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Planning for Budget Busters: Home Ownership

LivingCheaply — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:00:54 +0000

This video post is the third of a four-part series from staff writer Adam Baker. Baker previously featured a post on his own blog entitled Cost of Living Abroad: Dozens of Bloggers Share Their Expenses . Last week, I introduced the concept of a Budget Buster , which is any irregular expense that I fail to plan for. These are’t true emergencies, but rather expenses that pop up to surprise me, even though I should have easily seen them coming. This week, I’m concentrating on the largest budgeting category for these surprise expenses: home ownership. When looking for housing Budget Busters, those of us making the transition from renting to home ownership need to be especially wary; lack of experience leaves us exposed to a barrage of these expenses in the first few years. Most of us are familiar with paying a mortgage (including interest), property taxes, and homeowner’s insurance. In fact, many times these are lumped into a single monthly payment by your mortgage or processing company. But in addition to these routine costs comes a host of irregular — but nonetheless inevitable — expenses. In this video , I concentrate on three main areas where Budget Busters strike hardest: routine maintenance, repairs/improvements, and transactions costs. Here’s a run-down of the contents: Recap of the definition of a Budget Buster [0:12] Defining routine maintenance vs. repairs/improvements [1:05] Brainstorming examples of routine maintenance [1:45] Brainstorming examples of repairs/improvements [2:20] Hidden expenses related to buying and selling a home [3:25] The enormous costs associated with the repairs and improvements — remodeling a kitchen, replacing a furnace, tearing out a tree — are apparent. However, the combined costs of routine maintenance — yardwork, cleaning carpets, painting a room — can add up quickly too. As we talked about in part one, the key to planning for these Budget Busters is embracing the fact that irregular expenses will almost always be more than we expect. It’s been my experience that just when I think I have it figured out, something new comes along to bust me! I’ve learned the best strategy is to overestimate my costs to ensure a cushion. I know there many of you have owned homes for decades! Which expenses have shocked you most over the years? Which ones should those of us who are new to home ownership watch out for? Note: We’ve heard you on the video posts. There’s one more scheduled for next week, but after that they’ll only be an occasional thing. Thanks for the feedback!

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Planning for Budget Busters: Home Ownership

Reader Story: Debt-Free by 30 — Including the Mortgage!

LivingCheaply — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 21:00:47 +0000

This guest post from Jesse ( who juggles ) is part of the “reader stories” feature here at Get Rich Slowly. Some stories contain general “how I did X” advice; others are examples of how a GRS reader achieved financial success — or failure. These stories feature folks from all levels of financial maturity and with all sorts of incomes. My wife and I paid off our house in April while we were both still 29 years old. We have no other debts (except the occasional library fine). How did we do it? Here are the six key factors. Living like students We live on half our income and save the other half. This isn’t exactly 50/50, but that’s the general breakdown of our finances. We were college and graduate students between 1998 and 2007. We got used to living a student’s standard of living. When our household income doubled in 2008 and increased again 2009, we maintained the same standard of living as if we were still in school and then saved the rest. Buying a home we can afford We bought a house for a price that was just under a full year’s income In 2009, our household income was right around $100,000. We probably could have qualified to purchase a home for $200,000 or $250,000. But we were committed to buying a home that we could have paid off either immediately or within a year, so we only looked at houses priced at $120,000 or less, hoping to only pay less than $100,000. We also found ourselves in the unexpected situation of being interested homebuyers during one of the housing market’s darkest moments in recent history: spring and summer of 2009. We got plenty of attention from a great realtor who was happy to work with our low budget. We also knew that we could get a great deal on a house — and we did. Most homes in any market under $100,000 are fixer-uppers. I have experience in construction, so I knew that I could repair much of the house myself. We found our winner (a foreclosure that was purchased for $250,000 in 2007) and paid $88,000 for it. Most of the fixing-up needed was cosmetic stuff. The roof, foundation, and structure were found to be in good shape. The federal government sent us a check for $8,000, and we took out a mortgage for $55,000. We paid off that $55,000 in ten months (using some money we kept in the bank at closing, plus our surplus income for those 10 months). In the year we’ve lived in the house, I’ve done most of the repair work, and we’ve only spent about $5,000 in improvements. We are now to the point where the house is mostly where we want it to be with the exception of the kitchen, which will be the one major overhaul that could cost $25,000 or more. But for now, it’s functional, and we’ll only re-do it as we can afford to pay for it with cash. Giving to charity We give just over 10% of our income to charity. I don’t think this is a fixed requirement in order to live a happy life, but it helps us to be free from money so that we’re in charge of it rather than the other way around. This foundation has helped us to be in a position to save and live frugally, thus allowing us to be debt-free, including the house. Destroying student loans We both went to a private college as well as graduate school, yet all of our school bills were paid in full by the time we graduated graduate school. My wife worked a crazy high-paying summer job in college that I signed up for just before we got married (which was as we were starting graduate school). It’s not for everybody, but it worked for us: We sold educational books door-to-door. We netted as much as $22,000 and $23,000 each in a summer, paying for life and school each semester with cash. That started us on a a debt-free foot when we graduated from school in 2007. This summer job also put us through the heat of running our own business, dealing with lots of rejection, and working hard. These principles helped us to learn that true income comes from hard work and having low expenses. Living frugally We save money by cutting back a little in a lot of areas. We don’t have a television, which saves the cost of buying a new one every few years, as well as the monthly cable bill. Instead, we have affordable internet, and watch movies and a few TV shows on the computer. We actually went without internet for the two years while we rented and saved for a house up until we paid off the house. I used the internet daily at the local library for free. It was hard sometimes, but the one hour time limit per day saved me time to do lots of other productive things in life. Sidenote: I wonder sometimes if watching less television also removes a few of the advertisements that would otherwise be thrown in my face each day, thus causing me to think less about the things that I don’t need but would possibly buy (thus wasting my money). I watched enough television as a child and teenager to make up a lifetime, so I’m ready to try some other activities in life. Here are some other ways we save: When we go out to eat, we usually skip on drinks or dessert. We just get water and maybe a cheaper treat from the store on the way home. We don’t do Netflix. We might pay to see a movie at a theater once a year. Instead, we get tons of great movies for free from the local public library. We have one car (a 2001 Toyota Corolla, which gets anywhere from 25-30 MPG) and two bikes. We don’t subscribe to any newspapers or magazines. We keep in touch with information via the internet and through free local papers. We shop at yard sales and thrift stores for many items ranging from clothes to furniture. We never buy new cell phones. I use a Nokia block phone that basically makes phone calls and sends texts. We have a family plan for both our cell phones that costs only $75 a month. We do not have a land line. Every day, we enjoy the simple things in life such as walks, picnics, bike rides, community festivals, etc. Most of these activities are free yet priceless. Paying off the mortgage We were convinced that paying off a house rapidly was a smart way to allocate surplus income. Thanks to financial guru Dave Ramsey , we’ve found that the psychological momentum and freedom you gain from paying off the house rapidly is much more valuable than the money you would mathematically save by investing surplus income in a 8%-12% stock market and holding on to a 5% mortgage. I’m glad we went in this order, because there’s something truly freeing about knowing that we are no longer debtors to anyone. In February, we found out that we’re pregnant with our first child! Now we can welcome this child (due this September) into a paid-for house! My wife will quit her job to stay at home with the baby while I continue to work. This is only possible because we’ve learned how to live on one income and we have no mortgage payment. Reminder: This is a story from one of your fellow readers. Please be nice. After nearly a decade of blogging, I have a thick skin, but it can be scary to put your story out in public for the first time. Remember that this guest author isn’t a professional writer, and is just learning about money like you are.

