In the March, 2008 issue of “O” (The Oprah Magazine), there is a great article written by Anne Kadet titled, “31 Solid-Gold Ways to Save – Without Giving Up Your Latte.” This article provides some great money saving tips and I’d like to share some of those ideas with you here:
Is there a medical procedure you’ve wanted to get, but have been holding off because either your insurance didn’t cover all the costs or your insurance didn’t cover it at all? (Lasiks, teeth whitening or other dental work, or even surgery for a pet perhaps). Even if your employer offers a flexible spending account, it may not be enough to cover unexpected medical expenses. Well, there is a company I came across that may be able to help. The company’s name is Care Credit (www.carecredit.com). Care Credit is a finance company geared towards financing medical procedures. What’s great about them is that they offer low flexible payment options. And if you have a purchase of $300 or more and pay it off within a specified amount of time, there is no interest charged (check out their terms and conditions).
The purpose of this blog is not so much about how to become a millionaire, as it is about sharing simple strategies for saving money and becoming a little bit more frugal in our lives. That is not to say however, that wealth cannot be achieved by be being frugal. Just check out The Millionaire Next Door, by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko and The Automatic Millionaire, by David Bach.
With mortgage rates on everyone’s mind lately, I’ve got two great potential money saving tips for you.
1. As you know mortgage rates move in cycles. If you happened to get your mortgage loan at a higher rate, you may have decided to refinance when the rate was lower. Unfortunately, you may have had to pay thousands and thousands of dollars to get that lower rate. Well, I’d like to introduce you to ARC Loan, which stands for Automatic Rate Cut loan. The interest on ARC loans never go up and you can continue to refinance your loan as rates decrease without paying refinance charges. Check out their website at: www.arcloan.com. There is a video on the site that explains who and what they are all about.
2. Ever wondered whether your escrow account or mortgage payments were incorrect? What kinds of errors could occur, you may be wondering? Read the rest of this entry »
With the holidays coming up, it’s going to be very easy to over spend. Therefore, I wanted to share this article written by Amy Fontinelle from www.Investopedia.com. Check out her website at www.twopenniesearned.com for some great articles on easy and fun ways to save.
“Decorating the house. Buying plane tickets. Playing Secret Santa at work. Preparing elaborate meals. Dressing up for holiday parties. Shopping for gifts. There’s no question that the days between Thanksgiving and New Year’s are often challenging, with many obligations and towering expenses. Since being extra-busy and having lots of gifts to buy is stressful enough, why add to that burden by blowing your budget or even going into debt? It’s difficult to enjoy the holidays when you’re worried about money, so use our money-saving tips to put more ho-ho-ho in your holiday season. Read the rest of this entry »
Have you ever received a gift card to a store that you will most likely never shop at? Well, with the holidays fast approaching, you may find yourself in this situation sooner than you think. I have several gift cards to Nordstroms that are a couple of years old because I just don’t typically shop there. I’m actually your Target kind of gal. But it’s such a waste of unused money. Anyway, there are great places that you can go on the web to either sell, trade or even buy gift cards at a discount. Check out the following sites:
Here is a homemade inexpensive gift that kids can make. Create a little booklet from construction paper. Depending on the interest of the recipient, collect from newspapers or magazines crossword puzzles, sudoku puzzles, word games, cartoons, or even bridge and chess problems and strategies. Glue or paste the clipped puzzles or other collected items onto the booklet pages. Be sure to paste the solutions for puzzles on the last few pages as well.
(by Barbara Boxer)
Your family (and you, too) can create a Coverdell Education Savings Account (formerly an Education IRA) and make penalty-free withdrawals from other IRAs to help pay for your education.
Taxpayers may withdraw funds from an IRA, without penalty, for their own higher education expenses or those of their spouse, child, or even grandchild. Usually, if you withdraw funds from an IRA before you’re 59-1/2, you must pay an additional 10 percent tax on the withdrawal amount. This 10 percent tax is waived on a withdrawal used for qualified expenses of the student. Read the rest of this entry »
In a recent post titled: “Reducing Mortgage Debt: Paying down mortgages faster . . .” I discussed one way to pay down your mortgage faster. However, many you may be asking, “Isn’t it a good thing to have a mortgage? Doesn’t carrying a large mortgage allow me to reduce my overall tax liability by deducting my interest payments?” According to Harj Gill, founder of the Speed Equity System and author of the book, How to Own Your Home Years Sooner! Without Making Extra Interest Payments, carrying a large mortgage is actually “one of the greatest and most tragic fallacies affecting millions of Americans.” Read the rest of this entry »
Step 1: Create a Debt Elimination Table
Create a table listing all your consumer/credit card debt. If you can do this electronically on a spread sheet, that’s even better. Create 5 columns: 1) Name (of credit card), 2) Amount (amount owed), 3) Minimum Payment, 4) Interest Rate and 5) Factoring Number.
Step 2: Determine the Factoring Number:
