Veteran’s Guide to Getting the Right Home Loan

If you’ve served in the military, you can get one of the best tangible rewards for that service by taking advantage of two big government programs: the Veterans Affairs Home Loans program or, in the case of veterans disabled in the line of duty, special grants to build or adapt homes more compatible with those disabilities.

If you’re unfamiliar with either program, this guide breaks down the basics, including benefits, eligibility, and how to apply. We also include a mortgage calculator that any prospective homebuyer can use to figure out what he or she can afford.

VA Home Loans: What are the Benefits?

Uncle Sam offers a great benefit for military members and veterans who want to become homeowners: the Veterans Affairs Home Loans program. VA loans offer some hard-to-pass-up perks that make them an even better deal than FHA loans, one of the other major government-backed loan programs.

A VA loan is issued by private lenders but backed by the federal government. That means Uncle Sam picks up the tab if you can no longer pay your mortgage payments, and that guarantee allows the lender to relax lending criteria and offer several benefits that are rare with non-government-backed loans. Those include:

• No down payment: Even if you don’t have a down payment saved up, you can still get a VA loan as long as the sales price of the home is less than or equal to the home’s appraised value. FHA loans, which are also backed by the government but available to non-military buyers, still require at least a 3.5% down payment.
• No mortgage insurance: Mortgage insurance, which you typically pay when you make a down payment under 20% of the home’s purchase price, can tack on a lot to your monthly payment. VA loans don’t carry this requirement, while FHA loans do.
• No or low closing costs: VA loans cap what you’ll pay in closing costs, and allow the seller to pay them instead of the buyer.
• No early-payment penalty: If you pay off your 30-year mortgage in 20 years, your lender won’t penalize you because it’s losing interest.
• Payment assistance: You may be eligible for VA loan assistance programs if you fall behind on your mortgage.
• Loans are assumable: A qualifying home buyer can assume your VA Loan instead of obtaining a new one.

What’s the catch? Most recipients will have to pay a funding fee to close their VA loan. The exact percentage, which ranges from 1.25% to 3.3% of your loan amount, varies according to your eligibility, whether this is your first or a subsequent VA loan, and what down payment (if any) you will be offering. You can roll it into the loan or pay in cash at closing.

Eligibility for VA loans

With benefits like that, Uncle Sam wants to make sure only those who are truly eligible can get a VA loan.

First, you must be obtaining a VA home loan for a qualified purpose: buying a home; buying a condo in a development approved by the VA; buying and improving a home; making improvements related to energy efficiency; or buying a manufactured home and/or lot.

Second, you must be able to obtain a certificate of eligibility (COE) to get a VA loan. To get the COE, you’ll have to meet the following requirements:

• Active-duty military members must have been in service for a minimum of 90 continuous days.
• Veterans must not have been dishonorably discharged. They must have served for specified minimum time periods that vary according to whether their service was during wartime or peacetime. Requirements, spelled out on the VA homepage, range from 90 total days to 24 continuous months.
• Members of the National Guard or Reserves must have either 90 days of active Gulf War service, or six years of other service and meet select requirements regarding the end of their service, such as honorable discharge, detailed at the link above.
• Veterans’ spouses may also be eligible. They must be 1) unmarried after their veteran spouse died in service or from a service-related disability or 2) remarried at age 57 or older, on or after Dec. 16, 2003. Spouses of servicemembers who are missing in action or are prisoners of war may also be eligible.

Certain other individuals, including military academy cadets and U.S. citizens who served under an allied country during World War II, may also be eligible.

You’ll need to gather different evidence of eligibility depending on which category applies. You can apply for your COE online, through your preferred lender, or by mail.

Note that you can have a COE and still be turned down if you don’t meet a lender’s criteria for making the loan. You’ll likely still need to have a certain minimum credit score (this will vary, but 620 is a common cut-off) and have a favorable debt-to-income (DTI) ratio, meaning you aren’t already burdened by too many debt payments. In most cases, VA lenders are going to want to see a DTI of 41% or less, meaning your required debt payments don’t exceed 41% of your gross income each month.

Mortgage Calculator

Before you apply for your VA loan, you’ll want to crunch the numbers to see what you can best afford. The Simple Dollar’s mortgage calculator can help you do that.

To use our calculator, you’ll need to know your credit score. If you’re not sure of this all-important number, check out “What is a Good Credit Score?” for the best places to obtain it. Certain credit card companies also provide cardmembers with their FICO credit score free of charge.

Next, choose from three common types of mortgages (30-year fixed rate, 15-year fixed rate, and a 5/1 adjustable rate mortgage). Not sure what kind of mortgage is for you? Our article “How to Find the Best Mortgage Rates” gives you the pros and cons of various types.

Finally, input the cost of the home you’re thinking of buying, and any down payment you have. Remember, while you aren’t required to have a down payment for a VA loan, putting some money down will allow you to build equity faster and possibly qualify for a better interest rate. A down payment may also mean you pay a lower funding fee for your VA loan. In our calculator, the interest rate will automatically adjust according to your loan type and credit score, but you can also adjust it manually.

The results section will show you your projected monthly payment as well as the principal of your home loan and the equity you’ve built for each year of your loan term.

Grants for Disabled Veterans

The VA also offers two housing grant programs for veterans with disabilities: The Specially Adapted Housing Grant (SAH) and Special Housing Adaptation Grant (SHA).

Specially Adapted Housing Grant

With SAH, veterans with disabilities can build a new specially adapted home or remodel one to be specially adapted; they can also use grant money to help pay down the mortgage for an adapted home obtained with a non-VA home loan. A number of renovations are covered under SAH. Those include modifications to kitchens, bedrooms, and bathrooms; the addition of special ramps and walkways; installation of security and safety features; and much more. SAH grants are capped at $73,768 in 2016, and you can use a maximum of three grants. Reduced grant amounts may be available for those temporarily living with family members; amounts are capped at $32,384 per year.

Special Housing Adaption Grant

With SHA, a disabled veteran can adapt their own home or that of a family member, adapt a home they or their family wants to buy; or help buy an already-adapted home. You can use SHA for the same adaptations that SAH covers, but eligibility criteria are different (see below) and the amount you can receive is lower: SHA grants are capped at $14,754 in 2016, or $5,782 for those living temporarily with family members. As with SAH, you can use a maximum of three grants.

