The Simple Dollar » Time Machine

The Simple Dollar Time Machine: March 6, 2010

Trent — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 14:00:54 +0000

Many newer readers of The Simple Dollar haven’t been exposed to the hundreds of great articles in the archives of the site, so this is a weekly series that highlights the five best posts from one year ago this week, two years ago this week, and three years ago this week. I call it … the Time Machine.

One Year Ago (February 28 – March 6, 2009)
The Cost of the Psychology of New When I re-read this post, I was reminded of an email I received from a reader recently who didn’t like PaperBackSwap because she couldn’t get all of the newest releases on it. I pretty much never buy a new release in book form – I use the library for those. I don’t buy books unless I’m sure I’ll reread them multiple times. The cult of the new is expensive.

Depression Cooking I loved these videos – they were the best thing I’ve seen on YouTube, perhaps ever.

Personal Finance and 1,000 True Fans Planting the seeds of powerful relationships might cost you a little bit now, but it’ll reap huge rewards later on.

A Step-By-Step Guide to Building a Big, Healthy Emergency Fund Emergency funds are a vital tool for personal finance success, but many people have difficulty getting started with one. Here’s a guide to doing just that.

Do You Want to Be Rich? Being rich is not my goal (trust me, if it were, The Simple Dollar would be quite a bit different). Is it your goal?

Two Years Ago (February 28 – March 6, 2008)
The Stock Market Is Way Down This Year… Here’s Another Way To Think About It I look at stocks being down as an opportunity. The companies themselves haven’t changed a bit, but their cost is lower. That’s called a sale.

“Freegans,” Dumpster Diving, and the Limits of Frugality We all have some personal lines that we won’t cross. Yes, for me, dumpster diving to save money on food is one of them.

Financial Planning for Self-Employment: What’s Different? The biggest challenge with self-employment is that your income is very irregular. You don’t get that steady paycheck week in and week out and you have to plan accordingly.

Learning the Right Lessons from Your Mistakes When you make a mistake, it’s worth your time to step back and think deeply about why you make it. If you don’t, it’s easy to draw the wrong conclusion.

Six Ways to Break Free of the “Purge and Splurge” Cycle This type of cycle happens in anything that requires self-discipline, from spending control to dieting control. Here are some techniques to control it.

Three Years Ago (February 28 – March 6, 2007)
Personal Productivity and Personal Finance: Ten Techniques I Use To Juggle This Blog, My Money, My Work, and My Life I wrote this when I was simultaneously working a full time job, creating The Simple Dollar in my spare time, and juggling other personal needs as well.

An Average Day: Ten Tweaks I Made To My Daily Routine To Start Saving Money These little tweaks can help a lot when it comes to putting yourself in the right mindset at the start of the day.

PaperBackSwap: An Effective Way To Save Money On Books I can’t even tell you how much I’ve used PaperBackSwap over the last few years to save money on my voracious reading habit.

Ben Stein And I Explain Why I Just Bought Stocks Today, Even With Stocks Down 5% In The Last Week Similar to the above post, if you buy stocks when they’re down 5%, you’re essentially buying them when they’re on sale. The company itself hasn’t changed, just the sticker price has.

How Much Money Does Breastfeeding Really Save? It saves quite a bit, really, according to our real-world math.

If you’d like to browse through more of the archives, visit the chronology, where all posts are listed in chronological order.
Nine Ways to Get More out of The Simple Dollar
This is kind of a FAQ for new readers and is posted each week along with the Time Machine. Here are nine great ways for new readers to dig deeper into The Simple Dollar.

1. Subscribe by email or RSS. Visiting The Simple Dollar’s website is great, but for many people, it’s more convenient to receive the articles in another form. It’s easy to join 60,000 other subscribers and get The Simple Dollar’s content by email or in your RSS feeder (if you’re unfamiliar with RSS, check out Google Reader.

2. Comment. Each article on The Simple Dollar has lively discussion. Just click on the green square in the upper right of each article on the website and join in!

3. Read my story of financial meltdown and recovery. The Simple Dollar isn’t based on what I’ve read in books or learned in school. I’ve made a lifetime of financial mistakes – The Simple Dollar is a record of what works for me during the process of getting my life on a better track.

4. Download my free 49 page e-book. Everything You Ever Really Needed to Know About Personal Finance On Just One Page is completely free. It summarizes all of the key lessons I’ve learned along the way about personal finance in one tidy package – in fact, all of the main principles can be found right on the cover.

5. Follow me on Twitter – or other social networks. I post tons of interesting articles, quotes, follow-up material, commentary, and other material on Twitter. Follow me! If you’re unfamiliar with Twitter, it’s essentially an open discussion forum for people to share ideas and thoughts with other like-minded folks – you just choose the people you want to listen to and their ideas and thoughts are all delivered to you on a single page.

I also participate on several other social networks. Feel free to check me out on del.icio.us (it’s where I collect links, from which I select the ones that appear in my weekly roundups), wakoopa (what software I use), GoodReads (what books I’m reading), Facebook, and FriendFeed (which aggregates everything). I also have an irregularly-updated personal site, TrentHamm.com.

6. Dig through “31 Days to Fix Your Finances.” 31 Days to Fix Your Finances is an article series that outlines how you can get a grip on your finances over the course of a month.

7. Send me your questions and suggestions. Send me an email and let me know what you’re thinking, what you’d like to see, and any questions you might have. I try to respond to as many emails as possible and I read them all. I may even use your question in a future article!

8. Become a “Friend of The Simple Dollar.” If you find the stuff on The Simple Dollar valuable and are willing to spend five minutes or so a month to help me out with small things, please consider signing up to be a “Friend of The Simple Dollar”.

9. Email a great article you find to a friend. Find an article that you think your friend would love? At the bottom of each article, you’ll find a link that says “Email this” – just click on that, type in your friend’s address, and send it right along to them!

The Simple Dollar Time Machine: February 27, 2010

Trent — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 14:00:28 +0000

One Year Ago (February 21 – February 27, 2009)
A Walkthrough and Cost Breakdown of Brewing Your Own Beer We do this on a regular basis at our house. It saves us a bit of money, but more importantly, it’s a very low cost hobby that provides many hours of enjoyment.

Some Thoughts on Building a Successful Marriage If you’re married, keeping your marriage strong is a powerful personal and financial prerogative. Here are thoughts on what works from my own marriage.

Should You Use a Credit Card As Your Emergency Fund? It’s easy to simply just say “no” to a question like this, but I walk through the reasons why it’s a bad idea here.

When You Go Too Cheap Sometimes we cut spending too much and find ourselves in an unhappy place. Where do we go from there that doesn’t just undo all financial discipline?

Understanding CD Rates A basic discussion of how certificates of deposit work and what the rates banks offer for them mean.

Two Years Ago (February 21 – February 27, 2008)
I Quit This is perhaps the most personally life-altering thing I’ve ever written on The Simple Dollar. In it, I announce that I’m quitting my nine-to-five job to write full time. It was a truly scary leap.

Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Comparative Advantage, and You Here, I dug into some classic economic theory to make a few interesting points about managing your money today.

The Chorus of Voices for Index Funds I dug into a big pile of personal finance books here to discover that many, many writers (even Jim Cramer) strongly advocate the use of index funds for saving and investing.

The Three Basic Money Groups – And Why So Many People Struggle With Their Personal Finances Everyone spends their money on three basic things. A simple small shift from one thing to another thing can make a profound difference in peace of mind and financial stability.

Investing in Yourself: Socializing and Networking I had a long series of “Investing in Yourself” posts. This was probably my favorite one of the bunch.

Three Years Ago (February 21 – February 27, 2007)
An Introduction To Compound Interest With Spreadsheets, Part 1: Getting Started And Defining Compound Interest Spreadsheets are a fundamental part of personal finance today, and knowing how to use them is key.

An Introduction To Compound Interest With Spreadsheets, Part 2: Monthly Compound Interest, APRs, and APYs So, I wrote a three-part series showing some of the basic personal finance uses for a spreadsheet, how to acquire a spreadsheet for yourself, and a step-by-step guide for doing some of these basic tasks.

