Comments on: Reader Mailbag #68

By: Kas

Kas — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:33:24 +0000

New question for you:

How do you go about finding pictures to complement your blog posts? I know you use Flickr-hosted images with creative commons restrictions, but what is your process for figuring out what pictures to use?

By: ShootDawg

ShootDawg — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:48:04 +0000

Concerning the trading/purchasing of used items, in this case, dvds and cds, to where the original “producers” receiving northing from the aftermarket sale.. wouldnt this apply to everything that is made/produced?
for example, someone built my house, yet when I bought it used from the previous owner, the original builder (and workers) did not receive any of the money from my sale.
As someone else pointed out, the same goes for used cars, and just about everything. Services are harder to resell, although it can be done.. search the internet for a fix to a problem, and most likely the original customer had to pay for that fix, if it was in the way of a support contract or such.

By: almost there

almost there — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:34:15 +0000

Sleigh, #43. That is how they do it. If you never carried a balance and paid off by the due date you could take advantage of the days from the charge date to the due date for an interest free loan. But since you carried a balance there is interest accruing from the billing date until you paid off the balance from the latest bill. So you are billed for that additional interest. In reality one can never pay it off if paying by mail since interest accrues while the check is sent until it is posted. Most cc companies will eat the few cents in interest charges after you pay the additional interest from the last bill you paid off.

By: sleigh

sleigh — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:19:43 +0000

My husband and I recently withdrew equity from our house in order to pay off considerable credit card debt. I felt that this was a reasonable risk because 1) we owe less than one quarter of our home’s value in a mortgage, 2) Our bank offered us a HELOC loan with a fixed rate of 4% for the next ten years, 3) we would be able to pay off the loan within 10 years with a lower payment than we were currently making on the credit card, and 4) the interest rate on the credit cards were much higher than 4%. I was so relieved when we sent in the last credit card payment and paid the full statement balance. What I didn’t expect was that this month the credit card company sent us another bill for a full months interest even though the balance had been paid off in the last statement. The company said that this was for the difference in days between when the statement was issued and the balance was paid. What I don’t understand is that the last payment was made before the due date and no further charges were made, so how can they charge me more interest?

By: Linda

Linda — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:31:32 +0000

My sister asked me if I knew anything about https://powerpay.org/. I hadn’t heard of it and you have to sign up to access the site. Have you heard about it?

By: reulte

reulte — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:14:03 +0000

If I was 18 and single (and knew everything I know now), I wouldn’t go to college. I’d travel. What makes people ‘grow up’ are the unexpected events (aka ‘emergencies’ or ‘adventures’) in life. That is something that isn’t always learned in college – especially if/when someone else is footing the bill.

By: DrFunZ

DrFunZ — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:48:07 +0000

My thoughts…

Use the library! The folks there are well trained and want to help. Use the DVDs and take out the books. Use the computers. These were all paid for by your tax dollars.

I am really angry right now that saving rates are so low. How does anyone expect to convince folks to save when they get a piddling 1.6% on their investment?? I luckily sold my home in Sept and am still trying to find the right mix of investments to make in this ridiculous economy.

OK enough whining from me… I think I’ll go eat BBQ – y’all made me hungry yapping about that BBQ sauce!

By: FrugalCubicle

FrugalCubicle — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:52:31 +0000

Trent – please revisit your thoughts on college. If an 18 yr old has the opportunity to go to college then they should. If it is not “right” for them, then they can come to that conclusion after they have tried to succeed. Education is a great privilege.

You wouldn’t have told Lebron James to forego highschool because he was talented enough to be drafted when he was in 8th grade.

By: Marsha

Marsha — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:31:58 +0000

Trent wrote “The purpose of going to college is to grow as a person.” I disagree – while it can be a place to grow as a person, the real purpose is to get an education. People disagree as to whether it’s an education to make a living or a general, liberal arts-type education.

Personally, I think the mistakes in judgment I made in college were because I hadn’t done enough growing as a person. College didn’t really “grow me up.” I only matured once I got out of college.

I’m sure all this depends on the person and the college/university, too.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:31:45 +0000

Trent sees college as just a way to make money. The primary purpose of college should be to gain a liberal arts education.

By: SteveJ

SteveJ — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:04:55 +0000

@Damester – That is a well thought out reply. The only issue I have is that far too few HS grads are ready to take advantage of college and would be wasting their (or their parents’) money and time. I’m fairly certain that just going to college isn’t conducive to finding your way. I was surrounded by intelligent people that went to college because they had no other idea what to do, and 4-10 years later, that was still the case. I do agree with the merits of exposure to new ideas and thinking, I’m just not sure college is the most cost effective way to do that. Completing two years of college and dropping out with no piece of paper to show has to be equivalent to some other learning experience that isn’t quite so costly. It’s hard to come up with a dispute to the issue of degree inflation, a PhD is already worthless in many fields. Is sending more people who aren’t driven to educate themselves the right answer? I think some life experience before college is a good thing for many of the people who are only going to college because they’re supposed to. I know the middle-aged students in my classes were always more engaged and I believe it’s because they knew what they working towards or working to get away from.

@Brandon – We have a winner! I’ve had better barbecue in Houston, Memphis, and KC, but I haven’t tasted better sauce yet.

