Personal Finance

I've generally been a do-it-yourself person. From repair and maintenance of appliances to our house, I would take on most minor jobs. Being an engineer by training, I'm able to figure out how to fix many things,especially now with many good instructions being on the the Internet. Doing it myself also saved a lot of money. Now that I'm older, I'm moving more towards having professionals do the work. First, it started about 10 years ago with cutting the grass. We hired on landscaping company to cut and edge our lawn. The cost was $35 a week and saved me 2-3 hours a week. It was worth the cost of about $600 a year. For my most recent vehicle, I started having my car service regularly instead of doing the work myself, as I did with previous cars. Over the past few years, we've moved the following maintenance and repair work to professionals: Gutter cleanout. I used to climb up on the roof, clean out the gutters and do minor roof repairs. Now I pay professionals solve the issue. We put in gutter guards and have the roofers periodically check our gutters. Gas piping. I used to do my own gas piping with black iron pipe. I am not certified to work with the flexible gas piping so I hire professional to make repairs. Gas lamp maintenance. When we moved in the outdoor gas lamps were not working. During periodic checking over several years, I wasn't able to find any information on how to repair them. After several years, we found a company that repairs and maintains gas lamp and paid for an annual service contract. Although I could probably handle some of the repairs and maintenance, I'm finding that some of the tasks take too much time and effort to become competent. In those cases, it makes sense to pay for the service. For the tasks that are still easy, straightforward and safe to do, I continue to handle them. However, I expect some of these will convert to the "too much time and effort" category as I get older. For more on Reaping the Rewards, check back every Friday for a new segment. This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor. Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Flickr | http://www.flickr.com/photos/carlwwycoff/3561055851/sizes/z/in/photostream/ It’s been quite the week here at MyBankTracker. Kicking off next week is Memorial Day, and we have been preparing Memorial Day deals for you to score, frugal ways to celebrate, and information on which banks will be closed. For other helpful news you may have missed, check out our Weekly Wrap down below, and be sure to take our poll: Apple is being accused of evading billions of dollars in taxes. See Apple’s defense here. We highlight 5 financially savvy gift alternatives for grads. Learn how to turn your attic junk into treasure and identify which items have potential. The editorial team at MyBankTracker discussed our best and worst money decisions. Join the conversation on our Money Chat. Airline prices are spiking for the summer. Read up on the increasing prices. Our new writer Bishoy recalls his childhood collectibles. Are they worthless? Or priceless? The editorial team at MyBankTracker is selling some old items for our biweekly challenge. Participate for a chance to win a $50 GC! Want to see the future of the cash register? Check it out here. These apps seriously make life easier. See the top must-have 11 apps for 2013. Simon fields another question in his weekly column Simon Says: see how to calculate your average daily balance. Our weekly Review Roundup focuses on Discover Bank. Going abroad used to mean getting hit with foreign transaction fees. But now there are certain credit card companies that are kissing those fees goodbye! See those cards here. Did you know you can be charged for withdrawing from your savings account? Learn why here. Take Our Poll Take Our Poll Weekly Wrap (and Poll): Memorial Day Edition

Have the Discipline to Say NoArming yourself with a sound investment philosophy and search strategy puts you on the path to selecting businesses suitable for investment. Once a business is valued, the most difficult determinants of whether to invest or not come into play. Unlike valuation, which primarily relies on quantitative measures, investors now must rely on qualitative factors:Having the discipline to say no.Being patient.Having the courage to make a significant investment at a maximum point of pessimism.These factors are exceedingly important because the probability of suffering investment loss is significantly higher due to the emotional underpinnings of these factors.Most investors are smart; few, however, are disciplined enough to say no and move on or, more important, be patient. Very few activities in life can be practiced successfully without some degree of discipline. Being disciplined requires you to think independently and ignore crowd psychology. Discipline requires investors to be confident in their research and analysis and be prepared to receive criticism from all angles. Yet disciplined investors clearly realize that investment success comes from sticking to their methods and not participating in crowd folly.Health is Wealth Bullbear Stock Investing Notes

We recently asked if Walmart was letting you down and got dozens of comments. Many of you mentioned empty shelves, long lines and not enough employees.Here's what Walmart is doing about it: adding neon green dots around the store, Bloomberg says.You'll find the dots next to price stickers for everything from peanut M&Ms to Hanes boxer briefs and Crest toothpaste. Those are among 800 products Walmart considers important and that it pays a consulting firm to track the availability of, Bloomberg says.Read 3 remaining paragraphs on MoneyTalksNews.com.

