Average US Housing Price to Return to Peak Price in 2020

Paul Kedrosky of the Calculated Risk blog has posted the above graphic prepared by Moody’s economy.com (see full post here or click on graphic) that suggests that the recent peak housing prices will not return to the states hardest hit by falling home prices, such as California and Florida, until after 2023. The average US home price is not expected to return to the recent peak until 2020. Of course, these projections are based on assumptions that may not be met. But, if you own a home and are underwater and hoping for a quick return to a positive equity position, these estimates should temper some of your optimism. Note that the CSI acronym included in the graphic is the Case-Shiller index, a calculation based on repeat sales of US single family homes.

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10 Year Treasury Note Predicting Stock Market Drop?

Andy Dufresne at Zero Hedge just posted the above chart from StockCharts.com of the 10 Year Treasury Note and S&P index (see his post here). Please note on the chart how the 10 Year (in red) peaks before the market peaks and bottoms before the market bottoms, with a lag of 3 to 4 months. If the 10 Year is now rolling over and the same correlation holds true as the chart shows, the market should bottom in the Fall. The good news is that mortgage rates will drop, since rates are tied to the 10 Year Note.

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Buying Glasses Online – PD & Fitting Height

photo credit: oskay

How often have you heard someone tell you how much he or she paid for their prescription glasses? How often have you told someone how much you paid?  These statements never seem to suggest that the glasses were cheaper than expected.  In response to the high cost of glasses, buying glasses online is becoming commonplace, with price being the primary driver for the increasing success of this option.

I am not going to tell you to or not to buy your glasses online, but I am going to provide you with some points to consider before hitting the submit button on your next online eyeglass order.  So, caveat emptor (buyer beware).

Eyeglasses require a prescription. This prescription will include measurements that will allow each eye of the patient to see as clear as possible at distance or near or for both distance and near.   Some patients may require other specialized features that are prescribed to aid the eyes in working together (you will need to include these values in your online order).  Prescriptions typically include an expiration date, a date specified either by state regulations and/or the prescribing doctor.   This is it – there is rarely inclusion of other information that is necessary to fabricate the pair of glasses.  This additional information is typically gathered by the optician when eyeglasses are being ordered.  So, if you are going to order glasses online, you should know more about this ‘additional information’.

Pupillary distance (pd): The pd is the distance between your eyes and is used to place the optical center of the lenses in front of your pupils.   Here are four points about this value to consider when ordering glasses online:

1. The measurement for the pd may be done simply with a ruler or a device called a pupilometer.   If you have your pd from your optician or eye doctor, you can use these values.  But if you have to measure the pd at home, you will need a ruler marked in millimeters.  The process to measure pd requires that the ‘patient’ be effectively looking at distance.  This is done by measuring each eye separately and not by simply having the ‘patient’ look  at the person taking the measurement and recording a single value.  This would be a near measurement and will not account for differences between the right and left eyes.  If the measurement taken is of the near pd, the distance pd will be underestimated by up to 3 mm.  (A common way determine where to place the center of the lenses is to properly mark the location of the pupils relative to a pair of eyeglass lenses and then measure these marks for the right and left eye.) 

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Information Overload Will Eat Your Brain

Well, it’s the 21st century and there is so much information floating around that it’s just impossible to ever consume it all.  This surplus of information has given us a need to quickly sort through our sensory inputs, separating the good from the bad, and ignoring (if we can) the bad.

As a result, we’ve seen the rise of social sites such as Digg and StumbleUpon, we’ve been introduced to new groundbreaking productivity systems such as GTD and ZTD, and we’ve witnessed the uprising of a new psychological condition commonly referred to as ADD.

With so much information, it often seems like there’s just not enough time in a day.  Daily tasks such as dishes, laundry, and cleaning are much harder to “make time for.”  Unfortunately, our pocketbook suffers too.

Proper management of our finances takes time.  Coupon-clipping takes time.  Price-comparisons take time.  Budgeting takes time.  You get the point.  These things, unfortunately, often take a backseat to other things in our lives, simply because we feel that we don’t have time.

New Edition of the Carnival of Debt Reduction

The new edition of the Carnival of Debt Reduction is out and one of my articles has been featured: 5 Reasons to Track Your Expenses.  Go check it out!

This carnival really featured some great articles.  Here are some of my favorites:

• Make Your Own Debt Reduction Plan from Destroy Debt
• What to Do When Relatives Ask for Loans from Free Money Finance
• How to Eliminate Your Debt (Without Spending More) from Words of the Shadow’s Kin
• A Penny Saved is More Than a Penny Earned from Little People Wealth

I hope you enjoy the content from this carnival.  It’s one of the best I’ve seen in a while!

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5 Reasons to Track Your Expenses

One of the most important things you can do for your finances is to track your expenses.  For many people, this means using Quicken.  For me, it’s a simple Google Docs spreadsheet.  Whatever your method, there are countless reasons to perform the simple task of tracking your expenses.  5 of these reasons are listed below:

1. It’s absolutely the simplest way to overcome your paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle.  Simply notice how much you are spending each month and budget $5 or $10 less for the following months.  Set this money aside as “padding” and eventually you’ll have a significant chunk of “extra” cash in your account.
2. It allows you to optimize your spending.  When you track your expenses, it will likely be blatantly obvious where the majority of your spending money is going.  For me, this has traditionally been eating out.  Simply notice these activities that are sucking up all of your money, identify a “fix”, and commit to it.  One of my previous fixes was to spend $100 less per month on restaurant food.  It worked.