Lenny writes in with a fairly distressing email:

All of your articles assume a few things, and one of the big ones is hope for the future. Most of what you talk about is useless if you don’t have anything to live for.

My first reaction to this was to send Lenny a private email suggesting that he may be depressed and encouraging him to talk to his doctor about taking some steps to improve his situation, which is what I usually do when I receive emails from people who seem to be depressed (I seem to get a lot of them, actually).

The more I thought about Lenny’s comment, though, the more I realized that he was right in some ways. Many of the posts on The Simple Dollar do assume that you have something to live for.

I often leave that “something to live for” completely unstated because, for me, I don’t have to look around at the world too much to find things that are worth living for. My wife and my kids are the first obvious answers, but there are many more than that: the charities and groups that I try to help, the Simple Dollar readers that I know I’m helping, the well-being of my community as a whole, social concerns I’m involved with, and so on. Even if I were to lose my wife and children at this point, I think that, after I reeled from the blow for a while, I would have enough things that are worth living for that I would eventually pick myself up and move on.

If that type of answer doesn’t come easily for you, the easy answer is to simply say you’re depressed. After further thought, however, I don’t think depression is the only answer here. It can easily be a matter of simply not yet finding something in your life that lights your fire.

If you’re involved in that type of struggle, where the underlying motivation to improve your situation at all is a struggle, here are a few suggestions for you.

Find ways to be more social. For some (including myself), it can be a real challenge to interact successfully with other people in face-to-face environments. I’ll be the first to admit that I have to really work at this to make it happen, as my own self-consciousness tends to undermine me every time.

However, making that effort offers tremendous rewards beyond the simple joy of companionship. I get a unique opportunity to learn more about the world and about the people around me. I get the chance to see the world through the eyes of others. I get to see that the experience of happiness and joy and sadness are all not just unique to me. Almost always, I’m left with a desire to make the world a better place somehow.

Look into the situations of people with fewer advantages than you. If you’re reading this, you have more advantages than a lot of people in this world. There are people without food to eat. There are people without clean water. There are people without basic education. There are people without basic skills. Often, this isn’t a matter of self-sufficiency or lack thereof.

I’m often particularly affected by the plight of children, which is why I often mention Jump for Joel, and the plight of the developmentally disabled, which is why I often mention L’arche Tahoma Hope.

Explore the varieties of religious experience. An exploration of one’s spiritual side often brings into light the nature of life. I don’t just mean go to church. I mean exploring the practices of a lot of different faiths. Try different methods of prayer and of meditation. Visit houses of worship of vastly different religions than your own.

This isn’t a push to abandon your own beliefs. It’s encouragement to find new ways to connect to your spiritual side and to dig deep into your own connections to the world and to what lies beyond, whether you’re a Christian or a Muslim or an atheist.

Read philosophy. The works of great philosophers often hold incredible value for helping us understand the world. For example, the writings of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson have had a huge impact on my life over the past year or so, shaking some of the fundamental ways in which I view the world.

Each time I notice myself growing and changing, I find that my connection to the world is stronger and my purpose in life is greater than it was before.

Explore the world around you. Go on a walk in the woods or a stroll through a park. Walk around the block. Stroll through what you consider to be a different neighborhood than your own. Look around and watch and listen.

What do you see that you like? What do you see that bothers you and makes you uncomfortable? Why do you feel this way about these things? Are they based on real things that you can work to change, or are they based on your own preconceptions? Just wandering around can open lots of purposeful doors for us.

Rather than thinking about what you can’t do, think about what you can do. Many people, particularly those who are ill or disabled, tend to focus on the things that they can’t do. They can’t get around too well. They get tired easily. They’re in pretty constant pain from their knees.

What they forget to see is the abundance of things they can do. A low-energy person can still rock a baby to sleep and bring that baby comfort. A person who can’t get around very well can still read stories at the library or read aloud from novels at a retirement home.

If you focus on the abundance of things you can do rather than dwell on the things you can’t do, you can always find yourself to be very helpful to those who need you.

I consider Netflix streaming to be one of the best bargains out there in entertainment. For $9 a month (assuming you have a home internet connection), you gain access to an enormous libraries of commercial-free films and television series. You can choose what you want and, if your internet connection is fast, you’ll be watching it within a minute or so.

One problem-within-a-blessing with Netflix streaming, though, is that there is a mountain of content on there – and a fair amount of it is awful. You have to dig around to find good stuff on there, but if you can dig a bit, there’s a lot of good stuff.

Which brings us to a reader email. Tom writes in:

You’ve mentioned great finds on Netflix streaming several times on The Simple Dollar. Why don’t you collect all of them into one place, so we can book mark it?

