Filing Money

Whether you plan to take the kids trick-or-treating or have a large-scale party, there are many creative ways to make this Halloween unforgettable.

Creating your own Halloween essentials is a great way to have a unique celebration while saving money. Perfect Glue, a great resource for family-friendly Halloween projects, offers these simple money- and time-saving tips for a frighteningly fun night.

* Host a pre-Halloween party. Gather with friends and family to create Halloween decorations. The quality time spent together is priceless and creates cherished memories.

* Add flair to costumes. Make your own costumes or costume accessories for you and your family. A pumpkin goodie bag, for example, is a fun item that trick-or-treaters will proudly carry.

To make a pumpkin goodie bag, you’ll need orange, black, yellow and white felt, ribbon, scissors, a white pencil and Perfect Glue 1. Begin by tracing a pumpkin onto orange felt and cutting out two layers. Apply the Perfect Glue around the edges and glue the layers together, leaving the top open. Cut pumpkin face features out of the black, white and yellow felt. Glue the pieces onto the front. Finally, cut two long ribbons for the handles and glue to the inside of the bag. Let the bag dry for at least one hour before allowing the treats to flow inside.

* Design ghoulishly delightful home decor. Create an outstanding tablescape using eye-catching candy holders and terror-ific trees with branches filled with spiders and skulls. Make ornaments out of felt in the shape of traditional Halloween symbols – pumpkins, black cats and ghosts, for instance. As an added touch, stuff each ornament with candy or other fun keepsakes.

The recent housing market boom has resulted in a substantial rise in the number of new property investors.

What new investors might not know is that investment property depreciation is the second most frequently missed deduction on federal income tax forms.

But there’s help. A new service created by three real estate experts enables property investors to quickly identify and track personal property, or “chattels,” to accelerate their depreciation deductions.

Chattel Appraisals – an easy-to-use online valuation tool provided by Dolf de Roos, a real estate investor and author of the New York Times best-seller “Real Estate Riches”; Thomas Wheelwright, a real estate tax expert; and Marshall & Swift, a leading real estate cost data provider – allows property investors to quickly improve their bottom line by maximizing tax depreciation benefits.

Before the release of Chattel Appraisals, cost segregation studies were typically expensive and reserved for commercial investors. Now, residential property investors have the ability to log on to www.chattelappraisals.com and prepare summarized reports of personal property values at a fraction of the cost of a typical study.

“We are thrilled to provide our clients and other real estate investors with this powerful tax tool,” said Wheelwright, who is managing partner of DK Advisors, a financial consulting firm. “Our experience over many years shows that a strong chattel appraisal can often triple or quadruple the depreciation deductions on an investment property in the early years. And the IRS specifically recommends Marshall & Swift data in their audit guide for chattel appraisals.”

At a price of $199.95, Chattel Appraisals can save a user thousands of dollars on taxes each year. The service is available for owners of single-family rental properties and multi-unit rental properties of up to 10 units.

“Chattel Appraisals will enable thousands of investors to get cash flow from investments through tax benefits that, in many cases, can turn a losing property into a cash-flowing property,” Wheelwright said. – NU

Good news: Consumers can save nearly $3 billion a year just by using coupons when shopping. According to the Promotion Marketing Association Coupon Council, spending just 20 minutes per week clipping coupons can save you up to $1,000 per year. It’s easy. Over 85 percent of all coupons issued in the U.S. are found in Sunday papers. And it’s popular. Seventy-six percent of Americans are already coupon users.

The following tips can also help you on your way to becoming a savvy coupon clipper:

Finding Coupons:

• Look in the store. You’ll find coupons in retailers’ advertising flyers, on the shelf, at kiosks, even at the checkout. Turn your register receipt over-sometimes there will be coupons there, too.

• Try samples offered in the store and you’ll often be offered a coupon to take home a package of the products.

• Check product packages. Your favorite brands want to keep you loyal, so you’ll often find coupons on or in the package.

• Look on the Internet. There are coupon sites where you can print coupons and find providers who will e-mail you coupons. A product manufacturer’s Web site may offer coupons for brands you love. Check the store’s Web site too. Be cautious online, however, of someone offering to sell you coupons…there’s no need to buy them when there are so many available free.

Using Coupons:

• Organize your coupons in the order that you shop the store to save time and make sure you use them all.