Eligibility

To be eligible for SAH or SHA grants, your disability must be a result of your military service, and you must be adapting your permanent home.

• Qualifying disabilities for SAH: Loss of or loss of use of both legs; loss of or loss of use of both arms; blindness in both eyes having only light perception, plus loss of or loss of use of one leg; loss of or loss of use of one lower leg together with residuals of organic disease or injury; loss of or loss of use of one leg together with the loss of or loss of use of one arm; certain severe burns; or the loss, or loss of use of one or more lower extremities due to service on or after Sept. 11, 2001, which so affects the functions of balance or propulsion as to preclude ambulating without the aid of braces, crutches, canes, or a wheelchair.
• Qualifying disabilities for SHA: Blindness in both eyes with 20/200 visual acuity or less; loss of or loss of use of both hands; certain severe burn injuries; or certain severe respiratory injuries.

You can apply online for SAH or SHA. You may also apply by mail or visit a VA office to apply.

Where to Get a VA Loan

You can work with any VA-approved lender to obtain a VA home loan — simply ask whether the lender has completed the VA certification process. However, you may want to consider a military-focused lender that will likely have a lot more experience with VA loans than other institutions. Here are several options to investigate:

• USAA is consistently among the top-ranked banks for customer service for most loan types, including mortgages. It’s the third-largest lender of VA loans by loan amount. USAA membership is restricted to military members and their families.
• Navy Federal Credit Union is the nation’s largest credit union and the sixth-largest lender of VA loans. Membership is open to active military members, certain Department of Defense civilian employees, and their families.
• Veterans United Home Loans is a lender that works solely with VA home loans and refinancing loans. It is the fifth-largest lender of VA loans.
• iFreedomDirect specializes in VA and FHA loans. It is among the top 25 largest largest lenders of VA loans.
• The Federal Savings Bank is a veteran-owned lender specializing in VA loans. It is among the top 30 VA lenders.

Though not solely focused on the military or VA lending, other institutions that are among the largest lenders of VA loans include Freedom Mortgage, Quicken Loans, and Wells Fargo.

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This Freebie Will Help You Rock Your Health and Fitness Goals All Year Long

Have you resolved to eat well, exercise more or live healthier this year? This freebie could help you stick to it.

Get a free one-year subscription to Shape magazine here.

The women’s fitness magazine offers health, fitness, beauty and fashion news. Plus you’ll find new workouts, diet strategies and motivational tips in each monthly edition.

A bunch of us in the TPH office have already jumped on this freebie. My co-workers have enjoyed Shape for a while, taking advantage of the at-home workouts when they don’t feel like going to the gym.

Personally, I just like getting stuff for free.

With this deal, you’ll receive 10 complimentary editions of Shape over the next year.

Surprise! The Freebie Includes Another Deal

You also have the option to subscribe to up to three other magazines at a discount — $2 each for a one-year subscription to other magazines like Women’s Health, Yoga, Men’s Health, TIME, Entrepreneur and People.

If you don’t want another subscription, you can skip that step.

I entered my information to subscribe to Shape, plus paid $2 to subscribe to Time for a year.

Note that if you sign up for one of these discounted subscriptions, you agree to automatically renew after a year. You should receive an email reminder with the renewal price, but just in case, I recommend setting up a reminder yourself to decide whether you want to renew — and pay full price.

After choosing the Time subscription, I was actually offered the option to choose another free subscription, this time from a much smaller selection: Parents, People en Espanol and a few trade publications.

Because it’s free and I like pretty pictures, I subscribed to Outdoor Photographer.

So I signed up for three one-year magazine subscriptions for just $2. Not bad.

I don’t know whether my Outdoor Photographer subscription is set to auto-renew, so I’ll be checking on that once the magazines start to arrive — which, according to the website, could take 4-12 weeks.

In the meantime, I’ll explore some free online options for getting in shape.

Want more free magazine subscriptions? Check out these offers!

Your Turn: What free tools can you recommend for getting in shape in 2016?

Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s written for Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, Writer’s Digest and more.

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Here’s a Legitimate Free Way to Get Your Credit Score — And It’s Not the One You Think

A few years ago, my identity was stolen.

Before it happened, that idiom always brought subterfuge to mind: some exciting situation with a James Bond-like figure, perhaps involving a train and several explosions.

But the actual experience was just an un-fun paperwork fest — one with potentially devastating consequences for things I was very much looking forward to, like moving out and getting a job.

Why You Need Your Credit Score

Fortunately, I was able to get out from under my unfair credit report.

I sent some very specifically worded letters (think legalese) to the collections agencies who owned my false debt. When they were unable to prove I owed the debts, those amounts were stricken from my record.

But, the process was lengthy and involved a lot of nail-biting.

By the time the situation showed up on my radar, it was really bad. I could have dealt with it a lot sooner if I’d been keeping closer tabs on my credit score.

Get Your Free Credit Score

You can access your FICO score just by opening certain credit cards, reports Holly Johnson at The Simple Dollar.  

There are lots of great options: a Bank of America card would be convenient if your accounts already live there — or check out Discover’s rewards and travel cards.

We like the Barclaycard CashForward World MasterCard® because you get 1.5% cash rewards on each and every purchase you make.

You earn money spending what you already would’ve been spending — with no weird exclusions or rules to remember.

A Free Credit Score That Counts

“Why does this matter?” you may be thinking. “I can get my credit score for free any time. Haven’t you seen all those annoying commericials for FreeCreditReport.com?”

I don’t have a TV, but even I cannot escape the ubiquitous jingles of FreeCreditReport.com.

However, if you’ve actually used the service, you’ve probably noticed it requires entering a credit card number, despite its “free” claims.

And, if you don’t cancel in time, it becomes a subscription service.

Even if you subscribe on purpose, the site is misleading and manipulative in annoying ways. It offers a $30 “full” report every time you log in, and the “accept” button is where you’d expect the “no thanks” one to be.

I made the mistake myself. Since the company already has your credit card number, you’re charged immediately.

What About Credit Karma?

