The Simple Dollar

Gary writes in: What exactly do you mean when you talk about financial independence? Can you break it down a little? In simplest terms, when I talk about financial independence, I’m referring to a situation in which your living expenses are fully covered by your investments for the rest of your life. […]

Most of the time, my process for acquiring food and cooking at home looks something like this: I recognize that we’re at the end of our planned meals, so it’s time to go to the grocery store. I download a grocery store flyer from the website and then start to assemble a meal plan based on that flyer, choosing recipes that incorporate a lot of that on-sale stuff. […]

Most of the strategies I write about on The Simple Dollar are quite simple for most adults to understand. They’re not complex ideas. They’re not difficult to understand. They’re not challenging to visualize. They are things that almost all of us can do – some might require us to have a little bit of money in hand first and use that to grow more, but most don’t. […]

One of the most valuable tools for keeping your financial life as stable as possible is to improve your ability to anticipate your future expenses and financial needs. This enables you to take some steps to prepare now for those expenses and thus reduce their impact in the future. For people who aren’t naturally familiar with planning ahead, this can feel like a major shift in thinking. […]