Your wish is my command.

Below are 75 things I’ve found on Netflix streaming that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed, from television series to documentaries, from comedies to dramas. I’m positive that somewhere on this list, there are a few things that you haven’t seen that you’ll love. Some of these you’ve seen me mention before. Others are new.

I’ve broken the list down into some arbitrary categories. Also, all television series are linked to the first season of the series – many series have multiple seasons on Netflix streaming. I’m also going to challenge myself to describe each entry in the length of a tweet – 140 characters or less. (You can, of course, click through to read more information.)

It’s also worth noting that this list is current as of early April 2011. Netflix constantly makes small adjustments to the programs they offer on streaming, so inevitably a few of these will disappear over time, while other interesting stuff is added.

Films – Animation
Ponyo: A wonderful coming-of-age story that my two older children absolutely love.
The Iron Giant: This is my all-around favorite animated movie of all time.
Up: If the first five minutes of this Pixar movie doesn’t tear you up, you haven’t experienced deep love yet.

Films – Comedy
Bill Hicks Live: Bill Hicks is my favorite stand-up comedian of all. This provides four vintage stand-up sets from him.
Chicago: A comedy-musical-drama that won the Best Picture Oscar several years ago.
Duck Soup: This is, in my opinion, the vintage black and white comedy.
Fargo: Extremely dark humor all throughout this film.
Groundhog Day: One classic debate I’ve had with my wife is figuring out how many years pass during this film.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead: If you’ve ever enjoyed Shakespeare, this is absolutely hilarious. It turns Hamlet on its ear.

Films – Documentary
Capturing the Friedmans: An utterly gripping picture of a family in crisis.
Down on the Mountain: A wonderful summary of bluegrass and Americana music. I’ll turn it on and just listen to the music.
Exit Through the Gift Shop: An amazing (and often hilarious) documentary on the commercialization of art.
Hoop Dreams: A great perspective on the challenges and exploitation in youth sports.
In Debt We Trust: A deep look at the challenge of personal debt in America.
Jesus Camp: Incredibly insightful and polarizing look at the practices at a church camp.
Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery: Beautiful coverage of the discoveries that Lewis and Clark made on their journey.
Man on Wire: A look at how a high-wire walk between the towers of the World Trade Center in 1974 was pulled off.
Maxed Out: Much like “In Debt We Trust” (above), a great look at personal debt in America.
No Direction Home: Bob Dylan: A musically and artistically rich look at the impact of Bob Dylan on American music and art.
Restrepo: A documentary about life on the ground for a platoon in Afghanistan.
Super Size Me: An insightful and very entertaining look at the impact of fast food on health.
The One Percent: What does the increasing gap between the rich and poor in America really look like?
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price: A look at how Wal-Mart keeps their prices low and profit high through pushing the costs off onto other aspects of business.

Films – Drama
Amadeus: A very entertaining look at the sometimes seedy life of Mozart.
Barton Fink: A very dark look at the life of a writer with an extreme case of writer’s block.
Bonnie and Clyde: A spectacular classic film about the escapades of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker.
Charade: One of the best thrillers of all time. The less I tell you, the better.
Everything Is Illuminated: A quirky look at someone coming to terms with their ethnic heritage.
Following: Christopher Nolan’s (Inception) first movie, a dark look at the challenges of writer’s block.
Gangs of New York: A powerful movie about the early days of gangsterism in America.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: Jack Nicholson’s performance as a psychiatric ward patient is one of the best things ever put to film.
Precious: A heartbreaking story about personal redemption.
Sling Blade: Billy Bob Thornton is amazing as a developmentally-challenged man in a small town.
The Graduate: One of the small handful of movies I’d call essential viewing.

Films – Foreign
Amelie: A quirky French romantic comedy. If I weren’t married, I’d fall in love with the main character.
Blind Shaft: A bleak but powerful Chinese film about life in the Chinese coal mines.
Oldboy: An amazing South Korean action film that is best if unspoiled at all.
Seven Samurai: A classic Japanese Kurosawa film upon which the American film “The Magnificent Seven” was based.
The 400 Blows: A French film with a very memorable main character about the challenges that juvenile offenders face in their lives.
Yojimbo: A classic Japanese samurai film about a lone warrior caught between two gang bosses.

Films – Sci-Fi/Fantasy
District 9: A powerful film about loss of identity through the eyes of humans and alien refugees.
Escape from New York: One of my favorite films as a teenager, this is a classic sci-fi action film.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: A gorgeous epic film about the harrowing journey of an individual with a great burden to bear and those who help him.

