Tips for the holiday season: decluttering and donating. Best practices for organizing your home and itemizing charitable donations. The holiday season is the perfect time to declutter, organize, and ditch your extra stuff. You’re not only about to receive a lot more stuff, but decluttering your home will also help keep some of that holiday-induced [...]
Many consumers are worried about how to protect themselves from potential 2013 tax hikes. We talked with Certified Financial Planner Rick Rodgers, who discusses how to handle the potential changes coming next year. Please consult your own financial planner or tax advisor before acting. Q: How will a tax hike in 2013 affect IRAs, and [...]
As homeowners are struggling to sell their homes, some are instead turning to an alternative option: renting. In addition, more companies are swooping into the market offering to rent homes for struggling homeowners, and more investors are snapping up cheap properties in order to rent them out. With so many new homes hitting the rental [...]
You can do a lot on your smartphone today. You can buy a new pair of pants, order dinner, and watch a movie. You can also keep track of your calendar, monitor your bank account, and even check your credit score. And if you get into a car accident or your home is looted, now [...]
In a shopping center in South Jersey ringed by retail stores like Best Buy and Barnes & Noble, shoppers can buy a totally different kind of product—health insurance. Insurance companies and brokers across the country are stepping out of offices and business parks and into brick-and-mortar retail stores, setting up inside shopping malls and retail [...]
In the dreary real estate market, short sales are quickly becoming the new foreclosures— and that’s actually a good thing. A short sale is not an ideal way to get out of a mortgage you can’t afford, but it’s better than foreclosure, which causes severe damage to your credit score, limits your ability to buy [...]
With the cost of college rising and the economy still hindering young graduates’ ability to stay afloat, more parents are raiding their retirement and savings to help their kids pay for life on their own. National financial planning firm Ameriprise Financial asked more than 1,000 baby boomers if they provided some level of financial support [...]
The question of how to pay for medical expenses as we age isn’t one many of us want to answer. It’s hard enough to think about not being able to get dressed, take care of ourselves, or move around our homes without wondering how much it will cost to get help. However, those planning for [...]
As fall ushers out summer, this month marks a good time to prepare your home for the chilly air, falling leaves and impending winter months. Summer is too much fun to do home maintenance, and winter’s ice and snow bring too much hassle, but I don’t mind working inside or outside during fall’s crisp days [...]
As Hurricane Sandy, one of the largest storms on record, punishes the East Coast with rain, winds and rising waters, homeowners need to know what to do to protect their homes. Just one inch of flood water in a 2,000-square-foot home can cause almost $21,000 in damage, according to the National Flood Insurance Program. Flooding [...]