Yes, Credit Karma is actually free — but it reports numbers from the credit bureaus TransUnion and Equifax. Those aren’t exactly the same as Experian’s — which is what most creditors check.

I have access to both Credit Karma’s numbers and my actual FICO score, and they’re only about 10 points apart.

But 10 points can easily make the difference between credit categories like Poor, Fair and Good.

Use Credit Cards Wisely

Using credit cards responsibly is a great way to build a short credit history or nourish weak credit.

And using rewards cards can get you all kinds of free stuff, from travel to cash — just for spending the money you’re already planning to spend.

So if you’re in the market for a new card and in need of your credit score, you should definitely consider taking advantage of this option.

Head over to The Simple Dollar to see all the credit cards that offer your FICO score for free.

Your Turn: Will you apply for any of these credit cards so you can check your FICO score every month?

Advertiser Disclosure: Many of the credit card offers that appear on this site are from credit card companies from which ThePennyHoarder.com receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site (including, for example, the order in which they appear). We do not feature all available credit card offers or all credit card issuers.

Jamie Cattanach (@jamiecattanach) is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder with a FICO score over 700. She also writes other stuff, like wine reviews and poems.

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Need Another Reason to Love Australia? It’ll Help You Get Free Food Today

G’day!

No, really, it’s a pretty good day.

It’s Australia Day, actually — which means you can get free food from Outback Steakhouse!

Outback Steakhouse Celebrates Australia Day with Free Food

In honor of the holiday, Outback is offering a free appetizer or dessert all day today, Jan. 26.

Just bring this coupon with you to Outback and make any purchase you want. The coupon doesn’t specifically state that it has to be an entrée, so you can probably get away with just grabbing a drink!

Then, enjoy a free appetizer or dessert of your choice.

Can you say Bloomin’ Onion or Chocolate Thunder from Down Under? Yes. Please. Your New Year’s resolutions can take a one-day break, right?

Grab your coupon and head over to your local Outback. And save me some!

Your Turn: Will you take advantage of this Australia Day Deal?

Jamie Cattanach is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder. She also writes other stuff, like wine reviews and poems — you can read along at http://ift.tt/1RiB7sH.

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Experts Warn World Leaders: Killer Robots an Imminent Threat

World leaders need to take the threat of killer robots seriously, according to a warning delivered by a group of experts to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week.

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If You Have an Amex and Aren’t Using This Trick, You’re Missing Out on Free Money

Last month, I visited NewEgg’s site for the first time, but not to buy electronics.

Instead, I bought a $10 Home Depot e-gift card. I did the same on two more separate orders, and later printed out all three gift cards.

There were no fees — it cost me exactly $30 to get $30 in Home Depot gift cards.

Why not go to Home Depot and spend the money directly? Because I received three $10 statement credits a few days later for buying the gift cards with my three American Express cards.

In other words, I got all my money back and collected $30 worth of free stuff from Home Depot.

Free stuff is great, but most Amex Offers just save you some money. For example, I recently received a $5 statement credit for filling my gas tank at a Mobil gas station.

But in addition to saving money or getting free stuff, there are also ways to make money with these deals.

Here’s a look at how you can save and make money with Amex Offers.

The Basics of Using Amex Offers

Log into your American Express account and scroll down until you see “Amex Offers & Benefits.”

You’ll find offers tailored to your spending profile and location. For example, my personal card has 70 available offers right now, including a $50 statement credit for staying at a nearby resort. My business cards each have around 40 available offers.

When you see an offer you like, simply click the button that says “Add to Card” and you’re all set. Just remember to use that card for the necessary purchase.

Not sure if you’ll use the offer? Add it anyway; there’s no limit to the number of offers you can add.

For example, today I added an Amazon offer that says, “Spend $15 or more; get $15 back.” Read the fine print for exclusions and other conditions. In this case any purchase counts. but the offer expires in a month. I’ll probably buy a filter for our air purifier, since it’s time to replace it. I’ll use that card and get a $15 statement credit.

Shortly after you buy something, you’ll be notified by email that you earned the statement credit, which is paid later.

“Savings will appear on your statement within 90 days after you make a qualifying purchase with your connected card at a participating merchant,” American Express explains. But in my experience, it’s never taken more than a week for the credit to show up.

On AmexOffers.com, you can connect your Twitter or Facebook account. Amex Offers on Facebook and Amex Offers on Twitter don’t always have the same promotions, so connect both.

On the Amex Facebook page, you just click “Add to Card” once you’ve connected your account. To add an offer on Twitter, you just tweet using a specific hashtag.

Using Multiple Amex Cards

If you have more than one American Express card, you’ll sometimes get the same offers on each. It’s how I used all three of my Amex cards to get $10 back for each of three $10 Home Depot gift cards.

Sometimes offers are unique to one of my cards, or show up on just two of the three. I have different logins for each card, and I suggest doing the same if you get another American Express card.

If all your Amex accounts are under one login and you click “Add to Card,” the offer will disappear from your other cards, so you can only use it once.

You can avoid this problem by logging in to your account three times from three tabs, and then adding the offer to each card before closing them, says Doctor of Credit’s William Charles.

How many Amex cards can you have? Dan at DansDeals.com says he has 10 Amex cards. There’s a limit of four Amex credit cards, but no limit on charge cards you pay in full each month.

How to Save Even More Money

To make the most of Amex Offers, combine them with other savings strategies.

It helps that you still get Amex points when you use the card for an offer. But you can do even better.

For example, I recently used an Amex offer to get $15 for spending $50 at Petco.com.

But first, I waited for a sale on the cat food brand we buy (15% off) and searched for a coupon code online just before placing an order.

In this case, I found one for $10 off any Petco purchase of $75 or more. I bought a bunch of food and snacks for our two cats. Here’s the breakdown:

• Normal Cost: $98.87 ($92.40 + sales tax of $6.47)
• Subtract sale discount of 15% (from $92.40): -$13.86
• Subtract coupon savings: -$10.00
• Add Sales Tax (7% of new total of 68.54): +$4.80
• Total at Checkout: $73.34
• Subtract Amex Offer Rebate: -$15.00
• Subtract cash back on card (1% of $73.34): -$0.73
• Final Cost: $57.61 — A total discount of $41.26, or almost 42% off the original price — on products I normally buy anyway.

