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.

As usual, we’ll start things off with a few links to older articles that directly answer questions I’ve heard recently.
My thoughts on Dutchmen buying tulips in the year 1637
What’s compound interest?
What does compounded monthly mean? What’s an APR and an APY?
And now for some great reader questions!

We just bought a used chest freezer for $50 to help us stock up on refrigerated/frozen deals, meat and otherwise. Many of our friends have opted to buy a “freezer pack” of beef (for a family of our size, 1/4 of a cow, or about 100 lbs) from a local farmer. This guarantees getting local, organic, grass-fed beef, and a variety of cuts that will last us a year or more.

So, is it worth the price for high-quality, low-carbon-footprint meat? Or should we stick to filling the chest freezer with only meat on sale, regardless of the origin?
- Joanna

If you’re up to date on current food prices, the $4 a pound rate for top-grade ground beef isn’t really that bad, either. You can get it for lower, but will you be able to get top grade ground beef for $4 six months down the road? I’m not sure.

The real question is whether or not this purchase raises your overall food budget and food quality, and that’s one that I can’t tell from this question. If you typically did not consume higher-end cuts of beef (steaks, et. al.), it’s quite possible that this did raise your overall food budget. However, if a prime steak is substantially healthier than what you were eating before (like preservative-laden box meals, for example), especially since it’s grass-fed beef.

One concern, though, is the rate of consumption. If it will take you a year to get through it, some of the meat near the end may be getting old from the time in the freezer - the taste may be a bit off. Eat the prime cuts earlier and save the roasts and other lower-quality cuts for later.

How does your audience look like - States vs the rest of the world?
- Nefertete

Approximately 80% of the site’s visitors come from the United States, with roughly another 7% coming from Canada. The other 13% is distributed all over the place.

It’s worth nothing, though, that those percentages represent fairly large numbers. For example, my non-US audience adds up to about 120,000 visitors per month, so there are a lot of non-US readers out there.

My company is expecting to merge with another company in the next few months and as a part of the merger, we employees will be issued stock equity in the new company upon closing of the merger. The newly issued stock can be held or immediately sold. Since I’m relatively young and have never really held any equity, especially under these circumstances, I wonder what you suggest. My industry is a relatively volatile one and the company’s stock price can fluctuate fairly wildly within even just a few months, so it’s hard to project where it will be at any time in the future. Also, my industry is facing potential bankruptcies of several of our competitors within 1-2 years unless the market dramatically changes.

So, long story short, what would you recommend I do with my soon-to-be acquired equity in my company? Sell it immediately and pay off debt? Keep it as a “nest egg”? Something in-between, more likely?
- Derek

It comes down to one thing: do you believe in the merger? Is this just a merger of two flailing companies who will flail together, or is one or both of the companies bringing something compelling to the table?

As someone working inside the doors, you should have something of a grasp on this. If you don’t, start asking a lot of questions around the office and see what sort of feel you can get for the merger.

If you don’t believe in the merger, sell. Dump most if not all of the stock. If you do believe in the merger, don’t sell - hold onto the stock until you have genuine need for the money. No matter what, though, your stock investments should be diversified. If you look at all of the investments you hold and more than 20% of those investments are in the merged company, trade away from it until it’s down to

I really enjoy hearing about your marriage. As a single woman in my 30’s, I’d like to find a partner that is able to think about things and who is able to communicate as well as you do. It’s hard to know from what I’ve read if you and your wife have always had this kind of relationship, or if it’s something you’ve developed and cultivated. I’d love to hear your ideas about singles meeting and dating and talking about life goals - without being overly creepy.
- Mary

I really believe the best way to find potential singles is to get involved with social opportunities connected to things that deeply and personally interest you. If you’re passionate about something, get involved with it and see what happens. You’ll become exposed to people who are also passionate about that very thing.

If I were you, I’d sit down and think about your true interests. What things fill you with the most personal joy? That’s your starting point, right there. Follow that interest and you will find some like-minded people.

For me, at least, most of the “singles”-type places were a waste of time. Everyone was there trying to find their “match” and in their rush were overlooking interesting people.

You mentioned that you did computer repair as a way to generate some additional income. Do you have any resources that you could recommend on doing computer repair as a side business? I have two sons who are on the Autism Spectrum, and a large part of our income goes towards their needs. On top of that, we have medical bills and such that we need to pay down. Fortunately, we have no credit card debt, but we just recently had to take out a car loan (though we were able to make a large down payment). I would really like to do something to make some extra money, but am at a loss on how to get started.
- Kris

All I did was hang up some flyers around town (the post office, city hall) with some number tags, stating that I’d help people with computer repairs, tune-ups, and figuring out what computer was right for them. I also tapped my social network, sending out some emails to local people I knew.

That’s really all it took. I spent a lot of time on customer service, talking to people and answering some simple questions on the phone for free. Before long, I had a pretty wide network of people who’d call me up to have me look at their computer or help them pick out a new one. It was pretty steady, except I usually got a business burst close to Christmas and often the two or three days after Christmas.

Most of the questions I dealt with were extremely easy - things like plugging in monitors or making sure power was going to the computer or simply de-installing crummy software.

My question is where can I find a reliable emergency radio that does not depend on electricity?
- Glenda

I’ve seen several models, but the one I was most impressed with was the American Red Cross FR150. It’s an AM/FM/weather radio with a flashlight and a cell phone charger that operates on solar power and a hand crank. It’s got a small footprint (it’s about the size of a dollar bill and about an inch and a half thick) and it doesn’t take much winding time to get the radio or light working (about a minute of good cranking gets you about thirty minutes of radio).

Just put it on a sunny windowsill somewhere in your house and it’ll be good to go whenever you need it.

How can I bring myself to let go of saved money??

I’m super cheap already, so parting with money is always difficult, but I’d really like advice on how to pay off the debt and feel comfortable about it.
- Dee

If you feel comfortable with your emergency fund now, but the thought of getting rid of some of it for a non-emergency purpose makes you nervous, don’t spend it. Seriously. The point of an emergency fund is not only to help you take care of emergencies, but also to make you sleep better at night, not having to worry about how you’ll handle some unforeseen emergency.

Alternately, you could be expressing a general problem you have with saving money, in that you are psychologically fixated on saving more and more. If this is the case, you should start thinking about your real goals in life - what are you saving this money for? What kind of life do you wish to lead? One of my closest friends saves the majority of his income, but he’s doing so so that he can basically walk out the door at age 40 and do whatever he pleases.

You often mention that everyone should strive for continued self-improvement, something I think as well. However, can’t this lead to people thinking they’re never good enough? At what point to you say “I’m happy with the way I am?”
- John

I think it’s psychologically healthy and normal to be happy with they way you are right now - if you’re not, you’ve either got a very specific problem that you should bear down on right now or you should seek professional assistance to help you through your situation.

Being happy with the way you are, however, doesn’t mean there’s no room for improvement. I’m happy with the way I am, but I’d like to lose weight and become more well-read in some certain areas. To do this, I set some personal goals for myself. I don’t feel bad about where I am now, but I know that there are always things I can be doing to improve my situation.

I don’t want to ever retire. Retirement sounds really boring - I want to be doing stuff until I die. What should my investment plan look like?
- Joe

Just because you’re not going to retire doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take advantage of the tax sheltering made available by retirement plans, particularly a Roth IRA. A Roth IRA allows you to make tax free withdrawals at any time up to your total contribution, and when you turn 59 1/2, you can withdraw the investment earnings tax-free as well. I’d definitely use a Roth IRA for part of it simply for the tax benefits.

Since you never plan to actually retire, you should spend some time figuring out what your long term goals really are. Do you want to be self-employed? Do you want to start your own business? Or are you just pretty happy where you are right now and you just want to save so you can do interesting traveling when you’re older or follow up on other interests?

The real question is how far down the road are these goals, and what sort of dollar amount will you need? The further down the road they are, the more risky your investments can be - you should be putting most of your money into a stock index fund if the goals are more than ten years down the road. If things are closer, keep money in bonds, treasury notes, or even just in cash in a savings account - this is so you don’t lose any money (but you won’t have the potential for big gains, either).