Series – Comedy
30 Rock: A quirky comedy about the production of a television show.
Archer: An animated humorous take on James Bond style spy movies.
Arrested Development: A wonderfully self-referential comedy about a clueless rich family.
Better Off Ted: A comedy about the challenges of working for a soulless corporation.
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog: A short musical series about the emotional conflicts of a supervillain.
Futurama: What will the year 3,000 look like?
Scrubs: A great series about hospital workers… for the first five or six seasons or so.
The Guild: A warped look at the lives of obsessive players of online RPGs (a thinly-disguised World of Warcraft).
The IT Crowd: A darkly comical look at how IT workers deal with life.
The League: An amusing but sometimes serious look at the members of a fantasy football league.
The Office: A great series about professional life at a “typical” office environment.
The Office (UK): The superior (in my opinion) British predecessor of the above series.

Series – Documentary
Cosmos: The best documentary I’ve ever seen. Carl Sagan looks at the universe.
Frontline: Not a single series, but a large collection of short documentaries on various subjects.
God in America: How Religious Liberty Shaped America: A great look at the ties between religion and the history of America.
Ken Burns’ The Civil War: Moving coverage of America’s Civil War, and surprisingly effective at humanizing it.
Ken Burns’ The War: An emotionally (and factually) powerful look at the second world war.
Ken Burns: Baseball: A deep look at the history of baseball and how it’s intrinsically tied to American history.
Ken Burns: Jazz: A look at the history of jazz music and the deep ties it holds to the twentieth century in America.

Series – Drama
Bones: A great series about forensic anthropology and human relationships.
Damages: The single best legal drama I’ve ever seen.
Friday Night Lights: If you think this show is about football, you haven’t watched it.
Sons of Anarchy: A harrowing look at an anarchist motorcycle gang and the conflicts they create.

Series – Sci-Fi
Battlestar Galactica: The single best sci-fi television series I’ve ever seen. If you’ve ever even considered watching one, watch this one.
Doctor Who: A quirky British series about a time traveller who pops up at different points and locations.
Firefly: The second best sci-fi series I’ve ever seen, and a bit more tongue-in-cheek than the first.
Flashforward: A great series about the consequences of being able to see six months into the future.
Lost: A wonderful (and deep) series about isolation, life, death, and hope.
Stargate SG-1: A very fun and light series about humans who visit other planets and cultures.
The X-Files: You couldn’t pay me enough to miss this series throughout the 1990s. This is the grandaddy of modern sci-fi on TV.
Torchwood: A great series about a team that investigates abnormal events.
Twin Peaks: A very quirky series about a strange small town and a murder investigation.

Grab some friends (or your honey), pop some popcorn, and settle in for some low-cost entertainment!

Each week, I highlight ten things each week that inspired me to greater financial, personal, and professional success. Hopefully, they will inspire you as well.

1. David Foster Wallace on experience
Whenever you find yourself deeply disagreeing with someone, keep this in mind:

“The exact same experience can mean two totally different things to two different people, given those people’s two different belief templates and two different ways of constructing meaning from experience.” – David Foster Wallace

The same exact event can reinforce the existence of God for one person and reinforce the atheism of another. A single occurrence can make one person feel more politically liberal and make another person feel more conservative.

Reflections like this make me reconsider how I feel about people I disagree with. Often, they’re just processing the world a little differently than I do. That doesn’t make them bad or evil. In fact, it’s an opportunity to understand the world a bit better.

2. Richard St. John – “Success is a continuous journey”
This is a brilliant little talk about how success is a continuous thing:

You don’t just wake up one morning and find that you’re successful. Instead, if you spend a day working hard on being a success at whatever you choose, you can go to bed knowing you’re just a tiny bit more successful than the day before.

3. Instapaper
So often, I’ll find long magazine articles or essays online and I wish I had an easy way to read them offline. Instapaper solves this problem incredibly well.

This tool enables you to “bookmark” long articles for later reading. Instapaper does a pretty good job of just extracting the text from those articles. It then makes these articles available to you in a bunch of different ways, from pages you can print yourself, documents you can read on your Kindle, or a reading tool for your smartphone or iPod Touch or iPad.

I’ve read so many interesting and valuable things because of this tool.

4. Van Gogh’s Zonnebloemen (1889)
Van Gogh is my favorite painter of all time. Often, you can look at his paintings as a whole and have a feeling that they’re simplistic, but when you look at the detail that went into assembling the effect, you’re stunned at his work.

If you’re ever in an art museum and standing in front of a van Gogh, look closely at the detail of his work. It’s amazing.

