If you've been reading here a while you know we have a rather extensive home remodeling project going on. I'm happy to report at long last we're nearing completion. In a few weeks' time we should be saying good-bye to the last of the contractors we hired to do work here.

Now that we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel our stress-o-meter is starting to come down out of the "critical" range. Soon we hope to be completely relaxed and enjoying the benefits our hard-earned investments have brought us.

Everyone's favorite retailer is in the news again this morning announcing plans to move ahead with in-store money services.

This is a story I'd been waiting to hear since earlier this month when the Financial Times broke the news that WalMar was prepping a money card. I was interested in the story because of WalMar's failed attempt earlier this year to get in to the money business by operating a specialty bank within their retail operation.

At the time they said the bank would help them save money because it would allow them to internalize credit-card and check transactions. Consumer groups and banks revolted at the idea. They saw it as a first step to the ruin of the local community bank. Politicians wasted little time jumping on the bandwagon. WalMart withdrew the application.

I have a good friend who prides himself on flying below the internet radar. He does everything he can think of to keep his name out of the press and off any official documents which may end up in the public domain. He doesn't use his real name when registering for web sites and services. Even his personal email address bears no resemblance to his own name. Indeed a search for his name on any of the major search engines turns up nothing appearing to have any relevance to my friend at all.

He does it because he says he values his privacy. He doesn't want people to find out things about him by entering his name in search engines. He believes the less his name turns up the better his chances for not falling victim to some form of fraud or another.

If only he realized how naive his pursuit is.

May is graduation month. Millions of college grads are getting diplomas this month and starting life on their own.

I remember the last time I graduated. It was a great day, full of fun and celebration, smiles all around. It was a sad day, because I knew I might never see some of my great college friends again.

It was also a very frightening day. For the first time in my life I knew I would be completely responsible for my own existence. Student loan, car, room and board. They were all on my shoulders now. With only a few hundred dollars in the bank and no job, I was just a little bit terrified.

Fortunately I was able to get on my feet quickly. I'd learned a few basic personal financial management fundamentals somewhere along the line in school. They helped to get me off on the right foot.

Hopefully today's grads are smarter than I was and know these things cold. But just in case any needs a reminder, here are my three most important personal finance fundamentals for anyone starting out on their own.

Last month I wrote a post about keeping my contractor honest. In a nutshell, I was concerned about his backing away from his promise to present receipts for materials when asking for progress payments. I handed him a check with a little extra in it, thinking the bonus payment - an advance on the labor portion of the project - would give me the edge and help put him back on the right line.

I'm pleased to report my investment paid off handsomely. Today I settled the entire project with my contractor. I have all receipts in hand and a clean accounting for the entire job.

Best of all, the labor costs didn't run as high as anticipated. The check I wrote today was significantly less than the amount I had intended to pay my contractor at project conclusion.

I have a neighbor who believes the proper way to keep contractors honest is to watch over their every move. He's notorious for pointing out mistakes and nit picking jobs. He delights in saving a few dollars by asking for a discount for results that don't meet his standard for perfection.

He wonders why good help is so hard to hire. What he doesn't understand is that the good help simply no longer wants to work for him.

Remember a few weeks ago I wrote about my friend, Bill, whose company had offered him an early retirement? One of the tools his company made available in the decision making process for employees was a webcast. Those that couldn't make the webcast could download the presentation and listen to a recording of the conference call.

Bill showed me the presentation over the weekend and I flipped to the Q&A portion at the end to see what kinds of questions prospective retirees had been asking.

The one that caught my eye first was a question from an employee about whether he should roll his 401(k) into his own IRA, or whether he should leave it where it was. See, the retirement offer gave employees the option to continue in the company's 401(k) plan or to roll those funds over into their own private account. The answer alarmed me.

I've always had a thing about reading articles about achieving financial independence. I enjoy them. I especially enjoy the ones written by individuals who are working to achieve financial independence.

Uh, before I go any further, let me assure you I absolutely do not enjoy reading or advocate any of those "get rich quick" financial independence pitches out there. (Though truth be known, some of them are some of the best fiction you'll ever read.)

The stories by individuals, however; they're my favorite. Most of the time they're open and honest accounts of someone's journey to financial freedom. They're people like you and me expressing their dreams of being free from worries about their financial well-being.

Take a look at what a long time friend said to me the other day:

When you're just starting out you're house poor. Until the kids leave for college you're kids poor. Then you're college poor... When does it end?

He was lamenting the fact that the long and easy retirement he'd always envisioned for himself was starting to look like a shorter and shorter one. Not only that but he feared it might also be one in which he'd have to work at least part time to make ends meet.

Now in reality his retirement picture may not be as bad as he lays it out. He's a highly paid professional for a big company. He gets lots of great benefits: stock plan, options, health care... He does alright. He might have more in his retirement portfolio that you or I might need.

Risk questions are everywhere: How much stock is the right amount of stock in my portfolio given my age? Am I too conservative if I have x% in bonds today? I'm risk averse, will I be able to retire if I shy away from stocks? As I age, should I take some risk off the table, be more conservative?

Boy do I wish there were easy answers to the questions of how much risk to take on.

When it comes to risk, it boils down simply to what you want to accomplish in your life and how much you're willing to roll the dice to do it.

Suppose you're risk averse. You will have to accumulate an enormous nest egg if your goal is to retire and live off that nest egg without the benefits of capital appreciation (and it's associated risk). That's the reality of inflation protected interest income. It's very expensive. Just replacing your current income would require upwards of fifty times that income in these securities. And for that you don't ever get the chance to buy that retirement vacation home or start that foundation. You just get to keep living at your same standard of living for as long as you live.

As you gain more success in your career and in life you'll accumulate plenty of

• scars from hard fought battles
• accolades for your great accomplishments
• friends with whom you've fought in the trenches
• a depth of experience which will make you a valuable commodity in your chosen field of expertise

If your career progresses anything like my own, you'll start asking yourself why you're time, your billable hours, shouldn't be your own to manage yourself. Why might you question it? Could it be it's that your customer rate increased by some large amount while your salary barely increased by the inflation rate? Could it be you're growing uncomfortable with the friction in the system - the time spent doing administrative tasks? Perhaps the concern grows out of an uneasiness that what you and your team are delivering, while valuable, could be both more on target and more effective for the same cost to the customer.