Finance Matters Blog dedicated to financial matters including money, personal finances, money management, cash flow, saving, spending and retirement.

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Ready for a Second home mortgage?
2008-05-10 14:16:34
A Second home mortgage loan is almost always more expensive than the first. Owning two homes is obviously a little more risky for banks and lending institutions, as a result, higher interest rates for the borrower. Usually interest rates on second home mortgages are 1/4 to 1/2 points higher than the first. With today’s weak economy [...] ...

Free Sample Excel Budget
2008-05-09 21:48:19
Ready to start following a personal budget? Here is a basic, but detailed free sample excel budget. Sometimes budgets can be tough to stick with, but having everything laid out for you in a nice clean simple format makes thing much easier. All the categories have sub categoies so you can track spending by categories. Simply put in your [...] ...

Good real estate investment ideas?
2008-05-09 17:21:53
Before you take your good real estate investment ideas and spend your life savings think carefully about the consequences. Over the past several months several hundreds of thousands of families lost their homes due to rising interest rates and a gloomy economy. Millions of investors are watching their retirement savings plunge with no signs of [...] ...

When should i refinance my home?
2008-05-09 04:51:33
Refinance your home and you could save thousands of dollars, but usually over a certain period of time.  When you refinance your mortgage you are actually taking out another home loan to pay off your existing one. The main purpose of refinancing is to get a lower interest rate and save money on your mortgage. The [...] ...

How to Organize Your Finances
2008-05-08 22:50:20
Keeping your finances organized can be a monumental task. With so many other things happening in your life, sometimes your personal finances can be put on the back burner. Paying your bills on time, balancing your checkbook, organizing receipts and statements, checking credit card and loan balances and managing your cash takes a lot of [...] ...

Tax Rebate Incentive Package, Worthless
2008-05-05 15:07:16
Tax Rebate Incentive Package, Worthless Well, the government’s attempt to stimulate the economy seems to be a worthless endeavor and a recession seems to be inevitable. With rebate checks already in the bank for many of those tax payers who filed electronically much of the anticipated cash will be going to other things than toys and [...] ...

Debt versus Saving
2008-05-01 05:59:49
Debt Versus Saving Which should be a greater priority? Saving is very important but so is paying off debt. When it comes to making a choice between paying off debt or saving for the future how do you do you decide what to do? Many financial planners and experts will agree that the key to financial success is [...] ...

Should you refinance your car loan?
2008-04-29 04:31:21
Should you refinance your car loan? There are many financial calculators that you can use to find out if you can save money by doing a refinance on your home loan, but not many that focus on the savings of a refinance on a car loan. Mortgage refinance calculators will allow you to put in your [...] ...

How cheap can you send your kids to a four year college or university?
2008-04-16 03:57:02
How cheap can you go to a four year college or university? A four year college or university is an important step in a successful career oriented life. It’s obvious that college graduates earn higher salaries than those who only graduate high school. College also stimulates the mind and leads the brain down creative avenues. College also [...] ...

How fast should I pay off my Student Loan debts?
2008-04-13 23:54:17
How fast should I pay off my Student Loan debts? This is a common question that might be asked by a recent college graduate, and a very good question too. It is also a growing trend for recent college and university graduates to have thousands of dollars of student loan debt upon finishing their hard earned [...] ...

College Financial Planning
2008-04-10 21:39:50
College Financial Planning Our college of financial planning guide… When it comes to paying for your child’s college education, I get mixed opinions on how this should work. Many parents I talk to have very strong and differing opinions about how their children’s higher education should be paid for. Some believe that if their child wants to [...] ...

Securing your child’s retirement
2008-04-08 18:24:34
Securing your child’s retirement It may sound like a strange idea, especially when a very small percentage of us have our own retirement secured, but just imagine how you could change your family tree forever! The only problem with the concept is that most people are too greedy or selfish to actually follow through with the [...] ...

The real cost of a child
2008-04-08 05:02:10
The real cost of having a child How much money does the first year of a child’s life really cost you? Every thought about the real cost associated with having a child? It’s not something most of us worry about because we know we want children and if we thought too much about it then we might [...] ...

Can you save money buying less quality furniture?
2008-04-04 05:41:24
Can you save money buying less quality furniture? About a week ago we were informed by my brother-in-law that our kitchen table now only has 3 chairs. He accidentally scooted the chair back on the tile floor and the leg snapped in half. There is good news and bad news about the accident. The bad news [...] ...

Size can be deceiving
2008-04-03 05:53:05
Size can be deceiving I went to the grocery store today to purchase some necessary items, you know bread, peanut butter, potato chips, pop tarts, etc. Since I am a somewhat frugal person I always try to save money when it comes to shopping, even though I do very little of the grocery shopping. One thing [...] ...

