Soul
• Pink Ribbon Review
• Breastfeeding 1-2-3
• Franchise Pick
• Medium Dreams
• Simply Thrifty
• Leadership Turn
• Tree Hugging Family
• Solo Mother

When it comes to personal finances, sometimes we need to remember to get back to the basics. If we focus on some of the “bigger” things like investing or crushing debt, sometimes we can get discouraged. Also, sometimes we lose sight of some of the basic truths of personal finances.

I came across two great posts recently that address two personal finance basics that we would all do well to remember: saving money and taking good care of our credit.

Saving money

This is a big one. And I’m not talking about clipping coupons and getting a “deal” on something you might not have bought in the first place. I’m talking about setting aside money and saving it. Gather Little By Little has a great reminder post on great ways that you can start saving money now by making it a priority — and making a plan.

Credit

Credit is another foundation of your personal finance success. Having good credit is essential to help you save money on loan interest charges and insurance premiums, and even can affect whether or not you get a certain job. Single Guy Money offers a great overview of the importance of credit and tips for improving your credit score, which include such items as:

• Maintain a good payment history.
• Try to have more “good” credit.
• Longer credit history.
• Avoid new credit.
• Maintain a low debt to credit ratio.

Can you think of any personal finance basics that you try to remember?

As I followed my husband around the store today, watching him take whatever he felt like and put in the cart, I asked if maybe we could start shopping with a list. After all, inflation is something that is starting to creep up on us. I’ve been very tolerant of this non-list way of shopping for seven years. But as I stood there watching the grocery total climb (while my stomach sank), it was really hard to think that not having a list was a good thing. So we’re going to try out a list next week. And hopefully stick to it.

But there are other bad spending habits that my husband and I have developed:

• Buy way more food than necessary when people come over.
• Feel like we have to have something “fancy” when others come over.
• Getting takeout once a week, in addition to going out to eat once a week.
• Failing to plan meals ahead of time.
• Propensity to buy things we like (books for me, video games for him) rather than renting or borrowing.

While separately, these spending habits probably won’t cause a huge problem, the fact of the matter is that all this spending adds up. I calculated how much money we wasted this month so far, and discovered our spending habits have resulted in about 8% of our income going to waste.

We’ve been doing better financially, thanks to some great opportunities, and we’ve sort of become lax in terms of frugality. But I’m thinking that it’s time to start moving back into the frugal lifestyle.

Breaking bad spending habits

A great post over at Cash Money Life offers some great tips for ways that one can break bad spending habits. As I read over the list, I reviewed my own spending habits. Here are some the things to think about when you are ready to break your bad spending habits:

Read more

Even though it has yet to be “official,” many are worried about recession. More importantly, many are worried about how their personal finances will survive a recession. Now, though, another worry is looming on the horizon: Unemployment.

With unemployment at multi-year highs, some people are wondering how they should proceed. My brother-in-law is one of these folks. He lost his job about two months ago and has yet to get another.

Wisebread offers some very practical advice about 7 things you can do if you are unemployed. Here they are, with my thoughts on the subject:

Read more

On Saturday, Liz, of Successful Blog fame, put together a Blog-to Show. Yielding Wealth participated, along with hundreds of other blogs. It is a great place to go to find new blogs to read and connect with. Here are some of my favorites that were on the Blot-to Show:

• Small Biz Survival
• Space Age Sage
• On Simplicity
• Principled Innovation
• Ideas for Women

And, of course, fellow b5 blogs Golden Pencil and Home Biz Notes participated as well.

Well, it really isn’t right now. But Jon Stewart can make it seem so. You might have already seen it, but it’s worth another look.

Happy Friday!

One of the things that can exacerbate the current economic condition is panic, and the thought that this is the only time such an economic problem has befallen the United States. However, economic down cycles are natural — the unreasonable thing is expecting unlimited and constant growth.

Over at Stock Trading to Go,  Blain Reinkensmeyer shares some of the economic downturn cycles that the United States has weathered in the past 80 years:

1. Great Depression (1929 through the late 1930s)
2. Recession of 1945.
3. Recession 1948-49.
4. Post-Korean War Recession (1953-54)
5. Recession 1957-58
6. Recession 1960-61
7. Recession 1969-70
8. 1973 & 1979 energy crises
9. Recession 1981-82
10. Recession 1982-83
11. Western recession 1988-1992
12. Recession 2001-2003

It is impossible to completely avoid an economic downturn. The best policy is to practice solid financial principles on a daily basis, and prepare yourself to ride out the tough economic times.

Right now, there is a lot of focus on the economy, and on how the economy affects personal finances. This is a Big Deal in this year’s election. The major presidential candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain, are bending over backward to convince us that each of them has the right idea when it comes to the economy — thus affecting your personal finances as well.

While taxes have been getting a lot of play (John McCain has decided that the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy — which he opposed — should be made permanent), there is another proposal that hasn’t been getting as much press: Barack Obama’s idea to boost the infrastructure.

Could improving our infrastructure improve the economy?

In a rather practical burst of insight, Barack Obama points out that creating new jobs for people would help the economy. But what would be the point of new jobs that are just, in effect, busy work? What if *gasp* new jobs were created to benefit the country overall?

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A few days ago, I wrote about 5 things you should avoid telling the car salesman. The prompted me to start thinking about my car, and considering how much its costs. Sure, it’s paid off right now, but we had to buy the thing AND pay finance charges. Besides, here are some of the ways our car is still costing us money.

• Gas.
• Maintenance.
• Insurance.
• Depreciation.
• License.
• Registration.
• Property taxes (this depends on state).
• Safety and/or emissions checks (also depends on state).
• Parking.

Indeed, before you commit to buying a car, consider the true cost. Here is some information from the American Automobile Association regarding the cost per mile, per year, of owning a car:

image source: American Automobile Association