From simple tasks like making a household budget or balancing a checkbook, to evaluating life insurance and selecting an investment vehicle to fund a comfortable retirement, people have to learn about personal finance in order to be successful overseers of their incomes and assets.

But mere knowledge of financial matters isn’t enough. Nor is simply having greater raw intelligence.

As a recent study by researchers from Harvard Business School, the Federal Reserve and Wellesley College noted, having more financial literacy and cognitive capability does produce better financial decisions, from savings to picking stocks.

“Yet, there is little evidence that education intended to improve financial decision-making is successful,” the researchers wrote.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that understanding finance doesn’t make you a better personal financial manager.

Indeed, another recent study, this one of households in the United Kingdom, found that people with lower financial literacy were more likely to take out payday loans and have other high-interest consumer loans than those with more financial literacy.

Low-literacy individuals didn’t show as much understanding of credit terms. “They are also less likely to engage in behavior which might help them to improve their awareness of the credit market,” the researchers wrote in the February 2013 issue of the Journal of Banking and Finance.

Why Financial Literacy Education Fails

So the question is not whether knowing about finance doesn’t help, but whether teaching people about finance helps.

This question is highly relevant in the wake of the recent financial crisis, as noted in a paper Canadian researchers published in a recent edition of the Journal of Education Policy, because governments have increasingly embraced financial literacy education as a potential way to avoid future debacles.

Unfortunately, according to these researchers, the popularity of state-mandated personal financial education is based more on politics than evidence.

Why doesn’t financial literacy education necessarily make us better personal financial managers?

One reason is that people’s emotional and psychological relationship with money is as powerful or more powerful than their intellectual grasp of how to manage it wisely.

The study of this relationship is called behavioral finance. It tries to explain why, even when we know better, we make bad financial decisions.

So, What Does Work?

Of course, while knowing why we make bad decisions is interesting, it would be a lot more interesting to learn what, besides formal personal financial education, could help us be smarter about money.

Recent research from South Africa suggests one possibility: Rather than making us sit in classrooms listening to lectures about the effects of compound interest, embed financial messages in soap operas.

The South African researchers examined behavior of people after watching two different television shows about leading characters who gamble, buy items on installment plans and wind up deeply in debt.

One show featured messages about financial literacy while the other did not. Watchers of shows without messages were more likely to make bad financial decisions.

A less-entertaining conclusion was reached by the Harvard, Wellesley and Federal Reserve researchers.

Looking at evidence of effects of personal finance and mathematics courses some states require for high school graduation, these researchers found that, while finance courses did not lead people to make better financial decisions, math courses did.

Former math students, they found, declared bankruptcy less often and had fewer foreclosures.

This subject is likely to generate much more study, given the concern about consumers’ role in avoiding future financial debacles. But for now the conclusion seems to be that we should do our math homework, and then relax in front of the TV to watch a show about a good money manager.

Mark Henricks reports on finance, business, technology and other topics from Austin, Texas. He is the author of Not Just A Living: The Complete Guide to Creating a Business that Gives You A Life and other books. Visit him online or on Twitter @markhenricks.

Last year’s survey found that nearly 44 percent of the people who anticipated refunds planned to put at least some of it into savings.

The next most-popular destination for refunds is in an envelope headed for a credit card company or other lender, the Tax Returns Consumer Survey found.

Almost 40 percent of the respondents who were getting refunds said they’d use some to pare down debt.

Another big chunk of taxpayers — 29 percent — planned to use their refunds to pay everyday expenses.

Major purchases such as a new television, furniture or automobile were anticipated by 12 percent. And 11 percent were looking forward to financing a vacation with part of their refund checks.

The average amount of a tax refund.

Where Americans spend their refunds makes a difference to a lot of people, including those who aren’t expecting a refund.

That’s because the total dollars are huge; the Internal Revenue Services says for fiscal 2011 it issued individual tax refunds for $337 billion.

Nearly 120 million individual taxpayers got refunds that year, which averages to about $2,800 per person.

