HARRISBURG — Pearl Harbor dealt the first major setback to plans to build a scenic parkway in the Poconos that would rival the Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia as a tourism draw.The Pennsylvania Parkway Commission was created in 1941 to pursue development of a scenic Rim Parkway from Milford to Kresgeville. Just months later, the U.S. entry into World War II consumed all available financial and manpower resources and put the parkway on the back burner.It [...]
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الثلاثاء، 5 يوليو 2016
Can PAYE Take the Sting Out of Your Student Loan Payments?
With the average debt burden for indebted graduates surging over $35,000 in 2015, desperate students are exploring all their options when it comes to loan forgiveness and creative payment options. The Pay As You Earn repayment plan, also known as PAYE, is one option which has received increased scrutiny and popularity ever since President Obama called for an expansion to the program in the summer of 2015.
Like any other loan forgiveness program, PAYE has myriad benefits – and a few drawbacks. Let’s start with the positive. For borrowers who qualify, PAYE caps monthly federal student loan payments at 10 percent of their discretionary income. This detail alone sets PAYE apart from Income Based Repayment (IBR), another repayment program, which caps monthly loan payments at 15 percent of discretionary income. Just like IBR, however, loans involved in the PAYE program will be forgiven in full by the federal government after 20 years.
The biggest drawback you’ll find with PAYE is that you’ll have to make student loan payments for 20 full years. No matter how you look at it, that’s a long time. Further, the elongated timeline may mean you’re mostly paying interest on your loans for the duration of the pay period. This may not matter to you since your loans will be forgiven after 20 years, but it’s something to consider nonetheless.
How to Know When PAYE Makes Sense
Here’s the big question everyone is asking: Will paying on your student loans for a full 20 years really benefit you?
The truth is, it depends.
For students who expect to earn a modest salary for the duration of their careers, PAYE and even IBR can transform crushing student loan payments into something a whole lot more tolerable. Further, students who wound up borrowing far more than they planned might find that PAYE or IBR one of the only options they have if they hope to live a normal life.
Let’s consider an example:
Let’s say Steven borrows $50,000 at 8 percent APR to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. After completing his program, he settles into a career as a Community Health worker earning close to the national annual mean wage for this profession – $38,180.
After paying an average of 25 percent of his salary in taxes, Steven is left with $28,635 per year or $2,386.25 per month.
If Steven paid down his loans on the standard ten-year timeline without refinancing, his monthly payment would average $606.64 – or more than 25 percent of his take home pay.
If he qualified for PAYE, on the other hand, Steven’s student loan payments would be limited to 10 percent of his discretionary income, a figure the government describes as the “amount by which your adjusted gross income (AGI) exceeds 150% of the poverty guideline amount for your state of residence and family size.”
In other words, Steven’s monthly payment under PAYE would only be a fraction of what it would normally. Better yet, his entire balance would be forgiven after twenty years of timely payments. That goes even more for someone who had 100k in student loan debt.
One other thing to consider is whether or not you took out federal student loans without cosigner parents. If you have a cosigner you will be hurting their credit if you aren’t able to make the payments. That alone could be a reason to make sure Mom and Dad don’t get hurt by your loans.
How to Qualify for PAYE
A complex set of requirements obfuscates what it actually takes to qualify for any type of student loan forgiveness, especially PAYE. Here are some basic guidelines that can help you decide if you qualify:
You may qualify for PAYE if:
- The monthly payment you would make under the PAYE or IBR plan (based on your income and family size) is less than what you would pay under the Standard Repayment Plan with a 10-year repayment period
- Your federal student loan debt is higher than your discretionary income or represents a significant portion of your annual income
- You’re a new borrower as of October 1, 2007, and you have received a disbursement of a Direct Loan on or after October 1, 2011
- You borrowed money in the form of federal student loans.
Pay As You Earn is eligible on the vast majority of federal loans. In fact, the only type of federal loans not eligible for PAYE are Direct PLUS Loans made to parents and Direct Consolidation Loans that repaid PLUS Loans made to parents.
It’s also okay if you’ve already consolidated your loans as long as they weren’t turned over to a private lender. Please note that only federal student loans can be repaid under the income-driven plans. Private student loans are not eligible for any type of loan forgiveness.
To qualify, your loan must also be in good standing and not in default.
Who Can Benefit from PAYE?
While anyone with plenty of student loan debt may benefit from programs like PAYE or IBR, loan forgiveness isn’t an option that suits everyone. Some people, for example, what to kill all their debts – including student loans – as quickly as possible no matter the cost. Further, other people’s incomes will automatically disqualify them from qualifying for any type of income based repayment.
Still, income-driven repayment options are essential for a large swath of graduates who borrowed a lot of money to pursue careers in low-paying fields. The following checklist can help you determine if PAYE is something you, yourself, should look into:
You may benefit from income-based repayment options like PAYE if:
- You borrowed the full freight of the cost of your education and plan to pursue a low-paying career
- You don’t mind paying monthly payments on your student loans for 20 years.
- Your normal monthly payment (without using PAYE) represents a large portion of your future take-home pay
- You’re struggling to make student loan payments each month
PAYE isn’t a good option if:
- Your monthly income disqualifies you from qualifying for PAYE since the amount you would pay with PAYE is more than the standard ten-year repayment plan
- You don’t want to pay student loans for 20 years, and would rather suffer up front to get out of debt sooner
- You hope to earn more money in the future and would rather pay down your loans as much as possible now
The Bottom Line
While over 40 million Americans now deal with some level of student loan debt, the PAYE program – and other income-driven loan forgiveness programs – were created to ease the burden for individuals who meet certain income guidelines. The PAYE program in particular has gained steam due to the President’s insistence on capping loan payments at 10 percent of discretionary income, vs. 15 percent with IBR.
If you want to learn more about how you can qualify, compare your financial situation to the guidelines created by StudentAid.gov. And if your income disqualifies you, you can also consider refinancing your federal and private student loans with a lender that offers better terms and a lower interest rate.
Student loans cannot be discharged in bankruptcy, but they can be forgiven if you opt for a government-sponsored loan forgiveness program and follow the prompts. It’s up to you to decide if it’s worth it.
