Money Tips Network

It's February, and in many parts of the country the weather is miserable. There's snow, ice, sleet, slick roads, and backed-up traffic for miles. It's not exactly ideal conditions to hunt for bargains. But if you know you need one of the items on the list below, you could get a real steal if you weather the storm. (See also: 50+ Life Hacks to Win at Winter)

What to Buy

February is the shortest month of the year. It also brings some memorable events, including Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day, Black History Month, President's Day, and the long awaited Winter Olympics, which open on the 7th. Let's take a look at the deals you can get.

Whenever I push myself into a strict diet or a strict exercise regime or a strict set of personal finance rules, I find that I thrive in the short term.

For the first week or so, I’ll hit every benchmark I have within those strict rules. I’ll exercise. I’ll eat incredibly well. I’ll avoid spending an unnecessary dime.

Then, at some point, I fail. Usually, it’s out of thoughtlessness – I just backslide into a bad routine for a moment. I’ll eat something way outside the bounds of what I should be eating. I’ll tell myself I’m going to exercise later today – then I’ll get distracted by playing with the kids. I’ll buy something small on a whim.

Soon after, I’ll realize that failure, and I’ll beat myself up over it. I’ll think really negative thoughts about how I’m hopeless for a little while, then I’ll resolve to get everything back on track. I’ll have a few more days of success, then I’ll fail again.

What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to five word summaries. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. Renting or buying musical instruments
2. Inflation and mortgage length
3. Why so much to retire?
4. Disabled daughter worries
5. Parents moving in
6. Paranoid
7. Saving for child’s college
8. Free toothbrushes?
9. Amazon Prime problems

This article is by staff writer Honey Smith.

Since I have over $92,000 in student loan debt myself at last count, perhaps I’m just finely attuned to news coverage on this issue. However, my very unscientific observation is that there have been quite a few articles on student loan debt in the news lately, particularly graduate school and Ph.D. debt. And I think that devoting more attention to this issue is definitely a good thing.

What’s the big deal, anyway? #PhDdebt

A sleep-deprived, bleary-eyed look is practically a rite of passage for most new parents. I knew I wouldn’t get much sleep for the first few months, so I planned for it. I finished all my assignments ahead of schedule, and arranged for help with household chores. I was prepared for my sleepless nights — at least I thought I was. One thing I forgot to consider was how much it would affect my finances. Now that my baby is three months old, I am getting much more sleep. I was doing our usual year-end review when I saw in numbers how much our sleep deprivation has cost us and how much of a positive influence a good night’s sleep can have on finances.

How can sleep affect your personal finances?

Right now, I have a collection of sports cards and other trading cards that is easily valued at $10,000 – and, depending on how sales went, it could add up to as much as $20,000. In fact, if I had not sold off a large number of my cards when we were first in financial trouble, my collection would be worth $30,000 to $40,000.

Over the years, I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to buying and investing in collectibles. Here’s a summary of what I’ve learned that’s worked well for me in the past.

Invest only in collectibles for which you know the market well. Let’s say you walk into a store or a booth that deals in the kinds of collectibles you’re interested in investing in. If that dealer removed the prices from everything they were selling, could you come close to naming the price for most of what was on offer there? If you can’t do that, you shouldn’t be investing in the collectibles over the long term.

When Sarah and I were reassessing our finances, we looked around for as many tips as possible on how to save money. One of the best resources we discovered was The Complete Tightwad Gazette.

One of the best suggestions that we found in the book was to use a logical system to determine where the best prices were on the grocery items that you commonly buy. Dacyczyn’s process for doing this was to create a listing of those goods along with columns that indicated the price of those goods at local grocers. She called this a price book, and it wasn’t long before Sarah and I implemented a price book ourselves.

Kristin Wong

Sun nin fai lok!  On Friday, China rang in the New Year. It’s officially the Year of the Horse. Across many cultures, a new year represents the possibility of building wealth, health and prosperity. While the Western world makes New Year’s resolutions, Eastern tradition is focused on what most Westerners would call, well, crazy superstition. [...]

5 Chinese New Year traditions for attracting wealth from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

This blog was posted by Kristin Wong

Naked With Cash is an ongoing series at Consumerism Commentary in which readers share their households’ finances with other readers. These participants benefit from the accountability that comes from tracking their finances publicly and the feedback of the four expert Certified Financial Planners (CFPs).

For more information, read this introduction.