There are ways that you can save for retirement without relying upon plans like 401ks, Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), and Roth IRAs. To be honest, these plans are not a very good deal for most Americans, and they could be subject to government confiscation at some point in the near future. That means that the lack of a 401k or IRA should not be an excuse to not to save for retirement. The truth is that Americans had little or no trouble saving for retirement before these plans existed. In fact, many Americans who are
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Putting off starting a savings program until you pay off your debts is one of the worst financial moves that you can make. Waiting until your debts are paid off to start saving is a good way to ensure that you’ll never start saving and will always be in debt. The truth is that most of us will always have some debts, whether it’s credit cards, a mortgage, car loans, or student loans. If you make debt an excuse not to save, then you’ll always have an excuse not to save. You’ll never get into
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As wise heads have often observed, the simplest things in life are the best. This is one of those timeless truths that applies to just about everything connected to homesteading, including energy and resource preservation. Despite the fact that some try to portray the off-the-grid lifestyle as a flirtation with radical-ness, in reality it is the more conventional way of living that represents a radical departure from traditional wisdom and common sense, including the idea that the simplest things are the best. Because they are in touch with everything sensible, logical, and practical, off-the-gridders are
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When we hear buzzwords and phrases like “energy-efficient,” “sustainable,” “repurposing,” or “green design,” all we are really talking about is a bunch of fancy labels that mean “learning how to make do with less.”  Yes, it is true: Phrases like these have been badly overused and weighed down with a lot of politically correct, hyper-environmentalist baggage. But whether you are a Sierra Club do-gooder or a down-to-earth Wise Use advocate, learning how to use fewer resources without making any real sacrifices in your overall quality of living is a good thing, pure and simple, and
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Cloth diapering is an intimidating endeavor to any parent who has no experience with it. The ease of disposable diapering is more obviously apparent, especially to new parents. However, the savings from using cloth diapers are significant and worth it to anyone looking to cut back trips to the store. These few dollars saved turn into hundreds or thousands when you consider that the average baby uses five to seven diapers per day, at a low estimate. Assuming that each disposable diaper costs a single dollar in a store-brand value pack, the total cost reaches
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Plastic is everywhere, but it’s not that good to have in your life. Though it seems convenient, it actually has high financial, health, and environmental costs. It’s not readily biodegradable, marketing gets us to buy the same throw-away plastic junk over and over, and scientists continue to find new information about the harmful side effects of PVC, styrene, and BPA. Fortunately, you can get plastic out of your life if you make the conscious choice to avoid it. This doesn’t mean you turn into a tree-hugging, hemp-wearing flower child. It just means you make choices
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The economy thrives on people buying things they don’t need. Why would anyone waste money like that? It’s not because we’re natural idiots – we’ve been programmed to think that we need the newest, latest, and greatest things around us, even if what we already own is just fine. You can call it upgrading – that’s what a lot of marketers do. Yet at the end of the day, the belief that you need a certain model of a given product is brainwashing – brainwashing that eats a hole in your wallet, wrecks your sense
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Most of us are trying to live within our budgets while also trying to take better care of God’s earth. One way that we can do well by our planet and our wallets is to water more plants with less water. We can do this by installing a drip irrigation system in our gardens. Drip
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The recent Memorial Day weekend is a perfect time to reflect and to pay homage to the memories of all the men and women who have lost their lives in service to our country. This weekend is also the unofficial beginning of summer, which means that it is the time when we will all have to start paying more at the pump for gasoline, thanks to the basic laws of supply and demand. The oil companies claim that the reason why gas costs more in the summer is because they have to start selling a
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Next to the refrigerator, no appliance in the home uses more energy over the course of a typical day than the hot-water heater. Hot water is one of those little luxuries of life that we have gotten so used to that we barely even notice it any more, except of course when we run out right in the middle of a long hot shower. But most people have come to rely on hot water for a multitude of purposes, and it would be hard to imagine how inconvenient our lives would suddenly become if we
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