Money Tips Network

What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to summaries of five or fewer words. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. 401(k) is a scam?
2. Obsession, then nothing
3. DON’T buy the cheapest?
4. Getting mortgage after identity theft
5. Fighting against promotion
6. Buying a good vacuum
7. Actual cost of morning coffee
8. Giving away books versus selling

I haven't gone full-bore into paying with my phone, but I did use Pay with Ibotta on a recent trip to Olive Garden. I'll share what I did wrong so you're not stressed out the same way I was …

Apps that allow you to pay with your smartphone have matured. Think Venmo, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and more.

I'm a bit behind the curve when it comes to mobile phone payments. (I understand that checks are fuddy-duddy now and that cash has its limits, too, but … credit cards? Are those on the way out, too?)

I do use some apps to save money. Ibotta is one of them.

Ibotta recently introduced a feature called Pay with Ibotta. It allows you to … pay with the Ibotta app, and get cashback for doing it.

How Pay with Ibotta works

Setting up Pay with Ibotta was straightforward.

James writes in:

Do you have any opinions on people leveraging their retirement savings in their 20s and early 30s? You use your retirement savings to buy lots of stocks and other investments on margin, moving all of the risk to the early part of your career. Read a book about it and wanted to know what you think.

I’m not sure which book James read, but there’s a decent chance that it’s Lifecycle Investing by Ian Ayres and Barry Nalebuff, which was a hugely popular investment book several years ago and more or less recommends this exact strategy.

If you’re a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient, also known as a DREAMer, you might face some unique financial barriers. Getting approved for a personal loan, buying a home, or paying for college can be trickier when banks and lenders don’t classify you as a permanent resident. But DREAMers still have plenty of options if you know where to look and what to ask. Here are the six most common financial issues DREAMers are likely to face, along with tips and resources that can help.

Sarah and I have been longtime members of Sam’s Club, the only warehouse club within reasonable distance of our home. Since our membership renewal last September, I’ve been keeping careful track of how much money the membership has actually saved us with a pocket notebook devoted to this purpose that I keep in our van, and here are the results, broken down by category. Note that an annual membership at Sam’s Club is $45.

Please note that this only includes things where I could actually verify the savings. It does not include a number of additional purchases where I instinctually was very confident about savings, but could not immediately verify it, and it does not include any purchases Sarah made separately at the club near her workplace.

Hobbies are an important part of a well-rounded life. They can help us learn new skills, meet new people, and relieve some of the day-to-day stress.

What are your hobbies? How has your life improved since picking up these hobbies?

Find the Best Life Insurance

Enter your ZIP code below and be sure to click at least 2-3 companies to find the very best rate.

In last week’s Dozen Pieces of Inspiration, I made a reference to the website Five Books, where people in various fields recommend five books related to that field.

Since then, I’ve been tossing around that very idea in my head over and over again. If I were to recommend five books in an appropriate category for The Simple Dollar, probably “Financial and Life Improvement,” what five books would they be?

One book was very easy to pick. Two others came pretty quickly on their heels. With the two other slots… I had to struggle a little bit, but I think I came around to some wonderful choices.

So, without further ado, here are the five books I would choose if I were to select “five books for financial and life improvement.”

Monica writes in (with a bit of editing and a link added so you can jump straight to the article she’s mentioning):

I’m in the “boring middle” that you wrote about the other day. Been trying to articulate what I’m struggling with and I think it’s that I don’t see any progress. It’s just a day in and day out grind toward my goal of retiring early. My life isn’t really getting better in any tangible way that I can point at, as having 5 years of living expenses socked away is much the same as having 10 years of it. It’s that endless repetition without visible change in my life that is wearing me down.