Each Monday, The Simple Dollar opens up the reader mailbags and answers ten to twenty simple questions offered up by the readers on personal finance topics and many other things. Got a question? Ask it in the comments. You might also enjoy the archive of earlier reader mailbags.

How about combining your frugality and kitchen skills by giving us some recipes and tips on cooking Beans and Rice and Rice and Beans?
- Marcia

A long time ago, I wrote an ode to the bean, which may be my favorite item to use in cooking. It’s inexpensive and it’s a protein-rich backbone to countless different kinds of meals, from tacos and chili to curries and soups.

What I usually tell people to do is very simple. Just take whatever staple ingredient leftovers you have – vegetables, meats, and so on. Add some rice or some beans to it. Season appropriately. There, you have a killer meal.

You almost can’t mess it up.

For giggles, I’ll reprint five of my favorite bean-oriented recipes here.

Beans and Eggs
Easy as pie. Just crack four eggs, add half a teaspoon of milk and some pepper, and beat them rapidly until they’re consistent in texture. Pour the egg mixture into a skillet and add half a cup of cooked black beans (or a bean mix, if you prefer). Scramble the eggs by repeatedly moving the eggs around in the skillet as it cooks until it’s nice and fluffy and full of beans. Put some cheese and salsa on top and you have one of my favorite breakfasts in the world – plus it’s an ovo-vegetarian dish.

Balsamic Vinaigrette Bean Salad
Take two pounds of cooked beans, any variety you’d like, and add in a diced medium red onion. To this, add two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, four finely chopped garlic cloves, a quarter of a cup of extra virgin olive oil, and mix everything together. Add some ground black pepper to taste. This makes a very big batch of the salad, which is a great thing to take to a potluck dinner – for home use, you should probably halve the entire recipe (one pound of beans, a small diced onion, one tablespoon of vinegar, two garlic cloves, and an eighth of a cup of olive oil).

Beef and Bean Burritos
Cook a pound of ground beef. As the meat is cooking, add half a cup of chopped onion and a minced garlic clove. Stir the meat often to break it up, then when it’s well cooked, drain it, and add to it two teaspoons of chili powder, one teaspoon of oregano, half a teaspoon of cumin, half a teaspoon of salt, and half a teaspoon of brown pepper. Mix it all together and you have the beef part of the recipe. Just fill a large tortilla with this meat, some lettuce, and whatever beans you like – I prefer black beans or pinto beans or even refried beans.

Sixteen Bean Soup
Just follow the cooking directions above with your favorite multi-bean mix, except add half a pound of leftover meat to the soup as it’s cooking. I like to add cubed ham myself, but you can add other meats. Also, add a small minced onion to the soup, too, just as it begins to boil, and also add salt and pepper to taste.

Bean, Ham, and Tomato Casserole
Basically, take the soup you made with the sixteen bean soup recipe and drain off all but a cup of the liquid. Mix into the soup two diced tomatoes, put a bit more pepper on top, and (optionally) put a thin layer of finely ground Cheddar cheese on top (the cheese is highly optional). Bake it at 350 F (160 C) for about ten minutes and it turns out surprisingly well and often very distinct in flavor from the sixteen bean soup.

I recently got a flyer for ING’s Orange Mortgage. They offer incredibly low interest rates. But the structure looks surprisingly like a ARM. What am I missing here?
- Pankaj

It is an adjustable rate mortgage – you’re not missing anything.

An ARM worth its salt starts off with an unbelievably good rate – often 2% below what a comparable fixed rate would be. That gets your attention, of course.

The catch is that in so many years, the rate adjusts upwards, and it often has a ceiling higher than a comparable fixed rate mortgage.

Many people got ARMs because they were seduced by that low rate and they believed their future situation would easily be able to handle the adjustment. Quite often, they were wrong.

Avoid adjustable rate loans. Never believe your future self will be able to handle it.

I find it ironic that a guy who writes a blog that (probably) reaches millions thinks having kids is the best way to advance their cause.
- Kevin

If no one had children, we would all be candles in the wind. In one hundred years, there would be no human race. We would pass nothing on to the future, any of us.

Thus, anyone that chooses not to take on the burden of raising a child is themselves a candle in the wind. They’re relying on others to continue the flame by making the candles. Any flame that they can pass on is passed on to a candle made by someone else, a candle that’s already formed and given flame by the parents of that child (most of the time, of course). Sure, they might make the flame stronger, but they didn’t start the fire. (Yes, I’m using Billy Joel and Elton John metaphors to illustrate the point).

My feeling towards anyone who calls a parent a “breeder” is that they’re completely comfortable with the complete extinguishment of the human race. And that, frankly, makes me personally uncomfortable. If they were not comfortable with this, they would not denigrate those who take on the often thankless work of raising that next generation of people.

For all the good I’ve done in this blog, it does not compare to the impact I have by raising a child to adulthood. I have the unique position to mold that candle so that the flame burns bright, an opportunity I simply don’t have in other avenues in life. No matter how great of a writer I am, it simply pales in comparison to the continued impact and influence I have on the mental, emotional, spiritual, and psychological growth of the two little children in my home. I gave them their genes and now, perhaps more importantly, I’m responsible for the nurture side of the coin.

If I do it right, I can turn out a child that has the potential to cure cancer or breed a better crop that can feed starving children or create art that can truly uplift the human race or, perhaps best of all, find authentic joy in the world and find ways to share it with others. If I do it wrong, I turn out a sociopath.

I’m not saying that others do not have influence. But no matter how enormous that influence, it doesn’t compare to the thousands of hours parents spend with their children, passing on language, beliefs, customs, personality traits, perspectives on the world, personal skills, and countless other little things.

Everyone thinks of Mr. Holland lighting a child’s flame, but forgotten in that shuffle are the parents that drove kids to countless band contests, urged them to practice at night, provided feedback on their play, bought new reeds and dropped them in the instrument case without being asked, showed up for all of the recitals, bought sheet music and audio CDs to help fuel the passion, and all without a dime of compensation. Mr. Holland showed up for work and waved a baton – yes, it was important and it caused a child to change their direction a bit, but that flame rarely takes off without quite a lot of prep work from a good parent.

And, remember, Mr. Holland was a parent, too. One can do both.

What benefit is a child going to get out of having a tutor?
- Johanna

It depends on the child. Some children thrive on individual one-on-one teaching, where they’re much less afraid to ask the “stupid” questions that are plaguing them. I know several kids like this – they didn’t understand the topic in the classroom because they were afraid, for various reasons, to ask, so it was up to a tutor (in this case, me) to help them out.

For other children, it may be that they just have little interest in learning and a tutor is a waste of time and resources.

Often, for a parent, it’s hard to tell which one is the case, especially if they have little confidence in their ability to teach classroom-type lessons. So they’ll hire a tutor or a tutoring service and let them figure it out.

For me, I’d prefer to give my own child my best crack at tutoring so I could at least understand where he or she is coming from.

Would you share with us your recipe for that wonderful sounding au gratin?
- Mike

Take four russet potatoes and slice them into 1/4 inch slices. Slice one onion into rings. Then, preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and lightly butter a one and a half to two quart casserole dish.

Put half of the potato slices into the casserole, then the sliced onions, then the rest of the potatoes. Put some salt and pepper on top.

After that, melt three tablespoons of butter over medium heat. Add three tablespoons of all purpose flour and stir until it’s a very thick paste, about one minute. Then, stir in two cups of milk. Cook it for about two minutes until it just begins to thicken, stirring regularly. Then, add one and a half cups of grated cheese to the hot milk mixture quickly, stirring it in until you have about four cups of a thick, delicious liquid cheese mixture.

Pour that cheese mixture over the potatoes, breathe in the wonderful aroma deeply, then cover it with aluminum foil and pop it in the oven for one and a half hours. Yum!

What do you think about bankruptcy? While I realize there are sometimes extraordinary circumstances, it seems like many people who declare bankruptcy could handle their debt like you did: by scaling back their lifestyles, living within their means, and committing to debt reduction. Would you ever recommend that someone declare bankruptcy instead of trying to repay their debt?
- Sara

While I understand society’s need for some sort of resolution to a person who is in far too much debt, I feel like society’s penalty for this is actually too lenient today.

Do I advocate a return to debtor’s prisons? No. However, if you’ve mismanaged your finances to the point that you need a court to straighten everything out – and in the process, you escape some of your debt – there needs to be a steeper penalty than just a court-enforced payment plan and a bad credit history.

I’m not sure what that balance is, but I do feel that bankruptcy, even with the recent tougher changes, is still too easy.

You’ve said you’ve used iTunes for years to listen to music. What’s your most listened-to song? Album?
- Kate

My most listened to song since somewhere in mid 2004 is Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley – a cover of the classic Leonard Cohen song for all of you older folks like my friend Heidi, who was slackjawed recently when I identified Hallelujah as a Jeff Buckley song.

I had a harder time actually figuring out which album was the most listened to, but from the best I can determine, that album is Bachelor #2 by Aimee Mann.

If I were guessing without looking, I would have guessed the album right, but I would have guessed the #3 song for most listened – Rangers by A Fine Frenzy.

When you and Ramit had a big “debate” a while back about frugality, was that whole thing a set up or do you guys actually have a personal issue?
- Fred Mac

My father spends $5 every week on lottery tickets. I tell him all the time that it’s a waste of money, but he shrugs it off. What do you think? How should I get him to stop this stupid behavior?
- Carlos

Do you feel that other bloggers are rivals of yours? Do you compete with them?
- Amanda

Not at all. My only rival in blogging – seriously – is myself. My own laziness and willingness to go off the tracks following my own whims and muses is my biggest obstacle.

