47 Cheap, Fun Things to Do This Weekend – Part 2

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By Jason Topp

28. Put Together a Jigsaw Puzzle

When is the last time you put together a puzzle? Find one you like and get to it.

29. Volunteer to Babysit for Someone Who “Needs a Break”

I know many parents who would love for someone to offer a chance to take a break from the busyness of life. Many single parents hardly ever get a chance to get out and unwind.

30. Clean Out Your Closet and Donate to a Thrift Store

Go through your closets and declutter. Find items you can donate to your local Goodwill or another thrift shop.

31. Watch for Shooting Stars

Go on a star-gazing adventure. Grab a blanket and head to a park to lay and watch the stars.

32. Go on a Bike Ride

Bike to a location you’ve never been to before. Or, bring your bike to a town or city you’re unfamiliar with and create your own bike tour. Just be safe on your bike!

33. Take a Free Online Class

There are plenty of free online classes you could take to improve your skills in a certain area. Try your hand at investment classes if that interests you!

34. Write Out Your Life Plan

This one will take some thought but will be well worth it. Here’s a great resource from Michael Hyatt for helping you think through your life plan.

35. Set Three New Goals for Yourself

Related to the life plan is setting three new goals you’d like to accomplish in the new six to twelve months…and write them down!

36. Find a Community Play to Attend

Many local communities offer inexpensive theater productions.

37. Help Someone in Need

Lend a helping hand to a neighbor, co-worker, or friend.

38. Buy Food for the Homeless and Listen to Their Stories

It’s not always wise to give money to a homeless person, but you can buy food. Listen to their stories, and if possible, direct them to an organization that can help.

39. Go Bowling

Get some friends together and have a blast at the lanes!

40. Visit Garage Sales and Look for Deals

Take a friend or two, grab breakfast, and then hit the local garage sales to scan for deals.

41. Tour the Local Fire or Police Station and Thank Them for Their Service

A simple gesture can really mean a lot to the men and women who serve us on a daily basis!

42. Visit a Local Nursing Home and Engage With the Residents

Many elderly folks have great tales to tell. Listen to their stories and see what you can learn from them.

43. Plant a Garden

You can make a garden box or even an herb garden if you don’t have much room.

44. Go Dancing

Grab a few friends, put those dancing shoes on, and hit the local club.

45. Walk Through the Craft Store and Start an Art Project

Take your spouse or loved one to a craft store and each purchase a few crafts for a creative project. Or start a pine cone project!

46. Host a “Minute to Win It” Party

Invite a few friends over and challenge each other with some creative games based on the hit TV show.

47. Write a Letter to a Family Member You Haven’t Talked to in a While

When is the last time you sat down and wrote a letter? There’s something magical and nostalgic about the written word on paper. Send a letter to someone you haven’t talked to in a while and tell them how much you love them.

www.StLouisHomesByGina.com The Gina Koerner Team 636-229-8746

EXISTING-HOME PRICES TREND UPWARD

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budgeting, existing home sales, gina koerner, home buyers, housing demand, housing inventory, housing market, housing prices, housing recovery, interest rates, money, pay less, prosperity, saving money, savings, selling homes, st louis by gina, st louis homes by gina, stlouisbygina, stlouishomesbygina

Existing-home prices have increased for 13 consecutive months according to a recent report by the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR). Existing-home sales, which include recently purchased single family, townhomes, condominiums, and co-ops are currently on pace to reach 4.92 million annual units, up 10.3 percent compared to March 2012.

NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun sees demand outstripping supply. “Buyer traffic is 25 percent above a year ago when we were already seeing notable gains in shopping activity,” he said. “In the same timeframe housing inventories have trended much lower, which is continuing to pressure home prices. The good news is home construction is rising and low mortgage rates are continuing to keep affordability conditions at historically favorable levels. The bad news is that underwriting standards remain excessively tight, while renters are getting squeezed by higher rents.”

www.StLouisHomesByGina.com The Gina Koerner Team 636-229-8746

47 Cheap, Fun Things to Do This Weekend – Part 1

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bartering, budgeting, christmas debt, credit counseling, Free Money, gina koerner, money, pay less, prosperity, saving money, savings, st louis by gina, st louis homes by gina, stlouisbygina, stlouishomesbygina

By Jason Topp

Ever have a conversation that goes like this…?

