Household

How To Sell Your Home Privately

Selling your home is a big deal.  You want to ensure that you get the most you can for your home.  When my husband and I recently sold our home, we chose to sell using a real estate agent.  However, not everyone feels it is necessary to hire an agent.

If you plan on selling your home on your own, I would recommend that you do some research before putting your house up for sale.  Before we had decided firmly on hiring an agent, I was searching online to see what information was available for people wanting to sell privately.  I came across a website that lists the 14 biggest mistakes that homeowners make when they try to sell their homes privately.

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May 11, 2011
Household

Play House Before You Buy One

If you are currently renting, and you want to know if you could really afford to buy a house, one thing you can do is “play house”.  In other words, pretend you already bought one and see if you can manage financially.

All you need to do is set up a separate savings account and consider it your “house account”.   Every time you get paid, put money into this house account just as if you were paying for a mortgage.  Be sure to also take into account the additional costs of owning a home such as property taxes, utilities, etc.

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May 9, 2011
Shopping

How Home Depot Can Save You Money

Not too long ago, my husband and I noticed a puddle of water on the floor near our kitchen sink.  I thought nothing of it the first time and just mopped it up.  A few minutes later, another puddle appeared.  We soon realized that we had a leaky pipe and a rusted out drain.

We went to Home Depot to pick up supplies so we could repair the pipes and drain.  The great thing about Home Depot is that the employees there not only know where everything is located throughout the store, they often have specialized knowledge regarding how the parts work and how to do the repairs.

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May 6, 2011
Book Reviews

How To Become An Automatic Millionaire

The Automatic Millionaire: A Powerful One-Step Plan To Live And Finish Rich by David Bach

If you want to become a millionaire without ever having to create a budget, be disciplined or live extremely frugally, I would recommend that you read Davd Bach’s book entitled The Automatic Millionaire.  In his book, the author suggests that anyone, regardless of their income, can become a millionaire in their lifetime.

You may be wondering how this could be.  Well, Bach suggests that you set everything up automatically and then you are free to just live.  For example, set up automatic contributions into your retirement savings account and your emergency fund savings account.  Set up automatic biweekly payments into your mortgage, and so on.

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May 4, 2011
Travel & Entertainment

A Cheap Way To Watch Movies

If you are a movie lover, an affordable way to watch as many movies as you want, is to use a company called Netflix.  For just $7.99 a month, you can watch an unlimited number of movies, documentaries, and TV shows, and your first month is free.

My husband recently signed us up and now when we have some spare time we can sign in and watch a movie to relax.  Netflix is great because it offers easy access to a movie with the click of a button and it’s both legal and a really inexpensive entertainment option.

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May 2, 2011