I found out today that one of the other part-timers at my moonlighting gig passed away yesterday. Having never met the man (he works at a different campus), I jumped very quickly from the thought "oh, what a shame, his family must be really Torn up" to the thought "maybe I'll finally be able to get some more hours" and from there to the thought "holy crap, I am so heartless thinking about my own gain right now."

I laugh a little at the gender flag. I work in IT, which is still male-dominated. And for the most part, as a woman, I've been better compensated than my male peers at some companies because I have the intelligence, guts, and arrogance to know my market worth and ask for fair compensation.

A new car can lose 30% of its value in the first year. If you can swoop in during the second or third year to buy a lightly used car and avoid the depreciation hit, you can save thousands of dollars.

Time-share vacations are another example. A new time-share might cost $15,000, whereas one bought from someone desperate to dump one could cost a fraction of that.