This routine takes about three minutes. Most nights, I estimate that my actions during that routine save me about three dollars or so, all told. That’s $ 60 take home per hour of effort if you want to think of it in terms of wages. It’s a pretty sweet deal.

What does that routine encompass?

I check each faucet and showerhead to make sure it’s not dripping. This involves sticking my head into each bathroom and listening for a second for the sound of dripping or running water. If I hear it, I turn off whatever is dripping.

A faucet that drips one drop of water per second will waste two gallons of water overnight. Not only that, the continual dripping of the water is a noise in the house that can easily disturb sleep. Yes, it’s not a huge savings, but with the minimal effort required, it’s well worth turning the tap off.

I flip all switches that have electrical devices wired to them. For example, all of our entertainment center (save the DVR) is set to a single switch. Flipping that switch means that none of the devices are eating standby power, which is an energy savings.

If I have six devices hooked up to a single switch and each device eats twenty watts in standby mode, I save about ten cents during the overnight period by flipping that switch. Wouldn’t you happily take a dime in exchange for flipping a switch as you exited a room, particularly if it were a dime that magically just appeared in your checking account?

I turn off all lights. Yep, this is an obvious one, but it’s a vital one. Lights left on but unused are nothing but a financial drain; flipping them off when you’re leaving the room (especially when you’re leaving the room for many hours) is well worth it.

Every sixty watt light bulb that you turn off for an eight hour overnight period saves you about five cents in energy costs. So, if I’m standing in the kitchen and I go back to the laundry room, where there happens to be four light bulbs, and make sure the light is turned off, the savings is about twenty cents for about ten seconds of effort. That’s about $ 72 per hour in after tax money.

I check the thermostat and adjust the temperature if needed. Yes, we now have a programmable thermostat, but this became such a part of my routine that I still do it in the evenings. I make sure that in the winter, the thermostat is quite low. In the summer, I usually turn it up and make sure that the air conditioning is turned off.

Remember, when an electric furnace kicks on, it’s using somewhere around 15 to 20 thousand watts in a typical American home. That means for every hour that a furnace is running, it eats between $ 1.50 and $ 2. If your furnace kicks on every fifteen minutes and runs for fifteen minutes on a cool night, it’s running for four hours during an overnight period. If you can lower the temperature, you’ll not only give your furnace a period of not running, you’ll also reduce the frequency with which it needs to run. Then, the next day, when it’s warmer outside and there’s less temperature differential, the furnace won’t have to run as much to bring your home back up to the temperature you want. My estimates were that by lowering the thermostat five degrees Fahrenheit on a cold night, we were saving about $ 2 for the night and it didn’t make a whole lot of difference to us as we were cuddled under warm blankets.

I shut down my PC. The only service that might be useful to have on overnight is Skype and, to be frank, I don’t want to receive business-related calls in the middle of the night.

Shutting down the PC is just a pure energy saver. I have everything in my office hooked up to a “master-slave” power strip, which means that when the PC shuts down, everything else loses power, too. No phantom energy to my printer, my monitor, my speakers or anything else like that. Over a typical overnight period, this saves about thirty cents in energy, according to my math.

Yes, it does mean that I have to wait for it to boot up the next time I want to use it. But, as before, it’s on a power supply with the master controlling everything else. I just hit the button to power on the PC, then go downstairs with the kids. Then, when my work routine starts, everything is ready to go.

All of this takes about three minutes as I’m going to bed. It saves about three dollars. This means, over the course of a month, my bedtime routine takes about an hour, all told, and it results in about $ 60 in post-tax savings.

If $ 60 post-tax isn’t worth wandering through your house a few times, you’re a far richer man than I am.

It seems that each decade brings new and innovative ways to manage your money. In the 1990s, you could use simple PC-based software to track basic income and expenses. These later evolved into reporting and analyzing powerhouses. In the 2000s, connectivity with the internet made PC-based software easy to synchronize with bank and investment websites and provided access to detailed account information right at home.

With the arrival of the 2010s, the next phase is to manage the information that already resides out on the internet, through web-based software that will provide data security, keep the records protected against loss, and allow the user access their information from virtually anywhere. Here’s a list of ten of the best web-based solutions for managing your money.

