Real estate short sales have become more common in the tough housing market of the last few years.  A short sale is an attempt to sell a home instead of the bank taking it back by foreclosure. This sale can partially salvage the homeowner’s credit rating and lift the stress of large mortgage payments. If you’ve been house hunting over the last year, chances are you’ve run across at least one piece of real estate classified as a short sale.

The entire process of the short sale is based on the premise that the bank will take an immediate loss, approve the sale, and eliminate the high expenses of foreclosing, clearing, and reselling a home. This is a big chance that the prospective home buyers are taking. There are some things that they can do to in order to lessen the chance for disappointment of unapproved short sales:

The price is set by the agent & seller, not the bank:

The agent and seller often set a low asking price in order to attract buyers. The bank generally has no knowledge of the asking price. The bank has to approve what an acceptable offer would be. The lack of awareness in regards to price by the bank often leads to a longer process than anticipated. The bottom line is that the buyer needs to remain patient and understanding throughout the entire process.

One bank loan is better than two:

Having to deal with and get approval from two different banks is obviously a lot more difficult to get short sale clearance. Neither the agent nor the buyer can control this It simply depends on the bank or banks involved.

Make low ball offers at your own risk:

Remember the bank is typically unaware of the seller-set price during a short sale. When low ball offers arrive at the bank, they are often rejected, with little or no feedback for the prospective buyers. It may also take a considerably long time to hear back even on good offers due to the sheer volume of transactions lenders are overwhelmed with these days.

Knowledge of recent home sales:

The selling agent must be aware of recent home sales in the area to give prospective buyers a clearer picture of the properties that are selling. This will help the agent and seller when they seek approval of the asking price by the bank. Checking recent home sales will also give the buyer a better understanding of what the sales price of homes in the neighborhood are.

Don’t put your eggs in one basket:

In many cases, short sales are not “short.” It can be a very long process. A buyer must keep their options open and continue to actively look at other properties. Buyers must keep positive. The right property will come along. As long as the proper contingencies are in place, most areas allow an individual to have multiple offers out at any given time.

Sellers with multiple properties or healthy financials may not qualify:

If a seller owns more than a handful of properties or has a high net worth, they will most likely not be eligible for a short sale. In certain scenarios, the seller will be asked to pay the difference of the sale.

“Approved” prices are quickest:

An “approved short sale” has a price that has already been approved by the bank. Short sales are not always timely; however, making an offer on an “approved short sale” can be a much faster process.   These types of short sales are some of the most highly desirable.

Each bank is different:

In short sales, the bank has all the power, and each one has a different idea of what the most appealing buyer is.  One bank may prefer buyers with large down payments while another just wants the highest price. Most buyers want to know if the bank will give a lower price for an all cash offer. This is difficult to predict; they will not know until they make an offer.

Renovations are not happening , but credit is:

Any improvements that are necessary on a home, even if they are required for a loan, will most often not be done. Generally credit is issued and the buyer must take on the responsibility for any of the repairs.

The window is awfully small:

A short sale has little or no leniency in regards to the closing date compared to a traditional sale. Exceptions are rarely made and the buyer must close on time. It is imperative that all loan paperwork get completed immediately after opening escrow. If an issue is uncovered that could cause a delay, a request for an extension should be made immediately. If the request is made early enough, many banks will grant an extension. Don’t just assume it will happen.

Short sales can be a great opportunity to find your new home at a competitive price. They can also be a major headache that lasts for months. It is important to have a good understanding of the many factors that lead to a successful deal; or hire someone who does.

The holiday shopping season is almost here!  With Black Friday just around the corner, you can use these tips to help you stay out of debt while buying gifts for all your friends and family this year.

Set a budget: Obviously if you have credit card debt now, you don’t want to elevate those numbers. Remember, your credit score depends more now than ever on how high your balances are. Start by setting a holiday spending number you will not exceed and make cash your first priority in paying for those gifts and other goods.

If you haven’t started shopping yet, do some Christmas budgeting and determine how much money you can realistically set aside and stay as close to that number as you can. Commit to avoiding ANY unplanned purchase above a certain threshold, such as $25.