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Reader Story: Debt-Free by 30 — Including the Mortgage!

Reader Story: Debt-Free by 30 — Including the Mortgage!

jos — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 21:00:47 +0000

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Reader Story: Debt-Free by 30 — Including the Mortgage!

Ask the Readers: Should I Invest or Prepay My Mortgage?

cheapo — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 10:00:49 +0000

Kelley wrote recently with the sort of dilemma I get asked about all of the time : Is it better to invest or to prepay a mortgage? We’ve covered this topic in the distant past, but it’s time to review the debate for current readers. First, let’s look at Kelley’s e-mail: My husband and I are on the right track. At age 25, our only debt lies in our home mortgage. We have the six-month emergency fund in place, I currently meet the 3% 401(k) match offered by my employer, and I started a Roth IRA for myself and my husband last year. I started each Roth IRA with $4,000. My financial advisor recommended for us to max out each of our Roth IRAs each year. My husband disagrees. He thinks paying off the house is a bigger priority. Starting this year, we’ve made an extra payment on our house each month. If we continue doing this, we can have our house paid off in nine years rather than 30 years. However, we can’t do both. Currently we’ve decided to throw $1,000 into each Roth each year until the house is paid off. Is this the wise decision? Or is it better to put more toward the Roth IRA and less toward the house? I understand either option is good because I’m saving money. I’m just curious of which route would be wiser. Kelley’s right: Both of these options are good. This is like choosing between an apple and an orange. Both taste good, and they’re good for you &madsh; but is one better for you in the long run? What the experts say Three years ago, when we last covered this topic (holy cats! — where has the time gone?), I collected the following roundup of advice from personal-finance books: Ric Edleman ( Ordinary People, Extraordinary Wealth ): Never own your home outright. Instead, get a big 30-year mortgage and never pay it off — regardless of your age and income . “Every time you send an extra $100 to your mortgage company, you deny yourself the opportunity to invest that $100 somewhere else.” Suze Orman ( The Laws of Money ): Invest in the known before the unknown. Paying off your mortgage offers a guaranteed return on investment. “You cannot live in a tax return. You cannot live in a stock certificate. You live in your home.” Elizabeth Warren ( All Your Worth ): Save 20% of your income. Use 10% for retirement savings, 5% to accelerate your mortgage, and 5% to save for future dreams. “Paying off your home also does something many financial planners neglect to mention: It gives you freedom. Once that mortgage is gone, just imagine all the freedom in your wallet.” Dave Ramsey ( The Total Money Makeover ): Prepay your mortgage if you can, but only after you’ve saved an emergency fund, and only if you’re putting at least 15% of your income toward retirement. Don’t use a program designed by a broker; use your own self-discipline. Dominguez and Robin ( Your Money or Your Life ): “Pay off your mortgage as quickly as possible.” This book, too, was written when interest rates were higher. Also, the authors emphasize frugality over investing. Financial authors don’t agree on this subject. Maybe the personal finance gurus writing for the web can clear things up? Liz Pulliam Weston at MSN Money : Don’t rush to pay off the mortgage. “You’ve got better things to do with your money, like saving for retirement, building an emergency cushion or even living it up a little.” Walter Updegrave at CNN Money : If you’ve funded your retirement, and if it will make you happy, then pay down the mortgage. Otherwise, it makes more sense to invest. Laura Rowley at Yahoo! Finance : Using very conservative figures, investing instead of prepaying the mortgage yields an extra $400 per year. If you feel compelled to pay down your mortgage, do it. But realize you’re paying a price to do so. (She offers more details at her blog , as well as tips on how to estimate the investment return you need to earn to make it worthwhile.) Bankrate : Pay down your mortgage if your investments would be conservative. Invest if you’re planning to do so for the long term. USA Today : It depends on your income, your monthly expenses, your risk tolerance, and your desire to own your home free and clear. Kiplinger’s : Invest unless you’re near retirement The Dollar Stretcher : Mathematically, it makes more sense to invest, but it all depends on your risk tolerance. My fellow pfbloggers at Bargaineering and Million Dollar Journey recommend that a person do a little of both: pay down the mortgage some and invest some. Free Money Finance says: “If you have the discipline to save/invest the money you would be using to pay off the mortgage, it’s likely that saving/investing is the better option. But if you’re more the “average” person out there managing your money, I still believe it’s a better option to pre-pay your mortgage.” The Rowley article offers some interesting background to this debate: Why do so many people choose to put extra money into a mortgage when other options would likely increase their wealth? “This is really remnant of Depression mentality that has persisted from generation to generation,” says [one expert]. At the time, most mortgages had one- to five-year terms, with a lump sum payment due at the end. “Any shock to income meant you couldn’t afford your payment — mortgages were much more susceptible to economic uncertainty,” [the expert says], and roughly one-quarter of Americans were unemployed during the Great Depression. “It’s fine to pay down your mortgage if it gives you peace of mind, but you should recognize what that peace of mind costs.” If you’re facing a similar decision, you may find this calculator useful: prepaying your mortgage vs. investing . The bottom line My conclusion in 2007 (and the one I still hold today) is that unless your mortgage rate is very high, it makes more sense mathematically to invest your money . But most gurus agree that psychologically , you should do what works for you. If paying off your mortgage would take a weight off your shoulders, then pay off your mortgage. Sure, you might be losing a bit in the long-term, but you’re still making a smart choice. As I said earlier, it’s like choosing between an apple and an orange. One may be better for you, but they’re both good. Ultimately, I kind of like the choice that Kelley and her husband have made. They’re prepaying their mortgage and putting some toward retirement. But enough of what I think. Kelley really wants to know what you think. Which option is better? Should she and her husband be pumping as much as possible into their Roth IRAs? Or should they be paying down their mortgage as quickly as they can? Have you been faced with a similar dilemma in the past? What did you choose to do? And would you make the same choice again?

