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Newsletter to Your Friends (Use this link only if you receive this newsletter by email) Week of May 17, 2010This is an OPT-IN list ONLY! If you feel that you have received this message in error, please follow the directions at the bottom of this email to unsubscribe. Thank you.Click Here to view this newsletter online. Navigate This ColumnGrandpa Terry's Update Welcome to The Budget Stretcher! 101 Campervan Tips Are you thinking about a Campervan Holiday but not sure where to start? This free eBook includes information about things to take, what to do when you are in your campervan and other ideas to get you started. http://www.discovery-campervans.com.au/campervantips.php Last week I asked you to submit the average Regular Unleaded Gas prices in your area. I received a few and they are listed below. There is still time to submit gas prices in your home town. Just list the City, State and Gas Price in an email to tre2000@midwest.net Camden, TN - $2.70 a Gallon!!! Bloomsburg PA - $2.89 a Gallon!!! Colorado Springs CO - $2.63 a Gallon!!! Tremont, IL - $2.99 a Gallon!!! Baton Rouge LA - $2.85 a Gallon Ocean Park, WA - $3.25 a Gallon Norwich CT - $3.07 a Gallon San Jacinto CA - $3.05 a Gallon Roxbury NY - $3.11 a Gallon Eugene OR - $2.89 a Gallon Northvale NJ - $2.79 a Gallon Homewood IL - $3.25 a Gallon That's all for now. Remember, I really enjoy hearing from you folks. If you have any comments, complaints, suggestions or just want to say Hi, please send me an email to tre2000@midwest.net If you know someone that may be interested in subscribing to our newsletter just copy and paste the below link into an email to them and have them subscribe: http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/confirmsubs.html Have a great week, Grandpa Terry Sponsor Advertisement MyShoppingGenie™ is an awesome free software App that helps you compare prices with a couple of clicks instead of having to go from store to store, website to website looking for the best deal. The some of the best deals include: household items electronics consumable items medical supplies business supplies coupons restaurant coupons Just about anything you can think of from soup to nuts, diapers to car tires, Light bulbs to bathtubs and then more. If you're looking for it you may as well pay less for it. It will even find you forum's. As a user you can raise your standard of living by saving thousands of dollars a year on the everyday items you are already purchasing. As one trying to get out of debt I have to make my money go the farthest it can. My Daughter needed some things for our new granddaughter that will be arriving in August. I was able to get her the nursing pillow she wanted for 12.00 verses 64.00 and the jogging stroller for 69.00 verses over 300.00 for the same one Now Shhhh! She doesn't know I've got them so don't let it leak. Not everyone will get the same prices because the sales are changing all the time but if you keep watching you'll find the price you are willing to pay. Unlock the bargain finding power of the Genie simply by using your favorite search engine such as Google, Bing, Yahoo or AOL. Enter your chosen item and the Genie instantly springs into action thoroughly searching the entire Internet including major online retailer and auction sites. I-phone and I-touch software will be available soon. Get your free Shopping Genie app here www.myshoppinggenie.com/admaxsolutionsgroup Grandpa Terry's Tip of the WeekBy Terry Rigg On average your housing costs probably run about 30% of your take home pay. Your other bills which include utilities, credit cards, etc. also run about 30% of your take home pay. It probably takes another 30% to run your household and if you are lucky you can stash the remaining 10% in a savings account. What are your percentages? Do you know? That's the problem. Most people run their budget out of their wallet. There is that hideous word "Budget". Many people compare operating their finances with a budget to having a ball and chain attached to their wallet. They won't be able to get anything they want for the rest of their lives. Let's see if the following scenario fits you: You get paid. You write out your bills. You give your spouse some money. You wait for next payday to get some more money so you can do the same thing You may not realize it but if you are doing this you are spending a lot more money than you need to. Most of the people I work with have no idea how much money they make or how much they owe. While money may be important to them it is way to much trouble to learn how to manage it. This is the very reason there were $1.5 million bankruptcies in this country last year. I can almost guarantee that if you are trying to run your finances like the scenario above at some point you are going to run into problems. It simply can't work. The main reason for this is that you never get a broad picture of where you are financially. You pay the bills and hope you have enough money to buy your groceries and put gas in the car until next payday. Most people can add and subtract. That's all there is to a budget. If you aren't willing to take the time then living paycheck to paycheck will be with you the rest of your life. I call this "Financial Complacency" which simply means that you know you need to manage your money better but aren't willing to do what's necessary. Here are a few excuses I hear to justify this: I don't make enough money. I owe too much to set up a budget. I'm not good with numbers. I just don't have the time to keep up with a budget. I can't get my spouse to work with me. Do any of these sound familiar? Well, that's the problem but what about a solution. The solution is simple no matter what your financial situation is. First, you must find out where you stand now. That could be as simple as writing down your income and bills and expenses on a piece of notebook paper. Then subtract your expenses from your income. Make sure to include your household expenses (groceries, car gas, etc.) in your expenses. Now look at the numbers. Do you have anything left over? If so what are you going to do with it? That's the next step. If you don't then you need to consider cutting some of those expenses. Now you need to decide what you really want your money to do for you. Set your goals! This could be saving for your retirement, buying a home, college for the kids, getting a new car or any number of things. That's why you have to decide for yourself. There are just too many variables for someone else to help you. My first suggestion is that if you have credit card debt you look for a way to pay them off and stop using them. Realizing that goal could make your other goals more likely to succeed. Now it's time to set up that dreaded budget. Where are you going to find the time and desire to write everything down that you spend and all the other stuff that goes along with keeping a budget? The answer is that you don't have to! One of the