Posted: July 27th, 2009 | Author: Joe | Filed under: Debt, Reviews, Saving, spending | Tags: calculators, Debt, Review, Saving Money, spending | No Comments »
Here’s an excellent resource for various calculators of interest, debt, payments and more. It’s called What’s The Cost?
What’s The Cost has financial calculators for:
- Determining the true cost of a loan (monthly cost, and total + interest)
- Determining the true cost of a mortgage (monthly cost, and total + interest)
- Find out the effect of a rate change (increase or decrease)
- Determining how much you’ll have in savings with a given plan (monthly contribution, yearly increase, interest rate, length of time, etc..)
- Determining how long it will take to pay off your credit card debt.
- How much you’ll make by Stoozing (making free money from 0% credit cards)
- How much your smoking habit costs you.
- How much your drinking habit costs you.
- Interest:
- Effective annual interest rate – This is the interest rate taking compound interest into account.
- Annual interest rate compounded monthly – This is the nominal interest rate, from which the effective rate is calculated when compounded monthly.
- Annual interest rate compounded daily – This is the nominal interest rate, from which the effective rate is calculated when compounded daily.
There’s also a bunch of other info on getting out of debt, snowballing and some fun stuff too. Check them out.
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Posted: July 26th, 2009 | Author: Joe | Filed under: Employment | Tags: Career, success, The One Minute Entrepreneur, work | No Comments »
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
~ Thomas Alva Edison
I’m currently reading The One Minute Entrepreneur, The Secret to Creating and Sustaining a Successful Business by Ken Blanchard, Don Hutson And Ethan Willis.
There was a chapter that really hit home. In this chapter, the authors quote Wayne W. Dyer, “You’ll See It When You Believe It: The Way to Your Personal Transformation“:
“If you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you’ll rarely disappoint yourself… Stop complaining! Differentiate yourself from your competition. Do not be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd”
We’ve all encountered ducks in our lives. Ducks are people who constantly complain, but never take initiative to change what they see as wrong. Chances are, you may even be a duck yourself at times.
Common Duck Sayings (or You Might Be a Duck if You Say):
- “That’s not in my job description”
- “I’m just following orders”
- “You need to talk to my supervisor”
- “I didn’t get what I needed from ___” (it may be true, but a duck will throw up his hands in defeat and leave it at that.)
- “My boss is an idiot” (you’re boss may indeed be an idiot (mine is) but it should not keep you from succeeding.)
Ducks act like victims. Don’t be a duck, be an eagle.
If you’re a manager, don’t be a mallard – be an eagle. Empower your people to be eagles. Let them make decisions, and have more control in their day to day tasks. Your workers will be happier – and so will your customers!
If you’re interested in learning more, I encourage you to investigate the concept of Servant Leadership.
You might also check out 5 Ways to Identify Whiners and Winners at successsoul
Why This Hit Home For Me.
I didn’t realize until recently but the managers I’ve most respected and had the most success working with were servant leaders. Sadly, my current boss is more of an absentee, seagull boss. He is AWOL 90% of the time and at the end of a project or at review time he has a litany of items I have performed “below expectations” on.
This used to bother me. A lot. But then I realized 2 things:
1). None of my 6 previous managers ever said I was a sub-standard employee. (Why was this?)
2). I had become a duck.
The significance of #1 is that either my 6 previous managers were clueless, or my current boss is clueless. I realized that it was most likely the latter since my 6 previous bosses were highly involved in my projects – in a good way. They made it their priority to facilitate my work day. If I needed something from a different department but wasn’t getting anywhere with my inquiries, they would speak to the manager of said department and ensure I had what I needed to succeed. In short, they worked with me to provide me what I needed to achieve success. As a result, we all won. They also worked closely with me and were in a position to know if I was a sub-standard employee.
The significance of #2 is that while I can’t change my manager’s behavior, I can change my own. I decided that if my boss was going to be absent 90% of the time anyway, I would do things myself. I realized it was better to beg forgiveness, than ask for permission – especially since my boss would never get around to actually granting me permission, but would castigate me for never taking action anyway. I would eliminate him from my standard workday. Essentially, I just got pissed off at being held accountable for the failings of others, and decided to be proactive. I became a manager of others, despite the current managerial hierarchy. I feel confident this will pay off in the end. If not at this job, then at the next as it will only make me better in my field.
