This is a guest entry from Israel Lopez.
This weekend I visited a friend at San Francisco State University. On Saturday, my friend and I had lunch downtown. At about 2pm, we parked my car about 1-1/2 blocks from the restaurant. We had some good sushi. We were gone from the car for maybe an hour. When we returned, my car had been broken into, and my valuables stolen.

The thieves took my laptop bag and my camera bag. The laptop bag contained:

my backup debit card (in case I lost my wallet),
my passport,
my laptop, and
my mp3 player.

The camera bag contained:

my Canon AE-1 (old-school camera),
camera filters,
film,
batteries, etc.

Overall, the damage was about $1,700.
My weekend ruined, I contacted dispatch for San Francisco police department. They told me to go to the police office about six blocks away. When I got there, they told me to file my report online. I filed the report once I get [...]

It’s Halloween — time for a scary, morbid subject.
Young adults don’t think about wills. The typical person graduates from college, gets a job, marries his sweetheart, has children, and never considers a will until he turns fifty. But not everyone lives to be fifty. You can’t always see death coming. A will is for anyone with money and possessions that need to be distributed according to some plan.
A Lifehacker reader recently asked about drafting a will:
I’m 31, single, and do not have a will. Obviously my family doesn’t know the details of my finances. Do you know an inexpensive way to create a will and do you have any tips for being prepared for such an eventuality? (i.e. record of finances, power of attorney, etc.)
Lifehacker readers provided a variety of answers. One recommended legalzoom.com, which bills itself as “the leading online legal service center. We can help you take care of common legal matters — [...]

Wisdom From Wenchypoo: Scam-Proof Yourself to Eliminate Risk
Smart people can still be the victims of scams. In fact, often smart people are most easily scammed because they have too much confidence in their ability to not be scammed.
(tags: scams phishing identitytheft)

Study: Saving for retirement loses ground to debt, living expenses - USATODAY.com
(tags: retirement planning debt choices)

Don’t GET Rich Quick. BE Rich Quick. - Christine Kane - Blog » Blog Archive
Wow. This is a great motivational article. It’s stuff like this that keeps me going.

(tags: self-development motivation values psychology money wealth attitude)

And now for something completely different…
JLP posted a fun question at All Things Financial: “Is there an opening paragraph or two of a particular book that stands out to you?” JLP cites the intro to M. Scott Peck’s The Road Less Traveled as his favorite:

Life is difficult.
This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult - once we truly understand and accept it - then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.
Most do not fully see this truth that life is difficult. Instead they moan more or less incessantly, noisily or subtly, about the enormity of their problems, their burdens, and their difficulties as if life were generally easy, as if life should be easy. They voice their [...]

Yet another reason to practice sound personal finance, and to save an emergency fund:
When I went out to start my car this morning, the ignition switch would not move. It was frozen. No amount of pounding, jiggling, or fussing could get it to work. I called a locksmith. “Yeah, this is a common problem with the Ford Focus,” he said when he arrived. “I must fix ten of these a week.” He spent twenty minutes replacing the ignition switch, gave me instructions, charged me $250, and went on his merry way.
$250!?! Now, that’s a racket.
My car woes cost me $250 plus $50 for a lost on-time bonus (which employees at my company earn by being on time every day for a pay period). If this were the old J.D., living paycheck-to-paycheck, this would have been devastating. Fortunately, the new J.D. is able to cope with these sorts of crises.

Somewhere between workaday jobs and entrepreneurship lies the murky world of freelancing. The idea of striking out alone appeals to many people. But where does one start? Phil Gyford has created a beginner’s guide to freelancing.
It’s been over a year since I first thought of writing down everything I’ve learned about freelancing. I’ve now been freelance for more than three years but the title still has a double meaning — this is both for beginners and by a beginner, because I know I still have a lot to learn.
Gyford covers a wide range of topics, such as:

When to start freelancing
You are your own marketing department
You are your own accounts department
You are your own project manager
You are your own career advisor

Though some of the info is UK-specific, the general principles are applicable to anyone who has considered freelancing. Gyford also recommends this article about becoming a consultant.
For a time, I toyed with the idea of doing [...]