This post is part of The One Hour Project, in which you can spend just one hour to put your finances in a better place without a big lifestyle change, through frugality or other financial choices. A week ago, one of the One Hour Projects suggested making your home more energy efficient. Those steps reduce

Not too long ago, the only method I had for earning money was my job. I’d get up, go into work, come home, and collect my paycheck – and I believed that was good enough for me. When I had children, though, I began to realize that my life was not all that different than

My niece is a wonderful young woman – a good head on her shoulders, decision making as strong as you could hope for in a high school sophomore, and an entrepreneurial spirit. My only concern about her is a sense that she hasn’t quite figured out the value of a dollar and that she’s prone

Are you a graphic design artist? Want to get some nice exposure on a popular website? I’m offering you a great opportunity to get some very long-term exposure for your work. But first, my daily roundup of links. The Declining Value Of The MBA I think an MBA still has significant value, but its value

This post is part of The One Hour Project, in which you can spend just one hour to put your finances in a better place without a big lifestyle change, through frugality or other financial choices. No, I’m not going to talk again about eating at home or about how you should skip fast food.

I often talk about the mental challenges of convincing yourself to turn your financial life around, things like looking at what’s really important to you and facing addictions to buying stuff. However, I’ve discovered that other mental challenges pop up when you get on the right track, and the challenge that I’m facing right now

Regular readers of The Simple Dollar know I have a deep passion for preparing my own food. Not only is it less expensive than eating out, I have far more control over what goes in it and I am able to prepare the things I want, not just some choice from a menu. The biggest

I spent most of this evening after supper reading with my daughter sleeping on my chest. It was incredibly nice. DIY Baby Care For Your Cheap Bum I wholeheartedly agree with making your own wipes. (@ wise bread) Asking For A Raise Redux Should you complain loudly after getting only a 3.5% raise? Maybe, but

This post is part of The One Hour Project, in which you can spend just one hour to put your finances in a better place without a big lifestyle change, through frugality or other financial choices. About six months ago, my wife and I were going through our DVD collection looking for items to clean

This weekend, my wife and I spent most of it at home trying out an interesting exercise. We went through everything we owned (well, not quite everything yet – we progressed from room to room) and looked at every possession we have. Why? We’re realizing that one of the big keys to financially stable living

Quite often on this site, I mention that the one true path to financial success is to spend less than you earn, and the greater the gap between your spending and your earning (with the earning being the larger one, of course), the better shape you’ll be in. This phrase, of course, means that there

As some of you might already know, I finally received my long-desired KitchenAid Professional 6 quart stand mixer, in part thanks to the generosity of a reader who got me a very nice deal on one (thank you again, Keana). I’ve already made three loaves of bread (one of which was given away to a

Each Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal productivity or personal development book. I originally picked up The Simplicity Survival Handbook because I was full of enthusiasm for Getting Things Done and I was looking for all sorts of additional things I could do to keep maximizing my time efficiency. Once I had discovered how

This post is part of The One Hour Project, in which you can spend just one hour to put your finances in a better place without a big lifestyle change, through frugality or other financial choices. A while back, I mentioned how I build my own price book. While this is a great idea, for

Recently, I was reminded of the first book I ever reviewed on The Simple Dollar, The Millionaire Next Door. I really liked the book, even though there was one big flaw in it: a rather large age bias. The book was written for people over forty, from top to bottom. This was most obvious when

This post is part of The One Hour Project, in which you can spend just one hour to put your finances in a better place without a big lifestyle change, through frugality or other financial choices. My wife and I generally plan a week’s worth of dinners at once for several reasons. First, it’s clear

After my recent discussion about why I’d rather use a spreadsheet rather than Quicken or Microsoft Money, several readers challenged me to actually fire up both packages and see if they’re really as cumbersome as I thought. So I installed and fired up Quicken Premier 2008 and started making a list of my thoughts as

This post is part of The One Hour Project, in which you can spend just one hour to put your finances in a better place without a big lifestyle change, through frugality or other financial choices. About once a month, I spend an hour doing nothing else but touching base with a long list of

One common question I get from people fresh into the workforce and setting up their new 401(k)s is this: how much retirement income should I count on from Social Security? It’s not an easy question to answer because we don’t know what the political future of the United States holds. We do know one thing: