Archive for January, 2010

Tax Refunds – Not a Bad Thing

By: Green Panda | Date posted: January 27, 2010 (1:53 am)

Getting a tax refund can be a great thing or a bad deal depending on whom you speak to. Financial Samurai was sharing his take on tax refunds and I  agree with him. While some may complain you’re giving the government your money interest free, if the alternative is you spending the money on frivolous things , then it’s worth having it in a lump sum. For some people, having a tax refund motivates them to spend their money a little more seriously.

Consider using your tax refund to build your finances.

Consider using your tax refund to build your finances.

Maximize Your Tax Refund’s Potential

If you’re getting a big refund, look at it as a chance to improve your finances with a big shot.

Create a bare bones emergency fund. Before you do anything else, you should have a barebones emergency fund. How much is that? For most college students and new graduates, I say it’s somewhere between $500 and one month’s worth of essential expenses. You can build it up through out 2010 with automatic deposits.

Pay off a high interest credit card. If you’ve created an emergency fund and have some money left, then go ahead and pay off a credit card if you can or at least pay a big chunk off. Even if you only manage to pay off a small store credit card you’re giving yourself a big win. You can work on your debt snow ball during the rest of the year.

Deposit the remainder into a Roth IRA. Why should you care about a Roth IRA while you’re in college? Starting an IRA even with $500 has some big consequences thanks to the power of compounding interest.

Spend 20% on What You Want

Despite all the smart financial choices you can make, it doesn’t mean you can’t have some fun with it. You should keep 20% for yourself.  The catch is you have to wait a month before you use it.  Why?

Waiting at least a month can give you time to really figure out how you want to use the money. Do you want to travel? Do you want to save money for a TV? Do you want to donate that money to a charity or a family member dear to you that‘s in need?

Only you know what will give you the most fulfillment. Just don’t squander it away quickly.

Your Take

Which method do you prefer? If you like receiving a bigger tax refund, how do you spend it? What advice do you have for the size of a bare bones emergency fund?

Photo Credit: NickStarr

2010 Charity Challenge

By: Green Panda | Date posted: January 25, 2010 (7:04 pm)

Just got back from our quick weekend getaway so I wanted to write a quick post on what I’m up to this week.

As I mentioned last month, one of my goals is support a charity in 2010 with money saved by not eating out for a week. I decided to start today and will not eat out the rest of the work week. This means I have to go ahead and plan out what I’m having ahead to avoid caving in to fast food chains by my job.

Today has gone well and while it wasn’t completely healthy, it was pretty good. You can join in and pick the charity you want to support that week, whether it’s time or money. I’d love to have you share some stories of the success you’ve had volunteering.

Have You Filed Your FAFSA Yet?

By: Green Panda | Date posted: January 18, 2010 (9:13 am)

Fill Out Your FAFSA Now

You can pick up FAFSA now and get started with your financial aid for next year. It’s always good to plan ahead so you can qualify to receive more grants and rely on less on student loans.

Many students finance their education with mainly student loans, believing that’s the only way to make it through college, but there are grants and scholarships out there. The main key is start early. While there are opportunities throughout the year, focusing on applying and submitting your FAFSA application in January and February can really pay off.

Check Your State’s Deadline to Get the Most Financial Aid

Don’t just wait to turn in your FAFSA application. Each state has a different deadline on getting grants and college funds from them. As you can see below, spring is a common deadline, so please try to send in your FAFSA early and you’ll see that you can get more grants there.

For me personally, it was hundreds to an extra thousand or so a semester.