10. ClearCheckbook

Emphasis: Balancing your checkbook
Price: FREE!
Description: ClearCheckbook provides analysis tools for evaluating and tracking your expenditures. Your bank data is imported and you can then analyze expenses by category and closely monitor your balance to avoid overdrafts. Uncleared and cleared balances are provided with alerts that can be set to any dollar amount.

9. Billeo

Emphasis: Online shopping assistant
Price: FREE!
Description: Billeo is an easy-to-use toolbar application that tracks and records all online passwords, fill out forms, and stores the receipts by date, company, or category for easy retrieval. You can also use Billeo to manage your bill payments, or even to track online offers to maximize the savings realized online.

8. MorningStar

Emphasis: Virtual portfolio tracking
Price: $ 18.95/month (or free)
Description: MorningStar offers a bunch of excellent premium content to paid subscribers. They also have a great portfolio tracker tool for the investor who sits at a computer all day. Quick glances at your portfolio will alert you to buying and selling opportunities.

Note from Nickel: Google Finance also offers a nice portfolio tracker, and it’s also free. I’m also not a fan of tracking my portfolio on a minute-by-minute basis, but… To each their own. Personally, I use the Vanguard portfolio tracker for a “big picture” view of our investments.

7. Buxfer

Emphasis: Tracking shared expenses
Price: FREE!
Description: Buxfer is great for people who share expenses with roommates. Instead of guessing at fair portions of bills and tracking things in your head, the software does the math and tracks who has paid for each of their expenses.

6. HelloWallet

Emphasis: Online financial management
Price: $ 8.95/month
Description: HelloWallet is a unique service in that, for every five users who sign up, an account is offered to a person who cannot afford this service. The site offers all the money management functionality necessary to manage and budget and monitor financial investments.

5. Mvelopes

Emphasis: Virtual envelope budgeting
Price: $ 129.60/year (equivalent to $ 10.80/month)
Description: Mvelopes is a virtual envelope-budgeting tool. When the bills must be paid, the dollar amount in each envelope is applied to the bill electronically. In other, budgeting and bill payment are combined into one handy tool. You can also track discretionary spending in a dedicated envelope.

4. Thrive

Emphasis: Achieve financial goals
Price: FREE!
Description: Thrive provides detailed information to bring spending in line with goals. You set your own goals and the software tracks your actual expenditures against the goals in each category and sends alerts for any anomalies. Thrive can also provides guidance for things like raising your credit score.

3. Moneystrands

Emphasis: Manage cash flow and avoid surprises
Price: FREE!
Description: Moneystrands allows you to create a budget from the ground up, and then it monitors your performance. Alerts are provided automatically when the bank balance drops below a certain level. When bills must be paid, the user is alerted to the tasks that must be completed. They also have an iPhone app.

2. GreenSherpa

Emphasis: Customizable financial dashboard
Price: FREE!
Description: GreenSherpa allows your to pull together all of your personal financial accounts in one place. With an easy-to-view dashboard that analyzes all the information from various sources, you can see a snapshot of your overall financial picture with just a glance.

1. Mint

Emphasis: Complete financial management
Price: FREE!
Description: Mint can track virtually any financial activity. You can create a budget, track monthly expenses, evaluate investment performance, etc. This is by far the most well-known of all the web-based software packages. It’s so good, in fact, that Intuit bought it as a replacement for their own “Quicken Online.”

Do you track your finances online?

Even with the horror stories of website breaches and identity theft, my view is that the benefits of online personal financial management software far outweigh the risks. These services all work hard to protect your information, and some even allow anonymous signups. If you’re not already managing your money online, my advice is to test out a few of these sites and see if they meet your needs.

