Have Someone Negotiate for You

Outsourcing your negotiating sounds like an off the wall idea, but in reality this happens all of the time. Your real estate agent handles the actual negotiation of the price of the house you are buying. A recruiter can handle the contract or salary negotiations for a skilled professional. And you can have someone negotiate a purchase for you.

Granted, you probably don’t want to hire someone to negotiate for the potted plants you want to buy, but even in that case you can have a friend do it for you. Everyone knows someone who gets a kick out of negotiating. Ask them to handle the negotiation for you and offer a cut of the savings to them in return. A friend could help you negotiate the price of a car and keep you from losing your cool during the process.

Participate in a Group Buy

Merchants are willing to be flexible on price if they discover they can suddenly sell 50 of an item rather than just 1. Getting a group buy together on something you want to purchase — whether it be a car part, some electronics, or some interior painting — can lead to better prices. The more people that are willing to buy, the more the merchant is willing to discount the price. It’s a win-win: you get a lower price without negotiating, and the vendor gets to sell more product and increase their revenues more than they would have from just selling to one person.

Use Your Membership

Being a member of a group sometimes gets you access to special pricing.  For example, some employers have agreements with merchants that qualify you for a lower rate on things like new computers or software. When you go to buy all you have to do is give them your employer code and you get the discounted rate.

Some credit cards come with built in membership perks that give automatic discounts at select merchants. Most people think this applies to only to travel credit cards, but there are some programs that have a pre-set price for vehicles and if you are a cardholder of that credit card you get the lower price without having to negotiate. An example of this type of program is American Express’ partnership with Zag.com

Use Coupons and Entertainment Books

Manufacturers will automatically give out discounts for products if you know where to look. There is an entire sub-section of the web that is all about maximizing coupon use. You’ve heard the stories of a single mom buying $150 worth of groceries for $3 in the past and it seems too good to be true. It can take a lot of time and organizing, but maximizing your coupons and store reward programs can rack up this kind of savings.

Also, you can get pre-negotiated discounts with coupon books like the Entertainment Book that schools sell as fundraisers. The pre-printed coupons are for local businesses and feature discounts and buy-one-get-one-free opportunities.

Go to Thrift Stores, Consignment Shops, and Garage Sales

Don’t want to pay top dollar for items you need? Thrift stores, consignment shops, and garage sales are prime places to score significant discounts on used items. A thrift store or consignment shop will usually charge more than someone selling stuff out of their garage, but it is usually a little bit more well vetted as well. Nonetheless for certain types of items like kids clothing and toys you can save significant amounts of money — and then sell them back yourself!

If you’re not a fan of negotiating face to face, what are some other ways you use to save money and avoid haggling in person?

Some of your decisions about money are forgotten weeks or even days after you’ve made them.  Other decisions will stick with you for far longer and will impact your finances for years to come.

Here’s a list of 5 things you should give some serious thought to before taking the plunge.  As you read through them you’ll notice that they’re really “life decisions” but each has a big financial impact that you should keep in mind.  Not that the money aspect will stop you from doing any of them, but it might change the timing or direction of your decision.

When I say haunt, I don’t necessarily mean the “disturb or distress” definition, more the “remain persistently; loiter; linger” meaning. However, if you don’t think them through, some of them could become your own personal money-sucking ghosts.

1) Having kids. We just had our third. The event of having a baby is expensive, but nowhere near as the cummulative cost of paying to raise them from screaming infant to (hopefully) responsible and self-sufficient adult.  In my opinion it’s totally worth the money to have a family but you don’t really know what you’re in for until it’s “too late”.  Kids are amazing but a lot of work and expensive.

2) Buying a home.  Taking out a loan to buy a home will probably be the largest amount of money you’ll borrow at once in your life.  Committing to payments for the next 30-40 years will certainly change your life, particularly if the amount you borrow pushes the limit of what you can afford.  Of course, now that interest rates are so low, it’s more realistic to take out a 15 year loan.  Your payments will be higher but the total amount of interest you’ll pay will be significantly lower. Regardless if it’s a 15 or 30 year mortgage, the amount you’re borrowing can make it a life altering decision.

3) Paying for a college degree with student loans. There are actually two decisions rolled into this one, choosing a degree and going into debt to pay for it. You may be working in the field that you earn your degree in for a long time, whether you end up liking it or not.  So choose carefully (research, job shadowing, internships).  Every job sucks at least a little, just find out where the soft spots are and if your personality and plan for the future can handle them.

