Do you regard yourself as a skeptic?  Does a clever advertisement or plausible testimonial convince you to buy a product, or do you normally suspend judgment until you can check it out?  If you fall into the latter category, you’re a skeptic—and if so, it’s a good thing, particularly in managing your money.  The world of finance is a hazardous place, perhaps more so today than ever before.  You’ll need to be extra cautious if you want to avoid losing your shirt.  Let me describe five areas in which you must exercise skepticism.

1.  Dealing with Marketers. A person’s possessions speak volumes on what that individual regards as important.  The advertising industry is devoted to identifying what the citizen considers significant.  Even more so, the market manipulator creates those choices.  There are massive sums to be spent and the competition is as fierce as it is grotesque.  It’s for this reason you avoid the overpriced junk foisted off regularly on the consumer: lottery tickets, $300 per ounce bottles of perfume, timeshare projects, Las Vegas weekend getaways, $8,000 wrist watches, and any variety of items which serve no other purpose than to proclaim your affluence.  The point is, sharpen your buying habits with a healthy dose of skepticism.  In most of our purchases we are less familiar with a product than are its vendors.  We can overcome this disadvantage by educating ourselves.  The results are cumulative and your performance will improve with time.  Remember always that if a vendor must buy a dozen pages of advertising to say how wonderful its product is, it can’t be.

2.  Dealing with Financial Advisors. It’s the rare citizen with an ability to invest wisely.  This takes a talent few possess.  So, with billions of investment dollars in the hands of Americans, professional investment advisors occupy a position of prominence.  Unfortunately, many practitioners who offer their advisory services are equally devoid of investment expertise.  The result is predictable; huge sums are woefully misdirected.  To protect yourself, you may try to prequalify your counselor.  However, don’t expect credentials, such as certification, ensure proficiency.  Comedian Mel Brooks provided this classic definition of certified: “You’re a nice guy . . . we like you . . . you’re certified.”  Understand, as with many other products, financial planning is an exercise in pure marketing.  You’ve seen the newspaper and television advertisements guaranteeing each client will prosper.  A sense of skepticism suggests the persons who write the ads are unrelated to those who recommend the investments.  A final warning: You cannot depend upon a hired advisor to responsibly invest your money.  You must develop an understanding of what constitutes an acceptable investment so that the final decisions are yours.

3.  Dealing with Mutual Funds. How do most Americans invest their money?  In mutual funds, of course.  Quite simply, a mutual fund controls a pool of money provided by its shareholders which it invests in a portfolio of securities selected by the fund’s managers.  Because of its universality, it is an industry devoted to investment by default.  Though in theory the mutual fund meets the intended needs, those of knowledgeable selection of securities and advantageous portfolio diversification, theory and reality do not always coincide.  There is no particular magic involved.  These vehicles merely rise and fall with the general fortunes of the market.  Recognize this is an industry in which the placing of investors’ money is, at best, a secondary consideration.  The primary justification for their existence is to enable the operators to regularly skim a percentage of the gross assets of the funds while performing little more than marketing activities.  It’s my belief if you choose to invest in the securities market, you’ll fare better if you select individual stocks.

4.  Dealing with your Banker. Over the past decade or so, banking officials made a fascinating discovery.   They found their customers to be an untapped source of bounty, with depositors willing to accept minuscule interest on their savings while tolerating the payment of fees and assessments limited only by the imagination of the bank hierarchy.  Now, in the third year of what appears to be a prolonged recession, interest rates paid on bank savings accounts can be seen as low as one-twentieth of one percent annually.  However, those ultra-low rates are not reflected in the charges your bank may impose for any variety of “services.”  Should you issue a check for one dollar over your account balance, or pay your credit card bill one day later than the deadline date, you’ll be slapped with a penalty which can calculate out to annual percentage rates of twenty percent or higher.  My advice: Regularly scrutinize your bank statements to see what might be slipped in.  Only your active participation will protect you.

5.  Dealing with Government. The most frightening words you will ever hear are: “Hello, I’m from the government, and I’m here to help you.”  Let’s wade into the center of what government is all about.  It can be summed up in one word: Taxes.  Regardless of location, party denomination or political structure, just as an army reputedly “travels on its stomach,” a bureaucracy travels on its citizens’ billfolds, and everyone who enters government service sooner or later comes to share this attitude.  Left to the devices of the officials, there is no limit to the amount to be collected, and any attempt by the payors to minimize the tribute will be met with the usual warnings of dire consequences that never end.  It’s for this reason you must be cautious in your dealings with government.  Do not fail to respond to notices from them.  Do not accept their offer to calculate your income taxes.  Keep records of all contacts with officials.  And above all, never entertain any doubts about what the government expects from you.  It wants your money.

Al Jacobs has been a professional investor for nearly four decades and a nationally syndicated columnist. He is the author of Nobody’s Fool: A Skeptic’s Guide to Prosperity.  Subscribe to his financial column, “On the Money Trail,” at no cost or obligation at www.skepticsguidetoprosperity.com.

This is a guest post by Al Jacobs, the author of  Nobody’s Fool: A Skeptic’s Guide to Prosperity

A popular comic strip dating back to the 1930s declared that “Heroes are made, not born.”  Each day the misfortunes of the main protagonist were humorously revealed as he invariably caused things to go wrong.  The moral, easily grasped, related to the character flaws our antihero displayed.  And there’s a lesson to be learned from that comic strip of long ago.  It is that entrepreneurs of the present mimic heroes of the past.   Most surely, entrepreneurs are made, not born.  It is the meld of traits and reflexes developed over time, and honed to habit, that distinguish the achievers from those others that inhabit our workaday world.

With that said the question to ask is whether you are among that select group whose inherent ability to compete has become a mark of character.  You will be able to answer yes to that question if you embrace the following principles.

1.  For a helping hand, look to the end of your arm.  This may be cliché, but its utterance conveys more than mere platitude.  Concerning those endeavors in which you are a participant, no one will exert more effort on your behalf than you.  You dare not rely upon others to represent your interests without overseeing their actions.  This is true regardless of their position or supposed expertise.  In any circumstance where the outcome is important, you may not passively defer to others.

