I like to think of myself as being a step past the normal employee grind, but I still get up most days and schlep to my client’s office. Sure, I take off when I feel like it and work moderately flexible hours, but I do the lunchpail shuffle. I do know that there are changes [...]
It seems like I’m running in a hundred different directions lately. My wife has had a cold for the last few days, so I’ve been on chicken noodle soup duty. The part time job that I mentioned previously has come through - stay tune for more details on that in the future. Lastly, I joined a fantasy baseball league and the draft is today. In short, I’ve turned into Florence Nightengale - a nurse, a writer, and a statistician.
Scattered actions lead to scattered thoughts. Here are some of those thoughts delivered through a personal finance [...]
A rising tide lifts all boats.
There was a time when the Bay Area was subject to that proverbial rising tide, where easy money chased opportunities and opportunities minted even more money. During the tech boom of the previous decade, the rich got richer, the less rich got a bit richer, and most everyone was [...]
My wife and I are recent newlyweds. While we tried to be responsible with the costs of a wedding, at 200 people, we knew the costs were going to add up. It only made sense to try to save as much money as possible in anticipation of those wedding bills. We found we could save [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Five Cheap Date Ideas”, url: “http://blog.prosper.com/2008/03/24/five-cheap-date-ideas/” });
Last week, the big news was that JPMorgan Chase was going to buy once multi-billion dollar rival Bear Stearns for around $2 per share, valuing the company even less than the value of their corporate headquarters building. Oddly enough, even after this announcement was made, the stock was still trading at a premium.
While the stock [...]
Original post on The Sun’s Financial Diary
As crude oil went over $110 a barrel, gasoline prices are also surging. According to GasBuddy.com, (BTW, a good site to find the cheapest gas in your area) the national average price of regular gas is $3.257 per gallon. Though New Jersey has the lowest gas prices in the [...]
photo credit: hans s
“Fools and their money are soon parted.”
This phrase makes me nervous every time I look at it. Somewhere buried deep in my psyche a little gremlin cackles these words out over and over again. While I may not be the smartest person in the world, I like to think [...]
Welcome to the 145th Carnival of Personal Finance: The Baby Education Edition. With the new baby, I've been thinking a lot about how to properly raise a child and how to teach them about personal finance and business. So what's better than a baby theme that will take us on the road of financial education. [...]
Several years ago, I filled out my first NCAA tournament bracket. It may be hard to believe but I had never completed one before that so I had no idea what I was doing.
Rather than making random picks based on mascots or team colors, I did some research. I took notes during the expert’s predictions [...]
Photography by: bookish in north park
We’re considering refinancing our house. It’s been two years since we refinanced our construction loan into our existing mortgage and rates are lower now than the interest rate we got two years ago. If you are considering refinancing, here are some situations where it might make sense to refinance.
Lower interest rates. Determine how long it will take you to recoup the closing costs with the savings from a lower interest rate. If you will hit your break even point before you plan to move, it might be time to refinance.
Refinance an adjustable rate to a fixed rate. If your mortgage is nearing the point where it will start adjusting and the variability makes you uncomfortable, it might be a great time to consider moving to a fixed rate mortgage.
Refinance to a shorter mortgage. If your goal is to pay down your mortgage faster, you might be able to refinance to a shorter term. Five Cent Nickel recently refinanced to a 15 year mortgage, shaving years off their mortgage.
Refinance a jumbo loan to a conforming loan. The current limit for conforming loans is $417,000. Anything over that is considered a jumbo loan, which typically results in a higher interest rate. The Economic Stimulus Bill that we’ve heard about a lot for the payments also included a temporary increase in the conforming limits (to the lesser of $729,750 or 125% of the average home value for the largest metropolitan areas).
For more ideas see when you should refinance your mortgage at Free Money Finance.
Our Considerations
We currently have a 5/1 adjustable rate mortgage at 5.625%. It’s a 40-year jumbo loan. See my rational for why we have this product which is sometimes considered a risky move.
