Hello Ellen J, It seems to me that you have two kinds of debt, possibly three. You bought a large asset that very few people are able to pay for with cash, namely a home. It will be an asset that will provide benefit for years, may go up in value. You paid for it with a large mortgage - I note that the amount of the mortgage was close to the purchase price, so you had a minimal down payment apparently. You didn't refer to student loans, which are a major debt carried by many youngish people. They, too, are an investment from which one expects to receive a benefit for many years. Consequently one can justify paying for it over an extended period - though the longer time that it takes, the lower standard of living one will enjoy throughout that period, due to ongoing interest costs. However - how long are you willing to pay for a loaf of bread, a night out on the town, or substantial repairs to your vehicle? Thirty years? The life of a mortgage? Most credit card debt is incurred to purchase things or services that we use up right away, or over a short period. If we pay off outstanding balances right away, we are living within our means, but if we carry outstanding balances owing over a period, we are condemning ourselves to living less high on the hog in future than now, for we enjoyed that dinner out tonight, but are going to continue to pay for it for months, even years. An extra cost is that which we pay in interest on that loan. If we carry the outstanding balance over the end of the year, then we will live less well next year, for we have that interest added to the debt, every month. With credit card debts, the rate is high. And almost always non-deductible. It seems to me that you should resolve to go into emergency saving mode and pay off those current debts as soon as possible. I am not in favour of adding them to a mortgage, thus paying them over 30 years or so. Do you want to be still paying for a loaf of bread in 2017 that you ate in 2006? I think not. I am reluctant to suggest that you make your savings plan drastic, as I gather from your message that you and hubby are not entirely in agreement as to the way to handle this issue, so you may well have less than enthusiastic agreement from him as to how to deal with this issue. By the way, I agree that you should plan to pay for stuff in cash, refusing to use the credit cards. Keep one in hand, though, in case of dire emergency need. But make sure that you use it for nothing else. Are you a kid or a grown up? I have some reservation about using part of hubby's bonus for emergency fund, though as a personal financial advisor I tell people all the time that they should have one as a high priority item in their financial agenda. However, if you are paying the 18% - 28% or so interest rates on current outstanding credit card balances, doesn't it make more sense to use most of the available bonus to pay down those current debts, knowing that the one or two credit cards that you have on hand can be used to cover emergencies - and you won't have to start paying interest on such debts until you incur them, but you're paying high rates on current debt now. Good wishes for making the best decision in this circumstance, and for having the self-will and courage to see it through. Good wishes for learning how money works. It's an interesting hobby - and one of the few hobbies that pays well. If you don't boss your money - it'll boss you. ole joyful

I read the exchange above a few weeks ago and it stuck in my mind because I've been thinking maybe we should refinance (again). We refinanced three and a half years ago to a 30-year mortgage at 6.125%. Rates are so much lower right now that I keep wondering if it would be worthwhile to take advantage of them. However, every time I do the calculations, it does not seem worth it. For example, I just did them again, using a plan offered by ING as comparison to what we have: 2.990% for five years, based on a 30-year amortization, with the balance due after five years. Compared with keeping our current mortgage, the overall savings (i.e., the balance at the end of five years minus the closing costs -- which are low right now because they have an offer going of discounting $2,000 from closing costs) would be a bit less than $4,000. Rates any higher than the 2.99% (e.g., if we went with a straight 30-year mortgage from a bank) would yield even less in savings. The ING mortgage would be about $350 less per month than what we're paying now. But I think overall, taking tax deductions, closing costs, and all the rest into consideration, it would be more or less a wash, right? Plus, a plan like the one offered by ING forces you to either pay off or refinance after five years, whereas with our 30-year mortgage, we have the security of a stable payment that is really fairly low. We have no other debts, btw, and are putting the max into retirement accounts. We live on about a third of our gross income.