That check is the largest single lump sum of money the average American family receives in a typical year, according to an estimate by the American Tax and Financial Center at TurboTax.

It comes to more than a month’s worth of income for two out of three taxpayers, the center estimated.

Factors that affect how tax refunds are used.

If you slice and dice that group of 120 million, you find that different taxpayers spend their refunds in slightly different ways.

For instance, nearly 41 percent of women said they’d use part of the refund to pay down debt. Less than 38 percent of men made the same choice.

Men and women also diverged on savings. Forty-five percent of men allocated part of the refund for savings, versus less than 43 percent of women.

Income played a role as well. Taxpayers reporting more than $50,000 in income were more likely, at 52 percent, to put refunds into savings than those who made less.

A little over 48 percent of those earning under $50,000 planned to direct part of their refunds to savings.

One of the reasons people are likely to use refunds to pad their savings, according to a study, is that the refund comes in a single large payment.

The report in the Journal of Economic Psychology described an experiment suggesting that if people got their refunds in monthly installments rather than all at once, they’d be more likely to spend the refunds.

The current edition of the National Retail Federation survey of tax refunds should be released in late February. The annual figures don’t usually change much from year-to-year.

Last year, however, the number of people who said they planned to sock part of their tax refund into savings was the highest in the nine years the survey has been done, up nearly 2 percentage points form 2011.

Mark Henricks reports on finance, business, technology and other topics from Austin, Texas. He is the author of Not Just A Living: The Complete Guide to Creating a Business that Gives You A Life and other books. Visit him online at http://www.thearticleauthority.com or on Twitter @markhenricks.

In the same way, many of us resolve over and over to spend less, save more, reduce debt and otherwise clean up our personal financial acts, only to find ourselves doing the equivalent of lighting up after a no-smoking vow.

Saying it’s common to slip-up on a New Year’s resolution is almost like saying winter cold is common in Alaska.

Studies of New Year’s resolvers, for instance, indicate behavior change is usually short-lived. After a year or more, the success rate for New Year’s resolutions is in the low double-digit percentages, according to most research.

So how should you respond if you slip-up on a financial resolution?

Say you use a credit card for a frivolous expense when you’ve promised yourself you wouldn’t, or you forgot to pay a bill and are now facing a hefty late fee.

What do you do?

The Transtheoretical Model

The main key to dealing with slip-ups is to understand the overall picture. Experts in changing personal behavior describe change not as an event, but as a process. This transtheoretical model, as it’s known, presents change as a series of stages.

The early stages, precontemplation and contemplation, are when you are just starting to think about changing. In the middle stages, preparation and action, you make it happen. Maintenance is the final stage where you’re trying to hang onto your gains.

Change is a Process

Relapses, slip-ups, backsliding — whatever you call it — can happen at any stage. And it’s important to understand that few people go through the stages seamlessly from beginning to end.

It’s normal to move back and forth from, say, contemplation to precontemplation, as you seesaw your way to lasting change.

The point is, slip-ups are normal and natural. So the first thing to know about a slip-up is that it’s not the end of the process — it’s part of the process.

A slip-up doesn’t mean you’ve failed. It means you’ve taken a wrong turn and are now engaged in getting back on track.

How Far Off the Track Are You?

Next, figure out how far you have really gotten off track.

Say you are trying to break your habit of spending $5 on a latte every day. After a month of success, you suddenly find yourself standing outside the coffee bar with milk foam on your upper lip.

At this point you have stuck to your objective in 29 out of 30 days. That progress is far more meaningful than a one-day slip-up.

You may have strayed somewhat, but you are still generally on track. Don’t respond as though it’s the end of the road.

Similarly, if you incur a $30 late fee, or fail to make your monthly savings contribution two months in a row, it doesn’t negate all the times you have paid on time or made the full contribution.

You made one or two mistakes — you did not fail. Treat it that way. React wisely, not wildly.

