June 2007
Monthly Archive
16 Jun 2007 07:25 am
Little Known Ways to Help Make room for mom
| According to CNN Money an increasing number of adults - 11 million in all, according to recent estimates - are taking care of an older person in their home. And that number will likely rise sharply over the next few decades as the population ages. Certainly the emotional and financial advantages of opening your home to a parent can be great. You won’t have to stress about whether they are taking proper care of themselves - you’ll be able to see for yourself and help as needed. And if your mom or dad becomes frail or chronically ill, neither one of you will have to pay the $30,000 or so a year that the average assisted-living facility costs. |
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search for : taking care of an older person, assisted-living facility
15 Jun 2007 07:47 am
Here is a Method For Successful Investing In Real Estate ETFs
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After beating the broad market for seven years, REITs got clobbered in the first two months of 2007. Investors, fearful that problems in the residential mortgage industry would spill over to commercial real estate, sold off the industry group by 15%. That put REITs in correction territory. It’s easy now to buy REITs without digging through each company’s financial statements and driving around to visit their properties. There are several REIT index mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that buy baskets of REITs. That’s a great deal because it reduces your risk of picking the wrong REIT and it also diversifies you geographically, giving you exposure to commercial property across the nation. |
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search for : REIT, REIT index mutual fund, exchange-traded fund, ETF
14 Jun 2007 07:07 am
Here is a Method to approximate the true costs of owning a home
| The temptation to buy a house can be strong, especially if you’ve been renting for a while, have gotten married or are ready to start a family. To help you estimate your own cost of home ownership and come up with a realistic housing budget, I offer my experience as an example. Below, I itemize the expenses Alex and I have paid over the past four years, complete with dollar amounts. Your own costs will vary depending on the size, condition and location of the house, but this should help you anticipate what you’re getting into. Homeownership comes with a bevy of benefits, but you’ll want to make sure it’s the right move for you at this point in your life before making that long-term commitment. |
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search for : buy a house, cost of home ownership
13 Jun 2007 07:11 am
Little Known Ways to Appreciate A Second Home
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As women play ever-larger roles in family real estate decisions, developers from Florida to Florence are seriously rethinking the luxury second-home market. For women buying into this market, it takes more than a celebrity-designed golf course and a gourmet kitchen to entice them to invest in an expensive second home, experts say. It’s not the structure of the house as much as the transformation from house to home that interests women, when there are people sitting in front of a fireplace or lying on the floor playing a board game. |
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search for : luxury second-home market, gourmet kitchen
12 Jun 2007 06:57 am
Little Known Ways to Reduce Credit Card Fees
| In September 2006, the U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report on credit card fees. The report was requested by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and decried fees charged by credit card companies and the opaque legal disclosures that enable their billing practices. 2007: In May, Levin and Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., introduced in the Senate a bill called the Stop Unfair Practices in Credit Cards Act, which would amend the Truth in Lending Act. The bill would limit some of credit industry’s most egregious practices such as the application of penalty interest and charging debtors for paying their bills over the phone or Internet. |
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search for : credit card fees, Truth in Lending Act
11 Jun 2007 06:48 am
Now You Can Own a Luxury Log Home
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Demand for luxury log homes is rising, as busy executives and retiring baby boomers seek the peace and tranquility of “the great outdoors”. Since 1995, sales of log homes in all price ranges have increased 46 percent with luxury log homes accounting for 7% of the custom-home market. Today, these custom homes are priced from $500,000.00 to well over a million dollars. In addition to celebrities, the homes are gaining in popularity with outdoor enthusiasts and environmentally conscientious clients. Internationally, Canada and Spain have both reported significant growth in the luxury log home market. |
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search for : luxury log home, baby boomers
10 Jun 2007 07:44 am
Little Known Ways For Successful Landscaping
| By spending $500 to $3,000 on plants and materials and a few hours of time, you can achieve a well-landscaped look without shelling out for professional help. Besides the personal enjoyment you’ll get from a prettier yard, landscaping adds more value than almost any other home renovation. A recent Michigan State University study found that depending on where the house is located, high-quality landscaping adds 5 percent to 11 percent to its price. If you have no immediate plans to move, all the better: Landscaping is the one home improvement that actually appreciates over time. |
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search for : landscaped look, prettier yard, landscaping
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