Planning a budget for months with five weeks
2008-03-24 05:11:34
Planning a budget for months with five weeks Ever got excited about planning a budget to get out of debt and save money, only to have your plans crushed because at the end of the month there is no money left? Actually, you go in the hole and your budgeted categories come up in the red? [...] ...

Good news, Our economy is going down?
2008-03-11 03:00:58
Good news, Our economy is going down? If you haven’t noticed, the US economy is taken a huge turn for the bad. Stocks have tumbled and the over the past three days The Dow Jones industrial average has fell nearly 515 points. It’s a little scary to think that many stocks, especially those in the financial [...] ...

Unexpected Moving Expenses
2008-03-09 02:24:05
Unexpected Moving Expenses This article applies to anyone who is thinking about moving. It doesn’t matter if you are moving from an apartment to buying your first home, moving from a house into an apartment to save money or downsize, or moving from an apartment to another apartment you have to be careful with unexpected expenses. [...] ...

Dave Ramsey - Is his get out of debt plan right for you?
2008-03-07 14:37:02
Dave Ramsey - Is his get out of debt plan right for you? Dave Ramsey is a very successful business man as well as a renown personal finance advisor. He has successfully published four books, The Total Money Makeover, Financial Peace, Financial Peace Revisited, and More Than Enough. Ramsey’s ventures also include a nationally syndicated radio [...] ...

Analyzing a famous money quote
2008-03-04 05:38:46
Analyzing a famous money quote According to the Random House Dictionary of Proverbs and Sayings, the phrase “Money is the root of all evil” first appeared in English circa 1000 A.D. The saying originated in the New Testament. “For the love of money is the root of all evil.” Timothy, 6:10. Samuel Butler has also been credited [...] ...

The True Value of Money
2008-03-03 05:44:26
Many times my little girl makes me stop and think about the simple things in life. I know many people are tired of hearing those cliches, but I’m going to tell you about my experience today. ...

Spare Change buys a Car?
2008-02-29 03:09:21
Spare Change buys a Car? I once read a story about a man from Indiana who bought a new Dodge Ram pickup from spare change he saved over the course of 13 years. Is this story believable? Is it really possible to save that much spare change over the course of 13 years? Some people say [...] ...

Cash or Credit?
2008-02-28 03:00:20
Cash or Credit? So I hear everyone saying that it’s so much better to use cash instead of credit cards. There are many statements that I hear about credit cards and I’m going to examine each of them for validity. Some of the most common comments I hear are: You spend more when you use a credit [...] ...

Overbudget and Save
2008-02-26 03:17:20
I once read on a website, someone suggest overpaying utility bills a few dollars in order to make next months bill less. In my opinion this is pretty bad advice. If you overpay the water company $10 one month you are basically giving them an interest free loan for a month. One suggestion I would give [...] ...

If I had a Million Dollars….
2008-02-19 03:26:39
If I had a Million Dollars…. You know the lyrics to the popular song by the Barenaked Ladies, but what would you really do with a million dollars? You probably wouldn’t buy me a house as the song suggests, but hopefully if you didn’t already own one you would buy yourself one. ...

Before you buy a new bigger house - Tips for home buyers
2008-02-16 14:31:25
Before you buy a new bigger house Tips for second time home buyers I’m writing this article from personal experiences. Many times in life we look back on financial decisions and not necessarily regret those decisions but wish we would have though through the consequences more before signing the paperwork. Buying a home is definitely no different and [...] ...
House  Tips 

Trade car because of high fuel prices?
2008-02-13 03:17:34
Trade car because of high fuel prices? Have you ever heard someone say they need to trade their car in because they can’t afford the high gas prices? Even though they just purchased their gas guzzler a year ago and may take a huge loss the newly purchased vehicle. Is this a logical choice, or are [...] ...
Car  Fuel  Trade 

Need to save 10% of your gross income for retirement?
2008-02-11 13:51:56
Need to save 10% of your gross income for retirement? Fact or Fiction Many financial experts recommend setting aside at least 10% of your gross income for retirement, is this enough, too much, or just right? 10% might be a good starting point but this so called rule ignores several important factors like the return that the money [...] ...
Income  Retirement 

Dave Ramsey, the real deal?
2008-02-08 18:54:02
Dave Ramsey, the real deal? Dave Ramsey is the famous voice of radio, TV, and stage who talks about financial matters and teaches us the steps to a debt free life, building wealth, planning for retirement, and finally giving to others. He is a great motivational speaker and all of his principals are built around Biblical teachings. The Dave Ramsey [...] ...

What will you do with your $600?
2008-02-08 03:36:05
What will you do with your $600? As you should know by now the Congress passed the bill that would give nearly $160 billion to Americans. The plan is to give $600 to almost every taxpayer in hopes that they will immediately turn around and spend the money, in turn boosting the economy. Will the plan [...] ...