Most cellphone carriers provide a feature allowing you a certain number of contacts that you can call, on any network, for free, anytime. So what happens when you team up this feature with your Google Voice number?
In yesterday's Tips Box post, one reader used his cellphone provider's "My Circle" feature to make unlimited free calls with Google Voice.
The idea is that if you only use Google Voice to send and receive calls—and you set Google Voice so that it only displays your Google Voice number when it rings, all of your calls will be free, and you may never need to use another minute again. Each carrier is different, so we're looking at what each plan looks like, and how to use it with Google Voice to get free calls.
For this to work at all, head to Google Voice's Call Settings page and make sure Caller ID is set to Display my Google Voice number. (See the screenshot) Then just add your Google Voice number to your carrier's respective friends and family plan.
* Verizon
Verizon's plan is called Friends & Family, and it allows you to pick 5 or 10 numbers (for individual and family plans, respectively), that you can call for free—even landlines. This deal comes with either the Family SharePlan with 1400 Anytime Minutes or more, or on the Single-Line Plan with 900 Anytime Minutes or more. If you're not on one of these plans, you might have to do a little math to see if upgrading for free calls is worth it. To add numbers to your Friends & Family list, just sign in to My Verizon.
* AT&T
AT&T just rolled out their feature, called A-List, and it is almost exactly the same as Verizon's. 5 or 10 numbers, depending on your plan, which has to be at least 900 minutes for individuals and 1400 for families. With AT&T you still have Rollover, too, so you get to keep the minutes that you save with Google Voice (in theory, at least—although, that hardly seems like it matters if you're not using any in the first place). You can update your list online, through your myWireless account on AT&T's web site.
* T-Mobile
T-Mobile's plan, myFaves, is a little bit simpler. If you have a plan that costs over $49.99 a month, you qualify for myFaves, which allows you 5 numbers that you can call for free. The best part about T-Mobile's plan, as opposed to Verizon and AT&T's, is that if you are on a family plan, each person gets 5 numbers to themselves – they don't have to share 10 with the rest of the family (this is nice if you have a big family; of course, we only need 1 number, and that's Google Voice). To get myFaves and edit your list, you just need to log into your My T-Mobile account.
* Sprint
Sprint is the biggest wild card in this situation. Sprint, unlike the other carriers, does not heavily advertise their plan, called Pick 3. In fact, it's not mentioned anywhere on their web site. Word of the plan has spread through internet word-of-mouth, however, though there are a lot of conflicting messages on how to get it, or whether it still exists. So at the moment, the jury seems out on this one—try calling Sprint and see if you can get them to sign you up, and let us know in the comments what did or didn't work for you.
Source: Lifehacker.com
Friday, October 16, 2009
Friday, July 31, 2009
Money-saving Supermarket Tips
Dreaming up family dinners is always a challenge, but it gets even tougher when money's tight. Here, Teri Gault, coauthor of Shop Smart, Save More, offers tips to help you get the most bang for your grocery buck.
Source: Delish.com
- Clip coupons. "There's an average of $350 in savings in the paper each week," says Gault. But don't stop there: Coupons are also available online at sites like everydaysaver.com and smartsource.com. And be sure to ask the customer-service desk at your store if they have coupon booklets — bundles of coupons distributed to the store by food manufacturers. Also, call or e-mail the manufacturers of your favorite products to request coupons, suggests Gault.
- Stack up your savings. Find out if your store has a double-coupon policy and when it's in effect. Then match your coupons to the store's advertised specials (found in the weekly circular). Thegrocerygame.com offers a service that does much of the legwork for you — for a small fee, the site will send you a list of sales, specials, and available coupons in your area.
- Reconsider one-stop shopping. "Regular prices of groceries at a super-center, such as Target or Wal-Mart, tend to be cheaper than at traditional supermarkets, but I've found that sale prices dip much lower at supermarkets, especially since they're more likely to have frequent sales and double coupons," explains Gault.
- Stockpile. "Take advantage of sales to buy what you need before you need it," suggests Gault. Stock up on nonperishables such as pasta, cereal, and canned goods, for example, when they're on sale. Then you'll have to pay full price only for fresh foods like dairy and produce.
- Make the most of markdowns. "Meat and bakery items are almost always marked down right before their sell-by date," explains Gault. For tonight's dinner, ask an employee what time of day perishables are marked down (usually late afternoon). "And for maximum savings, look for items that are on advertised sale as well as close to their sell-by date," suggests Gault.
Source: Delish.com
Monday, June 29, 2009
11 Ways to Save Money
You know that feeling of excitement you get when you reach into the pocket of a jacket you haven't worn for a while and pull out a $10 bill you'd forgotten? I love when that happens. That's the same burst of joy you're going to get every time you discover a new way to spend less. Here are 11 super-simple ideas that are like found money.
Entertain the Family for Free
Bank of America has an agreement until April 2009 with 73 museums across the country that allows you to get in free the first weekend of the month if you show them your Bank of America debit, credit or ATM card. Go to bankofamerica.com/museums to find museums and other attractions in your area. Not a B of A customer? Call or check the website of a museum near you to find out if it offers free days or evenings like the Chicago Children’s Museum does on Thursday evenings and New York 
Get a Good Rewards Credit Card
If you use a debit card to pay for day-to-day expenses (food, gas, etc.), switch to a credit card that has a great rewards program—but be sure to pay your monthly balance on time. Rewards cards carry higher interest, so if you let a balance roll over from month to month, the interest you pay will eat up any rewards cash you earn. Cards vary, so look for one that gives cash
Gather Your Books
Do you have books in good condition? Go to cash4books.net, type in the books’ ISBN numbers (which you’ll find on the back cover or on the copyright page in the front of the books), and see if you can get cash for them. Complete the transaction online, print out a prepaid mailing label, pack up those books and send them in. In just a few days you will either receive a check in the mail or a deposit to your PayPal account. You won’t pay a cent—not even for postage. Show me the money The first time Emily Towne of Prairie Home, Missouri, tried this system, she sold six books and received a check for $42.30. Your humble columnist has been cleaning out her burgeoning library, pocketing more than $200 so far.
Start a Blog
You can write about nearly anything—from what it’s like to be a mom to politics. It’s free to set one up (visit blogger.com), and once you do, you can place ads using an easy program like Google AdSense (google.com/adsense). Each time a visitor to your blog clicks on an ad, you earn money. (Once you’ve earned $100, you’ll get a check in the mail.) Show me the money You probably won’t replace your paycheck by blogging, but it’s a good way to make extra money. Denise Sawyer, a second-grade teacher from Summerville, Georgia, blogs on how to use coupons and other ways to cut the cost of raising a family. She averages $80–$100 per month in ad earnings, and her best month yet brought in $500.
Do It Yourself
Pick out one item or service you purchase each month, and make or do it yourself. Then pocket the money. For example, make your own laundry detergent with out easy recipe (go to womansday.com/diy); it works extremely well, and boy, will you save. You can make your own all-purpose cleaner and window cleaner, too. Show me the money The cost to make the laundry detergent is about 2¢ a load versus 25¢ a load for a commercial detergent. Do the math and you’ll see how much that can be in a year’s time. Have you checked the price of window cleaner lately?10 cents an ounce! Instead, pay less than a penny an ounce for your own brew, which works even better.
Take Advantage of Online Rebates
With Microsoft’s new Live Search Cashback program, customers who make an online purchase after using Live Search (Microsoft’s version of Google or Yahoo!) are eligible for a cash-back rebate from Microsoft. Once you have accumulated at least $5, you can request a payout by check or have the money deposited into your bank or PayPal account. Go to live.com/cashback to learn more. Show me the money The amount of cash back varies from one retailer to the next. At presstime, a purchase from Zappos will net you 9% cash back. Buy from PetSmart and get 12% cash back. Go to live.com/cashback to learn more and to discover all the online retailers who are currently participating.
Shop Your Life Insurance
In the ’90s, term life insurance dropped considerably in price, and rates have continued to decline since then. If you’re currently paying for whole life or term life, get a few quotes online. Websites such as FindMyInsurance.com, AccuQuote.com, and InsWeb.com can give you plenty of pricing information (all of it will be subject to a more detailed application process and medical exam). Show me the money If you bought a $500,000 20-year guaranteed level term policy in 1994 when you were a 40-year-old female nonsmoker, you qualified as “preferred” risk and have been paying about $795 a year. Today you’re 54, and if you’re still in good health, you should be able to replace the remaining six years of the same coverage for $600 a year and get four extra years of coverage, says Byron Udell, founder and chief executive of AccuQuote.com.
Refinance Your Car Loan
Did you know you can refinance a car? Interest rates are likely lower now than when you signed up for car payments several years ago, so you may be able to cut your payment significantly. Generally, banks require your car to be a 2001 model or newer, with fewer than 80,000 miles and a loan balance of $8,500 or more. Give your credit union or bank a call, or apply online at sites like hsbcusa-autoloans.com or rategenius.com. Show me the money If you started with a 66-month, $19,560 loan at 17.26%, your payments are $461. Refinancing today at 9.29% would drop your payments to $380, for a savings of $81 a month.
Tap into H20
Some people consider bottled water a necessity, even though a great low-cost alternative is available from any faucet in their homes. Try this for just one month: Switch from soft drinks and bottled water to good old tap water, and see how much you end up saving. Show me the money Off the bat you can pocket the $25 to $40 monthly fee if you have bottled water delivered. And drinking tap water is almost free: The average household cost for town water is $2.77 for 1,000 gallons, which would last the average family of four almost three years if they used it only for drinking. And consider this: If you pay $1.50 for a 20-oz bottle of water, you can fill the same container with tap water every day for several years for the same price, says Greg Kail of the American Water Works Association.
