My husband always hand writes me a love letter for V-day. This heartfelt gift means more to me than just about anything else. He usually accompanies it with a single red rose from the grocery store. The most inexpensive gifts are often the most valuable.
The extended warranties are good for the big items washers, dryers, fridges, etc. Also really good if you have kids and buy the expensive Wii or Xbox 360. Kids are a little hard on those items and the warranties do pay off on the bigger and expensive items.
Jamie, hi my name is Mary from Tenn. I read your post and wanted to ask you what kind of antenna did you purchase? I tried to connect our converter box to our big tv. in the living room and I couldn't get good reception at all, therefore we can't get any channels but maybe 1 or 2, and no regular ones at that, like 5 or 3and 13.
I did get our bdroom tv. connected and with rabbit ears it gave me only 5 channels of which also doesn't include the regular channels that we normally get. I know that I need a better antenna but don't know which one to buy. Thank you for your information on this.
Mary
I've noticed that most mortgage companies have an amortization calculator built into their website (at least Chase & Citi). The best part is that the calculator includes historical data about your mortgage, so for instance it knows that you've already made 50 of the 360 payments. You can usually test the impact of a one-time payment vs. paying extra each month. You can print or copy the amortization table for your records and check each month that your statement matches the table.
It always pays to double-check your statements. I'm sure that companies make mistakes more often than we realize.
We track our mortgage payments in Money - it automatically adjusts the amortization schedule each month, based on our extra payments, and calculates the interest/principle split. It's just easier to verify that both "my" calculated balance and the mortgage company's balance match. As a bonus, it lets me know each month how many more payments we have until the loan is paid off!
As long as you keep feeling great about what you are doing trust me things will work out. Just let it become a burden on, do it because you want to and you will be fine..
First of all I would like to give you props on this interesting post. I agree with you points but the main point is results. People can follow these ways and might make their way out; problem is the same that we have with losing wait. How many people actually continue and not give up on their diet? Yes many but not more than the people those give up on their diets. Once again Great Post
That we need decorate our life and when we died, we 'll got nothing to regret. It's really a purpose that we always want to touch.
That we felt so lose heart(in love,works...). We can be killed or died in many ways such as: accidents,hoary age, or just a disease...). But that's life, we can die every time, every where, life is not simple like what we thought about it: "Life is so soft, so easy..." If it's just easy,soft like that, there's no exciting things in our life, and we'll have no goals for life. And we lived for what? Cause we'll all die but you should chose and decide how will we die? or which way will we die...
Great post... I followed the link from The Simple Dollar to find it.
As a REALTOR, I wanted to put my 2 cents in on a couple of things:
1. We are starting to see that the loan modifications do not work (renegotiating the mortgage). Most of these mods fall back into trouble at about the 6 month mark. I believe it is mostly because people get that second chance but do not make the lifestyle changes they need to make.
2. If it becomes obvious that you are going to lose your house, you need to start as early as possible to pursue a short sale. Contact a licensed agent that works short sales and have them advise you along with an attorney (they will have one you can talk to). A short sale is your best bet once you hit the point of no return. They don't happen overnight, but they will save you a lot of headaches and can even allow you to stay in the house longer if the mortgage company gives the agent additional time to sell.
3. The Blame game. Come on people, there is enough blame to go around. From the government pushing the mortgage companies to make buying a home easier for those normally wouldn't be able to afford it, to the mortgage companies getting greedy and creating crappy loan products to make them look like a deal, to agents pounding the "buy now" drum, to people not educating themselves or buying more than they could afford. The only thing that is clear is that it has now hurt a lot of people who did the right thing by buying an affordable house and putting money down on that house. You simply can not blame one single segment for this mess.
4. Renting it out... This is a great option if you can do it. I actually have several clients that are in this mode right now.
I was married stay-at-hom Mom/Homemaker. After 23 years, we divorced and I had to start from scratch. Divorce settlement netted me approx. $30K total. I had only a GED education as I married at age of 16. ALL THE YEARS IN THE MARRIAGE PARTNERSHIP WENT TOWARD HIS SOCIAL SECURITY AND I HAD TO START BUILDING MY OWN RETIREMENT. I FEEL THIS IS THE SOCIAL SECURITY PENALITY FOR THE STAY AT HOME PARENT. (Normally the woman and the smaller earner of the two)
I invested the $30K and worked, joined company 401K plan and contributed full amount I could to get 75% company match. I adopted my Grandson and raised him with no financial help. We lived frugally but well. I drove older used cars most of the time.
After 16 years, my company offered early retirement with the veiled hint that there would be massive lay off after the volunteer retirement. I took the retirement at age of 52. I continued work with same company as a contract worker for an additional five years. I spent several years working small contract jobs until I was offered permanet position with another large company at a good salary. I worked three additional years and saved mininum of 20K per year.
I pay cash for my home, car and pay no interest. I started receiving my Social Security at age of 65 to get larger amount. Upon attaining age of 65, I retired with Total Net worth of $650K.
