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Life, Work and Money
35 posts, newest first (page 1 of 2).
The Paid-Off Car Is a Raise, the Arithmetic of Driving Your Car LongerKeeping a reliable car for years after the last payment frees up hundreds of dollars a month, with the worked arithmetic shown. Carrying a Balance Builds Credit and Six Other Borrowing Myths, TestedSeven common ideas about borrowing, each tested against plain arithmetic and the law, with a verdict on every one. How a Credit Score Is Built and Why Paying on Time Beats Every TrickA credit score summarizes a few behaviors, mostly paying on time and not using much of your available credit, and no trick beats those habits. Executive Order 6102, the Spring Americans Were Ordered to Turn In Their GoldIn April 1933 Washington ordered citizens to hand over most of their gold, a story every saver who trusts paper promises should know. Gold and Silver as Savings, How They Work and the Risks Sellers Don't MentionPrecious metals are an old store of value with real virtues and real drawbacks, and a saver deserves both stated plainly. Work as a Calling, What Scripture and the Reformers Said About an Ordinary JobThe idea that a plumber's or a clerk's work can be holy service is a great inheritance of the West and a quiet source of the American work ethic. A Family Phone Plan That Puts Dinner, Sleep and Sunday Back on the CalendarFamilies can reclaim time from screens with a few written rules everyone follows, parents included, in seven plain steps. Your Attention Is the Most Valuable Thing You Own, So Stop Giving It AwayFree apps are paid for with your attention, and a person who cannot direct his own attention cannot direct his own life. The Homestead Act of 1862 and the American Habit of Earning Your Own GroundThe Homestead Act offered 160 acres to anyone who would live on the land and work it for five years, and made ownership through labor an American creed. Self-Reliance Starts in the Backyard With a Garden, a Pantry and a Few HensA family that grows some food, keeps a stocked pantry and can fix things is freer and calmer when shelves or paychecks run thin. A Thought Experiment, the Town That Handed Every Kindness to a Federal OfficeA labelled satire in which a made-up town replaces neighborly kindness with a Department of Kindness, and the forms outnumber the friends. How to Give Well, a Family Playbook for Charity That Actually HelpsA step-by-step family plan for giving that does real good: set a budget, vet a charity, read a Form 990, give locally and avoid scams. Know Your Neighbors' Names, the Small Habit That Holds a Republic TogetherSelf-government starts on your street, because neighbors who know and help one another need far less from the state. The Case for Honoring Motherhood Without Telling Any Woman What She Must DoA culture that praises every ambition but raising children has its priorities backward, and honoring mothers limits no woman's choices. What It Means to Be a Man, Argued From Duty Rather Than From BravadoManhood is best defined by responsibility, protecting, providing, keeping your word and serving others, not by swagger and not by apology. Teaching Kids About Money, a Plan From the Piggy Bank to the First PaycheckA stage-by-stage family plan for teaching children to save, give and spend, from three jars at age five to a first paycheck and a first account. Chores, Thank-You Notes and the Lost Art of Raising Grateful ChildrenReal work and a habit of saying thanks teach children that nothing is owed to them, and that is the best gift a home can give. Marriage and Money, Why One Household Budget Beats Two Separate LedgersA marriage is one household, so a joint budget is a moral choice before a bookkeeping one; the premises, a worked couple and the best objection answered. Benjamin Franklin's The Way to Wealth, Read Line by Line for Modern SaversFranklin's 1758 preface to his almanac is still the shortest American course in industry, thrift and avoiding debt; read passage by passage for a family budget. Madam C.J. Walker Built a Fortune From Hair Care, Hard Work and NerveBorn Sarah Breedlove in 1867 to parents freed from slavery, she built a national hair-care company and trained thousands of agents; the record and the lessons. How a Registered Apprenticeship Works, From the First Day to JourneymanA registered apprenticeship pays you to learn a trade and ends in a portable credential; here is the mechanism, from the 1937 law to the journeyman card. Seven Myths About Blue-Collar Work That Steer Young People Away From the TradesSeven claims that steer young people from the trades, tested against how licensing, apprenticeship and contractor ownership really work, with a verdict on each. Your First Job Is Not Beneath You, and Here Is Why It Matters So MuchThe entry-level job teaches showing up, serving, taking correction and earning a dollar, and its dignity runs from Genesis to the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Side Business Test, How to Know Whether Your Idea Can Pay Its Own WayPrice, variable cost and fixed cost tell you whether a business idea can pay for itself, shown with a labeled home-bakery example and the traps around it.
Other categories
- The Constitution and the Founders
- First Principles
- The Courts and the Rule of Law
- Economy, Taxes and Free Markets
- Big Government and the Administrative State
- Border, Immigration and Sovereignty
- Faith, Family and Life
- Education, Parents and Kids
- Culture, Media and Free Speech
- Crime, Policing and Justice
- The Second Amendment
- National Security and Foreign Policy
- Energy, Environment and the Land
- Health Care and Personal Responsibility
- American History and Heroes
- Elections, Civic Action and the Comeback