“Personal finance tips for the new year - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette” plus 1 more |
| Personal finance tips for the new year - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Posted: 05 Jan 2011 10:04 AM PST For anyone hoping to get their finances in shape this year, an especially important goal in a punky economy, the guru on interest rates and fees has released its top 100 personal finance tips for 2011. Topics on Bankrate.com's annual list range from investing, cutting taxes and sidestepping debt traps, to buying a car, paying for college and shopping for a home mortgage. Here's a sampling: • Start an emergency savings account. To get in the habit of saving, pay yourself first with a direct deposit to savings from your paycheck. Make it automatic since you'll be less likely to spend what you don't see. • Boost retirement contributions. A 401(k) is a good place to start or grow your investment. Invest at least enough to maximize your employer's matching contribution. • Get a handle on spending by creating a budget. Begin by tracking spending for a two-month period to see where you can cut back. Use the information to build a realistic monthly spending plan. • Make an extra mortgage payment. Extra payments are effective at any time of the year but can be less painful after receiving a tax refund or bonus. Make them as often as you can to reduce the overall payoff time of the loan. • Don't reset the calendar 30 years. Many borrowers restart from the beginning when refinancing a 30-year mortgage. But you don't have to do it that way. If you are refinancing a 30-year-loan that you've had for five years, pay off the new loan in 25 years by asking the lender to amortize the loan for the remaining period of the old loan. • Consider a rewards credit card. If you faithfully pay your balance in full each month, find a rewards offer that caters to your needs. But avoid the urge to overspend just for the sake of earning bigger rewards. • Research car choices. Do your research on interest rates and prices before visiting a car dealership. The more prepared you are, the more you'll be able to make the best decision. • Don't assume you need to buy used. Strong demand has made used cars more expensive than ever. What's more, there are more inexpensive new cars ($15,000 or less) coming to market than in the past. • Give to charity. Donate to IRS-qualified organizations throughout the year and claim an itemized deduction for the full amount you give. • Rebalance your investments. Getting your investments back in line with your goals and risk tolerance is especially crucial after the wide variations in returns over the last year. First published on January 5, 2011 at 12:00 am This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Personal Finance: New Year Could Mark Turnaround For Housing Market - RTT News Posted: 05 Jan 2011 11:59 AM PST (RTTNews) - The housing market has been in a slump for the past several years, hampering the overall economy and causing untold misery for the millions of individuals who have seen their largest single asset drop sharply in value. But there are signs that 2011 could bring an improvement in home sales, with mortgage and real estate experts cautiously optimistic that the worst of the crisis is behind us. While recent data about the housing market has continued to be sluggish, many believe that the foundation for an upswing in housing has been put in place. "Housing tends to be the beneficiary of a stronger economy," Dan Green, a loan officer and writer for TheMortgageReports.com, said in an interview with RTTNews. "We've been building a strong foundation throughout the year. I think we're going to see a strong 2011." Still, Green echoed the caution of most experts, warning that a strong 2011 is only the beginning of a process that could take a while. "It's going to be something that's gradual," Hall said. "One day we're going to wake up and look back and go: 'OK, the worst of market was sometime late 2009 early 2010 and we've been building strong foundation since.'" The need for caution has been backed up by recent statistics. Although the data have improved slightly, new home sales in November, the most recent month for which there are statistics, were more than 20 percent below the same month a year ago. They were also only modestly above the annual rate seen in August, which was the lowest since stat started to be kept in 1963. Pending sales, which measure contracts that have been signed by not yet closed, showed a notable monthly increase in November, but were still down by 5 percent compared to the prior-year numbers. The last major housing report released during 2010 indicated that U.S. home prices fell by a much steeper than expected annual rate in October. The report, released by Standard & Poor's in the final week of the year, contributed to renewed concerns about the outlook for the housing market. The report showed that the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home Price Index fell at an annual rate of 0.8 percent in October after increasing at a revised annual rate of 0.4 percent in September. Economists had been expecting prices to edge down by a much more modest 0.1 percent. But Green explains that these statistics focus on the rear-view mirror and are not necessarily a sign that a further decline in the housing market is in store for 2011. "It's very important to understand about the Case-Shiller Index is that it's a trailing report," he said. "The numbers that we were seeing were contracts that were written in June, July and August - and that was right after the tax cut expired." This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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