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Out of Debt... Now What?
2007-03-08 14:43:00
We just paid off our second car, and our only debt left is the mortgage. Now what? Like many of you, we have several long and short-term savings goals, but where should we (and you) be pushing money right now?A good place to start is by writing a list of the goals and changes you expect in your financial world. It’s easier to save if you know what you're saving for. Here is ours, for example. One month: alimony for the ex ends (+$). Next few months: buy a motorcycle (-$), receive a portion from the sale of the ex's house (+$). Next few years: get married (-$), replace my trusty (and rusty) '98 Altima (-$). Ten years: begin to pay 50% of college for two kids (-$). Thirty years: retire (-$). Items with unclear time frames: emergencies, moving, vacations, mortgage payoff, other large purchases.First things first... well, actually, last things first. Since retirement and college accounts are anticipated to earn significantly more than the rate on the mortgage, make sure those will ...
More About: Debt

Tax Deduction vs. Early Mortgage Payoff
2007-02-28 20:42:00
Its tax season again, so that has me thinking about deductions. Specifically, the home mortgage interest deduction. Homeowners love it, but I'm concerned that it’s the only thing keeping many people from paying off their mortgages early. Why? Let’s look at the numbers...Say you are single, earn $70k, and have $250k mortgage at 6%. The first year you own the home (which is when your interest deduction would be largest) you pay $14,916.49 in interest, making your taxes $9,504. If you didn't own the home, your taxes would've been $11,945. Great. You just saved about $2,400. The problem with that is that you had to spend almost $15k to do it, and the only person actually getting richer is your lender.What happens if you're married with the same mortgage, but a combined income of $110,000? With the house, your tax is $15,236. Without it, your tax is $16,390. A "savings" of $1,154 at the cost of almost $15,000. Also, don't forget that the deduction shrinks with each year you own ...
More About: Mortgage , Early , Gage , Earl , Mort

Merging Lives, Merging Money
2007-02-27 02:54:00
When we moved in together we had to merge two very different financial worlds. I had recently finished putting myself through college, was debt free, and had been obsessively been trying to perfect my credit score and stash away every penny I could in hopes of being able to put down a good chunk for a home. Code Guru was recently divorced (separated, actually) with two kids, about $10k in marital debt, and didn't seem interested in credit reports or scores. We had to find a way to financially co-exist.Code Guru wanted to get joint accounts, but the idea terrified me. I knew the advantages, but I wasn't ready to send my hard-earned cash into the world of "our money". I had this compulsive need to know everything that was going on with every dime, and I was afraid that moving money into joint accounts would cause me to lose control over the finances. So, we started off with separate accounts, and all bills were split straight down the middle. This worked out horribly. We finally swi...
More About: Money , Lives , Merging

Free Money: Federal Excise Tax Refund
2007-02-21 15:52:00
Did you have phone service between Feb. 28, 2003 and Aug. 1, 2006? If so, you are eligible for a one-time refund of the Federal Excise Tax, a small fee created in 1898 to fund the Spanish-American war. At the time, it was a tax on the rich who could afford a phone, but now it is no longer a luxury tax and has been ruled illegal by federal courts.The result? An additional refund on your 2006 taxes (and ONLY your 2006 taxes). You can either claim the standard refund amount of $30-60, depending on the number of exemptions you claim, or the actual amount you paid if you have all your old bills. Enter the amount on line 71 of the 1040 and you're good to go. Check out the IRS site for all the details.- Money Guru
More About: Free

Taking the Sting out of Tuition
2007-02-13 17:01:00
I strongly believe that parents should not have to foot the bill for their kid's college. If they have extra cash laying around and really want to pay for all or part of it, then by all means go for it, but too many parents end up carrying that extra financial burden which they cannot afford. She still may be daddy's little girl, but she will probably be a legal adult when she enters college, and needs to start learning about financial responsibility, plus its more motivation for her to actually go to class every day and make it worth her while.That being said, I am a step-parent of two kids who, according to the divorce decree, will have their college expenses split 50/50 between mommy and daddy. Since we made the decision that all money is our money and all debt is our debt, this means that no matter how much I disagree with it, I need to start thinking about how to fund a college education for two kids.It may sound like a good deal, but DO NOT take a loan from your 401(k) to pa...
More About: Sting , Tuition , Taking , The Sting

