-Jennifer, New York

ANSWER: Summers off, lots of vacation time, a nice benefits package…being a teacher definitely has its perks. In fact, according to MetLife’s annual Survey of the American Teacher, 62% of teachers surveyed said they were very satisfied with their careers.

The downside to teaching?  Once the summer rolls around the paychecks stop appearing in your mailbox, making budgeting—at least for a few months—a bit of a headache.

According to Danny Kofke, author of “How to Survive (and Perhaps Even Thrive) on a Teacher’s Salary,” “paying yourself” is the key to staying afloat during the summer months.

In your particular example, in order to pay yourself, you’ll to divide your take home pay, $24,000, by 12.  You’ll get $2,000, and this is the amount you’ll want to “pay yourself” every month. The goal is to pay yourself this amount even when you’re not getting a paycheck from your school system.

How can you do this?  Set aside a little bit of money each time you’re paid.  Put it in a separate savings account so you’re not tempted to touch it. In your case, you should aim to put away $300 per paycheck to ensure you’ll get paid the $2,000 during the months you’re not working. “Every time you get paid, you should put $300 of your check into your savings account and, voila, you will never have to scrimp once the dog days of August roll around,” says Kofke.

If you don’t think you can swing setting aside $300 per month, you might have to consider doing something else during your summer vacation to support yourself.  Here are some of the best ways for teachers to earn some extra cash during both the summer and throughout the school year.

• Teach outside the classroom. According to Kofke, one of the easiest ways to earn extra money is by tutoring. “I tutored one of my students a few years ago and charged $50 an hour for my services. By the time summer rolled around, I had over $1,000 saved by just tutoring one hour a week,” he says.

• Do a little moonlighting. Kofke also suggests looking into working at your school after hours.  “A lot of schools offer an after-school recreation program for their students. Working one of these programs can generate enough extra money for you to put away for the summer months,” says Kofke.

• Get certified. Another way for teachers to bulk up their bank account is by becoming nationally certified.  It can be a challenging and lengthy process, but according to Kofke, it’s well worth the effort.  “You will not only professionally benefit from this experience, but financially as well. Once you obtain this certification, you are eligible to receive an additional 20% of the median teacher’s salary every year for up to ten years,” says Kofke.  But before you look into becoming certified check with your county about the monetary awards for completing the process–they vary from state to state.

I have a 22 year-old daughter who begins work as a nurse in July. I have recommended the asset allocation (early career in your book The Difference) after she saves up 8 months in expenses in cash or money market fund. Do you have a better recommendation or did I miss the mark?

Answer: In a perfect world, we would all have 8 months in living expenses in the bank. The reality is however, that putting that much in the bank, especially when you’re starting out, can be a daunting task.

Yesterday Karen Blumenthal stopped by my radio show to discuss her new book “The Wall Street Journal Guide to Starting Your Financial Life.” Starting small, Blumenthal says, is a key thing for workforce newbies to remember. “The first paycheck you might have immediate living needs…you don’t want to run up debt. You need to commit some of each paycheck to build that fund. Start with even $25 and then increase it. In every paycheck you should aim for as much as 10%. If you can’t do that right off the bat start with what you can do,” said Blumenthal.

But where should that money go once you’ve set it aside? Your daughter is going to want something where she can easily move her money around and access it in case of an emergency. To meet both of these needs, online savings accounts are a good place to stash your cash. Places like DollarSavingsDirect, HSBC Direct, and ING Direct offer these types of accounts. “With these it’s very easy to move money around…and the interest rates are a lot better than you’ll get with a money market account or a regular savings account. There are no catches, for the most part, and fairly low or no minimum balances,” said Blumenthal. An added bonus: These accounts are FDIC insured.

“I want to refinance my wife’s car and her current interest rate is 7.4%. I am the cosigner for her. If we refinance her car, will that lower our credit score? We only owe $15,000 which is less than the car is worth. The reason I am asking is that we plan to purchase our first new home this year.”

I said yes. A car refi is a a no brainer of a transaction. It costs about 15 dollars and takes about the same amount of minutes. I also checked with the credit bureaus to make sure that this swap would not affect JP’s credit – something I would not want to happen in light of his desire to go mortgage shopping soon. They assured me it would not as long as he did the shopping within 30 days and replaced the loan with another the same size.

The others on the panel? They disagreed with me. It’s only $7, David said and Carmen agreed.

They’re entitled. But let me explain why they’re wrong.

It’s $7 in month one. But:
Pay off that car over 36 months and its $252.
Pay it off over 48 months and it’s $336.
And pay it off over 60 months – as many people do with their cars – and it’s $420.
In other words, it’s a car payment in and of itself.

By my calculations spending an hour to earn or save $7 may indeed be a waste. But spending it to save hundreds? Not so much.

And then there’s the principle of the thing. Either you are a saver or you’re not. Why is it worth it to spend your time clipping coupons to save $1 on Tide, or shopping around to see which gas station along your drive to work is the cheapest, or teaching your kids to put the time and energy into putting some of their birthday money in the bank when you’re not willing to do it yourself?

I’m pretty convinced I’m right. Readers, what do you think?

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What’s influencing your decision to keep or not keep your cash at home?

Over the years, I have talked about trying again.  I’ve signed up.  I’ve started training.  For one reason or another — it’s difficult to get those really long training runs in when you have kids, my confidence was shot, I was tired! — I never made it. 

So this year, I set a different goal.  A smaller goal.  A half marathon.

My friend Diane and I were already running a few days a week, completing roughly 4 to 6 miles at a shot.  She agreed to do it with me.  For a long time, we didn’t tell anyone.  Instead, we just started adding a mile here and there.  One Saturday we did 7 miles.  Two Saturdays later, we did 9.  Eventually, we ran 11 and started admitting to people that we were — in fact — in training.

And today, in the 85 degree heat (so hot, the race organizers cancelled the marathon that was supposed to run parallel with the half) we — and some 9000 other runners — competed in the More and Fitness Magazine half marathon.   We didn’t break any records.  The “elite” runners in the race finished their second loop around central park before we finished our first.   But we did it!  13.2 miles in 2 hours and 20 minutes.  We felt great.

And for me finishing was a reminder of the importance of not trying to overreach — when it comes to any goal, even a financial one.  Researchers at Old Dominion University recently published a study noting that one big reason why middle class Americans don’t save money is that they set the bar too high.  They aim to save thousands rather than hundreds, for instance.  And because they can’t hit their original mark — like my full marathon — they quit having accomplished nothing.  Savers who aim lower — for the hundreds, for instance — end up saving more actual dollars in the end.  And, more importantly, being able to revel in the fact that they did it.  They finished it.  They accomplished it.  They could cross it off their list, take the satisfaction in that accomplishment, and move onto the next goal.

It is an important life lesson for me — and busy people everywhere who are often tempted to bite off more than we can comfortably chew.  So for me, no full marathon next year.  But perhaps another half.  Two hours and 10 minutes, this time?

And for you?  What do you want to cross off next?