biggest myths about budgeting is that you need to keep up with it everyday. That's the reason so many people refuse to try. It does take a little time to get your budget setup. There are a lot of things that need to be considered. But once your finances are down on paper there is no reason to work on it except on payday. You will find a link to a free budget like this below this article. If you believe that managing your money is to difficult or just too much trouble consider the alternative. Not managing your money is probably robbing you of thousands of dollars a year and could lead to financial disaster. Sponsor AdvertisementPaying highest-interest debt first is the SLOWEST way out ... You can laugh at money worries - if you follow our simple plan. Discover savvy consumer money secrets your friends don't know and banks won't tell you. Limited time only. ACT NOW: ///////////////////////////////////////// Grandpa Terry's EmailGood Morning, Terry!The going price for gas here in my area (Bloomsburg, PA) in the NE, is $2.89. It's been that price for weeks. I have a question for you: Bloomsburg University has a "Trash to Treasure" sale twice a year. They clear our half the university's computers at each sale. Since I am practically computer illiterate, and don't have a lot of money to spend on one, this would be a chance for me to pick one up for $50.00. I can learn on it, and if I crash it, or somehow otherwise ruin it, I won't be out a lot of money. I think it would be a "win-win" situation for me. Early Bird tickets are sold for $5.00. My computer geek friend says these must be junk, and not to bother. What do you think? Obviously, with a computer, I could do so much more than I can with my web-tv. Thanks so much for your input! Bobbie G. My Response: Hi Bobbie, Thanks for the gas price update. I disagree with your friends. While the computers may be junk it appears that they aren't over a year old if they replace half of them semi-annually. I would make sure that they at least offer the tower and the monitor. To purchase the monitor could be expensive. If you have to buy the keyboard they are fairly inexpensive. Like any other purchase you make check it out carefully. If you do get your computer the below web site can help you learn how to operate it: http://www.gcflearnfree.org/computer/ Let me know what happens. All the best, Terry What we pay for gas in San Jacinto, CA is $3.05/gal. Have you heard of GasBuddy.com? There you can find the best gas prices according to the reports from drivers making observations. Also, http://gasprices.mapquest.com/
Between GasBuddy.com and finding all the Costco Gas stations, I can plan my gas stops on long trips, or any trip for that matter!
Thank you for your newsletter!
Sheri of San Jacinto, CA
TerryWhat do you think of Lifelock? Kim Komando is saying that they are really not a good company. I recently signed up for their protection. Mary Hunt endorses Lifelock and Dave Ramsey endorses another company. Have you checked Lifelock out? Kim Komando pushes Protect My ID, but they also sponsor her program/website. I'd like your opinion. Thanks, Joanne My Response: Hi Joanne, While ID theft is a serious problem I decided for myself that I would rather practice a few basic precautions to keep my personal information secure. I used the info in the below ebook to help: The author of this ebook no longer has a web site. http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/IdentityTheftEbook.pdf I did a Google search using "Complaints Lifelock" and found several web sites that list problems that some have had with their service. You could probably do the same with Protect My ID. I hope this helps, Terry Featured Articleaffect our credit rating? by Scott Bilker
 Scott, We are drowning in debt--over $80,000 in credit card debt, some at over 30 percent! We are taking a second mortgage out on our house to pay it off. Should we ask the credit card companies to lower our payoff amount for paying off the balance in cash? Will this adversely affect our credit rating? Even a 10 percent reduction would pay for a car for my son. Your advice is appreciated! Viola Wow! That is a large amount of debt at a high rate! Even if you can afford to repay the principal, the interest rates are ridiculously high. At 30 percent, if you spent $2,100 per month paying down that $80,000, it will still take more than 10 years to repay and cost a total of $259,000 to pay off Your plan to take a second mortgage on your home to save money is a good one. Of course, there are potential risks and rewards. The risks include the reality that you’re taking unsecured debt (the credit cards) and repaying it by using your home as collateral. This is okay as long as you’re not in any immediate financial trouble, like a job-loss situation. The reward is that you will, or should, receive a much lower interest rate on the second mortgage, and you will be able to deduct the interest charges from your income for tax purposes. You can calculate your comparable credit card rate (the rate a credit card would need to be in order to match the second mortgage with taxes taken into account) by simply subtracting your tax rate from one and multiplying this by the second mortgage rate. For example, if you’re in the 15 percent tax bracket and your second mortgage rate is 7 percent, then your credit card rate would have to be 5.95 percent ([1-0.15] x 7) to match the 7 percent second mortgage with all its tax benefits.  Of course, getting the banks to reduce your outstanding balance would be nice. Then you wouldn’t have to refinance that entire $80,000 with the second mortgage. It’s probably true that much of that balance is from that rip-off 30 percent interest rate anyway! But, you do ask an important question, specifically, “Will this adversely affect our credit rating?” Yes, it could! That’s because the credit card bank will report it as a settled account. And even further, you will receive a 1099, which will require you to pay taxes on the amount you save. So what do you do? Well, I would attempt to settle the account for less and make it part of the negotiation that the account is reported “paid as agreed.” Although, this may be a difficult condition to get the banks to agree to. Additionally, if you’ve been paying them on time, never been late, or even pretty good with your payments, the banks will probably not even negotiate with you for any reduction because—why should they? You’re paying them back, so why settle for less. And, with the new changes in the bankruptcy law in effect, the banks are even in a better position to be tough. Still, you should look into all your options. Give the bank a call and see what they can do. If you can settle for less without it affecting your credit history, then I would do that. But just be sure to get everything in writing before you send them the check! It’s been my experience that once you pay, they forget the terms of settlement. |
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