Charlie wrote in with an interesting question. I wanted to see if you could run the numbers on this. My family is considering signing up for a year of Amazon Prime for $80. I can see a lot of situations where it would save us a little bit of money, but I don’t know if
Each week, I highlight ten things each week that inspired me to greater financial, personal, and professional success. Hopefully, they will inspire you as well. 1. James Baldwin on reading “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the world, but then you read.” – James Baldwin To me, books make the world
Over the past few weeks, many people have started receiving their tax returns if they filed their income taxes early in the year. It can be an exciting time, particularly if your income tax refund check is the largest check you receive all year. One member of my family gets a check that’s about four
Although my parents never had a whole lot of money, they did a wonderful job of shielding me from that financial reality while I was growing up. I couldn’t help but be aware of the difficult situation sometimes, like when my father was laid off from the factory and would spend all of his time
Have you ever noticed a certain trend in the reader mailbag questions? People often ask which approach to paying off their debt is better, or whether it makes more sense to rapidly pay down a 4% debt or to invest that money. In both of those cases, we’re discussing a very small difference in financial
What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to five word summaries. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question. 1. Roth TSP versus Roth IRA 2. Sports gambling addiction 3. Maximizing your driving dollar 4. Easy and hard 5. Which car should I sell? 6. No
What will you be earning in ten years? Most of us can’t really answer that question. We might have a guess as to the answer, but it’s little more than a guess. However, almost all of us make quite a few decisions today based on our gut feeling about that question. Let’s say you knew
One of the biggest reasons I enjoy spring is the lengthening days. Rather than the sun creeping above the horizon at 7:15 and disappearing at 4 in the afternoon, we now have days where the sun starts to peek up at about 6:30 and then disappears at about 7:30. As the spring wears on, the
Every investment you make requires you to balance three different factors. The first factor is risk. How likely is it that you’re going to get the return you expect over the next year, or the next five years? Generally, lower risk is better. The second factor is liquidity. How easy is it for you to
About once a week, I get an email from a panicked student about to graduate from college (or recently graduated). They’ll tell me about how they entered into a major that they thought led to a great career, only to find upon graduation that they’re working at Starbucks or not working at all, as are
Here’s some food for thought for those of you out there raising children and hoping to teach them good lessons about money. I was at the store recently with my seven year old son. When it’s just the two of us, he’s very quiet and observant of what’s going on around him (he can be
This is the second installment of The Simple Dollar writers’ personal stories. Take a look at Karla’s story about naming her baby the beneficiary of her life insurance policy over here. Today, I’m excited to share Randy Woods’ experience with home insurance claims and how much of a Catch-22 they can be. Be sure to
What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to five word summaries. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question. 1. Snowballs and variable rate loans 2. Frugal haircut strategy 3. Startup farm funding 4. Sunday paper cost effective? 5. Debt payoff or emergency fund? 6. Hiding
Karen writes in: My brother has argued with me that I shouldn’t make any extra payments on our mortgage because we’re losing money over the long term by making early payments. He says that with inflation at 3% and our money able to earn 1% at minimum in a savings account and more if we
Connie writes in: I don’t see how saving money really works for a family making minimum wage. Let’s say you have two people who make minimum wage at home so they only bring home about $15,000 each. If the family spends $1,000 a month on housing and $500 a month on their automobiles and $500
Kelly writes in: What would you do if you won the lottery? Since I don’t play the lottery, I’ll answer this question under the assumption that instead I’m just receiving a very big inheritance from my unknown Uncle Rockefeller and Aunt Vanderbilt. The first step I’d take is to make absolutely sure all taxes on
Each week, I highlight ten things each week that inspired me to greater financial, personal, and professional success. Hopefully, they will inspire you as well. 1. Joseph Addison on happiness “Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.” – Joseph Addison Something to
I live close enough to the Des Moines area that I often shop in the city for groceries. In Des Moines, unsurprisingly, there’s a lot of grocery competition. You can find all kinds of grocery stores there, from Whole Foods to Hy-Vee, from enormous grocery stores to tiny little out-of-the-way shops, from expensive stores to
Like it or not, we all display signs of social status when we go out in public. From our clothing to the car we drive, we give others indications of all kinds of things about us. Quite often, people buy into the idea that expensive items display high social status. If they dress well, have