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Positive images of financial freedom
Warning: This financial freedom post may be a bit goofy and feel-good. If you agree with the post, don’t worry, I won’t tell.
This month we crossed below the $20,000 barrier on our rental house. Each payment is now mostly principal, and the picture of owning the house outright is clearer month by month.
Celebrating milestone amounts, or even any old amount, makes the loan repayment process more encouraging. The brass ring, of course, is full repayment of the loan, and after 17 years of home ownership, we’ll finally feel that for real.
Financial freedom thoughts are happy thoughts
The party’s in full swing when that happens but it’s still fun to set up for the party with some mental images:
Stacking discounts and rebates at Best Buy
I saved money five ways by stacking discounts at Best Buy. Here’s how I did it …
We’ve been in the market for a video camera for a while.
OK, I’ve been in the market for a video camera for a while. Some projects I’ve been meaning to tackle and the video camera is an enabler for these projects.
Stacking discounts and rebates
Stacking rebates and discounts is simply this: Scoring discounts from more than one source on the same transaction.
A lot of grocery coupons expressly forbid this practice with six little words: “Not valid with any other offer.” Or: “One coupon per item per customer.” And this makes reasonable sense, because if this weren’t a restriction, I could six fifty-cent coupons on a $3 item and get it for free.
There are legitimate ways to stack discounts on a wide range of purchases:
Water heater need replacing? Five tips to reduce the hassle
There’s never a convenient time for a water heater to fail. But here are a few things to keep in mind to avoid making it any more inconvenient …
This past week we bought and installed a new water heater. (See picture above.) The week before we noticed that there was a pool of water in the overflow pan, and proceeded to get the best deal we could with what could be an imminent emergency.
The point at the end of the last post on the subject was after we had bought the water heater, and had drained and taken the old one out.
Save money on emergency purchases with scrip
Need to buy something big on short notice, but still want to save money? Maybe scrip can help you out with emergency purchases when other methods will take too long.
At the end of last week our water heater developed a leak at the bottom. It was rated for six years and had lasted at least that long. One thing we hadn’t done was drain the tank to get rid of the sediment, and that likely hastened its demise. (What’s really embarrassing is that I’d written about this very problem the last time we replaced a water heater! Check out #11. D’oh!)
Download your financial statements NOW
Financial statements in electronic form are now the norm. But that doesn’t mean that your bank will keep them around for long …
Our credit union’s website just got a long-overdue face-lift. This was a very good thing. “Hey, 2001 just called and they want their website back.”
The back-end of the website had been a bit newer than this (thankfully!) and we had gone to e-statements on our accounts a while back. Pretty much every financial institution on the planet is all for electronic delivery of statements because it saves them a boatload of money.
Your electronic statements may be deleted sooner than you think
With the website overhaul that took place at our credit union, the e-statement interface also changed a bit. One thing that changed was that the deletion date of each of the e-statements was front and center.
Paid search: Eight search engines with rewards
When you search the web, these sites give you relevant paid search results …
If you’re reading this right now, odds are fantastic that you know how to search the web for what you need. I sure know that Google is my friend.
I’m having a hard time remembering what I did to find stuff out before the rise of search engines. Not only are the results from search engines pretty close to the mark – and getting closer every day – they’re fast.
Great, instant answers are gratifying by themselves, but getting rewarded on top of that for doing nothing else but searching the web is really cool.
Paid search is not “get rich quick”
Or even “get rich ever” for that matter.
I’ll give a reality check about paid search before talking about the sites that offer it.
Big Tax Refund: Five reasons why you don’t want one
Though getting a big tax refund may seem great, it isn’t all that. Find out what a big tax refund really means …
The first months of the new year are a great time for new starts, new possibilities, new goals.
It’s also the time for a new tax season!!! (Don’t all cheer at once.)
As I was checking out H&R Block Online, which is the place that I’ve put together my taxes for most of the past six or seven years, I saw the graphic on the right side:
It’s Refund Season
How delightful! Right? I like getting a big fat deposit in my checking account a few weeks after filing my taxes as much as the next guy or lady. (Actually, I get two: federal and state.)
Golden handcuffs: Six ways to loosen them up a bit
Getting rid of a pair of golden handcuffs may be one of the first things on your mind. Here’s hoping this puts things into perspective …
You may have heard of the golden handcuffs — deferred payoffs offered by an employer to discourage employees from seeking employment elsewhere.
The golden handcuffs can also mean having a job that’s too good to quit. Possibly because the job is necessary to support your lifestyle.
It’s mainly for the second reason that unshackling yourself from the golden handcuffs gets more difficult as you get older. There are mortgages to pay, college accounts to fund, and IRAs to invest in.
Financial goals: Are yours actually goals?
Do you have written financial goals? If you have well thought-out goals, and have written them down, then you’ve already set yourself up favorably to meet them.
Perhaps you’ve heard of SMART goals — goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Or … is it Strategic, Meaningful, Ambitious, Results-Based, and Timely?
It can be either of these … or many other combinations of S, M, A, R, and T words. You can season the SMART mnemonic to taste.
There’s still time to track expenses this year
Track expenses diligently for a whole year, and your time at taxes will be much, much less unhappy …
We are a week into the new year. It’s alarming how quickly time flies by, isn’t it?
The beginning of a new calendar year is a great time to start tracking your personal finances carefully (though there’s never a bad time to start!) Tracking your finances starting now will not only help you to get a grip on where your money is going, but also it will make next year’s taxes a lot easier.
Sure, it’s past the first of the year now, but not that far past. The records you’ll need to catch up on are very reasonable — not unlike what you might do normally.
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