Lightening Round first. Suze Orman or Dave Ramsey? Apple or PC? Pepsi or Coke? Soda or Pop?

Dave Ramsey, but I could live without either. Apple without question. Pepsi (sorry Mr. Buffett). Pop as a child; soda as an adult (I moved east). Funny story. I attended Brown University for a time. One day I approached a street vendor selling hot dogs and soda, and being from the mid-west, asked him what kind of pop he sold. He got a very nervous look on his face, started looking in all directions, and quietly told me he doesn't sell that kind of stuff. I ordered a Pepsi.

OK, now that we know you better...why and how did you get started as a finance blogger?

One year ago, I had never read a personal finance blog. I came across one (2million.com, I think) and started reading them. I manage our own investments, which have grown into a fairly good chuck of change. And I enjoy reading about personal finance and investing. Add in a desire to write, and in May of 2007 I started The Dough Roller. I truly knew absolutely nothing about blogging. I had never heard of WordPress, Digg, or StumbleUpon. I didn't know html, php, css or anything else about blogging. I learned a little each day, read a lot of books, and here I am. If you want to get a flavor of just how green I was, read 30 Things I Learned in My First 30 Days of Blogging.

You seem to cut a wide swath through financial topics. What two topics are your favorites to write about?

My two favorite topics are investing and what I'll call money & life. With investing, I enjoy studying how others invest and what the best investing approach is for me. That is one of the reasons I enjoy P2P lending and writing about it. With money & life, the key for me is that money itself is not the goal in life. But money can help us achieve our goals, whatever they are. Money can bring about good in the world; it can also bring out the worst in us.

How did your parents’ view and handling of finances affect you today? What do you teach your children about money?

I had a very interesting childhood, which reminds me of the Chinese curse--may you live in interesting times. My parents divorced and remarried before I can remember. I lived with my mom and step-dad, and both were not good with money. A failed business left us near bankruptcy and in fear of losing our home. There were times when we had little food and when the utilities were turned off, but we got by. My dad, on the other hand, owned a wholesale business that did really well. In the 1970s, he owned two homes, drove a Mercedes and a Rolls Royce, and was probably the most unhappy person I've ever known. He would pull up in the Rolls to pick me up for the weekend. I'd enjoy a rather wealthy lifestyle for two days, and then he'd return me to reality. He died when I was 12, in a car accident no less. So if anything, my parents taught me two very important things about money: (1) how not to manage it; and (2) that it can't buy happiness. I guess they were pretty good teachers after all.

You recently did a "smackdown" comparing Prosper and Lending Club. Does peer to peer lending have a role in investors’ portfolios?

I've written extensively about asset allocation. I believe that bonds definitely have a role in almost every portfolio, and P2P lending falls into the bond asset class. So yes, I think P2P lending can have a role in a portfolio. What investors need to keep in mind, however, is that P2P lending is different than any other type of investment that most folks have in their portfolio. Bond mutual funds invest in corporate and government bonds. P2P lending is consumer debt, which carries with it different kinds and levels of risk. The Smackdown piece that I wrote is really just the tip of the iceberg. But as long as investors understand the risks and take steps to mitigate those risks, I think P2P lending can be a great part of a well diversified portfolio. The one thing, in my opinion, that will really cause P2P lending to take off is the creation of a secondary market so that P2P lenders can sell their loans if they want. A secondary market, however, comes with numerous regulatory and investing issues that are too numerous to describe here. (Hmm, maybe that would make for a great blog article.)

If you could go back to your 24-year-old self and give him financial advice...what would it be?

Funny you should ask, because I wrote a post on this topic already--10 Things I Now Know at 40 That I Wish I Knew at 20. But if I could pick just one thing, I would have started investing earlier. Frankly, I would have started investing in high school. I began investing in my mid to late 20s, which has worked out fine. But I wish I had started much earlier.

What's a crazy thing you've done in your life you've never shared on your blog (not too crazy...Lending Club is a family friendly company!)?

I voluntarily took a pay cut of more than $100,000 per year. I'm a lawyer, although I no longer work in private practice. Out of law school I went to work for a very large law firm, worked countless hours, and after eight years, made partner. Two years later, I up and quit. I wanted to spend more time with my family, so I took a job at a company making much less than I did in private practice. Had I stayed at the firm, today I would be making more than twice what I make, but I don't regret the decision at all.

Even the best estate plan may leave some details of your life difficult to decipher. For these, it may be appropriate to share some of your secrets in case you should die.

The type of information I’m talking about is that which could probably be determined after your death, but might be difficult to do so or easily overlooked. Typical examples are passwords for online accounts, account numbers for insurance policies, a list of all of your assets, etc.

