This post comes from partner blog The Dough Roller.

Let's get right to the point: Saving for retirement in a Roth 401(k) likely will leave you with less money in retirement than if you had invested in a traditional 401(k).

There are some exceptions to this rule. For example, a Roth 401(k) may be the right choice if you make more than $1 million a year or if you make so little that you pay no income tax or very little income tax. But for the majority of us, the Roth 401(k) is better left alone. Here's why.

Recently a tenant moved out of the apartment building I manage. During the final walk-through I saw that she'd left behind a wall-mounted spice rack, a shelf-and-cabinet unit in the bathroom and a wheeled kitchen cart. She told me her fiancé had all the household items they needed. If no one wanted those things, they could just be thrown away.

I love my new kitchen cart. 

Over at partner blog Wise Bread, writer W.C. Porter has proposed the "Boring Challenge." Porter suggests changing a habit for one week to see how much money you can save. Making the replacement habit "boring" makes it simple, he says.

In his case it was taking a lunch instead of eating at a restaurant -- "boring" because it was the same lunch every day. And it was simple, so simple that Porter kept going. After three years, he'd saved $2,000.

The Boring Challenge kind of describes my life, although I don't think of it as particularly boring. I'd call it the "Who Cares? It Works!" Challenge. 

Last month my colleague Karen Datko linked to a post from personal finance blogger "Broke Grad Student." The short essay, "6 reasons why I hate cash," seemed at least partly tongue in cheek, especially since a couple of days later he followed up with reasons to love money. Yet the underlying sentiment -- plastic rules, cash stinks -- seemed genuine.

Broke Grad Student wrote his piece after making an ATM run to buy food at his workplace cafe. "Having to make the trip to get the cash (annoyed) me," he wrote. Good grief -- hasn't this man ever thought about getting cash back with a purchase from the supermarket or drugstore? Or, for that matter, about packing his own lunch? 

The blogger further groused that cash is "easy to lose." Just about everybody misplaces moola, he claimed, and afterward "you can't call an 800 number and have them cancel your $20 bills."

Yeah, and if you lose your credit or debit card and don't have any cash on you, good luck with that cab ride.

I have 29 cans of tuna, thanks to a really good sale at Albertsons. Last week's ad had a coupon for Chicken of the Sea tuna at three cans for 99 cents, limit six. 

The fine print said "one coupon per transaction," not "one coupon per customer." Some of my neighbors toss the grocery ads unread into the lobby recycle bin, so I wound up with a handful of coupons.

Guess which destination walk I chose a bunch of times in the past week? And guess what I had for lunch on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday?

This post comes from Abby Freedman, a freelance writer and daughter of Smart Spending blogger Donna Freedman.

As an aspiring accountant, I am just odd enough to find income taxes fascinating. 

Still, I understand there are saner individuals out there who prefer to duck and cover until this season is over.

• Bing: Find free tax help
  

Generally, they cope by forking over $100 to $200 to have simple returns completed -- and not necessarily by a CPA -- at a "tax-in-the-box" establishment.

Or they plunk down (much less) money for tax-preparation software to guide them to their refunds. Better, but still not ideal.

When I wrote "Surviving (and thriving) on $12,000 a year" in January, I promised to check in at the end of 2007 to let readers know how I was doing.

I could never have imagined how that article would change my life. It led to additional assignments for MSN Money, and eventually to hosting this blog, for which I earn a part-time salary.

My life changed. My lifestyle didn't.

Who's up for a $15 cup of coffee, a $35 movie ticket, an $81 burger and a $480 cocktail?

Oh, and I'm not buying.

I'd be awfully surprised if you were buying, either. Those who read this blog are not likely to want to spend $81 on a sandwich. 

• Bing: How to cook the perfect hamburger
  

Not that this is just any old burger. It's a 14-ounce Japanese Kobe beef patty formed around a quarter-pound seared Kobe medallion, according to an article at wcbstv.com. No plebeian Heinz or Hunt's for this sammich; it comes with house-made sake onion catsup and a miso and ginger aioli.

And if that doesn't fill you up? It also comes with a side order of Tater Tots. Honest.