Going into debt to earn a degree only complicates things.  After you’ve invested years of your life and many thousands of dollars into a degree, it’s hard to walk away and do something different if you end up hating it.  Even if you like your job, you might spend 10 years paying back your student loans.

4) Getting married. It’s true there are financial benefits to getting married, such as consolidating expenses like rent or a mortgage.  However, you’re also giving up the control of your finances that you’re used to.

If the person you marry has much different spending habits than you, it could feel like a very “expensive” decision. If your spouse spends money on something you think is unneccessary or a total waste of money then it seems REALLY expensive.  How the #@!!% could a curling iron cost over $100?  Or, why on earth do you need to spend $499 on this new iGadget?

Talk seriously about money before you get married. Don’t assume that things will automatically change after you tie the knot, the reality is both of you will probably have to make some changes so be prepared to deal with it.

5) Getting divorced. Lawyers are not cheap, so the costs of getting divorced probably won’t be cheap.  You can also lose money splitting up your shared propery. My co-worker bought his house from a couple who was getting divorced and splitting the equity in the house. Problem was, they were selling in an awful real estate market and lost $40K in equity.  Good for my friend but bad for the unhappy couple.

If you have kids, having two sets of parents adds another dimension to the cost of raising them. Even if you don’t have kids, all the cost consolidation you benefited from in marriage goes right out the window.

Extra Credit Decision – Breaking the Law
So far, everything I’ve talked about are big life decisions but there’s another type of decision that can haunt you for years – deciding to break the law.  Things like tax evasion or drinking & driving could end up with you owing a lot of money and/or spending time in jail.

Like I said, we make tons of decisions everyday that don’t have long-term consequences, but there are some that deserve careful consideration. No pressure : )

Here are your financial goals for the coming year. 

Most of the goals are pretty self explanatory except for “Other”.  I grouped all the goals that only had a few votes into the “Other” category for the purpose of the summary. Of course, that doesn’t mean they’re not as important as the goals that got thier own slices in the pie chart, just that more people shared the other goals.

As a reminder, here’s a snapshot of all the goals that you had to choose from.

Some people did write in their own goals, which was awesome, because obviously not everyone has the same money objectives in 2012.  I liked reading those because it gave me some insight into what other money topics you have on your mind.

Committing to Action

Thanks to everyone who shared their financial goals!  About 27% of everyone who looked at the survey answered it, so if you don’t see your goal sufficiently represented here, make sure to leave your vote next time.  I think one reason not as many people wanted to vote for their major financial goal was that I required you to include your email address when voting. That’s kind of what I expected, and in a way was hoping for.

I think it’s easy to check a box and click Submit for a goal but I think leaving your email address was more of a comittment towards that goal.  I want to work with people who are serious about hitting their goal and I think we have a good core group of people who responded who are ready to take some action.

Paying Off Your Credit Card Debt

Based on the results above, the first financial goal project will be on paying off credit card debt!  For those of you who responded, be on the lookout for an email from me in the next few days about how to get started.

If you didn’t get in on this round of the project, you can sign up below for my email newsletter for future updates.

Do you ever go to bed at night worrying about money?  If you’re anything like my wife then some of those worries can keep you tossing and turning all night long. 

The simple answer to get rid of those worries is to tackle whatever concern is nagging at the back of your mind.  Unfortunately, life’s not always that simple.  Whether it’s work, family, school, or other responsibilities – life is busy and it’s tough to make time to get things done.

Running the Rat Race

I know before we had kids, I worked long hours at my job while going back to school for a Master’s degree.  Then we started a family and I launched this site and I haven’t slept a full 8 hours since : )

I’m sure you could share many similar stories, there’s never enough time in the day to get everything done that you’d like. The crazy thing is we work hard to earn a good salary and make a good life for ourselves and our family but often we don’t make time to take care for ourselves financially.

I could be wrong.  If you don’t have any outstanding financial to-dos then congrats to you and please let me know in the comments below.  But based on everything I’ve observed in my adult life, most of us have outstanding things we need to tackle when it comes to our finances.  Like what?

