Living for today - Planning for Tomorrow
Amazing. I never thought I’d see a 30 year mortgage rate below 4%. It’s an amazing time to buy or refinance a home if you meet all the latest criteria. You know, have a job, have 20% equity in a home (refinance), have a 20% down payment, have a high credit score and the list goes on. We refinanced a couple years ago at 4.87%
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that Apple has announced the date to introduce the world to their new Iphone. I’m embarrassed to say that I’m looking forward to seeing what they are bringing to the market. I’m a current Iphone 4 user and really like it, although I’m convinced I’d equally like an Android phone if that’s what I had started
From the, “Celebrities on the path to poor” department comes Soulja Boy. He is spending $55 Million to buy and upgrade his own private jet. I wonder if he has done the math on how much it will cost him each year to fly and maintain it. I can’t imagine that he’s making hundreds of millions of dollars these days which makes me wonder what
I love Netflix. It’s a key part of my cable-less strategy. We use their streaming service about 95% of the time and never seem to find the time to watch the one DVD that we have at any point. Well, Netflix is forcing us to make a change. As of Sept 1st, for existing subscribers, (and now for new customers), Netflix is increasing their plan
I realized a long time ago that the various types of media companies out there really weren’t very good at helping me be financially successful. It seemed that each article I read contradicted the previous article and you could pretty much find any article to tell you anything you wanted to hear. I guess it was a long slow process that I lost confidence in
I’ve been watching from the sidelines as many of my friends and family talk about the latest deals on Groupon and Living Social. I haven’t jumped on board yet and really don’t see myself becoming a consumer of the sites. My reluctance to join these sites stems from my belief that something is only a good deal if you actually need it, or REALLY want
Yesterday, my daughter went to the store with my wife to find a birthday present for my nephew. My daughter made sure to take her little money box with her in case she saw something that she wanted. She keeps her allowance in an old plastic mayonnaise container that we had in the cupboard. Anyway, I dropped them off and ran to another store while
Check out this article. Bank of America is raising their checking account fee to $12 a month unless you have direct deposit set up with a minimum deposit of $250. If that won’t work for you, you can keep a minimum of at least $1500 in your account for every day of the month (which you’ll get very little interest on). My favorite part of
Leroy Fick from Saginaw Michigan won a $2 million lottery in 2010. While this sounds great, somehow Leroy is still receiving food stamps to help put food on his table. Why? Well, Leroy took the lump sump payout, bought a new house and a car and then invested the rest. Since his income is based on the amount of investment income he’s receiving from the
NBC has an article about whether those technology buy back programs that companies like Best Buy offer are worth it. My opinion is that they are not. As the article points out, the terms are clearly stacked in their favor and you have to jump through a number of hoops to be successful. I won’t go in to the mathematics (because I’m not smart enough)