Ask for Lower Interest
Call the customer service number on the back of your credit
Save on Children's Clothes
Possibly the best deals on high-quality, gently worn (often brand-new) kids’ clothes are at consignment and secondhand stores. With more than 230 locations nationwide, the resale chain Once Upon a Child (ouac.com) features name-brand fairly new clothes up to 70% off retail. And as a bonus, you can sell your children’s gently-worn-but-outgrown items back to the store for immediate cash or credit. When you consider how quickly children outgrow their clothes, paying a lot less makes a lot of sense.
Show me the money Rock & Republic Urban jeans for girls are $154 at a department store. You could expect to find those jeans at a consignment or secondhand store for $46. A boy’s Ralph Lauren polo shirt currently retails for $45. But the price would be slashed to about $13 when sold at 70% off retail at a consignment store.
Source: Woman's Day
10 Smart Ways to Make Money From Home
Whether you’re in between jobs or looking to pad your savings account, chances are, you could use a little extra cash right now. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to make a little money without committing to a new career. Robyn Freedman Spizman, coauthor of Will Work from Home, shares 10 innovative ways you can earn a tidy living—from your own living room. Read on to realize your undiscovered earning potential.
Service on the Dial
• A people person who enjoys telephone contact might find work as an at-home customer service rep. Visit Alpine Access and apply to be one of their Customer Care Professionals. The company hires you as an employee (not an independent contractor), guarantees your schedule and pays for your training. You coordinate with them to decide when you’ll work, then you’re on standby (from your home) for the customers of one of their many clients.
Tech Genius
• Tech savvy? If you have a background in information technology, you can troubleshoot other people’s computer snafus from home. Apply to be a remote IT professional with 1-800-GeeksOnTime or Support.com. Customers register with either site, and call you when their hard drives go on the fritz or their documents disappear. They’ll permit you to tap into their computer systems, then you can point and click your way to a solution.
Craft for Cash
• If you have a knack for knitting or an eye for embroidery, why not hawk your handmade wares via a virtual shop? Crafty women can set up an e-storefront on Etsy, which charges a nominal startup fee and takes a small percentage of all your sales, says Spizman. You can sell a variety of one-of-a-kind goods, or focus on a particular type of item, such as handbags. If you’re a better bargain shopper than you are a crafter, try scouring local yard sales for vintage pieces; many Etsy shoppers are in the market for secondhand buys.
Savvy Seller
• Are you the most organized of all of your friends? Most people don’t have the patience to clean out storage spaces and resell their unwanted goods. Offer to help neighbors declutter their garage or closets; then, coordinate eBay sales of their used baby gear or abandoned exercise equipment and you can collect a percentage of the profits. Not sure how to get started? Write a catchy ad listing the organizing services you can provide, and post it on the Domestic Gigs page on Craigslist.
Office Organizer
• Former office coordinators can exercise their skill set on Office Arrow, an online community for office professionals. Share expertise you’ve garnered from previous jobs and get “smart, up-to-the-minute” information on providing business support services—including coordinating travel, scheduling meetings, organizing contacts and creating presentations—from your home. Don’t miss the Careers section on the site, where you can find aggregated job postings for virtual office coordinator positions from all the major career sites. As long you have a phone, a fax machine and a photocopier, you can manage a small business without ever setting foot in an office.
The Write Stuff
• Wordsmiths can offer their services on numerous sites: Elance, oDesk and EditFast allow writers and editors to register to join their databases. (EditFast requires applicants to take a test, so study up first.) Fill out a profile to share your experience with potential employers; you tell them what type of work you’ve done—and what you’d like to do—and they’ll hire you outright or allow you to bid on specific assignments.
• If you have super typist skills and a can-do attitude, you can spend a few hours a day as a “virtual assistant.” Team Double-Click retains tens of thousands of on-staff virtual assistants to help businesses meet their staffing needs; they evaluate each client’s project and match up the client with an assistant who has relevant experience. If you’re not sure your skills are up to par, apply to AssistU, which offers a training program for potential contractors.
VIP Treatment
• Former travel and hospitality workers are in high demand: VIPDesk trains its home-based concierges to handle the personal and business needs of its professional clients. You might be asked to procure dinner reservations or sporting event tickets, make travel arrangements or schedule a car rental. If you can handle these tasks, not only will you get to work from home, you’ll get medical and dental insurance, among other competitive benefits.
Teachers for Hire
• You don’t need a teaching degree to put your knowledge to work. Tutor.com hires college graduates to work as virtual tutors for five to 30 hours a week. You get paid by the hour to chat with a student, draw problems on an “interactive whiteboard” and review essays. The site caters to tutors with English, math, science or social studies expertise, and is especially in need of bilingual applicants who speak English and Spanish or English and Vietnamese.
Sales Maven
• If you’re willing to make the initial investment, direct sales might be your calling. You host a party in your own home—or a friend’s—and showcase your wares. Choose something you enjoy, and you’ll enjoy sharing it. Sell jewelry through Silpada, Lia Sophia or Cookie Lee, or cooking tools through The Pampered Chef. Depending on the company, you can earn free merchandise, or a percentage of your sales.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Employee Benefits 101
Would you ever want to give up a healthy chunk of your salary? In effect, that’s what you’ll be doing if you disregard the various employee benefits you’ll have access to in your first job.
Many new college graduates simply don’t understand their employers’ benefits programs or their significance in real-dollar terms. “They underestimate the value of their benefits and don’t take advantage of benefits that defer compensation until later,” says Terese Corey Blanck, principal of College to Career, a career consulting firm in suburban Minneapolis.
Your total benefits package could potentially add 30 percent to your overall compensation. So it’s foolish to remain in the dark. Here’s a quick rundown of the benefits you’ll most likely be offered and what they can do for you.
Health Insurance
When you’re young, it’s easy to think you’re invincible and practically immune to disease or injury. But a single trip to the emergency room or being diagnosed with a relatively common condition can quickly turn into an overwhelming bill.
Medical insurance helps cushion the blow. If you’re lucky, your employer will pay your entire insurance premium each month. It’s more likely you’ll pay a small percentage, and your employer will cover the rest. Whatever the arrangement, it’s almost certainly in your best interest to sign up.
Don’t forget to check into additional forms of health insurance as they apply to you:
- Dental Insurance: This helps you keep your teeth healthy by covering preventive maintenance and repair.
- Disability Insurance: This will help you pay the bills if you’re somehow temporarily or permanently disabled.
- Life Insurance: This covers the cost of your funeral if you die and, more importantly, provides for key loved ones you leave behind.
Retirement Plan
Who wants to think about retirement when you’re just starting out? Whether it’s a 401k or a 403b or some other type of employee-sponsored retirement plan, you should strongly consider this option.
You’ll be able to contribute to the plan without first paying the usual federal (and in many cases, state) income tax on your contributions. You won’t pay that tax until retirement, when your money is actually distributed back to you. Better yet, your employer may contribute to your account as well, usually matching a percentage of your contributions.
Paid Time Off
This benefit is exactly what its name implies: Paid time away from work for vacations, holidays or illness.
Feeling so crummy you’ve just got to stay in bed today? Your pay won’t be docked as long as you still have allotted time left in your bank.
Flexible Spending Account
You may know this benefit as a Section 125 plan. Whatever the terminology, a flexible spending account allows you to set aside some pretax money to pay for things like health insurance premiums, child care or even that new pair of glasses you’ve been meaning to buy. This helps you reduce your income tax bill at the end of the year, thus saving you money you otherwise would have to give to the government.
Tuition Assistance/Reimbursement
Perhaps you see a graduate degree, certification course or industry-specific training program in your future. Many organizations offer partial or even full tuition reimbursement for educational activities they see as benefiting not only you but also the organization as a whole. That’s the equivalent of being handed hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
It’s impossible to describe every possible employee benefit here. Every company offers different benefits, and individual situations vary. So don’t be afraid to get some guidance from your organization’s HR department, a trusted campus advisor or your parents. After all, most schools don’t teach you this stuff.
But you don’t want to learn your benefits lessons the hard way.
For more information on benefits plans, visit Monster’s Salary Center.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Best Prepaid Wireless Provider 2009
This author has been looking for a site that details reviews on the best service providers that cater to prepaid plans. In the event that this author will fly to the US soon, this list (and link) would probably do wonders to a very budgeted lifestyle. Cheers!
Saturday, May 16, 2009
7 Tips in Starting A Credit History Amid An Economic Crisis
In years past, a financial rite of passage for college students and young adults was to apply for a credit card and start to build a credit history. But in today's rocky economy, those who seek credit for the first time are forced to think more creatively as lenders are becoming less liberal with issuing credit to riskier applicants."Right now, there is a lot going on in the credit industry," says Tanisha Warner, spokeswoman for Houston-based Consumer Credit Counseling Services. "Establishing a good credit history is important, but it is important for people to understand that things are different now and it might be a little harder to get traditional credit so they'll have to go to explore some nontraditional routes."One reason credit card companies are thinking twice before issuing credit is the rising number of defaults. Fitch Ratings' Credit Card Index reports that late payments on credit cards topped record levels in January and defaults nearly reached an all-time high. The number of delinquencies among retail card users is also growing: Fitch's Retail Card Chargeoff Index is 44 percent higher than it was a year ago.