Making Money With Amex Offers

There are a number of ways to make small profits from Amex Offers.

First, there are offers where you get a credit for any purchase, with no minimum specified. In those cases, simply buy something that costs less than the statement credit you’ll receive.

For example, it was once possible to get a $10 statement credit for spending $1 on TicketMaster.com (the poster used a donation “purchase,” but I’ve seen $0.50 tickets on the site for some events).

A $9 profit may not seem like much for the effort, but you can do everything in a few minutes from home. Also, you can use more than one card. With six cards, you could’ve made $54 for thirty minutes in front of your computer.

You could also sell the things you buy using your Amex Offers. For example, suppose you get a total of $50 in statement credits for spending $50 on merchandise, perhaps using several cards. Your net cost is zero.

Plus, if you have a Fulfillment by Amazon account, you could sell the merchandise and get 60% of what you paid (after Amazon and shipping fees) — a $30 profit.

Even if you sell the stuff at a rummage sale, you make something.

Another strategy is buying and reselling gift cards.

William Charles uses this example: Recently, there was an Amex Offer for a $25 statement credit for spending $75 online at Gap. If you bought a $75 Gap gift card, your net cost would be $50 after the statement credit.

If you then sold the card for $60 (a 20% discount) to a website that buys gift cards, your profit would be $10.

Use three Amex cards and you could’ve netted $30 total for perhaps 30 minutes of work. And offers like this one are typical.

Your New Amex Offers Routine

Check your account to look for new offers at least once each week.

Some expire quickly, while others run for months. Offers made on Twitter and Facebook are usually limited to a certain number of takers, so check those more often.

Remember: If it’s a particularly good offer, add it to all your Amex cards.

Your Turn: Do you have an American Express card and have you used Amex Offers to save or make money?

Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links. We’re letting you know because it’s what Honest Abe would do. After all, he is on our favorite coin.

Steve Gillman is the author of “101 Weird Ways to Make Money” and creator of EveryWayToMakeMoney.com. He’s been a repo-man, walking stick carver, search engine evaluator, house flipper, tram driver, process server, mock juror, and roulette croupier, but of more than 100 ways he has made money, writing is his favorite (so far).

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How to Organize a Cost-Effective and Fun Dinner Party

Roughly once a month, my wife and I host a dinner party with a guest list numbering between four and ten other people. These dinner parties usually involve a meal, an evening of conversation, and sometimes a board game or two depending on the crowd. The post-dinner conversation (and sometimes drinks) last well into the late evening, with everyone usually going home happy.

We often invite other families with children to dinner, giving our children a chance to play together, as well as adults without children, too. Our kids put in appearances, but largely play together in the family room which leaves the adults to converse.

These events are among the highlights of our family’s social calendar. We look forward to these events, plan them carefully, and usually enjoy them deeply.

However, these events are not free. They come with costs – food costs, beverage costs, and occasional cleanup costs, just for starters. It is cheaper than a night out on the town, but not by too much.

So, as with most things that Sarah and I do, we look for ways to maximize the value of hosting these dinner parties. How can we host a dinner party that everyone is going to enjoy as much as possible while minimizing our costs?

After many years of nudging and shaping our plans, here’s the strategy we’ve come up with.

The Four Key Rules

If I had to boil down all of our strategies for a successful dinner party down to a very short list, I’d suggest these four things.

Rule #1: Choose people to invite that will be comfortable and that you will be comfortable with. If you’re inviting someone to your home that you are nervous or uncomfortable with, then the party is going to be nervous and uncomfortable as much of the vibe feeds off of the hosts. Choose people who will be perfectly comfortable in your home and that you feel perfectly comfortable with. Don’t worry about the guests perfectly interacting – you can work on that when they’re all together.

Rule #2: The meal doesn’t have to be mind-blowingly amazing provided the conversation is good. The fun of a dinner party isn’t in a perfectly mind-blowing meal. Sure, you don’t want to serve dog food, but it doesn’t have to be the greatest meal ever presented. It just needs to be tasty and in appropriate quantities.

Rule #3: It is far better for the hosts to be out with the guests instead of working in the kitchen – as much as possible, anyway. Another challenge with a complex meal is that it requires one or both hosts to be in the kitchen working on the meal instead of out with the guests. It is far better for at least one – if not both – of the hosts to be hanging out with the guests. Some people solve this by having food delivered. We use other strategies.

Rule #4: Have lots of beverage options. If there’s one thing we don’t skimp on, it’s beverage choices. We usually try to make sure to have an array of beverage options on hand. I find that putting a beverage in a person’s hand that they happen to like tends to go a long way toward improving conversation, so having a variety of choices helps. Of course, we have tricks for managing the costs of this, too.

Who Should I Invite?

I usually start this off with the first rule, from above.

Rule #1: Choose people to invite that will be comfortable and that you will be comfortable with.

The thing is, some dinner parties can end up poorly because of the people and the social interactions, but you can control that a lot by using some smart filtering in advance. I pick and choose my guests, and I not only think about the guests themselves but about the potential interactions.

For starters, I don’t invite people that will make me feel nervous or uncomfortable by their presence. I also don’t invite people who will be needlessly critical of my home or the food that I serve. If someone manages to do that, they do not get invited back, period.

Instead, I stick with people who don’t fill me with apprehension. I also stick with people that, even if they have a negative thought, keep it to themselves.

That simple strategy helps me to relax during dinner parties, as I know the guests will be comfortable and open to interacting well, and I believe conversation is the key to a good dinner party.

There are also a few additional criteria that I look for.

First, seek to invite people you know that have common interests. My favorite thing to do is to invite people who may not know each other well but who have a common interest. This unfortunately doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it almost always helps trigger a new friendship and an evening of conversation. The only trick is to subtly involve them both in a conversation about their shared interest – don’t make their mutual interest a big deal at all. You don’t have to carry it so far as to have a theme for the evening, but you can do so if you want.

Second, avoid inviting pairs of people that will loudly argue or butt heads. It’s not a problem to invite people who disagree on strongly-held issues, but be sure you know them well enough to know that they won’t cause a big conflict due to those issues. For example, I would avoid inviting loud and confrontational Tea Partiers and socialists to the same dinner party, as it just won’t end well.

