Cutting out your local phone bill can Save $500 a Year. Most of us these days use cell phones. I am currently already paying over $100 a month for my iPhone service which I use for my business. My wife and daughter are both on my plan. Eventually my daughter will have her own plan which will save me when I knock off the $30 for unlimited text messages. But take it from me the $30 is worth it if they ever go over which has happened.
So I asked myself why am I paying this amount of money for my cellphone service and then still have a local phone? It just doesn’t make sense except for the fact that my wife likes to have a local phone too. I really think most people are just so used to having a local phone that they rely on it even though you have a cellphone to use.
Now I understand that you have to charge the cellphone up more if you are using it all the time. But this is easy if you get a cellphone charger in your car and just charge it up as you are driving.
I have a great deal on my local phone and unlimited long distance through my cable company. I only pay a little over $40 per month with the taxes and fees. Many people are paying around $60-70 a month for their local phone. Now this can range from $500 – $700 per month. This is a decent amount of money if you look at it this way over a years time.
So my decision is to cut out the local phone and go to just using our cellphones. I am going to bite the bullet. It is all in an attempt to become more frugal in my daily living and look for ways to cut out expenses that are duplicate or things I just really don’t need.
Now you may be asking do you need an iPhone? Actually I have been thinking about cutting that out too. It is a great way for me to check my online income remotely. I also can use it to text message, check my emails and keep organized. Do I utilize it the way I should, no. I want to start becoming more efficient through the use of the iPhone apps, but if I don’t I might decide to do away with it thereby saving me more money. That is another topic for another day.
Right now I feel good about saving the $500 per year by cutting out my local phone.
The idea behind our site at MakingaMillionDollars is to find all kinds of ways to be frugal and cut expenses. Then you use that extra money to pay debts off completely. Then you get into a position where you can invest that extra money and make more money. We will then explain ways in the future of increasing your income by starting a business from home.
It does not have to be a business that replaces your full time income, but supplements it. Keep reading our posts into the future to learn more!
A Mortgage Payment Calculator can come in real handy when you just want a quick check on what your mortgage payment will be with principal and interest. Below is a mortgage payment calculator you can use. I am going to add a category to MakingaMillionDollars for calculators. I will add and discuss the ones that have been most helpful to me. I just bought a home and when searching by price, the mortgage payment calculator came in real handy. If you ever need a good calculator to figure this out, just come back to our site and click on the category calculators and you will see our different calculators you can choose from. Planning ahead and figuring out what your debt is and how much and how fast you will pay it down is important to know as you go forward.
Just put in the number of years your loan is for and the interest rate. Also add your total loan amount you will be financing and hit calculate. This is your payment with principle and interest. Now remember you will have to figure out your insurance and real estate taxes separately and add them onto this amount. This is just purely your payment with principle and interest.
Well, the Dictionary definition is below. But I think it means so much more.
fru·gal (frgl)
adj.
1. Practicing or marked by economy, as in the expenditure of money or the use of material resources. See Synonyms at sparing.
2. Costing little; inexpensive: a frugal lunch.
I actually think that being frugal is more important now than ever. We have seen what wild spending has done to our economy. Especially when many could not afford the material items they were buying. Now I think we can also go overboard with the concept of being Frugal, but I think it is all in how each of us lives our own lives and what economic situation we are in that will determine what being frugal is to us.
I actually think in the thought process of MakingaMillionDollars we have to start thinking a little bit differently. There are good ways to spend money and bad and wasteful ways. Buying a house can be a great way to spend your money. A house appreciates over time or at least we hope it will over the next few years when the market cycle comes back. You can write off the interest paid on your house and get tax money back. You can live in your house and enjoy it with your family. You can also turn around and rent your house out as a rental or investment home.
But, a real expensive car or buying multiple TV’s and electronics can be very wasteful and all of these items depreciate. Now I realize we all have our little quirks and hobbies and many of us are gadget freaks. We just have to have the newest and latest electronics and services.
I will not judge on how people should spend their money. But I will talk about my own situation and how I will become more frugal. In my quest of saving money to in turn be able to invest more in items like real estate, stocks and other investments that will grow in the future I will need to sacrifice certain things to attain my goals. Many of these will be luxury items, going out to eat at nice restaurants and saving more when going on vacations and trips.
I want this website to reflect how I am personally changing to become more frugal and to highlight stories and posts giving you the readers ideas for yourself. I want to at the same time increase my income through my internet marketing. I have a career and job that I really enjoy with a great company. It pays my bills and gives me some great benefits. My internet marketing business has brought me in a good extra income over the last 3 years and helps me have the extra money to save and invest. I will speak about all of these aspects on this site.
