The 2009 hurricane season officially starts today. As such, I thought I’d talk a bit about hurricane insurance. Unfortunately, according to recent reports, hurricane insurance rates are on the rise. Beyond increased premiums, issuers have been increasing deductibles and, in some cases, dropping policy holders in high risk areas.
These changes have been driven by a [...]

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Should you pay off your mortgage early? Or should you focus on investing with your spare cash? This is one of the most hotly debated topics in personal finance, with vocal proponents on both sides. Today, I thought I’d take a look at this issue from both angles and then share our approach with you.
Why [...]

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I’m guilty of buying small gadgets and/or books that I don’t really need. On the surface, many of these items look like they’ll save me time or money, but I either rarely use them or otherwise find that I don’t want to keep them around. Not only does this waste money, but it also results [...]

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Since most power outages occur during the spring and summers months, this article will focus on power outages in warmer weather. If you experience an outage in cold weather, make sure you have an alternative heat source such as a propane-powered heater and lots of fuel! Either that, or you’ll need a generator.
This past weekend [...]

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I’ve talked at length in the past about how your credit score is determined and why it’s important. Aside from paying your bills on time, one of the biggest things you can do to protect your credit score is to keep a close eye on your credit report.
While you’re entitled to one free credit report [...]

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This is just a quick note to let you know that HSBC Direct has extended their 3.50% APY promotion. This offer was originally set to expire on August 15th, 2008 but it’s now slated to run through at least September 15th, 2008. For those that aren’t familiar with HSBC Direct, they offer no fees, no [...]

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This is just a quick reminder to change your furnace filters this weekend if you haven’t done so in awhile. Your heat and air system will run much more efficiently with clean filters, meaning less energy consumption and lower energy bills.
While my goal is to do this monthly, I typically forget to do it until [...]

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As many of you know, we renovated our house this past fall. The work that we had done included an addition, replacement of our deck, conversion of our old laundry room into a powder room, and the construction of a small outbuilding.
Over this past weekend, our property tax re-assessment showed up in our mailbox. While [...]

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After a weekend spent working around the house, I was reminded of the value of being able to make simple fixes yourself. I’m a reasonably handy guy, and I take a certain amount of pride in being able to fix simple plumbing, electrical, etc. problems myself.
Beyond the satisfaction that comes from maintaining my own house, [...]

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On the heels of our mortgage refinance, I thought I’d put together a rundown of all the things we did two years ago to get our old house ready for sale. What follows is a rundown of all the ‘major’ stuff that we did just prior to putting our house on the market…
1. Had [...]

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