5. Bruce Lee on productivity
It’s impossible to absorb everything in modern life. The trick is to put your own twist on it.

“Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is specifically your own.” – Bruce Lee

Simply put, you choose what you absorb into your life. Do you absorb something deep and insightful? Do you absorb whatever’s on TLC? Do you think about what you’ve learned and mix it with what you already know? You make your own mix.

6. John Pine on what consumers want
Presentations like this one make it very clear how corporations view the people that buy their products.

You are someone to be charmed. If you allow yourself to be charmed, your money will vanish from your wallet.

Avoid the charm. Look for the best bang for the buck that solves your problem and then walk away.

7. Thomas Edison on genius
If you want to do something amazing in your life, remember that hard work is the thing that underlines it.

“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” – Thomas A. Edison

Working on The Simple Dollar outlines this for me every day. There are so many little things that happen in the background to make this site work that aren’t fun. They’re tedious and often personally challenging. Without them, though, nothing else would work.

8. Long Form
This goes somewhat hand-in-hand with the Instapaper recommendation above, but this stands on its own, too.

Long Form is just an aggregation of great pieces of long-form nonfiction that can be found online. If you really want to learn more about the world, stop in here a few times a week and read a few of the articles. You’ll grow in ways you never expected.

9. Simone Dinnerstein plays Maryland prison
This perfectly sums up how valuable art can be to the community and the world as a whole:

Simone is a fantastic classical pianist. She played a free concert at a prison, one that would probably have never been noticed by anyone had it not been for someone taping it with a handheld camera and sticking it on YouTube.

If this contributed some positive value to even a few of the people in attendance there, it was well worth it. Things like this, at the right time in a person’s life, can make all the difference, and that’s why art is incredibly valuable to culture.

10. Benjamin Franklin on learning
My children have taught me so much about relating to people. Ben Franklin does a great job of spelling out some of those insights.

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” – Benjamin Franklin

If I tell my oldest son how to throw a ball, he might try it, but there’s a good chance he’ll still do it wrong or he’ll just not even attempt it. If I go out there and show him, he has a better chance of picking it up. On the other hand, if I play catch with him for a while and coach him on how to throw with each toss, he gets better and better until it becomes natural. There’s a very valuable lesson about life in that story.

Each week, I’ll present a low-cost meal (or a meal that demonstrates a lot of options for cutting costs) that my family eats for dinner and enjoys. Many of the recipes will be vegan or vegetarian, with options to add other ingredients for non-vegetarians.

This is one of those dishes that’s surprisingly quick, but tends to be very impressive when it hits the table. I can easily get this from “glimmer of an idea” to “meal on the table” in forty minutes – even less if I get the vegetables prepped in advance. It makes the whole house smell tremendous, it’s very flexible for guests, and it’s not too expensive, either.

Fajitas. Mmm. Sauteed vegetables, well spiced, in tortilla shells, with some rice on the side.

There are similar fajita recipes all over the internet and in tons of cookbooks. I’ve been making them for so long that I’m not even sure where the original idea came from.

What You Need
Most of the ingredients here are things you’ll already find in your kitchen if you’re appropriately well-stocked.

For fresh vegetables, all you need are two large garlic cloves, one yellow onion, two bell peppers (your choice of color), and two portobello mushrooms. This ran me $4.60 at the grocery store.

You’ll also need a dozen tortillas ($1.89), two tablespoons olive oil, two teaspoons ground cumin, one teaspoon chile powder, sea salt and black pepper to taste, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, some thinly-sliced lettuce ($0.99 for a head, which was more than plenty), and one cup diced tomato ($0.69).

This will make about ten fat fajitas, which is plenty to serve four or five adults. We can serve two adults and two children twice with this batch. Our total cost was about $7, though in our batch we used a few more peppers simply because we split the meal into two batches, one with peppers and one without. This actually left us with a small mountain of leftovers.

The Night Before (or Early That Day)
The big thing you can do in advance for this meal is to simply prep the fresh vegetables. Slice the onion into half circles. Seed the bell peppers and cut them into half-inch strips. Cut the portobello mushrooms into half inch strips.

When these are prepped, store them in containers in the fridge until you’re ready to make the meal.

Preparing the Meal
Fire up a large skillet, then add the olive oil, onion, bell peppers, and mushrooms over medium heat for about five minutes. While this is cooking, press the two garlic cloves right into the skillet. If you don’t have a garlic press, you can just mince the garlic.