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» Money Management Made Easy
» SmartMoney’s Best and Worst Brokers
» The Worst 529 Plans – 2009 Edition
» Why Don’t Young People Care About Finances?
» The Three Best 529 Plans
» Should You Skip Your Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) in 2009?
» Weekly Roundup – National Save for Retirement Week Edition
» Online Cost-of-Living Calculators

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If you pay for the care of a dependent, then you may be able to save several thousand dollars a year via a dependent care flexible spending account (FSA) or the Child and Dependent Care Credit. Here is a quick guide to how you can maximize your savings:

Eligible Expenses

The expenses you can claim are usually the same for dependent care FSAs and the Child and Dependent Credit: the amount you pay to someone other than your spouse for the care of a child or dependent. If you are claiming expenses for the care of a child, the child must be under 13 years old. If you are not claiming a child, then the person you are caring for must qualify as an exemption on your tax return. Basically, your dependent must be unable to take care of himself or herself and have lived with you for at least half of the tax year. The expenses incurred also must be due to the need to work. You should keep detailed receipts of who provided the care and their tax identification numbers in order to back up the claim for your expenses. (See also: Tips for Choosing and Using a Babysitter)

The Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account

The dependent care flexible spending account is a common benefit at workplaces. It has a contribution limit of $ 5,000 per family, but the contribution is pre-tax, so you get to keep more of your wages. The money is taken out of your paychecks, and you can claim a reimbursement with a valid receipt from a caretaker or preschool. Because the FSA contribution is exempt from federal income tax, payroll taxes, and most state taxes, the maximum amount that families can save with a dependent care flexible spending account varies by their residence and tax brackets. For example, if you were a Californian with a 15% federal income tax, 9.55% state income tax, and a 7.65% payroll tax for a total tax burden of 32.2% and you contributed and spent the full $ 5,000, it works out to be a savings of about $ 1,610.

The Child and Dependent Care Credit

The Child and Dependent Care Credit allows a 20% to 35% credit for up to $ 3,000 of expenses for one dependent. The percentage of credit varies by the income of the tax filer. If your family makes over $ 43,000 a year, then the credit would be 20% of the expenses you incurred. If you have more than one dependent, you can claim up to $ 6,000 of expenses. However, you need to subtract the amount you contributed to a dependent care FSA from the amount you claim. So if you already had $ 5,000 in your FSA and you had more than $ 6,000 of eligible expenses, you can only claim $ 1,000 in expenses for the purpose of the tax credit. This means that the maximum credit is $ 600 to $ 1,050 if you have one dependent and $ 1,200 to $ 2,100 if you have two or more dependents. The percentage of credit varies by the income of the tax filer. Currently the 35% credit is available to families making less than $ 15,000 a year, and then it gradually decreases to 20% for families making more than $ 43,000 a year. Since the median household income of the United States is around $ 46,000, most families will receive a 20% credit. The full details are in IRS Publication 503 (PDF).

How to Maximize Your Savings

What is the best choice for your family? Let's assume that you are in a family with the median household income of $ 46,000. Here are some possible scenarios:

Scenario 1: One Dependent 

If you have one dependent and spend at least $ 5,000 a year, then contributing to the FSA is definitely more advantageous. This is because the tax credit you would receive is only $ 600, but the amount you save via the FSA is at least $ 1,132.50 due to a federal income tax savings of 15% and a payroll tax savings of 7.65%. If you have a state tax that's waived on the contribution, then you would save more.

Scenario 2: Two or More Dependents

If you have two or more dependents and spend at least $ 6,000, then you should still contribute $ 5,000 to the FSA and claim $ 1,000 in expenses for the tax credit. This will yield an additional savings of $ 200 over the first scenario.

Scenario 3: No FSA Available

If your workplace doesn't offer the FSA, then you should take the full tax credit available to you. This is a tax credit that is often overlooked.

My conclusion is that for most families, it is best to contribute to the FSA first for your dependent care expenses. The percentage of taxes saved is usually higher than what the tax credit would give, but the tax credit does give a boost in savings to low-income families and families that spend above the FSA contribution limit. Either way, if you currently have dependent care expenses, you should definitely run the numbers and see how much you can save.

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MSN Money says that couples fight a lot about money (FYI, they fight about money twice as much as they fight about sex) and lists six marriage-killing money issues as follows:

1. Debt
2. Personality conflicts
3. Power plays
4. Sorting out mine, yours and ours
5. Having children
6. Dealing with the in-laws

Here are some thoughts on these:

1. Yes, debt is a killer in many ways. That's why it's on my list as one of the worst financial moves anyone can make. I had a bit of debt when we got married (I don't think my wife has ever had much debt), but we paid it off and haven't looked back since. We agreed we wanted to be debt free and even paid off our mortgage over a decade ago. So there's been no debt to fight over for years and years.

