This article is the 10th of a 14-part series that explores the core tenets of Get Rich Slowly.
Yesterday, for the first time in my 40-1/2 years on this earth, I went ice skating. Initially, I was scared to try, but I eventually gave in to the taunts from my eight- and ten-year-old friends.
I love roller skating and I’m not too bad at it, but the ice skating…well, it sucked. It took me eight minutes to make it around the rink for the first time, clinging to the wall, my shins in pain. It took me five minutes to make it around a second time. Four minutes for round three.
My first half hour on the ice was an exercise in frustration. I couldn’t make it more than a few feet without falling or lunging for the wall. Worst of all, I had to swallow my pride and accept advice from Tristan, Emma, and Harrison, my grade-school [...]

Because I love The Cinnamon Bear so much, I post this exact same article every year on the 29th of November. This year is no different. If you have young children — and even if you don’t — I encourage you to listen to these old radio broadcasts with your family.
Holiday traditions don’t have to be expensive. Some of the best traditions don’t cost anything at all.
When I was a boy, Christmas meant The Cinnamon Bear. During the weeks before Christmas, a Portland radio station (KEX) would broadcast a fifteen minute episode of this story every night.
The Cinnamon Bear chronicles the adventures of Judy and Jimmy, and their fantastic trip through Maybeland as they search for the missing Silver Star that belongs atop their Christmas tree.
I loved the cast of characters and the exotic locales: the Root Beer Ocean and the Inkaboos, the Wintergreen Witch, the Looking Glass Valley, the Crazy Quilt Dragon. And, [...]

This article is by staff writer Adam Baker. Baker has recently come to realize that there will always be an excuse not to give if you look for one.
As the holiday season approaches each year, we’re reminded to reflect on those things we’re most thankful for.
Some of these remain consistent from year to year. Occasionally, a dramatic life experience — either positive or negative — will stir things up, adding new items to the list.
While this sort of reflection is useful, it has a bit of a downside. We can get stuck in a rut by making this only a mental game. We wipe our hands and pat ourselves on the back for taking the time to recount our yearly list of appreciation.
I’ve been guilty of this many times in the past. This year, though, I’ve been trying to brainstorm ways take the next step, turning gratitude into action.
You see, this is the first year [...]

This is a guest post by Austin Frakt, a health economist and university professor. You can find more by Austin at The Incidental Economist, a blog about personal finance, economics, and health care, among other things.
Budgeting is the cornerstone of personal finance. You can’t make a rational financial decision without knowing the state of your cash flow. But if you’ve never developed a budget, working up a detailed one can seem like a daunting task. So many people don’t — and then get into trouble.
Fortunately, budgeting doesn’t have to be complicated. If you are living within your means — with no debt or only low-interest debt that is easily serviced — then a simple budget can suffice for planning purposes.
How to build a basic budget
To develop a simple but accurate budget, assume for the moment you spend the “right” amounts on detailed subcategories like clothes, food, entertainment, etc. (I’ll come back to the situation in [...]

It’s Thanksgiving Day in the United States — my favorite holiday. I like that we set aside a day each year to be grateful for the things we have.
I have much to be thankful for this year — I’ve been very fortunate. A lot of this is because of this site, and because of my interaction with you, the readers. Thank you for making the community at Get Rich Slowly a top-notch place for people to find support along their financial journeys.
Here’s a video from 1951 that celebrates Thanksgiving. While it’s a little schmaltzy — and filled with lots of not-so-subtle “I’m glad I’m not a communist” sentiment — it does a fine job of conveying the mood and meaning of the holiday.

Like most of you, I’ll be spending the day with my family. While I’ve been focused on my book, Kris has been hard at work preparing lots of delicious food for today’s feast. [...]

This is a guest post from Tyler Tervooren, a long-time GRS reader. Tyler is a practical environmentalist who writes about the overlap of money, sustainability, and personal development at Frugally Green.
Have you accepted yet that you’re going to die? Have you? Honestly? We’ve been doing it for thousands of years but, for some reason, most of us won’t figure out how to deal with it until it’s too late. This is something every one of us has in common, but in the short game of life, it’s the elephant in the room.
We’re all here trying to learn to live fulfilling, financially independent lives and if we’re going to be successful at it before we go, I think this throat-clearing, eye-averting topic must be addressed. We’re running out of time.
This is not about getting you to learn about life insurance or writing a bulletproof will. This is about our legacies.
What will you leave behind?
During this Thanksgiving [...]