Third, familiarity with each other is a good thing, but so are unknowns. Not everyone needs to know each other in advance. In fact, inviting people that don’t know each other can result in a particularly fun evening, especially if at least some of them are outgoing or you’re willing to help serve as an icebreaker. I would avoid inviting several people that know each other and one or two people who don’t know anyone, though, as that can end up awkwardly.

Finally, we touch base with everyone we expect to be coming a few days before the event, making sure that they are coming. We don’t send out an invite, hope for RSVPs, and then be baffled/upset when not everyone comes. We usually contact the people we’ve invited about two or three days before the event and just make sure that they can make it. The real reason for this is for meal planning, and so we share that reason when we make contact. We don’t ever rely on an RSVP system.

What Kind of Meal Should I Plan?

This is where Rules #2 and #3 come into play.

Rule #2: The meal doesn’t have to be mind-blowingly amazing provided the conversation is good.

and

Rule #3: It is far better for the hosts to be out with the guests instead of working in the kitchen – as much as possible, anyway.

For our meal planning, we strive to prepare something simple and tasty. It does not have to be an amazing culinary treat, just something that will make most of our guests smile and enjoy the meal. We make our meal plans as simple as possible and prefer meals where we can do as much of the prep work as humanly possible before guests arrive. This not only gives us more time with the guests, it also usually makes the cost of the meal significantly lower.

Here are some additional tactics to make this easier.

First, use a slow cooker to your advantage. This is the perfect place to prepare a soup and let it slowly cook while you entertain guests. A few hearty soups (along with some sandwiches) make for a great simple meal that pretty much everyone enjoys, especially in the winter months, and you can do virtually all of the prep work before anyone arrives and basically just serve the meal whenever it works.

Second, during warmer months, grilling tends to work well. This gives guests an excuse to be outside and the person manning the grill (usually me) can continue to be part of conversations. Check the weather before relying on this, though, and have backup plans if there’s any chance of inclement weather.

Third, if you’re going to try something complicated, treat it like a restaurant meal. Do almost everything in advance so that you’re basically just warming up the food when people arrive. This is effectively what happens in many restaurant kitchens because it minimizes the prep time once the meal is actually ordered.

Finally, set the dinner table in advance, too. Have all plates, silverware, glasses, and other dishes already out and ready to be used. We almost always set the table before the guests arrive unless we intend to use the dinner table for a game or something, in which case we set all of the dishes out on the counter to make setting the table very easy.

Should the Guests Bring Anything?

Let me point you to the last rule.

Rule #4: Have lots of beverage options.

We encourage anyone who comes to our dinner parties to bring a beverage with them with more than enough to share. This allows us to have a wide variety of beverages on hand for our guests to choose from and removes much of the beverage cost from our meal.

Sometimes, we even have potluck dinners and encourage people to bring side dishes, but this also depends on the crowd. Suggesting beverages is usually a much easier approach.

Here are a few other tactical points to consider.

First, know what your crowd will drink. Some of our parties involve alcohol consumption, while others do not. This helps shape what kind of beverages we suggest that guests bring. Sometimes, we’ll tell people to bring sodas; at other times, a six pack of craft beer is appropriate; at yet other times, a bottle of wine hits the spot. This depends entirely on the invited people.

Second, fill up a pitcher of water with ice, toss in a sliced lemon or lime, and leave it out on the table with some cups beside it. Many people will simply want this for a beverage. I usually slice a lemon, put it in first, put some ice on top, and then fill up the pitcher with water. This means that the ice holds the lemon near the bottom and the water becomes really suffused with a touch of lemon flavor.

Third, add an option or two of your own, but use what you have on hand. We always include options like coffee and orange juice and milk if we happen to have those things available. You’d be surprised as to what beverages people actually want, and if you say the right thing, they’re pleased. There’s no harm in offering all kinds of things, and a person with a beverage they like in their hand is always going to make good conversation.

Finally, keep the coffee flowing. This may be an Iowa thing, but there are many people who seem to live on a continuous flow of coffee throughout the day. We always grind some coffee and keep a pot of it available for guests during dinner parties. We usually just leave it out so people can refill as desired (which is something we do with most beverages, simply putting the ones that need to be chilled on ice).

The Question of Children

Sometimes, we have full-family dinner parties where we encourage people to bring their children and serve foods that children generally won’t mind. At other times, we discourage the presence of children because it allows us to invite people who are less comfortable around children and often reduces conversational inhibitions.

Our usual strategy for our children during dinner parties is to set them up with a variety of entertainment options in the family room, which is on the lower level of our home. We usually dig out some movies, give them permission to play more video games than usual, get out some board games, and so on.

Our children usually do a very good job of staying in the family room except for meal times. They understand that we’re giving them a bunch of entertainment options, particularly the movies and video game options (as we restrict their screen time outside of these events), and they have fun taking advantage of them. Providing the children with some exceptional entertainment almost always keeps them happy. Sometimes, when we have guests who bring their children, those children will wander out of the family room and interact with the guests, and that’s okay.

Thus, we usually have little problem having minimal child time during a dinner party if that’s what is desired. On occasion, we have even had our children visit friends or neighbors (we do a lot of babysitting exchanges) during dinner parties, but that’s usually unnecessary.

Following Up

Once the dinner party is over and the mess is cleaned up, it’s worth following up in the next day or two.

I have a simple rule when it comes to social encounters. I try very hard to remember something with which I need to follow up with each person that comes. Usually, I need to send them a link or a piece of information. I even jot this down sometimes in my pocket notebook during the dinner party.

That way, a day or two later, they get an email that reminds them of the party and includes some piece of information that they were interested in. That puts a final positive cap on the night.

This is important because of the “peak-end rule.” If you’re unfamiliar with this phenomenon, it simply states that when people reflect back on their feelings on an event, they draw those feelings from two sources: the “peak” of the event and the end of the event. By sending a friendly follow-up email or phone call or other communication, you can cement a positive “end” on the event, which will make people reflect on it more positively down the road. This opens the door to more dinner parties, both those hosted by yourself and those hosted by others.

How Does This Save Money?

