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Archive for the ‘Tips’n'Tricks’ category

What To Do If You Can’t Get An Interest Rate Reduction

January 12th, 2008

In some cases the credit card companies will not give you a good rate reduction or a rate reduction at all. If that happens, you’ll need to find out several things: Ask the person on the phone why they won’t give you a rate reduction, find out what your credit score is, and find out if there are other companies willing to take your credit card balance for a transfer. Also, its good to not take no as an answer from a person who can’t say, “Yes.”

Find out when you’ll be eligible for a rate reduction because in some cases it is a matter of time
Find out if you have a short term chance to get things resolved (if you missed a payment, you will have a window of penalty) – prepare to call back then. Set a reminder on your computer or in your day planner or on some place that will remind you
Again, find out if a balance transfer will work for you. Be willing to threaten a transfer while on the phone, some companies will work with you

I plan on getting other bloggers involved over the next six months and we’ll try again then. Between now and then one of our cards will become eligible for a rate reduction. In fact its in March. In fact its on our calendars.

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Posted in Savings Opportunities, Tips'n'Tricks

Tags: credit card interest rate financial goals

High Interest Savings Account: $90.38

January 3rd, 2008

This last year, for half of the year, we had a high interest savings account with WaMu. That account held quarterly tax money for us while we waited for the payment cycle to kick in. In the past that money sat in a savings account earning us nearly nothing. That’s the power of letting money work for you while you work on something else.

The amount of money that fluctuated in that account was pretty substantial. The account would go to almost zero every time we’d pay taxes, but then over several months time it would climb back up to make us more money each month. This up coming year, assuming we’re able to have the whole year instead of half the year we should be good for closer to $180… at least in theory.

If you have money sitting in a ‘regular’ savings account I strongly recommend you find a higher interest account or a money market account. It could mean the difference between $1.00 and $100.00.

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Posted in Investing, Money Management, Savings Opportunities, Tips'n'Tricks

Tags: compound interest Savings Opportunities

Save Time (and Maybe Money) Around Airports

January 2nd, 2008

If you’re like me you travel on occasion (next week in fact I’ll be heading to the Portland, OR area) and flight delays are always a drag. Or sometimes you have to pick someone up at the airport and their flight is delayed. A quick and dirty tool to give you a good feel for how things sit is availabe at flightwait.com. Check it out and see if you can save some time or money in the process.

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Posted in Savings Opportunities, Tips'n'Tricks

Tags: airports Savings Opportunities

Keep Track Of Your Vehicle Data Online

December 30th, 2007

There’s a handy, free utility MyMileMarker.com that allows you to sign up your vehicle and keep track of mileage, gas and oil change stuff.

Free – as in not paying for it. I like those kinds of services. Plus you can use Twitter or a mobile device to do it! One of the reasons you’ll want to consider doing this (and I’m speaking to myself, too), is that it will allow you to track your own data, but also it can help you prove effectiveness of the vehicles efficiency when you sell it.

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Posted in General, Tips'n'Tricks

Tags: efficiency mileage oil change vehicle data

Witch Hunt!

December 27th, 2007

Today I went on a witch hunt. A hunt to find electricity sucking things plugged into my wall outlets that were drawing current for no good reason. The hunt wasn’t hard and I didn’t burn anything but some calories – which is probably one of the worst forms of exercise, second only to television. But I went through each room of the house and evaluated the things plugged into the wall sockets to make sure that they made sense and weren’t just killing my electric bill one hour at a time.

Things to consider include:

Does it plug into something that gets used?
Could it be plugged in and unplugged quite easily?
Could it be put on a power switch to turn off a group of devices at once to save energy when they’re not in use?
Could the number of plugs in the outlet create a fire hazard?

These little vampires of electrical energy are probably around your house. I found two things that were drawing current – how about you?

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Posted in Savings Opportunities, Tips'n'Tricks

Tags: electrical energy electricity fire hazard power switch television wall outlets wall sockets

Three Reasons I Pulled a Princess Out of My Toilet

December 2nd, 2007

Last weekend before I headed out on yet another business trip my two year old dropped a toy into the toy-let. I mean toilet. My wife was in the bathroom and attempted to reach into the toilet before the princess drowned, flushed and caused blockage that only mouse-produced royalty could cause. After washing her hands like she had an OCD disorder she came downstairs and alerted me to the problem at hand. I went to the hardware store later that evening and picked up an auger (also called a snake) but had no luck getting the princess to come out of her cave. Apparently the dragons had gotten to her and she was going to need a knight to rescue her. I was thinking a hired knight that charged $45.00 an hour or more.

