Another take on the emergency fund or mortgage pay-down question: Say you have an internet savings account paying 4 1/4 % and a fixed-rate 4 7/8% mortgage. Say also that you have $100/month that you want to put toward either one. Which would you choose? Answer? It depends. There are good reasons for doing either … Read more
More talk on the good-debt-bad-debt question: Good debt versus bad debt A few people have labeled me risk-averse when it comes to debt, and that’s all right. I’m still of the opinion that it’s a really good idea to pay off any debt you have faster than you “have to” with regard to minimum payments … Read more
Certain appliances can act like dripping faucets on your electric bill because they consume electricity constantly. Two of the big culprits are cordless devices and devices that are activated with a remote control. We have an electric toothbrush. I had thought that the toothbruch loses its charge pretty quickly, but we’ve had the charger unplugged … Read more
It’s common knowledge that it’s desirable not to have credit card debt, since the interest rates are usually pretty high (unless you have very good credit or get into a 0% balance transfer offer and are very careful) and they’re usually used to buy depreciating, non-performing consumer goods. Taking out loans to go to college … Read more
With Memorial Day around the corner and gas hovering around $3/gallon, the cost of getting around is on a lot of people’s minds. It’s on mine, for sure. Last time I gassed up I was pleasantly surprised to see that my Oldsmobile Achieva got over 31 MPG — over the past few months it had … Read more
You may have heard of this trick before. You can save energy on the operation of your freezer (or refrigerator) if it’s only partly filled by freezing (or cooling) bottles of water. It takes energy initially to get the water down to temperature, but once it’s down there, it will hold its temperature a lot … Read more
A copper cent has well over two cents’ worth of copper in it, as of today’s close — 2.6 cents, actually. Even the “cheap” zinc cents are almost actually worth 1 cent in the metal content. That’s how far the base metals have rallied recently. This guy has engineered a machine that separates the wheat … Read more
I saw Deal or No Deal tonight for the first time. It may have been a rerun but I don’t know. Howie Mandel is funny and quick on his feet, so that was a plus. I just cannot believe that people will walk away from huge amounts of easy money in hopes of getting even … Read more