Revamp your gift policy: Does everyone on your gift list over the age of 21 really need a present? The answer is as individual as your family and friends. But, if you think it might be welcome, make a suggestion for a gift drawing, a budget limit, or a moratorium on gifts for adults or some other alternative where you trade off gifts for quality time.

For instance, you might agree to take each other out to dinner during the New Year or find some other fun way to spend time together. You could help a friend or family member with a household project that could save them money. And in the end, children seem to enjoy their holiday gifts the most, so focus on buying presents for them.

Go debit: Debit cards with a bankcard logo are typically welcome at most stores where credit cards are accepted. This way, you pay cash without carrying cash. If you don’t have such a card, you can probably get one from your bank to replace your traditional ATM card, but remember to tell them to limit your buying power to the cash balance in your account. Also, review your bank’s debit card theft policies in case your card is lost or stolen.

Browse online, and then compare at local stores: Whether you plan to shop online is a separate issue, but browsing online can be a very good idea. “Shop-bot” price comparison websites can help you determine general price ranges for gifts you need that are sold online.

Once you have those ranges, get on the phone and determine whether you can buy the same items more affordably at retailers close to home – save gas whenever possible.

Don’t forget the coupons: Coupons aren’t just in newspapers or direct mail anymore. If you know particular stores where you’ll shop, get on their e-mail lists – you’ll start getting coupons and news of specials on a regular basis. Also, sign up at manufacturers’ websites for coupons or discount codes for shopping online.

Don’t forget taxes & shipping when shopping online: Online prices might look like a great deal until you realize you may be spending another 20 percent of the gift’s price to send it to your house or the recipient.  Here are some tips on how you can save money on shipping.

Also, read product descriptions very carefully to make sure what you’re buying contains all the features of the item that you could buy at the store. At the same time, if there is a legal opportunity to avoid paying sales tax, watch for that.

Allocate spending for charity: You can either make charity a separate item in your annual budget or part of your holiday budget, but if there are specific charities you want to support by yearend, it’s a good idea to decide on those amounts before the holiday shopping season gets underway.

This way, you’ll support the organizations you wish to without going outside your budget. Also, don’t forget to check with your employer to see if they’ll match your contribution and consider gifts of appreciated stocks rather than cash if it fits your charitable goals and tax situation.

Give yourself the gift of financial analysis: If you’re trying to get your finances in order, you could buy yourself an hour of time with a financial advisor. This meeting could extend beyond your holiday spending goals to setting targets for saving, investing, extinguishing debt, and setting financial goals for the future.

These holiday shopping tips were produced in association with the Financial Planning Association (FPA), the leadership and advocacy organization connecting those who provide, support and benefit from professional financial planning.

Buying a foreclosed home can be a great way to get a deal on real estate but it can be daunting if you’ve never done it before.  Here are a few tips to consider when you’re thinking about buying a foreclosure.

Know Thy Neighbor – Remember, when you buy a home, it’s like getting married. You’re not just getting a spouse, you’re getting the in-laws and all of the crazy dysfunction that goes with them. Get to know your neighborhood a little. Drive through it at different times of the day. You’ll get a feel for traffic patterns that could disrupt your work day. You’ll also find out if the quiet neighborhood has any issues at night. Check out house sales online and peek at the sex offender registry to keep your children safe.

Due Diligence is Key – The longer a house has been vacant, the more issues there will be. If it was empty during the winter months, pipes may have cracked. That’s just one of many issues that could be present without you even being aware of it. It is imperative that EVERY buyer, regardless of the property, get a private home inspection.  This type of pre-caution will keep you from buying the “Money Pit.”

Let the Games Begin – In many areas of this country, banks holding foreclosures on their books want to do one thing at all cost – get those properties off the books. Buyers in those places can get great deals with prices up to 20% off the already reduced prices. Imagine getting home for 65-70% of the market value…

These types of deals are not normal in all markets around the country. Banks that hold these properties in some markets act just like any other seller. They want market value, or as close to it as they can get for these properties. If you buy a house for close to market value and then find you need to put thousands of dollars into the home because of an issue that was uncovered, you may end up paying more than if you looked at other homes outside of foreclosure.

