Thanks for visiting!  Here are this week’s debt-reduction related posts:

• Steadfast Finances runs through several thought-provoking quotes on debt and paying interest.
• Debt Eagle show how to do debt settlement yourself.
• Silicon Valley Blogger warns about refund anticipation loans.
• The Smarter Wallet discusses the Dave Ramsey cash-only diet.
• Do You Dave Ramsey? does the emergency fund baby step.
• Ask Mr. Credit Card shows how to use credit cards for a debt repayment plan.

Thanks!  If you have debt-reduction related questions (or any other money questions, for that matter!) ask them over at Cash Commons.

Have a great week!

Got money questions? Ask them at Cash Commons

Lowe’s puts out scratch-and-dent appliances regularly.  These are display models, appliances that got slightly damaged by a forklift, or customer returns.  They’ll knock down the price for someone who doesn’t mind a little blemish on the appliance, or one that’s slightly used.

We’ve gotten a few good deals with scratch and dent appliances, but for me the shopping experience hasn’t been the same kind as shopping for a brand-new (i.e., full price) unit.  The units are taken as-is, where-is, with no reservations, and the employees on occasion haven’t been that willing to answer a lot of questions about the items.  (Not that they should, I suppose.)

Well, my wife really hit the jackpot with one last week, and they took really good care of her.  Our new house’s refrigerator/freezer is a side-by-side unit, and has less space than the one in our old house, which had the freezer compartment at the top.  We looked for another on Craigslist, but weren’t having much good fortune, so we decided to get a new one, figuring that in the long run the operation costs of a more modern unit would justify the extra cost up-front.

Off to Lowe’s she went.  She found a scratch-and-dent unit (18 cubic ft.) that originally was $499.  The “scratch” was literally that: a tiny scratch on the back bottom of the right side of the unit.  For this, they knocked off $100.  But wait!  There’s more.  She was able to use a 10% off coupon with this item.  Down to $359.  But that’s not all!  They had a deal running with free delivery on appliances.  She got free delivery.  The next day.

Yeah, Lowe’s treated her pretty well.

A couple of days ago I went to a one-day financial planning class.  I got a few nuggets out of the class and I’ll share one with you here.

The instructor spent a few minutes on creating a working budget.  This part was pretty standard.  If you don’t have Quicken fired up, then

• Take a standard list of common spending categories,
• Gather up a month’s bank statements and pay stubs, and
• Categorize the month’s expenses.

This produces a good starting point for a working budget.  But that’s just one of the budgets he recommended drawing up.

He recommended four separate budgets which cover the present, a couple of what-if’s, and the future.  Here they are:

1. The current budget. This is the one that is based (largely) on current expenses, with a tweak or two for spending categories that you know may be too high or too low.
2. The dead-spouse budget. What if my wife died unexpectedly?  How would the spending categories change?  For starters, I’d need to consider day care for my daughter or some other arrangement.  My time commitments would certainly shift around a lot, and that would affect how much time I could spend doing other things to make money outside of my job.  Could I do the things she does now, or would I have to pay someone to do them for me?  More budgetary considerations.
3. The dead-me budget. What if I died unexpectedly?  My income would go to zero.  What would that mean for my family?  How would they manage without my paycheck?  Have I put in place enough other resources so that they can do what they need (and want) to do?  These questions give rise to a whole new set of numbers.
4. The retirement budget. What if I quit my day job?  What other benefits that are tied to my job stay, and what ones go away?  Do the income streams that remain add up to a comfortable existence?  This budget is another whole set of numbers.

What is the purpose of making these budgets?  The main purpose, for me, would be to put the spotlight on holes in my current budget. Take away my paycheck, and what’s left?  Take away my wife’s good works, and what slack do I have to assume?

Do the numbers still work? If they don’t, then I have work to do so that they do work.

Got money questions? Ask them at Cash Commons

Happy Middle Name Pride Day, everyone!  There seems to be a bit of inconsistency as to what the proper day to celebrate MNPD is – Holiday Insights says that it’s “always March 10th” whereas the Wikipedia article says it’s on the Friday of the first full week of March as one of a number of festive days of Celebrate Your Name Week.

But no matter.  In the spirit of Middle Name Pride Day, whether on time or two days early, I will reveal my middle name to (hopefully) at least three people who don’t know it already.  I’ll also share some tweets from some followers who gave their take on their middle names.

Here are the submitted posts for this week’s Money Hacks Carnival!

