The things you don’t want to hear are often the very things you should be thinking about and focusing on.

Whenever my weight used to peak, the last thing I wanted to hear from anyone was a remark about my weight. It made me angry to hear it and I would often just walk away from anyone who remarked on it.

This is just a quick note to say that the commenting system here on FCN isn’t currently working. We’re aware of the problem and are working on a solution. If you’ve been trying to post a comment, I apologize. Hopefully we’ll have things straightened out shortly. Oh, and special thanks to those of you that notified me of the problem via e-mail and/or Twitter. Have a great day!

Are you expecting an income tax refund? If so, you’re not alone. Based on IRS statistics, there were nearly 142 million federal tax returns filed last year, of which nearly 109 million (ca. 79%) of resulted in an income tax refund. The total amount refunded was a little more than $362 billion, for an average of $2,994 per refund.

A few weeks ago we got to discussing the various words many of us use to talk about how much money someone has or makes. It became clear pretty quickly that we all had different opinions on what certain words meant -- when it came down to putting a number on them. What words am I talking about? These, in particular, though I'm sure there are more:

This is a guest post from Richard Barrington. Richard is a banking analyst for MoneyRates.com who spent over 20 years as an investment industry executive.

So you think you’ve got a creative way to save money on your taxes…

What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to five word summaries. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. Recovering from a big loss
2. A disastrous turn of events
3. Feeling scared all the time
4. Dodgy seminar?
5. Basic budgeting for young adult
6. Credit card strategies

When I first started writing The Simple Dollar, I was a big proponent of financial publications like Money Magazine, Kiplinger’s, SmartMoney, and so on. I read them. I referenced them in posts. I even suggested that people subscribe to them.

For a long time, though, I’ve scarcely mentioned them. What happened?

Does anyone read the Costco Connection -- the free magazine the retailer mails to members and offers free in its stores? I always pick one up whenever I'm in the store (I'm in a group plan at work and the main account holder, the company, gets mailed a magazine). I usually find an article or two that I like as well as get to find out about some new products available at Costco. It's not a real page turner, but then again, it's free. ;-)