My brother is working for a political campaign for a state senator running for the House of Representatives. The candidate is likely going to lose the race, but my brother absolutely BELIEVES victory is going to happen and that he’s going to get a nice job working for that guy. How do I clue him into reality?
- Will

I don’t think you need to “clue” your brother “into reality.” Most likely, if he’s a paid staffer for a House campaign, he’s probably strongly committed to a life in politics and is building up a network of connections as we speak. No matter what happens from this campaign, he’ll likely be able to move on to some sort of position, perhaps with a PAC or maybe with a lobbying firm, or maybe even in the office of another politician if his candidate is putting in some good words for him.

Your brother, especially if he’s young, is doing the right thing for his career right now. He’s building the lifelong contacts he’ll need for a long career in politics. If he’s skilled enough to be a paid staffer for a Congressional campaign, I’m pretty sure he’ll find some worthwhile work even if his candidate loses.

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.

As usual, we’ll start things off with a few links to older articles that directly answer questions I’ve heard recently.
How to make your partner happy (for free)
Psychological tricks of department stores
How I deal with a cold on the cheap

And now for some great reader questions!

How can I get [my husband] to be more open with me about money? He is always telling me he’ll take care of it. That’s all well and good, but I need to be included in his plans. Do you have any tips?
- Emily

The issue here could be any number of things. It might be a lack of trust, it might be a need to be in control, or it might just be a genuine desire to prevent you from having to worry about it.

Here’s the tactic I’d use, Emily. I’d sit down with your husband and flat-out tell him that this situation makes you uncomfortable. Say that you feel like you’re driving down a highway in the dark with the lights off - you don’t know where you’re going and you don’t know how far you’ve come. Because of that, you don’t know if you’re making a wrong turn or not - you can’t make an informed decision about whether you can afford certain items, when you need to cut back, and so on.

I usually think the best place to start is to talk about goals. What do you both want? What personal steps can you take to get there? What’s the threshold for success each week in working towards that goal?

Mmmm… cheese… I just can’t take most diet gurus seriously, because life without cheese? I’m not sure it’s worth living. I would give up so many other things in life before the simple, satisfying pleasure of cheese and wine.
- Sara

Cheese tends to be my dietary weakness as well. I love cheese. I love making homemade macaroni and cheese from scratch. I love grating cheese myself, taking little tastes, and including it in dishes.

In fact, my affinity for cheese is so strong that one of the highlights of a recent family vacation was a stop at a cheese factory. I got to look at some of the inner workings, taste a ton of cheese, and we wound up buying several different small pieces of cheese to take home with us. Deliciosu!

Trent, I would like to hear how being optimistic has has influenced your frugality. You seem very optimistic even in the face of criticism.
- Jessica

For me, optimism comes from seeing something work. I tend to start out pretty skeptical with something new, but when I actually do it and realize that it does in fact work really well, I tend to switch around and become a cheerleader for it.

Because I tend to talk more about the things that do work for me and less about the things that don’t work, I do come off sounding really optimistic most of the time.

On the rare occasion when I do talk about something I don’t like, I do tend to let it fly with both barrels, often almost to my own detriment. Things like Rich Dad, Poor Dad and freecreditreport.com tend to get me going.

Do you ever go camping? I think it’s one of the greatest frugal ways to have fun, especially with a family. I am camping this weekend and am really looking forward to fishing and making food over a fire or in a dutch oven. If you do camp, do you have any favorite camping recipes?
- Dave

When I go camping, most of the food is either just fish or a mix of fresh vegetables spiced and wrapped in aluminum foil with an ice cube and tossed on the fire. This actually works very well, forming a well-cooked meal that can have almost-infinite variations.

Try potatoes, onions, peppers, chili, beans, eggs, fish, hamburger, and carrots in any combination you can imagine (or desire), wrapped in aluminum foil with an ice cube. Toss that package on the coals, wait fifteen or twenty minutes, pull it off, and give it a taste. Quite tasty, quite easy, and quite distinctive.

Do you understand what two-cycle billing is? Can you explain it in terms that a financial dummy can understand? I’ve read explanations on a couple of websites but I am embarassed to admit that I just don’t get it.
- Kristina

Most credit cards use your average daily balance to calculate the finance charges they charge you for a given month. The difference between one-cycle and two-cycle billing is how they calculate their average daily balance.

An example On April 1 it has a $0 balance. On April 16, you charge $2,000 on the card. On May 1, you still have that same card with a $2,000 balance with a charge you put on it on April 16. You don’t touch the balance during the entire month, so at the end of the month, it’s still at $2,000.

Single cycle billing With single cycle billing, only the balance for the previous month is used to calculate your average daily balance. Since your balance from May 1 to May 31 is $2,000 every day, your average daily balance for the card under single cycle billing would be $2,000. The company will then multiply that by your daily periodic rate (the percent interest you’re charged each day, as stated in your credit card agreement) and multiply that by the number of days in the month. So, if your daily periodic rate is 0.05% and the days in the month is 31, you’ll have a finance charge of $2,000 times 0.05% times 31, or $31.

Double cycle billing With double cycle billing, the credit card companies use your last two months worth of balances to calculate your average daily balance. From April 1 to April 15, you had a $0 balance (15 days), then from April 16 to May 31, you had a $2,000 balance (46 days), your average balance would be ($2,000 * 46) / 61, or $1,508.20. If your daily periodic rate is 0.05% and the days in the month is 31, you’ll have a finance charge of $1,508.20 times 0.05% times 31, or $23.38.

Double cycle billing is cheaper when you continually add more charges to your card, but it works against you if you’re trying to pay off your card.

Another example On April 1, your card has a $2,000 balance. On April 16, you pay off the entire balance. What happens at the end of May?

Single cycle billing From May 1 to May 31, you never carried a balance, so your average daily balance is $0, and thus you don’t have any finance charges.

Double cycle billing With double cycle billing, the credit card companies use your last two months worth of balances to calculate your average daily balance. From April 1 to April 15, you had a $2,000 balance (15 days), then from April 16 to May 31, you had a $0 balance (46 days), your average balance would be ($2,000 * 15) / 61, or $491.80. If your daily periodic rate is 0.05% and the days in the month is 31, you’ll have a finance charge of $491.80 times 0.05% times 31, or $7.62.

If you have a tendency to charge up your cards and carry a high balance, it will be slightly harder to pay that balance down with two-cycle billing, but you’ll have an easier time of it on the way up. I tend to believe two-cycle billing slightly encourages people to keep a higher balance, so I tend to encourage people to avoid cards that do it, even though the real dollar difference isn’t much at all over the long haul.

Any ideas where someone might go to improve their public speaking skills?
- Nate

Practice is the key. The two best places I’ve found are my local church (doing the readings before the congregation is a great way to get in some practice before an audience that won’t heckle you if you are nervous) and the local Toastmasters.

Take every opportunity you can to speak in front of others. It’ll do nothing but improve your own skills and self-confidence. If you’re paranoid about failure, start with friendly audiences - wedding reception toasts, church readings, and so on.

If you do meet all of your financial goals, you’re almost certainly going to have a good chunk of cash until both you and your wife pass away. Have you thought about what you’d do with that? Would it be bequeathed to kids, or do you have other thoughts about how to use it?
- Steve

My wife and I currently plan to leave small fixed amounts to each of our children and then turn over the rest of our estate to a specified charity or two. We hope to have things arranged so that we do not become a financial burden on our children near the end of our lives.

By doing this, we hope to avoid any silly fighting over our estate that we’ve seen from other families. They’ll know what they’re getting up front, all of them, and it won’t change, no matter what.

What do you do for an exercise routine?
- Ed

I had a very steady exercise routine in the spring that consisted of a lot of Wii Fit and various other exercises, but several summer trips plus a very long cold completely destroyed the momentum I had.

Over the last week, I’ve started doing a morning jog again along with the lifetime fitness ladder, which I was using in the spring. Basically, 30 to 45 minutes worth of varied workouts, mostly with a focus on burning calories, five mornings a week.

Would adding my husband to one of my card accounts give his credit a boost, or would it be better to just get him his own card and start building that way?
- ama

It depends on the shape you’re in. If the card you would add him to already has a balance equal to 50% or more of the credit limit, you’re better off getting him a card on his own. If you have a low balance or don’t carry a balance at all, sharing a card is probably a better choice for raising his credit score (as it will have a higher limit than he’ll likely be able to get on his own).