An Introduction To Compound Interest With Spreadsheets, Part 3: A Simple Mortgage Calculator The culmination of this series was a simple home mortgage calculator. If you understand how this works, you can do pretty much anything with a spreadsheet.

A Beginner’s Guide To Kitchen Equipment Cooking at home is a tremendous way to save money, but many people don’t know what to have in their kitchens. Here’s a “getting started” guide that I would actually pare down even more if I were writing it today. Seriously, I don’t think you need anything but a skillet and an enameled pot in your kitchen.

Dave Ramsey vs. Suze Orman: Which Plan For Dealing With Debts Is Best? Mathematically, Suze’s is a bit more optimal than Dave’s most of the time. Psychologically, I think Dave’s is a bit better. They both work, though.

If you’d like to browse through more of the archives, visit the chronology, where all posts are listed in chronological order.

2. Comment. Each article on The Simple Dollar has lively discussion. Just click on the green square in the upper right of each article on the website and join in!

6. Dig through “31 Days to Fix Your Finances.” 31 Days to Fix Your Finances is an article series that outlines how you can get a grip on your finances over the course of a month.

The Simple Dollar Time Machine: February 20, 2010

Trent — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 14:00:53 +0000

One Year Ago (February 14 – February 20, 2009)
Using a Gratitude Journal as a Personal Motivator to Save Money and Enjoy Life I’ve been using one of these for quite a while. It really, really helps to step back very regularly and ask yourself what matters in your life.

Struggling with the Guardianship Question Guardianship is an issue that all parents have to struggle with at one time or another. Who do you choose to take care of your children if you suddenly pass on? It’s not an easy question.

Bulk Breakfast Burritos: Convenient, Cheap, Healthy, and Easier Than You Think I love these things! We make batches of them fairly regularly and I thoroughly enjoy them for breakfast in the mornings.

Ten Vital Tactics for Making the “Money Talk” Work The “money talk” is when you sit down with your partner and discuss financial issues for the first time (or for the first time in a long time). It can be painful – but it doesn’t have to be.

About My Wife, Sarah The Simple Dollar wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for her.

Two Years Ago (February 14 – February 20, 2008)
Training Wheels: Why I’m Spending Less and Less Time Managing my Personal Finances Once you have your finances properly in order, it takes much less time than before to keep them working the way you want.

Defeating Superman Syndrome: How to Progress Beyond the “Need” to Be the Financial Hero This was actually a pretty major step in my own financial journey.

Financial Independence: Defining It and Figuring Out How to Get There What does financial independence mean to you? It has very different meanings for different people.

Little Income, Big Debts: Managing Your Money in Your College Years The financial realities of a college student are much different than they are in other stages in life – and thus different concepts are needed to manage money appropriately.

Nine Techniques for Developing Patience Patience is a key part of surviving the long slog of financial recovery. Here are nine ways to cultivate patience in your own life.

Three Years Ago (January 31 – February 6, 2007)
The Art of the Thank You Note A well-timed handwritten thank you note can make all the difference when it comes to securing a job or cementing a personal relationship.

10 Options To Consider Before Getting A Payday Loan Payday loans are financial poison. Here are ten things to try before even considering one.

A Fascinating Look At Edward Bellamy, Inventor Of The Credit Card I really enjoyed researching and writing this article. It let me dig deep into an area I often don’t get to touch on on The Simple Dollar.

15 Things You Can Do Right Now To Help Your Career Yes, right now. You can make a difference sitting at your desk or standing in your workstation.

Is It Unamerican To Invest In International Funds? Does The Question Even Matter Any More? Here, I address nationalism and investing. I tend to think that globalism is here to stay, myself.

If you’d like to browse through more of the archives, visit the chronology, where all posts are listed in chronological order.

2. Comment. Each article on The Simple Dollar has lively discussion. Just click on the green square in the upper right of each article on the website and join in!

6. Dig through “31 Days to Fix Your Finances.” 31 Days to Fix Your Finances is an article series that outlines how you can get a grip on your finances over the course of a month.

The Simple Dollar Time Machine: February 13, 2010

Trent — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 14:00:28 +0000

One Year Ago (January 31 – February 6, 2009)
Accused of Being a Cheapskate I think there’s a huge gap between “cheapskate” and “frugal.” That doesn’t stop some people from crossing their eyes in order to look down their noses at you.

Riding the Line of Overcautiousness One can easily be overcautious with their financial and personal choices. Although some caution is good, too much caution can prevent you from reaching toward your dreams.

Twelve Ways to Use the “Thirty Day Challenge” for Great Personal Finance Benefit I often use “thirty day challenges” to try out new habits and behaviors in my own life.

Making a Monthly Personal Balance Sheet I find using this to keep track of my long-term personal finance progress is incredibly personally inspiring for me.

One Step Isn’t a Journey A long journey is made up of lots of big steps – and lots of little steps, too. Only taken together do these steps take you to where you want to go.

Two Years Ago (January 31 – February 6, 2008)
Six Persistent Money Myths That Seem To Stick Around I hear variations on these six myths almost constantly. They’re all false, but they’re often paraded around as being absolutely true.

Misery is not Miserly: Breaking the Connection Between Spending and Sadness We are trained over and over again to believe that spending money will bring us happiness. It rarely brings anything that lasts.

The Fine Art of Abandoning Goals Sometimes, goals aren’t meant to be completed. Our lives and our priorities change. How can we figure out whether it’s right to step back from a goal?

What You Spend, What You Eat: The Deep Connection Between Food and Personal Finance Food is a major part of our budget and our choices in what we eat often spread to other areas of spending as well (medical care, hygiene, etc.).

Nine Simple Ways to Stand Out in Your Career These work in almost any career you’re undertaking. If you want promotions and raises, these ideas work.

Three Years Ago (January 31 – February 6, 2007)
The Three Rs Meet Your Stomach And Your Wallet: How To Save Significant Cash And Waste Less On Simple Homemade Meals Reduce, reuse, recycle. They work for your meals.

10 Lessons The Simple Dollar (And Its Readers) Has Taught Me This really sums up the lessons I learned during the first several months of The Simple Dollar. I am constantly learning from the readers and from the research I do to answer the readers’ questions.

Buying Things Lets Me Forget Who I Am For A While It’s incredibly painful for me to hear a person whose personal worth is hung on the material things they own. That’s just a ticket for a lifetime of financial problems.

$1 Kitchen Secrets: Ten Herbs And Spices That Will Make Simple Foods Pop I keep these ten things on hand at all times in my kitchen. They make an enormous difference in turning a bland meal into a wonderful one.

8 Ways To Replace Common Consumer Products On The Cheap I love the creativity of some of these solutions. You really can get by with very little in this day and age.

If you’d like to browse through more of the archives, visit the chronology, where all posts are listed in chronological order.

2. Comment. Each article on The Simple Dollar has lively discussion. Just click on the green square in the upper right of each article on the website and join in!

6. Dig through “31 Days to Fix Your Finances.” 31 Days to Fix Your Finances is an article series that outlines how you can get a grip on your finances over the course of a month.

The Simple Dollar Time Machine: February 6, 2010

Trent — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 20:00:30 +0000

One Year Ago (January 31 – February 6, 2009)
It Can’t Love You Back People and relationships are always more valuable than things.

Life Advice to a Graduating College Student This is the type of stuff I wish I had put on my lap when I was about to graduate from college. I was sorely lacking in the “real life” mentors.

The Bills Your Parents Didn’t Have I actually think this is one of the biggest reasons young people struggle financially today. They simply have a big stack of bills that their parents didn’t have at the same stage in life. Our parents didn’t have cell phones. Our parents didn’t have a ‘net bill, either. Our parents didn’t have outsized housing costs, either. That all makes a huge difference.

My Own Private Frugality Not only a nod to one of my favorite movies, but a peek at the truth of frugality: it works a little different for everyone.

The End Is the Beginning How do you keep personal finance fresh after striving for success for so long?

Two Years Ago (January 31 – February 6, 2008)
Online Personal Finance Analysis Tools: Some Thoughts on Quicken Online, Mint, and Wesabe I still stick with my basic conclusion: these tools are great, but the potential danger in aggregating so much data about ourselves in an online environment is worrisome to me.