My picks for this carnival:

• Darwin’s Finance runs down 401(k) loan rules and discusses the pros and cons.
• PT Money describes how credit card numbers are generated.  (Very interesting!)
• Balance Junkie relates financial literacy to green eggs and ham.  (Thank you!  Thank you, impressed-I-am.)
• ABCs of Investing explains in detail how to convert to a Roth IRA.
• My Dollar Plan runs down three tax deductions to help the unemployed.

@EverydayFinance mine’s “whatchoo talkin ’bout Willis”. I was mocked relentlessly as a kid but now I can laugh about it.

@thefrugallawyer Middle name is Starr. It was supposed to be my first name but wasn’t a good Christian name, so it went to the middle.

@centsiblelife middle name:Liann. Named after a cousin and the first syl. is both a repeat from my 1st name+ my Dad’s name.

@The_Weakonomist my middle name is “the”

• Live Frugally or Die Broke keeps a keen eye on #1: paying yourself first.
• Wench Wisdom quotes Prudent Bear on the disincentive to save.
• Rabbit Funds hops on an interview with the founder of MoneyDesktop.com.
• Dividends Value lists 18 stocks that are raising their dividend yield on cost.
• Free Family Finance reports a late-breaking story on politicians getting a fiscal clue.  (I can’t believe it myself, but you be the judge.)
• Green Sherpa suggests asking for directions if you’ve lost your financial way.
• Money Help for Christians explains the tax implications of Roth IRAs vs traditional IRAs.
• Good Financial Cents goes through how to make quarterly estimated tax payments.
• Consumer Boomer asks: “How much retirement income should you withdraw?”
• Provident Plan outlines how to create a budget and stick to it.
• Studenomics runs down some favorite time management tips.
• Wealth Pilgrim explains how to regain your mojo.
• Canadian Finance Blog has ten tips for going green and saving money.
• Money Ning suggests that investing in physical gold can cost you.
• Dough Roller lists credit cards that you can transfer balances at zero percent for a year.  (They do still exist, apparently!)
• Personal Finance Playbook explains effective yield.
• Steadfast Finances comments on investor psychology and losing out on profits.
• Stumble Forward reveals a scam.
• Len Penzo warns that fees can erode your savings account returns.
• Live Real Now has a February 30-day project.  (He can put two extra days in the month if he wants; it’s his blog!)

My middle name is Burnett.  It was my grandfather’s first name, and I carry it proudly.

Have a great rest of the week!

Got money questions? Ask them at Cash Commons

We’re in our new home (albeit with boxes and such).  Tonight I started tackling one of the toilets in an attempt to replace a shot flush valve.  It won for tonight until I can get a bigger wrench.

• Squawkfox explains how to make a budget in an “unboring” way.
• Wise Bread reveals the one question that might get you free money if you’re shown the door by your employer.
• Free Money Finance asks, “When should your net worth reach $1 million?” (How about: “ASAP?”)
• Generation X Finance lists a big twenty-eight ways to save money on car expenses.
• Consumerism Commentary gives some ideas on what to do when friends get involved in MLM.
• Digerati Life says to beware of refund anticipation loans.
• Quest for Four Pillars has a guest post on the risks of buying a foreclosed home.  (Our new home was a foreclosure.  I’ll agree that it’s definitely different than buying from the owner-occupier.)
• Money Ning says that investing in physical gold can cost you.  (Ahh, but will you be able to take delivery when you want it?)
• Frugal For Life is into fiscal fitness.
• Frugal Dad recommends doing something you love before you have to do something for money.
• Budgets Are Sexy wonders what would happen if the unemployed worked for their unemployment checks.  (Kind of like retiring from retirement?  Or maybe not.)
• The Frugal Lawyer discusses where vanity and brokeness compromise.

Have a great weekend!

Got money questions? Ask them at Cash Commons

He really is.

I’m not talking about his blog.  He’s not a slacker there.  The guy is a finalist for no less than seven Plutus Awards, one of which is for his PF Blogger Showdown series.   (By the way, it looks like PT Money has a comfortable lead in our showdown, but there may be a small amount of time left to tip the scale should you so choose.)

What I am talking about is that he’s a slacker at buying lottery tickets. He’d need to buy a whole lot more of them if he wanted to excel at it. I mean, he did drop $100 on his Budgets Are Sexy scratch off lottery project, but that was only one-fifth of what the average American household spends on lottery tickets.  (Hat tip to JLP for that link.)  The fact that J. slacks at this job is a good thing!