Remember, the point of getting this card is simply to raise his credit score. Don’t start letting it become a buying crutch.

It’s interesting that the disdain GVR shows for video games is the same disdain you show for television shows. As you correctly pointed out, video games can actually help sharpen the mind and help in personal growth; similarly, the television can be very useful if used intelligently.

Just like people can waste hours on mind-numbing video games, people can waste hours on mind-numbing tv shows; it boils down to how you use the tv and video games. I would encourage you to be mindful of this fact.
- Joe

I don’t have any problem with television if it provides content that promotes intellectual growth. Most popular video games today do just that, from sudoku puzzles on the DS to complex adventures that develop problem-solving skills.

In comparison, here are the top seven regular television programs of the 2007-08 season: two different airings of American Idol, three (!) different airings of Dancing with the Stars, Desperate Housewives, then another airing of Dancing with the Stars. The first show that potentially provides intellectual growth comes in clear down at #8 (House). There are some worthwhile, educational, and inspirational programs on television, but that’s not what people watch.

In contrast, the large majority of 2007’s best-selling video games revolve around puzzle solving or problem solving, from Brain Age 2 (portable sudoku and puzzles) to Final Fantasy Tactics (a very complex strategy game) and Call of Duty 4 (a very complex action-strategy war game). Most modern video games, in moderation, encourage problem-solving and quick thinking skills. Even the games that could be described as “junk,” like Guitar Hero III, promote intense focus, concentration, and hand-eye coordination.

By all means, watch Nova or Planet Earth or even House, if it’s in moderation. But, frankly, that’s not what the audiences are tuned into. If the people watching 5+ hours of “mindless escapist” television turned it off and did anything else with their time - including sleeping - they’d find themselves in a better place. And that’s why I encourage people to turn off the television.

Television isn’t inherently evil. Television just used to fill time is, when people could be sleeping to become well-rested, enjoying time with their children or families, or improving themselves or their financial state. The same is true for any activity engaged in just to fill the hours that doesn’t leave you with any sort of intellectual, personal, spiritual, or social growth.

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.

As usual, we’ll start things off with a few links to older articles that directly answer questions I’ve heard recently.
I don’t sell my content, ever
Jim Cramer’s only really worthwhile book
A solution for when you’re too tired to cook that doesn’t empty your wallet

And now for some great reader questions!

What do you think of the concept that, to be able not to work and live off your funds, you should calculate how much money you spend a month, and then multiply it by 200? So, say, if you spend 2,000 a month, you should have 400,000 invested, and that would allow you to get the interest each month, and the money wouldn’t finish? Does any of this sound reasonable?
- Lola

That’s a reasonable formula, I suppose. For me, that cuts it a bit too close to the bone - for that to work, you have to bank on low inflation, and we’re certainly not seeing low inflation right now. You also have to believe in a very solid investment return.

What you actually need is enough of a bankroll so that each year, after you take out your living expenses, your investment earns enough return so that you’re not only back to where you started, but you’re back to where you started plus inflation.

So let’s look at your example. If you spend $2,000 a month, that means you spend $24,000 a year. That means your $400,000 investment would need to return at 6% to stay where it’s at. Then there’s inflation. Even if you buy that inflation is only at 5.1% (what the government claims as of June 2008, but I believe is much higher since it doesn’t account for gas), that means your investment has to return 11.1% over the year just for you to stay even. Add on top of that that you’ll likely be taxed for at least some of the gains, and that’s far too much to realistically expect.

Instead, you should shoot for using something like 1-2% of your amount annually. This means that your actual balance, to give you a living expense of $24,000 a year right now, should be somewhere between $1.2 million and $2.4 million. You’ll almost assuredly be fine in perpetuity with that amount.

I love the reader mailbag. I am always surprised at how many questions you manage to get (and answer) many are often relevant to my situation. I run an entrepreneur blog and I was wondering how you get people to ask so many questions?
- Ryan

One big reason is reader volume - there are so many readers and so many discussion threads around here for people to comment on that there are just simply a lot of comments and questions. Another piece is that I give out my email address and my IM name for people to contact me with their questions and comments.

The end result is that I get far more questions than I can use in the reader mailbag. Some of the other questions inspire posts - still others just result in interesting conversations with readers.

If you want questions from readers, give them as many routes as possible to contact you. Have an email account where they can send stuff. Be available on IM. Allow comments, and invite questions. Be on Twitter and Facebook and other services. Make it as easy as possible for readers to ask.

How do you get a spouse to recognize the amount of money they spend on a ‘hobby’ is a huge expense? I have suggested tracking how much is spent, but the response was - “No way, I’d be scared to see the real number, I know it’s huge.”
- Karen

For one month, do a very careful accounting of all of the money your family spends. Sort it into categories - food, household, etc. - and let one of the categories be all expenses related to that hobby. Don’t forget the transportation costs to participate.

Then just simply make a bar graph of this information, showing that you spend more on this hobby than you do on food for the entire family for the month (if it really is that much) or on the mortgage. That is usually a real shocker - comparing it to the amount you spend on basic living needs is usually a wake-up call.

Follow it up with a talk about goals. Discuss how much nicer of a home you could have if the expenses for the hobby were just cut in half.

That’s the route I’d take, anyway.

Do you think America fares well on the parameter of Happy Families?
- WhirlMind

I think the material comfort level in America is very high. I think part of the cost of that material comfort level is less family involvement, as people have to devote themselves strongly to work in order to keep that material comfort level.

That being said, I think it’s hard to judge a nation in terms of the happy families in it. I know tons and tons of well-rounded happy American families, and I know there are tons of well-rounded happy families in every nation. I think it’s very hard to fairly judge family happiness from nation to nation, particularly when living standards and ways of life are quite a bit different.

Have any advice to get extra money for a student with no time, not even for a half-time job? I know it sounds maybe even ridiculous but the situation here its pretty hard since… ever and things will not get any easier when the time for me to move on comes.
- Luis

Without time commitment, you’re not going to earn much money at all. Your best bet is to look for opportunities that fold neatly around your spare time - things like filling out surveys and the like that can earn you a bit of money but not a great wage.

If you’re a student, though, your chief focus should be on maximizing your grades, period. A high GPA is your ticket to a nice job or to graduate school - worrying too much about earning a few extra bucks now won’t get you anywhere.

You mentioned you’re reading some philosophy lately. I’ve always wanted to know more about philosophy but don’t know where to start. Any suggestions?
- Pete

I’d start off with Bertrand Russell’s book History of Western Philosophy. It’s a fun read and it touches on tons of different areas of philosophy. Just read it slowly, absorb the ideas, and when you’re done, ask yourself what ideas intrigued you the most. Then follow that train of thought - Russell’s book will point you towards more philosophical works in that direction.

One thing to note: Russell is pretty blunt in his opinions of different philosophers and their ideas. If he disagrees, he says so, and he also doesn’t hesitate to severely critique ideas and philosophers he disagrees with. Take it lightly and don’t let Russell’s opinions make up your mind for you - if you find the ideas interesting, read other works by that philosopher, anyway.

How do you feel pets factor into a frugal/simple lifestyle? In particular, dogs.
- Carol

Never own a pet unless you sincerely care for pets. Don’t let someone else talk you into having a pet if you’re going to be the one responsible for it. Pets deserve care and love from their owners and to give one anything less is unfair.

On the flip side of that, if you dream of having a pet, by all means get one. What a pet needs more than anything is attention and love, and if you have that, then everything else will fall into place. The actual truth is that most pet expenses, such as expensive foods and equipment, is often a substitute for time, love, and attention. Instead of buying expensive dog food at the store, figure out what it’s made of and make it yourself, for example - it’s more nutritious and healthy for the dog and likely cheaper for you, with the only drawback being that it’ll take more time.

If you have the time to invest in a pet, it’s well worth it.

What’s your favorite board game?
- Emily

My wife and I love board games, and conveniently enough, so does my closest friend. Many evenings are spent at our house playing board games late into the night.