Almost every blogger out there is not a rival, but a peer. Those people know better than anyone else how difficult – and how rewarding – it can be to blog for a living. They share ideas and thoughts. They link to each other. They support each other. They help each other.

If we were rivals, we would stab each other in the back, not encourage our readers to read those other sites.

The only exception to this are bloggers who never seem to link out or ever mention others. However, I don’t view them as rivals – they’re just loners.

To put it simply, I simply don’t have rivals. I have peers and friends.

Except for J.D., of course. He’s going down.

Got any questions? Ask them in the comments and I’ll use them in future mailbags.

Each Monday, The Simple Dollar opens up the reader mailbags and answers ten to twenty simple questions offered up by the readers on personal finance topics and many other things. Got a question? Ask it in the comments. You might also enjoy the archive of earlier reader mailbags.

Can you tell me a little more about how banks like ING work? If they don’t have a physical branch how do I get my money? Do I need to keep my current bank and just transfer the money around? I generally have several different saving account that I use for saving for specific purchases or vacations. Once I meet my savings goal I simply switch to whatever I’d like to save for next. My current problem is this: my bank has recently switched from a $100 minimum for penalty to $250. This means I now need to save $250 over my goal or close my account each time I reach a goal to avoid a service fee. I feel like I never actually have all of my money. I’m under the impression that online banks such as ING have much smaller fees. Any advice?
- Dana

ING Direct – and other such online banks – basically provide all of the services of a typical bank without a brick-and-mortar location. Typically, at least some of that savings is passed back to the user in the form of better service in other areas and high interest rates.

So how do you bank with them? Most of the interaction with such banks is done online. They all have a very full featured online bill pay service, for starters. Many online banks issue paper checks (not all – ING’s Electric Orange doesn’t) and if they do not, they allow you to fill out a check online and have it sent to a business for free.

When you’re out and about, most such banks have an enormous ATM network that allows you to get at your money without a fee at many, many ATMs.

I found that, for me, I was happy enough with ING’s service that I switched to using it as my primary bank, even without a teller window available to me. We did eventually decide to open a free checking account at a local bank for emergency reasons and so we would have access to a paper checkbook, which made it easier to do things like order a magazine subscription from the neighbor’s kid for a school sale.

would you consider making another blog or on occasion posting a few short stories? I enjoy reading short stories a lot and I’m sure many of your readers would be interested in reading a few of them.
- Alexandra

I’ve been debating whether or not to post some of these stories online or not – I’m actually fairly torn on it. If I did, I would put them on my personal blog.

Why am I torn? A big part of me would like to succeed as a fiction writer on my own merits, without the success of The Simple Dollar influencing it. I feel as though I might be able to “get away” with substandard fiction if publishers believe I can bring a built-in audience to the table.

On the other hand, I know that sharing what I write here on The Simple Dollar has led to a lot of great feedback – both negative and positive – and it’d be great to open up my fiction writing.

I still haven’t made up my mind, to tell the truth.

Can’t Laurenly also build her credit score by having an apartment lease, utilities, internet, etc. in her name? Does paying for those things not factor into a person’s credit score as much as a credit card?
- Chelsea

Sometimes they will, sometimes they won’t.

Different utilities and rental companies have different practices on how often and how much information they provide to reporting agencies. Many of them – perhaps most of them – only report delinquent accounts and don’t report positive payment. Others do full file reporting, which means they report everything, good or bad.

You can ask your utilities which method they use and they may or may not tell you. Either way, though, I wouldn’t expect a utility payment to be the source of financial recovery.

I know the local library is one of your favorite resources — it’s one of mine, too! However, I live in Philadelphia, where, if the economic situation doesn’t get better *fast*, the libraries and recreation centers will all be closed as of the beginning of October, which means we’ll lose all the great free resources the libraries ofer, as well as the free or cheap resources offered by the rec centers.

Short of personally balancing the state and city budgets (I’m no economist), what can the people in Philadelphia (and any other city or town in this situation) do in the absence of these resources until they re-open (assuming they do!)?
- Laura

Utilize used book stores. Trade the books they have with their neighbors. Use services like PaperBackSwap.

People who want to read can usually find a low cost way of doing just that. A library is a tremendous service, but lack of a library is only a small obstacle in the face of a focused and resourceful reader.

For other community services, just get together with your neighbors that miss those services and co-op them. Start your own basketball league and enroll people in the neighborhood to coach and referee. You don’t need a bureaucracy to make this happen – it’s not like they’re ripping up the basketball courts.

I vaguely remember you answering this question elsewhere, if so, please remind me. If not, will you please tell me the pros and cons and differences between copper, stainless steel, and non-stick cookware? I am at the point where my first purchased pots (purchased in one of those large sets that you abhore) are starting to crack on the handles. Over the past year I have become relatively proficient in the kitchen and want to upgrade some of my cookware as it breaks or needs replacing. I’d like to replace it with something high quality, but is the mark up on copper really worth it?
- Gwen

Most lower-cost nonstick cookware is covered with a nonstick coating – Teflon is a common one. This coating usually lasts for a few years, but begins to peel – and when it begins to peel, you shouldn’t use the pan any more, as Teflon isn’t something you want in your food.

Alternately, high-cost nonstick items are covered in a baked enamel or porcelain finish. These are usually quite expensive, but they won’t peel and can last for a very, very long time if cared for.

Now, about copper versus stainless steel. Copper has much better heat conduction and heats more evenly, which means that things will cook a bit faster with it and the stuff cooked inside will heat evenly. However, stainless steel is cheaper and looks pretty – it’s all shiny! Many pots and pans can be found that are made of copper with a stainless steel lining, which kind of gives the best of both worlds. Some cooking mavens will grumble about tin-iined pans, but they’re hard to clean and they occasionally have to be re-tinned, which is a real pain.

The best thing you could get, in my opinion, is copper with a stainless steel lining – but these can be breathtakingly expensive. From there, you can kind of go down the scale. I’m not sure what you’re looking to spend, but that’s my thumbnail guide.

Also, if you’re used to cooking with nonstick, cooking on stainless steel is very different – you have to heat it first with nothing in it, then add the oil and other ingredients.

What percentage of your readers are from outside U.S? When you write a blog, have you ever stopped to consider whether certain US centric references that you make may not be familiar for readers outside US?
- Prasanth

My readership is roughly 85% within the United States.

I typically don’t worry too much about focusing on issues that are strictly within the United States. I believe I talk about universal concerns often enough that when I do dig into U.S.-specific issues, it’s appropriate for my audience.

To put it simply, I really don’t worry about it too much. I just focus on being me.

I have a firm grasp on my finances and would like to start helping other people get their finances in order. Do you have any suggestions on how to get a personal finance consulting gig going?
- Austin

If you actually want to get into a career of financial planning, be very, very careful. Such industries are incredibly highly regulated and you should have proper certifications and such before embarking in it.

Sometimes people think, “Well, he can do this website, so why can’t I throw out my shingle and consult?” Well, on every single page of The Simple Dollar, I make it clear that this site is for entertainment purposes only and any information or suggestions taken should be followed up with one’s own research. On top of that, this is a free website – I’m not charging for services as a consultant would be.

If the idea of being a planner interests you, look into proper education for it. Start off by digging deep into what it means to be a certified financial planner.

Is it worthwhile to invest in art?
- Shanya

If you’re investing in art because you believe it will return aesthetic appeal and enjoyment to you over a long period of time, by all means, invest.

If you’re investing in art for a financial return, don’t waste your time unless you’re treating it as tantamount to gambling. The art world is fickle – and an art purchase for investment assumes that someone will want to buy the art in the future, which is far, far from guaranteed.

Yes, by all means, if you have art that appeals to you and you can easily afford it, buy it. It will add true enrichment to your life.

But if you’re looking to turn a buck, stay away from the art world unless you’re working for Sotheby’s.

You mentioned attending SXSW recently. I also know you’re really into playing board games with your family and friends. Have you ever gone to GenCon? It’s not that far from Iowa.
- Ron

I confess – I am strongly considering a trip to GenCon in 2010. My wife is planning a short trip next spring or summer to visit her sisters, leaving me with the kids – and also with a ticket to have my own fun solo trip. GenCon is likely that destination.

I have several friends in the area that are considering going, so I will likely pool up with them at least for the trip.

If I do decide to go, I’ll let people know on The Simple Dollar so we can meet up if readers wish to.

How do you discover the personal finance books and other books you write about?
- Gil

I usually carefully follow the new releases and sales rankings on Amazon to see what’s new in the genres I follow.

If a major release is coming down the line, I’ll try to request it at my library. if that doesn’t work, I’ll attempt to request a review copy, but I don’t particularly like doing that as I feel slightly obligated to give a positive review.

I also listen carefully to reader recommendations. Sometimes – more than once, actually – I’ve suspected that an author of a book is posing as a reader and trying to pitch me on reviewing their book. If I get that vibe, I’ll usually blacklist it. I don’t like those games.

Got any questions? Ask them in the comments and I’ll use them in future mailbags.

Each Monday, The Simple Dollar opens up the reader mailbags and answers ten to twenty simple questions offered up by the readers on personal finance topics and many other things. Got a question? Ask it in the comments. You might also enjoy the archive of earlier reader mailbags.