Also, you might have some financial secrets that you keep from your spouse. Hopefully you aren’t keeping any big financial secrets, but some people may stash away a small amount of emergency money that they don’t tell anyone about. Whether such money is in a bank account or an attic alcove, leaving some record of its existence will make it possible to be found and help those for whom it was likely intended. Even if you’re not intentionally keeping things from your spouse, he or she may not know about important aspects of your company benefits, such as pension plans or extra life insurance.

For this type of information, you may want to create a centralized location for documentation. Due to the highly sensitive nature of such data, electronic copies are discouraged. Writing down passwords and secret information is typically taboo as well. Perhaps the best method is to write the information down, but store it in a secure location, such as a safe deposit box at your bank. Leaving the key to a box to someone in your will would point the way to the “treasure” and the information contained therein.

As parents age, they may disclose the existence of such information to a trusted adult child. Telling the adult child that “everything you need to know is in this safe deposit box” may ease fears of missing long-forgotten assets.

While this post deals mainly with positive secrets that you may have, there is of course the possibility that you’re hiding some negative information as well. Many people have been known to hide the extent of their debt from their friends and family. Consolidating it with a P2P loan from Lending Club can probably help your debt disappear more quickly, along with the need to keep it secret.

Whatever your secrets are, they are probably best disclosed by you in some way before you are unable to disclose them. While leaving a record exposes secrets to the risk of being discovered earlier than you intended, leaving no record may mean that some secrets die with you. The difficulties for your loved ones that can be avoided by creating a record of certain financial secrets may be worth the risk to ensure that the intended benefit is ultimately fulfilled.

Alexander Ovechkin is one of the NHL’s brightest young stars.

Like many of his fellow players, the Washington Capitals’ forward has benefited from some of the exciting rule changes in the new NHL that put a premium on speed, athleticism, and goal-scoring. The game has opened up a lot since the lockout of 2004-2005, and Ovechkin and company are taking full advantage of the new style of play.

Another positive note for the NHL’s best players has been the new NHL salary cap. Teams are being forced to be creative with salaries and contracts thanks to a limit on total team spending, and the results have been great for the game’s young stars. Teams are moving quickly to sign young players to long-term deals, hoping that they will be the franchise cornerstones that they seem to be.

Ovechkin has become the poster boy for this trend. As a prolific scorer in a goal-hungry league, he is one of the most valuable commodities around. And he got paid like one.

In January, the Capitals star signed a 13-year, $124 million deal that will keep him in D.C. until 2021. The deal is believed to be the richest contract in NHL history. He will make nine million dollars per season over the first six years of the contract and he’ll bring in 10 million per year over the last seven.

While Ovechkin’s deal might be the largest, it is not the first of its kind. Rick DiPietro, a goalie for the New York Islanders, started the trend with a 15-year deal, paying him $4.5 million each season—a high price in today’s NHL. The Philadelphia Flyers made waves, too, by signing 22-year-old center Mike Richards to a 12-year, $69 million contract.

The risks of such lengthy, big-money deals are obvious. A lot can happen over the course of a 10-year contract, and ownership could be in trouble if these players get hurt or underperform.

Ovechkin, at least, shows no signs of stopping. He is leading the NHL in goals, having just reached the 50-goal plateau for the second time in his three seasons in the league. And although his team has struggled over the past three years, Ovechkin keeps a lot of fans coming back to see what he will do next.

In that respect, the Capitals had to re-sign him to stay with the team. He was too big of a star for them to lose. But are they getting their money’s worth on this investment? A $124 million contract is rather unheard of, especially in NHL circles. As productive as Ovechkin has been, it will be hard for anyone to live up to that sort of money commitment.

Breaking down his contract shows just how absurd such a big contract can be. It would be hard for anyone to earn that kind of dough. Take a look for yourself:

• $138,000 per goal
Right now, Ovechkin is sitting on 52 goals with 15 games left. Assuming he can get to 65 goals, that would be $138,000 every time he lights the lamp. People buy houses with that kind of money.

• $84,905 per point
His combined points (assists and goals) should reach over 100 this year, and assuming he gets to 105 that would be nearly $85,000 per point.

• $163,636 per assist
While he is predominantly known as a goal scorer, Ovechkin can also rack up the assists. But at $160,000 per helper, he better hope his teammates keep the receipt.

• $642,896 per plus/minus rating
The plus/minus statistic measures one’s performance on the ice relative to the scoring. If Ovechkin were on the ice when the opponent scored, he would be minus-1. If he were there when the Capitals scored, he would be plus-1—and $640,000 richer.

• $257,142 per penalty minute
Players like Ovechkin do not often go to the penalty box, so each time Ovechkin does, ownership is paying a premium for him to be there. If he were to earn 35 minutes of penalty time in one season, his payout would be nearly a quarter of a million dollars for every 60 seconds spent behind the glass.