It turns out that I’m cheap because after some searching on the interwebs I figured that I had a chance at disassembling my toilet/floor connection and getting the princess out myself. So I went to the hardware store and purchased a new wax ring to re-seal the toilet upon successfully removing it from the floor, some caulk (to reseal the grout that was attaching the toilet to the floor as well), and a large plastic drop cloth to put the toilet on so that extra water could be prevented from getting all over our tile floor. As it turned out the drop cloth was not as effective as it could have been but we’ll ignore that problem because this story is less concerned with my failure to contain all of the water.

I had the help of my brother-in-law who kindly used my utility knife to separate the grout from the toilet’s base and then helped me power-lift the toilet from the grout, caulk and wax ring that were underneath the already heavy toilet. The toilet came up, off onto the plastic, and I took an auger to the drain pipe in the floor hoping to retrieve the damsel in distress. No luck, the number-two ogres must have her trapped somewhere else. I rocked the toilet backwards and to my pleasant surprise the “princess of poop” was wedged sideways just inside the mouth of the toilet! I removed her from the ‘can’ and threw her away. I may be cheap, but my daughters don’t get a second chance with girls who hang out in such low class establishments.

I placed a new wax ring down on the floor making sure the sticky wax surface was facing upwards and the gasket was facing down into the floor pipe. I then lined up the bolts that hold the toilet to the collar in the floor so that they would be parallel with one another and hopefully lined up with the toilet’s holes. The most important next step was to take some scrap wood and place it on either end of the toilet’s home and give myself time to line up the bolts and toilet’s fastening holes before removing the wood (with the help of the brother-in-law again) and seating the toilet on the wax ring – you don’t want to mess that up or you could have biological gunk all over your bathroom floor or a waxy mess that you have to replace. We got the bolts and toilet lined up and then removed the wood slowly and positioned the toilet so that the grout matched up just right.

Mission accomplished! In about an hour the princess was saved (and then trashed) and the toilet was cleared – flushing like it was brand new. I had saved money, practiced something mechanical and out of my comfort zone, and got to feel the pride of having done something myself where before I was going to hire it out. There is nothing quite like taking care of your family to bring out an enjoyment of things as mundane as a toilet. Plus now I can tell stories and have G-rated potty humor.

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Posted in Lesson Learned, Outside the Box, Savings Opportunities, Tips'n'Tricks

Tags: auger caulk drain pipe grout Savings Opportunities tile floor toilet wax ring

Change Your Future, Make a Decision

October 25th, 2007

I was just thinking about something: Much of my financial goals are based on the idea that I have lots of time until I retire. Some of them are rational, some of them are just pipe dreams. I need to let go of the dream mentality and focus in on actual and practical solutions to the goals and the problems that might get in the way. For example, if I want to become a millionaire before I retire (which will be required for me to retire) I have to make a decision: how much will I save to attempt a guaranteed millionaire goal?

If you make a goal to be a millionaire and you’re starting at 25 with a projected interest rate of 8% it will take you $8,000.00 a year and 31 years to reach that goal. But if you’re in my shoes and starting later than that you will have to save $20,000.00 for 20 years to reach that number. The fortunate part is that in ten more years (reaching sixty-five), without adding any more money to it, you will become a 2.3 millionaire.

However, you have to decide that you’re going to reach your goal and that you’re willing to set aside the money required to reach that goal! You can’t sit around hoping it comes to you – you have to call the shots, execute the plan, and stay focused. The consequences for my actions are long term – each $5.00 trip to the coffee house, each $20.00 quick lunch for myself and my wife and kids is a cut into that future life I have as a goal. I need to make those decisions now and follow through.

Everything else is just dreams, dumb luck and tom-foolery.

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Posted in Foundations, Investing, Lesson Learned, Retirement, Tips'n'Tricks

Save Money on Christmas Gifts: Plan Ahead

October 17th, 2007

In our house we have a few things that we’re trying to do to help manage Christmas’ big expenses and turn them into moderate and or tiny expenses. As the title implies you’ll want to plan ahead for Christmas expenses, holiday travel expenses and of course stay away from credit cards where the bills come later after the kids have played with the empty boxes and wrapping paper and left the toys for the dog to chew up.

