Our pals at LearnVest have a great story about how a young woman learned to advance her career, save a bunch of money, kick cancer, and have the wedding she and her husband wanted. It's inspiring.

This seems like a stupid question, but when am I supposed to dip into savings? I had to replace the brakes on my car last month ($500), and I took it out of savings. I could have afforded it though. Is that a misuse of my savings account?

Don't do the things you hate. If you hate making coffee, don't attempt to drop your daily coffee shop habit. Don't cancel cable if you love your TV shows so darn much. You'll just give up and blame these attempts at saving for making you miserable.