State Deadlines
Alabama Check with your financial aid administrator
Alaska April 15, 2010 @
American Samoa Check with your financial aid administrator*
Arizona Check with your financial aid administrator
Arkansas For Academic Challenge – June 1, 2010 @
For Workforce Grant – check with your financial aid administrator
For Higher Education Opportunity Grant – June 1, 2010 (fall term) @; November 1, 2010 (spring term) @
California For initial awards – March 2, 2010 +*
For additional community college awards – September 2, 2010 – date postmarked +*
Colorado Check with your financial aid administrator
Connecticut February 15, 2010 #*
Delaware April 15, 2010 @
District of Columbia June 30, 2010 @#*
Federated States of Micronesia Check with your financial aid administrator*
Florida May 15, 2010 – date processed
Georgia Check with your financial aid administrator
Guam Check with your financial aid administrator*
Hawaii Check with you financial aid administrator*
Idaho Opportunity Grant – March 1, 2010 @#*
Illinois As soon as possible after January 1, 2010. Awards made until funds are depleted.
Indiana March 10, 2010 &
Iowa July 1, 2010 @
Kansas April 1, 2010 @#*
Kentucky March 15, 2010 &#
Louisiana July 1, 2010 @
Maine May 1, 2010 @
Marshall Islands Check with your financial aid administrator*
Maryland March 1, 2010 &
Massachusetts May 1, 2010 @#
Michigan March 1, 2010 &
Minnesota 30 days after term starts @
Mississippi MTAG and MESG Grants – September 15, 2010 @#
HELP Scholarship – March 31, 2010 @#
Missouri April 1, 2010 @#
Montana March 1, 2010 #&
Nebraska Check with your financial aid administrator*
Nevada Check with your financial aid administrator*
New Hampshire May 1, 2010 @
New Jersey 2009-2010 Tuition Aid Grant recipients – June 1, 2010 @
All other applications – October 1, 2010, for fall and spring terms @;
March 1, 2011, for spring term only @
New Mexico Check with your financial aid administrator*
New York May 1, 2011 @+*
North Carolina Check with your finanacial aid administrator
North Dakota March 15, 2010 &
Northern Mariana Islands Check with your financial aid administrator*
Ohio October 1, 2010 @
Oklahoma April 15, 2010 @#
Oregon OSAC scholarship – March 1, 2010
Oregon Opportunity Grant – check with your financial aid adminstrator
Palau Check with your financial aid administrator*
Pennsylvania All 2009-2010 State Grant recipients and all non-2009-2010 State Grant recipients in degree programs – May 1, 2010 @*
All other applicants – August 1, 2010 @*
Puerto Rico Check with your financial aid administrator
Rhode Island March 1, 2010 &#
South Carolina Tuition Grants – June 30, 2010 @
SC Commission on Higher Education – no deadline
South Dakota Check with your financial aid administrator*
Tennessee For State Grant – February 15, 2010 @#
For State Lottery – September 1, 2010 @#
Texas Check with your financial aid administrator*
U.S. Virgin Islands Check with your financial aid administrator*
Utah Check with your financial aid administrator
Vermont Check with your financial aid administrator*
Virginia Check with your financial aid administrator*
Washington Check with your financial aid administrator
West Virginia April 15, 2010 @#*
Wisconsin Check with your financial aid administrator
Wyoming Check with your financial aid administrator*

Source: FAFSA

Tips to Reduce Student Loans

If you can get your college education without student loans, you’re relieving yourself of a burden that has stressed many. If you do have to take some student loans, please avoid private loans which tend to be much more expensive. Instead look for subsidized or unsubsidized

  • Attend an in-state college. If all else is equal, staying in-state can save you 2/3 of tuition over going out of state for college.
  • Attend a community college and  transfer to a 4 year University. Community colleges offer similar quality of education; sometimes even sharing the same professors as the near by universities.
  • Consider work study as an option to gain experience and/or pay bills. You can gain some income with a job on campus and not spend much on transportation.
  • If you want to keep expenses low while in school, don’t get credit cards. They may appear to be a quick fix, but the interest rates are much higher than student loans from the government.

Share your Tips for Maximizing Financial Aid

What did you do when you attended college? How do you plan on saving money?

The Progress of Closing on a House

By: Green Panda | Date posted: January 15, 2010 (9:47 pm)

Today we’re supposed to close on our house. I’m cautiously ooptimistic about it since we had the closing delayed last minutes before. I thought it might be interesting to keep a diary of the day, both as a personal record for us (it’s our first house!) and a reference for any readers buying a house.

We're home owners!

Pre-Closing Jitters

5ish am: I’m awake, but I stay in bed because I know I should getting some sleep. I can’t sleep, though, and I’m running through my head everything that we have to do today for closing. We have to do the final walk through at 8:30am, get our certified check, and then go to the settlement office.

6:44 am: I wake up and head to the bathroom to put in my contacts and start getting ready.

6:54am: My husband is still asleep, so I go ahead and start writing this blog post to pass the time.

7:26am: Husband is up and taking a shower while I’m reviewing the HUD-1 settlement statement for the the dozenth time since yesterday. I wanted to make sure that nothing went against the Good Faith Estimate we were given before.

