It’s an interesting question to consider. It also might be something worth trying out. I’m ignoring the fact that there are fixed expenses which technically could be averaged over every day. I’m talking about any product or service that you can choose either to purchase or not.

I’ve taken such a challenge and have tried not to spend any money until this Friday. This has been going on for just under two weeks now. I can tell you first hand that it’s not an easy task. I’ve put off shopping for groceries, or picking up fast food. I haven’t put any gas in either car attempting to make what’s already there last until Friday. I’m also not getting a haircut until after Friday.

Why am I doing all this? My credit card billing cycle ends on Thursday and any charges after that will occur in the next billing cycle, thus allowing me to defer them. Credit cards are a cash flow management tool and this is one way of using them as such.

Bonds’ balls are going to auction: The home run balls number 755 and 756 are going to be auctioned with the latter expecting to fetch about a half a million dollars. The guy with 756, a 21 year old, said he’d like to keep it, but he’d be taxed just for holding it. What a great country we live in.

YouTube introducing overlay ads: You knew it was coming at some point, right? The ads won’t appear before the videos however; they’ll be semitransparent at the bottom of the clip. An interesting concept at least.

The richest Presidential candidate: Apparently Mitt Romney is loaded. His wealth is estimated at between $195 million and $387 million. Also interesting, he has pledged to waive the $400,000 presidential salary if elected as he did when he was the governor of Massachusetts. It won’t fix the national debt, but it’s a good showing.

As we go through life day to day we’re met with many challenges, setbacks, or even complete failures. These types of things aren’t out of the ordinary. They happen to everyone. What sets people apart are how they handle these situations and what they do afterwards.

When something hasn’t gone your way, or at least the way you would have liked it, what’s your typical reaction? Perhaps you get down on yourself. You’ve also possibly wondered why you even tried or went down that path in the first place. You may have also tried to figure out why it didn’t work out right so that you’d know how to better handle such a situation in the future.

This last reaction will bring you much more success in life than either of the first two. I’ve previously written about a formula for success that involves such a reaction. Persistence is one of the main keys for success because we’ll all be met with setbacks and failures. Those who succeed in their endeavours are almost without exception “persistent failures”.

They’ve made the decision to learn from their mistakes instead of wallow in them. They keep trying to reach their goals instead of giving up at the first try. They’re also more likely to succeed in a state of action than inaction. So, take a look at your goals and what you’re doing to achieve them. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to be a persistent failure.

I’ve got a week left until I’m scheduled to take the GMAT. Over the past week, I’ve been reviewing the different principles for the math section and working through a lot of practice problems. I must say it’s more tedious than anything though. This next week I plan on reviewing the verbal sections. More than anything, I’m looking forward to having it over with. I’ve never been one to study a lot before a test, but I feel like I should this time since it cost me $250. So I’ll continue for the next week to be as ready as possible.

This is a sponsored post.

A new training series over at motormoney.com has come out that is aimed at teaching people how to buy cars at auto auctions and then resell them for a profit. The basic idea is to find great deals at local auctions and then turn around and sell the car on Ebay Motors.

The system comes with 7 CDs and 2 manuals that is supposed to share with you how you can make money with car auctions. The system costs $89.95 plus $6.95 S&H for a total cost of $96.90. It’s the basics of business (buy low, sell higher) applied to auto auctions. If it sounds interesting to you, check it out.

It’s been awhile since I’ve talked about the Roth IRA and there are some important points to remember. If you’re a newer reader, you may want to go back and read Answering a Reader’s Question, Best of the Roth IRA, and Starting My Roth IRA. The options are plentiful when you’re looking into setting up a Roth IRA, but the benefits are pretty much the same no matter where you choose to set it up. I choose to have my Roth IRA with Scottrade because of all the options it offers me, but you may choose to go with another provider. Do whatever works for you.

For this year (tax year 2007) the maximum contribution limit is $4,000, and it will increase to $5,000 for 2008. After that, the limit will supposedly adjust in $500 increments in line with inflation. I say supposedly because as we know (or should know), the government can (and does) mess with it however they choose.

Not everyone is eligible however to contribute to the Roth IRA based on income. For single tax filers, the income limit is $99,000. Your allowable contribution amount will then phase out up to $114,000 where you no longer may contribute to a Roth. For joint filers, the limits are $156,000 to $166,000. If you happen to be above these income limits, I wouldn’t feel too sorry for yourself. There are plenty of other options available to you.

Another aspect of these types of accounts that many people are not aware of is that you can access a portion of the funds for qualified expenses. If you’re looking to save up for a down payment on a house, you’re allowed to withdraw up to $10,000 in earnings for such a purpose. Notice I said “earnings” here. At any time you’re allowed to withdraw an amount up to your actual paid in contributions because it was after tax money. For a new home purchase, you’re also allowed to access additional funds. Also, even though it’s called a “first time homeowner” distribution, you just can’t have owned a home in the prior 24 months.

Besides these and other nice aspects, it’s also nice throughout the year to be reminded to make those contributions. It doesn’t really do you any good to read all about the advantages of having one if you don’t set one up and contribute to it. We’re over half way through the year so you can gauge your contributions accordingly. Also, remember that you can still make contributions for 2007 up until the April tax deadline in 2008. Don’t use this as an excuse to put it off, but as a back up scenario. So, it’s time to evaluate your situation.

If you’ve been a long time reader of Fiscal Musings, you will have heard me talk about Red Box video rentals. This time I have somewhat of a negative story about them.

Every so often, we rent videos from these DVD vending machines, and we’ve always used promotional codes to get them for free. About a week ago, I noticed that my credit card had been charged for one of these rentals even though the checkout screen had displayed $0.00.

We called their customer service line to have the charge refunded and were met with defensive opposition. I explained the situation but it was immediately discounted as if I were telling a lie. I don’t know about you, but it’s not really worth lying about a single dollar. You may also argue that it’s not worth calling about a dollar charge, but it was more the principle of the thing. Plus, I wanted to find out what happened so that it wouldn’t happen again.

Eventually I got the dollar refunded (or was told that it will be), but the whole experience left me with a bad taste in my mouth. In my opinion, it would have made better business sense not to argue with a customer over a dollar charge, but to make sure the customer had a good experience and would continue to provide good word-of-mouth advertising. But, it is what it is.