Don't Blame The Credit Cards
2007-02-12 20:41:00
Credit cards are not evil. They have been given a bad reputation over the years for causing Americans to dig themselves into record-setting levels of debt, but thats like blaming fast food for making people fat. Its all about personal decisions. You choose whether or not to eat the artery-clogging food, just as you choose how and when you use your credit cards. Neither does the damage on its own.If for no other reason, credit cards are great for building credit. It looks great to have one (or a few) well maintained credit cards on your credit report - it shows you can handle the responsibility.Credit cards can save you money. If you have a card with a half way decent rewards program on it, you can actually get money for purchases you were going to make anyway. Its usually not much, but its more than you'd get from paying cash, especially if you pay your balance off each statement.In case of an emergency, your credit card can often give you access to more money than your bank accou...
More About: Credit Cards , Credit , Cards , Blame , Lame

Permanently Clean Grout
2007-02-09 19:47:00
I enjoy having a clean house, I just don't enjoy the process of making it clean. This is why I am always on the search for things that reduce the amount of actual cleaning I need to do, and today I thought I'd share my method for never having to clean grout again.Clean it (stick with me here, people). I know, I know, this is what we're trying to avoid, but we only have to do it once. If you have a grout cleaner that you think works best, by all means, knock yourselves out and use that, but, if you're like me and are not satisfied by anything you tried, grab some sandpaper. Fold the sandpaper up, or wrap it around something that will make a nice edge, and sand away the stains on the grout. Its simple, its effective, and my grout has never looked cleaner. This can be a long process, but remember, you only have to do this once. Seal it. Go out to the hardware store and buy some grout sealer. This is the easy step. Follow the instructions on the bottle, of course, but it goes someth...
More About: Erma , Perm , Permanent

Going Paperless: Electronic W-2s
2007-02-09 16:09:00
Hate waiting for your W-2 to come through snail mail then having to manually type every value from every box into your favorite tax software? You may have other options.See if your company participates with W-2 eXpress. You can get your W-2 delivered electronically, so it will get to you sooner than with snail mail, plus they let you print additional copies. Many tax preparation applications will allow you to download your tax information directly from the site, so you won't have to type any of your W-2 information by hand (especially that damn FEIN).Several payroll providers, such as ADP, also allow online access to pay stubs and W-2s (although you probably wont be able to download the data into your tax software), just check their website.- Money Guru
More About: Electronic , Less , Tron , Going , Goin

Free Money: Unclaimed Property
2007-02-07 19:37:00
Receiving money is great - especially when it comes for free. There are millions and millions of dollars being held by state treasurers, just waiting for someone to step forward and claim them. The National Association of Unclaimed Prop erty Administrators (NAUPA) has a site with a clickable map that will provide you links to your state's unclaimed property database.A few months ago I ran the name of every family member and friend I could think of for every state they lived in, and while I wasn't able to find any money for myself, I did find thousands for my family and one of my friends. [I should've charged commission]Okay so it was your money all along, so its not like its "new" free money, but hey - its more than you knew you had yesterday!Unclaimed Property DatabasesHappy searching!-Money Guru
More About: Free , Pert

Debt Free in Three Steps
2007-02-05 18:41:00
In debt? Good. That means you're in the right place. Today we are going to show you an effective way to pay off all your debts, and its tailored to your financial personality. We've put this all into three simple steps to help you eliminate your debt without the stress.Make a list. Write down all of your debts including the name, amount owed, minimum required payment, and interest rate.Sort your list. There are two main choices on deciding the order in which to pay off your debts, so read carefully and choose wisely.Order your debts from highest interest rate to the lowest. Main Pro: Greatest amount of money saved since the debts with the highest interest rates get paid off first. Main Con: Since the focus is in paying down the most expensive debt, and not necessarily the fastest debt to pay off, it may feel like its taking a little while to start seeing the accounts disappear. Who should choose it: People who can keep their eyes on the prize, and are okay with waiting for results...
More About: Free , Debt , Step , Three , Steps