“What do you want to do this weekend?”

*Shoulder shrug*

“I dunno, whatta you wanna do?”

*Shoulder shrug and sigh*

“I dunno; there’s nothing to ever do around here.”

I’ve had conversations like that many times in the past, but not anymore. I’m learning to appreciate the little things in life and enjoy living in the moment more. Too often when we think about “fun” things, we think of the expensive options like taking in a ballgame, going on vacation, or going to a concert.

Here’s a list to help free you from boredom without emptying your wallet this weekend. (See also: How to Visit Museums for Free)

1. Go to the Park

You can take your family or go with a friend. Swing on the swings like when you were a kid.

2. Watch the Sunset

Find a great spot in your community to catch the sunset. We have a lake by our house that offers some great views!

3. Pack a Picnic Lunch

Throw a picnic lunch together and find a shady spot to enjoy the day with your loved ones.

4. Play Board Games

Bring out the old favorites like Monopoly or Scrabble, or find new board games to play.

5. Play Card Games

Invite a few friends over and have a card night.

6. Do a Road Rally With Friends

Get some friends together and go on a mobile scavenger hunt. The first one back with all things on the list wins! Losers have to buy dessert.

7. Go on a Digital Scavenger Hunt

Make it a digital scavenger hunt. Think of some creative, hilarious pictures you could take with people in the community, or check out this list for scavenger hunt ideas.

8. Throw a B.Y.O.E. Party

This stands of Bring Your Own Everything. Guests are encouraged to bring food and drinks to share. Or, check this post out for more frugal party ideas.

9. Have a Bonfire or Campfire in Your Backyard

Make s’mores and play campfire games.

10. Get Ice Cream

Hit up your local ice cream shop and indulge in your favorite dish! Our local Dairy Queen is located right on the lake, which ties in perfect with #2!

11. Make a Romantic Dinner

Plan a romantic, candlelight dinner for your spouse or loved one. Romance need not be expensive!

12. Grill Something New

Try a new grilling recipe. Recently I tried chicken breast stuffed with cream cheese, mozzarella cheese, basil, and tomatoes! Mmmm!

13. Go to the Museum or Zoo

Many times a local museum will have free or discount days. Zoos are fairly inexpensive if you pack your own lunch and avoid the unnecessary extras.

14. Scan Your Old Photographs

Take the weekend to go through your old photos and scan them into a digital file. You can even create digital scrapbooks!

15. Pretend You’re a Tourist in Your Community

Most folks rarely visit their own city’s tourist attractions. Take a weekend be a tourist in your own town.

16. Organize a Neighborhood Cleanup

Get friends and neighbors together to go and clean up a city block. Here are six steps to organizing your own neighborhood cleanup.

17. Go to the Farmers Market

Communities will usually have farmers markets on the weekends where you can get locally grown produce. The food is fresh and delicious! Here’s a savvy guide to farmers markets.

18. Pick Strawberries or Other Fruit

Find a “U-Pick” spot to gather some fresh strawberries, blueberries, or other fruit and then…

19. Bake a Pie

Use the freshly picked fruit to bake a homemade pie! (Need help with the pie crust?)

20. Volunteer at a Soup Kitchen or Homeless Shelter

Organizations like these are always looking for volunteers. This will be one of the most rewarding things you could do this weekend and can possibly make a difference on your resume!

21. Invite Your Neighbors Over

With today’s busy pace, it seems harder to get to know our neighbors. Invite them overfor dinner or dessert and make an effort to know more about them.

22. Go Fishing

Grab the poles, find a pond, and cast those lines!

23. Go to the Beach

Hit the sandy shores for a little rest and relaxation. Just don’t forget to protect your skin!

24. Go to the Library

There are many benefits your local library has to offer besides just books. You can rent movies, page through magazines, or surf the net.

25. Host a Classic Movie Marathon

Invite friends over for a movie marathon featuring all the classics you remember from when you were growing up. Or, host a money movie marathon!

26. Rearrange the Furniture in Your House

My wife and I did this last weekend. I love the new look and feel of our living room now!Rearranging furniture doesn’t cost anything and adds a new flair to your place.

