Make It Yourself: 15 Food Items and Spice Mixes I Make at Home For Quality and Savings

After mentioning the idea of a post about seasoning mixes in the mailbag yesterday, a surprising number of readers contacted me and requested a longer post. I wasn’t quite sure it would stand completely on its own, so instead here’s an article about what you might call “DIY foodstuffs” – various mixes and things that you can make at home pretty inexpensively and easily. About half are clearly in the “seasoning mix” category. Enjoy!

When I go to the grocery store and look at many of the items on the shelves, I’m often shocked at the prices for things that I know I can make at home at a less expensive rate and with a higher level of quality. It just requires me to invest some time in preparing it, but the preparation is usually quite fun – it’s something I enjoy.

I look at things like hummus, sauerkraut, seasoning mixes, salad dressings, cold brew coffee, preserved lemons, “mayochup,” and such things and I just realize that it’s easier and less expensive to make it myself.

Here’s a list of fifteen such things that I make for my own use that are almost always cheaper than just buying the “pre-made” version at the store.

Hummus

Useful for: Vegetable dip, chip dip, sandwich topping

Hummus is a delicious dish that’s a mix of chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, garlic, and salt, with other ingredients as desired. It works wonderfully as a dip for vegetables or chips, but I actually really like it as a sandwich spread. Believe it or not, I adore a grilled cheese sandwich with a very thin layer of hummus on it.

At my local store, you can buy premade hummus in a fairly small container for about $3. If we were to buy hummus, we’d buy the Sabra brand at Sam’s Club, which is 32 ounces of hummus for $6.28. That’s about the best price we’ve found, but we can still make it ourselves for much less.

The big expense with hummus is the tahini, which I can find in a 16 ounce jar for $7.99. This is enough tahini to last for a very long time and make several batches of hummus. The other ingredients are very inexpensive.

My recipe is simple. If I want to make hummus, I just take the following and put it all in a blender:

1/3 cup tahini
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon salt (I prefer ground sea salt)
2 medium garlic cloves, smashed
juice of 1 lemon (or 2 tablespoons of lemon juice if you have bottled juice)
1 can chickpeas (or 2 cups cooked chickpeas if you’re cooking from dry beans)
3 tablespoons water (to make it less thick)

Just blend all of that stuff until it’s a paste, then store it in a small resealable container in the fridge. It’ll last for a couple of weeks, but I think it’s best in the first few days. This recipe makes roughly 16 ounces of hummus, maybe a little more, at a grand total cost of about $2, which is far less expensive than the hummus in the store (even the bulk hummus), and it tastes a lot better, too.

Italian Seasoning Mix

Useful for: A wide variety of pasta sauces and recipes

I prefer to buy spices in bulk from a local spice store. The initial expense for stocking up on about 15 basic spices was expensive, but then I was able to make a whole bunch of seasoning mixes and still have plenty of each spice for various recipes, so after that initial visit, I would only restock spices that I ran out of.

When I make a seasoning mix, I basically mix together a few spoonfuls of several different herbs and spices, mix them thoroughly, and store them in their own labeled container, usually a small jar of some kind.

For our Italian mix, which can be mixed with a can of tomato sauce and a can of diced tomatoes for a great pasta sauce, or for all kinds of other uses, I just mix the following dried herbs:

3 tablespoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons dried marjoram
2 tablespoons dried thyme
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 tablespoon dried rosemary
1 tablespoon dried sage

You can put this in a shaker jar if you like to easily shake it to taste right in your dishes, or in a jar where you measure it out a teaspoon at a time into dishes. Both are fine.

In writing this, I actually realized that we need to replenish several of our spice mixes. A weekend project, perhaps?

Sauerkraut

Useful for: Side dish, sandwich topping

Sauerkraut is simply fermented cabbage in brine. It acquires a mild sour and salty flavor that’s very distinctive and it is a popular sandwich topping. Many people put it on hot dogs or bratwursts, and it’s an essential ingredient in a reuben, for example.

I love just eating it as a side dish. I also really enjoy it on a sandwich that I call a “vegetarian reuben,” which is basically thousand island dressing, gruyere cheese, sauerkraut, and a fried egg on rye bread. Don’t knock it until you try it!

Anyway, I vastly prefer to make my own sauerkraut. There are a variety of different kinds of sauerkraut for sale at the store, and the stuff I make myself is less expensive than the cheapest stuff and better than pretty much all but the really pricy stuff.

I simply buy a head of cabbage, which is incredibly cheap, cut off several outer leaves, chop up the rest of the cabbage, weigh the chopped cabbage, and then add an amount of sea salt equal to 2% of the weight of the cabbage. I leave it sit in a big bowl for about fifteen minutes, then mash it around with my hands until it’s extremely wet.

I then pack this mix into several wide-mouth jars, about 3/4 full, with enough juice so that there’s about an inch of juice above the shredded cabbage. I then cut a few circles a little wider than the jar size out of the outer leaves and stuff them down in there on top of the kraut but below the juice level, to hold the kraut down in there. If you have any glass weights, you can put them on top of the big leaf discs. I then put a silicon air lock fermentation lid and a ring on each jar and let them sit for a few weeks at room temperature. It will bubble some, and that’s completely okay.

After several weeks, I’ll remove the silicon lid, pull out the big leaves (tossing them) and the glass weights, transfer the sauerkraut to some other resealable container, and either put that new container in the fridge (where it lasts for a month or two) or in the freezer (where it will last for a very long time, but the texture will change a bit).

You can experiment a lot with this recipe. I like adding chopped radishes to it. Some people like adding caraway seeds. I’ve added jalapeño peppers, dill, and shredded carrots, too.

Chili Seasoning Mix

Useful for: Slow cooker chili

This is my default seasoning mix for slow cooker chili. Basically, I just mix a couple tablespoons of this in with a slow cooker full of our preferred chili ingredients – beans, diced tomatoes, a bit of tomato juice, diced onions and peppers, and so on. It turns out wonderfully.

So, what’s in our mix?

12 tablespoons of chili powder
6 tablespoons ground cumin
4 tablespoons black pepper
3 tablespoons sea salt
2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons crushed red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper (reduce this if you don’t like the heat)
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon dried oregano

Just mix all of this thoroughly and store in a resealable container in the pantry. This makes just over two cups of chili seasoning, and considering it’s used a tablespoon at a time by us, it lasts for a long time, often for a full winter season.

As with the other herbs and spices mentioned earlier, we buy the basic ingredients in bulk from a spice store and make these mixes ourselves, storing them in resealable container in our pantry.

Cold Brew Coffee

Useful for: Morning drink, occasional ingredient in a recipe

This is hands down the easiest, least expensive, and tastiest method I’ve found for making coffee at home. The only expense beyond the beans is a one-time purchase of a cold brew coffee maker, which is basically a water pitcher with a fine sieve in it. I’ve had good experiences with this one, though the one I use most of the time was bought at a going out of business sale and I can’t seem to find the exact model online. You might also want a coffee bean grinder if you’re not buying pre-ground coffee, but that’s optional.

It’s easy. Just put three tablespoons of coffee grounds into the filter for every cup of cold water. Put it in the fridge. Wait 18 to 24 hours. Put the coffee grounds in your compost bin (or toss them if you don’t compost). Drink the coffee – you can heat it up as you please. It’s very mellow, but fairly potent – some may want to “cut” it with water. I typically make about four cups at once, so I use 3/4 cup ground coffee and 4 cups of water.

There are several huge advantages to doing it this way. One, after the initial cold brew coffee filter, there are zero recurring costs. You don’t need filters or anything. You don’t need to run a machine – it just sits in your fridge. Two, once the coffee is done, you just keep it in your fridge until you’re ready to drink it. No getting up early to prep coffee. It’s just ready to go when you are. Three, I think it tastes better than drip or French press coffee. Four, there’s very little waste – the only waste is the beans, and you can put them into compost.

Bagel / “Savory” Seasoning Mix

Useful for: Bagels, toast, scrambled eggs

This is based on the “Everything But the Bagel” seasoning mix that one can buy at Trader Joe’s. I love to put this stuff on buttered toast, on plain toasted bagels with butter or cream cheese, and on top of scrambled eggs.

Here’s my recipe:

4 tablespoons white sesame seeds
3 tablespoons dried minced onion
3 tablespoons dried minced garlic
3 tablespoons black sesame seeds
3 tablespoons ground sea salt
1 tablespoon poppy seeds

I absolutely positively adore this stuff on toast or bagels. This transforms the most plain and ordinary toast and bagels into something delicious with just a few dashes from a shaker. I also really like it on top of scrambled eggs, for some reason.

This stores really well in a shaker, preferably one that you can easily close.

Italian Salad Dressing

Useful for: Salads, marinade, pasta

Italian salad dressing is basically an extension of my own Italian seasoning mix listed earlier in this article. My dressing consists of:

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning mix (described earlier in the recipe)

This is substantially cheaper than perhaps the very cheapest Italian dressing in the store and the flavor of this is much better.

I simply keep this in a salad dressing shaker in the fridge. Whenever we have a need for it, I just get out the shaker, shake it thoroughly, and use it.

