|
| Has it really been almost 5 months since I entered a post? What a slacker. I don't have much to say, but I think I'm going to start using this blog to chart our debt reduction which is cruising along at a steady pace, despite getting a new car and adding an additional $17,000, but we did need a new car and my truck should last another 5 years easy. That's all I have to say for now. | | |
| I'm Back!!!! And the tax man is calling! The deadline is 2 weeks from today. I, of course, filed electronically back in February and have received my refund and put it into savings. But I promised some tax info and here it is. DON'T FORGET TO CLAIM THE TELEPHONE EXCISE TAX CREDIT!!!!!!!!! If you had a telephone or cell phone during the past 6 years, you paid a tax on those bills for long distance service that was recinded (the tax was stopped) six years ago. The government is offering a one time tax rebate based on the number of exemptions that you claim. For example, my wife and I claim 2 exemptions so we got $40 of our taxes written off. You can take the set amount or if you are ambitious, you can pull up all of the past three years of phone bills, add up the amount of the excise tax paid only, and deduct that amount instead. However, for ease of math and to avoid a possible audit I would use the flat rate. If you already filed and didn't take the tax credit, you can still receive it by downloading Form 1040EZ-T.
That's it for today.
| | |
| If anyone is still checking or reading my page, I apologize for the lack of posts. It is mainly due to the fact that work has been incredibly busy lately. Unfortunately this will be my only post until April. For more on that look for me on MySpace. My name on there is darth jeopardy.
I will be back the first of April with a post that will be helpful for anyone who still hasn't filed their taxes. remmeber April 16th is tax day this year.
| | |
| I've been avoiding this up til now. I was tagged by my lovely wife, Betsafly. So here it is, me in my tiny little corner.
I definitely need a haircut, I'm turning into a darn, dirty hippie, although this picture doesn't show it that well. I will try to put up a new post in the next couple of days.
| | |
| An Oppotunity Missed? (NOT!!!!!!)
This past weekend my bride and I visited Las Vegas for 'free' with the caveat that attend a presentation for a 'vacation ownership' opportunity at Tahiti Village on the Strip. In exchange for 2 hours of our time, we would receive 2 nights accomodation at a Strip hotel(New Frontier), $100 in Gas cards(Shell Oil), a certificate to renew our vows at the Chapel of the Fountain (didn't use it), 500 Slot Play Credits (Yay free gambling), and 2 tickets to a show on the strip (Riviera Comedy Club, No thanks). So we went to the presentation Saturday Afternoon and listened to them hype everyone up and talk about the importance of vacations and staying in nice places, blah blah blah. When it came down to the nitty gritty(price) we were quoted 77,000 plus closing costs for a piece of a two bedroom condo for two weeks per year and titled ownership of 'land' (shared with 26 others). Well after politely declining the offer due to lack of funds, they came back with an offer for a one bedroom for 2 weeks every other year. Significantly less, but still a lot of money.
All this is to say that timeshares, or as they call it now 'vacation ownership' is a lose lose situation. They try to entice you by preying on the common knowledge that real estate goes up in value as time goes on. They fail to mention as always that it can go down as well. Those kinds of losses are easy to absorb long term when it is your home that you live in full time. But over the long term, timeshares never go up in value, and people lose lots of money. So they sent us on our way before our bad vibes scared off any potential buyer who were fooled by the plants in the group, who 'bought' ownership.
If we had purchased the above timeshare at the price they quoted and paid the payments for 8 years plus annual HOA fees and membership in Interval International which allows to use timeshares in other parts of the world. It will cast you $108,000 total. Spread out the cost over 20 years continuing to pay all the fees and assuming that they don't go up, you are spending a lot for a vacation place to use only two weeks a year. In fact I figured it out and you'd be paying a total of $500 a night over that 20 years. $500 a night can get you some very nice hotel rooms and the freedom to travel where you want without fees to any association. You are better off getting together with 10 friends who share a common interest, such as skiing and buying a place and sharing it within your group. The initial investment is less and if you can't use all of the time alloted to you you can hire a management company to rent it out and manage the upkeep of the property for you. Or you can go together and rent a place for an extended time like the summer or winter and share the costs. A couple of my friends do this each winter up at Mammoth Mountain. They rent a 4 bedroom house near the lifts from Christmas to Easter. Sometimes they invite friends and charge them a reduced rate to use the house. The last 5 years they have done this, they have spent way less than what a timeshare would cost and they have it whenever they want for 18 weeks of the year and have an option to use it during the rest of the year. Additionally if the owner wants to use when it belongs to them, the owner must put them up in similar accomodations or refund part of the agreed upon rental fee. All in all a better situation than so-called vacation ownership.
My best advice is that these presentations are not really worth the expense in time, or benefit to be profitable for anyone but those who sell the overpriced weeks at a premium price.
(note: my friends didn't get the house together this year, my friend who was my best man decided it wasn't worth all the money, and is subletting from our other friend for when he wants to use it. I'll have a new post tomorrow(Dec.1) been down at work with the internet on the fritz.)
| | |
|
