Let me just put in a plug for not necessarily planning a big refund, but paying enough to know that you'll get something. If you have variable income you could get hit coming and going. My wife works optional part time. She signs up for as much or little work as she wants, and makes bank when she does work, but she's…

I stream a lot from my mac to apple tv. When I'm in the living room I find that my mac was either sleeping/off or does not have itunes running - therefore no streaming. I'm going to try to get my pie to send a wake on lan request and then check if itunes is running, and if not open it. This saves me from opening my…

Lenovo does have some good things in there baked right in, but if it were me, I'd go vanilla then go get the special drivers and utilities I want.

For about 6 months washer fluid is pretty much life and death if you are in a very snowy area with a lot of sludge. On a two hour trip I can go through a quarter tank if the conditions are bad. It's not all dirt and bugs!

I like the lent idea!

It also doesn't have to be a brand new job. I did this with a title change and a new job description. I was able to gather horizontal data from my institution and see what others were making. That's how I got my range. I knew if I got what I was asking for I would fall in above what someone else was making, but not be…

I think Arabic, Farsi, or Chinese would be much more valuable if you want ROI.

I wonder if they classify basement remodel as the same as basement finishing, because that right there increases living space, whereas a remodel sounds to me like just updating the space.

I just picked up the 413j, couldn't be happier with it. I told my wife she no longer had to plug in an external for time machine (she was so bad about backing up) and now it's all over wifi. She was pretty impressed. I've noticed some lag in opening my media library from accross the network, but playback is just fine…

Cheap is not a personality trait that we all share, unfortunately. I think it was Howard Clark who once said, "You know how rich people get 'wealthy'? They don't spend their money, they save and invest it."

It's the antithesis of the mindset of "disposable income". Many retailers would have you think that single well employed 20 somethings have "disposable income" because after they pay their bills they have money left over. They typically either waste this money or figure they can afford another bill (buy a car when…

Habitat for Humanity has been a great resource for me. As another tip that goes along with this, Habitat usually runs a store that sells building materials on the cheap. Shop there first, save some money, and help the organization!

Yes, and $100K won't even take you that far these days depending on your market. This 10% rule says then you should only get a $10K car. I would say don't buy new unless you are wealthy.

Not all jobs are "business". Yes, they pay you to do work, but to think that that relationship defines each and every interaction you do at work is very sad. You must work in a terrible place that you can't consider any supervisor a friend. Some of the best bosses become friends and mentors, business partners, spouses…

That you can always leave. My first couple jobs were wonderful, but the first crappy one was really crappy, and it helped me later when I started working full time. At 15 I worked as an equipment manager for an outdoors overnight summer camp (think Heavy Weights before Ben Stiller showed up). My second job was working…

Glzmoduck99 is exactly right. I would add that student loans (assuming you've already graduated and done the damage so to speak of taking them out) are one of the safer debts to carry as if you die they are forgiven. That's not much solace, but it won't weigh down your spouse and kids. I'm only talking of course about…

My parents did this, but instead of people, they tracked investments and re-investments. It outlined when they would buy something, the value it held that year, and when it would pay out back to them. They included their house as well, and added in investments like remodeling. Adding up the year showed how much they…

It's a matter of preference and I would probably agree with you. At the same time most people think of time horizontally, especially on graphs when visualized. The further to the right the more time has passed. I've never seen a graph with time on the vertical axis. If this is more of a visual aid, I can see sideways…

I've always used wet paper towel, the small bits cling right to it.

The best item in this article was the debt snowball. It works wonders. After moving into a house with no AC and a furnace that had a 5 digit service call number we decided to ditch the expensive window AC units that were sucking up electricity and invest in central air and a new furnace. I took the money I was now…