Reader Story: The Other Side of Bankruptcy

LivingCheaply — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 10:00:49 +0000

This guest post from Shara is part of the “reader stories” feature here at Get Rich Slowly. Some stories contain general “how I did X” advice; others are examples of how a GRS reader achieved financial success — or failure. These stories feature folks from all levels of financial maturity and with all sorts of incomes. J.D.’s note: Over the past couple of months, I’ve shared a couple of reader stories that involve bankruptcy or otherwise walking away from debts. Though these options are all “part of the game”, they don’t sit well with many GRS readers. In response, Shara offered to share her story, which shows the other side of bankruptcy — what it’s like for the creditor. After college, my husband and I bought a house in a normal middle-class neighborhood. Two years later, we decided we wanted to move out of the city, and instead of selling the house, we decided to rent it out. We did a lot of math and research, and decided we could both trade up the house we were living in and support a rental, even if the rental wound up vacant for an extended period of time. We didn’t feel like we knew everything, but we were comfortable getting started. We signed up with a landlord service to check credit and background, and then took in our first tenant. We made a number of mistakes the first couple years. We were young and expected people to be honest. I believed that, on the whole, people want to do the right thing. I still think that’s true, but watching the mental gymnastics some people go through, I now believe they have an endless capacity for making “the right thing” happen to be whatever is best for them. Every tenant has done something that’s cost me money: Left major damage (stepped in the sprinkler box breaking every pipe). Taken off without notice (legally you still have to go through eviction if they didn’t give notice). Acquired pets that weren’t in their lease and caused damage (you have to decide: is it worth evicting over a dog?) Taken things from the property that weren’t theirs to take. But that’s the name of the game. I wasn’t shocked to be left holding the bag on more than one occasion. It’s business. But this isn’t a story about landlording — it’s a story about bankruptcy. Peter and Tara In the summer and fall of 2008, the rental market started getting soft. I had a tenant leave without notice at the end of summer, and we couldn’t find a renter. We found a family who wanted the house, but they didn’t have good credit. In hindsight, we shouldn’t have rented to them. Their credit was bad. There were red flags. But there are red flags with most people; renters rarely have clean records or most of them wouldn’t be renters. No renter is perfect. Their references were very good, and they had supposedly never missed a rent payment. They claimed to be in the middle of bankruptcy caused by a business venture that had gone south. I knew the law that post-bankruptcy they would be on the hook for years until they could file again. We took a calculated risk because we thought the worst that was likely to happen was that they wouldn’t pay their rent and we’d have to evict them and support a house payment for up to two months. Aside: Though I may seem harsh here at GRS, I’m actually a bit of a soft touch. In my short tenure as a landlord, I’ve extended rent payments for a variety of reasons. I also know I can’t squeeze money out of someone who is broke, and if they can’t pay I’ve offered to break a lease if they’ll nicely and quickly move to somewhere more affordable. But ultimately it is not my responsibility to house people ; it’s my responsibility to house my family, and to protect my interests. Sometimes people need help. I know a number of people who have declared bankruptcy: My aunt, my mother in law, a cousin, a couple close friends. Therefore, I’m aware of the human side of bankruptcy. Peter and Tara moved in with their kids (and undisclosed dogs) in September. As we were signing the lease, they explained that they only had about one-third of the deposit, but they were waiting to get their deposit back from their previous place. Though this raised a flag, we agreed they could pay it with the next month’s rent. For each of the first couple months, they paid a couple of days late each time. They never made up the deposit, though each time it was promised next time, I understood that work was slow. Peter worked in low-level construction (landscape, re-stucco, that kind of stuff), and as it was getting to be late fall we let it slide. In December, they didn’t pay. We got a story that his work for the month had been financed through a larger plumbing company and they hadn’t paid him yet. My husband and I decided we weren’t likely to find renters the week before Christmas, and we didn’t want to stress out the family with kids at the holiday, so we were going to give them until the last week of December to pay. They paid off December’s rent on the 24th. They dragged out January, finally paying 75% of it on the 28th. In my experience, once someone is a month behind they won’t make it back, and it’s actually kinder to cut them off than let them keep sinking: When they weren’t able to come up with the balance for January, we filed for eviction on the 8th of February. We got a court hearing for February 27. The judge nicely heard our argument and asked Peter if he disputed it. He didn’t. The judge asked Peter if he had anything to add, and Peter said, “Yes. I filed for bankruptcy on the 11th. ” (That was the day he was served with eviction papers.) With that, the judge looked at us and said there was nothing he could do. The next step for us was to go to the federal bankruptcy court down the block to attend the creditor meeting on the paperwork Peter provided. Behind the scenes with bankruptcy For those of you unfamiliar with bankruptcy, let me provide some basics. When someone files bankruptcy, they get what is called an Automatic Stay. This means they have protection against collection of any debts accrued before the date of file, and includes any repossession or eviction proceedings. Peter and Tara had been living in our house rent-free for six weeks, and not only could we not collect the money, we couldn’t get our house back. But if Peter had turned to us and said, “By the way the toilet is leaking”, we’d have a legal obligation to go fix the toilet and couldn’t even ask when they were going to pay the rent. Had we done so, it would have been considered harassment, and we’d have been in violation of federal bankruptcy code and then they could have sued us. Not likely, but possible . Here’s the general schedule of a bankruptcy: After a bankruptcy is filed, there’s also a meeting of creditors. This is set at least 30 days out from date-of-file to allow the debtor time to collect and submit their paperwork. After that, there’s a period where creditors can dispute the claims. And after that, the bankruptcy is typically discharged and the process is at a conclusion 7-10 weeks after date of file. Also, bankruptcy is in federal court while eviction is in county court. These courts don’t talk to each other; they don’t share information. They’re physically separated and are both “court” like an elementary and university are both “schools”. When bankruptcy is filed ,the stay is for old debt, but since Peter and Tara were in the house, they still needed to pay current rent. So, a few days after March 1, when they were late on currently due rent, I sent them a late notice, and when they didn’t pay I petitioned the court for a rehearing. In the meantime, we attended the creditor meeting on March 11. When we showed up, there was no one there for Peter and Tara’s bankruptcy — not even Peter and Tara. The lady who was running the hearings said that no paperwork had been submitted beyond the original filing. Furthermore, Peter and Tara were not eligible for bankruptcy . They still had five months to go before their last bankruptcy was old enough to allow for a new filing. It looked like they had filed for bankruptcy so they could intentionally steal rent from us . They spent $450 to file bankruptcy in order to stay in my house for free until it was dismissed (at least six weeks). The federal government had found nearly a dozen things wrong