This is the sixth entry in a twenty part series discussing the wonderful time and priority management book Making It All Work by David Allen. New entries in this series will appear on Tuesday mornings and Friday mornings through December 10. Earlier this week, we talked about the idea of “capturing” – getting everything that’s

A few days ago on Facebook, I asked the fans of The Simple Dollar what their favorite dirt cheap meal was. The responses poured in, so I decided to pull out 20 of my favorites and share them with you. Sticky rice, peas, and soy sauce (shared by Leslie) is pretty simple and not altogether

What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to five word summaries. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question. 1. Living on less 2. Retirement or debt? 3. Strategic foreclosure 4. Help partner or yourself? 5. Which retirement plan? 6. Paying student loans early 7. Exceptional

Two days ago, I wrote an article discussing the damage done to my often-used iPod Touch and my decision-making process when it comes to a replacement for it. A great many of you encouraged me to straight-up replace my iPod Touch with a new one, and I appreciate the comments. I thought I’d walk a

I just wanted to mention something that I think is a great value for those of you who own a Wii or a PlayStation 3 – you can now get a free Netflix streaming app from the app store on your console. If you have a Wii, just visit the Nintendo Store; if you have

Sometimes, it’s really no surprise to me that so many people are uncomfortable when it comes to managing their finances. There are so many financial products out there, each with their own benefits and drawbacks and pitfalls, that it can be overwhelming even for me, someone who spends a lot of time following all of

This is the fifth entry in a twenty part series discussing the wonderful time and priority management book Making It All Work by David Allen. New entries in this series will appear on Tuesday mornings and Friday mornings through December 10. This chapter is where the meat of the book begins, in my opinion, this

I received an iPod Touch as a Christmas gift in 2008. Since then, I have used and absued the thing at a level perhaps beyond what Apple ever intended. I’ve used it as a constant pocket notebook. I’ve used it as a podcast and music player every time I go on a walk (usually several

What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to five word summaries. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question. 1. Building website skills 2. Which credit counseling service? 3. Serious mortgage trouble 4. Thermostats, nighttime temperatures, and kids 5. Shady credit union practices 6. Direct stock

Every Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book or other book of interest. Here’s the flat-out truth about running a small business: you, the business owner, are where the buck stops. Period. Small businesses are a great way to start earning more money, but they’re not easy. When something goes wrong, it’s up

Open up one of your favorite magazines. Turn to a full page ad for a product – any product. Look at it carefully for a minute. What do you see? Fire up your television. Fast forward through the commercials (I know many of you can). Think about the flickering images that still made it through.

This is one question that, in some form or another, keeps popping up time and time again in all sorts of contexts. Should I buy a computer now, or should I wait for prices to come down? Should I buy a new television now, or should I wait for the bigger screens to become available?

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, two years ago this week, and three years ago this week. I call it …

“Not everyone will like the caramel apple jam,” Sarah commented to me after we made it. As much as I liked it, I knew she was right: it was very sweet and lacked the tartness that I often crave in my jellies and jams. So we decided to make another jelly/jam, this time doing something

This is the fourth entry in a twenty part series discussing the wonderful time and priority management book Making It All Work by David Allen. New entries in this series will appear on Tuesday mornings and Friday mornings through December 10. Time management. Money management. Health management. Management of your stuff. Relationship management. All of

I thoroughly enjoyed this recent WIRED article entitled 7 Essential Skills You Didn’t Learn in College. Among them: Statistical literacy – the ability to critically interpret presented statistics and sniff out the actual useful information to separate it from the nonsense. Applied cognition – the ability to evaluate your methods of thinking and processing information

What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to five word summaries. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question. 1. Extra mortgage while underwater 2. Homemade pet food 3. How does a mortgage work? 4. Thoughts on franchising 5. The future of Berkshire Hathaway 6. Writing

Melinda writes in: My twelve year old daughter and I are having a money war of sorts. At the start of the school year last month we went shopping for clothes together. I said she could spend $250 any way she chose as long as she got a certain number of items – some underwear,

If you’d like to read an electronic version of my latest book (and you’re in the United States), you can download it for free for the next few days in Amazon Kindle form. Just visit my book’s Kindle page and download! You don’t actually have to have a Kindle to read it. There are Kindle