The other night, I watched a couple episodes of the A&E documentary series Hoarders . For those of you who haven’t seen it, Hoarders is a documentary series that focuses on the struggles of people who suffer from compulsive hoarding. One thing that struck me over and over again…
Katie writes in: The article on budgets was *great.* I’ve long felt guilty for not doing the whole formal budget thing, especially since I always liked and did well at math. (Like you, however, spreadsheets cause my eyes to roll back in my head.) But here’s a question/comment on…
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. 401(k) profit sharing 2. Online job application tips 3. Illness and challenges 4. College freshman advice 5. Mortgage decisions 6.…
In my recent post about cultivating your own knowledge for fun and profit , I mentioned that you should hit yard sales, consignment shops, estate sales, and so forth as a way to put your knowledge to work for you and take advantage of underpriced items. A few commenters…
If you’ve read the reader mailbags for a while, you’ve noticed that I often get messages from people who have worked their way into a good financial place and now have some money to invest, often for the first time in their life. They look around, watch CNBC, read…
One of the biggest things that’s changed in my life since my financial turnaround and subsequent career changes is that I’m constantly involved in a lot more self-evaluation than I used to be. I’m constantly looking at how I do things, looking for ways to improve the quality and…
Naomi is trying to get a good picture of her actual spending and is using a very good process to get there. She’s run into a bit of a snag, though. I have reached a month of collecting receipts and preparing to organise it all in an Excel spreadsheet.…
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. Adding partner to credit cards 2. Partners and rentals 3. Healthy use of emergency funds 4. Services you’re not knowledgable…
Every Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book or other book of interest. One of the most interesting parts of being a popular internet writer that reviews a lot of books is that, over time, I’ve wound up on the mailing lists of various publishing companies. They…
When I was sixteen, I bought a cigar box full of 1960s baseball cards for $5 from someone who was cleaning out their mother’s attic. I sold one single card in the box – a 1965 Topps Mickey Mantle in excellent condition – for $200. Several years ago, I…