If I can live frugal and save to take care of myself, then others can do the same. It doesn't take a rocket scientist or financial geru. Common sense goes a long way in getting ahead and being self supporting.
Thank you for the warning and information. Your articles are always right on the money. I think companies make things so confusing for a reason. All the important information is buried in the fine print or written to confuse. Great article!
Great tips. Frankly, I am really surprised that toys are still being sold with lead in them. And then there is all the toys that have the estrogen mimicing plasticizers in them. Argh! What's a mother to do?
How fast should the mash come up to temp? Is it ok to heat it slowly to the 173, or does it have to come up fast due to the chance for methanol? Thanks for all the response.
I use chopsticks to coax that yucky combination of hair and soapscum out from the drain. You can really dig up a lot of nastiness, AND you won't have to use drain-unblocker either. (As a green alternative, use baking soda and white vinegar instead!)
I wholeheartedly agree with your opinion that as income grows so do expenses. Suddenly we find things we must have, things that we were previously able to live without, but maybe feel that we "deserve" now that we make more money. There is also a tendency to want to make our wealth visible to others by buying the toys and cars you mentioned. Once we get used to a certain standard of living it's difficult to scale back. We want more and more, but never stop to wonder how much is enough. I applaud you for being able to step off that rollercoaster. What I especially like about your story is the fact that you could still make a ton of money and have a fabo lifestyle if you really wanted to, but you found that it didn't make you any happier.
I'm pretty clever, but not clever enough to explain the IRS.
When you do your taxes this year you'll be able to calculate what you should have gotten and subtract what you did get, and see what the balance is. If you should have gotten more, that may be a chance for you to get even.
MY HUSBAND AND I RECEIVED 6OO I WORKED AND HE DRAWS DISABILITY I RECEIVED A LETTER SAYING WE WOULD GET 1200 AND WE ONLY GOT 600 I DONT UNDERSTAND HOW YOU COME UP WITH JUST 600 CAN YOU TELL ME ?
Thank you for all the comments; I am enjoying the debate and appreciate every point of view. Here are a few "what ifs" to ponder:
What If Person A was saving for retirement all along, and her spending was not at the expense of saving?
What If Person B actually had a retirement nest egg set up, invested, growing, and ready for her when she needed it?
And lastly, What If Person A lived frugally and saved her money for an eventual retirement, only to not ever see it come to fruition, or to find herself physically incapable of enjoying her retirement dreams?
Just some food for thought; I would love to get people's thoughts on this.
My husband always hand writes me a love letter for V-day. This heartfelt gift means more to me than just about anything else. He usually accompanies it with a single red rose from the grocery store. The most inexpensive gifts are often the most valuable.
The extended warranties are good for the big items washers, dryers, fridges, etc. Also really good if you have kids and buy the expensive Wii or Xbox 360. Kids are a little hard on those items and the warranties do pay off on the bigger and expensive items.
Jamie, hi my name is Mary from Tenn. I read your post and wanted to ask you what kind of antenna did you purchase? I tried to connect our converter box to our big tv. in the living room and I couldn't get good reception at all, therefore we can't get any channels but maybe 1 or 2, and no regular ones at that, like 5 or 3and 13.
I did get our bdroom tv. connected and with rabbit ears it gave me only 5 channels of which also doesn't include the regular channels that we normally get. I know that I need a better antenna but don't know which one to buy. Thank you for your information on this.
Mary
I've noticed that most mortgage companies have an amortization calculator built into their website (at least Chase & Citi). The best part is that the calculator includes historical data about your mortgage, so for instance it knows that you've already made 50 of the 360 payments. You can usually test the impact of a one-time payment vs. paying extra each month. You can print or copy the amortization table for your records and check each month that your statement matches the table.
Confusion, Obscusion and Obtusion is how they pirate and make the "big money" taking advantage of the poor, weak and uneducated members of society.
It's a "system" and your either a slaver or saver.
It always pays to double-check your statements. I'm sure that companies make mistakes more often than we realize.
We track our mortgage payments in Money - it automatically adjusts the amortization schedule each month, based on our extra payments, and calculates the interest/principle split. It's just easier to verify that both "my" calculated balance and the mortgage company's balance match. As a bonus, it lets me know each month how many more payments we have until the loan is paid off!
As long as you keep feeling great about what you are doing trust me things will work out. Just let it become a burden on, do it because you want to and you will be fine..
First of all I would like to give you props on this interesting post. I agree with you points but the main point is results. People can follow these ways and might make their way out; problem is the same that we have with losing wait. How many people actually continue and not give up on their diet? Yes many but not more than the people those give up on their diets. Once again Great Post
That we need decorate our life and when we died, we 'll got nothing to regret. It's really a purpose that we always want to touch.
That we felt so lose heart(in love,works...). We can be killed or died in many ways such as: accidents,hoary age, or just a disease...). But that's life, we can die every time, every where, life is not simple like what we thought about it: "Life is so soft, so easy..." If it's just easy,soft like that, there's no exciting things in our life, and we'll have no goals for life. And we lived for what? Cause we'll all die but you should chose and decide how will we die? or which way will we die...
widely described. Nice article.