I especially like the fact that your website has minimal ads. However, I’ve noticed for the past few days that Crate and Barrel has advertisements on your home page. I live in the Atlanta area so I don’t know if the ads are specific to regional differences/popularity, etc. I was surprised to see the Crate and Barrel ad on your website. I think while the quality of what they sell is much better than average, the prices are astronomical. I have a good job, money in the bank, but I could not afford even, what I consider their knick knacks, unless they are on clearance. Also, I would imagine that many of your other readers might feel the same way. Anyway, this is just my perspective. I’m wondering if you’ve heard from anyone else on this?
- Tasneem

The good is the enemy of the perfect.

If I accepted only ads that absolutely, unequivocally met my definition of a perfectly ethical, great customer value organization, I wouldn’t have any ads on the site and The Simple Dollar would cease to function.

That’s not a good solution.

Instead, I just try to focus on a few key things. Is the company reputable? Are they producing a product of reasonable quality that’s at least worthy of consideration for use or purchase? If it passes these litmus tests, I’ll happily place the ad, even if it’s not something I would always purchase for myself.

Crate and Barrel have good items. Many of them are pretty highly priced. You might be able to find equivalent items elsewhere. But if you buy an item there, I don’t think you’d get ripped off – you’d be getting a good item. To me, that’s enough – they’re in the conversation when considering a particular type of purchase and they’re not scamming you.

Sure, I’d be a bigger fan if their prices were lower. But if I designed my “perfect” company from a consumer perspective – high quality items, environmentally sound, very low prices – the company couldn’t afford to stay in business. They wouldn’t turn a profit.

In the end, the perfect is the enemy of the good, and Crate and Barrel (and similar shops) are good enough, even if they don’t represent the best possible bargain out there.

Going into my senior year in college, I had minor surgery. I assumed that my mom and dad (divorced) would handle the medical bills the way they always had. A year later, in grad school, I started getting collections calls. I called my parents and found out that they had been fighting over the bills, which were in my name, and nothing had been paid. If I had known, I would have taken out more money in student loans to pay the hospital. I paid settlements to the two agencies that contacted me. I am now out of grad school, ran a free credit report from annualcreditreport, and see that I have a third account in collections that I never knew about. I’m pretty sure it’s my debt and not an error (my medical insurance was an 80/20 plan and I pieced together that our share was about $5000).

My question now is: do I contact them and try to work out a settlement for this last $1200 or do I wait for the debt to disappear from my report in 2 years? I have some ability to repay but I hate the thought of parting with money that I worked so hard to save and the hospital (which did an excellent job!) doesn’t get any of it.
- Kelli

The ethical thing to do is to always repay our debts. If you borrowed money from someone, it’s the right thing to do to pay it back.

Things get hazier in the real world, though, and it sounds like you’re in a mess. My suggestion here is to contact the holder of the debt and negotiate. Ask them what they would take to have the debt marked as paid on your credit report.

The real world is sometimes a sticky place. This sounds like it could be very close to a “he said, she said” kind of battle. In those cases, everyone involved is better off if someone just steps up and solves it – the mature person in the mix. It sounds like here, Kelli, that’s you.

Along those same lines…

I’m curious if you’re familiar with do-it-yourself credit repair, particularly for low dollar delinquencies (less than $500). I’ve read that with collection agencies you can write “pay to delete” letters where you agree to pay the entire amount in exchange for them removing it from your credit reports. Have you or any readers had success in removing negative items from your credit report?
- Christine

Let’s be clear: paying someone to remove accurate info from your credit report is illegal. It constitutes fraud.

Now, it’s always a good idea, if you owe money to a collection agency, to negotiate with them. What kind of payment will they accept in exchange for marking the debt as paid?

This is completely ethical and legal – it’s a negotiation between two parties over a debt. When you come to such an agreement and your report is updated, it won’t undo a long period of delinquent payment, but it will begin to immediately heal your credit history and credit score. And, as time passes and the debt fades into your past, your credit score and history will greatly improve over time.

Either way, you need to address this. An open wound like this on your credit report is doing you no favors at all.

I don’t understand the Idiocracy theory. If you have children, you have to devote a lot of resources (time and money) to raising them – resources that you could otherwise use to influence other people to take up your cause. On the other hand, if your cause is such that the only way you can persuade someone to take it up is to brainwash them with it from birth, then what kind of cause is that?
- Johanna

Look at it through demographics, Johanna. These statistics from the Russell Sage Foundation indicate that the more financial success a family has, the less likely they are to have children. Instead, they devote their time to developing skills, pushing forward causes, and growing their knowledge.

Sage’s statistics show that the poorest quintile of America – the group that has, on the whole, the worst set of behaviors for financial and professional success (I’m not saying they can’t succeed, I’m merely saying that the results of their efforts is the worst) – has, on average, 10% more children than the richest quintile.

So, let’s do the math on this. Let’s say you have five couples, one in each quintile. The couple in the lowest quintile produces 2.0 children, while the couple in the highest quintile produces 1.8 children. Thus, the number of people that would define the lowest quintile today will grow in the next generation, while the highest quintile will shrink. Some of the people with the traits of the lowest quintile will now find themselves in the next highest quintile simply because of sheer numbers. Thus, all higher quintiles – in other words, all of society – see a slight reduction in traits that gear towards success.

Over many generations, you see a large reduction in the traits of people that made up the highest quintile and an increase in the traits of people that made up the lowest quintile, whether those traits come from nature or from nurture. If this gap in child bearing continues, the behavioral and cultural norms of the lowest income people will become the cultural and behavioral norms of all of society.

Is that a good thing, a bad thing, or an indifferent thing? It’s something that could be endlessly debated. However, the effect itself is clearly happening – whether or not you can trace that back to cultural and social changes is another question altogether.

My belief is that, from the pure perspective of diversity, it’s a bad thing and that people who are successful in life can do their part to help the world by having children of their own and raising them with the care and compassion they show in other aspects of their lives, the aspects that brought them success.

Has Sarah ever commented on any of your articles just to keep you on your toes?
- Mol

Sarah (my wife) usually “comments” to me face to face about my articles. Usually, her comments revolve around some of the choices I make to protect privacy – I’ll leave out details about people, change their first names, or somehow alter them in an inconsequential way to protect their privacy.

Sometimes, she’ll get really aggravated with commenters, who read one article and immediately leave a flaming comment about a decision we puzzled over for months. I usually remind her that (a) these people are likely trolls and (b) if they’re not, they don’t have the full view or the time invested in studying our situation. A single post cannot possibly reveal all facets of a complex choice.

Every once in a while, she’ll harangue me for an inaccuracy somewhere, usually related to my juxtaposing elements of a remembered situation. “That never happened like that!” she’ll tell me, and then she’ll inform me how she remembers it. Likely, the actual story is somewhere in the middle – or maybe I’m right, or maybe she’s right. To me, it’s inconsequential – the important part of it is always the positive outcome.

I recently graduated college and have 2 student loans to pay off:
Loan 1: about $4,000 left on it with a 6.8% rate
Loan 2, Part 1: about $3,000 left with a 6.8% rate
Loan 2, Part 2: about $7,000 with a 4% rate
Loan 2, Part 3: about $6,000 with a 5.3% rate
The kicker on loan 2: I was ‘automatically selected’ to pay off both part 2 and 3 before I can even start paying off part 1 (with the crazy high rate).

I have asked around and done a bit of research on my own. Really the only thing that I keep coming back to is Ramsey’s idea of paying off the smallest loan first, while still making minimum payments on the other loan (so I don’t default). I have already built up an emergency fund and am trying to decide how to tackle these loans that would be the most profitable in the long run.
- AReynolds

Loan #1 should go first regardless of how you calculate it.

The way I calculate segmented loans like loan #2 is by figuring out the average interest rate. Just multiply the interest rate of each segment by the amount of that segment, add the totals of each segment together, then divide by the cash total of the loan. In this case, the average rate is 6.0125%. Over time, it’ll inch upwards, as the balance of the first segment will go up faster than the second and third, but the rate will never equal the rate of the first one.

I’d just think of loan #2 as a single loan with an interest rate of 6.0125%. That means you’re choosing between a loan with $4.000 on it at 6.8% or a loan with $16,000 on it at 6.0125%. Almost every method under the sun for debt repayment will tell you to go with the $4,000 loan first.

How much does it cost a company to maintain the record of your debt? Given that they have to pay someone to call you, have to pay for postage to contact you with documents, and any other costs they have to soak to keep your debt on file, at what point would it become less than worthwhile to keep your debt on the books?

To use an extreme case, suppose I had an outstanding balance of $.01 in debt, and maintained it at that level, it would be more cost-effective for the company to write that off than collect, wouldn’t it?
- prufock

Companies that have sensible bookkeeping procedures usually do forgive tiny amounts due. Bills for $0.01 are largely a thing of the past as companies have realized that there is a cost to bill a customer and that forgiving the remaining amount is the best route if the balance is lower than the cost of billing.

What’s that cost of billing? It largely determines on the internals of a company. I’ve received bills for $4 in the last few years, but I can’t recall anything lower.

From my back-of-the-envelope chicken scratches, I would guess that for most companies, billing amounts under a dollar or two are probably better off left unbilled. Instead, they often just sit there and are added to larger bills if a customer has a new charge in the future.

At the same time, though, it’s usually a good move for a company to issue a refund or a payment for any amount, even if it’s just $0.01. The cheapest way to do that is usually to just treat it like any other payment and issue a check. While it might be cheaper for them to just hold it and apply it as a credit to your next bill, it’s often not allowed – and they’re far better off following the rules to the letter.

If you were forced into a short-term debt situation right now, would you rather borrow money from a friend or a family member or go into credit card debt?
- Andy

I’d rather get into credit card debt if those were my only choices.

