Personal Finance Resources

Preparing and selling a mobile home like one the I own has proven to be a daunting task. Getting my subcontractor in to fix the holes that the tenant’s dogs put in the walls of the trailer did open the door of opportunity for me to fix some of previous holes in the walls when I first purchased the property. The problem is, with high building materials costs and labor these days, it is a expensive investment. Further, with the house market the way it is today, we may not be able to find a buyer for the property. This may force me to rent the place back out again, but if I am going to rent it again, I am going to be well compensated for it. I think I will ask for $700 a month to rent it out again.

Anyways, I wanted to give you the details on all the items that we are fixing or have already fixed in the home:

• Hole in living room wall - this hole was so big there was no chance for patching it, I had to replace the entire sheet of drywall. Fortunately, in trailers, there really isn’t any taping an floating, as the manufacturers just put trim pieces between each of the sheets of drywall.
• Hole in adjacent living room wall - this was a small hole, and my subcontractor came up with the idea to install a chair rail around the living room walls, thus covering the hole. The hole is high, about 6 inches higher than a normal chair rail, but I don’t think anyone will notice.
• Hole in bathroom wall - this we are going to be fixing through a simple patch and painting the bathroom. It is a very small bathroom, so the expense will not be great to go ahead and paint the entire room.
• Holes in bathroom door - nothing much we could do here. We thought about applying a return air vent to the bottom of the door to cover the hole, but it is such a large hole and the price to replace the door was only about $5-10 more expensive, so I opted to replace the entire door.
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With food costs soaring to unbelievable levels, we have decided to take action against the insanity. We have decided to grow some of our own food, to get the grocery costs down. Now, we are still getting groceries for free, but it doesn’t take care of our entire need. But if you are skeptical about getting your own garden started, let me address some of the likely problems / questions you might have:

• Growing Your Own Food Takes too Much Time
  It really doesn’t take as much time as you might think. If you just did a small garden of about 10 feet by 10 feet, that is only 100 square feet, and if you used a motorized tiller to break up the soil combined with some leaves or grass clippings from the yard, you might have as little as an afternoon invested in prepping and sowing your garden.
• A Garden Won’t Produce Enough Food to be Worth it
  I can assure you if you stick to vegetables like tomatoes, squash, green beans, etc. the plants will produce multiple harvests for you. As a kid, I remember working in my grandfather’s garden and picking green beans every couple of days. Bags and bags of green beans were produced in a single season.
• Getting Started is too Expensive, I Don’t have the Tools
  We just bought all the tools and seeds necessary to start our garden this year. We bought a spade fork, hoe, hand spades, cages for tomato plants, 3 cubic feet of garden soil, some plant food (the little balls of fertilizer), and seeds at our local Lowes all for about $100. How far does $100 go at the grocery store these days?

We have all kinds of seeds that we are going to plant for this year’s crop. Everything from tomatoes, squash, green beans, to onion, carrots and romaine lettuce we’ll be raising right in our back yard. And getting to enjoy fresh vegetables that you have grown yourself just makes dinner that much sweeter.

I plan to setup a 16 foot by 16 foot garden in my back yard. We will be simply spading and turning over as much of the dirt as possible, and burying the grass combined with leaves for the main fertilizer. Then when I sow the seeds, I will make sure to cover the top layer with the garden soil I bought. I will keep you posted on the progress. If you have questions or comments, please leave then below.

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The tips provided in this article are old, well known (at least back in their day) but are coming back into favor. These are practical tips that can be used on your existing car, truck, motorcycle, etc. to help you improve your gas mileage without buying a hybrid or some other new kind of gas sipping vehicle. So check it out, watch your mileage, and get that gasoline bill down! As for me, I am anxious for summer, when I will not be teaching and can stay home most of the time when I am not on business. I am not a full time school teacher, I only help out in the mornings at our local Christian school.

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Let’s face it, if the economy and gas regulations don’t change, then we are looking at $4 or more per gallon of gasoline in the near future. At these inflated prices, we need to be more cautious of where we buy our gas. We need to get the best prices on gasoline wherever we are. So that is why I have included this neat little tool to help you to easily find the best deal in your location. Just simply put in your zip code, and the radius (in miles) away from you that you are willing to go, click update settings, and presto, find the best price for gas available (of reporting gas stations).