As mentioned above, we made two batches: one with mushrooms…

… and one without:

Stir the vegetables occasionally during this five minutes, then add the cumin, chile powder, salt, pepper, and soy sauce and cook for an additional seven minutes or until the vegetables are soft, again stirring regularly.

On the side, we served a bit of what we call “poor man’s Spanish rice,” which is essentially cooked rice with some salsa mixed in.

Serve the vegetable mix along with the tortillas and shredded lettuce and let everyone assemble their own fajitas bonitas!

The best part? The aromas of all of this just fills your house.

Optional Ingredients
The easiest option is to simply add some meat to the vegetable mix. You can start by simply putting the olive oil into the skillet with the meat, then thoroughly cooking the meat before adding the vegetables and, eventually, the spices.

This is actually how I used to make fajitas until I changed diets. I mostly just amped up the mushrooms as a replacement.

You’re in a relationship. That relationship is starting to get serious. You’re contemplating marriage or some other form of long-term commitment.

Now what?

Quite often today, people are bringing significant debt into relationships with them. Credit card debt. Student loan debt. Auto loan debt.

I often get emails from readers asking me how to deal with them. Should they keep these loans separate from each other? How much debt should they really share?

This was also an issue that Sarah and I struggled with when we got married. After some struggles, we eventually came to a conclusion that really makes the reality of these debts quite clear.

First of all, regardless of who actually owns the debts, they are now shared debts. When you’re married, your money effectively becomes a shared pool, whether or not you directly share that money or not. If one of you has a debt, the money to pay for that debt comes out of the shared pool. What’s left in that shared pool is smaller, reducing your opportunities as a couple to build towards other financial goals.

When we were married, for example, I had an auto loan and my wife had an auto loan. I had student loan debt, as did my wife. I had credit card debt, as did my wife.

At first, we each tried to handle our own debts. What we discovered, though, is that after covering these debts, we each had much less left over to contribute to the things we shared – rent, energy bills, food, and so forth.

Even though we were keeping our debts separate, the reality was that the consequences of those debts were shared. If the consequences are shared, then it follows that the responsibility for paying off the debts ought to be shared as well.

Which brings me to my next point: once you acknowledge the debts as essentially shared, the optimal way to get rid of those debts is to consider them all together. It should no longer matter who has the worst debt. What matters is that the worst debt is the one that you both focus on first.

When my wife and I reached this conclusion in 2006, we began to really work together to focus on all of the debts either one of us had. It didn’t matter whose name was on the credit card or on the car title. The consequences of those debts were shared, so we both benefit when any of those debts go away.

Doing all of this successfully requires complete openness. You can’t hide debts from each other. You can’t hide money from each other. You can’t hide spending splurges from each other.

Whenever you do these things, you are taking money out of that shared pool that helps you both get what you want from the future. You’re also being dishonest with your partner and, likely, you’re undermining your debt repayment plan and other financial plans for the future.

This type of dishonesty is acid to any relationship. It opens the door to other forms of dishonesty that can completey destroy a relationship.

Any relationship where things are not completely in the sunshine is a relationship that’s eventually asking for problems.

If you’re not comfortable with that openness, then your relationship needs work. This goes beyond mere finances. It’s an indication that there are trust issues in your relationship and as long as those trust issues exist, you’ve got a gigantic fault line in your relationship that can easily erupt into a earthquake.

Simply put, share your debts. Regardless of who brings them to the table, you share the consequences, so you should also share the effort of eliminating them. This can also help you to pay them off in a more optimal fashion.

One of the big fixtures of the first apartment that Sarah and I shared was an extremely bright green chair. This chair had ancient floral-print upholstery, done almost entirely in shades of green and green-yellow, and looked like it walked straight out of the 1970s. Unsurprisingly, especially considering our recently-out-of-college status, this chair was a pick-up from a Goodwill store.

It was ugly.

It was garish.

It was comfortable.

In fact, that chair was so comfortable that Sarah and I would often race to see who would claim it in the evenings as a place to sit. It was the single most comfortable chair that either one of us has ever owned.

When we left that apartment, we left that chair behind.

* * *

Now, why did we leave that chair behind?

As a newly married couple, both with the beginnings of careers, we both believed that we needed to put aside such old things. We needed to upgrade our living quarters.

In short, we went and bought a bunch of furniture to replace that old green chair.

Looking back on it, we didn’t get rid of that old green chair because we wanted to. We both loved that old thing. We both ceremoniously sat in that chair for a while on our last day in that old apartment before leaving it at the curb. Between the two of us, we didn’t really mind the appearance of that chair, and neither did our friends.

Instead, we got rid of it out of a sense of what we were supposed to do.