2. I think there are always personality conflicts, so there are bound to be disagreements. Ours come mostly in the area of giving and savings (my wife wants to give more and save less, I want to save more and give less.) I think we already do well with our giving (25% to 35% of our income depending on the year) while she thinks we're saving too much (more than we really need.) So we reach a middle ground that neither one is happy with 100% but that we can both live with.

3. No power plays for us. We view all income, assets, expenses, etc. as "ours" not "mine" or "hers". There's no way to do a power play in that environment.

4. As noted above, there is no "yours" or "mine" -- everything is "ours." We have had personal accounts for much of our marriage though. With these we each can spend a pre-determined amount over a year (for things we want for ourselves) without input/advice from the other. These days we have enough control over both our spending and our desires that even personal accounts are not needed.

5. Don't you talk about whether you want kids (and how many) before you get married? If not, yikes!!!!

6. My wife's mom died before we met and her dad passed away several years ago. On my side, none of the parents have needed (or asked for) any sort of money. We have helped out family members here and there, but we've always discussed it in advance and decided together who gets how much, when they get it, etc.

How about you? Are any of these (or something else) issues in your marriage?

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Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips roundup! Today, we give you tips for living with less stuff, the things every frugal household should have, and the best time to ask for a raise.

Top 5 Articles

6 Easy Tips for Living with 100 Items or Less — Keep something only if you can find multiple ways to use it. There isn't much else you can do with a garlic press, but a coffee table can be a desk or a dining table in a jiffy. Stepcase Lifehack

10 Must-Have Items in a Frugal Household — Epsom salts is wonderful for the body in a bathtub. It's also a garden fertilizer and a laxative! Keeping the Kingdom First

The Best Months to Ask for a Raise — It turns out that most raises are handed out in January, June, and July — so the best time to ask is the weeks before those months. CNBC

Financial Documents: Keep, Scan or Shred? — Scan the receipts for any big ticket purchases, such as TVs, jewelry, or other expensive items. If something happens and you file an insurance claim, you'll need the information on the receipts. Bargaineering

Five uses for kitchen roll inners — Straighten out that tangle of Christmas lights by wrapping them around a paper towel tube. Secure the ends with a bobby pin and you're all set! Miss Thrifty

Other Essential Reading

8 Fresh Ways to Recycle Electronics — If you're not sure where to start, the EPA has a list of electronics recycling programs for every state. FreeShipping.org

How to Study Effectively (Not Just for Students!) — Don't just read the textbook or your notes — engage with the material in some practical, hands-on way that forces you to use what you've learned. Dumb Little Man

Homemade Crock Pot Pear Sauce (or Applesauce) — Easy and delicious. Need I say more? Money Saving Mom

The Virtual Credit Card, and the Bank of Dad — Read about how Len Penzo teaches his son about financial responsibility with a virtual credit card, issued through the Bank of Dad. Len Penzo via Currency

For Restaurant Deals, Tap Your Phone Screen: 7 Apps for Frugal Foodies — You can earn points on Scvngr by checking in or taking pictures when you visit a location, or by doing challenges that the retailer sets up. Redeem the points for discounts! MintLife

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“Can we go to the store today, Daddy?” my five-year-old son Braden asked recently. If you have young children, you’ve undoubtedly been asked this question in some form many times. With a bit of trepidation, I asked Braden what was on his mind.

“I hadn’t planned to go to the store,” I said. “Why? Is there something we need?”

With the sincerity that only a small child can muster, Braden said, “We really need to get a new Super Hero Squad toy. We’re missing Captain America, and we can’ t play without him. Let’s go buy him.”

Ah, yes. This missing action figure was a true emergency in his eyes. However, as a father of three, I knew the default response that I had to throw back: “Braden, you’ve already had your birthday, Christmas just passed, and you don’t have any money to spend on a new toy.”

“I know Daddy,” Braden said. “But you have money that you can give me to buy it.”

Uh-oh!

It’s Time for a Money Lesson
I told Braden I needed to talk to his Mom about how we can help him learn about money and give him the chance to earn cash so that he can buy the things he “needs.” After a short discussion with my wife, we decided it was time to implement a plan that we’d kicked around several times over the years.

It was time for an allowance a money management system for Braden — and eventually our two younger children.

