September 2010

FHA short refinance for underwater mortgages

FHA started offering short refinance opportunity for underwater homeowner on September 7, 2010. The FHA Short Refinance option is targeted to help people who owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth – or ‘underwater’ – because their local markets saw large declines in home values. The FHA also published some guidelines on [...]

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Cheaper and better alternative to hotels

I love traveling. What I’ve noticed is that next to the airfare, a big chunk of your precious vacation fund goes towards the hotel. You can decide to tighten your belt (who hasn’t) and just sleep in the airport , but if that doesn’t sound like too much fun or if you are like me [...]

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Scent of a $ : The sense of scents to make cents

Smell of freshly brewed coffee. Soothing lavender. Freshly baked bread. A macho cologne. I think we all know we fall for specific smells and buy impulsively. I can totally relate and agree the aroma of a product wafting on the breeze definitely entices me to buy it even if I wasn’t planning to before.  Have [...]

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How much do I need for retirement – My Retirement Number

What is your number? I tried looking for an answer to that question a couple of yrs ago when I started working.  I dutifully read all the materials they gave for my 401k, went online and plugged some numbers into the online calculator. My heart sank when it showed my “number”. It was an exorbitant [...]

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Weekly favorites – Labor day edition

I hope everyone is enjoying their Labor Day weekend! I usually do a round up of my weekly favorites on Sunday, due to the holiday, this is coming a little late. Here are some of the articles I enjoyed this week.

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What does Bush Tax Cuts mean to an average Joe?

[Update: Dec 7th 2010, President Obama and Congress have reached a tentative deal to temporarily extend the Bush tax cuts for all Americans, including the wealthiest.  This deal not only extends the tax cuts from the Bush era but also adds some concessions made by President Obama. To read about the recent tax cut deal package,  [...]

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Freshman Finances : Save money with cheap college textbooks

This post is part of the freshman finances series, a series of articles that are related to student finances. Read all parts of the series here. You have registered for classes and just paid a boat load of money as tuition. Only now you noticed that little link on your online student portal to buy [...]

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