The Craziest Things That Kill Your Home’s Value

The Craziest Things That Kill Your Home’s Value

Gabrielle Olya   Sat, March 12, 2022, 8

Preparing your home for sale is no easy feat. Even if you've kept it in relatively good condition over the years, you have to ask yourself, will buyers, real estate agents and appraisers be wowed?

First impressions can impact your property's value and potentially make it harder to sell your home. So that you don't waste time and money, here is a list of things that could negatively affect your home. Consider these issues before putting your property on the market. 

Not Keeping Up With the Joneses

Whether you skimped on an upgrade to save money early on or just haven't had time to update certain features of your home, not keeping up with the neighbors could hurt your home's value. Adrian Muller, president of Hudson View Appraisal Services, said homes without features that are common in the area, such as a patio or pool in Florida, will have an overall lower value.

Zombie Houses

Sometimes, the factors that affect your home's value have nothing to do with your property at all. One such example is a "zombie house" in your neighborhood. Zombie houses are abandoned, neglected or dilapidated homes with overgrown yards, said Mary Case Friedner, a real estate broker serving the Hudson River towns of Westchester County, New York.

"They can really hurt the value of neighboring homes," she said.

Fracking

Homeowners near shale gas wells can take a major hit to property values, according to a study by economists from Duke University and Resources for the Future, a nonprofit research institution.  The researchers found that Pennsylvania homeowners who used groundwater for consumption lost up to 24% of their property's value if they lived within 1 1/4 miles of a shale gas well.

Cracks in the Pavement

You might not pay much attention to wear and tear on your driveway, but appraisers will. They look for signs of physical depreciation, so consider resealing the surface of your driveway before you put your house on the market.  "Large cracks and potholes on the driveway surface raise a red flag in the appraisal process," Muller said.

Curb Unappeal

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://news.yahoo.com/craziest-things-kill-home-value-130010985.html

There's A Way To Bring Down Gas Prices, But You Won't Like It

There's A Way To Bring Down Gas Prices, But You Won't Like It

Joel Mathis, Contributing Writer  Fri, March 11, 2022

A modest suggestion to deal with rising gas prices: Let's bring back the 55-mph speed limit.

Prices were already on the upswing before Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, thanks largely to a slow ramp-up in oil production following the pandemic-driven collapse in demand. Now the cost is going to go up even more, driven higher by sanctions on Russia's oil and gas industries. We're getting a real-time lesson in the laws of supply and demand.

For the most part, the solutions on offer are supply-driven. The Biden Administration has approached the oil-rich nations of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela — falteringly — about loosening their production spigots. The White House has also ordered that 60 million barrels be released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Republicans, meanwhile, want the United States to ramp up domestic oil production. It's "drill, baby, drill" all over again, but it's not clear that any of these moves will do much to meaningfully bring down prices.

Meanwhile, nobody in government is really talking about how to use less gasoline.

One quick-and-obvious way we can do that is to make everybody drive slower. We've done it before. Congress passed the national maximum speed limit in 1973, not as a way to save lives in traffic accidents, but to reduce gasoline use during the Arab oil embargo.

The limit lasted 22 years, and during that time the country reduced its consumption by 167,000 barrels a day, and as much as an overall savings of 3 percent of annual fuel consumption. (It also inspired Sammy Hagar's best song.) Yes, it made long car trips interminable — I say this as a child of the era who spent way too many hours trapped in a crowded backseat with my sisters — but it also saved a lot of gas. We could do it again.

Of course, the big problem with this proposal is that most Americans will despise it. We love our speed. One 2020 survey suggested that nearly half of us have driven 15 mph over the existing speed limits, which range from 65 mph and up in most states.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/theres-way-bring-down-gas-183643325.html

If You Have This Much Money, You Should Have a Financial Advisor

If You Have This Much Money, You Should Have a Financial Advisor

Patrick Villanova   Thu, March 10, 2022

Money can’t buy happiness directly, but it seems like paying a financial advisor sure can help.

A new survey found people with more than $1.2 million in household assets report higher levels of happiness when working with a financial advisor compared to those who don’t have an advisor. The finding is part of Herbers & Company’s inaugural Consumer Financial Behaviors Study, which polled 1,000 consumers across the U.S.   A financial advisor can help you manage assets and plan for retirement 

As individuals move past $1.2 million of assets, those who work with financial advisors rapidly increase in happiness, while those without advisors rapidly become less happy,” wrote Sonya Lutter, the certified financial planner (CFP) and licensed therapist who authored the study.

Herbers & Company is a consultancy firm that specializes in helping independent financial advisory firms grow their businesses.

