Money Management Skills for a Happy Life

The stronger your money management skills are, the more likely you will live the happy life you want.  It doesn't matter if you're Middle Class or a Millionaire, you will probably feel a few dollars short of comfort as some time.  You need to have a plan if you are going to win - which are simply having discipline, goals, and desire.  Being prepared will help you get where you want to be.  Just follow these Seven Savings Strategies:

1.     Set Goals - This will help override the impulse to buy something not that important.  Write down your plan for short, medium, and long-term goals then share them with your family and friends.  Support each other as you can.

2.     Track Spending - Write each deposit or withdrawal activity down in your check register and reconcile each month to your bank statement.  Save your debit charge receipts and file as you would all others.

3.     Automate Savings - A good goal to have is 10% of your income each pay period.  This may be into your employer provided 401k, savings, IRA or another bank account.

4.     Prepare a Budget - Plan and write down the allocation of money for specific purposes.  Use separate categories for Savings, Rent, Utilities, Insurance, Food, and Other Payments.

5.     Change Behavior - In order to reach your goals, make different choices.  Some things to consider are:

• Ask for a promotion
• Get a different or second job
• Get a roommate
• Have a garage sale
• Quit smoking/drinking
• Save the enjoyment of a Latte for Sunday instead of every day
• Leave credit cards at home and use for planned purchases only. 

6.     Borrow Wisely - Build and maintain a credit score above 700 to qualify for the lowest interest rates possible.  Don't create payment plans that outlive the object purchased.  Keep credit card balances at or below 30% of the credit limit.

7.     Prioritize Bills - Send payments 7 days below the due date to avoid any late fees.  Using an automated bill pay or writing checks out ahead of time with the date to mail in the corner before stamping might help you stay on time.  If money becomes to stretch, always pay necessities before your creditors.  It is more important to keep your water on than worry about a department store calling for payment.

For Additional Mortgage Planning in Washington State please contact Melissa Olson by emailing melissa@hopelendingllc.com or http://www.hopelendingllc.com  WA License #510-LO-32549.

P. S.  Do you have a friend that I can be helping also?  Please don't keep me a secret.  My business is referral based, and I appreciate your help! 

Wine Tasting at the MANETTE SIDEBAR - Bremerton

Come join me for wine tasting at the Manette Sidebar in Bremerton!  The 2nd Tuesday of every month, the Sidebar will be hosting a wine tasting party.  $10 buys you 7 tastes of the beautiful nectar of the vines! also...all very tasty appetizers will be 1/2 off! 

ADDRESS:
2113 E. 11th Street; Bremerton, Wash.
PHONE:
360-792-0801
HOURS:
Monday-Friday
3 p.m. - 2 a.m.
Saturday
4 p.m. - 2 a.m.
Closed Sunday

Manette is a great neighborhood for an afternoon walk along the waterfront and sunset views at the park.

To REX or not to REX? It's your home Equity

Recently Komo 4 published a story called A new way to get equity out of your home.  Yeah...someone is trying to help us in this bear market (probably not).  A REX Agreement (sounds like wrecks) is an equity investment company in San Francisco.  They provide immediate cash with no loan, no interest and no monthly payments. 

To qualify for the REX AGREEMENT, you must have a stand-alone home that you live in. Second homes, condos and vacation property are not eligible.  You must also have a decent credit score and be financially responsible.  Other things to consider are:

Maybe this product would be useful if you are bearish on housing and disciplined with investing and represents a sort of hedge against falling home values.  However, the REX Agreement is only offered in selected markets where real estate values are stable. The company analyzes the markets and does a lot of homework before deciding which states are likely to have the best investment potential and consumers should do the same thing.  Of course, they are in the business to make money and not likely to enter an agreement if a LOSS is possible. 

Why would anyone want to tap into their equity this way if they could qualify for a more traditional, less risky, bank loan with a net lower return of payment?  Let's consider this by looking at the numbers.

DOWNLOAD REX LOAN TEST NOW (fill in yellow boxes - the rest will automatically compute)

This product does not seem to benefit anyone except the investor lending to you.  For alternative options with your best interest first, please contact Melissa Olson at HOPE Lending LLC.

I love Ben!

Benjamin Franklin that is!  Do you know how Daylight Savings Time Originated?  In 1784 Benjamin Franklin is thought to have come up with the idea for daylight-saving time. In a whimsical letter to a French journal, he said that Parisians could save thousands of francs a years by waking up earlier during the summer because it would prevent them from having to buy so many candles to light the evening hours.

