October 2011

How the 4% Retirement Rule Works

by on October 27, 2011

There is a pretty common retirement planning rule of thumb that says that you can withdraw 4% of your savings each year during retirement.  It is referred to as the 4% rule.  As with all rules this simple, there are drawbacks to using it as your only source of retirement planning, but when used with other […]

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Why People Use Hard Money Loans

by on October 26, 2011

In years of experience with loans, we’ve never actually seen or heard of anyone getting a hard money loan.  I guess that’s because they’re not commonly used.  At least not in our circle of investors.  In general, hard money loans are used to help finance real estate, and are often used when other credit is […]

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Ways to Save Money on a Wedding

by on October 24, 2011

Most people are shocked when they find out how much their dream wedding will cost.  In some parts of country, a standard wedding can cost $50,000, and an extravagant wedding can cost more than double that.  How does it all get out of control?  We’re guessing because of all the emotions involved.  Most women dream […]

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There are esentially two ways to save money when building a home.  You can save money on labor and service costs, and you can save money on material costs.  We’ll look at each type of cost separately and give some advice on how to save money on each expense. How to Save on Material Costs […]

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What Makes a Good Credit Score?

by on October 14, 2011

The only fact about what makes a good credit score is that no one actually knows how it is calculated.  While the formula is seemingly top secret, there is at least agreement between experts as to what attributes of a credit report lead to higher credit scores.  Here is a list of important credit attributes that we believe […]

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Do You Have a Good Credit Score?

by on October 12, 2011

It is greatly debated as to what risk category a credit score falls under.  The credit rating companies don’t disclose their calculations for credit score and the companies and lenders that use credit scores, generally set their own standards for juding credit scores.  For those reasons, there are no set in stone guidelines for classifying […]

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About ten years ago, we signed up for about a dozen paid online survey sites.  Over the years a few have come and gone, and there have been hundreds, if not thousands, of “paid survey sites” that offer nothing other than affiliated links to the same dozen or so legitimate survey sites. So, if you’ve thought […]

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The Key to Household Budgeting

by on October 5, 2011

Many people think that the key to having a healthy household budget is making a lot of money.  They are wrong.  The key to a creating, managing and improving your personal budget is financial discipline.  To have financial discipline, you must be driven, motivated and determined to improve your finances. We all know someone who makes a ton […]

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