Here's one lesson not enough students are getting in college: Debt is easy to rack up and hard to destroy.Half of 2013's graduates were surprised by how much college-related debt they had acquired, according to a new Fidelity survey of 750 new grads.It also found that more than one-third of students wish they had made different choices on their path to a degree, such as saving sooner, controlling costs better, and looking for more financial aid. Read 4 remaining paragraphs on MoneyTalksNews.com.

Is green tea as healthy as its reputation suggests? That depends on who makes it and where it comes from, a new study says.Bottled green tea may be little more than green sugar water, while some green tea leaves, most likely from China, were found to contain lead.Fortunately, it stayed on the leaves: Very little lead found its way into the final product, according to ConsumerLab.com researchers. "It’s fine as long as you’re not eating the leaves,” ConsumerLab.com president Dr. Tod Cooperman told The New York Times.Read 4 remaining paragraphs on MoneyTalksNews.com.

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” – Jim Rohn At the start of 2006, my life was in financial disarray. I’ve described many times what I did to turn it around. I clamped down hard on my spending. I started saving for the future. I learned a ton about personal finance. I changed careers. I bought a home – and paid for it in full. I achieved total debt freedom. It was a great turnaround, one that completely changed my life. But it wasn’t just an internal change. The people in my life saw the changes, too. At first, they mostly saw the spending changes. I didn’t suggest the expensive restaurants any more. I bought lower-cost dishes when we did go out. I didn’t always have the latest gadget any more. I’d often suggest low-cost activities instead of expensive ones. Then, gradually, they began to see bigger ones. They saw us buy a house. They saw me make a radical career shift. They saw our stress level drop through the floor, even with the addition of children into our lives. These changes didn’t just affect me. They also had a strong indirect effect on the other people in my life. If I think about the five adults that I’m closest to, that list has largely remained the same since about 2002 or so. I don’t like to name names on this site, but the very core of my personal life has remained very consistent. What’s changed about them? Sometime in the last ten years, all of us have had a mortgage to our name. In that same time period, all of us have paid off our mortgages. Sometime in the last ten years, most of us have had significant student loan debt. In that same time period, all of us have paid it off. Sometime in the last ten years, all of us have purchased replacement cars. In that same time period, all of us have paid them off in full and all of us are saving for their replacement. As far as I can tell, at this point, all of us are debt free. There are two things I really want to point out here. First, the financial turnaround and improvement of the people in my life has been an inspiration to me. I’ve drawn upon their examples and ideas countless times to improve my own situation. In the same breath, most of them have told me that my own financial turnaround has pushed them, too. It’s made them do the same thing – they’ve pulled examples from Sarah and myself and used them as tools and as motivation to improve their own state. It’s mutually beneficial once the pattern starts going. Your friends and family reflect your changes, and you reflect their changes, too. It becomes an upward spiral of self-improvement, much like negative friendships can become a downward spiral. Here’s the challenge, though. Are you ready and willing to take that first step? If you take a step or two and then give it some time, you’ll be surprised how your inner circle will often begin to come around. The post When You Change Yourself, You Change Those Around You appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

