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what do you think of 125% appraise value of your home for a debt consolidating loan?

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 05:00:11 +0000

Me & my Hubby just brought a house in an area that is not fast for equity, 8 months ago and we only made a 5K equity, we wanted to consolidate our debt but there’s no enough equity that we can used, and his credit score is not so great, I talked to few lenders and they denied us because of these matters, not sure how are we goin to consolidate our debt if no one give us a chance.we also do not want to take a chance of refinancing we have a great 6% interest from the VA.

what do you think of 125% appraise value of your home for a debt consolidating loan?

Frugal Living Guide what do you think of 125% appraise value of your home for a debt consolidating loan?

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Can you eliminate credit card debt by declaring bankruptcy?

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 05:00:11 +0000

Can an individual eliminate credit card debt by declaring bankruptcy? I didn’t think you could wipe it out, just get the bill collectors off your back. But, someone told me that it depends on which chapter of bankruptcy you use. The right one WILL eliminate credit card debt. I know someone who has $80,000 in credit card debt and they are trying to do that to get rid of that debt! Is it really possible? Are there any restrictions in doing this. Can you ever get a credit card again if you do it?If you file bankruptcy to eliminate all debt, do you have to give up ALL of your possessions? Will you have anything left?This is for a friend of mine (really). They don’t own a home. They have 2 cars and some furniture and A 401k plan. Between the two of them they make about $40,000 a year. I don’t see how debt consolidation will help them How could they EVER pay off $80,000!?! They had a house but they used up all the equity in it over the years and sold it recently and broke even on the deal, ending up with NOTHING! What a mess! I just didn’t think they could wipe out their credit card debt! And, it really isn’t fair to the rest of us that pay our bills!

Can you eliminate credit card debt by declaring bankruptcy?

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Four Good Reasons to Borrow From Your 401(k)

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 17:00:13 +0000

Four Good Reasons to Borrow From Your 401(k)

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Frugal Tips from The Complete Tightwad Gazette: Calculating Your …

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 05:00:06 +0000

I borrowed The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn from my local library a while back because I’d read so much about it on other personal finance blogs. I started reading through it, and I found so many good tips and ideas that I decided to buy a copy for myself from Amazon. This post is part of a series where I’ll share my take on some of my favorite tips from the book.

Calculating Your True Hourly Wage

In discussing the net value of a second income, Amy brings up a useful technique that’s also discussed in Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. The idea is to calculate exactly how much money you’re making from your job after you account for all the related expenses. Divide that by the number of hours you spend working, getting ready for work, getting to work, and relaxing after work and you’ll have your real hourly wage.

How much do you really make after you take out taxes, transportation costs, clothing, meals, the things you do to relax after a hard day at work, and all the things you pay others to do because you don’t have enough time? How many extra hours do you spend getting ready for work, driving through traffic, or watching TV to de-stress?

This number is useful for two reasons. First, you’ll open your eyes to what you’re really bringing home from your job. Second, you can use this figure to decide if it’s worth it to pursue certain activities or to do things yourself instead of hiring someone.

What about Bob? (An Example)

Let’s use a simple example to show how you’d do this calculation. Bob makes $18/hour working 40 hours a week at his job – making a total of $720 each week. First, we’ll take out taxes. His federal, state, and local taxes add up to about $110/week leaving him with $610/wk after taxes.

Bob lives 10 miles from work and estimates he spends 2.5 hours driving every week and about $30/wk on gas & maintenance for his car. So now he’s down to $580/week for 42.5 hours spent.

Bob doesn’t have to wear anything special for work, but he does have a tendency to eat out instead of bringing his lunch from home. Additionally, he usually ends up eating out for supper twice a week because he just doesn’t feel like cooking after getting home from work. His lunches and eating out cost him about $80/week. While he could eliminate those expenses now, Bob is honest with himself and admits he probably won’t do that as long as he’s still busy from work. This drops his net pay down to $500/week.

Bob figures he must have at least an hour every evening in front of the TV just to relax after work. He could do something else if he didn’t feel so stressed out from work, so he adds 5 hours/week to his total bringing it to 47.5 hours. Additionally, Bob spends Friday and Saturday nights going out with his friends to get away from thinking about how much he hates his job. He figures this costs him about $40/week and 2.5 hours. (Now he’s at $460/week and 50 hours for those playing at home.)

Finally, Bob pays about $20/week in services he buys because he doesn’t have enough time due to his job. These are things like home maintenance, simple car repairs and maintenance, and someone to mow his yard. So he’s down to $440/week for 50 hours of effort – or $8.80/hour. That’s less than half of what he “earns” at his job!

Your Own Situation

Bob’s calculations aren’t going to work for you. But you can follow the same sort of process to figure out your real hourly wage. Carefully consider all the expenses and time attached to what you do to earn money but also try to be realistic. This can be an especially eye-opening exercise for two-income households with kids. If both parents work and you have to hire babysitters or pay for child care, you could easily be better off if one parent quits their job to stay home with the kids.