27. Write Out Your Bucket List and Pick One to Do

Brainstorm ideas for all the things you want to do in life, and pick one to do this weekend.

www.StLouisHomesByGina.com The Gina Koerner Team 636-229-8746

Top Home Improvement Projects for Summer

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budgeting, gina koerner, home improvements, home staging, housing market, interior design, money, pay less, saving money, savings, selling homes, st louis by gina, st louis homes by gina, staging, staging tips, stlouisbygina, stlouishomesbygina

By Joselin Linder

Betsy Taylor and her husband decided to embark on a major home improvement project one winter: renovating their kitchen in Portland, Maine.

“We hadn’t planned on redoing the floors, but after three weeks of tracked in Old Man Winter, the contractor replaced it at no additional cost,” she says. “While it was nice to have a new free floor, in retrospect, I wish we had waited for summer when our chances of terrible weather were minimized. By the third week of construction, I just wanted my home back!”

While sometimes the winter blues can make a person want to make home improvements, in many cases, summer is the best time for such projects. While summertime is when attention moves outdoors, that doesn’t mean all summer home improvements need to be relegated to the patio. Here are a few home improvements perfect for summer that you may not have considered:

1. Don’t build the pool, but plan it

“Summer is the best time for a self-analysis for big outdoor-area improvements,” says landscape designer and winner of the 2009 Oasis Award for outdoor kitchen design, Brian Griffith. “Ask yourself, `how do I use my outdoor space?’ Then ask yourself, `how do I wish I used my outdoor space?’ Summer is a really good time to take a good look at how you experience outdoor living.” And take note Griffith’s rule of thumb: “The less comfortable it is, the less likely you are to use it.”

2. Focus on your windows

When the dog days hit, the next best thing to being outside, is sometimes, looking outside. There’s nothing like a great summer storm through a big picture window. And there is no better time than summer to invest in new windows to keep out the cold in winter and minimize heat in the summer – or just expand your view all around.

3. Shade, shade, shade

A super-hot summer can leave your patio and barbecue areas neglected. Consider using the summer months to plant new trees in strategic places that will afford you some great natural shade at some point down the road. In the meantime, look into other ways to get shade now. “Covered porches, umbrellas and affordable pergolas really help make wonderful living spaces,” says Griffith. These days, shading devices come in so many shapes and colors, so you can embrace your own style and keep things cool.

4. Prepare for winter

Any large-scale construction jobs are best done in the summer months for a lot of obvious reasons. (For one, as in Taylor’s case, no workmen will be trailing in heavy winter mud and slush to and from your indoors to outdoors.) But also, it’s ultimately less intrusive to you and your family if say, to install new insulation, taking a wall down would otherwise freeze you out. So, whatever grievances you have — from the leaky roof at the last big spring rain, to that room that you can’t live without — break ground on those improvements in the summer and take the kids to the pool.

5. Repaving

“Summer is definitely the time to repave your driveway,” says Steven Mazur, a carpenter in New York City. “You will get a lot better adhering than when it’s cold. And it’s just a generally bad idea to repave when it’s raining or snowing.” Summer is also the time to do work to any walkways on your property.

6. Refinish outdoor surfaces

A beautiful gloss to a wooden deck will not only protect it, but make it look like new. “Summer,” advises Mazur, “is definitely the time to re-oil wood, refinish the deck or just scrape off old paint and repaint.” These are projects that are easy do-it-yourself-ers, and are best accomplished, and then enjoyed, in the summer months.”

Almost any home improvement can be tackled in the summertime. Taylor, now at home in her beautiful new kitchen says, “Next we plan to do some work on our roof.” Not wanting anyone to slip on ice and fall off of it she says with a smile, “We are scheduled to begin this June.”

www.StLouisHomesByGina.com The Gina Koerner Team 636-229-8746

How Much of Your Paycheck Should You Be Saving?

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budgeting, christmas debt, credit counseling, dave ramsey, debt, financial freedom friday, gina koerner, interest rates, money, pay less, saving money, savings, st louis by gina, st louis homes by gina, stlouisbygina, stlouishomesbygina, tax refund

By Carleton English

Let’s talk about the six month milestone.

That is, you need to have three to six months of your annual salary in savings in order to befinancially secure.

The advice sounds simple and all financial advisors will tell you the same, regardless of how they dress it up to appeal to their demographic.

