Comments on: Reader Mailbag #19

By: Kristie

Kristie — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 03:46:29 +0000

Hi Trent,
Knowing that you have two young children, ( I do as well) what are some solutions that you have come up with to decrease the cost of their constant need for new clothes as they grow so fast? I know there are garage sales, resale shops etc., but I was wondering if you knew of additional resources online that you have found luck with. You have mentioned having more children. Do you save their clothes for the next child to come along? Have you found good resources be able to resell their clothes after they have outgrown them?

By: Frugal Bachelor

Frugal Bachelor — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 03:34:56 +0000

What is your monthly income from this web site each month since January?

By: Nate

Nate — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:37:07 +0000

Mail bag Question:

1)How is you 101 goals in 1001 coming? Are you still actively tracking them?

2)Any ideas where someone might go to improve their public speaking skill

By: Dallas

Dallas — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:45:42 +0000

I’ve got a couple of related questions for you:

My husband and I currently live in the U.S. but are preparing to transfer to Europe with his company for a couple of years.

Do you have any advice on renting vs. selling our house? The market is not good right now, but I’m not sure if we’ll come back to this same location when we return.

Also, do you have any tips on what we should take with us or just purchase there? Clothes, furniture, appliances, vehicles, housewares, etc?

Thanks.

By: Kate

Kate — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:04:46 +0000

Thanks, Andrew!

By: Jeanine

Jeanine — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:43:51 +0000

I used to live near Proplayer Stadium, and we racked up lots of cash in Marlins tickets. They were great games but some of the best baseball is free! We can go out to our neighborhood Park during the season and watch the little leaguers and multiple games and see more action than the big league. Also some of my favorite are the varsity high school games and to find out a player on that team got a full ticket to college is even better.

By: Andrew Stevens

Andrew Stevens — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:00:26 +0000

Question: I understand you can take out $10,000 out of a retirement fund to buy a first home.
But if you have more than one IRA (from various jobs), can you take $10,000 out of each to make a bigger down payment and get the home paid off sooner?

Kate, I’m afraid not. Every person has only one IRA to take $10,000 from. You may have rolled over various 401(k)’s or similar accounts from previous jobs into your IRA (and even kept them separate without commingling the funds), but IRA regulations refer to the whole thing. However, if you’re married and both you and your spouse have separate IRAs, you can use $10,000 each.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 21:08:14 +0000

Matthieu, a 401k is a retirement plan, so whatever the Canadian equivalent is try checking that out.

By: Rob Madrid

Rob Madrid — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:20:36 +0000

J know you understand why people walk away from their houses while keeping their CC payments current

Matthieu check out the http://www.thedividendguyblog.com and /www.canadiancapitalist.com

Emily unfortunately what you need is marriage counseling to help teach your husband how to open up.

By: Kate

Kate — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:05:00 +0000

By: Shevy

Shevy — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 06:41:09 +0000

@Matthieu

There are lots of Canadian PF bloggers. Aside from my own relatively new blog there are plenty that have been around for a while. I read Give Me Back My Five Bucks (she has a Blogroll of Canadian PF Bloggers) and Quest for Four Pillars all the time. Financial Jungle and Loonies and Sense have good articles in their archives although they’ve both been kind of missing in action recently. Check a few out and they’ll lead you to others.

By: tiffanie

tiffanie — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 06:29:26 +0000

mmmm….cheese. i love cheese. i don’t know if i’ve ever really tried good blue cheese, though. i love feta on my spaghetti or other pasta dishes, or on a salad. mmmm. a wine and cheese tour through france would be lovely! i dream of traveling the world (when i’m debt free of course!) and would love to do a wine tour.

moving on.

in response to the sporting event thing…i like how you pointed out that the best seats don’t always necessarily make the experience. we went to a red wings game (go wings! woo!) back in January and we were literally in the last row of seats…but they were free tickets we got from a friend of the family. we brought two friends with us and all we paid for were drinks during the game! it was still enjoyable :)

By: Rouge

Rouge — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 03:48:35 +0000

For professional sports, if you have good stamina, get along well with people, aren’t afraid to gently and firmly confront drunks, can handle cash unsupervised, and are willing to commit to an entire season of home games, you could get a job as a vendor selling beer and hot dogs and sodas in the stands. Though you won’t see all the action, you’ll still get all the “atmosphere” plus make some money.

If selling isn’t your thing, your favorite sports club might have a community volunteer section, where people help out the (paying) fans during games. Again, you’ll be working, but you won’t be charged admission.

By: Bill

Bill — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:59:19 +0000

Check the contract to make sure there is not a balloon payment at the end of the five year period.

Bill

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:31:23 +0000

Trent, I’d like to know why you quit doing your monthly net worth review? It was nice to track mine along with someone…gave me a bit of competition. :)

By: Snuska

Snuska — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:49:35 +0000

Trent,

How do you keep from boredom setting in while trying to get your financial life in order? We find plently of free or cheap activities in the summertime but winter in Michigan is tough. We are trying to get our large amount of debt paid off and start to fund some retirement and college for our son but frankly I find frugality boring at times. Ideas?

By: Jessica

Jessica — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:45:34 +0000

Trent, I would like to hear how being optimistic has has influenced your frugality. You seem very optimistic even in the face of criticism.

By: Kris

Kris — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:00:57 +0000

Another way to save money on eMusic is to subscribe to rather than purchase music. This will not help you if you are an Ipod user (Apple does not want to cut into it’s cash cow) but if you listen on your PC or use certain players it can be a real money-saver. I subscribe to Rhapsody – $15/month – and it contains most of the music I listen to. SO I can listen to 100s or 1000s of tracks for my $15 instead of purchasing and downloading 15 or so tracks.

By: gr8whyte

gr8whyte — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:37:03 +0000

@ J : I know nothing about IO loans but the mtgprofessor says they convert into fully amortizing loans after the IO period ends meaning you should not have to refi unless you cannot make the higher monthly payment or want to for some other reason, e.g., high APR. All refis are new loans whose terms are based on then-market conditions meaning the amount that can be refi-ed is based on the value at the time of refi (your IO loan was, wasn’t it?). If debt=k$380, value=$300, and you can refi say 80%, you’ll need to come up with 380-0.8*300=k$140 cash, more if the value falls further, plus points, fees, etc.

By: K

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 19:38:35 +0000

Dana
Consider the fact that you are probably ahead of many college educated people. Some of them work for less than you but had to pay for their degrees and sometimes even MS degrees (teachers, social workers). You even said you make a decent wage, so the problem isn’t what you make, it’s what you spend. Cut back on the little things that are draining your budget (magazine subscriptions, unlimited text messaging, starbucks) that you don’t think about.