Since I finished my taxes, and my mom finished hers, I was able to fill out out my financial aid paperwork today. When you finish up the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), it spits a number out at you: your so-called “Expected Family Contribution.” This is the amount that the government expects your family to contribute out of pocket to your education for the year.

My EFC came out a little higher than usual this year, at $1148.

Now, if that was the actual number that the school charged me out of pocket every year, I wouldn’t have had to leave school, now would I? I really wonder if this number means anything at all to the bean counters in the school’s financial aid office, because it really doesn’t seem like it.

I’m going to do some math, but most likely, if I do manage to go back to school in the fall, I’ll be commuting from home. It will make me decidedly “un-cool,” but at least I’ll have my own room.

“From My Reader” is a weekly series, highlighting one of over 30 blogs that I track using Google Reader.

I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi is the personal finance blog that got me interested in personal finance blogs, so I hold it very close to my heart. Ramit’s writings are full of no-nonsense, kick-in-the-butt type advice meant to jumpstart people in their twenties, and get us thinking about personal finance.

If you’ve never been to the site, start out by visiting the Table of Contents, where you can see every article on the site laid out in an easy format. If you’re new to personal finance as well at Ramit’s site, try starting out by reading the Introductory Articles - that’s where I started, and look at me now! Er… well, I mean, look at my knowledge now, not my net worth! ;o)

Ramit’s focus is more on people getting started and knowing what they spend their money on, rather than just being insanely frugal. I have to agree - what good does it do to save money if you don’t know how much you’re spending the in first place?

Does Ramit make money from his site? People ask that like it’s some indicator for how reliable the information is. Ridiculous question, but nevertheless: Yes, Ramit makes money, but indirectly. I Will Teach You To Be Rich contains no ads. Instead, readers contact him to give personal finance seminars, and recently he sold a short ebook on the site, which I myself purchased and enjoyed.

Recent articles worth reading:
Some people think there’s only a limited amount of money
Free chapter from Ramit’s 2007 Guide to Kicking Ass (the ebook)
Personalized tax answer for iwillteachyoutoberich readers - The second question answered was mine, and because of this, I was finally able to do my taxes!

Update: All of the contests in this entry have now expired! But I’m always on the lookout for blog-based giveaways (which have better odds than large-scale giveaways), so you might want to subscribe to this site to keep an eye out for future contests!

The Air’s $25 Amazon Gift Certificate contest ends on Friday, March 30th. To enter, you just need to add The Air to your Technorati favorites or join the MyBlogLog community. If you do both, you get two entries in the contest! As of right now, there are 18 entries, making your odds of winning close to 1:19. The contest is done, and I won it! See, you guys should have entered and given me more competition!

John Chow’s Evil Blog Contest to win a Nintendo Wii is slated to end at the end of the month. You’ll need to write a blog post to his particular specifications, and then email in the link to enter. Check out my Nintendo Wii post for an example. I counted 97 entries (by counting the pingbacks in his blog post), so your odds of winning are close to 1 in 100 - very, very good odds for a the prize! Contest over, the winner has not yet been announced. I’ve got my fingers crossed!

UNEASYsilence is also doing a Wii Giveaway! Find a way to promote the contest on the web (blog post, adding it to your del.icio.us, whatever you can think of), then leave a comment on the contest page with the link to where you made the mention of the contest. Easy-peasy! Over 200 entries so far, so odds are 1:200 currently. Ends 3AM (-5 GMT) on April 6th.

WOWIO is still doing it’s free iPod Shuffle giveaway to those who can convince 10 friends to sign up. The contest has no end date, simply a “while supplies last,” so you might want to hurry up before they decide to cut it off. Remember to put in

vanpattenjames@gmail.com

when it asks you who referred you, as doing so will help a friend of mine get his iPod, and thus give you good iPod karma! =D Odds of winning: 1:1, provided you have 10 friends that would be interested in free ebooks (or their own shot at a free iPod shuffle). I managed to get 10 friends to sign up in just two days!

