michael
ps I love the website

I have three dogs, and they are very expensive, despite working at an emergency vet clinic where I get a hefty discount. They are certainly worth it, but I would not advise getting any pet without much care and consideration. Also, there are many things you can do to reduce expenses:

Food: yes, you can make your own, but it can be difficult and time-consuming. Dogs with food allergies (often manifested as skin problems) are usually allergic to a protein source, either a grain or meat. So to “cure” the problem, it would need to be switched to “novel” protein sources (those that it has never been exposed to). Most hypo-allergenic dog foods use exotic meats such as duck, venison, salmon or rabbit and no grains at all (they are bulked up with potatoes or sweet potatoes). This can be more expensive to duplicate at home than to purchase from the vet (and they are quite pricey there).

Toys: My dogs love to play with old socks and stuffed animals purchased for 10cents each at Goodwill. Cats can go with just a wadded up piece of paper or the ring from the milk (my childhood cat’s favoirite). The most important thing is to make sure that the toy is not eaten-foreign body surgery is one of the more pricey vet bills, and if not caught early, it can lead to death.

Vet: Get your vaccines (and from a vet, not the feed store). Many people think that they are saving money by skipping, but treating a puppy for parvovirus can run into the thousands, and there is no cure, so they could still die. Take a new pet to the vet immediately in order to catch problems quickly and prevent future ones. Adopt from a shelter or rescue group (these pets often come spayed or neutered and vaccinated, and it is cheaper than a breeder). If you must get from a breeder, make sure that you are able to see the parents (or at least mom) and where they are kept-filthy conditions and sick looking mom do not bode well for the health of a puppy or kitten. And never, never, buy from the back of a truck in a parking lot!

Also, you will want to thoroughly research the breed or breed mix and what they are susceptible to, in order to be prepared. For instance, if you get a dachshund-be sure to have a few thousand dollars in the bank because chances are good that you will need back surgery at some point. And cats, if they live long enough, will likely go into kidney failure.

Spay/neuter. Altered pets are less likely to roam, and a litter can be expensive to care for. And put your pet on heartworm prevention-it may be pricey, but it is cheaper than treatment.

Restraint: Cats should be kept indoors or walked on a leash (it can be done), and dogs indoors in inclement (and too hot or cold) weather, in a secure fence or on a leash at any other time. The saddest and most expensive vet visits are often hit-by-cars, and there is the possibility of fighting with other animals running loose, or getting picked up by the pound (which can be costly).

Finally, pet proof your home. Research poisonous substances and keep them out of your home or in a high, closed cabinet. All medications and drugs are bad for pets, and you would be surprised how much of a bitter pill they will eat. Also, keep rat bait, insecticides, fertilizers, slug killers and herbicides out of your home…they are bad news. Other things you eat that are bad for your pet: gum containing xylitol, chocolate, macadamia nuts, raisins/grapes, onions, garlic and I am sure that I am missing some. And don’t forget to research your landscaping choices: cocoa hull mulch, sago palm and others can be quite harmful, and many nuts can cause foreign bodies.

Sorry for the long post, just want people to make responsible decisions regarding their pets.

Amit

I posted this in the other thread, but I think this is the right one fore reader mailbag questions.. I am repeating here

I dont know if I belong at this site much, but most posts interest me.. I am a bachelor, 26 right now, planning to get married early next year. I have always been a major proponent of the simple statement “Your expenditure should never be more than the Income” month after month after month. I spend decently lavishly, eat lunches out, dont cook at home, buy food from outside for dinner too, but I still manage to save one out of the two paychecks I receive in a month. That is, half of it. In my current spending of half monthly pay, I match my company’s 401(k) full match and I have a long way for retirement. I recently paid off my 22k car (Camry so has a lot of life on it still) out of savings after considerable thought if I should hold it in CDs versus paying off the loan but my 4% on savings with tax was far less than my 5.5% car loan. I saved up around 85k by now. All of it is in either short term CDs or in Savings accounts. The problem now is, lately I have been thinking a lot, as to why should I save now any more. At times, I think, I should spend my entire pay check from the next month at least until my marriage. Some times, I dont understand why I should save any more. So my question is, after a certain level of savings when you are debt free, what is the incentive for saving? Why should you save any more?

That said, I thought tadeusz had a reasonable answer, and I echo it. Pick a date you are not likely to live past, and figure you’re going to run out of money then. There are planners (MSN has a retirement planner) which can use to play with the numbers. You’ll base it on how much you currently make and what percentage you want in retirement to spend (typically 80% of current income).

For example, lets say you make 36K a year, you want to replace 80% ($28,800). At 2% of earned interest you’d need 1.44 million in savings. (all of this is in today’s dollars and the projection accounts for inflation). However, if you were to retire with less than half that (say 602K), and earn 3% over inflation on those savings, and you withdraw principle as well, you would last 32 years into retirement, so if you retired at 65, you’d be out of money at 97. If you’re 35, save 15% (say 10% of yours, 5% of an employers match) and have 25K put away already, this is doable. This is without getting anything back from social security or any other income you may be able to save beyond this amount.