Today I will be adding our third major category to MakingaMillionDollars and that is the category Frugal. I will post cool stories and things I learn about becoming more frugal in good ways that will help me reduce my expenses and limit the resources I use. Take care and be Frugal!
I have created a category on MakingAMillionDollars called Motivational. This is the second category I am adding. The first category is Your Money. It goes into all aspects of your money and how to save money and grow your money. I feel like the second major category of this site should be motivational items. Motivating yourself is the key to wealth. Motivated people tend to make more money and tend to have insights into life others don’t. Getting motivated can move you far and can create great success. As I see motivation speeches or articles I will post them to this category.
I am a huge Apple Computer fan. I have 2 24″ iMacs that I simply love using. I have my original iMac which is around 5 years old that my wife now uses and it is still a great little machine. I also have an iPhone and of course my old iPod Nano. Steve Jobs is also such a great and unique person and have an admiration for him and what he has accomplished through his life. Now this U Tube video below is one of the greatest and most motivational speeches I have ever heard. I am posting it as my first post to the category Motivational. I hope you enjoy this video and speech called “How to Live Before You Die” by Steve Jobs. Enjoy!
My wife and I decided that since my daughter has moved out of the house into her own apartment and my son will be moving out in the next year that it was time to downsize our home. The other main advantage right now of doing this is to get the 6500 dollars home buyer tax credit.
We currently have a 3658 square foot home. We absolutely love our house but for just the wife and I, 5 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths with all of this space is a bit much. So we decided to put this great house up for sale. We priced it very reasonably for the current market and will still walk out with some equity. We will apply this equity to a home that is actually 1543 square feet. It is also a great pool home, but is the right size for life going forward.
Right now interest rates are fantastic which also makes it a great time to buy or sell. When you sell, someone buying your house can get a much lower payment. We locked in on a 5.25% with zero points for 30 year fixed rate loan. We will only be borrowing a little over 100K. The plan is to pay at a rate that will get this house paid off in 5 years. This is our goal to be completely debt free in 5 years.
You may be asking OK Steve, thanks for sharing your plan. But how to get or qualify for the 6500 dollar home buyer tax credit is the real question. OK, for current home owner you must have lived in your house over 5 years, have a signed contract by April 30th, 2010. You must close by the end of June 2010.
There is also a stipulation in regard to your income. You must not make over $125,000 if single or over $250,000 if married. The price of the home also cannot exceed $800,000 that you are going to buy.
So we basically qualify this year because we made under $250,000 being married, the house we are buying is actually under $200,000 and we have lived in our current home going on 7 years. We are looking forward to getting the $6500 tax credit and will use it to update a couple items in the home that will finish it off nicely. We are going to put new carpeting in the living room and dining room. We are going to install Granite Counter tops in the Kitchen with a new sink and faucet. We will also do some painting to make it feel more like ours. But other than that the new smaller house is perfect and are really excited about moving in.
So if you have been thinking of down sizing or changing homes this is how to get the 6500 dollar home tax credit.
Lendingtree.com – Use for Your Next Purchase, Refinance or Home Equity Loan or Mortgage
Home loan mortgage interest rates are at an all time low. I personally have just gotten a mortgage loan on a house I am purchasing at a 5.25% Fixed Rate for 30 years. It is a really nice home with about 1550 square feet. The really cool thing about this small home and the main reason I am purchasing it is that it has a really large master bathroom with a garden tub, full shower, his and her closets and double sinks. The really cool thing is that it has a Sauna Room. All these features are very unique for a home this size. This was key for me and was what I was looking for in a smaller home.
This house also has a solar heated pool which was a must, especially since we live in Florida. It also has an updated roof, air conditioner, garage door and hurricane shutters. Now get this, it also has a Natural gas generator that powers the whole house when you lose power. So we are very excited about buying this home as we will qualify for the $6500 tax credit as well as getting a great rate on insurance because of the wind mitigation certificate we will get transferred to us. This is very important in lowering your insurance rates.
When getting your mortgage loan, refinance or home equity loan using LendingTree.com is a very effective way to get the best mortgage loan rate. Applying online is really the way to go and you will benefit by being able to compare the best offers. LendingTree has a couple hundred lenders in their network and it will pull the top ones for you to compare and contact. It is very easy to use and can all be done online to get the process started.
Budgeting and Building a 12 Month Emergency Savings Fund
In this economy with the unemployment rate looming at over 10% in many parts of the country, you need to get an emergency fund started. Many people will say that they can’t afford it. You will be surprised what you can afford especially when you have it automatically deducted from your pay.