Fix Your Mistakes

Next, see if you can fix it. You may be able to convince a creditor you paid late to waive the late fee this once. You may be able to pay a credit card balance in full before interest charges accrue.

Proactively working to minimize financial damage from a slip-up improves your personal finances and increases your confidence.

And Now Learn from Them

Why did you charge $100 on your credit card at a fancy restaurant when you had sworn not to? Examine the circumstances.

The people you were with, the mood you were in, or the fact that the card was in your pocket instead of in a drawer back home may be things you could change in future situations.

Similarly, you may decide that taking a different route to work, one that doesn’t go by the coffee bar, will minimize latte lapses. Or you may be able to set a bill up for automatic payment to reduce late fees.

By learning from and taking action to avoid slip-ups, you can avoid more and potentially bigger mistakes later on.

The Bottom Line

None of this is to say that slip-ups are desirable or that it’s smart to ignore your resolutions and sabotage your long-term plans.

It is smart, however, to realize that change is a process, that mistakes are normal, often correctible, and rarely fatal, and that you can turn a slip-up into a learning opportunity that will make you more likely to reach your personal financial goals.

“Oops! How to Recover From a Financial Resolution Slip-Up” was written by Mark Henricks.  

When you attempt to hold yourself to achieving a specific goal in a set amount of time, you are more likely to realize success.

Many goals can best be achieved with the help of interim milestones, or benchmarks. A benchmark can help keep you on track and keep a long-term goal more immediate and relevant.

Why are benchmarks important?

Benchmarks are important because, although we may have long-term goals, humans have short-term outlooks.

A goal that can take months, or even years, such as paying off a credit card, is easier for us tackle when we look at it in terms of what we can accomplish each month.

Benchmarks not only allow you to celebrate your successes, but they provide an opportunity to review your progress and make any necessary changes.

Personal finance benchmarks

A personal finance benchmark can include a certain amount you want to save, a certain amount of debt you want to pay down, or almost any other relevant measurement.

A benchmark can even be a zero. For example, you can plan not to increase your debt by a single penny during the coming year.

Setting financial goals

Goals should be challenging, but if you are just getting started, set small goals with shorter benchmarks so you can get a few wins under your belt before moving on to bigger challenges.

You can probably pretty easily think of a few things you’d like to accomplish, but you should approach setting financial goals and milestones in a systematic manner.

Start by spending a few minutes thinking about what you want to achieve, the issues that bother you the most and opportunities you want to take advantage of.

To help you get started, consider broad categories of personal finance benchmarks that are relevant for almost any individual or family. These might include: setting up an emergency fund, only using cash for expenses and not relying on credit, saving for retirement, or paying off debt.

If you aren’t sure which financial goals you should be working towards, log into your free Mint.com account and click on the “goals” tab. Mint will suggest custom-tailored goals based on your individual profile.

It’s easy to set a goal and Mint will help you keep track and stay motivated until you reach your final destination.

Also, as part of the Mint.com Money Boo Boos Sweepstakes, any goal set during the month of January 2013 automatically enters you to win a $500 weekly prize. Make 2013 the year you finally start working towards achieving your financial goals!

Assigning dollar figures to your benchmarks

When it comes to assigning a dollar figure to benchmarks, situations will vary. But there are some useful generalities.

If your goal is to establish an emergency fund, then create a goal to save enough cash to cover at least three months worth of living expenses.

First, figure out how much you need to save, and then give yourself a time frame.

It’s easy to say, “I need to save this much.” But by simply saying, “I need to save this much by this date,” you have defined you goal.

If you want to reduce expenses so you can stop relying on credit and start saving more, make a habit of tracking where your money is going. Your total expenses should not exceed more than 80 percent of your income after taxes.

Mint will track your expenses for you, identify ways to help you save, and send you emails and mobile alerts when you go over budget. You can’t start cutting costs until you know where your money is going, so start tracking today.

