September 18, 2009 • 9:08 am
“The roots of the mortgage contagion lie with all of us and our desire to own just a bit more house.”
-Ron Lieber, New York Times
Over the years as Andy and I have dreamed about and perused various home buying options, we’ve felt the pull for “just a bit more house”, which leads to a bit more mortgage. Our search categories have gone from an upper limit of $200k to $250k to $300k — because, of course we could get the person asking $300k to sell for $250k. It’s all theoretical, mind you, as we’re not in the market to buy, but understanding the pull is good.
As we’ve mused about what it would be like to live in high priced places like Seattle, Portland, and Chapel Hill, it’s led us to discuss how to make a small house work. We anticipate that wherever we end up we’ll need a guest room and an office. But those are more bedrooms, meaning more mortgage. Plus, I’d like a living space that is more than one room. An art room or library, perhaps?
So far, our ideas have revolved around finishing basements, converting garages, building screened-in porches, and, my favorite, buying a pre-fab shed. It’s not quite the same as the Not-So-Big House, which I also love, but let’s face it, those houses aren’t cheap and in some cases, not all that small either.
Perhaps our new motto should go from “not-so-big” to “more with less.”
Filed under: Personal finance, in process
September 17, 2009 • 8:19 pm
In an ironic twist, the Founder of Mint.com has sold to the makers of Quicken (Intuit). Some of you may remember my post almost a year ago about how I appreciated Mint’s easy interface and particularly the ability to monitor those expenses that vary from month to month, like groceries, eating out, and household items.
Shortly after I published it, a representative from Intuit commented on the post trying to sell me on their online Quicken product. From her comment, it was obvious she didn’t understand that the problem I had with Quicken, was the one Mint solved. I found it humorous and slightly annoying.
But now, it seems, that Intuit has wizened up and instead of innovating themselves, they’ve bought Mint. I don’t blame them. Buying something you don’t have is a good strategy. And I can’t really even fault the founder of Mint — I couldn’t turn down $170 million either.
But, Intuit? Really? The maker of clunky Quicken? The Mint team is said to remain in tact and will actually take over Intuit’s personal finance division. Time will tell which mind set wins out. I’m pullin’ for ya Mint, but find myself dubious that it will remain as clean and user friendly as it is today.
Read other people’s comments here.
Filed under: Personal finance
Congress recently passed legislation that affects the ins and outs of your credit card. One of the key changes hit a nerve, because I was a victim of it.
The issue?
Transferring a high-interest rate balance to a 0% credit card. Now the transfer itself wasn’t the problem. The problem was, I then used the credit card for regular purchases that accrued the normal interest rate, say 15%. What I didn’t know was that any payments I made would go towards the lowest interest rate charges first. Therefore, I was first paying off my “0%” interest debt, while all my other charges were continuing to accrue interest month after month.
Thankfully, this new legislation actually requires that any payment made over the minimum amount due must be applied to the highest interest rates first. Yes!
Other changes require bills must be mailed at least 21 days in advance of the due date and the elimination of fees associated with going over your credit limit. While using a credit card is the worst way to accrue debt (except for maybe a paycheck advance), if you have to use it, the new rules will help the consumer. You can learn about other changes from this short NYT’s video.
Filed under: Personal finance
November 10, 2008 • 4:51 pm
I’m always interested in exploring new personal finance tools. The latest comes from mint.com, which is an excellent way to keep track of those expenses that fall under what I like to call “the slush fund.” While your fixed expenses are those that stay the same every month (i.e. rent and insurance), the “slush fund” are spending categories that can easily get out of control. These purchases include groceries, eating out, personal spending, and household items.
At mint.com you’re able to track these purchases easily and adjust your spending accordingly. After signing up for an account, you simply add the bank accounts and credit cards where you put most of your spending and add the budget categories and limits you want to monitor. The system downloads your transactions each time you log on, you place the transactions in the proper category, and the system will show you how much money you have left for the month.
It’s a really easy interface to use, though it doesn’t do everything I’d like it to. First, you can’t develop your budget on the site, you have to know your budget numbers before you get started. And second, there’s no way to manually enter in accounts that, for whatever reason, the interface won’t let you access.
Even so, it’s the best tool I’ve found for watching those slush fund expenses.
Filed under: Personal finance
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