Little Steps: 100 Great Tips For Saving Money For Those Just Getting Started If you just want a big ol’ bunch of money saving tips, this is the post for you.

Monday Morning: Setting Goals for the Week Ahead This is more or less how I start off most weeks. I find, time and time again, that it gets me in the right mindset for the week.

Nine Tactics for a Frugal Valentine’s Day These are the tactics I use each year when planning Valentine’s Day with my wife. Remember what the purpose of the day is and you can’t fail.

You Can Do This It’s very difficult to start over and adopt new habits. But if others can do this, you can do this.

Three Years Ago (January 31 – February 6, 2007)
Don’t Know How To Cook, But Want To Learn? Here Are The Only Two Books You’ll Ever Need The best books bridge the gap between recipes and how to cook, teaching you the techniques while you’re making interesting and enjoyable dishes.

Child Is Father To The Man: When Financially Stable Children Want To Help Their Parents Prepare For The Future My tactic is to just talk to my parents about it and let them know that I’m in their corner. I think it helps that I really have no interest at all in “my piece” of any estate they might have. I just want them to enjoy their later years without worry.

Ten Tips For A Cheap And Memorable Super Bowl Party Our Super Bowl party involves people coming over to our house, hanging out, playing board games with the football on in the background, and just having a laugh with friends.

Three Money Lessons My Grandfather Taught Me He passed away twenty five years ago and I still miss him.

How Common Cognitive Biases Affect Personal Finance The methods we use to deal with everyday life almost always fail us when it comes to real life.

If you’d like to browse through more of the archives, visit the chronology, where all posts are listed in chronological order.

2. Comment. Each article on The Simple Dollar has lively discussion. Just click on the green square in the upper right of each article on the website and join in!

6. Dig through “31 Days to Fix Your Finances.” 31 Days to Fix Your Finances is an article series that outlines how you can get a grip on your finances over the course of a month.

The Simple Dollar Time Machine: January 30, 2010

Trent — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 20:00:32 +0000

One Year Ago (January 24 – January 30, 2009)
The Frugal Magic of the “Five Ingredient Crock Pot Meal” Add five ingredients to a crock pot before you leave for work. Turn it on low. Come home, turn it off, and serve a delicious home-cooked meal. Sounds like a plan to me.

Treasures in the Cupboard: Eight Tactics We Use to Maximize the Value of Our Pantry Our pantry remains overstuffed, but we actually go through the items on a pretty regular basis. It’s my baking hobby that results in us having nine different kinds of flour, after all.

The Iceland Scenario: What Can You Do? In 2008, Iceland was the sixth wealthiest nation on earth. They then suffered an economic meltdown of disastrous proportions, affecting everyone in the country. What would you do if it happened here?

Finding Your Way Home I find myself more and more doing things the way my parents did when I was growing up.

Making the Hard Choice Do you choose the path that leads to mediocrity – the easy path – or the path that leads to success? It’s an interesting way to look at pretty much every decision in your life.

Two Years Ago (January 24 – January 30, 2008)
How to Find One’s Credit Report and Credit Score Inexpensively and Safely Hint: don’t use freecreditreport.com.

Emotional Fulfillment and Financial Success It’s very difficult to find lasting financial success if you’re unhappy with your life and the direction it’s going in.

Wallet Hacking: Six Tactics for Modifying Your Wallet to Minimize Your Spending and Maximize Your Time The wallet is often the centerpiece of bad spending habits. Here’s how to physically modify your wallet to help break those habits.

Twelve Invaluable Life and Money Hacks: Little Daily Steps for Finding the Money and Time to Get Things Done It’s little steps like these that help you find the time and space for the things that you want to do instead of being overloaded all of the time.

Robert Kiyosaki and Learning From Another Perspective I’m not a fan of Robert Kiyosaki, but I still have gained value from reading his books. Here’s why (and how).

Three Years Ago (January 24 – January 30, 2007)
The Life Map: Connecting Your Daily Activities And Spending To Your Lifelong Goals And Dreams I just tried this activity again and found it really insightful in terms of figuring out where I want to go and what it’ll take to get there.

Reader Question: College Student Crushed By Credit Cards Many college students find themselves buried in credit card debt. Here’s some advice on digging out.

Setting Daily Metrics For Personal Finance Success (And Success In Other Areas, Too!) I find that this works very well for keeping me on task. I literally have a daily checklist that, if I’m not through it, I keep working on in well into the evening, and I don’t let myself do other things until those things are done.

Ten Signs Of Questionable Financial Writing Whenever I see these elements in a financial story, my warning bells go off.

Five Sources For Great, Inexpensive (Often Free) Entertainment In Your Neighborhood Your community is loaded with entertainment options – they’re just not as heavily advertised as the latest showing of Avatar. Here’s how to find some of those options.

If you’d like to browse through more of the archives, visit the chronology, where all posts are listed in chronological order.

2. Comment. Each article on The Simple Dollar has lively discussion. Just click on the green square in the upper right of each article on the website and join in!

6. Dig through “31 Days to Fix Your Finances.” 31 Days to Fix Your Finances is an article series that outlines how you can get a grip on your finances over the course of a month.

The Simple Dollar Time Machine: January 23, 2010

Trent — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 14:00:08 +0000

One Year Ago (January 17 – January 23, 2009)
Financial Success and Sacrifice We only have so much time and energy. Each choice we make that helps us take a step forward in one area is often met with a step backward in another. What are we willing to step backward in?

How I Look at Economic News: Beyond the Talking Heads Most of the people parroting “news” on television are just feeding us storylines to amplify our emotions – making us more open to buying products. Here’s how to get past that and dig into the real information.

A Reader Asks About His Checking Account and Bernie Madoff Is a basic checking account at risk due to unscrupulous bankers? Not if you have FDIC insurance. I answer some basic questions about this here.

Personal Finance 101: How Much Money Is That Investment Really Earning Each Year? Once you break down the costs, investments really don’t earn nearly as much as we like to think they do.

Frugality, Freedom, Hard Work, and the Best Life Has to Offer We all want the best out of life. What exactly does “best” mean, though? We all have different definitions. This post explores that a little bit.

Two Years Ago (January 17 – January 23, 2008)
The Ballad of the Rusty Bumper The bumper on my truck has still not been replaced. It’s got more rust spots than before, but still looks largely good.

Preparing Your Own Skillet Meals In Advance Skillet meals are a popular convenience food, but you can make your own and store them in a Ziploc. They’re quite a bit cheaper – and quite a bit healthier, too, and often tastier.

Personal Finance and the Fundamental Choice What do you really value in life? Personal finance is almost always a choice between different values we all have. The question is whether or not we can dig deep enough to make the right choice.

The Value of Customer Service How much is good customer service really worth? Here, I try to break it down into dollars and cents – with some interesting conclusions.

Video Games and Frugality Can video games be a frugal hobby? Indeed, they can be – but a big part of it is separating your enjoyment of video games from the pervasive “cult of the new.”

Three Years Ago (January 17 – January 23, 2007)
Six Ways To Follow Up That Big Financial Talk With Your Spouse You finally sat down and had “the big money talk” with your spouse. Don’t let things end on that note – do something to build upon the positives of the evening and leave the negatives behind.

Deconstructing Dave Ramsey This article still pretty much sums up my thoughts and feelings towards Dave. In a nutshell, he’s high on my list of mainstream media financial gurus. I agree with his message 90% of the time.

Photo Diary #1: A Trip To The Grocery Store The pictures of my son at about sixteen months just make me smile whenever I see them. He still unabashedly loves his goldfish, too. For the most part, though, this is a good walkthrough on how to compare prices and sizes.

Personal Finance Workbooks: Worthwhile Or Not? I think they’re worthwhile if you need walked through the steps. Usually, though, they don’t have enough ideas in them to really satisfy me.

Personal Finance 101: Charge Cards and Credit Cards Quite often, the two terms are used interchangeably, but they’re actually two very distinct things. This article explains the difference between the two in clear detail.

If you’d like to browse through more of the archives, visit the chronology, where all posts are listed in chronological order.

2. Comment. Each article on The Simple Dollar has lively discussion. Just click on the green square in the upper right of each article on the website and join in!

