Ken and Daria Dolan, America's first family of personal finance, answer your questions every Friday.

Click here to ask Ken and Daria your question.

With more than 3.6 million jobs lost and unemployment headed toward 10%, more and more people are considering whether or not to leave the rat race and go into business for themselves. The Dolans share some tips and a few warnings that can help you decide whether or not to take the leap.

Dear Ken and Daria,

I'm thinking about starting my own business but I'm scared -- especially in this economy. Do you have any advice for me?

--Melanie

You'll find lots of strategies for managing your career and surviving this recession at Dolans.com.

In a recession, art funding becomes an oxymoron. And then we're suddenly grateful for the tattoos of celebrities, like Megan Fox's King Lear reference on her back, to give us our Shakespeare.

Two of my favorite new artists I discovered with the help of Campari. No, not the name of New York's latest curator from across the pond, but the 150-year-old red alcoholic aperitif invented in Italy, the stuff of New York Times' Helene Cooper's villa dreams. "We proffer Campari-vodka-grapefruit juice aperitivos..." Cooper writes in her romantic story on how to score an affordable vacation rental in Italy.

Artists and alcohol have long had a productive relationship (go ahead and argue that), and Campari's long-standing "experiential marketing" initiative, House of Campari, is brilliantly set on supporting emerging artists, through grants and rallying audiences into galleries. In a boom market, this might get eclipsed by the insane stories of English artist Damien Hirst selling off his pieces for tens of millions of dollars--$100 million for a diamond-encrusted skull alone.With the art bubble going the way of Lehman Brothers, suddenly we need more Camparis, the "apertivos" and the art patron.

Once again, Walletpop's personal style expert, Holly Getty, tells you to go shopping, wisely:

"Are you still shopping at the same stores you did a year ago? Still wearing the same designers? Well, it's time to upgrade.

"Stores are dropping prices so quickly, they practically hit your feet. Now is the time to shop the designers and stores you have always wanted to shop.

"You see, there are two type of shoppers at this moment in time. One is in fear mode: Purchasing more of what they have in their wardrobes, buying larger quantities, not seeing what's around them.

We all have those friends who dress like they should be hung up in the MoMA. I'm certainly not that friend to anybody. But I do have this idea that style empowers you and, as we've shown right here on WalletpopTV, gives you an edge, especially if you're interviewing for jobs.

Meet StyleCaster, an inspiring guide to looking your best. Can't afford a personal stylist? Not friends with Rachel Zoe? Then StyleCaster will provide you with the dream cyber closet of ideas and network you with stylists, models, and other fashionistas with similar tastes. It's Facebook meets Elle.

"At the end of the day it's about discovery. You don't have to buy the products on StyleCaster. It's about discovering the things you already have and how to wear them better," says Ari Goldberg, the site's young, energetic C.E.O. and co-founder. Mr. Goldberg is in an especially inspired-mood today, given that his company just scored $4 million in funding. If investors see the potential in this, especially in a deep downturn, what can StyleCaster do for your look and closet?

I'm glad I didn't think of this when layoffs were in the air at my former company a year ago: A man in Spain was arrested for hiring a contract killer to murder his boss so that he wouldn't be laid off.

And he got the job done, too. That's right -- he had his boss whacked so he wouldn't lose his job.

The desperate act to avoid being laid off was done by the head of audiovisual services at the Barcelona International Convention Center, according to a Reuters story.

The director contracted a Colombian man who shot and killed the director of the convention center on Feb. 9, according to police. The director had planned to lay off the arrested man during a restructuring project at the convention center.

Audiovisual gigs must be particularly hard to come by in Barcelona.

Through his sister, the suspect contracted a team of six Colombians who planned and carried out the killing, police said. All have been detained, including the sister.

Again, the sister was dumb enough to help her brother out in this situation. Why? The recession is horrible and losing a job, home or business is devastating. But worth a life? And not to state the obvious or anything, but he still lost his job, didn't he?

Maybe the audiovisual worker can retrain in prison, where he no doubt will be spending his remaining years.

Dear Mrs. Madoff:

I understand that with your husband in jail for the rest of his life and you losing claim to millions of dollars worth of real estate and other assets in the bargain, you are being left with only $2.5 million to your name. That gives you an income of about $125,000 a year.

