A Start to Living Organized

One of the shows i watch is Clean House.  I am always amazed at how much stuff people have that just clutters their homes.  You will see people that talk about having to hide their shopping from their spouse.  People who have so much money sunk into things that they are willing to have a TV show come and sell off their junk to reorganize their lives.  You don’t need a TV show to reorganize your life.

To get started organizing there are three things you need

• A calendar – The calendar is for keeping track or important dates and events.  Organization for the days of the year.
• A planner – If the calendar keeps the days of the year in order the planner tracks your events throughout the day.  Organization for the time in the day.  Most calendar software applications will double as as both the calendar and planner
• A system for filing things – You may need 2 systems.  One for files on your computer and another for items around your home or office.  A place for everything and everything in its place.

I recommend starting first with just a calendar.  Add important dates, birthdays, anniversaries, work functions, school events, etc.  Then move on to the planner.  If you are using Outlook of Google Calendar do these two steps together.  Now move onto just one area of your house.  Move everything that does not belong in that area out and keep it organized for one week.  You can move on to the rest of the house later.  We are talking about a start here.  Once you know you can keep it organized you can move onto a second area.

Once you get started you will begin to have less stress.  Having an organized area leaves you feeling better about yourself.  You will have more time not having to search for things.  You will be able to declutter items you have multiple of or no longer need.  It will be easier to identify these items.  You can save money by eliminating duplicate purchases.  There are plenty of benefits to living organized.  The best might just be not appearing on a show like Clean House where the entire nation knows of your organization and clutter problems.

$50 a Month Plus Free HBO

My in-laws finally called the cable company to try to save some money.  I have suggested this a number of times.  Without knowing how much they were paying i was still confident they could save money.  They signed up for the Comcast Triple Play and saved money over their current bill.  They currently had local phone service from Qwest and had cable and internet from Comcast.  The Triple Play package moved phone to their Comcast Bill.  The promotion also included free HBO for a year.  This left a larger cable package and a smaller bill.  As you likely guessed they saved $50 total.

If you are interested in lowering your cable bill there are some things you can do.

• Identify what specials cable and satellite companies are running so you know where you can negotiate.
• Call your provider and ask what specials they can give you.  Some companies have packages and specials for current customers.
• Tell your provider that you can sign up with their competitor for the best deal you have found.  Ask them to match the deal.
• If they can’t or won’t match the deal tell them you want to cancel.  You will usually get transferred to someone that can make you a better deal.
• Most cable or satellite providers have 2 layers of management for those who want to cancel.
• If your current provider won’t try to work out a deal then jump ship.  You will be much better off.

Should I Buy a Home or Rent?

Buying a home is a good decision.  This advice has been around for a while.  It is wrong.  Plain and simple; wrong.  Buying a home is only a good decision when it is a financially sound decision.  Squawkfox has a list of 6 Mortgage Meltdowns; times when buying a home is not financially sound.  The first step in seeing if this is right for you is to look at a rent vs buy calculator.  I usually look at the one from the New York Times.  This calculator would be all you need except for one thing… risk.  Risk is why you can make money work for you.  In home ownership the risk is usually working against you.

If you are single.  When you are single you usually come out ahead in the rent half of the rent vs buy calculator.  You can rent a place with a roommate or two and come out much better with renting.  It is often not financially sound to buy as a single individual.  I’m not even going to compare investing the difference or add it into the calculations. 

If you are married.  Once you are married you might come out ahead buying, but your marriage is one of the largest risk factors in buying a home.  With divorce rates around 50% or higher in many countries you are taking a gamble on the purchase of your home.  The average divorce happens after 7 years.  At 7 years you have likely spent $23,800 more buying than renting.  It takes on average 16 years of a 30 year mortgage for a home to be cheaper than renting.  At 50% buying a home has odds comparable to putting $200,000 on black and knowing you will have to wait 7 years to know if you “lose”, 15 years to know if you “won” and 35 years for the payout.  Starting with over 50% chance of divorce or add in the likelihood of bankruptcy then your financial odds are better in Vegas.

You can increase your odd by looking at your real chance of divorce or figuring how you compare to divorce statistics.  If you are signing a prenuptial agreement then you should just forgo the home purchase.  A prenuptial agreement is just a plan for what to do in your divorce.  Chances are that divorce will happen before buying was cheaper than renting.  While you may want to buy a home it does not make sense financially for a number of people.  The thought that everyone should buy led the sub-prime market and is a partial cause of the current recession.

 

Even if the numbers do add up don’t forget risk.  Buying a home might just be more risky than day trading in the stock market and is more risky than gambling in Vegas.  Let us know what you think in the comments.