My Dollar Plan» Roundups on My Dollar Plan

Squeezing in One Last Summer Vacation

Madison — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:25:33 +0000

We had just returned from our last vacation… but I have a confession to make… while we were there, I convinced Scott that we should squeeze in just one more summer vacation before Labor Day weekend rolls around and our oldest heads back to preschool.

We had a fantastic time in Seattle, and I was pleased that the American Express SkyMiles card worked well to save on baggage fees.

So here I am on vacation again! I drove down with the boys earlier this week and Scott is flying down with our daughter today to join us for the long weekend.

It was the first long drive that I’ve done by myself with the kids, but we set up BuddyWay GPS tracking so Scott could keep an eye on us during our trip. It was pretty slick!

Of course, before we came down, I looked to see if the vacation home we were considering earlier this summer was still available… and the price was reduced by $10,000!

That makes it really tempting… however, since vacation season is wrapping up, I’m going to keep an eye on it and see if the price drops more over the winter and see how bad the seller need to unload it. Maybe we’ll be able to scoop it up for really cheap in March!

Retirement

Real Estate

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5% Certificates at Pentagon Federal

Madison — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:42:13 +0000

I just reserved a 5% CD at Pentagon Federal Credit Union, aka Penfed.

Ironically, last week, I also refinanced our mortgage (again) to 3.625% at Penfed. It’s a little funny that they’re loaning money cheaper than they are borrowing it, but they’ve been known to do so, so it’s a double win for us.

They’re currently letting people reserve $240,000,000 worth of CDs at this rate; as of this morning, there was $207,000,000 left… and it usually goes fast!

How to Get a 5% CD

To reserve your CD, you need to login to your account. Select account actions, then select certificate options. On the right, you’ll see a certificate reservations box to reserve a CD.

The 5% APY CD rate is for the 10 year CD. They also have a 7 year for 4.25%, and a 5 year at 3.5%. However, going with the 10 year rate is probably going to be your best bet, no matter when you withdraw the money. The Bank Deals Guy put together a chart showing what percent you’ll get each year with the early withdrawal rates factored in.

How to Get the Promotion Box

The promotion is only supposed to work for select current CD holders. However, I discovered a glitch, and accidentally determined a way to become one of the selected few to qualify for the promotion.

Here’s what I did: If you don’t currently have a CD (which I didn’t), I set up a new CD, but stopped short of funding it. When I got to the funding part, I just hit cancel. Then I was able to login again to the certificate options and I saw the reservations promo on the right hand side! I got a confirmation email a little while later, so we’ll hope it works. Let me know if it works for you too!

The certificates will be funded in January, and you can change your mind anytime before that. Here’s what it looked like when I reserved my certificate yesterday:

Investing

Debt

By the Numbers

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Do You Have a Foodsaver?

Madison — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 13:29:33 +0000

Saving money on groceries doesn’t go very far if you have to throw away your food because of freezer burn. After a lot of thought and research, I bought a Foodsaver!

Of course, I was supposed to be packing because we’re flying out for vacation soon… but I really wanted one to go along with my buying in bulk and obsessive couponing!

Foodsaver Reviews

The reviews on the newest model, the Foodsaver v3840 (or the v3825 at Costco), were mixed. This review was probably the funniest review I’ve ever read, but it was also very informative…. one of the reasons I decided to pass on the newer model.

So I opted for the old Foodsaver v2840 model which got great reviews. After shopping around, I found that I could do much better than the Amazon Foodsaver 2840 price over $200 (or the Foodsaver.com price with the 20% off) at QVC!

The QVC Foodsaver 2840 is $94.68 plus shipping. And don’t forget 4% cash back with Mr. Rebates.

My total was $104.15 and it will arrive the day we get back from vacation…. speaking of vacation, I better get to the airport! While we’re gone, you’ll be in good hands thanks to my great staff: Kate, Amanda, and Jill!

So is the Foodsaver worth it? Or did I just throw $100 out the window?

Investing

Real Estate

By the Numbers

And More!

Written by Madison

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Sucked Back into Obsessive Couponing

Madison — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 14:16:43 +0000

Remember a few years back when it was my resolution to stop couponing since I’d become such a compulsive obsessive couponer?

I did great for a few years and bought whatever we wanted. Then our food budget started to creep up.

I started ordering from Peapod and when the driver told me they accepted internet coupons I began printing grocery coupons.

