thanks for the lesson in logic on this one. I have been trying to wrap my mind around this topic for a while. This will certainly help me make a decision!
I experienced the exact same thing. That's pretty frustating.
It seems to be set up such that people loose chances of winning.
That's why I usually skip a year in between participation.
That's how long it takes to recover from the frustration.
I am ashamed to report that I looked in the garbage bin at a McDo after eyeing some unopened stickers and collected them when nobody was looking. I got Marvins gardens and St. James Place...Not worth it!!!
When I used the calculator at bankrate.com and plug in the same numbers ($200,000 loan, 6% interest rate, 30 years for a loan payment of 1199.10 and then add 800.90 to the monthly payment), the loan is paid off in 11 years, 7 months. The maxequity system gives me an 11-year, 11-month payoff, which is not as attractive as the 11-year, 7-month scenario.
I have just recently begun getting my financial house in order, in part due to the wonderful information I find here. It's been a long hard road, but the rewards of frugality are beginning to reap benefits.
I still have collision insurance on my paid-off car, but have considered dropping it. (As soon as I reach my break-even point in my emergency fund.)
I have a question about your analysis though. How would you factor in the situation (at least in my area) that body shops have a higher "cash" price for labor? The insurance companies negotiate them down so far that the labor rate is only marginally profitable for the repair shop. Without collision insurance, you are now subjected to a repair bill 25-40% higher because you don't have that insurance company negotiated lower labor rate. I know this to be true, because I am working in this industry. I've never seen a customer successfully get the cheaper labor rate on a cash deal. At this point, I wouldn't particularly worry about it because my employee discount would offset the insurance price vs. the cash price. In the future, if I wasn't working here, it could be an issue. Any insight?
I'm such a good girl 98% of the time when it comes to watching out for junk food that I just let myself have the durn cheeseburger and fries once in a blue moon and enjoy it. I truly almost never eat out, I'm such a tightwad, and I cook healthy food daily. I don't give a hoot about the calories, maintaining my yard and watching the nephews keeps me moving constantly and it's a whole lot more interesting than the old days of working out in a gym and worrying about what I ate all the time. I would not want to be in my 20s or 30s again if you paid me. Looking back, my God, I am so glad those days are gone. The doc says whatever I'm doing now, I should keep it up (blood pressure and lab work are fine and I take cod liver oil, a garlic tab and a multivitamin daily). I'm 52.
(1) Have you ever in your right mind thought what those computers kiosks in Best Buy are used for? CUSTOMER CONVENIENCE! They are used so customers can view what is IN the store to see if they have something. Also Have you ever noticed that the intranet prices are the same as in store, so the customer can see how much it is. In some cases the employee will take them there, but what they should do is log in to the kiosk and switch it from "bestbuy.com local" to "bestbuy.com national" If Best Buy scams so much, then why are they the #1 electronic retailer in the country? Have any of you ever bought a warranty, they will come in handy if you dont purposely cause it to malfunction. Think about it next time you go to BEST BUY, not everyone is out to get you! And anyways Warranties are sold by everyone, even target.
While I certainly don't know the policies of ALL non-profits, I am not surprised that the local Re-Store was unable to assist with donating supplies. They have some very strict policies in place, not because they are heartless (they do make sure that proceeds of the sales of all items go towards the Habitat cause), but because I'm sure they would have to be fair in their policies of donating to everyone or donating to no one. Additionally, this would be very similar to policies in place at your local Goodwill or Salvation Army that keep them from giving their merchandise away. They make their money by taking donations, not giving them.
On the other hand, I'm sure you could find out where the Re-Store gets their donated materials from and request assistance from them directly. Our local store had lots from Lowe's and some local construction companies. If you were to ask them for any doors that they didn't need, they might be happy to help out!
> So, why does the "extra payments" method (given these assumptions)
> have a payoff of 19 years, 2 months? Because, if you look at the
> asterisks**, using the extra payment method of calculation involves
> "making additional payments every month that total one third of
> available monthly budget"; in other words, paying $266.67 (rather
> than $800.90).
