photo credit: woodleywonderworks

Skyrocketing mortgage payments as adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) reset was a leading contributor to the burst in the housing bubble.  These events reconfirm that fixed rate mortgages are generally the safer course of action for home buyers.  But which type of fixed rate mortgage is the best?  There are many different terms for fixed rate mortgages, but today we’ll be comparing the two most common types: the 30 year fixed and the 15 year fixed.

At first glance, you might expect a 15 year mortgage to have twice the payment of a 30 year, since you’ll pay the house off twice as fast.  In fact, since 15 year loans generally carry a lower interest rate and much of the cost of a mortgage goes out to interest, a 15 year mortgage may only have a marginally higher payment than a 30.

Let’s look at an example: Today’s rates are

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A weakness in many budgets that allows money to be lost is the failure to track cash.  Adding the ability to track cash in Quicken (and other tools) is easy to setup and quite useful.

Why Should You Track Cash?

Cash purchases may be hiding an inefficiency in the way you spend your money.  Without visibility into where your cash is going, you might not realize the wasteful nature a particular spending habit.  Tracking all of your other spending down to the penny may be for naught if your cash slush fund is where the waste in your spending can be found.  I used to have a category in my budget for “Cash Withdrawals.” I used that category for withdrawals from the ATM.  In reality, the cash should have been allocated to the category it was used for.  My old system basically allowed my cash to be uncategorized spending.  I may have appeared to be following my budget for Dining Out, for example, but if I was using cash to pay for lunch, I might have actually been over budget.  To solve that problem,

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Phishing scams continue to be a popular method for identity thieves to extract valuable information from unsuspecting targets.  In the traditional method, victims receive an official looking email from a bank or service provider requesting account information.  A new scam began today involving Vantage Credit Union and used a text message, rather than emails to solicit a response.  The medium may have changed from email to text, but the goal is the same: gaining access to your sensitive information.

The text message was sent to both members of the St. Louis area Vantage CU as well as non-members.

The message varied, but followed this basic form:

MSG: Vantage CU urgent notification: unusual activity, please verify your account at [www.

Recipients who went to the indicated website (omitted here to prevent anyone from visiting inadvertently)  were actually going to a false site designed to look like the actual Vantage Credit Union site.  The real VCU site, has more information about this incident as well as what to do if you responded to the message.

What today’s incident should remind us all is that unsolicited messages cannot be trusted.  Sure, some banks use text messages to alert their customers and this could have been an legitimate alert.  To be sure, always call your service provider (or visit their website) directly rather than following the link or instructions in an unsolicited message.

A fellow personal finance blogger, Mrs. Micah, has declared February to be Where’s My Money Going Month.  She’s challenging her readers to track their spending for 28 days and participate in the ongoing discussion on her blog.  I have a guest post on her blog, describing why tracking my money is more important than ever.

In addition to that contribution, I thought I’d share with you where my money went in 2008.  I track every dollar I spend and have found the practice to be quite enlightening.  Even though I don’t have as much fat to trim now that I’ve been doing it for a few years, it is still worthwhile.  Looking at my top expenses for the year is also very informative.

The chart below shows my 10 largest expenses for

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There will probably be a huge surge in interest in the Hyundai Assurance Program after its advertisement during the Superbowl.  Here’s an overview of the program and analysis of whether it’s worth considering.

How It’s Advertised:

Buy a new Hyundai and you can return it within a year if you lose your job with no impact on your credit rating.

Program Details from Hyundai:

Eligible Events to Return Your Vehicle

• Involuntary Unemployment
• Physical Disability
• Loss of Driver’s License due to Medical Impairment
• International Employment Transfer
• Self-Employed Personal Bankruptcy
• Accidental Death

Other Terms

• You have to lease or finance the purchase through Hyundai
• The covered event must happen in the first year
• Your loan must be current and at least two payments must be made
• If you have more than $7,500 in negative equity, you pay the difference

Analysis

The first feature of the program that strikes me is that in order to be eligible

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Here are some of the most popular posts from Richer by the Day over the past week:

Newborn or drop in income in 2008?  The Recovery Rebate Tax Credit may apply.
Getting a big rebate?  Adjust how you pay the IRS throughout the year.
Want to retire early?  Compute your savings rate for early retirement.
Regular budgeting too complex?  Try a simple envelope budget.
Missed out on part of your 2008 matching?  Learn about 401K company match limitations.