Posted on September 30th, 2009 by Canadian Capitalist
Due to a family emergency, there won’t be any new posts until Thanksgiving.
Related Reading:
On Vacation
Are Emergency Funds for Everyone?
Emergency Funds
Quick Tip: Get a Secured Line of Credit
This and That # 113: Financial Fear Factor Edition
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Filed under: Finance, Money Saving Ideas | No Comments »
Posted on September 30th, 2009 by MoneyBlogger
I received an interesting reader question last week about a scenario where you are very sure that you’re going to sell your house in a few years. In that case, would paying down your mortgage principal create an opportunity for a relatively high return with minimal risk? The e-mail:
Your blog is very insightful. I had an idea that I wanted to run by you. I plan to list my condo for sale in about 14 months. Currently I have a 2nd mortgage with an 8.875% rate. I want to have the most net cash at the time of sale, so I’m thinking the safest investment I can make over the next 14 months is to pay down this mortgage. If my math is correct, I would get a 4.9% return on the avoided interest (less what I would have gotten back from deductions). Am I crazy, or does it seem like I’ve found a good place to put my cash until I leave?
I’m not a mortgage professional, but it would seem to me that in theory this should work. When you make the additional principal payments, every future mortgage payment will also include less interest and more towards paying the loan balance down even faster. When you sell the house, you’ll get your “return” from this lower loan balance. The exact return might be a little off to the amortization schedule, but the annualized return should be close to the interest rate. I explored the overall idea in these posts:
Within the posts above, based on the amortization schedule of a 30-year fixed mortgage at a 5% interest rate, I plotted both the effective interest rate paid and the annual investment return from prepaying below:
The reader had an 8.875% second mortgage, which would seem like a pretty great short-term return.
I suppose that one big risk in doing this is that you don’t end up selling the house, so your cash is now stuck in the home’s equity and will be more difficult to access. So you’ll have to be fairly confident that you will be selling the house, or at least be okay with the possibility of just having a smaller mortgage balance.
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Posted on September 29th, 2009 by MoneyBlogger
Restaurant.com is offering a 80% off with the coupon code CHEF, resulting in a $25 “certificate” for $2. Offer ends September 30th.
Contrary to my skeptical remarks (I’ve never used one of these before), many readers responded that they indeed found these certificates very useful in savings some money. Read their comments here.
Here’s a sample positive scenario. You find a restaurant on the list that you like that usually runs around $20 + tip per person (~$48 for a couple). You buy a $25 certificate for $2, which usually comes with a $35 minimum purchase + 18% required gratuity on full price.
Dinner for two = $40 regular menu price
Minus $25 certificate = $15
Plus cost of certificate ($2) = $17
Plus 18% gratuity on menu price = $7.20
Total price w/ tip = $24.20, or $12 a person + taxes
In that case, you can save around 50% on the total bill. Good thing I’m married and don’t have to worry about going on dates with coupons! 
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Posted on September 29th, 2009 by MoneyBlogger
Gogo Inflight Intertnet is now offering WiFi internet on select Airtran, American, Delta, and Virgin America flights. See here for participating flights. I signed up for their mailing list, and got a code for some free WiFi in case anyone is flying in the next few weeks. Here’s another code good until 10/31, but I can’t tell if it’s one-time use only: 222wifi21940a.
Jonathan, first timers surf the internet in flight with a free gogo session this month. Just look for the “gogoinflight” Wi-Fi signal at 10,000 ft and keep up with the world below.
Enter SURFGOGOFREE when you are prompted to purchase your session through October 15, 2009.
*Good through 10/15/09. Offer available on select American Airlines and Delta Air Lines flights. Offer is good for one use per person, may not be combined with any other Gogo promotional codes and applies only to single sessions, such as Gogo Flight Pass and Gogo Mobile Pass. Use of Gogo service requires registration. Terms and Conditions
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Posted on September 29th, 2009 by DebtAway
My husband went on one of those cheap cruises to Mexico for my brother’s bachelor party. It seemed like a really good deal – $99 for the three day trip.
‘SEEMED’ being the operative word here.
Would you like a towel to use at the pool? Sure, that will be $22.99 – and he didn’t [...]
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