By Cortni Marrazzo
My husband and I are do-it-yourselfers when it comes to home improvement. This is mostly because my husband’s dad is a contractor and he often guides and helps us when we need it. That being said, we’re barely a year into owning our first home and are still newbies. We recently […]

By S. Shugars
For nine years I lived in million dollar homes for free and it is something that anyone who is neat and conscientious can easily do. My junior year in college, a professor who I had assisted received a year long sabbatical to live in a foreign country. During that time, he needed someone […]

By Shannon Christman
Personal storage facilities are appearing everywhere. Whether new garage-like structures or refashioned warehouses, factories, and banks, all have the purpose of storing our culture’s accumulated stuff. For the “low” price of $39.95 a month, you can rent the smallest of these empty boxes — a space not much bigger than a walk-in closet. […]

By Jennifer Derrick
A neighbor recently announced that she was getting serious about getting out of debt and saving for her family’s future. “Good for you,” I said and meant it, right up until she started detailing her plan for becoming more frugal.
“We need to start staying home more,” she said. “We waste too much […]

By Jennifer Derrick
We all want to be safe and secure, but spending big money on a high tech security system may not be necessary. In most cases, simply applying some common sense will do the job. For most people, reasonable security can be attained for very little money. I say, “reasonable security” because the sad […]

By David John Marotta and Beth Anderson Nedelisky
Before reverse mortgages, pensioners wishing to tap into home equity were presented with two options: either sell the house or get a home equity loan. But since their humble beginnings in the late ’80s, reverse mortgages provided seniors with an additional tool for accessing home equity. The going […]

By David John Marotta
For the past seven years US markets have experienced the ripple effects of the tech sector’s correction in 2000. The latest waves have been in the slow decline of the housing market and, now, in the weakening of the commercial real estate market. While economists can’t always explain the timing of these […]

By Jennifer Derrick
My neighbors’ oldest child just left for college this fall. Watching him load his car with electronics, clothes, and “stuff,” headed for his new apartment, I started reminiscing about when I was just starting out. When I was younger, I lived a life that made others think I was poverty stricken. I didn’t […]

By Cortni Marrazzo
The process of buying a home and securing a mortgage can be very confusing if you don’t know what you are doing. That’s why it’s always important to do your homework. Obviously researching the mortgage process and the terms is very helpful, but perhaps the most important research you can do […]

By Cortni Marrazzo
When my husband and I were in the market for our first home, we were excited to take advantage of some of the first time home buyer programs we had heard so much about. After all, we were in fact first time home buyers and this would be the only time we’d […]