How Happiness is Measured

To quantify a respondent’s level of happiness, the survey presented each consumer with a list of 43 questions concerning his or her daily behaviors and interactions. The survey also pinpointed four core principles of happiness – fulfillment, intention, impact and gratefulness – and gauged how much respondents identify with each.   All participants in the survey have at least $250,000 in household assets.

The survey found that 66% of respondents who work with a financial advisor reported heightened levels of all four core factors of happiness. Only 34% of people without an advisor identified with those four principles in the same way.

The results of the study also suggest that those with financial advisors experience greater satisfaction outside of their relationship with money.

“People who have financial advisors are not only happier with their finances, but they are also far happier about their personal relationships and their communication with their partners,” wrote Lutter, a former administrator of applied human sciences at Kansas State University. “While it’s possible that happy couples might be more likely to hire financial advisors, it’s also possible that working with a financial advisor gives couples an opportunity to talk about financial goals, and thereby gives them a happiness boost.”

Which High-Net Worth Individuals Are Happiest?

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

Check out the reader comments – they are very insightful

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/much-money-financial-advisor-180121345.html

When This Lucky Man Won Millions On The Lottery, He Dropped A Major Bombshell On His Best Friend

When This Lucky Man Won Millions On The Lottery, He Dropped A Major Bombshell On His Best Friend

By Andrea Marchiano

What would you do with $22 million? Buy a yacht, perhaps? Move into a mansion? It’s something that probably crosses your mind when you see a Powerball billboard on the highway. But not everyone has to daydream about bringing home a ton of cash. One man knows exactly what that’s like. Only his unexpected move after the millions hit his bank account left everyone stunned, and what's more, it completely changed the relationship with his closest friend.

That guy is Thomas Cook, and he had wondered for years what he’d do if he ever won the Powerball jackpot. Then, to his great surprise, he finally got to put that long-imagined plan into motion. First off, the Wisconsinite had to call his friend Joseph Feeney – and drop a rather large bombshell on him. 

It’s not hard to think of yourself in Cook’s place. You may even have played Powerball yourself since it began in 1992! Back then, hopefuls each picked five numbers out of a range from 1 to 45. They also chose a separate Powerball number – also from between 1 and 45. Simple enough? We think so. And that’s all it took for Cook to become a multi-millionaire.

Not everyone has scooped as much money as Cook has, though. The Powerball jackpots in the early days were relatively small. The first-ever winner took home a $5.9 million prize – which, let’s face it, is still nothing to sniff at. But as time has gone on, the game has changed slightly – and the cash rewards have gotten even bigger.

That's all great news, but in reality, you have a very slim chance of winning the Powerball. The likelihood is approximately 1 in 292 million, which means all most of us will do is dream. But the chance to bring home millions – or billions – has kept many of us in the game. And this included Cook.

Wisconsin — Cook's home state — was actually one of the first states to take part in the Powerball, and it’s had 18 winners since that very first draw back in 1992. Back in 2019 West Allis resident Manuel Franco became a multi-millionaire. Not only that, but he clinched the third-biggest cash sum ever given out in a U.S. lottery. It’s an amount that totally dwarfs Cook’s impressive win.

How much did Franco get? A truly incredible $768 million. He also opted to receive his winnings in a lump sum. And even though Franco had to pay state and federal taxes on the money, he still netted a world-changing amount of cash: $326 million, according to the folks in the know.

You can also forget about staying anonymous if you’re lucky enough to scoop the Powerball in Wisconsin. State law doesn’t allow you to. That’s not great if you’d like to keep greedy family members at bay... So, Franco had to go through the process of a press conference. And while speaking to the media, he described how he had felt when he had bought his Powerball tickets for a mere $10.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here: LINK

7 Timely Warren Buffett Quotes to Help You In 2022's Manic Market

7 Timely Warren Buffett Quotes to Help You In 2022's Manic Market

Let the Oracle of Omaha be your guide in today's tough market.

By Sigrid Forberg   Jan. 29, 2022

Warren Buffett is a remarkable investor. He’s grown his business, Berkshire Hathaway, from a failing textile company into a multinational conglomerate with stakes in Geico, Apple and Coca-Cola.

Buffett has dropped countless gems of wisdom over the years, but the following seven quotes offer investors particularly timely advice on how to invest in stocks today — maybe even with your spare change. 

1. Fight against the ravages of inflation

“Inflation acts as a gigantic corporate tapeworm. That tapeworm preemptively consumes its requisite daily diet of investment dollars regardless of the health of the host organism. Regardless of a company's profits, it has to spend more on receivables, inventory, and fixed assets to simply equal the unit volume of the previous year.”

