While I was digging out of debt, I cut back on my comic book habit. I'd been spending a mind-boggling $250 every month on comics -- most of which I bought in the form of hard-bound compilations -- but for a few of years, I slashed that to...

A couple of weeks ago, Robert Brokamp explained how living below your means is like saving for retirement twice. On the surface, his advice was pretty conventional: The more you save today, the more you'll have tomorrow. This is similar to a point I've been repeating for the...

For the past two months, I've been conducting an informal experiment. Spurred by the high cost of gas -- $4 per gallon to fill my Mini!?! -- I decided to use alternate transportation: my feet. In May, I walked over 200 miles. In June, I've walked less but biked more.

The other day, I made a passing comment in my article about judging (or not judging) others. I mentioned that although my friend Michael is in dire financial straits, he's still making life decisions based around the fact that his family has two dogs. (They're renting a larger,...

Getting started with smart money management can be tough. It can be frustrating. For one, you have to discard so many old habits. Plus you have to develop new habits. And, toughest of all, you have to deal with the constant small (and large) mistakes you make as you're getting...

Sometimes personal finance problems have clear solutions: There's a right answer and there's a wrong answer. When you're new to money management, these answers might not seem clear, but they become clear with time. But my favorite personal finance dilemmas are those to which there are no wrong answers, only...

I've written two major articles here at Get Rich Slowly about how to cut costs on cable television. In March 2007, I wrote about cheap alternatives to cable television, and in February 2009, I followed that up by describing how I cut my television bill in...

I'm a firm believer in personal development. Self-improvement is part of living a rich life. In fact, when I started this blog six years ago, the self-improvement category was one of the first I implemented. Over the years, I've published dozens of articles on the subject, including:

On Wednesday, I visited a fifth-grade class in McMinnville, Oregon to talk with the kids about money. I had a great time, and I'll share more about the experience on Monday. Today, though, I want to start by sharing a question I received from one of the students.

"How much money...

From time to time, I get queries from reporters asking me to comment on particular personal finance topics. I do my best to help these folks, especially when they ask something interesting.

Recently, Katie from CNBC dropped me a line with a question that actually stumped me: For which...

When we're young, we think we know it all. We make decisions -- financial and otherwise -- based on what little we know of the world, and these decisions are colored by a relentless optimism that comes from not having to deal with the harsh realities of the world. Realities...

Have you ever bought something only to discover that this one purchase led to another? And another? And another? I have, and it's frustrating.

Andrew thinks this sort of problem is frustrating, too, and he recently wrote to ask for advice on handling situations like this. What do you do...

Over the past year, one of the most popular features here at Get Rich Slowly has been the monthly "how much do you spend on X?" question. I started these informal and unscientific surveys on a whim. I wanted to see what sort of spending ranges we held as a...

Everyone is different. That's the beauty of life -- but also one of its greatest complications. When two people fall in love, the meshing of these differences can be both fun and frustrating, especially when it comes to personal finance. That's what Elaine has discovered. She'd like some advice on...

Though I steer clear of writing about credit cards at Get Rich Slowly, I use them all the time. I used to be an anti-credit card zealot. Because irresponsible use of credit cards had led me to tens of thousands of dollars in consumer debt, I thought they...

Though I've been reading and writing about money for six years now, I still do stupid things sometimes. Most of these errors are un-interesting -- it's the compulsive spending that's interesting, and I seem to have that under control -- but sometimes it's instructive to look at the mundane...

When I was a boy, my family had a series of dogs: a St. Bernard, a shih tzu, a golden retriever and a whole host of mutts. Because dogs will be dogs, and because we lived in the country far from anything, our dogs would sometimes begin barking... and continue...

Note: This post is part of the Roth IRA Movement event organized by Jeff Rose at Good Financial Cents. Today, dozens of financial bloggers are posting articles about Roth IRAs. This is mine.

Most of us know we should save for retirement, but sometimes...