2.  Separate illusion from reality.  This fundamental capability, to a great extent attitudinal, is one hallmark of an entrepreneur.  Thus, when on the 10 o’clock television news, an SEC official proclaims “a stunning victory” for investors, in announcing that the nation’s major securities brokers have agreed to pay $1.7 billion in fines for “fraudulent activities,” without any admission of guilt for such activities, you should instinctively question the sort of victory won.  You might also wonder whether any portion of that sum will find its way to the defrauded investors, rather than flow to the SEC’s special fund.  It’s crucial that focusing on substance while dismissing irrelevance becomes second nature to you.

3.  Pay attention to Murphy’s Law.  In its essence, Murphy’s Law declares: “If anything can go wrong, it will.”  Though overstated for humor and effect, it contains an element of truth that no mindful entrepreneur ignores.  Recognizing that financial decisions be made to minimize unexpected risk requires that you shrewdly conduct your affairs with Murphy always in your consciousness.  

4.  Don’t violate the basic rule of income and expenditures.  The late English historian and economist, C. Northcote Parkinson, perhaps the most lucid writer of the twentieth century, expressed the rule most articulately: “Expenditures invariably rise to meet and exceed available income.”  Whether describing an individual or an organization, this impulse to spend whatever is available is a universal scourge.  A prudent entrepreneur rejects this tendency to spend up to and beyond a financial limit.  The necessity to retain reserves for unexpected contingencies had better become rote.

5.  Refuse to commit to things you do not understand.  Perhaps the most persuasive inducement that commits one to a course of action is the admonition: “If you fail to act now, the opportunity will be lost.”  Although you recognize the importance of making timely decisions, and are often willing to shortcut procedures that unduly interfere with a successful undertaking, you should steadfastly resist being rushed into any involvement that you do not fully comprehend.  When required to make decisions on factors you consider less than reliable, tend to postpone binding commitments until you get the missing information.  One of most knowledgeable investors I’ve ever known summed it up in an unforgettable way, when he said: “I’ve missed the boat many times, but I’ve never been on one that sank!”

6.  If a goal is worth achieving, pursue it diligently.  The principle was never better stated than by the nineteenth century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli: “The secret of success is constancy to purpose.”  An aggressive entrepreneur will ardently adhere to the dictum that if a goal is worth attaining, it is worth pursuing vigorously.  And in so doing, ascribe to the adage: “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”

7.  Recognize that luck is something you must make happen.  Possibly the most profound concept relating to personal achievement consisted of two sentences that appeared in a now-forgotten newspaper article.  The text read simply: “Ed Callaway is a lucky man.  He arranges it that way.”  Those persons, who recognize that the end result of a project will be affected by manipulating the ingredients in the project, can arrange for an ending perceived as “lucky.”  As an entrepreneur, you must embrace this notion as you make luck appear to happen.  Never forget that in life’s crap game, the players are rolling loaded dice and that whether the dice are weighted to favor seven or, instead, snake eyes can be influenced by the roller.

Returning to our initial premise, there is no doubt that entrepreneurs are made, not born.  And most importantly, the creation is not the handiwork of unskilled labor, nor the result of outsourcing.  An entrepreneur must be self-made—as well as self-sustained.   And it is by grappling with challenges and opportunities that the species thrives.

Al Jacobs has been a professional investor for nearly four decades. He is a nationally syndicated columnist and appears regularly on ProducersWeb.com, DrLaura.com and SheKnows.com. He draws on his extensive expertise in estate, mortgage, and securities investments to counsel millions on how to invest wisely and spend prudently. He is the author of Nobody’s Fool: A Skeptic’s Guide to Prosperity. Subscribe to his financial column, “On the Money Trail,” at no cost or obligation, by visiting www.onthemoneytrail.com.

For many a new year brings a new hope.  It means that your taxes are just about ready to be filed, and new resolutions are ready to be attempted.  My take on resolutions are that they shouldn’t be tied to jsut the beginning of the year but should be laid in place and maintained with discipline year round.  For me there is less pressure and my goals are much more attainable.

• How is your emergency fund?
• Are you ready to max out your IRA?
• Have you started looking to see if you can get any deductions on your taxes?  (W-2’s will be out soon!)
• Make a list of what you will need to get for the holidays next year and stick to it.  Purchase slowly over the course of the year and stop when the list has been completed.
• Start a new calendar with your bills and their due dates.  Display where you will see it often.  When I have something long term I need to be ready for, I will use a dry erase marker on our bathroom mirror.  Its easy to clean when I am done, and I see it everyday, and not everyone else has to see it.
• Check out Mint.com and see how it can get you started.  Its a secure as logging in to your own bank, but don’t feel obligated to act on their credit card suggestions.
• Set your own credit cards to be paid automatically and make a note in your budget that that money is already spent.  You should be at least below 49% especially if you are eyeing the real estate market.

That should be enough to get your year kicked off, and speaking of which, I am going to go back to watching Penn State struggle against the formidable Trojans.  JoePa: Maybe we need you downstairs with the team?

Granted, the media does not help this widespread panic, but there is still plenty of room for worrying.

Instead of setting ourselves on fire and jumping from a high story window, Milk Your Money has a plan to not only help, but get you ahead of the game after this financial hurricane passes. 

Our belt tightening idea is really what this whole site is about.  Scrap those services and material things that are weighing down your cash flow and start milking your money. 

-Eliminate debt.  Do this first before anything else.  Make every dollar get to work in getting back to the surface.  You should not focus on saving a dime until you are not paying egregious interest on credit cards and cars.  Mortgage interest is a different story but we will get to that. 

Those that understand interest, make it.  Those that don’t, pay it. – Vincent Apostolico

-Automate it!  Set aside money to go into a money market every paycheck and then completely forget that its there.  Its like when your spouse changes the alarm clock a few minutes ahead and you don’t realize it…suddenly you start arriving to places on time.  We have a hard time wrapping our head around the fact that saving regularly, especially with compound interest, can REALLY add up over time.

-Monitor your cash flow.  See what is coming and going.  Everyday.  In fact you really should be staring at your bank account for at least 20 minutes every day in my opinion.  Keep a finger on that pulse and you will be able to head off surprises before they occur. 

-Start a Roth IRA.  You have your emergency funds fleshed out and still want to put something away that will be effective.  Start a Roth!  Its already been taxed so every little bit that goes in there is all yours, no penalties. Limited at $5,000 (49 years old and below) and $6,000 (50 years old and above).

-Taxes.  Don’t be afraid to ask someone for help if it means that you will get more money back.  Seek professional help if you think it will be worth it.  It might also be a good idea to adjust your withholding so that you get more per pay check and your refund approaches zero.  Any money the government gives you back is money that is not in your account gaining interest.  The government doesn’t give you interest for the money its holding for you do they?  Let me know if they do and I will jump on it.  (Treasury bills don’t count!)