6. Dig through “31 Days to Fix Your Finances.” 31 Days to Fix Your Finances is an article series that outlines how you can get a grip on your finances over the course of a month.

The Simple Dollar Time Machine: January 16, 2010

Trent — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 20:00:58 +0000

One Year Ago (January 10 – January 16, 2009)
Children, Christmas, and the Materialism Battle I had mixed feelings about a video showing fifty children go CRAZY on Christmas morning after receiving a Wii – so I wrote about it.

The Selling of Gold I found the strong-arm selling of gold during the height of the financial crisis (and the selling is still going on) to be rather questionable at best. Here’s why.

Advantages We all have various advantages and disadvantages in life – there is no equality unless we’re all the same person. The person who succeeds is the person who doesn’t use those advantages and disadvantages as an excuse to not do anything and complain.

Review: Scratch Beginning An excellent book, and a review that started a great discussion.

The Secrets to Entrepreneurship? Or More? Many of the “secrets” for succeeding in entrepreneurship are the same as the “secrets” for succeeding in life.

Two Years Ago (January 10 – January 16, 2008)
The Basics: Eight Tactics To Use When You’re Just Starting To Turn Things Around I speak from experience – big time – with this article. Those first few months after making the commitment to change can be very exciting – and very difficult.

Airport Frugality in the Era of New Security Regulations After watching an airport security person dump out my bottled water, I realized that most of the usual frugal tactics don’t work when entering an airport. So I adapted my choices a bit.

My Favorite Bargain: The Free Newspaper I read CityView and Juice (the two free Des Moines papers) almost every week. They’re both worthwhile and CityView in particular has some very good articles. See what your city has.

Changing Values, Changing Priorities We all change and grow. Almost every time, we’re far better off embracing those changes than fighting them.

Maximizing the Free (or Nearly Free) Things That Make You Feel Good A walk in the woods. An afternoon spent playing with the kids. Cleaning the kitchen with the radio on. They make me feel good – and they’re free (or close enough to it).

Three Years Ago (January 10 – January 16, 2007)
Why Income Inequality Matters: Motivation Instead of being upset or depressed that you’re not earning as much as someone else, use it as a motivator. People all over the world use the financial success of the United States as a motivator, for example.

Afraid To Talk About Money With Your Spouse? Ten Tips For “The Talk” It’s often hard to break down the wall and have that first serious conversation with your spouse about money, especially when there are financial problems. Here are some tactics for making it work.

When Your Income From Investments Covers Your Living Expenses: The “Crossover Point” This is pretty much my ten year personal finance goal (well… ten years, with a lot of hope). I dream of the day when our living expenses are covered by savings and investments.

The Treasury Note Retirement Plan I know of at least two separate people who have done this, and it’s worked very well for them.

How To Quit Your Job In One Year: A Step By Step Guide I came amazingly close to following this plan myself, as I quit my job about thirteen months after writing this post.

If you’d like to browse through more of the archives, visit the chronology, where all posts are listed in chronological order.

Nine Ways to Get More out of The Simple Dollar
This is kind of a FAQ for new readers and is posted each week along with the Time Machine. Here are nine great ways for new readers to dig deeper into The Simple Dollar.
1. Subscribe by email or RSS. Visiting The Simple Dollar’s website is great, but for many people, it’s more convenient to receive the articles in another form. It’s easy to join 60,000 other subscribers and get The Simple Dollar’s content by email or in your RSS feeder (if you’re unfamiliar with RSS, check out Google Reader.

2. Comment. Each article on The Simple Dollar has lively discussion. Just click on the green square in the upper right of each article on the website and join in!

6. Dig through “31 Days to Fix Your Finances.” 31 Days to Fix Your Finances is an article series that outlines how you can get a grip on your finances over the course of a month.

The Simple Dollar Time Machine: January 9, 2010

Trent — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 20:00:19 +0000

One Year Ago (January 3 – January 9, 2009)
Seven Huge Financial Mistakes I Made During My College Career This was basically a letter to several members of my family who were about to enter college.

Frugality and Binge Buying The real key is honesty with yourself. Admitting that you made a mistake and striving to figure out why you made it – and how to fix it – is how to turn a failure into a success.

A Mother’s Gifts Here are some reflections on the lessons that my mother taught me as I was growing up (and as an adult, too).

Debt Reduction and Debt Elimination Programs: What’s the Catch? Often, they’re just selling you information that you can already get for free on sites like The Simple Dollar.

When Your Financial State Improves, Do Your Frugal Standards Change? All of life’s choices aren’t based on maximizing the bottom dollar. There are a lot of factors in our lives that help us to make the choices we do.

Two Years Ago (January 3 – January 9, 2008)
When Is Frugality Stealing? This was one of my favorite discussions ever on The Simple Dollar.

How Much Frugality Is Too Much Frugality? When does being frugal cross the line into being cheap? For me, it’s in interactions with other people. I don’t mind drinking tap water as my primary beverage, but I would consider it rude (and cheapskate-ish) to offer nothing but tap water to guests in my home.

The Value of Cultural Literacy Being culturally literate has a lot of cash value. It makes conversation substantially easier, and conversation leads to the building of relationships which can in turn help you out substantially when it comes to doing home repairs, finding a job, and countless other things.

Practicing What You Preach: Should A Personal Financial Writer Be Expected To Follow Their Own Message? I think that’s a tricky question, and it was echoed for me later on when I discussed my purchase of a Prius for many of the reasons mentioned in this article.

What Color Is Your Parachute? The Flower Diagram I consider this to be an invaluable job evaluation tool. In fact, I wound up using it myself as part of my decision-making process to leave my former career and jump into writing.

Three Years Ago (January 3 – January 9, 2007)
Should You Overpay On Your Home Loan? The Simple Dollar Cracks The Numbers The best way to look at a home mortgage overpayment is to view it as a very stable investment that returns a little bit less than your mortgage interest annually (due to tax benefits for having a mortgage), is pretty illiquid, and matures when your mortgage is paid off. If that looks like a strong investment to you, then by all means, pay ahead on your home mortgage.

Making Sense of Treasury Securities: Treasury Bills, Notes, and Bonds This is an early example of a “personal finance 101″ type of article, in which I dig into the truth behind these various types of investments offered by the United States Treasury.

FreeCreditReport.com Is Ripping You Off I’m amazed that these guys are still in business. It’s shocking what a few catchy jingles can get you these days.

Your Friend Or Family Member Asks You For A Loan: What Do You Do? If you value the relationship at all, don’t loan them money. Find some other way to help them that doesn’t require repayment, because no one likes their lender.

Review: Smart Couples Finish Rich This is one of David Bach’s best books and an excellent book for any couple to read, especially ones nearing marriage or recently married. The advice really centers around one key thing that couples need to nail for money success: talking about money openly and rationally.

If you’d like to browse through more of the archives, visit the chronology, where all posts are listed in chronological order.

Nine Ways to Get More out of The Simple Dollar

This is kind of a FAQ for new readers and is posted each week along with the Time Machine. Here are nine great ways for new readers to dig deeper into The Simple Dollar.

2. Comment. Each article on The Simple Dollar has lively discussion. Just click on the green square in the upper right of each article on the website and join in!

6. Dig through “31 Days to Fix Your Finances.” 31 Days to Fix Your Finances is an article series that outlines how you can get a grip on your finances over the course of a month.

The Simple Dollar Time Machine: January 2, 2010

Trent — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 20:00:51 +0000

One Year Ago (December 27, 2008 – January 2, 2009)
New Year’s Resolution Workshop #2: Spend Less Money I really enjoyed the New Year’s Resolution Workshop series from last year. This was one of the best entries, in my opinion.

How We’re Frugally Celebrating the New Year We actually did something very similar this year, too.

Navigating the Hazards of Impulse Purchasing Impulse buys are almost always shots in the dark, but there are a few ways to improve your odds when it comes to impulse buys.

New Year’s Resolution Workshop #4: Protect My Family’s Future Another solid entry in the resolution series, this one did a great job (I thought) of talking about how you can make your family more secure.

New Year’s Resolution Workshop #3: Save for a Down Payment If this is the year to get a big start on a down payment, this is the article for you to read.