• Make coupon-clipping a family affair–it can be a great math and savings lesson for the kids. Involve them in the process and let them “earn” coupon savings money.

• Use coupons with shorter expiration dates first.

• Shop on double or triple coupon days and use manufacturers’ rebates to realize additional savings.

Let?s face it ? the economy is putting a strain on quite a bit of families. More people live paycheck to paycheck than ever before. More people are looking for money saving tips in order to keep their household in survival mode. We?ve all been at a point in our life in which we need to find ways to cut expenses and live more frugally. It isn?t always easy to make changes and put a few extra bucks into our pockets, but every little bit of savings helps ? no matter how minor it may be.

When looking for money saving tips, evaluate your lifestyle. Do you visit Starbucks or a convenience store every morning for that must-have cup of coffee? Do you use your lunch breaks to eat takeout every day? If you?re addicted to coffee or lunch on the go, you?d be surprised at how quickly you can begin to save money. Let?s say that you spend $2.00 on coffee each morning. That?s $10 for the work week. Make coffee before you leave for work, put it in a coffee cup and you?ve just saved yourself some money. And, let?s say that you spend at least $5 each workday on lunch. That?s $25 each week. If you pack a lunch, you could save $100 each month. The little things that we spend money on each day and never think twice about can really add up. Every little trip to the vending machines for a snack or a soda, that loose change can accumulate quickly.

Some other money saving tips will include how things operate in your household. Do you leave a light on when you leave the room? Do you let the TV on for background noise? Do you run the dishwasher or washing machine when there isn?t very much in it? All of those things use electricity. Turning a light out or the TV off may not save you lots each month, but you will see a decrease in your electric bill. Electricity rates are always on the rise, so if you can find some money saving tips that decrease your electric bill, the more power to you. Instead of running a fan in your room, open a window a bit wider. When going on vacation, put timers on your lights instead of leaving a few on the entire time that you are away.

Some of the best money saving tips include coupons and looking for discounts. Cutting out coupons can save you quite a bit of money each week. The more coupons that you are able to find and use, the more you save. You may find yourself saving $10 or more on your grocery bills.

There are lots of money saving tips that can be found. You need to look for them. Look around your house ? can you save on your phone or cable bills each month? Can you shop at discount grocery stores? Evaluate your lifestyle and then make some minor or major changes. Your paychecks just may go further than you think that they will.

Home buying is about finding the right house, and this includes getting the right price. There are five basic ways to buy a home for less. Here are three of them.

Home Buying Secret – Buy In Inexpensive Towns

Yes, there are still inexpensive towns that you might actually want to live in. In fact, there are still towns in this country where you can see a good movie, put the kids in a good school, go shopping, enjoy nearby natural beauty, and buy homes for under fifty thousand dollars. My wife and I bought a beautiful little home with hardwood floors, a full carpeted basement, and a garage, in a pretty mountain town, for $17,500, in 2002. You can still get homes for under $35,000 there.

What you can’t find easily there, is a good job. These towns with the cheapest homes usually have a bad job situation. They are great places to retire to, or to move to if you have a business or profession that isn’t location-dependent. Writers and internet entrepreneurs are beginning to discover them.

This may not work for you, of course. If you already have determined where you will be living, or if you need a town with high-paying jobs, try the following ways to save money.

Home Buying Secret – Buy Inexpensive Houses

One way to save when buying a home is to find a less expensive alternative that still fits your needs. This can mean buying in the inexpensive parts of town, or buying the inexpensive types of homes. Don’t set your mind on one type of home or one neighborhood before you know what all the alternatives are.

This isn’t about buying a cheap dump to save money, or buying in a dangerous part of town. It is more about a philosophy of defining your true needs so you can find the least expensive way to meet them. You may be surprised at what is available for less.

Home Buying Secret – Negotiate A Lower Price

No matter what you buy, you can save a lot if you know a few basic negotiating techniques. You’ll find easy-to-learn techniques in any good book on negotiating. Is it worth a few minutes reading and an hour or two of practice to save thousands of dollars?

There are simple negotiating techniques that are used by the masters of negotiation. They are used in all areas of business and real estate. You don’t need to become a master, though, to knock a couple thousand off the price of that next house. In fact, a little knowledge goes a long way in home buying.