Keep this in mind: 90% of Americans don't make anywhere near this. But for two-income professional couples on either coast, this represents a middle class income.

So allow me to give you some general tips on how to live like the middle class, although, as the character in Casablanca says, I don't know why because it can not possibly benefit me.

First thing's first, I'd find your AARP card and join up. Lots of discounts for you there. And you're gonna need them, lady.

Housing: You might have trouble finding affordable housing. This is sure to surprise you, having up until recently enjoyed lavish homes in half a dozen locations without a thought over how they were paid for. But, and I'm sorry to tell you this, your yearly nut won't qualify you for any home anywhere you'd be interested in living. The average cost of a home in Beverly Hills is $1.9 million. While in Manhattan the average cost is $1.4 million. It's looking like nobody in town is going to rent you anything there, anyway.

How much is your local post office worth to you? Would you miss it if it disappeared? Do you depend on your local post office for services other than regular mail delivery and the purchase of postal supplies? These and other mail service-related questions will soon be a significant concern for many people across America.

Due to the rapidly rising costs of doing business, the United States Postal Service is considering the closure of approximately 3,200 local post offices. That's nearly 10% of the post offices currently in operation. According to an article from MSN Money, most of the postal locations which are being considered for closure exist in metropolitan areas.

The main goal of the proposed cap and trade bill is to reduce the level of harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

To achieve this objective, Congress has crafted a plan to place a cap (or limit) on the amount of greenhouse gas that can be emitted into the atmosphere by large scale companies. These companies are required to have an emissions permit for each ton of CO2 released.

The bill will also offer trade incentives for companies to reduce emissions below the maximum level they were limited to in the purchased permit. The companies that emit less than required can sell the left over amounts to other companies that cannot meet the reduction limit. The main source of government profit from the cap and trade bill would derive from auctioning off emissions permits.

An additional purpose of this bill is to decrease the demand for "dirty" energy, and instead use profits to stimulate the path towards a "greener" energy market. It's common knowledge that with decreased demand, prices must fall to lure in customers. This rule doesn't apply in the case of cap and trade.

With high unemployment hitting communities across the nation, more people are returning to school to gain new skills and an upper hand on the competition. Owens Community College in Northwest Ohio is expecting an increase of close 24% for full time students this fall and has seen an increase in summer enrollment of close to 20% as well. Technical schools, like Tennessee Tech, are also seeing a boom in enrollment, thanks to job seekers looking for new skills.

Part of this increase can be attributed to the fact that many of these schools have noticed a shift in demand and have accordingly adjusted their programs to fit the needs of nontraditional students, such as unemployed Boomers. More community colleges are also offering evening and online courses, which make it easier to work on a new skill while you are still gainfully employed.

Current four-year students also have plenty of opportunities at community colleges. As Zac Bissonnette pointed out in WalletPop's Under-Rated series last fall, community colleges are a great place to pick up credits on the cheap. Owens Community College attributes a portion of its large increase this summer to students who will transfer credits back to their four-year institute in the fall. For example, next year, a full time student at Polk State College in Florida will only pay $2,594 for 30 credit hours!

If you're looking for a cheap way to give yourself an edge on the competition, local community colleges are where it's at. With enrollment numbers already up by 10-24%, if you're interested in a class at your local community college you better apply soon, since they may not be able cope with all of the increased demand!

When one thinks about debt collectors, names like "leech," "bloodsucker," and "pit bull" immediately dance from the tongue; for those lucky few of us who have occasionally received wake-up calls from the bill man, the terms get even more emotionally fraught and foully descriptive. While cannibalism is obviously a somewhat extreme response, regular social calls from creditors can help one see the wisdom of Hannibal Lector, who proudly bragged of eating a census-taker's liver with "fava beans and a nice chianti."

In the current economic situation, affection would likely be the last response that a bill collector could expect from a client. However, this is exactly what a collector in Victorville, California got on Wednesday when she knocked on a customer's door. The collector, a car saleswoman, came by to pick up a payment when she noticed that her customer had missed the pay date.

