Twila Van Leer

How To Shrink Your Energy Bills

March 23, 2015 By Twila Van Leer

Lower your utilities bills by getting a programmable thermostat.

Winter may be on the downside this year, but it isn’t too late to trim your energy consumption and save money at the same time you are helping the environment.

Tips to reduce your bills while trimming your carbon footprint include:

Heating & Cooling

Invest in a programmable thermostat. It can be set to reduce heat when you are not going to be home. No point in keeping things toasty when there’s no one around. It could save as much as $180 per year. Some of these thermostats can be set by mobile device in case the situation changes during a day.

Home Energy Audit

Conduct an energy audit, with a professional to look at areas of your home that need improvement. Heat and energy can slip out of doors, windows and other outlets. Take steps to correct these areas. A professional will look at lifestyle factors such as preferences in heat levels and the areas of your home in which the most living takes place. It may be possible to decrease energy demands by sealing off some areas or by increasing insulation.

Check Your Windows

If your windows are letting in cold air, it may be worth your while to have double-paning installed or to change the windows outright. The investment will pay off over time as energy costs decline.

An alternative to complete replacement of windows is to use window film to reduce the amount of cold air coming into the house. Keep curtains and blinds closed as another step to minimize the infiltration of cold air.

Siding On The Outside Of Your Home

Another step that requires an expenditure up front but saves more over time is installation of vinyl siding on your home. More people who are determined to go green are choosing this option. Vinyl is low-maintenance and long lasting. And it meets the requirements of Energy Star incentives. It has one of the highest returns on investment among remodeling options.

The sun is your friend. Keep blinds and curtains closed at night, but open them during daylight to take advantage of natural heating. Be sure to seal cracks with weather stripping so the full benefit of the sun’s warmth won’t be lost.

Maintain Heating System

Do regular inspections of your heating system. It may not need replacing, but periodic maintenance can keep it functioning at full efficiency. Get advice from a professional to be certain it is in good working condition. Keep the furnace clean and vacuum filters at least once a month for best efficiency. Replace filters regularly and even oftener if they become dirty during high-use times.

A fireplace is good for supplementing heat, but also can let in cold air. Keep the damper closed when there is no fire burning so that cold air does not enter through the chimney. If you don’t use the fireplace, plug the flue and seal it to conserve energy.

Ceiling Fans

Change the direction of your ceiling fan, if necessary, to clockwise. That will push heat down to ground level and keep it in the house. During the summer, a fan should be revolving counter-clockwise to push hot air up to the ceiling.

Curtains

Investing in insulated curtains and area rugs when you redecorate is a long-term aid to energy efficiency. And training family members to be energy-conscious, including wearing sweaters to minimize heating needs, is part of the overall plan to cut costs. A sticky note or two in high-traffic areas can help keep everyone on the same page as you pursue your energy goals.

Avoid Financial Troubles

March 13, 2015 By Twila Van Leer

Keeping your household out of financial hot water isn’t always easy and it takes the cooperation of an entire family. But it can be done and the best way is to keep on top of things and take steps to balance the picture before there is serious trouble.

These tips will help you organize and then recognize warning signs that might prevent upsets:

Create a realistic budget and then stick with it. A budget is not set in concrete and needs periodic analysis and tweaking to be certain it is still adequate. If there are changes to your income or new demands on the outgo, create a new budget to incorporate those changes.

Don’t buy on impulse. If you see something you feel you want, don’t make the purchase on the spot. Go home and think it over. Discuss with other family members. There’s a good chance you may, on reconsideration, come to the conclusion that you can do without the item.

Avoid sales. Purchasing a $300 item for $200 isn’t a $100 savings unless the item really is necessary. Staying away from temptation is easier than overcoming it on the spot with the item staring you in the face.

Get medical insurance if at all possible, even a stopgap policy with a big deductible is better than nothing in a medical emergency. Not having any cushion at all is inviting financial ruin if the emergency you hope will never happen happens.