Now that you have structured your money to work for you, imagine what things would be like if you kept them like this?  You would be used to not eating out so much, you would have securities that rise normally, your shares that you might have acquired are now worth more because you bought them at rock bottom prices.  You are now much further ahead then what you would have been if you had plodded along at your current rate.

* By no means am I devaluing the service of our men and women in our military, simply saying that its very expensive financially as well.

So go ahead!  What would you like to learn about?  Anything from site SEO to the stock market…now is your chance.  If we don’t know or the question is inappropriate, we will let you know.  Be sure to subscribe so that you can keep up with everyone’s queries.

Getting your savings in order is a tricky thing…It’s just enough ‘out of sight, out of mind’ that you can easily dismiss it throughout the day and go to sleep at night thinking, “I need to start tomorrow.”  Then tomorrow comes and its the whole cycle over again.  Over and over again.  One of the things that causes me anxiety is the idea that I will wake up one day, and it will be time to stop working for a paycheck and I will have nothing.  Maybe not nothing, but not enough to fully enjoy the remaining years of my life.  Its a scary thing, but setting up more and more financial vehicles now while there is still time gives me hope.  The hardest part is getting started.  Here are a few ideas:

Set goals. Duh.  This is an easy one.  But to elaborate a little bit, don’t just set goals, keep them.  Make a list and order it from small to grand.  The smaller goals can be anything really, like telling yourself that you will pack a lunch instead of heading out to your favorite hot sandwich spot and record how much you would have spent as well as what you have saved. Give yourself one week to do this and see what happens.  The achievement will be a great boost towards your next goal.  Your larger goals might be something more long term like some sort of time frame to have your mortgage paid off.  This will need its own set of goals of course, so set up another list for that.  Start small so these objectives are attainable and keep moving forward.

The other important thing is to talk to your spouse about what you both want and build the list together.  Its sounds dorky but my girlfriend and I do this almost weekly.  We used to have long drawn out conversations about it as we have a great deal to map out but now that we are clear with each other, these conversations are much more brief and specifically to the point.

Create a cushion. Here is where the saving begins.  Imagine a layoff or some sort of large emergency.  I recently had one and if my buddy hadn’t happened to have a travel voucher on hand I would be out $1300 for a next available flight.  I am grateful to both him and Southwest.  But it made me think:  Thats not going to happen every time.  I need to be ready for anything and be able to take care of myself.  To get this done, set up a recurring money transfer to a savings account that is devoted to be used only when absolutely necessary.  You will have to make a few sacrifices but not much.  And it will be much more worth it in the long run.  Set this goal to be at least 3 months of salary and try to achieve s good chunk of change equally 6 months worth.  I recommend ING Direct, their rates are competitive and when the economy starts to turn for the better (next year? year after?) their rates should be the first to go up.

Pay your bills automatically. We have talked about online bill pay before and while its not the most monumental idea in finance, its still pretty powerful.  Usually what happens is that you think about paying your bills and something comes up and you put it off.  You have the money for it and everything but sometimes it takes a late fee to smack you upside the head to square it away.  Just set up bill pay and save money by not getting a late fee.  Your credit score will thank you for it.

Whats your 401(k) doing? This may seem dry to some but read it anyway…its quick and easy and you really only need to do it once.  If your company has a 401(k) (or a 403(b)) talk to whoever sets it up and takes your order to set it as index funds.  Three to be exact.  One domestic, one foreign and one bond.  This doesn’t have to stay this way and I am sure there are thousands of suggestions as to what it should be but until you are ready to analyze and make informed decisions, this is probably the safest way to go for now.   Take a look at all of what Vanguard has to offer while you are at it.   Feel free to comment about other ideas though!

Automate again. See a pattern?  What you did for your emergency savings as well as your work fund, do this with a Roth IRA and a 529, if you have kids.  Or maybe even if you don’t have kids but you might someday.  These don’t have to be extreme values that cause you to live like a monk but it should be something significant.  Don’t Dump so much money that you can’t live, but then again, $5 a month is not going to work very well for you either.  Moderation.  There is a good quote about moderation that I can’t remember now…

Paper (money) or plastic (card)? Whittle your credit card debt down to one card.  Don’t cancel the rest as your credit score might take a hit but get them to zero.  You now have one bill to look at and keep track of.  Use the card with the lowest rate the most and try to lower all of them by calling.

Challenge yourself to try these.  See what you can achieve.  And then don’t worry so much about it.  Remember that if you slip up, gather yourself up and keep moving forward.  There is nothing gained by worrying about the past.

A new study from the Urban Institute prepared for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has determined that not only are closing costs confusing but there are wide variations in costs among borrowers for no apparent reason. The study found that African-American borrowers paid an additional $415 in closing cost and Latino’s paid an additional $365 on average. Keep in mind that this is just an average, some minorities paid even more, but why?

Borrowers with college degrees paid $1,100 less in closing costs on average than those that didn’t attend college. What is particularly interesting with this finding is that even if the borrowers had the SAME credit scores, salaries, or loan amounts, the variation still existed. Unless I am missing something, it seems the mortgage industry is preying on those that simply don’t understand the costs tied to closing their loans. Now, I went to college and this didn’t help me much at my closing – I’m sure I paid some costs I couldn’t have avoided if I only knew.

Quoted from the study, “Complicated loan arrangements raise the total costs to home-buyers and increase the variability of fees, suggesting that lenders and brokers in particular profit when transactions are complex and consumers have a harder time comparing alternatives.”

I hope Congress takes seriously this issue during the remaining months of their legislative session. I can not think of any other purchase a consumer makes that requires thousands of dollars upfront (none going to any principal) only to be ABLE to owe hundreds of thousands immediately + interest. I understand there is a process and legalities in order to close on a home, but these terms should be equal for all and understandable at the very least. $

These questions seem impossible to answer but we have found an answer for you. CNN Money has a nice little compilation of sites that might become your next stop in getting the low down on getting some answers. Here are the meat and potatoes:

Your financial life: Track it. Improve it. – Moneycenter.yodlee.com - Mint.com - Savingadvice.com/forums

Buying a new ride will never be the same - Edmunds.com - KBB.com - CarDeals.org

Where you can go for advice you can trust (really) - CakeFinancial.com - Zecco.com - TradeKing.com - Diehards.org - Pimco.com - leggmason.com/funds - EfficientFrontier.com

Create your own “network effect” - LinkedIntelligence.com

Get the lowest price on anything - FatWallet.com - SlickDeals.net - Amazon.com (reviews, especially those with badges by their names) - Epinions.com - PriceGrabber.com - Ebates.com

Know your home’s future – Trulia.com-Zillow.com - Maps.Live.com - Walkscore.com - SchoolMatters.com - GreatSchools.net - Outside.in

Click your way to the right school – PrincetonReview.com- CollegeBoard.com - Petersons.com - nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator - CollegeConfidential.com - CampusTours.com

Be sure to read the whole article here! Got Subscription?