Oh man, the IRS is getting creative these days! They’ve noticed that MMORPGs (Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Games) have extremely intricate monetary systems, and they’re thinking of taxing those systems. Um… what?

I can somewhat understand the move to tax Linden dollars, the currency in the game Second Life, which is the main topic of the CNN Money article. Linden dollars actually have a conversion into cold, hard, American currency. But what bothers me is the mention of taxing the money in World of Warcraft. The logic being that because there’s an exchange of goods, there should be a tax (just as you can tax bartering in the real world). From the article:

Tax law is murky, however, when it comes to dealings that occur solely within Second Life or other computer-simulated environments. For instance, is a transaction that occurs only in Linden dollars and doesn’t involve any real-world, dollar exchange taxable?

and

But there is a valid argument that even profits that come from, and stay in, the virtual world are taxable, according to Bryan Camp, a professor at Texas Tech University School of Law. “As soon as you start looking at what’s going on in these worlds, they look a lot like real economic transactions,” he said.

Even if profit isn’t realized in real dollars, there’s still an exchange of items of economic value. In the real world, if someone trades goods or services without the exchange of real money - also known as bartering - that’s a taxable event, Camp noted.

Now, I’ve never played World of Warcraft (although many people have tried to convince me!), but I have played Everquest and Guild Wars (oh man, my geek is showing!), so I feel qualified enough to comment on this.

Basically, it’s a giant crock. Sure, you’re exchanging goods and services… in the game. And yeah, some people do sell game money on eBay. But you have to, have to, have to remember that it’s still a game. Unless the IRS is prepared to tax my Monopoly winnings, they should really stay out of this.

That is, of course, unless they’re going to allow you to pay your entire tax bill in game money. After all, if they’re taxing you for both your day job income and your game income, you should be able to pay your taxes entirely in either currency.

And I’m really not that opposed to paying my taxes entirely in Guild Wars gold. You know, provided I can still get my refund checks in gold ole American dollars! ;o)

I guess I can lightly glow with some amount of pride- I just finished my 2006 tax returns.

I would have liked to do my taxes for free, and I probably could have, by e-filing my federal return, and then doing my state returns by hand and mailing them in. But I was a tad worried about doing my state taxes right, because I worked in two states during 2006. Also, I’m lazy. So I paid for the whole she-bang.

Last year with TurboTax*, my taxes (one federal and one state) cost me $48.05 to e-file. Did I manage to do any better this year? Yes, yes, I did. The big thing this year is “free federal filing!” but then everybody catches you by making you pay for your state returns. Fooey! Like I said, I didn’t actually manage to work around this - I just shelled out my money and grimaced.

On a tip from Flexo, I checked out TaxACT. I was drawn in by their Online Deluxe + State deal for $15.95. What I really liked about this was that it offered to give me a nice worksheet to use when I fill out my financial aid paperwork. I didn’t bother to look at how much it would cost me for the second state’s return, which ended up being $12.95.

So…

I Could Have:
Used TaxACT’s Standard edition and done my federal return for free.
Paid $12.95 for each state return.
For a total of: $25.90

But Instead, I:
Used TaxACT’s Deluxe + State edition for federal and one state: $15.95
Paid $12.95 to file the other state’s return.
For a total of $28.90

So was the financial aid worksheet worth the extra $3? In hindsight, no, not really. It won’t save me more than a few minutes on my paperwork, especially considering my mother likely won’t use TaxACT, so I won’t get a nice worksheet like it for her half of the paperwork.

The good news? I’m done with my taxes, and it cost me over $20 less than last year. I call that a win!

*Affiliate link. Because I can.

Huzzah! I signed up for Blingo almost two months ago, and finally, I won something! Actually, I didn’t win… but I did. Cause with Blingo, if anyone you referred wins a prize, you win that prize as well. And one of my referrals won a Fandango ticket today, so I won one too! He immediately IMed me, and as soon as we get them in the mail, the two of us are going to the movies. At the nice theater. FOR FREE.

I <3 Blingo!

When I was a little girl, American Girl dolls were so cool. My best friend and I were obsessed with them. We both read the books and talked about how much we wanted dolls of our own, and poured over the catalogs, pointing out all the accessories we’d get when we finally got our dolls.

