ING Referral Link Giveaway

Posted by Madison on May 8, 2009

Many of you have taken advantage of the ING $25 Sign Up Bonus and the great referral program that ING offers. For every friend you refer, you get $10. I promised readers that as soon as I ran out of my own links, I’d post them from readers. To celebrate Free Money Friday this week, […]

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I do my best to make sure that we are getting the lowest possible expense ratios on our index funds, maintaining a 0.148% overall expense ratio. So I was pleased to see that another broker is cutting expense ratios in Schwab Brokerage Lowers Expense Ratios, Beats Vanguard. I currently use a combination of Vanguard, Fidelity […]

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Making Home Affordable Q & A

Posted by Madison on May 6, 2009

People have more questions than answers about the new Making Home Affordable program. A reader, Laura, recently sent me an email looking for help since all she could find was general information. Unfortunately, I’ve found that many of the details aren’t on the general MakingHomesAffordable.gov site. Instead they are buried in supplemental directives written for […]

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An Auction Experience to Remember

Posted by Madison on May 4, 2009

I went to my first auction! If you were following my updates on Twitter, you could probably sense some of the excitement! It was amazing that we landed another property, just days after Closing on Our First Rental Property. Auction Atmosphere The auction took place in a conference room at a hotel. We grabbed seats […]

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American Express $100 – $250 Gift Card

Posted by Madison on May 1, 2009

American Express is offering $100 – $250 gift cards for new cardholders. The Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express from American Express is the featured Free Money Friday offer this week! How to Get Your Gift Card Open a new Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express. Earn 10,000 Starpoints with your […]

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Making Home Affordable Second Lien Program

Posted by Madison on April 30, 2009

Earlier this week, the Making Home Affordable program was enhanced to include a second lien program. The government has determined that even if you receive a loan modification on your first first mortgage, having an unaffordable second mortgage could still put your at risk of going into foreclosure. Second Loan Modifications Here’s how the second […]

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Firing Our Nanny for More Family Time

Posted by Madison on April 29, 2009

Yesterday, I had to let our nanny go. It was really hard, since she’s been with us for three years. However, in a nice twist of events, our family is going to get to spend more time together. When I mentioned that Scott was considering switching to a new career, but ultimately passed on the […]

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Closing on Our First Rental Property

Posted by Madison on April 27, 2009

We’re closing later this week on a 3 unit, 100 year old rental house. It’s in a prime location, close to the university and hospitals. It’s currently rented until summer of 2010. (In the area, leases are usually signed for the following school year in the spring.) It’s our first real estate investment and our […]

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Visual Guide to Tax Spending, Credit Cards, and Housing

Posted by Madison on April 23, 2009

We’ve had a huge week! My husband finally made a decision about his plans to work for the upcoming year, everything is almost finalized and we’ll be closing on our rental property next week, and there were some new developments with the loan modification that we’re considering pursuing. Add those to the mountain of paperwork […]

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Solar Energy Tax Credit: Will You Install Solar Panels?

Posted by Madison on April 22, 2009

The economic stimulus plan lifted the maximums on the solar energy tax credits, making the purchase of solar panels very appealing. Since we decided not to downsize and stay in our house long term, we’re considering installing solar panels this summer. I thought it would be fitting to celebrate Earth Day with some details about […]

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