Finally, your total debt payments should not be more than 35 percent of your after-tax income. I know it’s tempting to throw a chuck of change at your debt, but the last thing you want to do is start the vicious cycle of coming up short on cash each month and relying on credit to bridge the gap.

Get a total of your debts, calculate a realistic monthly payment based off your income, and figure out how long it will take you to pay it off.

Consider calling your lender or credit issuer to inquire about payoff options. Most can provide payoff schedules based off your interest rates and amount of debt.

Who knows? Maybe you can even negotiate a lower interest rate and pay that debt down even further.

How to use benchmarks to mark progress

Once you have set your goals, it’s time to define your benchmarks. This is especially important if your goal is particularly challenging or requires a long period of time.

Benchmarks should be both long- and short-term – you can have a milestone marked six months from now, at the end of each month, or even each day.

Use your benchmarks to analyze your where you are in reaching your goal. Are you right on target or even a little ahead? Then up the ante and challenge yourself!

Are you struggling to keep up or even falling behind? You may have unknowingly set a goal that is too ambitious and runs a high risk of failure.

If you commit to a goal and your interim benchmarks suggest you won’t make it, then by all means – modify your plan.

For instance, you can extend the time to save up for that down payment or make smaller monthly payments towards debt.

This is your goal after all, so set yourself up for success!

“Using the Power of Benchmarks to Reach Financial Goals” was written by Mark Henricks.

Meeting those specifications is, obviously, as much an art as it is a science.

But with these gifts from the world of consumer electronics, you’ll have the key ingredients to a reliably festive formula.

Bose SoundLink Bluetooth Mobile Speaker II

The Bose SoundLink Bluetooth Mobile Speaker II ($299) wirelessly channels tunes from a smartphone or other Bluetooth-equipped device and sends it out into the world using Bose’s renowned speaker technology.

The just-out Soundlink Mobile II is an update of the well-received original model released in 2011.

The new edition features improved sound quality, especially on the bass end, a combination cover and stand, and easier pairing with Bluetooth players.

The similar SoundLink Air ($349) uses Wi-Fi instead of Bluetooth to work with Apple’s Airplay wireless technology.

Lytro Digital Camera

When nearly every smartphone takes decent-quality snapshots, a standalone camera has to offer something special to justify its spot beneath the tree. The Lytro camera does that and then some.

Employing a ground-breaking technology new to consumer cameras, the camera’s light field sensor captures much more than the typical two-dimensional image, recording all rays of light traveling in every direction through a scene.

As a result, a photographer can change the focus of a picture after it’s taken, just to name one of the fascinating abilities this opens up.

The Lytro camera comes with 8 gigabytes of memory for $399 or, for $499, a capacious 16 gigabytes.

All Starts Racing Transformed (Sega)

Mere mortals like Richard Petty and Mario Andretti may have retired from racing, but Sonic the Hedgehog hasn’t even slowed down.

The Sega video game icon’s latest trip to the track is All Stars Racing Transformed, a reimagining of karting that, in addition to state-of-the-art graphics, adds a wrinkle that is literally transformational: Drivers can transform vehicles from cars into boats and even aircraft in the middle of a race.

All Stars Racing Transformed is rated E for Everyone 10 and up and is available for $39.99 for Nintendo 3DS, PS3, XBOX360 and Wii U gaming systems.

SmartRadar Detector

Escort’s new SmartRadar ($449.95) detector connects the familiar gadgetry of a radar detector to a 21st Century smartphone.

Using an Android or iPhone as its informational display keeps the radar detector’s profile low and its price relatively modest, without sacrificing accuracy or reliability.

An Escort Live app that runs on the phone lets drivers tap into a database of red-light cameras and speed trap alerts.  If you don’t have a suitable smartphone, you can also use a small standalone display.

Earbud Yo-Yo

Shopping for gadget gifts can get expensive, but you don’t have to spend a lot to give a lot. Case in point: the Earbud Yo-Yo.

