I love testimonies and thought this was a great one to start off the chat.
Indeed, the "right" knowledge is power. Good for you.
Keep plugging away to get that monkey off your back!
I will be getting a incentive when I retire. I have some debt I will like to pay off. What is the best way to pay off the debt? Start with the ones with the highest interest rate or the one that account that has already been closed out?
I would start paying on the debt with the lowest balance.
There are of course many ways to pay down debt but in my experience and with the folks I work with when they can quickly remove debt off their list it engerizes them and they then double, trible efforts to get out of debt. That in turn reduces the amount of interest they would pay on higher interest debt.
Good luck.
I am thinking of re-financing my mortgage, balance is less than $60,000. I want to do it to get a lower rate and to have more residual income. I am retired and 61-years-old. Is this a good decision?
Bankrate has some great calculators to help you figure out if it's worth refinancing. Work the numbers. Would you truly benefit from a refin and lower interest rate when you add in any fees to refinance. And if you plan on staying in the home long-term.
It's important to back the numbers out. Also if you only have $60,000 left from a 30 year mortage, you are probably paying more on prinicpal now. Getting another mortgage will reset you to 30 year. Of course you should consider a 15 year too.
See what I mean, work thu all the numbers. Getting a 30-year, 15-year. Will you recoop the fees to make it worth refinancing if you are close to paying off the house.
Do the math.
My husband has been unemployed for a year, where we've barely stayed afloat and took a serious hit on savings. We are so grateful he got a well-paying job recently and we have about $3,000 leftover every month. We're wondering if he should max out his match program right away or if we should throw that back money into our e,=mergency fund first, and then when we get back to where we should be, then focus on retirement. FWIW, I am maxing out my match program at 15% even through the unemployed year, although I make about half of what he does. There is also a conversation about if/can we take a few days and go on a vacation! We have the money now but we also want to be responsible. Should we continue to put that off?
First -- and this might surprise some of my long-time readers -- take some of the cash and go on vacation. It's been a hard year and you deserve a break. I've been working with people who had a job loss and it's hard. Go have fun -- but not too much expensive fun :)
Then I would concentrate on building back the savings first. Definitely invest in the retirement fund to get teh full match because that's free money you can't afford not to capture. But beyond that build up both your emergency fund and what I call the "life happens" fund for the things in life that happen such as a car repair, etc.
Once you've pack both those funds again, then you can become aggressive with your retirement savings.
Because keep in mind it was your savings that was your savings grace during the unemployment.
The issue isn't that the restaurant charged for using the restroom, it's that they did so after the fact. If they had posted this as a policy, or told the woman ahead of time, then fine. But to use a sheriff to track her down? That's like giving someone a parking ticket, in an area that didn't post parking rules and sending the police to deliver it. And that sheriff really has no right to track her down over something like this anyway.
I agree about the tracking her down. That was just wrong.
Now the restaurant claims it did post about the charge but the woman admits she didn't see it. Nonetheless, really, charging her $5 after the fact. I get that there's a cost to having facilities -- water, bathroom tissue, etc.
But as Flay said in the posting in my eletter, that's the cost of doing business. And look at the poor publicity that policy generated.
Ms. Mayer can make all of the rules she wants, but you can't force innovation. She has two immediate problems - first, her employees aren't doing the work they are supposed to and second, the work that is being done isn't innovative. Her middle managers aren't doing their job if people get away with not doing theirs. My company (that I own) has a completely virtual workforce. We use skype, google hangouts and other tools to work together. We are plenty innovative. My guess is that Ms. Mayer is one of those managers that is only comfortable when she micro-manages. And that's the quickest way to stifle innovation.
Well tell us what you really think :)
I have no idea how well the managers of Yahoo are managing but I agree with your premise that creativity can happen in all kinds of ways. Ask anyone who works in an office how all those darn meetings can have the opposite affect on creativity. Heck some people can't get their job done for all the creative meetings.
Check around. Ask your current lender and get quotes from others. The competition is good if you have good credit. But as I said work the numbers.
Okay, the easy part first. Don't lease. Seriously don't lease. I rarely if ever see the upside in a lease. You pay all that money and then what? You have to pay a lot more money to keep the car or get another car.
My test for when it's time to get another car is how often does your hoopty leave you stranded. If you can plan for repairs and get more years off a car I say keep it as long as you can. The repairs rarely over several years amount to the cost of a new or used car. But once the costs do start to get extremely high AND you are constantly being left by the side of the road, time to look at the numbers for another car.
You are so sweet. Thanks.
You have given me a good idea for my monthly Color of Money Book Club. I'll look for a book about this topic. I will say I have seen reports of seniors moving overseas to save. But as with lots of things involving money there are plenty of caveats. Can you own the properity as a foreigner? What about the political strife in the country? Don't forget the cost of flying home to see children and grandchildren. Is the healthcare system good enough for what you need?
Lots to consider.
Given what you've told me, I would pay off the student loans. I know it's hard to let go of money you've saved but if the money is parked in a savings account, which it should be since it's your emergency money, you are actually losing by paying interest on the student loans.
If your jobs are safe and all else is fine financially, get that money off your backs. Then you can take the money you were applying to the student loan debt and quickly build back up your emergency fund.
Hi, Michelle. I was widowed with 3 young children last fall when my 28 year old husband died 6 weeks after being diagnosed with melanoma. Fortunately he had a $2 million term life insurance policy (everyone should do that) which, if handled right, should allow me to buy a house, attend college, pursue a career, establish college funds for the children,and more. But how do I do that? I'm a high school drop-out who never even wrote a check until my husband fell ill. All sorts of well-meaning, and not so well-meaning friends and relatives are offering me advice. Some family members who are struggling expect me to bail them out. I'm still reeling from my huband's death and trying to do right by my kids. How do I get started in sorting this out?
Oh my dear, I'm so so sorry for your loss.
Please, please don't listen to any of the relatives, friends, etc. And certainly with three children you are not in the position to bail anyone out. Period. So don't feel guilty about that.
You need a fee-only financial adviser to help you come up with a big-picture plan. I know $2 million is a lot. It really is. But it can go so quickly if not managed properly.
I really need you to find a professional who won't try to "sell" you but help you put together a long-range plan.
Go to this website to start your search
www.napfa.org
Ask around for any friends that may be using a planner. Interview a few -- I mean it. I want yo uto be very, very careful so that you don't get into the hands of someone who will push financial products you don't need.
If you need more help please e-mail me.
Amen!
Good points. Thanks.
They will look for income and the person may still have some good retirement income coming in.
However, your point taken. Shop around.
Actually, I understand too. If customers and noncustomers use the restrooms more cleaning, etc.
I just think owners have to use good judgment.
When you say Sister B, do you really mean Sister A, the one who will be living in the house?
If there is a mortgage on the home, the sister living in it should pay enough to pay the montly mortgage note. However during the months, it's being used as a vacation place for sister a, b or c, they should pay a fare share of the rent/mortgage for that weeks, months they use the home. And I would get all this in writing between all sisters.
If the home is paid off, then I agree the sister living there should pay utilities, something toward taxes, upkeep, etc.
If you are still now sure about this, ask a real estate professional or get advice from an estate attorney. Situations like this can turn ugly when one relative later feels he or she has been taken advantage of.
I'm not sure I have any more information for you. You can just keep checking around for the best policy possible. If you can't afford a huge policy get as much as you can afford given your health concerns.
Thoughts, comments, suggestions or criticisms about The Post's Live Q&As? Send us an e-mail.
Become a fan of Post Live on Facebook.
Follow @WashingtonPost on Twitter.
