Category: Home

Although I am a homeowner and have been for the past 40 years, I can still remember the days when I was a renter. While renting wasn’t so terrible, I do wish I had learned some of the things about renting that I know now that would have saved me time, money, and peace of mind. Hopefully, you can use this knowledge to save when you rent an apartment.

Rental prices aren’t set in stone, even in highly competitive markets, so elbow grease and negotiation skills can yield hefty savings. One of the priciest cities in the country, San Francisco, today has an average price of a one-bedroom apartment of nearly $4,000 (!), so knowing a few tricks can definitely help.

We all hear the news about climate change as well as the weird and sometimes disastrous weather patterns that seem to happen almost every day in some part of the world. It used to be cold in the winter and hot in the summer. That’s not always the case anymore and the temperatures here in New Jersey sometimes seem like they’re 60-something degrees almost all year round. I may be exaggerating, slightly, but the weather has changed. When I hear some weather guy reporting that the temperatures in September were the warmest ever recorded for the month, and that they’ve broken the record now seven out of the last seven years, we have to admit that global warming is having an effect, don’t we? But sometime that effect is bad winter storms, and you need to prepare by winterizing your home.

That’s one reason I finally opened my wallet a few years ago and got the ball rolling on getting a new front door along with a storm door! I was finally ready (after freezing my rear end off for several years) to pull the cord and fix it. It has paid off in keeping us warmer and saving on our heating bill, enough to make me feel really foolish that I didn’t do it sooner.

The American Dream of owning a home is still alive and going strong in 2020 despite the chaotic world we are currently living in. It’s always a bit intimidating whenever you buy a home, but even more so when it’s the very first time you are planning to do it. So here’s what a first time homebuyer needs to know.

There’s a lot to think about when you are thinking about buying your first home and it’s normal to have a lot of questions. The idea of making the single largest purchase that you will ever make in your life is pretty scary. You might be wondering about the process from the beginning to closing and what it all means to your personal finances.