You gotta love it when two hobbies come together. In this case, it’s my love of personal finance and my love of comic books. Here’s the cover of a 1978 issue of Richie Rich Inventions, in which Richie seems to be predicting the world of 2008.

Of course our vehicles don’t really run on money, but right now it feels that way. The newspapers say that the record fuel prices could soon decline. I hope so. It seems insane to pay $40 to fill my car. (On the other hand, some people think that gasoline prices may double before long, and that we ought to rejoice when they do.)
[via Progressive Ruin, my favorite comics blog]

During 2008, my wife and I are tracking how much time and money we spend growing food. This is the report for May.
Today I picked the first two strawberries from our garden. They weren’t particularly good strawberries — there’s been plenty of Oregon rain lately, and they were rather flavorless — but they were strawberries, the harbingers of summer. They signify the start of five months of food harvest from our yard.
Final orders
As you’ll recall from last month’s update, April ended with a bang. A late-season hailstorm damaged Kris’ tomatoes. We were worried that they all might havebeen destroyed, but in the end only two needed to be replaced.
During the first weekend of May, we visited the Oregon Master Gardeners plant sale. Though Kris starts most of her vegetables from seed, she cannot resist a chance to wander the stalls looking at other options. This year she spent $21.50 on jalapeños, zucchini, basil, oregano, and [...]

You guys have been awesome, sending all sorts of story suggestions and questions about personal finance. Unfortunately, I cannot possibly reply to every e-mail I receive. Get Rich Slowly is a one-man show, and I’m swamped. I hope to get some sort of autoresponder set up for common questions, but until then, please be assured that I read your e-mail, even if I don’t reply.
If you have a question that must have an answer, I highly recommend posting in the Get Rich Slowly discussion forum.
Here’s a brief overview of some of this month’s top stories at Get Rich Slowly:

May 1st: Life after school: Advice for new graduates
May 12th: Use a freedom account to prepare for the unexpected
May 13th: A real millionaire next door
May 14th: Finding affordable health insurance when you’re on your own (a guest post from Jason Gingerich)
May 19th: The informational interview: A job-hunter’s secret weapon
May 20th: My paperless personal finance system: A work [...]

Stephanie wrote with a common question: How can a college student save money when she doesn’t make enough to make ends meet? Here’s her story:

I am a full-time college student living on my own for the first time. I moved out of the house about nine months ago, and have found that even though I have a great job, I’m not making enough to support myself.
I saved up a lot last summer when I was working, but was forced to burn through my savings during the school year. Fortunately, my parents are very willing and financially able to help me when I run into trouble, but I’m making an effort to be independent as much as possible. This is hard, because as I mentioned, I am not making more than I have to spend.
I’m very careful about what I buy, and try to save money whenever I do buy something, but I’m at [...]

Sometimes when it’s quiet around here, it’s only because I’m working on other projects behind the scenes. Recording and transcribing my interview with Timothy Ferriss, for example, took a lot of work. I’m also experimenting with short video segments.
I’m pleased to announce that one of my largest projects from the past few months is finally complete. I’ve collated some of my key posts about Roth IRAs and created an e-book called simply The Get Rich Slowly Guide to Roth IRAs. All of this content is already freely available here on this site (and will remain so), but now it’s available in print, as well.
This e-book is part of a new project from my colleagues Leo (of Zen Habits) and Glen (of LifeDev). They’ve banded together to create Web Warrior Tools, a site devoted to publishing beautiful and helpful guides that empower people without calling them “dummies”. Here’s the complete line of Web Warrior Tools [...]

On a cool Thursday morning last July, I woke early to walk into the hills outside Wells in Somerset County, England. After three-quarters of an hour, I reached a point with a broad vista of the surrounding countryside. I leaned against a fence post and took in the view — I could have sworn I was looking at Hobbiton.

After a few minutes of silent contemplation, I walked back to town. I took a brief tour of the Wells Cathedral before picking up a bite to eat a nearby bakery. I then joined the rest of my group for our drive to Stonehenge. In the evening, we stopped in Dorchester, where Kris and I gave ourselves a self-guided tour of the city.
We were standing in the Maumbury Rings when I announced, “I want to retire here.”
“We can’t afford to,” Kris said.
“I know,” I said. But I was thinking of the The 4-Hour Workweek, the book [...]