Buying a house/condo/place to live is perhaps one of the biggest things you will ever do in your life. There are a few dozen things you must consider before signing the contract, from the neighborhood to the structure of the place.

The following tips and considerations are only a few of the most important things to think about. They should always be in your mind from the beginning of the process to the end.

1. Consider your finances

So this probably warrants a “duh” but believe me, I have seen people who buy something outside of their price range thinking they will get that raise next year or they will make it somehow.

Chances are if you can’t afford it now you won’t afford it in the future. Think cutting back on luxury items will help you afford the new place? Try cutting back for a few months to prove to yourself that you can and to see if you really will have enough money.

2. Prepare for future finance problems

Along the same lines as tip #1, plan for future problems or troubles you might encounter. For example, if you lose your job or if you need to make a ‘special payment’ one month. A special payment can range from medical to surprise bills.

It has been suggested to me to always have at least three months of rent in the bank in case of emergency. This should be the same for mortgage. Keep at least 3 months aside so that if anything happens, you will be prepared.

3. Check out the neighborhood

You might have found a great place but does the neighborhood suit you?

For example, are the grocery stores close and are there buses if you don’t own a car? What are the city services like? What are your neighbors like? Is it kid friendly, if you have children/planning on having children?
4. Get it inspected

This is perhaps the most important tip. An inspection will find anything wrong with the place you are about to buy so that surprise repair problems won’t pop up in the future. It will also avoid you paying more than you should.

For example, are there 5,000$ of repairs to do? You might be able to get this deducted from the sale price.

5. Goals

It might be a good idea to have a clear, defined picture of what you want or, chances are you might get overwhelmed thinking “This place is great. And so is this one. But this one is also amazing.”

I would search for places with a fireplace, central air and a nice backyard. In the end, this specific wants will help me narrow my search. Take a sheet of paper and take your time. Write down everything you need.

6. ” Investigations “

Ask yourself, or even the seller, why they want to sell. Is it because there are a lot of repairs to do? Or are they relocating? This could help pinpoint anything they are trying to hide from you. It will also help you decide if the place is the right place for you.

Also important to ask is how long the place has been listed. If it has been listed for awhile, there might be a problem with the place, or they might be taking advantage of you with the price.

7. Eyes wide open

Inside and outside. From the fences and shed to the basement. This will give you an idea of what it will be like to live in it and you might even find problems or things you don’t like which will sway your buying decision in the end. Also, it will avoid surprises in the end, for example finding the fence needs to be repaired.

These seven tips will help you find and buy that perfect place for you, and maybe even your family. It is a long process and there are a lot of things to think about. However, it is better to know now, before buying, the kind of problems you might encounter, for example hidden repair problems. Buying a place to live isn’t something to rush into. Get all the facts first.

photo by jsdart

A lot of people claim to own a solution to getting rich quick. They offer free tickets and invite people to their seminars, talk about many things to get the crowd attention, and in the end they try to sell them a very expensive product, that won’t to earning money.

photo by emdot

If you’re thinking of such schemes to getting rich quick effortlessly, and I will have to agree it’s very tempting, then you should know it’s not you who’s going to make money, but those that present you these “opportunities”. The promoters.

The temptation is to resist to what these guys promise:
- huge profits in the real estate market
- huge profits in the stock market
- and a safe exit.

You can do all these with a broker or with a real estate agent if you are interested to enter these markets, but this doesn’t mean you will get rich quick. Money are needed to buy a property on the brink of foreclosure or to buy Apple Computers (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares and no one can guarantee you’re going to make a profit off of it.

One last thing that should make you think is the fact that these promoters offer financing solutions with extremely low rates (unusually low) and many times, they even offer guaranteed returns of 25 percent or even 50 percent on a short term.

I advise you to consider “work” as the best solution for getting rich.

It doesn’t matter if you’re well into your working years or you’re just about to take the final step into retirement, because there are a few things that should be considered before.

An important fact is that you should determine your retirement needs. You will have expenses and sources of income that should be identified.

Many say that the right thing to do is starting early, but what if you didn’t do it so far. Is there anything that you can do? The answer is simple, yes, but we’ll go step by step.

The retirement checklist is different for those that are already saving and for those that are close to retirement. Anyways, following a few basic elements could lead to an effective plan.

1. Determine your retirement needs
Identifying potential expenses and potential income is crucial. Make the difference and see what you need to live a comfortable life. The sum could be big, but it’s for 20 or 30 years, don’t get too excited.

2. What to invest in
It’s very important to decide what to put your money in because you should know there is risk involved when you have to deal with stocks, bonds or cash. If your portfolio is rich in stocks then you need to adjust your asset allocation in response to significant market moves. Same goes for bonds or even cash. Make sure you always know what’s going on with your retirement plan and act accordingly.

