The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn't Have to Be Complicated

by Helaine Olen

even if you realize you are spending $200 a month too much on rent and decide to find a cheaper place to live, you’ll need to find the money to move—and even a short move to a nearby neighborhood can wipe out more than a year of savings.

tell them to put their credit card in a glass of water and then place it in the freezer. If you wanted to buy something with it, you needed to defrost the water. The delay, conventional wisdom said, stopped a lot of casual spending. It’s likely that’s true. Listen to the entrepreneur Terri Trespicio, who went all cash for several weeks and then wrote about it: