Blog entries

Founder Bari Tessler's a cover girl!

Caroline Donahue — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:28:01 +0100

Check out Bari on the cover of Experience Life magazine!

Bari is on the cover of the March 2010 issue~

We're so excited to have Bari as a cover girl in addition to all the other amazing work she does here at CB. If you'd like to take a sneak peek behind the scenes at the shoot, here's your chance in this little video.

If you get a chance, check out the inside article and the Experience LRead More...

Are you mint.com fresh?

Caroline Donahue — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:25:39 +0100

Hello everyone! It's a new year, and we are ready to offer you some fun new content.

One of the things that has been buzzing around here is talk about all the options you have nowadays when it comes to being conscious about finance.

Once upon a time, it was the old fashioned pencil and paper. Then we added the ledger and calculator, then computer accounting software, which led to programs like Quicken, Quickbooks, and others.

So what's new and available for you out Read More...

The Credit Card Game~

Bari Tessler — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:12:41 +0100

I know some of you are credit card free and are committed to never using them again and/or to never starting to use them in the first place and I salute you! I have seen many financially responsible people go to credit cards in the last year with the shifts in the economy or due other significant junctures in our lives (getting sick, having a child, divorcing, losing a job, etc).

Here are a few resources for what do with your current credit cards.

This article in the NY Times byRead More...

Bari's Commitment for 2010~

Bari Tessler — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 19:47:30 +0100

Hi There~

Lately I have been writing in my blog often....although it happens to only be happening in my head! :) You see, my little guy, Noah, who is almost 16 months old is really the focus of my life right now, plus trying to sleep and hike and eat some food and oh, yes, get some time with my husband and a few close friends.

While I have my Monday - Wednesday office hours (10 - 14 hours per week), where a nanny is here with Noah. That time is really consumed with teachinRead More...

Sorting through the garbledeygook of Credit Card Rules with LeAnne Ozaine Smith

Caroline Donahue — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:52:48 +0100

Many of us have been hearing about new rules regarding credit cards. It is very important to be clear about what this will mean for each of us who use them.

Many thanks to LeAnne Ozaine Smith of Spend On Purpose, who was kind enough to share the following list translating what the new rules are into language we all can understand.

Check her out at www.spendonpurpose.com

The Credit Card Legislation In English

1. Credit card statements mustRead More...

Intuit to acquire Mint!

Caroline Donahue — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:58:21 +0100

As many of us have, I learned to use Quicken as my Conscious Bookkeeping tool of choice when studying with Bari.

However, since then I have heard a lot about Mint.com and its abilities to help manage money. It looked fancy and tempting, as did moving to an online Quicken app that would let me manage money on the road with my iPhone. What bliss! Making my iPhone my electronic stylie accoutrement? Sounds like paradise.

But how is a conscious bookkeeper to choose among all these opRead More...

Managing money for teens! Guest post from Patti Handy, the Kids Cash Coach

Caroline Donahue — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:10:21 +0100

I met Patti recently at a networking event in Los Angeles, and loved her specialty: teaching kids to manage money. Don't all of us wish he had had Patti when we were growing up? I was so excited to have her on the site and am delighted to share her guest post today! so now, take it away, Patti! (be sure to read her amazing bio at the bottom, where you can learn about her bRead More...

Creative solutions to spending!

Caroline Donahue — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 23:21:46 +0100

In the last post, I talked about "The Compact," a group which began in SF and aims to eliminate spending entirely aside from food and toiletries.

I have given a lot of thought to how to integrate this idea of spending less while continuing to get the benefit of experiences I associate with spending money.

Case in point: bookstores. I have a life-long love affair with them. HoweRead More...

Could you give up spending completely?

Caroline Donahue — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 05:00:00 +0100

This past week, I learned about something called "The Compact." It started as a San Francisco group devoted to buying nothing new other than Food, toiletries and medicine. It is acceptable to buy used and to borrow or barter. This got me thinking. I have long been an advocate of voluntary simplicity, loved Janet Luhr's book, Simple Living, and have looked for many ways in my own life to cut costs and to be more conscious in how I choose to spend money. And while a certain part of me heavesRead More...

Back to Basics: Investing

Caroline Donahue — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:00:00 +0100

This week, I found the video above and was so happy to see the concept of investing spelled out in such a no-nonsense way.

This past year, we have seen a lot of crazy shifts in the market and in the language the media uses to talk about money. One of the things I always try to do with clients is to help them get down to the core of the issue and take the emotion out of the concept they are working with.