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Although basic in its approach, this article does serve to hit on some solid pointers to help you in saving money on your groceries. Like most things (other than gasoline) you can easily decrease the amount of spending in any particular month. This article helps you understand some of the more elementary tips for achieving this feat. It comes down to changing your mindset and putting a priority on saving money; in this case with your groceries, and you can achieve significant savings in your personal budget.

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I was in one of my rental units that I am managing, and had sort of an epiphany. This unit had gas heat prior to our acquisition of it, and we converted it to electricity, for a couple of different reasons. For one, electricity tends to be safer than gas in a house, and the other reason is that there was only one gas meter servicing to rental units, i.e. gas was provided by the landlord. So we wanted to provide a safer environment, while at the same time cutting our residual costs down. So how does that relate to reducing cooling costs?

Well, this rental unit had two portable air conditioning units, and with the conversion to all electric, we decided to buy a new portable air conditioning unit that was also capable of providing heat. So that means that there is now an extra window unit that is not necessary for the apartment. So my thought was this:

Why not install the window unit in the master bedroom at my house, and not run the central heat and air conditioning at night?

It is well known that window units consume a lot less power than regular central heat and air conditioning. And I have already cleared it with the owner of the property for me to use/own the unit, so it brings no additional cost to my budget. Further, I am having an issue with my central heat and air conditioning system, so this could really help me out. Right now, my electric bill is running somewhere around $150 per month.

So I am going to try this out, and if it works, I will post the results, and let you know how much of a savings I was able to achieve. Check out my reduce cooling costs post for more information on making your home more efficient and saving more money on electricity.

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It’s getting late, and I haven’t had a chance to get much done today, but I wanted to give you a quick tip.

Building relationships and working deals are the key to getting anything done. In this particular instance, I have built a friendship with an older man, who likes to go fishing. I like going fishing too, and so he has had me go along with him several times this year. I help him with launching the boat, and any tough issues like today when the lanyard on the trolling motor broke (that wasn’t very fun fixing). So for just a short 15-20 minute drive, I am able to go fishing, and catch dinner.

If you like eating fish, you know it is expensive to buy at the grocery store. So catching it under circumstances like mine is very cost effective. I just had to pay for a fishing license, a few lures that I have lost while out on the water and gasoline to get the boat ramp. My friend takes care of the rest. Now don’t be too quick to judge here, he would go out without me. In fact he has been going out for years mostly on his own, but having me there to help him launch, etc. is very nice for him. This is what I mean by building relationships. Try to create win-win situations, and you can get a lot of things done.

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This article outlines some simple and cheap tips for creating solid entertainment for your young one on his or her birthday. With ideas for invitations, games, and goody bags, you will have a good start on throwing a quality birthday party on a budget. In this world of increasing inflation and stagnant or decreasing income, we all have to find ways to get the budget down, and save money. Even with something like a birthday party, it still makes sense to think smart before spending several hundred dollars for outlandish things your son or daughter may forget anyway.

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In this post, I would like to outline a question that I received via email. Someone very close to my demographic wrote back and forth with me, and basically wanted to know how to allocate a sum of money they received from an inheritance. The basics of the request are as follows:

Hi there, was wondering if you could perhaps give me some advice.

My mother passed away in 2005, leaving me with both a 401k inheritance and life insurance. However, the passing was unexpected as I now have a lot of student loan debt that she would have helped me pay back. Regardless, I have come up with an idea that I would like to assure is not a bad move.

Me: 21
Assets: 401k ($125,000) and remaining life insurance ($80,000)
Debts: $90,000 student loans ($4,000 of it Federal), $4,500 credit card

I was looking to not even touch the 401k and begin adding to it once I began my career as a Police Officer in July. I wanted to use the life insurance to pay off the credit cards and federal loans in its entirety, and bring down the private one to $45,000, leaving me with a $15k liquid emergency fund/savings (after living expenses for the remainder of my time in college) This would then be my only debt, manageable at about $300 or so a month, maybe less once I consolidate. I just wanted some input on if this is a good idea, especially with the loan-pay down. Seeing as how the gov loans have a lower rate, I’m not sure if I should use the $4,000 directly in addition to the private pay down while keeping the gov loans open. Please let me know what you think, thank you.