This is a real number. For more mathematical minds, this means that 25 to 50 percent of your annual salary should be sitting in a savings account. If you’re earning $50,000 a year, that’s between $12,500-$25,000.

You have the advice, and I’m sure I’m not the first one to give it to you, but the question remains: Why is this number important, and how do you get there?

To answer the first question, three to six months salary is enough to cover you in just about any financial hardship. It’s enough of a cushion to plan your course of action should you find yourself unemployed and without a severance package. It will cover moving costs should you need to abruptly move, and will cover a down payment on a car should you suddenly need one. And if you find yourself in a situation so dire that that even six month’s savings won’t cover you, it’s likely to buy you some time and some bargaining power.

Now, how do you get there though?

First jobs out of college do not often come with hefty signing bonuses. Unless you maintained a serious full-time job during college, your savings account is likely pretty bleak, and with student loans to pay you may already be living in the red. Here a few tips to motivate and actually help you reach this important milestone.

Having savings is the most important investment you will ever make; you’re investing in yourself and your future. At the risk of sounding too capitalist, money does solve and prevent a lot of problems. Financial security means not worrying if you have enough to cover rent, not being surprised by bills, and having the freedom to make choices.

Realize that an early compromised style of living will pay dividends, and perhaps fuel those fun “back-in-my-day” stories to tell the grandkids. We all have dreams of our first apartment, but delaying that dream for a year to live with family or rent a room can be a fast track to savings. A year of living rent free will get you to the lower threshold of your savings goal. If you’ve been on your own for a while and still lack savings, consider downsizing the next time your lease is due for renewal or taking a roommate (and saving, not spending, the difference!).

Make your own choices with your money. It seems the second you start to feel like you have your life together, your mailbox is flooded with invitations to celebrate others’ life choices. Weddings, baby showers, birthday dinners, bachelorette parties—these are all fun milestones, but they also come at great cost. Just make sure that that cost isn’t your future. Prioritize the events you go to and remember that friendships are about emotional support, not gifting seldom-used Waterford-crystal punch bowls.

www.StLouisHomesByGina.com The Gina Koerner Team 636-229-8746

U.S. home prices rose by 9.3%…Five Takeaways From the Latest Case-Shiller Report

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case-shiller report, existing home sales, gina koerner, home buyers, housing demand, housing inventory, housing market, housing prices, housing recovery, money, pay less, prosperity, saving money, savings, selling homes, st louis by gina, st louis homes by gina, stlouisbygina, stlouishomesbygina

By Nick Timiraos

Home prices rose by 9.3% in February from one year ago, the largest such gain in the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city index in nearly seven years.

Tuesday’s report is the latest sign that the U.S. housing market has rebounded after home prices hit a bottom one year ago. The report showed broad-based home price gains, with all 20 cities that compose the index posting year-over-year price gains.

Here are five takeaways from Tuesday’s report:

1. Prices set to rise: Price increases are likely to continue because there are more buyers chasing fewer homes for sale. At the current pace of sales, it would take around 4.7 months to sell the inventory of homes for sale, which is near an eight-year low. This price growth is also being fed by improved affordability, rising household formation, higher rents and fewer foreclosed properties on the market. Come this summer, home prices could be at a boil in more markets unless there are more homes that hit the market. The big fears of years past—that a “shadow inventory” of potential foreclosures would swamp the market—have given way to concerns that there aren’t enough homes to sate rising demand.

2. Who’s hot: Price gains have been the most dramatic in markets with strong job growth and/or in markets that experienced some of the most jaw-dropping declines over the past seven years. Housing markets such as Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Atlanta fit the latter category. Prices have fallen by more than 50% from their 2006 highs, but they’ve since posted double-digit increases. Prices were up by 23% in Phoenix and by 16.5% in Atlanta from a year ago. The year-over-year gain in Atlanta was a record—the largest annual gain since the Case-Shiller series began in 1992. Meanwhile, housing markets such as San Francisco, Seattle, and Dallas are benefiting from job growth and higher incomes. Prices in Dallas were up by 7.1%, the largest such gain since the Case-Shiller series for that city began in 2001. Prices were up by 18.9% in San Francisco.