As a young professional couple, we were supposed to have nice furniture in our home.

We were supposed to look sharp.

We were supposed to impress the people we invited over with the quality of our home decor.

Do you see a problem with those statements?

In each case, we felt like we were supposed to do something because of what we thought other people wanted from us or expected from us. Getting rid of things like the green chair is something that people like us were supposed to do.

The biggest financial mistake my wife and I ever made was worrying about what people like us were supposed to do. If we had simply focused instead on what made us happy, we would have found ourselves in a much better financial place all the way along.

* * *

Keep your green chair, whatever that might be. If you like it, keep it. Don’t do what you’re supposed to do, especially when you’re supposed to spend money to replace something that already fulfills your needs quite well.

By the way, the chair that we replaced the “green chair” with lasted about four years. A sharply-clawed cat mauled it, the reclining mechanism broke, and several springs bent so badly inside of it that you couldn’t sit down in it without issuing a cacaphony of clicks and clacks.

I wish we still had that green chair. Not just because it was comfortable, but because of what it meant.

What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to five word summaries. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. First investments
2. Credit question
3. Yoga teacher training
4. Credit counseling agencies
5. Taxes and inflation
6. Amazon and library synergy
7. Student loan repayment options
8. What’s real poverty?
9. “Cashflow” board game
10. Gas prices and inflation

Almost all day long, I have some sort of audio playing in my office. I listen to podcasts. I listen to music. I listen to the local radio show of someone I know socially.

I don’t pay deep attention to these programs. I usually just let them flow in one ear and out the other. What I find, though, is that sometimes ideas from these programs stick in my head. I’ll recall them later and be stunned at how useful they are.

Q1: First investments
I am currently a 20 year old college student, I have no debt, or student loans. I work full-time and go to college in-state and also stay at home with my parents to save. I currently have 10,000 in savings with very little in my emergency fund (1,300). I want to invest it but I am not sure where to start. I thought of putting it into an IRA but I do not qualify for the tax deduction since I am a full-time student so I opted to wait 2 more years to contribute the maximum amount. What is the best option for me? I currently make very little (18K a year) but I manage to save at least half. Should I wait another year to save another 10K? My amount seems too little for the stock market.
- Beth

The big question I’d ask is what you were saving for and when.

Do you intend to spend this money when you graduate in order to relocate and set up your own household? Are you going to try to live as lean as possible until you can buy a home in, say, ten years? Is this all for retirement?

If your goals are long term, you certainly can invest in the stock market with $10,000. You can sign up at Vanguard and put all of that money right into a broad-based index fund, then just sit on that until you need it. However, I wouldn’t do that unless your goals really are long-term, like buying a house in ten or twelve years.

If your goals are short-term, such as a quick post-graduation goal, then I would keep that money in cash for now.

Q2: Credit question
I’m starting up graduate school in the fall and will be moving in with my fiancee. Her salary will be able to support us both over that period. The only credit history I have is from my credit card, as I have been fortunate to avoid student loans. My fiancee has student loans as well as a credit card. Both of us have always paid all our bills on time. My question is with regards to what happens when we get married, as I’m concerned I won’t have much of a history to get approved for a mortgage. Do our histories combine? Or should I take out a small student loan and consider the interest paid as a small cost for a better credit history? Thanks for the help.
- Kevin

When you take out a mortgage, a lender considers both of your credit histories when deciding whether to lend to you.

While you’re correct in that your limited credit history probably means you don’t have a spectacular credit score, you probably have a very solid one. I wouldn’t take out additional loans.

If you’re still concerned about it, I would try to get a mortgage from an institution that does manual underwriting. That means that, rather than just basing everything on your credit score, they actually look at your full credit history and your personal situation in making their decision. This usually works in the favor of people like yourself.

Q3: Yoga teacher training
I am an avid yogi and spend $79/month on a yoga membership.

There is a yoga teacher training at my studio and I am considering it as an option for making extra money in the summers when I’m not teaching high school and a couple times per week during the school year.

My issue is that I don’t have the money yet to pay up front. The program is 8 weeks and costs $2000.

I will have the whole summer off after the training to find yoga work at the several studios in my city.

The catch- there is another training in September. For this one I could have enough money to pay the whole thing, but will be teaching full time on top of teacher training.

I am hesitant to do the training with a fat chunk of change on my credit card but am confident that this would improve my life, income and yoga practice. In addition, I would no longer have to pay the $79/month at any studio where I work.
- Jenna

Are you certain that you will be able to find seasonal work as a yoga teacher? That would be my chief question here.