Credit Card: Just one, at a rate of just under 10% (9.8), with a 5k limit (so practically maxed out)
Federal: Not completely positive since they are not due for repayment just yet, but approx. 5.6 since I last checked
Private: Has hovered between 7.6-8% (Since our economy is in shambles, it has been at the lower end for the past several months)

As of now, all student loans are on a 20 year plan. If I choose to consolidate the privates for a lower rate, I have the option of jumping to 30 year.

I would like to begin by saying that this gentlemen has a level head and some good ideas about how to allocate the funds. But I would like to elaborate on the best financial way to attack this issue. Now, if you have been following this personal finance blog, you are aware of my staunch hatred for debt of any kind. However, in some circumstances, carrying some debt can be more beneficial than paying it off. But let’s dive in and break this situation down:

Regarding the 401k Money

I believe that keeping the money in the retirement account is indeed the best use of this money. Without question, breaking into this money would have serious consequences, mainly Uncle Sam taking a gigantic bite out of the money. Plus, with being so young (age 21) and having 38.5 years to go before retirement (assuming he retires at age 59 1/2), and assuming he could average 8% per year in mutual funds, the $125,000 would grow to $2,419,494.28 without any additional payments into the account. That is a pretty solid retirement wouldn’t you say?

So bottom line, I would definitely keep the 401k money in the 401k account. Let it grow tax deferred (or tax free, if it is a Roth IRA).

Allocating the Life Insurance Money

On this point, I would have to recommend a slightly different strategy than the one he outlined in his email. Starting with the easiest decision, I would pay off in its entirety the credit card debt. Beating 10% interest on the stock market or any other kind of moderately risked asset is going to be hard to consistently do. So with regard to the credit card balance, yes, pay it off.

With regard to the federal and private students loans, I have a different suggestion. I believe that the rates you are paying on these loans are too high. I am fairly confident that you can obtain a consolidation loan to get all of your student loans condensed into a single loan, and you can probably get the interest rate down considerably. I consolidated my student loans back in 2003, and have since paid them off completely. At that time, I was able to consolidate at a rate of 3.5%. Now I understand that the market today is a little different, but let me give you a couple of approaches on how to get the best deal on a consolidation loan.

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It’s bad enough when a tragic accident happens, or a loved one gets sick and has to have an extensive hospital stay. But after all the turmoil with family and friends, in come the bills. And in today’s world, paying medial bills is an extremely expensive proposition. I want to dedicate this article to folks that need help paying medical bills, with a focus on a singular point - negotiating with the hospital/health care organization. I do not intend to provide any links to services, companies, or government aid in paying for health care, this is a self help focused article.

America has drifted in to a price taking, lazy, “gimmie, gimmie, gimmie” nation. People do not want to work hard to earn money, and if they are able to make a little money, spend way more than they make. But enough ranting, I want to elaborate a little on what I mean when I talk about negotiating with the health care provider.

Did you know that many insurance companies, Medicare, Medicaid, and other big organization customers have pre-arranged, set rates that they pay hospitals and other health care providers? They do. I worked at a hospital before deciding to venture off on my own in the internet business and real estate investing/property management. While I was there, I was shocked to learn that some of the larger health insurance companies paid 60%, 70%, or 80% of what was billed to them. Does that make any sense? When you get a monthly bill in the mail, such as a bill for cable TV or phone service, are you allowed to pay a fraction of the bill, or the whole amount? Well obviously, the entire amount.

But you see, it is different in the health care industry. In fact, Medicare pays based on what they call a Relative Value Unit (RVU), or a fixed amount per unit. And depending on the service rendered, they will pay a certain number of RVUs. So what this means is that the health care provider is going to get a fixed payment, so there is not much incentive to go the extra mile. So the bottom line of what I am saying is this, almost every entity that pays a health care provider is paying less than full price.

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