• Paying Off Debt
• Creating a Retirement Plan
• Building an Emergency Fund
• Creating an Estate Plan
• Buying Life Insurance
• Rolling Over a 401k
• Opening an IRA
• Finding a New Job
• Creating a Budget
• Tax Planning
• Rebalancing Investments
• Saving Up For a Big Expense

It’s a long list that I bet you could add something to.  My point isn’t to make you feel bad about your outstanding items; in fact, my goal is to help you get them done.  Let me explain with a quick story.

My Late Night Struggle

I don’t remember exactly which night it was but I had a long day at work, dealt with a sick kid when I got home, and then had a conference call until almost midnight.  As I sat down to work on my “master plan” for this site I felt frustrated and discouraged.  I was tired and spent, I didn’t have the time or energy to tackle this big task.  However, I knew I’d be equally exhausted the following night and the night after that.  So I told myself to suck it up and just get one thing done that evening.

Then I realized that you probably go through something similar.  In your case it’s probably not your website you’re worried about but some aspect of your finances.  You work a long day and have all sorts of responsibilities once you get home.  At the end of the night the last thing you feel like doing is working on your finances.

Why are these things so daunting?  Maybe you don’t know where to start.  You might not understand all the details.  You don’t want to make the “wrong” decision. There are lots of barriers, mental and tactical, that get in your way.

It Doesn’t Have to Be So Overwhelming

As I sat there thinking about how I should just get one thing done I realized that the same thing applies to your nagging financial worries.  You don’t have to be overwhelmed by these big tasks that you’re facing.  You can work on them a little bit regularly and get them taken care of in time.

You see my professional background is in software development and project management – I spend every day taking big problems and breaking them into little, manageable pieces.  So finally a little light bulb went off and I realized that I can use those same methods and apply them to your financial projects.

What I Built For You

If you read yesterday about how I failed you in 2011 then you’ll remember that this year I commited to creating something awesome. What I’ve built is a system that takes a financial project and breaks it down into tiny actionable pieces. It gives you the information and tools you need to complete each action and lets you track your progress as you complete them a little bit at a time. 

I’m excited about rolling it out because the beginning of the year is a time when we traditionally make our goals and start working towards things that we want to get done.  I’m in the middle of putting the finishing touches on this tool and I’m asking you to share your biggest financial goal for 2012.  Whichever one is the most popular is the goal that I’ll build into the first release of the new system. So far there’s one goal that’s beating all the others, we’ll see if it holds it’s top spot – Click hereto vote for your goal..

You’re probably looking for tips and motivation on reaching your financial goals for 2012 but I think it’s important to reflect on the year that just ended and see what we can learn from it.

I promise there will be lots of tips and motivation in the coming weeks but first I have some confessions to make.  I did fail you in 2011.  Today I’ll talk about how I screwed up and what I’m doing to fix it.

1) Adopting a Pet Panda

My pet panda wasn’t exactly invited into my life but I have learned something from the experience.  It all started at the beginning of 2011, when the search engine Google made a change to the way they sent visitors to websites.

I won’t go into all the details here but Google nick-named the change “Panda” and what it meant for me was that the number of people coming to this site everyday went down significantly. It would be kind of like if my site was a mutual fund and Google was Morningstar and they downgraded my site to just 1 star.

To say it was discouraging would be an understatement; to say it was devastating would be a bit dramatic.  However, after having written on this site for years and pouring thousands of hours of my life into it, this development certainly set me back on multiple levels.

But why does this matter to you? One thing I learned from this whole experience was that you get the most value out of focused expertise, detailed information about specific financial topics.  Sure the change was just a search engine algorithm adjustment, but it was made to reflect the desire of people like you and other web searchers who want deep knowledge – rather than shallow information.

What I mean by that is, instead of covering a wide range of personal finance topics at a high level, you get more out of a narrower focus and more in depth coverage of those fewer topics.

Does that mean I’m only going to cover one or two topics?  No, I’ll still write about a variety of things I think will help you with your money.  However, it does mean that I’m going to put a lot more time into giving you solutions for specific money problems you face.

2) Giving You Nothing Awesome

This shortcoming really comes out of the first one that I just described but didn’t explicitly name – being general and shallow.  Let me explain.

I traveled to Chicago for the Financial Bloggers Conference last fall and met a lot of amazing people.  After spending time with my fellow bloggers, having a lot of good conversations, and listening to some interesting presentations I realized that every person has their own unique strengths and benefits they can offer when it comes to money matters.