• $450,000 per power play goal
Scoring on the power play is vitally important to an NHL team’s success. But at $450,000 per PPG, it is also important to the bottom line.

• $22,500 per shot on goal
In order to score a lot of goals, you have to take a lot of shots. Assuming Ovechkin gets to 400 shots this season, he will actually make this statistic the most affordable one so far.

• $109,756 per game
In an 82-game schedule, Ovechkin would be earning over 100 grand each night. Here’s hoping he is healthy for all 82 games.

• $9,000,000 per short-handed goal
Ovechkin has yet to tally a short-handed goal this year, so his first one will be a $9 million score.

These regular season numbers are eye-opening, but what Ovechkin and the team really want out of their investment is playoff success. The most important time of year in any sport is the postseason, and the Capitals have never been there with Ovechkin on the team. When they do make it, Ovechkin’s contract figures will look even more outrageous.

Great players would be fortunate to score 10 goals in a postseason. If Ovechkin got 10 goals, they would each come with a $900,000 price tag. And assuming the Capitals make it past the first round (winning four games to advance), Ovechkin would earn $2.25 million per victory.

Seeing these numbers shows just how committed the Capitals are to their star player. Most fans were happy to see that he would be with the team for a long time, and the cost of the contract was not that big of an issue.

But let’s assume that a Capitals fan wanted to help assuage the cost of Ovechkin’s contract.

With a $25,000 person-to-person loan from Lending Club, he would have to make his money stretch quite a bit.

Considering all of Ovechkin’s stats, this money would probably be best invested in one of Ovechkin’s shots on goal. At $22,500 per shot, this fan could certainly afford it. Plus, with the $2,500 left over, he could purchase 10 Ovechkin jerseys at $90 each (one for each member of his family), four front row tickets to a Caps game (at $350 per) and an autographed hockey stick ($200 and change).

But what if that shot on goal ended up going into the back of the net? And what if that goal came on a power play…as a game-winner…in overtime? And what if the overtime, game-winning goal was a playoff goal? And what if it came in the Stanley Cup Finals? In Game Seven?

$25,000 could pay for the Stanley Cup-winning goal!

Some people would pay $124 million for that.

On February 11, 2008, the United States Postal Service (USPS) announced an increase in postage rates. Along with other increases, the cost of a 1st class stamp will be raised to $0.42 on May 12th.

The Postal Service is authorized by The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act to adjust prices each May. The good news is that the Act also limits increases to be no more than inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index. That basically means that postal rates, at worst, can only stay at their current relative cost. As some increases may be below inflation, the average relative cost of postage will actually decline.

Here are some of the other rates:

Now may be a good time to stock up on Forever Stamps. These 1st class stamps, currently priced at $0.41, may be used in place of the new $0.42 stamps. Generally, being able to buy something now that will have a higher value later is seen as in investment. This thinking has led some to believe that they can invest in Forever Stamps to make a quick profit. While buying these stamps ahead of a rate increase is a great way to save some money, see my post that describes why Forever Stamps are not good as an investment.

For people looking for a real investment, a person-to-person loan portfolio from Lending Club is a better way to go. With lender returns averaging 12%, you can get much better rates on Lending Club than with your savings accounts or CDs.

Continuing with our look at financial systems, the next step, after you have clarified and identified where your money is going, is to find the area that needs the most work. This does not have to be an area where you are losing money or getting in debt, but an area that you can see will improve if you work on it. You want to choose an area that you can change pretty quickly, so that you can build momentum and then work on your bigger goals in your financial life.

For example, once I started keeping track of my expenses, I saw that in my financial system I was spending over $200 per month on coffee and pastries. I always thought that I might be spending a little bit too much in this area, but keeping track of the exact amount put a number to this hunch. It was now a fact. And I had to do something.

Then I analyzed the entire process that I went through in the morning that led to me spending this kind of money. I realized that the main driver for me going to Starbucks, or one of the alternatives, was that I was running short on time. By starting my day earlier, I would not have the same time pressure and could make my coffee at home or at the office.

Although I didn’t fully eliminate the coffee expense, I freed up about $100 per month, which is now going towards investing for my future.

You should do the same. Look at any area of your financial system and see where you can make small changes that can end up making a big difference. Don’t put ten or twenty things on your list and try to change them all at once, as it will be too big of a change to handle at once. Take one item from your list and analyze the entire process that you go through before and after making this purchase. Then consider putting part of this newfound money you’ve generated into some P2P loans on Lending Club.

Changing one item at a time will build up your confidence and the momentum to keep on changing other things. Eventually, you will have your personal financial system optimized and capable of carrying you towards your financial goals.

You do have written financial goals, right?