Recommended Reading

TMR Tip: Light My Fire!

/ abschilling / Leave a comment

We love camping, but my husband and I always seem to have . . . difficulties . . . starting a fire. To be perfectly honest, we suck at it. And the store-bought fire starters don’t seem to work very well. They light easily enough, but they appear to be the only things that burn, leaving the kindling a smoldering mess. So, short of dousing the wood with lighter fluid, and possibly losing a couple of eyebrows in the process, I thought maybe I’d try to make some of my own.

I searched various websites for instructions and several of them suggested melting wax blocks or candles in a double boiler, then pouring it over a cardboard egg carton filled with dryer lint. Once cut, you have 12 individual fire starters. That sounded easy enough. I had an egg carton. I had dryer lint. I had scented wax tarts that would substitute for candles (and perhaps keep the bugs away with the aroma?), but I didn’t have a double boiler. I could fashion one using a pot of water and a bowl, but I didn’t want to deal with trying to clean the bowl out. But I did have electric warmers . . .

So I set everything up, melted the tarts, poured the liquid wax over the lint-filled egg carton, and then cut them apart. Now all that remained was to test them on vacation.

The result? Fire!

We were elated to say the least. We used 2 just to make sure the kindling caught, but still – we made fire! It was a glorious success. It burned bright and beautiful. We nearly danced and sang around it, like Tom Hanks in CastAway. We were so proud of ourselves, we had to celebrate.

S’mores, anyone?

Tuesday’s Tip: Take a Retirement Readiness Quiz – Part 1

/ abschilling / Leave a comment

“Are you ready for retirement?” Gail MarksJarvis (a money expert) asked in a newspaper article. When I read that question, I immediately thought to myself, Heck yeah, I’m ready to retire! Not work anymore? Count me in! Then I read the next sentence, which explained that she didn’t mean ‘not work anymore’, but rather ‘do you have enough money to retire and do you know how to make it last?’ My shoulders instantly sagged like a failed soufflé. What really made me sad, though, was my next thought: WILL we have enough money to retire? And can we make it last?

Nowadays, with the economy being what it is, it’s hard to figure out just how much you’re going to need. And even if you do have money saved up, do you know how to make it last so that you’re not eating peanut butter and jelly or beans every day for the rest of your life?

So, let’s begin by focusing on the first question: Do you have enough money for retirement?

Obviously, the goal here is to have plenty, but how does that translate to yearly savings? How much should we set aside per year to make sure we reach that goal? Are we saving anything at all? Is it enough?

According to the March 2015 survey conducted by Bankrate.com, Chief Financial Analyst Greg McBride says that approximately 28% of the 1000 people surveyed are putting away 5% or less, while 16% are saving nothing at all. That’s a little scary. Almost half of the people surveyed have little to no savings. The good news is that 24% are stashing away 6-10% of their income per year, and about 24% are saving 11% or more per year. McBride adds that the middle class are doing the best job of saving. He says that’s because they’re taking matters into their own hands, knowing they’ll have to do it all themselves. “They don’t have the six-figure income to fall back on” to pay for everything later in life, and “nobody is going to do it for them”.

It’s not hopeless. But the questions still remain: Do I have enough? How much will I need when I retire? How much do I need to save every year until then?

Thankfully, there are many calculators available to help you in your quest to be able to eat and be comfortable once you retire. Try heading to http://www.bankrate.com, hover over the Retirement tab, then choose Calculators from the menu. They have everything from 401(k) and IRA calculators to Social Security and investment calculators. There’s even an Investment Goals calculator you can try. Then take a look at your current finances to decide if you’re saving enough to get you to your goal. Remember that all the numbers are approximate. We can’t possibly know exactly how much we’ll need, but we can make a well-educated guess and shoot for it.

Yes, you want to live your life now, but you also want to make sure you can live out the rest of your life with a little comfort, right? McBride says, “It doesn’t matter how much you make, it’s what you have left over” that’s important. The best thing you can do for yourself now is to make sure you’re living within your means. A good way to do that is through smart money management. Need some help with that? Click on the “Buy it” tab at the top of the screen. There’s a little book that can show you the way . . .