with Peter and Tara’s bankruptcy filing, so the court was moving to dismiss. The information was staggering, but we were happy because we could now get our house back. Kafkaesque We went to the scheduled eviction hearing on March 29. I read the bankruptcy law itself, which I interpreted to say that the automatic stay that barred us from evicting Peter and Tara was only for debt incurred before date of filing. I told the judge: “Yes, Your Honor, there is nothing to the bankruptcy. The federal government is dismissing the filing. Plus , we have the documentation that they are late on their current rent and can be evicted for that alone.” The judge replied: “I am not a bankruptcy judge, and I don’t have the documentation. Go back to the federal court and bring me the papers.” So, we drove a mile-and-a-half down the road to the federal courthouse. They didn’t have any record of a bankruptcy dismissal. We should come back later. At this point, we called a bankruptcy attorney. He answered a few questions for free and said he would file for a “Release of Stay” (removing us from the order of inaction) for $400. At each point in this process, we learned more. We didn’t know we could file for a Release of Stay, or we would have as soon as Peter and Tara’s rent was late in March. We asked the attorney about the dismissal, and he said he would call the courthouse to check on it. He called us back the next day. The movement for dismissal had been sitting on someone’s desk for a couple of weeks (since well before our eviction hearing). He was able to talk to the right person and get it stamped and put in the computer in ten minutes. We could now evict. With copies of the paperwork in hand, we once again petitioned to have our eviction reheard. We finally got on the docket for the end of April. The judge heard our case and ordered Peter and Tara out of the house. He gave them three days, the minimum allowed by law. Three days passed — and they were still in the house. At this point, Peter and Tara were in violation of the court order, but there was nothing we could do ourselves. We had to go back to the courthouse and file to “induce a Writ of Eviction”. In other words, we needed further court documentation that we were allowed to call the Sheriff for removal. The clerks were horrified that we were kicking people out of their home. I think after the judge tells people to leave, most people actually do. But they were underestimating our tenants! With scandalized looks and a couple sidelong glances, the clerks did the paperwork and handed it back. Then the Writ of Eviction was taken across town again to be filed with the County Sheriff for a physical removal. The law wins? On May 14, we met the Sheriff at the house to find the tenants finally packing to move. The law said we had to give them a full work day to get their stuff moved. We agreed that May 14 was it, changed the locks, and asked the deputy to look around (in case they did malicious damage). After the deputy left, Tara chewed me out for embarrassing her and said, because of it, she wouldn’t pay the water bill. When I informed her that after not having paid rent in four months, I didn’t exactly expect her to pay the water bill, her response was, “Peter didn’t pay the rent, not me.” Uh…what? This goes back to the mental gymnastics people go through to determine “the right thing”: She had been living in my house without paying rent since mid January, but since paying rent was her husband’s responsibility, she was entitled to righteous indignation (and now she could take the high road and not pay for half a year worth of water! How fortunate for her). We returned to the house to find it unlocked, the garage door open, trash stacked six feet high in the garage, and everything of value we’d left for the house (paint, tools, replacement fixtures) gone. Not surprised, we called the police, who said that since the door was left open, we had no way to prove who took our things. Therefore, they wouldn’t even call Peter and Tara to ask if they knew what happened to our stuff. (Yes, I know leaving stuff there was stupid, which I told my husband well before this. He finally learned his lesson, and now keeps things for the rental in our garage). Four months, six days off work, $6000 in rent, $850 in water, $150 in court costs, two trips to the dump, a week of cleaning, and $300 of stolen stuff later, we finally had our house back . It took thirteen trips to a courthouse (either county or federal), which wound up costing us about a half day of vacation every ten days. We turned the house over to a rental management company because we decided they earn their keep with one eviction. My husband chose one with a lot of units that we saw at court every time we were there. With jobs, a kid, and my husband in school, it wasn’t possible to be as responsive as we needed to be. And the time commitment of a bad eviction like this one is severely draining when you have other responsibilities. Creditors have a face I didn’t write this story to whine and complain. I know this is part of doing business. Peter and Tara weren’t stealing from me because they didn’t like me; they simply saw themselves as victims of the world, and they were taking from someone they saw as able to afford it — their own little story of Robin Hood. They had the need, and we had the means. When people speak of bankruptcy, they usually speak of the debtor in human terms and the creditors in faceless terms. I have heard people essentially say “The debtors are just trying to get by and the creditors are mean [somehow forcing credit on people] and/or should know better [because they allowed people with bad credit to owe them money].” But I am a creditor, and I’m just trying to get by and make a good life for myself and my family. By not paying their rent or allowing me to find new tenants, Peter and Tara forced us to cover all our expenses out of pocket. This had real and serious consequences for my family. (How many of you could afford $5000 in mortgage payments plus cleaning/repairs without feeling some pain?) I grew up below the poverty line with divorced parents. My husband grew up in a trailer park. His father was (and likely still is) a drug abuser and dealer. We aren’t heirs to a fortune, and we certainly aren’t Chase or Citibank. We put ourselves through college for a better life than our families. We work really hard to get ahead. We live financially prudent lives. But I know other landlords who weren’t as prudent. They didn’t have a big enough emergency fund, and they were ruined by a large expense such as ours. In those cases, bankruptcy frequently begets bankruptcy. When a dentist builds a crown, he is likely a creditor. When a propane tank is filled, the company is a creditor. When a house has any kind of upgrade or large repair, credit is usually at least partially involved. Just about anyone can be a creditor. Part of the most recent bankruptcy reform bill is to weed out repeat filers and other people who abuse the system. Before reform, there was nothing to keep Peter and Tara from refiling as soon as their case was dismissed. Now there’s a mechanism in place to look at refilers more closely if they file twice within a year. Either way, it still bugs me that it took so long for such a blatantly bad filing to be dismissed. The fact that they weren’t eligible due to a previous bankruptcy should have meant that the court wouldn’t even let them file in the first place. That’s a big part of my problem with bankruptcy — not the people that file, but how easy it is to abuse once you understand the system. After an experience like this, I’m disillusioned. Bankruptcy has a place, but please remember that creditors have a face too. Reminder: This is a story from one of your fellow readers. Please be nice. After nearly a decade of blogging, I have a thick skin, but it can be scary to put your story out in public for the first time. Remember that this guest author isn’t a professional writer, and is just learning about money like you are. Ranch house photo by joguldi . — Related Articles at Get Rich Slowly: Submit Your Story! GRS Now Accepting New Reader Stories Reader Story: A Cautionary Tale Gift Cards and Bankruptcy: What To Do When Stores Go Broke Reader Story: The Secret Millionaire and the Mathmobile Reader Story: Necessity is the Mother of Frugality

