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Nowadays it's hard for many people to make ends meet. Lost jobs, fewer hours, piles of medical bills and countless other problems have created difficult financial situations for many Americans. These problems have forced honorable people to miss payments on everything from homes to cars to school loans.

You won't find any 529 plans in the woodchipper today as we turn our focus on the 529 college savings plans of North Dakota and South Dakota. All "Fargo" jokes aside, here are the things you might want to know about the Dakota's 529 plans. For sure and darn tootin'.

North Dakota

Join guest blogger Mitchell Pauly for a serious definition: the current ratio.

Life can turn inexplicably bad, a fact of life that ranks up there alongside death and taxes. I have recently discovered this far more intimately than I wish; my aunt was diagnosed with terminal cancer. As she begins her first round of chemotherapy and begins to lose her hair, my thoughts turn to her family’s current financial situation.

I have a little over a week until my marathon, and as I continue to train and my excitement grows, I am left with a sense of wonder at my personal investment in a big life goal. Now that it’s here, I am in constant awe of the human body. And I just can’t wait to cross another one of my life goals off my bucket list!

Surprisingly, I have little to say about the training experience. Basically, it was long. It was hard. It was worth it.

A great Dane named Hamlet once lamented that age old question: "To work, or not to work?" Oh, wait, that's not exactly how it went. Um, anyway, all fuzzy college lit aside, today we're giving allowances a bit more attention. Back in March, I touched on allowances when talking about savings and kids. Today, we're looking at the pros and cons of different allowance strategies.

Two Schools of Thought

My mother and grandmother are smart women. They know a lot about money, finances and investing. They taught my siblings and me how to make money, save and budget, and then they thought we were pretty set in life. I mean, they taught us the basics, right? We'd learn the rest in school they assumed.

As Melinda continues her series on cheap places, she has decided to broaden her focus area to include some of the most exciting and fun locations across the United States. However, she needs our help. If you know of any cheap places to take the family, let us know in the comments below! For now, let’s take a look at my neck of the woods: Northeast Iowa.

Once again, guest blogger Mitchell Pauly takes us on a financial definitions ride through his fun, funny and informative take on finance definitions! This week’s def: credit scores.

This week has been wonderful. My husband re-glazed our picture window, mowed the lawn, prepped the snow blower and made me dinner on Sunday. I don’t know what lit the fire under his butt, but I like…especially the cooking me dinner part.

Well there must have been something in the air; I felt the need to clean the house from top to bottom, including appliances, toilets and furniture (all my least favorite cleaning jobs). And this was all without any company scheduled to drop by.

It seems everywhere you turn these days, someone is gabbing about super- or extreme-couponing. The art of acquiring every day things at rock bottom prices by combining sales and coupons has caught fire with just about everyone in the hunt for the next great deal.