This dressing is quite good on a basic spinach or lettuce salad, but it also serves as a wonderful marinade for mushrooms or almost any type of meat. I also like warm Italian dressing on hot pasta, something that I picked up in college and still enjoy to this day.

Vegetable Seasoning Mix

Useful for: Most steamed vegetables

One of the most frequent elements of our family dinners is steamed vegetables. Steaming vegetables is easy if you have a large pot and a steamer basket; if not, you can buy frozen “steam in the bag” vegetables for a good price at almost any store.

The only problem is that steamed vegetables are bland. Really bland. Salt alone barely helps. I can eat them, but I don’t blame my family for turning up their nose at them.

Here’s a seasoning mix that really helps most steamed vegetables, like broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, Brussels sprouts, and so on:

2 tablespoons basil
2 tablespoons oregano
2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon parsley flakes
1 tablespoon dried minced onion
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Again, I just keep this in a shaker in the pantry. Whenever we have steamed vegetables, I shake this stuff all over it, kind of tossing the steamed vegetables as I go.

This mix seems to do an amazing job of accentuating the flavor of most vegetables, turning them from blandness to rather flavorful with ease.

Preserved Lemons

Useful for: Potato salads, grain salads, salad dressings, salsa, pasta

Preserved lemon is an interesting item. It’s a common condiment in north African cuisine, but it has a lot of other uses as well.

I love using a bit of preserved lemon in potato salad. I’ll chop up just a little bit of preserved lemon, maybe a quarter or a third of a wedge, into tiny bits, rind and all, and add in three or four drops of the thick lemon salt brine. I do the same with grain salads.

You can also use about a quarter of a slice of preserved lemon, finely chopped, in that Italian salad dressing recipe to give it a distinct flavor.

I like using it in salsa to give it a really bright flavor, and it’s also a good ingredient for grain salads. You can also use finely chopped preserved lemon with olive oil to coat pasta for a rather lemony and savory dish.

Given how simple it is to make yourself, preserved lemon is fairly expensive at the store. I vastly prefer to make it myself in a wide mouth quart jar with a lid or some other similarly sized jar. All you need are ten lemons (or so) and a bunch of kosher salt.

Just cut off both tips of the lemon, then slice it in half starting at one tip, but don’t quite cut all the way through, stopping about half an inch from the other tip. Then, make another slice from tip to tip so that the lemon ends up looking like four wedges attached together at one end.

Put two tablespoons of salt in the jar, then sprinkle salt all over the lemons, inside and out. Get them nice and coated with salt and use your fingers to get a lot of salt all over the insides of the lemons.

Then, just pack those lemons in the jar really tight. Push down on them and try to get some of the juice to come out of the lemon. By the time you put in the last lemon or two, there should be a lot of juice in there and the last lemon should be submerged. Keep putting in lemons until there’s about an inch from the top of the liquid to the top of the jar.

Put the lid on, shake it thoroughly, and leave it on the table for a few days. Shake it each day. Then, put it in the fridge for two or three weeks.

What will happen is the the rinds will get really soft and edible. When you cut them up, you cut up rinds and pulp together.

At this point, you can rinse off all of the wet lemon salt and keep the lemon wedges or you can just keep all of it. Over time, the lemon salt turns into kind of a thick paste or gel that I consider delicious. They should be perfectly good for a long time, though eventually the lemon will just break down into kind of a salty mush; it’s still flavorful and usable, though.

Taco Seasoning Blend

Useful for: Tacos, fajitas, bean dips

I use this taco seasoning blend every time we have “taco night,” which is about every two or three weeks. We usually have bean-based tacos, so I’ll cook up several cups of beans and use about three tablespoons of this mix. Here are the ingredients:

6 tablespoons chili powder
4 tablespoons cumin
2 tablespoons coriander
2 tablespoons sea salt
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder (optional, for heat)

Again, I just mix this thoroughly and keep it in a jar in the pantry. You’ll want to use it to taste, but I’d use about a tablespoon of this per pound of meat or beans and add more from there according to your taste preferences.

“Fry Sauce,” or “Mayochup,” or “Cyclone Sauce”

Useful for: Dips, sandwich topping

These are all just variants of the same thing, which is a mix of different typical condiments. Once I find a mix I like, I just make a batch and put it in a clean squirt bottle, usually a refurbished ketchup squeeze bottle.

I am most familiar with what was called “fry sauce” when I was growing up, because people would often dip French fries in it. Just mix these five things together in a bowl and put it in a clean empty squirt ketchup, mustard, or mayonnaise bottle:

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
1 teaspoon barbecue sauce or Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon white vinegar

It has something of a peach color and is wonderful for dipping French fries or using it as a sandwich condiment.

In the area I currently live (northern Iowa), a similar condiment called Cyclone Sauce is popular, which is just a mix of two parts ketchup to one part yellow mustard. It’s called “Cyclone Sauce” because of the mascot of Iowa State University, whose colors are cardinal and gold.

Recently, Kraft has been marketing a mixture they call “Mayochup” which is just a small variation on fry sauce. In fact, it seems to be just a mix of two parts mayonnaise with one part ketchup (roughly) with perhaps a bit of extra salt and maybe a few other seasonings in there. I’d simply rather have fry sauce.

Making a batch of your own “mayochup” or “fry sauce” is cheaper than buying such a thing at the store. If you put it in an empty ketchup or mayonnaise squirt bottle, then you have it on hand whenever you want it.

Chili-Lime Seasoning Mix

Useful for: Fish and chicken rub before grilling, fruit, cucumbers

I originally fell in love with chili-lime seasoning while rubbing it on fish and chicken before grilling, but I gradually learned that it’s really good on cucumbers and, strangely, most fruits. It’s also a pretty good general “seasoning mix” to have on a shaker at the table, as it is tasty on things like French fries. It’s also a great seasoning for grilled potatoes – just slice some potatoes into discs, sprinkle with this stuff, add an ice cube, wrap it all up in aluminum foil, and put it on the grill for 30 minutes or so over medium-high heat.

It’s easy to make, too. Just mix all of this stuff together in a bowl, then put the mix in a jar or a shaker:

10 tablespoons chili powder
zest of three limes (the easy way to do this is with a PedEgg, which is a magical tool for getting the zest off of citrus fruits)
2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper powder
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon salt

It provides a warm, bright flavor for almost anything!

Guacamole

Useful for: Dips, tacos, fajitas

I usually keep a guacamole seasoning mix in the cupboard, which I’ll add to a couple of diced tomatoes (or a can of diced tomatoes), a lime (or a couple teaspoons of lime juice), and three mashed-up fresh avocados (just slice them in half, remove the pit, and scoop out the pulp with a spoon). I’ll make this every time when there’s a sale on avocados at the store.

Here’s the seasoning mix I use:

4 tablespoons salt
4 tablespoons onion powder
4 tablespoons dried cilantro
4 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper

I just take one tablespoon of this mix and mix it in with the smashed avocado, diced tomatoes, and lime juice to make some great guacamole. You can keep the guacamole in the fridge for a week or so in a closed container; it’s fine when it just starts to discolor after a few days, but it doesn’t last forever!

Fresh guacamole utterly blows away anything you can buy in a store. It’s so bright and flavorful. I can literally sit and eat it with a spoon.

“Creole” Seasoning Mix

Useful for: Vegetables of all kinds, rub on chicken or fish, beans and rice

This is a mix that I just use with any recipe that calls for “creole” or “cajun” seasoning. It’s not perfectly authentic in terms of true ethnic cooking, but it’s very flexible and incredibly tasty. I just mix these ingredients in a bowl and put the mix in a closable shaker jar in the pantry:

3 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon thyme
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon ground black pepper

Much like the vegetable mix and the chili-lime mixes above, I love putting this on vegetables of all kinds, including French fries and grilled potatoes, but also things like steamed broccoli. It adds a sharp flavor with some nice heat.

Pickled Eggs

Useful for: Snacks

This is just a fun one to end the article with. I absolutely love pickled eggs. It’s something I think I inherited from my father and grandfather. A pickled egg is just an amazing snack. They’re basically hardboiled eggs with a giant kick of flavor.

I like to make giant jars of pickled eggs every once in a while. I have a gallon jar with a lid that’s just perfect for it; the jar originally held a ton of pickles. You can do this with any quart jar or larger, though you’ll have to scale the recipe appropriately.

This is the recipe scaled for a wide mouth quart jar.

Start by hard boiling a dozen eggs, peeling them, and putting them in the jar. (Yes, in my gallon jar, I’ll do four dozen at once.)

Then, in a saucepan, put the following:

1 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons salt
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon coriander seeds or ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 bay leaf

The salt, mustard, allspice, coriander, ginger, and red pepper flakes could be kept as a pickling spice mix, if you so wish.

Anyway, bring everything in the saucepan to a boil for a few minutes, then let it cool until you can touch it. Put ten or so black peppercorns in the jar with the eggs, then pour the liquid on top (you can pull out the bay leaves here). If you need more liquid, add a mix of two parts white vinegar and one part water to the top until the eggs are covered. Close the jar, then let it sit in the fridge for a week or two. The eggs will be delicious!

Many pickled egg recipes include sugar as an ingredient. I don’t particularly like the sweetness, so I don’t include sugar in mine, but be aware that it’s a common ingredient.