I very rarely see a situation that involves a family loan that doesn’t end up with hard feelings or resentment on one side of the coin or another. If this is just a short term debt small enough to be put on a credit card, I’d rather pay a hundred dollars in finance charges than jeopardize a valuable family relationship.

To me, the value in my life isn’t measured in dollars and cents. It’s measured in people. The risk I would add to such a relationship is worth the extra money a credit card debt would cost me.

What is a typical work day like for you?
- DeLa

I wake up around 6 AM and usually check my email. My office is right next door to the kids’ bedroom, so I hear them when they begin to awaken, usually around 6:30.

After that, it’s time for getting dressed, brushing hair, eating breakfast, a bit of horseplay, getting shoes on, getting any winter clothes on, and getting out the door to daycare. I’m usually more interested in just spending good time with the kids, so this isn’t rushed in any way unless I have something URGENT for work. Most days, my workday proper doesn’t start until 8:45 AM.

I usually spend the morning in three separate hourlong focus sessions, where I turn off the phone and focus on an article. I’ll usually try to finish a good draft in that timeframe. Between the sessions, I’ll take a break or do things like approve comments.

After that comes lunch and often another hourlong focus session. Then I’ll spend time editing the posts and setting them up for public display. I then usually do a big email session. After that, I’ll usually work on some other large project – a book manuscript, a post for my personal site, or something along those lines.

That gets me to about 3:30 in the afternoon, at which point I wind things down for the day. I’ll usually keep working on whatever the biggest “fire” is until my wife and kids arrive home around five.

About two days a week or so, I’ll spend the afternoon out and about. Sometimes, I’ll do something like grocery shopping with my notepad open to jot down ideas. Other times, I’ll go out to lunch with someone. Sometimes, I’ll spend an afternoon at the library.

To continue that train of thought…

If you work at home alone all day, how do you combat loneliness?
- Emerson

I don’t feel loneliness if I can consistently get myself into a creative zone – and most days, I can. It’s the days when I can’t that are the trickiest.

On those days, I usually go do something social. I’ll go eat lunch with someone I know. I’ll go to a coffee shop and work. I’ll try to pencil in an interview with someone. I’ve even sat in on a class at a local university.

There are always people doing something out and about in the community and it’s not hard to meet up with them. I’ve found that, for me, that’s enough.

Got any questions? Ask them in the comments and I’ll use them in future mailbags.

Each Monday, The Simple Dollar opens up the reader mailbags and answers ten to twenty simple questions offered up by the readers on personal finance topics and many other things. Got a question? Ask it in the comments. You might also enjoy the archive of earlier reader mailbags.

How do you minimize distractions while you’re working? I also work from home and find that many people are not respectful of this. Even if I choose not to answer the phone, sometimes the ringing proves to be enough to cause a break in concentration, which results in lost time. Is it rude to leave an outgoing message on our answering machine, to the effect of “…we can’t answer the phone right now as we are unavailable or working….”? Even then I don’t think it would get the message across.
- Kristine

I usually just turn the ringers off on my telephones and allow messages to go straight to voicemail or an answering machine. I also shut down my email and log off of any messaging services I’m on.

My feeling on this is simple. The real meat of my work is best done in focused chunks. When I have a two hour period of time where I can just sit down and block out the world, I’m ridiculously productive in my writing.

On the other hand, if I allow myself to be interrupted, my writing slows to an absolute crawl and, in the end, there’s little benefit from the things I was able to immediately handle.

There’s almost nothing on this earth that’s worth interrupting those focused sessions. Without them, I wouldn’t be able to do what I do.

So when you are bad at budgeting, and the money is going willy nilly do you think it is wise to sit down with an accountant to help come up with a plan? I find that people like Dave Ramsey just want you to make a budget and use cash only but if you could do that you would not be in the problem you are already are in! I am meeting with an accountant to help me set up a plan because obviously I can’t do it right. What are your thoughts on this? The accountant also said every time he spends money he thinks how many hours will I need to work to get this, he told me he is a tight wad!
- Tamara

If you’re having difficulty with the structure and numbers of a budget, an accountant can help, but that’s usually not the problem.

A budget is a piece of paper that does nothing more than represent a promise to yourself to get your spending under control. For the most part, we can’t make choices about how much we spend in many required areas, like our rent or our sewer bill. Our choices come in areas like food, entertainment, our automobile, and the like.

The key to controlling spending in those areas is mindfulness and impulse control, not having a piece of paper.

A budget is useful – particularly at first – because it lets you see what you’re really spending in those various areas. It says, “Hey, you’re spending a ridiculous amount on entertainment and it’s hurting you. Cut back.”

In the end, though, you have to make the behavior changes. A budget can’t do it for you.

So, yes, if you’re having difficulty with the structure and the numbers, have an accountant help you. But don’t expect the presence of a budget on paper to magically change your situation.

$350,000, divided out by 18 years, is only $53/day or so.

Counting up food, clothes, field trips, housing, etc. that you pay for your children, would $53 a day sound like an unreasonable number?
- A.J.

A.J.’s comment refers to some estimates that the average cost of raising a child born today into adulthood is $350,000 by some calculations.

First of all, it’s worth noting that such a number is an average. You’re including kids with full-time nannies. You’re including kids that go to private school. You’re including kids whose parents write checks to their Ivy League institutions. You’re including the kid whose parents bought him or her a brand new Lexus for their sixteenth birthday.

In short, most of us will actually spend less than that total raising our children. What is that less number? It depends a lot on the choices you make.

Are you going to buy them a car when they’re sixteen? Are you going to pay for college? Are you going to hire tutors? Are you going to get them into a better school? Are you going to buy them a top-of-the-line instrument for band? Are you going to dress them in new trendy clothes or go shopping first at thrift stores? Are you feeding them organics from day one? Are you going to travel extensively with them as they grow up? Are you going to move into a larger house to accommodate them?

All of these choices will make a radical shift in your total expenditures for your child, either up or down. Parents that make all of the low-cost choices will spend significantly less than that $350,000 total – perhaps half, or even less. Other parents who make different choices will spend more.

It really depends on your parenting style and what you value. For me, I’m more willing to invest on what’s in the inside – educational opportunities, food – than what’s on the outside – clothes, a new car.

I am becoming increasingly aware of the inhumane treatment to livestock in the food industry. Do you have any recommendations for websites or books to learn more on where to buy organic food and what resteraunts offer it?
- Mol

I tend to think that the best solution, if you’re worried about big agri-producers, is not to buy organic, but to buy local. Buying local means you can actually visit the farms where the items are produced and see for yourself how they’re treated.

In our case, for example, we buy milk and other dairy products from Picket Fence Creamery in Woodward. We can drive by the farm any time we like and they have very regular open houses and tours. I don’t care if it has an organic label on it or not, that’s a level of trust you just can’t get from buying an anonymous product in the store.

One great place to start with this approach is http://www.localharvest.org/, which has tons of information on eating from local sources.

Obviously, you can’t get all of your food this way, especially if you live in a colder climate, but it’s a big step in the right direction.

Due to reasons too complicated to explain, we have a mortgage where the only ones really keeping track of the balance are ourselves. (In other words, when we make an extra payment, it doesn’t necessarily get recorded unless we keep track of it.)

We have been adding roughly $165 a month to the payment with the goal of paying the loan off early. In the future that amount may go up. But we paid on the loan for a year + before adding additional money. I haven’t found a mortgage calculator that works for us. It is very important to keep track of this (it would be for anyone, but even more so for us). Have you any suggestions for something workable to track these payments?
- Kathryn

It sounds extremely shaky to me that you’re making payments to the bank and they’re not registering. If my lender had this kind of policy, I would make every effort to refinance, because the whole thing sounds really questionable.

In terms of personal financial records, the best thing a person can do is learn how to use a spreadsheet. A spreadsheet is so free-form that you can basically track your information in whatever way is most convenient for you. Spend the time to know how to use one.

Beyond that, your best step is probably to find a way through the complicated situation to ensure that your payments are being recorded correctly. There’s little reason for a company to have such sloppy records.

Trent, do you ever enjoy a good cigar?
- Mike

No, I do not. I have had several relatives have a miserable end to their lives due to emphysema (let alone lung cancer) and I’m beginning to watch a few more begin to head down that road. It’s a very painful thing to watch and experience.

This experience has put me firmly in the “not going to smoke” camp. I’m not an anti-smoking zealot by any means, but I do avoid businesses and private clubs that allow smoking and I’m extremely hesitant to visit the home of a smoker.

Many people respond with comments along the lines of “an occasional cigar is no big deal.” Maybe that’s true, but watching my grandmother spend the last few years of her life struggling for every single breath puts me firmly on the side of prudence in this case.

Trent, you mention that you keep your computer on because it automatically collects data at certain times. I was wondering if you are trolling for news articles or something similar to keep up to date on specific topics. I’m interested in doing that myself and was hoping you could suggest the easiest way to “troll” for news or blogger posts using keywords or something. Not sure if this is what you do, but if you have any pointers, it would be much appreciated.
- Victoria Vargas

I collect articles in an offline RSS reader that automatically checks hourly for updates. I save them locally so that, in the event that a blog disappears from the face of the earth, I still have a personal archive of the writings. It also enables me to read such writings when the internet is unavailable, which happens every few months or so here for a day or so.

Beyond that, I also run Folding@Home, which utilizes unused processing power of our home’s computers to analyze proteins, the results of which can be used in biomedical research to cure diseases. I have these programs set to automatically return results as soon as they’re finished and retrieve new ones, which means that Folding@Home sometimes runs in the middle of the night or on weekend afternoons.

