Do you keep track of homes values in your area? Have you looked at what homes are selling for if you are looking to refinance, sell or buy? I am in the process of trying to refinance to take advantage of the lower interest rates. Actually I “thought” I was in the process about six months ago with the Making Home Affordable plan. I was told it would take some time to complete. But after being very patient for months I called again this week to check on it and found out that they “lost” my application and it isn’t anywhere is the system. So I am at step one of starting the process again. Well I least I have more equity, the rates are even lower and maybe home values are a little higher. There are several websites you can go to to help research this information. Check out http://www.redfin.com or www.zillow.com or http://ziprealty.com.
Archive for the ‘Financial’ Category
Home Values
Sunday, December 13th, 2009Roth 401k/ Roth IRA
Saturday, December 5th, 2009I have a Roth 401k available to me at work. I think the Roth’s are a great thing. I don’t know why more people don’t take advantage of them. I am the only employee at my work that has contributed to the Roth 401k and they have been offering it for more than a year. With a Roth 401k or Roth IRA you pay taxes on the money now but you don’t pay taxes when you need to withdraw the money. If you have both a 401k and a Roth 401k you have two “buckets” of money and you can decide during retirement which is better to use first based on the tax circumstances at the time. If all you have is a 401k, you don’t have a choice, you have to pay taxes when you take the money out. With the huge deficits this country is building up, do you think our taxes will be going down or up? Would you rather pay taxes on some of your retirement money now or later?
There are other benefits to the Roth accounts: You aren’t required to start pulling money out after age 70 1/2 like you must do with a 401k and regular IRAs. You can leave the Roth “bucket” alone if you don’t need it. You can can leave a larger legacy to your heirs and they can draw on it for the rest of their lives (or immediately) - tax free. Also the money taken from a Roth won’t count in determing whether any of your Social Security benefits will be taxable.
So why don’t more employees take advantage of the Roth 401k? Any ideas?
Finances and Scripture
Monday, October 5th, 2009Years ago (15 – 20 years!) I went through the Crown Financial series. I still remember some of the Bible verses we had to memorize. Some of the great ones were:
The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower becomes the lender’s slave. Proverbs 22:7
The wise man saves for the future, but the foolish man spends whatever het gets. Proverbs 21:20
Steady plodding bring prosperity. Proverbs 21:5
But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his househole, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever. 1 Timothy 5:8
I found a link on the Crown website with many more Bible references. Check them out.
Strategies to Avoid Identity Theft
Sunday, September 27th, 2009There are several strategies you can take to help avoid identity theft.
- Reduce you reliance on snail mail. Sign up for online statements and use online bill pay. I love online banking and have used it for years. I have swtiched bills over to electronic as soon as it was available from each company. It also leaves you less to shred – no hard copies. If you don’t have ingoing or outgoing mail in your mailbox, your important information can’t be stolen from your box. Use a PO box if you must get snail mail.
- Track your statements. Check transactions on each statement. Reconcile your statements. I use Quicken and have for years. I do direct download from my accounts into Quicken. At the end of the month I can reconcile my accounts in a matter of seconds.
- Set up a secure online security system. Make sure you have ant-virus, anti-spyware and firewall protection. Don’t log into financial accounts on a public or unsecured computer.
- Think carefully about your passwords. Don’t use obvious passwords or the same one over and over again. Using a jumbled combination of letters and numbers is the best. Keep an Excel spreadsheet of all of your passwords but make sure that is also password protected.
Do you have any other suggestions?
How to Find a Better Bank
Friday, September 25th, 2009Small banks, credit unions and online banks want your business. But how do you find a good banking facility to do business with?
Locate a credit union by going to www.creditunion.coop. You can join many credit unions that you wouldn’t necessarily think you could join. You can join the Pentagon Federal Credit Union by joining the National Military Family Association for a one-time $20 membership fee. Credit unions often offers lower rates for things like auto loans.
You can find small community banks at www.icba.org and click on bank locator or just look around your community for them. Building a relationship with a small local bank also helps out your community.
You can find online banks through www.bankrate.com. You can check if the bank is FDIC insured by putting the bank’s name into www2.fdic.gov/idasp/main_bankfind.asp. I have accounts at several online banks. They can pay higher rates on savings account and it only takes a couple days to transfer money which isn’t a problem. Not having immediate access to the money can be a plus as you can’t spend it as easily.