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Firecracker of a weekend for Poconos tourism industry
The gates to Shawnee Mountain’s fireworks display were forced to close early Saturday and roadways were parking lots as a combination of factors made for a busy weekend in the Poconos.Shawnee Mountain, which hosts a fireworks fundraiser for the Shawnee Volunteer Fire Company each year, packed its 1,500-car lot to capacity. At $10 a carload, that brought in about $15,000 for the fire company.“This is an important fundraiser for them," Shawnee Mountain spokesman Jim [...]
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Eat In or Go Out? Americans Spend More at Restaurants Than on Groceries
How much did you spend at the grocery store last week? How much did you drop at your favorite takeout joint?
If you spent more on restaurants or takeout, don’t sweat it too much. Apparently, we’re all doing it.
Last year, for the first time since the U.S. Census Bureau started tracking the cash spent in each category in 1992, Americans spent more at restaurants and bars than at grocery stores.
The Way We Buy Food is Changing
Restaurants aren’t new. But our reliance on them is growing.
“In 1992 when the Census Bureau started tracking consumer spending on food as part of its monthly report on Retail Trade and Food Services, Americans spent about $162 on food from grocery stores for every $100 spent at restaurants,” said American Enterprise Institute (AEI) scholar Mark Perry.
Last month, we spent $52.5 billion at grocery stores — and $54.8 billion at restaurants and bars. AEI noticed the shift in spending in 2015.
“Food away from home” amounted to about 26% of a household’s food budget in 1970, according to USDA data shared by Quartz. By 2012, that share had leaped to 43% of a family’s food budget.
Do You Eat Out More Than You Cook?
If you’re a regular at restaurants and takeout counters, you should be saving as much money as possible.
Have you joined loyalty programs at your favorite spots to dine? Have you found all the nearby places that offer free kids’ meals?
Paying with the right credit card can help you maximize the rewards of enjoying someone else’s cooking. You could even buy discounted gift cards to use for restaurant outings.
Don’t forget that some reservation tools, like OpenTable, reward frequent users with points redeemable for restaurant credit.
Maybe It’s Time to Cook More
If you’re feeling guilty about how much you spend on takeout and restaurants, it’s still possible to change your ways.
Before reaching for the takeout menu, think of the reasons why you keep ordering out instead of cooking. Are you bad at planning a grocery list? Are you too tired to cook?
Once you figure out why you aren’t inspired to prepare meals at home, you can start to work around your food-prep challenges.
If you’re ready to get cozy in your kitchen, there are plenty of ways to cook inexpensive meals without spending hours leaning over a hot stove.
Try using a slow cooker or preparing batches of protein or veggies you can munch on for a few days.
Once you’re comfortable with cooking, you might even find yourself making a month’s worth of meals at a time. All you need to get started, really, is an empty freezer and a meal plan.
Your Turn: Do you spend more on restaurants or on food you make at home? Are you happy with your food budget?
Lisa Rowan is a writer, editor and podcaster living in Washington, D.C.
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Patagonia is Hiring: Work From Home and Travel Around the Rockies
Do you live for outdoor adventure — or at least dress like you do?
Better yet, want to wear your Patagonia jacket and yoga pants to work every day?
All jokes aside, if you’re obsessed with Patagonia’s quality outdoor gear and into the idea of a work-from-home job with ample travel opportunities, listen up: We may have found your dream job.
Patagonia’s Hiring a Work-From-Home Associate Sales Rep
This world-famous purveyor of outdoorsy goodness is looking for an associate sales rep to service its markets in the Rockies — namely New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming.
You’d be responsible for working closely with the regional manager and sales representative to help Patagonia craft in-store merchandising plans, recruit and educate new dealers, as well as meet sales goals.
Best of all, you’d do it from the comfort of your own home, with about 100 days per year of company-expensed travel thrown in, too. The Rockies are big, and you’d have lots of stores to visit and optimize!
We’ve reached out to the company to get you the deets on pay and benefits, but until we get that intel, check out Patagonia’s page at Glassdoor.
It has ridiculously good ratings from real employees, and benefits include paid parental leave plans, full health, dental and vision coverage and (of course) a steep employee discount.
This could be you. Every. Day.
Do You Have What It Takes for This Patagonia Job?
We already know you have adventure in your heart — but do you have the rest of the skills and qualifications required to take advantage of this awesome opportunity?
Patagonia specifies it’s looking for an applicant with a bachelor’s degree, as well as a “fundamental understanding of the outdoor retail industry.”
You should also be familiar with MS Office, good with people and “highly organized, flexible, self-motivated, and energetic.”
Physically, you’ll need to be able to lift and carry up to 50 pounds’ worth of goodies for up to 100 feet, as well as be able to sit for extended periods of time and stare at a computer screen.
Good thing you’ll be able to use your discount and vacation days to gear up for outdoor time to counterbalance the screen-driven part of the job!
Sound like the next adventure for you? Head over to the listing to see the full details and apply — you can either fill out an application or just use your LinkedIn account.
Then, have a packed bag on standby and your favorite puffy jacket close at hand — and cross your fingers!
Your Turn: Will you apply for this awesome work-from-home opportunity with Patagonia?
Jamie Cattanach is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder who would totally own a Patagonia jacket if she didn’t live in Florida. Her writing has also been featured at Word Riot, DMQ Review, Hinchas de Poesia and elsewhere. Find @JamieCattanach on Twitter to wave hello.
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Commercial property funds hit in Brexit fallout
Aviva Investors is the second manager to suspend trading in its £1.8 billion UK property trust, after Standard Life Investments took similar action on its £2.9 billion UK real estate fund yesterday. The moves have followed a surge of redemption requests. Investors will not be able to have their money returned to them until trading resumes.
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Here’s What Happens to Your Debt When You Die
When Francisco Reynoso’s son died shortly after finishing college, Reynoso was bombarded with debt collection notices demanding he pay back his son’s student loans.
Because Reynoso had co-signed on his son’s loans, he was now fully liable for repaying them — even as he grieved the loss of his son.
Reynoso discovered what many others have learned — that debt doesn’t go necessarily away go away when you die.
A number of factors dictate what happens to debt after death, including whether anyone co-signed on the loan, if the debtor had assets at death and what type of debt they held. The laws also vary from state to state.
Creditors are First in Line
Debt doesn’t typically melt away when you die.
Generally speaking, debts must be paid off by your estate when you die — if you have any assets. (We’ll get into co-signers, spouses and joint accounts a little later.)
