I want to tell you about a room full of people who all raised their hand at 9 a.m. when asked if they have money in the stock market. That was the scene at the 2026 EconoMe Conference in Cincinnati. A few hundred money and personal finance nerds, some still desperately clutching their morning coffee after what I’m pretty sure was a late night at the pre-party and the hotel bar, gathered in that auditorium […]

Most people don’t struggle with one bad spending decision—they struggle with patterns they don’t realize they’re repeating. What feels like “just this once” is often the exact habit quietly holding you back. The post The Hidden Cost of “Just This Once” Spending appeared first on The Budget Mom.

Image source: Amazon There is a cost to being a comic book collector or investor. If you’re a serious collector of comic books and collectibles, then you must continually invest in the best quality backing boards and durable comic book sleeves. Comic book paper from any era eventually breaks down when exposed to the elements. It is not enough to collect comic books; you have to invest in protecting them for the long term as […]

Thank you, Susan, for recommending I read the Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel when I requested book recommendations back in January. I fully appreciate the knowledge gained even though it is an older book. It is evidently pretty popular around here as I got on the wait list for it at the library on the day (1/20/26) you recommended and just got access a week ago (3/15/26). I just finished reading it today (3/22/26). My favorite quote of the entire book was this: “We should use past surprises as an admission that we have no idea what might happen next.” Truly the story of my life, and profoud in it’s simplicity. It really made me evaluate in a different light, why my “forecasting” hasn’t worked as well as I always think it should. Because if nothing else, my life has been a true roller coaster of surprises – personal, professional, financial and every other which way. If you have not read it, definitely recommend. I’ve now got pages worth of notes to review and think through. But I enjoyed all the real life examples the author shared, the analogies for financial fundamentals using related stories, people and subject matter, and especially how easy it was to read. It didn’t bog me down, and there were few sections that I had to re-read to understand and grasp the implications. That has rarely been the case with personal finance books. And I definitely appreciated that the author was very clear that personal finance is very personal. All of our histories, life experiences, culture, education, and our perspectives is going to lend itself to each of us prioritizing different things, make different decisions with our financial assets. Truly emphasizing the true psychology of money versus the math of money. Finally, I loved the recognition that happiness is not from having money. It’s ultimately in the freedom that money gives us. Money gives us control our time and how we spend it. Now that’s a concept I fully agree with and appreciate!   The post Book to Read: Psycholoy of Money appeared first on Blogging Away Debt.

Sammie Ellard-King I’m Sammie, a money expert and business owner passionate about helping you take control of your wallet. My mission with Up the Gains is to create a safe space to help improve your finances, cut your costs and make you feel good while doing it. Share to Facebook _*]:min-w-0 gap-3″> Pensions minister Torsten Bell has confirmed that around 37,500 customers have been affected by an NS&I scandal involving up to £476m in deposits […]

Your friendly neighborhood blogger is a member of a few book clubs. One FIRE-/personal finance-related, and another not. We’ll call the latter The Normie Book Club . . . cuz we FIRE people are probly a bit nuts.   One of The Normie Book Club’s members knows the author (we’ll call this person The Author) of a book we recently read and arranged for us to talk to him during our meeting. During our discussion, The […]

Many of us want to help our kids start on the right financial foot, and one of the best ways to do that is to give them their own debit card. You can open a child bank account with a debit card, monitor their spending, and even pay them an allowance using an app. A survey by The Zebra showed that 1 in 3 young adults say their parents were the biggest influence on their […]

Do you ever look back and wonder how our grandparents managed to live so well on so little? There were no grocery delivery apps, no buy-now-pay-later, no impulse purchases arriving on their porch every afternoon. Many lived through the Great Depression, rationing during WWII, or raised large families on a single income in homes much smaller than what’s “normal” today. Yet they made it work, and not only survived, but often thrived. It’s no wonder […]