Home Buying: What to Look For When Buying a House?
Find out what to look for and what to avoid, when you are home buying.
Cheryl Zhao
Cheryl Zhao, a financial expert, has been a part of our team for five years. After earning her MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management, she worked as a real estate broker before turning to blogging. Cheryl’s extensive knowledge of the housing market and trends, coupled with her passion for financial literacy, makes her blog posts an essential read for anyone considering becoming financially independent.
Rollover IRA Rules you Need to Know
Rollover IRA rules you need to know for retirement planning. Find out how you can safely transfer your 401(k) funds to an IRA and what else you can do with your funds.
Buying a House? How to Best Handle the Entire Home Buying Process
Just found your dream house and are ready to become a home owner? Let’s see how you can make the entire home buying process easier: Don’t Let “First Time Buyer Jitters” Get You Down. If you have found the house that you want, now go for it! Don’t be afraid to make an offer. If you have done your homework and know that you are ready to buy, go ahead. It is very normal to get nervous the first time you buy a home but don’t let the “jitters” take over and keep you from buying a home that will appreciate through the years and give you and your family much pride and happiness. The Appraisal Appraising is somewhere between a science and an art. You can have several different appraisals and receive several different values. The real value of the house is what a buyer is willing to pay for it. In most cases, the buyer is paying for the appraisal, but you usually do not get to pick the appraiser who will do it. The bank usually has a list of approved appraisers and they will contact the one they like to use. Just remember, no matter how much they say the house is worth, it has to be the right one for you. Termite Inspections You have to have a “wood-destroying organism” report completed on the house. Do not accept a report that is more than 30 days old. This inspection will tell you if there is evidence of active infestation, previous infestation, damage from previous infestation, wood-destroying fungi, and/or damage from wood-destroying fungi. Make sure that you have a clause in your contract that requires the “wood-destroying organism” report to be clean or the seller will make the necessary treatment or repairs. Generally, the seller will […]
How to Boost Your Productivity by Using the Pomodoro Technique
The Pomodoro technique is a productivity strategy I started using few years ago, after struggling to get more stuff done for my web design projects (and clients). When you have a nice project to work on, it’s easy to just ‘dive in‘, but sometimes tedious and yet necessary work can really be a pain. And you keep on avoiding it, while making no progress at all. I took some time off from this technique after a while (laziness would be the culprit) and I have to say that my productivity dwindled immediately. Few months ago I decided to try get back on the wagon and was able to do more productive work and get more stuff done in less time (if you followed my stories and read the course, you already know I work for 2 hours/day on average – which is very little for someone who has a web design business and also tries to run some blogs, a course etc.) For years people thought that the more hours they worked, the better their results. Which, we already know, is not the case. Being tied to your desk for hours not only causes imminent health problems, but you are NOT being productive. Just take a regular day at the ‘office‘ and try to list the stuff you really do and all the procrastination breaks you’re taking. How many of your important tasks really get done? You’ll be shocked to understand there are (many) days when getting anything done is a huge challenge. You’ll try do some work, but will become easily distracted, tired in few hours etc. By switching to the Pomodoro technique I was amazed to see how much stuff I do get done on a daily basis. With no additional help or more working hours. And it stopped feeling daunting […]
Personal Loans: How to Pay Off your Personal Loans Faster
Pay your personal loan faster. Find out what strategies work better to become debt free faster.
Retirement Savings: How to Save More Money for Retirement
Retirement savings tips and tricks. 4 ways to stay on track with your retirement savings and retire earlier.
Envelope Budget System: The Fast and Easy Guide
Mint, Personal Capital, YNAB, Ace Money .. countless budgeting apps on your phone and computer. If you’d like to get back to the basics, why not use the envelope budget system? Back in the days, when our grandparents managed their…
7 Steps to Make to Buy a House
Beware of these 11 steps to make, to get a great real estate deal.
Forex Trading Mistakes to Watch for
Forex trading has proven to be a very accessible money making formula for many people, since you don’t need a lot of money to start trading, but success is not that easy to attain. While there are many Forex investors who are earning a very good living, a lot of traders still cannot seem to be making money. Here are the biggest Forex trading mistakes you need to avoid, in order to start making a solid profit You jump into the real Forex trading too soon There are countless websites and apps that allow you to ‘play’ trading. They offer a starting bonus and you can start testing various strategies, see how it all works etc. Although given this chance to not trade their own money, a lot of beginner Forex investors just get bored and give up their test accounts way too soon. As you can guess, their lack of experience soon starts to show and they lose money fast. Their own money. This is why we advise you to keep your test account for as much as possible. Are you still not convinced you are having good results? No worries, move into another similar site/app and create another test account. Test trade for as much as you feel comfortable, until you see some good returns. Only when you are starting to earn money or at least not lose too fast, you are ready to start trading for real. You don’t read enough The moment you embark on a new journey, it’s imperative that you get as educated as possible. Read books, follow some great forex investing blogs, watch trading videos, become a member in a good Forex forum. The more information you can amass, the bigger are your chances to become successful with Forex trading. It might seem […]
House Selling: 3 Quick Fixes to Get a Better Price for Your Home
Here are 3 quick house fixes that will allow you to get a better price and sell your house faster.