Kids can be, and often are, mean – but in this case you’re responsible for setting up the group dynamic that plays out in any group of 3, kids or adults or even animals. If there are 3, only 2 will be allied. Even if there are shifting alliances, there will always be one person out, even if the “out” person changes.

Obviously they’re not still crying into their beer about that, but it… lingers. Is a wound from childhood. Colors later decisions and feelings.

So my advice is to always have even number of kids (and space your kids as evenly as you can). 2 kids, or 4 kids, o4 6 kids. None of this 3 kids or 5 kids stuff.

That said, never forget that we are the product facebook sells. We are definitely not the *real* consumers.

I joined, despite privacy concerns, in order to keep up with my far-flung nieces and nephews. Now I have far more interaction with them than before Facebook. The same is true for my entire (small) friend list: neighbors, huge family, colleagues in the music business around town. We use FB as a tool to keep up with the mundane bits of daily life. I know when Friend S is having a very bad day, and I can call her, or offer to babysit for her. I know when Nephew C is homesick at college and I can message him. I know when Friend M has had a fabulous day at work and I can share her joy with my comments.

It’s in sharing those experiences, relating them to one another, that strengthens the bonds of our relationships. Facebook, as any tool used well, has improved my relationships.

Facebook is an evil money-grubbing empire making a profit knowing marketable statistics about your life and invading your privacy. Just say no and use regular email or make a phone call.

Q5 I’ll echo not paying any loans off for the fiance since as already stated you can’t take the tax deduction for her debts unless married. I’d just save, if the relationship survives two years on different coasts, great, if not you didn’t lose anything. Also speaking from personal experience, I was away from my fiance for over a year with a job and more money and opportunities than I’d ever had, and we survived. But I saw other relationships that seemed just as strong early on fall apart.

If you pay your credit card account via check or bill-pay, they already know your bank account info. In fact, if the card is issued by your bank, depending on your agreement I believe they have authority to take money out of your account to pay the credit card whether you authorize it or not, if you’re delinquent and they want to.

I wouldn’t authorize direct draws for individuals or most small businesses, even if I trusted them, just because they can’t afford the computer security that the major credit card companies and banks can afford. Not that theirs is perfect.

Q3 : No inheritance doesn’t drive the economy that much. The economy is about $14 trillion a year. Total inheritance in 2006 was about $200 billion. Median inheritance was about $30k. Lots of inheritance is just transferred to a remaining spouse. Lots of people have no assets. Most people don’t spend much of a larger inheritance right away. Most of it just goes into the bank or stays in investments or assets. I’d bet only around 25% of the inheritance actually flows back into the economy so thats around $50B or 0.3% of GDP.

Q5 : Best not to pay off anything until after you are married. After marriage it depends on the situation more. If the student loans are fairly high % and you have assets to afford other things then go ahead and pay em off. If the loans aren’t high % and you struggle at all then don’t be in a rush to pay em. THe interest on student loans may be tax deductible but thats not really a reason to pay interest.

Q8 : I agree with AnnJo about automatiing it. Why not set the cards for auto-pay? PUt a $1000 buffer in your checking account then setup the cards to all pay automatically. Then you don’t have to worry about missing a payment. If you’re worried about access to your bank account then you can setup a separate account just for that. Then setup automatic transfer into the separate account from your main account. If you can get up to $50/month extra that seems worth a little card juggling. Apparently you’ve felt its been worth it for some time. 10 cards is a lot though, can you not narrow that down to the best 3-4 maybe? You can probably get almost as much rewards with the best 3-4 as with using all 10.

Yikes! Trent’s advice misses what could be the most critical aspect of your financial planning – currency stability.

According to Wikipedia, the Costa Rican colon has lost more than 50% of its purchasing power versus the dollar in the last 10 years, and that ignores the fact that the dollar itself has lost value in relation to other major currencies. I visited Costa Rica in the early 1980s and, although I may be mistaken, I think the colon was at something like 35 to the dollar, losing more than 90% of its value since then.

I know that Costa Rica was recently supposed to go off its controlled devaluation versus the dollar, but even if that happens it’s not likely to solve the basic problem, and the risk remains.

You can’t invest for the long-term under those circumstances without taking the stability of your currency into account. You’re expressing your question in dollars, but you must be investing in colones if you’re getting 8% interest on a CD. I would strongly urge you to become knowledgeable about investments that allow you to diversify your currency risk.

I would find a solid (as far as that can be determined) financial services firm that does business in Costa Rica (I’d guess that American Express, Schwab, Fidelity and Vanguard probably do) and look into putting some of your investment money in a dollar-denominated account with a mix of U.S. and international mutual funds including some commodity funds.

I’m with AnnJo that setting up automatic payments would reduce that stress. You could also test using just one or two cards for a month or two – you don’t have to use every card you own every month. If you find that works for you, then you could decide whether to close some of the newer ones – if you’re paying an annual fee, you wouldn’t want to just keep them without using them. If I had several that pay a minimum reward (1 percent) on a variety of purchases, I’d probably keep one & get rid of the rest – it doesn’t really make sense to have multiples.

I’ve always hestitated to give outside parties direct access to my bank account but I definitely see the benefit of having auto payments.

Canceling 8 or 9 credit cards, as Trent suggests, could give your credit score a major hit. And it isn’t necessary to relieve your stress.

My advice isn’t for everybody with credit cards, but you obviously track your credit spending carefully and spend strictly within your means, so in your case, I would automate the payments. Every credit card I’ve ever seen can be set up for automatic payment directly from your bank account, and that is what I have done, to make sure I never face interest or a late charge.

Auto-payments can be set up to pay in a fixed amount each month, to pay the minimum payment due each month, or to pay the entire balance due each month. Assuming you set the fixed payment high enough, any of the three options will avoid late fees. The last option will avoid all interest, also.

In fact, I’ve done that with just about every payment that allows it, including insurance, property taxes and some utilities. Some bills, like car or homeowners insurance, charge a “service fee” if you don’t pay the annual bill in full, but will waive the service fee if you pay monthly by direct deposit.

Even though I used to be pretty good at handling bills, it seemed like at least once every year or two I’d manage to get over-busy and miss a payment deadline, incurring charges. That hasn’t happened in years now.

You can also set up your credit card account to send you an email alert with your balance due at statement closing and another alert when payment is about to be made, so that in the remote chance that you suffer fraudulent charges, you’ll catch it and can dispute it before the auto-pay happens.