BrightNest is a free site that provides tools and tips to homeowners to help them save money, get organized and keep their homes in great shape. Sign up for a free BrightNest account today! These days, there’s an app for pretty much everything. Whether you need help choosing your outfit or killing two minutes while you wait in a line, there’s an app that has a solution. Adopting eco-friendly habits is no exception – there are a slew of apps to help you embrace a sustainable lifestyle. In fact, there are so many options that navigating the eco-friendly app forest can become a little overwhelming. So, we decided to wrangle seven of our favorite apps that help you go green at home. Check them out! Virtual Water If you take a quick look in your fridge, you’ll probably see things like vegetables, meat, eggs and other edible items. What you won’t see is the surprisingly large amount of water that’s required to produce all of that food. For example, did you know that it requires 587 gallons of water to create 20 oz. of chicken? Virtual Water is a digital companion that can help you become more conscious about the water requirements of your diet so that you can make an effort to reduce your ecological footprint. Price: $1.99 Available for: iPhone SolarChecker We’ve explained some of the tax incentives for installing solar panels before, and this free app is a handy tool if you’re considering this eco-friendly home improvement. The app measures the amount of solar radiation in your current location, and then calculates the ROI of installing solar panels on your home. So, if you’ve been tossing around the idea of going solar, give this app a download and see if it makes sense! Price: Free Available for: iOS BrightNest The BrightNest app is filled with tips and tricks to help you go green around the house. When you sign up, you can select topics that interest you (e.g. saving money, cleaning, going green). If you select “green,” BrightNest will send you bite-sized, big-impact tips each week, such as easy ways to conserve water and recipes for eco-friendly cleaning products. The app also includes plenty of fun tricks, such as upcycling old tea bags and using lemons around the house. Price: Free Available for: iPhone Green Outlet Electric appliances are one of the largest sources of energy usage in the home (looking at you, Mr. Water Heater), but it can be difficult to determine exactly how much each appliance really uses. Green Outlet solves this problem by asking you what appliances you own and how often you use each one. Then, the app breaks down the usage of each appliance (so you can finally see exactly how much your kid’s lengthy Playstation sessions are costing you). Since this app is so personalized, we expect people will have a variety of experiences with it. If you’ve used Green Outlet, let us know what you think of it in the comments! Price: $0.99 Available for: iPhone Vine.com Even if you want to buy products that are good for the environment, it can be a little tricky to tell if a product is truly “green” or just being marketed as such when you’re shopping. The Vine online storefront helps take some guesswork out of the buying experience by carefully vetting everything they sell. Each product must meet a number of standards (such as being sustainably produced and energy efficient) before Vine will sell it. Plus, the app totes a sleek design and intuitive interface, so you can make purchases right from your phone without the hidden cost of frustration and headache. Price: Free Available for: iOS Green Kitchen  There are a ton of cooking/recipe apps out there, but few of them can compete with the beautiful photos and eco-friendly focus of Green Kitchen. Whether you’re a vegetarian or you just want to bring fresher, natural ingredients into your home, this app can help! Green Kitchen has recipes for main courses, snacks and even healthy drinks. The app also includes cooking times and the ability to email or text shopping li

KeyBank is offering a $150 bonus to new customers who open a KeyBank checking account and meet certain requirements. The deal Customers who meet the following requirements will receive $150 cash: Open a qualifying KeyBank checking account Make at least 30 payments and/or purchases within the 3 months of account opening Make 3 direct deposits each of $500 or more within 3 months of account opening When opening the KeyBank checking account online, you must enter offer code ONVM0413. The offer code expires June 14, 2013. The minimum opening deposit for KeyBank checking accounts is $50. The accounts Qualifying checking accounts include: Key Express, Key Coverage, Key Advantage, Key Privilege and Key Privilege Select. The monthly fees for these checking accounts range from $5 to $25, each with their own set of requirements to waive the fees. KeyBank: $150 Bonus on Qualifying Checking Accounts

Sovereign Bank is offering a cash bonus of up to $125 when you open a new checking account package (the bonus depending on the checking account package). The deal New customers must open a new checking account package, which comprises a checking and savings account, through Sovereign Bank’s online promotional page by June 30, 2013 to earn the bonus. To qualify for the bonus, you have to make five debit card purchases or post one direct deposit by Aug. 31. The cash bonus will arrive by Sept. 15. The cash bonuses for their respective checking account packages are $50 for Classic Checking, $75 for Preferred Checking and $125 for Premier Checking. The minimum opening deposit required depends on the checking account package opened. The accounts The Classic Checking package has a $5 monthly fee, which can be avoided with a $500 average daily balance. The Preferred Checking package has a $15 monthly fee, which can be waived with a combined $7,500 average daily balance in linked deposit accounts. The Premier Checking package has a monthly fee of $30, which is avoidable with a combined balance of $20,000 across linked Sovereign Bank deposit accounts, investment accounts and loans. Sovereign Bank: Up to $125 Bonus on Checking Account Packages