My laptop messenger bag is basically my mobile office. I take it with me whenever I leave the house for anything more than a trip to the grocery store. The contents of that bag let me quickly get to work anywhere I am, any time I want – and that gives me a lot of
The survey results are starting to appear from the survey many of you took a few weeks ago (thanks again for doing this). I found three things really interesting. 70% of the readership is between 18 and 39. Which basically means… most of you are my age or close to it. Sometimes, I’m concerned that
Over the next several months, I’m giving several presentations and speeches on my story and what I learned about personal finance along the way. Some of these engagements will be paid ones, thus this may be the beginning of a new revenue stream in my life. As with anything new in my life, I’m filling
This is the first entry in a five part series this week on the stages of a relationship and how you can make financially sound choices throughout. Other entries include engagements, weddings, honeymoons, and marriages. It’s a coming-of-age routine that almost everyone goes through at some point. You’re introduced to someone. That person seems interesting.
Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal productivity, personal development, or entrepreneurship book. My desk is a mess. It’s not so much a factor of having too much stuff – virtually everything on it has a purpose. The problem is that I collect too many little pieces of paper and various other items
Over the last few years, I’ve read a ton of time management books and tried out literally hundreds of systems and standalone ideas for maximizing the effectiveness of my time, particularly in terms of my work. There’s a huge, direct benefit for me when I find a productivity tip that really works. It enables me
Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal productivity, personal development, or entrepreneurship book. A few weeks ago, I went out to breakfast with a big group. Most of us were engaged in great conversations about blogging and, frankly, Iowa media gossip, but a few people were pretty noticeably withdrawn from the discussion. They
Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal productivity, personal development, or entrepreneurship book. Lately, I’ve been working hard on improving my presentation skills. Why? As The Simple Dollar gets more and more popular, more and more opportunities come my way for presentations. I hear things like “Can you give a ten minute talk
Recently, I made a purchase that’s right on the fine line between my desire to investigate frugality and my enjoyment of new technology. I purchased three very expensive 60 watt light bulbs, not much different than any other light bulb. The catch? These bulbs were LED bulbs, among the first LED bulbs designed to replace
Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal development, personal productivity, or entrepreneurship book. I’ve been a reader of the Zen Habits blog nearly since its inception. The author of the blog, Leo Babauta, applies a very simple filter to countless aspects of life: how can we break it down and make it simpler?
Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal productivity, personal development, or entrepreneurship book. Remember the movie The Legend of Bagger Vance? It came out several years ago and starred Matt Damon as a drunken golfer who was wasting his skills and Will Smith as his mystical caddy/mentor. The movie was middling, but a
My three year old son has officially graduated to the “Why?” stage. Most parents – actually, anyone who has spent much time around a three year old – know exactly what I’m talking about. He’s basically asking “Why?” about everything that happens, from the simplest mundane household things to complicated issues like the nature of
When I first started writing The Simple Dollar, I was working at a very stable 9-to-5 job that paid quite well. My wife and I lived in a very small apartment with our one child, a boy who wasn’t even a year old yet. Neither of our vehicles were paid off, but they were both
Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal development, personal productivity, or entrepreneurship book. As I’ve mentioned many times before, I’m a huge fan of David Allen’s book Getting Things Done. That one simple volume (which I identified as one of the ten books that changed my life) pretty much transformed how I organized
A few weeks ago, I had a conversation with an old friend of mine that I respect quite a lot. He’s one of those people that seems to know how to do everything – he can fix computers (and write code), handle almost any home repair, play the guitar, beat almost everyone I know at
Every other week, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal productivity, personal development, or entrepreneurship book. A few months ago, I was very pleasantly surprised by Mark Forster’s personal productivity book, Do It Tomorrow. Most of the time, when I open up a personal productivity or time management book, I can pretty much predict what the
Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance, personal development, or entrepreneurship book. Ever wondered how exactly someone becomes world class at something? What exactly does it take to go from being ordinary at something to attaining great heights? Is it talent or a huge amount of persistence? Outliers (subtitled The Story of
One topic that seems to come up time and time again in my reader mailbag columns is the concept of reading for personal growth. I hear questions all the time ranging from how to choose books that are worth reading, how to know when a book isn’t really providing answers for you, how to read
Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal productivity, personal development, or entrepreneurship book. If you’ve ever read much about personal development online, you’ve probably bumped into something written by Steve Pavlina. He’s the person behind an enormously popular personal development blog and discussion forum on the topic. I’ve corresponded with Steve a few