Final Thoughts

These are just some of the food items and spice mixes I make at home, both to save money and because I like the flavors of the things I make myself better than the store purchased mixes which are often laden with preservatives and other ingredients I don’t want.

There are three key principles underlying all of this.

First, buy your spices from an actual spice vendor. The tiny spice containers at the store are very overpriced for what you get. Instead, go to a spice store; you can usually get a much larger quantity of better tasting spices for the same price as a tiny jar at the store.

Second, small jars and shakers are really useful. If you have anything that comes in a shaker, don’t toss the shaker when it’s done; the same is true for things in small jars or squeeze bottles. You can use those containers quite easily for spice mixes and other homemade food items.

Finally, make small batches of food items to try them before making large batches. If a recipe above lists tablespoons, make it with teaspoons instead to see if you like the mix. There are 16 tablespoons in a cup and three teaspoons in a tablespoon, so it’s pretty easy to reduce most recipes. Don’t make a ton of something without knowing that you like it.

It’s also worth noting that all of these recipes can be experimented with. If you like things spicy, amp up the chili powder and the pepper. If you like things mild, tone down those elements. It’s really hard to make a spice mix bad if you make small alterations at first, and you can use those small alterations to figure out what you really like.

In any case, making your own food items and spice mixes can and will save you a lot of money and likely enliven your taste buds as well.

Good luck!

The post Make It Yourself: 15 Food Items and Spice Mixes I Make at Home For Quality and Savings appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Investment trusts for children

Investment trusts can be a useful tool when you’re saving for your children. We explain how

Considering the costs young people soon come up against, from university fees to getting a foot on the property ladder, it makes sense to have sound financial foundations in place.

The extra growth potential of investment trusts, in comparison to open-ended funds, makes them well suited for those investing on behalf of children, according to Patrick Connolly, a chartered financial planner at Chase de Vere.

“They have a longer-term time horizon and will often be making regular investments, which helps negate market-timing risks,” he says.

“I invest on behalf of my son into the BMO Junior Isa, which invests in the F&C Investment Trust*, for these very reasons.”

The F&C Investment Trust invests in a wide range of global shares.

How to invest

Investing in equities is a sensible approach if you have time on your side and can afford to ride out short-term market volatility.

As you get closer to your child’s 18th birthday, or the date of the investment objective, you could consider scaling back risk levels to avoid being forced to sell when markets have dipped.

A regular investment each month is a good idea as you benefit from ‘pound cost averaging’. This sees you buy a different number of shares each month, depending on the fluctuating share price of the trust and helps smooth investment risk over time.

Dennis Hall, founder of Yellowtail Financial Planning, advises parents to “go for growth rather than income and maybe consider smaller companies”.

He says: “Because children have their entire working life ahead of them, you can arguably take more risk than you might with your own money because children have greater capacity to recover from sharp drops in value.”

How to hold the investments

Junior individual savings accounts (Jisas) are special savings accounts for children, which have a number of attractive tax benefits. For example, children won’t pay any income tax on dividends or interest, or capital gains tax when the shares are sold.

In addition, family and friends can contribute up to £4,260 in the 2018/19 tax year, increasing to £4,368 from April. The investments that you can buy and hold inside the account (which includes investment trusts) belong to your children but can’t be accessed by them until they turn 18. At this stage, the account will convert into a regular Stocks & Shares Isa.

Several investment trust providers promote savings plans for children, often with low entry-level amounts, typically £100 for lump sums or £30 a month for regular savings.

You can set these up as a bare trust, in which shares are legally held for the benefit of your children. Once the money is in the trust, it can’t be changed, and you won’t have any entitlement to the income or growth. Income tax and capital gains tax are charged to the child or children. 

Alternatively, you can use a designated account. The investment trust shares will be held in your own name but designated as being for your children. The benefit is keeping control over the investments and being able to decide when to hand them over, although you will also be liable for any income or capital gains tax liability.

Setting up a more formal trust will provide you with more control over what your children can do with the money. However, these can be complicated, expensive and require legal advice.  

*A member of Moneywise First 50 Funds for beginners

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‘Good Debt’ vs. ‘Bad Debt’

Is there such a thing as good debt?

The answer to that question depends on whom you ask. By and large, however, financial experts seem to agree that there are some forms of good debt.

Most often, it’s debt that helps you to amass valuable assets that will grow in value, or debt that will somehow boost your overall income or wealth. Bad debt, on the other hand, does just the opposite, adding little value to your long-term prosperity, sometimes even diminishing it.

Here’s your go-to guide detailing exactly what types of debt fall into each category, according to personal finance experts from across the country.

What Is Good Debt?

If there truly is such a thing as good debt, it’s debt that results in more personal wealth, according to experts.

Among the most popular examples are mortgages, which help fix your housing costs and gradually build your net worth, and student loans used to finance higher education or professional certification which, if all goes well, can open the door to higher-paying jobs and an increase in lifetime earnings.

“Good debt is debt used to acquire assets. It’s that simple,” says Byron Tully author of The Old Money Book and Old Money, New Woman: How To Manage Your Money and Your Life. “The definition of an asset is something that’s going to put money in your pocket each month or appreciate in value over time.”

A mortgage is viewed in a positive light because, ideally, the property increases in value while you own it — or better yet, generates rental income, says Tully.

Higher education, meanwhile, should help you qualify for better jobs and result in a higher quality of life, Tully continued.

Good debt, he added, can also take the form of an investment in an existing business, either as a partner or in the form of stocks, which would pay you dividends.

Need still more help determining whether the debt you’re about to take on is good or bad?

Mike Pearson, founder of Credit Takeoff, a personal finance site that helps people improve their credit, suggests asking yourself this question: “Does it give me the chance to provide a positive return on investment?”

“When you look at debt through that lens, it makes it much easier to figure out if it’s ‘good’ or ‘bad,’” says Pearson, who, like Tully, suggests mortgages and student loans are the types of debt that fall into the good column.

To this list Pearson adds small business loans, which could also potentially end up increasing your wealth over the long run if your business becomes successful and revenue generating. However, Pearson adds an important caveat.

“The thing to keep in mind about these ‘good debts’ is that there’s no guarantee it will end up being a good investment,” he explained. “You may end up getting poor grades in school and never land that six-figure job; you may never end up getting that promotion at work despite the certification; you may end up losing money on your home or your small business may go under after six months.”

The Parameters for Healthy Debt

Kevin Gallegos, a senior vice president at Freedom Debt Relief, suggests it’s a good idea to view potentially good debt, which he calls “healthy” or “productive” debt, with strict parameters. All healthy or productive debt must meet several qualifying criteria, he says.

“The debt must be limited, without the ability to continue increasing. In contrast, a revolving account, such as a credit card, is not limited, and increases as you put more charges on it,” explained Gallegos.

The debt’s interest rate must be stable, at a reasonable, predictable level, he adds. In addition, the debt must have regular payment amounts that are manageable within a budget, and paid on time to avoid late fees and penalty interest-rate increases, Gallegos continues.

“The debt must have been acquired for a purpose that an average person would say was sensible. A good test is whether you will be able to remember in six months why you have the debt – coffee drinks or music downloads usually can’t pass this test,” he says.

And finally, as our other experts have suggested, the debt should be incurred for something that’s likely to appreciate, such as a home or a business.

What Is Bad Debt?

Bad debt is often tied to items that provide instant gratification, and offer little or no long-term value or financial return.

“[Bad debt] is consumer debt acquired by purchasing material possessions which depreciate in value as soon as they’re purchased, such as clothes,” said Tully. It also includes debt incurred by purchasing things that have no value once they’re paid for, he says. “This includes debt from restaurants and nightclubs, as well as other forms of entertainment,” Tully says — all of which are fine, he adds, as long as they’re paid for with money you already have.

Credit card debt is pervasive in the U.S., and it’s easily one of the worst debts to carry — whether it’s tied to buying clothes, furniture, meals out, or services with no lasting value.

As Andy Misek of Finance Guru explains, credit card debt almost always results from a consumer buying unnecessary things — and doing so at an exorbitant interest rate, anywhere from 18% to 24% APR. “Your debt could get worse, before it gets better,” says Misek.

While interest rates on auto loans are often among the lowest in the lending world, they generally fall into the bad debt category as well, says April Lewis-Parks, director of education for Consolidated Credit, the nation’s largest nonprofit credit counseling agency.

“An auto loan is actually a bad debt; although you gain an asset, your vehicle, it immediately and quickly starts to depreciate and lose value after the purchase,” said Lewis-Parks. “The same thing is true of in-store credit lines used to purchase things like electronics or furniture; these items lose value quickly after purchase, so you can’t recoup the purchase price.”

Less surprisingly, she says payday loans are also a bad idea.

“The problem with payday loans is that the finance charges range from 15 to 30 percent of the amount being borrowed, which can easily make the effective annual percentage rate (APR) on the loan in the triple-digit range,” explained Lewis-Parks. The steep interest charges and short-term payback windows force many borrowers to roll over their loan. “One of the biggest drawbacks is when a borrower falls into a cycle of repeatedly extending their loan,” she adds. “They find themselves unable to repay the loan when payday arrives, so they extend the loan for another pay period and fees continue to accrue. It turns into a vicious cycle.”