Beyond that, my local computer also stores automatic backups of The Simple Dollar.

Between all of these automated things, I’m better off just leaving the computer running. It performs several important tasks, even when I’m not there to manage it.

I’ve been following you on Goodreads and you read a lot! Are you going to make a “best of 2009″ list for books so people might have some interesting Christmas gift ideas?
- Kelly

I will probably have a “best of 2009″ article or two on my irregularly-updated personal blog (right now, with my book crunch, I don’t have time for such updates, sadly). But I know that a lot of my readers are avid book readers who also often gift books to friends and relatives, so for you all, here’s my current “top ten books of 2009″ list. I’m including only books published in the last 24 months that I read for the first time in 2009.

1. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
2. Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew Crawford
3. Supermarket: A Novel by Satoshi Azuchi (new in English)
4. This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper
5. Anathem by Neal Stephenson
6. Satchel by Larry Tye
7. Crazy for the Storm by Norman Ollestad
8. The Magicians by Lev Grossman
9. Sunnyside by Glenn David Gold
… and, honestly, I don’t have a tenth that fits into this group quite yet.

What do you do with the personal finance books you review but don’t keep?
- Millie

Many of the books I review come straight from the library, and that’s where I return them. By now, I must be one of the best customers of the Ames Public Library in Ames, Iowa.

Aside from that, though, I do pick up a few books for my own use. When I have one of those, I either give it away to a reader randomly (I just pick a commenter that tickles my fancy) or I ship it away via PaperBackSwap for something I’ll find more worthwhile.

On a rare occasion, I’ll keep it because it seems like a good reference or has potential for inspiration in the future.

If you had sufficient money, would you choose to send your children to a private school?
- Charles

No. Instead, I’d choose to live in an area that put a high value on public education, a town where the citizens were willing to pay local taxes to have an incredibly strong local school district. There, I’d send them to the public school.

To me, private school is a good solution for affluent parents who are focused on education but required to live in an area with really poor public education. Since parents often don’t have the choice to simply raise taxes and improve the district with a wave of their hand, private school is a logical solution for them.

What about homeschooling? For one, I don’t believe in my own skills as an educator enough to follow this path. I suppose I would consider an appropriate tutor if money were no object and I was strongly opposed to the public school and I couldn’t move for some reason, but that seems like a pretty narrow situation.

I also often feel as though children are homeschooled to protect those children from certain kinds of knowledge or strongly reinforce particular ideas. However, the purpose of an education is to gain exposure to all kinds of knowledge and build up the tools to interpret and make sense of that knowledge. I want my children to face challenging decisions and ideas, and part of that means being exposed to children and families with different ideas and perspectives and values.

Got any questions? Ask them in the comments and I’ll use them in future mailbags.

Each Monday, The Simple Dollar opens up the reader mailbags and answers ten to twenty simple questions offered up by the readers on personal finance topics and many other things. Got a question? Ask it in the comments. You might also enjoy the archive of earlier reader mailbags.

I recently graduated college and have 2 student loans to pay off:
Loan 1: about $4,000 left on it with a 6.8% rate
Loan 2, Part 1: about $3,000 left with a 6.8% rate
Loan 2, Part 2: about $7,000 with a 4% rate
Loan 2, Part 3: about $6,000 with a 5.3% rate
The kicker on loan 2: I was ‘automatically selected’ to pay off both part 2 and 3 before I can even start paying off part 1 (with the crazy high rate).

Any and all advice will be welcomed. Please and thank you in advance!!
- AReynolds42

The first thing you need to do is figure out the true interest rate on that second loan. Effectively, you need to treat loan #2 as one loan – ignore the separate “parts.”

It’s easy – multiply $3,000 by 6.8%, $7,000 by 4%, and $6,000 by 5.3%, then divide all of it by $16,000. You get 5.0125%. Then, compare that interest rate to the other loans and start paying off either the one with the smallest total (the first loan) or the one with the lowest interest rate (again, the first loan), depending on whether you’re using the Dave Ramsey plan or the mathematically superior plan.

The answer’s easy for you – pay off the first loan first and just wait on the second one.

What is your process of reviewing books? Do you read the whole book and then do the review? Do you have any advice for writing good book reviews?
- Jules

I usually read the book chapter-by-chapter or section-by-section and jot down my impressions afterwards. Sometimes, I focus in on the big point of the section – at other times, I end up jotting down the individual point that sticks with me the best.

Once the book is done, I write down a few final notes on it and ask myself whether it was a worthwhile read.

From those scribblings, a book review comes together pretty easily. The real time investment is in the reading. I tend to put two hours a day aside for just that purpose – reading for the purpose of learning more about personal finance, careers, and so forth and writing reviews of those books.

Uh…you think emergency funds should have no limits? So, if I was a college kid with a $50,000 emergency fund in a savings account, you wouldn’t suggest I do something with that money?

One should never stop replenishing an emergency fund, yes, but that’s because emergencies keep using it up.
- Michael

Michael, it might be useful to put away your “jumping to conclusions” mat that you like to pull out all the time.

Yes, I think an emergency fund should have no limit. No, it doesn’t necessarily need to all sit in a savings account. Put some of it into CDs or bonds or short term treasuries.

An emergency fund shouldn’t just be used for negative emergencies. Life often throws us opportunities (or positive emergencies), and our emergency fund should be there to easily help us with those, too. That means the typical “six month emergency fund” – intended to just help with negative emergencies – isn’t enough. You need more. And given the number of opportunities we have in life, the more the better. If you keep your ears and eyes open, life is full of great opportunities.

In the past five years, three of my grandparents have passed away, having had the usual run of health issues, and having been helped tremendously (at near-sainthood levels) by their respective children – my parents, aunt and uncle. My sister is on the verge of getting married, and we’ve been debating the merits of having children. I love children, and hope to have several of my own. My sister doesn’t much like children, and doesn’t consider herself good “mom” material. But we both agree there are lots of times in life when having family support is necessary, and old age/failing health is the biggest. We always expected that the grown children would take care of the parents. But what if there are no children? Seeing the number of families where the kids grow up and are completely estranged, unwilling to help take care of aging parents, there’s no guarantee they’ll take up the task either.

My sister says raising kids and paying for college is expensive, and that amount of money invested wisely could pay for a great deal of home health care when the time comes. Does that work? We have a family friend in her 90’s, never married, who has had a home health care aide (let’s call her Jane) for years, who does all the cooking, cleaning, personal care and PT. How do you estimate how much to save for that? I suppose it’s like planning for retirement, but sadder.
- TheOtherKathi

If you have children and raise them in a loving and supportive environment, they’re often there for you in your dotage. I’ve seen it time and time again in my own family and in my wife’s family as well.

If you don’t have children at all, you simply don’t have that support. You don’t have children popping in to check on you or calling you every day. All you have is you (and perhaps your spouse).

That’s not a reason to have a child. If you’re not capable of being a good parent, your children won’t be capable of being good children. Don’t have children unless you want to have children.

Another caveat: it’s a bad idea to plan on your children helping you. Instead, you should focus on not being a burden to them in your final years – they’ll often still help you, but it’s impossible to predict how much they’ll help you.

Do you dream in color or black and white? Do you remember your dreams?
- Ashley

I dream in frighteningly vivid color. Sometimes, I have dreams that remind me of Yellow Submarine, actually – I don’t know how else to describe them. Many of my dreams are more reality-based, though.

I tend to remember one dream a night or so and I usually write them down in as much detail as possible in my journal. For example, last night I had a dream that my wife and two kids passed away and I wound up remarrying a very short woman – I never did see the woman’s face. She had also lost her husband in an accident and we found each other in a support group. She had a teenage son (that I do remember) who practically demanded that we get married.

I usually write these dreams down because they become the basis for short stories later on. I read through these recollected dreams and every once in a while, one will become the source of a piece of fiction.

Me and my partner are planning to go to live in Southeast Asia for up to a year (or longer – it’s very open-ended). We both have roots there, and think it would be one of those life-enriching experiences that we’d never forget and would thank ourselves for later on in our lives. We’re planning to use about 20k in savings to pay for basic things, and then try to start a little business (English tutoring, guest house, or online service). However, we’re both concerned that when (if?) we get back to the US, we’ll have to resort to office/other drudgery again. Also, our parents are getting to that age where they need more of our financial and emotional support. Being in a traditional family, they’d like to see us buy a home to which they’d most likely move to as well. Do you think it makes sense to travel now or to hold it off until we save more?
- Ty

Travel now.

Here’s why. The older you get, the more likely you’re going to be entangled in many different demands in your life. Your parents will be in worse health. You may wind up with children whether you intend to or not. You’ll become a part of a community and more attached to the people around you.

And travel will seem less realistic than it does now. It’ll be harder to take such a leap.

The best time to do such a thing is when your entanglements are few, and they’ll never be fewer than they are now.

If you’re dreading returning to “drudgery” when you return, you should consider a different career. What do you consider to not be “drudgery”? Think about that and try to find work in that direction.

Do you ever write fiction?
- John

I try to write a short story a week. I’d love to be able to write more than that, but fiction writing is harder to find success with today than nonfiction and memoir writing (which is what The Simple Dollar is, for example).

I’d love to be able to primarily write fiction at my own pace, but that’s a future that seems a long way off. My plate is happily full at the moment, so I mostly work on fiction to keep myself from getting completely rusty.

I haven’t written anything that I feel is publishable yet, but I may be too hard on myself.

