June was a good month: I was finally able to complete my Roth IRA series (look for the final part soon — I’m still researching answers to your questions); I was able to devote time to writing a couple of personal entries about the psychology of personal finance, which is one of my favorite subjects; [...]

How much do you need to earn to be happy? Could you get by on $12,000 a year?
The folks at W4 Resistance advocate withholding all or part of your Federal income tax in order to resist the war in Iraq. I am not interested in the political motivations here — Get Rich Slowly is [...]

Eleanor wrote with a question that could test even the mightiest personal finance expert. “What,” she asks, “can you do when you want to save money and your roommates don’t care?”

I share a house with four roommates.  This saves me at least $200 a month from what I would be paying if I lived in [...]

My friend Gillian called the other day — she’s been having money trouble and was looking for help. “I’m not really a financial advisor,” I told her. “I write about money, and I try to help people at my web site, but I’m not qualified to coach you one-on-one.” Still, she’s a friend, so I [...]

Sometimes you can find personal finance tools in the most unlikely places. The University of Illinois Extension Service offers a collection of consumer money resources, including tips for thrifty living, credit card smarts fact sheets, and a guide to consumer and family economics.
I was most impressed with A Working Woman’s Guide to Financial Security.
This series [...]

This is a guest post from Lisa Lessley Briscoe.
My friend (and fellow Bearcat) Lisa writes: “I was just poking around on GRS (I don’t usually read) and noticed that you’d posted an entry for college graduates recently. Funny how summer rolls around and you start thinking about stuff.” She’s passed along some additional advice [...]

Yesterday at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity, Jim described how credit cards get you in, keep you in, and keep you spending. This is particularly relevant due to our recent conversations about credit. Jim writes:
Credit card companies have three objectives in mind: Sign you up, don’t let you quit, and keep you spending. They make money [...]

Credit cards ruined my life. Between 1989 and 1998, I accumulated nearly $25,000 in credit card debt. During that time, I added about $2,500 of new debt every year (over $200 each month). I was a compulsive spender. Eventually, the debt load became so great that I was forced to face the problem. I cancelled [...]

This is a guest-post from my wife.
In our house, rotisserie chickens from the grocery store are a time- and effort-saver. A whole fryer chicken usually sells for less than $1/pound. A typical rotisserie chicken is about double the cost, but we often get three weekday meals off it, so it’s worth it to me. [...]

Because of Opt-Out Prescreen, I no longer get credit card offers at home. From time-to-time, though, I get them at work. A few weeks ago, I received an offer that puzzles me:

Seems pretty normal, huh? Well, let’s look more closely. Here’s the address:

And the fake card:

(Why do they include fake cards, anyhow? Do they really [...]