By Shannon Christman
Personal storage facilities are appearing everywhere. Whether new garage-like structures or refashioned warehouses, factories, and banks, all have the purpose of storing our culture’s accumulated stuff. For the “low” price of $39.95 a month, you can rent the smallest of these empty boxes — a space not much bigger than a walk-in closet. […]

By Jennifer Derrick
A neighbor recently announced that she was getting serious about getting out of debt and saving for her family’s future. “Good for you,” I said and meant it, right up until she started detailing her plan for becoming more frugal.
“We need to start staying home more,” she said. “We waste too much […]

By Jennifer Derrick
We all want to be safe and secure, but spending big money on a high tech security system may not be necessary. In most cases, simply applying some common sense will do the job. For most people, reasonable security can be attained for very little money. I say, “reasonable security” because the sad […]

By David John Marotta and Beth Anderson Nedelisky
Before reverse mortgages, pensioners wishing to tap into home equity were presented with two options: either sell the house or get a home equity loan. But since their humble beginnings in the late ’80s, reverse mortgages provided seniors with an additional tool for accessing home equity. The going […]

By David John Marotta
For the past seven years US markets have experienced the ripple effects of the tech sector’s correction in 2000. The latest waves have been in the slow decline of the housing market and, now, in the weakening of the commercial real estate market. While economists can’t always explain the timing of these […]

By Jennifer Derrick
My neighbors’ oldest child just left for college this fall. Watching him load his car with electronics, clothes, and “stuff,” headed for his new apartment, I started reminiscing about when I was just starting out. When I was younger, I lived a life that made others think I was poverty stricken. I didn’t […]

By Cortni Marrazzo
The process of buying a home and securing a mortgage can be very confusing if you don’t know what you are doing. That’s why it’s always important to do your homework. Obviously researching the mortgage process and the terms is very helpful, but perhaps the most important research you can do […]

By Cortni Marrazzo
When my husband and I were in the market for our first home, we were excited to take advantage of some of the first time home buyer programs we had heard so much about. After all, we were in fact first time home buyers and this would be the only time we’d […]

By Cortni Marrazzo
I understand the argument behind the advice of putting at least a 20% down payment on a house purchase. No one wants to pay private mortgage insurance and the idea of getting two different loans to avoid it isn’t that great either. I imagine if you are a previous […]

By Ann Hartter
Studio apartment: unfurnished. Top floor, lots of windows, tall ceilings. New paint. Close to college. Available now.
The keys land in your hand. The threshold of your new home is now guarded by your few boxes of stuff. Not long after, you’re unpacked. You look around, and your walls are still bare. […]

By Cortni Marrazzo
With heating costs on the rise, it’s tempting to avoid turning your heat on all together in order to save money on heating bills, but who wants to be a human Popsicle in their own house? Here are some creative (and some practical) ways to avoid or delay turning on your heat […]

By Ann Hartter
At some point, we’ve all done it: during the middle of a move or the week of finals. Somehow, everything gets shuffled. Some of us make it a way of life. But something not very many people consider is how fiscally irresponsible it is to live surrounded by clutter.
The obvious sums spent […]

By Ann Hartter
Do you ever wander by an empty house for sale or rent and wonder what kinds of treasures it may hold? You might be surprised.
Once, I had my secrets about houses, but now that I’m a homeowner and won’t be house-hopping anymore, I’ll share them with you. People lose the strangest […]

By Ann Hartter
In the past year, I have moved. My sister-in-law has and is again moving. My best friend’s mom moved, and my best friend moved. In the past six years, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law have each made significant moves, I have moved 4 more times, and my aunt moved. Moving costs a ridiculous amount […]

By Shannon Christman
I am awed by those perfectly neat houses I see in magazines. I appreciate their aesthetics, and I have even been tempted a few times to go out and buy the organizing tools recommended for creating such a space-efficient closet or refrigerator. But then I think, “None of those compartments would […]

By Shannon Christman
Clutter is not evil, though many of the articles, books, television shows, and services that teach you how to organize suggest otherwise. Clutter can be good or bad, depending on how you use it and respond to it.
Some people think more clearly and produce better work when they are in clear, open […]

By Shannon Christman
A few weeks ago, I discovered a hardware store receipt among some papers my in-laws had given us. Because my father-in-law works in maintenance, I called them to see if he needed the receipt for reimbursement from his job. No, my mother-in-law told me, it wasn’t a work expense; it was […]

When you must decide on what is a good plan of action which involves a housing arrangement outside the norm, it can be confusing and difficult to determine whether it is a good deal or not. That is the question that one reader has:
I have a financial question and hope you wouldn’t mind answering it […]

In the do-it-yourself world, saving money is dependant on if you can actually get the job done without ending up doing more harm than there originally was in the beginning. Unfortunately, that is not always the case and this email from a reader wants to know how to discourage the problem:
I have a big problem […]

There is often confusion with bi-weekly mortgage plans. Many people hear about them for the first time and assume that all they have to do is pay their mortgage 2 times a month and they will get these incredible savings. The key, however, is in the subtle difference between paying twice a month and paying […]