Advice turned upside down "One of the tips we typically give for someone trying to establish credit is to start with a store credit card or a gas card because they're usually easier to obtain," says Gail Cunningham, vice president of the National Foundation for Consumer Credit. But that advice may no longer suffice. "Since those card issuers are struggling with the default rate of their existing customer base, it's going to be more difficult to get one of those cards for somebody starting out with no proven credit history." Another reason first-time credit is more difficult to get is because income from a steady job is one of the factors credit card issuers consider when determining creditworthiness. With the unemployment rate exceeding 8 percent, "many people are becoming career students because there are no jobs out there, which makes it even harder to get credit," says Peter Dunn, author of "What Your Dad Never Taught You About Budgeting."Despite the difficulties some first-time credit applicants may run into, it's not necessary to wait on the sidelines with no credit history until the economy improves. In fact, doing so could have broad, negative implications. "When you're in your 30s and you go to get that mortgage, the longer credit history you have the better," says Dunn. A limited credit history can also prohibit someone from renting an apartment, securing a car loan or even getting a job.
7 tips for first-time credit seekers While it may require more time and effort to prove that you will use credit responsibly, here are seven ways to get your foot in the door and start building your financial future:
1. Explore banking relationships. A credit card issuer may be more likely to extend credit to someone with a limited credit history if it has done business with that person before. "Maybe someone's parents helped them get a checking account when they were 16 years old with a local bank," says Dunn. "That doesn't exactly build your credit, but what it allows you to do is build a relationship with a bank so the bank is more likely to approve you when you go to apply for a credit card." When approaching a local bank, also consider applying for small signature loans, advises Warner, since credit scores are influenced by a mix of different types of credit.
2. Get a secured credit card.
3. Eliminate the risk for credit card issuers by using your own money as collateral.With a secured credit card, the amount of money you put up becomes your credit line. "It looks like every other credit card, so no one's going to know it's a secured card," says Cunningham. But the beauty of using the cards and making on-time payments is that some credit card issuers will report those payments to the credit bureaus, raising your credit score over time. In fact, as you build your credit profile, many secured card issuers will raise your credit limit to a level that's higher than the amount you put up as collateral.
4. Look for special programs.Some credit card issuers have programs designed specifically for those who are trying to build credit. For example, Wells Fargo's College Visa Card is geared toward students at two- or four-year accredited colleges and is designed for them to establish their credit history in school. "The average credit line is $875 -- it's not extremely high," says Dinna Martinez, product manager for Wells Fargo's secured and college segment. "But it's enough to get them started."
5. Consider less-than-stellar terms.Unfortunately, the current economic climate dictates that some people consider options they wouldn't think twice about in different times. For some, the only credit option available may be a credit card with an annual fee or a high interest rate. An annual fee may be worth the cost if it helps you build your credit score so you qualify for better offers in the future. Likewise, the interest rate won't matter if you don't carry a balance. To make such a card work for you, "you have to be sure you're disciplined enough to make the payments in full every single month," says Warner.
6. Take advantage of college offers.While there have been efforts to restrict credit card companies' ability to market their cards on college campuses in such states as New Jersey and Oklahoma, it might make sense to consider one of these offers in light of the difficulties many are facing when applying for credit. However, make sure you understand the terms and read the fine print, Warner advises, and again, pay the balance off each month. Look to mom and dad. Many young people get their financial start by getting help from their parents. However, even that option may be hindered if your parents are financially strapped because of the credit crisis, Dunn points out. But if they are willing and able, they can co-sign on a loan, of their credit cards, to help you build your own credit profile.
7. Avoid applying too often.If you're turned down for credit the first time, you're liable to keep applying until you get a "yes," but that can be a mistake, says Cunningham, since too many inquiries can negatively impact the score you're trying to build. "If you tried for one general purpose card -- Visa or MasterCard -- one gas card, and one store card and got turned down by all three, you need to sit tight," Cunningham says. Wait about six months, then try again, she advises.Once you open your first credit account, plan to be a customer for the long haul. "The first card you ever open you will never close," says Dunn. "Because that's what will give you the longest credit history, which will help your score the most."
By Tamara E. Holmes Published: March 18, 2009
Advice turned upside down "One of the tips we typically give for someone trying to establish credit is to start with a store credit card or a gas card because they're usually easier to obtain," says Gail Cunningham, vice president of the National Foundation for Consumer Credit. But that advice may no longer suffice. "Since those card issuers are struggling with the default rate of their existing customer base, it's going to be more difficult to get one of those cards for somebody starting out with no proven credit history." Another reason first-time credit is more difficult to get is because income from a steady job is one of the factors credit card issuers consider when determining creditworthiness. With the unemployment rate exceeding 8 percent, "many people are becoming career students because there are no jobs out there, which makes it even harder to get credit," says Peter Dunn, author of "What Your Dad Never Taught You About Budgeting."Despite the difficulties some first-time credit applicants may run into, it's not necessary to wait on the sidelines with no credit history until the economy improves. In fact, doing so could have broad, negative implications. "When you're in your 30s and you go to get that mortgage, the longer credit history you have the better," says Dunn. A limited credit history can also prohibit someone from renting an apartment, securing a car loan or even getting a job.
7 tips for first-time credit seekers While it may require more time and effort to prove that you will use credit responsibly, here are seven ways to get your foot in the door and start building your financial future:
1. Explore banking relationships. A credit card issuer may be more likely to extend credit to someone with a limited credit history if it has done business with that person before. "Maybe someone's parents helped them get a checking account when they were 16 years old with a local bank," says Dunn. "That doesn't exactly build your credit, but what it allows you to do is build a relationship with a bank so the bank is more likely to approve you when you go to apply for a credit card." When approaching a local bank, also consider applying for small signature loans, advises Warner, since credit scores are influenced by a mix of different types of credit.
2. Get a secured credit card.
3. Eliminate the risk for credit card issuers by using your own money as collateral.With a secured credit card, the amount of money you put up becomes your credit line. "It looks like every other credit card, so no one's going to know it's a secured card," says Cunningham. But the beauty of using the cards and making on-time payments is that some credit card issuers will report those payments to the credit bureaus, raising your credit score over time. In fact, as you build your credit profile, many secured card issuers will raise your credit limit to a level that's higher than the amount you put up as collateral.
4. Look for special programs.Some credit card issuers have programs designed specifically for those who are trying to build credit. For example, Wells Fargo's College Visa Card is geared toward students at two- or four-year accredited colleges and is designed for them to establish their credit history in school. "The average credit line is $875 -- it's not extremely high," says Dinna Martinez, product manager for Wells Fargo's secured and college segment. "But it's enough to get them started."
5. Consider less-than-stellar terms.Unfortunately, the current economic climate dictates that some people consider options they wouldn't think twice about in different times. For some, the only credit option available may be a credit card with an annual fee or a high interest rate. An annual fee may be worth the cost if it helps you build your credit score so you qualify for better offers in the future. Likewise, the interest rate won't matter if you don't carry a balance. To make such a card work for you, "you have to be sure you're disciplined enough to make the payments in full every single month," says Warner.
6. Take advantage of college offers.While there have been efforts to restrict credit card companies' ability to market their cards on college campuses in such states as New Jersey and Oklahoma, it might make sense to consider one of these offers in light of the difficulties many are facing when applying for credit. However, make sure you understand the terms and read the fine print, Warner advises, and again, pay the balance off each month. Look to mom and dad. Many young people get their financial start by getting help from their parents. However, even that option may be hindered if your parents are financially strapped because of the credit crisis, Dunn points out. But if they are willing and able, they can co-sign on a loan, of their credit cards, to help you build your own credit profile.
7. Avoid applying too often.If you're turned down for credit the first time, you're liable to keep applying until you get a "yes," but that can be a mistake, says Cunningham, since too many inquiries can negatively impact the score you're trying to build. "If you tried for one general purpose card -- Visa or MasterCard -- one gas card, and one store card and got turned down by all three, you need to sit tight," Cunningham says. Wait about six months, then try again, she advises.Once you open your first credit account, plan to be a customer for the long haul. "The first card you ever open you will never close," says Dunn. "Because that's what will give you the longest credit history, which will help your score the most."
By Tamara E. Holmes Published: March 18, 2009
Content Courtesy of CreditCards.com
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Eleven smart ways to save on your family tax bill
Most of us would rather do just about anything (clean the oven, organize the garage, vacuum under our kids' beds) than tackle that growing pile of income tax paperwork. But if you, like most Americans, are looking to cut costs, it's time well spent: Just a few hours of savvy strategizing can shave big bucks off your final tax bill.
Before you file your return this year, check out these tips for keeping your hard-earned dollars in the family:
Open an IRA
Every year, you have until the April tax deadline to open a traditional individual retirement account (IRA) or contribute to an existing account and use it as a deduction on your tax return for the previous year. Even stay-at-home parents can open an IRA and contribute the max -- a big change from several years ago.
A traditional IRA allows you to deposit money for retirement and not pay taxes on it until you withdraw it -- theoretically, that'll be when you're 59 1/2 or older and in a lower tax bracket because you're retired or working less.
Not all contributions are fully deductible, however. The amount you can write off depends on your marital status, how you file your taxes if you're married (jointly or separately), whether you participate in retirement plan at work, and how much money you make.
If you don't already have an IRA, and you're eligible, it's easy to open one. Just ask at your bank or request an application from a mutual fund family like Vanguard, Fidelity, or T. Rowe Price.
For more information on IRAs, see Publication 590, Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs) [RL1] on the IRS website. Be sure to click on "What's New for 2008" for updated tax rules.
Open a SEP IRA if you're self-employed
A simplified employee pension plan (SEP) lets you shelter as much as 25 percent (but no more than $46,000) of your net self-employment income in a tax-deferred account. Every year, you have until the April tax deadline to set up and contribute to a SEP for the previous year.
For more information on SEP IRAs, see Retirement Plans FAQs Regarding SEPs on the IRS website.
Contribute to your 401(k)
If you work for a company with a 401(k) plan, enroll in it or start contributing more -- this is one of the easiest ways to cut your taxes and ramp up your retirement savings at the same time. Not only will your money grow tax-deferred until you withdraw it at retirement, but you'll significantly reduce your taxable income.