This $9.99 low-tech solution to a high-tech hassle keeps earbud cords tangle-free in pocket or purse, wrapping the wires around a squared-off reel and locking the ends in place with special grippers.

It works with earbuds for MP3 players, iPods, portable radios, gaming systems and DVD players as well as smart phones.

“Hot Holiday Electronics: 5 Gifts for Tech-Lovers” was written by Mark Henricks. 

Here are seven holiday activities that range in price from free to heavily discounted and are sure to please school kids on break, out-of-town relatives and almost any other family member in need of some entertaining.

Get a Free Photo with Santa

You can pay $30 or more to have your child sit for a chat and photo with the jolly old elf at many shopping malls, but Bass Pro Shops is offering free Santa photo sessions at 57 of its stores nationwide.

The no-charge snaps are part of the outdoors retailer’s Santa’s Wonderland event featuring a Christmas village, games and activities.

Tour the Holiday Lights

Check out some over-the-top decorating jobs. Every neighborhood has one — a family that just doesn’t seem to know when to stop with the lights, reindeer, snowmen and other holiday decorations.

You don’t have to compete with them, but it would be a shame not to enjoy them, especially if you can locate the more original and beautiful examples.

Use any Internet search engine and look for your city name and the term “Christmas light displays.” You’re almost certain to come with a list, map or trail that will be worth a family drive-by.

Holiday Movies

There is always a great selection of family friendly movies during the holiday season, but high ticket prices can be a real budget-buster.

Dealflicks.com saves you up to 60 percent on tickets to first-run movies as well as concessions. There’s also never a convenience fee for purchasing tickets online.

Visit the website and type the city where you live or are visiting into the search box to see a list of local theaters offering Dealflicks deals.

PS: Right now you can use the code “MINTMOVIES” to get an additional 10% off your purchase (it ends Dec. 31st, so hurry!).

Free Holiday Concerts

Free holiday concerts happen in most large communities and many small ones. Simply conduct an Internet search for “free holiday concert” and your city name to find one close to your area.

Some are one-time events by volunteer choirs and orchestras performing traditional sing-a-longs and others feature world-class musicians and classical works by the masters.

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., for example, has a whole series of free concerts from November through January.

Cut Your Own Christmas Tree

If you’re going to put up and decorate a Christmas tree, make getting it an outing.

Visit PickYourOwnChristmasTree.org to find a local tree grower where you can choose your own tree and cut it down personally — or have them do it if you’re not the lumberjack type.

Most cut-your-own operations have other activities, like sleigh and hayrides, to make the visit appealing to all ages.

Explore Festivals and Other Celebrations

Christmas isn’t the only end-of-the-year holiday, of course. Kwanzaa is a celebration that runs from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1 and, although it has strong ties to Africa and the African-American community, is observed by people of many backgrounds and faiths.

Kwanzaa falls between Christmas and New Year’s and many communities have Kwanzaa events and festivals during that time.

One of the oldest celebrations is at New York City’s American Museum of Natural History, which on Dec. 29, 2012, will hold its 34th Kwanzaa gathering featuring performers, a marketplace, exhibits and more.

Volunteer

The holidays are, after all, are a season for giving and few things bring a warmer glow than helping others in need.

Spending an hour or two working as a family at a neighborhood food pantry, handing out blankets at a homeless shelter, or gathering toys to donate to less fortunate children costs nothing and pays big in feel-good dividends.

National non-profit Toys for Tots has chapters across the country and many different opportunities to volunteer collecting and distributing toys to disadvantaged kids.

Visit the Toys for Tots website to find ways you can help in your community.

“7 Inexpensive and Family-Friendly Ways to Celebrate the Holidays” was written by Mark Henricks. 

While that day has not yet arrived for everyone, the condo market is improving in many places. And in some areas, condo prices are almost back to pre-crash levels.

Median Sales Prices Up in Metropolitan Areas

Nationwide, the median sales price of existing apartment condo-coop homes in metropolitan areas was $181,000 in the three-month period ending September 2012, according to the National Association of Realtors.