3. Who’s not: Prices are the most sluggish in the markets that have seen less dramatic declines and where there is still an elevated level of foreclosed properties. While New York home prices were only up by 1.9% from one year ago, it’s worth remembering that the New York metro also posted about half of the peak-to-trough decline as Las Vegas or Phoenix. The market has had less of a bounce, but it also has seen a less precipitous decline. New York and Illinois also have higher levels of “shadow inventory” of potential foreclosures because banks have struggled to repossess homes in the states’ judicial foreclosure system.

4. Overstating the bounce: The S&P/Case-Shiller index could have overstated both the magnitudes of the declines and the more recent rebound due to the way the index is constructed. Because foreclosed properties tend to sell at lower prices than comparable homes—in part because banks are less patient sellers and in part because the homes may not be as well cared-for—price declines can be amplified by a rising share of distressed sales. When the share of distressed sales falls, on the other hand, prices may look like they’re rising faster than they are. Other price indexes that don’t include foreclosures, such as a home-value index published by Zillow, showed that prices were up by 5.1% in March from one year ago.

“The appreciation rates we’re currently seeing in the Case-Shiller composite are not broadly reflective of what’s happening in the national housing market right now,” said Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow. The Case-Shiller series, he added, “is overly skewed to quickly rebounding markets—particularly in the Southwest and on the West Coast—and is being boosted by a shift in transactions away from foreclosure re-sales.”

5. No winter holiday: Prices defied the seasonal slowdown. Normally, sales activity cools in the winter and prices take a breather. But that didn’t happen this year—home prices actually went up in December, January, and February. Prices in February rose by 0.3%, and after adjusting for seasonal factors, they were up by 1.2%. Look for an even larger year-over-year figure next month, when Case-Shiller reports on home prices for March. Why? The index hit its most recent bottom in March 2012, so the comparison is already likely to look good—even before considering the unusually strong winter.

www.StLouisHomesByGina.com The Gina Koerner Team 636-229-8746

Credit Report vs. Credit Score: Do You Know the Difference?

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budgeting, christmas debt, credit card debt, credit cards, credit counseling, dave ramsey, debt, financial freedom friday, gina koerner, home buyers, interest rates, money, pay less, prosperity, saving money, savings, st louis by gina, st louis homes by gina, stlouisbygina, stlouishomesbygina

By Rob Berger

Credit reports and scores remind me a lot of the Abbott and Costello act, “Who’s on First?” They can be rather confusing. But while “Who’s on First” is funny, confusing your credit report and credit scores is not. In fact, mistaking the two could end up costing you.

Not only are credit reports and credit scores different, they are often used for different purposes. However, because the two are directly related, it can be easy to confuse the two, their purpose and potential effects on your finances.

So let’s sort out Who’s on first and What’s on second when it comes to credit reports and scores.

What is a credit report? Your credit report contains information detailing your credit history. This information can come from a number of sources, including lenders, utility companies and landlords.

This information is compiled by one of three major credit-reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. These companies try to compile an accurate picture of your financial history. Credit files include information such as:

– Name, address and social security number

– Types of credit you use

– When you opened a loan or line of credit

– The balances and available credit on your credit cards and other lines of credit

– Information about whether you pay your bills on time

– Information about any accounts passed to a collection’s agency

– How much new credit you’ve opened recently

– Records related to bankruptcy, tax liens or court judgments

While the credit-reporting agencies do their best to keep your record free of errors, slip-ups do happen. That’s why it’s important to check your credit report at least once a year (consumers are entitled to one free credit report every 12 months, available at AnnualCreditReport.com) to ensure all of the information is correct. Keep in mind that each agency may have slightly different information and, consequently, may have errors another credit report doesn’t.

It’s important to know, however, your credit report does not include your three-digit credit score.

What is a credit score? Your credit score is the actual numerical value assigned to the information in your credit report. A credit-reporting bureau applies a complex (and proprietary) mathematical algorithm to the information in your credit file to generate your numerical credit score.

While there are numerous credit-scoring formulas, FICO is the most-widely known and used by many creditors. Your FICO score can range from 300 to 850, with under 400 being quite low and 700+putting you in the healthy range. Your credit score is meant to give potential lenders an idea of how big of a financial risk you are. In their eyes, the higher your score, the less likely you are to default or make late payments.

