Over the upcoming week, I’ll be posting a series of articles on the ethics of frugality. How far can you take things without crossing an ethical line or diving into seriously socially unacceptable waters? I’ll be recounting some of my own stories – and some stories from readers – along the way. A long while

This is the fifteenth of sixteen parts of a “book club” reading and discussion of Keith Ferrazzi and Tahl Raz’s Never Eat Alone, where this book on building a lifelong community of colleagues, contacts, friends, and mentors is teased apart and looked at in detail. This entry covers the twenty-ninth and thirtieth chapters – “Find

As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t have much of a desire to collect books. I keep a small pile of reference books around for information and inspiration, and I have a handful of books I’m sure I’ll re-read in the future. Other than that, the only books I retain are unread books. I have a

Over the upcoming week, I’ll be posting a series of articles on the ethics of frugality. How far can you take things without crossing an ethical line or diving into seriously socially unacceptable waters? I’ll be recounting some of my own stories – and some stories from readers – along the way. A few weeks

Over the upcoming week, I’ll be posting a series of articles on the ethics of frugality. How far can you take things without crossing an ethical line or diving into seriously socially unacceptable waters? I’ll be recounting some of my own stories – and some stories from readers – along the way. A little over

Over the upcoming week, I’ll be posting a series of articles on the ethics of frugality. How far can you take things without crossing an ethical line or diving into seriously socially unacceptable waters? I’ll be recounting some of my own stories – and some stories from readers – along the way. “Maddie” writes in:

Each Monday, The Simple Dollar opens up the reader mailbags and answers ten to twenty simple questions offered up by the readers on personal finance topics and many other things. Got a question? Ask it in the comments. You might also enjoy the archive of earlier reader mailbags. I especially like the fact that your

Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal development, personal productivity, career, or entrepreneurship book. Since starting The Simple Dollar, I’ve gradually developed the belief that the reason many people get into financial trouble is that their lives become overwhelmingly complicated. Attempting to balance a career, a marriage, a family, relationships with friends, hobbies,

Over the upcoming week, I’ll be posting a series of articles on the ethics of frugality. How far can you take things without crossing an ethical line or diving into seriously socially unacceptable waters? I’ll be recounting some of my own stories – and some stories from readers – along the way. “Jane” (we must

Many newer readers of The Simple Dollar haven’t been exposed to the hundreds of great articles in the archives of the site, so this is a weekly series that highlights the five best posts from one year ago this week, as well as the five best posts from two years ago this week. I call

This is the fourteenth of sixteen parts of a “book club” reading and discussion of Keith Ferrazzi and Tahl Raz’s Never Eat Alone, where this book on building a lifelong community of colleagues, contacts, friends, and mentors is teased apart and looked at in detail. This entry covers the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth chapters – “Build

One of my favorite parts of being frugal is that I often go shopping at thrift stores. Thrift stores are unusual places. They’re often just collections of the stuff that well-off people no longer want to have or to deal with, so they just drop it off at Goodwill. That means there’s usually a lot

A couple days ago at the doctor’s office, I picked up the newest issue of Time, which featured a cover story entitled “Why It’s Time to Retire the 401(k)” (and you can read the article online). The article was filled with lots of stories about individuals close to retirement age who lost a large portion

Three and a half years ago, I was in a desperate debt situation. My lifestyle was tied desperately to spending far more than I was bringing in – and I was finally paying the consequences. I had let money become the most important thing in my life. It drove all of my choices and decisions.

Margaret writes in: I have a twenty four year old daughter who is still living at home. She went away to college, but moved back in after college while looking for a job. She’s had a good job now for two years, but has made no move at all to move out. She does give

This is the thirteenth of sixteen parts of a “book club” reading and discussion of Keith Ferrazzi and Tahl Raz’s Never Eat Alone, where this book on building a lifelong community of colleagues, contacts, friends, and mentors is teased apart and looked at in detail. This entry covers the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth chapters – “The

Can a meal really get any easier than that? Cook up some rice, add some red beans, frozen okra, and cooked sausage (andouille, polska, whatever you like). Sprinkle in a lot of spices (sage, cayenne, garlic, thyme, paprika, even a bay leaf if you have one) as you’re cooking it all together. Yum – supper

Whenever I mention that I’m self-employed and work from home while my wife works outside of the home, I usually receive a question or two from readers who are thinking about a similar arrangement. They want to know about how we balance things. How do you balance household chores? How do you balance parenting chores?

I’ve written many, many times about how relevatory keeping a “thought notebook” in my pocket has been for me. Whenever I have a stray thought that might be useful at all to remember later, I jot it down in the notebook and then review it later, usually a couple of reviews a day. Figuring this