Homes - To Buy or Not to Buy?

My husband, Bob and I lived on military bases for the first dozen years of our marriage. When you move eleven times in thirteen years it doesn't make sense to buy! When we finally settled one place long enough to purchase our first home, we were thrilled and had "imposter syndrome" for the first month or so. We kept waiting for the "real" owners to show up and kick us out of the house! Alas, it was a dream come true and we truly enjoyed that home. Now...I know what some of you are thinking--is that a picture of my house? No, it's not, it's just one of the many, many gorgeous homes that are on the market in America. We sold that first home and the next year property values plummeted in the area. Not all Americans are having such good timing in buying and selling.

Last week the average fixed rate mortgage was at its highest since last October , 2007, with a 30 year averaging 6.32%, up from 6.09% but still below last year's rate of 6.74%. It appears that the rate will continue to creep upward, so if you were thinking of buying a home, now would probably be a good time. It can turn from a buyers market to a sellers market in a relatively short amount of time as those extra properties are purchased and taken off the market.

If you are considering buying a home, shop carefully for lenders and be sure that you negotiate, negotiate, negotiate with the LENDER as well as the SELLER. When discussing closing costs and fees, make sure that you don't over pay. Here are four key areas to keep in mind when negotiating fees and costs with your lender:

Don’t Pay for Inflated Credit-Report and Courier Fees - Some lenders are charging up to $65 for pulling your credit report. That is unusually high, considering the fact that credit reporting bureaus only charge $6 to $18 per report. Using the same tactics, some lenders charge courier fees for shipping your closing documents for as much as $100, while the majority of overnight express services only charge $22. Tell your lender, up front, that you refuse to pay any more than the going rate for these services.

Don’t Pay for Document Prep and Administration Fees - The origination fee should include these services, so don’t pay them! Ask your lender to waive these fees.

When You Buy A Home: Don’t Pay for Yield Spread Premiums - Lenders increase your interest rate slightly to include origination and other fees so you don’t have to pay them out-of-pocket at closing but some lenders and mortgage brokers are double dipping—by charging both the fees and the higher interest rate. Ask your broker directly if a firm charges you a yield spread premium. If so, you shouldn’t pay any additional fees.


Don’t Pay for Padded Title Insurance Fees - When you are shopping for lenders, look for all the above, plus look out for those who don’t tack on a lot of extra charges for services such as title search and document preparation. Theses can add hundreds of dollars to your closing costs and they really should be included in the price of title insurance, which depending on where you live, can be as high as $6,000.

Ellie Kay
America's Family Financial Expert (R)
www.elliekay.com

Twice As Stimulating!

The check is in the mail. The check is in the mail. Oops!

Can you remember the check you waited the longest to receive? Maybe it was your college roommate who borrowed $300 and "promised" to repay you within the month--some three years later you're still waiting. Or, it might be a deadbeat relative who is always wanting to borrow "just the rent money" and amazingly seems to be near homelessness without your check. But the next time you see him, he's driving a new Mercedes--that's a check you're never going to see.

Well, this year, Uncle Sam really DOES have the check in the mail--sometimes twice! Through June 6, the U.S. Treasury had sent 66.6 million payments totaling about $56.8 billion. Altogether, an estimated 130 million payments will be made this year. A hand full of people are getting a SECOND stimulus check in the mail. Don't take that as God's way of telling you to put the money down on a new Mercedes!

If that happens to YOU, then don't think it's a windfall from a doubly generous Sammy. The IRS will eventually catch their mistake and come back after you for the money. If you get the check, write "void" on the back of it (under the endorsement section) photocopy it for your records and return it to the IRS with a note indicating it was a "erroneous stimulus check." You should mail it to your regional IRS office where you filed your return http://www.irs.gov/file/content/0,,id=105693,00.html
This isn't just a matter of being honest, it's a matter of saving a huge headache in the future when you've spent the second check and the IRS is wanting it back post haste!

So much for twice as stimulating!