Be very careful of charging. Charge only if you have the ability to pay for the item within your next pay period. Future income is always chancy. Try chucking all your credit cards or at least tuck them into a drawer and see if you can do without them for awhile. That exercise may help you look at credit in a different way.

Keep rent or house payments as low as possible. Promise yourselves something more elegant when your earnings have increased, then discipline yourselves to wait. If your mortgage payments keep you on the thin edge of your financial capacity, consider refinancing.

Don’t cosign or guarantee a loan for anyone else. Even though it appears safe that the other party will be able to handle the payments, a thousand things can happen. Your signature on the loan/sale makes you the primary borrower. The same holds true of entering into obligations with a spouse or significant other, particularly if you suspect he or she is not financially responsible. You’ll find yourself saddled with repayment if, for any reason, the other individual can’t or won’t pay.

Be careful of investing, particularly in such speculative ventures as real estate, penny stocks or junk bonds. Be conservative with your investments, sticking with certificates of deposit, money market funds and government bonds.

How To Get A Good Credit Score

March 10, 2015 By Twila Van Leer

Want to be the kind of consumer the creditors want? The kind that they bend over backwards to accommodate? The sort that breezes through a loan process with nary a wrinkle? It can be done.

At the crux of it all is your credit report. That’s the elusive data collected by credit reporting agencies that only surfaces when your finances are being discussed, usually with large ticket purchases in mind –things such as houses and cars.

The reporting agencies use a system known as FICO to create an individual credit profile, an acronym derived from the name of the California company that developed the method. Scores range from 300 (Don’t even ask for credit) to 800 (You’re a shoe-in.) Though there are critics who say the factors used to create a credit report are not the only ones that should be considered, the reports are a fact of credit life today. Thirty-five percent of the rating is based on payment history; 30 percent on amounts owed; 15 percent on the length of credit history; 10 percent on new credit and 10 percent on types of credit.

Things you can do to improve your credit rating:

1. Make payments on time. If you begin making payments late or, worse, missing them, the resultant penalties and fees will be factored into your credit report.

2. Don’t use a credit card that charges an annual fee. Shop around until you find a card that doesn’t charge fees and still offers rewards. That general rule might be set aside if you find a card with a fee that is counterbalanced with low interest, generous benefits and other features that cancel the effect of the fee. A word of caution: constantly shopping for a “better” credit card may build a perception that you are having trouble managing debt. It all goes into the record. Sticking with a particular card for a long time shows financial stability.

3. Never max out your credit availability. Using less than 30 percent of the credit for which you qualify is good practice. Utilizing several lines of credit, such as mortgage, car payments, etc., as well as credit cards, also helps the score, as long as you conform to the agreed-upon terms.

4. Monitor your credit rating. Credit reporting services are required to furnish a report to you annually. Some banks now are providing this service to customers, overturning earlier practices that made procuring the information difficult. If you find questionable information in your report, act immediately to correct it.

Critics of the current method of creating credit reports argue that it overlooks some very important factors. For instance, it does not make allowances for people who simply don’t use credit. That means it discriminates against the potentially best customers, the so-called “credit invisibles.”

Regardless of the perceived flaws, it is the system now in use, and if you are credit-wise you can do things to improve your rating, whether or not you are a big user of credit.

Be Aware Of Changes In Tax Laws For 2015

March 6, 2015 By Twila Van Leer

Standard deductions have risen to $6,300 for individuals and $12,600 for married taxpayers filing jointly.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans are well into the annual tax frenzy, though the deadline is a month away. There are some changes in tax law for 2014 and 2015 that you need to consider as you prepare a return.

Health Insurance

You may be subject to a penalty if you have not conformed to the mandates imposed by the Affordable Health Care Act. In 2014, the penalty is 1 percent of your household income or $95 per person if you have not obtained health insurance as required by the act. The penalty will rise to 2 percent of income or $325 per person in 2015. Get health insurance quickly to avoid this penalty.