We prefer not to simply give Braden money at regular intervals with no responsibility on his part. For this reason, we decided that an “allowance” wasn’t really what we were talking about here. That’s probably the way most parents refer to the money they give to their kids, but we wanted to use this opportunity for a teachable moment. We wanted to show that money isn’t simply given to someone because they exist.

Our Money Management Plan for a Five-Year-Old
Instead, we developed a simple, easy-to-understand board with household tasks that a five-year-old could complete with a bit of effort. When Braden completes his tasks without undue pestering, he gets money in return for his hard work.

These aren’t sweatshop duties, though; they’re simple chores, such as feeding and watering our family cat, setting the table at dinnertime, cleaning up his toys, and other similar tasks. There are certain “activities” that come along with being part of our family (like behaving well and brushing his teeth), and those must be done with no financial incentive at all.

Braden gets paid for doing extra, quality work independently. If the tasks aren’t completed, then he doesn’t get paid for those items. It’s a simple cause-and-effect system that he fully understands. Work and get paid. Don’t work and don’t get paid.

At this point, we’ve settled on a total possible compensation of $ 5 per week. We plan to increase this by $ 1 each year to match his age and increased responsibilities and needs.

Teaching About the Uses of Money
While understanding the role of work is important, we’re most enthused about the ability to teach Braden about the value and use of money through this system. We taught him that money can essentially be used in one of four ways:

• Give it
• Spend it
• Save it
• Invest it

While the specific breakdowns will likely vary a bit as he matures, we agreed that he will split each dollar up as follows:

• Give 10%
• Spend 60% (or he can opt to save this in his short-term “account” for larger purchases)
• Save 10% short-term
• Invest 20% for long-term needs such as a car (hey, it’s only eleven years away!)

Again, we certainly expect to deviate from these percentages from time-to-time, and we’ll still be giving him gifts, but these are the general guidelines that we’ll follow to help Braden manage his money. The best part of this system so far is that he’s really excited to handle his money like a “grown up” and just to have money to handle.

For the most part, this system has been easy to implement. Braden can give money weekly at our church and, of course, spending is no problem for him. We decided to put his short-term cash savings in an envelope that we’ll keep for safeguarding, so the third use of money was taken care of easily.

However, how should a five-year-old invest money and learn the lessons that come along with it?

While I’m eager to teach him about investing in mutual funds, bonds, and real estate as he gets older, we decided that for now his long-term savings should be kept in a high-interest online savings account (actually a sub-account to our existing online savings).

It will be great to eventually show him the power of compound interest, but for now we’ll forgo lessons on exponential growth and first stick to the concept of addition through regular deposits. Braden can see his progress in action by simply logging into his account occasionally to see his “investments” growing with time. Plus, he’ll even witness small interest deposits from time-to-time as a reward for his good habits.

The Big Day and Beyond
At this point, we’re only a week into using the new money plan, and after each task he completes, Braden is fond of asking, “Do I have enough money to buy Captain America yet?”

Of course, with his current compensation levels, he’ll need around two more weeks of pay before he’ll have enough to purchase the toy he wants so badly. It’ll be great to watch him hand over his small stack of dollar bills to the cashier and then leave the store with a well-earned action figure.

I suspect the idea of buying Super Hero Squad characters may lose some of its luster when he fully comprehends it takes three weeks of “work” to buy each one. Then again some people are a bit fanatical about their favorite comic book characters.

My wife and I are really excited to teach Braden valuable money management skills at such a formative age. At this point, we plan to do the same with his two younger sisters, and it seems like age five is a good time to implement this system.

The idea of working diligently, budgeting and saving up cash for purchases isn’t always common in our culture, but we are happy to instill these values in our children in the hopes that they’ll avoid repeating our debt-laden financial story. We’re grateful that Captain America and his fellow “squaddies” could help us teach vital money management skills to our son on a level that he can appreciate. Hero Up!

I’d love to hear from my fellow GRS readers on this important issue. What are some effective ways that you’ve taught money management lessons to your small children?

Photo by DuckBrown, who has some cute cat photos, including this one.

