Perspective on the Housing Market

We can’t escape it.  Every time you turn on the television or read a paper, you are slammed with how terrible the housing market is.  Well, it’s true, but it’s not entirely true.  Sure enough, there are many people suffering greatly.  They can’t make their mortgage payments, their house goes into a short sale or maybe even gets forclosed on.However, that isn’t the whole story. Prices in good neighborhoods are declining, but they are not plummeting.  If you are looking for a nice house to buy in a nice part of town,  most likely you are not coming across a tremendous amount of bargains.  As a matter of fact, in the ‘best’ part of most American towns, prices are still increasing (not tremendously, but thats not the point).I was reading an article in MSN money today, and I came across this quote: “Despite rising foreclosures and skittish buyers, housing demand continues to grow every year through the creation of new households, whether from children moving out on their own, new couples getting together or couples splitting up. With current level of 111 million U.S. households growing by about 1 percent a year, new households will absorb about 1.1 million housing units a year, according to RDQ Economist chief economist John Ryding.”    The article went on to mention that 1.1 million was approximately the inventory of unsold houses in the US. What this tells me is that there ARE buyers looking for houses.  You’d get the impression from the media that no-one is buying a house these days.The bottom line is that people have to have a place to live.  You can either rent or own, but everyone needs a place. A few years ago, people who owned rental property were having trouble renting them, because everybody was buying their own home.  Nobody wanted to rent.  Now, its the opposite. But the way it has always been, and the way it will always be is that if you want to accumulate wealth over the long term,  you need to own property, including rental property.   The key is, though, you need to do it right.  You can’t just buy any old place and think you’re going to strike it rich.  That is what happened in the last few years and for that reason a lot of people are suffering. 

Gas Saving Tips - Lower Your Cost Of Gas

Prices on gas have reached record highs now.  Rising gas prices are just about killing most of us. There are things you can do to lower your cost of gas. Here are two realistic methods to reduce your gas cost.  While they are not exactly gas saving tips… that is,  you won’t actually increase your mileage or improve gas mileage, they will nevertheless save you a lot of money at the pump. 
The first is to get a Discover card and always use it when you get gas.
 Why, you ask?  Because the Discover card has a fantastic program that pays you back 5% of every penny you spend on gas.  Just for using the Discover card, you save 5%.  It’s called the Open Road Card.
Apply for the Discover® Open Road Card today!
 Lets look at the savings for 6 months if you always buy gas with the Discover Card vs not using the Discover Open Road Card.
 Assume we spend $100 a week on gas.
 6 Months would be 26 weeks x $100 = $2600 cost without using the Discover card.
Now assume we use the Discover Card.
 6 Months = 26 weeks x $100 = $2600 - $130 = $2470. (5% of $2600 = $130)
So, the question is, “If you can save $130 for doing absolutely nothing, Why Wouldn’t You?“  
,BR>   The second tip is to check out the website gasbuddy.com before you go to the gas station to get gas.  Gasbuddy.com has a box where you can input your zip code or city, state or province (in the USA and Canada) and they will show you the cheapest gas for many of the filling stations in your area.  Just choose the lowest price and you’ve saved some money.  This is totally free and won’t cost you anything to use. While these tips might not give you better mileage, they will certainly reduce your gas cost!

Tips to Save Money on Gas

 Here are a few tips to save on gas.   Of course,  only do the ones that make sense for you since not everyone is in a position to take advantage of all the suggestions.  Some of them may seem silly or nit pickey, but remember, the goal is to save money.

1.  Always fill up in the morning.  Always.  Everyone can do this.  The reason is that gas expands with heat and you will actually get less gas for the same cost if you pump in the afternoon.   The gas in the underground tank heats up during the sunlight hours and cools down at night.
2. Pump your gas at a moderately slow level.  This reduces the amount of gas that gets returned to the underground tank in the form of vapor.  The faster you pump, the more gas gets returned as vapor.    
3. This may seem silly, but get gas as often as possible.  Since gas goes up almost daily, you will be ‘dollar cost averaging’ your purchases at the pump.  Lets compare getting gas whenever your tank is only a quarter empty with waiting until your tank is completely empty.  If your tank holds 12 gallons and you wait till its a quarter empty, you get three gallons.

Here are our assumptions: Tank size = 12 gallons.  Gas goes up $.05 every day.   Both drivers originally fill up when gas is $4.00 , but driver #1 refills at 3/4 of a tank and driver #2 fills up when completely empty.  

• Driver 1  buys 12 gallons on Day 1 - $4.00/gal x 12 gallons = $48.00
• Driver 1 buys 3 gallons on day 3 - $4.15/gal x 3 gallons = $12.45
• Driver 1 buys 3 gallons on day 5 - $4.30/gal x 3 gallons = $12.90
• Driver 1 buys 3 gallons on day 7 - $4.45 /gal x 3 gallons = $13.35
• Driver 1 buys 3 gallons on day 9 - $4.60/gal x 3 gallons = $13.80 
• So, Driver 1 has paid a total of $100.05  

 

• Driver 2 fills up on day 1 - $4.00/gal x 12 gallons = $48.00
• Driver 2 fills up on day 9 - $4.60/gal x 12 gallons = $55.20  
• Driver 2 has paid a total of $103.20  Just because driver 2 waited, he has had to pay $3.15 more than did driver 1.

This strategy may seem silly to you, but if you do this all the time, you will save a lot over the long run.  Combine this with only getting gas in the morning, and you save far more than you realize. Now, I know what you’re thinking.  ”Gas isn’t going up 5 cents every day, etc…”  It doesn’t matter.  The only way this strategy will hurt you is if prices are falling.  So, when prices start to fall (HA HA HA) you can then wait to fill up when your tank is empty.     

.  This last suggestion is really only for those who are mechanically inclined or are not afraid to experiment.  There are now a few sites devoted to teaching you how to use water to create hydrogen which then gets input into your engine.  It requires that you have a separate apparatus which holds the water and connects to the battery, but it isn’t as if you pour water in the gas tank.  At any rate there are a few sites that sell this for around $97.  I think its worth it, since almost everyone who has tried it has increased their mileage somewhat.  Some people claim to have increased their gas mileage by about 30%, but I think realistically it all depends on the kind of car you drive.  Generally you could expect to see about a 3 - 8 mpg increase.  That doesn’t sound like a lot, but over the long haul, you save a lot of money.  Anyway, the site I recommend and that has the best support is Water4Gas. Before you worry that it will ruin your car, it won’t.  As a matter of fact, it actually helps your car burn cleaner.