Ready, Set, Go!!! – Local banks are more inclined to work with buyers who already have pre-approved financing. While nothing is ever guaranteed, the chance of that financing falling through, compared to someone without pre-approval, is much lower.

Ready, Set…Wait??? – While the institutions want you to have all of your ducks in a row, their fowl won’t be so tidy. Buyers must be aware that they are dealing with a corporation with a chain of command, and not a single homeowner who can make quick decisions. Patience is key.

This is not an exhaustive list, but I hope these tips help you if you decide to look at a foreclosure for your next home purchase. There are gems out there in many neighborhoods. With the right financing and realtor, anything is possible.

After several nights of weighing the pros and cons of buying a house one thing we realized is that we simply didn’t have enough information to make a good decision.  We haven’t been in the real estate market for years now so we don’t really know what our house will sell for or what we should expect to pay for the kind of home we’re looking for.

We’ve started doing some research and talking with our friends in the industry, realtors and appraisers, about the market and about our house. We also decided to start looking at a few homes to get a feel for various neighborhoods and price ranges.

Last time we were house hunting we had no house of our own to sell and no kids so it was a different experience. We spent yesterday afternoon trying to see a few houses and learned a thing or to about house hunting as parents.

Screen Houses Thoroughly Online

We don’t have a lot of free time so we have to be pickier about the houses we look at.  In the past, if we saw a house online that had a few things we weren’t crazy about we might check it out anyway just to see if we liked it. We had time to visit them so there was nothing to lose if we checked out a few houses that didn’t meet our criteira.

Now we can only see so many in a day so we’re only going to look at a house if it meets all of our major criteria.

Leave the Family Behind

After dragging our kids out of their beds from their naps and lugging them around all afternoon we quickly realized that the initial stages of house hunting were not going to be a family affair.

We could move much faster if there was only one of us driving to see homes.  Not only could we cover more ground in a shorter amount of time, the kids didn’t want to be cooped up in their car seats driving around all day.

From now on, one of us will check out a house that we’re interested in.  If we find any in our “scouting” that look good, then we corral the kids and bore them to death with a house visit.

Have a Quick Trigger

If you’re in the middle of checking out a house and you find something that’s a deal breaker, don’t be afraid to bail immediately.  Time is limited and there are more potential homes out there, waiting for you to find them.

We’re generally pretty polite so typically we would feel bad cutting a realtor’s tour short and saying adios.  Plus in the past we might have decided to keep looking around just to see if the rest of the place was awesome and might make up for the major shortcoming.

However, now our time for visiting homes is precious so if we’re in one and see something that is a red flag, we’re out the door.

Make Backup Plans

At the first house we were standing in the rain, car seats in hand, on the front door step of a home that we were scheduled to visit.  The glass storm door was locked and no one was coming to answer it.  The real estate agent was very apologetic but that didn’t do us much good.

We were all dressed up with no place to go.  We had interrupted the kids naps, driven out to this area, and now knew nothing else to look at. Luckily we called some friends in the area and they pointed us to some homes for sale that we could checkout.

From now on we will have a few backups in place around the area of the houses we’re scheduled to see. In case you haven’t noticed a trend, our lessons learned had to do with seeing more of the right houses more quickly.  Having a few alternate houses in mind helps to keep from wasting your time when a house appointment falls through.

Deals and promotions keep popping up lately, I’m guessing partly because it’s close to the end of the year and businesses are making a push to meet or exceed their goals for the year. I’m sure part of it has to do with Christmas deals for the upcoming shopping rush.  Here are some of the promotions going on that you might be interested in.

Angies List Promotion

Angie’s List gift memberships are 50 percent off through the end of the month.  Since it’s a gift, they’re waiving the activation fee so you don’t even need an angies list promo code.

TradeKing Bonus

The TradeKing promotion where you earn a $50 bonus for opening an account and making a trade was extended through the end of the month.  Here’s a TradeKing review for more detail on their service.

