Posted by M.S. on June 9, 2009
Would you be interested to learn exactly how to make up to $500,000 TAX FREE doing makeovers on real estate?
I thought so!
Did you know that since 1997, up to $250,000 in profit ($500,000 for a married couple) on the sale of a home, is exempt from taxation if you have lived in the home as your principal residence for two out of the last five years?
A friend of mine told me several years ago she and her husband have done this exact thing many times and she showed me step by step exactly how they accomplished this. These ideas have been incorporated into my own homes and I will showcase the process I used over the next several weeks.
Basically, the right house must meet specific criteria. The property must have great potential as a primary residence, be in a terrific location and need a makeover. Increase the market value of the real estate by adding character & value through improvements, landscaping and decorating. In essence, make it look like a model home.
Live in it for 2 years, market the heck out of it, sell it and repeat the process! You can do this too! Especially in the current real estate market where there are fabulous deals!
Today, we demonstrate great ways to add value to your home with inexpensive & easy to do custom window treatments and blinds.
We purchased these faux wood blinds that fit on the inside of each window segment and are very easy to install. The length of the blind is adjustable by removing slats from the bottom that are not needed . This creates the custom look, since they fit exactly.
The US Post Office sent us a packet of coupons when we moved into our new home that included a 10% coupon good at Home Depot, which Lowe’s will also honor. We purchased all of the blinds with this coupon!
Our front door has a fan shaped window above the door and 2 very thin side windows. Custom blinds would have been required for this configuration and there was NO WAY I was going to pay $1,200, which is the quote I received from a blind company.
Instead, I bought 2 queen sized white bed sheets for $ 9 total, perfect because they are large with no seams, and I made simple pockets in each end.
I cut a wooden dowel rod to make tiny custom curtain rods and held them in place with 10¢ cup hooks from the hardware store.
The curved fan window treatment was very simple to make, using the same design with a bedsheet and sewing a rod pocket at each end. I measured the distance between the top edge of the window to the bottom edge and simply pieced together one long rectangle that I made pockets at each end and threaded through a $ 3 plastic drainage tube.
I used tubing because it’s pliable and it will curve. Pretty clever huh? I found this tubing in the garden department of the hardware store.
Voila a custom window treatment!
That would cost $500 to have a designer create that for you!
A door that leads to the patio has a long slender window. This time I used an aluminum blind purchased on sale at Wal-Mart, removed the extra slats at the bottom and it looks totally custom!
Home buyers love to be able to walk right into a property that looks like a Model Home and not do a thing!
They don’t know that you used inexpensive techniques to enhance and stage the property, so the value of your improvements goes right into your selling price!
You are making it easy for buyers to LOVE your property and thanks to a little effort, you are on your way to making great tax free money!
Posted by M.S. on June 4, 2009
If there were 8 simple rules you could follow that would help you build a fortune and a satisfying life, would you be interested to learn about them?
Just in time for Summer reading, I recently came across a very inspiring book written by Dwight R Lee and Richard B McKenzie called “Getting Rich in America“.
I highly recommend this book because the focus of the book is on “ordinary people” like you and me, people of modest means and talents and how they “made it” through simple steps taken without sacrificing their quality of life.
I believe wholeheartedly in the idea that if you want to accomplish something, model someone that has already done it. This book uses real life examples of people that have accumulated enough money to be financially independent and tells you how to do that too!
They went from Frugal to Rich!
Here are the 8 Simple Rules featured in the book:
1. Think of America as the Land of Choices
2. Take Compound Interest Seriously
3. Resist Temptation
4. Get a Good Education
5. Get Married and Stay Married
6. Take Care of Yourself
7. Take Prudent Risks
8. Strive for Balance
The quote from Ben Franklin at the front of the book explains it well. “The way to wealth is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on 2 words, industry and frugality: that is neither waste time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without industry and frugality, nothing will do; and with them-everything!”
So basically, that means work hard and be frugal! If you save your money and invest, it will build wealth!
Look at these thought provoking questions the authors pose to help you on your way to getting rich!
Buy it used on Amazon.com or request it for FREE at your local library!
It is well worth your time!
Posted by M.S. on May 29, 2009
I LOVE to save money every way I can and that includes on cosmetics!
Many years ago, a frugal friend of mine told me she used a brand of cosmetics called “Wet & Wild”. They make a full line of cosmetics including foundation, eyeliners, lipsticks, nail polish and mascara. They work great, are super economical and I have used them ever since!
The lipsticks and eyeliners are what I use the most and they are each only 99 cents a piece!
The regular price is a super bargain- but you can get an even better price this week!
This week at Rite Aid you can get 1 Wet & Wild item for full price, for only 99 cents and get the second one at half price, that’s only 49 cents.
That works out to only 75 cents an item! Compare that to the price of some of the fancy brands of cosmetics! What a deal!