Yes, that's the way they calculated it. But I don't bother looking at that, because that's not the same comparison. I simply use bankrate.com's mortgage calculator and apply the full $800.90 per month to get an apple-2-apple comparison.
Another thing to consider if you are concerned about the cost of the software. Take a long term look (that's how I'm looking at it). When you are done paying off your mortgage, you will most likely be getting a lot of extra cash each month. If you then invest in real estate, then IMHO, the software is definitely worth it. Because the more properties you use the software on, the more money it will save in the long run.
By the way, I went ahead and bought the software package from that site.
There is a restaurant in Goleta, California that print out your nutritional information right on the receipt! I think that's where all fast-food joints should be headed. See www.silvergreens.com
Ironically, NYC's proposed health code change in September 2006 to make chain restaurants add calories to their menu boards backfired (at least for non-residents). NYC wrote the health code revision so it would "only affect restaurants that make calorie information for standard menu items publicly available on or after March 1, 2007." As a result, some restaurants, including Chipotle and Cold Stone Creamery*, removed nutritional information from their website to (presumably) avoid having to comply with the regulation. (I believe that NYC wasn't allowed to implement this regulation but you can check this site for the original press release: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/pr2006/pr093-06.shtml)
In general, I'm in favor of calorie labeling but if we decide to make it a law, it should be written in such a way as to avoid these types of problems.
* Cold Stone Creamery would allow non-NYC residents to request nutritional information via email
When I go to the calculator (sponsored by the company who is selling this program), here's what I do: put in the following
loan amount of $200,000
interest rate of 6%,
term of 30 years
monthly income (net) of $4,000
monthly expenses (excluding mortgage payment) of $2,000.
That means that I have an available budget of $800.90. Now here's one thing that gets tricky: if I apply that entire pot of money to making extra payments, then I can pay off the loan in 11 years and 7 months, ahead of the system's payoff in 11 years, 11 months.
So, why does the "extra payments" method (given these assumptions) have a payoff of 19 years, 2 months? Because, if you look at the asterisks**, using the extra payment method of calculation involves "making additional payments every month that total one third of available monthly budget"; in other words, paying $266.67 (rather than $800.90).
Just to make sure that we are comparing apples to apples, what amount did you put in the Monthly Income and Monthly Expenses blanks?
I have no qualms about calling myself cheap -- my friends try to correct me and say frugal -- whatever. Every chair in my house I got off the side of the road or at a yard sale. It helps that I have bent for all things retro and danish modern.
I live in an affluent area and am continually amazed at what people discard for landfills. Brand new sleds, Dining room tables, dressers, more little tykes that I care to recount etc. Things that aren't even broken. I guess it's too much work to call the Salvation Army or Goodwill to donate it so let's throw it out!
It's a sad mentality from an environmental point of view as well as a financial point of view. Everyone could use a tax deduction for charity goods...
The reason for the New York law targeting chains wasn't their budget for changing menus, it was that they have limited options and standardized portion sizes (a big mac is a big mac everywhere you go) which make the whole process much more feasible. Independent places have a lot more variations.
Second, Subway doesn't provide it's information any more freely than most other fast food chains, except for their statement of "under 6g of fat" on qualifying subs. You still have to find the poster on the wall, brochure or website to find out a meatball sub has about 1000 calories. Sure, they provide some healthy options, but not everything is healthy, and not everything is a raw ingredient that is easy to guess nutrition info for.
Third, with the exception of Quizno's, who refuses release information in the US for anything but their 3 "healthy" options, every fast food joint I've seen (as well as places like starbucks and jamba juice) has a poster, brochure, or binder readily available for viewing -- I've never even had to ask, I just find them. (note: for quizno's, if you're interested you can find the info on an Australian website if you search real hard. if you like to eat there, i suggest not viewing the info.)
And, to Jeremy, for independent places, your plan may work if they have a standardized menu, don't use seasonal ingredients, and the cooks all make things exactly the same. Most places aren't like this though, so it's less reasonable. They could give a "guess" though, or at least list the important parts (this cup of soup has a cup of whipping cream and a pound of butter in it). But it wouldn't be very "easy" for them to maintain accurate data on everything.
