What I’m reading: Automation, big savings, saving on rent

“Making decisions is energy-consuming. Subjects who use their willpower to eat healthy radishes instead of the available and sumptuous chocolates are less likely to persist in solving unsolvable puzzles. Subjects who are told to suppress emotional reactions to a movie are less able to solve solvable anagrams. We have a limited amount of decision-making power [...]

Trent says The Scrooge Strategy is “short-sighted” — I respond with a challenge

Do you ever wake up in the morning, roll over, and say, “Man, I wonder what my personal-finance brethren said about me as I was sleeping?” No? Hm, I guess it’s just me. Anyway, stay with me today as we weave the story of toilet paper, toothpaste, a rudimentary SWOT analysis, and a $1,000 challenge [...]

The Money Diaries: The 20-something programmer who barters for personal training

Today, check out how a pro manages his money, using automation, negotiation, sub-accounts, and conscious spending.
This is another post in the Money Diaries series, which is based off New York Magazine’s Sex Diaries. We’ve collected stories from real people about their spending habits over seven days, anonymized them, and posted them here.

Today’s post is [...]

Here’s the first sneak preview of the I Will Teach You To Be Rich book (16 pages)

I spent the last two years of my life wanting to kill myself for deciding to write a book. Honestly, if you’re ever thinking of writing a book, just do yourself a favor: Call all your friends and tell them to go screw themselves, break up with your significant other, and take $50,000 in potential [...]

Why your opinion about the stimulus plan doesn’t matter

I don’t write much about current events here, because they usually don’t affect your personal finances, but I wanted to point out something interesting I just read.

Image by pink_fish13
Have you ever noticed how everyone seems to have “the answer” to the healthcare crisis or the economic meltdown? The problem is, they usually don’t see above [...]

Comment of the week: Going from $20k/year to $90k/year

On a recent blog post, James left this great comment:
Ten years ago, I was working in a lumber yard. I asked myself, “What do I want my life to be like in five years?”.
I knew two things: that five years would pass, and that if I didn’t do anything different my life would still be [...]