Change Counts

So it is Valentine’s Day, and you may think you should “buy” something for your sweetheart. (And maybe you should have). But maybe the best gift wouldn’t necessarily be something you paid a lot of money for?  From a man’s perspective, or at least , this man’s perspective, you can do this without spending a lot of money.

Again, this applies to both sexes but I want to speak from my own opinion so I am talking about a man’s side.  Women want to know they are loved and appreciated.  Sometimes they may get that feeling from some jewelry or flowers you buy for them, but more often they will feel loved when you “really” appreciate them. One such way is to really listen to them for a change.;)

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I am not as experienced as many in using Wordpress, but I have seen 2 critical upgrades in the last month or so. It just seems to be a pain to do the upgrade so I found an easier way for the last one. I am not sure if this is the same as doing what is recommended, but I’ll throw this out in case someone else wants to do it too.

You see, the Wordpress.org site describes a sort of long process, and I always wonder if I am doing all the steps correctly and whether I will lose my blog, etc. (I back up every night, but still, who wants to go through all the headache of the blog being messed up?).

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Have you heard of the FSA?

A Flexible Spending Account (FSA) is a tax-reducing program offered by many employers that allows you to pay for eligible out-of-pocket health care and dependent care expenses with pre-tax dollars. Since you are using pre-tax dollars to pay for certain health care and dependent care expenses, you get an immediate discount on these expenses that equals the taxes you would otherwise pay on that money. Does that make sense? Here is an example of the health care portion.

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If you have purchased a home in 2007, you may qualify for a new tax deduction. Many borrowers are required to purchase private mortgage insurance, or PMI, when they get a loan This insurance is required by the lender to assure that should the borrower default on the loan, and the lender has to sell the house to pay for the mortgage, that the difference in the selling price and the loan amount is covered by this insurance policy.. This makes the loan essentially no risk for the lender.

Tags: advice by Mack
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That is a question that comes around most anytime. It is a very predictable question, and an important question to your personal finance. If you have a mortgage and interest rates are falling, should you refinance? How about when interest rates are rising and you know yours is higher than the current rate? How about when interest rates are stable but you have an adjustable rate and you no longer like the risk attached to it? Yes. All these times could be good times to refinance.

Each situation is a little different but here are some guidelines to help you decide.

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Is that true?  That is what I think I heard Dave Ramsey say on his show today. Three hundred and eighty-four dollars!  Wow.  I know some of you are not average, maybe you are even ABOVE average. (EDIT. March 10, 2008, I heard from a reliable source that the average car payment was up to $484.00.  I would think that is closer to the truth, it depends on where one is getting the data)

How much would that money be worth if you had a paid for car?

The mind set of borrowing money, and especially borrowing money to pay for things that decrease in value, like cars, is the mind-set that keeps so many people living from paycheck to paycheck and broke all their lives.

Tags: advice by Mack
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