Finally, if you are really trying to be frugal, eating out should be something special - not just a way to get food. You shouldn't need to worry about what you're eating, just enjoy the experience. That's really what you're paying for after all.
If you have a Carl's Jr. chain in your area, you might be pleased to know that they usually have a wall poster up which lists their foods and associated nutritional information. The poster doesn't list their "temporary" items such as their teryiaki pineapple based burger, but each of their every-day items are on there. As for McDonalds, as previously mentioned, most of their nutritional info is on the back of the tray-liner thingy. They usually also have a fold-out brochure that has a more complete listing. These are all available before purchase if you take an extra 2 minutes to look and/or ask.
Contrary to what the new regulations are expecting to provide, I have more issues with the smaller local chains and mom-n-pop restaurants. The big chains are easy to get information from. Unfortunately with the smaller guys, they say they don't have that information available. When you ask for an ingredient list for an item, they say it is proprietary information and refuse to give it out.
What I would like to see is a law that forces ALL restaurants to make available either composite nutritional information, or an ingredient list (including measurements.) I'm not advocating that these restaurants need to spend the money to get every item scientifically tested. They have the ingredient list and they can take the information from the ingredients and put them together for a composite. It will not be quite as accurate as the testing methods, but will be close enough for nearly anybody's need.
As for cost to the establishment, it would take a person probably 3-4 hours to compile the appropriate information for the entire menu based on average (off the top of my head) menu size. They could fit the information on 4-6 pieces of paper that they could put in a cheap binder and make available to view upon request to an interested customer. If you figure the minimum wage for a waitress to spend the time to compile this together and the cost of a cheap binder and some paper, the restaurant is looking at under $30 as a one-time cost to provide this information, and very minimal expense to maintain the list if/when they modify their menu.
I prefer to support local businesses, but when McDonalds provides me the information I need to fit their products into my semi-healthy diet plan, I choose them over the local diner who holds their recipe secret.
This is the best list-of-ideas post that you've done in the past few months that I have been reading this blog. I can't wait to try a few of the projects!
I don't know if alcohol in aluminum produces a poison, nor if filtering it through charcoal would remove it. Filtering the product through charcoal will make it taste better, so it's worth doing for that reason, but I can't help you on the poison issue.
I went to a halloween party, got dosed with GHB (date rape drug) i came home and the next morning vomited and breathed it into my lungs. I stoped breathing, im not sure how long i was unconcious like that, but they called the ambulance. They saved me after ton's of drugs and tests, throat tubes, the works. Me and my Husband got let go from the company we were working, and they shut down. We arn't elegible for cobra if the company closes, i just had a baby so i weigh a bit more, and was denied health insurance because of my "pre-existing condition" We havnt got the bills yet, but we think we are looking at a quarter-million dollars! We dont make much money right now, but my husband does have an 80,000 dollar boat in his name that belongs to his father. Also we his dad gives us the money and we pay all of his bills for him, so as far as bank statements go i dont think we qualify for any assistance. We are going to apply anyways just to see. I am so screwd! I dont understand why they make it impossible for you to get any health insurance, they screw you so hard when something happens. I think this is retarted!
Use the mortgage calculator at bankrate.com or Julie's mortgage spreadsheet or the one from http://www.vertex42.com/ to set up a mortgage schedule that reflects your current scenario.
Then enter in how much extra income you will put in each month for the early mortgage pay off. The spreadsheet will show you how much interest you pay and save.
I will use the example in Post 54 to make it easy.
Loan Amount $200,000.00
Annual Interest Rate 6.000%
Term of Loan in Years 30
With this loan, if I pay $500 per month extra towards principal the total interests paid is $102,534.54. I call this plan the extra-payment plan.
Assuming a HELOC interest of 9% (current HELOC rates are at 7.75% or so...I'm using 9% just to play safe as rates will vary over time), the maxequityexpress.com calculator reports total interests saved as $128,936.81. That mean we would have paid:
$231,676.38 (total interests paid with normal 30yr fixed loan)
- $128,445.52
--------------
= $103,230.86 in interests.
I'll call this plan the HELOC plan.
Notice the interests paid under the HELOC plan is $696.32 higher than the interests we paid under the extra-payment plan.