This best part is, as you can see on my receipt, I used one of the $25 Rite Aid gift cards that I had received FREE for transferring a prescription to Rite Aid! Getting these items on sale, leaves me with extra money on the card to buy other goodies!
Another great tip I received from a thrifty lady was for hairspray that is also just as effective as the expensive fancy brands! It is called Rave and is about $1.29 a bottle! I plan to get some of that with my FREE gift card too!
That’s money I am saving to build my wealth! I want to make ME rich–not the cosmetics companies!
And don’t you feel much more beautiful knowing you have money?
Let me know if you have other tips like this please!
Posted by M.S. on May 26, 2009
If you could pick up a prescription and get a $25 gift card for FREE at the same time, would you be interested? Would you like drugstores to be fighting for your business and giving you more FREE $25 cards? That’s what happened to me and I’ll tell you how you can do this too!
Recently I saw a sign in the window of a local Rite Aid drugstore that said you could get a FREE $25 gift card for any transferred prescription. The pharmacist told me I just needed to give them the prescription number and location of the pharmacy that had my prescription–and they would handle the rest.
I gave them my info and later picked up my prescription and got my FREE $25 Rite Aid Gift card! That gives me FREE MONEY, so I can invest that money instead!
Actually, you can transfer up to 4 prescriptions and receive a total of $100 worth of FREE Gift Cards! What a deal!
A week later, out of the blue, I received a $25 check from Walgreens in the mail that I could redeem if I transferred a prescription to them! I believe that was in response to my transferring a prescription away from their store.
Being a person that always loves FREE MONEY, I did just that! I now have $50 worth of FREE gift cards I can use to buy anything I want. The cards do have some restrictions. You cannot use the gift cards to pay for prescriptions or co-pays, stamps, tobacco, and other items.
But–anything else in the store you need including cosmetics, household supplies, even food you get for FREE!
I took the $50 I would have spent on these drugstore items and I invested it in the Vanguard S&P 500 Index Fund–to make myself MORE MONEY!
Use this calculator to see how that $50 will grow over time and how it will help you build wealth! Every little bit helps!
Posted by M.S. on May 9, 2009
When our children were born and people wanted to get a gift for the baby, we asked everyone to give the baby the gift of money that we would invest for them.
We knew the immense power compound interest would have over time and wanted our offspring to take advantage of that fabulous wealth builder. Most people honored our wishes! We set up a stock index mutual fund along with a general stock mutual fund for each child and start investing.
When the children were old enough to start working, we wanted to really encourage their frugal living and investing, so we made them an offer they could not refuse! We said for every dollar they contributed to their savings, we would match it–so they would double the amount of money they had to invest!
We set up a spreadsheet that we reviewed with them periodically to demonstrate how much richer they were getting. They became much more enthusiastic about saving their hard earned money after they started to see how their investments were earning them “free money” they didn’t have to earn by working.
On the day our children graduated from college, we switched the entire portfolio into their name! They EACH had a nest egg of over $25,000 to begin their adult lives at 22 years of age!
That’s a whole lot better than a bunch of smashed up old toys and NO money!
Wouldn’t that be a fabulous graduation present for your child too?
Posted by M.S. on May 5, 2009
When our children graduated from college, we reflected on what words of wisdom we could share to guide them on their own journey towards financial prosperity. We believe it could be boiled down to these 4 simple steps.
#1. Define how you want your life to look. Be very specific. Do a dream board where you gather pictures from magazines and create a photo montage of your future life. Show the dollar amount you want, the family you aspire to, career goals, homes you will buy, the fabulous travel you intend to do, etc. Now that you know what you are aiming for, you should set concrete financial goals to get there. Set a 1 year, 5 year and long range goal and start working hard and saving to achieve it!
# 2. Pay Yourself First. The minute you land a job, enroll in the company’s 401-K program and contribute the maximum amount. You have 40 years for the money to grow, so allow the power of compound interest to work for you and reap the huge benefits of all those years of growth. Alfred Einstein said compound interest is the 8th wonder of the world! If you are serious about becoming wealthy, you must save a much larger percentage of your income than the average American. Start with saving and investing 20% and go up from there! Do you want to be rich or don’t you? You will not get wealthy by spending all your money on junk. Learn to cook and make your coffee at home. Ok, splurge once in a while.
#3. Only buy appreciating assets, whenever possible– NOT depreciating assets. That means only buy things that will generally go UP in value over time- that is things like houses, stocks, mutual funds, etc. You can buy them now at fire sale prices (unless you think the world is coming to an end.) Do not buy loads of designer clothing and shoes, fancy overpriced cars, etc. You are not Don Trump! Don’t try to live like you are! You have a much better chance of getting wealthy if you defer gratification and wait to buy all those fun toys when you actually have the money to afford them! Now is the time to save and build up your nest egg. We know this is contrary to what most people do! That’s why most people have NO money!
# 4. Take care of your body! What good will wealth do for you if your health is a wreck? Eat less, exercise more, reduce stress. That’s the best investment you will ever make!
Now get going!
