“If you’re proactive in planning for retirement and you can envision what it’s going to be like, the money plan will follow,” she says. I have another déjà vu moment, thinking back to my conversation thirty years ago with my friend Bob Johnson and his comment about “the money stuff really isn’t that hard.

That’s why “return on noninvestment” (as in “NOT SPENDING!”) is ultimately a far more important and powerful concept than the incessantly discussed, debated, and written-about concept of “return on investment.

Debtor Dementia. (FYI: “Debtor Dementia” or, in Latin, Insaneous Borrowlingus, is a condition I first diagnosed years ago, a delusional state that otherwise rational people enter once they begin borrowing money.

And, you know, a light just came on,” she says. “It made us realize that there’s a whole wide world out there, and even though we live in a small town in Mississippi where most people don’t do this sort of thing (world travel), we could actually go out there and see it … but only if we didn’t have debt and if we set our priorities on what we really

For the biggest savings on funeral expenses, consider “direct cremation” (i.e., cremation without embalming or a casket, and with no formal viewing or ceremony with the body present—a memorial service can always be held later, with the ashes present).

annual consumer spending drops by 45 percent between its peak in the forty-five- to fifty-four-year age bracket and the seventy-five-year-plus bracket, something that seems lost in most financial planning.

many lines offer so-called “repositioning cruises” at dirt-cheap fares. In general, you need to be able to travel in the spring or fall to find these deals, depending on the destination/routing. Check with individual lines for any repositioning cruises they may offer, or websites like www.cruisedeals.com.

Now I not only jump at the chance to be bumped off a flight in exchange for a free ticket, but whenever possible I play the odds and actually try to get bumped.

Consistently living below your means throughout your working years is one of the most important keys to retiring better, earlier, and happier. It allows you to save for retirement, conditions you to living on a fixed budget, and lets you avoid having to gamble on risky investments to make up for lost investing time