Due to the recession, we’re unsure how long we’re staying in our current home. We continue to make improvements to our home so it’s ready to be sold when the market starts looking up. While talking about this with my mom, she informed me of a way to cut years off of our mortgage. She’s currently taking advantage of this “deal”.
Instead of paying your mortgage once per month, pay 1/2 the amount every two weeks! Simple as that. This cuts your mortgage down because instead of making only 12 payments, you’re making 26 half-payments (52/payments every 2 weeks) equal to 13 full payments. So you end up making one extra full payment spread over the course of the year. This will not work if you make payments twice per month, which would be the same as 24 half-payments or 12 regular payments.
One trick to this is that you need to be aware of is that your bank will charge you a fee to set up automatically deducted bi-weekly payments. You can avoid this fee by dropping the payment off in the mail or at the bank.
Now I know this doesn’t sound like it will work. Another trick is that when you make those two extra half-payments, tell the bank to apply those amounts to the principal, not the interest. This will really take a chunk out of your mortgage!
I thought I was quite organized with my business finances… until I did self-employment business taxes for the first time this year.
Although I kept everything organized, it wasn’t enough and I had a lot of papers to go through to verify some things. I worked for quite a few companies but didn’t make enough to warrant a 1099 form. So, I went on a search for free money trackers – something that could be just for my business expenses. I could not find a site used only for businesses, but there isn’t any reason why the following sites could not be used.
- Mint is a free service that allows you to track your money without having to download it to a program – it downloads your information automatically every night and it only takes 5 minutes to set up. If you decide to add your credit cards, it will analyze them to see if you could be saving money with another card. The site also picks out the best credit card for you based on your budget and where you shop the most. With Mint, you can set up a budget and apply your savings to your highest interest rate credit card balance. The program allows you to track car payments, retirement funds, investments, and student loans. After looking into it, I may use this for my student loans, which I have a lot of and through more than one company. The good thing about this is that Mint will analyze my student loans to see if I can get a better deal by consolidating through a variety of lenders.
- Quicken Online allows you to track your accounts and also make a budget. You can even track your finances on the go through your cell phone. Although a perk of this service is that you can set up automatic reminders for upcoming payments, that’s something you can do through Google Calender or your own credit card companies. Like Mint, registration is free and takes only 5 minutes.
- Wesabe a free service as well and is supposed to be for for those new to finance tracking, You “tag” your purchases to track where your money is going. A lack of tracking options are a disappointing feature of this free service – you can go to Quicken or Mint for more tracking options. But a unique plus side is that they have a community area – people review financial products and advisers are available for questions.
I’m signing up with Mint, due to the student loan options. It seems like that site will help me get the most out of my finances. I’m wondering if any of you have tried either of these services. Have you tried one that’s not listed? Do you like it or not and why?
Happy New Year! With each New Year, comes the stress of new beginnings and new goals. We’re given the chance to start fresh and turn over a new leaf. (more…)
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