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Reader Story: The Other Side of Bankruptcy

Bigger Isn’t Always Better: Remembering to Appreciate What I Already Have

LivingCheaply — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 10:00:34 +0000

Walking home from work today, I decided to take the long way. Most of the time, I choose the easy quarter-mile stroll downhill from the office to our happy half acre (or happy .62 acre, if you’d like to be precise). But to celebrate the first day of summer, I took the river-forest loop. The river-forest loop is exactly what it sounds like: a series of quiet streets that wend along the east bank of the Willamette River, easing their way beneath stands of tall oak, fir, and pine. It’s three miles from our house down the river-forest road and back again. I choose this route when I need exercise or want to think. And, on days like today, I choose it to soak up the scenery. As I walked, I looked at the trees and the river and the lake. I listened to the birds. I watched the squirrels go about their squirrely business. I nodded to the neighbors, and (strangely enough) I encountered three different loose dogs traipsing around unleashed, each of which was pleased to spend some time walking with me a ways. After a while, I stopped looking at nature and started looking at the homes. The river-forest loop has some great houses. In fact, the side of the street next to the river is lined with what can only be described as mansions. The homes are stately and ornate, with beautiful, manicured lawns. (Rumor has it that one of these homes belongs to Will Vinton , of California Raisins fame.) Dream house? Or an example of potential lifestyle inflation? I’ve looked at these homes before — and even have my favorite (which I’m dying to buy if it ever goes on the market) — but usually in just a cursory fashion. Today, I really looked at them. And as I looked, I began to covet. “I want a house like that,” I thought as I passed the new house built from river rock and brick. “Or maybe one like that,” I mused while considering the next lot, which includes a tennis court. I imagined what it would be like to live in homes like these, homes with arched double-door entries, vaulted ceilings, and wrap-around porches. How much would it cost? (And where would I get the money?) What would this new, wealthier J.D. be like? What would I do? How great would my life be? But my imagination really took flight when I saw that one of the homes was for sale. I stopped at the top of the driveway to admire all of the gables, the fountain , and the three-car garage. I pictured the other side, which must sit right at the river’s edge. (The above cell-phone photo is of this house. It’s listed for $2.3 million , or almost ten times what we paid for our house.) “Wow,” I thought. “If only I could afford a place like that!” Yes, J.D. If only. And then what? Would that make you satisfied? As I resumed my walk, my route led me back through normal neighborhoods: ranch houses and minivans and small city lots. Several folks were out working in their yards, just as I’ve been doing for the past few weeks. Like me, they’re trying to make their homes look as pretty as possible. Suddenly it occurred to me that I didn’t need some fancy dream house. I already have one. I recalled the excitement that Kris and I felt when we first found our current place back in 2004. We thought it was perfect. Our hearts broke when we thought we’d lost the home by $500. And our spirits soared when the prospective buyers backed out. When we moved in, we were overwhelmed, but mostly in a good way. We thought this was our dream house. Our home, which we call Rosings Park. You know what? It is our dream house. And I have a great life already, even without a fountain or a riverfront view. Here it was, three in the afternoon on the first day of summer, and I was walking home from work. And here I was again, half an hour later, plopped on a park bench writing a blog post in a notebook while all around me kids played tennis and basketball. At home I’d grill some steaks and pet my cats and read a couple of comic books. What more could I ask for? (Well, besides for Kris not to be on the road for work, that is.) I’m always urging others to appreciate what they have. When you feel that aching urge to keep up with the Joneses, when you wake up and realize you’ve begun to succumb to lifestyle inflation , it’s time to pause and take stock of what you have. When you slow down and really appreciate what you already own, you can often slake the thirst for something bigger and better. Maybe it’s time to take my own advice. In my case, I reminded myself that although our house has been a little rough around the edges lately, that’s mostly because I haven’t had time to take care of the property like I ought to. After I’m through with my big yardwork push, and now that we’ve repaired the sewer line, and after we purge a little more Stuff, I’ll feel much better about our place again. We’ll have people over. We’ll laze in the afternoon sun. We’ll pick peas and berries from the garden. I’m smart enough to realize that a $2.3 million dream home won’t make me any happier than where we live now. I think I’ll stay put. — Related Articles at Get Rich Slowly: links for 2006-12-30 Keep Track of Food with a Leftovers List Ask the Readers: What Can I Do If My Girlfriend Isn’t Serious About Money? Daily Links: Compound Interest, Web Income, and Happiness You Can’t Always Get What You Want: The Dark Side of Personal Finance

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Bigger Isn’t Always Better: Remembering to Appreciate What I Already Have