When Will I Get My Money Back?
Friday, September 18th, 2009Kiplinger’s has a nice calculator to help determine when you will recover your investment money. You enter what you started with before the market fell and what you have now. Then you enter two of the following three items: annual contribution, annual rate of return or time to recoup. The calculator will calculate the third (missing) item. Go to Kiplinger’s to use the calculator.
To Roll or Not to Roll
Tuesday, September 15th, 2009Anytime you switch jobs you have to make the decision on what to do with your old 401k. Most of the time, the advice is to roll it over into an IRA or to your new employer’s 401k (if they allow rollovers and if they have good investment choices). And most of the time that probably is the best advice. But if you have really good investment choices in your old 401k you may be better off leaving it, especially if you are in your 50s. If you need the money, you can withdraw out of the 401k at a younger age (55) than you can if you roll in over into an IRA (59 1/2). Also investors in a 401k plan often pay much lower fees than retail investors – sometimes half as much. So if you have great investment choices you may want to consider leaving it in the 401k, especially if you are in the over 50 crowd.
Mutual Fund Stats to Consider
Saturday, September 12th, 2009When researching mutual funds it can get so confusing. There are so many things to look at. Which numbers are more important? We have all heard the warning that “past performance is no guarantee of future results” so looking a returns over the past year shouldn’t be the only gauge we use, or maybe not a gauge at all. In my research, it seems the most critical numbers to look at are:
- Expense ratio: You get better returns automatically if you invest in funds with low fees. You keep more of your money with lower expense ratio funds.
- Risk: Most investors are better off avoiding high-risk funds. Morningstar gives funds risk ratings.
- Stewardship: How does the fund treat investors? Are they trying to protect shareholders or maximize profits? Are they on your side? Morningstar grades funds on their stewardship and stay away from those earning grades of D or F.
- Manager Stake: Are the top managers of the fund investing in the fund? They should be if they think it is a good fund, right? If at least one of its managers doesn’t have $500,000 invested, something is wrong. The Spy Selector test at Morningstar will tell you this information.
- Morningstar Ratings/Picks: Is the fund at least a Morningstar 3 star fund. I try to buy only funds with 4 or 5 stars. If they slip down to a 3 star, I usually don’t sell them, at least right away. Sometimes fund will move up or down quite a bit and I try to not buy/sell too frequently. I even have kept a fund that was a 2 star because it was a Morningstar “Pick.” I base most of my funds off of the Kiplinger 25 or Money 70 which I have links to on my website.
Hope these suggestions help you make sense of all of the numbers. Do you have anything else you have found useful?
Shopping for Insurance?
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009I recently shopped around for home and auto insurance. I have had the same company now for at least three years and thought I may get a better deal somewhere else. I contacted several different companies and completed several online applications. I ended up keeping the insurer that I have – no company could beat the rates. I did find some useful websites during the search. I am always nervous about changing companies as you don’t know if they are financially sound or if they have a lot of complaints against them. You don’t want to switch and then have those kind of problems. Here is NAIC National Association of Insurance Commissioners . You can search by company and state to find out about companies.
I also did a google search on my state “insurance regulator” and found the state site with more information on insurance companies and their record in my state. I even found that my state has comparison rates from numerous companies just by answering a few questions. The resulting chart gave me the rate info, financial info and complaint index all in one table. For Texans it was at www.helpinsure.com.
I did end up saving money on my auto insurance by taking a defensive driving course again. I have been taking the course every 3 years to get the discount and my discount had just expired. So I took the course again. I save $43 every 6 months by my husband and I taking the course. The course was $35 each and that included lunch and a “comedy” guy (although he wasn’t so funny but it was better than sitting at the computer 6 hours to take it.
Work From Home
Friday, August 21st, 2009
It is so hard when you try to find work from home income. There are so many scams out there. You don’t know where to turn to for legitimate work. I found a story on the ABC News website concerning this topic and thought I would share the link. The article has quite a few different ideas and links to places to go for more information. Here is the link. I hope you find something that you enjoy and brings in some extra cash.
