Between closing on our new home and dealing with our new expenses, we’ve learned quite a bit over the past month. We’re now turning our attention to our insurance needs and considering increasing our life insurance coverage. We’ve been feeling as if we don’t have enough life insurance given our new financial circumstances. We thought […]
After less than a month in our new home, we’re still adjusting to being home owners (or ‘home loaners’ as my husband likes to say). Among many other changes, we have some new expenses that we didn’t have as renters. Mortgage payments For example, our first mortgage payment is due in March. Along with our […]
I don’t know about you, but having a car has become more and more of a necessity for us. After considering our options, it would be impractical for us to become a one car family, or to rely on public transportation. We are, however, intent on reducing our expenses, so we’re trying to cut our […]
Last week I mentioned that we finally closed on our condominium. As you might recall, we were originally supposed to close a couple of months ago, but the deal feel through at the last minute. Thus, we ended up negotiating with the builder to get a better deal while we were waiting. In the end, […]
Have you started thinking about your retirement contributions for 2010? We been swamped with homebuying details over the past month or two, but we closed on our condo on Friday, so we’re finally able to change our focus to planning our finances for the upcoming year. Our plan for 2010 is getting serious with about […]
We’ve recently been organizing our paperwork in preparation for getting taxes done properly this year. We’re looking for ways to legally reduce our tax bracket burden through tax deductions and tax credits, and I wanted to share some income tax adjustments you may or may not be aware of. I’m talking here about are deductions […]
Many people are reflecting on their accomplishments and mistakes this time of year. I like to use this time as an opportunity to review our finances and create a snapshot of where we stand. It helps us to see what we need to improve on and what goals to set for the upcoming year. Cash […]
It’s easy to complain when you don’t reach your goals, but it takes real commitment to figure out what you can do to improve your situation – and then to act on it. If you don’t, you’ll never get ahead, financially or otherwise. Create a financial blueprint When it comes to your finances, it’s hard […]
It’s very easy to slip into “keeping up with the Joneses” mode. Your friends have a new TV, or maybe they traded in their old car for a new one. Or perhaps you want to get a nice big house like they have, and take advantage of the homebuyer tax credits at the same time. […]
As I mentioned last week, we’ve been busy hunting for an apartment since our house closing fell through. The good news is that we just signed the papers on an apartment that will be cheaper and give us a place to live while we re-start our house hunt. That means we won’t have to put […]