Now you may think, "Aha! The HELOC method doesn't work and the software won't do anything for me".
Well, first off, the HELOC method DOES work because it saved you a ton of interests charges over your normal 30yr fixed loan. It's just that for this scenario, it is saving you less than if you simply pay $500 extra/month on your own.
Lets us see what happens when we have $1000 extra per month!
Extra-payment plan: $67,408.31 total interests paid.
HELOC plan: $65,868.52 total interests paid.
That's a saving difference of $1539.79 in favor of the HELOC plan.
Now assume you have $1500 extra per month: the savings difference is now $3075.34 in favor of the HELOC plan!
And for $2000 extra per month: the savings difference becomes $3942.53
in favor of the HELOC plan!
So as you can see, the HELOC plan may make a difference, depending on your particular scenario.
But of course, once we factor in the cost of the software, we see that the savings is really not that much unless you go with the lower priced package.
Since I've already verified that all software on the market does pretty much the same type of calculations, you should now have plenty of data to help you make your decision.
I'd be a whole lot more impressed if the only reason Colin started on his year-long no impact experiment wasn't the fact that there's a book deal involved and a documentary movie. It's all about the money. I don't believe for one minute that on day 366, life will be the same for Beavin-Conlin household.
I have a mid-size dog with short legs (corgi) that keeps me company at bedtime. I think we both sleep better. Sometimes I let one of my cats sleep in also, but they tend to cause trouble real early in the morning so I don't do this often anymore. I'm a definate fan of cooler temps with a good feather comforter, and reading from my mini-library stack of books on my night table puts me out pretty quick. Oh yeah, I stay far away from caffiene and chocolate (!) after 8pm.
Their return policy is great - they might not replace the jacket, but they will repair it for the cost of shipping. I've had several zippers replaced. Many times the retailer has picked up the freight charges. It makes it a no-brainer when I am looking for a heavy duty winter coat.
thanks for the lesson in logic on this one. I have been trying to wrap my mind around this topic for a while. This will certainly help me make a decision!
Hi there!
I experienced the exact same thing. That's pretty frustating.
It seems to be set up such that people loose chances of winning.
That's why I usually skip a year in between participation.
That's how long it takes to recover from the frustration.
I am ashamed to report that I looked in the garbage bin at a McDo after eyeing some unopened stickers and collected them when nobody was looking. I got Marvins gardens and St. James Place...Not worth it!!!
When I used the calculator at bankrate.com and plug in the same numbers ($200,000 loan, 6% interest rate, 30 years for a loan payment of 1199.10 and then add 800.90 to the monthly payment), the loan is paid off in 11 years, 7 months. The maxequity system gives me an 11-year, 11-month payoff, which is not as attractive as the 11-year, 7-month scenario.
I have just recently begun getting my financial house in order, in part due to the wonderful information I find here. It's been a long hard road, but the rewards of frugality are beginning to reap benefits.
I still have collision insurance on my paid-off car, but have considered dropping it. (As soon as I reach my break-even point in my emergency fund.)
I have a question about your analysis though. How would you factor in the situation (at least in my area) that body shops have a higher "cash" price for labor? The insurance companies negotiate them down so far that the labor rate is only marginally profitable for the repair shop. Without collision insurance, you are now subjected to a repair bill 25-40% higher because you don't have that insurance company negotiated lower labor rate. I know this to be true, because I am working in this industry. I've never seen a customer successfully get the cheaper labor rate on a cash deal. At this point, I wouldn't particularly worry about it because my employee discount would offset the insurance price vs. the cash price. In the future, if I wasn't working here, it could be an issue. Any insight?
I'm such a good girl 98% of the time when it comes to watching out for junk food that I just let myself have the durn cheeseburger and fries once in a blue moon and enjoy it. I truly almost never eat out, I'm such a tightwad, and I cook healthy food daily. I don't give a hoot about the calories, maintaining my yard and watching the nephews keeps me moving constantly and it's a whole lot more interesting than the old days of working out in a gym and worrying about what I ate all the time. I would not want to be in my 20s or 30s again if you paid me. Looking back, my God, I am so glad those days are gone. The doc says whatever I'm doing now, I should keep it up (blood pressure and lab work are fine and I take cod liver oil, a garlic tab and a multivitamin daily). I'm 52.