The Gray Area

At the risk of confusing matters, there is some debt that doesn’t necessarily fall so neatly into either the good or bad column.

For instance, Lewis-Parks says debt that would appear to be taken on with good reason may still in fact be bad debt. As an example, she points to healthcare related expenses.

“Medical debt, for instance, keeps you healthy so you can continue to earn income,” Lewis-Parks explains. “However, these costs would often be covered more effectively with better insurance.”

(This example is certainly worth keeping in mind, but doesn’t necessarily recognize the shortcomings of the health insurance offerings in America right now or the challenges many people have accessing good insurance, despite their best efforts.)

Using a home equity loan to renovate your residence is another type of debt that Lewis-Parks says falls into a gray area. Such renovations often increase your property value, meaning home equity loans could be considered good debt — but only if the investment pays off in the form of a higher sale price when the home is eventually sold.

“Good or bad, the important thing is that you manage your debt effectively so you can maintain stability,” Lewis-Parks concludes. “Make sure to keep debt at a manageable level and seek help if you start to get overextended.”

• Read more: Seven Signs Your Debt Is Out of Control (and What to Do About It)

Let’s Change the Conversation

Todd Christensen, an accredited financial counselor and community financial educator for the nonprofit Money Fit by DRS, suggests the conversation surrounding debt should be changed somewhat.

Rather than viewing it in such a binary manner — good or bad — he says debt is better viewed in three categories: potentially beneficial; practical debt; and bad debt.

“Traditionally, the only three ‘good debts’ were mortgages, student loans, and business loans, because they’re seen as improving the household’s financial net worth over time. As the Great Recession taught us, these are only ‘potentially’ beneficial, not guaranteed,” Christensen explains. “Those who got into home loans and student loans that were too large found that the supposedly ‘good debts’ ended up ruining their finances.”

Thus, says Christensen, good debt is potentially beneficial, but must be considered carefully and in context.

Practical debt, on the other hand, is debt that’s used for convenience and doesn’t incur interest. For instance, credit card debt you rack up while on vacation but pay off in full with the very next bill would be considered practical debt, Christensen says.

Everything else? Bad.

“All other debts are bad debts, because you, as a consumer, end up paying more for the item or experience than what it adds to your net worth,” said Christensen.

Mia Taylor is an award-winning journalist with more than two decades of experience. She has worked for some of the nation’s best-known news organizations, including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the San Diego Union-Tribune. 

Read more by Mia Taylor:

• 74 Million Americans Have More Credit Card Debt Than Savings: What to Do If You’re One of Them
• Fighting Debt With Debt: America’s Penchant for Personal Loans
• Do Your Finances Spark Joy? Applying the KonMari Method to Your Money

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Earn $14-$22 Per Hour as a VIPKID Teacher

After I graduated from college, with my cultural anthropology degree, I considered enrolling in the Peace Corps or teaching ESL (English as a Second Langauge) classes in Vietnam. But, before I decided on a path, I took two months off to backpack around Europe. When I returned home from my travels, I decided to go […]

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9 Best Online Checking Accounts of 2019

Advanced Home Warranty Review: Lower Prices With Flexibility

Home warranty services like Advanced Home Warranty offer to shield you from unexpected repair bills in exchange for $400 to $600 a year plus service fees.

You could sign up within minutes online and have coverage in place after a 30-day waiting period. But do you really need to?

Would the warranty protect you from out-of-control expenses or would it be just another bill to worry about? Could you find another way to pay for repairs?

To answer these questions with any certainty, you’d need to know the future, and we can’t help with that. You’ll have to settle for the next best thing: Studying the warranty to find out how it works and how it might (or might not) help you.

About Advanced Home Warranty

Advanced Home Warranty hasn’t been around very long, but its sister company, Choice Home Warranty, has provided warranties for decades. The companies offer very similar warranty plans.

Both companies offer lower-priced options compared to other warranty companies. You can save on premiums and service call fees.

You can also save by opting only for coverage on the systems you need, within certain parameters.

Advanced Home Warranty does not let you build your own customized warranty, but its plan structure lends itself to some customization.

Advanced Home Warranty’s Basic Plan

Advanced’s Basic option will cover the fundamental systems in your home with a couple of notable exceptions. The plan covers:

• Cooktop
• Ceiling and exhaust fans
• Dishwasher
• Ductwork
• Oven / range / stove
• Heating system
• Electrical system
• Plumbing system
• Plumbing stoppages
• Water heater
• Whirlpool bathtub
• Built-in microwave
• Garbage disposal
• Garage door opener

The Basic plan is a bargain at about $400 a year. But it does not cover your refrigerator, your clothes washer and dryer, or your air conditioner.

If you don’t need coverage for these systems, you could save with Advanced’s Basic Plan. If you do need this coverage, you’ll need the Total Plan.

Advanced Home Warranty’s Total Plan

The Total Plan includes everything in the Basic plan, along with your:

• Air conditioner
• Refrigerator
• Clothes washer/dryer

The Total Plan starts around $550 a year.

Optional Coverages Add Flexibility

With either the Basic or Total Plan, you could add coverages as needed in any combination to protect your:

• Additional spa
• Central vacuum
• Pool/spa
• Roof from leaks (limited protection)
• Standalone freezer
• Additional refrigerator
• Well pump
• Septic system
• Sump pump
• Septic tank plumbing

Each of these add-ons could cost between $20 and $50 extra a year. This flexibility allows you to include only the coverage you need without paying to protect a system you don’t even have.

When warranties bundle more coverages together, you’re more likely to pay for services you don’t need, like a central vacuum system when all you have is an old upright Hoover, or a sump pump when your home is built on a concrete slab.

How Advanced Home Warranty Works

Advanced Home Warranty gets high marks for giving you more control over how you build your warranty coverage.

But we’re still in the hypothetical phase of the shopping process. How would this translate if you bought a plan that meets your specific needs?

Filing a Warranty Claim

You can buy a warranty on your home right now without needing a home inspection or any documentation. Unless your home exceeds 5,000 square feet, you’ll get a standard pricing plan based on your ZIP code.

Like most warranties, you’d have to wait 30 days after signing the contract before you can file a claim with Advanced Home. After your 30-day waiting period, you could call the company’s toll-free service number 24 hours a day.

Paying Your Service Fee

Assuming your warranty covers your faulty system, the company will send out a technician within two days (four days on weekends or holidays).

The technician will charge you $60 to diagnose the problem. Service fee amounts vary between warranty companies, but charging this fee is standard practice. It works like a deductible on your homeowners insurance policy or a co-pay on your health insurance.

The technician will either:

• Fix the problem for no additional charge: This is the best case scenario, and if this happens you’ll feel good about your decision to buy the warranty.
• Have a more specialized contractor come out: You’re still getting the problem fixed, but it’ll take a little longer.
• Recommend replacing the system: As long as a replacement falls within your warranty’s annual spending caps, which we’ll get into below, you can get the system replaced at no charge.
• Inform you the warranty won’t fix your problem: This can be infuriating after you’ve already paid the premiums and the service fee. Prevent this scenario by reading the contract carefully before signing.

Your Contract’s Exclusions

Any home warranty comes with some exclusions which could deny coverage even to a covered system in your home.

Many new homeowners who buy a warranty feel surprised when the warranty denies their claims. Advanced Home Warranty’s sample contract spells out the exclusions, which are far too numerous to list here.

Exclusions include:

• For a refrigerator: Advanced won’t fix racks, shelves, lighting problems, ice makers, Freon, ice crushers, beverage dispensers, door hinges and gaskets, glass, Internet-connected features, spoiled food.
• For a clothes washer: The warranty won’t fix problems with door seals, filter screens, leveling and balancing, glass, soap dispensers, knobs and dials, hinges, damage to clothing.
• For an air conditioner: The warranty won’t cover condenser casings, electronic air cleaners, filters, humidifiers, gas air conditioning systems, registers and grills, non-ducted wall units, window units, water towers,  improperly sized units, chillers, roof mounts, jacks, stands or supports, commercial grade equipment — this list goes on and on.
• Electrical system: The warranty won’t help with alarm systems, attic or exhaust fans, DC wiring, doorbells, fixtures, CO2 alarms, smoke detectors, inadequate wiring capacity, solar power panels or components, running new wires, damage due to power failure or surge. Again, this isn’t all.

The list of exclusions goes on for page after page, but the sampling above should show you the importance of checking the contract thoroughly before signing.

Annual Spending Caps

Your warranty’s contract should also tell you the maximum amount your warranty would pay each year. If your repair exceeds the spending cap, you’ll have to make up the difference out of pocket.

Most warranties have a comprehensive cap and/or a per-system cap. Here’s a sampling of Advanced Home Warranty’s spending caps:

• Heating system: $1,500 per year.
• Electrical system: $500 per year.
• Plumbing system: $500 per year.
• Ductwork: $500 per year.

Other Reasons for Non-Payment

Advanced Home Warranty will provide details in your contract about several other conditions which could prevent the company from paying to fix your system. For example, the warranty won’t pay for damage resulting from:

• Known or unknown pre-existing conditions
• Rust or corrosion
• Mildew or mold
• Sedentary build-up

Also, expect to cover the cost out of pocket for cutting through concrete or walls to access damaged systems. The company also won’t pay to repair cosmetic damage resulting from this kind of repair.