ING Direct Bonus

If you open an ING Electric Orange account by November 30 and set up Direct Deposit you’ll be eligible for a $25 bonus. You have to enter Reference Code EM382DD to be qualify for the $25 bonus. After two Direct Deposits are made within the first two months (60 days) of account opening, the bonus will be automatically applied to your account on day 60.

American Express Gift Cards

American Express gift cards have always come with fees that eat into the amount of money you’re giving away.  They recently removed the monthly fees so the recipient no longer has to worry about the balance depleting until it’s used.  American Express is also running a promotion through the end of the year where they’ll waive the purchase fee so it doesn’t cost you anything to give the card.

Use the American Express promotion code of EMC11A and you get 100% off the purchase fees through the end of December.

The first time home buyer tax credits in 2009 didn’t really interest us that much since we’ve owned our home for just under ten years now.  However, the latest version of the bill now includes a tax credit through 2010 for homeowners who have lived in the same place for five of the last eight years consecutively.

This new home buyer tax credit will give you a credit up to 10% of the cost of your new home, with a cap of $6500.  I’ve had a busy week and hadn’t given much thought to new bill yet until my wife called me up at work yesterday.

New House Fever

My wife’s been wanting to move into a new house for a few years now and has been contributing to a “moving fund”.  The issue is that she has her eye on a bigger house but I don’t want our house payments to increase any. The planner that she is, my wife opened a separate account and has been putting away money to fund an eventual purchase of a house upsizing.  Our family has grown since we bought our house and future plans project additional growth so we may need the space someday.

Based on home sales in our area and the estimated cost of a new home, she had in mind about how much she needed to put away before we could start looking at houses.  A tax credit of $6,500 would accelerate her schedule by almost a year so she was pretty excited when she heard about the new law.

Since the home buyer tax credit is a dollar for dollar reduction of taxes and is refundable, you could look at it as knocking $6,500 off the purchase price of a home we would buy.  We would still be short of the total figure she was trying to save up but the “free” $6,500 is rather enticing.

Home Purchase Timing

The latest version of the law says that we would need a contract on a house before May 1^st of next year and that the sale would have to close before July 1^st.  While Obama did extend the first time home buyers tax credit with this bill, the general consensus is that there won’t likely be another extension.

That means we’d have to find a house by May of 2010, which gives us about 6 months of searching, planning, and maneuvering our finances before we’d have to pull the trigger. According to the bill we could file an amended tax return for 2009, claiming the tax return for 2009 so we would potentially “see the money” sometime in 2010.

Are the Home Buyer Tax Credits Working?

In one night, our family went from talking about buying a house two years down the road to suddenly considering purchasing a home by next May so I’d say that the home buyer tax credits are having an impact.

Of course at this point it’s just talk so we don’t know if we’ll actually go through with it but my wife signed up for new home alerts from several real estate websites last night and we we spent about an hour talking through some of the details so momentum is building.

I’m not a big fan of moving, it takes time and money and the whole process of home searching and buying can be quite stressful.  Plus I really like where we live now so I’m not really jumping up and down about buying a new house.  But life has a way of shifting when you least expect it to.  Thanks a lot Obama for signing the bill and pulling the rug out from under me, you’re going to give me a ulcer : )

If you or your parents have lived in your home for many years and have built up a lot of equity in the property you may have heard about or considered a reverse mortgage as a potential source of income during retirement. There seems to be a wide divide in opinions on whether reverse mortgages are a wise way to leverage equity in a home or a detrimental financial move for living out the golden years.

According to financial advisor Paul Escobar of U.S. Wealth Management, when it comes to reverse mortgages, “Seniors and their advisors should consider them, especially when their sole income and asset is their house.” Today we’ll take a look at how a reverse mortgage works and the benefits they have to offer retirees and seniors.