A Tipping Point is essentially that point when you realize your finances have gone wild and then become under control and you are getting traction to increase your net worth. I should be more specific and say that I am more going to describe a few Mini-Tipping Points that happen frequently that will eventually accumulate into one Big Tipping Point.

The first came when I took a serious look at my finances and mapped out everything I was spending my money on. I found that I was leaking money everywhere. Eating at restaurants on a weekly basis that should have been on a monthly frequency. Signing up for services that I did not use. Buying things that I felt I needed but actually didn’t. It was rampant and wildly inappropriate. By taking serious inventory of my in flow and outflow I was better able to map out what I truly needed to focus on. My car payment, my credit cards, my student loans, rent and a myriad of other debts that needed to be taken care of. Once I had my road map it gave me a discrete goal to meet every month and showed me the power of socking away extra money.

The second one might be a little bit controversial but not really. For about 2 months I lived like a monk and put a complete clamp down on extra expenditures. By biting the bullet for a little while and not allowing myself any financial pleasures I built a healthy buffer and was then able to somewhat automate my bill paying process. Some might say that this is not the way to go; “you shouldn’t do away with things that make you happy just for the sake of saving” and/or “automation of bill paying takes you out of the loop and you aren’t able to fully maximize the amount you save.” The way I see it, this was not a perpetual thing, just temporary and the results and rewards are exponentially better then I imagined. I was able to better optimize my bills and see what need to be focused on without stressing if things were going to get paid for. Allow me to reiterate: I am not advocating that you live like a Spartan forever or that you should let go of your bills. Just buckle down and see what happens. Work now, play later. Once you get your homework done, you can go out and play. After your term paper is over, you can go to the party. After you build yourself some buffer for the future, you can pursue other endeavors that you have always wanted to do. You get the idea…

The third is a good one. Self education. I am huge believer that the human mind holds nearly an infinite amount of potential for knowledge and if you embrace your will to learn new things, 20 doors will open to you where normally only one would. Starting this site with Frank has been a complete eye opener that even 2 years ago I would have never known. I had no idea what I didn’t know and now I know tons of stuff I don’t know. Believe it or not, that feels really good to know what you don’t know. Strangely liberating. Probably due to the fact that you can actually do something about and empower yourself. Not only that, but you can then teach and show others. It goes round and round and does nothing but benefit. One thing that I always try to keep in mind is that while the saying goes that its a small world, its really not. Its actually huge. Its far bigger than you can imagine. The amount of people alone is staggering let alone all the ideas out there. Take as much in that you can, due your homework, find the truth and what it means to you and then you can go out and play.

How can you reach your tipping point? Its easy. The only way to start any journey no matter what it is, is to take small steps. Try doing one thing a day that adds to your goal of eliminating debt, saving money and building your net worth. No matter how small, just do something. Lets make a list:

Look at your bank account every day. Start by just looking at it the same time everyday. Thats it. Most people do this anyway, just not everyday. The reason why I suggest this is because your primary account is kind of like a beating heart and by checking it everyday you are feeling its pulse. This is important because invariably you will start seeing some surprises. Don’t worry if you get discouraged or mad at yourself for spending needlessly, you have made the first step: Noticing that there is a problem.

Set aside time. Now that you are in the habit of looking at your finances everyday, increase the amount of time you spend looking at your money and start working on your money. Work up until you are spending about 20 or 30 minutes everyday. You probably workout about that much right? Or you should be. You have to in order to do any good….same with money. Wild, I know.

Get frugal. Where can you milk your money? :-p Where can it best be used? What sorts of things should be paid off first? What should you avoid? Heres is a hint: high interest that you pay is the worst, focus on that first. Another easy one is find the best deals on food: Take your lunch to work, and make dinner at home. The margin that restaurants make on every sale begs the idea as to why we are all not owning them. Jump start your frugality. For the rest you are just going to have to subscribe.

Research, research, research. I cannot stress enough the value of having the hobby of finding ways to both make money as well as keep it. I have read more books on finances then is probably healthy and dig through the newspaper and as many financial magazines then any other creepy hobby and the more I learn the more I realize there is more to learn. Become curious as to what you can do to save more and spend less. There is an amazing amount of content out there.

If you ever feel as though you want to learn more about something…ask us! While we don’t claim to have the answers to the universe, we will do our best to find out as much as we can or at least point you in the right direction. Thats really what we are here for. We answer every email and respond to just about all the comments we get.

This all came about due to Free from Broke’s Contest about Tipping Points. Want in on the action? Ok here’s the scoop:

The Prize: $25 Amazon Gift Card.
How to Enter:

1. Leave a comment on this post telling him your personal finance tipping point. It can either be the moment you realized you needed to fix your finances or that point where you discovered you were finally in the black. Make sure you leave a valid email address in the comment. This will give you one (1) entry.
2. Subscribe either to his feed or via email. There will be a secret phrase at the bottom. Email him using his contact form and tell me the secret phrase. This will give you five (5) entries. (Note: If you are already subscribed you can still email him the secret phrase)
3. If you have your own blog, write about your personal finance tipping point and link back to him. Email him through his contact form with your link. This can be a full-on post or a quick few sentences in a round-up. This will give you ten (10) entries.

You can enter each way once. He’ll put all of the entries into an online randomizer to choose the winner. Entries can be submitted up to 11:59 am Friday, June 13th. He’ll contact the winner to email the gift certificate. If the email address is not valid he will award the prize to the next email address in the randomizer. Good luck! $

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Right before I left work today, I read an interesting article at Bible Money Matters, that couldn’t have come at a better time for me. Peter expands upon the notion that purchasing a home, especially for first timers, is a long, complicated and inevitably full of hidden costs. Some of these I had heard about and some were a surprise. We would like to thank BM² for the interesting content and figured we should try and contribute something as well, since this is a hot topic for many readers out there. Vered, don’t worry we are going to get to your suggestion soon.