How does all of this planning really save money, then?

Well, if you’re comparing a dinner party to a quiet family dinner at home, it doesn’t save money. Where it does save money is in comparison to eating out or other out-of-the-house social events.

However, having a plan like this for a dinner party cuts the cost of hosting one in several ways.

You save money by having a simple meal. The more complex the meal, the more time you spend in the kitchen and the more money you spend on ingredients. Make the meal simple and spend more time with the guests while also keeping money in your pocket.

You save money by having guests bring beverages. When guests bring their own beverages, that means you aren’t buying those beverages. At many dinner parties, the only beverage we provide is a big pitcher of water with some lemon in it that we refill a few times. That’s basically free.

You save money by simply staying at home. Even with guests, it is still cheaper to make a meal at home for us than to take our family out to dinner at even a low cost restaurant. If we went to a decent restaurant… ouch. This may not be as true if you don’t have children or you are single, but restaurant meals are always going to be pricier.

You save money by reciprocal invitation. One of the best perks of hosting a dinner party, particularly a good one, is that you often end up receiving a few invitations to other dinner parties. In those situations, you essentially get a free meal and an evening of entertainment provided by someone else, maybe for the cost of a bottle of wine.

You also build much stronger social connections. Social events like this build social connections among the guests, yourself included. Those stronger social connections tend to pay off over time in lots of little ways, from a helping hand when you have a problem to insight into difficult subjects, from information about good sales and offers to social companionship and friendship.

A dinner party is really worth it.

Final Thoughts

As I said, Sarah and I love hosting dinner parties. In fact, we will probably make it a weekly affair when our children are a bit older and we can de-kidify our house a little more, as preparing for guests can be a bit of a challenge sometimes.

We view it as extremely low cost entertainment and socializing, not just because the dinner party itself is pretty inexpensive, but because it leads into additional social connections and social events.

Plus, they’re fun. It’s just fun to have people visit you whose company you enjoy, and when they leave the event with a smile on their face you know that you both got a lot of joy out of the evening.

Given that it doesn’t cost too much to pull the evening off, it’s something that I recommend to almost everyone. If you’re interested in this idea but a little apprehensive about it, do it. Just jump in feet first and give it a shot. You’ll be incredibly glad that you did it.

The post How to Organize a Cost-Effective and Fun Dinner Party appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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How to Host $1,000 Parties Every Month

By Deb Bixler Every home party consultant deserves to have $1,000 home parties. As a matter of fact YOU should have a few $1,000 shows EVERY single month! It is attainable and it is not that hard when you put some simple systems into place that will make it a reality. When you coach your home party […]

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Buying a Used Car? This Simple Spreadsheet Will Help You Get the Best Deal

Buying a used car is like navigating a maze. And the car you’re after — at a great price — is in the center.

Lurking around every corner are rip-offs masquerading as good deals. And it can be hard to make an informed decision with so many variables.

Kelley Blue Book is a trusted resource. But as prices change over time and vary by location, it’s not a foolproof way of finding a car’s value.

Our Strategy for Buying a Used Car

The last time my partner and I were in the market for a new car, we put together a spreadsheet to track prices and identify outliers. It doesn’t sound very exciting, but it was a game-changer for us.

Use this Google Docs template to plot your two top variables against each other. For us, those are price and mileage.

Generally, the cars we look at are of similar age and condition, so price and mileage are where you start to see differences.

The spreadsheet makes a fancy graph for you, helping you to quickly pick out both good deals and bad deals as you’re shopping for cars.

As you add entries to the spreadsheet, you’ll start to see a baseline for the average price. The real deals (both good and bad) will be the outliers on the graph, representing options that outpace the others in one or more areas (like price or mileage).

The decent deals will fall somewhere in the middle of the graph, showing they are in line with similar options for sale.

Our Quest to Find the Perfect Car

For reasons I still don’t fully understand, my husband had his heart set on a Mazda Miata. But not just any Miata — it had to come from a very specific window of time in the 1990s when the cars had pop-up headlights.

So he began scouring the entire mid-Atlantic region for tiny sports cars with retractable headlights. As he came across listings that fit the (very specific) bill, he added them to the spreadsheet.

We quickly realized the more cars we put into the spreadsheet, the more useful it became.

My husband put in all of the Miatas in the year range that were in acceptable condition. If the car was in good enough shape to purchase, it went in the spreadsheet. If the quality wasn’t where we wanted it, we didn’t include the car.

That way, we were holding that variable more or less stable by comparing cars that were in about the same shape.

At this point, we weren’t even looking at mileage or price (which seems counter-intuitive but stick with me here!). Once we had a decent number of cars in the spreadsheet, we were able to figure out a ballpark median price.

We didn’t want to go over $10,000 and were happy to find many options in our price range.

Looking over the spreadsheet, we quickly spotted a handful of cars we wanted to check out — the outliers on our graph. My husband went out to test drive a few, and we kept filling in the spreadsheet and refining the median price.

We also used the spreadsheet to make notes about each car and save the link to the listing.

How We Found an Amazing Convertible

One day a black 1992 convertible showed up in Pennsylvania with just 36,000 miles. Our spreadsheet showed it as a crazy outlier for mileage (it’s a 24-year-old car!). Meanwhile, it fell pretty much in the middle of the pack for price.

So we drove the three hours from where we live to check it out. My 6’2” husband was immediately in love with the tiny little convertible with pop-up headlights. And, thanks to our spreadsheet (and an inspection of course), we knew we were getting a good deal.

For $9,000, we took it home with us.

Now, a vintage roadster is in our parking spot and we’re members of the unofficial Mazda Miata club. It’s hilarious to watch how Miata drivers wink their retractable headlights to acknowledge one another on the road and how people wave to us as we drive by in our little car.

Your Turn: How do you comparison shop for used cars? Would you ever buy a 24-year-old convertible?

Lyndsee Simpson is a writer and editor living in Washington, D.C. She does think pop-up headlights are pretty cute.

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Investment funds hit all time high in 2015

Helen Knapman

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Investment funds under management hit a record high of £871 billion in 2015, up from £835 billion in 2014.

Investment funds under management hit a record high of £871 billion in 2015, up from £835 billion in 2014.

