Goal: A happy and healthy relationship with money.

The web is rife with gadgets to help us manage our money, and being a better money manager is one of my goals for 2009. This afternoon, I came upon a source of some of the best sites out there at Quick and Simple.

Now, money management sounds to me about as enjoyable as, oh, I don’t know, a colonoscopy, but a couple of these tools sound like fun.

I like fun! I also really like money (you know, I feel funny admitting this. I shouldn’t. It’s probably something I should take a close look at).

Check out Quick and Simple’s recommendations here.

In addition to money tips, Quick and Simple offers advice on a number of subjects including health, weight loss, clutter control, green cleaning, and more.

A whole bunch o' Benjamins

“GRATITUDE unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
~ Melody Beattie, Author

Gratitude: what a topic for a challenging period. Thousands have died in Iraq. Our economy is a mess. It seems like most people are challenged these days. What is there to be grateful for?

So much! I’m thinking that gratitude is not the same as saying “I’m happy and satisfied with how everything is.” It is the place to start. This is the best time to appreciate what’s working in our lives, so that we are better equipped to take on what is not. Ironically it’s in times of loss that we become most aware of what we actually have.

Few of you know that on November 7, twenty five years ago, I was hit by a car while riding my bicycle to school. I was 16. I was in the hospital for a week, most of that time in a coma. Read more »

To help you decide, take a look  “How to Calculate a Home’s Value” by Marilyn Kennedy Melia. And, if you’re wondering where mortgage rates are headed, check out Bankrate’s Mortgage Trend Index. According to Bankrate:  

This week, almost half of the panelists believe mortgage rates will rise over the next 35 to 45 days. Another 38 percent think rates will fall, and the rest believe rates will remain relatively unchanged (plus or minus 2 basis points).

For the complete story, click here.

-Terry Hernon MacDonald