I’m participating in Money Side of Life’s Simplifive challenge, and yesterday I wrote about how it’s starting to change how I look at things:

Getting rid of things isn’t my only goal: I’m also getting obsessive about organizing. A more streamlined closet with better usage of space! Turning my bookshelf into a small entertainment system! Neatly organizing cooking utensils and silverware into one drawer! Once I start thinking about the possibilities, I can’t stop.

Emergencies strike every day without warning. What do you need to be prepared for and how?

I wrote a brief guide to preparedness at Money Side of Life. Check it out!

I interview G. Willow Wilson about her book Alif The Unseen in Bitch’s Elemental issue. Racialicious’ awesome Thea Lim also has a wonderful article about gendered genres, so it’s an awesomely bookish issue!

It’s on newsstands now, so pick up a copy! You can also order a digital copy at Bitch’s site.

We all look for confirmation that we’re buying the right product or service at the right price–I don’t like to buy clothes online without checking out reviews! My latest for Money Side of Life questions whether online customer reviews should be trusted.

Do you know what “The Snowball Method” is? It’s a way to pay down your debt:

Logically, it seems like a better idea to pay down debt with the highest annual percentage rate (APR) first, so you don’t rack up huge interest on an already-huge loan. But a team of researchers at Northwestern University have found the opposite.

Check out the whole post here.

Do you find it hard to put down your phone, even around others? Even when you’re eating a meal?

At lunchtime, my friends and I (all iPhone users) often slip into what I term “asshole mode,” where we’re all sitting around a table and simply staring at our phones while shoveling food into our mouths. Lunchtime chatting, gossip, and news sharing eventually devolves into us all quietly staring at our phones. Pinterest or emails seem to command our attention more than our family, friends, and colleagues.

I share a few ways you can get out of “asshole mode” at Money Side of Life.

Wajahat Ali’s post at Forbes inspired me to start thinking about how to invest in myself. I write out my thoughts about creating my own checklist for success:

Would I give up past trips to the Emirates or Denmark for a new car? Would I prefer a nicer apartment over the wonderful people I’ve met blogging the last five years? The answer is hell, no! I just need to reshift my perspective from time to time, and remember that a brand new car is something that I can always save up for, but the experiences I’ve had doing what I love are priceless and forever.

Check out the whole thing at Money Side of Life.

Here’s what happens when an underemployed twentysomething doesn’t receive responses to his resumes: he creates an experiment to see exactly what he’s up against, which has been dubbed The Craigslist Experiment.

Read my thoughts about it at Money Side of Life.

I write about what it is (and why not tipping just because The Economy is not cool) at Money Side of Life.