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Smart Money? Colleges Divest from Fossil Fuels, Dodge the Oil Bust

Last year was the hottest year ever, handily beating the previous record — set in 2014. In fact, 15 of the 16 hottest years in recorded history have happened in the 21st century.

That’s why, in 2011, environmental activists at a handful of college campuses began advocating for divestment, demanding that their schools purge fossil fuels from their investment portfolios. Their argument, more philosophical than financial, was this: If carbon is irreversibly warming and harming the planet, it would be wrong — particularly for a high-minded academic institution that aims to be on the frontier of science and policy — to profit from it. What’s more, by collectively pulling out millions or billions in investment dollars, a divestment movement could put immense economic pressure on the fossil fuel industry.

The idea spread quickly. Five years later, hundreds of colleges around the country — from big-name universities like Penn State and Syracuse to small liberal arts schools like Swarthmore and Hampshire College — have sold or pledged to sell their stakes in fossil-fuel investments.

One of the biggest names in divestment so far is Stanford University. True to its Silicon Valley roots, Stanford was an early adopter of this strategy, divesting from coal companies in 2014. The University of California system, meanwhile, sold off $200 million worth of oil investments last year from its $98 billion portfolio.

And right now, with coal and oil prices cratering, both of those actions look like pretty shrewd financial moves.

The Fall of Fossil Fuel

The Market Vectors Coal ETF (KOL), a decent proxy for the coal industry at large, is down a staggering 68% in the past 12 months. Compare that to the S&P 500 Index, which has slipped a modest 7.4% over the same time period — dragged down in part by oil giant Exxon-Mobil (XOM), the index’s third-largest component, which has fallen 16.9% over the past year.

Indeed, oil stocks suffered as badly as coal in 2015. The price of crude oil is down 60% since June 2014, and oil services giants have tanked as a result. ConocoPhillips (COP) is down 45% over the past year. Dividend darling Chevron (CVX) is down 23%. Marathon Oil (MRO) has plunged 68%.

Even before the most recent downturn in oil and coal, however, fossil-free portfolios were outperforming conventional ones. Last year, stock-index and ETF provider MSCI estimated that investors who divested from fossil fuels in 2010 would have earned a 13% annualized return over the preceding five years, compared to an 11.8% return otherwise.

In fact, Stanford reported a 7% investment gain in its (coal-free) endowment in the 12 months ending June 30, 2015. Those returns beat the 5.2% increase in the S&P 500 over the same period. (Stanford’s endowment fund also outperformed that of Harvard University, which has yet to divest from fossil fuels — though it did not match the returns of similarly un-divested MIT and Yale.)

By now, what started as a movement on college campuses has outgrown academia in both philosophy and practice. As of September 2015, more than 400 institutions and 2,000 high-net-worth individuals — with combined assets of $2.6 trillion — had committed to divest from fossil fuels, according to Arabella Advisors. That’s more than a fifty-fold increase from the $50 billion pledged a year earlier.

Colleges may have started the party, but they now comprise just 5% of that total, with large pension funds and private companies dominating the divestment movement. California recently voted to divest its $476 billion public employee pension funds from coal investments, joining Providence, R.I. and a number of public pension funds from Norway to Australia.

Students stage a divestment rally at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. Photo: James Ennis

Does Divestment Work?

Now, whether divestment as a political strategy actually works is the subject of some debate. Eric Hendey of the Harvard Political Review suggests that perhaps the most famous and successful divestment campaign in memory — the boycott of South African stocks during Apartheid – worked more because of the visibility and public backlash it inspired than the financial pressure alone.

But regardless of whether it succeeds in weakening the fossil-fuel industries, proponents of divestment say it’s a smart financial move in its own right. It’s the difference, they say, between clinging to an aging technology and investing in the future.

A 2015 report by Impax Asset Management Group concluded that investors should be prepared for increased carbon regulation around the world, and therefore move toward cleaner energy investments:

Given the growing consensus around climate change science, it is rational for investors to expect much tighter carbon regulation — with profound economic effects — in many regions of the world in the not-too-distant future. These regulations are likely to be incremental, and they are only moving in one direction: towards a lower-carbon world…. Few investors will successfully anticipate the likely bursting of the carbon bubble.

Right now, divestment advocates are looking pretty smart. With crude oil trading around $30 a barrel — versus the $100 mark it has hovered at or above for years — some high-tech and expensive extraction processes, such as fracking, are no longer as profitable. And that’s hurting the domestic oil industry; you won’t be seeing oil- and gas-rich states like North Dakota and Texas dominating those lists of “Best State Economies” or “Best States for Jobs” this year.

In fact, it’s a lesson that actually discourages divestment: Diversification works. States with more varied economies, like California, Colorado, Massachusetts, or North Carolina, can better weather a downturn in any one industry. Likewise, an investment portfolio that’s evenly spread across the entire market is more resilient over the long term.

Like it or not, coal, natural gas, and oil are still responsible for an enormous share of the massive energy sector in the U.S. While oil prices are at a 12-year low, it’s a famously boom-and-bust industry; sell now and you may cash out at rock bottom only to watch the stocks gush upward a few years from now. Denying your retirement fund of exposure to those profits, oil-gained or otherwise, isn’t a decision to take lightly.

How to Divest

So what’s a forward-thinking retirement investor to do?

In its report, Impax suggests that investors stay diversified by maintaining exposure to the energy sector — just in a greener form. “Investors should consider reorienting their portfolios towards low-carbon energy by replacing fossil fuel stocks with energy efficiency and renewable energy investments,” the report says, “thereby retaining exposure to the energy sector while reducing the risks posed by the fossil fuel sector.”

Still, another issue with divestment at the personal level is that it can be tricky to rid your portfolio of just oil or coal stocks. If you invest in diversified index funds, which we recommend here at the Simple Dollar, you can’t just tell the S&P 500 to jettison a couple of its biggest carbon emitters. Some of them, like Exxon or Chevron, comprise a substantial portion of the index.

However, there are some environmentally responsible funds cropping up to make this easier. While they vary in their approach, most exclude fossil fuel companies but are otherwise diversified across the U.S. stock market.