How Quickly Wants Can Turn to Needs

LivingCheaply — Fri, 28 May 2010 10:00:42 +0000

This article is by staff writer Adam Baker. Baker recently featured a post on his own blog entitled, Are You Eating Yourself Into Debt? As some of you know, Courtney and I recently spent just under a year traveling abroad with our two-year-old daughter. A couple of months ago, we returned home to Indiana and decided that we’d take a six month break from our mobile lifestyle . Our decision meant we needed to start looking for short-term rentals that would meet our temporary needs. When we started to browse rental options, we created a list divided into Wants and Needs. Some of the Needs included things like two bedrooms, a safe neighborhood, flexible lease terms, and some sort of yard or grass. Note: Technically, these aren’t raw Needs. While traveling we spent weeks in a tent, months in a spare bedroom of another family’s house, and dozens of nights in 100-square-foot single rooms. But these few items were basic enough conveniences that we felt comfortable labeling them Needs for our situation. Under Wants we placed criteria like a standalone house, a fenced-in back yard, a one-car garage, and proximity to decent sidewalks or paths. Remember, we weren’t buying a permanent home: We were searching for a quick six-month stop. As we started to comb through different properties on the market, I said to Courtney, “You know, it would be so nice to have a separate work area where I could go to write. I don’t need it, but it would be nice .” This wasn’t the first time I’d voiced this desire. Courtney had to put up with my complaining for the last year about not having designated work space. It was primarily an excuse for procrastination or lack of motivation, but there was a part of me that wanted to see what it would be like to have a specific space for my work. A Want becomes a Need After mentioning it a couple of more times, we agreed to expand our search to two bedrooms with bonus rooms, offices, or even large closets (yes, I’m serious). In general, a two bedroom home with a bonus room or office will be cheaper rent than a comparable three-bedroom place. Even with a background in real estate , it can be hard to search for houses with extra rooms. Each owner, agent, or listing may refer to the space in a different way. Often these homes have unique floor plans, and it’s nearly impossible to understand them unless you visit each home individually. Finding matches was difficult. Out of frustration at the lack of two-bedroom options that also included a bonus room, I allowed myself to do something that changed everything: I expanded our search to three-bedroom rentals. Suddenly, the flood gates were opened. After a couple of days searching all of the new options, I called my friend/ex-partner in real estate and gave him several listings. I remember saying something like, “I know we could fit into two bedrooms, but we really need three bedrooms these days.” It had happened. Of the five listings I sent to him to schedule showings, not a single one of them had only two bedrooms. Somehow over the course of just a few weeks, I’d managed to shift our Needs from two bedrooms to three bedrooms. My attitude had changed. In our market, we could have easily found a two-bedroom rental in the $600/month range. Our current rent (on the three-bedroom rental we selected) is $900/month. For those of you counting, that’s a 50% increase — or around $300/month. An indulgence For me, the issue isn’t the extra money per month. It’s a matter of perspective. We aren’t going to be financially ruined by this choice, and we’re paying for other benefits in that increase. But, I want to be sure that I view our rental for what it is: a Want. Heck, we could even label it a luxury for us. If I continue to view this as a Need, it’s easy to focus on the negatives. For example, the air conditioner takes hours to cool anything, the lighting is terrible in the home, and the garage doesn’t have an automatic opener. If I were to take the situation for granted and focus on the negatives, it would be easy for my standard of living to creep even higher and higher. In retrospect, if I see this home for what it really is — an indulgence — those little things lose their importance. I appreciate my little workspace so much more. I appreciate the fact the my daughter Milligan can play out back, and that we have space to host guests. The truth is, for our family of three, anything more than a safe, one-bedroom home with a roof, heat, and simple kitchen is a luxury. It’s a Want, not a Need. By realizing that, we can stop taking things for granted, and start being thankful for what we have. But shelter is just one area of our budget where this shift in thinking can happen. Luckily, this experience has helped me become more aware in other areas, such as Food, Clothing, and Transportation, where my definition of Need can easily grow beyond what is truly needed. Indulgences in life are great. I’ve met very few people who want to live at the bare minimum level of their Needs. But taking steps to ensure we recognize our indulgences as indulgences allows us to appreciate how lucky we truly are! — Related Articles at Get Rich Slowly: Turn Your Loose Change Into Lattes Six Steps to Learning Difficult Subjects Quickly Follow-Up on Casey Serin, the Man Who Would Be Rich Shaking the New Car Itch: A Tale of Priorities Reader Story: How I Saved Hundreds of Dollars on Insurance

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How Quickly Wants Can Turn to Needs

