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Hey J.D.,
I’ve been reading your daily postings for a few months now and I love it. You keep me grounded and it helps me ward off the temptation to spend too much money. I’m right out of law school and recently married. I’m paying off my student line of credit, but also trying to save for the future.
I know that one is supposed to keep throwing money into their ETFs during a downturn, but it seems like the downturn has just begun and the market is going to continue to fall further.
Maybe it would be prudent to save the money I would invest and hold off purchasing my ETF shares until the market plummets further.
Its risky, because it may not plummet further, but I just have a hard time investing in something when I’m fairly certain its on a downwards slide.
Any comments or suggestions?

Hey I needed some advice…

I have an average amount of credit card debt…is it better if i pay off the whole amount in one go (tht would leave me with no savings for feb) or should i make installment based payments. I realise the upmaking month bill is goin to be considerable so i was wondering if i shud just pya it off in one go….or save some then pay it off in parts…

wht wud u suggest? can u contact me via email please

Love the blog… Thought you might be interested in this link:

http://lifehacker.com/350190/always-check-for-recalls-on-your-broken-gear

Roger

Hello,

I am the founder of DollarCamp, a crash course seminar for high school students about money. We teach kids how to stay out of credit card debt, control their spending, and begin building wealth.

I am interested in networking with people interested in financial literacy and in spreading the word about our program.

We have two websites:
1) DollarCamp Seminars: http://www.DollarCamp.com
2) DollarCamp Books: http://www.DollarCampBooks.com

Many thanks,

Stephen Epstein, DollarCamp

Hey JD,
Great site! It’s become a daily reader for me. For the past year we’ve been trying to get our monthly expenses down as low as possible and we’ve had varying success. One thing we’ve done is work on our cable and internet bill. Through introductory deals and haggling, we’ve been able to cut $360 off the next 6 months, for the same services! Thanks for your advice. I just have to remember to keep on it in 6 months time when the deals run out.
Also, for the past year we’ve been saving a ton of money on our grocery bill by running a little co-op. About twice a month we collect about $30 from 5 or 6 other families and go down to our state farmer’s market. The local farmers have some good stuff but the farmer’s market is also where the local produce wholesalers are. After asking around, we found one that will sell to us at wholesale prices and just charge the sales tax. We’ll buy about $200 worth of produce and split it up between the families. For $30 each family gets tons of fresh fruit and veggies. A great example of the deals we get is bananas. A case of about 16 bunches costs about $11. But who will eat 16 bunches before they turn brown? We split the cost and the bananas up 5 ways and everyone gets 3 bunches for a cost of only $3.20/family. Compare that with the grocery store price! Peppers, apples, tomatoes, lettuce, you name it they have it. It’s also usually fresher than in a store and we understand the seasonality of some items better in relation to their price. We also eat much better for snacking because there is more fresh fruit in the kitchen. We cook and eat at home more because we have to use up the vegetables before they go bad. We have found that larger families and those with growing kids work the best for our group because there is always so much every time we go. Even with 5 in our family we often have to put some bananas in the freezer for banana bread because we couldn’t eat them all before they got soft. Then we have nice homemade banana bread!
Keep up the good work!
~james

Hi There,

I’m writing to let you know about a great program that Real Simple magazine has created called Manage Your Money, Manage Your Life. This 14 month program is sponsored by Discover Card and features a wealth of tools and tips to help organize personal finances. Monthly topics range from holiday shopping to preparing for tax time and a dedicated website (www.realsimplerewards.com/Discovercard ) hosts downloadable forms and checklists as well as videos from Real Simple and Money editors as well as independent financial experts in upcoming months. I hope you’ll take a moment to explore the site or pick up an issue of Real Simple where you can see our monthly insert. We really want to spread the word about financial organization and empowerment to women but the information available is really great for anyone looking for advice/tools. If you have any questions or would like more information please don’t hesitate to contact me.

All the best,

Thom

Hello JD

I really like your blog. It’s good you keep it consistently updated and provide useful advice for your readers.

Just curious, I have a friend who has written a personal financial handbook which is very straightforward and simple. Its a practical, easy read for most folks. If you have any extra time could be so kind to check out http://www.ask-a-financial-planner.com and tell me what you think?

Thanks!

Chad

Hey JD, was wondering if you can get your readers (or yourself) to help me decide something. I’m in the process of buying a home and would like to know if it makes sense to take money out of my 401k to use as down payment. I’ve heard the argument of possibly missing out of potential earnings if you were to take money out, but at this point in my 401k, i’m actually losing money (-7.3% currently). And I expect it to be negative for a while until the market gets better. So with this in mind, does it makes sense to borrow from 401k and use it as down payment? I will be a first-time homeowner and made an offer on a 3/2 condo for $195K in southern cal (foreclosed home).

Hi! I am really enjoying your blog. Thank you for inspiring me to reconsider the way I live my life. I was wondering if you had advice for people who remain in debt from visiting family (plane tickets), or keeping up with the social demands of my friends. It seems like I end up scraping the barrel because I feel obligated to my community. How can we keep family and friends happy without the embarrassment of saying ‘no’ to group events because of the money involved?

Hi,

I like this site and the articles being discussed here.
Good Work.
I have a small suggestion.
I know lot of discussion is being made about saving and investing money.
Can you also discuss and talk about small businesses and woman enterpreneurs who have been sucessful and unsuccessful so that it can be an example for others who are interested to follow that path.

Thanks,
welcome

hey guys,
your blog is AMAAAAZING !!!! I am about to start my very first Roth IRA along with starting my portfolio. After doing some reading, I’ve learned that Fidelity, Vanguard and T. Rowe Price are the three largest and easiest companies to start out in.

I’d like to you know from you – and the rest of your readers if one is better than the other ? I’m wondering which company is easier to deal with, customer service etc….

