A few weeks ago, I had a conversation with an old friend of mine. She was telling me all about her winter trip to Bolivia (I think that’s where it was, anyway) and seemed really passionate and excited about all of it. After telling me, though, she paused for a bit and then said, “The

Last night, I sat down and did a forecast of where Sarah and I will be financially over the next ten years. If our income continues at its current pace, our spending continues at its current pace, our investments continue at their current pace, we have only one autombile cycling between now and then, and

Personal finance is a numbers game. As much as I like to vouch for the “personal” part of personal finance, it’s only half of the story – “finance” is part of the phrase, too. In the end, you’re still looking at the dollars and cents on your paycheck, on your income tax forms, on your

Every single time I sit down to write an article for The Simple Dollar, I think of two things. The first thing I think of is how incredibly scared I was when we hit our financial bottom. I had a seven month old baby at home to take care of, one that I was constantly

Recently, I came across this wonderful graphic over at The Credit Blog that spells out how the average American spends their paycheck: I actually pointed to a similar graphic a few years ago, but this is a revised one with updated figures. Let’s pull out the data, shall we? An average “consumer unit” in this

I love orange juice. I just love the stuff. When there’s orange juice in the fridge, I am constantly tempted to pull out the container and pour me a glass of it. This is particularly true when the container is mostly full, but when the container starts to get low, I slow down. I know

That’s the thought I have pretty often when I have a few free hours on the weekends. I usually have a ton of things that I’d like to be doing. I could go buy some books I’ve been wanting, then curl up with them. I could go golfing. I could go out to eat at

During the months leading up to our financial meltdown in April 2006, I knew that there were some serious financial problems brewing in our life. We had a lot of debt and didn’t own any major assets and we seemed to be consistently spending less than we earned. It wasn’t as though I was oblivious

Johnny writes in: The one thing that has kept me from diving into investing is fear of taxes. Every time I read about taxes and investments, it seems really, really complicated and I’m worried I’m going to be stuck with a big tax bill at the end of a given year even if I think

Stephen writes in: I’ve basically made the decision that I’m never going to retire. I’m going to keep working until I literally cannot work any more, at which point my physical and mental decline should be pretty steep and swift. Given that, what’s the point of saving for retirement? It seems pretty ineffective for me.

Because of the strange trajectory of my life, I have friends in rural places and I have friends in cities. I have friends who are on food stamps and I have friends that are millionaires. I have friends who own their own business and I have friends who can barely keep a job. I’ve noticed

Carrie writes in: I’m a 23 year old single woman with a solid government job that pays reasonably well. I have quite a bit of free time. What I’d like to do is somehow “bank” that free time so that I can have more free time later on when I (theoretically) have a child, as

According to various studies, approximately 40% of Americans attend religious services on a weekly basis (though that exact percentage is disputed). Once a week, they’ll get up and head to the religious institution of their choice to engage in fellowship and worship. One common part of those services is the request for donations of some

Chris writes in: “I’ve read all of the usual personal finance books and I know exactly what I need to do to get myself out of this hole. The problem is actually doing it. When I make decisions, I make poor ones, even though I know that in the long run they’ll cost me. I

Where are you going to be in five years? What will that life look like, assuming you don’t do anything radically different than you’re doing now? Just think about that for a moment. Sketch out what your life will look like at that point. Where will you live? What will your family look like? What

A while back, I ran across this brilliant quote from Sam Lipsyte’s 2010 novel, The Ask: She was from the people who kept everything. I was from the people who rented some of everything for brief amounts of time. I knew I deserved no pity, would get none from the people who kept everything. They

Carly writes in: I recently bought The Total Money Makeover on your recommendation and I’ve been enjoying it. It seems like a lot of your ideas and Dave Ramsey’s ideas overlap. What differences are there between your ideas? Before I get started on this article, I want to point out that I agree with Dave

I’ll be the first to admit that I have a lot of interests. Without skipping a beat, I can name off a dozen hobbies that I actively enjoy and a dozen more that I enjoy on occasion. I know I’m not alone in this. I have quite a few friends who are roughly my age,

Jennifer writes in: My husband and I are shopping very seriously for houses right now. We will likely be in a home by the start of the summer. I’m writing to you because we’re very unsure about the mortgage. On paper, it makes complete sense to get a fifteen year or even a ten year