Finance Matters

Looking for a sample of a great Free Weekly Budget Plan? This is a basic budget broken down into 4 weeks. This is a great sample to use if you want to set up your own personal budget in a spreadsheet. This only a sample so it may not include all of your spending categories. If you want me to create you your own personal budget spreadsheet that matches all of your spending categories I would be happy to do so for a small fee. I can even set it up in a google document so you can use it even if you don’t have Microsoft Excel. Please just send an email to webmaster@lexchoice.com and we’ll get things started. 

Free Sample weekly Budget Plan in Excel Format

Alright all you financial gurus here is the question of the day. Currently my wife works in a school system in a different county than we live. We live right on the border but if we want our kids to go to school with my wife then we have to pay out of district tuition for our kids to go to a public school. We would get a discounted rate but it would still be $1,800 per year or about $150 per month to send one child there.

We have two children ages 3 and 3 months so we are looking at 12 years of public education for each of our children. So you see the decision I’m face with. At first thought it doesn’t seem to be worth the trouble and moving expenses to pack up our bags and move to another county, but after doing some quick math I realize I have to think deeper about the decision.

If we stay were we are at and start paying the tuition costs in a couple of years we will spend a total of about $43,000 in  education costs over the course of  their  public education.  Sounds like a lot of money to me, but wait it gets even bigger.

Let’s assume we decide to move and avoid the tuition costs. I’m going to assume we make a small profit on our current home (should be easy to do) and move into a similar priced home. We would finance about $210,000 over a 30 year fixed rate mortgage at 6.5%. The payment would be about $1,325 per month. Since we would be paying the $150 per month to tuition I’m going to apply that money to our mortgage payment as extra principal payments for five years, this is when my second child would start school so that amount would double to $300 per month. The $300 would continue until my 1st daughter graduates high school and then $150 extra would be applied until my 2nd daughter graduates. Doing this math I would pay off my house 8 and 1/2 years sooner and save just over $92,000. I would of course have to subtract closing costs and moving costs from the profit so about $8,000. After this I would still save over $84,000 from the move?

Sounds tempting to me but I would like to hear your opinions.

Buying generic groceries and other products can add up to some major savings. As the economy continues to worse we are looking for more and more ways to save money. For most of us coupon clipping isn’t as easy as it may sound. Many families including mine clip and keep the coupons but usually forget to take them to the store and actually use them. Others may clip coupons for items they normally don’t use which may be more expensive than the normal brand. So how can you still save some money at the grocery store? Buy generic foods and other products!

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Ready to close a home loan and don’t have 20% cash or equity to put down on your home then you have herd your lender talk about PMI or private mortgage insurance. PMI is insurance that you are required to pay if you don’t have at least 20% equity in your home. There are way around PMI, one of the most common being a piggyback loan, but should you use the alternative methods to avoid PMI?
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Want to save some money? Want to make saving fun? Here is a creative idea that may put some extra money in your pocket as well as some fun in your financial life, up for the challenge?

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Q: Why couldn’t the dollar bill get into college?

A: He didn’t have any cents….

Chrysler recently announced a promotion that guarantees you can purchase gas or diesel for $2.99 per gallon if you purchase a new Dodge, Chrysler, or Jeep vehicle. This might sound like a good deal, but do you really save a lot of money?

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How old is too old to start saving for retirement? Most of us know that the earlier you start saving for retirement the easier it will be and the better off you will be when you are ready to retire, but what if you’ve waited till your 40 to start? What if you are 50, 60 or even 70 and haven’t saved a dime for retirement? Don’t worry it’s never to late to start.

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As if banks don’t make enough money from lending your money to other people I learned the hard way that they make crazy amounts of money from bank fees. There are many types of bank fees such as overdraft, paper fees or copies of checks, courtesy overdraft fees, point-of-sale fees, debit card fees, last minute bill pay fees, and the list continues.

I have never had to pay any type of bank fee that I can remember. I always keep a careful watch on the balance and pay all other bills on time. So what happened? Why did I have to waste $33 (equivilant of 8 gallon of gas) of my hard earned money on a bank fee? Well, a stop payment fee…

I’m not sure what goes into stoping payment on a check but it really shouldn’t be $33. Worst part about the situation we found the check that we stopped payment for under a stack of papers in our office, the day after we stopped the payment. Lesson learned the hard and expensive way!

Tired of the increasing costs of everything? With gas around $4 per gallon the cost of almost all goods and services seems to follow the upward trend. The closer we get to summer the likelihood of prices increasing more is inevitable. The worst part is that salaries don’t seem to be increasing with the cost of goods and services. How can you combat these inflated prices? Start by saving hundreds of dollars on your grocery bill!

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