Years later in 1905 the prominent English builder and outdoorsman William Willett invented DSTduring one of his pre-breakfast horseback rides, when he observed with dismay how many Londoners slept through the best part of a summer day. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk. His solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later.  In the US standard time in time zones was instituted by the railroads in 1883, but DST was not established in U.S. law until the Act of March 19, 1918, sometimes called the Standard Time Act.   These great minds were definitely thinking alike.  I too enjoy my long summer days with extended daylight.

Wikipedia reminds us of all his great accomplishments.  The most memorable perhaps during the American Revolution in 1776, he was a member of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence and made several small changes to Thomas Jefferson's draft.  He is also mentioned for social innovations, such as paying forward.  I particularly am fond of this idea and get a kick out of buying the customer's coffee in line behind me.  I personally love collecting his picture on the $100 bills that I refer to as "Benny's"!

Remember that Ben can't really take the credit for Daylight Savings Time as like ancient Rome, 18th-century Europe did not keep accurate schedules.  Rather, he is the author of the proverb, "Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise". 

And being an election year you might find interesting that like the other advocates of republicanism, Franklin emphasized that the new republic could survive only if the people were virtuous in the sense of attention to civic duty and rejection of corruption. All his life he had been exploring the role of civic and personal virtue, as expressed in Poor Richard's aphorisms.

Let me introduce Imants Holmquist - WA Real Estate Attorney

Imants contacted me earlier this week after reading my blog Favoring change for Downtown Kirkland - The McLeod Project.  He was kind enough to invite me to lunch so we could get to know each other better.  I really enjoyed learning more about his specialty.

He helped me understand that he works in a firm with about 5 other attorney's that also do estate planning.  Imants does "most things real property related including transactions, litigation, and entity formation. In terms of fees, we try to flat fee as much as possible. Condominiums we flat fee at considerably less than other firms."

He also does LLC's and S Corps, Commercial lease review and purchase and sale agreement review is another  competitive area.  Please welcome Imants Holmquist and feel free to contact him for your attorney needs.

BEWARE - Mortgage Lenders STOP BUSINESS with no warning

Has this happened to you? 

~ You're working with a borrower and have an approval, maybe even have completed their signing and then the loan doesn't fund. 

~ Or you have a file submitted and the account rep falls off the face of the earth.

~ I just recently had an approval on a VA Loan to find out now the product no longer is offered!

In this business time is of the essence.  We also have a responsibility to conduct our due dilligence when choosing a lender for our borrowers.

A very helpful website that I use to check on lenders and their ability to stay in business is The Mortgage Lender Implode Meter.

As of March 3, 2008 they report 232 major U.S. lending operations have "imploded" since late 2006.  They include current News and a Discussion Forum. 

The most useful tool of this website is the Ailing/Watch List Lenders(tm):

I would suggest this site for anyone interested in direct Mortgage News relating to the risk of the lender either not being in business to fund your loan or dropping the product available.

Market News regarding Interest Rates - Stay Alive Another 5

In the fourth quarter we saw home prices continuing to decline thereby compounding two of the biggest threats facing the nation's economy: faltering consumer spending and tight credit markets.  The S&P/Case-Shiller national home-price index for the fourth quarter fell 8.9% from a year earlier, the largest drop in its 20 years of data. And the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight's index -- which tracks only homes purchased with mortgages guaranteed by home-loan giants Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac -- was down 0.3%, the first year-to-year decline in the measure's 16 years.  When home values decline, owners feel less wealthy and less likely to spend.  Reduced values also lessen the owner's ability to borrow against the home to finance significant purchases or refinance credit debts.  In addition, lower housing prices erode the value of banks' collateral, prompting them to tighten their lending standards, which further damps economic growth.

A top Federal Reserve official indicated the housing slump and its broadening impact on the economy probably will probably keep the central bank biased in favor of more interest-rate cuts.  Since September, the Fed has reduced its target for short-term interest rates by 2.25 percentage points to 3%.

But some mortgage rates are actually rising, and those that are falling haven't fallen that much.  The average interest rate on a standard 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.38% yesterday, little changed from September but up from 5.61% in late January.  Interest rates on jumbo mortgages -- those larger than $417,000 -- were at 7.35%, also close to their September levels.

Rates on adjustable mortgages have come down, but not by as much as the Fed has cut the rates it influences. A three-year ARM, for instance, carried a 5.43% interest rate yesterday, down from 6.29% in mid-September. Still, lower short-term rates should help millions of homeowners who took out ARMs with low teaser rates that are set to jump higher.