Everyone has their own perspective and individual experiences with personal finance that other people can learn from.  The application of those specific skills and experience can create something very useful for you, something awesome that can really change the way you see and use money.

I also realized that my broad approach to the personal finance wasn’t doing my experience and skills justice and was holding me back from creating something awesome for you.

Unfortunately I wasn’t sure exactly what that awesome thing was, which leads me to my next failure.

3) Lacking Clarity

So there I was, a rebel without a cause.  I knew things needed to change but I didn’t know what I could do to make the biggest difference in your financial life.  So I started doing a lot of soul searching and research.

I’m sure you noticed that in the last few months of last year I only published one or two articles a week to the site.  I’ve had several people contact me to ask if everything was okay and to offer encouragement to keep up more regular content.  Thanks to Anastasia and everyone else that reached out with suggestions and concern.

However, despite how it may seem, I’ve actually been as busy as ever on the site.  It’s just that a lot of the work has gone into this research and preparation for the next phase of Money Smart Life.  Of course, this hasn’t done you much good yet, only reduced the amount of personal finance tips you’ve been getting.

I apologize for that…. but there is good news!

A Turning Point?

I did get a bit of a boost last November when I traveled to Minneapolis for a Mastermind Session with several other web entrepreneurs.  I gained more insight into where I was and where I wanted to be with Money Smart Life. 

I also have to thank Jeff Rose of Good Financial Cents.  We met at the conference in Chicago and have had a lot of follow up phone calls in the evenings after our kids were in bed to talk about what direction our sites should head in.

After all of this soul searching, deep thought, and time spent I finally had my “Eureka” moment! Unfortunately, I can’t talk about it now because I have to run out the door for work (which is kind of a clue for my big Ah-ha). Come back tomorrow and I’ll tell you more about what I figured out and what’s coming next.

You may call it comfort food but your body doesn’t know the difference, it just sees that ice cream as calories and fat.

The same thing happens when you spend money because “you deserve it” or “it’s a low monthly payment”. You can tell yourself whatever makes you feel better when you swipe that card – your bank account just sees it as another expense eating into your balance.

I can’t tell you not to make money decisions based on emotion. We’re all human, we all do it. Just don’t expect good things to come of it and don’t be surprised when it ends badly.

I’m not exaggerating, we have friends that got divorced because of an emotional money decision. Whether you know it or not, I’m sure there are people you know that have lost more than money as a result of letting their emotions control their money…. maybe it’s even happened to you.

So what can you do? How can you beat those gremlins inside of you that pressure you to buy based on emotion?

What’s worked best for me is to simply explain my situation to a person I trust and ask what they would do. Make sure you pick someone who’s outside the situation, who can be objective.

Tell them all the details and ask what they would do. Your trusted confidant doesn’t have those same gremlins tainting their perspective. Ask them to be honest – give them permission to not hold back.

If they tell you it’s a bad idea, listen to them! They took the time to listen and give you their opinion, show them some respect and take their suggestions to heart.

So how do you find a person like this? Close friends and family can be perfect (as long as they’re removed from the situation and can give objective advice).

I’ve served this role for several of my readers, so if you’re ever looking for someone to be the voice of reason shoot me an email. We can do it via email or over the phone, whichever would be the most effective for you.

Whether you talk to me or your best friend, the point is – don’t make money decisions based on emotion and expect them to end well.

It was already pretty cold and windy and it’s just the beginning of November so my first thought was that they had a long winter ahead of them.  Yet, despite the cold they were out there handing out fliers and talking to anyone that would listen.

Of course I’m curious about anything that has to do with money or the economy so I spent some time talking with a variety of people who were hanging around the square.  It was certainly a mix of demographics and backgrounds and everyone had their own unique beef with big business and Wall Street.

Not all of their arguements made sense to me, it seemed like some people were trying to make connections where there didn’t seem to be any.  They would explain their plight and describe how big business had put them there and it didn’t always seems to make sense.  On the other hand, there were people with perfectly legitimate concerns who had specific examples of how they’d been impacted.

One thing everyone had in common was that they were upset with the direction our economy and society are heading and they were very excited to have “a voice” where they could express their concerns.