I tried it too, and it works! I think part of winning is looking for hidden clues on their website too. That code just gave me three free chances.
Great, I see the guy watched MacGyver.
(1) Have you ever in your right mind thought what those computers kiosks in Best Buy are used for? CUSTOMER CONVENIENCE! They are used so customers can view what is IN the store to see if they have something. Also Have you ever noticed that the intranet prices are the same as in store, so the customer can see how much it is. In some cases the employee will take them there, but what they should do is log in to the kiosk and switch it from "bestbuy.com local" to "bestbuy.com national" If Best Buy scams so much, then why are they the #1 electronic retailer in the country? Have any of you ever bought a warranty, they will come in handy if you dont purposely cause it to malfunction. Think about it next time you go to BEST BUY, not everyone is out to get you! And anyways Warranties are sold by everyone, even target.
While I certainly don't know the policies of ALL non-profits, I am not surprised that the local Re-Store was unable to assist with donating supplies. They have some very strict policies in place, not because they are heartless (they do make sure that proceeds of the sales of all items go towards the Habitat cause), but because I'm sure they would have to be fair in their policies of donating to everyone or donating to no one. Additionally, this would be very similar to policies in place at your local Goodwill or Salvation Army that keep them from giving their merchandise away. They make their money by taking donations, not giving them.
On the other hand, I'm sure you could find out where the Re-Store gets their donated materials from and request assistance from them directly. Our local store had lots from Lowe's and some local construction companies. If you were to ask them for any doors that they didn't need, they might be happy to help out!
I used to feel the same way, but it's been over a year, and the Beavin-Conlin household is still at it.
You can read my interview with him here: http://www.wisebread.com/a-year-without-toilet-paper-the-interview
> So, why does the "extra payments" method (given these assumptions)
> have a payoff of 19 years, 2 months? Because, if you look at the
> asterisks**, using the extra payment method of calculation involves
> "making additional payments every month that total one third of
> available monthly budget"; in other words, paying $266.67 (rather
> than $800.90).
Yes, that's the way they calculated it. But I don't bother looking at that, because that's not the same comparison. I simply use bankrate.com's mortgage calculator and apply the full $800.90 per month to get an apple-2-apple comparison.
Another thing to consider if you are concerned about the cost of the software. Take a long term look (that's how I'm looking at it). When you are done paying off your mortgage, you will most likely be getting a lot of extra cash each month. If you then invest in real estate, then IMHO, the software is definitely worth it. Because the more properties you use the software on, the more money it will save in the long run.
By the way, I went ahead and bought the software package from that site.
There is a restaurant in Goleta, California that print out your nutritional information right on the receipt! I think that's where all fast-food joints should be headed. See www.silvergreens.com
Ironically, NYC's proposed health code change in September 2006 to make chain restaurants add calories to their menu boards backfired (at least for non-residents). NYC wrote the health code revision so it would "only affect restaurants that make calorie information for standard menu items publicly available on or after March 1, 2007." As a result, some restaurants, including Chipotle and Cold Stone Creamery*, removed nutritional information from their website to (presumably) avoid having to comply with the regulation. (I believe that NYC wasn't allowed to implement this regulation but you can check this site for the original press release: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/pr2006/pr093-06.shtml)
In general, I'm in favor of calorie labeling but if we decide to make it a law, it should be written in such a way as to avoid these types of problems.
* Cold Stone Creamery would allow non-NYC residents to request nutritional information via email
When I go to the calculator (sponsored by the company who is selling this program), here's what I do: put in the following
That means that I have an available budget of $800.90. Now here's one thing that gets tricky: if I apply that entire pot of money to making extra payments, then I can pay off the loan in 11 years and 7 months, ahead of the system's payoff in 11 years, 11 months.
So, why does the "extra payments" method (given these assumptions) have a payoff of 19 years, 2 months? Because, if you look at the asterisks**, using the extra payment method of calculation involves "making additional payments every month that total one third of available monthly budget"; in other words, paying $266.67 (rather than $800.90).