There are two reasons mortgage rates haven't responded more to the Fed's rate cuts.

1. Long-term Treasury yields, which are the benchmark for most mortgage rates, have risen recently, perhaps because of increased concern about inflation as the prices of oil and other commodities soar.
2. The spread between mortgage rates and Treasury rates has widened as investors and banks become increasingly reluctant to make home loans.

The good news is that the Seattle and surrounding areas have been holding their values.  While we see some over priced homes hit the market then take price cuts, the overall appreciation is still happening.  Our economy is strong with several new commercial construction projects and new jobs emerging.  In deed this may be a blessing in disguise for the market to have helped slow our growth and save us from massive foreclosures.  RealtyTrac reports several of the hardest hit states, notably Nevada, California, and Florida, were models of boom and bust economics, having gone through explosive growth and spiraling prices over the last few years.

Although we are seeing our share of foreclosures happening, I strongly suggest considering to help your neighbor out.  If you have good credit and can document your income you are a prime candidate to invest with someone who is in risk of loosing their home.  If you can purchase the home for a lower rate and payment and provide an opportunity for someone to keep their home by paying you rent, we could all pull together to help each other get through the rough times.  Realistically, people will do anything to keep from loosing their home and are willing to give up some equity to you for helping.  I am seeing more of these win-win agreements happening and am happy to help put this together for you.  Donald Trump once said "stay alive till '95" in 1990.  Let me now say let's stay alive another 5 - don't give up! 

If you would like more information on investing with someone in danger of loosing their home, please contact Melissa Olson with HOPE Lending LLC at 877-515-HOPE.

Negotiation without Friction?

THE MOST IMPORTANT JOB IS THAT OF LEARNING HOW TO NEGOTIATE WITH OTHERS WITHOUT FRICTION.

Experts in negotiation handle the process so smoothly that discussions hardly seem like negotiations at all. While the word negotiation itself conjures up visions of cigar-chomping adversaries pounding the table to emphasize their demands, the best results are achieved when all the parties involved are able to put themselves in the others' shoes and arrive at an agreement that is beneficial to everyone involved. Whether you are negotiating a higher salary, a new job, or the acquisition of a company, your chances of success are far greater when you approach the situation positively and with a clear objective in mind. It also helps to understand the motives of others involved and to have in-depth knowledge of the subject under discussion. Finally, approach every topic with an open mind-don't simply try to bully others into accepting your proposal or point of view.

Written by the Napolean Hill Foundation

Favoring change for Downtown Kirkland - The McLeod Project

I realize the initial reaction for most when they hear about change coming is to resist and oppose.  But let's consider all the facts and benefits The McLeod Project will bring downtown Kirkland.  Stuart McLeod owns the property that is to be redeveloped which includes Hector's south to Mixtura (Tully's to Ben & Jerry's would remain) and the parking and businesses behind there (Calabria, Sasi's Cafe).  The plan is for a 4 story mixed use building to include: retail/restaurants, office space, and an underground 500 car parking deck.  The architectural design is according to current zoning, in line with other downtown construction projects, and for the benefit of the community.

Having underground parking serving 500 vehicles that the city doesn't have to pay for or manage is a great idea. Additionally, The McLeod Project is an appealing design that also promotes a mixed use that our city needs.This will encourage a balanced growth by including the office space and attracting more retail spending. It iszoned appropriately and in line with the recent Heathman Hotel addition and senior building under construction.

Jon Regala is the City Planner on the McLeod project.  Please email him at jregala@ci.kirkland.wa.us with your support in favor of this development.

What have you done for your neighbor?

Did you know that everytime you influence another person to do a better job, you benefit that person and increase your value?  Clearly I'm speaking about a positive influence.  Someone once said that no one can really motivate anyone else;  all we can do is motivate ourselves and hope it catches on.  You will probably never know how much you influence others with your behavior. 

When you always  go the extra mile, you will influence those in your circle of friends and acquaintances, your family, your co-workers, and ever your bosses to do more and better than they have done before.  Your value to yourself and others is greatly enhanced by your ability to influence others to be happier, more productive people.  There are no salary caps or career limits for those who lead others to great heights of success.  Such people are simply too valuable!

Sometimes this is as simple as just telling someone thank you and how much you really appreciate them.  For me, I like starting my day out this way.  It gets my blood pumping and energy flowing.  Team work!