3. Getting more
The money will work for you. It’s a true, old saying. If you start early or contribute as much as possible to a retirement plan (employer or sponsored) you’ll get the benefits later.

4. Asset distribution
If you have everything solved and you are near retirement, asset distribution is crucial. Set your annual withdrawal rate and make sure the possibility of outliving your money is null. This is something you may want to talk to a retirement adviser or a retirement planner. I know that whenI will retire, I will do it myself using an Excel spreadsheet with 25 years time frame where I can track costs (consider inflation, too), income from investments, major and medium purchases, income from SS and pensions.

These above, are a few general rules to follow when retiring, but here are a few questions you may want to ask yourself before actually doing it or when planning for it.

• Have you allocated your assets so that you can reach your goal in a certain time frame? Does it suit your risk tolerance?
• Contributing to a traditional IRA or a Roth IRA might bring you benefits. Checked that out?
• Do you know your payout options?
• Costs and income. How deep did you go? Are you sure you’ve included them all?
• The amount of your annual required minimum distribution (RMD). Do you know it?

If you guys can add more, this would turn out as mini-guide to retirement. What do you think of it?

photo by Jeff Holbrook

So far you’ve written out your lists of Career, Financial and Personal Goals. You’ve gone through each of them and refined them after giving each a more in-depth look. Now it’s time to move on to the next step and pull it all together.

Find those revised and refined pieces of paper. The ones I had you write out all your career, financial and personal goals on 3 sheets of paper and then I had you use them to refine each category. It’s now time to take those out again.

Take 5 new sheets of paper and divide them into 3 sections each. Label the sheets 1-month plan, 1-year plan, 3-year plan, 5-year plan and 10-year plan. Label the sections on each sheet Career Goals, Financial Goals and Personal Goals. Take the original 3 sheets of paper and put each goal listed on them on the appropriate sheet, in the appropriate section according to when you would like to accomplish them.

Once done, take each sheet and section by section prioritize each goal. For example, you may have decided you want children in your 5-year plan and you want to be established in your career. Decide which is more important to you and give it a higher rating. If you see anything that needs to be added, or removed, do it now. You want this to be the last time you have to revise for at least a month.

Once again, and for the last time, rewrite those 5 sheets with each goal listed according to priority. Everything should be clear and organized by this point. You should be able to look at them and clearly see where your priorities are for each and every category and time frame.

Next time I’ll walk you through what I think you should do with those 5 finely tuned pieces of paper. I’ll talk about how often you should review them, update and modify them. As tedious as this may have been the end is almost near and, by now, you should have a sense of accomplishment and a sense of direction.

[Photo Source: cjelli]

You’ve made lists of your life goals and we’ve given career and financial goals a closer look. Now let’s give your Personal goals a little more attention.

Personal Goals

Personal goals are a little harder for me to write about simply because they are personal. They are as unique and varied as each person.

You need to decide what is important to you. Maybe it’s taking up a sport or hobby, losing weight, community service, family, getting in shape, traveling…The list is endless.

Here’s an example of what your plan could look like:

1-month plan

• Goal #1: lose 10 lbs.
• Goal #2: have Sunday dinner with parents every 2 weeks.
• Goal #3: read a book

1-year plan

• Goal #1: achieve desired weight
• Goal #2: join Tai-Chi class
• Goal #3: volunteer in community

3-year plan

• Goal #1: Get married
• Goal #2: Move to desired location
• Goal #3: take trip to Cuba

5-year plan

• Goal #1: Own home
• Goal #2: Have a child
• Goal #3: Trip to Europe

10-year plan

• Goal #1: Own dream home
• Goal #2: Foster children
• Goal #3: Mediterranean cruise for 1 month

Whatever your personal goals are, they are your own. What may be insane and unimportant to one person is what gets someone else up in the morning. Without perosnal goals there’s no reason to have career and financial goals. There’s nothing to work towards, nothing rewarding at the end of the struggle. This is also an area where you can be a little unrealisitic. You can set your goals high and aim for them. If they are truly important to you, you will find a way to achieve them. After analyzing your goals you may realize that you will have to sacrifice a lot now to be able to reach them but only you can decide if that sacrifice is worth it. For example, you’ve decided you want to take a year off work when you turn 40 and sail around the world. That might mean you have to severely limit your luxury spending until then. No new cars, no annual vacations abroad. Take some time to research what it would cost you to do that if you decided to do it now. What would it cost to sail around the world? Document it and then you have a financial goal to aim for, something solid, not just something you’re dreaming about.

You may never achieve the goal, may even decide it’s something you no longer want. That’s ok. It’s the fact of having something to strive for, something to look forward to that’s important. It’s also that fact that without the plan you probably won’t be able to accomplish the goal should you still choose to.

