Another book giveaway! Free! Free!

I’m giving away five (count ‘em! 5!) copies of my book, “The 10 Commandments of Money,” which recently came out in paperback.

To enter to win a copy, leave a comment here on my blog (not my Facebook page). Make sure to include your email address (which won’t show up with your comment, but I’ll be able to see it). The winners will be chosen at random. Then check your email (including your spam filter). If I don’t hear from a winner by 8 a.m. Monday, his or her prize will be forfeited and I’ll pick another winner.

Also, check back here often. I’m giving away a bunch of other authors’ money books as well, starting next week.

The deadline to enter is midnight Pacific time on Friday. So–comment away!

How I outsource my life (Part II)

You’d think a grown woman could dress herself. You’d be wrong.

While I never actually left the house naked, for years I had a closet full of clothes I didn’t particularly like. I had no real clue what might look good on me or how to put together stylish outfits.

Fashion was a mystery I’d never cracked. Maybe I lacked the gene for it, or maybe it was my upbringing in rural Washington state (where you can still, to this day, find people wearing mullets).

Then one day a few years ago, a friend recommended I contact The Closet Concierge. My life was transformed.

Our first session started with a discussion about my body shape. Turns out I’m an apple: My shoulders are somewhat larger than my hips, so all those narrow-lapel suits I’d been wearing made me look like a linebacker. We talked about my fear of color (why wear fuchsia when you can stick to practical blacks and greys?). We talked about my inability to accessorize.

We also talked about why style is important. I’d always dismissed fashion, defensively, as frivolous. My wardrobe consultant convinced me that fashion was more like a conversation, a way to signal that we’re aware of what’s going on in the world around us. I always thought that practical, “classic” clothes communicated that I was thoughtful and serious; my consultant pointed out the difference between “classic” and “outdated,” saying, “Nobody wants to take advice from somebody who looks like a banker. Circa 1990.”

We spent several hours going through every single item in my closet and dresser. We wound up with 16 garbage bags for Goodwill—two-thirds of my wardrobe, out the door.

Then she took me out shopping, filling two dressing rooms in advance with options I would never, ever have picked out on my own. I spent about three hours trying stuff on and getting fashion tips along the way—what went with what, how to tell quality construction from cheap, what was “on trend” and what wasn’t. I bought most of what she’d selected, almost all at deep discounts, since my consultant doesn’t believe in paying retail (bless her). We got all the pieces I needed for a versatile, great-looking wardrobe, and then she showed me how to put together multiple outfits, complete with shoes and accessories. We photographed the best looks so I’d have visual reminders when I couldn’t figure out what to wear.

The closet clean-out and the shopping trip each cost about $300. Refilling my emptied-out closets set me back about $1,000. But I’d spent far more than that over the years on outfits that didn’t work.

Now my wardrobe consultant and I get together about every six months to go shopping and sort through what I already have to create new looks. My annual budget for clothing and the wardrobe consultant’s help is somewhat higher than what I used to spend, but I’m getting far greater utility (as economists would say) from my expenditure.

Hubby is proud of the way I look, and I feel more confident that I’m putting my best (still sensibly shod but more stylish) foot forward. For the first time in my life, I’m getting a steady stream of compliments from other women about what I wear. That did NOT happen in the 1990s banker days. It feels great to look good—not just for speaking engagements and television appearances, but when I run to the grocery store or hang out with my book club.

I’ll never be a fashionista, but when I leave the house these days I hope I communicate that financially smart doesn’t mean frumpy.

This is the second in a series of posts on how I’ve outsourced various portions of my life. You can read Part I here.

How I outsource my life (Part I)

Bundled up with the top down in Yosemite

When money is tight, DIY is the way to go. Cleaning your own house, cutting your own hair, even changing your car’s oil can make sense.

I’ve done all those things. I don’t anymore. Because at some point, hopefully, you start to make more money and your spending decisions become more about saving time…and improving the quality of your life.

I’ve been thinking about this lately because I’ve outsourced a few new tasks—big ones. And I’ve been really happy with the results.

I’m not new to outsourcing. I hired my first house cleaner in my early 30s, even though I cleaned houses in college and got pretty good at it. Long hours as a newspaper reporter made the help seem like an achievable luxury. Then I got married, and outsourced housekeeping became a key part of a happy marriage.

Somebody else cuts my hair and changes my oil now, too. I’ve experimented with virtual assistants, delivery services and other ways to free up time, with generally good results.

But these latest ventures into outsourcing have been “wow” experiences—as in “Wow, this is great! Why didn’t I do this sooner?”