If you're in the 25 percent tax bracket, every $1,000 you put in your 401(k) saves you $250 in federal taxes. Bonus: Many companies will even match your 401(k) contribution up to a certain percentage, so not funding your account at least up to that percentage is like refusing free money.
Take the child tax credit
As long as your annual income is more than $8,500 and no more than $110,000 ($75,000 for singles, and $55,000 if you're married but file separately), you can whack $1,000 off your tax bill for each child who was under 17 on December 31, 2008. (The lower-than-usual $8,500 minimum is part of the government's $700 billion economic rescue bill; in 2009, it may jump back up -- and then some -- to $12,550.) In addition to checking off the appropriate box on your tax form, be sure to note the exact amount of credit you're entitled to.
For more information on the child tax credit, see Tax Topic 606 - Child Tax Credits on the IRS website.
Deduct your mortgage points
If you bought a home last year, you may be able to deduct any mortgage points you paid. As long as the points were based on a percentage of the loan amount and you paid for them in cash at or before closing, the deduction should pass muster with the IRS. A quick reminder: Don't forget to reduce the tax basis of your new home by the amount of seller-paid points you deduct.
For more information on deducting mortgage points, see Publication 936 (2008), Home Mortgage Interest Deduction on the IRS website.
Take the adoption credit if you adopted a child last year
In the year the adoption is finalized, you can subtract from your tax bill certain adoption-related expenses – such as court costs, attorney fees, and travel expenses – up to $11,650 for 2008 ($12,150 in 2009). This is true even if you incurred those expenses in previous years.
Note: Credit for previous years' expenses is limited to the maximum allowed for that year. The credit begins to phase out if your combined income exceeds a certain amount ($174,730 in 2008; $182,180 in 2009) and stops altogether if it gets high enough. Married adopters must file a joint return to claim the credit.
For more information about the adoption credit, see Topic 607 - Adoption Credit on the IRS website.
File as "head of household" if you qualify
Not only will you be taxed at a lower rate than if you filed as single or "married filing separately," but you'll get a higher standard deduction. To qualify for 2008, you must have been single, separated, or divorced on December 31, 2008; paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home; and had a child living with you for over half the year.
You may also be able to file as head of household if you claim a parent as a dependent and pay more than half of his home costs, including costs for a home that's separate from yours.
For more information about filing as head of household, see Publication 501 (2008), Exemptions, Standard Deduction, and Filing Information on the IRS website.
If you're divorcing, ask for child support
Alimony is taxable, child support is not -- so if given a choice, take the child support. Of course, you may need both. If that's the case, make sure the alimony and child support aren't rolled into one monthly payment called "family support." Otherwise, you may end up paying unnecessary taxes on the entire amount.
Get your child a social security number
If you expanded your family last year, don't put off getting your new child a social security number. Without it, you won't be able to claim him as a dependent exemption, a move that could cost you hundreds of dollars come tax time – $350 if you're in the 10 percent bracket, $875 in the 25 percent bracket. (Like many tax breaks, the dependent exemption is phased out for higher-earning families.)
If you haven't already filled out an application (at the hospital after your baby was delivered, for instance), call the Social Security Administration (SSA) at (800) 772-1213 and ask for Form SS-5, or download the form from the SSA website.
Prepare and file electronically
Preparing your return on a computer and filing it electronically reduces mistakes and speeds up the return process. One study found that 20 percent of returns done by hand had mistakes, compared with just 1 percent of those prepared electronically. What's more, if you're getting a refund, it'll be credited to your bank account in just eight to 15 days if you e-file, compared with five to seven weeks if you use U.S. mail.
To find out whether you qualify to have your tax return prepared and filed electronically at no charge through the IRS's Free File program, see Free File Home: Your Link to Free Federal Online Filing on the IRS website.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Spend Less Time in the Laundry Room
When one woman I know ran into a common problem—her kids wouldn't put their laundered clothes away—she found an uncommon solution. She moved their dressers right into the laundry room and hung a clothing rod there. Then, once clothes were washed and folded, she could put them away instantly. Not only that, but when kids dressed in the laundry room rather than in the bedroom, their dirty, discarded clothes were more likely to land in the hamper than on the floor. Here are some other unconventional solutions to being more efficient in the laundry room.
by Mary Ellen Pinkham, Everyday Problem Solver
Pretreat Stains
Attach a stain stick to the inside top of the bathroom hamper, and as you undress the kids or yourself, rub the stick on any stains. If clothes don't get washed for a day or two, they're pretreated.Sort Delicates
Put everything that can't be machine-dried into a large mesh sweater bag. You won't have to sort through wet clothes when you transfer everything to the dryer, and you won't mistakenly include an item that can't take the heat.Drip Dry
Many clothes won't need ironing if they're dried properly. If drying space is tight, hang a Hula Hoop from the ceiling, and you can hang double the clothes in less space. Or install a second shower rod parallel to the first but positioned right over the tub, so that clothes can drip dry and water goes down the drain.Avoid Ironing
Another way to cut down on ironing: Before you machine-wash shirts and blouses, button alternate buttons starting with the third one from the top. Arms won't tangle in the wash, and damp shirts can be slipped right onto hangers. Or, if you machine-dry a shirt, hang it immediately and give it a shot of spray starch on the collar and cuffs. That may be all it needs to look presentable.Speed Dry
If you have a damp load to be machine-dried, add a dry bath towel. It will dry faster. Lint Remover
If a leftover tissue has gone through the laundry and left everything in the load covered with lint, put everything back in the dryer with a couple of fabric softener sheets and spin for 20 minutes or so on "air only."Release Wrinkles
If you've forgotten a load in the dryer and the wrinkles are set in, you don't need to haul out the iron. Throw a damp towel in with the load and put it through a cycle again, setting the machine to warm rather than hot. (If that doesn't do the job, use a pressing cloth dampened with diluted white distilled vinegar.)Clothing Care
To keep track of all the different methods to maintain the various "miracle" fabrics in the family wardrobe, put up a bulletin board with the washing instructions posted. (Also stick in a few threaded needles and tack on small plastic bags of buttons.)Quick Laundry Collection
Really great timesaver: Build a chute that leads from the hamper into the laundry. Better yet: Create a laundry room on the same level as the bedrooms.Monday, May 04, 2009
10 Tips in Landing a Better Job
From the first Google search to the last interview, you can boost your odds at landing a better job with the right preparation. Here are our ten best tools and tips for job-seekers and career climbers. 
With the economy lurching about like an over-tired Capoeira enthusiast, we recently decided it was a good time to look at taking the first step toward escaping one's endangered (or just plain boring) career for another, no matter what your experience level. We rounded up our favorite tips from our own resume posts and experience, and talked to a career specialist about how to score a great gig, even if you lack the supposedly mandatory "minimum requirements." Check it out, pull out the heavy-stock paper, and get to writing. Photo by emdot.
Source: Lifehacker.com
Photo by lewis chaplin.
10. Cover all the search sites
It's not exactly a "hack" to suggest hitting Monster.com, or your LinkedIn network, to check out job offerings and work your connections. Each site amongst our five best online job search sites, however, puts you in a different pool of possibilities, and each has its own quirks and tools. They're somewhat perfunctory and broad, but wouldn't you feel bad knowing you missed a great opportunity simply because it wasn't in your super-specific Craigslist search?
9. Cover Craigslist like a glove
The same types of skills and always-there alertness that make someone a Craigslist power user can give them the edge on the site's job board, which has the benefit of (sometimes, not always) attracting relatively tech-savvy, with-it employers. Once you're getting text message and RSS alerts whenever "Micro-brew taster" shows up, browse these tips for applying for a job on Craigslist, written by someone looking to hire through Craigslist and looking for only the honest, direct, ready-to-work types.
8. Take the guesswork out of salary demands
There are a host of salary-obsessed sites that use a combination of math and insider info to compute what workers with certain skills and experience levels can expect in different cities and corporate firms. The most prominent among them—Glassdoor.com, PayScale, SalaryScout, and Indeed—have their own strengths and weaknesses, as we've previously detailed. If you're lucky enough to have an informed source inside a firm you're looking to jump ship to, or can cultivate one, that might be your best bet.Photo by AMagill.
7. Leave without burning any bridges
If you have a great estimate of exactly how many seconds are left until you can leave, it can be really tempting to email all@youroldcompany.com with exactly how liberated you feel. But if your dream job doesn't turn out quite so ethereal, or you ever find yourself needing a tip, lead, reference, or maybe even someone to hire at your new digs, you'll wish you'd kept things civil. To fake it until you make it, crib from eMurse's sample resignation letters, read from wikiHow's guide to resigning gracefully, and keep in touch over social networks like Facebook with the co-workers in the same realm you find yourself in. You never know when one of them might hear about a sudden job opening; alternately, you can ditch the civility and think about offering cold, hard cash rewards for job leads.
6. Walk into your interview without fear
From covering an oldie-but-goodie list like the 50 common interview questions and answers to mastering a few conversational Jedi mind tricks—how you prep for your job interview depends on how geeky you want to get. If you bore even yourself with your answers to 1950s HR Manual standards like "What's your greatest weakness," consider turning the interview around by talking about your first 100 days on the job, or tell the story of your career, and future. If you managed to escape without squirting mustard on the interviewer's shirt, dash off a quick, effective thank-you note. For more ideas, visit our tips for talking your way into a job.
5. Look the part
Unless your interviewer is Mark Zuckerberg, your newest sandals and fleece just ain't gonna cut it. Here's the shorter, job-focused version of our tools for dressing sharp:
- Give the shoes a solid shine: In five minutes or so.