We both read the books, too. My best friend liked Samantha, whereas I was a Kristen and Molly girl. I liked the Molly books the best, but I wanted a Kirsten doll because she looked like me (duh!). Every time the catalog would come (which was often), I would beg and beg and beg my mom to buy me one.

Pssh! That never happened. My parents learned their lesson about buying me expensive things when I was four years old. They bought me a really nice gold locket - and I proceeded to stick it in my mouth and chew on it whenever I wore it. I don’t think I’ve ever had anything expensive since then, except maybe my car.

But my best friend eventually got her Samantha doll, and we spent some time playing with her, which mostly involves dressing the doll up and talking about the books. It didn’t take long for me to realize, even at a young age, that the dolls weren’t all they were cracked up to be. They just made you want to buy even more accessories for them - and the catalogs certainly provided enough of those for us to yearn for.

It’s not that I didn’t play with dolls. I had Barbies and Cabbage Patch dolls - it-s just that I realized American Girl dolls were so friggin expensive, you couldn’t really do anything with them, for fear you might damage them. On my Cabbage Patch doll (which was reasonably priced since I was years younger than the craze period), I had no qualms using her hair to teach myself to braid. But American Girl doll hair was so delicate and pretty looking, I wouldn’t have dared style it myself.

What fun is that? A doll you’re afraid to play with?

Still, even today, the idea of owning an American Girl doll is pretty ingrained in my psyche. Maybe it’s because I loved the books so much. Or maybe it’s some residual jealousy that my best friend got one, and I never did. Or maybe it’s just ingenious marketing having left a permanent stamp on my impressionable brain. I. Still. Want. One.

Or at least, I did, until five minutes ago. Then I saw this post on Consumerist: American Girl Place Mocks 6 Year-Old For Having A Doll From Target, Refuses To Style The Doll’s Hair (which describes the blog post “Fake Out” by blogger “One of those horrible moms”).

Oh. My. God. There aren’t even words to describe my disgust. At this moment, I’m ashamed this company got my family’s money for the books, and I’m thanking all of my stars that I never put out the $80 or whatever it was for a full-blown doll.

I was actually looking forward to the idea of someday, in the far, far, distant future, maybe having a daughter and getting her one of these dolls. Or maybe even buying one for my niece in a few years (she’s two years old right now).

No way, now! Forget it, American Girl - you’re dirty. This also falls under my category of “Not Understanding Companies That Make It Difficult For You To Give Them Your Money.”

The following clip from “Family Guy” demonstrates why you simply shouldn’t put yourself in a position to owe money to family members. It also demonstrates why you shouldn’t lend money to family, either. Although in the clip, the money exchange is due to a bet, this really goes for lending money as well.

Warning: Gratuitous, and hilarious, violence, as well as some language.

Both parties end up feeling guilty at the end - Brian for ducking out on the money he owed, and Stewie for causing Brian so much pain while trying to get the money. Also, everybody gets hurt. Even though your brother-in-law might not actually come after you with a flame thrower if you owe him money, he might feel like he wants to.

Simply put, don’t do it. It just causes problems.

“From My Reader” is a weekly series, highlighting one of over 30 blogs that I track using Google Reader.

Love him or hate him, John Chow knows how to make money online. In just a few months, he’s pulled a blog up from making nothing at all, to pulling in more than $7,000 a month.

John’s main tactic is to simply blog about how to make money online - especially with a blog! Oh, meta blogs, how I love thee! It’s a topic that nearly every other blogger is interested, even if only in passing.

He’s also decidedly pretty evil – leveraging his audience to meet his goals of increasing his revenue. But of course, we don’t mind, because by using us to make more money, he’s showing us how to do so! It’s all very incestuous, in a way… but I’m not complaining.

The main example of this is what you’re seeing right now: John offers a linkback to anyone who reviews his site. This is beneficial all around: his search engine ranking skyrocket, because of all the incoming links, and in turn, the linkbacks help all the blogs that linked to him.