Alternatives to Advanced Home Warranty

Take a look at some of Advanced Home Warranty’s top competitors to ensure you get one of the best home warranties to protect your home.

Should You Get a Home Warranty?

At this point, many shoppers ask themselves, “Why even bother with a warranty? Why would anyone pay into a plan with so many exclusions?”

These are good questions. Yet thousands of homeowners buy warranty coverage every year because they like the idea of paying about $500 a year in exchange for a few thousand dollars worth of home repairs.

The key is knowing how to use a warranty: The warranty should repair or replace home systems that wear out from normal wear and tear.

A warranty won’t fix a system which faltered because of misuse, over-use, lack of regular maintenance, or improper installation. A warranty also won’t help with cosmetic issues or personal preferences. It won’t pay for maintenance, inspections, or to get your system up to code.

Warranties vs. Homeowners Insurance

Sometimes your homeowners insurance policy could help you repair system damage that a home warranty will exclude. If lightning strikes your home and fries the electrical panel, for instance, your warranty won’t pay but your homeowners policy should.

It’s easy to confuse these two sources of help. Basically, a warranty can help when a system in your home wears out from normal use. Your insurance should help when an outside force — wind, hail, lightning, a tree, a burglar, or fire — damages or destroys your property.

Understanding this difference can help place a home warranty in context.

Who Needs a Home Warranty?

Whether a home warranty makes sense for you depends partly on your home. In a home where systems will be less likely to wear out, a warranty makes less sense.

In a brand-new construction, for example, you’re less likely to need work on your electrical system or your plumbing system. Something could go wrong, of course, but statistically speaking, you’re less likely to face high repair bills than someone in a 35-year-old home.

However, if you bring your older refrigerator and clothes washer into your new home, those systems will be more likely to need repairs this year. Your warranty should reflect this reality.

Reasons Not To Get a Home Warranty

Along with the condition of your home, your overall financial situation can also help you decide whether to buy into a plan like the one Advanced Home Warranty provides.

If you have several vulnerable systems in your home and you have no idea where you’d come up with a couple thousand dollars if needed, a home warranty could be useful. I’m assuming, of course, the $400 to $600 in premiums wouldn’t be too much of a hardship.

If you have money saved or you have another plan for coming up with repair money, such as a low-interest line of credit, you could rely less on the protection of a warranty.

Also, if you know how to fix just about anything in your home, you’d probably be OK without a warranty. You’ll still need to save some money for parts, perhaps, but you’d have less need for a technician to come out and assess your ailing system.

Bottom Line: Follow the Rules

Home warranty companies like Advanced Home Warranty provide a concrete service: home system repairs. But they tend to sell customers on an abstract concept: a sense of security.

This sales pitch taps into your sense of fear as you enter homeownership. The pitch gives you an action to take (buying a warranty) to ease your fears of out-of-control repair bills.

To make the best decision as a consumer, you have to look beyond this sales pitch to see exactly how the warranty would (and when it wouldn’t) help you. These four rules can help:

1. Understand What You’re Buying: We call these plans “home warranties,” but they hardly resemble a manufacturer’s warranty which will replace your phone or food processor. Instead, you’re buying a service contract which doesn’t come with very many guarantees. It can offer convenience and it should help replace or repair worn out systems.
2. Read The Contract: Read and understand every word of your actual contract before you sign it. A sample contract like the one Advanced Home Warranty provides on its site will give you a good idea how the company works. But it’s not the same as the contract you’ll need to sign. If you don’t understand a clause, call customer service. If the rep can’t help you understand, consider moving on to another company.
3. Customize Your Coverage: Advanced Home Warranty allows for more warranty customization than many companies. Try to avoid paying for coverage you couldn’t possibly use. Sometimes you’ll have to include a system or two you don’t need, but often you can create a customized plan.
4. Have a Backup Plan: But wait, you might say, the warranty is my backup plan. Since warranties have so many limitations on service, you should still set aside some money for home system repairs. This can also help if your repair exceeds your warranty’s annual spending cap.

No, you can’t see the future and know for certain whether a warranty could save you money in the coming year. But learning as much as you can about Advanced Home Warranty in the present should help you avoid a lot of future frustration.

 

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Questions About Checking Accounts, Nintendo Switch, iPods, TSP, and More!

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. Great advice for job seekers
2. Old hometown checking account
3. Making your own seasoning mixes
4. Inexpensive Nintendo Switch games
5. Partner has extreme debt
6. TSP contribution questions
7. Uses for old iPod?
8. Job search not that simple
9. Value of authenticating sports cards
10. Financial independence and career plans
11. Advice for selling books
12. True hourly discretionary income question

I wanted to offer a little update on my switch to a standing desk for professional purposes.

About two weeks ago, I moved my main workstation to a standing desk. The purpose for doing this was to significantly reduce the amount of time I spend sitting in a given day, because sitting for your job all the time has some negative long term health consequences.

I did recognize that doing this fully cold turkey is a bad idea, and so I planned from the start to do it in stages. My plan was – and still is – to use the desk until I felt noticeable discomfort, then switch to a laptop in a chair for a while, then maybe alternate back later in the day. My goal was to simply raise my average time at the standing desk a little each week as I strengthen different muscle groups.

After a couple of weeks of doing this, I’ve found that the big impact has been on my lower back, with a smaller impact on my feet. I’m able to work for about four to five hours a day at the standing desk, with other work time spent sitting in a comfortable chair with a laptop.

What generally happens is that my lower back starts to get sore, not in a “something is broken” way but in a “this is a muscle that’s getting taxed due to exertion and needs a break” way. I’ll sit down for a while and it’ll feel much better. However, it’s constantly experiencing a low-grade soreness, the kind of soreness that happens when you exercise a muscle group. There’s nothing wrong here – if I felt something wrong, I would stop using the standing desk for a while. However, it can be a little uncomfortable.

I’ve had some very minor foot discomfort, mostly on my heels, but nothing significant and it honestly seems to be fading over the last few days.

It’s hard to tell yet whether or not the standing desk is improving my health in any notable way. I certainly don’t think it’s been bad, but I haven’t noticed a big health improvement. I do exercise most days, so that’s definitely a positive factor, but it’s hard to extract the benefits of standing with the other benefits of exercise. I think it’s very likely that there have been some minor benefits, and I likely would have noticed more if I didn’t already exercise.

It’s all about feeling healthy for as long as possible.

On with the questions.

Q1: Great advice for job seekers

I wanted to share some advice from my own experience as an interviewer [in a large corporate HR department]. The big thing is that you shouldn’t be hard on yourself if you interview for a job and don’t get it. Often, there is already a candidate that is pre-selected and the interview process is a mere formality. Someone thought you were a good candidate and brought you in, but you didn’t actually have a real chance at the job no matter how you interviewed. In fact, you should treat all interviews like that. Don’t get stressed about them, because there’s a good chance that there’s already an anointed candidate. I would say that 75-80% of the time, we already have our minds made up regarding which candidate to hire before the interview process begins and interviews virtually never change our minds. Sometimes we will interview someone great and put them on a list of people to call in the future but almost without fail those people already have a job when we call them back. So please don’t be hard on yourself if you don’t succeed at an interview! And don’t get overly stressed about it because there’s a good chance that there’s already an anointed candidate anyway. Just go in there and answer the questions and learn about the company and let the chips fall where they may.
– Alison

This is great advice, and in line with some of my own hiring experiences in the past. I have been on all sides of this coin at various points. I have been the anointed candidate in a hiring process. I have also been one of the “other” candidates in a hiring process (where I knew someone else was anointed for an absolute fact). I’ve also been involved with several hirings, some of which had strongly preferred candidates and some of which did not.

The thing is, you never really know which kind of situation it is when you’re interviewing. It may be a more open position where you actually have a good chance, or it may be a situation where you are one of the “other” candidates in an “open” process engineered to bring in the vastly preferred candidate with minimal questions.

I think the mantra of “don’t worry about it” is the right one here. Just go in there, answer the questions, ask some questions about the company, and move on and keep looking for the next interview or opportunity. If you’re the right candidate, they’ll call. Often, you won’t be, and it won’t be due to a fault of your own.

Q2: Old hometown checking account

I have left a checking account open at my old hometown bank for the last 20 years. It pays a very small interest rate – 0.05%. I have a balance of about $1,200 in there. I have always looked at it as a “last ditch emergency fund.” If anything seriously goes wrong, I’ll go there and use that money. But it’s just sitting there. Isn’t there something better I could be doing with it?
– Dana

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having a “last ditch emergency fund” in a bank that’s not easy to access. That idea is fine by me.

However, it’s probably just going to sit there for a long time, so you might want to consider doing something with it that earns a better return.

The next time you’re in your hometown, stop by that bank and see what other options they have. Simply explain that this is an “emergency fund” for you and you want it in a place where it earns a little more, doesn’t lose value, and could be withdrawn in an emergency but isn’t likely to be withdrawn.

It’s very likely that they’ll suggest a certificate of deposit, which is akin to a savings account except that it earns a bit higher interest rate and there’s a small penalty for withdrawing it early. It won’t take very long at all for the CD to earn more than the penalty for early withdrawal and then, after that, it’s onwards and upwards. Make sure that the bank allows you to automatically roll over the CD when it matures.