Just to make sure that we are comparing apples to apples, what amount did you put in the Monthly Income and Monthly Expenses blanks?
I have no qualms about calling myself cheap -- my friends try to correct me and say frugal -- whatever. Every chair in my house I got off the side of the road or at a yard sale. It helps that I have bent for all things retro and danish modern.
I live in an affluent area and am continually amazed at what people discard for landfills. Brand new sleds, Dining room tables, dressers, more little tykes that I care to recount etc. Things that aren't even broken. I guess it's too much work to call the Salvation Army or Goodwill to donate it so let's throw it out!
It's a sad mentality from an environmental point of view as well as a financial point of view. Everyone could use a tax deduction for charity goods...
The reason for the New York law targeting chains wasn't their budget for changing menus, it was that they have limited options and standardized portion sizes (a big mac is a big mac everywhere you go) which make the whole process much more feasible. Independent places have a lot more variations.
Second, Subway doesn't provide it's information any more freely than most other fast food chains, except for their statement of "under 6g of fat" on qualifying subs. You still have to find the poster on the wall, brochure or website to find out a meatball sub has about 1000 calories. Sure, they provide some healthy options, but not everything is healthy, and not everything is a raw ingredient that is easy to guess nutrition info for.
Third, with the exception of Quizno's, who refuses release information in the US for anything but their 3 "healthy" options, every fast food joint I've seen (as well as places like starbucks and jamba juice) has a poster, brochure, or binder readily available for viewing -- I've never even had to ask, I just find them. (note: for quizno's, if you're interested you can find the info on an Australian website if you search real hard. if you like to eat there, i suggest not viewing the info.)
And, to Jeremy, for independent places, your plan may work if they have a standardized menu, don't use seasonal ingredients, and the cooks all make things exactly the same. Most places aren't like this though, so it's less reasonable. They could give a "guess" though, or at least list the important parts (this cup of soup has a cup of whipping cream and a pound of butter in it). But it wouldn't be very "easy" for them to maintain accurate data on everything.
Finally, if you are really trying to be frugal, eating out should be something special - not just a way to get food. You shouldn't need to worry about what you're eating, just enjoy the experience. That's really what you're paying for after all.
If you have a Carl's Jr. chain in your area, you might be pleased to know that they usually have a wall poster up which lists their foods and associated nutritional information. The poster doesn't list their "temporary" items such as their teryiaki pineapple based burger, but each of their every-day items are on there. As for McDonalds, as previously mentioned, most of their nutritional info is on the back of the tray-liner thingy. They usually also have a fold-out brochure that has a more complete listing. These are all available before purchase if you take an extra 2 minutes to look and/or ask.
Contrary to what the new regulations are expecting to provide, I have more issues with the smaller local chains and mom-n-pop restaurants. The big chains are easy to get information from. Unfortunately with the smaller guys, they say they don't have that information available. When you ask for an ingredient list for an item, they say it is proprietary information and refuse to give it out.
What I would like to see is a law that forces ALL restaurants to make available either composite nutritional information, or an ingredient list (including measurements.) I'm not advocating that these restaurants need to spend the money to get every item scientifically tested. They have the ingredient list and they can take the information from the ingredients and put them together for a composite. It will not be quite as accurate as the testing methods, but will be close enough for nearly anybody's need.
As for cost to the establishment, it would take a person probably 3-4 hours to compile the appropriate information for the entire menu based on average (off the top of my head) menu size. They could fit the information on 4-6 pieces of paper that they could put in a cheap binder and make available to view upon request to an interested customer. If you figure the minimum wage for a waitress to spend the time to compile this together and the cost of a cheap binder and some paper, the restaurant is looking at under $30 as a one-time cost to provide this information, and very minimal expense to maintain the list if/when they modify their menu.
I prefer to support local businesses, but when McDonalds provides me the information I need to fit their products into my semi-healthy diet plan, I choose them over the local diner who holds their recipe secret.
This is the best list-of-ideas post that you've done in the past few months that I have been reading this blog. I can't wait to try a few of the projects!