Five hundred dollars per year is the average, according to that Washington Post article.  Now, $10 a week isn’t high finance — a daily Starbucks will run you that — but the lottery is almost certainly a loss in the long run.  Even if the winnings per week are $4 (about what J. Money saw in his project) then it’s still a $6 per week loss.  Why knowingly go into this kind of arrangement?

Bringing up math in conversation, even in passing, usually does one of two things: (a) it causes people’s eyes to glaze over, or (b) it annoys them.  Case in point:

A Friend:  So, do you think so-and-so is going to have a boy or a girl?

Me:  A boy.

A Friend:  Why do you say that?

Me:  Because there’s a 51.5% chance that I’ll be correct.

I’d annoy a lot more people if I told them exactly how much per ticket they were losing.  They’d be annoyed that I was ruining their fun.  They might do something about it, perhaps, if I say that they could easily pay for a Netflix subscription with the amount that they’re blowing on lottery tickets.

But nonetheless, being a slacker at buying lottery tickets is something to be proud of.  To J. Money and all of the other lottery slackers out there, I salute you!

Hot hot hot money questions at Cash Commons

A few weeks ago I received word of a Facebook application called Buddy Bailout.  It’s a spin on the giant corporate bailouts that have happened recently, and in part it plays on people’s thinking: “Why can’t I get a bailout, too?  I sure could use one.”

Maybe one of that person’s friends (a) knows that they could use one, too, and (b) wants to point out the main reason why they’re in the position of needing to be bailed out.

That’s where Buddy Bailout comes in.  How it works (currently):

• Choose a Facebook friend that needs to be bailed out (i.e. has a spending issue).
• Choose from one of more than two dozen common spending issues that best matches what the issue is.
• Post it to their wall, with a message saying something like “Mighty Bargain Hunter thinks YOU need a bailout!” and gives the specific reason why.

Bills.com, the designer of the application, uses this as an introduction to the website, which provides financial information and other services.  The direct, in-your-face communication style of the application reminds me of Larry Winget’s, which can be very effective and helpful at the time when it’s needed most.  Staring your problems square in the face, and accepting responsibility for them, is the first step towards working them out.

Buddy Bailout sends the message in a genuine, often lighthearted way, but the point of the message is still right there.  So for that, I applaud them. Getting people toward responsible spending habits is a fantastic endeavor.  But, as this application is now, I personally wouldn’t have the guts to use it, even if I knew it could do an incredible amount of good for the person on the other end.

These “bailout messages” are wall posts.  Users typically set permissions so that their friends can see their wall posts, so the “bailout message” would be visible not just to them, but to anyone who could view their wall.  The bailout posts are what people need to hear, but probably not what they want to hear even in private, let alone in the semi-public world of their Facebook wall.  For me, it would be a very risky move, with respect to relationships, to post a bailout message for somebody.  It could work out if that person’s friends support my observation, but the message could just as easily be ignored, or worse, attacked.  In any case, everyone knows now that I think my friend spends too much money at Starbucks, and that can’t be taken back.

I know some people aren’t bothered by confrontation, and even thrive on it.  I don’t like confrontation at all, so the thought of it affects how I behave in different circumstances.  Another thing that may come into play is the traditionally private realm of personal finance.  I’m sure open discussion of personal spending habits wouldn’t have happened in the past, but is it time now?

What do you think?  Would you broach the subject of a person’s spending patterns on Facebook?

(Note:  If you have a money question and want to ask it on your own terms, head over to Cash Commons.)

Ask your burning money questions at Cash Commons

The standard Settlement Statement, the HUD-1, just got a makeover this December.  The extra page is an extra burden on lenders to get the Good Faith Estimate right the first time.

Last week at the closing for our new house, we got a small bonus courtesy of the new requirements.  The expenses are broken down into three categories based on how closely the actual charges have to agree with those on the Good Faith Estimate:

• Charges that cannot increase at all - the loan origination charge, the cost of points for the chosen interest rate, adjusted origination charges, and transfer taxes
• Charges that cannot increase by more than 10% - government recording charges, appraisal fees, cost of credit reports, cost of tax services, cost of flood certification, and cost of pest inspection
• Charges that are allowed to change – initial escrow deposit, daily interest charges, homeowner’s insurance, title services, lender’s title insurance, owner’s title insurance, and home buyer’s warranty

In our case, the lender underestimated our transfer taxes by $41.85, so we got that as a credit at closing.  What kind of sucked for the lender was that they overestimated the cost of the credit report by $26.67, and overestimated the cost of the appraisal by $50.00, but couldn’t use either of these to offset the underestimate of the transfer taxes.