Credit-scoring algorithms calculate this likelihood by weighing certain items that are more likely to predict future delinquency. With FICO’s, for example, your past payment history makes up 35 percent of your score. Recent late or missed payments on a credit card lower your credit score.

What else goes into your FICO score, and how much does it affect your score? Here’s a quick breakdown:

– Debt amounts (especially on revolving lines of credit): 30 percent

– Length of credit history: 15 percent

– Credit mix (having a blend of account types is good): 10 percent

– New credit: 10 percent

Unlike your credit report, you can’t always get your credit score for free. When you order a free credit report, you’ll usually have an option to buy your numerical credit score for $7 to $12. There are services, such as Credit Karma, that will provide you with a credit score for free, but this number is only an estimate–it’s not necessarily the credit score FICO and other agencies may have.

What are they used for? If you apply for a loan, the lender will most likely pull your credit score. (This causes a “hard inquiry” on your credit, which slightly lowers your credit score.)

Lenders glance at your credit score to determine your credit risk. Most lenders, in fact, have pre-set standards. If your credit score is within a certain range, they’ll offer you certain credit terms, all other things being equal.

While lenders will pull your actual credit score, your credit report may be used for other purposes. For instance, potential employers can pull a copy of your credit report (with your permission). Often, they’ll look to see if you’re responsible with your finances, which may mean you’ll be more responsible on the job.

The bottom line. Now that you know the difference between your credit report and credit score, take steps to improve both. Check your credit report regularly for errors, make all your payments on time and avoid maxing out those credit cards.

www.StLouisHomesByGina.com The Gina Koerner Team 636-229-8746

100 Ways to Get Organized – part 2

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gina koerner, organization, organizing, st louis by gina, st louis homes by gina, staging, stlouisbygina, stlouishomesbygina

By Women’s Day Staff

The Fashion Designer

51. Allow only one outfit—tomorrow’s—on the hook outside your closet door.

52. Buy a closet organizer instead of just dreaming about it.

53. Start each season by arranging clothes hangers so the hooks face out, toward the room, says Kim Cosentino, owner of the De-Clutter Box, Inc. in Westmont, Illinois. When you wear something, turn the hanger in. At the end of the season, get rid of anything that hasn’t been turned.

54. Vacuum-sealed storage bags. Enough said.

55. Free up drawer space by stacking jeans, sweaters and gym clothes on closet shelves. Slip-on shelf dividers keep them from falling over.

56. Keep a stepstool in or next to your closet.

57. To free up your dresser, put plastic stacking bins with drawers inside your closet for socks, underpants and bras.

58. Bring order to scarves and belts with an “accessory ladder,” a chain of shower curtain rings—one for each item—trailing down from the top of a hanger, says Donna Smallin, author of Organizing Plain and Simple. Clip purses to a second ladder.

59. Keep ponytail holders on shower curtain rings, too.

60. Hang a flat jewelry organizer with transparent pockets inside your closet door.

61. Pare down your cosmetics to fit in one portable bag.

62. Make a Just for Me pampering kit so lotions, scented candles, nail polish, etc., aren’t scattered in three different rooms.

The Chauffeur

63. End key confusion with new, decorative keys: Use stars-and-stripes for the house, flowers for the garden shed, psychedelic for your office at work.

64. Removable key rings let you leave work keys at home on weekends, the car key with the valet and the house key with your pet sitter.

65. Line car-door map compartments with shallow, narrow organizing pockets to keep pens, notepads, hand lotion and lip/eye pencil from sliding around.

66. Use a clothespin to clip to your purse strap those “Can’t Forget” notes: Get allergy shot. Pick up kids early. Tell mechanic about squeaking brakes.

67. To avoid “senior moments” with the dry cleaning, library books, videos or packages to mail, put outgoing items on the passenger seat, not on the kitchen counter.

68. Slide a local phone book under the front seat.

69. Pens with fuzzy animal heads are easier to find in the car.

70. Get a key chain–size Swiss Army knife with pullout pen.

71. Free up glove compartment space: Stow owner’s manuals in the passenger seat’s back pocket.

72. Stock glove compartment with takeout menus, napkins, nail file, car registration, tire gauge, first-aid kit and a roll of quarters.

73. Create a “just in case” box for the car trunk: umbrella, cheap rain ponchos, scissors, big black marker, tape, paper towels, plastic bags, extra kids’ socks and a one-size-fits-all T-shirt, sweatshirt and pair of sweatpants for adults, another for kids.

