They’re the bills you pay without thinking: car insurance, utilities, cable—the list goes on. Fortunately, with just a few phone calls, you can lower your household costs substantially.
Before I left the house today, I rushed a load of laundry into the washer, argued with a delivery service that didn’t want to leave a package on my doorstep and dealt with the fact that my dog had managed to get into something truly vile. All by 6:30 in the morning.
Life happens. Stuff happens. Which is why, long ago, I gave up trying to control the things that are beyond my control. Particularly when it comes to money. Living through the economic roller coaster of the past 18 months has taught us all that we can’t change stock prices, gas prices or milk prices. So why worry about them, particularly when we can focus our energy on things we can fix. Like?
Our expenses. People everywhere are coming to the realization that yes, you should spend less than you earn each month. Preferably substantially less, to create a fatter emergency cushion in the short term and subsidize diminished retirement assets in the long term. It’s an exercise that goes way beyond easing off on the manicures. In fact, I think you’ll be surprised at the money you can save if you put your mind to it.
Lower your interest rates
Mortgage, car loan, credit card debt. List your top expenses for any month, and these likely rank among the highest. You can knock them down by working on the interest rates. First, your mortgage. Thanks to the president’s Making Home Affordable program, you no longer need 10 to 20 percent equity to refinance. You can qualify if you owe as much as 105 percent of the value of your house; you should consider refinancing if you have an interest rate of six percent or higher, says Fred Brock, author of Live Well on Less Than You Think. Start by going back to your lender for a quote on a new loan. Then, shop Web sites such as lendingtree.com for comparison. Skip the mortgage brokers this time around, as some lenders aren’t willing to work through them anymore.
