Your Money: The Missing Manual

Introduction

"What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to live. That is what life means and what life is for.”

—George Mallory

For years, I lived paycheck to paycheck on an average American salary. Every month I struggled to pay my bills and make ends meet. I spent everything I had, and sometimes more. In the decade after I graduated from college, I racked up over $35,000 in debt. I knew how to spend money, but I didn’t know how to save it.

2004 was a turning point for me. My wife and I bought a 100-year-old farmhouse that needed a lot of work. My budget was already stretched to the limit, and I didn’t see how I’d be able to afford the plumber, electrician, and carpenter we needed. I felt like I was drowning.

With the help of some friends, I was able to keep my head above water: They loaned me some books about money. I read them, and then went to the public library and borrowed more books on the topic. I started picking up personal-finance magazines and browsing financial websites. All of the advice made sense, but there were so many numbers and terms involved that I couldn’t keep them straight.

To make sense of it all for myself—and maybe to help some others along the way—I started writing about the things I learned and posting them at GetRichSlowly.org. I reviewed the books I read, shared the websites I found, and wrote down my thoughts about my relationship with ...