Eagle photo by Vivek Chugh
Ducks photo by Debbie Wogen
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Posted: July 16th, 2009 | Author: Joe | Filed under: Investing, Real Estate | Tags: foreclosure | No Comments »
To say that this is a buyer’s market is an understatement to be sure, but that doesn’t mean it’s a no brainer. While there are an unprecedented number of homeowners walking away from their mortgage, creating a record number of foreclosures, it’s still easy to make costly mistakes. Here are some tips to ease the process.
1. Know where to look.
Start without even leaving your home. Check out websites like RealtyTrac.com or ForeclosurePoint.com. These sites allow you to find listings of houses in foreclosure.
2. Know who to buy from.
In short, a bank. Buying a foreclosed home at auction requires you to pay cash, and you don’t even get the luxury of inspecting the property first. Contrast this with a bank owned foreclosure, where any liens have been cleared and you do get to inspect the property first, and you’ll see which is the better option.
3. Hire a contractor.
Foreclosed homes were either owned by people who didn’t care about tending to the property, or people who did not leave on their own terms. This often leads to vandalization and disrepair. Bringing a contractor to inspect the property before you buy, eliminates the possibility that you will underestimate the cost of repairs.
4. Aim low.
There’s a glut of foreclosed homes on the market the likes of which are rarely seen. This means banks are more likely to accept a lower price, just to be rid of the house. Start 20% below the market value, and be prepared to haggle.
5. Be patient.
While the glut of foreclosures means you can score a big discount on the price, it also means the bank has a lot of homes to process. This means it will likely take some time to finish the deal. Be ready to wait.
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Posted: July 14th, 2009 | Author: Joe | Filed under: Debt | Tags: Bankruptcy, Debt | 1 Comment »
According to Investopedia these are the 9 most common ways to go bankrupt. (Don’t do them!)
1. Ignoring Identity Theft Tactics
Let’s face it, once someone has your identity, they have the keys to your financial kingdom, such as it is. It’s trivial for the scam artist to destroy your credit history he his actions are left unchecked. Here’s an article on How To Avoid Identity Theft.
2. Getting A Divorce
Perhaps the second quickest way to bankruptcy for most people is divorce. Not only are you likely to lose half of your assets, but there’s usually a great deal of expense in the actual divorce proceedings. That’s not even factoring in child support, if applicable.
Bankruptcy has been used by some as a means of avoiding alimony and child support, but in April 2005, President George W. Bush signed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA). The BAPCPA seeks to limit bankruptcy abuses.
3. Having (and using) Too Many Credit Cards
Consumer debt, in the form of credit cards, is incredibly damaging financially. Up until recently, it was so easy to get a new credit card when the last one was maxed out. Multiple credit cards not only let you rack up debt faster, but also ruin your credit score. If you find yourself in this situation, learn how to control your credit cards.
4. Paying Credit Debt With Credit Cards
Often times, people who have multiple credit cards find themselves playing Russian roulette with balance transfers. It starts off innocently enough. You have an $8,000 balance on your platinum card, and get an offer to open a new preferred card with 0% on balance transfers for 6 months. You figure you’ll be able to pay down the balance without interest, only life gets in the way and the balance never gets paid down. This is really a symptom of #9 below, and not changing your spending behavior. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a way to Cut Credit Debt though.
5. Buying Too Much House
We’re seeing this play out today in high foreclosure rates. Factor in the amount of borrowing people did against their homes, 2nd mortgages and ARMS, interest only payments and homes worth less than the mortgage and you’ve got a deadly bankruptcy cocktail. And that’s not even considering school and property taxes!
6. Putting All Your Eggs In One Basket
We saw this with Enron, and Madoff. Investors pile all their assets into a single investment or stock, only to be left holding the bag when the hole thing goes up in smoke. This is one of the reasons diversification is so important – it’s about risk, not just return.
7. Not Building An Emergency Fund
Living paycheck to paycheck leaves no room for error. All it takes is one little visit from Murphy and your sunk! Emergency funds are essential !
8. Not Understanding What Your Investments
Short selling, options, trading on margin… these are playing with fire. If you don’t understand the methods and the risks, you will get burned.
9. Failing To Address Your Current Financial Situation
Ultimately, what dooms most people to bankruptcy is a failure to recognize and change bad behavior regarding money. Continuously spending more than you earn is a surefire way to dig yourself into debt, and eventual bankruptcy. That’s why the single most important step to getting out of debt is to realize you have a problem, and resolve yourself to changing your behavior to not only get out of debt, but stay out.
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