Buffett offered this colorful image back in his 1981 annual letter to shareholders. The billionaire investor described high inflation as a “tax on capital” that dissuades corporate investment.

With inflation at a worrisome 7%, a level not seen in close to 40 years, investors might want to think about assets that are immune (or at least not as vulnerable) to the ravages of rising costs.

One example other billionaires like Bill Gates have taken to recently is investing in farmland. Agriculture offers steady, reliable returns — whatever the state of the economy, people still need to eat.

Other assets that have historically done well during periods of high inflation include gold and real estate.

2. Don’t follow the herd

“Most people get interested in stocks when everyone else is. The time to get interested is when no one else is. You can't buy what is popular and do well.”

According to Bank of America, equity funds took in more than $1 trillion in cash in 2021, exceeding the combined total from the past two decades.

Whether you’re new to investing or you’ve been at it for ages, going against the grain is often the prudent thing to do.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://moneywise.com/u/investing/investing-basics/buffett-quotes-january

A Year of Essential Home Maintenance Projects

A Year of Essential Home Maintenance Projects

January 31, 2022   D. Guerra

Caring for your home and everything in it will help you preserve its value. However, it can be overwhelming to tackle all your home maintenance projects in a short period of time. It’s much easier to maintain your home when you perform some upkeep each month. In a year’s time, you can tackle all the most crucial aspects of maintaining your house and everything in it. Use this guide to refer to all year long as you tackle your home’s most pressing home maintenance projects.

January

Carpets, Couches, and Chairs

After the holidays, your carpeting and furniture upholstery can become seriously soiled. While you can hire professional cleaners to visit your home and clean these features, you can also tackle them yourself relatively inexpensively. 

To clean your carpeting, you can rent a rug-cleaning machine from a home improvement center, or you can clean the carpet by hand using a solution of baking soda, water, carpet shampoo, and towels.

Bathrooms

Your bathrooms get heavy use on an ordinary basis, in particular during the holidays when you have visitors and they are in operation 24/7. January is the perfect month to give them a good clean and make sure everything is working properly, bathroom maintenance is something that is regularly neglected by homeowners.

Your shower heads are commonly overseen, however, they too need a deep clean every now and then. It will help remove any debris and stain and make them look new, there are great online guides on how to clean a showerhead properly.

Toilets are certainly a crucial aspect of your home’s plumbing system. Take time this month to ensure that each is working properly. Be sure that water isn’t running and there are no leaks. Toilet kits are inexpensive, so if you need to swap out old or worn parts, this is a good time to do that.

Kitchen

Set aside time this month to deep clean and organize your kitchen. Be sure to tackle such tasks as:

Clean refrigerator coils

Clean the garbage disposal

Reorganize the pantry (remove expired items)

Clean pipes beneath the sink

Clean the oven

Check the kitchen smoke alarm (and update the fire extinguisher)

This is an essential home maintenance project that needs to be properly carried out every year.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://porch.com/advice/year-essential-home-maintenance-projects

8 Things You Can Do Right Now to Protect Against Inflation

8 Things You Can Do Right Now to Protect Against Inflation

Adam McFadden

Looking for ways to put your money to work?
There’s no doubt about it, inflation is here in a big way. So how can you put your money to work to stay ahead of it? The good news is there are some things you can do to protect and possibly grow your money in an inflationary economy. We cover some of these suggestions below for those who are looking to make the best use of their money during this time of high inflation.

3 Key Takeaways:

Inflation can be a challenge for everyone, especially those with little to no exposure in the stock market or a lot of extra cash sitting around.

Taking steps to lessen the impacts of inflation on your finances is key, whether it’s through investing or cutting costs.

The ultra-rich know that diversification across several different asset classes that outperform the market during inflationary times is key. These could include alternative investments like contemporary art, real estate, peer-to-peer lending, and more.

Refinance Your Mortgage to Lock in Historically Low Rates

As the inflation rate climbs, interest rates are likely to climb as well. If you haven’t already, you may want to consider moving sooner than later to refinance your mortgage as mortgage experts do expect rates to continue rising in 2022. One way to see if refinancing can save you money is to use a service like Lendgo. Lendgo is an easy-to-use platform that allows you to compare rates from a robust network of lenders with nationwide coverage all in one place. You can get quotes in as little as two minutes from multiple lenders. Lendgo states refinancing can save an average of $7,824 a year in mortgage payments. Comparing quotes through Lendgo is free and won’t affect your credit.