Something I found interesting was that everyone was very willing to tell me their story and their thoughts, but when I asked if I could video them with my Flip cam they all declined.  Many of them had jobs or other interests that could potentially be harmed if their interview suddenly appeared on YouTube and was seen by the wrong people.

Overall it was a very interesting experience and I’m curious to hear what you think of Occupy Wall Street and all the related movements.

I was also able to catch up on some reading while I was traveling, here are some recent articles I read that you might want to check out:

• Obama’s New Student Loan Relief Plan @ Generation X Finance
• Determining Your Retirement Expenses @ Lazy Man & Money
• Save on Monthly Bills @ Suns Financial Diary
• Using A Personal Cash Flow Statement To Track Finances @ The Digerati Life
• 7 Financial Consequences When You Say “I Do” @ My Dollar Plan
• The Thorny Issue of Combining Finances @ Frugal Dad
• Kids asking you questions about money @ Mighty Bargain Hunter
• Why Your Bank Loves Auto-Pay @ Free Money Finance
• How to Keep a Steady Paycheck while Starting a Business @ Out of Your Rut
• The Cost of Commuting @ Brip Blap
• How Leveraged ETFs Work @ Million Dollar Journey
• Dogs of The Dow Performance Worse Than Index Fund @ My Money Blog

Let me know in the comments below what you think of Occupy Wall Street.

The Denning’s lifestyle fascinates me not only because they’ve figured out how to manage 5 kids on the road for months at a time but also because they’ve figured out how to make it work financially.  Neither Rachel or Greg have “day jobs” – how could they, their family spends months at a time on the road.

Rachel and Greg have to make adjustments to be able to afford the lifestyle their family enjoys, I had a few questions about how they manage money and Rachel took the time to answer them.

1) When you’re living on such a variable income, how do decide when (and if) to splurge?

We live very frugally and simply for the most part. In the past, when we made a lot of money, I would feel ‘poor’ if I felt I couldn’t spend money on something (like if my kids asked for a new pair of shoes, etc.) Now I’ve changed my view of things, and I realize that I don’t want to buy more things for myself or my children, unless it is really going to add value to our life, i.e. they really need a new pair of shoes, or what we’re buying is going to make our life simpler, easier or more enjoyable.

I feel that my purchasing decisions are more logically, instead of emotionally based. I purchase because of actual need or deep desire, not of emotional attachment or infatuation with some ‘doo-dad’. When we do spend money, I feel that we can splurge because 1) we’re buying something we need, and 2) it needs to be quality and last a long time.

2) What are your best health insurance tips for a traveling family w/out an employer’s insurance plan?

Our family personally follows a 3 Part Health Care Plan, that focuses on:

1. Prevention of illness through proper diet and exercise
2. Personal care of minor illness and injury through education of treatments and  (this is our unconventional first aid kit)
3. Use professional medical care when necessary – for example, when we were in a car accident and our three year old broke her femur.

When we our outside of the country, medical care is often free or inexpensive. We prefer to pay for these costs out of pocket, rather than to ‘be in debt’ to an insurance company each month ‘just in case’ something happens. This is the approach that works for us, though not for everyone.

3) What do you do when you run out (or are close to running out) of money?

In the past, we’ve returned to the United States to look for employment. Now we have an online business (selling a course on Family Lifestyle Design), so when the coffers are low, we’ll take a few days or weeks to focus on marketing and sales.

4) Do you give your kids allowance to spend on your travels?

Our children have the opportunity of earning money by completing their ‘job chart’ – essentially it’s a list of the activities they need to complete throughout the day – brush teeth, make up bed, grooming, education time, etc.

The aim is to teach personally responsibility. If they remember to do their jobs, or do them when mom or dad ask, and they remember to mark their charts (an app on our iPhone), then they can earn money on payday for every completed activity. Their memory for being responsible improves when they find something they want to spend their money on

Otherwise, we don’t buy anything for them. But we do buy things for ourselves, which sometimes includes something they will enjoy. I’ll buy a coloring book and crayons of animals in the Southwest – but it’s mom’s coloring book and crayons, that she bought with her money that she earned. They can borrow it, as long as they take good care of it and return it when they’re done.

I’ve found that this results in better care of the belongings we do have. My children still have toys that were given to them as gifts, but they don’t take very good care of them, because they didn’t earn it themselves.