What is a Reverse Mortgage

A reverse mortgage is the direct opposite of a traditional mortgage because the mortgage lender makes monthly payments to the homeowner. A reverse mortgage is an option available to homeowners that are 62-years of age or older that own a primary residence free and clear of any mortgages or liens. The home also has to have a sufficient amount of equity—what is deemed as sufficient varies by the lender.

There may be other requirements from the lender but credit does not play a role in the qualification process. When homeowners qualify, the mortgage payments can be taken as a lump sum or in monthly installments. Since the amount of the reverse mortgage is based on the amount of equity, interest rate and the borrower’s age, the amount of the mortgage can vary.

Reverse Mortgage Benefits

While all reverse mortgage holders have their own reasons, there are some popular reasons that seniors opt for a reverse mortgage. Jason Roberts of Frost Lending Group points out that the fees for a reverse mortgage are similar to a conventional loan and the interest rates for reverse mortgages are generally lower. He’s helped a range of clients with reverse mortgages—some couldn’t pay for their basic needs, while others had a decent amount of savings but wanted to eliminate their mortgage payment. 

Retirement

Medical Expenses 

Increased cost of living, rising healthcare costs and a decreasing income do not necessarily work in harmony, but is the situation that leads many retirees to a reverse mortgage. Rather than forcing retirees to choose between paying their living expenses and paying for medicine and healthcare, the extra money that reverse mortgage provide allow seniors to pay for all of their needs—medical and daily living.

Home Accommodations

Some retirees use the money from reverse mortgages to make necessary modifications to their home. It may be widening doorways to accommodate the use of a walker or wheelchair or building a ramp to get up and down the stairs. Reverse mortgage payments can cover these costs.

Extra Money

With more time to travel and participate in leisurely activities, money from a reverse mortgage can provide extra spending money. It pays for trips, vacations or activities such as golf and days at the spa. It is an added bonus that allows them to enjoy some of the luxuries in life.

Go Debt Free

With another source of income for normal living expenses, many retirees use reverse mortgages to reduce or deplete debt. Without debt, the reverse mortgage money becomes additional cash flow that can be applied to other expenses.

After a discussion in her own mind and with her daughters, 77-year-old Francine Trevins opted for a reverse mortgage on her Manhattan loft. Francine says she has a wonderful life now because she is relieved of the “burden of a mortgage.” Her only concern is outliving the mortgage amount.

When it’s Right

Whether a reverse mortgage is right is different for each person. Talk with your financial advisor, tax consultant and estate attorney to go over the specifics of your situation. Don’t make a decision on what someone else has done because situation-specific reasons why reverse mortgages work or not vary too much.

Some of the questions you want to answer:

• Is there family you want to leave the home to?
• Do you have sufficient income to live out your retirement years?
• What plans do you have for retirement? Continue to work part-time? Travel?
• How old are you?
• Is there equity in the home? Is your home paid off?
• Do you have other sources of income?

Reverse Mortgage Dangers

Even the experts agree that there are drawbacks to reverse mortgages in some situations. In a future article we’ll take a look at the potential dangers of reverse mortgages and what to look out for.

Year end tax deductions are a good way to squeeze some extra tax savings into your budgeting and tax planning efforts.  It’s been a crazy year for the economy and as a result the government created all sorts of tax incentives and tax credits that can potentially help reduce your 2009 taxes. Here are some year end tax tips to help, chances are at least one of them will apply to you.

Plan your retirement contributions: Though you have until April 15 or your extension deadline next year to make IRA contributions for 2009, right now is a good time to find out if you can push 401(k) contributions to their regular and catch-up limits. Here are the basics:

401(k) contributions: For tax year 2009, the regular contribution limit in a traditional 401(k) is $16,500 and $11,500 for a SIMPLE 401(K). For anyone who is age 50 or older in 2009, you can make an additional contribution of $5,500 for a traditional 401(k) and an additional $2,500 for a SIMPLE 401(k). 

Traditional and Roth IRAs: For tax year 2009, traditional and Roth IRA contributions are limited to $5,000 for those under age 50; for those over 50 during 2009, the contribution limit is $6,000. For Roth IRAs, keep in mind that if you are married and filing jointly with modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) of less than $166,000, you can contribute up to the limit, BUT between $166,000 but less than $176,000, the limit is reduced.