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Related Articles at Get Rich Slowly - Personal Finance That Makes Sense.:

• A Six-Year-Old with a Credit Card
• How Do You Teach Kids the Value of Money?
• The New Thrift and Seduction By Debt
• On Meeting and Resisting Temptation
• Daily Links: Too Many Good Articles Edition

(An aside: every time I mention that Sarah returned to work, someone pipes in that she “had” to and that she is “supporting” me in being able to do The Simple Dollar. The actual truth of the matter is that during her sabbatical, my work was providing the only income source for our family and my work was also paying for health insurance for us all out of pocket. Not only that, such an arrangement would have been sustainable for at least a few years, so she had the option to just walk away from her job and be a stay-at-home mom for as long as she wanted. She wanted to return to work because she loves her work very much – it brings her a deep level of fulfillment. It was her choice to return and I left that choice entirely up to her. Money is secondary to personal fulfillment here because of our commitment to sound financial principles.)

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been studying my professional and our financial situation very carefully, looking for ways to make things more efficient. So far, a few things have really stood out and proved to be quite useful, so I thought I’d share them with you.

The bedside notebook
Having a bedside notebook is transformative. So often, a great idea for saving money or for a Simple Dollar article will pop into my head as I lay there going to sleep or when I’m up in the middle of the night consoling a child after a bad dream.

Usually, when I’m in a tired stupor, I would just tell myself to remember the idea in the morning and then go back to sleep because the effort to go somewhere to jot down the idea seemed overwhelming.

However, if you know there’s a notebook beside your bed, it becomes much easier to just roll over, jot down enough of the idea so that you’ll actually remember, then fall asleep. It doesn’t take much at all to just shift in bed a bit, write down that thing that’s in your head, and then drift off.

The amazing thing is that those ideas I’ve written down usually turn out to be great. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it’s because my conscious mind usually gets in the way of great subconscious ideas when I’m more awake.

Inbox zero
If you have so many emails in your inbox that you’ll just never get to them, trash them all and start from scratch, then focus on keeping your inbox at zero. Otherwise, you’ll never catch up and it’ll become easy to just let yourself get further behind on your email.

Often, I’ll “inbox zero” after a trip. I’ll go very quickly through the thousands (yes, I do mean thousands) of emails built up during the week I’m gone, pick out the ones that seem important very quickly, then archive the rest. My belief is that if it’s truly important, someone will email me again about it.

Because of this, I’m not loaded down with a sense of “too much to do” when I check my email. I just blow through what’s in my inbox and move on with life instead of staring at the mountain, feeling guilty, and avoiding it.

Automate every possible bill
In the past, I’ve automated the bills that I knew were going to have the same balance every month, like my mortgage. You may have several of these: your car payment, your student loan payment, and so on.

The irregular bills were still handled manually, and framkly, they took time. I would log onto online banking at least once a week just to pay the bills.

Recently, I moved to a much simpler system. I started carrying a large buffer in my checking account and simply automated all of the rest of my bills. Now, I just check my online banking once a week simply to keep an eye on the balance and on the transactions. It’s much easier and less fraught with worry that I’m forgetting some bill because it got misplaced.

An energetic morning routine
A good night’s sleep. Breakfast. Kid time. Exercise. Shower. Every morning, like clockwork.

If I follow that routine each morning, I almost always feel quite energetic starting my day, giving me a big burst at the start of the day that often carries through most of the tasks I need to complete.

Breakfast is a key part of this. I’ve got to have some fruit and some sort of protein. I usually eat a piece of fruit and some sort of bean-based or tofu-based item, like a burrito.

Block tempting websites
I literally block tempting websites during the day, only unblocking them during a lunch break or some other sort of break. This strongly encourages a “tunnel vision” of sorts, making me bear down when it comes to work.

Similarly, I keep certain commercial websites constantly blocked so I’m never tempted to go look at a “daily deal” or search for “bargains.” If I can never get there to look, how can I buy anything I really don’t need?

How do I do this? This webpage clearly explains the steps you need to take to block websites on your computer. You don’t need any additional software if you’re running a Windows machine, and there’s a similar procedure for Macs and Linux computers.

Here we go with the first round of Free Money Finance March Money Madness (to follow all the action click on my March Money Madness category link and scroll down to read all the posts involved in this subject.)