That’s an increase of 7.7 percent over median prices in the quarter ending a year earlier (September 2011), according to the real estate organization.

The improvement varied by region and by metropolitan area, with 33 areas showing year-ago increases, while 21 areas showed declines.

The strongest improvement by far was in the West, where the median price of $209,100 was up 26 percent from the previous year.

In the South, prices were also up, rising 16 percent to $129,500, while the Northeast crept up 1.1 percent to $250,700. The Midwest declined slightly, 0.5 percent, to $132,100.

Individual Markets Vary

Individual markets varied even more. In Atlanta, the median sale price of $74,000 was up a rollicking 77.9 percent one year, leading the nation.

At the other end of the scale, median sale prices in the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk metro area in Connecticut slumped 59.8 percent to $90,000 from third-quarter 2011 to third-quarter 2012.

Prices are still far below their peaks, however. The S&P/Case-Shiller Index, which tracks condo markets in New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, found prices in July in nearly all those areas continued a string of monthly increases going back five months.

The company’s report noted that prices were still only at mid-2005 levels in the New York area, but the Big Apple region suffered relatively little during the crash, so prices there today are less than 10 percent below the 2006 peak.

In Chicago, the picture is grimmer, with prices only back to where they were in mid-2000, more than 12 years ago, and still down by a third from the 2007 peak, the company said.

Factors Driving the Price Increase

Several factors are driving the price increase.

The general condo demand is rising while supplies are tight. Fewer foreclosures are coming onto the market, and existing owners are waiting for prices to rise further before putting their units up for sale.

Builders are beginning to ramp up construction, but are being slowed by financing issues.

Buyers also continue to face difficulty in obtaining mortgages for purchase money. The financing problem is attributed to tight underwriting standards rather than high interest rates.

In fact, the NAR said rates on 30-year conventional fixed-rate mortgages averaged a record low of 3.54 percent in the quarter ending September 2012. That was down from 3.8 percent in the previous quarter and 4.31 percent during the same period in 2011.

The Future of the Condo Market

The condo market’s future looks better than it has in some time, according to those who build them.

The National Association of Homebuilders quarterly Multifamily Production Index, which measures how confident builders and developers are about the market, hit its highest reading since 2005 in the second quarter of 2012, ending in June.

After improving for eight consecutive quarters, builder confidence clearly has momentum, and it may take a while to run out.

The NAHB notes that the industry is constructing about 200,000 new multi-family units a year. That’s up quite a bit from the historic lows of about 110,000 in 2009 and 2010.

But before the crash, about 300,000 new multifamily units were being built every year for 12 straight years.

So, if you’re wondering whether the condo market is making a comeback, the answer is that it has already made a significant comeback, but it’s still got a long way to go if it’s going to get back to where it was.

“Is the Condo Market Making a Comeback?” was written by Mark Henricks.  

Not necessarily, according to experts who’ve analyzed wage-gap data and found that female workers are actually likely to be able to earn nearly if not exactly as much as males.

Gender discrimination

The natural assumption is that the wage gap is due largely or entirely to gender discrimination. This impression is supported by stories of the multi-million-dollar sums large employers have paid to settle lawsuits by women workers alleging they earned less because they are female.

However, there’s more to the wage gap than lawsuit settlements.

The biggest study of the phenomenon to date, a 2009 report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Labor, found many factors at work and little indication overall that discrimination is one of the most important.

The report specifically cautioned lawmakers and regulators against taking corrective action. “Indeed, there may be nothing to correct,” the authors wrote. “The differences in raw wages may be almost entirely the result of the individual choices being made by both male and female workers.”

The recently released AAUW report also suggests that discrimination plays at most a secondary role, with most of the gap explained by worker choices.

The authors reached this conclusion by adjusting the 23 percent gap for effects of occupation, hours worked, workplace flexibility, experience, education and other factors.

After these adjustments, the gap shrank to 5 percent for college graduates a year after graduation and 12 percent 10 years after graduation.