Two Years Ago (December 27, 2007 – January 2, 2008)
Six Invaluable Online Resources For Personal Finance Education Want to learn more about personal finance? These six resources will teach you more than you ever thought possible.

How to Define and Stick To a Successful New Year’s Resolution, Financial or Otherwise I often define resolutions for myself. Lately, I’ve become more and more successful at them.

Talking Myself Out Of Frivolous Purchases This is perhaps my biggest challenge when it comes to money management and it’s something I come back to time and time again.

Dealing With A Bad Day Without Spending Money It can be very easy to deal with a bad day by buying some stuff. Here are some ways to avoid that trap.

Life and Discipline: Using the Five Personal Finance Business Cards for Other Aspects of Life I really liked this follow-up to my original “five business cards” post, but I don’t think it was as big of a hit to the readers.

Three Years Ago (December 27, 2006 – January 2, 2007)
Review: Rule #1 This is a surprisingly good book on investing using the principles of value investing. Town does a great job of breaking down the details into readable and sensible chunks.

Give Your Future Self An Amazing Christmas Present Next Year – An Extra Mortgage Payment An extra mortgage payment means that your house will get paid off quite a bit faster than before, pushing you ever closer to debt freedom. Here’s how to make it work.

What Can I Do Today To Make Me Rich In The Future? Every day you carefully consider this question – and take real action on it – is a day you move toward financial success.

Finances 101: Are Stocks Really That Great Of An Investment? In the short term – anything less than ten years or so – the stock market is basically gambling. Over longer timeframes, though, stocks can provide a great return on your money.

How To Calculate Your Net Worth You can use something as simple as a piece of paper or as complex as a full-featured spreadsheet. Either way, calculating your net worth is a valuable personal finance exercise.

If you’d like to browse through more of the archives, visit the chronology, where all posts are listed in chronological order.

2. Comment. Each article on The Simple Dollar has lively discussion. Just click on the green square in the upper right of each article on the website and join in!

6. Dig through “31 Days to Fix Your Finances.” 31 Days to Fix Your Finances is an article series that outlines how you can get a grip on your finances over the course of a month.

The Simple Dollar Time Machine: December 26, 2009

Trent — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 20:00:38 +0000

One Year Ago (December 20-26, 2008)
Nine Creative Ways to Utilize Leftovers from Common Meals Turning leftovers into a great new meal is a great way to save quite a bit of money on your food bill. Here are nine ways to do just that.

On Giving Up the Dream This article goes out to all of you who are thinking about giving up on their dreams. Don’t do it – always find ways to let the sunshine in.

Some Thoughts on Anniversaries and Their Requisite Gifts The best thing you can always do in such situations is simply to know your spouse. What do they want? What do they value?

The Limits of Frugality: What’s Next When You Can’t Cut Any More? At some point, you have to look at adding income. Here are some ways to move in that direction.

New Year’s Resolution Workshop #1: Get Started with Retirement I really enjoyed the “New Year’s Resolution Workshop” series last year – in fact, I would have done five more if I had five strong ideas. Here’s the first entry in it from last year.

Two Years Ago (December 20-26, 2007)
Heroes, Role Models, and Mentors: Finding People to Believe In Every single one of us is helped by having someone to talk to and to guide us through difficult patches in life. Here are some ways to find those people.

The Day After: Six Ways to Deal With the Post-Christmas Money Blues – And Plan Ahead for Next Year A friend of mine once said that December 26 is the saddest day of the year because the fun is over and the bills start arriving. Here are some ways to avoid that sadness.

Eight Frugal Ways to Prepare for Winter Driving If you have to drive in an icy or snowy climate, doing these things will save you money and energy – and might even save your life.

Review: The Wisdom of Crowds This was a very fascinating book in a lot of ways. As humans, we often tend to do what others do and, over the long scope, there’s often good reasons for that.

Is An All-Cash Lifestyle Useful For Kicking The Debt Habit? It can be, but it has to be approached with the right mindset. If you’re not committed to changing your ways, nothing will really work.

Three Years Ago (December 20-26, 2006)
When Is Frugal Living Taken Too Far? When “frugality” disrupts your ability to actually live a healthy, normal life, there’s a problem. That kind of “frugality” crosses out of frugality, across cheapness, and into serious social problems.

Extra Mortgage Payments Versus Investments: Which Is The Right Move? The advantage of extra mortgage payments (my preferred choice) is that they’re stable. You’re going to get a nice steady return on your invested money.

Yahoo! Finance Disappoints: Powerball Jackpot Climbs To $75 Million? Yahoo! Finance featured an article about a lottery jackpot. I call them to task for this, as lotteries are a sure way to lose money.

I Think I Figured Out Why People Love Dave Ramsey He takes the speaking techniques of a televangelist (”You’ve been saved!”) and applies them to the secular realm of personal finance. And it works.

Christmas Morning Reflections Some thoughts I had on the first Christmas morning in which my son was aware that he was receiving gifts.

If you’d like to browse through more of the archives, visit the chronology, where all posts are listed in chronological order.

2. Comment. Each article on The Simple Dollar has lively discussion. Just click on the green square in the upper right of each article on the website and join in!

6. Dig through “31 Days to Fix Your Finances.” 31 Days to Fix Your Finances is an article series that outlines how you can get a grip on your finances over the course of a month.

The Simple Dollar Time Machine: December 19, 2009

Trent — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 20:00:21 +0000

One Year Ago (December 13-19, 2008)
The Two-Career Assumption Here are some deep reflections on the fact that it’s often assumed that both partners in a couple must have a career. In a nutshell, I think it’s completely nonsensical.

Synergizing Hobbies and Career for Greater Personal Success The best hobby is one that teaches you skills that you can use in a professional context. Finding one can be tricky, though.

Planning Ahead for Next Year’s Garden December and January are often the months where most of our garden planning for the coming year occurs. Here are some tactics to use for planning future gardens.

My Take on Christian Themes in Personal Finance Books I don’t mind them, but I think personal finance books are stronger if they don’t use scripture as the evidence for the ideas being presented.

Are You Insuring the Irreplaceable? Don’t spend your money insuring items that you would never replace if your house burnt down. If you’re paying good money to insure things you would never replace… the question is why.

Two Years Ago (December 13-19, 2007)
Maximizing That Hourly Rate: Figuring Out How to Best Utilize My Working Time Jobs work best when they provide you with a lot of income for your time invested. Here, I use three examples from my own life to show how to maximize this rate.

Frugality and Socializing: Finding Potential Friends Who Are Not Consumerism-Oriented Luckily, most of the friends I have now are not consumer-oriented at all. They’re mostly people who enjoy things like getting together for “game nights” or just hanging out.

Christmas, Money, Family, and Love The most valuable Christmas gift of all isn’t a material item that can be bought at the store. It’s something else entirely.

A Talk with My Niece How do you introduce good money ideas to teenagers? It isn’t easy. Here’s how I tackled one attempt at it.

A Frugal Man’s Christmas Wish List (With Ideas for Frugal Ladies, Too!) Here’s a nice list of Christmas gift ideas that appeal to the more practical side of me.

Three Years Ago (December 13-19, 2006)
Review: Your Money or Your Life This is a detailed review of the book that inspired me more than any other to turn my financial life around.

Rewriting Money’s 25 Rules: A Summary Money Magazine had a list of twenty five money rules, several of which I disagreed with. So I rewrote the whole list in a series of articles – this is the summary of the series.

What Exactly Is A Certified Financial Planner, And Why Should I Care? Does the phrase “certified financial planner” really mean anything of value to the average person? Yes — and no. Click through and see what I mean.

25 Gadgets That Actually Save Money Most of these truly do save money – a couple were thrown in to stir up some conversation about whether they really save money or not.

The Talk: Tips For Difficult Financial Discussions Most of these tips hold true for almost any financial discussion you’ll have with the people you care about.

If you’d like to browse through more of the archives, visit the chronology, where all posts are listed in chronological order.

2. Comment. Each article on The Simple Dollar has lively discussion. Just click on the green square in the upper right of each article on the website and join in!

