March’s Issue of Real Simple Magazine Is Dedicated To Money

I’ve been a Real Simple subscriber for about three years. I like their little tips and the clean layout of the magazine. It’s kind of like relaxing fluff reading and learning a few new things at the same time.

First, their reader question of the day was “On a scale of 1-10 how much do you worry about money?” It didn’t make for some interesting reads like usual questions (like “best advice you ever got” or “favorite drug store product”). Some people worry, some people don’t is what it comes down to. Overall, it wasn’t a strong lead-in to the money issue.

I flipped through and found their main article “Your biggest money worries, solved“. Let me share a few of my favorite tips:

1) Change all your computer passwords to reflect your larger goal. For example, if you want to remodel your kitchen or move to France, your computer password could be vivel@france2015. This subconciously makes your goal more ingrained in your head, and makes you more likely to be able to save for it.

2) Have money automatically deducted from your pay check or checking account to put into savings and retirement. You won’t even miss it.

3) Write down everything you spend so you can know where you can cut.

4) Find other hobbies besides shopping, like taking a dance class or “watch YouTube videos”. (I may add to this personally fulfulling activities that are good for your body or brain. I think we all tend to consume too much media… unless it is the educational variety that is.)

For the 23 year old married girl in my income bracket, they told her she was saving more than enough money and could hold off on her employer’s 401K while she saved for a downpayment on a house. Meanwhile, I’m pouring all my extra money into my retirement account, thinking of the value of compound interest. Hmph.

Besides the money portion, the issue includes the best blogs (though they did not list personal finance blogs), how to cook fish, clothing items that will never go out of style, how to make yourhome ecofriendly, and a guide to buying major appliances.

Overall, I was hoping for a little more from Real Simple. There are plenty of interesting topics you can tackle with money (as you have seen with this blog, I hope). But I do understand that a lot of smaller topics are covered in addition to the theme of the issue.

So don’t buy this issue for the money tips but do buy it for the other reasons you like the magazine: clean lines and interesting, light reads that are perfect before bed or general perusing.

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