Ellie Kay
America's Family Financial Expert (R)
www.elliekay.com

Organic Foods for Less

This is a picture of one of the cutest babies you'll ever see. When I showed Joshua a picture of his niece and told him we call her "our little tomato" he immediately asked, "Is she organic?"
There's obviously been a wee bit too much emphasis on organic groceries in the Kay house. But we're not alone in our quest for healthy food at a bargain. More and more families are purchasing “fair trade” or organic products and there are cheaper ways to get more in this area.
• Spot the ripoff – Look for the products marked “certified organic” in order to make sure you are getting what you pay for. In the produce section, grocers are required to stock the organic produce in a separate section so that the water run-off from misting machines won’t contaminate organic items with pesticide residue.
• Organic Sections – Just because a product is in the organic section of the produce area or aisles does not mean it is organic. Look be misled, for example, by the “all natural yogurt” in the organic section of the dairy case—unless it’s marked “certified organic” it probably is not.
• Web Coupons – I’ve noticed a huge increase in the number of coupons for organic products in recent years as their popularity increases. Conduct a product name search on the Web to find these valuable coupons including the following brands: Annie’s Homegrown, Earthbound Farm, Health Valley, Organic Valley, Stonyfield Farm, and Muir’s.
• Shop Discount Stores – Walmart and Sams have an entire new line of organics and those sections are expanding all the time. Ask the sales associates where the organic products are located because sometimes they are hard to find.
• Buy Generic – One of the really cool things about the interest in organics is the natural continuation of store brands. Look for these generic brands (which go on sale, too) and save even more.
• Food Co-ops – These are great sources of discounts on organic products. To find a local co-op, go to www.coopdirectory.org or www.localharvest.org/food-coops.
• The Food Mile – In the grocery industry there is a term known as the “food mile” which indicates how many miles food has to travel to end up in your local store. The shorter the food mile, the less expensive the product. Buy items with the shortest food mile.
• Buy Produce in Season – Oftentimes, the shortest food mile will be indicated by buying produce in season. By eating (and freezing or canning) your food in season you can save money today and tomorrow.
• Compare Online Grocers – There might be lower prices for staples that you need found online at some of the best organic grocers. Go to www.sunorganic.com, www.diamondorganics.com, www.urbanorganic.com or www.doortodoororganic.com
• Go to the Farm! – By going to an organic farm in your part of the world, you can save even more and buy the freshest organics possible. For a complete list go to www.LocalHarvest.org/organic-farms

So whether you are buying baby tomatoes, canned or fresh--follow these tips and you'll save money!

Ellie Kay
America's Family Financial Expert (R)
www.elliekay.com

Wanna Save Money and Live Better?

What do you notice about this pyramid of good looking, overachieving, highly talented kids? (Yes, they're all mine). Look closely before you answer.

Did you see the dog at the top? Yes, that's Buddy, the top dog and the best shopper in our family. He finds "free" stuff all the time--food he can consume but he didn't pay for. For example, when I was in out of town on biz, Bob had to make an emergency room visit with one of the boys (long story, but if you have boys you can relate) and after the thrill and joy of five hours in the ER, he came home (at 1:00 AM) to find out that someone had left the child safety locks off the pantry doors in the utility room (where we keep Buddy at night). The top dog had consumed 1/2 a box of Quaker oatmeal bars that we bought at Sam's. (That's about 20 bars). It wasn't pretty. But it was free--for Buddy.

Are you a smarter shopper than Buddy? Do you get things for the best value possible? I've recently developed a cool shopping quiz for www.walmart.com/savemore . Take the quiz and find out how you rank in five different areas: shopping, transportation, eco savings, budgeting and entertainment . There are also ideas on how you can improve in each category with specific helps and tips. In fact, I'm pretty proud of the consumer education work Walmart and I have done to help families during these difficult economic times.

By the way, after his "free" oatmeal bar splurge, Buddy was as sick as a dog--so to speak. But as providence would have it, I was still in NYC and missed all of it.

Happy Shopping!

Ellie Kay

America's Family Financial Expert (R)

http://www.elliekay.com/

Phantom of the Opera and Young Frankenstein

"Put zee candle BACK!"
"That's Fraanken-steen"

"Werewolf"
"There wolf. There Castle."

Frau Blueker!"

New York, New York, it's a beautiful place to spend Mother's Day! I had to take a cab to Jersey for work and it was suppose to take 25 minutes but the driver (who could not speak or read English) took 1 hour 45 minutes to get us there. If it weren't for the "take charge to help" personality of a colleague, we'd be in Maine by now. To the cab driver's credit, he did stop to ask directions--from a man who could barely speak English.


I was here on business and after all the hard work was over, my son Philip joined me while on break from the Naval Academy and we wanted some entertainment! We called the New York USO at 212-695-6160 or www.usonyc.org , hoping to get surplus Broadway tickets for a $3 donation (to all military id card holders--and their dependants) and much to our delight, we got to go see Young Frankenstein and Phantom of the Opera. They didn't have the "free" tickets, but we got a code for the tix we bought and saved 50% without having to stand in the 1/2 Price Ticket booth line! Plus, we actually sat on the FRONT ROW of Young Frankenstein. "Why, sank you doc-tor!"

Entertainment on the cheap can still make for front row fun--just so long as you don't have to cab it to Jersey!

Ellie Kay
"America's Family Financial Expert" (R)
http://www.elliekay.com/

Bush Announces Rebates Checks Go Out Early--The Check is In The Mail!

Apparently, the check is in the mail! We've all heard that before. I remember a magazine publisher who took a bunch of the writers to a conference in Fort Worth, TX. Somehow we ended up at Billy Bob's and I found myself riding a mechanical bull--while wearing a suit and heels! Yee haw! I stayed on the bull longer than anyone and it was a wild ride. However, much to my dismay, the bull ride didn't end at Billy Bob's. Several months later, that magazine publisher got behind in their cash dispursements for their writers. They owed me $2500 and kept saying that "the check was in the mail"--right before they announced bankruptcy! What a buncha bull!