HGTV recently ran an episode, completely full of commercials, about the 25 Biggest Real Estate mistakes that both buyers and sellers make. We are going to show them in two colors so that they can be better distinguished between buyers and sellers (or both). Now without a break for our sponsors:

25. Buying a House for its Decor
Remember that you are buying the house, not the stuff inside of it, so make sure you see beyond the decorations and look at the bones of the home. Focus on the floor plan and the square footage. You also might want to measure the dimensions and graph out how that’s going to work with your current belongings.

24. Not Providing Easy Access for Showings
Make your house easily accessible to potential buyers. If there’s nowhere to park or it’s difficult to get into, buyers may just skip it and look at someone else’s property instead.

23. Not Researching the Neighborhood
It’s absolutely critical that you research the neighborhood before you buy. Check out the area, amenities and the school system to be sure that your address corresponds with the correct school district. Also attend a community meeting, if possible. You’re not just buying a house, you’re buying a piece of that real estate and the land around it.

22. Losing Money With Auctions
While the starting bidding price for a house on auction might be a good deal, it doesn’t mean the final price will be. Make sure that you are very strict with your budget when you are bidding — do not go over your final price because you got wrapped up in the excitement of a bidding war. Another thing to keep in mind is that when you buy a property at auction, you aren’t able to get any of the warranties or guarantees, and you are not able to do a home inspection. Find out if the auctioneer is going to put those charges on top of the sale price as well as if there are any liens on the property. You could be responsible for paying the property taxes on that house you just bought, which could make what looks like a good deal into a really bad deal.

21. Trying to Make the “Hard Sell” While Showing
If you are selling your house, you really shouldn’t be around at the open house. You might want to try and sell the place on all the reasons you think the house is great, but that might not translate to the buyer. If you leave, you allow the buyers to really give unbiased objective feedback to the agent, which is only going to help you in the end.

20. Waiting Until Spring to Sell Your House
Spring is the time of heaviest real estate activity, but that does not mean that people don’t buy houses 365 days of the year. That doesn’t mean you can’t emphasize your home’s seasonal amenities.

19. Treating Real Estate Like the Stock Market
When the real estate market is really hot and is appreciating really fast, people tend to look at it like it’s the stock market. But playing real estate is nothing like the stock market — when you invest in real estate, you really need to take a long-term approach.

18. Failing to Market Your Home in Different Ways
Don’t market your home with just a for-sale sign. Explore other marketing tools as well. Talk to your real estate agent about the marketing that they will do. It’s something that should be set up from the initial signing of a contract with an agent. Some homes have virtual tours and photographs online. If you choose to go that route, don’t forget to include the floor plans. That way, people can see the layout of your home and know that if it it’s right for them.

17. Not Thinking About Resale
When you are decorating and renovating your home, you need to think about what is going to appeal to a broad section of buyers when it comes time to sell it. Buying houses and being in the real estate market is like chess, you always want to look two or three steps ahead in the game.

16. Buying Without Actually Seeing the Property
It’s really easy to buy a house without seeing it because of the Internet and virtual tours, but virtual tours can be deceiving. Plus, it’s really hard to actually get a sense and feel of a home by only looking at it online. You need to actually walk through the place yourself. If that’s just not possible, hire an inspector to go look at the property and provide you with an assessment.

15. Trusting Everything a Real Estate Advertisement Says
Don’t assume every ad is fact. Learn to decipher real estate lingo. For example, cozy means small, and as-is means it’s a fixer-upper. If there are a lot of exclamation points in an ad, it means they are there just to take up room because there is so little to say about the place. Follow the old adage: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

14. Picking the Wrong Agent
Treat meetings with agents like a job interview because that’s really how it works — that person is going to be working for you. Talk to your friends who’ve sold houses and had a good experience with their agent, and go to open houses and observe how that agent interacts with other people. It’s also a good idea to meet with the agent in their office. It allows you to see how organized they are, what kind of environment they work in and whether that’s conducive for them being able to do a good job for you.

13. Not Hiring an Agent
There’s a lot more to selling a house than just putting a sign on the front lawn. If you don’t have an agent, you will not get on the multiple-listing service (MLS). That means that other agents are not going to know that your property is for sale. Another thing to consider is if you are willing to show the house each time someone wants to come by and look at it? If you do plan to sell your house on your own, always have a lawyer present at a closing. It’s really important to have someone on your side who understands all the complexities.

12. Buying the Most Expensive Home on the Block
The most expensive house will only depreciate in value over time, rather than appreciate, which is what you want. Also, those houses are often not the first house to sell because they are usually overbuilt to the neighborhood. It’s absolutely critical that you research the neighborhood before you buy to find out what the price point should be.

11. Not Setting a Realistic Budget
Just because the bank pre-qualifies you for a loan amount of $400,000 doesn’t mean you can afford to make that payment every month. Before hitting the streets for a house hunt, you should sit down and make a monthly budget of what you spend every month. Come up with a number that you are comfortable spending on your mortgage payment, aside from those other expenditures. An easy way to do this is to take a third of your gross income and have that figure be the number you spend on the house. It is also a good idea to have six to nine months of mortgage payments in the bank, plus a little extra if you have any repairs that you might need to do.

10. Visiting the House Only Once
It’s important to visit a house more than once because the neighborhood itself may be very different, depending on the day of the week and the time of day. It’s also a good idea to go home and think about it, even sleep on it, before you go back again.

9. Not Being Pro-Active at Closing
The best thing to do when going into a closing is to get all the paperwork ahead of time. All that information should come from a mortgage broker or banker. They have what they call a HUD (Housing and Urban Development) One form that lists out all the charges, and you can legally get it in your hands 24 hours before closing. Schedule the closing for in the morning, so you have a fresh mind and plenty of time to go over everything and ask questions. The final walk-through is another imperative part of the process. You may want to have a home inspector accompany you.

8. Doing Major Renovations/Remodeling Before Selling
Minor upgrades usually have a higher return on your money than tackling major renovations before placing a home on the market. The main reason? Huge construction projects always cost more than you think they will, and they also take longer than you expect. The best place to spend money is outside. Research shows that increasing the curb appeal often returns the most value on your money. It’s what gets buyers inside the house, after all.

