Gary Dek is a contributor to Gajizmo.com and is always looking for ways to make and invest money. Gary previously worked for an internet company on their M&A team, as well as investment banking and private equity firms in California. Some of life’s necessities, like homes and arguably cars, cost more than most people can save in 5 [...]

Debt Heroes By: Jeff Rose & Ben Edwards Ben and Jeff approached me a couple of weeks ago and asked if I’d like to read a copy of their book, Debt Heroes.  They released the book as a companion to the Debt Movement that Jeff started back in February.  They even offered it for free [...]

In my post “Are we Doing Personal Finance Wrong“, I talked a little bit about “Financial Freedom”.  Of all the comments that the post got, that was the one thing that was mentioned most of all.  Which, to me, means it bears some further discussion. Financial freedom, or financial independence, can be defined a little [...]

I’ve been going back and forth with myself over whether I should write a post about how I am withdrawing money from an IRA.  It’s not something that is recommended, and certainly not something that most people who write personal finance blogs talks about.  In fact, it’s somewhat embarrassing that I am doing it at [...]

For the last three years, my husband and I have had a very low income, well under the median income level of the average American family.  This was a result of my decision to launch a freelance writing career and my husband finishing his Ph.D. We live in the suburbs of Chicago, so living expenses [...]

Is a personal loan ever the right choice for you?  I’m not talking about payday loans, or those fun (or not) personal loans that happen in the back alley of a pawn shop, but honest to goodness personal loans from a bank.  Maybe you’ve heard them referred to as an unsecured loan. A personal loan [...]

I don’t use any online financial tools.  And it’s not for the reason you’re probably thinking of.  It isn’t because I’m afraid that my information is going to get stolen and some hacker is going to run off and steal all my money to buy the country of Dubai.  It’s not that I don’t find [...]

I think we can all agree that most debt is bad.  Some of us might even agree that all debt is bad.  Nearly all of us will also agree that nearly all of us have debt.  It’s not a comfortable thing to have usually, and, since you’re reading this, I can only assume that you’re [...]

Any good anti-debt blogger (like me!) will be able to tell you all kinds of ways to pay off your debt.  There’s methods, and tips, and even a certain way to hold your nose. Ok, maybe I’m kidding about that tips bit.  Or is it the nose part?  I’m confused.  Seriously though.  There’s a debt [...]

I often get asked why I started this site.  And my response is always that it was a great way for me to share some of the things that I was learning as my wife and I struggled with our debt.  All of the things that we were learning through books, trial-and-error, and online that [...]