If yoga studios would be hesitant to hire you because of that seeming requirement, then I wouldn’t invest that money into teaching accreditation.

Another approach might be to see if there is a bartering system you could work out with that studio. Could you take the class for free or at a reduced rate in exchange for teaching some classes there afterwards for free?

I would be very hesitant to put this onto my credit card unless I was absolutely sure that I would earn money with it on the other end.

Q4: Credit counseling agencies
I was wondering what your thoughts were on credit counseling agency. Currently I am paying off my credit card debt on my own, adding an extra payment where I can. Does working with credit counseling agencys hurt your credit? Do you recommend working with agencies? What are the benefits of working with this type of service?
- Justin

Not all credit counseling services are the same. Some can hurt your credit. Others don’t. Some can charge outrageous fees. Others don’t.

While I don’t have any specific recommendations for you, I would suggest researching as many different agencies and programs as you can. Look for personal stories. Look for the real numbers, too.

Be aware, though, that such services mostly just provide a structure around things you can do yourself. I view them as being much like a coach. They’re coaching you through things you could do yourself and giving you a training regimen for making it possible. Is that of value to you?

Q5: Taxes and inflation
Looking at history, I can assume that as I get older inflation is going up and so are taxes. So I will pay more in taxes when I retire (I’m 30 btw), and the value of my retirement dollars will be less. Based on these assumptions, how does tax-deferred savings in my company’s 403b make any sense? Isn’t there a better way to take advantage of compounding interest?
- Devin

This is exactly why I usually encourage people to invest in a Roth IRA rather than in their 401(k) or 403(b), with the exception being when they can get matching money from their employer (which is valuable enough that it overcomes inflation and tax increases).

A Roth IRA, if you’re unfamiliar with it, is an account you sign up for yourself with a reputable investment house (I use Vanguard). You then deposit money into that account (up to $5,500 per year) and designate that money to one of many investment choices, much like a 401(k)/403(b). The big difference is that you’re using after-tax money and the gains you make, if withdrawn at retirement, are not taxed, either.

Most people, in my opinion, should contribute to their 401(k)/403(b) up to the amount necessary to get all matching funds from their employer. After that, they should be funding a Roth IRA.

Q6: Amazon and library synergy
I thought of you when I saw this posting on parenthacks (I don’t remember if you follow parenthacks them or not):

http://www.parenthacks.com/2011/03/let-amazon-help-you-better-navigate-your-local-library.html

She basically covers how she uses Amazon features (other books like this one, oher books by same author) to help select books at the library.
- Scott

I do this exact thing for both my library books and for PaperBackSwap.

I often hop onto Amazon, look up books that I know that I love, and see what similar books are recommended. Because of the enormous amount of buying patterns and reviews and ratings on Amazon, their recommendations are pretty good.

I then just take those titles to other sources and get the books for much less expense elsewhere.

Q7: Student loan repayment options
I have almost $30k in student loans @ 2.125% interest. Assuming I have the money to pay it off (either all at once, or under the normal pay structure), what’s the wisest thing to do?

Here are a couple of scenarios that I’ve come up with.
-Pay it all ASAP.
-Pay as little as possible and consider it a cheap loan for a car, house, travel, etc.
-Pay as little as possible and invest any extra money in something that would return more than 2.125%, but be liquid enough for me to pay the loan monthly.

I prefer the last idea, but I’m not sure if that exists.
- Josh

The big question is whether or not that 2.125% is fixed or variable rate. If that rate is fixed and you have it locked in forever, I would pay down that debt as slow as possible regardless of what I used the money for.

It’s worth noting that there is no guaranteed and liquid investment right now that consistently gets 2.125% without some caveats. However, as the economy rebounds, interest rates will slowly inch upwards and you’ll find savings accounts that do beat it.

If that 2.125% is a variable rate loan, I would probably focus on paying it down. Again, if interest rates go up, that rate can rebound and become very nasty very quickly.

Q8: What’s real poverty?
I am sure you have many reasons why this article is crazy.

http://wonkette.com/442001/welcome-to-poverty-everyone-you-need-household-income-of-68k-to-live
- Marilyn

This article argues that a family is in poverty if they earn $68,000 a year or less. I can speak from personal experience that a family can thrive on that level of income.

My personal feeling is that this number is too high, but that the federal poverty line is too low. There’s a happy medium between the two.

Location is also an important factor in this. The cost of living in rural Iowa is much lower than the cost of living in, say, San Francisco. There does need to be some location information included in asking the question of poverty.

