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. Vacuum sealed bags
2. Boardgame with new couple friends
3. Investing for house down payment
4. Roth IRA versus Roth 401(k)
5. Hedging bets for retirement
6. Multiple savings “funds”

For those of you new to Free Money Finance, I post on The Bible and Money every Sunday. Here's why.

If you’re a fan of savings bonds, then I have some good news for you… The Treasury has increased the TreasuryDirect purchase limit from $5k per bond type (I or EE) per year to $10k. This change offsets the loss of over-the-counter sales of paper savings bonds, effective January 1, 2012.

From the press release that I just received:

Clover is a new person-to-person payment system for use between phone numbers. Simple fees (none for personal use), simple interface. If you sign-up via invite from a registered user, you’ll get a $5 bonus (I actually got a $5 Amazon GC + $1 credit, but the link just says $5). The referrer gets $5 too. You don’t even need a credit card or bank account to start, just a phone number (landline numbers work, but it’s optimized for Android and iPhone/iPod Touch users).

Smart Money has a series listing ten things debit card issuers won't tell you. Of the ten, two of their points really stood out to me. They are:

Assets Nov-11 Dec-11 Change % Cash & Savings $ 22,960.53 $ 27,882.26 $ 4,921.73 21.44% Taxable Brokerage Accts $ 152,906.99 $ 158,906.63 $ 5,999.64 3.92% Roth IRAs $ 77,482.86 $ 82,652.93 $ 5,170.07 6.67% Pre-tax Retirement Accts $ 270,954.68 $ 272,245.83 $ 1,291.15 0.48% Stock Options $ -

Let’s cut straight to the chase. The sweet spot for any refrigerator is between 39 and 40 F. This is the temperature at which bacterial growth is inhibited but the difference between your refrigerator and the ambient temperature outside of your refrigerator is minimized.

In other words, keeping your refrigerator’s internal temperature at about 39 F will keep your food safe while minimizing your energy costs.

Simple, right? Well, not quite so simple.

You’re probably aware of the wonders of the Roth IRA and how it allows your money to grow completely free from taxes, even upon withdrawal. An added wrinkle is the lack of age restriction, so that even kids with earned income (wages, salaries, tips) can contribute to a Roth IRA up the lesser of their taxable income or $5,000.