7:52am: We leave to get coffee and go for the final walk through.

8:13am: We’re waiting in line at Starbucks. I’m worrying that we’ll be late since it is packed in the place, but the line runs like a well oiled machine and we get our coffee (tall and venti bold coffee with room) quickly. I realize that I put way to much sugar in my coffee when it’s easier to just batch open 6 packets of sugar in the raw. Oh well. We head to the house.

Final Walk Through and Getting the Certified Check

8:27am: We arrive at our future place and meet with Ryan to go through and check to see if all the items we requested fixed are done. We start at the top floor and work our way down. The place looks great and the stove that had scratches has been replaced. We go through the list and initial that they did all the work they said they would.

We review the builder’s warranty with the place and thank Ryan for his help. We call our real estate agent (he’s coming from out of town) to tell him the place looks good. We head over to Wachovia to get our certified check.

9:05am: Another surprise: no line at the bank. We give the information to the teller and we’re given the check.

9:18am: It seems like we’re ahead of schedule and debate whether to get there early or just drive around. We both agree to head to the lawyer’s office. We arrive and meet up with our real estate agent. The lawyer is ready in a few minutes and all of us get started with the closing.

Settlement Appointment

9:28am: In case you weren’t aware, there is a lot of paperwork that comes with a house. The lawyer is explaining the papers as we read them. I admit we should’ve been reading more slowly, but we were overwhelmed with all the information. Paperwork covered:

  • The Contract
  • The Loan
  • Deed of Trust
  • Homeowner’s warranty
  • Homeowner’s insurance
  • Termite certificate
  • Title insurance

10:50am We’re home soaking in being ‘home loaners’. We call family and some friends to let them know of the good news. Funny thing, we mentioned we’ll use the tax credit to pay down our mortgage and the consensus is ‘why? ‘ My answer: We want to pay mortgage early and we have no high interest debt.

Some people are surprised about not having credit card debt or a car loan. Guess we’re not normal.

Reviewing all the Paperwork

8:00 pm: Spending time reviewing the paperwork from closing. It all looks good and I don’t see anything different than what was agreed upon.  In case you’re curious we have a  30-year fixed rate FHA mortgage with a 5% interest rate. Since it’s fixed, our interest rate will remain the same the entire life of the mortgage.

Your Take

How did your closing/settlement go with your house?

Should I Get Renters Insurance?

By: Green Panda | Date posted: January 11, 2010 (8:12 pm)

If you are renting a place and don’t have renters insurance, you should really look into getting a policy. Besides helping out when you lose some or all of your possessions, it can help you with temporary housing should the need arise.

Shop around to find a good deal on renters insurance.

Shop around to find a good deal on renters insurance.

How Much Renters Insurance Do You Need?

You want enough to cover your needs, but you don’t want to pay too much either. Start off by doing an inventory of what you have and deciding a ballpark figure of how much it would take to recoup what you could lose if there was a fire. According to MSN Money, expect to pay $150-300/year for coverage of around $30,000.

You may also keep in mind that you have to get separate riders for earthquakes and floods if you live in high risk areas for those. Double check with the agent that you’re getting replacement value with the policy and not actual cash value. Replacement value will cover the price it takes now to replace an item, not the depreciated value of the item.

Companies to Shop Around and Compare

It really does pay to shop around for insurance. I managed to save half of my old car insurance premiums by calling different companies and comparing rates.

  • Liberty Mutual: 1-800-837-5254
  • Nationwide: 1-877-669-6877
  • State Farm: The company encourages you to find a local agent to get a quote.
  • Allstate: 1-866-726-2814
  • Geico: 1-800-841-2964
  • Progressive: 1-800-PROGRESSIVE

    • Discounts You May Get

    In addition to finding good prices on premiums, you should work on getting as many discounts as you can qualify for. Some things that may lower your premiums include:

    • Security/Alarm system
    • Smoke Detector
    • Sprinkler System
    • Non-smokers
    • Credit score

    Your Take

    What tips do you have on finding affordable renters insurance?

    Photo Credit: striatic

    Closing is Back On

    By: Green Panda | Date posted: January 09, 2010 (10:17 am)

    It looks like we’re back on for the place! We were suppose to close on the town house a couple of months ago, but a required sign-off had to happen and it didn’t. Now fast forward to this week and in the midst of my new temporary work assignment I got the call that we have the green light.

    It looks like we're moving (again)!