Make sure the expenses you relate to your job will actually go away if you quit your job. If you’re not willing to do some of those things, that’s not going to change if you work less. This is especially true when thinking of the frugal activities you could pursue if you had more time. You have to be willing to actually do them or you’re not saving any money at all!

Finally, don’t take my example of Bob too seriously. There are definitely things he could do to improve his real hourly wage by making some simple choices (like brown-bagging his lunch). But the point is that Bob’s job pushes him to do those things because of stress, time constraints, or whatever other reasons keep Bob from eliminating those extra expenses.

If you want some more good ideas on saving money from The Complete Tightwad Gazette, make sure you sign up for free updates from Provident Planning. I write on a wide variety of personal finance topics, so even if you’re not interested in frugality I’m sure you’ll find something useful here.

This article contains affiliate links. Read my ad policy here.

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Four Hidden Costs of Being a Landlord

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Regressive but fair

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 05:00:07 +0000

I have to wonder why the publication of the Institute for Fiscal Studies report today came as such a surprise. The report considers whether the effects of the June 2010 Emergency Budget, in isolation, were regressive. We knew the answer to this already. The changes were predominantly cuts in benefits. Benefits, by their very nature are given to those on low incomes, and have little to no effect for those on high incomes. It is obviously impossible to cut spending where you currently spend nothing, thus any cut to benefits is likely to be regressive. The important issue is not who can lay the strongest claim to the progressive banner, however, its whether the Budget was the right thing to do. Better than ask whether it was progressive, ask whether it was fair.The two are distinctly different. Progressive simply means taking more from those who have more, which is normally synonymous with being fair. The VAT rise, for example, is an example of a progressive measure. It is effectively a tax on disposable income, which hits big spenders harder. People who earn more tend to spend more on non-essential items, so take a bigger proportional loss to their income. Either way, taxing what people have left after theyve paid for their food, shelter, and children seems a lot fairer than taxing their initial income.The IFS do not dispute this, rather the big measure labelled as regressive is housing benefit. This has received two major changes. The first is a cut in the amount of money available. Previously you could claim up to the 50th percentile of local rents from the government, allowing you to live for free in the median house in your area. Osborne reduced this to the 30th percentile. The second was a cap, set at the 4-bedroom rate, stopping people claiming for particularly high rent areas. Unquestionably this hurts the poorest hardest, as they claim housing benefit. But is it unfair, and does it really cut their income?On the fairness question, the answer seems pretty clear. We were living with a status quo where housing benefit paid for you to live in a house better than that which many who didnt claim could ever afford. Not only that, if you played your hand right you could end up with a house in Kensington far beyond the reach of most working households. The June measures put an end to what previously allowed for unfair behaviour, and about time too.The IFS approach is to treat this cut as a cut in income. On the surface it obviously is money received, but is it comparable income we should be using to decide the fairness of a Budget? Housing Benefit exists to pay for your house, and should not earn you a penny more. Instead of the State providing you with a home, it simply pays you the cost of it. Were the state to pay directly rather than through claimants this would have no effect on income at all, and critics should bear this in mind. The Housing Benefit changes allocate accommodation more fairly, and have no impact on the cash in a claimants wallet.The other regressive change was National Insurance. The June Budget increased the NI threshold by 21, saving some lower middle income workers from paying NI. This has no effect on the unemployed benefit claimant, so is by definition going to be regressive. Does that mean its a bad idea? The measure is designed to stimulate private sector employment, particularly at the wage level of those most at risk of losing a public sector job. Its not a gift to the wealthy, rather a way of encouraging job creation for those most at risk of unemployment.The changes made in the Budget undoubtedly cut more as a percentage of income from those who earn least. But we should bear in mind this was not a standalone budget, rather a set of amendments to an existing one. If these changes were presented as a replacement to the March Budget they would of course be unacceptable they simply do not constitute a Budget in themselves. However if we consider them as they are, as amendments, are they fair ones? They tax the richer harder than the poorer, and put an end to the possibility of claiming ludicrously unnecessary sums for housing. Seems to me just what a government should be doing.

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Think simple living

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:00:08 +0000

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Mortgage broker website – take your company to the fol

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 05:00:22 +0000

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Mother’s Day Gift Ideas…94 year old Grandmother…Help!?

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 05:00:08 +0000

I need ideas on what to get my husband’s Grandmother for Mother’s Day. We’ll be going out to eat at a place that is about 45 miles from her home and then to a cousin’s house afterwards, so fresh flowers won’t work since transporting them and keeping them alive could be a hassle. For the past two years I’ve given her a potted plant or an indoor herb garden. I don’t feel right giving her clothes (I don’t even know what size she wears) or jewelry and I know she doesn’t want anymore clutter for her house. Please help!

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