5) What are the biggest financial obstacles to what you’re doing and how does your guide “Family Lifestyle Design” help people overcome them?

The biggest financial obstacles are finding a way to earn money to pay for living abroad or being nomadic. The way to accomplish this is as diverse as the individuals that are seeking the answers. Some create online business (whether blogging or online stores), others become freelance writers/contract workers. Some take jobs abroad (with non-profits or NGO, with the foreign service, etc.)

Our course will discuss all the of the options (and give concrete examples and resources) that we have personally used or seen used by the countless families we’ve encountered in our travels around the world.

Thanks to Rachel for sharing how they can afford to be “travel nomads”!  If you think your family might want to try something similar someday check out their guide, Family Lifestyle Design.

Jim and Laura are a typical American couple. They just got married last year after dating for four years. Jim is a manager of a local department store and Laura is a school- teacher. They make a combined salary of $100,000 a year, and look forward to raises and increased incomes in their future. They have around $3,000 in their savings account— which seems ample since they are certain they’ll continue to make more money each year—and both drive new cars.

Spending Spree

Jim and Laura go shopping whenever they want and pretty much buy anything they like without thinking twice. In addition, they eat out most nights of the week but try to keep it cheap; they usually don’t spend more than $30 for these dinners.  

After renting an apartment for six months, they decide it’s time to buy a house.  Even though it’s just the two of them right now, they want at least a 2,000-square-foot house because children are on the horizon. Jim and Laura find the “perfect” house but it’s a little above the amount they wanted to spend.

Their Realtor® tells them that it’s not a problem. They can sign up for a five-year adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) and by the time it adjusts, they’ll have so much equity in their house they can just refinance. The housing market is strong and they’re confident their home will go up in value considering the prime neighborhood it’s in.

Both Jim’s and Laura’s parents live in much smaller homes but, after some talk, the couple feels they deserve this larger house because they work so hard and all their married friends are getting big houses too. Jim and Laura sign on the dotted line and their American Dream begins.

Never Enough Money

Fast-forward five years. Jim and Laura are now the proud parents of a little boy, James, and a girl, Sarah. After having James, Laura took eight weeks off from teaching to stay home and loved every minute of it. She wanted to stay home longer but they went through their savings on that 10-day Caribbean cruise before she got pregnant.

Laura began to feel very upset at having to send James to daycare but there was no way around it—they needed her check to pay the bills. Jim saw how unhappy she was and one night decided to have a talk.  It was very encouraging and they both agreed to make a change and start saving so Laura could eventually stay home.

This change lasted a few months before they started spending their entire paychecks again on things such as new clothes and dinners out.  Last year Laura had Sarah and was only able to stay home with her for four weeks before having to return to work. She now spends over half of her take-home pay on daycare expenses. Laura dreads going to work and hits the snooze button at least five times every morning because she hates getting up to face another day.

Jim is not doing much better. He’s had to lay off most of his salespeople. The raise he was promised every year did not happen. There are even rumors that his job might be the next to go. He’s started to look for other jobs but nobody seems to be hiring in his area of expertise.

Bad to Worse

To make a bad situation even worse, Jim and Laura’s five-year ARM is scheduled to adjust this year and their monthly mortgage payment will increase by $500.  The house has dropped greatly in value and Jim and Laura are underwater on their loan so they cannot refinance.

In addition, after James was born, Jim and Laura began to use their credit cards again with the promise of paying them off in full each month. That plan didn’t pan out and they now have $10,000 in credit card debt.

They both have a lot of trouble falling asleep at night and don’t feel optimistic about either their marriage or their future.  They have started arguing more and more—something they never did in the good old days—and these arguments usually concern their finances. What was supposed to have been their American Dream has turned into a scary nightmare!

Your Money

Not a pretty picture, is it? I hope your story is not like Jim and Laura’s but, unfortunately, I know a lot of people can relate to this couple in one way or another. The great news for Jim and Laura (and maybe you too) is that life allows us to learn and adapt and change.

Jim and Laura are obviously an example not to follow—but we can learn so much from them.  Many people don’t see the need to learn about money and how to manage it correctly. They bury their heads in the sand and don’t want to be worried about the true state of their finances because, if they did, they might have to change their spending habits.

