For the first time in my life, I finally got nailed by a $25 late fee. When I opened the letter I was very disappointed to see that somehow I hadn’t paid the monthly bill on our credit union credit card. We always pay the entire balance off each month and last month somehow we missed it. Arggh. To add insult to injury the total
MSNBC has a feature on their website that lets you check the health of your bank or credit union. I took a look at my credit union and found that they have a troubled asset ratio of 18. That’s actually pretty good. There are over 389 banks (as of Dec 31 2009) that had a troubled asset ratio of over 100 which means that they
When I was younger, I think I always expected I’d have a house payment forever. As I’ve gotten older I have realized that debt is evil and the sooner we can pay off the mortgage, the better. I can’t wait until the day that I can walk through the front door of my house with the deed in hand, much like Nickel over at Five
It’s been a tough week. There’s really no other way to put it. Layoffs at work have hit closer to home than they ever have before and the overall mood in the office is absolutely horrible. Since last Friday I’ve been slowly hearing about many friends and really good employees that have been given their layoff slips. Why? Because the company has decided to try
This week is a really tough week at work. People at all levels of the company are getting laid off so there is a lot of “staring at the ground†going on as people deal with the prospect of losing their income. While this has happened many times before at my large company, it’s hitting closer to home than it ever has before. I’m seeing
Yahoo has an article up that shows how much customer misery there is out there with the big banks. Check out these stats: The report, Forrester’s annual Customer Advocacy rankings, ranks nearly 50 financial services firms in the United States by the percentage of each firm’s customers who agree with the statement: "My financial provider does what’s best for me, not just its own bottom
Today I was browsing through the homes for sale in my general area (after work) and came upon a really nice looking place that is exactly the kind of property I’ve always wanted. It was relatively close to the city but had a very definite “country†feel to it. The house sits on about 1 acre of land, is about 3600 square feet (way too
I’ve read more than a couple articles predicting gloom and doom for the commercial real estate industry. Many are concerned with an impending collapse of the commercial real estate market and what that is going to do to the many banks that have billions in loans supporting it. Not being an expert on anything related to the subject, all I could do was ponder whether
If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, you know that I’m not a huge fan of banks. I used to use banks exclusively and then I discovered credit unions. Without question I still believe if you have a choice between a good solid credit union and a large national bank, you should choose the credit union. Not everyone feels that way.
Nickel over at FiveCentNickel has accomplished what I would really like to do. He has paid off his mortgage in about 7.5 years. You can feel the excitement and satisfaction in his writing as he explains how he did it. I’m impressed. We are also paying additional towards our mortgage since it’s really the only debt we have. My goal isn’t quite as aggressive as