That being said, our favorites over the last ten years, in no particular order, have been Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, Puerto Rico, Cartagena, Princes of Florence, and Carcassonne. I’d suspect that each game has seen more than a hundred hours of play time at our kitchen table, with Settlers probably coming out on top (because it’s the one we’ve owned the longest). Ever seen a board game wear out from overuse? Our copy of Settlers of Catan is pretty much there.

In order of complexity, with the simplest going first, I’d rank them Cartagena, Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan, Princes of Florence, and Puerto Rico. The middle two - Ticket to Ride and Settlers of Catan - would be the ones I’d probably use to introduce new people to the types of interesting board games we like to play.

I just stumbled upon a website called rudder.com. They help keep track of your money after you enter information about your debt, income, etc. Is this a safe site?
- Erma

My general rule of thumb when it comes to websites wanting my personal information is this: am I getting something truly compelling out of the deal? Since I can already do all of the money tracking I need to do in Excel, I don’t find such websites worth the potential risk of identity theft.

Yes, I know many of these sites have a flawless privacy record and a great policy. But you’re still sending your data through a third party, one that you’re trusting to keep safe. All it takes is one person flipping a switch and your data is being stored by someone else.

I prefer to minimize the number of places where I share sensitive information about myself. That way, there’s much less risk of identity theft.

What is the most frustrating aspect of your current day-to-day life?
- Lee

Amazingly enough, interruptions. Right now, I have my days pretty clearly scheduled - I have segments where I focus on writing, for example, and when I write, I intend to write. I try to focus in tightly on the task at hand and get the task done. Doing it this way gives me the flexibility I want in the other parts of my day.

Well, because I work at home, many people interpret that as full permission to interrupt that writing. It’s reached the point where I actually go into something of a “silent mode” when I need to write, where I actually unplug the phone, turn off email and other services, turn off my cell phone, and close the door. This gives me at least some buffer against the interruptions that come - but they still do come, more often than I’d like.

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.

As usual, we’ll start things off with a few links to older articles that directly answer questions I’ve heard recently.
How to make microgoals work
A guide to moving from a nine-to-five job to self-employment
The time I wrote about Seinfeld

And now for some great reader questions!

I would like to see you address strategies for those of us that are not college educated. My husband is a truck driver and I am a school secretary. We make a decent wage but it’s never enough especially with the economy. Our kids are ready for college but how are we going to pay for that? Retirement? It’s very scary. I feel like we are in the gap. Not too poor, but none too rich.
- Dana

The first step is you need to stop blaming your lack of financial success on the lack of a college education. You already have all of the tools you need to become a success in life.

First thing: sit down and figure out where every dime of your money is going. How much of it is unnecessary? How much of it is just spur-of-the-moment desires? Get rid of as much of that as you can, or replace it with cheaper alternatives.

Second, figure out what you really want from life. Your only major goals in life seems to be vague ideas of paying for college and retirement. Figure out exactly what you want to do. Do you want to give $10K to each of your kids for college? Do you want to have $500K in retirement in twenty years? Define exactly what it is you want to do and when, then divide it down into one tiny goal a week. If you want to save $10K in two years, that means you need to start socking back $96 a week in a savings account. Focus entirely on this week - how can you save $96? What little things can you cut? If you can cut more than that, great! Apply the difference towards an emergency fund for things like car breakdowns, and things that will make it easier to save the money, like a programmable thermostat so you don’t have to keep the A/C running while you’re at work.

That’ll get you going.

How do you go about for writing fiction? Do you take the same “outlining” approach you use for your post? Or do you write fiction on a more “linear” way?
- Jamie

I sure do. I actually outline it twice - I have a character outline for each character (how do they change?) and a plot outline (what happens?), then I combine them into a much more detailed outline, then I start writing onto that.

I usually try to make each major character similar in some way to someone I care about, whether it’s myself, my wife, one of my siblings, my parents, or a close friend or family member. This makes it easier for me to imagine them dealing with the altered version of their life I’ve place them in.

I resigned from my job on Friday and today was my last day at the office. They would rather just pay me my two weeks instead of having me come in.

How would you use the 2 extra weeks’ time? My current plan is to regroup and possibly look at some part-time volunteering while I’m hunting for a job.
- Laura

I’d throw everything I had at the job hunt. Call all the people in your social and professional network and ask what they know about for jobs. Get some strong possibilities lined up before doing anything else.

If I managed to get something lined up with some time to spare, I’d probably spend the rest of that time doing whatever felt most personally fulfilling to me, either some volunteer work or some personally challenging reading.

That’s interesting about the Simple Green. Can that combo be successfully used on regular laundry? I’m just wondering if there’s a point to mixing up a batch of liquid detergent if I can just dump washing soda and Simple Green into my laundry.
- Kristen

This message refers to my wife’s adopted solution for cleaning our cloth diapers - she uses three teaspoons of washing soda and four or five squirts of Simple Green from a spray bottle to clean a small load of cloth diapers.

I think this would work fine for regular clothes that weren’t too dirty, though I’d probably use a bit more of each and experiment - four or five teaspoons of washing soda and perhaps six squirts of Simple Green.

The only problem here is that in order to make this recipe really cost effective, you have to buy Simple Green in huge quantities at a warehouse store. My wife bought an enormous container of the stuff there - a gallon or so - for about $8. This is far cheaper than the cost at your average store - without the ability to buy it that cheap, this recipe wouldn’t be very cost-effective.

Do you ever feel like you’re not doing enough, but then when you think about the tiny frugal step you just took does it feel inadequate? I guess my question is, does it feel like no matter how much you save it will never be enough or you will never actually reach those far off goals?
- Dody

This is the exact reason why I use long term goals to set short term goals. I spend a lot of time looking at my long term goals and trying to figure out how they can be broken down into pieces the length of a week or so. That way, if I can swallow that small bite, I not only get the nice feeling of accomplishing a little goal, I know it’s a step towards my bigger goal.

Here’s an example. Let’s say I have $42K in student loans and I want to get them paid off in three years. That’s a pretty big goal. But if you break it down into smaller bites, it’s not so enormous. Getting rid of that debt requires an extra payment of $269 a week. For a young professional without any attachments, this is something that’s potentially doable. Each week when you make that goal, it feels like you’ve accomplished something worthwhile - but it’s also a good feeling to know that it’s another step towards the huge goal. Keep doing that smaller step over and over again and you’ll have that student loan gone before you know it.

You have said that you and your wife have wills in place already (I think). I am not trying to be grim here, but I was wondering what you have in your will about The Simple Dollar in the event of your untimely death. Would it carry on? Would your wife hire some people to take it over?
- Andy

I have a set of instructions for my wife that, in the event of my death, would turn The Simple Dollar into a giant pile of static web pages. This would allow the site to persist with no maintenance. Google searchers could still find the information on the site and there would still be ad income from it that would help support all of them. I also have a “final post” saved as a draft which she could post to the site explaining this.

I really don’t have much interest in having another writer take over The Simple Dollar. If that ever happens, you can rest assured that I got an offer so lucrative that I wouldn’t have to work ever again. I’ve already turned down offers that would pay off every debt I have and leave me with several years’ worth of living expenses.

What do you do if you lead a horse to water and he won’t drink? He will end up losing this house but has his head in the sand.
- M

Some people have to experience failure themselves in order to learn - and some don’t even learn then. You can’t make someone understand something - they have to come to that understanding themselves.

My advice? Step back and let the failure happen. Don’t help with the pain of the blow, either - save that help for later on when he actually knows how to utilize it for success.

Ok, why do new comments get inserted in the mix of the thread instead of at the end? I’m guessing it has something to do with moderation and getting approved, but it throws me completely off when I’m trying to follow an interesting comment discussion, and I’m sure I miss a lot of comments that way since re-reading the entire thing every time I check back is frustrating.
- Chiara

Here’s the truth: The Simple Dollar gets about 2,500 comments a day. About 50% of those are spam about how to buy various prescription medications or download pornographic materials. Obviously, I don’t want such comments on the site, so I have to moderate the comments.

