Archive for the 'Advanced' Category


Why We Have an Adjustable Rate Mortgage

We have an adjustable rate mortgage and it’s a good thing! Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs) have been blamed recently for a lot of the housing troubles going on. However, adjustable rate mortgages do serve a purpose and meet the financial needs for some people, including us. We carefully selected the best product to match our financial [...]


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How Do I Organize 181 Accounts?

How exactly do I stay organized with 89 credit accounts, 31 bank accounts, 29 investment accounts and 32 other accounts (not including 14 accounts for the kids and numerous accounts for family members)?
That’s what readers wanted to know when I started to describe some of the details of our accounts. I’ll highlight my various strategies [...]


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Creative Debt Reduction Strategies

Usually we only consider two things when financing: getting the best price and getting the best interest rate for an asset. What if instead of focusing on financing the item you are purchasing, you focus on financing a cheaper item you already own? With some careful planning and foresight you can do just that. What am I talking about?
We [...]


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Our Credit Limits: Over $1,000,000!

I recently discussed that we have $223,270 outstanding in credit card balances. The next logical question is how much in credit limits do we have to support this strategy? Over $1 million! $1,020,270 to be exact. The total includes credit cards and lines of credit.
I thought it would be a fun challenge to see if we [...]


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Our Credit Card Balances: $223,270

In When Does the 0% Credit Card Really Expire? I stated that we had $58,980 on my American Express card. If that’s just one card, how much do we have total? And why?
$223,270. Yes, you read that correctly. However, it’s all at 0% and accounted for. It is actually making and saving us money! It [...]


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