Ten Money Questions is a new interview series appearing in the Personal Finance category that asks BlogHer members to share their thoughts about finances. Let’s face it; money makes the world go around. We can’t escape it. We can choose to ignore it, lust after it, track it, make it, spend it, save it… the list goes on and on. Money permeates our lives yet it is still considered one of those taboo topics that you’re not supposed to talk about on a first date or bring up at a dinner party.

All the more reason to let BlogHer members chime in with candid views. We begin with Maria Niles in my attempt to provide a transition from her writing gig here on the topic of personal finance to that of the world of television.

1. As a contributing editor to Entertainment & Books, you’re reviewing Ugly Betty and 24 this season. Cite one money lesson we can learn from watching Betty as she maneuvers through the world of high fashion.
Spending money on expensive and trendy fashion items might gain you respect in the fashion world but it doesn’t facilitate creating honest and true relationships - those only come through experiences you have when you are being authentic, which to me is a message at the heart of the show.

2. What is your most significant memory about money?
Probably realizing when I went to college that just because I had jobs in high school and saved up to buy things, I had no clue how to budget and manage my money. I’m a big fan of financial literacy education for young people because learning through trial and error on your own is just painful.

3. What is your worst habit around finances?
At this point it would be reading about what to do rather than actually doing things I should like consolidating and re-balancing my retirement accounts for example.

4. If you could buy one thing right now what would it be?
Hmmm – I’m bad about limiting myself to just one answer so I’ll give you three:
1. If I had a big chunk of money I would pay off my student loans so I would be debt free.
2. If I could spend money towards something I would build a modern green house and my favorite at the moment is the MK Solaire.
3. If I could only buy an object there’s nothing I really need but a frivolous item I’d love to have is a Sony Vaio UX micro PCor a Series 3 TiVo.

5. In the year that you covered personal finances, what was the single most meaningful post? Why was it relevant to you?
Again, I can’t point to just one so I’ll give you two. In general, anytime I am able to pass along information that readers are able to use then I am happy. But the real estate post that sticks out in my mind is http://www.blogher.com/node/4806 one about why real estate matters to everybody regardless of whether or not you are in the market to buy or sell property - plus Liz Henry complimented it so that’s high praise to me!

A personal finance post that sticks out was http://www.blogher.com/node/4556 about financial wake-up calls and it seemed to get people talking about and thinking about the importance of retirement planning, especially for women so it was meaningful to me and certainly relevant because I was inspired by reading an article that basically said I would need to leave the bay area in order to afford to retire - talk about a wake up call!

6. Who taught you the value of a dollar?
My parents. My mother is the master at finding a deal and living well on not a lot of money and I learned my bargain shopping ninja skills from her. My father was very entrepreneurial in his career and invested in real estate and those two concepts seem to have influenced me in my choices.

7. What price is attached to being a small business owner?
Certainly early on, cash flow. It becomes much more difficult to plan and automate your finances when you don’t have the steady inflow of a regular paycheck, and the assistance of tax withholding, health insurance and retirement fund matching and I can only imagine how much more complex it will be if I reach the point where I am able to hire people to work with me as I hope to be able to do in the future. But I find that the benefits you gain in terms of freedom, flexibility, variety and lack of office politics is very much worth the price.

8. Everyone knows that you love television. Do you consider your cable subscription an affordable luxury or a necessary expense? Would you ever cancel your service?
Well I do recognize that it is ultimately a luxury but it’s one of the few I indulge in so I pay for it happily even though I could survive without it. Giving up Internet access might be harder. I would consider canceling my service if I had kids because I think it is much easier to study and focus on learning without it so I'd want to remove the temptation for me while trying to watch while also limiting the amount of time the kids could watch.

9. Which is more important: how much money you make or how you spend it?
I believe that certainly it’s how you spend it. It is very easy to fall into the trap of spending whatever you make so that it is never enough and making a lot of money means for many sacrificing your life to some degree to make that money. As I get older I better learn the lesson that relationships and service to others matter more than any paycheck. It’s a cliche but one I appreciate more and more that when I die I won’t remember what I have in the bank or the size of my paycheck but the people in my life. That all said, I do believe that it is important to work towards a world where everyone makes at least enough so that their ability to live their lives is not limited by having to struggle just to meet basic needs.

10. What are your plans for retirement?
For all my talk about the importance of planning for retirement, I don’t really have any plans. There’s nothing I'm waiting to do when I’m retired. My ideal would be to be sufficiently financially free to spend all my time volunteering, enjoying entertainment and art, learning and spending time with friends and family who are spread out around the country and the world so I guess my retirement plans are to reach the point where I can just do what I do now without the pesky distraction of earning a living.

Maria’s website can be found at Consumer Pop and her blog is at Fizz.