Now, if I manually moderated all 2,500 comments each day, I’d never get anything else done. So I’ve had to adopt a system to help me out with this project. On the back end of The Simple Dollar is a program that makes a quick determination about each comment. If it’s quite certain it’s spam, it tosses that comment in the trash immediately. If it’s quite certain it’s good, it goes ahead and posts the comment. (The biggest reason why a comment gets marked as good is that I’ve already marked several comments by that person as “good.” The system views that person as trusted and goes ahead and approves their stuff.) The rest go into the moderation queue, where I take a look.

So, let’s say a new article goes up on The Simple Dollar. Comment A, sent at 12:01, is automatically approved. Comment B, sent at 12:02 AM, goes into moderation. Comment C, sent at 12:03 AM, is automatically approved. When they show up on the site, they’re simply listed in the order they were posted. So, Comment A is listed first as #1 and Comment C is listed next as #2 for the time being. When I go through and approve comments, Comment B gets approved. Then, the next time the page is displayed, all of the comments are ordered by the time they were posted - Comment A is #1, Comment B is now #2, and Comment C is #3.

In other words, you can thank the spammers for this.

I know you have at least two kids. Did you do any research on using a diaper service? I wonder if this “luxury” could fit into a frugal lifestyle?
- Angela

As a person that cloth diapers, I’ve found that if you have your own washing machine, there’s not that much effort to it. The real benefit of a cloth diapering service is simply that it keeps you from having to touch baby poop. If that’s a really big stumbling block for you… I recommend not having children.

In all seriousness, though, a diaper service is no different than any other time-saving service. Do it yourself for a bit and if you discover that the time invested in washing and prepping cloth diapers is worth the cost of the diaper service (and any time invested there), then switch to the diaper service. For us, it’s far cheaper to just do it at home.

I want to buy my wife a nice set of kitchen knives - a set that will last forever and will make cooking more enjoyable. Any recommendations?
- Patrick

Don’t worry about a knife set, per se. Instead, just get a couple top quality knives, a honing steel, and a magnetic knife rack.

I’d recommend a chef’s knife - my favorite one I’ve ever tried is the Global 8 inch chef’s knife. Get a paring knife - for this, a cheap paring knife at the local department store will do. You may also want a bread knife as well, depending on how often you bake bread.

I use my chef’s knife for 90% of the stuff I do in the kitchen. Just make sure you get her a very good chef’s knife, a honing steel to keep the edge on it, and a magnetic knife rack so that the edge doesn’t wear off while being taken in and out of the rack.

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.

As usual, we’ll start things off with a few links to older articles that directly answer questions I’ve heard recently.
How I build and use a price book
Money merge accounts - my thoughts
Some signs of dodgy personal finance writing

And now for some great reader questions!

What are your thoughts on the Gerber Life Grow-Up Plan? Since having a baby two months ago we have received three applications in the mail from Gerber. We are already planning on starting a 529 as soon as the enrollment period begins. Thanks!
- Angela

The Gerber Life Grow-Up Plan is a whole life insurance policy targeting children. I generally don’t recommend it for two reasons. First, your young child doesn’t have a need for life insurance. If he or she passes away, there are no significant costs that will be incurred. Second, you’re far better off, in terms of the investment aspect of the policy, to just sock the money away elsewhere.

We were quoted $16 a month for the policy for our daughter several months ago. If I put $16 a month into a savings account bearing 3% interest, she’d have $5,240 cash on her twentieth birthday, a big boon for college. If I put it into a long-term investment account that returned an average of 8% a year, she’d have $9,200.

With the Gerber Life Grow-Up Plan, things aren’t quite so good. After twenty years of paying in that premium, according to Gerber’s literature, “the cash value is equal to or greater than 100% of the premiums that have been paid.” That means on her twentieth birthday, she’d have a cash value of $3,840 under the Gerber Life Grow-Up Plan.

You’re better off just putting the $16 a month away in a savings account somewhere safe.

One question related to Office Space: have you seen this film? Do you like it? What films do you like about the workplace, if any?
- Lola

Office Space is one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen - it has frightening accuracy in the way it depicts office life. Along those lines, both the British and the American version of The Office fill that same niche, with the British one being a bit more subtle in the humor.

I think all three of these do an excellent job of showing the realities of an office environment with an appropriate level of humor and uncomfortable moments. In fact, it’s the uncomfortable moments in all three that really make them click - the ones where someone says something painfully inappropriate in the office or makes a horrible mistake and you’re torn as to whether to correct them or just let it go.

I do not understand the idea of giving all children exactly equal monetary gifts. I come from a large family, and I am pretty sure that my parents helped out a couple of my siblings much more than they have helped me out, financially. I am totally fine with that. I am thankful that I have the common sense, luck and intelligence to manage my finances without as much help from my parents.
- SAB

You’re lucky that you’re from an understanding family - many families do not weather inequality nearly so well. Often, one or two children are outcasts - they either succeed more than the other siblings or are failures compared to the other. Often, they’re treated differently by the parents as well - sometimes better, sometimes worse.

The end result is that there are many families that I know of where the siblings simply want nothing to do with each other. Quite often, it’s the result of the attitude of the parents - one child “deserves” more help than another child, when it’s often the first child asking and taking while the second child stands by, wishing only to help the parent.

I’ve seen so many situations of sibling inequality and parental overcompensation wrecking families that I simply won’t let it happen to mine. The best solution I can think of is aiding them all equally - or at least offering equal aid to all of them.

How is your 101 goals in 1001 coming? Are you still actively tracking them?
- Nate

For those unaware, I created a list of 101 goals I wished to accomplish before Friday, January 29, 2010.

So far:
+ I’ve completely accomplished 1, 5, 7, 11, 12, 17, 19, 21, 28, 33, 34, 35 (close enough), 40, 42, 43, 67, 75, 89, and 90.
+ I’ve partially accomplished 10, 14, 22, 23, 24, 30, 36, 49, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 66, 69, 71, 72, 78, 79, 91, 92, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, and 101.

I still have roughly 600 days to go, so I’m feeling pretty good about it, actually.

I am 21 and always have trouble figuring out how much to withhold and what to claim on the W4’s. Any advice or sites you could reccomend?
- Sonya

For those unaware, Form W-4 is a document that employers in the United States require their employees to fill out so that the employer can withhold an appropriate amount of money from their paycheck for income taxes.

If you’re only working that individual job, the best strategy is to simply list your number of dependents and have nothing else withheld. If you’re having multiple jobs, use the tax tables to figure out how much you’re going to owe and also use them to estimate how much they’ll be taking out for each check. If that sounds too complicated, call a tax preparer and ask for help.

Curious- How do you make your money? It’s clear this blog takes quite a bit of time to write and organize. Are you able to support yourself with this bog? If so, how? You don’t have many ads. I know books don’t pay a lot…
- KLevy

I make solid money on The Simple Dollar only because it gets a lot of traffic, over a million page views a month. This allows me to keep the ads down (or at least unintrusive) while still earning a solid amount. I try very hard to balance things, which basically means I keep a firm control over the number of and the ethics of the companies that advertise on the site, but in exchange for that I don’t earn nearly as much as I could from the site.

For example, I give an immediate and firm “no” to any organization that wants to buy a spot in the content I write. I give an immediate and firm “no” to any organization that wants to run an ad that disrupts the site (something that flashes across the screen, for example). I give an immediate and firm “no” to any ads I think are unethical, like payday loan ads. All three of these stances have cost me a huge amount of income.

My income is earned by getting a very tiny amount per page view for each ad - a tiny sliver of a cent. It’s only because I get a significant level of traffic - due to the support of a lot of wonderful readers - that I’m able to both support my family and keep the ads unintrusive.

This isn’t a giant cash-in for me. If I wanted to use this platform to cash in quickly, trust me, I have opportunities every day to do that. I say no to all of them because I actually want to help people with every article I write, and I think it’s that desire to want to help that comes through and has brought enough readers to The Simple Dollar to make this crazy thing work.

If you don’t think walking away from mortgages is okay, what should a person do if they’re way upside down in their mortgage?
- Jen

They should go to their lender and simply state that they’re not going to be able to continue to pay the mortgage - their financial situation makes their escalating mortgage payments impossible. Then, they should work with the lender to come up with a solution that works for both parties. This might involve refinancing into some sort of fixed rate mortgage. This might involve short selling the house. It might involve some other creative idea.