But this time, we have the President of the United States telling us that the checks are in the mail.

According to the AP news release, Bush said tax rebates will start going out Monday, earlier than expected, and should help Americans cope with rising food prices and gasoline costs, as well as aid a slumping economy. "Starting Monday, the effects of the stimulus will begin to reach millions of households across our country," Bush said Friday in remarks on the South Lawn of the White House.

But these checks won't help most Americans unless they follow three steps found in my 10/10/80 Rule (TM) :

1. 10% - Give Generously - This may seem like a radical way to start dividing your tax rebate check, but it's a way to help everyone--including yourself. Giving is the new cool. Look no further than Oprah's new hit reality show, "The Big Give" or Bill Clinton's new bestseller, "Giving." But don't leave the giving to Oprah and Bill. Here's your chance to live like a millionaire and give 10% to your community, region or even the world. Buy groceries and give them to the homeless shelter, buy some new socks and underwear for the kids up the street whose dad got laid off work. By giving away the first 10%, you're helping the economy, helping your neighbors and helping yourself feel good in the fact you can give.
2. 10% - Save Safely -- One of the safest things you can do with this part of your check is to put it in your savings account. Let's face it, baby, the economy isn't too stable and you need as big a buffer between you and creditors as possible--this is found by putting away some dough to bake future bread. So save at least 10%, if not more!
3. 80% - Spend Smartly -- Is smartly a word? If it is, then now is the time to behave smartly. This means that you spend it in a way that will s-t-r-e-t-c-h your dollars as far as possible. Buying a big screen TV and paying full price for it, just because you have the money is s-t-u-p-i-d. But buying that big screen TV at a store that offers "low price guarantees" such as Wal-mart, means that you're paying the least price possible and will have money left over to put toward credit card debt. Just because you have it, doesn't mean you should fritter it away. Save money and live well at the same time.

So enjoy the rebates, but make that enjoyment last as long as possible by giving it away, putting it away and spending it away--all in a smart way!

Ellie Kay

America's Family Financial Expert (R)

http://www.elliekay.com/

4.2 Million Predicted to Lose Health Insurance Benefits

Thinking of having another baby? Why not? We had five in seven years and they are all winners! I love babies--especially when they're this cute!
But you may want to make sure your health insurance is squared away before you follow up on those family expansion plans. Marketplace Watch released news today that 4.2 milllion people are expected to lose their health insurance this year due to the economy's impact on businesses. That's not good news for baby lovers!
However, there are some things you can do to recession proof your insurance needs and make sure your family has the coverage you need:

• Individual Plans -- If you are currently covered under your employer plan and have family members covered under that group policy, then consider moving your spouse (and kids) into an individual health insurance plan instead. This will save loads of money and set up a policy where you could add yourself if the group plan benefits are taken away. The only time you would not want to do this is if family member have a pre-existing condition (like asthma, diabetes, etc) and you do not want it excluded from the policy. Otherwise, you can save hundreds each month by utilizing the benefits of an individual policy.
• Divide and Conquer -- Remember that there is no need for an "all or nothing" approach to health insurance. If you have a family member with a pre-existing condition (see above), then put them on your employer's group policy and let the other family members go with an individual policy. By dividing your coverage among a couple of different plans, you are paying the least price possible for the most coverage.
• Only Buy What You Need -- Be sure to comparison shop by going to a site such as http://www.progressive.com/ , http://www.netquest.com/ or http://www.ehealthinsurance.com/ . I like this site because you can compare many plans and get a price quote right away (without a sales person calling back.) You can also choose plans that fit your insurance needs. Don't buy coverage you won't use. If you're not going to have babies any time soon, then exclude the maternity coverage. By buying only what you need, you'll save.
• Term Life -- If you're healthy, then consider purchasing term life insurance. It is fully portable and you control the premiums by the amount of coverage you buy and the provider you choose. The time to buy life insurance is when you're healthy and then if the company limits those benefits, you already have a policy in place.
• Budget for Cobra -- If the rumor mill at work is buzzing that health insurance benefits will be cut, start setting aside money for COBRA. This benefit will allow you to keep the current group policy, even if you lose your benefits or your job--but it's pricey. I recommend that you set up an allotment from your paycheck and start putting a little extra each month into a savings account especially set up for this purpose. This method of recession proofing your insurance needs will help tide you over between insurance providers in the event these benefits go away.

Whether you are one of the millions who lose coverage or not, it's wise to re-evaluate your insurance needs on a regular basis. There's nothing worse than paying more than you need to for that baby!

Ellie Kay

America's Family Financial Expert (R)

http://www.elliekay.com/