74. Keep the charity box in your trunk, not your closet. When it’s full, drop it off.

The Employee

75. Keep an extra pair of glasses or contact lenses, pantyhose and other emergency gear in your desk.

76. Sort your day by activity, not project. Check the stack of phone messages only twice a day. Tackle the correspondence pile right after lunch, and head to the copy machine just once.

77. Use your datebook to keep projects on track. Block out times to tackle each bite-size segment.

78. If you don’t need it every day, get it off your desk.

79. Don’t just shift remaining papers around your desk. Flip the stack—oldest papers now on top—for a fresh perspective and quicker action, DeBroff suggests.

80. Tame the file frenzy with broader file names, such as one for “Employees” rather than two for “Personnel” and “Evaluations,” Waddill recommends.

81. Use desktop or wall-mounted vertical file racks for an instant cleanup of your tornado-zone desk, Smallin says.

82. When you have a project with a lot of paperwork, stay organized by using a three-ring binder instead of flimsy file folders. List everyone involved and their contact information on the first page.

83. For smaller projects, write contact details on the front of the file folder.

84. Move finished project folders from your office into storage.

The Accountant

85. One credit card per grownup. Period.

86. Create a Receipt Depot: a folder near the door that everyone drops receipts into as they come home.

87. Bite the bullet: Computerize your finances.

88. Stick to a budget. Then you’ll never have trouble covering those unexpected expenses.

89. Slip incoming bills, a pen and a thin calculator into a three-ring binder’s inside pockets. Make a list of all your usual bills and expenses, and print out a fresh copy each month for your binder. Then mark the bills off monthly as you pay them. If a creditor isn’t crossed off, call for a duplicate statement to avoid late fees.

90. Make sure your list includes automatic withdrawals for utilities and bills you pay online so you don’t pay a bill twice or lose track of your checking account balance.

91. Ask creditors to shift your due dates to lump them all together or to split them between the two pay periods of each month.

The Handywoman

92. Keep a Phillips and flathead screwdriver in a kitchen drawer to avoid a trek to the toolbox.

93. Affix baby food jar lids to the bottom of your workroom shelf. Sort nails, screws and bolts into the jars, and twist them onto the lids.

94. When you adjust your clocks each spring and fall, also weed out expired medicine, sunscreen, food, coupons and smoke detector batteries.

95. Hang a spray-painted Peg-Board for tools, coats, baseball caps; use wall hooks for blow dryers.

96. Store all car wash products in a bucket in the garage.

97. Keep a large, sturdy garbage can on wheels next to your car to toss candy wrappers or other trash, says Waddill.

98. Aim for easy access, not neat storage, for lawn equipment. Shift your tools the way you
shift your clothes: In the winter, put the snow shovel in front and the rake in the back.

99. Save space on rarely used equipment by coordinating a borrowing system: You’ll have the fertilizer spreader, one neighbor will have the extension ladder, another will have a chainsaw, etc.

100. Install a hook above the kitchen sink where just-watered hanging plants can drip.

www.StLouisHomesByGina.com The Gina Koerner Team

100 Ways to Get Organized – part 1

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gina koerner, organization, organizing, st louis by gina, st louis homes by gina, staging, stlouisbygina, stlouishomesbygina

By Woman’s Day Staff

The meals, the kids, the housework, the job…the only way to stay sane is to get organized. Fat chance, you say? Remember, the goal of organizing isn’t to make your house pristine; it’s to make your life more functional. So don’t straighten for neatness sake—create an organized foundation for all the roles you play.

The Housekeeper

1. Assign specific living quarters to everything you own.

2. Put things where they work for you: vitamins by the juice glasses, coat hooks in the garage next to the car.

3. A small, open basket on the coffee table keeps remote controls from slipping between sofa cushions, says professional organizer Kathy Waddill, author of The Organizing Sourcebook: Nine Strategies for Simplifying Your Life.

4. Move all your CDs to a storage wallet. Say bye-bye to jewel boxes and CD stands!

5. Put wastebaskets in every room, suggests Waddill.

6. Whenever you run across anything empty, ripped, the wrong size or never used, immediately toss it in the trash or a charity box.