Right now, with interest rates a bit higher than they were but still fairly low, I’d choose a medium term CD, something in the range of one to two years. That will give you a higher interest rate than a short term CD but won’t lock you in to these relatively low historical rates forever. Set it to automatically roll over, then forget about it until that “last ditch emergency” occurs.

Q3: Making your own seasoning mixes

Have you ever written an article about making your own seasoning mixes instead of buying mixes at the store? You can buy the component spices and mix them yourself and save a lot of money if you use seasonings a lot. I make an Italian seasoning and a chili seasoning and a toast seasoning myself.
– Margaret

Toast seasoning? You’re going to have to send me that one. I have a bagel seasoning mix that I like to use on buttered toast sometimes – I wonder if they’re similar.

Although I’ve mentioned seasoning mixes before and noted how it’s cheaper to make your own, I don’t think I’ve ever written a listing of the various spice mixes we have and how we store them.

I store most of my spice mixes in large baby food jars that we still have from when our children were babies. I usually make them by mixing other spices by the teaspoon into a bowl and then stirring them thoroughly so they’re mixed, then I fill up the jar with the spice mix. I use masking tape for labeling.

Using a mix is a learning experience. Over time, you start figuring out how much to put in stuff. Our chili mix, for example, usually takes a tablespoon and a half per batch, and a batch fills up our slow cooker about halfway.

I could write a full post about this if there’s interest, including some of my recipes. Just send me a message on Facebook if you’d like to see that.

Q4: Inexpensive Nintendo Switch games

My husband and I bought our son a Nintendo Switch for Christmas. It is his first video game console and he had been asking for it all year so it was really fun to see him open it. Both sets of grandparents got him a game for it so he has had two games to play. His birthday is coming up soon and we asked him what he wanted and of course he wanted a Switch game. We asked him for a list of the ones he wanted and it has 15 or so games on it. The problem is that they are all $50 or more. Why are Switch games so expensive? Our full birthday gift budget for him is $50. Can you help?
– Anna

This is a consistent challenge with Nintendo’s consoles, and it has been since the 1980s. Nintendo makes very high quality exclusive titles for their consoles – those are usually the ones that wind up filling wish lists for console owners – but they rarely go down in price until later in the console’s production cycle and the Switch is a pretty young system. Trust me – your son isn’t being “greedy” here. He’s probably listing most of the best games for the console, but they all happen to be expensive ones.

I would guess that in a year or two, Nintendo will have a line of some of their top titles from a few years prior as “Platinum” titles for a much lower price point – around $20 – but we’re not there yet.

So what can you do now? My recommendation is to visit a video game store that sells used games, like Gamestop, and see what they have available for the Switch that’s used. Switch games, as you know, come on small cartridges, so it’s very easy to test a game to make sure it works – you can ask them to test it before you buy. Getting a game used in the original packaging will still cost 50% to 75% of the sticker price and the selection may be a bit limited, but this is probably a fairly safe bet for getting one of the games he wants within your price point. A used Switch game is just as good as a new one in terms of someone focused on actually playing the games, so I’d look there.

Another approach would be to give him a gift card to the Nintendo eShop. There are a lot of very good downloadable titles for the Switch, and you use those gift cards to buy those downloadable titles. While this wouldn’t give him any of the games he specifically wants, it would enable him to get a couple of games at least, and there are some very good games for $9.99 or less on the eShop.

Q5: Partner has extreme debt

I recently discovered that my bride-to-be (June) has about $140K in student loan debt. She had said that she had “some” student loans in the past but I did not have any idea how much. I am very uncomfortable with being saddled with that much debt. This has caused a great deal of conflict between us over the last few months and I found this out during the holidays. I am not sure what to do.
– Daniel

The biggest factor I’d look at is her day to day behavior right now. Is she a frugal person? Does she watch her nickels and dimes? Is she committed – not in words but in actions – to getting that debt paid off? Is she making extra payments on that debt? If you see that, then I wouldn’t fret about it. On the other hand, if she seems to think that such a big debt isn’t a big deal, she spends money frivolously all the time, and she isn’t making much progress on that debt… I would think very, very carefully about this relationship, because that’s a value mismatch that’s going to chafe for years and years.

Beyond that, I would also consider what kind of field that her degree is in. Was the degree she earned in a field with a high income potential, or was it something that will never earn a substantial income? Also, I’d look at other factors, like whether or not parental support was promised and then denied.

If she’s aiming for a high paying career, such as medicine or law or some types of engineering, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. If she took out that much debt for a career path that has a very low likelihood of earning a high salary, I would be really concerned. I would also be concerned with that level of debt if there was also significant financial support from her parents – where did all of that money go?

The challenge with marriage is that you are financially tied to each other in a very deep way and her choices regarding the debt she took out for her education are indicative of the decision making process she will likely employ going forward – except now you’ll be financially liable for them.

Having that much debt – unless you are both high income earners – will significantly affect your life decisions for a very long time, likely for the rest of your life. It will delay your ability to have children that you can support financially, for starters. It will alter both of your career choices and possibilities. It will delay your ability to have a home of your own.

I guess, in this situation, what I would really look for are signs of financial maturity beyond that of the student loans. Is she focused on repaying that debt with or without you? Is she making the most of her degree? Does she spend frivolously?

I can’t answer for you whether this woman is worth it to you. She may be perfect for you in every other way, in which case you’ll be happier with her. However, having that much student loan debt, and given the alarm bells it sets off in your head, is a sign of likely incompatibility over financial issues, and that’s not a recipe for a great marriage.

As always, conversation is key, as is paying attention to her actions. What kind of steps is she taking (not just talking about, but taking) in her life knowing that huge debt is sitting there? If you’re struggling to answer that and this debt makes you this uncomfortable, this may not be the best situation for you.

Q6: TSP contribution questions

I am 36 years old, single, no children, no plans to ever marry. I just got a government job that I hope to keep for the rest of my life. Knowing that I am receiving FERS and Social Security already in retirement, how much should I contribute to my TSP to be able to have a comfortable retirement?Want to retire at 65 and have about the same amount of disposable income when I retire.
– Janine

For those unfamiliar, FERS is the pension plan for US federal government employees. TSP is an optional 401(k)-like plan for additional retirement savings.

Based on this, FERS should provide about 33% of your final salary when you retire. Social Security, depending on your income level, will provide somewhere around 30% of your income. That means you need to make up about 37% of your income from TSP.

If you contribute 5% of your salary to TSP, the federal government matches another 4%. Above that, there’s no matching.

Given all of that information, I ran some “back of the envelope” calculations and conclude that given your age and your aim to retire at age 65 with your full salary intact from your various retirement sources and that you want to be able to draw from TSP for the rest of your life, you should contribute 15% of your salary to TSP. This should enable you to withdraw enough from TSP each year to make up your salary shortfall when you retire at age 65 and the TSP balance should last for the rest of your life. You’ll want to invest TSP fairly aggressively – the target retirement options should work.

While I can’t guarantee that 15% will get you there, I can certainly say that it is extremely likely that it will either get you there or get you very close to your goal.

Q7: Uses for old iPod?

Found an old iPod in a desk drawer along with charging cable. Is there any use for this or should I just junk it? I powered it up and it turns on just fine.
– Adam

I don’t own an original iPod (I had one way back in the day but I sold it off circa 2007-2008), but a friend of mine keeps one in her car and listens to music with it every day using a cassette tape adapter. You could do the same thing with an auxiliary cable if your car has an AUX port.

Just load it up with mp3s of a bunch of music and/or podcasts that you like, keep it in your car, and listen to it during commutes. If you have a charger that hooks into the cigarette lighting receptacle in your car, then you can plug into that and keep it permanently charged.

My friend has hundreds of albums that she loved in her teens and twenties. If you like alternative or indie rock from about 1990 to about 2007, there’s a good chance you’ll find a ton to love on her iPod. Just fill yours up to the brim with stuff you like and you’ll always have something to listen to. You can fill it up with the full archives of a podcast and listen to the entire run of a podcast, too. Old iPods are great for these kinds of things.

In other words, use it for what it was intended for. Load it up with audio.

Q8: Job search not that simple

While I appreciate your regular encouragement to go find a new job if your current one is sapping you, it’s not always that simple.

I have been working as a legacy systems programmer for the same company for 16 years. Most of my day is maintaining old code, migrating it to new machines, and dealing with corporate [nonsense]. I literally hate going into work each day.

There aren’t any available jobs nearby that match my skill set. Trust me, I’ve looked. I can’t move because my daughter has particular health care needs and needs to be near a top notch medical facility. That also means I need good insurance.

I can’t just go into work and say, “Well, time to find a new job today!” That’s just a pipe dream.
– Terry

All right, so what jobs are available in your area that are close to your skill set? You’re obviously in a metro area of some kind. I guarantee there are programming jobs in that area. What’s actually available? What things are most similar to your skillset?

