Category Archives: Ideas

random ideas that pop in my head…

Mortgage Free Idea #1

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What is my next move after I’m mortgage free?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot, I’ve had a lot of different ideas pop in my head.  My latest idea, the one I keep coming back too is going to sounds a bit crazy…  I’m seriously thinking about moving into a larger house and taking on a bigger mortgage.  I was a little hesitant to post this article, but since a reader asked in a comment recently, I figured why not share some of my thoughts…

Do I need a bigger house, technically no, our house is a little over 2,100 sq ft.  Then why do I want to do what I describe above?

My thoughts:

If I buy a larger house, perhaps around 2,500 to 3,000  sq ft., then I get to deduct the interest payment from taxes all over again.  When I get my current house sold, I’ll be able to keep all of the money from the sale, tax-free (another legal tax loophole up to $250,000 for a single to $500,000 for married jointly,  if they have lived in their house as their primary residence for a least 3 out of 5 years.).  I would then put the money in some type of investment mix that would produce a decent return that could either be invested or help with the new mortgage payment.

Sounds crazy, especially considering the big stock market crash we just experienced, but this might be the optimal strategy.

I’ll keep you posted on my final decision…

Mortgage Milestones, My Mortgage Countdown #4

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This month I’ve finally broke thru the $5,000 dollar mortgage barrier!

I still have about $4,989 left to go.  That’s almost the cost of our upcoming Disney vacation (ouch.. thinking about it still hurts a bit)!

With my mortgage, I created “Mortgage Milestones“, each time I cleared one, we would go out to a nice restaurant to celebrate.  You can see from the list below, I increased the number of milestones as I get closer to $0 owed.  This added a bit of incentive to stick to the schedule, and reward the family for their patience and sacrifices.

  • $75,000
  • $50,000
  • $25,000
  • $10,000
  • $5,000
  • $0

Once we get to $0, We’re going to go to the nicest place I can think of in my area.  I’m expecting the freedom from a mortgage payment to be a huge change in my life.  Already, I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with the money saved from the mortgage.

If you plan on making extra payments on your mortgage as I did, I’d definitely recommend making “Mortgage Milestones” as I did.  If I had to do it all over again, I think I’d make the earlier milestones $10,000 increments instead of $25,000.  Keeping the $5,000 decrement amounts once you hit $10,000 in the end just to spice it up a bit.  This also keeps your whole family focused on the goal of paying off your house early.

So a better revised “Mortgage Milestone” configuration would be:

  • $100,000
  • $90,000
  • $80,000
  • $70,000
  • $60,000
  • $50,000
  • $40,000
  • $30,000
  • $20,000
  • $10,000
  • $5,000
  • $0

Carpooling to Save Money and Reduce Gas Prices

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During the winter of 2008, I was amazed when gas prices crept over $3.50 a gallon (not to mention when it went over $4.00).  When this happened, I asked a buddy from work if he wanted to start car pooling.  We have the perfect scenario, he only live 2 miles from my house, and his house was on the way to work for me.

The arrangement was, we would alternate weeks of driving, so for first week, I drove, the next week he drove, then me, then him…

My Benefits from Car Pooling:

  1. Lowered my monthly gas spending from $180 to $90.
  2. Reduced the wear and tear on my car by 1/2.
  3. I did my part to try to reduce oil prices by car pooling.
  4. I cut the carbon emissions I produced by half.
  5. Cut down on traffic on the highway by 1 car.
  6. Freed up 1 parking spot at work (our lot is pretty full, or was…).
  7. It’s nice to ride some mornings, instead of driving.

Once the gas prices fell to the low $2 range, we stopped car pooling at that time because of conflicts in schedules.  However, if prices creep back up to the $3.50 or higher, we said we would start car pooling again.

Near the end of our car pool trips, we both started telecommuting once a week, and that was even better!

Below is the ultimate solution to high gas prices, if the weather and distance permits (which in my case, it doesn’t).

Don

Update, I forgot to add a few additional benefits:

  • If you’re in an accident, you have a captive witness (unlikely, but still nice).
  • Forces you to adhere to a more strict timetable, you don’t want to be late or pickup your buddy late.

Navy Shower

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Showering the Navy way…

 

 

This summer, I started showering the Navy way.  Ironically, I didn’t know it was called that at the time.  I was showering, and thought “Wow, most of the shower water is being wasted and that I could reduce my water usage”.

Here is What I Did:

So I started to soak myself, turn off the water, scrub down, then turn the water back on to wash away the soap and shampoo.  I cut my water consumption by about half.  Later, after I got a rhythm, I was able to cut my water usage by at least 80%.  I’m sure it’s possible to achieve a better percentage, but this was fine for me.

At the time, I thought it was pretty clever and I told one of the older guys at work…  He said “So you took a Navy shower huh”.  I googled it, and apparently, that’s almost exactly what I did.

A Navy shower is one where you:

  • Soak yourself
  • Turn the water off
  • Lather up and scrub
  • Turn the water back on, and rinse
  • Dry

My buddy (a Navy man) told me that the fresh water stored on the ship was a limited supply.  And apparently, to conserve the fresh water, everybody would follow the technique above to save as much water as possible.

Practicing such a technique will:

  1. Save you money (less water waste)
  2. Conserve water (better for the environment)
  3. Keep water hot for the family (nobody likes a cold shower)

What a great way to get more bang for your buck!  You (and your family) will benefit 3 ways all at once.

I don’t practice this on very cold winter days, although, it’s a great way to wake up!  Coffee is overrated anyway… 😉

Another debatable perk is…  After doing this for a while, taking a nice regular hot shower is a treat, almost a luxury.  I now make sure I take a regular shower at least once a week just to reward myself and enjoy it!

Anyway, that’s my 3 cents for the day!

-MR