The Wall Street Journal came out with a great article at the beginning of the year. Pitching frugality, they posed situations and solutions for problems that ranged from beaten-down stocks to how to fix those four-inch heels. While their article was intended to make your dollars work harder, I feel they missed the boat on several counts.

I want to address a few problems they approached and provide different answers – answers that may make more sense to those who already are frugal and who are a bit too old, too young, too conservative or too macho for four-inch heels. Below you will find a few problems they posed, a paraphrased edition of their answers and my solution:

Problem: You have a depressed portfolio.

Their Solution: Give some of those stocks to your kids to take advantage of tax-free gifts. Alternatively, you can consider a GRAT, or a granter-retained annuity trust. This latter option allows investors to put that deflated stock into a GRAT, name children as beneficiaries, and receive an annuity from the trust based upon a percentage of what you contribute.

My Solution: While the two solutions above are great ideas, they don't work for someone who doesn't have children. If you're frugal enough to realize how much kids cost and you avoided having them, then you don't have a way out unless you want to give to your nieces or nephews. An alternative to this route is to simply hold onto those stocks and – if you have confidence in those companies and sufficient liquidity – invest more in those stocks now while the market is deflated. One thing is historically proven – the market goes down and it goes up, it goes down and it goes up. Another point that might give you pause is that the market may never be this low again for another few decades.

Problem: Your 529 college-savings account has been depleted and your teen will head to college soon.

Their Solution: Switch to more conservative 529 investments like money-market mutual funds and CDs to preserve what you have. Or, wait until your teen's later college years to tap those funds.

My Solution: If you're truly frugal, you didn't base your teen's entire college future on those 529 college-savings plans. You have money stashed away elsewhere, and it's probably already in money-market funds and CDs. But, I agree with their strategy on avoiding tapping those funds until absolutely necessary. Unless your child already has the nod from Harvard or has been offered a load of scholarship funds from another school, consider sending that child to a state school first to take care of all the electives he or she might need to complete a degree. That option is far less expensive, but you do need to be aware of the local college's rankings and accreditation. If both are lousy, then you're wasting your money and your child's life.

Problem: Your IRA (Individual Retirement Account) is worthless.

Their Solution: Convert the leftovers to a Roth IRA. You generally won't get whacked with taxes on withdrawals or any future earnings in a Roth as compared to a traditional IRA. Plus, there's no mandatory distribution schedule.

My Solution: Frugal people knew about the Roth IRA long ago, and have taken advantage of this retirement fund solution without hesitation in many cases. The point here is that no matter which IRA you have, it probably took a beating over the past year. While some people don't think about retirement at all, most of the frugal people I know fear the thought of living their final years in the poor house. So, many of those latter individuals have invested in education to learn new skills that they can perform at age 60 or older for additional income. Plus, they've invested in other options for the future such as a stock portfolio, real estate and more to help fund those “elder years.”

Unfortunately, there's no way to list all the problems and solutions found in the Wall Street Journal article, so please visit the site to read and learn more about their perspectives. They've offered some dynamite suggestions and links to useful information, too.

But, as you peruse that article, don't take everything they say for granted or for gospel. There are other ways to continue with a healthy financial future despite all the current economic downturns. For instance:

• Being frugal means that you learn how to be creative. If your home needs remodeling or fixing and you can't borrow the funds, find ways to fix that home without a loan. Visit junkyards, secondhand shops and architectural salvage yards to find what you need. And, do the work yourself – or, at least most of it to save some money on the repairman's time.
  
  
• Being frugal means that you find ways to entertain yourself without spending money. Make it a game. For instance, clipping coupons is a pain in the you-know-what as far as I'm concerned. But, when those coupons save $25 or more on a $100 grocery bill, you can bet that I'll find a good movie to watch while I clip away.
  
  
• Being frugal means that you learn how to save energy. I conducted an experiment this past month – I didn't put up holiday lights, I turned the thermostat down two degrees, I turned my computers (yes, plural) off completely at night and I changed all the light bulbs throughout the house to energy-saving bulbs. While those new bulbs cost a little over $100, I realized that I can make that money back in four months if I continue to save what I saved on my December power bill. Plus, those bulbs should last seven years, according to the package, so I'll see some hefty savings over 2009 and beyond with my new energy savings plan.

Finally, I'm not implying with the above article that frugal people haven't lost homes, jobs or interest income over this past year. But, I know from experience that frugal people often can survive a bit better through hard times than folks who don't know how to be frugal. Frugal folks, after all, have learned how to be creative by choice, as they want to save money. Those financial life skills will never go out of style, unlike four-inch heels.