I’ll be writing about my experiences with outsourcing over the next few weeks. Here’s the first one:

A car purchase. Hubby wanted a new car, and we can afford this luxury, so I started my usual round of email queries to various dealers’ Internet departments. Only, the holidays were approaching. And I wanted to plan our daughter’s Harry Potter birthday party. We had two trips coming up, plus I was promoting two books. With everything going on, I quickly lost patience with dealership games.

Instead of offering me quotes on the car we wanted, salesmen claimed the cars were in short supply, or that they had the car but I had to come to the lot, or—my personal favorite—they tried to sell me a different car. (We wanted the convertible automatic transmission in black or blue; one dealership sent a quote for a white hardtop, manual transmission.)  I thought I had a deal with AutoNation to special order the car for a decent price–$1,500 below invoice—but after leaving voicemails and emails with my rep saying I wanted to pull the trigger, I never heard back.

So I called up Oren Weintraub at Authority Auto, a car concierge I’d interviewed a few weeks before as part of a column on “Take the hassle out of car buying.”

Oren found the car we wanted within hours (turns out it wasn’t as scarce as the dealers had told me). He negotiated a price $2,000 below invoice, and came up with a good deal on our trade-in ($1,500 more the average trade-in value, according to Edmunds.com). Authority Auto dropped off our new car and picked up the old one. We never had to set foot in the lot, and the whole thing was done within a few days of our first conversation.

We paid $795 his services. It was worth every penny. Now I can’t imagine buying a car any other way.

I originally hesitated at hiring a car concierge because I was pretty sure I could negotiate a better deal, once the concierge’s fee was added in. After this experience, I’m not so sure. And when you add in the luxury of having the car delivered to your door…well, I’m sold.

Next: I should be able to dress myself, right? Not so much. Learn more in “How I outsource my life (Part II).”

How many of us are really poor?

My latest MSN column (click HERE to read it) takes a deep dive into recent reports that nearly half of U.S. households are either low income or poor. The Census has been experimenting with new ways to measure poverty, but it’s questionable whether half of us are really struggling.

Still, there’s no question that a lot of people have a hard time making ends meet. Median incomes have dropped, unemployment has soared and tighter credit standards make it harder to get the loans that in the past papered over the fact that so many people’s living standards had dropped.

That’s depressing. But most people have at least some control over their economic fate. There’s a big difference between “broke” and “poor,” as I wrote in a column several years ago:

“Broke” is temporary. It’s running out of money before you run out of month…”Poor” is something else. It’s hunger, and clothes that don’t fit, and homes that are uncomfortable and unsafe. It’s not having enough or even the prospect of having enough.

“Broke” is fairly common. “Poor” is less so…although other Census figures show that nearly one in four households has had a recent spell of poverty. The good news is that entrenched poverty, the kind that lasts for years, is truly uncommon–only about two out of 100 households spent years below the poverty level.

In any case, it’s important to keep the difference between “broke” and “poor” in mind if you’re financially struggling. “Broke” means you can do something about your situation–and I hope you do.

Why you shouldn’t pay old debts

Most debts have a statute of limitations, which means the creditor isn’t supposed to sue the borrower in court to collect the debt after a certain number of years. The statute of limitations varies by the state and the type of debt, typically ranging from two to 15 years.

Here’s the thing: even a small, partial payment on an old debt can revive the statute of limitations. That can allow the creditor to sue you and get a wage garnishment order so it can take money right out of your paycheck.

If it were the original creditor suing you, you might resign yourself to the situation. But often the company filing the lawsuit is not the original creditor. Many times, the company that originally loaned you the money has long since written off the account, gotten a tax break for bad debt and sold the account to a collection agency. So the entity suing you may be  a collection agency which purchased your debt for 2 or 3 cents on the dollar–or even less.

The Wall Street Journal has done some good stories lately on the debt-buying industry, and has one today about the FTC’s settlement with Asset Acceptance, one of the largest debt buyers. The FTC alleges people were coerced into paying debts beyond the statutes of limitations. In some cases, the FTC contended, Asset Acceptance reported details of the out-of-statute debts to the credit bureaus in violation of federal credit reporting laws.

Most of us feel a moral obligation to pay what we owe. If bad decisions or bad circumstances have left you with unpaid bills, though, you could be stepping on a land mine if you make a partial payment on old debts. Before you pay, you should understand whether the debts are within the statute of limitations. If they’re not, and you still want to pay, consider negotiating a lump-sum settlement that includes the collector’s promise not to resell any portion of the debt. This is tricky business, though, and you should educate yourself thoroughly before you make the attempt. DebtCollectionAnswers.com, a site run by credit expert Gerri Detweiler, is a good place to start.