Smart or Just Lucky: The Home Buying Roll of the Dice Excerpt: My point in sharing all of this is, we’re not all that different from someone that stretched to buy a house in the last few years, and then got burned by the tanking housing market, increasing unemployment, a catastrophic illness, or the stock market’s decline.  All the circumstances over […]

According to the Journal of Consumer Research, “shoppers pay a disproportionate amount of attention to the leftmost digits in prices and these leftmost digits impact whether a product’s price is perceived to be relatively affordable or expensive” In one experiment, the researchers took two price points ($2.00 and $4.00) and lowered one price by one cent turning $4.00 into $3.99 and […]

Five Ways To Save Money At A Sporting Event  Excerpt: **This is a guest post by Jeff Rose. In my hometown, one of the things that my wife and I enjoy doing is going to see our former alma mater battling it out on the basketball court.  I’m sure most can relate to attending a similar event, whether it be […]

The upcoming Oscars Award show always gets everyone in the movie-going spirit and why not it’s fun to plan a night at your local theatre taking in a good movie followed by a late night meal and a glass of good Zindfandel!  But wait, hold on, are you really going to spend $20+ dollars for tickets, $15+ dollars on snacks, […]

Here’s a quick look at some of the tax breaks the new stimulus plan authorizes (for a more detailed look see the Wall Street Journal): 1. Making Work Pay tax credit.  An eligible worker would get 6.2% of earned income up to a max credit of $400 (for two income earners it’s $800).  What this means is that workers would see […]

The Wall Street Journal’s Personal Finance blog, “The Wallet” recently posted an article on how to save money on rent.  The article also offers a free template on how to approach your landlord about reducing your rent, which goes to show that you can haggle about anything, even in one of the most expensive cities on Earth (thank to Rich […]

In yet another move away from its core business, and to curtail increasing losses, Starbucks introduced special breakfast pairings such as a tall latte with coffee cake and a tall coffee with a breakfast sandwich, all for $3.95. The move comes after the chain announced job cuts of 6,700 and the closing of 300 stores. My advice to the average consumer […]

A SayEducate.com article recently suggested given that the current state of the economy will mostly likely worsen, homeowners should think about opening up a home equity line of credit.  The suggestion includes the following arguments: 1. If you are currently employed, a home equity line of credit will be more easily secured versus when you are out of work.  And if […]

The U.S. Senate unanimously approved an amendment to the economic stimulus bill by U.S. Republican Senator Isakson, Georgia., that gives a $15,000 tax credit to anyone who buys a home in the next year. The amendment would provide: – A tax credit to any homebuyer who buys any home.  – The amount of the tax credit would be $15,000 or […]

The Wall Street Journal’s Karen Blumenthal has a highly relevant article on “Bill Creep” that is a must read.  Bill Creep is associated with auto renewing services that are purchased ala carte, such as adding cell phones to a plan, moving to a data plan for a Smartphone, premium channel upgrade to a cable subscription, increasing your Netflix subscription from […]