- Dress sharp, but save: By turning a cheap-and-cheap-looking suit into one that's an expensive suit that wasn't expensive.
- Don't you dare rock a clip-on: Take the time to learn with a basic tutorial and YouTube instructional clip.
- Travel without ironing: You could take Fodor's advice and wield the power of plastic sheets to prevent wrinkles amongst your best-looking clothes. Or you can go a bit more eco-friendly and cross-cultural with a bundle wrap. For those who like a bit of extra security, a bit of DIY wrinkle releaser in a drug store spray bottle handles whatever gaps your folding and backing leaves open.
4. Use search-friendly words; skip vague generalities
Some large-scale employers deposit every single resume and CV into a giant, OCR-scanned database; others merely search out candidates on job sites using specific word criteria. Either way, having the right words on your resume prevents being cut in the first round like some warbly-voiced would-be Idol contestant. On the other hand, the humans who actually read through your cover letter, resume, and application want to see real numbers and results, not Career Services blather. So take a good long look at your text and kill at least six words from your resume.
3. Get better, faster, smarter alerts on job openings
A while back, we suggested just a few tools to nab a job with feeds and email alerts. Our commenters, though, had a wealth of links and suggestions that worked for them:
- SimplyHired and its RSS feeds, which 72ba digs for its aggregation of the big job sites and local players, as well as the customized feeds.
- Yahoo Pipes, the feed mashing/extracting/filtering tool we've created master feeds with and which Earth2Marsh used to monitor jobs at every grade school in Maine.
- Feed43, which ain't exactly a five-minute job, but it can take pretty much any page on the internet and make a feed out of it, as Jay discovered.
- Other tools: FeedMyInbox and UpdatePatrol.
2. Build your personal brand with a blog
By and large, no one-person blog is going to replace a salary, but it can help you find a new source of income. Blogger Adam Darowski believes the blog is the new resume, and at least one Lifehacker editor is really glad he built his up to help land a new gig. Write and post material related to the field you work in, and generally work it as if you were already employed in it. Your resume and clips can spell out that you're a great with Photoshop, but your blog's slideshows will definitely sell your clients or employers a lot more emphatically.
1. Write a killer resume for a new career path
With the economy lurching about like an over-tired Capoeira enthusiast, we recently decided it was a good time to look at taking the first step toward escaping one's endangered (or just plain boring) career for another, no matter what your experience level. We rounded up our favorite tips from our own resume posts and experience, and talked to a career specialist about how to score a great gig, even if you lack the supposedly mandatory "minimum requirements." Check it out, pull out the heavy-stock paper, and get to writing. Photo by emdot.Source: Lifehacker.com
Friday, May 01, 2009
How Supermarkets Lure You To Buy More
(CBS) "Nothing happens by accident in a supermarket. Everything is designed to sell."
And that, says Consumer Reports retail expert Tod Marks, is the key thing to keep in mind as you go up and down the aisles of your local store. Knowing how to shop is vital.
Supermarkets "are in the real estate business," Marks pointed out to Early Show consumer correspondent Susan Koeppen Monday in the first of her three-part series, "Supermarket Secrets."
Koeppen is taking viewers inside grocery stores to save them money -- and time.
Supermarkets, she explained, "are set up very carefully, with the hope that you will spend lots of money, maybe even more than you planned to."
From sweets to meats, Koeppen added, supermarkets have plenty to tantalize the taste buds.
"It's a feast for your eyes as well as your senses," Marks observed to Koeppen as they checked out one store.
So, how do you navigate the aisles without breaking the bank?
Lesson 1: The Supermarket Flyer
The first thing to do when you go to the store is pick up the flyer.
"Absolutely," Marks says. "The flyer is indispensable. It's like your textbook for shopping."
The front page is where stores dangle their hottest specials which, Marks says, "are sold at or below cost just to get you into the store where, hopefully, you'll buy a few more profitable items!"
But just because something is featured in a flyer doesn't mean it's on sale.
"It may not mean it's a great deal at all," Marks says. "It may mean a manufacturer paid advertising dollars toward the mention of that product."
According to Consumer Reports, the mere mention of a product in a store flyer can send sales soaring as much as 500 percent.
Lesson 2: The End of the Aisle -- The "End Cap" -- Is the Single Hottest Selling Spot in the Entire Store
"When you put anything there," Marks says, "sales can go up as much as a third, simply by their placement on an end cap."
But be careful, Koeppen cautioned: Those items aren't always sale items. And it's a good idea to check their freshness dates.
"Because it's such a great selling spot," Marks says, "retailers may actually put something there from time-to-time that's nearing the end of its shelf life."
Lesson 3: Product Placement Is Key
"Prime selling space is right in the center, eye-level if you will," Marks says.
In fact, companies sometimes pay thousands of dollars to have their products placed on the center shelf. And, Koeppen continues, those items tend to be more expensive than the ones found high or low.
"The lower level and the high-on-top level, they're kind of the low-rent districts," Marks notes. "You put commodities there -- things that don't bring in a lot of profits that people are going to buy, no matter what."
Lesson 4: Convenience Will Cost You
How much more are we paying to have our stuff chopped up for us instead of cutting them up ourselves, Koeppen wondered.
"Prices vary all the time<" Marks pointed out, "but it's not a stretch to say that you can pay anywhere from two, 300 percent to 600 percent or more for the convenience of pre-cut, pre-shredded or pre-anything produce."
Koeppen noticed that a three pound bag of red apples was just a dollar a pound; hand-picking your own from a bin made them $1.50 a pound; but if you buy the apples already cut up, they're a whopping $5 a pound.
Lesson 5: Saving Money Is in the Bag
"Generally speaking," Marks says, "the better deal is almost always to be had when you buy the bag versus the loose produce."
Potatoes at that store were 50 cents a pound for a 5 pound bag, compared to one dollar a pound for loose potatoes.
That's twice the price. "Savings, again, can really add up buying that bagged produce," Marks says.
Another point: Grocers put milk and eggs in the back of the store because they want you to grab other items as you walk back to get them.
Source: CBS Interactive Inc.
And that, says Consumer Reports retail expert Tod Marks, is the key thing to keep in mind as you go up and down the aisles of your local store. Knowing how to shop is vital.
Supermarkets "are in the real estate business," Marks pointed out to Early Show consumer correspondent Susan Koeppen Monday in the first of her three-part series, "Supermarket Secrets."
Koeppen is taking viewers inside grocery stores to save them money -- and time.
Supermarkets, she explained, "are set up very carefully, with the hope that you will spend lots of money, maybe even more than you planned to."
From sweets to meats, Koeppen added, supermarkets have plenty to tantalize the taste buds.
"It's a feast for your eyes as well as your senses," Marks observed to Koeppen as they checked out one store.
So, how do you navigate the aisles without breaking the bank?
Lesson 1: The Supermarket Flyer
The first thing to do when you go to the store is pick up the flyer.
"Absolutely," Marks says. "The flyer is indispensable. It's like your textbook for shopping."
The front page is where stores dangle their hottest specials which, Marks says, "are sold at or below cost just to get you into the store where, hopefully, you'll buy a few more profitable items!"
But just because something is featured in a flyer doesn't mean it's on sale.
"It may not mean it's a great deal at all," Marks says. "It may mean a manufacturer paid advertising dollars toward the mention of that product."
According to Consumer Reports, the mere mention of a product in a store flyer can send sales soaring as much as 500 percent.
Lesson 2: The End of the Aisle -- The "End Cap" -- Is the Single Hottest Selling Spot in the Entire Store
"When you put anything there," Marks says, "sales can go up as much as a third, simply by their placement on an end cap."
But be careful, Koeppen cautioned: Those items aren't always sale items. And it's a good idea to check their freshness dates.
"Because it's such a great selling spot," Marks says, "retailers may actually put something there from time-to-time that's nearing the end of its shelf life."
Lesson 3: Product Placement Is Key
"Prime selling space is right in the center, eye-level if you will," Marks says.
In fact, companies sometimes pay thousands of dollars to have their products placed on the center shelf. And, Koeppen continues, those items tend to be more expensive than the ones found high or low.
"The lower level and the high-on-top level, they're kind of the low-rent districts," Marks notes. "You put commodities there -- things that don't bring in a lot of profits that people are going to buy, no matter what."
Lesson 4: Convenience Will Cost You
How much more are we paying to have our stuff chopped up for us instead of cutting them up ourselves, Koeppen wondered.
"Prices vary all the time<" Marks pointed out, "but it's not a stretch to say that you can pay anywhere from two, 300 percent to 600 percent or more for the convenience of pre-cut, pre-shredded or pre-anything produce."
Koeppen noticed that a three pound bag of red apples was just a dollar a pound; hand-picking your own from a bin made them $1.50 a pound; but if you buy the apples already cut up, they're a whopping $5 a pound.
Lesson 5: Saving Money Is in the Bag
"Generally speaking," Marks says, "the better deal is almost always to be had when you buy the bag versus the loose produce."
Potatoes at that store were 50 cents a pound for a 5 pound bag, compared to one dollar a pound for loose potatoes.
That's twice the price. "Savings, again, can really add up buying that bagged produce," Marks says.
Another point: Grocers put milk and eggs in the back of the store because they want you to grab other items as you walk back to get them.
Source: CBS Interactive Inc.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
How To Buy A New Car
I stumbled upon a very logical video on how to buy a new car. The speaker shares some cool tips on how to win over those pesky sales people and dealers ready to jump into your pockets.
Monday, April 06, 2009
Top 10 Home Office Hacks
Whatever kind of work you do at home, your office is one place you want to spend the time to make comfortable and convenient. Take 10 of our tips on organizing, fixing, and streamlining that space.