John Chow is one of the few bloggers that can pull of a ReviewMe post and make me actually want to read it. He doesn’t just shill a site – he visits it, dissects it, and lays out his findings for his audience to see.

Speaking of dissecting, my favorite post of his has nothing to do with making money, but rather with him eating a live lobster. I hate lobsters, as a rule, because I’m girly and I think they’re gross. With that said, I could never eat a live lobster, because I never want a lobster within ten feet of me!

The posts I find most valuable are located in the Make Money Online section, but the other sections are definitely worth checking out. As far as improvement, I catch a grammar error here or there, and it always irks me. I know English isn’t John’s first language (and yet, his grammar is far superior to many people that I know), but I’m a grammar Nazi! (This does not go for my own site. I don’t proofread my own site. I hate proofreading myself! I’d rather criticize others!)

So why is John Chow in my reader? Because he writes on a topic that interests me, and he writes in a style that’s engaging. And he’s evil… and I like that!

Reader Vj dropped by with the following question:

If you have $10,000 worth of credit card debt at 10% interest would it be advantageous to get a loan from your 401K to pay it off and pay yourself back?

According to Liz Pulliam Weston over at MSN Money, this is one of the 7 most common 401(k) blunders. I’m not sure things are so black and white, but here’s what her article says:

What seems like a great idea — Borrow your own money! Pay yourself interest! — has plenty of traps for the unwary:

~ The biggest pitfall is the risk you take should you lose your job. Your loan would become due, and, if you couldn’t pay it back at once, you would owe income taxes and penalties on the unpaid balance.

~ The interest rate you pay yourself may be lower than what you would pay most other creditors, but paying yourself interest is no substitute for the real return you would be earning if you had invested those payments instead.

~ Borrowing from your retirement funds is often a sign that you’re overspending — particularly if you’re using the proceeds to pay off credit card debt. People who use “easy outs” like 401(k) and home-equity loans to pay off their cards often don’t change the underlying behavior that put them in the hole. They just run up their balances again, winding up another day older and deeper in debt.

There are several great points in there, but in the end it is still a possibility. But I would rank it as a “last resort.” Then again, if you’re having trouble paying your credit card debt, wouldn’t you also have trouble paying your 401(k) loan?

There are some definite alternatives you should look into first. Try this:

Find some “0% APR for one year on balance transfers!” credit card offers. These are very common - Chase is offering it on their Freedom card, currently. There’s always several floating around. Read over the terms, but don’t apply yet.

Call up your current credit card company, and tell them, firmly but politely, that you’re going to get this 0% balance transfer, and move your money off their card. Chances are, they’ll offer you a lower rate. Take it. This way, even if you can’t move your money, or if you can only move some of it, you have a lower rate on the original card.

Apply for that 0% balance transfer card, and hopefully, you’ll be approved. Move as much of the balance as you think you can pay off before the introductory rate ends. This part is very important. If you can’t pay off the whole $10,000 before the intro rate is up, and the regular rate isn’t better than your original card(s), then only move what you can pay off in the year.

This plan assumes that you’ve been making regular payments on all of your cards and bills, and thus have a clean enough credit history to qualify for a 0% intro rate. Since the original question had 10% interest rates on the credit card, that’s a pretty safe assumption (if your recent credit history was bad, you’d be looking down the barrel of 30+%!).

All in all, the 401(k) is not the first place I would look, not by any means. Do you have savings sitting around earning less than 10%? Do you qualify for a Prosper loan at less than 10%? Is there anything you can trim down in your budget to free up some more funds for paying down this debt? If you can’t spend less, can you think of any ways to earn more?

Oh, and cut up the card(s) until it’s paid off. Once it is paid off, if you feel that you can use it without carrying a balance month-to-month, you can always call up the card company and have them issue you a new one. But no matter what method you use to pay down your debt, especially if it’s a loan from your 401(k), the key is to not charge anything more to that credit card.

Learn More: debt consolidation loans may not be your best option, Learn the Secrets to debt free living. Our certified counselors will structure a debt solution that works for you.