6. Dig through “31 Days to Fix Your Finances.” 31 Days to Fix Your Finances is an article series that outlines how you can get a grip on your finances over the course of a month.

The Simple Dollar Time Machine: December 12, 2009

Trent — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 20:00:37 +0000

One Year Ago (December 6-12, 2008)
Fifteen Tactics for Maximizing Your Investment in Reading for Personal Growth I’m a firm believer that a steady diet of reading is one of the best ways to make yourself into a intellectually well-rounded individual, which is of more and more importance in the information age.

The Best Moment of Your Day What was the best moment of your day? I’m willing to bet that it had little to do with spending money. Keep that in mind as you move through life – your best moments are rarely defined by stuff.

Review: Outliers Malcolm Gladwell’s book is a great analysis of what makes people truly great. The secret? Lots of hard work. Talent doesn’t really compare to obsessive practice.

Eighteen Tips for a Frugal (Not Cheap) Wedding A spectacular wedding doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. Even back in our “big spending” days, we used many of these ideas at our own wedding.

The Expensive Ups and Downs of Christmas Christmas can be an incredibly expensive time of the year for all of us. Here are some things to keep in mind if it feels like the season is eating you alive.

Two Years Ago (December 6-12, 2007)
The “It” Toy from the Perspective of a Parent Some thoughts on parents chasing down whatever the “must-have” toy is during the Christmas season. I largely consider it to be a fool’s errand.

Facing A Difficult Personal Finance Decision (Or Other Major Decision)? Try These Seven Techniques I use most of these techniques whenever I’m trying to make a difficult decision in my own life. It usually helps me get to the place I need to be.

Seven Unexpected Things I Read For Personal Finance Inspiration and Motivation I often find ideas and inspiration in the least expected of places. Everything you take in has the chance to trigger something worthwhile.

I Have A Wallet Full Of Credit Cards – Which Ones Should I Keep? If you’re having debt troubles, none of them. If you’re doing well but want to trim down your identity theft risk, then follow this advice.

Does Peer Pressure Keep Us From Succeeding? I’m a big believer that you’re roughly as successful as the average of your five closest friends. Thus, if you want to move up, you may need to find new friends and peers.

Three Years Ago (December 6-12, 2006)
Review: The Total Money Makeover A great one-shot review of Dave Ramsey’s seminal book on debt reduction and management.

The First Christmas Present You Should Buy If the stress of the Christmas season makes you a bear to be around, this is absolutely the first Christmas present that should be on your list.

Battling The Convenience and Costs of Fast Food Fast food is undeniably convenient – that’s the one big thing it has going in its favor. Thankfully, there are a lot of things we can do in advance to make healthier and tastier and cheaper things just as convenient.

Ten Ways To Save Money On Your Evening Commute As with any such list, these are each worth trying on their own to see which ones work best for you. I wound up incorporating several when I commuted each day.

Cashing In Savings Bonds Early: Is It Worthwhile? Generally, it isn’t. But here’s why it isn’t.

If you’d like to browse through more of the archives, visit the chronology, where all posts are listed in chronological order.

2. Comment. Each article on The Simple Dollar has lively discussion. Just click on the green square in the upper right of each article on the website and join in!

6. Dig through “31 Days to Fix Your Finances.” 31 Days to Fix Your Finances is an article series that outlines how you can get a grip on your finances over the course of a month.

The Simple Dollar Time Machine: December 5, 2009

Trent — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 20:00:51 +0000

One Year Ago (November 29 – December 5, 2008)
Internal and External Signals We are surrounded by all kinds of signals about what to buy and what not to buy. Money success often comes from being aware of those signals and in control of them.

The Balance of Happiness and Saving for the Future Life is a balance, and it’s often hard to figure out exactly how to get it in balance. I think there’s one key thing to look for…

Review: The Reader’s Digest Penny Pincher’s Almanac If you’re looking for a giant collection of money-saving tips, this book will really hit the spot.

Cutting Down on the “Hidden” Costs of After-School Activities Most after school activities do have lots of little “hidden” costs – transportation, meals, and so on. Here are some tactics for trimming those costs.

The Backup Checking Account My wife and I have a backup checking account that we use in our local community. It works very well for our needs.

Two Years Ago (November 29 – December 5, 2007)
Everything You Ever Really Needed to Know About Personal Finance on the Back of Five Business Cards This is one of my best posts, ever. I remember putting this one together like it was yesterday…

Simple Frugality By The Hourly Rate I often like to use the hourly rate of saving money as a rule of thumb as to whether or not a particular task is worthwhile. Some of the things you expect to be good savers are actually bad – and vice versa.

Chasing the “It” Toy At Christmastime This year, it appears to be an electronic hamster. No matter the year, chasing the “it” toy is a frustrating and costly endeavor.

Twelve Great Gifts Under $10 I’d Love To See Under My Tree Some of these still hold true. In fact, I should refresh this list for 2009, because I’ve found lots of other little things to add.

An Inheritance of Collectibles I’m likely to inherit a couple of different collections from older relatives when they pass on in the future, so this is something I’ve thought about.

Three Years Ago (November 29 – December 5, 2006)
Building a Better Blog This is the index of a thirty-one (!) part series about what it takes to create a successful blog. This was basically the culmination of every lesson I’d learned about blogging and it’s these very ideas I used to build The Simple Dollar.

Weighing the Positives and Negatives of ING Electric Orange Checking This is something of a proto bank review, but not nearly as detailed as I want to make it. Still, not long after writing this review, we adopted Electric Orange as our primary checking.

Cash That Just Gathers Dust: A Technique For Paring Down Your Media Collection I remember quite vividly doing this very thing with our DVD and CD collection. At first, I purged them of the obvious stuff I’d never watch again, but after that, I used this technique to do a surprisingly large second purge.

Review: Make Your Kid A Millionaire This was my pick for the best book about parenting and money. It was only recently superceded by the excellent Raising Financially Fit Kids, but both books are well worth reading.

Money as a Social Barrier Quite often, people associate with others from a similar socioeconomic class. I’ve found that every time I’ve tried to make friends outside of that class, it’s been incredibly fulfilling.

If you’d like to browse through more of the archives, visit the chronology, where all posts are listed in chronological order.

2. Comment. Each article on The Simple Dollar has lively discussion. Just click on the green square in the upper right of each article on the website and join in!

6. Dig through “31 Days to Fix Your Finances.” 31 Days to Fix Your Finances is an article series that outlines how you can get a grip on your finances over the course of a month.

The Simple Dollar Time Machine: November 28, 2009

Trent — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 20:00:40 +0000

One Year Ago (November 22-28, 2008)
When a Treat Stops Being a Treat – and How to Get It Back For me, a lot of treats stopped being treats during the later part of my years of overspending. Things that were really great just became routine and boring.

Clutter Is Money Wherever you see clutter, you see money lost, because clutter is the result of having more items than you can practically manage or use.

Ten Fundamental Steps for Online Career Networking Careers are now being built on the internet. Here’s how to harness the tools for yourself.

Is Debt Necessary For Generating Income? Many people – Robert Kiyosaki included – seem to argue that it is. I disagree, and here’s why.

Is It Time to Drop Your Land Line? For me, Skype is more than good enoughh for home telephony.

Two Years Ago (November 22-28, 2007)
Should You Help People Who Won’t Help Themselves? I don’t think that you should. I’m quite willing to offer all the help in the world to people who show initiative to help themselves, but if you’re not willing to bother, neither am I.

How Checklists Help Me With My Personal Finance – And How I Trick Myself Into Making Them Work I use checklists on a daily basis to help me keep track of the things I need to know and the things I need to do.

You Can Become A Millionaire In Just Five Minutes A Day! Here’s exactly how to do it – genuinely use the “ten second rule” thirty times a day. Soon, you’ll be on the fast track to riches!

Twelve Important Things To Talk About When Your Relationship Gets Serious Conversations like this are vital in a relationship. Without it, you’re setting yourself up for strong disagreements when you discover you have different assumptions and goals and are working in opposite directions.

The Tug of War Between Frugality, Hobbies, and an Emergency Fund It’s often amazing how out of whack things can get when we don’t spend the time to figure out what our priorities in life really are. The games people play…

Three Years Ago (November 22-28, 2006)
Money For Nothing: Five Ways To Put Money In Your Pocket With Zero Effort I love methods for saving money that involve little or no upkeep work but constantly provide savings to you.