Other factors

The remaining gap may or may not be partly or entirely due to discrimination. Researchers just don’t know enough about the effect of other factors.

For instance, some studies have found that that female employers tend to pay women less than they pay men. One possible explanation for this is that women are prone to undervaluing their own work.

That may cause, among other things, female workers to negotiate less effectively for raises and promotions.

While a full explanation for the wage gap remains elusive, and gender discrimination has by no means been eliminated as a possible cause, it’s certainly true that women workers today are paid more by comparison to men than ever.

The gap was about 40 percent through the 1970s, dropped to 28 percent by 1990, was 27 percent in 2000 and has continued falling to reach its current level, according to researcher Francine Blau of Cornell University.

Still, 23 percent is a lot. Over a 40-year career it can come to $443,000 for an average worker, notes the National Women’s Law Center.

So you might want to more than just wait for it to gradually get smaller. And there are specific actions you can take to shrink your own wage gap.

How to shrink the wage gap

Choosing an occupation is one. Some occupations pay less, and women tend to work in those occupations.

Worker experience is another. When workers move in and out of the workforce as, for instance, parents do when they stay home for a while to raise children, they have less experience.

Hours worked also matters. Employees who put in extra time are likely to be seen as more valuable. And flexibility is similarly important.

Workers willing to travel or work weekends may be considered more valuable to the organization.

Studies suggest that both male and female workers can increase their pay carefully considering these factors. That is, they need to choose occupations wisely, develop relevant experience, put in longer hours and be more flexible.

The bottom line

Finding that worker decisions are important in determining pay does not excuse, minimize or deny the existence of gender-based discrimination.

But, while we continue to work as a society to reduce discrimination through legal and other means, there are many moves workers can make on their own to help make up any difference on their paychecks.

“Falling Into the Wage Gap: Why Do Women Earn Less Than Men?” was written by Mark Henricks.

Car rental companies will rent wheels by the month for as little as $589, according to Orbitz, which amounts to $7,068 per year — not including fuel, which is a major cost.

If you want to skip the bus, but still save on transportation costs, you could consider using a short-term vehicle rental service. These vehicles are rented by the hour (or sometimes by the minute) and the rental company picks up all the usual costs of car ownership.

Short-term vehicle rental is an emerging trend that is currently only available in select big cities, but it is expanding. Here are the major operators:

Car2Go

This subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler, rents tiny Smartcars for 38 cents per minute or $13.99 per hour. You also pay a one-time $35 membership fee.

Renters can book one of the two-seaters online, or use a membership card to open and drive off in any of the blue-and-white painted cars they find parked around town.

Car2go pays for gas and when renters are done using the car, they simply park in any designated space, usually located downtown or in heavily trafficked areas, and walk away.

Car2go currently operates in six North American cities and a dozen European cities.

Zipcar

This company operates like car2Go, except it rents more than 30 different types of vehicles.

Rates vary by location and plan, but in San Francisco, for instance, the occasional driver plan requires a $60 annual fee, $25 application fee and hourly rates of about $8.50.

Zipcar operates in 20 major U.S. cities as well as Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain and Austria.

DriveNow

This is a joint venture led by BMW that features the German automaker’s all-electric ActiveE sedan.

Renters pay a one-time membership fee of $39 and, after picking up the car at a DriveNow station, $12 for the first 30 minutes and 32 cents for additional minutes for a one-hour rate of $21.60.

DriveNow is available in four German cities and San Francisco.

Modo

Modo is a car-sharing co-op that requires a $20 initial registration, fee plus $50 per year and $7.50 per hour for rentals.

Renters pre-book vehicles in half-hour increments and pay penalties for late returns, cancellations and no-shows.

Modo rents a variety of vehicles, but only in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Hertz on Demand

This service is an hourly offering of the world’s largest car rental company. It requires no annual fees and charges hourly rates ranging from $5 in Boston to $8 in San Antonio.