Things must be pretty bad in Russia these days. Deceased Soviet dictator Josef Stalin is making a comeback in a Russian city as a way to battle the world economic crisis.

If he could beat Nazi Germany, the thinking goes, then his methods should be used on the global economy.

Russian communists have put up giant billboards of Stalin in the southern city of Voronezh, which has a population of around 1 million, promoting his tough methods to best remedy the world economic crisis, according to a Reuters story.

Stalin's tough tactics included killing millions of people during his 30-year rule until his death in 1953. But memories are short: he was voted the third most popular historical figure in a nationwide poll, with many in recession-hit Russia growing nostalgic for his strong leadership.

"Everybody knows that under Stalin our country achieved the highest rate of economic growth and development in other spheres, and the great victory (over Nazi Germany," Sergei Rudakov, a senior Communist party official, told Reuters.

Local communists paid an advertising agency 80,000 rubles, or $2,534, to put Stalin's image on 10 billboards for a month.

The hotel company Marriott is cutting some fat out of its business by switching the breakfast meat to irregular cuts of bacon, according to a report in Fortune magazine.

The company says its executives pigged out on the odd-shaped pieces and were practically in hog heaven over this money-saving breakfast. It would be easy to roast Marriott for being piggish, but Fortune reports that times are tough at the company – as they are at most hotels now that legions of us are unemployed and don't travel any longer for business or pleasure.

For the first three months of 2009, Marriott's revenue per available room, an industry metric known as revPAR, fell by 17%. So it's understandable that they need to skinny down the costs and even a ham-handed approach to savings really isn't an oinky way to do business these days.

With men getting laid off at three times the rate of women, the recession is quietly producing more stay-at-home dads and changing how households are run and children are raised.

The typical father spends about seven hours per week in "primary child care," according to a Time magazine story, which is more than twice as much as in 1965. It still doesn't sound like much, and for unemployed fathers, I'll bet it's a lot more.

But beyond the joy of being Mr. Mom, unemployed parents -- whether mom or dad -- have to deal with the extra burden of dealing with kids afoot while searching for a job.

I'm lucky. My wife still has a full-time job, and I'm writing this while she's working and I've put our daughter, 4, to sleep for the night. And because my wife works nights, she's around to take care of our child during the day while I search for full-time work and do some part-time work. By early afternoon, I'm on my own.

The stresses of being unemployed are harsh enough, but looking for work while keeping a house and child (or children) in semi-order is so much that you can find yourself being overtaken by the everyday tasks of life instead of looking for work.

Those are the topics I discussed with WalletPop editor Andrea Chalupa in the weekly podcast "Your Job Will Come."

Do you live with a baseball "superfan?" Are you one yourself? If so, this might be your lucky year, as ballparks around the country slash prices on their ritzy luxury-suite digs.

While many of these deals aren't what most people would dub inexpensive -- some of them are still in the five figures -- fields desperate to get customers through the gates are offering one-time deals for seats that are normally sold only by the season and packages including perks like wine tastings, limo transfers and access to players. The bottom line: They're still luxuries, but if you've got the disposable income and want to see baseball in high-roller style, this is your season.

What's fueling the sudden sale on swanky seats? A big part of it is companies and even municipalities cutting back on their luxury-box expenditures as the recession continues. The beleaguered General Motors is reportedly trying to unload a chunk of its Detroit Tigers luxury seats. In the Big Apple, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg pulled back on suite seats at the city's two new major league ballparks.

It's been a bruising week for golf: First, the US Open in New York was practically a flood zone, with rainouts, cancellations and decidedly soggy players and spectators.

Now, USA Today reports that CEOs are shying away from the game out of fear that they'll be viewed as putting while Rome Inc. burns.

Although USA Today conducted what it referred to as an "unscientific" study on executive golf habits, anecdotal reports in the piece indicate that head honchos are scaling back their game time or making an effort to be more low-key about their green time.

The conclusion makes sense, though. The company-sponsored golf outing has been vilified as a careless frivolty. It's been well documented that companies are cutting back on lavish meetings and junkets, especially since beleaguered insurance giant AIG was called on the carpet last year for holding an executive retreat after taking billions in government bailout money. Event planners and bookers even have a term for it; they've dubbed it the "AIG Effect."