7. Skipping the Loan Pre-Approval Step
When you are pre-approved, the bank is saying, “we will give you a mortgage of up to this amount, so now all you have to do is find your home.” Some sellers only allow realtors to show their house if someone has a pre-approved letter. That indicates that the shopper really is serious about buying a home.

6. Falling in Love With the First Property You See
Many home buyers, particularly first time home buyers, fall into the trap of falling in love with the very first house that they see. You need to at least look at three more houses in the area to get an idea of what the comparables are in that price range. You want your realtor now to show you homes comparable to what you saw. At the end of the day, re-evaluate.

5. Buying a Home Without a Professional Inspection
There are a lot of things a home inspection can reveal about a property that are not visible to the naked eye. Be sure to hire someone that comes with a good referral basis, that’s been in the business a while and knows what to look for. Look up the American Society of Home Inspectors and get a list of qualified home inspectors in your area. Once you find an inspector, insist that they compile a written report, complete with photos. Photographs are important because there are areas a home inspector will go that you might not look at.

4. Overlooking the Extra and Hidden Costs
Buying a home is not just about the money that you spend up front; it’s about all the rest of the money you have to spend beyond that. Find out what the property taxes are, what your water bill might be and what a standard electric bill is in that home, especially if you have electric heat vs. gas heat. You also need to factor in furnishings you may need to purchase before you can move in.

3. Buying What You Want, Not What You Need
Look at the space that you are already living in. It will help you to realize what you have been missing and what you need in your next home. Make a list those of needs and then ask your agent to start shopping these needs. On average, Americans live in a house for about nine years. Remember, you can always trade up a few times before you find the ultimate home.

2. Setting Too High of a Sale Price
As a seller its really important to do your research, and in order to come up with your sale price, look up what comparable homes in your neighborhood have sold for. Figure out what the going price is and try to put yours right in the middle of that, unless you have something extra special to offer. It is always better to price a home sharply than to start too high and have to reduce. Once you reduce, it always looks like something is wrong with the home.

1. Failing to Showcase Your Home and Make Small Cosmetic Changes
When you are selling your house, you have to really look at it objectively and think about it from the viewpoint of the house hunter. Make minor enhancements to the house and maybe hire a professional stager to come and arrange your furniture. Staging is about decorating your house for the buyers’ taste, not yours. A great place to start is with the front of the home and the main entryway. Home staging is designed to increase the potential selling price and reduce the amount of time the house stays on the market.

As you can see, this is a valuable list for those seeking to buy or sell. It’s nice to see what the other side is thinking a little bit.

What experiences good and bad have you had in buying a home? I’ll be honest, I have been looking since January and I think that its probably never going to happen and I am going to just rent for the rest of my natural life as the process is outrageous.

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We hear from a good number of people that they would like to have more money. Not just have more, but make more. They talk about the need to get a better paying job, how they can barely afford to pay the bills and if only they made more money every month, then all their problems would be solved. However, having more money, can in many situations, make things worse. Its just about a proven fact that a huge majority of lottery winners end up in ruin not because they have too much money, but they use that money to dig themselves a hole of debt. It takes a considerable amount of discipline to manage huge sums of money and the truly wealthy are good at it, simply because they have had the practice. Who is going to be a better golfer: Tiger Woods with the run of the mill clubs, or you, who has the bleeding edge of club technology? There’s an analogy in there somewhere, but I digress…

»What we need are not only a few simple steps to get us on the right track but also the ability to stay on that track. Before you think to yourself, I need more money, think about making the most of what you already have.«

1. Stop the Bleeding – Get a detailed printout of your current monthly purchases and give it a hard look. What are the most common things you buy? For my girlfriend it was Starbucks. Every morning she would order a half-caff, triple latte, super espresso quad-shot coffee that would have given your whole family a permanent orange afro after it peeled the paint off your house. You can imagine how expensive this was, especially on a daily basis. It adds up and now that she brews it herself, we save, literally, about $130 a month. Apply these thoughts to your own image of spending. What are buying constantly that might be considered “extra.” It’s ok to cut out a little at a time; the goal is to not alter your lifestyle, but to reduce the expenditures that come along with it.

2. Budget – Get into the habit of monitoring your finances on a weekly basis. Set aside a solid 20-30 minutes a week to assess your money. Examine what you spent money on and what you saved and keep track of it. Even if you don’t necessarily have a perfect day, the notes and trends you see will help you in the long run. Wealthy people seem to never worry about their money, but they have a very accurate pulse on their financial situation. There are several ways to do this; Quicken, Microsoft Money, Mint, Wesabe, Geezeo and Lazy Man’s personal fave: simple spreadsheet. Here’s ours.

3. Bills – One way to manage bills is to set up automatic payments, once you are caught up of course. It is far better to scrape by until you adjust than to miss a payment here and/or there and have your credit report take a hit from late or non-payment. You will also be able to judge for your budget how much you have left over and set that money aside preemptively. Then you don’t have to worry about it, its being paid. Important note: Keep very specific notes on all bills you set up for auto bill pay. You are going to consult this whenever it comes time to buy other items, like groceries for example. Keep close track until you are in the habit of recognizing how much you have every month.

4. Saving Methods – We are big advocates of investing, but then again that’s the industry where both Frank and I work. However, there are few drier things then learning about stocks, bonds, interest rates, capital gains, tax exemptions, deductions, liquid returns, and P/E ratios for most of us to entertain for any length of time. Lately, we have been talking about some of the most sure fire ways to save without thinking about it. Both Wachovia and Bank of America have saving programs that set aside small sums frequently over the course of your spending, and employers will set any amount aside for you into any account you choose. ING Direct has some nice rates for long term savings, as well as checking. Keep in mind that rates are not good right now due to the Fed dropping them so low. Watch this, history has shown that when they get very low, it comes time to crank them up and when they do, especially when the economy is in this sort of situation, you can almost bet that it will be fast. But that’s a whole other article.

5. Maintaining Financial Discipline – After all this is said and done and you feel as though you have reigned in the wild spending of your spouse, or yourself, you are going to need to be diligent about keeping up with it. Educate yourself. Yea, its hard work and is sometimes a little boring. But then again 1) if it were easy, you would already be doing it and would not be reading this 2) eventually, it will be a habit and over time it will really pay off. No pun intended. (Well, maybe a little intended.)