Own Productive Assets That Generate Income

If stocks don’t interest you, you can opt to invest in real estate — just not in the traditional sense. Instead of purchasing an entire property, you can purchase shares and earn passive income through Arrived Homes, a real estate crowdfunding site. Arrived Homes offers shares of income-producing rental properties that are single-family homes for as little as $100 and up to $20,000 each. You can build an investment portfolio across different properties while Arrived handles all the management duties. And the best part is that you won’t have to spend hundreds of thousands to buy an entire property and take on the role of a landlord to invest.

Diversify Your Investments In a Few Clicks

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.gobankingrates.com/what-to-do-with-your-money-during-high-inflation/

Surprise, Shock, and Uncertainty

Surprise, Shock, and Uncertainty

Mar 3, 2022 by Morgan Housel

A couple things I’ve been thinking about in the last week:

The world breaks every decade or so. There are so few exceptions to this it’s astounding.

What Covid-19 and the Ukrainian invasion have in common is that both have happened many times before but westerners considered them relics of history that wouldn’t resurface in their own modern lives. Maybe the common lesson is that there are difficult parts of humanity that can’t be outgrown.

However crazy the world looks, it can get crazier. History is just a long story of the unthinkable happening, precedents being broken, and people reading the news with bewilderment and denial. 

“History doesn’t crawl; it leaps,” says Nassim Taleb. The most important events tend to be abrupt, out of the blue, changing the world before people have time to rub their eyes and understand what’s happening.

There is a “shock cycle” for all big news events. It goes like this:

Assume good news is permanent.

Oblivious to bad news.

Ignore bad news.

Deny bad news.

Panic at bad news.

Accept bad news.

Assume bad news is permanent.

Ignore good news.

Deny good news.

Accept good news.

Assume good news is permanent.

In general people have no idea where they are in this cycle until after the fact.

Uncertainty amid danger feels awful. So it’s comforting to have strong opinions even if you have no idea what you’re talking about, because shrugging your shoulders feels reckless when the stakes are high. Complex things are always uncertain, uncertainty feels dangerous, and having an answer makes danger feel reduced. We want firm answers when things are the most uncertain, which is when firm answers don’t exist.

Historian B. H. Liddell Hart wrote:

We learn from history that complete victory has never been completed by the result that the victors always anticipate—a good and lasting peace. For victory has always sown the seeds of a fresh war, because victory breeds among the vanquished a desire for vindication and vengeance and because victory raises fresh rivals.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/surprise-shock-and-uncertainty/

10 Female Financial Leaders Share the Best Money Advice They Ever Received

10 Female Financial Leaders Share the Best Money Advice They Ever Received

Jaime Catmull   Mon, March 7, 2022

With a plethora of money advice out there, it can be hard to know what’s actually good advice and what you can skip. So to find tips you can trust, I spoke to women who work in the financial industry about the best advice they personally have received.

Here are their favorite pieces of money advice.

Tanya Van Court, Founder and CEO, Goalsetter

“No matter how much money you make, you can have a wealthy mindset. People with a wealthy mindset use their dollars to build their own wealth instead of using their dollars to make others wealthy.

That means having an attitude towards money that is more focused on how you can multiply it versus how you will spend it. For example, I have two friends who both have the same salary. One spends that money on rent, a nice car, designer clothes and lives paycheck to paycheck.

The other has a mortgage and rents out some of the space to subsidize the payment, buys cars at auction and then resells them for a higher price, and never pays full price for clothes. By doing this, she is freeing up a lot of money that can be invested and will grow over time to serve her in the future.”

Samantha Melting, Senior Vice President and Head of Consumer Bank, Synchrony

“The best advice I have ever received is to invest in you by paying yourself first. When you make yourself the priority, you are investing in your future self and positioning yourself to be financially resilient for whatever comes your way. Doing this has also created a positive relationship with money for me.

It has given me opportunities to make smart decisions, reach new goals and reduce the stress of unexpected financial challenges.”

Jessica Bieligk, Chief Commercial Officer, Paceline

“The best financial advice I’ve received was from my parents. It was to always spend within my means and to approach my finances the same way I approach my career, my relationships and my well-being — set goals, show up, be intentional and be consistent. If you carve out a little bit of time (each day or each week) to stay engaged in your finances, like most wellness goals, it becomes muscle memory and allows you to achieve more than you thought possible.

Whether you’re talking about physical health or financial wellness (the two are inextricably linked, by the way), the science shows that we improve health outcomes by improving healthy behaviors.”

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://news.yahoo.com/10-female-financial-leaders-share-120031850.html

Now You Get It

Now You Get It

Feb 23, 2022 by Morgan Housel

“Every job looks easy when you’re not the one doing it.” – Jeff Immelt

Historian Stephen Ambrose writes about World War II soldiers who left basic training full of bravado and confidence, eager to fight when they join the frontline. Then they get shot at, and everything changes.

