Ilyce Glink's BlogWelcome to Ilyce Glink's blog! Here you'll find Ilyce's latest insights on personal finance advice, real estate advice and consumer issues. Come back often for timely and interesting posts on a wide variety of topics. Tuesday, August 05, 2008 Having Trouble Selling Your Home? Try Going Green
Going green seems rather trendy these days, but it really makes sense if you're trying to save money on energy. One way to go green is to install solar panels on your roof, as pictured here. Trying to sell your home? Adding green features may help. Some interesting figures from a recent survey conducted by the U.S. Green Building Council and McGraw-Hill Construction: - 78 percent of homeowners earning less than $50,000 per year say they would be more inclined to purchase a green home - Lower energy costs are increasingly demanded by and available to home buyers at all income levels - Going green was the top reason cited by survey respondents for remodeling their home - More than 80 percent of respondents said they believe that green homes are not just more economical, but offer better and healthier places to live - Almost half (44 percent) of homes renovated between 2005 and 2007 used products chosen for their green attributes Want to learn more ways to save energy? Check out our videos on the ENERGY STAR program. or Labels: energy, Green, home renovation, Home Selling
posted by Melanie G. Rogers at 12:59 PM
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Wednesday, February 06, 2008 Save Money, Save the Environment
Right now I pay some of my bills with paper checks and others electronically through the Web. Soon, when my student loan payments come due, I will have those automatically deducted from my account. Paying electronically is the way to go, according to NACHA, a trade group of financial institutions who participate in the Automated Clearing House Network. NACHA released some stats about how paying electronically benefits the environment: - By switching to electronic bills, statements and payments, the average American household can conserve 6.6 pounds of paper, 170 pounds of greenhouse gases (the equivalent of not driving 167 miles or planting two trees), 63 gallons of water and 4.5 gallons of gasoline in one year. - If an additional 2 percent of all American households switch to making payments electronically and receiving bills and statements electronically, the environment would save 181,128 trees, avoid creating enough wastewater to fill 218 Olympic-size swimming pools, avoid creating enough waste to fill 614 garbage trucks, eliminate 194,453 tons of greenhouse gases (the equivalent of taking 32,308 cars off the road). - Paper checks use over 674 million gallons of fuel and add more than 3.6 million tons of greenhouse gases/carbon dioxide to the environment, each year. - To transport 533 million pounds of billing statements and checks, it requires an estimated 235 million gallons of fossil fuels, resulting in more than 1.3 tons of carbon dioxide emissions. - About 35 percent of your FICO score is based on payment history including detail on timely payments and late or missed payments. Paying bills via Direct Payment ensures you will never have another late/missed payment. - People who pay bills online do so in 15 minutes, each month. Those who write out checks waste two hours. - 97 percent of those who use Direct Deposit are "very satisfied." - Paying bills electronically saves the average person a minimum of $150 annually on checks, stamps, late fees, etc. So if you want to save your credit score, save money and save trees, try paying more of your bills electronically. Melanie G. Rogers ThinkGlink.com Labels: ACH, banking, energy, environment, Green
posted by Ilyce Glink at 3:40 PM
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Monday, January 14, 2008 Not Paying Taxes on Principle Does Not Fly
* Misinterpretation of the 9th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution regarding objections to military spending.
*A nonexistent "Mariner's Tax Deduction" (or the like) related to invalid deductions for meals. *Certain instances of misuse or excessive use of the section 6421 fuels credit. In 2006 the IRS increased the penalty to $5000 from $500 for tax returns which cite one of these reasons. For more information check out this Web site: http://www.irs.gov/taxpros/article/0,,id=159853,00.html While one can make a lot of jokes about tax season, it's not funny if you have to pay a big penalty. Melanie G. Rogers ThinkGlink.com
posted by Ilyce Glink at 3:30 PM
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1 Comments:I just brought a car in 10/07 and can't really afford it how do I get out of the loan agreement without them repoing the car
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Sunday, August 26, 2007 Size Always Matters
Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He is drafting a "carbon tax" bill that would eliminate the mortgage interest tax deduction if you own a home over 3,000 square feet. On the Ilyce Glink Show today, listeners had better ideas for getting people to cut down on their energy use: 1. Tax kilowatt usage rather than the size of someone's home. Joe called in to say he has a 6,000 square foot house but his energy bill is $139 per month. 2. Replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. 3. Stop drinking bottled water. Use tap water and a Nalgene bottle. 4. From Len: Give tax credits to homeowners and businesses. Put up solar panels and wind turbines up so everyone can participate. 5. Reduce the speed limit. What do you think? Should size (of house) matter? Labels: Compact fluorescent bulbs, energy
posted by Ilyce Glink at 10:52 AM
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