For example: If you die with $100,000 cash in the bank, and $10,000 in credit card debt, that debt must be paid off before anyone receives an inheritance — creditors are first in line for a dead person’s assets.
“Your executor or administrator — the person in charge of your estate — will pay off those debts with the assets left behind before your family receives anything,” said Carmen Rosas, a California-based estate attorney.
“Paying those debts could mean simply writing a check from a bank account or selling assets for money to make those repayments.” Those assets can include the person’s home, cars or other valuable items.
The executor of your estate should notify creditors, credit reporting agencies and banks of your death as soon as possible. By notifying these agencies early, there’s a better chance your family will prevent someone from stealing your identity for financial gain.
Your executor can also request a copy of your credit report, which will tell them exactly what debts you had.
Creditors want — and expect — to be paid by your estate. They may make a legal claim in probate court, which is the legal process that oversees the handling of your estate.
Because it can take a while for your financial affairs to be sorted out, creditors may agree to a settlement with your estate for less than the total amount of debt.
“They’d rather have 40 or 50% now than to have to deal with all the hassle and uncertainty of waiting,” said John O’Grady, a San Francisco-based estate lawyer. “Creditors all want cash and they prefer immediate cash.”
If your assets don’t cover your debts, they typically go unpaid, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
Co-signed Loans and Credit Cards
If you have a co-signer on a loan, like a student loan, that person is responsible for paying off the debt if you die. The same is true for a joint credit card.
“Once you co-sign for any type of financial obligation, you are telling the bank that if the other person does not pay, you will be 100% responsible,” said Linda Kerns, an attorney in Philadelphia.
“My best advice for co-signing is that unless you are willing to pay 100% of the balance for which you are co-signing, you should not do it,” she adds.
This is what happened to Reynoso, who co-signed his son’s private student loans.
In some states, called community property states, it doesn’t matter if your spouse was technically a co-signer or not — your assets are considered joint. If one spouse dies, the other is responsible for paying off any debts that remain.
Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin are community property states. Alaska gives parties the option to make their assets community property.
If there’s no joint account holder and you don’t live in a community property state, credit card debt falls to your estate, which will use your assets to pay it off.
Student Loans
If you borrow money from the federal government for college and you die, that debt goes away — the loan is automatically canceled.
However, private student loans aren’t canceled upon death. The lender will attempt to collect from your estate.
Something to keep in mind: If debt is canceled or forgiven, that amount is taxable because it’s considered income by the Internal Revenue Service.
Some student loan terms say the loan will be canceled if the student works for a set period of time in a specific profession — those types of student loans are not taxable.
Mortgage
If you die and you have a mortgage, it doesn’t go away. If you co-owned the home with a spouse, the responsibility of the mortgage payments now falls solely to them.
If you were the sole owner, your estate may sell off your home to help pay off other debts. If all of your other debts are paid off, and you bequeathed the home to a family member, they’ll need to keep making payments to the bank or sell the house.
What If You Have No Assets?
If you die with debts and no assets (and no co-signers), the creditors are simply out of luck, O’Grady said.
“The best planning is to die with no assets,” he said. “Spend it, give it away while you’re alive, enjoy it and let people in your life enjoy it and die with nothing.”
Debt collectors may call members of your family after you die while attempting to collect on your debts — and they’re allowed to do this by the Federal Trade Commission.
Debt collectors cannot, however, mislead your family members into thinking they are personally liable for your debts after death.
And the FTC says they can only call your spouse or the executor of your estate when trying to collect. They can call other relatives, but only to help locate a spouse or the estate executor.
Your Turn: Have you considered what will happen to your debt?
Sarah Kuta is an education reporter in Boulder, Colorado, with a penchant for weekend thrifting, furniture refurbishment and good deals. Find her on Twitter: @sarahkuta.
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12 Key Principles of Goal-Oriented Personal Finance
Different people approach personal finance in different ways.
Some people simply like to follow “rules,” like “put 10% of your money toward retirement” or “spend less than you earn.” They do this out of an understanding that if they follow this rule, they will be in good financial shape in the future.
Other people hire financial advisors to help them plot out their future plans. They nod yes to the plan that the advisor comes up with and then trust that the plan will take care of them in the future.
Still others are fascinated by the minutiae and consider it a win when they save a little bit of money here or there. In general, people in this group are extremely careful about spending money needlessly and thus follow their feelings about keeping spending in check and not getting into financial trouble.
For me, it’s very different. I’m a goal-oriented person, and I approach personal finance from a goal-oriented perspective.
“Goal oriented” personal finance means putting large goals that need lots of financial support central in life, aligning professional and financial and, to an extent, personal moves around those big goals.
Stephen Covey once wrote about a great analogy for this, his “sand and rocks” analogy.
In this perspective, think of your life as a jar. In that jar, you can really only fit so many things, and those are the things that you spend your money, time, energy, and focus on. Rocks represent the big, important things in your life – the central things that you value and want to achieve. Sand represents all of the little things in life – little things that might be enjoyable but don’t really matter in the big picture.
If you fill your jar up with sand – lots of little pleasures, in other words – you don’t have room left for the rocks. You’ve used up all of the time, money, and energy you have in your life.
The approach I prefer is to put the rocks in first. Those rocks are your big, central goals in life, the things you really want to achieve. For me, the big rocks are learning and self improvement, strong relationships with my family, and retiring early. Once those are securely in the jar, then I add the sand – all of the little things in life.
For me, fulfilling those core goals is at the very core of my life. I want those things more than anything else and I’m willing to work every day to make sure I have them. Taking steps toward those goals takes priority over everything else.
When you adopt that perspective, some principles come to the forefront. Here are twelve principles for life that work really well with that kind of “goal-oriented” financial, professional, and personal life.
Principle #1 – Take Transferable Steps
First of all, what’s a transferable step? In my eyes, a transferable step is one that benefits multiple core goals at the same time, including both present and future goals. If I can find a way to make a time use choice or a money use choice that’s beneficial to more than one of my goals – or is very likely beneficial to a future goal – then I should put priority on that action.
For example, investing in things that have liquidity is a way to further my family-oriented goal (as we’re saving for a different house with an additional bedroom and a drastically different kitchen to meet family needs) as well as my early retirement goal and, potentially, a lot of future goals.
Another example: learning something that I can directly apply professionally not only scratches my learning and self improvement itch, it also helps my goal of retiring early because it boosts my potential earnings.