What Can A Dollar A Day Get You? And An Inspirational Idea This is a brilliant look at the power of compound interest. Plus, I like the idea of spelling it out for someone in this way inside of a birthday card.

Review: Nickel and Dimed My review of this book ticked off some people. I wasn’t particularly seeking personal finance advice when reading it, though. I think it exposes a lot of class biases in America which do directly impact the financial futures of many of us.

PayPerPost, Paris Hilton, and Violating the Trust Between You and Me The Paris Hilton reference somewhat dates this post, but the idea behind it is still 100% true.

Explaining Simple Interest, Compound Interest, APR, and APY This is a succinct overview of different types of interest, which I see confused all the time in even respected personal finance publications.

If you’d like to browse through more of the archives, visit the chronology, where all posts are listed in chronological order.

2. Comment. Each article on The Simple Dollar has lively discussion. Just click on the green square in the upper right of each article on the website and join in!

6. Dig through “31 Days to Fix Your Finances.” 31 Days to Fix Your Finances is an article series that outlines how you can get a grip on your finances over the course of a month.

The Simple Dollar Time Machine: November 21, 2009

Trent — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:00:13 +0000

One Year Ago (November 15-21, 2008)
Investing in Skills (or Fear of an Apocalyptic Economy) My basic argument here is simple. If you’re afraid of investing in anything out of fear of economic collapse, invest in yourself. Build some skills. Skills will always have value, no matter what the currency du jour is.

Christmas Inspiration from a Stick and a Cardboard Box This post reminded me of many of the great Christmases I had when I was a young lad. I would have more fun with the boxes than anything. I remember actually building an igloo out of one.

The Time of Your Life What was “the time of your life”? Why do you value it so much? There might be a useful lesson there.

Tap My 401(k) or Borrow From Family? This is pretty much one of those no-win situations. I had to dig deep to find a solution here.

On Hosting a Dinner Party Dinner parties are a great way to socialize. Here are some of my own tips on hosting a great one.

Two Years Ago (November 15-21, 2007)
The Personal Finance of Fear – And Why I Reject It I hate books that scream FINANCIAL ARMAGEDDON and encourage you to avoid DOOMSDAY. They peddle fear, nothing more, nothing less.

Seven Things You Can Do Right Now (Without Any Capital) To Get Started On Chasing Your Dreams Often, more than anything, it’s getting your head and your heart in the right place.

How Much Money Does Turning Off the Lights Really Save? More than I thought, by quite a bit. Turning off your lights really is worthwhile.

Dealing With Shame About Your Personal Finances (And Anything Else) Quite often, people are ashamed about some aspect of themselves or their lives. Never let shame drive what you do.

The Expenses of a Soda Pop Addiction – And How to Defeat It For me, soda is kind of like public enemy number one, at least when consumed multiple times a day. It’s expensive and it leads directly to frightening health concerns.

Three Years Ago (November 15-21, 2006)
The Value of Personal Appearance There is a lot of value in appearing well-groomed and neatly dressed, but some people take it to extremes and don’t think rationally about it.

Living on Half Your Monthly Income: Could You Do It? We’ve done it many months around here. It’s not as hard as you might think it is – in fact, it’s a pretty lofty and powerful but reachable

The True Cost of Generic Diapers This was before we discovered how powerful of a value cloth diapering was, but the principle still holds true. If you have a 10% failure rate on an item, it’s not worth buying it.

Saving on Home Decor: Self-Matted Photography I fully intend to start filling our home with more photography. We have a lot of great images that would work spectacularly to decorate our living room, our entryway, and our family room.

The Ten Second Rule If you’ve got an item in hand and are about to throw it in the cart to buy it or are about to carry it to the register, stop for ten seconds and ask yourself whether you really need it or if you can’t get a better overall value elsewhere. Quite often, the answer will convince you to change your mind.

If you’d like to browse through more of the archives, visit the chronology, where all posts are listed in chronological order.

2. Comment. Each article on The Simple Dollar has lively discussion. Just click on the green square in the upper right of each article on the website and join in!

6. Dig through “31 Days to Fix Your Finances.” 31 Days to Fix Your Finances is an article series that outlines how you can get a grip on your finances over the course of a month.

The Simple Dollar Time Machine: November 14, 2009

Trent — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 20:00:24 +0000

One Year Ago (November 8-14, 2008)
The Readers Speak Out: Their 25 Best Actions for Saving Money I asked the readers for their single best action for saving money. They responded – big time. Here are the twenty-five top ones, all of which received multiple responses.

Accountability For a lot of people, accountability is a four-letter word.

Taking Dramatic Change One Day at a Time Whenever I want to make a major change in my own life, I find it works far better if I take that change one day at a time instead of committing to big, long-term things that may be impossible for me to reach.

Paying Others to Provide a Service: When Is It Frugal? I think it is if you’re directly replacing the time you’d spend engaged in that service with something truly more valuable to you. This requires a keen sense of how valuable one’s time is, something a lot of people don’t have.

Some Thoughts on the Small House Movement: Is It Something Worth Considering? I think the size of our house is about right (perhaps with slightly bigger bedrooms and perhaps one more bedroom to accomodate our next child), but I know couples without children that have substantially larger homes than we do.

Two Years Ago (November 8-14, 2007)
Should I Report Ethical Misconduct At Work? I don’t think it’s always as cut-and-dried as people want to make it out to be. If I see my boss taking some extra coffee, I’m not going to try to get him fired. But where’s the line?

Should You Report Sexual Harassment in the Workplace? Similarly, I don’t think it’s as black-and-white as many would like to think it is. Sexual harassment is wrong, but I’ve seen threats and blackmail involving sexual harassment for calling someone “dear.”

Toy Catalogs and Children: Are They a Good Match? As of yet, we have never plopped our kids in front of a toy catalog near the holidays. Here’s why.

Fun I must be a real bore if I talk about money all the time.

Melancholy and Spending I believe there’s a huge connection between low self-esteem, sadness, and a lack of control over your spending. A positive attitude makes it harder for advertising to work its magic.

Three Years Ago (November 8-14, 2006)
Review: The Millionaire Next Door The first book I ever reviewed on The Simple Dollar is still one of my favorites.

The Road to Financial Armageddon #8: Meltdown Here’s the story of how I hit financial bottom. It’s painful.

Building a Financial (and Personal) Idea Diary I use one of these every day. I keep a little spiral notebook in my front pocket.

Setting and Meeting Daily Personal Finance Goals Microgoals are a big part of personal finance success. In fact, The Simple Dollar would fail without daily goals.

Applying the Peak-End Rule to Personal Finance The peak-end rule pops up over and over again in life. If you can figure out how to use it to your advantage, it can really help you save money.

If you’d like to browse through more of the archives, visit the chronology, where all posts are listed in chronological order.

2. Comment. Each article on The Simple Dollar has lively discussion. Just click on the green square in the upper right of each article on the website and join in!

6. Dig through “31 Days to Fix Your Finances.” 31 Days to Fix Your Finances is an article series that outlines how you can get a grip on your finances over the course of a month.

The Simple Dollar Time Machine: November 7, 2009

Trent — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:00:47 +0000

One Year Ago (November 1-7, 2008)
Lessons from that Old Coffee Can over the Kitchen Sink This post makes me feel good because it conjures up one of my few very vivid memories of my paternal grandmother, who passed away when I was seven. Almost all of my memories of her make me feel as though she loved me very much.

A Guide to Winterizing Your House Winterizing your home can be a very powerful way to cut down on your winter season expenditures.

Excuses, Excuses It’s incredibly easy to make excuses. It’s incredibly hard to look past them and realize that often you have only yourself to blame.

The Suitcase Test: The Things You Really Need For me, this was a really powerful thought experiment. I do it every once in a while and it gives me great insight into what’s important and what’s not important in my life.

How to Focus in a Heavily Distracting Time These are the tactics I use when I have to work near the holiday season. For example, it’s two days before Christmas, I’m trying to get some work done, and there’s nothing but chaos around me.