Contributions

The limit an employee can contribute to a 401(k) will increase to $18,000, up $500 from last year’s cap. You needed to contact your payroll department at the first of this year to take advantage of the higher allowable. The “catch-up” allowance for those over 50 also has been increase, allowing for an additional $6,000 in contributions, $500 more than was allowed a year ago. The flexible spending cap for qualified health expenditures now is $2,500, $50 increase over the previous year.

Standard Deductions

Standard deductions also have risen, to $6,300 for individuals and $12,600 for married taxpayers filing jointly. Those figures are up $100 and $200 respectively. The standard deduction is important especially if you cannot itemize.

Changes In Tax Rates

For the tax year beginning in January, income tax thresholds have again been adjusted for inflation. The highest tax rate of 39.6 percent will apply now to single filers who earn over $413,200 and to married couples whose earnings are $464,k850 or above. The increase is about 1.6 percent over tax year 2014.

IRA Rollovers

IRA rollovers starting in 2015 are limited to a single event in a 12-month period. But you can still make as many “trustee to trustee” transfers as you like, moving your money from one provider to another. The new IRA rule is aimed at preventing the practice of withdrawing all the funds and then re-depositing them in a new account, a tactic some were using to create, in effect, a short-term, interest-free loan. Limit all rollovers to direct transfers in 2015 if you plan on moving money more than once.

Alternative Minimum Tax

The Alternative Minimum Tax exemption for 2015 is increased by 1.5 percent from 2014. Caps now are $53,600 for individuals or $83,400 for joint filers.

Lower Gas Prices Provide Extra Money For Families

March 3, 2015 By Twila Van Leer

March 3, 2015 - Low Gas Prices around the country. At the Chevron station at 1284 Vine St & 1300, Murray, Utah - $1.88 a gallon. — March 3, 2015 – Low Gas Prices around the country. At the Chevron station at 1284 Vine St & 1300, Murray, Utah – $1.88 a gallon.

Financial experts predicted that American families would quickly pour the money they saved on precipitately dropped gasoline prices back into the economy. But the figures are proving them wrong. The money saved in the lowest gas prices in five years isn’t showing up in consumer reports.

In January, Americans in the aggregate spent some $6.7 billion less at the pump. But retail sales, excluding gas, actually dipped a bit from November to January. The figures suggest that consumers are using the money they save in gasoline purchases to reduce debt or increase savings. That is a carry-over from the Great Recession that made serious inroads into the country’s economy and left the average American a little leery of spending. Although that impedes economic growth in the near-term, it could have positive effects in the future, the experts say.

They are predicting annualized growth of 2.5 percent from January through March, a half point under the 3 percent they had forecast earlier.

Gas prices continue to remain low, although they have risen somewhat. In January, the average per-gallon price of $2.03 per gallon was the lowest since 2009. The price had gone up to $2.24 by late February, but that still is $1.10-per-gallon less than a year ago. The annual savings to a typical household is about $750, according to the Energy Information Administration. To keep a pulse on the changes in prices visit GasBuddy.com.

But with the left-over cautions bred by the recession still echoing, much of that savings will remain pocketed, the administration predicts. Americans are still cautious about overspending. They are saving more instead. The rate of savings rose to 4.9 percent of earnings in December, compared with 4.3 percent in November. Last month, the rate bumped up again, to 5.3 percent, the highest in a year and a half.

Some economists note that the savings from gas purchases are small, although they can grow over time. The cumulative effects don’t show up quickly. Also, many Americans are skeptical that the relatively low gas prices will last. They are cautious about spending the difference when it could be used to help reduce debt. The phenomenon is not new. Economists are aware that consumers tend to “wait and see” before they feel free to spend “found” money they hadn’t figured into their budgets. A lag of several months is typical.

Even so, signs indicate that the money will begin to make an impact on the economy in the coming months. New cars is one of the places it may be spent. Families that put off replacing a vehicle when the economy was sour may feel confident enough to make the splurge. In early 2013, the average age of a car in the U.S. was at a high of nearly 12 years. But last year, more families replaced their clunkers and car sales were at the highest in eight years. And the trend seems set to continue.