Sharing insights since 2007 on carefully saving money, investing, frugal living, coupons, promo codes because the little things matter in achieving financial freedom!
My wife and I built our home in 2004, at the height of the housing boom. We built as large of a house as we possibly could using creative financing, which included an adjustable rate first mortgage, and an interest-only second mortgage. This wasn’t an ideal situation, but we planned to refinance within a few years.
Unfortunately, our growing credit card debt prohibited us from being able to refinance.
With the pending completion of our debt management program, we’re finally in a position to redo our mortgage. I wanted to wait until March (when the credit card debt was completely gone), but my wife pushed to start the process in December. Though I resisted at first, I’m glad we started earlier.
Here are three reasons I’m happy we refinanced our house when we did. [ continue reading… ]
You have a lot of financial goals for the new year, but you’re not sure how to go about completing them. Do you finish one before the other, or work on them simultaneously?
Like everyone else, many of my New Year’s Resolutions are personal-finance related. I’m hoping this will be the year for me to save up and invest a decent portion of money. But of course, my goals are a little more intricate than just saving and investing into one asset: I have three big investing goals that I want to conquer.
With more than one financial goal to work on, I’ve got two options: finish one before starting the other, or save for all of them simultaneously.
Normally, I’d try to finish one goal before beginning another. This is what I’ve done in the past, and it’s worked quite well. This year, however, I don’t see any one financial goal standing out to me more than the others.
With all my investing goals fighting equally for my attention, I’ve decided to use percentages to reach them. [ continue reading… ]
If you know you’ll need a little extra motivation to improve your finances, here are some strategies to help you maintain your positive attitude.
Pick Something that Matters
Figure out a way to make your goals matter to you. Chances are that saying “I want to save more” isn’t going to be very motivating — because you haven’t connected your goal to something that matters to you. Instead, figure out what is important to you, and what you hope to accomplish with the money. [ continue reading… ]
The Qualified Mortgage rule places new limitations on loan terms and lender fees, and it requires more thorough income and debt verification. The rule will eliminate the potential for unfair lender practices like balloon payments and reverse amortization. Under most qualified mortgages, lenders will be limited to charging fees no greater than 3% of the total loan amount.
These provisions prevent lenders from taking advantage of consumers, but there’s something in it for them, as well. Most lenders will be eager to comply with the Qualified Mortgage rule, because it’ll provide them with legal protection. As long as their practices comply with QM rules, they’ll be much less vulnerable to losing money on lawsuits, which are a major expense for mortgage lenders.
Even though the act will encourage more sound and fair practices among mainstream mortgage companies, it doesn’t necessarily mean that mortgages will be easier to get.
The power steering hummed with each corner I took while my wife and I were out shopping before the holidays. It had become a common occurrence, especially when the Minnesota winter temps dropped into the single digits. Most likely, the power steering pump needs to be replaced — a repair that would cost us several hundred dollars.
“I can’t wait to get a new van,” said my wife.
It’s a phrase I hear from my wife each time our van shows its age by making a questionable noise or needing a repair. Our van is almost ten years old, and has over 120,000 miles on it, so it’s understandable that things have begun to wear out.
And I can certainly understand where my wife is coming from. Each age-related repair or maintenance item is money out of our pocket. If we had a new van, repairs would be extremely rare, and they’d also be covered by the warranty. [ continue reading… ]
Tax time is quickly approaching. Those who anticipate getting a large tax refund will be anxiously waiting to file their taxes, while those who anticipate owing money will be holding off until the last minute.
In fact, this will be the first year that I may end up owing income taxes, rather than getting a refund. This used to be the time of year when I would scheme about all the ways I could use the extra money.
If you’re anticipating getting a large income tax refund, here are five smart things you could do with it. [ continue reading… ]
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