Helping Simplify Your Personal Finances

Everyone is talking about the possibility of Congress approving the economic stimulus plan’s tax rebate. If approved taxpayers will receive a check in the mail from our government to try to stimulate the economy. According to the plan one could receive anywhere from $300.00 - $1200.00.

If you are wondering how much you may receive you should check out this site’s economic stimulus plan’s tax rebate calculator. See below.

New York Is Number 1 Choice For Foreign Investors

New York is the top choice in the world for foreign real estate investors. Last year New York held the number 2 spot. I am actually really surprised New York is the number 1 destination for foreign real estate investment.

Foreign Investors strongly believe the United States offers very stable and secure real estate investments.

Here are the top 5 foreign real estate investment cities:

1. New York
2. Washington D.C. (tied)
2. London (tied)
4. Paris
5. Shanghai

Real Estate Market Turning Home Owners Into Criminals

There is a very scary link to the declining housing market and rising arson rate. It looks as if there are many homeowners who are pushed to their limits and turning into criminals during these hard times.

The Detroit Fire Department can’t draw a definitive link between its rising arson rate (151 arrest warrants in 2007), rising foreclosures (up more than 65% last year) and falling housing prices (the region’s median house price dropped 17.3% in the past four years, to $145,173).

According to this unfortunate news people are willing to commit arson and insurance fraud in order to get out of their mortgages. The insurance companies have been giving settlements left and right and for the most part are not undertaking full arson investigations.

Arson crimes are on the rise in suburbs. The amount of insurance reported “questionable” house fires were also on the rise. Arrests and warrants for arson have been climbing as well.

I thought this war was going to last at least 5 years.  A recent change of events has many believing that Blu-Ray will become victorious in the HD format war.  Warner Bros. just announced they are dropping the HD-DVD format for the Blu-Ray format.  Many studios are now backing and going Blu-Ray exclusive.

These recent events have caused HD-DVD player sales to literally halt.   According to raw retail data collected by NPD, consumers bought just 1,758 HD DVD players the week of January 12, down from 14,558 players the week before. In contrast, consumers bought 21,770 Blu-ray Disc machines, up from 15,257 the previous week.

I am glad I purchased my PS3 which reportedly has one of the best playback capabilities due to the auto updates and constant firmware releases.  I will be posting the 10 reasons I see the PS3 as the smartest HD player purchase.

And yes I am back to publishing on this site.  Overall the site has a large number of visitors and comments to posts.  I will try to maintain 2-3 posts per week.  Stay Tuned!

7 Tips To Become An Effective Leader

Leadership is a key ingredient in success. Many successful people will agree leadership is very important and effective in all businesses. We have some very easy tips on how to become a more effective leader.

Be Motivating

• Be considerate
• Give credit where credit is due
• Be courteous
• Show confidence in your members

Be Passionate

• Develop a strong passion for each cause
• Passion gives direction to a vision
• Your passion will be visible and grow on others

Prioritize

• Keep lists and prioritize based on importance and urgency
• Important and urgent
• Important, but not urgent
• Urgent, but not important
• Not urgent and not important

Continue reading →

The Holiday Credit Killer - Discounts Using In-Store Credit

Everyone is heading out to the malls and department stores looking for the perfect holiday gifts. Don’t get caught in a credit trap that many companies are now offering. This scheme is to offer a decent discount when a customer signs up or uses in-store credit. These offers sound good and may save you a few dollars at the register but will haunt you and hurt your credit. This post will make it easier for you to understand and spot these tricky credit killers.

You may have been at a register when a customer service clerk tells you about “an exciting offer where you can save 20% off your entire purchase by signing up for a in-store credit card.” The amount of money you will save will not make up for the potential damage to your credit and the money you may spend in interest. Stay away from these so called deals this holiday season.

Here are a few facts on in-store credit cards

• Opening a new credit account will temporarily lower your credit score.
• Usually during the holidays customers overspend, this can really hurt your credit score if you have a high debt to credit ratio.
• Depending on your current financial situation, the high annual percentage rate may greatly overshadow the few dollars saved at the time of purchase.
• Usually in-store credit cards have a very high APR and most of the time it would be smarter to use your favorite regular credit card

We don’t recommend you use any credit this year on holiday shopping.

Continue reading →

Everyone loves going to the movies.  Do you realize how much movies actually cost?  The average adult goes to the movies once every two months.  I know many people that go at least every other week.  It wasn’t long before I questioned the true costs of moviegoers.  Here is what I found based on an average adult moviegoer.  The numbers are especially important to couples and families because you will need to multiply the totals per person.

• A single adult movie ticket: $9.50
• A large fountain drink: $4.50
• A regular popcorn: $4.50
• Total each visit: $18.50

Add tax and gas and you are at a whopping $20.00 per person.  Some theaters even make you pay for parking.

At $20.00 here is the breakdown per year.

• If you go once every two months: $120.00 per year
• If you go once a month: $240.00 per year
• If you go twice a month: $480.00 per year

Continue reading →

Blogging Away Debt has fully funded their emergency fund.

Blogtrepreneur shows some of the many benefits of planning.

Frugal For Life reminds us to always check our receipts.

Get Rich Slowly shows books can be an investment if you gain knowledge from them.

Make Love Not Debt shows us how to get free lattes while you bank.

Stock Trading To Go shows us what can happen if you don’t diversify your stocks .

I am sure everybody has had that day where it is hard to find motivation. Sometimes I wake up barely finding the energy to get out of bed. These days can be hard and unproductive.

There are tricks to break through these motivation barriers. Sometimes your body or mind just needs some assistance to get motivated.

1. Take A Shower - Sometimes it takes a clean body and mind to find motivation. Hopping in the shower works very well for me. I usually shave and listen to music too. The cleaner and better looking you feel, the more motivation you will have.

2. Go Exercise - Exercise is proven in studies to increase self esteem. It is a lot easier to find motivation with an increase in self esteem. Exercising in the morning keeps my motivation high throughout the day. Note: Please take a shower after exercising. Continue reading →

This website is such a great idea.  Visit freerice.com for a chance to donate food to the hungry without paying a cent.  All you need to do is play a fun word game.  The game is rather fun to play, you will expand your vocabulary, and provide free rice to feed the hungry.

The game is a word matching game where you match a word to the meaning.  Each correct answer you get right the site donates 20 grains of rice through the United Nations to help end world hunger.  While you play you get to watch the total of your donation rise.  The best part is the advertisers of the site are paying for the rice you earn.

The concept of the site is simple and geniuous.  Here is how it works. When you play the game, advertisements appear on the bottom of your screen. The money generated by these advertisements is then used to buy the rice. So by playing, you generate the money that pays for the rice donated to hungry people.

Freerice started on October 7th, 2007.  In just a month and a half the site has donated over 4,181,025,950 grains of rice.  This is amazing!

After playing the game for a few minutes I have donated 780 grains of rice.  I will be sending this link to my friends and family.

Check it out and enjoy the benefits of:

• Improving your vocabulary
• Helping cure world hunger
• Feeling good about yourself