This week's reader question is an example of why I love the "ask the readers" feature here at Get Rich Slowly. I get to write about situations that otherwise would never occur to me!

Karen writes because she's having trouble with two of her kids:

I keep getting sucked into helping two of our children who can't seem to get it together. I don't want to see them on the street but they keep making dumb mistakes. What do you do when faced with a kid going to prison for lack of funds to pay fines? What about a different kid who is at risk of becoming homeless? This is tough to watch. (I really prefer dogs!) When does helping a family member financially become enabling? Or is it always enabling?

Over the last few months, I've spent countless hours researching the process of selling items online for a large project I've been compiling. It's taught me that as much as I thought I knew about selling online, there's so much more that I have no clue about!

For example, a family member recently asked for my help selling an unneeded car on the internet. "Sure!" was my first thought. "Heck, maybe I'll even use this as a case study!" However, there's one major problem with this situation: I'm completely ignorant when it comes to cars.

Actually, I shouldn't say completely ignorant. That's not correct. I'm inexcusably ignorant when it comes to cars.

I love to learn. That's part of what makes me who I am. And so I spend large chunks of time pursuing passions like astronomy and Spanish...and investing. Sometimes I'm asked if I have a method for picking up new skills and new knowledge. "Not really," I say. "I just try to keep an open mind and to absorb as much information as possible."

As you've probably noticed around here, I try to never say "THIS IS THE WAY THINGS ARE!". Sure, at any give time I have a set of beliefs — I currently believe index funds are the best investment for me (and many others), for example — but I'm never so locked into any given belief that I'm unwilling to change my mind.

So, I continue to explore opposing viewpoints. I listen to new ideas. And, every once in a while, one of these new ideas will stick, will change the way I think. That's the way I learn.

Most families need to stick to a budget when they travel. But tracking daily expenses, especially in a foreign currency, can be tricky. Here are some easy tips to make it easy to keep track of how much you're spending.

Before you leave

Create an email folder for your trip

Each time you make a booking, place the itinerary confirmation and receipt into an email folder or label. You can use the folder to help you build your final itinerary before you leave, too.

Set a daily budget

Set a daily budget that includes lodging, food, transportation, and entertainment. During the trip, you can track your spending against this goal.

Wouldn't it be great to be financially secure — to never have to worry about money?

What would it take to get there? In fact, what exactly is financial security?

Ask ten people to define how much money it takes to attain financial security and you will probably get ten different answers. For some people, financial security is having $10 million in the bank. For others, it's $50 million. Continue reading...

Ask Metafilter is one of my favorite sites on the internet; I've been an active member there for years. It's a great place to get advice on many subjects, including money. And careers. Recently a user named Entropic asked a question about "finding your passion", which received an awesome reply from my pal Grumblebee. Here, with permission (and a tiny bit of editing), is that Ask Metafilter exchange.

Entropic
How did you find your passion?

How have you figured out what your passion(s) is/are in life, and how have you translated that into a successful career involving your passion(s)? I am intentionally not including details about myself and my situation because I don't really want specific suggestions about what might be good career directions for myself or what interesting areas I might pursue. I'm looking more for concrete examples of what steps you've taken to find out what drives you, and how you were able to make a career out of that.

This morning, I did something unusual. After I brushed my teeth, I looked in the mirror and recited:

• "People love to give me money!"
• "I am rich and wonderful."
• "I am now earning a great big income doing what satisfies me."

I admit, I felt silly. I love a lot of New Age spiritual practices. (I've written before about using a money spell.) But talking to myself in the mirror was a little weird — even to me — never mind how silly I felt repeating these affirmations about my finances.

But can doing something as simple (and silly) as repeating daily affirmations make you richer? Chellie Campbell thinks so. Campbell is the author of The Wealthy Spirit, a book of daily affirmations on money. I spoke with her this week about the link between money and spirituality.

I wanted to title this post, "Can you be friends with people in decidedly different financial situations than you?" but that wasn't very catchy. (And I know: some of you ARE rich!)

But I was reading the acclaimed recent novel, "The Interestings," with my writer's craft book group (we discuss books based on writing analytics rather than whether characters and stories are likable). The book's main character is just ordinary, with an ordinary job and ordinary talents. But Jules has some extraordinary ("interesting") friends, friends that she met long ago at a summer camp for the arts.

Because Jules hasn't pursued her art as a career, and she probably wouldn't have made a ton of money at it in any case, she often finds herself terribly envious of her friends that have; notably, her friends whose talents have made them a huge financial success. (The male half of the couple seems to be loosely modeled off Matt Groening; his animated series quickly becomes huge and he's rich within months of winning a network deal.)

There are those who believe that money writers lead perfect financial lives. Ha! Would that it were so. When we get together, we often share stories about the dumb things we’ve done. Today, my friends, I want to tell you about an instance in which I failed to follow my own advice, an example of how not to get rich slowly.

For several years now, one of my indulgences has been season tickets to the Portland Timbers, my home-town’s professional soccer team. I’ve been a Timbers fan since I was six years old. I used to listen to their exploits on the radio during the 1970s. I can still sing "Green is the Color" from memory:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0WP05R1li0

Ramit Sethi, author of I Will Teach You to Be Rich, recently shared his thoughts on a New York Times profile of Russ Whitney, a real estate mogul who charges thousands of dollars to learn the secrets of his success. (Whitney helped inspire Casey Serin's foreclosure odyssey. John T. Reed has extensive information on Whitney, not all of it negative.)

Ramit's post prompted me to read the original New York Times article. I began the piece planning to offer my own criticisms of Whitney and his get rich quick schemes. But two-thirds through the article, I realized there were actually two stories here: one about Whitney's brash hucksterism, and another about the people — like Casey Serin — who are so desperate to get rich now that they lose touch with reality.

Midway through the article we meet Tracie Taylor, who is leading Millionaire U, a three-day real estate training course for "advanced" students. Most of the students don't actually know much about real estate, so Taylor is giving them the basics. She's also touting goals, positive thinking, and visualization (all excellent tools when used correctly).