1. Create a Budget

You need to know where your money is going. Once you have established where you spend your money you will be able to find places to make cuts. The first thing to do is figure out how much is being spent on housing, utilities, groceries, debt, and entertainment. Once you know where the money is going you will be able to set limits for problem areas. This is the money that you will apply to secret #2.

2. Pay Yourself First

This is a huge secret, pay yourself first. Yes, before you dole out money for bills as soon as your paycheck hits your account; deposit a specified amount into savings. It doesn’t matter how small the amount is, at least you are saving.

Even better , create an automatic savings plan that will automatically deposit money into your savings account before you even have a chance to spend it. This can be done right through your employer’s direct deposit or with a recurring transfer with your bank.

3. Spend Less Than You Earn

If you don’t learn to obey this rule you will never be able to save money. You simply have to spend less money than you earn and there’s no way around that. If you are spending more than you earn you are borrowing money and thus putting yourself into debt.

This is a Colonial style home and features 8 total rooms, 2 full baths, 1 half bath, 4 bedrooms, 1.75 Acres, and is currently available for $579,900.

For complete details click here.

PREPARE THE SURFACE BEFORE PAINTING

Take time to caulk all joints, cracks and seams in the surface before painting (see image). This is easy and quick with a caulking gun and caulking cartridges. Don’t start painting until the caulking is finished and thoroughly dried.
Before painting windows, check around the window panes for loose or missing putty (see image below). Replace the putty in these areas before starting the painting job. Use a good grade of putty and apply it according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Always clean the surface to be painted. Use a wire brush, sanding block or power sander to remove loose paint and grime before applying the primer coat. If you try to cut corners and save time by failing to clean the surface, you’ll likely end up with trouble later.

Fill in any cracks or large holes appearing on the surface with wood putty before starting the painting job. The putty should have the texture of paste, as illustrated. Allow time for the wood putty to dry before applying the primer coat.

Use a special V-shaped putty knife for puttying along a window sash . This special tool is inexpensive and helps you do a professional-looking job much faster and easier.

If you need to remove a heavy build-up of old paint, use a propane torch to help make the job faster and easier. A wide-mouth burner tip is available to spread the flame over large areas. Use a long-handled scraper to keep your fingers away from the heat as you work.

Use your power drill for smoothing rough spots before painting. Purchase a sanding wheel drill attachment to make sanding much easier. A wire brush attachment for your power drill is an excellent tool for removing rust and scale from metal.

Use plastic or paper drop cloths to cover sidewalks, shrubbery or other areas needing protection before you start the painting. Use drop cloths to cover floors, furniture, etc., for indoor painting. These cloths are inexpensive and save you a lot of clean-up time.

PROVEN PAINTING POINTERS

Thoroughly mix the paint. Pour off, into another container, any thin portion of the paint that is floating on top. Use a paddle to stir the paste settled in the bottom of the can. Stir in a small amount of the thin portion of the paint and use the paint paddle to stir with a figure eight motion. As you stir, gradually mix the thin portion back into the main paint can. Finally, pour the paint back and forth from one container to another. This will thoroughly mix the paint and bring it to the proper thickness for application.

Save a lot of clean-up time by lining your roller tray with a plastic tray liner. If you do not have a plastic liner, use aluminum foil. Press a large piece of aluminum foil tightly against the sides of the tray. When you’re finished painting, you can simply remove the aluminum foil and throw it away. This leaves little or no clean up.

Use masking tape where two paint colors come together for a much neater job. Apply the masking tape at the point where the two colors join. Then remove it when the paint is dry for a much smoother joint between the two colors than what you would get by free-hand painting.

When you’re painting corners, always use the flat side of the brush. Painting with the side of the brush causes “fingering.” Your paint job will be neater and your brush will last a lot longer when you use the flat side of the brush, as illustrated.

CLEANING UP AFTER THE PAINT JOB

Special waterless hand cleaners remove both latex-base and oil-base paints easily and quickly. These waterless hand cleaners will not irritate your skin like many solvents. Wipe the paste-type cleaner on your hands, wipe it off and the paint will come off with it.

Take care of your brushes by cleaning them carefully after each painting job is done and then wrapping and storing them for future use. Fold wax paper around the brush and seal it with a rubber band.

Wash latex paints out of a brush with clear warm water.

Clean brushes used with oil-base paints with regular paint cleaner or some type of solvent. Clean the brush thoroughly, then wrap it in wax paper and store it for future use.

