I'm a fan of The Simple Dollar and am proud to have Trent as a colleague, but I have to say: I think it's hilarious to call a 50-page ebook "Everything You Need to Know About Personal Finance on Just One Page". It's more like "Everything You Need to Know About Personal Finance on Just 50 Pages"! :)

To clear up the confusion: Yes, the original article came from my site, Get Rich Slowly. The folks from wikiHow approached me to use this piece (and one other, to be published in a couple of days, I think), and I agreed. They've "remixed" the information, adding some bits and removing others.

@LiC: HA! :)

I want to note that the post lists 46 recession-proof jobs, none of which were chosen by me. They're chosen by four "experts". The main thrust of my post is that the experts don't agree on which jobs are recession-proof, and that your best bet for surviving an economic downturn is to try to solidify your current…

@Leszek: You're right that impulse purchases aren't always unnecessary. But the data I've seen indicate that most of them are. Regardless, learning to reduce impulse purchases (as you've suggested) is key. Once-a-month shopping is one way to do that. It's not a way many people could actually do, but it does work for…

Some responses to comments:

Thanks for your feedback, Lifehackers! Based on the conversation here and at my site, I've edited my original article to emphasize the fact that closing a credit card account will not improve your credit score, and may actually hurt it even if you think you're safe. (The quote Adam included in the pullout above is…

Thanks, everyone, for your comments both here and at GRS. You're keeping me on my toes, fact-checking the post. That's a good thing. My goal is to have correct information for people who need it.

Yikes! There's a very small GRS effect, but my readers weren't enough to bring down the Bicycle Tutor. Lifehacker on the other hand? Much more pronounced. Kevin, if you get a chance, you might want to add a link pointing directly to the Howcast videos:

Cool that you picked this up, Kevin. As a side note, my wife is the big gardener in the family. Ever since we discovered This Garden is Illegal, she's been raving about it. If other Lifehackers are into gardening at all, they should check it out. Posts are infrequent, but my wife says they're good.

Folks, this post was a follow-up to a previous article about how to stop junk mail. I thought this was a particularly novel way of coping with the problem...

It's important to note that this advice is NOT for everyone. Obviously, some people don't need it. And obviously, there are risks with gift cards.

Thanks for all the comments everyone. It's a shame that many of the detractors here evidently didn't take the time to read my article. I'm well aware that theoretically (and historically), it makes more mathematical sense to invest the money elsewhere.

There's another session of this on Friday, January 25th, for those who need time to pull their info together. This is the third time in the past 18 months that this event has occurred. It seems to be a regular thing. I'd love to hear from somebody who's used it. Is it worthwhile?

I've never listened to Dave Ramsey's show, though I've had many, many people tell me I should. I guess I could at least listen to a podcast, eh? I love his books, though...

Hey all. Sorry for the server problems. I moved to a dedicated server a few months ago to alleviate problems like this, but it hasn't helped much. I contacted my host today and they've taken the server down to add more memory. Now that my debt is paid off, maybe I can afford a separate database server, too.

Alexander, et al. No need to apologize to me. I admire people who have always had the fortitude to avoid debt and make the right decisions. My wife is one of these people. She has always made the right financial decisions. I think folks like her (and you) *should* be congratulated. It takes just as much willpower to…

ChrisC — Well, I'm actually the guy in the story *and* the guy who made the comment! :)

Thank you, Gina.

Notorious, I didn't really use any sort of template. I simply typed out a list of my debts and organized them in a way that made sense for me. Then I typed out my thoughts about where I wanted my money to go.