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.

My Online Glasses Do Not Work – Why?

photo credit: net_efekt

Some visitors have found my previous post on buying eyeglasses online because they were searching for help in figuring out why they could not see with the glasses that they had purchased online or they wanted help with measuring their PD.  In this post I will list some of the reasons why your vision might not be best with your new glasses and help you troubleshoot.  I also have included some links at the end of this post that will help you measure your PD accurately.

Before you read further … it is always a good idea to figure out if your vision is poor with one or both eyes.  To check this, alternately cover each eye and compare the vision with each eye while looking at distance or near – where ever you may be having a problem.

Prescription is Not Correct

Consider this a possibility if the new pair of glasses is your first pair with the new prescription.  If there was an error in determining your prescription or when writing it down, it is more likely that one eye is wrong than both eyes.  If you suspect that the prescription is wrong, you will have to return to the eye doctor that provided you with the new prescription or find a new doctor.

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.) 

How We Saved $31 Dollars This Month on Our Electric Bill

How often do you look at the inserts that are stuffed in your monthly bills?  A year ago or so I decided to research an insert that was included with my electricity bill, because it said I could shop for an electricity supplier.   Why would I want to do that?  Well, apparently, these other suppliers offered different rates.   Still curious, I went to the website noted on the insert and discovered a number of approved suppliers – all of whom offered lower rates than the default supplier (CL&P).  I filled out the necessary form and after a month or so our electric bill included our new supplier who was charging about 5% less than the rate that we had been paying.  I figured if the supplier portion of our monthly bill averaged $150 a month or $1800 a year, we would save a little less than $100 a year.  Not a lot of money, but there didn’t seem to be any downside.  In fact, other than listing a new supplier on our bill from CL&P, nothing changed, since CL&P still is responsible for delivery and billing.  In the past year, occasionally I would remember that we were saving money each month, but didn’t think too much more about it until it was time to write this post, my first post for Wealth Itself.

Here is what I discovered in researching this post – I was now saving a lot more than 5% because the supplier that I selected had not increased their rate since I had signed up, while CL&P had increased their rates.  For this past month we used 1771 KWH at a rate of $0.1048 per KWH; CL&P’s rate for this same period: $0.12217 per KWH, a rate that is more than 16% higher than what we are paying.  Our savings for the year will now be about $275 dollars. 

Garbage Disposals and Money in My Pocket

We’re in a recession–no doubt about it.  Companies are downsizing left and right, coworkers are getting laid off, the housing market is stagnant, and pay raises and corporate bonuses are smaller than ever.  On top of that, things are likely to get worse before they get better.

Drastic times such as these call for drastic measures.  In this post, I’m going to present to you one such measure.  In doing so, you are going to learn about one of the most important things you can do during these hard financial times.

The action I’m referring to is to become your own handyman.

We’ve all heard the horror stories.  Contractors are notorious for over-charging consumers on basic home maintenance tasks.  The problem, in most cases, is that we are ignorant to what they are doing.  When you are your own handyman, however, all these worries go out the window.  You are empowered to do the job yourself, and nobody is going to rip you off.

I’ll give you an example.  Earlier this week, I bought and installed a new garbage disposal.  I admit that it was a little intimidating at first; I pictured myself working for several days just to figure out how the thing worked.

A Penny Saved is a Penny… Saved

Want to know a quick and easy way to save money?

Keep a piggy bank.

That’s right… just like you did when you were a kid and had no financial worries in the world. Simply find a container that is lying around the house, unused, and put it to use. I use a sugar jar (which hasn’t actually contained any sugar for probably about 2 years) to collect my spare change.

Many people will scoff at this idea, believing that you can’t actually save any real money using this method. Well, guess what? I save at least $10 per month this way. That’s $120 per year for doing NOTHING; certainly nothing to laugh at.

How do I collect so much change per month? It’s easy. Every two weeks (after my paycheck is deposited), I withdraw about $150 to use for entertainment, according to my budget.  This $150 is subsequently used for all my entertainment needs during the following two weeks.

And here’s the secret: anytime I receive spare change for an expenditure, I deposit that change directly to my piggy bank.

Gym Expenses: 3 Ways to Save

Saving money on gym expenses can be a difficult thing to do.  The gym represents a cost that many will say is unnecessary, but for the majority of us, it is probably a good investment.  Before you consider quitting your gym habit to save money, read the following tips to see if there is an alternative:

1. Negotiate.  It’s possible to haggle for a lower gym membership fee.   Many gyms are willing to negotiate their prices or the length of their contracts, if you just ask.  Note: If you are already under contract, you may not have any leverage to negotiate; this works best for prospective members.  There is an excellent resource here that you can use as a guideline for negotiating to save on your gym expenses.
2. If you were unsuccessful in negotiating a lower price, try looking for a cheaper gym. If you don’t need a racquetball or basketball court, a rock wall, pool, or running track, you can probably opt to join one of the smaller gyms around town. These gyms usually offer a complete set of weight-training and cardio equipment, without the bells and whistles, for a much more reasonable price than the larger gyms.

3 Reasons to Clean Out Your Closet Immediately

Let’s get straight to the point. If you’re like me, your closet probably needs an overhaul. Well, mine DID need an overhaul, but I took care of that earlier today. I couldn’t believe some of the things I found in there! There were clothes that I literally hadn’t seen in years, because I had decided, long ago (in a galaxy far, far away), that I simply didn’t like to wear them! It was time, I decided, to do something about this mess. You may ask, “What is the problem with having old, outdated clothes in your closet? Sure, they take up space, but they aren’t hurting anything…?” Well, my answer would be, “That’s exactly what the problem is… they are taking up space–and doing nothing else–serving no other purpose but to take up space.” But that’s not really all there is to it. Check out my 3 reasons to clean out your closet immediately below:

1. To save space. Okay, this one is obvious.  The more crap you clean out of your closet, the more room you’ll have for other stuff.  You’ll have room for new clothes (maybe some that you actually like), new sports equipment, new books, or maybe just more junk that you just can’t let yourself get rid of yet (like that old X-Box that you never play anymore).  Or, better yet, maybe you just want some extra empty space.  After all, clutter contributes to higher stress levels, and nobody likes stress.