Each Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book or other book of interest. I’ve been a big fan of Liz Weston’s writing, particularly her columns over at MSN Money. I’ve also communicated with her many times in the past. So, when I saw that she had a new book out, it was an

Every Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book or other book of interest. I’ve reviewed a pile of David Bach’s books over the years (Smart Couples Finish Rich, The Automatic Millionaire, and several others). Why bother reading and reviewing yet another one? The title alone fairly well explains it. Rather than focusing on

Every Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book or other book of interest. No, this isn’t a weight loss book. The subtitle, I think, explains it well: Love What You Have, Have What You Need, Be Happier With Less. In other words, Peter Walsh’s Lighten Up focuses on minimalization and living with less

Every Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book or other book of interest. For my first book review of 2011, which will pop up on the site on Sunday and appear in subscriber’s mailboxes early in the morning of the first working Monday of the year, I thought I’d take a look at

Every Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book or other book of interest. As soon as I read the title of this book, I knew I had to give it a read-through. You see, the phrase “first generation white collar” pretty aptly describes me. My parents were decidedly blue collar, as were their

Every Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book or other book of interest. The title of this book convinced me to pick it up at the library recently, but it was the introduction that caused me to actually take it home and give it a full read. The introduction, entitled “Life as a

Every Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book or other book of interest. One of the best parts about writing The Simple Dollar is the opportunity I have to hear from people who have turned their life around due to better financial choices. They usually end up finding themselves on a better personal

This is the final entry in a twenty part series discussing the wonderful time and priority management book Making It All Work by David Allen. I’ve really enjoyed writing this series. It’s given me an opportunity to think deeply about this book and about some of the ongoing concerns and areas of focus in my

This is the nineteenth 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. Much of this book focuses not on the day-to-day actions that fill our lives,

Every Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book or other book of interest. I’ll admit it – I’ve only seen the show Your $$$$$ on CNN once. I don’t watch much cable news – or broadcast television at all – so I don’t have much opportunity to follow programs like that one. Instead,

This is the eighteenth 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. In an earlier section of the book, Allen tells the tale of a guy

This is the seventeenth 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. Why am I here? What is the purpose of my life? How do I

Every Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book or other book of interest. A few years ago, I reviewed Jeff Yeager’s excellent book on frugality The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches. Quite simply, it was one of the best books on frugality I’ve ever read, with a healthy dose of humor

This is the sixteenth 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. “What would long term success look, sound, and feel like?” Again, Allen opens the

This is the fifteenth 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. “What do I want to achieve?” Allen opens the chapter with this question and

Every Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book or other book of interest. One of the key points in my book The Simple Dollar is that our lives are far more random than we think and that we compensate for that randomness in the wrong way. We should spend less, not more. We

This is the fourteenth 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. What, exactly, are areas of focus? I think the best way to spell this

This is the thirteenth 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. All of us have ongoing tasks in our lives – individual things that need

Every Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book or other book of interest. Commodity investing is one of those areas of personal finance that I simply don’t know much about. When I think about commodity investing, I think of listening to an AM station where a dry-voiced announcer is saying, “February soybeans two