Today is the last day of Financial Literacy Month. To tie everything together, I thought it would be fun to share an interview my real millionaire next door, a man we’ll call John. He used the basic tenets of money management to build wealth and to retire early. Here’s how I described John when I first wrote about him last year:

John is a 71-year-old retired shop teacher who lives in a modest ranch house on half an acre, the same house he’s had for over forty years. He has an old barn filled with salvaged lumber, outdated appliances, and who knows what else. When he’s around, he drives a junkie 25-year-old station wagon. But most of the time, he’s not around.
He spends his winters in New Zealand helping friends on a dairy farm. His summers are spent fishing in Alaska. For a couple of months each year, he’s home, puttering in the yard. Year-round, he [...]

In March, I hosted a guest post from Mike Young about the ongoing battle with lifestyle inflation. Young runs The Secure Student, a program that teaches high school students how to manage their money.
At the time, I thought The Secure Student might be worth sharing during Financial Literacy Month, but I forgot about it until yesterday. This morning I spent some time reviewing the program. According to the website, The Secure Student is designed to help young adults create lasting positive habits with credit and money before they leave home:
Our program features interactive online classes with quizzes and games, an online community, and most importantly, our habit building exercises…These exercises are key to our program and immerse the kids in activities so that they retain the information and build the habits they need to succeed, making sure that kids actually learn the importance of credit and money through application.
The core curriculum seems to be built [...]

This is a guest post from Richard Barrington, a Chartered Financial Analyst and 20-year veteran of the financial industry. Barrington blogs regularly at MoneyRates.
Conservative savings vehicles such as certificates of deposit (CDs) and money market accounts look especially appealing these days, despite low interest rates. But how do you pick the right savings vehicle for your needs? There are many options, and a little information will help you make the best choice for your situation.
First, let’s define some basic terms.
Money market accounts pay an interest rate which can vary from day-to-day. Most money market accounts allow you to access your money via checks or an ATM card, but be sure to check on how many transactions you are allowed to make, as most money market accounts have a transaction limit. Relatively speaking, however, they provide a fair amount of liquidity.
In contrast, a certificate of deposit requires that you commit your money for a [...]

Part of the fun of Get Rich Slowly is writing about a variety of topics, basic and advanced. Though I’m an advocate of financial literacy, I’m not certain that I want to devote the entire month of April to it in the future. Instead, I’ll focus on financial literacy week perhaps, as well as sharing general information on the subject throughout the year. Just two days left and we’re back to a regular schedule around here.
Meanwhile, here are some interesting pieces from elsewhere on the web:
First up, a couple of readers pointed me to the financial planning toolkit, a free resource from CCH. This site has a financial planning guide, some financial calculators, and a variety of financial tools.
At Slate, Jennifer Reese wonders how cost effective is it to make homemade pantry staples? “Although I love to cook, I’ve always secretly, darkly, suspected it is costlier to craft at home what you can buy at [...]

This is a guest post from Ray at Financial Highway. Earlier today, Ray shared the basics of life insurance.
Insurance is an important part of financial planning — but understanding insurance and buying the right product can be tricky. From whole to term life, riders to convertibility clauses, how do you make sense of all the choices? Most people rely on the expertise of their insurance advisor, broker, or sales representative to help them make the right decision. Yet, for some people, insurance representatives have developed a bad reputation, and many people do not trust the “recommendations” they receive.
From my own experience in the insurance industry, and knowing how representatives are trained, I wouldn’t trust many insurance sales reps either. Here are some steps you can take to ensure you get the right product for the right price:

Understand your needs. No one understands your financial situation better than you. That means you should avoid [...]

Many of you have asked for life insurance information, so Ray from Financial Highway offered to provide this guest post on the subject. This is new info for me, too.
Protecting your family from financial disasters is one of the fundamental components of financial planning. Life insurance should be a core part of that planning process. This article is a basic primer on life insurance, which should introduce you to the concept and give you an idea of how life insurance works.
What is life insurance?
Most people have a basic understanding of insurance. You receive financial compensation when an insured event occurs. Consider auto insurance, for example. If your car is in an accident or stolen, your insurance company provides compensation according to the terms outlined in your insurance policy.
On the surface, life insurance is pretty straightforward. When the insured person dies, the policy pays a prearranged amount to the designated beneficiary. The following parties are [...]