Archive for November, 2009
THE BEST DEALS AND WAYS TO PAY FOR THEM WITHOUT GOING BROKE
Retailers are preparing themselves for cautious spending this holiday season, and are stocking their stores with lower inventory this year. Here’s what you need to know about Black Friday and the remainder of the holiday season.
HOTTEST TRENDS THIS YEAR
- Time-saving necessities like small ticket, $20 gadgets and accessories (Target kitchen accessories under $10)
- Packaged, large quantity toys great value (Wal-Mart has 100 toys for $100, like Barbies and action toys)
- Video games, Wii, Nintendo $20 off at K-Mart—this will hurt the big electronic store sales at places like Best Buy, who are not offering these discounts on such popular items; big box discount stores competing with electronic stores because people are still spending on the electronic games for their children
- Luring repeat shoppers, stores are offering gift cards (Toys R Us offering $10 gift cards if you spend $75 or more, Target $10 off $100 on future purchases, JC Penney)
- Clothing deals will be on necessities, rather than on luxuries–Old Navy discounting winter coats (as inexpensive as $15), jeans ($10 for kids), fleece sweatshirts ($5)
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Dollars and Sense: Shopping for a Mortgage Now
ABC Twin Cities Live – The Best and Worst in Shipping This Season
ABC Twin Cities Live – Best and Worst in Holiday Gift Returns
Jennifer’s Picks For The Best Values In Everything
Jennifer shares furniture tax saving tips with Harry Smith
Jennifer shares furniture tax saving tips with Harry Smith
VOICE AMERICA RADIO
EPISODE DESCRIPTION:
The economic events of the past year have changed the way we think about our retirement money–how we plan to save it and what to do if we lose it. Included in this discussion are what kinds of options are currently available for safe investing, 401Ks and investing for those in different age brackets. Joining me to discuss these topics are David McPherson, financial planner and ABCNews.com personal finance columnist, and Jean Chatzky, author of “The Difference: How Anyone Can Prosper In Even The Toughest Times,” and The Today Show financial editor. Please tune in.
WORK-AT-HOME MOMS: GET SCAM-FREE JOBS
Just what you’ve always wanted: the chance to work at home and still be part of your children’s lives. Millions of mothers are trying to get jobs from home, and the most likely place for them to look is on the internet. Once again, the problem of internet scams. 6 million moms have been scammed trying to work from home. These scams used to appear more on billboards, but with the popularity of the internet rising, people are finding it easier to job search right from their own computer.
TYPES OF SCAMS–USUALLY FEE-BASED:
- Administrative–Example: stuffing envelopes, doing crafty things that everyone is qualified to do, where you are promised a good hourly wage, of say, $20/hour. Another example is with medical transcripts—companies make you buy software that isn’t usable. Don’t let the greed factor take over. Watch for overuse of capitalized letters. Scam: After completing several hours of work you are told the work was not up to the employer’s standards.
- Tracking UPS and FedEx packages: This is supposedly for companies that don’t have time to track packages. They hire you, agreeing to pay you between $50-75/hr to track their packages. If the promised delivery time is even off by 1 minute, those shipping companies are supposed to credit you the shipping charges. Spam. Make you believe you will be working with these “name brand companies”, which are usually not part of these scams. Scam: You have to buy the software for around $100 to do this, but more importantly, FedEx and UPS are not affiliated with any of these programs. This software does not work within those companies’ systems and is ILLEGAL to use. Be careful when paying with PayPal.
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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW IF YOU ARE BUYING OR SELLING A HOME THIS SPRING
Refinancing your home: consider only if you can save 2 percentage points on what you are currently paying. Consider closing costs and points you will have to pay. Closing costs can be as high as 3% of the loan amount, on fixed mortgages.
The longer you stay in your house, the quicker you are to break even if you decide to refinance your mortgage.
ACCORDING TO THE LATEST STATS PROVIDED BY THE MORTGAGE BANKERS ASSOCIATION:
Overall, the real estate market is stabilizing. This past month, existing home sales showed the biggest percentage increase since July 2003.
- Consumer spending is on the rise, though still slow
- Condo sales in February jumped an impressive 11%
- Home prices in the West this past month dropped 30%, the highest drop in the country
- New home sales rose almost 5%. The largest number of existing home sales was in the Northeast, a jump of about 15%
- Median price down 18% in the country from last February.