Lifestyle

American spends almost $19 billion per year for Valentine’s Day. That means on February 14 the average person shells out $142.31. Men spend $190.53, while women spend $96.58 on gifts. Well, you don’t have to measure how much you love by how much you spend. Here are 9 frugal ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day by Everything Finance.

1. Go on a date … at home
2. Have a movie night
3. Give a massage
4. Leave hidden notes everywhere
5. Have a fondue date
6. Write love letters to each other
7. Plan a scavenger hunt
8. Spend it with someone who’s lonely
9. Opting out of Valentine’s Day

U.S News also shows a frugal list to celebrate Valentine’s Day. (everythingfinanceblog.com)

We all have spare time every now and then, either during the weekend or certain hours everyday. But are you better off spending that spare time earning more money or being frugal? Simple Dollar delves in this excellent question to help you choose higher earnings or lower spending on your spare time. “The more precarious your financial state, the higher priority you should put on frugality. The reason for this is very simple. Frugality’s big advantage is its speed.” So, if your finances are pretty precarious being frugal in your spare time is better. On the other hand, “the more options you have to move up in your current career path, the more worthwhile it is to spend your free weekend preparing to earn more money.” Earning more money is a better choice if you already take care of your finance, complete most of the frugal projects already and have consistent blocks of spare time. Whatever route you choose on your spare time, whether being frugal or trying to earn more, it can greatly improve your personal finance situation. (thesimpledollar.com)

In order to become wealthy, you have to embrace money. Rather than bashing the rich, there are some insights to learn from the experiences of the very wealthy. Here is the list about 7 Life Lessons From the Very Wealthy.

1. Having money is better than not having money
2. Don’t become “cash rich” and “time poor”
3. Memories are better than material objects
4. Watch your “lifestyle leverage,” especially early in your career
5. Having goals is incredibly important
6. You must live in the here and now
7. It helps to be incredibly lucky

We should all study from the very wealth who have achieved success. It is very important to learn from their experiences that got to where they are and learn from the success. Wealth creation is a good thing so that you can be financially secure in life. (washingtonpost.com)

If you have a spending problem, can you earn your way out of a spending problem? A post at lifehacker shows that chances are you can’t dig yourself out of a spending problem by earning more. There’re certain situations where your income is really, then earn more is essential to digging out of that hole. However, once spending problem becomes a lifestyle problem, there won’t be enough money to fix the bad spending habits. Increasing your income is desirable. Unless you also take care of your spending side of the equation, you can’t dig yourself out of a spending problem by earning more.

If you found yourselves spending on needless stuff or regretting after big ticket items, Everything Finance has an article to show how to align your spending with your values. First, make a list on what’s important to you. From that list, pick out some of your absolute favorites so you can easily forgo unnecessary and trivial things. You can then share those goals with your loved one in order to work as a team and to keep each other accountable. Next, make those goals visible and monitor your spending to see if your goal of spending on your values is on track. The biggest thing is to learn to say no to yourself. By aligning your spending with your values, you will have higher success rate to save enough money for your favorite trip oversea, home down payment, or even retirement.

On Money, Financial blogger Jason Vitug shows three essential money concepts for millennials to become financially savvy: Define your lifestyle, don’t keep up with the Joneses, and money can indeed buy happiness.

Millennials, born from 1980 to 2000, are now the largest, most diverse generation in the U.S. population. Here are some top financial mistakes that millennials make, written by Ashley Eneriz for Everything Finance blog. The financial mistakes include taking on a lot of debts, not saving for retirement, not having emergency fund, passing up on health insurance and ruining credit scores.

Do you consider yourself as a middle class? and how do you define middle class anyway? Amy Livingston of Money Crashers delves into this issue of what is middle class in America. Often we hear from politicians talking about middle class without giving an exact definition. Media has various definitions to accommodate their viewers.  The median American household income was $53,657 with an average net worth of $85,712, but these figures are not the whole picture. In addition to income and net worth, you have to look into education, occupation, lifestyle and aspiration to define the middle class.  So it is not possible to define the middle class with household income only.