Make a set budget for the amount of money you’re going to spend
Make a list of people you’re going to give gifts to
Make a list of gifts for those people (we usually allot money per person and then try to spend under that amount on a specific item)
Talk to certain relatives and friends about not exchanging gifts except for the kids [if you have them], but instead plan on some time together before or after the ‘mad rush’.
Buy gift cards when you know that people won’t mind or when you’re not sure what to give. This reduces the expense of shipping huge amounts of packages to different destinations
Attempt to spend less than the amount you planned by shopping sales

We try to not let gifts be the part of Christmas that we look forward to and instead think of the gift of Christ and the time that we have together as the important part. Oh, and most items my sister makes for food – we definitely look forward to those things.

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Posted in General, Money Management, Taboo & Money (religion, sex, and politics), Tips'n'Tricks

Ten Tips To Prepare for Getting Married

October 15th, 2007

I have tried to encourage a few young couples to get married who were holding out due to money concerns. Their love was genuine, their relationship was solid, yet their finances had them on edge. Here are ten things that a young couple can do to help prepare for marriage. Some of these are geared towards young in age, and some will be applicable to all couples preparing for marriage.

1. Have Each Person Do An Honest Evaluation of Their Finances – when a couple comes together they need to recognize that they both bring a financial life into their new married life. Marriage is about being one and you’re not going to find that oneness easy in various areas just due to personality differences and personal preference. That being said you need to both evaluate your finances because you need to know what you are bringing to the marriage. Your own knowledge of the scenario is going to be critical because you have to own your victories and failures. Know all of your debts and all of your assets. What student loans do you have? How much did you bring home last year after taxes?

2) Talk About Those Financial Evaluations – After you’ve figured out where each of you stand financially you need to come together and lay down all of your (credit) cards. You need to know where you both stand because those two financial lives will collectively come together into one new financial life that is going to be the sum of the two, or in some cases the debt hole of the two. If a penny pincher and a spender come together the surprises that could be seen after the marriage could be tough. Get this knowledge out in the open now.

3) Figure Out the Expenses That Your Household Will Have – If you both don’t have bills and a monthly expense budget then you will need to discover what your expenses will be as close as possible. Talk to others in your area about electricity costs. Find out how much an apartment or rental property will cost (unless you ~~miraculously~~ have money for a house) and figure out how much utlities will be on average. Be prepared to pay more than your estimates. Those estimates could be higher than you end up paying, but then could also be lower and you don’t want to be unprepared. If living together means a longer drive for one of you then you need to also estimate things like gasoline costs.

4) Figure Out How You will Budget – Read a book such as The Total Money Makeover or another good personal finance book together. Get on the same page about financial planning. Make a budget together that takes into account all of your expenses and expectations. The budget at the back of The Total Money Makeover is pretty thorough and you should find yourself pretty well prepared for your monthly expenses due to that.

5) Figure Out How You Will Jointly Work Out the Actual Execution of Your Budget – Take on responsibility of the budget: together. Don’t let it be one person’s job. Keep each other abreast of the situation as you spend money on various things. Don’t let a surprise happen because of lack of communication or commitment. One person may be in charge of paying the bills, but they don’t let the other person be unaware of those bills and that the checks have been sent!

6) Plan Out Your Savings Goals to Get a House – If you don’t have a house to move into together (which some people do) you will want to make that a savings goal in many cases. If the two of you decide to not get a house – ever – then you can skip this. But I would recommend keeping this on the radar.
7) Plan Out Your Retirement Goals and Needs – How much will you need to retire? How much will you need to invest yearly to meet those retirement goals? You need to have a plan and you should never expect to be lucky and just fall into money. Accidental money is rarely going to fix your financial woes, planning will give you confidence and will allow you to watch your wealth grow.

8 ) Develop an Insurance Plan to Handle Emergencies – You will more than likely want to get life and disability insurance policies on both of you. If you talk to a good insurance agent they will be able to save you a lot of money on insurance policies. Don’t hesitate to shop around and find the best rates. There is nothing wrong with getting the best deal on your insurance as long as the company is reputable and the agents are honest.

9) Plan For Dates – Make dates out together (or even in together to save money) a priority. Don’t let yourself get bogged down in daily busyness. Instead make time for one another, and make money for some special times so that you can maximize that time. You will need this time to take a break from your hectic schedules.

10) Make Your Marriage Your Number One Earthly Priority – Don’t let money, work, family or anything else come between the two of you. I know this isn’t directly about money, but you need to come into your marriage with that as a priority! Don’t let in-laws sway you based on emotion. Don’t let work take away the quality of your marriage. No amount of income will make your marriage solid. Time together and talking together will make your marriage solid. Make your marriage your number one earthly priority.

After you’ve looked at these think about other areas that you can tackle together. Think ahead. Plan ahead. Live as one.