The key is to not just walk away. Not only does it hurt the lender severely, undermining the lender’s liquidity and damaging the national economy as a whole, but it also damages you. You’ve effectively dropped a nuclear bomb on your credit, and that means you’ll have a hard time passing a credit check for anything for many years. Car loans will be impossible. Your insurance rates will skyrocket. All of your credit card rates will go through the roof. In short, your day to day life will cost more after walking away.

Working with your lender to come up with a better plan is not only the more honest solution, it’s also often the more financially sensible one, too.

What is your general approach to proofreading; articles, emails, letters, etc.?
- ontguy

For emails and other personal correspondence, I don’t sweat it at all - a little grammar flub-up isn’t worth worrying about.

For posts for The Simple Dollar, I usually complete the article, let it sit on ice for most of a day, then read it again and correct any big red flags, then I post it. I find it much more urgent to make sure I’m writing in a conversational tone and also that I’m presenting interesting ideas - good grammar is important, but grammar perfection wouldn’t be a productive use of my time.

For articles and book proposals I’m submitting for publication, I sweat over them a ton just to make sure everything is right. I want to make sure everything is grammatically correct while also striking the exact tone and presence I want. I’ll revise these articles and pieces dozens of times before submitting.

How much cash is reasonably safe to carry in my wallet?
- Mel

I think it depends on what you’re doing, because in some situations it is a risk to not be carrying any cash. For example, if you’re traveling in a rural area, having a reasonable amount of cash available to you can be really useful in a pinch.

I tend to think the closer you are to home, the less cash you need to carry, and the higher population density in the area you’re going to, the less cash you need to carry. For me personally, I don’t keep much more than $20 in cash on me if I’m on foot in a populated area fairly near my home. On the other hand, if I’m in a rural area a very long way from home, I might be carrying as much as $300 in cash.

What’s more important than anything is that you’re comfortable with what you’re carrying (so that you don’t act nervous about it) and that it’s not all centralized in one place. I usually keep at least a couple twenties hidden somewhere else on me if I’m in an unfamiliar place - in my shoe, for example. This way, if my wallet were to get pilfered, I at least have some resources available to me.

You talk a lot about gardening. Let’s see a peek of your garden!
- Louis

Here you go.

I heavily annotated this picture at Flickr, so you should jump over there and check out all of my notes about the picture. I’ve pointed out all kinds of little details.

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.

As usual, we’ll start things off with a few links to older articles that directly answer questions I’ve heard recently.
Tactics for making financial changes when your spouse isn’t on board
My personal finance background
The best “pop psychology” book I’ve read

And now for some great reader questions!

If you’re learning more about personal finance, is it helpful to read economics books?
- Lanny

It’s helpful in the sense that it provides context for personal finance. We make money and spend money, and because of that we function as a piece of the overall economy. Understanding how economies work can be very insightful as it can teach us why prices vary, how supply and demand works, and so on.

I’ve read a ton of economics over the last six months (a phase that’s winding down, actually) and I’ve found that after engrossing myself in the topic, I now understand quite a bit more about the whole nature of buying and selling beyond just picking the best quality item for the buck. There’s a large and complex game going on there.

Is it necessary reading? No. Is it insightful and interesting? For me, definitely. If you can stand it, I recommend starting with Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations - it’s dry in places, but if you really think about what he’s saying and try to apply it to what you’ve seen in your own life, it’s massively insightful. Follow that up with any sort of modern economics that looks interesting to you.

Trent, I know you’ve posted about moving among several majors in college. What degree did you actually end up getting? And in what sector did you work before you took the plunge to write full-time?
- Lisa

I finished college with a degree in biology, then went back immediately for a degree in computer science. After that, I worked in a pair of computer-heavy office jobs for several years before quitting to work on The Simple Dollar - I was largely a programmer, but often found myself doing stuff like desktop publishing, poster design, and so on.

In a lot of ways, it trained me well for doing this. The periphery skills, like the software that runs The Simple Dollar, are already in place. The area where I really need to work is on the writing itself.

How do you face the loss of a job from the main wage earner in the family. We have a four month emergency fund, but once it hit us - I am very worried. Four months is not a long time. We have auto pay on most bills and investments. Do we automatically stop the investments until a pay check starts flowing - or try to keep up with investments out of the emergency fund. Once a new job is obtained, do you rebuild the emergency fund first - or keep up with investments.
- Joanne

Yes, stop the investments for now. You can restart them later on. The key thing is to make sure you don’t sink right now, so tighten up all of your leaky spending and hit the pavement to find new work.

When you get back to work, rebuild your emergency fund before doing anything. Your emergency fund is your buffer zone - it keeps you financially alive during crises. Murphy’s Law pretty much states that the second you let your emergency fund slack off, you’ll find yourself really needing it.

Do you think America is heading in the right direction?
- Dennis

Yes, I do. Most people are really worried about America because of the poor choices our government has made over the last decade or so. The government is not America. America is all of the people out there quietly doing their job, having fun on the weekends, and trying to better themselves here and there.

That America is doing just fine. I see lots of people working their tail off. I see lots of people creating useful and interesting and exciting things. I see kids playing in the park across from my house. Just a few months ago, I saw tons of people helping each other hand in hand during the Iowa floods.

The media might like to put up scare messages to stir up ratings, but from where I sit and the people I talk to and see living their lives, things are generally all right. Of course there are things that could be improved, but there’s always something that could be better. If there wasn’t, we’d have nothing to work for. Right now, for instance, people are worried about oil prices. I see tons of wind turbines going up all over the place, and I see people all over investing in huge numbers of more of them - and solar panels, too. I see people scared about the housing crisis and banks failing, but we went through more or less the same thing in the 1980s with the savings and loans and that turned out fine.

I think America is all right, and it’s in much better shape than a lot of people like to think.

What do you think about investing in real estate?
- Marvin

I look at real estate as just another commodity to invest in. You’ll have speculators come in and bump up prices and you’ll also see things bottoming out from time to time.

I do think that real estate is something that does reward the patient and the focused, especially those who have a lot of cash in their pocket. If you’re willing to spend your time really hunting out real estate deals, you can do very well in real estate - but the time investment you need is likely enough that it would have to become your career to make it work.

I would love to read your thoughts about Amazon’s new Kindle.
- JB

My wife has a Kindle and she loves it. She reads (on average) four books a week and she is convinced that it is pretty much the most convenient way possible to enjoy books.

She’s particularly passionate about reading classics (for example, she’s reading Wuthering Heights at the moment), which is particularly convenient because tons of classics are in the public domain and available for free. All she has to do is point her Kindle’s web browser at manybooks.net and download away, all the classics she wants in Kindle format for free. The best part is that the web browser on the Kindle works anywhere that cell service works.

Her only real complaint is the relatively high price for new releases from the Kindle Store. She thinks they should always be substantially lower than the paper price since there’s basically no production cost.

Hi Trent, I am curious about how you plan to handle it if your children don’t turn out to be as finacially responsible as you are? Do you think you would help them out of financial problems by loaning them money, etc?
- Emmy

My feelings on this are somewhat related to my own background and what I’ve observed in similar situations.

With my own kids, I have no problem helping one of them out, but I don’t like the idea of lending them money and I especially don’t like the idea of helping one child more than another one. Thus, my wife and I have largely decided that if we have one adult child that needs, say, $500 for something and we decide to give it to him or her, we’ll give the same exact amount to each sibling to do with what he or she pleases.

Any other scenario I can think of seems unfair to someone.

What are your thoughts on the ethical argument for not eating animals? Specifically, the argument from Gary Francione that states that since animals have a vested interest in continuing to exist, we should not infringe upon that by killing them.
- John

I have one major problem with this argument: it applies to plants just as well as to people. Plants also have a vested interest in continuing to exist, so why is it ethical to eat plants and unethical to eat animals? Plants can sense external stimuli, just as animals do. Plants have defense mechanisms to sustain their life (thorns, for example). Why is it acceptable to eat plants, but not acceptable to eat animals?

From my perspective, the best case for vegetarianism is that it makes healthy dietary choices much easier. Just consume no meat at all and your diet is bound to get healthier.