6. Temptations – What about when we get into having a few extra dollars coming our way? These sorts of things happen from time to time and the best policy is to really just grab onto every penny and not let go. Populate an emergency fund in a high interest money market, or at least in a savings account with your current bank. Then forget about it. Its hard to convey this but you will absolutely be glad you did when the time comes. If you have already done that, then jumpstart your 401(k)/403(b). If you are already maxing that out, then drop it into an index fund. Anything, but park it into your checking account and having access to it through your debit card. The same applies with any windfall or raise. Be disciplined and simply try it. You will be amazed at the results.

These are but a few most basic principles to consider but powerful none the less. Take advantage of what you are already making and be diligent and you might find a few financial surprises right under your nose. $

Today I would like to reflect on one of my most infamous purchases. This was a long time ago and has since drilled some nice principles into my spending habits and the way I spend money. I still make mistakes now and again but this was one of the first that really hit home that I needed to change my financial life style. There have been other milestones but this was by far the dumbest thing I have ever paid money for. I feel as though I am far enough past it in order to not only talk openly about it but to try and provide some insight to others who might inadvertently make the same mistake I did. Being that it is also for DebtKid’s (Dumbest Purchase) Contest, it seemed like an appropriate time to bring such a painful memory.

I was a sophomore in college and was receiving financial aid out the wazoo. I had the advantage of not having lucrative income from my parents and that caused my FAFSA to tell the government that I was in a bad way and needed as much as the tax payers could swing. Naturally this left me with a fair amount of “extra” disbursement to afford books, food and rent.

The day after I got a whopping check for $2,011.76 I felt that I needed to spend it as soon as possible. (Of course, if I had said this to myself now I would think differently, but I digress…) What does a young male in a college town need more than anything?? Why a vehicle of course! And not just any vehicle, but something cool.

My college town was surrounded by two things; farms and “mom-and-pop” used car lots. At first I thought that I would simply go with the run of the mill pick up truck like a good majority of my friends and then I saw it.

A silver 1985 Fleetwood Cadillac. Complete with velor bench seats, all electronic controls and enough trunk space to smuggle the population of Mexico, if only my politics would allow. That car was absolutely beautiful. I quickly asked if I could take it for a test spin. It was like driving a cloud. So quiet it was eerie. There were seemingly no bumps in the road and it had a nice old school feel that made it seem like I had been driving it for years. I got about 3 miles down the road and made a silky smooth U-turn with the thin steering wheel turning loosely like it knew what I was doing and drive it right back to the car lot.

“How much?” I asked as I got out. The car salesman said “Well I’d say about $2,000.” I knew that I was going to need a bit for the tax and title so I said, “I’ll write you a check right now if we can do $1,700.” “Yea I think we can do that.” This boat was mine!

I drove it for about 2 weeks and had no trouble justifying to myself that 3 miles per gallon was not a bad deal and the strange lights flashing on the dash board were a throw back from the paranoia of the Reagan Administration due to the Cold War. I saw past any scratch that seemed to slowly appear and couldn’t help but drive it even when completely unnecessary to do so.

November came and I needed to drive down to Raleigh to fly home for Thanksgiving. I was excited because I was going to cruise in the Fat Caddy, and listen to the old tapes I had no other use for. I can only look back on this time in my life and shake my head.

Upon returning back from visiting family, I began the 2 hour drive back to my apartment. About 20 minutes after being on the freeway, one of the mysterious lights on the dash board began to need more and more attention. Lights were beeping and lights were flashing like some sort of bad emergency situation on the space shuttle. What in the world could be the issue? Then the beeping stopped. Whew what a relief! This miraculous car had some how healed itself! Not even five minutes later a beeping ensued like I had never heard before. It was urgent, pained and very unhappy. Then that beeping stopped. Not because of some deity-like intervention.

The car had shut off.

So there I was cruising down the interstate slowly going from about 70 to zero with no power steering at about 8:30 at night in a state where I knew no one.

Luckily I still had a working battery and some genius had put a bulb under the hood so I could take a gander at what started all the ruckus. Billowing sweet smelling steam was filling the roadside and I thought perhaps that a hose had just come off. A little further inspection showed that a hose had split. I walked to a gas station about a mile away and bought some duct tape and bottle of cheap conditioner and went in to MacGyver mode. I emptied out the conditioner, wrapped it around the house after cutting it, and duct taped the day lights out of it and got back on the road.

The plastic on the bottle and duct tape quickly melted from the insanely high temperature and I repeated this process trying different things over and over. I got home about 8 hours later, at about 4 AM.

The car was still drivable to me. I couldn’t drive it for more than 10 minutes before it over heated and the mechanic said that it was going to cost more than $500 to fix. But it was a small town and as long as I didn’t go far, and no one complained about the incredible amount of smoke it was producing, I would be fine. The mechanics diagnosis was a cracked cylinder head from over heating and he said that it would eventually seize and ruin the block. What did he know? It still drive fine in short spurts!

A week later it “seized.”

So now I had a car that I couldn’t drive, couldn’t fix and had a hard time looking at due to the betrayal I felt. So I parked it in front of my apartment and left it there for the better part of a year. Eventually the registration tags ran out and the tires rotted and it became an even worse sinking ship. That’s not even the end of this story.

I woke one day and happened to look out and saw that the car was gone. I called the tow company and they said they had towed it due to “complaints and that it had obviously been deemed abandoned.” I could hardly blame them, it was in sorry shape and had seen fairer days, but honestly they could have just asked.

Of course I had no money to get it out car jail, and had just gotten a Jeep Cherokee that my mom handed down, so what did I do? I signed over my title to the car towing company. It was a $70 towing fee that I traded that Cadillac for. I spent just under $2,000 and then paid to have it given away.

Please keep your comments gentle as I still look upon other Caddys as something special, and this is a bit of a sore subject for me. It was also an incredibly valuable lesson. I drove that Jeep for over 10 years, across the country and back, twice, and had every maintenance check done to it that I could. I plan on driving my current vehicle for even longer. $

MoneyCrashers.com has an article a list about a few principles regarding money and we would like to address them.  Over all, its a great list.  Feel free to comment!

1.  Always spend less than you make.
Naturally, this is in first place as it keeps the saver moving in the right direction, regardless of how fast or slow.  By setting up a budget and keeping to it, your options down the road are far more substantial and lucrative.  Lets face it, if you even want to stand a chance of reaching your financial goals, spending more than you make will never get you there, so stop it! 

