Here’s a recent reader question that grabbed my heart. One reader said: “I am a single woman with children who believes I can live a great life traveling and making life grand, in spite of the statistics out there. Do you think its possible? Can you offer some saving/investing tips?” I’m so glad you wrote…
Imagine staring down the road, seeing dozens of half-built houses. I’m not talking about houses that are actively under construction. And I’m not talking about decrepit old houses that need to be torn down. I’m talking about houses that were partially built … and then nothing. No active construction. No wheelbarrows or cement mixers…
An Afford Anything reader recently emailed me about this dilemma: He’s upside-down on his home. He owes more than the house is worth. But he wants to take advantage of today’s low housing prices, which will let him move his daughter into the best school district in town. He can put 10 percent down on…
Launch into any money-related conversation and you’ll inevitably hear the following bad financial advice: “But it worked for me!” Those insidious five little words have been used to justify all types of terrible ideas, from buying lottery tickets to over-leveraging your investments to investing every last dime into Apple stock. Let’s try this one on…
Renting out a vacation home is one step away from running a hotel.
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. Here’s how it…
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 to make a…
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? Those estimates will vary, depending on what part…
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 fact that…
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 never would have…