Mariah, here is my recipe for an oil-based pie crust. It is not "flaky" like a crust made with shortening, but it is very good and tasty. You roll it out between wax paper. I think you could add some natural sweetener to the dough for a sweeter pie. I also use it for quiche. I'm including my lowfat quiche recipe too, you and your hubby might like it. It's an easy, relatively painless way to add tofu to your diet. The crust sounds like it might go well with apple pie too! Pie Crust Mix together: 2 cups whole wheat PASTRY flour 2 tsp. salt (or a little less, depending on how strict your diet is) Here's where you could add a TBLSP of natural sugar Put 4 TBLSP COLD water into 1/2 cup of canola oil. Stir until bubbles are uniformly distributed. Pour liquid into flour mixture and stir. Separate into 2 piles and roll out between wax paper. Will hang together once it's rolled out. Low Calorie Quiche (from "Vegetarian Times" magazine) Crust: 1/2 cup rolled oats, ground into flour in a food processor (or oat bran) 1/2 cup whole wheat flour 1/2 cup unbleached white flour 1/4 tsp. salt 1/8 tsp. baking powder 1/4-1/3 cup canola oil 2 TBLSP lemon juice 1 1/2 tsp. honey 2-3 TBLSP cold water 1-2 tsp. sesame seeds Mix dry ing. together. Drizzle in oil until mixture looks like coarse sand. Add lemon, honey and 2 TBLSP water until the dough forms a ball. Add more water if necessary. Roll out between wax paper. Can sprinkle the pan first with sesame seeds. Prick crust on sides and bottom. Prebake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Note: sesame seeds are undigestible whole. Toast them LIGHTLY in the oven, then grind in the blender or food processor, but not too much or you'll end up with tahini, lol! Store in the fridge and use as a topping for rice dishes, etc. Quiche Filling ing. 1 tsp. water or olive oil 1 cup minced onion 1 tsp. minced garlic (or less!) 3 cups small broccoli florets 1-2 TBLSP water 2 large egg whites 10 oz package soft, silken tofu (Mori Nu brand comes in a cardboard box and you can keep it on the shelf, so you can stock up when you hit a big city with a comprehensive grocery or health food store, but there are other brands out there which might be at your local store too) 1 TBLSP prepared dijon mustard 1 tsp. dried basil or rosemary 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg 1/4 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. white pepper 1-2 TBLSP grated parmesean cheese (you can substitute nutritional yeast for the parmesean. Nutritional yeast is NOT brewer's yeast, which is a nutritional supplement. Nutritional yeast is a yellow, flaky powder, is a great cheese substitute for sprinkling. You'll find it in the refrigerator section of a health food store. Store it in your fridge at home.) Heat the oil or water in a skillet over med. heat. Add onion and sautee 3-5 minutes until translucent. Add garlic and broccoli and 1-2 TBLSP water. Steam until broccoli is bright green, about 2 min. Drain veggies if watery. Place in the pre-baked crust. Whip egg whites until frothy. Add tofu, spices and parmesean. Blend until smooth. Pour into pie crust. Can garnish with red pepper strips if desired, but not necessary. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 min. Watch the crust edges!

No, cmarlin, I was not talking about self-employed people. And as for 'Ughhh, I don't want to be like those other countries. Look at the total picture, do you really want to have that?' Yes, I would. Among other things, a system in which such things as healthcare are not at the whim of the employer would stabilize a lot of lives. If it weren't for the huge jump in my healthcare costs due to changing jobs - new copays are much, much higher - we would be able to keep our house. (Guess that's my own fault for having the bad taste to get a chronic illness and not recover or die. :-) I'm very grateful for the coverage I do have, of course, considering I spent the first 2 1/2 years I was ill with no medical care whatsoever. But it doesn't make it any more pleasant when a prescription that cost me $10 in December now costs me $50 or more.) 'How can a full time employee get no paid vacation? I work in employee benefits and don't understand that one.' Before I became disabled in the mid-1990s, I had never received either paid vacation days, paid holidays, or paid sick days: I didn't work, I didn't get paid, it was as simple as that. I don't know what there is to understand or not understand. I worked in the restaurant business - almost entirely for independents, not chains, since I preferred actually cooking to reheating and assembling prepackaged stuff. ;-) Most of my friends and family are at the lowest income levels (some of them make not much more than minimum wage) and work for smaller companies, and those two factors tend to drastically reduce access to benefits like paid time off. The more you get paid in the private sector, the more likely you are to get paid time off and other nice bennies... at the other end, you get to be happy you have a job at all. (Anyone read Barbara Ehrenreich's 'Nickel & Dimed'?) In the US there is NO 'right' to paid time off of any kind; even the FMLA provides only for unpaid time off, which in the lower income levels is a joke. The Fair Labor Standards Act says specifically that there is no legal right to pay for hours not worked (even for Federal holidays where the employee may be involuntarily prevented from working because the workplace is closed). I have posted a link below to the report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research on vacation/paid leave time in the US versus other countries. Here is a link that might be useful: 'No-Vacation Nation'