1st blog from phone

So this is my first post using my phone. Slightly inconvinient coz the rich text mode wont work on the fone so have to use the basic text format - will have to see how it comes out!

-V.

Things I should remember when buying my next house

I bought a condo last year...finally! Yes, it took me more than a year from starting to look for an agent to finally signing the papers, but I did it! Actually, We did it. I guess, I was waiting for lady luck to get things going :)

Since this was my 1st house and this was my biggest investment, yet, I wanted to make sure I got it right! Nevertheless, there were things I did miss.. :). So I am jotting points down here and will refer back to this when I am ready to buy my next house! :)

1. Location! Decide this before looking at listings or price ranges.

2. Price Range. This will depend ofcourse on how much mortgage one can afford and how much down payment one can afford.

3. Condo Fee - very high condo fee or HOA fee is not a desirable thing. I think anything more than $500/month is definitely high.

4. Windows - its good to have big windows, even better if they are in east-west direction so sunlight comes in during the day.

5. Windows - its good to not have a tree right outside the windows for 2 reasons: loss of sunlight, and possibility of insects coming in from tree.

6. Windows - check to see the insulations. Leaks in windows/front doors can cause increased electricity bills!

7. Gas vs Electric stove. While functionality wise, I dont have any particular preference, but if there is a power cut (for eg. due to heavy snow), in that case, atleast the gas stove could be working and used for cooking/providing heat to the house. (This actually did come in handy when 3 yrs back I lost heating in my house due to a/c issues. My smart roommate, a LTC, was able to devise a way to heat the upper floors of the town house as well, using the stove and oven).

More to come... :)

-V

Things I should remember when doing Taxes

1. If choosing to do using a CPA, try to get them to quote a price(most dont, but claim they will give you an estimate if your details are provided)

2. Following documents should be available when doing the taxes -

a. W2

b. Paystub

c. Interest/Divident statement from bank for the checking/savings acc

d. Mortgage Interest payment statement (1098 I think - bank sends that in mail sometime in Jan)

d1. Home Settlement sheet if bought house the previous year.

d2. If paid up front to reduce points from loan, information on that should be available in the Settlement statement.

e. Car taxes payed through the year (Property tax).

f. Home Improvement bills - this is a tricky one. Have to be sure to know what can and what cannot be included in Home Improvement tax deductibles.

g. IRA documents if invested in IRA (or bank issues 1099-R showing the account was closed previous year) - this is issued by bank in Jan.

h. Stocks statment - usually your stock company would have already prepared the Schedule-D and 1099 form for your investements through the year.

i. Charity payments done through the year.

j. Bank Acc details for direct deposit.

Disclaimer: This above list is based only on my personal experience and is in no way definitive. Please keep that in mind when reading this.

-V

How to find a Windows Machine system-up time?

Now that I have a desktop at work, I keep it running for long periods of time without shutting it down or restarting. And clearly, since I have a memory that can forget things I did 5 seconds ago (car wiper incident!!), I had to check online to find out a way to check how long back, I had restarted my machine. I found this simple command to give system details - on the command prompt type 'systeminfo' and it will spit out a lot of info - among them will be the 'system-up' time - http://www.techbuzz.in/how-to-find-a-windows-machines-system-up-time.php

-Elf

Credit Scores Myth

Nice link I saw on a frnd's profile in facebook - on credit scores and how they are calculated; things we need to keep in note, etc.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204348804574400700026852702.html?mod=wsj_share_facebook