There are a lot of transferable skills that a person can learn as well that will help out with most life goals. Things like time management, information management, money management, self-control, and communication skills are going to help out with many of your goals in life, regardless of what they might be, so it can be useful for many goals to learn about and practice these kinds of transferable skills.
I really love transferable steps. They allow me to really give my heart and soul to focusing on the moment because I know that being successful in those steps is going to help out multiple life goals at the same time.
Principle #2 – Pay Yourself First
“Pay yourself first” simply means that when your paycheck comes in, the absolute first thing you do with it is put money aside for future goals before spending it on today’s bills and pleasurable spending.
In other words, you treat your paycheck exactly like the jar from the analogy at the start of this article. Your paycheck is the jar, and putting things in the jar takes up some of the money your paycheck provides. All you’re doing here is putting the rocks – your big goals – in the jar first and then fitting the sand – your bills and your “fun” spending – around it.
That’s actually not how most people run their finances. Many people start dumping in sand immediately and, before they know it, their jar is full and they haven’t got any room left for the rocks. In other words, they spend all of their income on today’s bills and on fun things, leaving no room for putting money aside for their big goals.
The trick is to pay yourself first, then figure out how to make ends meet with the money that’s left over.
I find that automating this makes it much easier to stick with a “pay yourself first” plan. You can automate things like 401(k) deposits at work very easily, but you can also set up investment accounts to automatically withdraw money from your checking account on a weekly or monthly basis. You can also set up a system whereby your check goes into a separate checking account and then a portion of that check is then automatically transferred to your main checking account, leaving part of it behind for other purposes.
Principle #3 – Adjust Savings Upwards, Not Downwards
One mistake that many people make when it comes to saving for a goal is that they start off by saving far too much. They agree to contribute a large percentage of their income, then they suddenly find that their day-to-day life is much more difficult than they expected.
This leaves behind a bad taste. “Saving is hard,” they think, and then they drop their savings level significantly and never ratchet it back up again. They then find that their goal is hard to reach because of the lower savings level and the whole endeavor begins to feel impossible.
I’ve found that a much better approach is to start off slowly with the savings and then ratchet it up over time. A small amount of savings at the start is something that’s very manageable and then choosing to bump it up a little feels like an exciting positive step forward, but it’s still one that represents just a little life change.
Another advantage of the “adjust savings upward slowly” strategy is that it can go hand-in-hand with increases in income. For example, if you get a 3% increase in pay, just simply ratchet up your retirement savings by adding to your contribution so that much of the raise simply goes away. Not only do you get the benefit (and happiness) from increasing your savings, it won’t have any negative effect on your day to day life.
Biting off more than you can chew is a sure way to make you feel negative about a big long-term goal. (This can actually be a good choice sometimes for shorter-term goals and projects.) Eventually, the tradeoff won’t seem worth it and you’ll abandon or back down from the goal. A much better approach is to start small, see that it’s not that bad, and then ratchet it upwards slowly, particularly in parallel with positive changes in your career and life.
Principle #4 – Articulate Goals Clearly
Goals are obviously at the center of “goal-oriented personal finance.” It’s all about identifying big things that you want to achieve in life and then doing what it takes to get there.
Part of that challenge, of course, is to have a sense of exactly where you’re going. It’s easy to talk about vague life ambitions – “I want to have a family” “I want to be successful” – but those often don’t really mean anything. How do you have a functional plan to “be successful”?
The truth is, you can’t.
A good goal needs a bit more detail than that. It needs enough structure that you can come up with actual tangible steps to take that will help you achieve that goal. Otherwise, it’s just a daydream.
So, what is it that you want to achieve? What do you want to have in five or 10 or 20 or 30 years? Sketch out that life and look for the specific things that really matter to you. What are they? Describe them in reasonable detail, but focus on the things that you can personally control rather than the things that you cannot.
For example, I can’t control the life choices that my children make, but I can control how I interact with them and how I behave toward them. I can’t control exactly where my career will go, but I can control how I build myself up to be able to navigate those twists and turns.
It’s in the things that you can control that you’ll find clear goals for yourself, financial and otherwise.
What about the fact that you’re going to change over time, and that your goals will change? Yes, that will happen, and that’s the reason I started off this article by talking about transferable steps. The more transferable your steps are toward your goal, the easier it will be to step into new goals as you change over time.
Principle #5 – Avoid Making Life “Un-Fun”
Many people tend to turn working toward goals into a black-and-white thing. Either you’re having a “fun” life where you don’t really worry about such things or you have a “miserable” life without any fun where you’re obsessed with goals.
The truth is that neither one of those outcomes is any good.
If you’re focused on the short term “fun” all the time, you’re not going to build up anything in life. You won’t have great opportunities in the future. You won’t have savings to support yourself for the big endeavors you might want to take on later in life.
On the other hand, if you’re focused on the long term all the time, you’re going to miss out on a lot of joy today. I’d miss out on the chance to watch my children grow up and to be a part of their lives, for starters.
Neither of these scenarios are good ones.
The best solution, I’ve found, is somewhere in the middle, where I enjoy many things today (but not every single hedonistic option) while also taking lots of steps toward tomorrow’s goals.
This is why I’m constantly on the lookout for personally fulfilling things with a low financial cost. In my eyes, those things are incredibly valuable things to have around to succeed at goal oriented personal finance. For example, I’ve found that I really enjoy doing things together with my whole family at home. I don’t feel the need to go somewhere or do something expensive to have that joy. We go to the movies perhaps once a year, for example; instead, we have a “family movie night” at home once a week where we all jumble together in the family room and watch a movie together with a big bowl of popcorn and the lights off. That has virtually all of the fun of going to a theatre for a movie with about 2% of the cost.
Fun shouldn’t be eliminated from life as you tackle goals. At the same time, fun doesn’t have to involve sacrificing your financial goals, either. You just need to look for ways to enjoy yourself that don’t involve throwing money around by the fistful.
Principle #6 – Take Pride in the Journey
One challenge many people face with big goals is that they only really feel success if they achieve their goal. Everything becomes about the goal they’ve set for themselves and whether they achieve that final number or not; if they’re not there yet, then they’re a failure.
That’s a horrible approach to take toward a goal. My approach is much different: as long as you’re heading toward your goal in a reasonable way, you’re successful and can take pride in that goal.
