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Today, I think I figured out another reason why I spend less money and thus make my budget planning easier than everyone else. It’s not because I waste less money, nor is it because I buy less things. It’s basically because I stretch the use of my dollar.
What do I really mean by that? Well, I realized that every time I feel that something needs to be replaced, I end up using it for another 6 months. I still remember the day before the wedding when my mom was complaining that my pair of pants was just really old.
When I think that something is still usable, I tend to keep using it even though it might not look the newest. I’m not sure where I picked this up, but I’ve found that this single trait has saved me so much money all through life. For example, I am using a laptop that’s 5 years old. Sure, it’s a little slow, but it does the job perfectly because this laptop is used to blog and answer emails. Comparing this to someone who might have bought two laptops in the same time frame, I’ve just saved the price of one laptop.
So if we really want to keep more of our money, all we need to do is stretch every dollar. Sometimes, these things that we want to throw away is still usable and very functional. Stop throwing them away just because things get a little old. By keeping the same thing that we sometimes want to throw away, we can really spend much less money.
Last night, I walked with my wife to the nearby supermarket. At first, I didn’t want to go because I was tired from work and just wanted to sit around. However, my wife convinced me to go with her in the end and I was so glad that I did. We ended up having so much fun. The fact that we had a healthy walk and also saved some money was icing on the cake.
It all started after work when my wife wanted to buy some eggs. We moved recently, so we are still in the discovery stage instead of having a set route for everything. So, she decided to walk down to the closest grocery store to buy eggs because of a lack of a better alternative. I didn’t really want to get out of the house at that point but I agreed to go with her anyway.
During our walk, we talked and shared our day with each other and it was super nice. We don’t usually walk to places, so it was nice to be able to share that time together. If we drove, we probably wouldn’t have shared and talked with each other as much.
When we reached the supermarket, we realized that they had a pack of 18 eggs on sale for $1.89. This was much cheaper than what we were expecting (we’ve seen as much as $4 for 12). What a nice surprise which made our walk back even more pleasant.
So, last night’s walk saved me money on the eggs, gave me a chance to share with my wife, some exercise and also saved transportation costs.
Maybe you should try walking sometime. It is better for the environment, healthier for you and beneficial for your wealth.
We are moved in to our new apartment and pretty much all settled at this point. Thanks to my wife, everything went extremely smooth. She not only helped coordinate everybody to help with packing, but she also found a good moving company to do the actual moving. Just to give you an idea of how efficient the whole thing went, we got married on Saturday Feb 9 with nothing packed, rested the whole day Sunday and was in the new apartment by Tuesday Feb 12.
So before I say anything else, I’ve got to say THANK YOU to my wonderful wife. (Okay, on with the article…)
Thinking back, there would be one thing we thought could’ve been better, which was having a smaller moving bill. The moving company told us that they charge $100 / hr for their service from the get go. When asked about what the total charge would be, the mover told us that it is quite difficult to calculate it since they haven’t seen our place and don’t know how long it will take. He went on further to say that we can just wait for everything to be all set and done and then talk about it at the end. We agreed to this, and it was our big mistake.
On moving day, the movers came and very carefully moved our furniture, taping up everything to make sure nothing can be damaged. This wouldn’t be bad normally but we instantly knew we would be in trouble because it will take a long time. As the day went on, our bill kept on going up. What ended up happening was that they took 5 hours to move our 1 bedroom apartment (1 hour was to drive from the old apartment to the new), totaling $500 at $100 per hour. At that point, there weren’t much we could do since we already agreed to calculate everything at the end and we were aware of the $100 per hr charge. We were able to negotiate it down to $400, but it was still a lot of money.
We are fully aware that if we set the price in the beginning, the movers could’ve taken 3 hours to move everything instead of 5. However, as it is advantageous for them to take their time, they did. Next time, we will negotiate a final moving price before we give them any commitment. This is known as negotiating from a position of strength because they want our business and we are the decision maker. If they want our business, they will have to give us a satisfactory final moving cost and not try to charge us by the hour.
What should we do when we realized that we made a mistake on our return but it was already filed?
Basically, it will depend on whether you e-filed or not. If you e-filed and the IRS rejects your return, then you have a chance to fix the error and resubmit. However, if you e-filed and the IRS accepts your return (meaning the return is already on the way), then you will have to wait till after you receive your refund. Once you receive your check, you should prepare and file a Form 1040X. Note is that this form can only be mailed and cannot be filed electronically. Once you mail the form, it may take the IRS up to 3 months to process the Form 1040X, so don’t be alarmed if you don’t hear from them after 2 months.
There are basically 4 steps to file a 1040X:
Have your original Form 1040 handy – You will need information on the original form to file the 1040X
Note Changes – Take notes on each change on the original tax forms and the reason for each change
Fill out Form 1040X – The information on steps 1 and 2 will help with this
Mail the form – Remember to include all accompanying documents.
It is more work to correct errors but it is very important to be accurate with our filing because we don’t want to be caught with an filing error with the IRS. I will be sure to keep everyone updated on the progress.
After I posted this post, my readers corrected me in that ING Direct is actually a very responsible lender and company. I apologize for overreacting to the sub-prime mortgage.
With so many news articles about subprime loan and people being suckered into low teaser rates that ultimately reset, one would think that there wouldn’t be many ads about mortgage products that shouldn’t be sold to the general public in the first place. Today however, I got an ad from ING Direct advertising their low Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM) rate.
I was quite disturbed by this ad because it was these same products that got the United States into the whole housing mess in the first place. Sure, ARM is a great choice for mortgage for a small minority of people. However, no where in the ad do I see that this type of mortgage might not be for everyone. All I see is:
During the initial 5-year fixed rate period, you can save more than $8,200 in interest compared to a 30-year fixed rate mortgage. (Interest savings is over the first five years for a $235,000 loan) Start saving today with an Orange Mortgage.
If you just read this statement without knowing much else about mortgages, you would think that you are saving so much money. I don’t see anything in the ad that says what the interest rate is after it resets in 5 years, nor do I see anywhere that advises people to seek advice from professionals first because this is not for everyone (not that these so called professionals really tell you much truth judged from what’s been happening the last few years).
To make this worst, the reason why I got this ad is because I once had an online savings account with them. Did I even ask for a mortgage product pushed on me? If I was really stressed out about my mortgage payment, I might just fall prey to this ad and apply for this type of mortgage. To make sure we don’t spend enough time to research this, the ad says:
Apply by February 19, 2008 to receive One Low Closing Cost of $895.
Owning your home is a dream that many can relate to. My first experience with real estate came when my wife and I almost bought our first home in March of 2007. We were very excited at the time because it was going to be our first house and we even drove over to see other similar houses in the same neighborhood at 3:00am. We decided in the end to hold off because we thought the housing downturn would get drastically worst.
That turned out to be one of the best decisions we made financially, as we essentially side stepped the worst housing slump in US history. We reside in California where housing prices were going to the moon, and our decision to hold off on buying that house saved us $200,000. Yet, we still felt like we were missing out while we waited because we didn’t get to enjoy a space we can call our own. I know we don’t really own our home until we pay off our mortgage but signing the closing documents certainly brings the sense of ownership that no apartment living can substitute. [ continue reading… ]
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