Renting out a vacation home is one step away from running a hotel.
Author: Paula Pant
The Weirdest Personal Finance Advice on Earth
Welcome to the site, Marketplace Money listeners!
If you turned on NPR this past weekend, you might have heard me tell a musician to drink more beer. Weirdest personal finance advice ever.
But what do you expect from me? I don’t give boilerplate advice. I talk about mindset. And strategy. And beer.
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How the “Diderot Effect” Can Change Your Life …
In the 18th century, a French writer named Denis Diderot received a gift: a beautiful scarlet dressing gown.
The fabric was gorgeous. The colors were rich. The craftsmanship was spectacular.
Diderot immediately threw his tattered old gown away. He didn’t need it anymore. His new gown was breathtaking.
Of course, he needed […]
Want to Buy a Rental Property? Read This First.
Want answers to some real estate questions? Here’s the latest edition of Readers Ask.
One reader asks:
I have a long list of repairs and upgrades which my house needs, and I would like to find an impartial source for ballpark price estimates. What do you recommend?
[…]
How to Create Habits That Stick — with Minimum Effort and Maximum Results
You’re home alone and you walk into a dark room. What do you do?
You flip a light switch. Duh.
But what if an electrician moved the location of that switch this morning? Would you reach for the new location?
Nope. Not yet. You’ll reflexively reach for the old location until you break that habit — despite the […]
You Saved $128 Million by NOT Buying a Picasso! (And Other Strange Comments)
During my two-year round-the-world trip, Will and I spent hundreds of nights camping in Australia. We camped nonstop for about 7 months, or 210 consecutive nights.
When we told friends that we were camping, they remarked, “Think of all the money you saved by not staying at a hotel!”
Or not.
We […]
Sheer Willpower Won’t Work. If You Want to Change Your Habits, Try This Instead.
People eat at restaurants for many reasons:
It’s convenient. The food is delicious. We crave social interaction. We want a new environment. We like novelty. We can’t read nutritional labels – out of sight, out of mind.
I used to dine out frequently. A few years ago, I resolved to cut back. But I can’t snap […]
Hate Budgeting? Here’s The Easiest Budget Ever
Let’s see a show of hands: how many of you actually make a budget?
(Silence. Crickets chirping.)
Yeah, I thought so.
One of the most overplayed pieces of financial advice is “make a budget.”
There are a small handful of nerds who jive with this idea. You dig data. You love crunching numbers. Good for […]
You Can’t Work 168 Hours a Week
A cornerstone of the Afford Anything philosophy is that every choice you make is a trade-off, and that applies equally to your time and your money.
So what do you do about outsourcing? On one hand, the more you outsource, the more you trade money for the most valuable possession on earth: […]
When A Good Deal … Really Isn’t
A few months ago, I found a great deal on Groupon: two tickets to a murder-mystery dinner theater for $50, including both dinner and the show. I asked Will if he thought we should get it.
“We’re trying to save money,” he reminded me. It was true. In fact, the previous day […]