Two Years Ago (November 1-7, 2007)
Revisiting The Happiness Scale This is a pretty interesting revelation about the things that bring us happiness in a given day and how it relates to how we spend monney.

Review: Born to Buy While it doesn’t offer personal finance advice per se, I found that Born to Buy had more impact on my decisions as a parent than any book I’ve read so far (except for perhaps Mindset).

Should I Eliminate Financial Support For My Child After High School? This one really fired up some debate. I’m in favor of eliminating such support, by the way.

Should I Go Without Health Insurance For A Better Career Situation? I really hope that this question becomes a non-factor in the near future. The lack of opportunity to buy health insurance shouldn’t restrict anyone from making a good career choice.

How to Construct a Killer Resume, From Start to Finish The advice here still generally holds. I’ve long thought about making an updated version of this article with a real-world example in it.

Three Years Ago (November 1-7, 2006)
Turning Off The Financially Irresponsible Mindset This article includes five really simple and straightforward tactics for changing your financial mindset. I really like how some of the earliest articles on The Simple Dollar reveal nascent versions of many of the values I’ve come to rely on in my life.

Liquid Laptop Accident? 9 Steps To Save Your Laptop I still remember this horrible, gooey mess like it was yesterday.

14 Ways Your Computer Can Put Money In Your Pocket I believe a home computer can be one of the greatest resources for saving money in a home.

The Road To Financial Armageddon #5: Love and Marriage This is a partcularly painful entry for me to read now, because I see that our shared love didn’t have to be signified with a spending orgy.

The Road to Financial Armageddon #7: Here Comes Baby That baby wound up being the inspiration for our financial turnaround.

If you’d like to browse through more of the archives, visit the chronology, where all posts are listed in chronological order.

2. Comment. Each article on The Simple Dollar has lively discussion. Just click on the green square in the upper right of each article on the website and join in!

6. Dig through “31 Days to Fix Your Finances.” 31 Days to Fix Your Finances is an article series that outlines how you can get a grip on your finances over the course of a month.

The Simple Dollar Time Machine: October 31, 2009

Trent — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:00:32 +0000

Many newer readers of The Simple Dollar haven’t been exposed to the hundreds of great articles in the archives of the site, so this is a weekly series that highlights the five best posts from one year ago this week, as well as the five best posts from two years ago this week. I call it … the Time Machine.

One Year Ago (October 25 – 31, 2008)
Should an Entrepreneurial High Schooler Go to College? This discussion resulted in a lot of interesting back and forth on the question of whether or not a high schooler who starts a strong business in his spare time should immediately go to college or should focus on building that business that’s already successful.

Brand Preferences and the Two Year Old Child I wrote this as I began to notice the effect that brand recognition was having on my two year old son. Was he being unduly influenced by branding and packaging? What could I do about it?

Eight Things You Should Do Immediately to Save Money When You Buy a Car If you buy a car, there are several things worth doing immediately to maximize fuel efficiency and minimize maintenance costs. These all work no matter what kind of car you buy.

Exploring the Connection Between Time and Money I’m a big believer that time is money, at least in the sense that money is just a representation of invested time. Thus, time is an enormous consideration when choosing which option is actually the cheapest.

Two Years of The Simple Dollar: My 25 Favorite Articles of the Past Year Here’s my celebration of the second full year of The Simple Dollar. I just collected my top twenty five articles from the second year of The Simple Dollar in one place.

Two Years Ago (October 25 – 31, 2007)
Seven Tips For Avoiding Boredom During A Financial Turnaround Isn’t living cheap boring? Not at all. It’s all about just choosing the less expensive things that you enjoy doing. Take a look at the many, many inexpensive things available for you to do. The wider your horizons, the more fun you’ll have.

A Deeper Look At Dave Ramsey’s Seven Baby Steps To Financial Freedom – And How They Apply To Us Dave Ramsey’s debt recovery advice is popular because it’s so straightforward and simple. However, they’re not always a perfect match for everyone. Here, I dig deeper into his “baby steps” and see how they match my own life.

The Eternal Question: Am I Doing The Right Thing? With the complexity of life around us, it’s easy to not be entirely sure if your choice is the right thing. Is it better to spend more now or save this money? Is it better to invest in a 401(k) or a Roth IRA? How can you ever know if you’re doing the right thing?

The Ten Most Important Things I’ve Learned About Money and Life In The Last Year Here, I summarize the ten most important things I learned about money during the first year of The Simple Dollar. This article really does contain the cream of the crop of what I learned during that crucial period of my life.

One Year of The Simple Dollar: My 25 Favorite Articles As with the article above, this is merely a collection of what I consider to be the twenty five best articles I wrote during the first year of The Simple Dollar.

If you’d like to browse through more of the archives, visit the chronology, where all posts are listed in chronological order.

2. Comment. Each article on The Simple Dollar has lively discussion. Just click on the green square in the upper right of each article on the website and join in!

6. Dig through “31 Days to Fix Your Finances.” 31 Days to Fix Your Finances is an article series that outlines how you can get a grip on your finances over the course of a month.

The Simple Dollar Time Machine: October 24, 2009

Trent — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 20:00:20 +0000

Many newer readers of The Simple Dollar haven’t been exposed to the hundreds of great articles in the archives of the site, so this is a weekly series that highlights the five best posts from one year ago this week, as well as the five best posts from two years ago this week. I call it … the Time Machine.

One Year Ago (October 18 – 24, 2008)
When Networking Doesn’t Work: There’s No Value in Just “Touching Base” This article actually sums up much of the thinking that is running through the recent discussions about Never Eat Alone. To put it simply, just making small talk and “touching base” doesn’t amount to much of anything at all unless it’s merely a bridge into something more meaty.

Stop Wasting Money on Disposable Things Whenever you spend money on something disposable and use it, that money is now gone – no future value can be obtained from it. Instead, focus on reusable things which don’t have a replacement cost. Over the long haul, you’ll almost always save money – and you’ll benefit the environment as well.

Giving Outside the Box: Generosity on a Limited Budget How do you give if you don’t have a lot of money? Much of the most powerful giving happens in other ways: giving your skills and giving your time, for starters. Here are some ways to turn your other assets into generosity.

Eleven Tactics for a Cheaper Christmas The Christmas season is often overloaded with little expenses of all kinds that really add up. As always, keeping your eyes on the little things means that the big things will take care of themselves. Here’s how to trim some of those little things without putting a damper on your holiday season.

How to Keep Important Stuff from Slipping Through the Cracks With our busy lives, it’s really easy to find that important matters have simply slipped through the cracks – a bill left unpaid, a piece of correspondence left unread, an idea forgotten. Here are some tactics to make sure this doesn’t happen to you.

Two Years Ago (October 18 – 24, 2007)
Spam Emails About Individual Stocks: What’s The Scam? I get tons of emails, both personal and otherwise, about great stock deals. They usually tout some very low priced stock and argue that I can make a killing by buying that stock right now. How does this scam work if these are publicly traded stocks? Here’s how.

My Five Greatest Financial Fears – And How They’ve Changed Over The Last Year A big part of my reason for starting The Simple Dollar was to face down my financial fears and conquer them. Here are five of my biggest fears – and how I tackled them.

Organic Foods and Frugality Is it really a frugal choice to buy organic foods and vegetables? It really depends on your values – how valuable is it to you to eat a diet free of preservatives and other elements?

Increasing Your 401(k) Contributions: Benefits and Drawbacks Many personal finance guides argue that it’s always good to increase 401(k) contributions. But is it? I dig into that question here and find that in some cases, simply increasing 401(k) contributions is not the smartest choice.

Your Money or Your Life: The Stunning Implications of Redefining Work This is another segment of the Your Money or Your Life book club, with this portion discussing what happens when you begin to look at work as something different than just a way to make money.

If you’d like to browse through more of the archives, visit the chronology, where all posts are listed in chronological order.

2. Comment. Each article on The Simple Dollar has lively discussion. Just click on the green square in the upper right of each article on the website and join in!

6. Dig through “31 Days to Fix Your Finances.” 31 Days to Fix Your Finances is an article series that outlines how you can get a grip on your finances over the course of a month.