Printing coupons was obviously my tipping point. Once I started to get the thrill of saving 50%, 70%, or even 80% of our grocery bill it all went into coupon overdrive.

Obsessive Couponing

I have a confession to make. Now I’m hitting our grocery store twice a week to take advantage of double coupons, printing more coupons, and following the weekly coupon matchups for our local store. (You can find your own local store matchups through the BeCentsable directory).

But it didn’t stop there. In addition, I got a cheap newspaper subscription from Discounted Newspapers, just for the coupons, and yesterday I broke down and ordered some coupons from the Coupon Clippers.

I can feel myself turning obsessive about it again, even though I promised myself I’d just do it in a low-key way. Obviously I have one of those all-or-nothing type personalities.

The good news? I cut our grocery bill by $200 last month!

Do you have any money saving habits that you get compulsive about… or is it just me?

Real Estate

Investing

By the Numbers

And More!

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A Closer Look at a Lending Club Default

Madison — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:42:07 +0000

I just checked my Lending Club account. And I saw my first charge off. My part of the charge off was only $20, but the loan was for someone doing a $15,000 kitchen and bath remodel.

The part that surprised me, was that it was an A grade loan. However even with an A grade, Jill may be onto something when she filters for loans under $10,000 in How to Earn High Returns with Lending Club.

The part I found fascinating is how much information Lending Club provides me with. The loan was taken out in February 2009. They paid on their loan for seven months before a late payment. Once they stopped paying the loan went to a collection agency in December 2009 and was charged off in February 2010. There’s an entire collection log that shows the contact between Lending Club and the borrower over the year.

The most interesting part, take a look at what happened to their credit score:

Obviously, something went terribly wrong and their kitchen and bath remodel wasn’t the only thing that got charged off, as you can see with their credit score plummeting by 250+ points.

Since it was my first charge off, I couldn’t help but feel a little scammed since I invested time reading about the borrowers personal statements and somehow felt connected to their beautiful new kitchen. Then, I wondered if there was even a kitchen and bath remodel.

However, when I come back to the numbers and remind myself that 2.20% of loans were in default when I took on this loan in my Lending Club review, charge offs were to be expected.

And let’s be honest, I lost $20. By the looks of their credit score, they’ve lost a lot more. And for that I feel bad for them. Hopefully they’ll recover from this.

I’m amazed at how powerful the connection with the borrower becomes when you have so much information! And since I took advantage of the Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus and the rest of my loans are current, I’m still ahead!

Have you had any defaults? Did you see anything interesting in their collection log or credit score time line?

Announcements

Yakezie. I joined a group of writers in the Yakezie network. I’m always on the lookout for ways to feature great articles for you to read; you’ll see some of them each week in the list of personal finance articles.

Saving & Frugality

Investing

By the Numbers

And More!

Written by Madison

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Would You Invest Your Money With Me Directly?

Madison — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:49:05 +0000

I know sometimes some of my ideas are a little extreme. I realize this could be one of those, but I thought it would be worth asking. Otherwise, I’ll just keep thinking about it. Forever. Literally.

I’m a big fan of the Lending Club business model to eliminate the bank, (which reminds me – don’t forget to get your Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus if you haven’t already).

However, while social lending has eliminated the bank, they’ve essentially created another middleman, adding another layer of fees.

In addition, I’m constantly scouring the internet looking for places for you to safely stash your money, which is probably SmartyPig or an Ally Bank CD right now, even though they’re in the 2% range.

At the same time, I’m always looking for sources of money to leverage our mortgage, investments, and business developments.

Then it occurred to me, why not just offer readers private investments or loans with me directly?

Brilliant, right? Or have I totally lost my mind? I realize the concept could be far fetched, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like a possibility.

Here’s how I think it might work. I offer readers a fixed rate loan that pays higher than the current bank rates, but lower than I can get access to commercial lending. It’s a win-win. Higher rates for you; lower leverage costs for me. And I provide a valuable service for readers.

I realize that it wouldn’t be FDIC insured, so that might be a deal-breaker for you. I’d probably have our lawyer draw up the contracts to make sure both parties are protected.

Is this legal? I have no idea. Will the administration of it from my end be a pain. Maybe. Are you interested? That’s what I’d like to know.

So tell me. Would you do it? What would influence your decision? What kind of terms would you like to see?

Announcements

Speaking of business developments, I’m happy to announce that Scott has officially partnered with Blog Crafted doing blog consulting. As you all know, he does a fantastic job here and does consulting work for many of you already. Congrats Scott!