Photo by pdsphil.
10. Get more natural or ambient light
If you aren't blessed with ample windows or non-annoying overhead lighting, getting a bit of illumination around your workspace can be accomplished in ways more subtle, and less expensive, than adding more lamps. One of the Dumb Little Man blog's 10 cheap home office improvements involves a strategically placed mirror, which helps those with bright light going the wrong way re-capture it. When Jason was deep in his extreme home office makeover, he found that cheap rope lights made for great ambient illumination, especially as the sunlight changes in early morning and late afternoon.
9. Keep your PCs clean and quiet
For a dedicated work desk, a desktop PC makes sense—it's far more bang for the buck, and you can use whatever size monitor you'd like. But desktop systems tend to get dirty, hot, and louder over time. Luckily, you need only a can of compressed air, some household oil, and a screwdriver to evacuate PC dust bunnies and get your system running with lower drag again. If it's just a noisy, case-shaking hard drive at the heart of your overly-audible system, try quieting it with rubber shocks or elastic suspenders. Starting over with a new system? Build it for silence from the start, and you'll hardly ever know your system is running.
8. Cover the non-obvious comforts
A really, seriously comfy chair. Wall colors other than white or beige. Extras of everything you occasionally run out of. You've probably put a whole bunch of thought into the precise layout of your computer desktop, but the trim and details of your home office often go sorely under-attended. The tail end of Sara Rimer's write-up about her perfect home office explicates the niceties that made her work-from-home life much more bearable. And readers gave up their own tips, like keeping the printer away from the computer (enforced away-from-screen breaks), and making the trash can and shredder as universally accessible as possible (clutter killers).
7. Install a worthy whiteboard
Even if you're a total computer obsessive, having a space to leave must-notice reminders and sketch out your thoughts. If the tiny-but-affordable models at your local office store don't do it for you, or you want something a bit more personalized, think outside the wood-framed white. A glass version isn't quite as high-contrast readable, but certainly durable and might work against a white wall. You could also grab some stick-on, removable dry erase sheets for those moments of fleeting big-picture inspiration. Know a supposedly busted erase board about to hit the curb? Draw over the permanent marker or stuck-on erasable ink with another dry-erase marker, wipe it away, and you might be good as new. Need just a little reusable note space? Grab a CD "jewel" case and put one together. Anywhere you've got a vertical surface, you can make a magnetic-backed whiteboard with two coats of paint you can pick up at Home Depot.
6. Rescue your filing cabinet
It seems like everyone over a certain age has a file cabinet of some sorts, but so many of them end up as supplemental shelf space cluttered with paper, and sometimes even the paper you would file inside it. That's a pretty clear sign that something's gone awry with your filing system. Gina rescued her own cabinet with better labels and a re-thinking of its purpose and use. The Simple Dollar helps out those who mostly use their cabinet for financial backup with the best document organizing system. And if you're the type to pull a folder and let it hang around, shame yourself into returning it by bookmarking its absence. Need something more, well, file-geeky? Try our complete filing cabinet page.
5. Charge and stash your gadgets away
Remember when one power strip was all you needed for everything electronic in your life? Yeah, we do too, and still wish the Bills had won that Super Bowl. But these days, your cell phone, camera battery, iPod, work phone, laptop battery, and other gear require both space and voltage. Keeping them off your desk space, yet still easily found and charged, is easy to accomplish. You can simply convert a cheap bedside table or soften up a simple box, or get fancy by adding switches or automatic lighting. If you've just got one or two things to keep handy but out of the way, a wall-mounted charger, made from an empty lotion bottle, no less, might be all you need. Here's a video showing one of our (and our readers') favorites, the IKEA-purchased charger box:
4. Keep wires out of sight
The entirely wireless workspace can be a reality, but not everybody's upgraded every single component in their work life to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Plus, non-iMac monitors will be wired into the immediate future. It's really cheap and not at all handyman-level to get wireless, either. Adam did it in 2006, Gina did a 2007 redux, and we've revisited the gear and guidelines a few times since. You can get to cordless simplicity with clamps, geek out over a concealed surge protector. There's no one-size-fits-all solution, but the project is almost always worth the two-lattes-at-Starbucks price of entry.
3. Make it easy on your eyes, arms, and ... seat
Your body didn't evolve over 200,000 years to sit at a desk and use a computer eight-ish hours per day. The best you can do is try and lessen the impact of a modern work day on the parts that get the most taxed. The Ergotron site has a really helpful ergonomic workspace planner that provides ideal heights for desks, chairs, monitors, and other office components, along with a workspace assessment to see how your current setup holds out under stress tests. If that's all too much, simply move your monitors to just below eye level, as Reader's Digest suggests. If you're really keen on getting away from the standard office routine, gather up the tools and build your own standing desk space.
2. Get a label maker—the lightsaber of organization
Next time you feel the deep, strong need to run out and buy another plastic box for your stuff, ask yourself if you couldn't get just as far by putting a new label on a box you already have. That's the key to a label maker—it lets you design an organization system from your own work flow, not the other way 'round. We've previously revealed our crush on the Brother P-touch Home and Hobby model, but our label-loving readers have a few other recommendations, too.
1. Keep it clean
Sounds easy at first glance, doesn't it? Buy some stacking inboxes, put the coffee mugs away when you're done with them, and file everything you're not working on away. Boy, don't we wish. Our own Jason totally remade his entire home office space, from floors to walls, using a number of tried and tested organization and physical re-arrangements. I have only a single desk to manage, but found it cluttered enough to clean it and keep it that way, mostly by banishing my "junk drawer" and maximizing the horizontal real estate on it. However you tackle your decluttering project, pick something that sticks, and which makes putting things away take no more time than throwing something out. Photo by frischmilch.
Source: Lifehacker.com
By Kevin Purdy, 9:00 AM on Sat Apr 4 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Demand down for foreign worker visas
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Kevin Chou has had his fair share of visa woes. For the past two years running, his Silicon Valley social networking start-up, Watercooler, has applied for an H-1B work visa for the same Canadian employee. Both times, the petition lost out in the government's annual visa lottery, which selected only 85,000 from a pool of more than 120,000 hopefuls.
"We've flushed $10,000 down the drain on H-1Bs," says a disenchanted Chou, who last year was unable to offer a job to a highly-skilled software engineer from India because he was worried that engineer would face the same problem. The candidate ended up taking a position at Google (GOOG, Fortune 500).
Watercooler's story is not atypical for small businesses, which usually have fewer resources to throw at the application process and no foreign offices in which to temporarily place talented candidates awaiting visa approval. As a result, many are disproportionately affected by the cap on H-1Bs. But this year, analysts say, could be different.
Immigration experts expect H-1B applications for 2009 to be at their lowest levels in years. Some even suggest that after April 1, the first day on which applications may be filed, it could take a week or more to fill the quota of 85,000 visas. (65,000 visa spots are open to all applicants, while an additional 20,000 are earmarked for those with graduate degrees from U.S. universities.) In past years, it's taken as little as 48 hours for the queue to fill up.
A combination of factors are behind this year's reduced demand, including the slowing economy, new restrictions on H-1B hiring at some firms, and the accounting scandal that has weakened massive Indian outsourcing firm Satyam Computer Services. The end result: Smaller firms have the best chance they've had in years to score an H-1B.
"If you're lucky enough to be in hiring mode, this is the year to apply," says Greg Siskind, an immigration attorney and blogger, who notes that the number of work visa applications always dips during a recession. Other attorneys say they're filing half as many applications as they did last year, as their clients cut costs or downsize.
That's good news for small business owners such as Aleksandar Ivanovic, CEO of Milwaukee software firm Webcom. He's not in the habit of applying for H-1Bs, but last year he decided that a talented intern of Nigerian citizenship was worth the investment of $5,000 for filing and attorney fees. The petition failed.
"It's frustrating because it's not easy to find bright kids," says Ivanovic. His company has unusually high standards when it comes to recruiting, even for internships; he requires at least a 3.9 GPA. This particular candidate was the only one who made it through a tough application process in 2007. Ivanovic hired him - the intern's student visa allows him to accept limited employment for training purposes. A more recent internship recruitment effort at Webcom drew close to a hundred applicants, but none of them made it through.
That's why Ivanovic is petitioning for an H-1B again this year for the same Nigerian intern, whom Ivanovic says has exceptional math and Boolean logic skills that Webcom hasn't found in any other candidates. Ivanovic would like to keep the staffer after his student visa runs out. He's happy that his chances of scoring the H-1B have dramatically improved.
It's not just the slowing economy that's depressing H-1B visa demand. A protectionist provision in the recently passed federal stimulus program has made it harder for financial institutions receiving federal funds to apply for H-1B visas for the next two years.
While individual U.S banks haven't been big H-1B petitioners in the past, their combined impact is significant. According to the National Foundation for American Policy, a nonpartisan immigration research think tank in Arlington, Va., twelve of the banks that have received funding from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) submitted a combined total of more than 900 H-1B petitions in 2007. That's a minuscule percentage of the more than 1.2 million workers the banks employed, but it's a noticeable chunk of the H-1B application pool.
Then there's Satyam, the Indian software firm currently under investigation for massive accounting fraud. In 2008, Satyam was the third-largest petitioner for H-1B visas, submitting a total of nearly 2,000 petitions, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Following the recent scandal, analysts such as Sam Udani of Immigration Daily, an immigration news Web site, expect the company to file far fewer applications this year. Satyam recently told the New York Times that it is withdrawing many Indian employees from the U.S. and sending them back to India.
"If you apply for an H-1B this year, there's close to a 100% chance that you'll get it," Udani says.