May I know what you consider as the best personal finance book for people in their 30s that you have read so far?
- Joy

It depends on what you’re looking for.

If you want a book that focuses on the nuts and bolts of investing and money management, I’d probably vote for Get a Financial Life by Beth Kobliner.

If you’re re-evaluating your whole relationship with money, nothing beats Your Money or Your Life.

If you’re at a career crossroads, look at something like Career Renegade by Jonathan Fields.

Those all speak well to thirtysomethings, I think.

How much money does a person have to have before you consider them rich?
- Kelly

There’s no set dollar amount.

For me, a person is rich if they can wake up each morning and do whatever they want to do. It might be some kind of work or it might not, but the person has the freedom to choose between work and play and define entirely for themselves what work is and what play is.

That, to me, is what it means to be rich. It doesn’t mean a huge number of investments or a fleet of expensive cars. It just means freedom.

Did you enjoy Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box? You tweeted about it a few times.
- Kathy

It’s just as good as the first Professor Layton game, if not better.

For those unaware, Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box is the second in a series of games for the Nintendo DS. The games are simple adventure games (with amazing graphics and voice work) that involve solving a huge number of puzzles – 150 directly in the game and a few very engrossing puzzle-based side quests.

Both games are well worth playing. They only have between five and ten hours of gameplay in each one, but it’s some of the most enjoyable gameplay around. It’s great to pick up for fifteen minutes, solve a few puzzles, dig a bit deeper into the story, and then put it down.

Got any questions? Ask them in the comments and I’ll use them in future mailbags.

Each Monday, The Simple Dollar opens up the reader mailbags and answers ten to twenty simple questions offered up by the readers on personal finance topics and many other things. Got a question? Ask it in the comments. You might also enjoy the archive of earlier reader mailbags.

Do you really believe it’s better for the earth to have more children?
- Kelly

I’m a big believer in what I call the “Idiocracy” theory, so dubbed because of the very eloquent and humorous explanation of the idea at the start of the film Idiocracy.

To put it simply, if you believe strongly in a cause to the point of taking action to push your cause forward, the best thing you can possibly do is have children, raise them to think and be independent, and get them involved in the cause, too.

Many people who are driven to success in life or push themselves toward a cause eschew the idea of having children – they don’t have time, or they’ve convinced themselves it’s a moral wrong. Instead, people who are not driven and not committed to a cause tend to have more children – they do have time and they haven’t convinced themselves it’s a moral wrong.

Thus, the next generation has a higher proportion of people who aren’t driven towards causes, towards self-improvement, or towards improving the world.

If smart and driven people want to make the world a better place, they should consider having children, who will often also be smart and driven. The more smart and driven people there are in the world, the better off the world will be.

If you’re smart and driven and have chosen to not have children, you’re much like a candle in the wind that’s not lighting any other ones.

The only way I can stop using credit cards is to not have them at all. I have balances on my cards though. I just want to close the account & pay down the balance. However, I read that will hurt my score. What is going to hurt more – high balances on maxed out cards or closing the account and paying it off? This really is my only option. I would love to hear your opinion!! Thanks!
- Allie

Your best bet is to leave the accounts open for now, destroy the cards, and pay off the debt as quickly as you can without missing a payment.

In terms of your credit score, one big factor is the percentage of your credit limit that you’re utilizing. The way to do that is to leave your total credit limit alone – not canceling anything for now – and simply keep yourself from using it while paying down the debt. Over time, your percent of utilization will go down and your credit rating will go up.

You don’t have to cancel the account – just destroy the cards themselves (and erase the numbers from any online accounts)!

I was wondering if you have looked into “lifetime webhosting” – how do ensure that your content lives on (i.e. your blog keeps being hosted) without your active renewal, for example, 75 years from now?
- chessiq

For one, I don’t believe the web as we know it will exist in seventy five years. And for another, The Simple Dollar is being archived in several ways – archive.org, for starters.

My intent is to maintain The Simple Dollar as is for a long time, but inevitably, the period of the World Wide Web will wane and be supplanted by other forms of media. When that happens, I may move it to another format if it’s still relevant.

I’m considering some other options for maintaining the content, including a print anthology of the best timeless articles from The Simple Dollar.

Do you ever feel that you have many things pulling at you at once, frugality being just one of them? When purchasing food for dinner, I like to eat some protein (meat), as I go to the gym a lot. I like to eat healthy, so that meat should probably chicken or fish. And, I’m not a big fan of fish, so I find myself eating grilled chicken 5+ nights a week. (I’ll vary rice/pasta and veggies on the side). Without limiting the quantity of chicken, I can’t really get the price down, although it’s usually around $2 a meal. I’d like to be more frugal, but I don’t want to sacrifice my health to save $1/lb on meat, or make my effort in the gym worthless, by eating a protein-free dinner. I don’t too much mind the monotony (although I am open to suggestions), but was more curious if you ever feel the same way?
- Dave

Eating the right foods is an investment in your health. I have no objections whatsoever to spending more on food to get higher quality food.

Think of it this way: most foods that enable you to get a very cheap meal aren’t healthy for you. Over the long term, they’ll cost you in the form of lost energy, health care costs, and other effects.

$2 per meal is completely reasonable in my eyes if you’re eating healthy, high quality foods and eating such foods is one of your key values in life (as it clearly is for you).

One note, though: consider eating more beans. Beans have quite a bit of protein, can be prepared tons of different ways, and are incredibly cheap. I’m a big fan of beans.

When the Security and Exchange Commission fines a business or individual for an infraction or violation of the rules, usually the fine is pretty hefty – sometimes in the millions of dollars. What does the commission do with the fines they receive?
- Steven

SEC fines are rolled back into the SEC’s annual budget, but it’s only a small part of their budget. The rest is funded directly with taxpayer money.

If the SEC grew a backbone and started cracking down hard on some of the grey area securities tactics that many companies use, they could bring in a boatload of money and make the market more open to individuals.

However, they have no real incentive to do that, especially since many people at the SEC are heavily connected in the securities industry. So much for regulation.

My son-in-law has all but given up on his favorite sport, golfing, because of the cost. What is the best place to look for golfing coupons?
- Barbie

My best source for golfing coupons has always been the Entertaiment Book, which is often sold as a fundraiser for community organizations. Most of them offer quite a few pretty nice discounts at area golf courses, as well as discounts and free buckets of balls at local driving ranges.

Since I rarely golf any more, that pretty much takes care of my needs. The only thing the Des Moines-area Entertainment Book doesn’t cover for me is a once-a-year (at most) golfing outing in my hometown with my in-laws.

I haven’t found any other really reliable solutions. Perhaps the readers have some ideas.

We had a company wide re-structuring and everyone got to know their new job title. would it be an acceptable code of conduct to ask people what their new job title is? (Just to know where we stand in the company).
- RU

I think that’s completely appropriate. In fact, I think if such a thing happens in a company, they should require name tags with everyone’s new job description on it and have everyone wear them for a month or so just so everyone can figure things out and get on the same page.

Perhaps you can suggest this. It would be useful for everyone in the company as they become used to the new corporate structure.

One big thing: you need to be completely willing to answer the question if you’re going to ask it. If you ask someone and then don’t respond to their query (or to the query of someone else), it will NOT reflect well on you.

I am a college student, just starting my final year. I was lucky enough to be able to pay for college with scholarships and the help of my parents, so I have absolutely no student debt. I’ve had a checking account for several years, but I have never opened any kind of credit card account as the idea of that much financial room has always intimidated me.

I was wondering what I could be doing to responsibly build my credit/ credit score so that it will be at the optimum point when I look into making significant purchases (house, car) in the future. I am worried about going down the wrong path if I’m not even sure where to start.
- laurenly

Your best bet – the simplest way to start – is to get a credit card. Use that credit card for ONLY one kind of purchase, one you make regularly. For example, if you commute, get a BP card and use it only for buying gas at the BP. If you’re in college, get an Amazon Visa and use it only for buying textbooks. Then, pay off the full balance each month and don’t use the card for anything else.

Doing this will help your credit score immensely. The trick is to not decide that using a credit card is “easy” and start using the card for other purchases – that’s where people get into trouble.

Get a card, use it for one type of purchase, and pay it off in full each month. Not only will it help your credit, but you’ll likely get a bit of a reward out of the card, too.

How can you make phone calls with Skype on your iPod Touch? I’ve heard you can’t use it on there because it doesn’t have an internal mic. Do you only use the messaging feature on your iPod touch?
- ema002

When I first got my iPod Touch, I didn’t realize it was possible to use a mic for it. Then I damaged my ear buds (I cut the cord, actually) and had to go get a replacement pair.

That’s when I discovered the Apple earphones with remote and mic. These plug into the headphone jack on an iPod Touch and function as a microphone on any apps that require it. I can sit there with my headphones on and use my iPod Touch as a Skype client.

I can also use the Voice Recorder and add voice notes to Evernote as well using these things. They’re great.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
- Larry

First of all, I’m going to exclude any places I’ve never actually visited. It’s completely unfair to fetishize some place I’ve never been to and claim I want to live there. Instead, those are places I’d love to visit some day. On that list: rural France, Turkey, and Norway.

But what about living? I’ve visited two places that have really sung to me in a certain way, making me wish I lived there.

One was northeastern Iowa/southeastern Minnesota/southwestern Wisconsin, along the southern edge of where the glaciers reached during the last ice age. It’s very hilly there, with lots of old forests. The people are mostly Norwegian and Swedish, which means lots of calm and friendly temperaments. The weather rotates wonderfully through the seasons, having very nice and distinct summers, winters, falls, and springs. It’s just wonderful.