Q9: “Cashflow” board game
Have you ever played the board game “Cashflow” from Rich Dad Poor Dad? If so, do you feel that it is a good way to learn about basic money management and investments?
- Jen

While “Cashflow” has some good money management ideas in it, the game is so encumbered by rules and repetitive gameplay that I would find it easier to just talk to my children about money and show them what I do than to play this game with them.

I don’t think there’s any one game that does a great job of teaching personal finance. The ones that actually mirror personal finance really well tend to be poor games.

Why is that? I just don’t think modern personal finance translates well to board games. It’s not an exciting theme.

I did create a draft of a Dominion-like deckbuilding game that simulated personal finance that was quite fun, but when I showed it to a publisher, he practically had a heart attack with regards to the theme.

Q10: Gas prices and inflation
Adjusted for inflation, are the current prices the highest in history?
- Jennifer

It might be, but it’s not a runaway. It’s near one of the three previous historical peaks, when adjusted for inflation.

The first peak was in the very early days. The price of a gallon of gas, adjusted for today’s dollars, in 1918 was about $3.80. In 1981, the price of a gallon of gas adjusted for inflation was about the same, and we hit a similar peak in 2008.

The current peak, as I write this, isn’t quite as high as those earlier peaks. Of course, ignoring those other peaks, the current gas price blows everything else out of the water.

Got any questions? Email them to me or leave them in the comments and I’ll attempt to answer them in a future mailbag (which, by way of full disclosure, may also get re-posted on other websites that pick up my blog). However, I do receive hundreds of questions per week, so I may not necessarily be able to answer yours.

“Financial freedom” is a concept that’s constantly bandied about among personal finance writers and presenters. I think it’s mostly used because it sounds good: freedom implies some sort of escape from oppression, and applying that sentiment to personal finance creates a picture of a future where you’re not beholden to creditors or lenders or your boss.

What does it really mean, though? Every time I consider that statement, I find myself puzzling over a series of questions. While these questions don’t necessarily help me to explain what exactly “financial freedom” means, the questions often do leave me with a better sense of my own future and my own philosophy for financial success.

So, let’s dig through those questions.

What am I seeking freedom from? I mentioned a few of the trite answers above – creditors, lenders, bosses. These are the immediate things that come to mind when we think about what financial situations we want to escape from.

Yet, the more I think about it, I recognize that the source that I’m really seeking freedom from is my own tendency toward poor financial choices.

Let’s roll back the clock six years. If I had the opportunity to wave a magic wand and eliminate all of my debts, I’d be thrilled. Honestly, though, I would likely have been right back in debt before too long.

When it comes to finances, you are your own oppressor. We’re often sitting in situations where we suffer from our own mistakes of the past. If we work for “freedom” from a debt, if we’re not free from our own bad behaviors, it’s just a matter of time before we’re back in debt.

What does freedom even mean? When I hear the word “freedom,” what does that really mean?

Freedom, according to dictionary.com, means “exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.” Of course, there are several definitions; another is “the power to determine action without restraint. ”

In general, freedom seems to mean the ability to make choices without restraint from others.

The thing is, we’re really only as free as we allow ourselves to be.

Take my own life. My only outstanding debt is my mortgage. I could be “free” of that debt by walking away from it, but my credit history would be devastated.

I have three children that are ongoing expenses. I could be “free” of that by walking away, but again, I would be a complete scumbag for doing that.

What about simply having a pile of money? Even then, I wouldn’t be “free” to help every charity that I’d love to help.

Simply put, a responsible adult never has total freedom. We are always restricted by some aspect of our life, whether it be debt, personal responsibility, or something else.

What we’re striving for when we reduce debt isn’t freedom, but better options to choose from. Instead of being strongly bent towards dumping my money towards debt, debt freedom means that I can choose to save that money for our country house or give it to a charity. Both of these options are more in line with what I want from life right now.

Where do I want to be, then? The next logical step is to simply look at my life and ask myself what I want from life right now. Freedom means the ability to make choices that move me towards those things that I want instead of using my resources to cover up other mistakes or to move in other directions.

Simply put, it’s all about goals. What do I really want out of my life? Where do I want to be in the near future? These are goals, and simply spending the time to identify one’s goals is a big step towards personal freedom.

Why? A goal gives you some guidance as to where to go, rather than acting aimlessly. It guides you towards making choices that work well together and push you to somewhere you want to be rather than working in opposition to each other.

Some people view goals – and particularly the plans that lead to achieving them – as a restriction on personal freedom. I view goals as the ultimate statement of freedom. I have enough control over the choices in my own life to move toward something bigger rather than just holding onto what I have and hoping for the best.

Freedom is a powerful word, but it means something different to everyone.