Watercooler's Chou says he has no choice but to try again this year. His foreign employee has remained with the company for the past two years on a special TN1 work visa for Canadians, but it costs $2,000 for the company to renew each year, with no guarantee that the next year's renewal will be granted.
Finding an American employee to replace his Canadian staffer wouldn't be easy, Chou says. Part of a seven-person software engineering team, she started at Watercooler within months of the company's launch and has deep institutional knowledge to draw on - plus fluency in LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) and the application development platforms that underpin social networking sites Facebook and MySpace.
"Finding that type of skill set is not easy. It's very specialized," says Chou. He estimates that finding and training a replacement would take at least six months and amount to more than $50,000 in expenses.
This year's better H-1B odds give Chou hope, but after losing out the past two years, he's not holding his breath. "It's still a $5,000 bet," he says. 
Monday, March 16, 2009
50 Nifty Tricks for Big DIY Savings
Remember when the tightfistedness of relatives raised during the Depression was amusing? Our grandparents' certificates of deposit and plastic couch protectors seemed downright quaint when our own home-equity and retirement portfolios were ballooning. Suddenly, though, the pot-roast-and-potatoes ethic doesn't seem quite so kooky. We'd even say it's worthy of a salute. So tip your cap to all your penny-pinching kin and read on for the best why-didn't-I-think-of-that ideas for shrinking your household expenses, from getting free trees from your town's public works department to installing an under-sink filter to cut costs on pricey bottled water.
SAVE UP TO $50
1. Shorten your dryer-vent hose. First, disconnect it and vacuum it out. Then trim the hose length so that it's just long enough for you to pull the dryer a few feet out from the wall. A short and unobstructed line makes your dryer run more efficiently.
Cost: Free.
Savings: $25 a year on electric, gas, or propane.
Bonus: Your clothes will dry about 20 percent faster.
2. Borrow specialized tools—gas-powered post-hole diggers and table-mounted routers—from a DIYer in your area for a small fee. Go to Zilok for far better deals than rental retailers offer.
Cost: $1 to $100 per day.
Savings: $50 or more for the same tool at a rental center.
Bonus: Getting to know fellow renovators in your neighborhood with whom you can swap tips.
3. Close closet doors to lower the square footage you're heating (and cooling). Shuttering closets along exterior walls also helps to insulate the house.
Cost: Zilch—although it may take a few minutes for your clothes to reach room temperature before you put them on.
Savings: About $50 per year off your energy bills.
Bonus: You and your guests won't see closet clutter.
4. Choose one neutral trim paint for the entire house rather than buying a gallon of a particular color for each room and using only a fraction of each can.
Cost: You have to forgo the trendy color combos in the paint manufacturer brochures.
Savings: $50 on paint for three rooms.
Bonus: Crisp white trim is always in style, and you'll never have to rummage around for the right can for touch-ups.
5. Sign up for your utility's time-of-use plan. Many regional power suppliers offer rebates for reducing electricity consumption during periods of peak demand.
Cost: Washing clothes and dishes at night during nonpeak hours, and turning the thermostat up or down a couple of degrees during a cold snap (or heat wave).
Savings: $25 to $50 per month on your energy bills, depending on the season.
Bonus: You're easing the strain on the power grid—and lowering the odds of a blackout.
6. Make your own cleaning solutions using inexpensive kitchen staples, such as white vinegar and baking soda. See The Green Guide for recipes.
Cost: A few bucks in extra pantry supplies.
Savings: $50 or more per year on commercial cleaners.
Bonus: Cleaners that don't contain harsh chemicals are healthier for your household.
7. Turn down the thermostat on your water heater. It's probably set at 140 degrees F to shorten the wait time for a steamy shower. But 120 or even 110 degrees is plenty hot.
Cost: A few minutes with a screwdriver in the utility room.
Savings: $30 or more per year on gas, oil, electricity, or propane.
Bonus: Your kids are less likely to scald themselves if the max water temperature is 120.
8. Install dimmer switches and use energy-efficient halogen bulbs, rather than incandescents. Dimmable CFLs are even thriftier, but some flicker at low power.
Cost: $10 per switch at The Home Depot, $5 for a Philips Halogena bulb at Bulbs.com.
Savings: $20 per fixture on electricity over three years.
Bonus: Halogens tend to outlast incandescents, saving more money over the long haul on replacement lights.
9. Replace central-air-conditioning filters every month during the summer to keep air flowing freely through the ducts and reduce strain on the blower motor.
Cost: About $11 for three filters.
Savings: $40 or more on cooling costs.
Bonus: New filters keep dust and mold from collecting on condenser coils, extending the equipment's life.
10. Get your chimney swept in the summer for an off-season price.
Cost: Just a little forethought.
Savings: $50 per flue.
Bonus: Get the job done at your convenience because sweeps' schedules are wide open.
11. Use your microwave instead of your range; it consumes half the power.
Cost: $15 for the Microwave Gourmet cookbook at Amazon.com.
Savings: $40 or more per year on electricity or gas.
Bonus: Having dinner ready in a fraction of the time.
12. Use your laptop. It runs on batteries, which use 80 percent less electricity than a desktop computer.
Cost: Being vigilant about unplugging the battery charger once your computer is juiced so it doesn't sap unnecessary energy.
Savings: $30 per year off your electric bill.
Bonus: You can relax on the sofa while perusing coupon sites.
13. Insulate hot-water lines. Preformed foam tubes fit right around the pipes, thanks to a slit along their length.
Cost: 29 cents to 35 cents per foot of insulation, depending on pipe dimensions, at Energy Federation.
Savings: $50 per year on energy.
Bonus: Halving the wait for hot water to reach upstairs faucets.
14. Set up a makeshift kitchen when a remodel project temporarily leaves you without a cooking area. All you need is a prep surface, micro-wave, coffeemaker, and fridge.
Cost: Nada. (Get the work crew to help move your fridge.)
Savings: $50 per day on take-out and Starbucks coffee.
Bonus: You won't pack on extra pounds from stuffed-crust pizza.
15. Choose a light-colored roof. Using pale shingles, particularly if you live down south, will reduce the solar heat your roof absorbs, reducing the need for air-conditioning. Up north, the cooling benefit is offset somewhat by the loss of solar warming in the winter.
Cost: The same as dark roofing.
Savings: $40 per year or more on summer cooling costs.
Bonus: Your "cool roof" may earn you a utility company rebate.
SAVE UP TO $150
16. Get your fall yard-cleanup crew to clear your gutters instead of having a gutter guy make a special trip.
Cost: $100 for your lawn crew.
Savings: $200 or more that you're not paying the gutter guy.
Bonus: There's no risk of gutter gunk being dumped onto your lawn after all the leaves have been blown and bagged.
17. Set your computer to sleep—not just the monitor, but the hard drive, too—so that it automatically dims after 10 minutes of nonuse.
Cost: It may doze off when you don't want it to and you'll have to punch a key to wake it up.
Savings: $75 per year off your electric bills.
Bonus: Like people, screens and hard drives age more gracefully with plenty of rest.
18. Wait to replace your grill, lawn mower, or patio furniture until the fall, when stores mark down their inventory to make room for holiday decorations and snowblowers.
Cost: Making do with what you have this summer.
Savings: $150 or more per item.
Bonus: Retailers—especially online ones, such as Target—often provide free shipping on leftover warm-weather gear.
19. Shop for phone, electric, and cable service at Whitefence; it's like Travelocity for utilities. Enter your ZIP code and compare rates offered by providers in your area.
Cost: A few minutes online.
Savings: Up to $150 per year on your utility bills.
Bonus: The switch to a new carrier can usually be made without an in-home service call or fee, and you can keep your old phone number.
20. Prune that overgrown rhododendron rather than replace it. If the shrub is blocking your front windows, cut it down to 18 inches high in late March. It'll regenerate into the plant you want with routine maintenance in one to two years.
Cost: 1 hour with pruners.
Savings: $100 to $200 for each new mature shrub you don't have to buy.
Bonus: Because the plant is already established, it won't need the intensive watering a new specimen requires during its first growing season.
21. Buy a deluxe battery recharging station and stop using disposables. A combo unit keeps a supply of AA, AAA, C, and D batteries at the ready.
Cost: A one-time investment of $40 for the La Crosse Technology BC-900 AlphaPower charger and assorted NiMH batteries (the best kind) at Amazon.com.
Savings: As much as $100 per year on disposables for dozens of tools and gadgets.
Bonus: Never again having to raid your kid's battery-operated toys to power up the TV remote.
22. Plant a deciduous tree on the south, west, or east side of your house. Once mature, it'll shade your roof and cut your cooling costs by up to 30 percent.
Cost: $25 to $70, depending on the tree species, at Fast Growing Trees Nursery.
Savings: About $120 per year on air-conditioning.
Bonus: The tree drops its leaves each fall, so you'll still get the warming benefit of winter sun.
23. Skip extended warranties. They're a hedge against the cost of repairing everything from LCD TVs to furnaces. But odds are that you'll never make a claim.
Cost: If something breaks, haggling with the manufacturer to get it fixed for free or paying for repairs out of your own pocket.
Savings: $50 to $200 per warranty that you don't buy.
Bonus: Not getting snagged by the fine print. Warranties may exclude your particular problem or contain a depreciation clause, meaning the product's value goes down as it ages—and hence, the payout shrinks.
24. Comparative shop online for everything from light fixtures to fridges. Then ask your local retailer to match the lowest price you find. Sears, for example, will match most online quotes for appliances and even reduce it by 10 percent of the difference between their advertised price and the better deal you found.
Cost: A few minutes surfing the Web, plus some printer ink.
Savings: $150 off a new French door–style fridge.
Bonus: Better customer service than you'll get online, and no worries about shipping charges or mail-order returns.