“There was no way training could prepare a man for combat,” Ambrose writes. It could teach you how to fire a gun and follow orders. But “It could not teach men how to lie helpless under a shower of shrapnel in a field crisscrossed by machine-gun fire.” No one could understand it until they experienced it.

A Lot Of Things Work Like That.

Most actions have two sides: skill and behavior. What’s true in theory vs. how it feels in the moment. The gap between the two can be a mile wide. No amount of empathy and open-mindedness can recreate emotions. Textbooks and classrooms can’t teach what genuine fear, adrenaline, and uncertainty feel like. So you think you understand how a field works until you experience a new part of it firsthand. Then you see it through a completely different lens.

Two other things that must be experienced before they can be understood:

Losing A Third Of Your Money Or More

Can you survive your assets declining by 30%? On a spreadsheet, maybe yes – in terms of actually paying your bills and staying solvent. But what about mentally? It’s easy to underestimate what a big decline does to your psyche. You might realize your confidence is more fragile than you assumed. You – or your spouse – may decide it’s time for a new plan. I know several investors who quit after losses because they were exhausted.

Physically exhausted. Spreadsheets can model the historic frequency of big declines. But they can’t convey the feeling of coming home, looking at your kids, and wondering if you’ve made a huge mistake that will impact their lives.

I don’t think there’s any way to understand what a bear market feels like until you’ve lived through one.

Part of the reason is that it’s impossible to contextualize what causes losses until they happen. If I say to you, “How would you feel if the market fell 30%?” you imagine a world where everything is the same as it is today, but stock prices are 30% cheaper. And in that world, it feels like an opportunity.

But what actually makes the market fall 30% is a pandemic that might kill you, or a recession where you might lose your job, or a terrorist attack that might just be beginning, or inflation with no end in sight. And in that world – a world that can’t be known until it happens – things feel different. Saying “I’ll be greedy when others are fearful” is easier than actually doing it, because people underestimate the odds of themselves becoming one of the “others.”

All past declines look like opportunities and all future declines look like risks. It’s one of the great ironies in investing. But it happens for a reason: When studying history you know how the story ends, and it’s impossible to un-remember what you know today when thinking about the past. So it’s hard to imagine alternative outcomes when looking backward, but when looking ahead you know there are a thousand different paths we could end up on.

Outsized Success

Going to the moon is the coolest thing humans have ever done.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/experience/

16 Effective Tips and Tricks To Help You Save Money in 2022

16 Effective Tips and Tricks To Help You Save Money in 2022

Saving can be a struggle without the right strategy.

By Rob Poindexter Feb 23, 2022

Saving money can be hard for a number of reasons. Often, there is not a large margin between what most people earn and what most people spend. Without some type of strategy, that little bit that’s left over every month can be spent all too easily.

Cutting back on your expenses is a great way to start saving money. However, if you’re searching for ways to tuck away a bit of extra savings, these 16 tricks might be the solutions to your saving problems.

Find The Bonuses

Of all the ways to save money, this might be the easiest: Let a company pay you for your business. If there’s a service or tool you’re already using, why not earn bonus money at the same time?

An option to consider if you receive direct deposits is Monifi with its Spend and Save Balances. You can currently earn an extra $250 after you set up payroll direct deposits. Just set up the payroll direct deposits and receive two payroll direct deposits of at least $1,000 each into your Spend Balance within 90 days of opening your Monifi Relationship.

Why This Works

The cash bonus can help you achieve your financial goals faster. Plus, the Monifi app comes with plenty of tools that can help you set and track your progress to keep you focused on reaching those goals.

Automate Your Savings

Perhaps the simplest way to save without even thinking about it is to set up an automated savings plan. Most financial institutions allow you to set up regular transfers from your checking account to a savings or investment account.

Why This Works

Automation is a great way to save because it can be hard for most people to remember to make a savings deposit, let alone finding the will to do it. Automated transfers take that job out of your hands. To save even more, consider transferring your funds to a high-interest savings account.

Increase Savings Incrementally

Once you’re on an automated savings plan, the way to really build your savings is to increase those savings by 1% every six to 12 months. For example, if you’re setting aside 10% of your paycheck, reset it to increase by 1% to 2% the following year, and every year thereafter.

Why This Works

In such small increments, it’s easy to adapt to the higher savings level. And, before you know it, you’ll save a large portion of your paycheck automatically.

Keep the Change

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.gobankingrates.com/saving-money/savings-advice/how-to-trick-yourself-into-saving-money/?utm_campaign=1157535&utm_source=yahoo.com&utm_content=9&utm_medium=rss