The Simple Dollar

Simple, applicable personal finance advice for the modern world.

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Latest Posts from The Simple Dollar (page 19)

No Emergency Fund? Start With Your Tax Refund

Life is full of surprises — some good and some bad. Most of us just try to ride the wave the best we can, making the most of what we have. When it comes to our financial lives though, there are steps we can take to ensure life’s “surprises” don’t throw our lives into a tailspin. […]

Handling the Financial Irresponsibility of Family Members

When you’ve devoted a lot of effort to fixing your own finances and putting yourself on a great financial track and you’ve spent a lot of time absorbing and thinking about good financial practices, the financial conversations you hear can sometimes be really frustrating. You’ll hear people talking about their huge financial missteps as though they’re no big deal or even as though they’re a good th […]

Nine Signs It’s Time to Drop Your Insurance Company

While it’s far easier to simply renew an insurance policy year after to year rather than shop around for a new provider, it should go without saying that inertia can be costly. Most industry experts suggest obtaining quotes from competitors every six months to one year, because the reality is that many insurance companies change their rates regularly and doing a little bit of research can save you […]

The Basics of Understanding the Financial News

Max writes in: One thing I have always struggled with is understanding the money news. Whenever the money news comes on it sounds like the people on TV or the radio start speaking gibberish. What is the stock market, I mean, what actually is it? What is Dow Jones? What is NASDAQ? What do all of the numbers mean? […]

Can You Buy a Home With Bad Credit?

There’s no denying that good credit can help you get a better interest rate on a mortgage. And because your mortgage will likely be one of largest, if not the largest, debts you’ll ever incur, it’s in your best interest to get your credit in the best shape possible before you apply for one. Having said that, you don’t always need to have sterling credit to purchase a home. […]

Questions About Practical Gifts, Low Cost of Living Cities, Custmer Rewards, Debt Collection, and More!

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. Car loan versus retirement savings? 2. Moving to cheaper city? 3. “Customer rewards” and work 4. Cheap pocket notebooks 5. Uses for food scraps 6. Debt collection question 7. Struggling with focus 8. […]

Six Effortless Ways to Make a Bigger Dent in Your Debt

Paying down debt can often seem daunting, insurmountable, and sometimes entirely defeating. Yet the need for Americans to get control of their debt is more pressing than ever. […]

Exploring the Connections Between Your Leisure Life and Your Financial Life

This is the last entry in an eight part series exploring the connections between your finances and other areas of your life. A few weeks ago, I started a series exploring the connections between personal finance and the other “spheres” of my life. […]

Eight Strategies for Maximum Value from Secondhand Stores

One of my favorite tactics for saving money when I need certain items is to head to secondhand stores in my area. Secondhand stores are invariably good sources for certain types of goods and, because of that, they’re often the first stop when I go shopping for those items because I can save a lot of money. (I’ll get into which items in a minute.) There’s a catch, of course – isn’t there always? […]