I used to wonder why my colleagues’ blogs became strangely silent when they were working on their books. Haha. I don’t wonder anymore. Writing a book is an all-consuming process that’s difficult to describe. I’m thankful I recruited April and Baker as staff writers before I began working on my own book.
Progress on Your Money: The Missing Manual actually ground to a halt this week. Well, that’s not strictly true. I did miss my deadline on Monday, but it’s not for lack of trying. I’ve already written as much (~12,000 words) for the frugality chapter as for two normal chapters combined. The problem is that there are too many ways to save money! So, I’m producing a ton — I just didn’t finish the chapter on time.
The topic I’ll be tackling this morning is frugal fun. As I plotted the section last night, I realized we haven’t discussed this subject much at Get Rich Slowly. [...]

As I shared yesterday afternoon, although I believe National Save for Retirement Week is important, I find the topic dreadfully dull when stretched out for a week of blog posts. Lesson learned.
Still, I don’t think all retirement discussions have to induce snores or tears. In fact, when you think about it, retirement — especially early retirement — ought to be something to celebrate. When a person has managed to save and make smart choices, they have a chance to opt out of the rat race and pursue the things they really love.
(Note that some people, such as my wife, are fortunate to work at jobs they love in the first place. They’re already doing something they really love.)
Rather than talk more about the numbers or the various types of retirement plans, I thought it would be fun to have a chatty open discussion about our actual plans for the future. Each of us has a [...]

On Thursday, I featured a guest post from Free Money Finance that proved to be surprisingly controversial. His five steps to six figures in seven years offered solid common-sense career advice for those looking to boost their incomes. Many readers disliked the post. (Though they didn’t hate it as much as FMF’s previous guest article.)
Though I don’t share all of your complaints, I do think some of you made an excellent point: Just as money is more about mind than it is about math, so too a rewarding career is more about personal fulfillment than it is about raking in big bucks. I agree that I’d rather work at a low-paying job that I loved than make $100,000 a year at a job I hated. I’d rather be happy than rich.
In response to FMF’s post on Thursday, Mike wrote to share his predicament. He’s hoping GRS readers can help him decide what to do:

I feel [...]

A couple of weeks ago, we had a fine discussion about how much we should save for retirement. But how much should we have saved for today? How much should we have in cash reserves?
As I write my own book, I’m reading (and re-reading) dozens of other money manuals. While perusing Bert Whitehead’s Why Smart People Do Stupid Things With Money, I came across his table of “minimum base liquidity”. (Whitehead is a highly-educated financial advisor. He uses terms like “minimum base liquidity” instead of “cash on hand”.)
Whitehead writes:

After making the commitment to save 10% of their income, the next question most people ask is, “Where should I be investing these savings?” The first goal is to have adequate cash reserves.
Many financial pundits in the media say everyone should have cash reserves equal to 3 to 6 months of income. For most middle-income people, that is simply a pipe dream…With our clients, I use a [...]

At AskMetafilter last week, a user asked a question I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. Now that I have my finances firmly under control, now that I’m building wealth, is it ever okay to finance fun? Here’s the question (with minor edits for clarification):

When is it okay to finance Toys? We have a budget, all bills are paid, we are saving $100 every month, the only debt we have is our cars and house. No credit cards. Each month we have about $900 left over. Between the both of us, we have a wishlist including:

a four-wheeler
a vacation
cosmetic home improvements

Facts and opinions welcome. Should we save ’til we can pay cash? Or is it okay to finance some or all of our wishlist?
I believe that in general, it’s not a good idea to finance Toys. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t buy Toys (as long as you have a balanced financial life), but that buying [...]

How much should you save for retirement? Carla dropped me a line because she’s puzzled where the standard “save 10% of your income for retirement” advice originated. She’s afraid that ten percent isn’t nearly enough. Carla writes:

The financial experts always say to save 10% for retirement (for example, in your review of The 1-2-3 Money Plan). Buy why 10%? It doesn’t make sense to me.
I’m 25. If I retire at the normal age of 65, that will give me about 40 years of full-time wage earning. Let’s say I plan to die at 85. That’s 20 years of retirement. I’m assuming that I’ll be fully funding my own retirement (not counting on any sort of pension or social security).
How on earth would saving 10% for 40 years cover your expenses for 20 years? I know that expenses should be a bit lower in retirement, and I know that the money will make some gains [...]