2.  Do not believe in money myths.
Research, research, research.  Take everything with a grain of salt and don’t believe anything until you have read or heard from either the source or someone equally reputable.  There are a great deal of myths out there dealing with money and of course if a deal sounds too good to be true, you can bet that’s the case.

3.  Get out of debt and stay out of debt.
This is most important in the early stages of getting on the right track with your finances.  Always keep this in mind when contemplating purchases.  The best thing to consider, I feel, is to explore the long term effects:
     a) Is there an interest rate?  If so, for how long?
     b) Will this put me into debt or overdraw my account?
     c) Can I live without this item for two weeks or is it an impulse buy?

4.  Save money for the unexpected
Murphy’s Law states that if something can go wrong, then it will.  Life pops up sometimes and really gives it to us and we have a responsibility to be prepared.  There’s no reason not to prioritize an emergency fund.  You will be glad you did and you will then have ample time to rebound from it successfully.  Remember, it is probably better to make payments on a debt and keep a couple thousand in the bank, than it is to withdrawl the money to pay down the debt. 

5.  Pay for education with cash.
We could probably write a whole other site on student loans, or at least a few posts.  Student loans are normally taken when a student is excited and has a ”fake money” approach to borrowing because payments are deferred and its one of those “out-of-site-out-of mind” type things.  Well, those loan companies are going to come looking for all that money about 6 months after you graduate.  One of the worst things for your credit is to default on these loans.  Be diligent about it and take any extra disbursements and give what you can right back.  You will actually save yourself quite a bit of money in the long run and have a huge leg up on your net worth.

6.  Find creative ways to boost your income.
Another quote I like is “What you do on Saturdays is what puts you ahead of the competition.”  Is there anything you can think of that you do really well?  Write about it!  Even the tiny trickle you can get from Adsense will pay for it and you will learn a great deal?  What about eBay?  Is there anything you can sell?  You might even buy certain things and resell them for a profit.  There are about 40 trillion sites out there dedicated to this very topic.  The idea is that we are all given time but it comes down to what we devote our time into.  Preferably, it turns out to be lucrative. 

7.  Invest for the long-term and keep it simple.
Automatic investing will be your best friend for this.  Find out what monies you might be able to live without and get it deposited into something.  Even if your parking it at first, as long as you eventually get that money working for you, you will be far, far better off than if you hadn’t.  The important thing to remember is to NOT touch it.  No matter what.  Even if its in the stock market and the value drops:  Don’t be emotional about it, have faith.  Remember that for long-term investing, a drop in price is actually good: Its on sale!  We also recommend heavy research in stocks unless its an index or ETF.  Google Finance is a great free tool.  Consider reading an early post on the subject titled, “When the Market Falls, Don’t Panic.”

8.  Educate yourself about real estate, cars, and financial products.
A little redundant since we already talked about doing tons of research, but this also refers to investing in yourself some.  With knowledge.  Being an informed user of real estate, cars and other financial products can only benefit you.

9.  Avoid scams and financial predators.
Your bank has not lost your account information.  There is absolutely no one in Nigeria that needs your help moving millions.  Any email that inquires for you to log in right away is trying to spoof your identity and walk off with all your hard earned money.  Be wary of links that don’t match when you hover over them.  Its very easy to have a link say one thing and go somewhere else and pull the images from the real site.  When you suspect something, close the email or browser and go to the actual sites: if its for real they will put a message on the main page of the site.  But for the most part, be skeptical and educate yourself.  Getting your identity stolen is an awful violation that you need not be a part of.

10.  Give, Give, and Give more.
I would say that this applies when you have some extra money and are aggressively maintaining assets that have no place to go.  When would this happen?  Well keep in mind that there are those that are not as fortunate and it feels good to give.  Just be sure that you won’t be hurt financially by it, in the sense that it can cause debt or missed payments.  Giving when appropriate will also be your friend during tax time.

11.  You and your spouse are a team!
One of the leading causes of divorce is due to money.  You have to be united to be successful; not just in money but in most things.  It can strain a relationship where you are working hard toward a goal and your significant other removes all your progress with what seems like carelessness.  Communication is key here.

 Any thoughts on this?  $

Every month we will gather up some of our most well received posts and quotes, in case they were missed as well as to give some financial highlights to consider for the month ahead.  We will also discuss some of our sites traffic activity.

We had quite a successful first month!  We had well over 3,550 visitors this month and our subscriber level has more than exceeded our expectations.  We would like to thank everyone that contributed and encourage all our current readers to pass the word along. 

As a reminder, we do our best to post daily (before noon) and we encourage our readers to submit any financial questions that they would like discussed.  You can ask us just about anything financially related and we will research and let you know the ins-and-outs, with the goal of milking the most from your money!  Here is a quick list of some of the best articles:

2/20/2008 Five Things to Buy New and Five Things to Buy Used
“We have recommended five items that you may be better off buying used and five where buying used is not worth it.”

2/19/2008 Wachovia’s “Way2Save” and Bank of America’s “Keep the Change” Saving Programs
“As this troubling trend of insufficient savings continues, banks have created new ways to encourage saving, but should you enroll?”

2/29/2008 The Impact Fees Have on Mutual and Index Funds
“Consider this; a 1% fee charged on your retirement fund can reduce earnings by 17% over twenty years.” 

2/27/2008 Participate in your Employers 401(k) Match Program
“If you participate in your employer match program for 30 years, earning an average of 8% a year on your investments and make $50,000/annually with 6% match you would accumulate $496,289 over the 30 years. Only $60,000 of the $496,289 is actually coming from your check, the rest is employer matched and interest.” 

2/21/2008 My Credit Card Interest Rate Raised for No Reason
“Nearly half of the people who call into their (credit card) company asking for a reduced rate are successful.” 

2/14/2008 Take Your Lunch to Work 
“This simple decision if turned into a habit has the potential to save you $11/day (cost of a haircut) $55/week (cost to take your wife to dinner) $220/month (cost of your electricity bill) or $2,640/year (down payment on a car)” 

2/13/2008 Milk Your Economic Stimulus Rebates
“2,000 (the average rebate) invested today growing at 8% annually would give you $21,871.46 in 30 years.” 

3/12/2008 Auto-Milking
“The absolute best way to save money in the long run is to not have a car payment” 

3/11/2008 Creating a Budget
“But remember, you work an estimated 160 hours a week to earn your money, you owe it to yourself to spend a few minutes to determine how best to spend it!”