How do you deal with it when you fail to achieve a financial goal?
- Ed

The first thing I do is try to look at all available data and see where I failed. When I set a goal, I usually try to keep track of progress towards that goal, and that means keeping careful financial records and so forth. So, for example, if I didn’t meet a target for the month, I look through my bank statements and my credit card bills and try to figure out where I went wrong.

Usually, I fail at goals because I either made a really dumb mistake or two or I set the bar too high. If I can find the mistake(s), I focus on them intently in order to correct the problem. If I can’t find mistakes, I assume I must have set the bar too high and use that knowledge for future goals that I might set.

You’ve mentioned that you might try something completely different with your career again in several years. What would you think about doing?
- Linda

Honestly? Teaching. I’d love to be a high school English, history, or math teacher. My only concern with that type of job is dealing with parents. I have a pretty low tolerance for people who look to blame others for their own mistakes, and I’ve seen plenty of parents who become infuriated with teachers because of things like failing a student because he or she cheated.

I just don’t think I’d deal with that situation very well. I can certainly say I wouldn’t bend on such a thing - if my cheating policy was automatic failure and the student was aware of it, that student would fail. And I’d stubbornly stick by it, probably until I got a pink slip.

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.

As usual, we’ll start things off with a few links to older articles that directly answer questions I’ve heard recently.
Does it make financial and social sense to consider moving?
Is a roommate worth the financial benefit?
Using Sunbird to schedule home maintenance tasks

And now for some great reader questions!

Do you use your homemade laundry detergent to wash your diapers? Just curious. I am pregnant and planning on making my own cloth diapers.
- Brandi

My wife spent some time researching what works well for washing cloth diapers. She was interested in a very biodegradable solution, as well as one that actually got the diapers very clean. What she settled on - and what we’ve been using for a while - is three tablespoons of washing soda plus three squirts of Simple Green. We fill up the washer with water, then add both ingredients and stir, then toss in the diapers. We usually wash them once cold, then wash them again on warm, then do a rinse cycle. They come out smelling great, plus both washing soda and Simple Green are biodegradable.

After doing some math, we estimate our cost per load for these cleaning agents is about six cents (this includes both loads). Cheap and environmentally friendly - and it works! We’re happy!

What is the story behind the art element (your logo) at the top of The Simple Dollar?
Did you design it or did you find someone to design it for you and how did that happen?
Does the design at the top of a blog have to be any certain dimension?
- Kate

I designed it myself using Adobe Photoshop. I’ve been teaching myself Photoshop gradually over the years, but I am far from a master. Often, I don’t really have anything in mind when I start with a Photoshop project and I just experiment until I find something I like. While that makes for some neat stuff, it often makes it hard to repeat.

There’s no specification for anything with a blog in terms of size. It’s all about the layout you define yourself.

How are you doing on your 2008 financial goals?
- Tori

For a reminder, let’s jump back to my 2008 goals:

By the end of 2008, we intend to have fully eliminated my wife’s student loans, contributed $1,200 each for the year to our children’s 529 plans, and increased our retirement savings to 1.3 times our combined annual living expenses.

Currently, my wife’s final student loan is on the home stretch and we hope to have it gone by the end of September. I contribute $100 a month automatically to our children’s 529, so that’s well in hand ($700 contributed for each). Our retirement savings is now actually above 1.3 times our combined annual living expenses, so we’ve already accomplished that one.

What will we do in September when our goal has been achieved? We’ll start in with the 2009 goals, of which the big one is eliminating the rest of my student loans.

Do you use Angie’s List? Any thoughts?
- Annie

Yes. For those unaware, Angie’s List is a collection of reviews on services available in various metropolitan areas.

I signed up for Angie’s List during the “grassroots” period as it got started in Des Moines, in which I got a year’s worth of free subscription. Frankly, I’ve not found it to be very useful at all, simply because Des Moines is a metropolitan area not well covered yet by Angie’s List. For most types of service, there are only a couple of reviews available, and most service providers in Des Moines have no reviews at all.

On the other hand, I peeked at a friend’s account covering the Chicagoland area and I was blown away. It was incredibly easy to find well-recommended services in almost every category.

I think if you live in a large metropolitan area, Angie’s List is worthwhile for finding services. If you’re a bit more off the beaten path, it quickly becomes less useful.

Why not seek the highest interest rate for cash accounts? Several on-line banks consistantly pay higher interest rates than the others. The difference between 3% and 3.5% interest rate isn’t 0.5%, it’s nearly 20%! That’s an additional $500 per year into a $100K emergency fund and requires zero time once the account is established.
- Lurker Carl

I don’t advocate for using interest rates for comparing banks because interest rates change very regularly. For most online banks, interest rates are used to lure in customers, and they shift the interest rates around all the time. Plus, whenever the Federal Reserve changes their rates, the online banks follow suit, often at very uneven intervals.

When you mix all of that together, it quickly becomes clear that a specific rate comparison is only useful in the moment, and that comparison will be invalid in a month or two. So I simply don’t bother to use the comparison - I just make sure that the rate is competitive (meaning within a percent or so of the ones on the bleeding edge at the moment) and then look for other features, mostly customer service.

Some people advocate rate hopping. I personally think that if you have enough sitting in a savings account that you can actually earn a good wage for the time invested hopping from online savings account to online savings account, that cash should be sitting in a better investment somewhere. If you have $100K in your emergency fund, that’s far too much, and you’re denying yourself some real opportunities for growth by putting most of that in index funds.

Do you think you’ll ever outgrow video games? Do you want to? Do you think having a system in the house is good for your kids, bad for your kids, or a wash?
- GVR

I don’t think there’s anything to “outgrow” when it comes to video games. I usually view statements like that as being statements by people who have already made a decision that video games are somehow beneath them as a form of entertainment. Personally, I find video games to be substantially more rewarding and intellectually stimulating than television and more than most movies, too.

I think video games are a net benefit for children if played in moderation and mixed with reading and physical activities. My two year old already plays some Wii Tennis on rainy days, in fact, and understands the idea behind Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution (though his coordination isn’t quite there yet). Not only is gaming like this good for hand-eye coordination, it also has social benefits. Many games have problem-solving qualities - I can certainly vouch that the old King’s Quest games helped fuel my addiction to puzzles, as I remember staying up all night at a friend’s house piecing through King’s Quest V and VI.

How much faith do you put in individual stock picks or fund recommendations?
- Lila

Almost none. I don’t think individual stock picks from places like investment blogs, CNBC, newsletters, magazines, or other places are well-researched enough to put my money in.

Before I invest, I want concrete reasons not only why this specific investment is a good one, but why I should be investing in this class of investment, how long I plan to hold it, and so on. Jim Cramer shouting out a pick on Mad Money most definitely does not fit the criteria.

What is success, and how did you arrive at your definition?
- Natasha

I think success is an inherently personal thing. Every person is going to have a different definition of success, and thus when one person has achieved what they define as success, it might not be success in the eyes of another.

So what’s my definition? To me, success occurs when you can spend your time mostly doing the stuff you want to do and earn enough income from doing that (or from investments) so that all of your life expenses, needs, and reasonable wants are covered.

I have not achieved that as of yet, but I’m far closer than I was a few years ago. While I do have the freedom to mostly do what I want, I can’t do exactly what I want. There are a lot of days when I’d rather work on fiction writing, or nonfiction writing on something else entirely different, or just go out and work in the garden or just play all day with my kids.

That’s my goal, and when I reach it, then I’ll view my life as being a success. Thankfully, I’m at least somewhat close to it.

I’m going to be financially advising a person who does not have a home computer. I’m only going to be doing the basics with her—budget, Dave Ramsey’s baby steps, those types of things. I admit, all of my money stuff is on a computer with excel spreadsheets and such, so I’m at a little bit of a loss as to how to help. Do you have some good tips or links to forms I can print out for the non-computer savvy person?
- Angel

My honest suggestion would be to buy one of the very solid personal finance workbooks sold in most bookstores. The best one, in my opinion, is Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover Workbook.

Another option is to contact some groups in your area that offer financial assistance meetings. One great place to start is by stopping by the offices of large local churches. Almost every large church has some form of faith-based financial planning going on, but most of the actual working material is completely secular and can be used without change in non-faith environments. Stop by, find a contact, and see what they have.

