The Simple Dollar is a blog for those of us who need both cents and sense: people fighting debt and bad spending habits while building a financially secure future and still affording a latte or two. Our busy lives are crazy enough without having to compare five hundred mutual funds - we just want simple ways to manage our finances and save a little money.

Who are you?
My name is Trent Hamm, and in April 2006, I went through a complete financial meltdown (read my “financial biography” here). I threw myself head first into trying to figure out every nuance of fixing my financial situation, and after a few months I began to get the picture. Within eight months, I had paid off all of my credit card debt, paid off my vehicle, and also established an emergency fund. Since I have a passion for writing and I had learned so much about how personal finance really works, I established this blog near the end of 2006 to tell the world about what I had learned and help people who were struggling with the same things.

What is The Simple Dollar?
The Simple Dollar is an exploration of personal finance from the perspective of a late-twentysomething who just realized that he needs to get a grip on his money. I used to be a spending maniac. I’m doing better. Sometimes.

Could you recommend some other sites like yours?
There’s a list of the sites I read in the sidebar of each page. One nifty feature is that each page has a different list of links. Collect ‘em all!

Your post doesn’t make any sense.
I have a tendency to make a lot of pop culture references (and sometimes highly obscure ones) in my writing. I can’t help it, it’s what I do. I recommend using Google when you’re confused. Also, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome is pretty much required viewing; since it is one of my favorite movies since my childhood and is loaded with potential reference points, references to it come fast and furious.

How do you update your site? Can you help me set up a weblog?
I use a weblog tool called WordPress. It lets me update my Web site from anywhere that has a net connection and a Web browser. It works pretty smoothly for my needs. If you want to start a weblog and don’t want to bother with the setup, you could try Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, or Wordpress.

Will The Simple Dollar link to me?
The short answer is yes. All you have to do is (a) write good content and (b) add a link to The Simple Dollar on your site and I’ll add you to my blogroll. The blogroll chooses twenty links at random from my big list of links and displays them on each page, so you’ll show up on a good percentage of all of the pages here at The Simple Dollar. I don’t add sites at random, so if you don’t have good content, I won’t link to your site. If you contact me asking me to add your site to my blogroll, I won’t add it. I choose the sites that I wish to add by discovering them. Instead, a much better approach is to shoot me an email introducing me to your blog and giving me links to a few of your best articles - another good way is to have your blog give out a full RSS feed (if you don’t know what this is, you’re probably already doing it).

We are looking for a speaker on the topic of personal finance. Would you be interested in participating?
Yes, indeed! Get in touch with me. I’ve had experience presenting in front of groups large and small for many years and I enjoy the experience.

I’d like to donate to The Simple Dollar. How can I do that?

What software do you use to design your site?
I do the image design in Photoshop. For the actual coding, I use Notepad, Simpletext, and an occasional bit of vi.