    It looks like we're moving (again)!

    I was scrambling to get things done this week, so posts were a little delayed to get out. We’re transferring the down payment money from our ING savings account. We have tried our best to ignore this account and not deplete it until we needed it, such as now for the house. We also have home insurance ready to go on the place.

    We’ll slowly move into the new place as we’re in the short term lease apartment and we’ll have 60 days to move out. That will give us time to paint and prepare the place before we have to move in.

    We’re going for a 30 year fixed rate mortgage for the place. We felt it was in our best financial interest to keep the interest rate steady and right now the interest rate is relatively low, which is another bonus.

    We’re automating extra payments to the principle from month 1. Our goal is to pay off the house in 15 years, so we need to get started on it as soon as we can. Since the $8,000 Tax Credit for First-Time Homebuyers was extended and expanded, we’ll use it to pay down our mortgage and increase our financial cushion.

    Your Thoughts

    Have you had something similar come up at the last minute with closing? How did it get handled?

    Get Financially Naked Book Review

    By: Green Panda | Date posted: January 06, 2010 (1:12 am)

    Get Financially Naked: How to Talk Money with Your Honey is by Manisha Thakor and Sharon Kedar. I received a copy of the book for an honest review and I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of information packed into this slim book.

    I think this is a good guide and easy to read in a weekend.

    I think this is a good guide and easy to read in a weekend.

    I’m going to present a brief review of some of the chapters so you can see if this book would be a good fit for you in your situation.

    Get Financially Naked

    The book opens up with description from real people on what financial empowerment means to them. Unfortunately far too many do not have this right now and the book mentions that approximately 70% are living paycheck to paycheck. Kedar and Thakor go ahead and explain some reasons for people living on credit and then have an exercise so the reader can look ahead to when they are financially empowered.

    This book has a lot of write in activities to get the involved and they share they’re answers and personal perspectives on them as well. I think they do a pretty good job of balancing it all.

    How Financially Compatible Are You?

    The authors have some frank questions to help you see if  loved one is living beyond their means. I personally know of a friend that had a boyfriend always offer to pay her back, but he could barely keep up with his regular bills. Communication is the key to seeing if this is a lifestyle or if they’ve hit hard times.

    Some people are afraid of creating tension by talking about finances, but I think you create more stress by being silent. If you need some motivation and information to get started, this chapter has what you need. There is a compatibility quiz at the end that could open up a discussion based on the results.

    Save Wisely for Your Financial Goals

    It’s good to have a financial gameplan that you both agree with if you’re married. That means creating a budget together. it may take awhile to get it right, but don’t worry, it’s normal. All couples have to go through this as they are merging their money, bills, and goals. My personal tip is to add 10-15% to your budget for things like car repairs, rental insurance, etc. Both of you should have a say on where the money goes.

    My Take

    I really enjoyed this book and I thought it covered some big topics without a lot of filler. Since it’s not as long as other personal finance books I’ve reviewed before I think many people can finish this as a weekend read if not sooner. I love the worksheets, scripts, and questions and I think this is a really practical guide for couple looking to be successful with their finances.

    Your Take

    If you grab a copy of the book, please share your thoughts on it.

    Check out the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)

    By: Green Panda | Date posted: January 04, 2010 (11:14 pm)

    Did you know that almost half of Americans suffering from depression do not get treatment? That’s a huge number and for some they may not get treatment because they don’t know where to turn to for information.  I wanted to share a resource to help some people.

    Be supportive

    Be supportive

    National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is an organization to help those who have mental illness and those who want to support the community. The website a lot of information for those managing through and for caregivers. Some mental illnesses that NAMI has information on are:

    Being informed is an important step, but if you have a loved one who needs help, there are other things you can do.

    • Encourage them to seek help. It may be difficult for some to realize their condition. Without pestering them, try to get them to get professional help to address their specific needs.
    • Have realistic expectations. Try to be balanced and help your loved one see their positive aspects.
    • Be supportive and stay in touch. Keeping in contact can be a huge help and a source of encouragement during difficult times.

    As I’m learning more about mental illnesses to help a family member during a difficult time right now, I realize I have to make some adjustments. Not realizing the severity of the situation, I was quick to get upset at the behavior. I’m hoping that I’m becoming more patient and understanding as we work through this.

    I sincerly hope that National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is a resource you can use.

    Photo Credit: qthomasbower

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