You are now pretty much set. You’ve taken all three areas: Career, Financial and Personal , you’ve given them a lot of thought and you now have the basics of a solid life plan. Next time we will pull all of your hard work together and organize it a bit more so that you have a better was of seeing the whole picture and not just isolated parts of it.

[Picture Source: Flickr: Tenerife]

There are people that made a habit of living in debt and they are not affected at all, but for those that desire a miracle to take it off their back I’ve been thinking of a few simple ways for you to save money. I’ve been testing them and I can guarantee you that at the end of the year when I’m draw the line I am always very happy.

Here are a few ways for you to save money to pay your debt:

1. Changing to CFL bulbs and using sun light instead of the lights in the house, for the most part of the day, will reduce your electricity bill with around $10 a month, which translates in $120 by the end of the year.
2. I prefer jogging in the park and stretching in my own home, that’s why I don’t use the gym, which saves me about $400 a year.
3. From discussions with smoking fellows I’ve understood that a smoker pays on average $65 a month if you add the coffee that goes along so well. Lucky me, I don’t smoke, so that’s another annual $780.
4. Everyone likes to see a good movie once in a while but if you rent a DVD instead of going to the cinema you can save at least what you’d pay for the nachos and soda. That could be $10-$15 each time so I imagine this would mean at the end of the year you’d save about $450.
5. Cook your own meals. That’s not always a time killer, because the internet is full of recipes you’d love, that only takes a few minutes to be done. If you’re someone that likes to order out, I advise you to try and make it your own, not only because it’s fun to try out new things but also because you could save around $1200 a year.
6. Bring your own lunch. Now that I mentioned cooking your own meals, you should know that your going out to a restaurant at noon, with or without your colleagues, 5 days a week, means that you spend around $100 a month. Bring your own and stop making all those restaurants, money fat. That way you can save up to $1200 a year.
7. Read online. I am a fan of the old fashion method of journalism because the noise the paper makes when I am switching pages is incredible. But, since you need to cut back on expenses, try to read all your magazines and newspapers online, because you may save up to $300 a year.
8. Use a free checking account. Wouldn’t it be great to get interest on your balance and still be able to pay for your bills without fees? You should also think of writing a check instead of getting money from an ATM machine that charges fees. That could be another $300 a year.
9. Drive safely. You may think I’m out of my minds but let me explain. Driving safely, from my point of view means having a distributive attention and of course driving slower. If you drive slower your fuel level consumption is also lower, by 3-4 liters every mile, which translates in about $400 a year.
10. Drink your coffee at home. Though you may not think $2 a day is big deal, if you count that for the whole year it makes about $500. So why have your coffee in the subway or on the streets if you can have it at home?
11. Buy quality products. When you choose your pair of jeans make sure you don’t pay too much, but also make sure you’re not buying low quality products because in a few weeks you’ll have to buy a new pair. Same goes for computer parts, shoes or anything else you need. I don’t have a daily or a monthly value that you could save so I will assume it’s around $500 a year.
12. Taking care of your health is a way of saving money. Wash your teeth daily and seek a dentist from time to time because it’s cheaper to prevent than to cure. And I didn’t mention the time you lose by being sick. Again I will just have to assume that on a 10 years time frame if you take care of your health you save at least $1000 a year.
13. Books: from the library, borrowed or bought second hand. You or your children need to get some cultural awareness and reading a good book is a very good idea. If you can get your books from the library, borrow from your friends or buy them second hand - in great condition - is a very good way to save money, maybe $40 a month which is $480 a year.
14. Use public transportation, a bike or walk to your job if it’s possible and they don’t need you to travel a lot during the day. The reasons are multiple, walking and biking helps your body just like a sport, and public transportation is greener (less pollution from a bus with 40 people than from 20 cars). You can save around $10 if you consider parking, insurance and fuel. That’s $2500 a year.
15. Always seek insurance deals. I’ve heard of people moving from their insurer to someone new, and saving like $1000 a year, just for car insurance. If you’re a good driver other companies may reward you better.

These are just a 15 simple ideas that I could quantify, but there are other ways of saving money like: doing your shopping using coupons, buying fresh food from the local market rather than the hypermarket, don’t shop when you’re hungry, cut your own hair or buy used cars.

If you trust me and my math I would say applying those 15 steps to saving money would make an estimated total saving of $11,330 that you can send towards your debt. Now you can go free your debt and then you can start going to restaurants again or buying a new car. Till next time!

I’ve been on the internet for a very long time and I remember all those scams that used to say you’ll be getting a free car if you give them your e-mail address. I am going to explain what I did in order to get my car free of charge.

Two years ago I had somewhere near 20,000 Eur ($27k) invested in stocks. I wanted to buy a car because I had no access to our family car so I did. I bought a new Citroen C4, for the price of 15,000 ($21k) Eur on a 5 year leasing. Many people said it was a mistake that I didn’t buy it with the cash up-front but I had my ideas. I kept the money on the stock exchange and one year later I already had a 40% yield. I found a great deal for buying some land, and now after 6 more months I can tell you that my investment totals near 80,000 Eur ($110k).

