The Money Writers

Years ago, on a weekend visit, I spoke to a friend of mine from a Middle Eastern country while our family was visiting with his family. We spoke over a huge pile of Legos and the Bert-n-Ernie Garage and a full set of Thomas the Tank Engine trains (although, in all fairness, most were gifts).  [...]

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A few years ago when I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, the concept of passive income lit my brain on fire. I had never thought of the idea of making money for nothing.  I assumed that money was achieved only due to the hard-pressed exchange of time for filthy lucre.  Kiyosaki, the author of RDPD, [...]

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The following is a guest post from Martin of Studenomics. Martin has just released a super-helpful guide that shows you how to completely conquer credit before you hit 30. You can’t live life on your own terms until you crush your credit card debt and get ahead of the game. “The most important thing for [...]

Post by Frugal Dad

The following is a guest post from Kyle James of Rather-Be-Shopping.com. Read more about Kyle immediately following the post. Before I was a frugal Dad, I was a Dad who absolutely dreaded getting the credit card bill in early January. I would consistently overspend in December on gifts and eating out. Then I would try [...]

Post by Frugal Dad

  When I was a young buck, fresh out of accounting MBA school, I had a prestigious job working for one of the (at the time) six biggest accounting firms in the world. It was a small office, but it was the second biggest of the six in the city I lived in at the [...]

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Cybercrime is on the rise, so more and more people are needed in the world of computer forensics. Thieves and criminals now see computers as the best way to steal money or information that can in turn lead to money. With all of the easy information that is available, they are not far from the [...]

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We’ve been discussing banks, credit unions and banking regulations quite a bit here lately. On theme, Debbie from MyBankTracker.com submitted an informative guest post on the subject of the Durbin Amendment and its impact on debit cards. You can learn more about Debbie immediately following the article. You’ve probably heard about new debit card fees banks are [...]

Post by Frugal Dad

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. Scott Adams (1957 – ), ‘The Dilbert Principle’ I wrote and published a post on Friday about the ‘pursuit of ends.’  It’s a vitriolic post about the current state of things in America, particularly as pertains to our economic system.  It [...]

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I lived in Russia for several years, post-Communism.  I was deeply affected by the anti-communist but still deeply frightened-of-capitalism mindset of my friends and coworkers.   I know people in the West have painted Marx as the most frightening boogeyman in history, but he was – like Keynes and Galbraith and Hayek and others – an [...]

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Physics tell us that one of the laws of the universe is this: You can’t unscramble an egg. Think about it. It can’t be done. You can freeze liquid water, then heat it and turn it to gas and back to water, but you can’t unscramble an egg. It just won’t unscramble. Hit it with [...]

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The following guest post is by Craig Ford. Craig blogs at Help Me Travel Cheap where he helps newbies turn credit card sign up bonuses into free travel. Folks like to talk about earning credit card travel rewards, but sometimes they eat their words when it comes to redeeming travel rewards. Dave Ramsey says, “75% [...]

Post by Frugal Dad

Years ago, after a month of unemployment when I was, for all intents and purposes, a professional writer I found that I started to miss my corporate consulting gig. I missed the contemplative time I had during my long commute.  I missed the fear I felt as I walked into the lobby, past heavily armed police [...]

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Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. – Leo Tolstoy I’ve written before about why I don’t watch the news, political or otherwise.  I do get some news – I check the local news to make sure there’s not a road closing near me or a new farmers’ market [...]

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Here’s an absolutely fantastic career/work idea I got via This Week in Tech:  Steve Jobs would not have hired Steve Jobs.  There are multiple reasons. Steve Jobs wouldn’t have wanted to go to work for a big corporation like Apple.  He was an entrepreneur. A strong CEO like Steve Jobs wouldn’t have wanted to hire [...]

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Patrick, of Cash Money Life fame long ago tagged me to give my best financial move in college.  I posted this long ago, but it’s worth reposting.  How I came to become a Russophile is an interesting story – I think. (me, in St. Petersburg, circa 1997) Learning an “exotic” foreign language, and how it [...]

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This post was written by a good friend of mine who happens to have fantastic insight on everything tech/gadget related I recently drove my daughter to the University of Washington for her freshman year. Everything seemed to be in order—she had a new account with Wells Fargo, she had a new phone, her books, and [...]

Post by Frugal Dad

In trying to understand the way jobs are evolving, particularly for white collar professions, I find two phrases quite useful: We are all between job searches. All jobs are now contract consulting jobs. “Whoa, wait a minute!” you might exclaim. “I have a steady job!  I’ve been there for 5 years, and I’m a full-time [...]

Copyright © 2011 brip blap. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us at bripblap.com so we can take legal action immediately.

  I was looking through some old photos and found some I took on a weekend trip to the Russian countryside with some of my friends back in the mid-9os.  We drove out to a village in the Golden Circle outside of Moscow – the ancient town of Suzdal – rented some rooms in an [...]

Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for. Socrates I sometimes feel that I’m improving on the work of others without actually contributing anything new of my own, because I read a lot.  It’s not true, of course – this blog [...]

Here’s a quick and simple game for kids.  Give them some aluminum foil – an equal amount for each kid.  Tell them to design a boat, and then take the boats outside and float them in tubs of water. Start adding pennies to each boat, and see which boat can hold the most pennies before [...]

I’m sure I’ve made it clear during the four years I’ve written here at brip blap that I’m no fan of Apple.  I don’t like the pretentious nature of their advertising, their closed source software, or the fawning attention paid to their products that command a tiny percentage of the market.  But when I learned [...]

I posted this before, because from time to time I like to put a video up that’s unrelated to finance, etc. This one is touching and relates to health, if nothing else. Call me a sucker for sentimental safety reminders, but I imagine that the number one health tip – in terms of extending your [...]

How is this for your dream job? Awful, boring, mundane work, lots of travel to uninteresting box buildings located in bland office parks, pay that’s not competitive, poor benefits, long hours and uncomfortable, privacy-obliterating cubicles that smell like Windex.  Sounds awful, doesn’t it?  Piling on further, though, let’s throw in a few broken promises for [...]