25. Install a ceiling fan. In the winter, run it at low speed in a clockwise direction to recirculate the warm air that rises to the ceiling. This will allow you to lower the thermostat a couple of degrees.
Cost: About $200 for the fan.
Savings: $100 per year off your heating bills.
Bonus: Reverse the fan direction in the summer and the airflow creates a windchill effect, making you feel cooler.
26. Get gently used tools, electronics, and furniture from Freecycle, an online community of folks who swap what they no longer need for stuff they can't do without.
Cost: Your fellow Freecyclers expect you to donate items, not just take freebies.
Savings: $75 or more for a new-to-you wireless router for your computer.
Bonus: Freeing up space in your garage and helping reduce the millions of tons of waste dumped into landfills each year.
27. Buy firewood in the spring when it’s cheap. Logs will dry out and be ready to burn by the time snowflakes fall.
Cost: Time stacking wood in a dry spot outdoors so that it can season in the open air.
Savings: Up to $100 per cord.
Bonus: In the off-season, you won’t run into any shortages of your favorite hardwood.
SAVE UP TO $250
28. Comb through your contractor's bid in search of places where he overestimated your job. For example, if the bid includes installation of a bathroom basin, vanity, and countertop but you've got a pedestal sink, point out the error and ask for a lower price.
Cost: Time reviewing an itemized estimate.
Savings: Easily $200 or more.
Bonus: Using the money you saved to splurge on that high-end overhead light fixture you thought you couldn't afford.
29. Plug in a SmartStrip. Three-quarters of the energy that electronics burn is consumed when the equipment is turned off. Rather than unplug items after every use, hook them up to a SmartStrip surge protector, which automatically kills power to electronics when you turn them off and returns it when you switch them back on.
Cost: $31 for a seven-outlet strip at SmartHomeUSA.com.
Savings: As much as $240 per year in energy costs.
Bonus: Two always-hot outlets ensure that slow-to-reboot devices like your digital cable box can be left on all the time.
30. Raise the deductible on your homeowner's insurance from $250 to $1,000.
Cost: Potentially $750, but only if you make a claim.
Savings: $200 per year or more if yours is a high-value home.
Bonus: You won't be tempted to make a nitpicky $400 claim, which could lead to a rate hike.
31. Toss the extra fridge. It's likely more than 10 years old, inefficient, and sapping tons of electricity. Many utility companies collect old fridges for free or even pay money for them.
Cost: No more stocking up on extra frozen waffles and OJ.
Savings: As much as $200 per year off your electric bill.
Bonus: Your garage or basement just got a lot bigger.
32. Install a shower timer in the kids' bathroom. The battery-operated device limits showers to 5, 8, or 11 minutes.
Cost: $115 at Shower Manager. (You can install it yourself.)
Savings: $200 or more per year.
Bonus: Speeding your kids' morning routines eases the struggle to ensure they (a) eat breakfast, (b) brush their teeth, and (c) make it to the bus on time.
33. Do your own energy audit. Pick up Black & Decker's new Thermal Leak Detector to find weak spots in your home's "insulation envelope." Fixes are often as simple as installing foam gaskets under switch plates and outlet covers ($3 for 10 gaskets at Home Energy Solutions) and adding new weatherstripping around your entry door ($3 for 17 feet of self-adhesive foam strip at Lowes).
Cost: $40 for the leak detector at Black and Decker (available in March).
Savings: $160 or more per year in energy costs.
Bonus: In addition to lower bills, you'll feel fewer drafts, which will make your house more comfortable year-round.
34. Schedule a furnace or boiler tune-up every year to boost its efficiency.
Cost: $100 to $150.
Savings: $200 per year in energy costs.
Bonus: Tune-ups remove scale, soot, and corrosion, postponing repairs and extending the life of your heating plant.
35. Get the contractor discount on home- improvement products. Many local dealers offer a 5, 10, or even 15 percent discount to tradespeople. So, for example, drop the name of your plumber when buying new bath fixtures. Don't have a pro? Explain that you're contracting the job, and ask if they'll extend the discount.
Cost: Occasionally you may have to do a bit of sweet talking.
Savings: Easily $250 for a new tub, sink, and toilet suite.
Bonus: Once you get in the seller's computer as having received the discount, you likely won't have to ask again.
SAVE UP TO $500
36. Cancel your phone line and replace it with a magicJack, a tiny gadget you insert into your computer's USB port, instantly transforming the broadband access you're already paying for into free phone service.
Cost: $40 for the device and one year of service, $20 per year after that.
Savings: $400 or more per year on land-line phone service.
Bonus: You get unlimited calling, with free long-distance in the U.S. and Canada, and the company says it's about to roll out a feature that allows you to keep your existing phone number.
37. Start wisteria, crape myrtle, or other ornamental landscape plants from cuttings of a family member's or neighbor's plant (with permission, of course).
Cost: $10 for rooting hormone and potting soil at the local nursery, plus a few years of patience as the plant matures.
Savings: $300 or more for a nursery-grown plant.
Bonus: You can carry on a family tradition by putting an offspring of your grandfather's prized redbud in your own backyard.
38. Install an under-sink water filter, and stop buying expensive bottled water.
Cost: $55 for the DIY-friendly Kenmore Single Undersink Drinking Water System at Sears.
Savings: $360 per year on purified water.
Bonus: Reducing the environmental impact caused by the manufacture and disposal of plastic bottles—as well as shipping them to your home from far-flung places like Fiji.
39. Install a wireless light switch. Simply attach a battery-operated device to the wall and screw its receptor into the lamp socket, which then receives the bulb.
Cost: $27 for the Carlon Wireless Light Socket Switch at Smart Home USA.
Savings: $250 to $300 to have an electrician install a switch and snake in wiring.
Bonus: You won't need to patch or paint any holes in the walls.
40. Appeal your property tax assessment yourself. One in three homeowners who do so are successful in getting their fees reduced, according to the National Taxpayers Union.
Cost: $7 for a How to Fight Property Taxes brochure at National Taxpayers Union.
Savings: As much as $400 per year off your tax bill.
Bonus: The tax reduction will last for many years to come.
41. Work with a designer— lighting, kitchen, bathroom, or interior—from the retailer where you intend to buy your products. Many stores, such as Ethan Allen, offer the service for free, while others rebate the pro's fee against your purchase.
Cost: Zilch.
Savings: About $300 per hour that you would otherwise pay for a consultation with an independent designer.
Bonus: These in-store folks know their products well and know what'll work best where.
42. Get free mulch and compost at your town's yard-waste recycling center.
Cost: $30 for pickup truck rental.
Savings: $300 for all the amendments you'll need to fortify and cover your raised beds and foundation plantings, per ¼ acre.
Bonus: Unlike bagged products from the home center, compost comes from leaves collected by your neighbors and the mulch from town tree pruning, so there's little risk of introducing non-native pests or weeds.
43. Cancel your trash pickup service if you currently pay a private company to cart away your refuse. Bring it to the dump yourself.
Cost: A few tanks of gas per year.
Savings: As much as $450 per year to the garbage man.
Bonus: There's no better place to meet fellow townspeople or hear the latest gossip.
44. Lock in a price cap for your heating oil or natural gas when prices are low to protect yourself from rate hikes over the coming months. Check prices at your supplier's website.
Cost: Some utility companies charge a lock-in fee.
Savings: $500 or more on energy costs—if prices climb significantly.
Bonus: Because you're taking a cap and not paying a fixed price, you won't lose out if prices drop, as they did last fall.
45. Replace worn-out air-conditioning equipment (or install a new system) in the winter, when HVAC guys offer discounts to drum up jobs.
Cost: You'll have to keep an eye on the calendar—spring may be closer than you think.
Savings: Perhaps $500.
Bonus: Air-conditioning makers typically provide off-season rebates on the equipment.
Cost: Just a phone call to your town's public works department.
Savings: $300 you don't have to pay for the tree and a professional landscaper to plant it for you.
Bonus: You get free advice from an arborist on which flowering trees will thrive best along your property's border, given such factors as sidewalks, power lines, and snowplows.
47. Pay your January mortgage bill in December to take the interest and property tax deductions in the current tax year.
Cost: Freeing up cash flow to mail your check early. (Make sure the bank processes it before the end of December.)
Savings: About $500 on taxes.
BONUS: Lowering your taxable income may qualify you for child tax credits, Roth IRA contributions, or other benefits that phase out at higher incomes.
48. Choose in-stock materials, including tile, wood flooring, entry doors, or cabinetry, when remodeling. Retailers want to empty their warehouses, which means you'll pay less for the same quality as special-order stuff.
Cost: Fewer choices, but that can be good when you're looking at a thousand different tile options.
Savings: $300 or more on home-improvement items.
Bonus: Not having to wait three weeks for the product to arrive.
49. Pay your property taxes yourself instead of having your mortgage lender do it. If you have good credit, ask your lender if you can set up your own escrow cushion in an FDIC-insured savings account, such as those at ING. These earn around 3 percent interest.
Cost: None.
Savings: A check for $500 or more from the mortgage company, which is probably holding two tmonths' worth of tax payments in escrow—plus you'll earn better interest in your own escrow account than what your lender credits you.
Bonus: Paying your taxes every six months (or every three, depending on the town) instead of with your monthly mortgage, gives you more cash-flow flexibility.
50. Buy a new furnace or water heater. The 2008 federal economic bailout package includes tax credits for energy-saving upgrades made in 2009.
Cost: Between $500 and $3,000, including installation, heavily offset by the money you'll save on fuel.
Savings: As much as $500 in federal credits, which come right off your tax bill.
Bonus: You may also qualify for state credits as well as rebates from your local utility company. Find out at the Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency.
Source: This Old House
Written By: Josh Garskof
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