The thing is, if you continue to make poor financial decisions, these actions will eventually come back to haunt you.  Even if you make $5 million a year but spend $6 million, you’ll wake up one day and find that you are broke. The great news is that it doesn’t have to be this way. We can educate ourselves, find examples to emulate, create goals and take action.

Editor’s Note: When Danny first contacted me I noticed he had already written one book “How to Survive on a Teacher’s Salary”.  So he’s definitely writing about an area where he has personal experience, trying to make ends meet on a small salary. 

My wife used to be an elementary teacher and it was interesting to see how teachers, making similar amounts of money, used that salary in different ways.  Some managed it well and never complained and some didn’t know how to handle their money and always seemed to be scraping the bottom of the barrel at the end of the month. 

So if you’re running dry at the end of the month and want a way to stretch your dollars farther, check out Danny’s book, Teach Yourself (and Your Kids) How to Live Wealthy with Little Money .

Leaky windows are just another in the list of homeowner expenses we’ve run into this summer.  We’ve been in our house a little over a year now and have had all kinds of expenses pop up here and there.  The latest surfaced during a recent storm when we found a leak in one of our windows. 

I know water can do nasty things to your house so we wanted to get it taken care of right away.  As usual I looked up the three best contractors on Angies List and scheduled them to come out as soon as possible (here’s the contractor checklist I use).

Two of the companies were available Saturday, I scheduled one for 10 AM and the other for noon.  We spent two hours out front of the house with a hose, spraying potential leaky hot spots and watching for the leak to develop.  Finally we found the trouble spot, at the peak of the highest window, and he gave me estimates to replace it. 

The second window company showed up while the first guy was still there and in the middle of his closing sales pitch. I felt kind of bad making the second company wait, I had no idea the first one would take so long.  Turns out it might have been a good thing because each window guy threw in an extra discount.  They didn’t specially reference their competitor but I imagine seeing each other bidding on the same job probably had something to do with it.

Seeing the two estimates reminded me of why I always like to get at least three bids on house projects.  The estimates were almost $1000 apart.  According to the company with the higher bid, they have higher quality windows (triple pane glass, very energy efficient) and better installion crews (full time employees vs contract labor).  Now we’ll get a third estimate to see how they all compare.

No matter who we go with replacing the windows won’t be cheap.  It looked from leak test that the source of the leak may be the top of the window or even above it.  Unfortunately, the top of the window was higher than our neighbors 28 foot extension ladder would reach so I’m still not sure.  Once I can get up high enough, I may find that the window is okay and that a few tubes of caulk above the window may get rid of our leak.  That would certainly be a cheaper option, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Speaking of cheaper options, here are some personal finance tips and articles from around the web this week you can use to save some money.

Personal Finance

• 10 Ways to Simplify Your Finances @ Generation X Finance
• 6 Surprising Benefits of the One Car Household @ My Dollar Plan
• How to Create a Sinking Fund @ Frugal Dad
• 45 Ways to Save Money @ Financial Highway
• Is Your Money Working for You? @ Peak Personal Finance
• 10 Ways to Stop Wasting Money @ My Two Dollars

College

• Best Value For Your College Dollar? @ Lazy Man & Money
• Options For Your 529 Accounts If The Kids Don’t Go To College @ Suns Financial Diary
• Businesses to Start in College @ Studenomics
• Save Money with Off Campus Housing @ Budgeting in the Fun Stuff

Investing

• Ways To Shrug Off A Stock Market Slide & Reduce Market Anxiety @ The Digerati Life
• A Primer on Futures Contracts  @ Million Dollar Journey
• Dollar Cost Averaging: An Overview @ Good Financial Cents
• Dealing with Stock Market Volatility @ The Oblivious Investor

Career

• Is it a good idea to be a consultant? @ Brip Blap
• The Corporate Stability Myth @ The Wealth Artisan
• What Would You Do If You Lost Your Job? @ Free Money Finance
• What Do You Value in a Job? @ Cash Money Life
• 6 Weird But Successful Small Business Ideas @ The Money Crashers

Thanks to the following sites for including our articles in recent money carnivals:

• The Best Rental Car Deals for Road Trips @ Narrow Bridge
• Top 10 Ways to Beat Your Bills Big Time @ Financial Uproar
• 10 Ways to Get Ahead at Work @ Stumble Forward
• 10 Ways to Get Out of Debt  @ Invest It Wisely