After I evaluated my decision to return to work I’m considering not only ARM products, but fixed products in case I decide to ever leave the workforce in the future.
In addition, we’re staying longer than anticipated in our house. Ask our family and friends and they will tell you that by now, they would have thought that we would be considering a move. We aren’t! I think it helps that we had this house custom built, so we have a lot of what we need, and even some things that we don’t.
Finally, the current mortgage rates at Pentagon Federal Credit Union, where we have our current mortgage, have been lower than our current mortgage recently (and they offer no closing costs).
Even though we have a jumbo loan, we are not in one of the affected metropolitan areas to raise the conforming limits. Luckily, Pentagon Federal doesn’t usually charge a premium for the jumbo rates.
Our Evaluations
There’s a terrific set of mortgage and refinance calculators at Dinkytown. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the one titled, “Optimal refinance, credit card arbitration, and shopping for a new car.”
I’ve been working on a home-grown spreadsheet to try to pinpoint our “break even” point. The difficult part of a refinance for us is that I have to scale back on our credit card arbitrage to refinance. Any interest lost is calculated into the equation and offsets the savings from a refinance.
It’s going to take a lot more number crunching, because I’m also in the market for a new car. We also have access to two home equity lines at very appealing rates. If we refinance, we may also need to refinance these.
Yes, this is one of the situations where my complicated financial world puts me at a disadvantage. It becomes a very involved process to evaluate and execute a large change.
Action Plan
I’ll continue to work on computing how much we’ll save under various scenarios, but I don’t think it’s going to be at the top of my priority list. Maybe I’ll work on it some more after we get our taxes done…
Have you refinanced lately? Or are you considering a refinance?
This is a post from My Dollar Plan.
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This article on Black Monday caught my eye yesterday. The general idea is that although market losses are bad, they also represent a buying opportunity for long term investors. The article lists the following three things that will help you invest successfully, despite market declines.
1. The quality of the companies you buy. 2. The price [...]
Original post on The Sun’s Financial Diary
crowdsourcing at Birp Blap
Crowdsourcing is - at a very basic level - throwing a task or request for information out into the public, and accumulating and selecting the best results. The theory is similar to “getting a second opinion.”
Managing Your Money is Easier Said Than Done at Money Smart [...]
Despite not have a day job anymore, I’m busier than ever doing some contract work as the company blog editor of a financial startup (which you may be familiar with ). I’m also still trying to keep up with my own blog along with trying to keep house, with being the designated driver [...]
The results are in, and I have the winners for the three TaxCut flash drives. It was interesting to see all of the college basketball picks that everyone had as well, and there were a number of upsets this weekend. Luckily, Michigan State pulled it off late last night and we’re headed to the sweet [...]
For about a year now, I’ve been part of a loose network of bloggers. These bloggers included The Sun’s Financial Diary, Money Smart Life, The Digerati Life, and Generation X Finance have consulted with each other to improve our blogs and our writing. We’ve recently decided to formalize the relationship and bring a few new members on board. These new members include Brip Blap, Million Dollar Journey, and My Dollar Plan. We’ll strive to bring you a variety of thoughtful personal finance articles. If you want read all of our articles on one site, [...]
Original post on The Sun’s Financial Diary
I sent out several $20 Amazon.com gift cards tonight to those who used my bonus sharing program in February. Last month, a few readers used my referral links to open and fund their brokerage account at Zecco.com, which rewarded me a $50 bonus for each new account I referred [...]
This weekend we’ll be busy dying Easter Eggs. It’s a fun tradition, but you end up with a ton of eggs! If you need to bring a dish to Easter dinner, keep it frugal and turn your eggs into Special Deviled Eggs, one of my favorites!
Speaking of Frugal… I’ll be hosting the Festival of Frugality on Tuesday, showcasing the best frugal tips of the week. Now onto the roundup…
Business Owners
For business owners, Chance Favors continues the review of retirement options covering the Solo 401k and SIMPLE IRA. Thinking of going into business? First check out 5 Myths and Realities of Owning My Own Business at The Wisdom Journal. There’s lots of alternatives to bringing in more money. Check out 50+ Resources to Legitimately Raise Your Income at My Super-Charged Life.
