Last week, I wrote a pretty harsh criticism of Spend Every Dime!, a Slate article that basically encouraged people not to save money because taxes and inflation eat up most of the gains. But why is that? Let’s take a step back and look at what’s actually going on here, piece by piece. Some of

Are you thinking of going seriously green? Are you willing to invest some serious money up front in order to reap the benefits in the long run? If so, a wind turbine might be the thing for you. I’ve installed CFLs and programmable thermostats, but what I’d really love to do is to be almost

Hopefully that title got your attention. In fact, it’s a variation on the subtitle of an article posted to Slate.com yesterday, Spend Every Dime!, which says that you’ll actually lose money by saving and investing it, so why not spend now? Normally I would ignore such tripe, but this article has been making the rounds

Many people (myself included) often want items that they can afford, but by buying it they are really hurting their potential savings for the future. I know personally that Item I Want: A Nintendo Wii Tactic I’m Using: Realizing I’ll rarely use it Whenever I think about buying a Wii, I picture playing it with

I recently discovered a fantastic new feature in Google Maps that can actually save me a lot of money. Here’s how it works. Let’s say hypothetically that I’m sitting at work in the greater Des Moines, Iowa area and I want to pick up a delicious pizza from Papa Murphy’s on my way home from

As I’ve mentioned before, I maintain multiple savings accounts at various institutions, mostly in an effort to keep my different savings goals in discrete places. For the most part, I only deal with two: one is an emergency fund, and the other I refer to as my “short term” fund. What’s a “short term” fund?

Many people complain that budgeting is too confusing and that they have a hard time setting concrete goals for themselves, and when they do set goals, they’re so loose that they are easy to meet but they don’t really generate any significant savings. One major solution to this problem is the so-called 60% Solution, described

Yesterday, the United States Postal Service announced the introduction of a “forever” postage stamp. Here’s how it works: whenever you buy a first class postage stamp, it will no longer be marked with a cash denomination on it like current stamps are. Instead, it will merely say “First Class” on it. Once you buy it,

Pop culture today continually urges us to be more environmentally conscious on an individual basis, something that everyone can agree is a good thing regardless of how you feel about climate change. However, most of the ways people mention to save the environment are expensive (Prius, I’m looking at you). What most people don’t think

While I was reviewing David Bach’s book The Automatic Millionaire this week, I noted that he made continuous reference to “the latte factor,” which basically states that you can come up with the money for retirement by cutting small items out of your budget, such as the nominal latte. While that makes a lot of

Hosting a Super Bowl party this year (or thinking about it next year)? Here are some tips for making that party a bit easier on the ol’ pocketbook. Please note that there may be some pro-Colts bias in this post. Host it yourself. Don’t go out to a crowded sports bar – instead, invite people

It is said that the three things you never talk about in polite conversation are money, religion, and politics. I figure I’ll get two of these out of the way right now, and maybe even touch on a third. I’ve draw a couple of conclusions that even make me uncomfortable. I hope you’ll join in

Over and over again, I’ve referred to the value of an emergency fund without really explaining what it is and how you can get one. To put it simply, an emergency fund is the most valuable thing you can have because it protects you from the unforeseen things that can demolish all of your financial

After posting a series of savings plans this week, I received the following email from a reader: I was wondering, could you also do an entry in that series if someone puts $50 away? I’ve shown the article to a few people, and their incomes gravitate to more of $x per month, and around $50

Recently, CNNMoney.com posted an article containing 35 outrageous fees, along with tips on avoiding them. Unfortunately, due to the terrible layout of the article (you’re forced to jump from page to page in a very awkward fashion), it’s almost impossible to see all of the fees and also jump to the one you want to

This week, The Simple Dollar is investigating how you can take a small amount each day for the year 2007 and end up with a solid amount of money at the end of the year. These calculations take advantage of offers and promotions available in December 2006 and also use interest rates from that time

This week, The Simple Dollar is investigating how you can take a small amount each day for the year 2007 and end up with a solid amount of money at the end of the year. These calculations take advantage of offers and promotions available in December 2006 and also use interest rates from that time

This week, The Simple Dollar is investigating how you can take a small amount each day for the year 2007 and end up with a solid amount of money at the end of the year. These calculations take advantage of offers and promotions available in December 2006 and also use interest rates from that time

This week, The Simple Dollar is investigating how you can take a small amount each day for the year 2007 and end up with a solid amount of money at the end of the year. These calculations take advantage of offers and promotions available in December 2006 and also use interest rates from that time