Two newer ETFs, in particular, try to replicate MSCI’s ACWI Low-Carbon Index: the iShares Low Carbon Target ETF (CRBN) and the SPDR Low Carbon Target ETF (LOWC).

The funds’ top holdings are a pretty diverse, if tech-heavy, cross-section of the American economy, minus the carbon: Apple, Microsoft, General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, Wells Fargo, Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Amazon.com, Nestle, J.P. Morgan, and AT&T round out CRBN’s top 10 holdings; LOWC’s top 10 are almost identical. Other S&P 500 stalwarts, from Home Depot and Pfizer to Toyota and Procter & Gamble, are in there, too.

All that’s missing is Big Oil.

Related Articles

• The Most Important Investment Decision You’ll Ever Make
• 13 Ways to Save Money and Protect the Planet at the Same Time
• Seven Reasons You Need to Start Investing Right Now

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3 Painless Ways to Build a College Fund for Your Kids: This Mom Saved $1,090 in 5 Months

When my husband and I got married 15 years ago, I had a little bit of debt, but he had quite a lot. 

We worked hard to quickly pay it down. It felt great to be out from under the burden, so we promised we’d keep it that way.

And we have.

We make smart purchases, only spending money on things that will add value to our lives. And yes, a fishing boat can actually add value to one’s life!

We plan for rainy days. My husband has a great 401(k) and retirement plan. Our savings look good. We have some stock. We own land. Our vehicles are paid off. We’ll have our house paid off soon.

All our ducks are in a row except one: a college fund.

I’m embarrassed to say that as careful and thoughtful as we’ve been with our finances, this is where we’ve dropped the ball. We just kept putting it off — and our son just turned 11! 

We didn’t have room in the budget to schedule big payments to a prepaid plan. So several months ago, I opened a separate savings account with our credit union.

In just five months, we’ve been able to save more than $1,000! And most importantly, it didn’t hurt our budget. It just took a little creativity and commitment.

Here are three ways to save for your kid’s college education that won’t have you eating ramen every day.

1. Put Away Your Coupon Savings

It’s pretty easy for me to go to the store and save more than $15 without doing much couponing. Unless you live in a one-horse town like I do, you could probably save a lot more! In fact, my cousin is a semi-extreme couponing queen and saves hundreds of dollars per shopping trip.

Since we’re looking to save every spare dime for college, I gather my receipts at the end of each month and add up what I’ve saved using rebates and coupons. Then, I transfer the exact amount from our checking account into our son’s college fund.

Before, I would simply reward myself with something special (that I really didn’t need) to celebrate the money I’d saved. Now that I think about it, that doesn’t make any sense. I’d much rather put the coupon savings into my son’s college account.

Still have your receipts from your last three or four shopping trips? Add up your savings and I bet you’ll see what I mean — little amounts add up fast!

2. Try Using a 50/50 Allowance

If your kids have started begging you for an allowance, maybe now’s the time to give in.

But before you tell them to get lost or agree to their terms, here’s an idea:

Imagine the top dollar allowance you’d be willing to pay, but don’t tell your kids that amount. Take the number you’re willing to give as a weekly allowance, and cut it in half — then put the other half in their college account.

For example, if you can swing $8 per week, agree to pay $4 a week. Your little human gets $4 to spend, while you put the other $4 into the college fund. It doesn’t sound like much, but it adds up!

It’s a little sneaky, but it’s a win-win. Most likely, your child will be happy just getting an allowance. And you’ll be happy making another contribution to the fund. 

3. Consider “Half Gifts”

The idea works well if your child gets lots of birthday and Christmas gifts from family members, especially if you start early.

When my son was about to turn 7, he really wanted money so he could pick out his own gifts. But he certainly didn’t need $50 from his aunt to spend at Walmart.

Multiply her gift by about 15 other relatives, and suddenly the kid’s got more cash than some of the adults at the party have in their pockets! That’s just wrong.

And don’t forget the poor, patient person who takes the kid to the toy store, staying for hours until every last penny is spent.

So how can you turn this situation into a savings strategy?

Tell your loved ones whatever they give, you’re putting half in the college fund. We’ve always tried to do this; we used to put the other half into his savings account. So the switch to the college fund was natural.

The trick is not telling your child you’ll be taking half of the gift, but telling family members before the party so they only give the child half the gift amount — then give the rest to you.

Once established, this strategy sets the precedent for future gifting. I haven’t had any complaints, but we only expect this from our closest relatives.

How Do You Grow the College Fund?

Now you’re on your way to growing a college fund for your child without sacrificing much.

Once we started using these creative, “sneaky” ways to save, our son’s fund grew to $1,090 in just five months — and we’re not stopping.

Your Turn: Will you try any of these college savings methods? Know of any creative ways we didn’t mention?

Mompreneur and writer-for-hire, Renee Davis is a native Floridian. When not wordsmithing or  pinching pennies, she can be found beachside with her family. Connect with her at The Stay At Home Scribe, on Facebook and Twitter.

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Equity release surges in 2015

Tom Wilson

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Homeowners borrowed a record £1.61 billion through equity release schemes in 2015, according to the latest figures from the Equity Release Council.

Homeowners borrowed a record £1.61 billion through equity release schemes in 2015, according to the latest figures from the Equity Release Council.

The trade body found that the lifetime mortgage market has doubled in size since 2011, and is now 33% larger than its pre-recession peak. Overall, lending was 16% higher than 2014.

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HMRC to deliver 'a devastating hammer blow' to pension scam victims

Marina Gerner

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ACA Pension Life, a nationwide campaign group set up to speak up for victims of pension liberation scams, says those affected by scams are about to face a severe setback.

ACA Pension Life, a nationwide campaign group set up to speak up for victims of pension liberation scams, says those affected by scams are about to face a severe setback.

The warning from Angela Brooks, chairperson of ACA Pension Life, comes as the UK tax authority prepares to issue so-called protective assessment letters.

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Flood victims to avoid late tax return fines

Helen Knapman

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Tax payers hit by flooding won’t be fined if they’re late filing their self-assessment returns, after many homes and businesses were struck by bursting rivers in December.

Tax payers hit by flooding won’t be fined if they’re late filing their self-assessment returns, after many homes and businesses were struck by bursting rivers in December.

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