For example, one of my main goals is to save enough money for early retirement. For me, the success or failure of that goal does not hinge on me retiring at some early age. That’s the long term desired outcome, but that’s not what makes it successful.
For me, the success of that goal hinges on whether my net worth is going up each month. Is my net worth higher than the month before (after factoring out changes in the stock market)? If the answer is “yes,” then I’m successful at my goal. If the answer is “no,” then I have some work to do.
You can take this approach with almost any self-improvement task. For example, your weight loss goal isn’t a failure if you don’t make it to your magic weight number right away. A much better approach is to keep track of your running weight average – is that declining over time? Weigh yourself every week and then don’t even really worry about the number until you’ve got 10 numbers written down, then average those numbers. The next week, average only the 10 most recent numbers – is that average lower than the average from last week? If it is, then you’re successful. (In essence, you’re competing with your weight from two and a half months ago.)
Principle #7 – Let the Goals of Other People Remain Their Own, Not Yours
Different people have different goals in life and different values that drive them forward. Some people have goals that center around career success – or the appearance of it. Others might have a goal that involves having a giant beautiful home, or perhaps to drive a gorgeous car.
Those are fine goals. They might even have some real appeal to you. However, they aren’t necessarily your goals.
They’re someone else’s goals. Someone else chose to prioritize having the big house or the appearance of career success or the shiny car. Not you. That means you have no reason to be working toward those things and you have no reason to be spending your money or time on those things.
That doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate a nice house or a shiny car. I drive a thirteen year old SUV that I bought off of Craigslist (seriously) because a shiny new car isn’t in line with my personal goals, but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate looking at the beautiful lines of that orange convertible that this one guy down the block owns.
It’s pretty, and it would be fun to drive it, but I’m not willing to trade my progress on the goals that matter to me for that shiny car. It’s not a tradeoff I would be happy with at the end of the day.
Let the goals of other people be their own, though it’s fine to appreciate them. Let your goals be your own. They don’t have to be the same thing or have any overlap whatsoever.
Principle #8 – Keep Close Track of Your Progress
As noble as our big goals might be, it’s easy for us to get distracted from them. Our minds are wired to think for the short term. We look ahead to the next meal, the next day, the next weekend. We have to really focus to look ahead to the next decade.
One of my favorite solutions to this conundrum is to keep careful track of my progress toward goals. Rather than always looking far off at my destination, I turn my eyes instead to where I stand right now, particularly in comparison to where I stood in the recent past (a month ago or a year ago).
For financial goals, I look at the numbers. I look at my net worth and compare that to where I was three months ago or a year ago. I look at the balance of my “early retirement” fund and compare that to where I was three months ago or a year ago.
The “success” of my goal hinges entirely on positive progress in those comparisons, not in whether or not I’ve hit that giant destination. As long as I keep chugging along and making positive progress on those short term comparisons, I’m going to eventually reach that big goal.
Thus, keeping close tabs and measurements on my progress is key for me as I work toward my big goals.
Principle #9 – If a Goal Is Too Big, Make Milestones
Another great approach for solving the problem of big goals feeling too far off on the horizon is to set shorter-term milestones that lead to the big goal.
For example, let’s say that my magic number for retiring early was to have $1,000,000 saved up. With that number, I could live off of $40,000 a year and the money would last for about thirty years – and before I ever reached that number, I could start propping it up with Social Security money and make it last a very long time.
Rather than worrying about that huge number, I could instead focus on milestones along the way. For example, I might set up a milestone of reaching $200,000 by the end of this year, and $300,000 two years from now.
A shorter term goal like that can really light a fire under you. It gives you something within reach that you can work toward. Rather than focusing on a huge number that feels impossible, you have a target that really challenges you right now but you can actually see it and almost reach it. You’re not worried about saving another $800,000. You’re worried about saving another $9,000 by the end of this year.
Another great feature of this method is that you can feel the success of achieving a big goal on a more regular basis. Yes, reaching your ultimate goal will feel amazing, but reaching that milestone along the way feels pretty awesome, too.
Take your goal and break it down into smaller pieces, then focus on that small piece. If the small piece is still too big, break that one down, too. Take it one piece at a time and you’ll get there.
- Related: The Power of Cutting a Goal in Half
Principle #10 – Reconsider Your Goals Regularly
As you grow as a person over time, you’re going to find that some of the things you once wanted are going to fade in importance and other things will grow in importance to you.
Five years ago, I was very focused on buying a home in the country. It was something I deeply wanted. At this point, it’s still on my radar, but it is a very secondary goal in my life.
If I stuck with that “buying a country home” goal as a primary goal, I would be feeling very unmotivated toward that goal. It would be easy for me to get distracted from it and I would be much more likely to make financial mistakes along the way.
Instead, I regularly re-evaluate my goals and ask myself how important my goals really are to me. Over time, there are big shifts, and that’s okay. What matters is that I am in touch with the things I want from life and that I feel excited working toward them.
The fact that goals shift like this over time points back to the importance of transferable steps as discussed in the first principle in this article. Transferable steps mean that even if my goal changes, my progress toward that goal wasn’t a waste. If I focused on transferable steps, not only will they work for the goal I’m moving toward now, it’ll also likely work for my goals as they change in the future.
Principle #11 – Always Question Distracting Desires
The temptations of everyday life are real. I’m constantly tempted to spend my money on my hobbies or on entertainment expenses or on upgrading things around the house. And, yes, sometimes I do spend money in those ways.
The thing is, I recognize that such expenses are largely a distraction from my big goals. They almost always represent progress away from those goals I hold dear and when I step back and think about that, I don’t like it.
It’s a constant push and pull, really. In the moment, I’m pulled toward those immediate pleasures and temptations. When I step back and look at the big picture, I’m pulled back toward my big goals and feel regret that I was tempted in the moment.
My solution to that conflict is to strongly question all of my short term desires. I put them under the interrogation lamp all the time. Why do I want this item? Is it really a good use of my money? Am I going to get adequate life value out of this item for the time and money I put into it?
I often run through recent purchases and potential purchases in my mind when I’m taking a shower or going for a drive or doing something else that doesn’t require total focus. I question all of the non-essential ways in which I spend money and decide whether or not those choices are really good ones.
Sometimes, purchases do come out the other side looking pretty good. At other times… not so much. I find that an awful lot of my temptations look pretty foolish when I give them a serious look.