I've listed each "game" (one post versus another) in segments along with the wording provided by the author when the post was submitted. I've also listed a keyword after each post title to make it easy to vote (as a made-up example, you can just comment: Game 1: Saving; Game 2: Investing, etc.) Be sure to comment which one you like the best out of each set of two -- you will help determine the winner! Criteria for the best article is somewhat subjective, but you can use these factors as a guide: 1) practicality of the post 2) how interesting/provocative/unique it is, 3) the "personal-ness" of it and 4) its impact on net worth.

Here are today's games:

GAME 11

• Children: The Anti-retirement Plan (Plan) - This post is great because it is true! If we didn't have kids, I sure that we would be more excited about putting money away in a Roth, which gives us benefits, than in a 529. Man is naturally selfish.

VERSUS

• Black Swan Investing – Making a Fortune off Rare Events (Swan) - Black Swan Investing is the notion of profiting handsomely from the unexpected.  Rare events can yield huge payoffs.  See what Black Swan Investing is all about and whether it's worth dedicating a small portion of your portfolio to speculating for spectacular gains.

GAME 12

• Should You Have A Larger Emergency Fund Given the Current Economy?  3 Questions to Ask Yourself (Ask) - Emergency funds are not one size fit all and the size of your Emergency Fund is not a static number.  It is important to look at your own situation from time to time and make sure your current emergency fund still fits your life style.  With the unemployment rate at 9.8%, here are some questions to help you think about whether you should increase the size of your emergency fund.  Ask yourself these questions on a regular basis and you'll feel more financially secure.

VERSUS

• How I Make Money Blogging (Blogging) - I enjoy blogging more than anything else I’ve ever done as a hobby or job in my life.  My online community is one of the first things I look forward to in the morning and blogging is the last thing I do almost every night.  This post covers how I've made nearly $ 6000 between February and December 2010 doing what I love.  Check out how I turned a hobby into a sixth of my actual income in less than a year!

Lending money to friends and family is a generous act — one that could easily backfire and even ruin your relationship. Most of the time when someone is considering a loan to a family member, I think, “Don’t do it.” But when it’s someone you care about, logic only plays one role in the decision-making process.

Not too long ago I was in this situation. (I want to share it, but obviously I also want to be sensitive about revealing personal information, so I’m changing names and other minor details.)

I’ve been friends with Megan for almost 10 years. In that time, she’s never had much money, but she also never asked for so much as $ 5. Last year, she and her boyfriend rented an apartment. A month later, he lost his job, and she had to go on medical leave. He couldn’t find another job, and she had tried to return to work but her doctor wouldn’t sign the medical release (it was still too early). To complicate things, they had a child. I knew my friend, and I knew she was only asking for help because of her child. They were behind on rent, and although she had just started back at work, she wouldn’t see a paycheck for another two weeks.

I don’t believe in loaning money most of the time. It’s not that I don’t want to help make things better, I just think that in most situations it’s a temporary fix. If someone can’t make a house payment this month, what’s going to change next month? In many cases, money troubles are a sign of ongoing issues and habits. Also, it can strain your relationship. If your brother owes you $ 1,000, and he buys a Harley motorcycle, you can’t help but wonder where he came up with the cash when he hasn’t even paid you back. Then things get icky.

The right way to lend money to friends
I ended up giving my friend the money. I felt that this was a situation where she just plain fell on some hard times. The job situation couldn’t have been predicted. They thought they had two incomes to cover a very modest apartment. She was unable to work, and now that she could, she had to wait for a paycheck.

But I was careful about how I did it, both to protect my interests and our friendship.

Here’s what I did:

1. I talked it over with my husband. He and I had a conversation before I gave my friend an answer. It was good to know we were on the same page.
2. I expected to not be repaid, and only loaned as much as I was willing to lose. My husband and I agreed that we would view the money as a gift, not a loan. If she paid us back, fine. If not, fine. I made it clear that we weren’t expecting repayment.
3. I helped find a solution to the situation. If possible (and only if they’re okay with it), help your friend in other ways. In my case, I knew someone who could give my friend’s boyfriend a job.

I’ve read several articles that advise drawing up a contract when lending money to friends or family. While it seems like a good idea, what will you really be able (and willing) to do to enforce it? If your friend or relative doesn’t feel a responsibility to pay you back, a piece of paper isn’t likely to change that.