Great post... I followed the link from The Simple Dollar to find it.
As a REALTOR, I wanted to put my 2 cents in on a couple of things:
1. We are starting to see that the loan modifications do not work (renegotiating the mortgage). Most of these mods fall back into trouble at about the 6 month mark. I believe it is mostly because people get that second chance but do not make the lifestyle changes they need to make.
2. If it becomes obvious that you are going to lose your house, you need to start as early as possible to pursue a short sale. Contact a licensed agent that works short sales and have them advise you along with an attorney (they will have one you can talk to). A short sale is your best bet once you hit the point of no return. They don't happen overnight, but they will save you a lot of headaches and can even allow you to stay in the house longer if the mortgage company gives the agent additional time to sell.
3. The Blame game. Come on people, there is enough blame to go around. From the government pushing the mortgage companies to make buying a home easier for those normally wouldn't be able to afford it, to the mortgage companies getting greedy and creating crappy loan products to make them look like a deal, to agents pounding the "buy now" drum, to people not educating themselves or buying more than they could afford. The only thing that is clear is that it has now hurt a lot of people who did the right thing by buying an affordable house and putting money down on that house. You simply can not blame one single segment for this mess.
4. Renting it out... This is a great option if you can do it. I actually have several clients that are in this mode right now.
Our health is one of our most valuable investments. I can't trade this bod in at Walmart. It's the only one I have. I better take care of it.
I was married stay-at-hom Mom/Homemaker. After 23 years, we divorced and I had to start from scratch. Divorce settlement netted me approx. $30K total. I had only a GED education as I married at age of 16. ALL THE YEARS IN THE MARRIAGE PARTNERSHIP WENT TOWARD HIS SOCIAL SECURITY AND I HAD TO START BUILDING MY OWN RETIREMENT. I FEEL THIS IS THE SOCIAL SECURITY PENALITY FOR THE STAY AT HOME PARENT. (Normally the woman and the smaller earner of the two)
I invested the $30K and worked, joined company 401K plan and contributed full amount I could to get 75% company match. I adopted my Grandson and raised him with no financial help. We lived frugally but well. I drove older used cars most of the time.
After 16 years, my company offered early retirement with the veiled hint that there would be massive lay off after the volunteer retirement. I took the retirement at age of 52. I continued work with same company as a contract worker for an additional five years. I spent several years working small contract jobs until I was offered permanet position with another large company at a good salary. I worked three additional years and saved mininum of 20K per year.
I pay cash for my home, car and pay no interest. I started receiving my Social Security at age of 65 to get larger amount. Upon attaining age of 65, I retired with Total Net worth of $650K.
If I can live frugal and save to take care of myself, then others can do the same. It doesn't take a rocket scientist or financial geru. Common sense goes a long way in getting ahead and being self supporting.
Thank you for the warning and information. Your articles are always right on the money. I think companies make things so confusing for a reason. All the important information is buried in the fine print or written to confuse. Great article!
Great tips. Frankly, I am really surprised that toys are still being sold with lead in them. And then there is all the toys that have the estrogen mimicing plasticizers in them. Argh! What's a mother to do?
How fast should the mash come up to temp? Is it ok to heat it slowly to the 173, or does it have to come up fast due to the chance for methanol? Thanks for all the response.
Cool use! I was using a wire hanger...
Linsey Knerl
While it may have benefits to using the same brand name of box as your tv (universal remotes like work better), it's not all that important.
Linsey Knerl
I use chopsticks to coax that yucky combination of hair and soapscum out from the drain. You can really dig up a lot of nastiness, AND you won't have to use drain-unblocker either. (As a green alternative, use baking soda and white vinegar instead!)
I wholeheartedly agree with your opinion that as income grows so do expenses. Suddenly we find things we must have, things that we were previously able to live without, but maybe feel that we "deserve" now that we make more money. There is also a tendency to want to make our wealth visible to others by buying the toys and cars you mentioned. Once we get used to a certain standard of living it's difficult to scale back. We want more and more, but never stop to wonder how much is enough. I applaud you for being able to step off that rollercoaster. What I especially like about your story is the fact that you could still make a ton of money and have a fabo lifestyle if you really wanted to, but you found that it didn't make you any happier.
I'm pretty clever, but not clever enough to explain the IRS.
When you do your taxes this year you'll be able to calculate what you should have gotten and subtract what you did get, and see what the balance is. If you should have gotten more, that may be a chance for you to get even.
MY HUSBAND AND I RECEIVED 6OO I WORKED AND HE DRAWS DISABILITY I RECEIVED A LETTER SAYING WE WOULD GET 1200 AND WE ONLY GOT 600 I DONT UNDERSTAND HOW YOU COME UP WITH JUST 600 CAN YOU TELL ME ?
6) Don't get into fender benders like I did this morning (snow, Chicago). D'oh.
Thank you for all the comments; I am enjoying the debate and appreciate every point of view. Here are a few "what ifs" to ponder:
Just some food for thought; I would love to get people's thoughts on this.
Great article, thank you!