So imagine that I paid (from my paychecks) 18 payments for my car which was a way of saving each and every month, otherwise I would have spent it for un-necessary stuff and the money that I didn’t spend all at once for my car I invested. Simple math will tell that I got not only one car free, but about four cars.

I advise you to invest borrowing money from the bank, but I also advise you not to go too much into debt. For me 280 Eur ($380) a month was not that big but I am sure if I had 4 cars to pay for, would be too much.

The conclusion I got after doing all these, is that if I would have bought the car with the cash up-front I wouldn’t have paid interest, but also I wouldn’t have the $110k I told you about. Maybe only $10-$15k. If you can afford to borrow and you have a deal don’t wait, do it, and if you feel like you already have made enough profit, cover your credit and keep the difference.

I’ve recently thought of my own experience hiring, firing and creating a partnership with someone. That is because I wasn’t always successful and on a few occasions it ended up really bad.

First time I worked with someone, I investigated the guy really well because on the internet you can never know. I managed to choose the right person because I had him as a partner for about 3 years and he never tried to scam me.

Then I tried to teach some guy from Bulgaria how to make money on the internet because his family had really big issues. I succeeded again, but the family problems turned out to be fake and the guy left with no word to me. I found out later that he had put up another idea involving HYIP pyramid scheme. So I guess this turned out bad.

The list can continue as I always got involved with people when creating something on the internet but I think, I’d better tell you what I think of hiring or firing.

Hire only if you need

I’ve been lured a few times to hiring someone just because they were family or because they needed some fast cash. You should get quality for the money you spend. You shouldn’t choose someone just because you feel sorry he lost the job. It won’t be fair for your company or for the employees you already have.

If you have some open spaces in your company then you can go ahead and search, otherwise, put the hiring away. If you don’t need a PHP programmer, don’t hire one with the thought of using him in a few months.

How to hire someone?

It’s not very hard to get people to call you or email you with their applications. Forums, fliers, local newspapers, Craiglist or a bunch of other resources can help you find possible candidates. However, that’s not the hardest part.

After getting some people that you think are fit for your needs you should test them somehow because you need to know them, you need to trust them. So, pay them low in the beginning and then you will know if it’s the right person.

How to fire someone?

If you already made the mistake of choosing the bad employee for the job, or if you just need to cut some costs you should be able to fire someone. If you will keep them on board, results may go from worse to much worse. Why not save your business by firing someone if you can do it.

Some people say you should follow rules when firing someone, like timing it wisely. Do it early in the week and early in the day, and never do it before a weekend or a holiday. I say that’s bull, because if I am not satisfied with the service anymore, I shouldn’t lose the money for the whole week just to make sure the employee won’t be upset over the weekend.

I do agree, that when you let someone go you should be backed with some good reasons. Do not point to only one event or the person you’re firing will think you are just trying to get rid of him. Explain the reasons why he’s not filling the job requirements.

Great news for Jane May and John Anthony of CareerRamblings.com because it looks like their Sitepoint auction ended up, and the final price was $20,000. The site where they had all kinds of tips and career advices, managed in just about 7 months to get a PR6 and a heavily targeted audience.

If you ask me, the site was started from the beginning with the idea of being sold in the near future. Jane and John started their project really well and the best argument is the $20,000 price paid by Impulse Communication, also the owner of Bored.com. I don’t think the price is too high since they were making around $1800 with almost 38,000 unique visitors a month.

How CareerRamblings.com achieved success

They hired student (educated) writers for those fancy articles you’ve read on their site which of course they paid. That’s how they managed to offer both quality and quantity. However this is something I’ve read in the Sitepoint auction when they presented the product in details, and Jane May never mentioned it on the blog.

Since this is a niche blog dedicated to people looking for career advices (and they are so many) it was really easy to be picked up by other authority websites, which linked to them. Another way of getting traffic for CareerRamblings.com was guest blogging on JohnChow and other known blogs, which really gave them some respect.

My conclusion is that the deal is great and that these guys got a really nice return on their investment. Congratulations.

There seems to be a trend online with people saying that their earnings with Google Adsense dropped by 10 to 30 percent. I see it on DigitalPoint and other forums I read,  so this has become a trend for the last 2-3 weeks. From what I’ve read and personally saw, the problem is not really the CTR - though I hear voices saying it is - but it’s the cost per click (CPC) that has dropped a lot.

I know I’ve said a few weeks ago, when Google bashed those doing arbitrage, that the CPC will increase, but it looks like it’s not true. The trend is down and no one knows why! I think it’s just a small stage, maybe they are upgrading their algorithms and systems. I expect the bids to be back as normal if there were any problems.