Not always a happy ending
Unfortunately, my friend continued to have money problems, and eventually she was evicted. Her boyfriend was fired from the job after a few weeks. While I feel for her, that’s the extent of how much I can help her — at least financially. I don’t regret our decision to help out, and though the money is gone, our friendship has remained intact, which was my primary concern when she asked for help.

Have you loaned money to family or friends? How did you do it? What went right? What went wrong? Do you have any advice for others in this situation? (Or, if you’ve borrowed money from friends or family, what can you tell us from that side of the fence?)

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Do you remember the following words, “For richer or poorer…”?

Many marriages in North America are plagued by an overwhelming debt burden. Thus, it is not surprising that money fights are often cited as a leading cause of divorce. Moreover, many couples who are trying to get out of debt struggle with how to openly communicate about their money.

Debt initially brings one positive element into our life, but two negative realities also sneak in the door.

The good thing we get from debt is ownership of something before we can really afford it. That might be a house, car, TV, anything.

But, the two negatives that sneak in the door are stress and obligation.

Where there is more stress, you are sure to find more disagreement. When there are more bills than dollars, conversations between a wife and husband can become strained. Each typically evaluates the spending habits of the other and deems their expenses frivolous. The reason couples fight like this is because they have so many financial obligations that they judge the validity of very expense.

He’ll say, “Do you really need another manicure?”

She’ll say, “Why can’t you just take a lunch instead of buying one?”

Unfortunately, husband and wife don’t always recognize the problem at the same time, and one will be working in one direction while the other will continue accumulating debt. There are many ways to improve your marriage and money relationship. But it starts by addressing the situation in a healthy way.

How should you properly address money disagreements in marriage?

1. When you initially approach the subject, do so from a non-confrontational perspective where you emphasize dreams, not failures.

Ask, “Are you still thinking of sending our kids to private school in a few years?” As you address the future goals and dreams, you’ll then be able to backtrack and point out where today’s reality is a barrier to those dreams.

Say, “Yeah, me too. I’m just afraid that we won’t be able to afford private school unless we get rid of some of our debt.”

2. Avoid trigger words that result in arguments.

She says, “We’re in this problem because you always take a lunch to work because you’re too lazy to make anything before you go.”

He says, “Why are you always so obsessed with money? Why are you the budget czar? It’s because of all your nerdy math work that we never have any fun.”

There is one good thing in the first phrase. It’s the fact that she used the word “we”. Ultimately, both husband and wife need to be a team through the process. Remember, for richer and poorer? Yes, even if one spouse is 95% to blame, it is still the couple’s issue, so using “we” is a very good idea.

Areas of concern:

Use of the word “you” – Humans have a natural self defense mechanism. If you start to fall, you’ll probably put your hands down to brace your fall. If someone criticizes you or points out your flaws, you’ll want to fight back. For that reason, avoid “you” statements.

Use of the word “always” – Always is always a bad word when you’re talking to your spouse. This over-exaggeration will probably encourage your spouse to find exceptions to the rule rather than focus on solving the real problem.

Use of the word “because” – Before interpreting actions on behalf of people, it is best to listen to their own explanation. Instead, ask, “Why don’t you take your own lunch?” Through that question, you may find a simple solution.

3.  Choose the right setting.

If you have money problems in your marriage, you need to speak when the lines of communication are open. Ask,

• How is my spouse’s mood? How is my mood?
• Are there likely to be distractions?

There are many good questions to ask when you’re dealing with money problems in marriage.  However, the setting must be right before initiating a discussion.

What tips do you have to help spouses talk openly and freely about money?

Photo by Rolands Lakis

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• Should You Sell Your House to Pay Off Debt?
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Craig is a fulltime missionary in Papua New Guinea who writes Money Help For Christians and Help Me Travel Cheap, a frugal family travel blog. He is the author of Money Wisdom From Proverbs, has a Masters of Divinity degree, and (most importantly) eats homemade pizza with his family every Friday night.

The articles on this site are for entertainment purposes and should not be taken as financial advice. Please contact a financial professional for specific advice regarding your situation. Also, many of the CPF articles help us pay the bills by using affiliate relationships with Amazon, Google, eBay and others. Find out more here.

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