By: Dawn loves dobermans

Dawn loves dobermans — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:48:58 +0000

About the college issue. I hae mixed feelings about that. I went when I was 18, and then had to “bow out” for a quite a few times due to injuries/health problems. I’m not sad I started at 18, although there is a truth I learned/realized about myself as time went on: as my life experience taught me more than I had as a very sheltered 18 year old, the better equipt I was at learning things outside of pure science. I am a decently smart person, but I remember in HS, say in English, being completely unable to do the “reading between the lines” type stuff. “The Great Gatsby” was something that I just couldn’t get, beyond just reading the story. I had couldn’t comprehend extramarital affairs. That was something I couldn’t wrap my head around. So unless the reasons were stated clearly, baldly, right oer my head. So all those “clues”, the “empty desert” the sign with the eyes watching over … well, anyways, I ended up learning more and much easier as I got older and became more “wise to the world”. My thought only. Though, frankly, I couldn’t imagine doing anything other than college at that age, either!

By: Joy McDougal

Joy McDougal — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 06:40:16 +0000

Though I share your sentiment about switching banks a little, it is not rational. At all.

There are many online high-interest accounts, and if you limit yourself to those that offer the same benefits, but differ in interest-rate, there’s no reason not to make multiple accounts and keep moving your money. Apart from the few minutes you have to invest in keeping tabs on interest-rates.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 06:18:58 +0000

This really has nothing to do with this week’s mailbag, but instead is a question that I’ve been wondering about for a while. I’m 18 years old but looking about 7-10 years into the future at the purchase of my first house. Without getting into the whole renting vs. buying debate, I’m internally debating whether or not it would be a good idea to put my savings toward a down payment into my Roth IRA for the time being and, when the time comes, use the contributions earmarked for the down payment plus some earnings (since up to $10,000 would be non-taxable for a first time home buyer).

My thinking is this: with the way the market is now, I have a great chance to buy low. I’d like to think that, in 7-10 years when I’m looking to buy, the economy will have turned around, allowing me to sell high. This idea wouldn’t affect my normal contributions to my Roth IRA and I’m thinking that I’d determine how much of the earnings I’d pull by some simple ratio of (contributions earmarked for down payment/total contributions * earnings).

Thoughts? Ideas? Comments?

By: prodgod

prodgod — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:27:31 +0000

From a royalties perspective, I seriously question what the difference is between downloading a pirated movie and renting, borrowing, trading, or buying a used copy. In each of those cases (including the pirated download), the creators were paid only once, at the time of the initial retail purchase. Decades ago, it was illegal to resell used records, I assume for this very reason.

I no longer buy new CD’s or DVD’s at all, so whatever way I choose to acquire them will never make a financial difference to those who created them.

By: MT

MT — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:54:18 +0000

As a new(ish) reader of your site, I really enjoyed your series of “best of the simple dollar” posts with links to stuff that you have written about in the past.

I’m just curious about some aspects/areas of finance and frugality that you DON’T touch on your blog or don’t subscribe to in real life. Other than couponing and the fact that you are willing to pay premiums for good food, I can’t think of any specifics that you’ve mentioned.

By: Tyler

Tyler — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:14:15 +0000

I cannot disagree MORE about the DVD answer.

The argument of “I learn about new artists/actors/directors/etc. from trading” is only valid IF you purchase new/retail copies of that person’s work. Continuing to trade for that person because you now know of them does NOT gain the artist new business, thus no new money.

Additionally, a trade/swap of CD for CD or DVD for DVD is WORSE than pirating – when you pirate, one artist loses out on a retail purchase; when you trade, two artists lose out on a retail purchase.

The best option is to use the library (the legal and tax-sponsored entity) to learn of new artists, and to purchase new products from said artists in a critical-fashion through a retail outlet.

By: Brandon

Brandon — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:38:25 +0000

For BBQ sauce Rudy’s. It’s a chain in South Texas and it whips McClards! (I went to graduate school at the UofA).

For a dry rub Rendevouz is probably the best I’ve ever had though.

By: Liz

Liz — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:46:58 +0000

Hey Trent,

I just wanted to tell you that I checked “Getting Things Done” out of the library after your latest review of it. Two days later I bought it. Wow. Talk about life changing. The project planning steps alone have already resolved several areas of my life I’ve battled for years.

One area in particular I am most excited about is that my husband and I have used the program as an inspiration and springboard for a “Getting Money Done” program. It would be too lengthy to describe here. If you’d like the details, please email me and I’d be happy to send them to you.

Thank you for repeatedly mentioning this book. I had checked out of the library the last time you reviewed it but never got the time to read it. You are right – it is a must read for everyone. We’ve been drowning in clutter, drowning in debt and totally overwhelmed. This book is the lifeboat we needed. Thank you!

By: Jenna

Jenna — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:05:49 +0000

Frank’s situation with the retail credit card makes me sick. Going along with the other comments, I’m pretty sure that that’s illegal. I would call the 1-800 number on the back of the card and confirm that you cannot pay any higher amount than the minimum payment if you haven’t done that already.

I once had a certain retail card that had a ridiculous amount of interest. What I did is pay a certain amount above the minimum payment (whatever I could afford in my budget). When I got my tax return at the beginning of this year, I used that to pay off the rest of the card. I then cut up the card and never vowed to use a retail card ever again. If you and your wife tend to get a good amount of money back from taxes every year, this could be an option for you.

Good luck!