The other place is Washington state, out near the coast. Here, the temperature and weather is pretty stable throughout the year and the people seem to be very libertarian – in other words, they let you do your own thing without much snooping or prying. Mostly, though, it was the weather and vegetation – the large forests, the great access to Olympia National Forest, and so on.

The only large city I’ve visited that I would consider living in is San Diego. Again, the people are a big factor – it often felt like the sleepiest large city I’ve ever been in, which is a good thing, and the weather was beautiful during almost every season.

Got any questions? Ask them in the comments and I’ll use them in future mailbags.

Each Monday, The Simple Dollar opens up the reader mailbags and answers ten to twenty simple questions offered up by the readers on personal finance topics and many other things. Got a question? Ask it in the comments. You might also enjoy the archive of earlier reader mailbags.

I know that predicting the market is impossible, but different people are saying drastically different things about where they predict the stock market to go in the next year or so. What do you think will happen?
- Vern

First of all, what I’m about to say is solely my own opinion, founded on reading a lot of economics books over the years and reading publications like the Wall Street Journal and The Economist. This is my own opinion and not an expert one.

That being said, I think the economy is turning around, but I don’t think we’re going to return to the economic freight train of 2003 to 2007 any time soon. Instead, we’ll recover slowly. Unemployment will remain high for quite a while compared to 2003-2007, but low compared to other periods in history.

The biggest danger, as always, is finding a healthy balance. I don’t think spending money like it’s water is a good thing right now – but it’s never a good thing. Similarly, I don’t believe that buying bullets and guns and hiding in your basement is a great answer, either – but that’s never a great answer.

Balance, my friends, balance.

Trent, since part of you income is from ads on the site, it would seem that people that read the Simple Dollar via RSS or email would cause you to loose income, is that not the case?
- Bob

There are small ads on the RSS and email feeds, but they earn me less than 1% of my income.

Even given that, my belief is that sending out my writings via emails and RSS is well worth it. Why? It keeps readers interested. Many of those readers click through to the site to read the comments. Some of them open up only one email a month – but that one email might get them to visit the site.

To put it simply, having a reader is better than not having a reader, even if some readers earn me more revenue than other readers (even here, we’re talking about fractions of a cent per reader).

What do you consider a more valuable investment in your child’s future: a tutor now or a college education later?
- Jim

A tutor now, undoubtedly. The best thing I can give my child isn’t covering their tuition bill. It’s doing everything I can to ensure that they can actually learn and grow on their own and then ensure that I’m not a burden to them later on.

If a child has the skills to learn and the desire to push forward into self-learning, I’m not too worried about their college career, actually. A child that can push forward on their own will find a way to make it happen.

My responsibility as a parent is to teach them how to do this and instill that desire in them. Thus, my key period as a parent is right now, teaching them how to do this (and getting help if I need it), rather than writing a tuition check later on.

Do 401(k)’s really charge fees? I understood that funds charge fees, but I never realized that the vehicles themselves do. Could you clarify, Trent?
- The Frugal New Yorker

Most 401(k) plans charge rather high fees on the funds you can invest in within the 401(k). 401(k) program fees are usually covered by your employer.

The reason I tend to be wary of just using your company’s 401(k) is that often, a company will sign up for whatever 401(k) plan is cheapest for them. Since the company is out to make money, they’ll get you on the funds themselves by charging high fees there.

Not all companies do this, of course. You should always check the funds offered by your company’s 401(k) and see whether or not they charge high fees. Anything over 1% or so would start to set off warning bells in my head.

I have a question regarding the book Get A Financial Life, which you recently reviewed.

Should I take that 2% and open a Roth, or should I just leave it be? It seems like an insubstantial amount of money to go through the trouble of opening a separate account, but if the benefits are worth it I would have no problem doing it.
- Trey

Whether the effort is worthwhile really depends on how old you are. The younger you are, the more worthwhile it is to make the move.

Why? If you’re younger, you have more years between now and retirement – and that means more years for investment growth. Thus, the decisions you make early on have bigger tax implications at retirement than the decisions you make later in your career.

If you’re sixty, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. If you’re twenty five, I’d definitely get that Roth IRA opened up (I use Vanguard for mine) and start pumping money into it.

Why do you link to such awful articles in your roundup? Some of that stuff is completely in opposition to what you talk about on The Simple Dollar!
- Lily

I don’t link to stuff simply because I agree with it. If I did that, the roundup would be a chorus of echoes – quite boring.

Instead, I link to stuff because it forces me to think and re-evaluate my beliefs and ideas about personal finance, careers, personal growth, and so on.

Sure, I often link to articles I agree with. But almost as often, I link to articles I disagree with. My only criteria for linking is that it makes me think. If I find the ideas crossing my mind later in the day after reading the article, it’s likely I’m going to link to it.

Trent, to what extent does “knowing your audience” affect your blog posts? I mean, you’ve got a pretty niche market- most people I know would consider it some kind of punishment to read through a financial blog “for fun.” So do you pretend to write to the “average adult American” or do you recognize that your audience is typically more financially responsible than the average American, or at the very least, intending to be more financially responsible than the average American currently is.
- Tim

I don’t “pretend” to write for anyone.

I write for several audiences. I write some that are obviously for the longer-term readers, the ones who are pretty skilled in frugality and have their financial lives in pretty good shape.

I write for people who are in the midst of their turnaround and often have a religious fervor about debt repayment.

I also write for people who are suddenly realizing their precarious financial situation and are desperately Googling for help.

I don’t write for people who have no interest in reading The Simple Dollar. On the occasions when I write “devil’s advocate” posts, I’m mostly trying to reach the people who are in that last group, the ones who are rethinking their assumptions about their life and how they spend money.

I’ve got my money in order. I’ve got my cooking skills in order. The one thing in my life that is never in order is cleaning/organization. It’s something I constantly struggle with, the way others probably struggle with money. You seem to have it together in nearly every way … I’m curious what you to do conquer household cleaning and organization, if you care to share in the future.
- LDH

For one, I’m a big believer in “dirty floors and happy children.” Keeping a perfectly clean house comes in way behind spending time with my children. Sometimes, that means the house is a mess, with some dishes in the sink and some toys left out in the living room and a kitchen floor that needs to be swept while I’m out in the yard playing with the kids, but that’s a compromise I’m completely happy with.

I don’t really view it as a struggle. I make sure to keep ahead of the things that are really important, like clean laundry and such, but I honestly don’t sweat the details that much. I make an effort to keep the rooms where guests visit pretty clean so that I’m always happy to have guests over.

I think it comes down to a values thing. Step back, look at your life, and ask yourself how important a spotless house is in the big scheme of things. For me, it’s simply not that high on the importance list.

What type of life would you lead when you finally do retire many years down the road?
- Studenomist

I want to write novels and short stories at my own convenience, when the muse strikes me. The rest of the time, I want to be living on a patch of land out in the country with a big garden and a barn, with perhaps a bit of small-scale livestock (a couple cows, a goat, lots of chickens). I’d like to spend at least some of my time working for some charitable causes, and I’d like to be able to spend several weeks a year living in another country – not hitting the tourist spots, but living in an apartment out in an area far away from the tourists.

That’s the life I’d like to lead. It’s pretty much what I’ve always dreamed of.

It still seems really far away, but it doesn’t seem as far away as it once did. I’m taking steps toward that dream every single day.

I’ve been reading your blog entries for several years now. And this is the first time that I’ve had a question that I’m not sure I can answer on my own. I just graduated from grad school in May, and I’ll need to start repaying my student loans in a few months. The Dept of Eduction is offering a 0.25% rate reduction for enrolling in Checkmate II, their automatic payment program (i.e., they withdraw the monthly payments directly from your checking or savings account). Although the brochure indicates that it’s totally “safe” and “secure”, I’m a bit wary. With a credit card, I know that I can dispute any unauthorized charges. But if they empty my checking account inadvertently, I’m guessing that it’ll be very difficult to convince the bank to reverse the charge. Can you think of any other advantages or disadvantages to setting up automatic payment? Is the 0.25% rate discount worth the risk?
- Jennifer H.

I used this very program for several years with no problem.

It’s in the federal government’s best interest to be as accurate with this as they possibly can. Once an automatic payment has been set up – whether it’s with the federal government or any large business – the cost of them messing up such a payment simply isn’t worth it. It’s a lot more worthwhile for them to build careful, redundant systems that basically eliminate such erroneous billing.

Basically, I trust automatic payments, as long as they’re executed by a business or organization larger than a mom-and-pop shop. Those businesses and organizations execute lots of payments a month, and it’s simply not worth the risk for them to not do it as carefully as possible. It has lower risk, in my opinion, than me manually writing checks or manually doing online bill pay.

Got any questions? Ask them in the comments and I’ll use them in future mailbags.

Each Monday, The Simple Dollar opens up the reader mailbags and answers ten to twenty simple questions offered up by the readers on personal finance topics and many other things. Got a question? Ask it in the comments. You might also enjoy the archive of earlier reader mailbags.

I have a question about savings and student loans. I am in graduate school and working on an emergency savings fund while paying off a student loan (deferred but accruing interest). Presently I am putting only a minimal amount towards the loan ($50/mo) and the bulk to my emergency savings ($950/mo). My plan is to get to the $6000 mark in the emergency fund, then apply the full $1000/mo to the student loan until its gone, then to start investing in an IRA. The catch is that due to funding I will take a pay hit in September 2010 and will only have ~$200/mo. to save.