Real Estate

Saving

By the Numbers

And More!

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Do You Snoop on Your Neighbors?

Madison — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:48:16 +0000

Different friends, same story. “I read it on —-.” And then you can fill in the blank with any number of social networking or other popular internet sites.

You can see how much your neighbor’s house is worth in Zillow, you can see what they ate for breakfast on Facebook, and find your co-workers favorite sites to visit on delicious.

But it goes way beyond that. By following the internet trail, you can often find out people’s salary at Glassdoor, zoom in on their house from all sides with Bing Birdseye view, see how much their energy bill costs at Microsoft Hohm, or review their bad driving skills at PlateWire.

It almost seems like it’s the norm to know more about people than we did before. People are sharing lots of details about their personal lives on the internet.

But what about financial details? Do you snoop around on the internet to find out financial details about your friends and neighbors?

I’d love to hear about your snooping habits and your favorite sites to find out the scoop!

Announcements

For the traders out there, MarketClub is offering a 2 week free trial. I put off checking out their service in the past, but now that it’s free, I’m going to play around with it and run my portfolio through the portfolio analysis tool.

Saving

Investing

By the Numbers

And More!

Written by Madison

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What Do I Need to Know About Camping?

Madison — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 14:27:44 +0000

We’re planning a camping trip. Well, let me rephrase that, I’m planning a camping trip. Scott’s idea of vacation revolves around nice hotels, hot showers, and eating at restaurants.

Apparently his parents took him camping so much as a little kid, that he’s scarred for life and never wants to do it again; however, he did agree to go for the kids sake. (But between you and me, I actually think he’ll have fun… he just won’t want to admit it!)

I haven’t been camping since I was a little kid so I don’t remember all of the logistics. Obviously, we need a tent (I saw some on sale at Costco – maybe these would work?) and some gear. But beyond that, I don’t remember any of the details.

Camping itself is a very frugal alternative to regular vacations; no pricey hotels or flights. So it should be a money saver, right?

Your turn! Tell me everything I need to know about planning a camping trip!

Do you like to go camping? What tips do you have? How do I find the best campsites? What things do you spend money on and what things do you skimp on?

Announcements and Updates

Auto Loans. We discussed Should You Use Savings to Pay Off Debt? for a reader who had a car loan over 5%. Good news is here! Penfed is having a sale on their auto loans; she can now refinance her car loan at 2.99%. It’s also a good way to lock in some cheap money if you enjoy playing that game… like I do.

Amanda on the News. Our very own staff writer, Amanda, was on her local news! Check out the clip in Are you Really Saving with Promotional Sales? The segment was based on 6 Sneaky Ways Retailers and Grocery Stores get you to Spend More Money.

Staying Put. After picking out a new lot when we decided to build a new house, we have cooled on the idea. We did a ton of research at the city and went through all of the expansion plans for the next 20 years. It turns out the street we picked is planned to be a future four lane boulevard to direct traffic around the lake; not an ideal place for raising kids. So we’re going to stay put… for now. I told you I’m impulsive! Besides, now I’m busy planning our camping trip!

Real Estate

Investing

By the Numbers

And More!

Written by Madison

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June 30 Deadline for Home Buyers and 529 Bonus

Madison — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 14:07:55 +0000

The deadline for one of my favorite deals is just around the corner. The College Advantage $25+ Sign Up Bonus ends on June 30. Be sure to read through the comments to see how to score hundreds of dollars from this deal!

June 30 is also the current deadline for the tax credit for existing home owners and the tax credit for first time home buyers. Home buyers must close on their new home by next Wednesday.

Update: The Home Buyer Tax Credit is Extended until September 30, 2010.

The home buyer tax credit was popular, for those who don’t believe in The Dead End of Home Ownership.

Unfortunately, prisoners also fraudulently took advantage of the tax credit, to the tune of $9 million in new homes. The IRS says they will try to get the money back.

Saving

Investing

By the Numbers

And More!

Written by Madison

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Have You Sold Your House on FSBO or Flat Fee MLS?

Madison — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:28:11 +0000

We had a crazy idea last week. We might sell our house and build a new one. Yes, I know, this is just one week after we almost bought a vacation home.

I’ll be the first to admit, I’m a bit impulsive… ok, I’m a lot impulsive. But don’t worry, once I get an idea in my head, I spend every possible minute analyzing it from every angle to make sure it’s a good idea. So the house isn’t for sale just yet.

