Guest Contributor on Money Questions and Answers Blog

Strategies To Stretch The Travel Budget

This Yakezie Blog Swap post is from Kay Lynn Akers who writes about money and life on the way to retirement at Bucksome Boomer. Head over there to read my best travel budget tip.

Do you love to travel? Me too but the costs can add up. I don’t want to be limited to camping trips or couch-surfing in order to travel. Fortunately, my family has found a way to stretch our vacation dollars regularly by utilizing two strategies.

Travel off Season

One way to save money is to travel to destinations when the weather is less desirable to most visits otherwise known as shoulder or off seasons. This tip made our last vacation to Alaska much cheaper.

Most people want to visit Alaska during warm, sunny weather which is why June through August commands higher prices. We went on the last cruise of the season in September and saved hundreds per person. The risk for bad weather is increased, but we decided we wouldn’t let rain stop us.

The Benefits Of Using A Mortgage Calculator

by Guest Contributor

If you are considering getting a home loan, it is essential that you do your research and fully understand what you are getting in order to find the best mortgages and interest rate for you and your family. For many types of home loans, you can research great mortgages ahead of time by using a mortgage calculator to figure out your major costs and expenses.

How to Use a Mortgage Calculator

When you are using a mortgage calculator, you need a couple of basic pieces of information: the mortgage amount, the mortgage term (usually 15 or 30 years, but could vary), and the interest rate. With these key pieces of information, you can get an estimate of what your monthly payment would be, and it will usually include your payoff date as well.

Other Things to Look For

There are some good things to look for in a mortgage calculator. One of the primary uses is to compare what different scenarios will do to your monthly payment. For example, you could change the term from 30 years to 20 years, or 15 years

How to Raise the Next Millionaire Entrepreneur

by Guest Contributor

The following is a part of Yakezie’s blog swap from Marissa. She writes about life after grad school, and personal finance over at Thirty Six Months. You can check out my post on her site. I was an inventive child. Inventive in a way to ask my parents for a bigger allowance if I did extra chores, asking my siblings for a part of their allowance as a fee for being younger than me etc. Some of those ideas worked and some of them got me grounded for bullying my little sisters. The point is that when your child has the entrepreneurial spirit in them and wants to earn extra income with their creativity, do everything you can to encourage … Read more

Savings In The Age Of Austerity

by Guest Contributor

Ever since the world economy went belly up in 2008, life has been harder for all of us in the age of austerity. One particular group who have felt the pressure more than most are savers. Central banks across the Western world have set interest rates ever lower – so low in fact they can barely go any lower at all. This, of course, means that savers who keep money in bank accounts are feeling the pinch more than others as their money isn’t benefiting from very good interest either.

There are some routes that can be explored to see if we can make the most of our savings. Many people have been looking at websites like Bullionvault for investing in gold which is generally thought to be a more stable investment. Gold is a particular type of investment however and there may be a variety of reasons why you prefer another investment.

How Debt Can Ruin Your Retirement

by Guest Contributor

This is a guest post by Mike Egan who is the author of “Your Stronger Financial Future”.

A recent article in the New York Times focuses on seniors who are considering mortgages on new homes when they retire. The article is a good summary of what seniors (or anyone considering a mortgage application) should expect and the specific items to have handy, such as proof of income and a good credit score.

What the article doesn’t address is the question of whether a mortgage is a good idea, either for a senior (65 and older) or anyone else. Think about this – no matter what the term of the home loan, or mortgage, you’ll be paying interest to the lender, plus repaying the principal (the $$ you borrowed) for some period of time. Home mortgages and student loans are the two main examples of what I call “good debt” – which are loans that result in you owning something of value at the end. So, given that a mortgage generally results in you owning the house or condo when you’ve paid back the loan, let’s examine the math involved in a home mortgage.