Clean rollers in the same basic way as paintbrushes. Take time to clean them thoroughly.

1. Maximize your medical expense account

A medical expense flexible spending account, or FSA (Flexible Spending Account), allows you to use before-tax earnings to pay for medical or health care expenses not covered by your health insurance. Assuming a 25 percent tax rate, this means that for every $100 you allocate to your health care FSA you will avoid $25 in tax. The Health Care Act limits the maximum contribution to these types of accounts to $2,500 starting in 2013, so 2012 is the last year to use an FSA to pay for orthodonture work or other large medical expenses on a tax favored basis.

You should check the specifics of your employer’s plan, but using before-tax dollars for medical expenses will maximize your health care dollars.

2. Is it time to sell?

The Tax Relief Act maintained the top capital gains and dividends rate of 15 percent for 2011 and 2012. In 2013, the top capital gains rate will increase to 20 percent and the top dividends tax rate will increase to 39.6 percent. The Health Care Act also created a new 3.8 percent tax on investment income that will increase your tax rate by 3.8 percent on investment earnings if you file jointly and make over $250,000. While the threshold is relatively high, it is not indexed for inflation and applies the tax to all investment earnings to the extent modified income exceeds the threshold. As we saw with the Alternative Minimum Tax, what seems like a tax on those with higher income will likely become a broad based tax after some period of time due to the impact of inflation.

Given these temporary lower rates, and the looming 3.8 percent tax, you might consider whether it makes sense to sell some capital assets in 2011 or 2012. Of course, tax considerations are only one factor when determining whether to buy, hold or sell an investment.

3. Consider converting retirement assets

In 2010 there was a tremendous increase in conversions of traditional retirement assets to Roth 401(k)s or Roth IRAs due to the elimination of income limits on conversion and the one time opportunity to pay the conversion tax liability in 2011 and 2012. However, even without the ability to pay the tax liability over two years, converting to a Roth can still be a very powerful planning strategy. Roth retirement assets provide a tax-free asset that diversifies your retirement portfolio, allows for yearly retirement tax planning, and acts as a hedge against future tax rate increases. Roth IRA assets are also not subject to age 70 1/2 required minimum distributions or RMDs, which further enhances the power of the tax-free Roth growth.

4. Contribute to an IRA

Many individuals do not realize that they can contribute to an IRA no matter how much income they make. The income limits for IRA contributions only apply to determine if the contribution to the IRA is deductible from income. If you have earned income and are not at least age 70 1/2, funding an IRA even on an after-tax basis can be a powerful savings strategy and can help to make up for past under saving. And don’t wait to fund the IRA when you file your income tax return in April. You can make that contribution now and enjoy extra time to grow your retirement nest egg.

5. Make charitable contributions

The Tax Relief Act extended for 2011 only a prior tax law provision permitting individuals age 70 1/2 or older to use up to $100,000 per year of IRA distributions to make charitable contributions and avoid paying income tax on that amount. Absent this provision the individual would have to include the IRA amount in income and then take a charitable deduction. Given the limitations on charitable contributions and itemized deductions under current law, it is very likely that this two step process would result in the individual not receiving a charitable deduction in an amount to offset the income recognition.

If you are age 70 1/2 or older and you plan on making charitable contributions, by using your IRA funds you can maximize the tax benefit of that donation.

One thing to be careful of is that some communities do not allow pets, and so if you are looking for a condo for you and your pets, then you need to make sure that the community has no problem with this. In the end, you have to find a condo that is able to be comfortable to live in, and where there is the least amount of stress. While it can be very beneficial to live in a community, it can at times be stressful if you are not one to go by strenuous rules. For some people, the idea of owning a home means that they have the freedom of choice to do what they want in their property.

One of the most important things to look into when buying a condo is the condo fees. What are they and what will they be down the road? Are they set condo fees, or could they become too costly to pay down the road? Some condos fees go up to the point that makes the great price you got on the condo not look so great because of what you are paying in taxes and condo fees. One of pluses of a condo is no maintenance and a lot of people really like that especially in your later years when you don’t want to mow the lawn or shovel the sidewalks. A condo is a great option for many buyers and you can generally get into a condo for a fair price.

This property features 0.34 Acres, and is currently available for $425,000.

For complete details click here.

This property features 8 total rooms, 4 full baths, 1 half bath, 3 bedrooms, 0.34 Acres, and is currently available for $425,000.

For complete details click here.