I just got to Cape Town after 29 hours of (relatively easy) travel from Los Angeles, and after 16 years of being away from the Capetown of my youth. I'm traveling with my wife of 10 years, my two elementary-school sons, and my mom -- who brought me and my...

Some friends of mine recently made a pledge to cut out all discretionary spending. We sat in their living room together, and their conviction was palpable. "Nothing. Not another purchase for the next month unless we can't live without it." The week before, they had had to scramble to come...

What? Yeah, that was my reaction too. And guess where I heard this? At a homeless shelter. Indeed.

Recently, I gave a talk at a homeless shelter in Santa Monica. A really cool place called Turning Point which helps homeless people get into permanent housing and jobs in two...

One of my colleagues recently asked everyone in the office to support her son's school by buying gift cards from them. I didn't have any pressing need, but knew that with birthdays, the upcoming holidays and the like, I'd probably be able to put some bookstore and department store cards...

It was January 1980. I was 12 years old, and about to be bar-mitzvah'd (the coming-of-age ceremony in the Jewish tradition). My stepfather convinced me to put all of the money I'd received in gifts into Krugerrands, the South African 1 oz. gold coins. I vividly recall him saying "Gold's...

I recently had to fly to Boston to speak at the Yoga journal conference and do some TV and radio interviews. I hadn't booked the flights as of a week before, and when I checked on fares, they were over $800! In addition to that, the conference organizers had held...

Have you gotten your IRS "economic stimulus payment" yet? Depending on whether you're married or not, have qualifying children or not and how much money you make, you may have gotten anywhere from $300 - $1,200.

I recently saw this email, meant to show us that in all likelihood,...

I recently co-hosted a charity fundraiser for Unitus, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing innovative, market-based solutions to global poverty. The Police have named Unitus the official charity of their 2008 Tour, and have donated front-row seats and backstage passes to many concerts, which Unitus is auctioning off...

My wife and I will celebrate our ten year wedding anniversary this July. We both came from families torn apart by divorce, and so we took every precaution before getting married ourselves - neither of us married our first loves, we lived together for five years before deciding to get...

"You have $900 in your checking account!" the email said. Actually, if emails had sound, I would say it SCREAMED. It was four days until my personal finance self-help book, It's Not About the Money was scheduled to be published. The email was from my bookkeeper, who was wondering...

As the U.S. economy careens toward that big cliff called Recession, there's a scramble to understand just how we got into this predicament. The theories abound: The banks lent too much. People spent too much. Total consumer indebtedness is $2.5 trillion1, and according to a recent Congressional report, the total...

I'm sitting on my meditation cushion in my closet, my usual spot, and it's about 6:30am. My sons are already awake and downstairs with their two best friends, who've had a sleepover. I've been sitting for about thirty minutes, and the boys have been playing beautifully. Then I start hearing...

Last Saturday, as with virtually every Saturday for the last eight years, I woke up with the intention that I would not do any work of any kind - no email, no talking about work, no thinking about work issues - until Monday morning. My kids and their friend who'd...

I'm standing inside the Wynn Casino in Las Vegas last Tuesday, a day on which the stock market declined about 300 points -- roughly three percent. I've been playing blackjack, and losing quickly. I don't bet a lot, generally the cheapest table in the house, and usually once a year...

I'm standing at the Campton Place Hotel on Stockton St. in San Francisco. I've decided to retrieve my car from the valet parking after learning that the hotel would charge me $51 per night for the valet parking. Except that it's not my car, it's my business partner's second car,...

This morning, I was sitting in my "meditation room" - an amusing phrase to use in describing the only visible floor space (about 2' x 2') in our closet. I felt extremely peaceful, which was surprising for a week of too little sleep and hard-driving work. My heart and solar...

As we start another new year, there is an energy of renewal in the air. That which has been frozen will soon thaw. That which has been buried will soon flourish as the days begin to grow longer. This energy of renewal often creates a wave of energy to change...

I'm sitting here in the Canyon (Topanga, that is) on a dreary winter day. I close my eyes and I can visualize and almost hear the millions of credit cards being swiped through verification machines just down the hill at the local malls, all around L.A., all across the country....