Home Safe Home? 27 Safety Precautions Under $40

cheapo — Tue, 25 May 2010 10:00:24 +0000

I’m back from my Alaskan vacation, but it’ll take me a day or two to get my wits about me. More soon. Meanwhile, this post is from GRS staff writer April Dykman . Dorothy was right: There is no place like home. Home is where we feel safe and relaxed in the familiarity of our surroundings — the sheets are just right, our favorite chair welcomes us, and we know, half-asleep and at 1 a.m., that we can get to the bathroom in exactly 10 steps. But it turns out we might not be as safe as we think. According to the Home Safety Council (HSC), home-related injuries cause nearly 20,000 deaths and 21 million medical visits each year. HSC’s State of Home Safety in America report found that unintentional home injuries cost an average of at least $222 billion each year in medical costs between 1997 and 2001, far greater than costs from other home injuries such as violence ($98 billion) or suicidal acts ($96 billion). Yet most of us, myself included, fail to take these numbers seriously. HSC polled Americans on the injury prevention actions they took in their homes and found that an alarming number failed to appreciate the risk and lacked either the motivation or knowledge to reduce it. The good news is that most home injuries are avoidable with a few simple modifications, ranging in price from free to $40. Learn how easy and inexpensive it is to protect your family from the five leading causes of injury, as reported by the HSC. Falls Each year 5.1 million Americans are injured by falls that occur in and around the home. Falls are the leading cause of home injuries and account for one-third of unintentional home injury deaths. Recommended actions: Put a nonslip mat or safety treads on the tub floor and use grab bars when you get out of the shower: $4-$10. Turn on area lights when using stairs, steps, and landings: $0. Use handrails on both sides of stairs and steps, and shoo pets away from your path (I know, easier said than done): $0. Use a proper ladder for climbing instead of a stool or furniture: $0-$30. Poisonings The second leading cause of home injuries, more than 2 million poisonings are reported to the Poison Control Center each year, yet only 1% of respondents in the HSC survey considered it a top concern. Recommended actions: Lock poisons, cleaners, medications, and other dangerous substances away from a child’s reach: $0. Keep all cleaners in their original containers, and do not mix them. Even better? Buy non-toxic all-purpose cleaners from brands like Method or Seventh Generation, or make your own : $2-$6 for 32 ounces of self-made or purchased cleaner solution. Use medications carefully, following the directions. Use child-resistant bottles, but don’t rely on them : $0. Install carbon monoxide detectors in bedrooms: $20-$30 per detector.* If someone is unconscious, is having trouble breathing, or is having seizures, call 911, but if someone seems okay and you think they may have ingested poison or you have a question, call the National Poison Control Hotline. Put the number in your phone’s address book or near the home phone (only one-fifth of polled Americans reported doing so) — it’s 1-800-222-1222: $0. Radon is a cancer-causing, radioactive gas that you can’t see, smell, or taste. The Surgeon General has warned that radon is the second only to smoking as the leading cause of lung cancer in the United States. Test your home at least every two years or when living patterns change : $15 (or free — some state programs offer low-cost or free kits, contact your state radon contact for more information). Fires and burns Of all fire- and burn-related injuries, 90% occur in the home. We know we should have a fire extinguisher and smoke detectors in the home (93% of the people polled did have smoke detectors installed), but most of us slack off on other precautions such as fire escape ladders (only 6% reported having one) and a family escape plan (just 26% had one). Recommended actions: Have working smoke alarms: about $3 to replace batteries, $20 per smoke detector.* Create a family fire escape plan: $0. Two story home? Keep a fire escape ladder near each upstairs bedroom window: $35+ per ladder. Don’t leave the stove when cooking, especially when frying food, and consider keeping an easy-to-use fire extinguisher near the range: $0-$12. Space heaters should be three or more feet away from anything flammable and turned off when you leave the room or go to sleep: $0. If you smoke, smoke outside and put water in ashtrays before emptying. Lock matches and lighters away from a child’s reach: $0. Blow out candles before leaving the room or going to sleep, or replace real candles with flameless ones — new battery-operated candles are made with scented wax and create a flickering glow: $0, or $10 for a 6-inch flameless candle. Set the hot water heater at or below 120 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent burns, and test bathwater temperature before children climb in: $0. Choking and suffocation The easiest way to prevent most choking-related deaths? Sit, and require children to sit, while eating. Only 39% of adults require children to do so. Recommended actions: If an item can fit through a toilet paper tube, it can cause a young child to choke. Keep small items out of children’s reach: $0. Don’t put pillows, comforters, or toys in a child’s crib: $0. Tie or clip the loops in window cords up high where children can’t reach them: $0. Read the labels on all toys, especially the recommended age: $0. Cut food into small bites for kids, and both kids and adults should sit down when they eat and chew slowly: $0. Drowning Most drowning deaths at home are related to swimming pools and spa tubs, but there are easy ways to keep everyone safe this summer. Recommended actions: Sounds obvious, but stay within arm’s reach of children in and around water. This includes bathtubs, toilets, pools, and spas (more than half of the HSC survey respondents failed to do so): $0. Keep the gate around your pool closed and locked: $0. Empty large buckets and wading pools after use and store upside-down: $0. To avoid suction entrapment, don’t use a pool or spa if there are broken or missing drain covers: $0, or $15+ for a drain cover replacement. Research the safest pool cover for your type of pool: price varies. *Rather than buying separate carbon monoxide detectors and smoke alarms, install a single unit that does both: $40-$50. Is your safety to-do list as long as mine? Know any easy fixes that make your home a safer place for your family? I’m embarrassed to say that buying carbon monoxide detectors and testing for radon are two things I have always meant to do, but never got around to doing them. June is Home Safety Month, though, so it’s the perfect time to check it off my list! — Related Articles at Get Rich Slowly: Free Crash Test Videos from Consumer Reports links for 2007-03-21 Five Money-Saving Blogs from Consumer Reports Living with and Learning from Layoffs Frugality in Practice: A Cheap Defense Against Weeds

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Home Safe Home? 27 Safety Precautions Under $40

Further Adventures in Home Maintenance

cheapo — Mon, 10 May 2010 10:00:45 +0000

As much as I’ve learned about money in the past five years, and as much as I like to share what I’ve learned, there are still times when I fail to follow my own advice. As I’ve mentioned, we live in a hundred-year-old house. This is a great and terrible thing. The house is beautiful and full of character, but it’s also a pain in the ass. In the six years we’ve lived here, one of the pains we’ve encountered repeatedly is the sewer line. About once a year, the thing clogs. But in the past year, it’s clogged more like once a quarter. Generally, we’re able to handle the clogs on our own. We pour a little drain cleaner into the toilet or bathtub, and things magically work out on their own. But the recent clogs have been unresponsive to the magic of modern chemistry. In March, I finally broke down and called in a plumber. The plumber worked his magic, charged me 300 bucks, and asked if I wanted his boss to come give me a bid on repairing the sewer line. “Sure,” I said. The next day, a man named Jeremy showed up with his fancy equipment to scope out the problem with our line. Turns out the old concrete sewer pipe was probably laid in the 1940s or 1950s, and has never been repaired or replaced. There’s a section about 90 feet from the house (about 20 feet from the road) that has developed a “belly”: for several feet, the pipe has sunk below the rest of the line. Near this belly, there’s also a break in the line, and tree roots are encroaching. Basically, it’s a mess. “It’s not a big deal,” Jeremy told me. “It’s easy to replace. Your sewer line is easy to access because it’s in the middle of the lawn. I can probably replace it in a day.” He quoted me a price of $1700. Over the next couple of weeks, Jeremy called back twice to see if we wanted to spend the $1700 to repair the sewer line. “No,” I said. “Things seem to be okay for now.” Well, things were okay for a while. Friday, however, the sewer line clogged again, and this time it was very very gross. Dirty water came flooding up into the bathtub. Yuck! We called the plumber again. A different fellow came out and cleared the line. Because Kris and I were both home, he called us over to look when he’d finished his work. He had a camera 90 feet into the line, and he showed us the very damage that Jeremy had described. And then he said something that was very GRS-y. “You can replace that five-foot section,” he told us, “but if I were you, I’d think about replacing everything from the sidewalk to the street. It’ll cost more, but if you save up for it, it’ll be more cost-effective in the long run . You’ve got other trees in that area, and they’re likely to cause trouble eventually if you don’t take steps to correct the problems now. And if you have us do all of it at once, it’ll cost less than if we have to repair it in pieces.” A plumber with advice on budgeting for repairs — I like it! The real lesson, of course, is not to defer home maintenance. I know this is one of the cardinal rules of home ownership, yet for some reason, I always procrastinate. I think it’s hard for me to spend on something that isn’t really an immediate problem. It’s May — my gutters aren’t overflowing. I just had the drain cleaned — the toilet isn’t clogging. And so on. But as we just learned, what would have cost me $1700 to repair in March will now cost me $2000 because I delayed. (That’s $1700 for the repair and $300 for the most recent visit by the plumber.) After the plumber left, Kris and I had a chat. “This is kind of a pattern for you, isn’t it?” she asked. She meant that I have a tendency to ignore warning signs and just hope that things will get better on their own. Last week, I wrote about ignoring warning signs from my computer as it began to fail. I’ve done the same many times in the past with cars, computers, clothing, home repairs, and (worst of all) my personal health. I don’t fix problems when they’re small; as a result, they often become big problems later on. Basically, I should heed the advice I always give others. To quote Your Money: The Missing Manual : Just as daily exercise and a sensible diet keep your body healthy and help you avoid costly medical bills, regular home maintenance keeps normal wear-and-tear from developing into problems, and problems from turning into emergencies. When we bought our new house in 2004, the home inspector told us that for every dollar we spent on maintenance, we’d avoid roughly $100 in future repairs. He wrote in his inspection report, “In my experience as a professional home inspector, I have looked at hundreds of homes in all age ranges, and I have seen thousands of dollars of damage to homes that could have been avoided by spending $5 to $10 and just a few minutes of work.” So, Kris and I are going to have some sewer work done. Right now, we need to decide if we can afford to have the larger section replaced, or whether we’ll just go with the small patch. And if we do replace the longer section, do we tap into emergency savings to do so? I think we might. It’s tough for me to accept that it’s not just okay, but it’s good to spend on solving small problems. It’s like self-insurance, or an investment in my future. My hope is that you can have the wisdom to learn from my mistakes. If you deal with a small problem before it becomes a big problem, you can save yourself time, money, and hassle. — Related Articles at Get Rich Slowly: Save Money with Regular Home Maintenance ING Direct Financial Literacy Writing Contest and Grants Some Thoughts on the Return to Traditional Skills Things It’s Cheaper to Do Yourself Frugality is NOT a Dirty Word

