The ELEMENTS of money

Running on Empty

The price of gas is getting insane ... wait a minute ... it's already insane. Here in California where I live, it's in the mid $4 range, and experts are predicting it will reach $5 by the middle of Summer.

So what do you do if your minimum wage job leaves you less than $20 a week for gas? For many people, this means pumping three or four gallons and hoping you don't run out of gas. Well guess what? More people are being stranded on the side of the road, staring at a big fat "E" on their dashboard. I know what it's like to play the "guess-how-far-your-can-go-on-fumes" driving game, and it isn't fun when your car finally stalls in front of a federal prison at 11 p.m. (OK, that didn't really happen, but you get the idea.)

All across the country there are reports that more and more people are getting stranded on the side of the road because they couldn't fill up their gas tank. I guess the moral of this post is to be careful and really watch how much gas you have in your car before hopping in it. Not only is getting stuck on the side of the road a major inconvenience, but it's not really safe either. Keep your cell phone handy and call 911 immediately if you find yourself stuck somewhere with an empty gas tank.

Catie

My dad the financial planner

So I told a friend that Joey and I had a podcast about money and she asked, why?  It's really simple. Our dad is a financial planner, and we learned some really good lessons about money when we were growing up. We thought it would be fun to share what we learned with other people our age.

For instance, when we wanted to borrow money for some reason, we actually had to save twice as much money before our dad would lend us the money. Kinda extreme? I don't think so. It taught us that we should only borrow money when we know we can pay it back. Today, I think twice before randomly using a credit card. So far, it's helped me stay out of debt (at least serious debt). I've read stories about people who are in college and already owe thousands of dollars to a credit card company, and they don't even have a job. So maybe this blog and the podcast can help people stay out of debt and learn a few things about money.

see ya!

Catie