Once you know that, start honing your skillset at work so that you can make that leap. Learn how to write tools that will help you with the legacy coding you already do. Start trying to port your legacy code over to a new language for modern systems during your downtime. Use this as an opportunity to learn new languages and paradigms. Get involved with any and all local software development groups. Try to go to their face to face meetings and get heavily involved in any online spaces they have, being as helpful as you possibly can there. Build up some good relationships in your field, then just casually ask about positions that match your refurbished skill set. Also, keep your resume honed on LinkedIn so you can be discovered by people who might be looking for folks in your area.

Don’t aim for hopelessness. Aim for a light at the end of the tunnel. You can do this at any job. I had a job where I was literally shoveling dirt for hours and hours during the middle of the night by myself and yet I found ways to aim that toward my next step.

Q9: Value of authenticating sports cards

I have a bunch of sports cards mostly baseball and basketball from the 1960s. I have looked at selling some of them individually but when I look online almost all sales are authenticated cards in a special holder. I looked into this and it looks like you send your cards to an authentication service and pay them a fee and they put them in a special plastic holder with a tag that says it’s authentic and gives it a grade for its condition. Is this worth it for selling trading cards? Are there ways to sell cards without this kind of service?
– Marvin

You basically described the sports card authentication world pretty well. It exists because there was rampant fraud in older sports cards and other trading cards for a while, so some reputable dealers popped up and started offering authentication and grading services so that people would know exactly what they were buying. It’s become the de facto standard for any sports cards of significant value.

Basically, if the card is older than about 1975 or so, the player has any name recognition at all, and the card is in reasonably good shape, you’re going to make more money selling it after authentication than before, even including the cost of authentication. If it’s a no-name player or it’s beat up, you’re not going to make a whole lot for it anyway, as people will just want those to help complete sets and they won’t sell for more than pennies.

What I’d do is look for Hall of Fame caliber player cards from your collection (or, as a friend of mine said, “Hall of Famers plus Pete Rose”) and get those authenticated to sell individually. The rest, I’d just divide out by set and sell in bulk.

(I have an almost complete 1965 Topps set missing just a few commons that I’ve worked on for literally decades, so I’m fairly familiar with all of this.)

Q10: Financial independence and career plans

So how much “financial independence” would a person need to be able to have full “career independence” where you still want to have a career but you just feel empowered to make whatever choice seems exciting to you without really worrying about salary but still assuming you’re earning a decent salary to live on?

I make about $80K and think I can live well on about $40K so my savings rate is about 30% after taxes. How many years would I have to do this before money exits the equation as a career consideration?
– Barney

I think the real question you’re asking is “how much do I need to save so that retirement is fully covered?” This calculator is probably my preferred one. You’ll want to play around with different settings to see how long you’ll need to save to hit your goals.

The further you are from retirement, the lower your total savings goal will be. Also, if you assume Social Security benefits will come to you at rates similar to what’s available today, the lower your total savings goal will be. You may even be at your target in several years.

However, I’d still recommend that you save for retirement after you hit your goal number if you’re earning a good salary. This allows you to walk away even earlier if you just get tired of the rat race before a typical retirement age.

Q11: Advice for selling books

I have a collection of hardback books I want to sell. What is the best way to get maximum value for them?
– Tracy

First of all, it depends a lot on what books you’re exactly trying to sell. Are they novels? Cookbooks? Old Dungeons and Dragons books? Encyclopedias? You’ll want to go to eBay and try to get a sense as to what they’re actually worth.

You will probably get the maximum value from them by selling them individually. However, that is exponentially more work for only a fairly modest rate of return. You might be able to sell a lot of ten books for $20 or sell them each individually for $3, for example. Is that extra effort in packaging and shipping and tracking and communication for nine additional packages worth the $10 to you?

Another note: if you’re selling books, USPS Media Mail is your friend. It’s a highly discounted shipping rate that applies to sending books through the mail, and it comes with a tracking number. (It’s cheap because it’s slow and USPS knows a book can sit in a warehouse for a day with zero problems.) You should always use this when shipping books and magazines.

Q12: True hourly discretionary income question

I understand how this perspective helps to highlight the high cost of non-necessary spending now in terms of lost leisure in the future. But I think it overstates the cost of non-necessities in terms of hours worked.

In your example where your annual net wage is $34,000 and your annual work hours is 2,740 (so you net $12.41 per hour worked) and your necessities cost $24,600/year, you should account for 1,982 work hours (= $24,600/$12.41 per hour) as covering necessities, leaving 2,740 – 1982 = 758 hours for non-necessities. In each of those 758 hours, you net $12.41/hour, and that is the cost of your necessities in terms of hour worked. So a $50 board game costs you $50/$12.41 per hour = 4 hours, not 10.5 hours.

The key is to see that you still actually net $12.41/hour, regardless of whether those earnings go to necessities or non-necessities.

One way to see this is to realize that the approach in the post can lead to unrealistic implications for the hours of work required to purchase non-necessities. For example, suppose in your example above, necessities are only $10,000 year, and non-necessary spending is then $34,000 – $10,000 = $24,000. If your “hourly wage for non-necessities” is really $4.96/hour like the post says, then it would take $24,000/$4.96 per hour = 4,838 hours to earn that $24,000. But you earned the $34,000 with only 2,740 hours, so something is wrong.
– Max

Max is referring to this article from last week, Using Your True Hourly Discretionary Income to Make Smarter Purchases.

You’re just looking at the same issue in a different way. Rather than looking at each hour as being subdivided between essential expenses and non-essential expenses, you’re doing the same thing with the total hours over a year. In that example, then, 1,741 of the hours you work essentially earn you nothing in terms of spending money, because all of it goes to essentials. So, frugality in essence just means that you’re migrating some of the hours you work from your pool of hours spent on essential expenses to the hours you work for spending money.

My angle was different. I divided the income from each hour into essential expenses and spending money. The essential expenses gobble up $7.45 of the $12.41 you earn each hour, while your spending money makes up only $4.96 of the $12.41 you earn each hour. So, then, you judge whether an expense is worth it using just the $4.96, since it’s the only portion you can actually freely spend. In this case, frugality moves a little bit of money from the $7.45 essential expenses per hour pile to the $4.96 spending money per hour pile.

Got any questions? The best way to ask is to follow me on Facebook and ask questions directly there. I’ll attempt to answer them in a future mailbag (which, by way of full disclosure, may also get re-posted on other websites that pick up my blog). However, I do receive many, many questions per week, so I may not necessarily be able to answer yours.

The post Questions About Checking Accounts, Nintendo Switch, iPods, TSP, and More! appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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The Home Service Club Review: Simpler and Clearer Home Warranties

After shopping for a home warranty for a few days, you may wonder how warranty providers stay in business.

Based on online reviews, you’d think every customer who’s ever bought a warranty had a terrible experience and feels cheated. Reviewers warn potential customers away as if they’re patrolling some kind of abyss.

Naturally, online reviews can’t represent all customers. Still, the high volume of discontent is alarming.

The Home Service Club, a relatively new warranty provider, stands out as an exception.

About The Home Service Club

The Home Service Club opened in 2008 with the goal of simplifying home warranties and providing a more straightforward approach to coverages and caps. So far, based on customer reviews, the company has succeeded.

You can find less expensive premiums and higher spending caps in other companies’ contracts, but you learn the real cost of a warranty when it doesn’t pay for your repair and you have to find some other way to cover the expense.

With The Home Service Club, you’ll have a more reliable way to know when the warranty will pay and when you’ve exceeded its limits. Read on to see why the Home Service Club is one of our top home warranty providers.

The Home Service Club Coverage

The Home Service Club has two base levels of service, Standard and Comprehensive.

Standard Plan

Essentially, the Standard Plan covers the kitchen and laundry area and the primary systems in your home:

• Refrigerator
• Stove (ovens, ranges, cooktops)
• Dishwasher
• Clothes washer and dryer
• Icemaker (freestanding)
• Built-in microwave
• Trash compactor
• Built-in food prep center (processors, etc.)
• HVAC system units
• Electrical system
• Water heater
• Plumbing
• Garbage disposal
• Garage door opener
• Ceiling fans
• Central vacuum

Comprehensive Plan 

The Comprehensive Plan includes items in the Basic Plan, plus the following:

• Plumbing stoppages
• Ductwork
• Pest control
• Gas leaks
• Telephone wiring
• Smoke detectors
• Alarm system wiring
• Attic fans
• Exhaust fans
• Sump pumps
• Doorbells
• Hot / cold water dispensers
• Hot water pump

Additional Services

After you’ve purchased a Basic or Comprehensive warranty from The Home Service Club and waited the required 30 days for the contract to go into effect, you can add on services for an extra annual fee.

Optional coverages include protection for your:

• Sprinkler system
• Freestanding freezer
• Additional refrigerators
• Sub-zero freezers
• Well pump
• Water softener
• Jetted bathtub
• Roof
• Pool and spa
• Sewage ejector pump
• Outside water or power lines (running to an exterior building, for example)

How Much the Home Service Club Costs

Payments 

Home repair costs vary in different parts of the country, so The Home Service Club also varies its fee structures in different markets. The following prices could be different depending on your location:

Premiums: The Basic Plan costs around $500 a year in most areas. The Comprehensive Plan will cost closer to $750 a year. You can break these annual fees down into monthly payments. To get a precise quote customized to your property, you’ll have to enter some contact information on the company’s site.