You can Earn 1.35% APY* at www.hsbcdirect.com. It is easy to setup in a few minutes online and this savings account will connect to any checking account you have.
When saving I am not so concerned about the interest rate you are earning as much as the regular intervals of saving consistently and making it transparent. The interest rate paid on this account is actually not bad, but that is not the main point.
The main point is to get a savings account setup and start putting $50 -$100 in it each month. If you can afford more than do it. If you can’t even $25 a month will add up over time. The real thing we are talking about here is getting started. That is the hardest part. You need to set as your goal to get a 12 month emergency fund in place that will cover all of your expenses for a year.
This will give you a great feeling when you know if something would happen you will have this as a safety net. Yes you can do it. Get started today.
Credit Reports and Credit Scores – Why Should I Care?
When getting a home or auto loan, the first thing the loan officer will run is your credit score. They want to make sure you are credit worthy and that you are going to be paying them back every cent they lend you.
The other reason is that you should want to know what is being stuck on your credit report that in turn effects your credit score. It will increase your interest rates on loans and can have a significant impact over time.
The other reason is it can be the only real way to improve your credit scores. If you don’t know what is even on your credit scores how will you ever be able to set goals to improve them?
Fraud and Identity theft have been occurring in bigger volumes over the past few years. Watching your credit score and what is going on with your credit can flag you to the fact someone may be changing things without your knowledge that can impact you into the future.
Getting a yearly credit report that shows all 3 bureau’s and how they are looking at you based on the information on the report is very important as well as knowing your FICO score before applying for loans.
Getting lower interest rates and taking advantage of better deals is all a benefit of knowing your credit score and improving it over time.
Our Blog Making a Million Dollars focuses on ways to save money, thereby freeing cash up to be invested in stocks, real estate and businesses. Some of the key financial aspects of your life such as your mortgage rate, utilizing the best credit cards and reducing the expense of what you are paying out in insurance premiums are just huge factors in reducing your monthly expenses.
Most people get insurance on their auto or home and forget about it. They pay the premiums each year and accept that this is probably the best insurance premium they can get and let it roll over each year oblivious to any other competitors offers. Well of course you want to be loyal to the insurance company. Wrong!
You have to review your policies at least once a year and shop around. If you don’t you could be wasting hundreds of dollars each year. The most effective way to reduce your auto, home, life or medical insurance is to review it and Click here to get a free insurance quote.
If you want to get free insurance quotes from multiple sources quickly with very little work, you can click on the InsureMe banner at the top of our page. You will quickly fill out a short form on the type of insurance you want to get your free quotes from and you can either get emails or calls from agents in your area who will give you the free quote. Compare them and save money. It is really that easy.
Another site you can go to where you can read lots of articles on different tips and information on the different types of insurance as well as Free Insurance Quotes is InsuredItAll.com
Compare and Get the Best Credit Cards at CreditCards.com
I have used credit cards throughout my life and have learned a great deal about how to utilize them to my advantage.
Many people abuse credit cards as if they are a blank check to do wild endless spending on all kinds of material items from shopping to travel. I have learned to respect credit cards and find them very useful for booking trips, rental cars and building airline miles and cash back points. As long as I pay them off each month I never have to worry about interest.
To get the very best credit cards in your wallet you should review the best credit card deals on a credit card comparison site like CreditCards.com.
The have all types of the best credit cards in various categories such as:
By clicking on any of the links above you will be taken to the best credit cards in each of these categories. You can compare interest rates and how long they apply. This is especially useful when reviewing special low introductory offers. Other information provided is the credit card benefits and bonus points for airline miles or cash back percentages on the top credit card offers.
Once you find the credit card for you that best fits your needs you can then click on the apply now button and it actually takes you to the secure online application where you can then apply and get approved in seconds. I really like being able to go this route when applying for a credit card because I don’t have to wait for those pre=approved offers in the mail. When I am ready to go and review credit cards and apply I do it on my schedule.
Credit Cards are a part of everyone’s financial life and you should not just live with a credit card with a high interest rate and bad benefits. It is just too easy to get a better credit card online. Go to CreditCards.com Apply for a credit card today.
Why did I call it Making a Million Dollars?
Well, for one I was looking for a catchy name for a site that talks about Money.
The other reason is that I have been developing my financial and business skills over the past 25+ years since graduating from College.
I just love tinkering with money making [...]more →
Well, the Dictionary definition is below. But I think it means so much more.
