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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 6)

Questions About Capital One, Glass Food Containers, Home Maintenance, Birthday Cakes, and More!

Published Monday, August 5, 2019 - 10:00 by The Simple Dollar

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. Money market versus savings account 2. Birthday cake as frugality lesson 3. Big 401(k) contributions, then stop? 4. Glass or plastic food containers? 5. Happier before financial improvements 6. […]

Inspiration from Arnold Toynbee, Bagel Sandwiches, Masego, and More!

Published Saturday, August 3, 2019 - 10:00 by The Simple Dollar

Once a month (or so), I share a dozen things that have inspired me to greater personal, professional, and financial success in my life. I hope they bring similar success to your life. 1. […]

The Marathon

Published Thursday, August 1, 2019 - 10:00 by The Simple Dollar

The other day, I read a brilliant little article by Seth Godin called The Solo Marathon. […]

Thoughts and Strategies for Handling Ethical Shopping Dilemmas

Published Wednesday, July 31, 2019 - 10:00 by The Simple Dollar

A few weeks ago, while Amazon was running its Prime Day event, a few readers contacted me and asked me not to talk about the event in any detail because of ethical concerns they had about Amazon and their business practices. […]

A Mental Toolbox for Avoiding Unnecessary Purchases

Published Tuesday, July 30, 2019 - 10:00 by The Simple Dollar

Jeremy writes in: You have mentioned before that when you’re considering buying something, you put it aside in a list and think it through before buying it by looking for flaws in the item. […]

Questions About MLMs, Safe Deposit Boxes, Package Theft, Clark Howard, and More!

Published Monday, July 29, 2019 - 10:00 by The Simple Dollar

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. Spouse withdrawing tons of money 2. Small benefit insurance 3. Nudging child out of nest 4. Getting out of Scentsy / MLM 5. Thoughts on safe deposit boxes 6. How to stop package theft 7. […]

A Life Well Lived

Published Monday, July 29, 2019 - 06:51 by The Simple Dollar

One of the best people I’ve ever known celebrated his 90th birthday very recently. His children put together a wonderful birthday party for him and invited tons of people – old friends, extended family members, all kinds of folks. […]

The Value of Time Tracking – And How I Do It

Published Saturday, July 27, 2019 - 10:00 by The Simple Dollar

Over the past few years, I’ve made several small references to the fact that I’m a pretty active time tracker. […]

When Is It a Bad Choice to “Go Cheap”?

Published Friday, July 26, 2019 - 10:00 by The Simple Dollar

One of the challenges of trying to minimize one’s spending is knowing which situations where you aim for minimum spending result in unexpected negative consequences as a result of cutting too much spending. I’ll give an example of something that’s a clear misstep: an old friend of yours is coming in from out of town and wants to spend some time with you. […]

Books With Impact: The One Thing

Published Thursday, July 25, 2019 - 10:00 by The Simple Dollar

The “Books with Impact” series takes a deeper look at specific books that have had a profound impact on my financial, professional, and personal growth by extracting specific points of advice from those books and looking at how I’ve applied them in my life with successful results. […]