Fees: Like any home warranty, The Home Service Club will charge an initial service fee to send a technician. The fee could be $65, $95, or $125 depending on your contract. 

The Home Service Club explicitly states in its sample contract what it will and will not repair, along with the spending caps for a one-year term.

Annual caps

 Many of the caps are lower than some other warranties, although it can be hard to know for sure since so many warranty contracts are hard to decipher.

Here’s a sample of The Home Service Club’s annual caps:

• Heating system: $2,500
• Air conditioner: $2,500
• Ductwork: $750
• Water heater: $500
• Electrical system: $500
• Built-in microwave: $500
• Refrigerators: $750
• Garbage disposal: $350
• Clothes dryer: $800
• Icemaker: $400

Additionally, and this is important, the warranty will place a comprehensive cap between $6,000 and $9,000 per year on repairs at your home. If you exceed your annual comprehensive cap, you’re no longer eligible for any service on any system.

• The Basic Plan usually caps annual payouts at $6,000.
• The Comprehensive Plan usually caps annual payouts at $9,000.

The Home Service Club Claims Process

When a covered system in your home needs a repair or replacement (and you’ve waited 30 days after signing the contract) you can contact The Home Service Club to file a claim.

How to File a Claim

The company offers 24-hour coverage, but only online. If you want to phone in a request, you’ll need to call during business hours in the Eastern time zone.

The company also limits coverage on weekends and holidays, even online, so expect to wait longer — up to 48 hours — for a response. Ordinarily, the company does its best to get help to your home within 12 hours.

Who Will Fix My System?

The Home Service Club has a network of about 15,000 contractors and technicians, and the company’s dispatchers will decide which specialist to send to your home. As a customer, you have no control over the process.

This in-network requirement is not unusual for a warranty, and most customers find it preferable to the other alternative: paying for a repair out of pocket from a local contractor and then trying to get reimbursement from the warranty.

What’s Required of Me?

Other than paying the premiums and the service fees — and staying within the annual caps on expenses — you’ll have a couple of other responsibilities:

• Inspections and local codes: If your municipality requires an inspection of a repaired or replaced system, you’ll have to cover any associated costs. The warranty will not pay it. (Many municipalities do not charge for inspections.)
• Regular maintenance: The Home Service Club does not require a pre-inspection of your home’s systems before you sign a contract, but it will not pay to repair systems damaged by a lack of regular maintenance. If you haven’t changed your air conditioner filter in, say, 18 months and this causes a breakdown, your warranty can refuse to cover the expense.

Also, you’ll need to be home, or arrange for someone else who is 18 or older, to be at your home during the repair process.

Canceling the Contract

You can cancel your warranty within the first 30 days at no charge except for an administrative fee up to $45. You can also cancel the contract anytime after the first 30 days, but you will not receive a full refund on premiums paid.

Your refund will be prorated depending on how much time has passed since you entered the contract.

The Home Service Club retains the right to cancel your contract if you don’t pay the premiums, of course. The company can also cancel your contract if you threaten service technicians or customer service reps or if the local laws in your area change in a way that makes service more expensive.

Transferring the contract: If you sell your home, you can arrange uninterrupted coverage for the buyer, but you’ll need to do so in advance. Warranties can be appealing selling points in the real estate market.

Alternatives to the Home Service Club

As you shop for a home warranty, be sure to consider some of the top alternatives to the Home Service Club below.

Who Needs a Home Warranty?

Hundreds of thousands of homeowners opt for home warranties each year because they worry about how they’d afford a major home repair.

When you buy a new car or a new iMac, your warranty can almost guarantee your product will be repaired or replaced during the warranty’s period. 

A home warranty can’t offer this kind of guarantee because the company didn’t make the products it agrees to protect. A better term for a home warranty may be “service contract.”

When you pay your premiums, you’re pooling your resources with thousands of other customers to shield yourself against unexpected home repair costs and service bills.

When Not to Buy a Home Warranty

If you don’t need this kind of shield, a warranty won’t make as much sense for you. For example, you may not need a home warranty if:

• You could set aside money: Unexpected repairs could cost thousands of dollars, and you may need the money quickly, especially if your air conditioner needs to be replaced and it’s the middle of July. If you have a healthy emergency fund set up, you won’t need to rely so much on a warranty.
• You could borrow money at low interest: Banks and other lenders, and even some contractors, offer low or no-interest borrowing promotions if you need a large repair and don’t have the cash. This option won’t work unless you have good credit, though. And stay away from this idea if you can’t repay the loan within the promotional interest-free period.
• You could fix a lot of things yourself: If you are a contractor or if you’re experienced at repairing a wide variety of home systems, you may be your own warranty, though it’s still smart to set aside money for parts and new components.
• Your house is brand new: New homes can have problems, too, but you may be less worried about replacing entire systems in a newer home. Also, many new systems in a home may already have their own manufacturer’s warranties.

When to Buy a Home Warranty

The best candidates for a home warranty such as The Home Service Club often include people who:

• Have an older home: You can cross your fingers all day, but a 25-year-old HVAC system or a 15-year-old refrigerator may not last much longer. If you’ve bought an older home with older systems, a warranty could save you thousands of dollars on repairs.
• Have limited financial flexibility: Sure, you’ll pay $500 or so a year in premiums with The Home Service Club, but the warranty could save you up to $6,000 if a lot of stuff went wrong at your home this year.
• Wants a one-call solution: Some people just don’t have the time or energy to find quality contractors for expensive repairs. A warranty such as The Home Service Club’s plans offer convenience because you can call one number for most of your repair needs.

Is The Home Service Club Right for You?

Only you can decide whether The Home Service Club would be worthwhile for your home. I will say this: I like the clarity of The Home Service Club when compared to other companies.

Premiums and fees may be higher than some other companies’ plans, and annual payout caps may also be lower with The Home Service Club in comparison to other contracts.

But with The Home Service Club, you have a pretty clear expectation for what you’re getting in return for those costs.

Too many warranties claim to offer instant service and complete coverage, all of which sounds great. Only later do customers learn about the warranty’s exclusions and limitations.

Studying the Contract Reduces Your Risk

Home warranties pitch the concept of “peace of mind” to customers who worry about excessive home repair costs. This is an abstract concept. You need some concrete facts before signing a contract.

Fortunately, you can see a sample contract from The Home Service Club before you even share your email address or phone number with the company. Read the contract carefully to learn about its limitations.

Before signing, though, read over the actual contract you’ll be agreeing to because it could work a little differently from the sample contract.

A Warranty Isn’t a Long-Term Commitment

Unlike homeowners insurance, which you should always have in force to protect your property from external damage, a home warranty is an option. Most warranties, including The Home Service Club’s plans, work on annual contracts.

Someone who needs a warranty now but may not need it next year or in a few years can simply opt not to renew the contract. Remember, too, that you’re not locking in a premium or fees for more than one year at a time. Next year the company could increase your premiums or raise service fees.

Bottom Line: Consider Your Options and Study the Fine Print

Warranties incite customer anger for one reason: when the peace of mind the warranty promises turns out to be a false sense of security.

Avoid this snare by reading any contract carefully before signing. Whether it’s the Home Service Club’s contract or another warranty company’s plan, it’ll be worth your time and money to understand each limitation of the contract.

Read it line by line. Make an evening of it after dinner. Read it aloud if you need help staying awake.

This way you can find out exactly how the contract builds its promise to shield you from unexpected home repair expenses.

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Frozen Fruits and Vegetables Save You Money and Are as Healthy as Fresh

Dear Celery,

I meant well. I swear I did. I bought you with the best of intentions from the produce section and even cut you up for snacking. That was the last we saw of each other, until I found you again weeks later, white and sad.

You’ve probably seen the television ad where the lady puts her strawberries in the fridge, eats a few and then forgets all about them. (Don’t get me started on their use of the “Married Life” song from Disney-Pixar’s “Up.” Carl lost Ellie — spoiler alert! — during that song, not some berries.)

It’s a common tale. We’re taught to shop the outside aisles of the grocery store, because fresh products are healthier than their alternatives.

It now seems that concept is slightly flawed, and more of us are catching on by shopping for produce in the freezer aisle.

How to Save Money on Produce (Hint: Buy Frozen)

Simply put, frozen produce retains almost all of the health benefits of fresh produce, but with far less waste.

Most fresh produce has a refrigerator life of a few days at best. For frozen produce, that window can be extended up to one year, with little to no significant difference in nutritional value.

And frozen produce is cheaper to ship and store than fresh fruits (pretty but pricy displays in the supermarket require paying employees to maintain — and think how fast those fresh veggies wilt), which makes buying a bag easier on your wallet.

For fans of The Penny Hoarder, this shouldn’t be big news. We’ve been promoting the frozen food aisle as a great way to reduce waste in your kitchen. Less wasted food means less wasted money, right?

A study published by the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found that peas, carrots and corn actually had higher levels of vitamin E than their fresh counterparts.

This is great news for savvy shoppers. You can eat healthily, save money and waste less food. Just keep your eyes on the frozen produce section, and avoid turning toward those beckoning frozen pizzas and ice-cream treats closeby.

Tyler Omoth is a former senior writer at The Penny Hoarder.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.

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