Is it better to have more money when you retire because you don’t know what the future holds? Well, yeah, it’s pretty much always better to have more to retire with than less. My point is that you don’t have to have these multimillion dollar savings projection for retirement to have a potentially comfortable and livable retirement. I certainly feel that you should be able to save 15-20% of your annual income over 30 years or so and be able to retire reasonably. That shouldn’t kill anyones current lifestyle to do that.

(Which boards do you play TtR on? I prefer Europe, America is too balanced for me. Switzerland can be fun too, even for 2 players. I haven’t played Scandinavian board yet)

I’ve been a fan of your book reviews, and read a lot of your recommendations. Like you, I have recently been interested in philosophy, and it revolutionized my thinking particularly in religion politics and economics.

Please review some philosophy books too. I eagerly want to know this side of you.

As always, great site, keep up the good work.

Once in grad school, I realize coursework is not the focus, however, you are still expected to get high marks. Most profs only give A’s and B’s to grad classes. (This may vary in your field.)

My favorite part of Mondays is your Reader Mailbag. I don’t know why I like it so much. Probably because I am nosey and you divulge personal information. It is pretty cool…

Anyway, I was wondering if you have heard of ChaCha answering service for your cell phone and if you think it is AWESOME?????

A waitperson is not a career goal, but even that is a stepping stone. My first job in my field (an internship) was secured in part because I had already demonstrated I could deal with stress/customers and manage my time well.

Obviously, if your grades suffer you shouldn’t work, but telling students “school is your only job” just seems so high school to me. :)

One of the websites for tracking money is buxfer.com. You can login with your OpenID, Yahoo!, GMAIL or other IDs and you can keep track of your income and expenses. They don’t ask for bank details or anything like that so there is no change of identity theft.

lady, the latest, was adopted – for free, even! – with the full knowledge she would live, at the most, two months. she had been abused and medically neglected so badly, it took three months of one-on-one care from the vet, who took her to his own home. she was still shaved from where the six-by-eight inch pain patch had been applied.

honestly? she was a train wreck. couldn’t even walk without a towel used as a sling to support her hind legs: her back had been broken from a blow from something long and thin, like a broomstick.

i took her home with me and, after extensive research, decided to put her on the BARF diet – Bones And Raw Food.

not only was it the cheapest pet food EVAR, but she lived just over six months – and after one month on the diet, i retired the walking towel to the linen closet. she was not only walking, she would play and gambol – she loved the snow and would run across the yard ploughing up the snow with her nose. being a pale champagne-coloured cross between a rough collie and a samoyed, she was *beautiful* against the pure white backdrop.

one month supply from the butcher – chicken wing tips, chicken backs, lamb ribs, beef marrowbones, whatever he had going – cost me less than thirty bucks and probably woulda been cheaper except i often nipped into it to make soup stock. the veggies were free from the local grocery store – they often donate culled produce as animal feed although they were a bit bemused when they heard it was for a dog!

and an egg (pureed with teh shell for calcium) a day isn’t going to break any banks.

okay, now i have a question:

my hubbie, bless his heart, is obsessed with money. always saying we don’t have enough to make the bills, etc, etc. i’ve done the math and quite frankly, if i were to get a job, i’d be working just to pay off day care.

yes, he smokes, drinks, buys hundreds of dollars in photography equipment he honestly doesn’t even use, just likes to show off, goes out to the bar once or twice a week. that’s an issue with which i am in the process of dealing.

what i’d like to know is how to i get him to appreciate my efforts? his tactic is “get more money, get more money” – mine is “keep what we have, keep what we have”.

i use coupons like stink.

our long-distance is free because a friend of mine has given me her calling card – she gets unlimited at flat rate.

i bake bread – a loaf costs 80c instead of 2.29

i make my own detergent

i line-dry the clothes instead of paying 2,50 for an hour drying time.

the baby runs around naked much of the day – a box of 92 diapers lasts me over a month instead of the usual two weeks; long enough to make it to the next $20/box sale.

i have purchased not one drop of formula, not a single bottle.

i use the computer for directory assistance and to check grocery flyers to find teh best sales each week. he drives to one grocery store, i walk to the other, and we cover both.

but even though i’m stretching money so far it screams, it’s not good enough for him!

any ideas on getting info through his thick head?

We have a dog and she does cost us money, but for us, that extra cost is worth it. I’m in vet tech school, so I can get her yearly vaccines done at a fairly low cost at the school’s clinic. Other than her sensitive stomach, she’s a pretty healthy dog, so save for one really expensive weekend, her vet bills have been pretty minimal. Our biggest (recurring) expense with her is food. She’s allergic to rice (yes, rice, that great ingredient that’s used in “sensitive stomach” dog foods), which is a key ingredient in nearly every decent dog food. The food she gets is a little more than I’d like to pay for dog food, but it’s either that or she gets crummy food. And when you do the math, it costs us about $25/month to feed her, which really isn’t bad, considering the amount of enjoyment we get out of her.

Regarding games: Apples to Apples is another great game. It’s great for laughs.

It does seem to me that a stock investment ought to keep one up with inflation. If the dollar cost of a loaf of bread goes over time, the dollar value of a share of bread company should go up at the same pace, right?

As to board games: I would like to recommend Bohnanza, Yspahan, and Tichu (a lot like many basic trick-taking card games, and yet one of the most popular games in my gaming group.)