Selling Without a Realtor

We’ve always used a realtor in the past, but I’m starting to think we can do the work ourselves. We have our lawyer review all of our contracts anyways, so I’m not worried about that part.

Since I’m home and Scott works part-time, we should have the time to do the legwork. And with the possibility to save up to $40,000 in commissions depending on the route we go, we should probably make the time, right?

We’re considering listing our house either FSBO or on Flat Fee MLS. We’ve noticed a trend in our neighborhood with the Flat Fee MLS listings; the last few houses listed were all done this way.

Before we proceed, I’d love to hear about your experiences selling your house yourself… the good, the bad, and the ugly!

Have you sold your house FSBO or Flat Fee MLS? How did it go?

Real Estate

Saving

By the Numbers

And More!

Written by Madison

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We Almost Bought a Vacation Home

Madison — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:21:51 +0000

We’re back from vacation. Perfect weather. Perfect boating. We couldn’t have asked for anything more… except maybe a better realtor.

As you know, we were checking out vacation homes, and we found one we liked. It was a little bigger than we originally planned (doesn’t that always happen?), so I wanted to run some more numbers to make sure we could break even.

Part of the equation working in our favor is that Penfed 5/5 ARM rates have dropped below 4%. (Oh wow, wait a minute…. I might need to look at refinancing our house again…)

After I crunched the numbers on the drive back to my in-laws, I informed the listing agent that we would be putting in an offer; we just wanted one more piece of information (which they have access to in their office) confirming the rental history on similar condos at the resort to finalize our offer price.

Where It All Fell Apart

That was seven days ago. Two days ago, I got a message that he will “send something soon.” Seriously? Last time I checked, realtors only get paid if a deal closes. He’s not very busy right now (he told me so) and I know he’s alive, I’m following him on twitter!

Part of the reason that I wanted fast action, is because it’s already summertime. I was hoping to close before the 4th of July so we could enjoy it for a couple weeks around the holidays, but I think it’s too late now. The longer it takes to get an accepted offer and close after the bank takes another month to process, the less we’ll be able to rent it out this summer, essentially lowering the value of the property and our ability to use it this summer.

What Should We Do Now?

I’m considering just emailing the realtor and telling him he took too long and moving on. If you couldn’t complete a 10 minute task for someone you knew was going to put in an offer, then you certainly don’t deserve 6% of the sellers proceeds, right?

So that puts me in a quandary. We like the place, but I have no problem moving on.

I also have the owners phone number that I got from the condo showing; I’m considering calling them directly and letting them know that we were interested in purchasing it, but their unresponsive realtor killed the deal. Is that appropriate?

Or can we just have our lawyer draft an offer and send it directly to the sellers?

What do you think? What would you do?

While I wait for a response from the realtor, I’m catching up on some good reads. My favorite this week is Donna’s story on why she travels with mayonnaise.

Real Estate

Debt

Frugality

By the Numbers

And More!

Written by Madison

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Getting Ready for Vacation Home Shopping

Madison — Thu, 27 May 2010 13:29:58 +0000

Vacation time is here! We’re busy getting packed to head out for vacation. Readers were on both sides of the fence when I asked Should We Buy a Vacation Home?

Since then, I’ve been busy doing a ton of research on buying vacation homes: past sales, rental statistics, talking to current owners, break even points, etc. It wouldn’t be like me to jump into something without a complete over analysis right?

While we’re on vacation, we have an appointment to look at some of the lake condos that we liked last year. Want to know the best part? When I made the appointment, they gave us a discounted rate (about 1/3 of the normal price) to stay there. Turns out, checking out the properties is a frugal way to travel!

Helpful Resources for Vacation Home Rentals

While I was researching, I found a fantastic forum on the Vacation Rental Yahoo Group. It’s a pretty knowledgeable group if you’ve ever considered buying a vacation rental.

In addition, my reading for the trip is the book How to Rent Vacation Properties by Owner.

I’ll keep you posted on what we decide to do. For now, it’s back to packing!

Debt

Real Estate

By the Numbers

And More!

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Is Squatting in a Foreclosure Acceptable?

Madison — Thu, 20 May 2010 14:16:37 +0000

We caught an interesting story on our local news recently. Local homeless advocacy groups are helping homeless families squat in homes in foreclosure. The idea is basically, why should people be homeless when there are vacant homes available?