Principle #12 – Find Social Support
I believe strongly in what Jim Rohn said about how people are the average of the five people they spend the most time with. I find that when I spend a lot of time with someone, I tend to adopt at least some of their ideas and perspectives on life in general.
That’s why it makes a lot of sense for me to spend as much time as I can with people who share my financial philosophies. A few years ago, I had a dinner party for my closest friends in the world. All of us around the table were in our mid thirties. All of us had paid off all of our student loans. All of us had purchased homes and paid off our mortgages in full. None of us had credit card debt. None of us had car loans. None of us earned a six figure salary, either.
How is that possible? We all shared the same financial philosophies, more or less. Rather than going out on the town, we were enjoying a potluck dinner at my house. Rather than buying expensive bottles of wine to share at the table, we mostly drank water and shared small glasses of a really inexpensive wine that was perfectly tasty. None of us were dressed in expensive clothes, either.
We spend our money on the things that are truly most important to us. We try our best not to get distracted by the tempting things of the moment. We make choices with every paycheck to build toward our long term goals.
We support each other in our positive choices, and it makes all the difference.
Final Thoughts
Goals are at the center of my life – financially, professionally, and personally. To me, a fulfilling day isn’t just about pleasure in the moment, it’s about making real progress toward the life that I want to have.
These principles make that possible. They provide constant guidance toward a life that provides a great deal of joy, both today and tomorrow. I hope that these principles prove useful to you in your journey, too.
The post 12 Key Principles of Goal-Oriented Personal Finance appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
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Fireworks business sparks controversy in Pocono Twp.
One Pocono Township fireworks store is trying to blow up the operating permit of a new nearby competitor.Operators of the Prograde Fireworks Superstore on Sullivan Trail set off the legal challenge to the zoning permit for Fireworks Outlet to operate a retail store about one mile away.The Pocono Township Zoning Hearing Board issued a permit in February to Percudani House III LP to operate a fireworks retail store at 103 Camelback Road, at the intersection of Sullivan Trail, [...]
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How This Stay-at-Home Mom Built a Writing Career While Raising 3 Kids
When her first son was born 12 years ago, Julie Anne Lindsey wanted to “stay home and watch him grow,” so she and her husband agreed she’d leave her career and become a stay-at-home mom.
“My husband has always been blessed by solid employment, and we are a fairly frugal couple, so we had savings and no debt beyond a mortgage.”
Her income had always been “expendable,” she explains, so the biggest impact of losing it was that the family was saving at a slower rate. They were also “couponing more often and flat out not getting… frivolous things,” but they weren’t struggling to pay the bills or buy groceries.
Over the next five years, the family added two more children. Lindsey spent years raising them full time, but shortly after their youngest child was born, she began an unexpected journey.
“I wasn’t a big reader [at the time],” she explains, “but I happened upon a novel [Stephanie Meyer’s “Twilight”] that gave me a delightful escape from spit up and diapers, and it changed my life. I knew immediately that I wanted to do that for someone else.”
More moving than the novel itself, says Lindsey, was the author’s story.
“When I learned the author was a stay-at-home mom with three small kids like mine, I thought, ‘Hey, maybe I can do that!’
“In hindsight, the idea was ridiculous, but I… learned that anyone with a story to tell can be a novelist. Before that, I’d assumed I needed a specific degree or background to write for publication.”
Becoming a Writer
In July 2011, she responded to a call for submissions for the now-defunct Turquoise Morning Press, a small Ohio-based publishing house. It published her first romance novella, “Bloom,” in 2012. Her second book, “Love Blossoms,” followed later the same year.
Over the next two and a half years, Lindsey would go on to publish a total of seven titles with the publisher.
Despite her impressive work, though, novel writing is no get-rich-quick scheme.
At first, she earned so little from her books it was “literally not enough per quarter to buy dinner. For myself. At McDonald’s.”
But she loved it. Lindsey describes herself as “painfully hard-headed,” so she was willing to keep at it until the work produced an actual income.
She continued to learn and study the industry — and, above all, to write. She honed her writing and business skills during her time with TMP and used them to land contracts with two other publishers.
Now she’s written four novels for Lyrical Press, the digital-first side of Kensington, and six for Carina Press, the digital side of Harlequin. Harlequin also decided to print two of her Carina titles as part of the Harlequin Worldwide Mystery line and recently added one to shelves in major retail stores.
“Harlequin was a huge supporter of my work with Carina,” Lindsey says. “[It’s] a fantastic company.”
Last fall, Jill Marsal of Marsal Lyons Lit offered to represent Lindsey and helped her land “a nice contract” with a new publisher — within a week.
“While my career hasn’t been an overnight success story, it’s my story, and I’m really happy with how the first five years have gone. I look forward to at least 30 more.”
In those first five, Lindsey has published between three and five books every year. As a reader, I look forward to the next 30, too!
What If You Don’t Have an Agent?
Lindsey is fortunate to work with an agent, who acts as an advocate for authors in contact with publishers. That means more time and energy to focus on writing!
For writers who don’t yet have, or don’t want to work with, an agent, she points out several publishing houses still look at an author’s work without going through an agency. Her publishers — Carina, Lyrical, Harlequin and Kensington — are just a few of them.
To find more, subscribe to Writer’s Market and FundsforWriters, which frequently list publishers who accept queries from unagented authors.
How Much Money Can You Make as a Full-Time Author?
One of the toughest realities about being a writer is how tricky it is to secure a steady paycheck.
“There is no typical year for writing,” Lindsey says.
“My annual income depends on if I’m lucky enough to get another contract [with an advance], what that advance is for, how well the books already out there are selling and about a million other things.”
She doesn’t freelance, so almost all of her income comes from publishing books. That comes in one of two ways:
- Advance: a lump sum of money the author receives from the publisher upon signing a contract to write a book. Depending on the contract, you might receive that all at once, or in a series of payments as you submit parts of a manuscript.
- Royalties: a percentage of sales per book, usually paid quarterly. Royalties are almost always paid only after the advance is paid back with sales. Depending on the size of the advance, many authors never see royalties at all.
“Some quarters, [royalties] can fund my trip to Hawaii, and other times, I’m wondering if the work is worth the peanuts on the check in my hand.”
Bottom line? Lindsey says being a novelist isn’t a reliable source of income.
“Even a six-figure advance isn’t something to quit your day job over,” she warns.