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Further Adventures in Home Maintenance

Reader Story: A Drastic Change for Drastic Results

jos — Sun, 09 May 2010 10:00:23 +0000

This guest post from Ian is part of the “reader stories” feature here at Get Rich Slowly. Some reader stories contain general “how I did X” advice, and others are examples of how a GRS reader achieved financial success — or failure. These stories feature folks from all levels of financial maturity, and with all sorts of incomes. I think this story offers an interesting contrast to last week’s story . I used to think that a $40 per month finance charge was a reasonable cost for the credit card companies allowing me to carry a balance of greater than $3000 dollars. How naïve I was! In the last two years I’ve turned my finances and my attitudes towards money around dramatically. Two years ago, I had more than $4500 in credit card debt, two auto loans, and a snowmobile loan. [ J.D.'s note: A snowmobile loan!!!! ] In the last two years I’ve eliminated credit card debt, paid off my all my non-mortgage loans, built a sizable emergency fund, and increased my investment contributions. It wasn’t just frugality, debt snowballs, and coupon clipping that helped me achieve this. I made a tough decision to dramatically alter my living situation in order to lower my expenses, which allowed me to reduce debt and build wealth. Over my head In 2005, I bought my first house. It’s a nice big house in a desirable neighborhood of a college town. It was certainly more house than I could afford at the time. For the next three years, I lived at the house and rented rooms to friends. Even with a little income from renting rooms out, I still paid a significant portion of the mortgage myself. Between mortgage, utilities, and upkeep, my living expenses were sometimes greater than 40% of my monthly take-home pay. This burden made paying off debt and living within my means challenging. In late summer of 2008, while rafting with a good friend, he mentioned that his mother-in-law was looking for a tenant for a house she recently bought — she would be retiring and moving in within the next two years. She wouldn’t be asking for very much rent, but the catch was that it would be undergoing a major remodel before she moved in. She wanted someone she knew and could trust to keep an eye on things. My friend asked me if this is something I’d be interested in. I gave the proposition a lot of thought. It would mean completely moving out of my house and renting it out. This made me nervous; I didn’t have aspirations to be a landlord. The house I’d be moving to is a nice place, but I really enjoyed my own home for so many reasons, and the thought of moving made me feel like I’d be giving up a part of myself. However, after geeking out, making a spreadsheet and crunching the numbers, I realized I could reduce my living expenses by nearly $600 a month. Fortunately, my house is in a desirable neighborhood of a college town. Also, since I allow pets, finding renters wasn’t a problem. With all of this happening right before the start of a semester, I had the place rented out in just a couple of weeks. I completely moved within a weekend. To lower housing costs even more, I brought a roommate with me to split the already cheap rent. Out from under I moved in and everything was going great. I starting to chip away at debt and put a few bucks aside. Also, renting out my house was proving to be pretty easy. I was lucky to find good renters, and they were happy with the fact that I’d fix things immediately if something went wrong. I was on a roll. Then, after six months, the contractor called to discuss the upcoming remodel. The remodel was long and tried my patience. We had a temporary sink, and our kitchen consisted of a hot plate and microwave. The backyard was completely torn up. Unexpected power outages and utility shut-offs became the norm. Contractors were in and out all the time — and they still are with re-work and additional projects. Despite all the hassle and inconvenience, this temporary change has been extremely worthwhile. In just 18 months I’ve eliminated all my consumer debt , auto loans, personal loans, built over $8,000 dollars in savings, and increased my 401(k) and Roth contributions. And I just paid for a recent trip to New Zealand in cash. I’ll be moving out next month, and not back in to the house I own. I’ll keep renting out my house and will be moving in to a place with a higher rent, but without a major remodel looming ahead. These 18 months have helped me to dramatically turn things around financially. Even if my living expenses increase in the next few months, this experience has helped me forge strong habits for saving and managing my money. I encourage everyone to take a little leap of faith, and perhaps do something a little unconventional to help turn your financial situation around. Reminder: This is a story from one of your fellow readers. Please be nice. After nearly a decade of blogging, I have a thick skin, but it can be scary to put your story out in public for the first time. Remember that this guest author isn’t a professional writer, and is just learning about money like you are. — Related Articles at Get Rich Slowly: You Can Learn a Lot From a Rich Girl Reader Story: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Moved in with Mom Ask the Readers: How to Face a Family Financial Crisis? Beyond “Real Hourly Wage”: How Much Time Does Stuff Actually Cost? Ask the Readers: Cheap Places to Live?

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Reader Story: A Drastic Change for Drastic Results