When it comes to buying a house, especially the first one, max budget should very clearly determined. I have quite a few friends who bought something way above what they can afford and are getting screwed hard by it, no lube.

SmartMoney.com published a short article and calculator yesterday to help estimate what your cost ceiling should be. Read More

Net worth. Those two little words seem to at some point become a huge part of what we do. That is, unless you’re a bum or something. But as usual, I’m referring to the average worker. On a super high level, it’s just the difference between your assets and liabilities (some of you are walking liabilities..admit it). This number, your net worth, gives you a rough estimate of where you stand financially.

The Fed does a massive survey every few years and one of the reports if the net worth report, divided up by age groups and other factors. The current one is not yet published, but there is one from 2004 that can serve as a general comparison point.
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I recently started eating 3000calories a day to try and put on weight; this resulted in my grocery bill doubling. This made me wonder if I was spending too much on food. Obviously everyone needs to eat, but some people try to save money by skimping on food (ramen eaters of the world unite). Continuing on this thought, I wondered what others in our age group spent on food every year.

According to surveys done by the USDA,

In 2003, U.S. urban households with incomes in the lowest quintile (bottom 20 percent of the income distribution) spent $1,769 per person for total food, or 37.3 percent of total household income. Households in the highest quintile spent $2,737 per person for food, or 6.6 percent of total household income. Wealthier households, however, spent more of their food budgets on away-from-home food than other households.

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Some people equate their personal worth by how much weight they can bench press at the gym or by how much beer they can drink before passing out. Others associate their worth by how skinny and attractive they look or by how “big” certain things are. However, perhaps the universal factor people use to gauge their own value is by how much they get paid.

Annual salaries are probably the most talked about among fresh college graduates when comparing overall success in their careers. Unfortunately, there can be pressure from parents, friends or colleagues to make increasingly more money and it just seems to get worse every year. Read More