Here we have investing spelled out just as a concept, not Read More...

Savings: What are you waiting for?

Caroline Donahue — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:00:00 +0100

This week, I received the very informative results of a survey that Ramit Sethi had conducted on his readers. (You will remember Ramit from my previous post on his work and his new book, I Will Teach You to Be Rich).

As we are about to enter into Independence Day weekend, I got to thinking th

at setting up some savings goals is a great way to celebrate independRead More...

The future of cash: how do we value money?

Caroline Donahue — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 05:00:00 +0100

Hello, Money Door Blog community!

I am back from a wonderful vacation in Spain with my family, and am excited ot be with you again. Being in Europe and watching the way Spain values time so differently than we do in the US (dinner at 10pm, afternoon siesta before going back to work in the evening) got me to thinking about how other countries value money.

I found a fascinating article on England's changing relationship to cash from BBC news from earlier this year and realized its pRead More...

Money: What's it for?

Caroline Donahue — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 05:00:00 +0100

Between our conversations about complementary currency and working on the budgeting and projections for my own coaching business, Remabulous, and working on this blog every week, I've been giving quite a lot of thought to the purpose of money lately.

Many of us look at money as an outcome that we are striving for, as in "If I could just make more money..."

However, I was talking to a colleague a year or so ago and she replied by saying, "It's just paper.Read More...

Yin and Yang Currency

Bari Tessler — Sun, 31 May 2009 05:00:00 +0100

Yin and Yang Currency~

Bari here, writing my first blog post. Or rather, my first article. Yeah! I do not have a current head shot of me so i thought i would include a recent family photo for my first blog article~

The first time I saw Bernard Lietaer's power point presentation on ‘The Role oRead More...

Complementary Currency: an intro.

Caroline Donahue — Thu, 21 May 2009 05:00:00 +0100

One of the most fascinating things that we covered in the Conscious Bookkeeping Level 1 Course was the idea of complementary currency. In fact, an idea that set me on fire was that the most healthy societies have both active currency, or money as we all know it, as well as complementary currency.

Let's start at the beginning: what is complementary currency? It is defined as any currency that is regulated by those who participate iits exchange, rather than regulated by the governmeRead More...

Guest post from Brent Kessel

Caroline Donahue — Thu, 07 May 2009 05:00:00 +0100

Many thanks to Brent Kessel, author of It's Not About the Money, for generously agreeing to guest post for the Money Door Blog. For any of us who have felt that we need to cut back on saving in this economy, the inspiring story Kessel shares will hopefully help us think twice. And now, I will turn this over to Brent:

Conscious Recession

Caroline Donahue — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 05:00:00 +0100

One of the things that people have been hit hard with is the idea of how their personal finances and planning are going to be affected by the current economic climate.

What does the state of the world mean to your finances right now?

Many people are more scared to deal with money than ever. Bari talks about the urge to shove bank statements into the drawer without looking at what is happening with your money in the Counscious Bookeeping course.

It can be hard toRead More...

Underearning: The Silent Subject.

Caroline Donahue — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 05:00:00 +0100

During these crazy times, many people are feeling grateful to have jobs at all. Every time we turn around, there is a piece on the news about someone who has taken a job as a janitor because their corporate position was downsized. This is a scary thing to think about. When we find a penny, we pick it up.

Still, I have been reading quite a bit about the conceRead More...

Introduction to your new Editor and Ramit Sethi's tips on saving smart.

Caroline Donahue — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 05:00:00 +0100

Greetings, Conscious Bookkeeping community! My name is Caroline Donahue, and I am so excited to be your guide on this fabulous blog. I am a long time student of Bari's and have been so delighted to apply the methods and philosophy of Conscious Bookkeeping in both my personal finances as well as my business.

Each week, I will be sharing inspiring and informative discoveries to supportRead More...

To Buy or Not To Buy - Part 2

Bari Tessler — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 06:00:00 +0100

This is the second guest post in this series by April Lane Benson.

April Lane Benson, PhD., is a nationally known psychologist who specializes in the treatment of compulsive buying disorder. She has been in private practice in New York City for over 30 years. Dr. Benson is the founder of Stopping Overshopping, LLC (linked to website), and creator of Stopping Overshopping, a comprehensive program to help eliminate compulsive buying. She is the editor of I Shop, Therefore I Am: CompulsiveRead More...