The new page of the HUD-1 was the result of a November, 2008, rule change to the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), and went into effect at the beginning of 2010.  Though the little bonus at closing was nice, these extra regulations just slow the whole process down and mean extra costs for everyone in the long run.  The background research to get the better estimates is an additional cost.  Filling out the third page is an additional cost all the way up the chain.  The loan still goes through, I still end up owing lots of money, and the lender still has my first-born in escrow the whole time — in essence, the same kind of lender-borrower relationship that existed before — but it’s not as efficient as it was before.

For the meantime, though, lenders now have to pay for some of their bad guesses.

Got tweet? I do!

Had to catch up a bit at work after running around Thursday to close on our new house.

So it’s Saturday morning Fiscals, but here are great links nonetheless

• A Gai Shan Life has an elaborate post on pets and preparedness.
• The Millionaire Nurse discusses life insurance needs.
• Sweating the Big Stuff talks about the best deal ever.
• The Frugal Lawyer tried out Credit Karma.
• Everybody Loves Your Money outlines someone’s big ol’ lost dream.
• Frugal Dad has 33 essentials for your bug-out bag.
• Frugal For Life is beating back the frugal fatigue.
• Money Crashers has 5 easy ways to make some extra cash.
• Mrs. Micah shows how to create a personal balance sheet.
• My Dollar Plan asks if you should use savings to pay off debt.

Special thanks to Wise Bread and The Simple Dollar for sending a whole boatload of traffic this week from the mentions in their roundups.  Also a shout-out to Get Rich Slowly for including my bank post in this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance.  Lastly, both this site and the Carnival of Debt Reduction site cracked a nice new compilation of financial resource links.

Enjoy the weekend!

Follow me on Twitter for random acts of Mighty Bargain Hunter

A friend from our previous church sent me an e-mail tonight. Because we’ve been buried in 1.2 miles of snow for the past few days, she had the opportunity to pile through some projects. She had just gotten to a pile of stuff she had been meaning to sell for quite some time, and e-mailed me to ask for help since I had offered before.

I explained how she could get an estimate of market value through eBay for the things she wanted to sell, then gave some suggestions on when to sell on eBay and when to sell on Craigslist.

Some kinds of items, especially big ones, can do better on Craigslist.  For those items, I told her how I would go about selling them there:

1. Prior to listing the item on Craigslist, I’d sign up for a Gmail account, or use one that I didn’t mind getting passed around the Internet via Craigslist.  Like MbhuntersCoolItems4Sale@gmail.com or something like that.
2. I’d write a fairly detailed description of what I was selling.
3. I’d take pictures of the item(s) and put them up on Flickr someplace that allowed me to post items for sale.  These would be linked to in my description.
4. I’d use the Vacation Responder feature in Gmail to deliver my description on demand.  To get there, go to the Settings link in the upper-right of the main Gmail screen, and go to (almost) the bottom of the General tab.
5. Then I’d put the ad up, which would be an attention-grabbing headline of some kind, plus the following:  “Send a blank e-mail to MbhuntersCoolItems4Sale@gmail.com for instant details, plus contact information.  Your e-mail address will be used only to send you this information (once) and will not be sold or rented.”

What are the advantages of doing it this way? There are several:

1. It screens out many who aren’t serious about buying the item. Providing an e-mail address is a barrier.  Not everyone will do it.  Serious buyers will.  These are the ones you want to hear from, not the tire-kickers.
2. You can answer common questions in the auto-reply. There’s a surprising amount of space available in the Vacation Responder.  If you answer questions there, they won’t call you up to ask them.  Saves time and screens out more would-be non-buyers.
3. You aren’t posting your phone number on Craigslist. You’re posting an e-mail address, but not your phone number.  Heck, you don’t even have to post your phone number in the autoresponder message:  Ask them to e-mail you with more questions.  More screening.
4. By the time people get on the phone with you, they should be pretty serious about buying the item.
5. Once the items are sold, you can delete any personal information you put in the autoresponder.  Or replace it with this message:  “Thanks for requesting information about this item, but it’s already been sold.  Have a nice day!”

Craigslist is free, but free comes at a price:  your time.  Following this kind of selling process will reduce the time you spend screening out people who aren’t really serious buyers.

Follow me on Twitter for random acts of Mighty Bargain Hunter