Those with MAGI over $176,000 cannot contribute to a Roth. For single filers or married taxpayers filing separately, those reporting MAGI of less than $105,000 can contribute up to the limit, BUT between $105,000 and less than $120,000 that contribution is reduced. Over MAGI of $120,000, no contribution is allowed.

Roth IRA Conversion: Starting in 2010, anyone will be able to convert a traditional IRA into a Roth without income limitation. 

SEP IRAs: For SEP IRAs, the maximum contribution is $49,000.

If you’re planning to buy a home very soon: First-time homebuyers have until November 30 to close on their home purchase in order to qualify for the $8,000 tax credit provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The credit is available to those who have not owned a home during the past three years. The full credit is available for married couples filing a joint return whose MAGI is $150,000 or less and for other taxpayers whose MAGI is $75,000 or less.

If you’ve been unemployed in 2009: Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the first $2,400 of unemployment benefits an individual receives in 2009 are tax free. This provision applies only to benefits received in 2009: Normally, unemployment benefits are taxable.

Take advantage of the IRA charitable donation provision: If you’re age 70 ½ or older, 2009 is the last scheduled year that you’ll be allowed to direct your IRA trustee to make a tax-free direct transfer of up to $100,000 from your IRA to a charitable organization.

Green tax incentives: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act also provides tax incentives for energy-efficient investments for the home. The new law increases the credit rate to 30 percent of the cost of all qualifying improvements and raises the maximum credit limit to $1,500 for improvements placed in service in 2009 and 2010. The credit applies to improvements such as adding insulation, energy-efficient exterior windows and energy-efficient heating and air conditioning systems.

If you’re still looking for a car: You might have missed Cash for Clunkers, but the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act  allows taxpayers to take a deduction for state and local sales and excise taxes paid on the purchase of new cars, light trucks, motor homes and motorcycles on purchases made through December 31.

The deduction is limited to taxes and fees paid on up to $49,500 of the purchase price of the eligible vehicle and reduced for joint filers with MAGI between $250,000-$260,000 and other taxpayers with incomes between $125,000 and $135,000. Taxpayers with income exceeding these limits don’t qualify.

If you suffered disaster damage: Severe storms and flooding this year designated many parts of the country eligible for tax relief. To check if your community has been designated, go to the IRS website.

Check investment gains and losses: If you have depreciated investments in your taxable investment accounts, see if it makes sense to sell and offset them against any capital gains you’ve realized this year. Also, keep in mind that if you are in the 10-15 percent income tax bracket, the current tax rate for long-term capital gains is zero percent and will stay there through 2010. If you have a capital loss carryover from 2008, you can use this to offset any capital gains you’ve realized this year too.

Defer income if possible: Self-employed people and some business owners might elect to invoice customers in January so they don’t have to include that income on their 2009 return. Keep in mind that it may only make sense to defer income if you think you will be in the same or lower tax bracket next year.

Make sure donations are documented: You must have either a receipt or a canceled check to back up any contribution, regardless of the amount, and you can’t simply give away junk and state a “like new” value for it. If you don’t have such a written record, the IRS will reject the write-off if the lack of proper record keeping is discovered in an audit.

Also, you can write off out-of-pocket costs you incur while doing good works. Ingredients for casseroles you regularly prepare for a nonprofit organization’s soup kitchen, for example, or the cost of stamps you buy for your school’s fundraiser count as a charitable contribution.

Good luck filing those tax returns!

These year end tax tips were produced in association with the Financial Planning Association (FPA), the leadership and advocacy organization connecting those who provide, support and benefit from professional financial planning.

This week I recommend you check out PT Money, written by Phil Taylor (PT). His blog focuses on his own experiences managing money and he has help from his super frugal wife, too!

