Ways To Protect Your Home From Burglars And Break Ins When You Are Away

By MoneyBlueBook

I got a sudden phone call from my friend yesterday. His stunned voice said it all - he and his newlywed wife had just become victims of an attempted home burglary. The shocking part is that he and his wife were home at the time sitting at the kitchen table, eating breakfast. Their early morning meal was interrupted by a sudden loud banging noise from the direction of their back porch - sounds made by someone knocking on the door. The tapping sound was quickly followed by the chilling clang of breaking glass and creaking window latches. Within moments my friend dashed to the back door and caught the glimpse of the male intruder. Startled by the appearance of the home's occupants, the stranger hastily retreated on foot, leaving behind broken glass and evidence of his attempted break in.

Home Invasion Robbery Is A Crime Of Opportunity and We Can Do Something About It

The good news is that there are common sense steps we can all take to drastically reduce our chances of having our houses, apartments, or condos burglarized. Looking back in greater depth with my friend, he and I both realized that he had committed a series of crucial home maintenance mistakes that made him a bullseye target for such activity. Since moving into the old Northwest Washington D.C. house a month ago after taking it over from his remaining parent who had just passed away, he failed and neglected to immediately fix up and repair the home's exterior upkeep. The grass had

By MoneyBlueBook

I've had numerous financial milestones in my life, but one still seems to stand out in my relatively young working life. From the time I eventually emerged from under my parent's financial wing to finally working and fending for myself, I still remember when I finally saved and banked that first $10,000. Everything else accumulated after that just seems to pale in significance to that first ten grand.

Crossing the $10,000 Milestone Signified the Mature Transition From Paycheck Living To A Forward Looking, Savings Oriented Lifestyle

During college, I was financially spoiled and completely under my parent's financial protection. Whenever I was low on funds I simply received a parental handout. But as time passed, the funds began to dwindle as my parents started to reinforce the importance of keeping spending habits in check. At the time, my spoiled mentality prevented me from realizing that my parent's growing refusal to give in to all my financial demands was due to their desire to teach me the importance of frugal living. At the time, I was childishly bitter when my handout demands were rejected. Looking back though, I now feel very lucky and grateful to have had parents who had the love and care to teach me important life lessons I would need in the future, as well as the financial means to help partially subsidize my education.

When I graduated and started working for the first time I began to face the harsh financial realities of the real world. My first legal job was a low paying

By MoneyBlueBook

Editor's Note: Thank you for your interest, these offers have expired and are no longer available.

One of the biggest problems and common complaints of using rebate credit cards is the reward program's propensity to encourage overspending. Finding a reward credit card is easy and particularly with cash back cards, redeeming rebates is a breeze. But the problem is - are you putting your cash back earnings towards the right type of expenditures? Credit cards that offer airline miles or redeemable gift cards are certainly wonderful, but they don't do much to encourage the right type of spending or the development of responsible money habits. Citibank's Home Rebate Platinum Select Mastercard is a unique card that tries to change all that by helping you automatically put those rebates towards something important and worthwhile - the mortgage loan you have on your house or condominium.

Automatically Pay Down Your Home Mortgage Principal Using the Citibank Home Rebate Card

If your current card reward program is only going to encourage you to spend beyond your means on things you don't need, you should definitely take a look at the Citibank Home Rebate Card as a serious alternative. It's not the sexiest or fanciest of rebate cards, but it's uniquely practical and well suited for home owners and those who want to be more responsible with how they spend their rebate dollars. The card automatically reallocates all earned rebates towards paying off your home loan principal. Paying down principal is better than paying ahead on your mortgage because by paying down the principal, you lower the total amount of interest you pay, and may be

By MoneyBlueBook

Due to my desire to go completely paperless and to streamline my finances, I eliminated paper billing from my life at the start of last year. Of course there are still a few pesky old fashioned companies that insist on sending me paper bills through snail mail, but the vast majority have complied and converted my monthly statements into E-billing. I've also taken it one step further by setting up and activating automatic online debit payments for all of my bank, credit card, and home utility accounts. Since I switched to online billing and automatic debit payments, it's been much easier for me to manage my finances. My primary Citibank checking account is now linked up with all of the paid services that I use, allowing me to easily pay home utility bills and credit cards at the touch of a mouse click. I view my account balances from one convenient page using an online account consolidator program like Fidelity Full View, which is powered by Yodlee. Most services provide the automatic debit option for free, as they should, since it allows companies to save money on payment handling expenses.

Your Payments May Be On Autopilot, But Don't Lose Track Of Recurring Charges

The convenience of automatic paperless bill pay is not without its hazards and pitfalls as I soon learned. Automatic bill pay is extremely easy to set up but it can be tricky to maintain. I'll tell you why. Yes, you no longer have to deal with tracking credit card due dates and

By MoneyBlueBook

I left the traditional attorney job behind a few years ago and now do finance and legal work on a contractual basis. I've been doing this for more than a year now and so far it's been enjoyable, although not without its ups and downs. But then they don't call it a job for nothing. I probably can go on and on about how miserable I was working as an attorney but I think I'll save that for another day. Suffice to say, the legal field is overly saturated and the profession simply isn't the lucrative and inspiring field it used to be. I think most attorneys today, including myself would be wary about recommending law school to those contemplating a field of study. I am constantly trying to tell younger friends to bypass law school and do something more worthwhile and meaningful with their lives, but they never seem to listen. They'll know what I mean when they get out.

A Change Of Profession Is What I Needed

So here I am in my current job, working on a contractual basis in a field somewhat related to my area of study. The job security and rapid advancement opportunities may be gone, but my sanity and happiness have flourished ten fold. Working on a contractual basis, I now have the opportunity and time to develop and improve my various side ventures - things I'm quite passionate about. Of course, perhaps one day I will tire and choose to get back to the nitty gritty legal practice. Tax

By MoneyBlueBook

These are uneasy times if you are an E-Trade broker customer or investor. For those who bought and currently own E-Trade stock, these are probably one of the most trying times you've ever faced as share prices have plummeted more than 90%within the last year. Triggered by Citigroup's downgrade in November 2007, many investors and account holders are fearing the worst and some have jumped ship, shifting their assets to another brokerage firm. Just yesterday share prices tanked more than 20% in yet another day of volatile trading in response to further analyst warnings that E-Trade is in dire need of an additional capital infusion to stay in business.

Shareholders are bailing - a grave concern for many current E-Trade brokerage account holders as many fear for the safety and security of their stock investment accounts. E-Trade has released numerous press releases and web based announcements to reassure customers that they have taken drastic steps to shed exposure to the dreaded mortgage backed assets that have been generating so much business losses, and that they currently have the necessary capital liquidity to stay afloat.

If you're an E-Trade account holder, you can sigh in relief as your assets are generally well protected. However, if you're an actual E-Trade stock investor - my condolences, as you may be of luck unless you could somehow successfully demonstrate that you were defrauded.

Escape From E-Trade If You Must, But Your Assets Are Secure

I used to be a long time E-Trade customer but eventually