That’s because part of that advance will go to your agent, and you’ll only get fractions of your portion as you turn in drafts of the manuscript.
An advance that large may also be for a multi-book deal, in which case your payouts will be spread across the time it takes you to write all the books — probably one per year. What looks impressive as $150,000 on a contract could actually mean an annual income around $30,000.
Like anyone running a business, you’ll have to pay your own taxes, so knock your take-home pay down even more.
And, Lindsey warns, “there’s no guarantee you’ll ever get another contract.”
It’s kind of a grim picture.
“If I were a practical person, my advice would be: If you can do something other than writing, then do that instead,” Lindsey says. “Unfortunately, writing is in my blood.”
As most authors will point out, you don’t start writing for the money. You do it, like Lindsey does, because you love it.
Making money doing something you love is just a fabulous bonus!
How Much Does It Cost to Be an Author?
Unlike many businesses, writing for traditional publishers doesn’t necessarily come with hefty startup costs.
Lindsey’s promotional costs mostly consist of travel to conferences and other events. She’s often invited as a speaker, so she gets free registration or even gets paid to attend.
“I generally use money from my advances and royalties to pay for my travel and expenses, which is nice, because I can then deduct those same costs on my taxes.”
Because of “a gracious and supportive mother-in-law,” Lindsey and her husband can leave the kids at home when they travel to attend these conferences.
“Essentially,” she gushes, “my husband and I take a lot of vacations per year and my writing pays for it.”
Author discounts on hotel rooms and conferences that provide entertainment make these fun, productive and affordable trips they wouldn’t otherwise be able to take.
“In some ways, I thank my new career for our happy marriage.”
What’s left over after professional expenses, they save for the kids’ college funds.
Finding Work-Life Balance
“As my family and career have grown, I’ve learned to embrace the chaos and let go of the structure. My husband and I were very regimented people, once upon a time, but that’s gone.”
Her kids — now 8, 10 and 12 years old — are in school, which gives Lindsey a solid six- or seven-hour workday, ostensibly without interruption.
After 3 p.m., though, the evening is “a virtual blur of kiddie drop-offs, pickups and teeth brushing.” The kids are involved in special projects and trips through their school district’s gifted program, as well as tennis, competitive swimming, skiing, gymnastics and Boy Scouts.
The days are hectic, but “[the kids are] happy and thriving,” says Lindsey, “and this is why I stayed home — I didn’t want to miss anything.”
She continues to produce novels in the midst of what she calls “the Lindsey Circus” by sticking to a smart routine:
1. Outline: “I’m a dedicated outliner, so I spend a week or so completing an extremely detailed outline for my novels.”
2. Write one chapter a day — every day.
3. Reread the chapter — only briefly! — then send it to a critique partner.
“It’s a constant struggle between deadlines and family demands,” she admits. “So many things vie for my attention and try to pull me away during those few writing hours, but I’m fiercely protective of the writing time.”
Protecting that time seems to pay off. Once an outline is done, Lindsey says this system helps her complete a novel manuscript in 28 days!
In 2016, Lindsey will see the release of five novels from three presses in two genres.
“I wish I could go back to 2010 and tell that version of me, who typed ‘how to write a book’ into a search engine, that those words were about to change her life.”
Your Turn: How do you balance working for yourself and raising a family?
Disclosure: Here’s a toast to the affiliate links in this post. May we all be just a little richer today.
Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s written for Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, Writer’s Digest and more, attempting humor wherever it’s allowed (and sometimes where it’s not).
The post How This Stay-at-Home Mom Built a Writing Career While Raising 3 Kids appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Motorists hit by fourth month of petrol price rises
Petrol prices edged up for the fourth consecutive month in June, according to the latest data from the RAC.
It says unleaded prices went up by 1.5p a litre in June, from 110.69p to 112.17p, while diesel rose by 1.66p a litre, up from 110.73p to 112.39p.
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Debunking Four Common Credit Myths
The quality of your credit reports and credit scores has become more important than you’ll ever know. Your credit reports and credit scores can impact a loan or credit card application, a job application, a new insurance policy, and even a new utility account. As a result, learning how to earn and maintain great credit should be at the top of your financial to-do list.
Unfortunately, misinformation can trip you up on your journey toward better credit, and credit myths abound and spread like wildfire in the internet-connected world in which we live. These myths can actually be very dangerous to your overall financial health, because they may cause you to turn left when you really should have turned right.
Take a look at these four common credit myths below, which you may or may not have heard before, and learn the truth behind each.
Myth #1: Closing credit cards will cause you to lose the value of the age of the account.
This is absolutely incorrect. The truth is that while closing credit card accounts typically is a bad idea when it comes to your credit scores (because you’ll lose the credit limit, which impacts your utilization rate), it’s not because you lose the value of the age of the account in your credit history.
Even closed accounts are still factored into the age-related metrics of both the FICO and VantageScore credit scoring systems. So, a 10-year-old account that you close today is still a 10-year-old account. And, next year at this time it will be an 11-year-old account. As long as the account remains on your credit reports, you will benefit from the then-current age of the account… open or closed.
Myth #2: When you get married, you have to apply for credit jointly.
There is no law or informal requirement that married couples have to apply for credit jointly. In fact, applying for joint credit is typically a bad idea, because it locks two people in as liable parties rather than just one.
Unless you’re applying for a large loan (such as a mortgage), where the income from both you and your spouse is needed to qualify for the financing, it’s always best to maintain credit independence, even after marriage.
In fact, there is no such thing as a joint credit report. There is no such thing as a joint credit score. Both scores and credit reports are maintained and calculated at the individual consumer level, rather than at the family level. So, if you can qualify for a credit card or some sort of loan on the basis of just your income, go for it.
Myth #3: A divorce decree protects your credit.
It should come as no surprise that divorce and credit problems tend to go hand in hand, since the task of separating joint debts and assets can be a very difficult process, even in an amicable separation. Even if your divorce decree assigns responsibility for a joint liability (i.e., a joint auto loan) to your now ex-spouse, that does not mean the creditor will let you off the hook. And, the account will not magically disappear from your credit reports either. Because the lender was not a party to your divorce agreement they will not honor any deals you made with your ex-spouse.
