175sqf Apartment - $150K?

Today's NY Post has a fascinating story about a couple who purchased a 175 square foot apartment in NYC for $150,000. In addition to the purchase price, they have to pay $700 per month in maintenance (For people who have never lived in NYC, the "Maintenance" fee includes taxes, heat, the doorman, etc.) . While not in a horrible neighborhood, Morningside Heights is not exactly the best neighborhood either.

Having had a chance to read the story, I think their solution to living in the city is ingenious (if crazy). For example, they don't keep work clothes at their home. They keep them at various dry cleaners and pick them up on the way there. Because they never cook (very common in NYC), they are not paying for kitchen space they never use. While I don't believe they can live as a couple like that indefinitely, I think they have made a good investment because the Columbia University is located in Morningside Heights. If they need to , they should be able to rent out the apartment for much more than their maintenance fee.

ING Black Friday Sale!

While I cannot take advantage of it (I already have accounts with them), ING is offering some nice deals for Black Friday.

1. $121 for opening an Electric Orange account. Code: EOSAVE
   
2. An extra 25 basis points on 12 month CD's
   
3. Savings on Closing Costs.
   

 

Good Luck and have a great weekend.

Black Friday – Our Purchases

Since we are in for the day, our black Friday spending is done. This is how we did:

Planned Purchases: As planned, we purchased a Christmas tree and a few things to go with it. Although Lowes had a great deal on one tree, we preferred a different model and went with it. The other planned purchase was Madden 2010 for my nephew at Best Buy.

Unplanned Purchases: At Lowes, I picked up a shopvac and a few clams for my workshop. On the upside, I saved about $100 compared to retail. On the downside, I wasn't planning on making the purchases until Spring. Otherwise, our only "slurge" was a Harry Potter DVD for my wife.

Black Friday Spending Plan

1. Best Buy – Christmas present for my nephew – Madden 2010;
   
2. Lowes – my wife and I have had our eye on a Christmas tree. It looks like it is on sale.
   

Otherwise, we are going to keep things under control.

Won Election - Hard Work 4 No Pay

For the past few weeks, I haven't been posting much. I have been preparing for my new part-time job as an elected official. Starting in January, I will be giving up 2 nights per month (plus preparation time) to serve my community.

While I will not be getting paid, I am really excited about the opportunity and doing the work.

Eyeglasses – Saved $250

Because my wife is on my company's Vision plan, we were able to save $250 on her new glasses and frames. Adding her to my plan costs us $1 per month. Not a bad payoff on a $12 investment.

Increasing Adsense Income?

If someone could recommend a good book/blog that provides information on how to increase blog income, I would greatly appreciate it.

LendingTree.Com – What is it?

Simply put, LendingTree is a loan broker. Using their online process, they help borrowers find lenders willing to offer loans. At its best, their process should allow borrowers to find the best terms available from their partners. Unfortunately, the number of lenders participating in their programs are not unlimited. Borrowers are limited to their partners – for better or worse. Furthermore, their system could be "optimized" to find the best deal for lenders – not borrowers. Unless we know their system for matching, there is "some"risk they might not work in your best interest. To prevent this, shop around.

As loan brokers go, LendingTree does a good job. Just remember, every company that appears on their site paid them to be there.

Quicken 2010 Review

First of all, I am a loyal user of Quicken. Since 1993, I have religiously tracked my spending using their software. Once you go through the trouble of setting up your accounts, you can easily track your spending and investment performance.

With respect to Quicken 2010, my review is easily broken into two parts.

1. If you are not a Quicken user or use Microsoft Money, the new product is fantastic. It is an excellent product. The setup features are easy to use and the reliable interface works great. With the exception of two accounts, I can download all my bank, credit card, and my IRA transactions over the internet directly from the program. The other accounts require logging onto the vendor's site and downloading the data from them.
   
2. 
   
3. If you are a current Quicken user, the decision to upgrade or not upgrade is a difficult one. Generally, I upgrade every 2-3 years and continue to support that strategy.
   

   
    

   Why?
   

   1. Faster setup times will not matter.
      
   2. The "At-a-glance" Homepage is nice, but not worth the price of the upgrade.
      
   3. Automatic Categorization: To be honest, I could not really tell the difference. Furthermore, I want to control the categories used on my spending. For example, dinner at Chili's could be: Dining, a business expense, or vacation:meals depending upon the circumstance.
      

      
       

   Why should you upgrade?
   

   1. The new program does seem to work faster than Quicken 2008.
      
   2. The download times for accounts is quicker than Quicken 2008.
      

From Quicken: Upgrade Features