I first ran across Phil when he was part of the FNBO Direct Pay Yourself First money challenge, here’s his video entry where you can see him rapping about money:

I like Phil’s site because he shares specific and real financial information from his own experiences, I really enjoyed reading about his family’s travels to Ireland.  One thing Phil’s site is well know for is his popular collection of 52 ways to make extra money which he’s recently expanded on in a new eBook, 52 Ways to Make Extra Money.

About PT

Phil and his wife have recently welcomed a daughter into their family.

In addition to his own blog, PT’s writing appears on a number of other financial sites around the web, including MSN Smart Money Blog and The Wall Street Journal online.  You can also learn more about Phil in this interview with My Two Dollars.

Phil’s also become quite blog savvy while running his own site and if you’re interested in getting your own blog up and running he can help you out.

Recent Articles

• Save Money on Healthcare
• PocketSmith: A Calendar Based Financial Planner
• Money Experiment: A Week Without Spending

Here are a number of other links from around the personal finance blogosphere!

Investing

• Transfer Fund to Scottrade Brokerage Account Is Easy @ Suns Financial Diary
• Earning Interest and Dividends on Someone Elses Dime @ My Dollar Plan
• U.S. Savings Bond Traps: Time to Cash In @ Good Financial Cents
• 529 Plan Promotion: Couples Get $150 Jumpstart to College Savings @ My Money Blog
• Only Six Months Left To Make Year 2009 Contributions To Roth IRA Or Traditional IRA @ No Credit Needed

Credit Cards

• The End of Universal Default @ Frugal Dad
• Do You Know How Much Interest You Are Paying Each Month? @ Cash Money Life
• New Credit Card Rules, Opting Out of Interest Rate Increases @ The Digerati Life
• Is it Possible to Live Without Credit Cards? @ Five Cent Nickel

Budgeting

• How to Satisfy Your Need for Books and Movies Without Spending a Fortune @ Generation X Finance
• What if You were Required to Share your Finances? @ Lazy Man & Money
• 5 Reasons You Need a Tax Professional @ Moolanomy
• Comparing Prescription Prices To Save Myself A Ton Of Money. @ My Two Dollars
• Don’t Wait Until January to Think About Budgeting @ Being Frugal
• 52 Ways to Make Extra Money! (but only 1 of them here). @ Budgets Are Sexy
• The Dreadful Bill Collector and How to Handle Them @ Million Dollar Journey
• Does Giving Make You Wealthier? @ Free Money Finance
• Ten Tricks for Staying Warm This Winter Without Huge Energy Bills @ The Simple Dollar

Economy

• Here’s the one thing you can absolutely count on in this economy @ Mighty Bargain Hunter
• GMAC Asking for a Third Bailout From Taxpayers @ Consumerism Commentary

Other Finance

• Searching For Your Unclaimed Money & Property @ Bargaineering
• Large Amounts Matter Too @ Get Rich Slowly
• how to keep a customer happy @ Brip Blap
• Should I Pay Off My Mortgage Early @ Money Ning

Open enrollment deadlines are one date you don’t want to miss.  Choosing the best insurance options and benefits at your job is an important part of your personal finances.

Open Enrollment Window

October and November are the time when many companies have open enrollment, a time period during which you can make changes to your benefits for the coming year.  Open enrollment is often the only time during the year you can make changes to your health insurance and flexible spending plans unless you have a qualifying change in status during the year such as a marriage or new baby.

In many cases if you do nothing during the open enrollment period, your insurance coverage and benefits will remain the same as previous year, one common exception are flexible spending plans. Due to federal laws, if you want to continue your health care or dependent day care flex spending contribution, you have to re-enroll each year.

Benefit Changes

Typically when you go through the enrollment process you’ll elect or decline coverage for benefits such as medical, dental, flexible spending accounts, dependent day care, and vision. Take care to add and update your dependent and beneficiary information so that your family members have sufficient coverage.

Open Enrollment Deadlines

Most companies are pretty strict about enforcing their open enrollment deadlines.  Any changes you try and make after the deadline passes will typically be denied.  You can always work with your human resources department to get an exception but it’s much easier to take the time and finish your open enrollment before it becomes a huge hassle or is too late. So stop procrastinating and enroll now if you haven’t already!