New Resolutions for Your Home

Repairing the Essentials:  Too many people try to fix something that ain’t broken. Look around and try to repair only what needs to be repaired. It’s not just for the sake of comfort in your home but also to maintain a higher resale value of your assets so you don’t have to take a dive when it comes time to selling your home. Fixing things in advance before anything major happens will certainly decrease the cost of repair in the long run. Basically, there is a difference between getting a bio-metric scanner for your front door as opposed to fixing that darn drippin’ faucet in the kitchen.

Saving More on Utilities:  This one is self-explanatory, yet not everyone obeys these simple rules that will reduce your cost of living. For instance, simply turning off the lights or any electric appliances when you don’t need them or not wasting too much water would go a long way. Same goes for the air-conditioning resources. Make sure you make it a point to turn on the cooler & heater upon demand. If it happens to be such that the weather outside is fairly comfy, then you can always open up the windows (assuming the air outside is not too polluted). Also, running your dishwasher and laundry at certain less busy times of the day would tend to help minimize your electric bill. A smart homeowner will always look for ways to save…

Achieving Optimal Capacity:  This tactic-resolution can actually create for more ideal living conditions being determined by how many residents are living there vs how many are actually paying any rent. When it comes to logic, usually, two opposite extremes are always wrong. In one extreme case, you may have a home that’s filled with kids and pets with no room to breathe as you’re struggling to make your next payments. And the other extreme could be settling into a home that’s WAY too big for you and your family thus making you experience the “sunk-cost” fallacy, meaning that you’d be pumping money & resources into a house capacity that will be devouring your mortgage that could’ve gone toward something more cost-worthy like a college fund or a vacation budget or even retirement or other non-volatile investments.

Refinancing the Mortgage:  It’s no surprise so many homeowners aren’t taking advantage of refinancing methods, considering how convoluted and complex the mortgage terms can be. As a general rule, it always helps to be knowledgeable about what kind of a loan-arrangement you have. If your income changes or if you start a family or if the banks all of a sudden raise the interest rates, you should definitely consider refinancing your mortgage-loan or else you may risk defaulting on your credit-loan thereby compromising your credit score and your lifestyle. Under a fixed interest rate, it becomes more predictable and more manageable unlike the variable rates that can potentially mess up your financing. Another practice is to choose a banking/financial entity that’s more altruistic and supportive of their clients. Better yet, they’ll keep you informed about the latest tips & tricks along with policies & regulations that can work in your advantage.

Dec 29, 2014 - Yuri Sire – Content Manager / Blogger

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