A reporter from SmartMoney contacted me a couple of weeks ago to ask me to participate in a little game they were hosting. “All you have to do is guess when the Dow will hit 10,000,” she said. “This is just for fun.”
“I’ll do it,” I replied, “but I want to make it clear that this is just a guess. Nobody really knows.” I told her the Dow Jones Industrial Average would reach 10,000 again on October 15th at 10:22am Eastern. I was wrong — but not by much. It actually reached 10,000 at 1:21pm Eastern on October 14th.
I know this because I’ve been sitting here for the past ten minutes refreshing my browser page, waiting for it to happen. And it just did:

The Dow has hit 10,000! We’re saved! The recession is over!
Well, not really. But sometimes it seems like that’s how the media reports things. I find it hilarious that of the [...]

Ah, the tribulations of a tightwad — they are many.
On Monday, I walked a mile-and-a-half to the hardware store to buy some 1/2-inch washers, nuts, and bolts. (Remember: I’m trying to walk 5-6 miles per day now, so I usually walk for all of my errands.) Every month this hardware store mails us the same coupon — $5 off a $25 purchase — so I took it with me, just in case. But my bill was only $19.88. I couldn’t find anything for $5.12 that I wanted, so I couldn’t use the coupon. At home I discovered that my 1/2-inch fasteners were too big.
On Tuesday, I walked a mile-and-a-half back to the hardware store to return the 1/2-inch hardware and buy 3/8-inch washers, nuts, and bolts instead. I took the coupon, but my total was even smaller this time. I couldn’t use it. I walked back home only to discover that my 3/8-inch fasteners were [...]

This is a guest post from Paul Puckett of Beacon Wealth Advisors. Puckett is the author of Investiphobia: You Can Invest Without Fear. This piece originally appeared at his blog, Just Puckett, and I liked it so much that I asked for permission to reprint it here.
Here’s a little exercise that might be beneficial to your stress level and might even help you with your investments.
No matter where you live in America, there is probably a squirrel in your yard every day. Just for fun, take an opportunity to watch the squirrels today. Maybe take that morning cup of tea or coffee into the yard and sit quietly watching the squirrels at work and play.
Watch them as they stand in line at the little squirrel coffee shop discussing the acorn futures market. As they read the Squirrel Daily’s Business section looking for an update on the upcoming acorn tax legislation. Panicking as they [...]

It’s been several months since I’ve discovered a new money movie to share with you. I love these things, but I’ve exhausted most of my sources for Public Domain material. However, while browsing the Prelinger Archives again the other day, I discovered a little gem that had slipped my notice before: “What Makes Us Tick”, a short cartoon from 1952 that describes how the stock market works.
Note: The Prelinger Archives offer hours of amusement (and edification). Among other things, this collection includes hundreds of short educational films about money, history, and relationships. Most of these films are in the Public Domain. Those that are can be found at the Internet Archive.

“What Makes Us Tick” is a 12-minute cartoon (in Technicolor!) that extols the virtues of the stock market: “Common stock investments have helped to make our country prosperous and powerful. Owning a share of American industry is like owning a share in the future of [...]

Yesterday I wrote about my recent business trip to Orlando. This is the “rest of the story”, a behind-the-scenes look at how I spent way too much money for a one-day vacation.
When Kris and I agreed to fly to Orlando for the unveiling of The Great Piggy Bank Adventure, we hoped to have time to explore the rest of EPCOT Center. But when we received the itinerary, it was clear that all we’d actually be doing was attending the opening ceremony. We were scheduled to fly in at midnight, attend festivities from 10am until 1pm, and then fly home at 5pm.
“That’s a bummer,” Kris said. “You should ask the PR rep if there’s any way we can stay an extra day.” Since the public-relations firm was arranging the trip (and presumably paying for it), we were at their mercy. But as many GRS readers have noted in the past, it never hurts to ask. So [...]

An Experiment in Cheap Living
Earlier this week, I shared some of the highlights from three years of GRS articles about saving money on food. Brett from The Art of Manliness, who knows that I collect old self-help books, sent me an excerpt from Dio Lewis’s 1872 volume, Our Digestion, or, My Jolly Friend’s Secret. Here Lewis describes his “experiment in cheap living”, during which he spends just 54-1/4 cents for a week of food. This makes for some amusing reading. Enjoy!
It is now Saturday afternoon, and I will tell you in confidence, my dear reader, a little of my personal, private experience during the past week.
On Sunday morning last, I thought I would try for a week the experiment of living cheaply.
Sunday breakfast, hulled Southern corn, with a little milk. My breakfast cost three cents. I took exactly the same thing for dinner. Food for the day, six cents. I never take any supper.
Monday breakfast, [...]