Money Automation 101
2007-02-02 15:24:00
Cash management, budgeting, and paying bills were all much more stressful before we came up with six easy steps to simplify your cash flow through automation. This method requires three bank accounts, although you can use two if you are very careful. You will need one savings account and two checking accounts.Step 1 - Quick budget. Grab all your bills that are roughly the same each month (mortgage/rent, cable, car payments, utilities, etc). Add up how much you need to cover those bills each month. For bills that fluctuate monthly or seasonally, use the average of a several-month span, then add a cushion into the total number for all bills - $200 should be more than enough.Joe and Jane Guru's Bills2500 - Mortgage60 - Gas70 - Electric20 - Water40 - Cable60 - Phone215 - Car insurance100 - Gym100 - HOA400 - Car200 - Cushion3765 - TotalStep 2 - Fund the Bill Pay Checking and Regular Checking accounts. Take the amount you came up with in Step 1, and divide by how many checks you get each...
More About: Money , Automation

Harvest Locally
2007-02-01 03:38:00
In the shadow of the recent organic food explosion, the local food movement has been quietly gaining steam. Loca l food is offering many advantages to the conventional food we are used to eating. Why are people going local, and how can you?Fresh food - Most of the food in the grocery store is shipped for hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles before reaching the store, so fruit and vegetables need to be harvested before they are ripe and ripened later (usually by gassing them with ethylene). Local food is picked when ripe and sold immediately so it is incredibly fresh.Supporting your community - When you buy local food you are supporting local farms and merchants, which keeps your money local and strengthens your community.Save money and the environment - Prices for typical store bought food include the cost of transportation, which also contributes to pumping large amounts of CO2 into our atmosphere. So how do you make the switch to going local?CSAs (Community Supported Agricult...
More About: Harvest , Ally

The Dish on Detergent
2007-01-30 23:44:00
We were convinced there was something horribly wrong with our dishwasher. Most of the detergent commercials on TV have people putting filthy crusty dishes in only to have them come out sparkling clean. Ours didn't. Not even close. We tested half the detergents in the store, some green cleaners, and even tried making our own. Nothing worked. We went on a hunt.If we were searching for the ultimate detergent, we thought some overkill would be nice and we should define what would make the detergent 'ultimate' in the first place. Here it is, in order of importance:Superior cleaningReasonably pricedPhosphate freeNo animal testing or animal ingredientsAs environmentally friendly as possibleThe ability to see through wallsAfter much research and many washed (and often rewashed) dishes, we had a clear winner - Trader Joe's "Next to Godliness" powdered dish detergent. It cleaned better than anything else we tried, and is one of the greenest products on the market. The top 5 items on our l...
More About: Dish , The D , Gent

Happy Tax Season!
2007-01-30 02:32:00
I have to admit - I love doing taxes. Organizing my papers, filling out the forms, e-filing my taxes, and sitting back to wait for my deposit. I love the whole process - partially because I'm a huge money geek, and partially because I have everything ready to go so the process is painless.Here are some simple tips to help with tax season:E-file for free - If you're the DIY type, you can e-file for free and keep your whole refund to yourself. IRS provides a list of companies that provide free e-filing if your AGI (Adjusted Gross Income) falls under 52,000 (there are exceptions). If you expect your AGI to be more than that and don't mind clicking past the "upgrade now and get great features you probably won't need" ads, you can file your federal taxes for free at TaxAct, regardless of income. Don't get suckered into the "add State taxes for only $7.95" gimmick on any of these sites either - many states let you file for free directly through their site.Direct deposit - Have the I...
More About: Season , Happy , Seas