I don't know if alcohol in aluminum produces a poison, nor if filtering it through charcoal would remove it. Filtering the product through charcoal will make it taste better, so it's worth doing for that reason, but I can't help you on the poison issue.
is all i need to do is distill it
I went to a halloween party, got dosed with GHB (date rape drug) i came home and the next morning vomited and breathed it into my lungs. I stoped breathing, im not sure how long i was unconcious like that, but they called the ambulance. They saved me after ton's of drugs and tests, throat tubes, the works. Me and my Husband got let go from the company we were working, and they shut down. We arn't elegible for cobra if the company closes, i just had a baby so i weigh a bit more, and was denied health insurance because of my "pre-existing condition" We havnt got the bills yet, but we think we are looking at a quarter-million dollars! We dont make much money right now, but my husband does have an 80,000 dollar boat in his name that belongs to his father. Also we his dad gives us the money and we pay all of his bills for him, so as far as bank statements go i dont think we qualify for any assistance. We are going to apply anyways just to see. I am so screwd! I dont understand why they make it impossible for you to get any health insurance, they screw you so hard when something happens. I think this is retarted!
Here's a link to a calculator that will help you determine if HELOC method and the software will help you save more money IN YOUR SCENARIO:
http://www.maxequityexpress.com/payoffcalc.swf
Use the mortgage calculator at bankrate.com or Julie's mortgage spreadsheet or the one from http://www.vertex42.com/ to set up a mortgage schedule that reflects your current scenario.
Then enter in how much extra income you will put in each month for the early mortgage pay off. The spreadsheet will show you how much interest you pay and save.
I will use the example in Post 54 to make it easy.
Loan Amount $200,000.00
Annual Interest Rate 6.000%
Term of Loan in Years 30
With this loan, if I pay $500 per month extra towards principal the total interests paid is $102,534.54. I call this plan the extra-payment plan.
Assuming a HELOC interest of 9% (current HELOC rates are at 7.75% or so...I'm using 9% just to play safe as rates will vary over time), the maxequityexpress.com calculator reports total interests saved as $128,936.81. That mean we would have paid:
$231,676.38 (total interests paid with normal 30yr fixed loan)
- $128,445.52
--------------
= $103,230.86 in interests.
I'll call this plan the HELOC plan.
Notice the interests paid under the HELOC plan is $696.32 higher than the interests we paid under the extra-payment plan.
Now you may think, "Aha! The HELOC method doesn't work and the software won't do anything for me".
Well, first off, the HELOC method DOES work because it saved you a ton of interests charges over your normal 30yr fixed loan. It's just that for this scenario, it is saving you less than if you simply pay $500 extra/month on your own.
Lets us see what happens when we have $1000 extra per month!
Extra-payment plan: $67,408.31 total interests paid.
HELOC plan: $65,868.52 total interests paid.
That's a saving difference of $1539.79 in favor of the HELOC plan.
Now assume you have $1500 extra per month: the savings difference is now $3075.34 in favor of the HELOC plan!
And for $2000 extra per month: the savings difference becomes $3942.53
in favor of the HELOC plan!
So as you can see, the HELOC plan may make a difference, depending on your particular scenario.
But of course, once we factor in the cost of the software, we see that the savings is really not that much unless you go with the lower priced package.
Since I've already verified that all software on the market does pretty much the same type of calculations, you should now have plenty of data to help you make your decision.
I'd be a whole lot more impressed if the only reason Colin started on his year-long no impact experiment wasn't the fact that there's a book deal involved and a documentary movie. It's all about the money. I don't believe for one minute that on day 366, life will be the same for Beavin-Conlin household.
I have a mid-size dog with short legs (corgi) that keeps me company at bedtime. I think we both sleep better. Sometimes I let one of my cats sleep in also, but they tend to cause trouble real early in the morning so I don't do this often anymore. I'm a definate fan of cooler temps with a good feather comforter, and reading from my mini-library stack of books on my night table puts me out pretty quick. Oh yeah, I stay far away from caffiene and chocolate (!) after 8pm.
Their return policy is great - they might not replace the jacket, but they will repair it for the cost of shipping. I've had several zippers replaced. Many times the retailer has picked up the freight charges. It makes it a no-brainer when I am looking for a heavy duty winter coat.