Is my plan sound? Should I try to put money towards all three at once or is in sequential order best?
- Christina

I think doing things sequentially like you’re doing is sound. It’s better to work towards one goal than to split your efforts among a bunch of goals – you’ll have to wait a LOT longer to get to success if you split your efforts.

Having said that, though, I would actually go ahead and start that IRA now. Since you’re a student, a Roth IRA is probably the best option for you. I’d contribute $100 a week towards that, then put the other $600 a month toward the emergency fund and not even worry about the student loan. Once the e-fund is funded, take that $600 monthly and channel it toward the loan.

My only question is the reason for the $6,000 emergency fund. I assume it’s calculated based on how you spend money. Is it intended to provide a certain number of months of living expenses? My guess is that it’s for two or three months, depending on how you live.

Have you read the South Beach Diet book? It’s a good read even if you are not ‘dieting’. With your interest in food and nutrition (and reading) I’d highly recommend it.
- Mol

I’ve read a lot of diet books, many of them having conflicting advice.

In the end, the only pieces of human nutrition advice that seem to be consistent is that you should simply eat more vegetables than meat and to eat in moderation. Once you get much beyond that, the advice is heavily contradictory and confusing at times.

Lately, my interest in books about food tends more toward the art of preparing it (like Ratio) or where it comes from (like The Omnivore’s Dilemma). I don’t tend to bother much with books that provide a “plan” for losing weight, especially one supported by a lot of frozen foods sold in supermarkets.

How did you teach yourself how to cook? Do you watch Food Network?
- Adam

I don’t watch Food Network much at all, to tell the truth.

Most of my education in the kitchen was from books and a few YouTube videos for specific techniques. I’d read about it, then go give it a shot.

I’m not ashamed to admit that many kitchen skills are still quite challenging for me. I tend to over-butter things. I am slower than molasses chopping most vegetables – and it’s not because of the knife. I sometimes overcook meats.

Here’s the thing, though. It’s all fun for me. I love spending time in the kitchen. Best of all, I sometimes stun people with the things I make, like my potatoes and onions au gratin from scratch that takes about forty minutes of prep time and almost two hours to bake.

That’s my motivation – and that’s enough to get me in the kitchen, try things, occasionally fail, and sometimes succeed.

My husband and I have been noticing for awhile now that we’re outgrowing our friends. We are married and own our home, and are thinking about having kids in the next few years. Most of our friends still live with their parents, and are more focused on buying expensive toys (new vehicles, electronics, etc.) than they are about focusing on their future.

Is there a way we can politely bow out of these relationships, without causing many hurt feelings? Also, are there any relatively safe online communities that we could use to find people in our area that share our same interests? I know we can make new friends easily, but we don’t know where to start looking for them…
- Jessica

Just gradually slow down the interactions over time. Instead of doing something with them every week, scale it back to every two weeks or every month. That will leave you with the free time you need to build up new friends and new interests.

As for looking for people in your area, start with your interests. Visit businesses that sell products connected to your interests and see if they facilitate any groups. Get involved in any community groups and organizations connected to your interests.

Some of your friends will just drift away. Other ones – the better ones, actually – will want to know what’s going on. Be honest. Tell them you feel like there’s a gulf between what’s happening in your life and what’s happening in their life.

You’ll be surprised how flexible truly good friends can be. My best friend became my best friend when I was single. He stuck around while I seriously dated Sarah, married her, and had two young kids – he’s still single and he still stops in all the time. My kids think he’s the cat’s banana.

As for the rest? If they drift away, it’s not that big of a deal. Some friends exit stage left to make room for the new ones entering stage right.

I know you watch baseball. What other sports do you actively follow? Who are your favorite teams or players?
- Edward

I follow baseball faithfully. The only other sport I follow with anything approaching that kind of consistency is golf.

I also follow – on a somewhat more subdued basis – college and pro basketball, tennis, and soccer.

I follow football and NASCAR enough that I can talk about it in conversation with people, because I know many fans of both sports.

By following, though, I should say that I don’t slavishly watch them on television. I’ll usually watch the Sunday afternoon of a golf major and I’ll often watch the baseball playoffs. I’ll occasionally watch an NBA game or an NCAA tournament game or an English Premier League match or a semifinal or final match at a tennis major. I’ll listen to either sport whenever I find it on the radio. I also carefully read game and tournament highlights for both sports.

In the end, though, if you gave me a choice between watching a sport or playing it in the yard with my son, I’ll head outside any day. Most of my sports watching happens on days where the weather doesn’t mesh well with going outside.

You recently wrote about how your net worth is negative if you don’t count your home as an asset. When do you think your net worth will be positive again?
- Sandra

I was intrigued by Sandra’s question, so I ran some models in a spreadsheet. According to my math, I’ll be able to cross back over to a positive net worth sometime in 2011. Yes, that’s with the full crunch of my mortgage over my head and not counting my home as an asset.

My path for getting there is mostly based around whacking away at my remaining debt – my student loan and then our mortgage. I have plenty in savings to sustain us through almost any emergency.

Why is this important? In a strict way, it’s not. It’s mostly a way for me to look at the realities of my life – if I were to liquidate everything that’s easily liquidatable, where would I be?

I’ll certainly feel a lot better when that number’s in the positive, I’ll tell you that!

I am wondering if the real answer for why we never get in contact with you is that you in reality do not have time for all of us readers?

So is it not time to scale back, get more involved in the comments and with each reader instead of turning into one of those sites just pumps out information?
- Tordr

All of that stuff you list is for direct contact with readers. I interact with readers directly on Facebook, Twitter, and FriendFeed – and email, for that matter. I do reader mailbags specifically to respond to reader questions. I write articles in response to specific reader questions. And I comment, too, on occasion.

In the end, when I think about how to spend my time, I try to imagine the person I want to reach with my writing. For me, it’s that person who’s near their financial bottom. They’re scared. They’re typing search terms into Google, hoping that someone can provide them with the cool words they need to help them get a grasp on the problems around them. Maybe they hate their job. Maybe they’re scared about their debt. Maybe they just feel stuck in a serious rut revolving around consumerism. Maybe they’re trying to follow a new career path.

Whatever it is, it’s a big change, one that’s scary to face alone.

My hope is that those people find a page on The Simple Dollar. Much of what I write is with that person in mind, above all else.

We use paper plates for lunch, snacks, etc. I’ve always assumed that the cost of washing our regular plates (plus the time to do it) was probably equal to the cost of the paper plates. Also I assumed the same for paper vs. cloth napkins.

Do you have any thoughts on this?
- Ann

How exactly are you defining “cost”?

If you’re looking strictly at your own dollars and cents, you need to figure in the time you add to the equation due to the extra trash you generate, along with any extra costs you might incur due to putting more trash out by the curb. There’s also the cost of having to go to the store to re-buy those paper plates – some fraction of your grocery store trips are done to buy these plates, something you don’t have to do with normal plates.

Another factor – if you use the cheapest plates, they’re not sturdy and often cause messes (in my experience), which take time to clean up and often waste food. More expensive plates are – well, more expensive.

Beyond that, there’s the environmental factor. Paper plates take a long journey to get to your store shelf, starting with the trees in the forest that are cut to make the plates, the processing done to those trees to make the plates, and the shipping of those plates via ship and truck. With normal plates, you’re not contributing to that cost – and it certainly is a cost in a global sense.

For me, these factors tip the scale towards reusable plates.

Hey Trent, I’m also interested in canning salsa this year. How about sharing your recipe and techniques with us in the future?
- Kim

PickYourOwn (a site I quite like, even if the design is circa 1995) has a great guide for making and canning salsa.

To put it simply, canning salsa (and other tomato-based foods) is really easy because of the acidity of the tomatoes. You don’t need to pressure cook them – a boiling water bath will do the trick. Basically, just make what you want to can, boil the jars and lids for a bit to sterilize them, fill the jars, put lids on them, put the jars in boiling water for a while, and you’re done. Let them cool, check the lids, and put them up for storage.

These actually make great Christmas gifts. Homemade salsa almost always blows away stuff made in a factory.

I’m certainly no expert on libertarianism, but I’ve always had the impression that most libertarians are against taxes. Is this true for you? While it seems clear that you’re all for reallocating taxes to fund education more heavily, I was surprised that you didn’t seem more anti-tax in general.
- Georgia S.

There’s a big difference between being a libertarian and a Libertarian.

A “big-L” Libertarian is a member of the Libertarian Party and subscribes to their beliefs, many of which I view as being self-contradictory.

A “little-l” libertarian refers to a broad swath of people who believe strongly in individual liberty and smaller government. These people are basically outcasts in both major political parties.

A “big-L” Libertarian is basically just one extreme flavor of the broader group that is “little-l” libertarians. I would probably put myself in the latter group, but I’m far from the former group. I believe taxes are needed and I believe that many services are better handled by the government than privately, such as a standing army and roadways – pretty far from “big-L” Libertarians. I’m probably closest to the Republicans in terms of how public dollars should be used, but some of their uses still make me shudder.

I also believe that individual liberties should extend to the point that as long as it doesn’t violate someone else’s individual liberties, it shouldn’t matter at all in terms of the law. That’s close to “big-L” Libertarians, but very far from the Republicans and actually closer to the Democrats.

So, usually, I just vote for whatever candidate seems to match my views the best. Sometimes it’s a Republican, other times it’s a Democrat. Sometimes it’s a third party candidate.

I hope that clears things up a bit.

Got any questions? Ask them in the comments and I’ll use them in future mailbags.