Taxes
We still haven’t completed our taxes. They’re about half done, but I seem to be procrastinating this year! If yours aren’t done yet either check out TurboTax Review: A Look At My Tax Software Of Choice Plus Useful Tools! at The Digerati Life.
Once I get them filed I’ll be anticipating my economic stimulus check. When Will You Get Your Economic Stimulus Rebate Check? Get all the information about Refund Anticipation Loans in Are You Borrowing Against Your Tax Refund? at Money Smart Life.
Savings
Banks Lower Interest Rates following yet another cut by the Federal Reserve. I’m happy with our banks now, but we might want to consider Looking for High-Yield Savings Account? Provident Direct could be an Answer at The Sun’s Financial Diary.
Investing
Five Cent Nickel is Reconsidering their Asset Allocation. This reminds me that I need to adjust our asset allocation now that we are in the new year. We have a simple portfolio, but it is confirmed to be a good choice in Why Most Investors Can’t Beat the Market at Free Money Finance.
The initial public offering on Visa closed this week. Is VISA a Buy Now? at Quest for Four Pillars. Million Dollar Journey reviews options for investment accounts for children in Canada in Informal In-Trust Accounts.
Housing
There’s No Shame in Renting at Being Frugal. As foreclosures continue, check out the Couple Living in Camper After Foreclosure - Is it the Lender’s Fault? You Decide at Generation X Finance.
Considering going green? No Debt Plan put together Green Home Resources. We built a green-built home and have considered moving to solar energy, but haven’t gotten a chance to evaluate all of our options.
More articles I enjoyed this week:
This is a post from My Dollar Plan.
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photo credit: tinou bao
Based on some of the comments and the seeming lack of enthusiasm, I’m probably going to discontinue the 31 causes of failure series. If someone really loved it, sorry, but I just got the impression that it wasn’t catching anyone’s attention. Although I like to write for myself [...]
If you haven’t yet started on your taxes, then you’ll need to get going! To help you out, I’m publishing the 2008 and 2007 Tax Bracket Tables (or Tax Rate Schedules) below — as seen in this AOL page — to use as a quick review for figuring out your taxes. But take [...]
Peer to peer lending is making an impact on the way some people borrow or invest their money and the word is spreading about both Lending Club and Prosper.
Within the last week and a half, person to person lending has seen coverage on the CBS Evening News, the Wall Street Journal, and Entrepreneur.com:
In Credit Crunch, Lending To Each Other [...]
Just a quick note that Million Dollar Journey will be hosting the Carnival of Personal Finance this coming Monday. If you are a blogger and interested in getting some exposure, then this is a great opportunity.
If you are new to the scene, you can read the Carnival of Personal Finance event that MDJ hosted before.
Please [...]
Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.
John Dewey
This is a continuation of my series on Napoleon Hill’s book Think and Grow Rich that began with this post.
Of the causes of failure listed by Napolean Hill, insufficient education is one of the simplest to overcome.
Too often the word “education” these [...]
There’s a lot we can learn about personal finance strategies from the world of sports. Last year during the college basketball tournament season I ran a series called Personal Finance for Sports fans where I took a look at some of the money lessons we can learn from the NCAA basketball tournament. Check out [...]
TGIF, and this Friday is better than most. Today is a holiday for myself and the stock market, and considering how things have been going, it is a welcome break. Even better, is having a day off when we’re kicking off March Madness. Nothing like a day full of college hoops to keep someone busy.
If [...]
March 2008 Personal Finance Site Rankings
Included are blogs that meet the following criteria:
Sites are ranked as of Feedburner subscriber count on March 21, 2008. The feed displays will monitor the current counts each day. The ranking will remain static using the March 21 counts; raw numbers are included for reference.
See previous rankings:
January 2008
February 2008
Personal Finance Sites Ranked by Subscribers
If you would like to be included in a future version please contact me with your site name and Feedburner source code.
This is a post from My Dollar Plan.
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