Any personal experience on this topic would be greatly appreciated –
thanks so much,
Deb

Hello!

I would like to commend you on your website and newsletters first off. I was just referred to you. Fitness Together (if you have not heard of us) is the worlds largest personal training organization. We have very high end, exclusive personal training studios – over 600 sold world wide. We have over a 98% success rate with our franchise. Our web site is http://www.fitnesstogether.com and http://www.ftareadirector.com. If you approve of what we do I would like to speak to you about being on your web site.

I look forward to hearing from you soon!

I am a college student looking for a credit card that would be the most beneficial to me in terms of rewards. I am not trying to ruin my credit and go on ridiculous shopping sprees that I can’t afford. I’m just looking for the most rewarding credit cards. Could you be so kind and write an article about that sometime in the near future? Thanks!

Dear JD,

As the Vice President and co-owner of East Side Athletic Clubs, in Milwaukie and Clackamas, I am writing to address the blog you authored titled “Ads I Hate: East Side Athletic Club”. After reading your detailed description of your less-than-positive experience in deciphering joining fees it is quite apparent that both our verbage and our fee classifications are confusing. (at least to you and possible to others as well). Obviously our team member was unable to explain the difference between an enrollment fee and a set-up fee, moreover, possibly the labeling is just too complicated. I appreciate your thoughts and intend to re-phrase our discount programs with clarity as a primary focus. This extremely competitive market finds all clubs discounting much too much (in my opinion) and the consumer, at some point, will suffer with lack of service, cleanliness and professionalism overall. Our community-minded facilities have been servicing all generations for more than 30 years in this marketplace and we continue to work hard to improve with each new year. Our fees, as you stated, are higher than some but as you well know with any purchase decision….you get what you pay for and I believe we are positioned differently from our lower priced competitors. Regardless, I appreciate your opinions related to pricing and do hope that you, personally, elect to continue exercising “somewhere”…..because in the long run that’s what it’s all about. Don’t “pay and never go”….stay ACTIVE….in any and every way. I’m grateful for our more “positive” reviews but also know that we can only improve as we hear all “voices”. Be well.

JD I thought you and the readers would like this idea behind this story http://wcco.com/consumer/frugal.february.save.2.667520.html

The basic overview is this family stops spending money in the month of Februay this lets them look at spending behaviors and clean out stocked up food items they have collect over the year ect. Its a short read.

Just so you know, there’s a technical error on the “How To Inoculate Your Children Against Advertising” story. Every time I click on the comments (or click on the headline that links me to the article with comments), it takes me to the page logged in as you, giving me the power to edit the story and to edit, spam, or delete the comments. I’m pretty certain you don’t want me to have this power.

Hi JD,
I have been reading your blog for a couple of months and find it very
informative and motivating. I came across this documentary and wondered if you knew about it. I haven’t seen it yet, so I can’t give my opinion, but it sounds like it could be a good documentary to review.

http://www.indebtwetrust.org/index.php

Hi JD:

I have been a long time reader of your site (although I don’t think I’ve ever left a comment on here). In fact, I liked it so much I started a site of my own: http://building-our-empire.blogspot.com. It has a little bit of a different angle than yours, but is centered on building wealth, ridding yourself of credit card debt, and increasing revenue streams. If you would take a look and give me a shoutout I’d be more than happy to link to your site on my site and give you a great review (truthfully I’ll actually probably do this anyway).

Anyway, great site, keep up the good work!

Dear J.D.:
Your post about “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” brought back some sweet memories of old-fashioned saving. By coincidence I wrote something similar this week on a blog I do for freelancers, independent workers, and anyone who is self-employed, entitled freelance-finance.com. The post deals with a famous work of non-fiction that won a Pulitzer. Here’s the post:
http://freelance-finance.com/2008/03/08/how-to-save-money-the-old-fashioned-way/#more-48

Thank you for such an enriching website. Best wishes,
JD aka “Muck”

Hi JD – at a library booksale yesterday, I found a like-new copy of “Bogle on Investing” for 50 cents! I’m not interested in it, but I’d like to offer it to you or a reader as a prize if you’re running any contests. I’ll ship it anywhere you tell me to.

I do this because I feel I owe the community something for all the help I’ve received over the last year and a half. My credit card debt has been shredded, my wife and I are on the same page about expenses and budgeting, I’ve got 10% of my salary going towards retirement, and I sleep a hell of a lot better than I used to. A huge part of that is due to you and the other folks that make GRS great.

trb

Great blog. You’re in my top 3 blogs. I’m 16 and wondering what I can’t and can do or should and shouldn’t as on now. I think this would be a wonderful article.

Peace,

Jeffrey

Help, we have always sent out mortage payment on time and lately they have received it late. Now they want to make us pay late fees. They get in time they just don’t process it till it’s late. Hlpe anyone. We want to know the law that protects us, we can tell the bak to kiss our a**es

First of all, I love the site. Lots of good information there for someone wanting to dig his way out of debt. It’s become one of the sites I visit daily.

I had one comment about your hyperlinks. While I can appreciate the need for an aesthetically pleasing color scheme for your site, I find the green-colored hyperlinks to be almost invisible because they look so much like the black text. There have been a few times when I’ve gone back to a post and realized I missed clicking on something because I didn’t realize the text was actually a link. Have you considered underlining all your hyperlinks so that you can keep the color scheme while still making the hyperlinks easier to find?

I’ve noticed your posts are a lot longer now that you’ve moved to full time blogging. I’m not sure this is a benefit, the beauty of your site (and blogs in general) is that they are quick snacks of reading, not an entire meal (like a chapter in a book).

I’ve found that I pop over and read the title now and maybe the first paragraph – whereas before I would read the whole entry no matter what it was about. Just my constructive criticism.