The groups locate homes in foreclosure, enter the home (most recently through a broken back door), then clean it up. Once it’s ready, they help the homeless family move in. Police are on hand, but only take action if a trespassing complaint is filed by the owners (in this case Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae).

Here is the rationale from the group “Take Back the Land”:

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been given public money in order to finance their reckless spending, have been given public money for homes such as this one. This is not Fannie Mae’s house. This is not Freddie Mac’s house. This is public housing.

I’m not sure if this practice is widespread, but apparently it’s been going on for awhile here. Since foreclosures can take over a year, the homeless family could have housing for a long time. Here’s the local story and video.

Locally, the biggest issue appears to be the liability exposure; a few owners asked the homeless families to leave because of the potential for a liability lawsuit.

What do you think? Is it acceptable for homeless families to squat in foreclosures?

Real Estate

Questions

By the Numbers

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Should We Buy a Vacation Home?

Madison — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 14:02:43 +0000

Now that summer is almost here, and we’re scheduling our vacations for the summer, we have the itch to buy our own vacation house…. again. (This happens every summer). Every time we rent a place, my financial brain starts spinning.

What if we buy our own vacation house, and rent it out when we aren’t using it? Wouldn’t that be a better investment than renting a place each time we go on vacation?

Pros to Buying a Vacation Home

Making Memories with the Kids. I have fond memories of going to our family’s cabin as a kid. I’d love to do the same for my kids. Scott cut back to 3 days a week, so it would be easy for us to go on long weekends.

Rental Income. When we aren’t there, we could rent out the vacation home on VRBO or enroll in a rental program if we buy a place that belongs to one. I’m being realistic knowing that the rental income wouldn’t completely cover the costs of ownership, but hopefully, it would offset the cost of owning a vacation property. A little perk for second homes: you can rent it for up to 15 days per year, and the income is tax free!

Extra Tax Benefits. There are some extra tax deductions you can take on your vacation home depending on how many days per year you rent it. The IRS has different rules based on whether or not you use it more than 14 days or 10 percent of the time it was rented. Check out a good outline on the best way to minimize taxes on a vacation home.

An Investment? I would normally think of a 2nd home as a money pit, but I found an interesting calculation that estimated a yield equal to 9% per year after taxes if you use the property only 15 days and rent it for another 15 days (at $150 per day). I’ll have to run some of my own calculations, but this could actually be a decent investment, right?

Cons to Buying a Vacation Home

Work. Vacation homes quickly become work. You end up spending your vacation doing “work” at the house on maintenance and upkeep.

Furnishings. Once you buy the home, then you have to buy furnishings. Extra costs that you don’t put into the analysis will always creep in.

Guilt. Don’t forget the guilty feeling that you have when you don’t use it enough!

Boats. Of course, when you buy a home on a lake, then you want to buy a boat to go with it. One more thing we won’t use. I should know, I used to have a boat, which we used a lot at first…. then not very much. The summer before we sold it, we only used it twice. Although part of me thinks we’d use it more now with the kids.

Location

We’re also caught up on the location. We’re considering a place “up north” which would be between 3-4 hours from here. Although, since it’s such a popular destination, the prices for a place with decent lake frontage are pretty expensive.

We’re also considering a place at Lake Cumberland, where we go each year with Scott’s family, but it’s pretty far from here, so we wouldn’t get as much use out of it. However, when we’re there, our kids would get to see their grandparents more. And it’s considerably cheaper than any of the properties around here.

Decisions, decisions….

What do you think? Should we buy a vacation home? What would you do?

Debt

Retirement

By the Numbers

And More!

By the way, in case you missed it, we had to run Free Money Friday early this week since the PerkStreet 2% Cash Back Card offer expires today.

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Earth Day Freebies

Madison — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:44:30 +0000

It’s Earth Day! Retailers are celebrating today with Earth Day freebies. Here are some deals you’ll want to check out today.

Earth Day Freebies

Amazon: Earth Day Sale on green cleaning products, personal care, lighting, baby products, toys and more.

Babies R Us: Free Tote and 25% off anything you can fit in the tote.

Disney Store: Free hat when you recycle six bottles.

Walgreens: Refill an empty ink cartridge for just $1 and get 22% off other green products.

Expedia: Green Travel Guide. Celebrate Earth Day with green hotels and travel tips.

National Parks: Entrance to all national parks are free this week.

Of course, if you are feeling ambitious, you can always make some big changes at your house to take advantage of the tax credit for solar panels.

Investing

Real Estate

By the Numbers

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