Renters pick up and drop off vehicles, which include Nissan’s Sentra, as well as Chevy Cruze and Malibu models, at designated Hertz On Demand locations.

Hertz On Demand is in a dozen U.S. cities as well as the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Germany.

Scoot

This startup charges $10 to join and $5 per month, plus $5 per hour to rent two-wheeled electric scooters, complete with helmets.

The service is available only in San Francisco and environs, and the scooters are only suitable for single passengers traveling at less than highway speed.

Breaking Down the Cost

The average adult spends just under an hour driving daily, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Based on average short-term rates of about $12 hourly, the typical adult driver could spend $4,380 per year on short-term rentals, which is less than half the cost of owning a car, while still driving the same amount.

Hourly car renters sacrifice some convenience and still must pay for parking tickets, lost membership cards and other incidentals.

But, for people who live where short-term rentals are available, drive the average amount or less, and don’t need a car at their beck and call, short-term rentals appear to offer an inexpensive way to get around.

 ”Save Cash With Short-Term Vehicle Renting” was written by Mark Henricks.

Many celebrity gurus and well-known personal finance authors offer paid seminars teaching you their methods. They’ll typically advertise online or on local TV or newspapers before coming to a community and holding a few sessions at a ballroom or meeting facility.

Prices can be as low as $49 for a one-day or half-day seminar. On the high end, they may charge thousands of dollars for multiple sessions stretching over a period of months.

Attendees can learn about many areas of personal finance, including creating budgets, saving, managing debt, investing wisely and preparing for retirement. Seminars generally come with the endorsement of someone well known in the field, which, of course, is an important part of their appeal.

Is the chance to be taught by a well-known expert, or someone using the materials of a well-known expert, worth the price? The answer depends largely on your preferences and needs.

Let’s be clear: Paid personal finance seminars can offer many benefits. Before examining those, however, it’s important to understand that those benefits probably will not include secrets you couldn’t get from another source.

DIY Personal Finance

Online sites like MintLife provide free access to thousands of informative articles on topics from money-saving recipes to investing tips. Many personal finance books can be checked out from public libraries without paying a penny. Similarly, webinars, podcasts and videos on personal financial topics are also available without charge online.

Also, many community organizations and financial advisors put on free personal finance talks, presentations and full-fledged courses. Chances are, few paid seminars can provide information that is not available for free or at lower cost elsewhere.

The Pros and Cons of Paying for a Personal Finance Seminar

Having said that, paid seminars can offer legitimate value. For instance, it’s easy to get confused by the large amount of financial information available. It you don’t know where to start, paying a knowledgeable speaker to introduce the basics can help.

Likewise, a hands-on instructor can provide motivation and encouragement to give you a boost when you encounter a puzzling concept. Another important benefit of attending a paid seminar is that you can ask questions and get instant feedback.

Some people simply prefer learning in a group environment with a lecturer running the show. And personal finance concepts are easier for many of us to grasp when displayed on a projector with live narrative provided by a seasoned instructor.

The obvious negative of paying for a seminar is the cost, but this doesn’t have to be high. Many of the fees are comparable to the price of purchasing a few hardcover personal finance books. But some seminars may include hard-sell techniques in which high-pressure sales people try to get attendees to sign up and pay for additional training that could cost thousands.

Seminars also aren’t as flexible as self-education through reading, watching videos and listening to podcasts. For example, if you aren’t available the weekend the seminar comes through your town you can’t attend. And once the seminar is over, the instructor may be hard to reach with follow-up questions.

The Bottom Line

All things considered, the best way to learn about personal finance is probably the least expensive. Visiting Mint.com, checking books out at the library and using other free resources are more flexible and free from high-pressure up selling.

Consider a paid personal finance seminar if you’re stuck, need motivation, have the time and money, are prepared to resist sales pressure, and know what you want and what you’re getting into. Otherwise, you can likely get everything you need right here.

“Should You Pay to Attend a Personal Finance Seminar?” was written by Mark Henricks.