Target-date funds are available in just about every 401(k) these days and most other investment accounts as well. And they can be incredibly useful for two main reasons. First, target-date funds combine multiple mutual funds into one, making it easy to get a fully diversified portfolio without having to choose and manage multiple different mutual… Read More Using Target-Date Funds to Dial Your Risk Up or Down
I’m something of a planner. I can’t help it – I always like to make plans for the future. I fill up my calendar with all sorts of little details and I’m always making lists. My mother does the same thing, actually. She’s constantly making lists and jotting down notes. She’s always been the person… Read More Letting Go: How Being a Control Freak Costs You Money
About a week ago, I challenged my followers on Twitter to give me their best single piece of money advice in ten words or less. I was flooded with responses. After spending quite a bit of time sifting through them, here are the fifty best pieces of advice that came my way (out of well… Read More The Best Money Advice, in Ten Words or Less
In the book Your Money or Your Life (which happens to be the single most important book I’ve read in terms of helping me launch my financial turnaround), the authors offer a lengthy chapter that covers a whole bunch of strategies to follow in order to cut one’s spending. Their number one rule – the… Read More Moving from Impressing Others to Impressing Yourself
Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal development, personal productivity, or career book. At almost every job I’ve ever worked at, from a minimum wage service job where I helped people print documents to a full time job in a research lab, creativity and initiative have been rewarded. A person who is a… Read More Review: Stimulated!
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. Laundry soap question 2. LED bulbs 3. Anticipating marriage 4. Ultra-frugal clothes washing 5. Applying for multiple credit cards 6. Teaching children simpler tastes 7. Paying… Read More Reader Mailbag: Sandboxes
When it comes to your credit scores, you’ll find no shortage of advice or alleged strategies on the best way to max out your numbers and improve your credit rating. You’ll find people who claim to know the perfect number of credit card accounts or the magical payment method you need to employ need to… Read More Can I Hack My Credit Score by Overpaying My Credit Card?
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. Checking account buffer 2. Insuring collectibles 3. School now or later? 4. Traveling for music 5. Parents helping with home purchase 6. Piano lessons 7. A… Read More Reader Mailbag: Favorite Albums
Last weekend, our town had a “city wide yard sale.” There was a bit of promotion of this event by the city council and quite a few homes participated (we would have, but unfortunately we hadn’t been at home for several weekends in a row due to my grandmother’s passing and several other family commitments,… Read More The Neighborhood Cooperative
What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to summaries of five or fewer words. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question. 1. Cheap turkey cooking? 2. Storing homemade soup 3. Flour differences for homemade bread 4. “Double your donation” to charities 5. Online services and… Read More Questions About Soup, Sunk Costs, Turkey, Insurance and More!