Many have caught on to the craze of websites that will appraise your home for free. Zillow.com and others of this ilk do provide some good information on past home sales, but other than that there is little reliable information to receive from these sites. Maybe in the future they will have a better way of appraising value, but for now do not count on them as your source for home values. These sites save you the time of physically having to go somewhere to find the last sale price of a home and coordinate their information into one place, but wait until they become reliable (if they ever do).
Archive for October, 2006
Websites That Value Your Home
Monday, October 9th, 2006Cutting Household Bills
Sunday, October 8th, 2006
There are many methods of going about cutting your household bills and here we will discuss some ways you can save too.
Bundling
You may not be familiar with this, but if you use the same family of companies for phone, cell phone, internet, and cable you can have it all on one monthly bill and get a good percentage off retail price.
Programable thermostat
Many have thought of it, but have you gone out and bought one yet? Heating your home is not cheap, and by programming the temperature and time you can save a lot of money.
Energy efficient appliances
The initial cost can be expensive, but for the long term you will save an amount of money that is way over what extra you paid for the appliances. If an appliance breaks or needs to be replaced go for the best energy-efficient one.
Seal up the house and insulation
Make sure your home does not have places where air can escape. Also, put some extra insulation in and these will help your home stay warmer in the winter.
Turn off the lights
An oldie, but a goodie. Simple to do and every little bit of energy counts.
Unplug your cell phone charger
Leaving your charger in can really suck up electricity so remember to unplug it when charging is done.
Seal your refrigerator
You refrigerator is always running so it consumes a lot of energy. Clean the coils underneath and make sure the seal is good.
Keep a bare bones land phone line
A regular phone line costs very little these days. Do not sign up for long distance or any other bells and whistles. Take incoming calls on your land line and make outgoing calls on your cell phone.
Family Cell Phone Plans
Many already know this, but you can save a lot by having your entire family on one plan.
FiveCentNickel on saving on household bills.
The Stock Market
Saturday, October 7th, 2006The Dow Jones Industrial Index broke through its all-time high this week. This can be interpreted in many different ways by investors. Does this mean more records being broken? Is this the peak before the fall? Is the stock market truly reflecting America’s financial state?
These are good questions to consider when deciding where next to put your money. The Fed has stopped raising rates and this will affect other parts of the economy. Oil prices are down and that means costs for many companies will be down. There is an election coming up on November 7th. There are still many problems in the Middle East that will not be solved overnight.
When times are good in any type of market (see housing) the common notion is to believe the good times will continue. But all markets move in cycles—the problem is that you cannot predict these cycles.
With that being said. I believe a strong argument can be made either way. There are a whole bunch of negatives out there and many positives as well. But cycles must run there course. Do you think there is more good news coming or bad?
Credit Card Deals
Friday, October 6th, 2006
Credit cards offer a wide variety of deals these days. My wife and I take advantage of one that gives 1% back on all purchases and 5% back on gas purchases. It may not seem like a lot, but if you charge most of your purchases it can add up to a lot over a full year.
With rates rising you do not have much longer to take advantage of the 0% introductory rate many credit cards are offering. Try to get them to waive the transfer fee and then you have months and months of purchases or balance transfers that will go interest free, which gives you time to whittle them down.
Money Rules
Thursday, October 5th, 2006- Never purchase a mutual fund with a load: The only people who profit when you buy a front or back load fund is the fund and the broker and his firm. e.g. You invest $10,000 in a fund that has a front load of 5%. Right off the bat you are in the red and you do not have the basis of $10,000 to build off of–you have $9,500 to begin and the honor of paying $500 for poor investing advice.
- Never put money that you will need in the next 5 years in the stock market. Let’s say you and your spouse plan to buy a home some time within the next three years. While you could get some good growth by putting it in the market, but if the market tanks anytime in those three years of accumulation that could mean another 2 years until you can buy a home.
- Bank online: Many people are old school and want to see their banker, but there are few benefits for most people to go to a bricks and mortar bank. You can have a checking account that bears interest, a savings account that gets a better interest rate, and you can have automatic bill payment. Over a life time this will save you and and make you much more money.
- Avoid ARMS, Interest only, piggy-backs and all those methods that mortgage brokers will temp you. Sadly, many Americans are finding this out the hard way. Interest rates rose and their payment went up 50%; their ARM came up and their mortage payment is much much bigger; you need to get out of your home and you had an interest only loan–the real estate market is down and because you have no equity in your home you are up-side-down
- Avoid ATM fees: Unless it is an emergency situation you should not pay ATM fees. Yout think it is only a couple bucks, but if you do that once a week for a year you are out $100-150. Get cash when you get groceries–they allow you to get cash back with a purchase for no fee.
FMF has some money saving tips.
craigslist and eBay shopping
Wednesday, October 4th, 2006
Many might think buying other peoples’ used stuff, but eBay and craigslist can help you save hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on things you need.
For example, my wife and I just bought an armoire off of craigslist. The armoire was high-end and custom-made. The owners no longer could use it. The piece was originaaly priced between $2,000-$3,000. We got it for $300. There is a minor things from wear and tear, but no one would know we bought it used if we did not tell them. Now moving the armoire took three of us 45 minutes to get it to my second floor apartment, but it was well worth it.
Another example is that I had put off for years getting a filing cabinet because they are very expensive sometimes. Well I decided to check craigslist and got one used for $25–I just had to pick it up. Retail it would have gone for around $150.
eBay is similar in savings. You have young kids and they go through clothes in weeks it seems. Buy some used baby clothes off eBay and save 50% on clothes that would only be used for a couple months before their use was gone.
Little things like this can save you money that you can put towards retirement, a home or investments.
Mutual Funds
Monday, October 2nd, 2006
Mutual funds’ popularity began to explode in the 1980s. Now it is the way most lesser experienced investors (and experienced ones too) used to watch their money grow.
- The Investment objectives are growth and income
- High liquidity
- Low to high fluctuation of principal and return
- Dividends and capital gains taxed in year received
- Diversification, Diversification, Diversification
Real Assets
Sunday, October 1st, 2006
Real estate has been very popular as an invest in recent years, but investing in it does not mean just flipping property.
- Investment objectives are growth, diversification and inflation protection
- Low liquidity
- Low to high fluctuation of principal and returns
- You get rental income. Capital appreciation is taxed in the year received