If you proceed with your financial life the way it is now, you are settling.  You are doing absolutely nothing to change your situation.  In order to live a life of richness, a life free of the bondage, weight, and burden of debt, you have to summon from the deepest recesses of your soul every […]

Don’t buy things; buy freedom.
— David Futrelle

Perhaps we cling to our affluence — even though it isn’t working for us or the planet — because of the very nature of our relationship with money.  As we shall see, money has become the movie screen on which our lives play out.  We project onto money the capacity to fulfill our fantasies, allay […]

This [tracking your spending] is not about following our (or anyone else’s) budgets, with standardized categories and a suggested percentage of income that should go toward each category.  This is not about swearing at the beginning of each month that you’ll do better.  This is not about guilt.  It’s about identifying, for yourself, what you […]

Just as your children have to learn the rewards of hard work, you have to relearn them.  But trust me:  Frugality really does offer greater psychic rewards than conspicuous consumption.  Start treating the little things in life with more respect and it will carry over to the bigger things.  When you start having an increased […]

Well, for me, the quest for smart money management is not only the search for security, it’s the journey to find balance. If I can fill my life with unforgettable, fulfilling experiences, I don’t think material goods will matter as much to me. Sometimes the search for the perfect pair of jeans, the latest make-up, […]

And when you do buy something, you’ve got to make sure it’s going to last long enough to justify either the cost of borrowing or the time you spent saving the cash to buy it.  Phrases like “the newest,” “the latest,” and “the hottest” need to be banished from your mouth and, perhaps even more […]

…Honesty is a predicate for success. Specifically, if you intend to get ahead financially, it’s a lot easier if you’re willing to discuss your money openly and honestly. For me, this means not disguising my identity on-line and it means truthfully revealing information like my net worth or income (with a reasonable degree of safety […]

If you don’t owe anyone money, they can’t control you. If they can’t control you, you can think in terms of what is truly best for you. If you’re in debt for any consumer purchases (credit cards, cars, etc.) develop a plan to get out as quickly as you can. You will be amazed at […]

Living within your means suggests that you wait until you have the money before you buy something.  This gives you the benefit of avoiding interest charges.  It also gives you a waiting period during which you may well discover that you don’t want some of those things after all.  He who hesitates saves money.  The […]

To live within your means is to buy only what you can prudently afford, to avoid debt unless you have assurance that you will be able to pay it promptly, and always to have something put away for a rainy day.  It was quite a fashionable way to live one short generation ago, before we […]

The problem with treating the symptoms of credit card debt rather than the root cause (spending too much), is that the symptoms will return. If you want to kill the debt, you have to hack it off at the roots. One of the best ways that I know to kill a spending problem is through […]

Debt Warp holds that our whip-it-out credit card culture makes it so easy to buy stuff that people delude themselves into thinking they’re more affluent, better set for the future, than they are.  Debt Warp reshapes reality and turns age-old precepts about frugality upside down.  We are so accustomed to buying things we really don’t […]

Where’s the peer pressure to live small today so that we might live comfortably tomorrow?  Where’s the celebrity spokesperson to tell us how way cool it is to eschew the little luxuries of the moment in order to afford a long-term-care policy?  Where’s the slick marketing campaign that can convince us to forgo a year’s […]

Add Up All of Your Monthly Minimum Payments on Your Debt. For me, this was a HUGE eye-opener. After seeing all of the money that I have to use every month to pay debt, I realized that there is a very large chunk of money that could be used for other things, like perhaps saving […]