The only way to truly protect your credit in a divorce is to completely eliminate all joint liabilities by refinancing or by selling the asset to a 3rd party in order to pay off the loan. In the case of joint credit cards, it’s best to close these accounts to protect yourself from future charges made by your now ex-spouse. Closing cards is generally not a good idea if you can help it, but in the case of a divorce, it’s the lesser of a variety of future evils.
- Related: Honey, I Wrecked Your Credit
Myth #4: You have to go into debt to build good credit scores.
This may be one of my least favorite myths. While you do need to use credit to build your credit history, the idea that you need to go into debt or carry a balance to build good credit scores is completely false.
Credit scoring models do not reward consumers for going into debt. In fact, the opposite is true, especially when it comes to credit card debt, which can be extremely damaging to your credit scores.
There is no metric in either the FICO or VantageScore credit scoring systems that actually reward you for carrying debt. It is true that certain debts are worse (revolving, such as credit cards) than others (installment, such as car loans and mortgages), but none of them equates to more credit score points.
So if you are one of those fortunate people who can live debt-free, you won’t need to worry about that negatively impacting your credit scores.
Related Articles:
- What Is a Good Credit Score?
- Rebuilding Your Credit After Bankruptcy
- Does Carrying a Balance Help Your Credit?
The post Debunking Four Common Credit Myths appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
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Before You Get That Credit Card, Make Sure You Know This Crucial Number
Stories of people who are thousands of dollars in debt are all pretty common.
But in most cases, it wasn’t the debt alone that did them in.
Each time they didn’t pay their balance in full, they were charged interest. Over time, those interest charges add up.
There’s Tanya LaPrad, who faced $358 monthly interest charges on $20,000 of credit card debt before she started a debt management plan.
And Joe Mihalic, who took out $95,000 in student loans to go to Harvard Business School and realized he’d be paying $42,000 in interest before paying off his debt if he stuck to the minimum payment schedule.
The moral of all these stories? Read the fine print.
If you’ve borrowed money, you’ve probably seen the acronym APR. But what does it mean and how can it hurt you?
What is APR?
APR stands for annual percentage rate. In other words: The percentage you’ll pay in a year to borrow money.
“Think about it this way — when you buy any kind of service, you have to pay something for it,” said Kathryn Hauer, a financial planner and investment advisor in South Carolina.
“Borrowing money is a kind of service, and you have to pay some amount for that service.”
Hauer explained that APR includes the actual cost for borrowing the money (the interest rate), plus other items, like late penalties and transaction fees.
There are two types of APR: nominal and effective.
Typically, what you see advertised for most loans is the nominal APR. It’s a good metric for comparing loans, because it includes both interest and fees.
When you compare two loans, look at how each one’s APR compares to its interest rate. This will tell you which loan comes with higher fees.
Here’s a quick breakdown:
Nominal APR is the simple rate of borrowing money for a year. If you borrow $1,000 with a 20% rate, you’ll pay $200 to borrow the money for a year.
Here’s the formula: $1,000 x 0.20 = $200.
Effective APR, also known as the effective annual rate (EAR) or the annual percentage yield (APY), takes the power of compounding into account. In this case, the lender charges interest on the interest they’ve already charged you.
To calculate the effective annual rate (EAR), use this formula: EAR = (1 + r/m)m – 1, where r is the interest rate as a decimal figure and m is the number of compounding periods.
In this case, (1 + 0.20/12)12 – 1 = 0.2194, or 21.94%. Now, the $1,000 you’re borrowing for a year, compounded monthly, will cost you $219.40 to borrow.
The $20 difference in this example may not look like much, but what if you’re borrowing $10,000? Or $30,000?
Confusing, right? Don’t worry about the math. Do it if you can, but make sure you ask your lender how interest is calculated. Is it compounded? If so, how often?
What Determines Your APR?
Lenders use your credit score to determine a loan’s APR, and it’s based on your past credit history, as well as other factors.
“Sometimes people have no choice but to pay a high APR because they have a poor credit record and the lender is worried about the borrower not being able to repay the loan,” said Oviedo, Florida, financial planner David Blount.
“When lenders consider borrowers as ‘high risk,’ they charge more for lending the money in case it is never paid back.”
In some instances, you can actually negotiate your way to a lower APR. The financial planners over at LearnVest even have a nifty script for calling your credit company and negotiating your way to a lower APR.
Some lenders charge a fixed APR, meaning it stays the same for the entire life of the loan, while others charge a variable APR. These rates can go up and down based on an underlying index, like the U.S. Prime Rate.
Blount also pointed out lenders may have multiple APRs for a loan you’re interested in. They may offer a low introductory rate to get your business, but after a certain period of time, the APR may go up.
Credit card companies also may offer differing APRs for different types of services and transactions, such as cash advances or transfers.
The Bottom Line
You may be the type of person who pays off your credit bill in full every month. And you should, if you can.
But you could be one step away from not being able to pay off the full balance. Say you lose your job and have a hard time finding another one.
You’re going to start paying interest.
Comparing APRs will help you make smarter choices when selecting a credit card or a loan. Get the lowest rate you can, even if you think you’ll make regular payments.
“You’ll be a more confident and value-conscious shopper if you are able to understand the workings of the APR,” Hauer said.
“When you compare rates for getting your hair colored, repairing your car, or taking guided kayak tour, you make sure you know the exact cost, including any extra fees. When you look into the best place to borrow money, you can use the APR to compare and make the right decision.”
Better yet, if you don’t have to borrow money, don’t.
“Saving up for your purchase and paying cash is one of the best alternatives to getting caught up in the death spiral of too much debt,” Blount said.
Your Turn: Have you ever tried to negotiate a lower APR?
Sarah Kuta is an education reporter in Boulder, Colorado, with a penchant for weekend thrifting, furniture refurbishment and good deals. Find her on Twitter: @sarahkuta.
The post Before You Get That Credit Card, Make Sure You Know This Crucial Number appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Halifax raises the benchmark for 0% balance transfer deals - no interest of fees for two years
Borrowers looking to shift their credit card debt can now pay no interest or fees for two years if they sign up for the new Balance Transfer card from Halifax, subject to their credit status.
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How to Start a Home Improvement Referral Business
Today we’re talking with Debbie Farson, the owner of HomeWise Referrals. After many years of home ownership and some disappointing home improvement outcomes, Debbie recognized the need for a one-stop service to locate contractors who would return calls, show up on time, and follow through with high-quality work. Debbie’s background as a lawyer, homeowner, home […]
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