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The Simple Dollar

Simple, applicable personal finance advice for the modern world.

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Latest Posts from The Simple Dollar (page 46)

Costco Without a Car

Published Sunday, October 28, 2018 - 07:00 by The Simple Dollar

When my wife and I moved to Brooklyn, we felt lucky that we wouldn’t need to buy a car. Our apartment was close enough to a subway line and our neighborhood was walkable enough that it didn’t make sense to own a vehicle. That being the case, we had a tough decision to make about our grocery shopping habits. Specifically, what were we going to do about our beloved Costco membership? […]

Tactics for Friendships During (and After) Financial Turnarounds

Published Saturday, October 27, 2018 - 10:00 by The Simple Dollar

A week ago, I wrote an article entitled Friendships and the Financial Turnaround, in which I discussed the challenge of building and maintaining friendships when you make a major financial turnaround in your life. […]

The Failure of Bargaining with Yourself

Published Friday, October 26, 2018 - 10:00 by The Simple Dollar

“If I get a better job, then I’ll start paying off my credit cards,” thought to oneself while feeling self-pity about their employment situation. “If I win the lottery, then I’ll fix up my finances,” thought to oneself by the person sitting around waiting for their ship to come in. “If I get a raise, then I’ll start saving for retirement,” thought to oneself while worrying a little about whether t […]

Planning for Classy, Low-Cost Holiday Gifts Starts Now – But It’s Easier Than You Think

Published Thursday, October 25, 2018 - 10:00 by The Simple Dollar

Let me offer up a little challenge for you. Make a list of every adult you plan on buying gifts for this holiday season. Your partner, your children, your parents, some of your close friends, extended family members… you get the idea. Now, go through each of those items and ask yourself how many of those people you’re not actually very excited to get gifts for. […]

Three Ways to Build Credit Without Taking on Any Debt

Published Thursday, October 25, 2018 - 07:00 by The Simple Dollar

Myths and misconceptions abound when it comes to the subject of credit. Perhaps one of the biggest misconceptions about credit is the notion that you have to take on a lot of debt to earn and maintain great credit scores. In reality, the opposite is true. Your credit score is not your debt score, as some would suggest. […]

The ‘Overstocked Default Meal’ Strategy

Published Wednesday, October 24, 2018 - 10:00 by The Simple Dollar

If you look in our pantry at any given time, one thing you’ll virtually always find are about a dozen boxes of spaghetti and about a dozen jars of pasta sauce. If we ever run “low,” meaning we get down to less than a half-dozen or so of either one, we make sure to add it to our grocery list for upcoming weeks with a “(if on sale)” note by it. […]

Four Tips for Selling Yard Equipment Online (Learned the Hard Way)

Published Wednesday, October 24, 2018 - 09:27 by The Simple Dollar

Reselling an item online seems like one of the more mundane tasks in our digital world. So why does it still feel like fixing cataracts with a rusty safety pin? Both Craigslist and eBay have been in existence in some form since 1995. […]

When You Feel ‘Outclassed’ by the Financial Situation of Others, Consider This

Published Tuesday, October 23, 2018 - 10:00 by The Simple Dollar

I spend a fair amount of time each week reading personal finance books and websites and other materials in order to come up with strategies to employ in my own life that might eventually turn into good material for articles, as well as to find answers to questions that readers ask. […]

Need Some Money Motivation? Try the Buddy System

Published Tuesday, October 23, 2018 - 07:00 by The Simple Dollar

On and off over the years I’ve had gym buddies I could rely upon to keep me showing up for workouts even when my inner couch potato was itching for another hour of Netflix. Yet it never occurred to me that the same buddy system could be applied to my financial challenges. Not until a recent playdate at McDonald’s, that is, when I confessed to a good friend — who’s far more financially savvy than I […]

Trying to Time the Market? Missing Just a Handful of the Best Days Can Tank Your Returns

Published Monday, October 22, 2018 - 11:00 by The Simple Dollar

Advocates of buy-and-hold stock investing make a strong case as to why it can be disastrous for a novice investor to try to time the stock market. It’s been shown that frequent trading generates higher fees, and that emotional trading leads to buy-high, sell-low behavior. […]