If there is interest, I’d be willing to prepare a document like this for download as well.

Who was the greatest U.S. president?
- Nick

For some goofy reason, I loved this question.

It’s easy to give a typical answer like one of the Roosevelts, Lincoln, Washington, and so on. But each of those were led to greatness by tumultuous periods in history - they had powerful opportunities to make themselves great. To me, a great president is a president who accomplished powerful things in a relatively calm time, who did it quickly and efficiently and got out of the limelight.

Thus, I think the greatest American president was James K. Polk. He was president for just one term (1845-1849), but managed to accomplish an incredible amount. Here are seven things he did:
1. He pushed through the Walker Tariff, which drastically lowered the tariffs on all trade. In other words, it became very cheap for the United States to trade internationally, which was the first big step towards the U.S. becoming a global economic powerhouse.
2. He established an independent treasury, which meant that at last the funds of the United States government weren’t held in private banks, as they were prior to Polk.
3. He annexed Texas and convinced it to become a state.
4. He bought the Oregon Territory from England, which included Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and parts of Montana and Wyoming.
5. He signed the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, which (along with the Gadsen Purchase) added California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and portions of Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico to the United States.
6. He opened the U.S. Naval Academy, the Smithsonian, and the Washington Monument.
7. He issued the first postage stamps in American history.

He set all of this down as his agenda upon becoming President and accomplished all of it in just one term. That, to me, is an incredible success - he set some big, giant, audacious goals and got them done in just one term.

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.

As usual, we’ll start things off with a few links to older articles that directly answer questions I’ve heard recently.
Is money the root of all evil? No.
Stay at home parenting is a difficult question
Some advice if you feel like you’re making no progress

And now for some great reader questions!

Do you ever feel embarrassed by being such a cheap loser?
- Fez

I decided to include Fez’s email because it’s a great example of messages I see every day, both in comments and in emails directly to me. I know that I’ve also had readers complain about rampant negativity from time to time.

Here’s the scoop, as I see it. Talking honestly about money and how it connects to your personal self-consciousness is not an easy thing. Many cultures tell us to keep it bottled up, and still others act as if money is shameful.

It’s not. Money is a representation of your hard work, and what you choose to do with it is up to you.

Because it’s a representation of your work, though, it’s worthwhile to spend some time thinking about it - and asking yourself why it makes you uncomfortable. I would argue that if you’re taunting someone else about money, it’s a hang-up within your own money beliefs, not the fault of the person you’re taunting.

So, do I feel embarrassed being a “cheap loser”? No, not at all. I’m proud of my own financial ideas, and if I weren’t, I wouldn’t be sharing them here. If you must resort to such insults, I can only conclude that you’re the one not proud of your own financial choices.

What’s your favorite kind of cheese?
- Kat

Now, this kind of question is more up my alley.

It depends on the use. For a grilled cheese sandwich, nothing tops gruyere, in my opinion. I like to make gruyere-and-ham grilled cheese sandwiches (known as a croque monsieur) and occasionally I’ll drop a fried egg on top (a croque madame).

For most uses, such as on salads, on burgers, and just for munching, I love blue cheese. A truly good piece of blue cheese is sublime, particularly on top of a burger coated in black pepper.

In various dishes, all kinds of cheeses are great: mozzarella, parmigiano, Swiss, feta, really sharp Cheddars. All are fantastic. I dream of going on a wine and cheese tour throughout France.

What are your best frugal tips for hot weather?
- Shari

You mean, aside from hacking your ceiling fan?

I usually recommend raising your home’s temperature a bit until you find a point that you can tolerate, then leaving it there throughout the summer. To keep yourself cool, drink ice cold beverages, including water - I often get my water so cold it’s on the verge of turning into ice.

Also, take cool showers instead of warm ones. It’s hard to get used to if you take warm showers, but try lowering the temperature until you find it tolerable. Cool showers can lower your natural body temperature, making you feel cool.

Trent what about becoming a foster parent instead of adopting?
- Rob Madrid

I feel that there are some fundamental problems with the foster care system, as explained by the Pew Charitable Trusts in their foster care reform efforts:

Unfortunately, too many foster children wait far too long for a permanent family. On average, a foster child moves from one temporary home to another three times before the child’s status is resolved. Children who stay in the system for long periods of time often have emotional and behavioral problems and perform poorly in school. Later in life, they are more likely to become homeless, unemployed, incarcerated or dependent on welfare.

I tend to agree with their report on strengthening families through guardianship - the best foster care is one within the extended family, which provides some continuity for the child.

I very much wish to help children in disadvantaged situations, but I’m more inclined to believe in the starfish parable - I’d rather make a profound difference in one child’s life than merely brush the lives of many children who are trapped in a system that isn’t really advocating for them.

This is just my personal belief, not a political statement.

What are some cheap ways to enjoy a professional sporting event? Particularly a baseball game. I like going to major league games, but the prices are ridiculous.
- Adam

Buy your tickets well in advance, and don’t worry that much about great seats. Instead, focus on spending time enjoying the carnival experience around the outside of the park before and after a game. Fill up on snacks and beverages outside the park, where the prices are cheaper, and minimize your souvenirs - most of that stuff can be had elsewhere for much cheaper.

In short, prices inside the park are a rip-off, so do what you can to minimize your spending inside. If you must have a dog and a brew, that’s fine, but rather than having three or four, hold off until after the game and have a good time outside the field.

Is emusic a good deal or not?
- Jill

This was actually a question I’ve heard over IM twice in the last week, so I thought it’d be a good one to address. I’ve been a user of emusic for years and I love it - for me, it’s well worth it. It’s an opportunity to expose myself to lots of new music and discover interesting stuff I hadn’t heard before.

You have to realize what you’re getting with emusic before you even sign up. The site is basically a source for legal mp3s of bands on smaller record labels. That means you’re not going to get Coldplay’s latest when you sign up. Instead, you’ll be going for stuff by My Morning Jacket and Sufjan Stevens.

If that sounds good to you, emusic is a treasure trove. If you rarely listen to music or stick mostly to top forty music or whatever you hear on the radio, it’s probably not going to be worthwhile, though.

I’ve downloaded literally thousands of mp3s from the site over the years, though, and feel it’s been worth every penny.

My husband and I are expecting our first child this December. Would it be absolutely insane to attempt to use cloth diapers if you don’t have a washer/dryer in your apartment?

Would you recommend we use disposables until we have an in-house W/D unit? Or maybe go 25% cloth, 75% disposable?
- Kacie

If you’re looking at a strict financial accounting, it’s still worth it, but it’ll take a lot longer to break even and you’ll be taking a lot more trips down to the basement to do laundry. Given those two factors, it’s probably not a good solution in your situation.

Cloth diapering works much better when you have steady, regular access to washing machines and dryers at arm’s reach, plus the cost per load isn’t controlled by putting quarters in the box. I’d wait until you can do that to dive into cloth diapering, which basically means don’t do it unless you’re going to have a second child.

This does ignore the landfill issue. One of the big reasons my wife and I got on board was the realization of how many diapers we were tossing into landfills with our usage. If that bothers you, you’ll have to make your own judgment.

You’ve mentioned that you make your own wine a few times on this site. I’ve recently acquired some wine making equipment. Care to share some insight or tips to someone who’s just starting out?
- Matt

I will cover this in detail later on, but a few basic tips.

First, start off with simple recipes. No matter what you’re homebrewing, make sure you know the basic procedures first before getting bogged down in something tricky. Stick with a single grape wine and just make a basic batch.

Second, clean everything well. Clean it again if you’re not sure. The biggest disasters almost always occur because something isn’t clean.

Third, don’t overly sweeten it. You’re better off making a drier wine than one that’s too sweet, because you can accompany a dry wine with something sweet and it’s still tolerable to most palates.

Follow those three and a basic wine making guide and you’ll be off to a good start.

Do you consider yourself rich? How much money would you have to have to consider yourself rich?
- Leslie

I do not consider myself rich. I would consider myself rich if I had enough money in savings and investments so that the income from those investments would cover my living expenses with complete steadiness and with some room to br