Hello! My name is Wendy Mays, and I'm super happy to share a bit of my story. In the past couple of years, my husband and I have taken several big steps to change our financial future.

From the outside looking in, it appeared we had it all: a perfect family in a beautiful, Pinterest-worthy home in sunny San Diego, California. We'd reached the pinnacle. We were living the American Dream.

When people talk about saving money, DIY is one of the first things that comes to mind.

• Learn how to fix things around the house!
• Change the oil in your Prius!
• Make your own cleaning supplies!

Do all of this (and more) and you could save hundreds of dollars a year.

And that’s great. I know lots of folks that enjoy growing a lush garden resulting in delicious produce (that can be canned or frozen) in due season. There are people in my life that find doing laundry calming, and others that will happily take on any domestic project that comes their way. Personally, I enjoy doing the dishes. Continue reading...

I grew up in the country. My family always had a vegetable garden. For us, gardening meant a large plot, plowed and raked, then planted with long, widely-space rows of vegetables. It also meant weeding and hoeing, weeding and hoeing. Lots and lots of weeding and hoeing.

Gardening was a chore.

When my ex-wife and I bought our first home, we both wanted a vegetable garden, but we didn't want the drudgery that came with it. Besides, we didn't have a big space in the country — we had an average city lot. Fortunately, we discovered Mel Bartholomew's Square-Foot Gardening. Continue reading...

"Oh good," Kim said when I rolled out of bed yesterday morning. "I’m glad you’re up." She gets up at 5:30 for work most days, but I tend to sleep in. Especially during allergy season.

"Huh?" I grunted. It was 6:10 and I was very groggy. My evening allergy meds kick my butt. Plus, I hadn't had my coffee yet.

"Something’s wrong with the bathroom sink," she said. "Look. It’s leaking. The floor is soaked." She wasn't kidding. The bathmat was drenched. When I looked under the vanity, I was greeted by a small lake.

My friend Amy recently wrote with an interesting dilemma. "Should I pay off my mortgage early?" she wonders.

Amy has a high-paying job and has managed to save enough that she could be completely debt-free if she wanted to. And she kind of wants to! But is this the best choice? She's aware that this is a nice problem to have — but it's still a bit of a muddle. She'd like some guidance.

Here's an abridged version of her email: Continue reading...

Note: This is a substantial re-write of an article I first published more than twelve years ago. (Yikes, I'm old!) I've opted to keep some of the older comments if they had good suggestions.

Earlier this week, I wrote about my quest for quality pajamas. I recently paid $80 to purchase a pair from Filson, a company I trust for well-made goods. It's my hope that these will be the last pair of pajamas that I ever purchase. My goal was to "buy it for life".

This experience reminded me of two other companies that I love for their top-notch stuff.

Over the past three months, I've written a lot about buying and owning a home. Much of what I've written could be construed as anti-homeownership. Hear are some of the articles I've published recently:

• A brief history of U.S. homeownership.
• The high cost of homeownership.
• Does the American Dream require a big American home? (Spoiler alert: No.)
• Is your home a better investment than the stock market? (Spoiler alert: No.)
• Is it better to rent or to buy? (Spoiler alert: It depends.)

Last week, a GRS reader named Carmine left this comment:

I appreciate this and other recent posts on the perils and difficulties of home ownership, but they’re sort of piling up into a major downer as I read them!...Can’t you write something talking about the payoffs that home ownership can bring?

I'll admit it: There are times that I think everything that needs to be said about personal finance has been said already, that all of the information is out there just waiting for people to find it. The problem is solved.

Perhaps this is technically true, but now and then -- as this morning -- I'm reminded that teaching people about money is a never-ending process. There aren't a lot of new topics to write about, that's true (this is something that even famous professional financial journalists grouse about in private), but there are tons of new people to reach, people who have never been exposed to these ideas. And, more importantly, there's a constant stream of new misinformation polluting the pool of smart advice. (Sometimes this misinformation is well-meaning; sometimes it's not.)

Here's an example. This morning, I read a piece at Slate by Felix Salmon called "The Millionaire's Mortgage". Salmon's argument is simple: "Paying off your house is saving for retirement."

"How much house can I afford?" Answering this question correctly is one of the keys to building a happy, wealthy life. Unfortunately, there's a vast housing industry in the U.S. that's geared toward providing the wrong answer.

You see, housing is by far the largest expense in most people's budgets. According to the U.S. government's 2016 Consumer Expenditure Survey, the average American family spends $1573.83 on housing and related expenses every month. That's more than they spend on food, clothing, healthcare, and entertainment put together!

Too many folks struggling to make ends meet focus their attention on fine-tuning their budget. They try to save big bucks by clipping coupons, growing their own food, and/or making their own clothes. While there's nothing wrong with frugal habits -- I applaud everyday thriftiness! -- all of these actions combined won't (and can't) have the same impact on your budget as keeping your housing payments affordable.

Yesterday was an exciting day at the Rothwards household! After three weeks of demolition and construction, we installed our new hot tub.

It took six men an hour of maneuvering before we managed to set the spa into place...but we did it. And we didn't break anything. Now it's a matter of completing the decking and roofing, then Kim and I will be able to enjoy our remodeled outdoor oasis!