7. To stay on track, jot your cleaning routine on index cards and post them, says Debbie Williams, founder of www.organizedtimes.com.

8. Use a plastic caddy, not valuable shelf space, to store cleaning supplies for surfaces and floors. Keep it on the broom and mop closet floor (locked, if you have small children) and tote it from room to room.

9. Store sheet sets in the same room as the bed, between the mattress and box spring or tucked into an underbed box.

10. Keep a cedar chest (or a light-weight wicker basket if you have young children to avoid accidents) at the foot of your bed to hide blankets and extra pillows.

11. Tuck a whisk broom and dustpan in each bathroom for a daily dust-up.

12. Put a different color toilet paper than usual behind your stash of regular rolls. When a colored roll ends up on the spool, it’s time to buy more.

13. Keep real cleaning cloths next to your cleaning products, and ditch the box of ripped underwear you keep in the basement.

14. Just accept it: Place a tall, narrow basket for his magazines next to the toilet.

The Mom

15. Give kids their own alarm clocks and post morning checklists for them. (It’ll be less for you to organize.)

16. Move kids’ cereal boxes, bowls and cups to an “I can reach it!” lower cabinet. Also, put juice boxes, milk and other snacks in an accessible place in the refrigerator.

17. Leave a shoe basket by the front door (or the kids’ bedroom doors) to avoid those excruciatingly long searches through the house.

18. Have a two-compartment hamper in the kids’ rooms so they can sort lights from darks as they undress.

19. When switching kids’ summer/winter clothes, mark boxes with the date and sizes so you don’t have to paw through them to know if they’ll fit.

20. No room for a dresser? One or two sets of plastic or canvas hanging shelves in the closet make choosing clothes easier.

21. Leave a weatherproof, bench-style storage box outside for the kids’ outdoor toys.

22. Gather all balls into a large, mesh drawstring bag.

23. Keep some toys undercover in the living room with decorative, lidded baskets.

24. Stand kids’ paperback books in rectangular plastic or wicker baskets so they’re easy to sift through.

25. Photograph your child’s 3-D creations and save the pictures instead, says momcentral.com founder Stacy DeBroff, author of The Mom Book.

The Chef

26. Post several weekly dinner menus on the fridge and alternate among them for easier grocery shopping and meal planning.

27. Don’t keep space-hogging cookbooks. Photocopy favorite recipes and slip them into plastic sheet protectors inside a binder.

28. Tape an envelope for pizza and other takeout food coupons inside the cabinet door nearest the phone.

29. Use a mini flowerpot with drip tray near the sink to stash sponges, steel wool and food scrapers.

30. A crock with a wide mouth keeps favorite stove-side utensils from tangling.

31. Put countertop flour and sugar canisters on a lower slide-out cabinet shelf. Or use a sturdy baking sheet or plastic tray as a slide-out.

32. Double cabinet space with two-tiered turntables.

33. Trade round storage containers for more efficient square and rectangular ones, says DeBroff.

34. To free up kitchen space borrow, don’t buy, things you rarely use such as juicers, waffle irons, melon ballers and rolling pins. Already have them? Sell them.

35. A second freezer makes you walk farther for the ice cream.

The Personal Assistant

36. Use a morning checklist; kids aren’t the only ones who forget things when they’re in a rush.

37. Create other essential checklists: what goes in your gym bag, what joint-custody kids need to take back and forth between houses, what to pack for trips, information for babysitters, etc. Keep them on your computer for updating and put copies in a folder near the kitchen phone.

38. Set your computer calendar’s alarm for the week before dates you need to remember, from an anniversary to the day you change the furnace filter. That will give you enough time to buy what you need.

39. Organize future events with a monthly accordion file. Put birthday cards, directions to a baby shower, a note to check on furniture deliveries, even vacation brochures in the appropriate months.

40. Put a clock in every single bathroom.

41. Always have backups: a spare set of car/house keys, a second deodorant, another way to get kids to school.

42. Make a standing monthly hair appointment.

43. Designate every Friday or Saturday as date night with your husband, and book a sitter for several weekends at a time.

44. Don’t assume he’ll keep those Honey-Do projects in his head. Post them on the bathroom mirror.

45. Keep a wish list of intriguing activities on hand so you don’t waste precious weekend time figuring out what to do.

46. File copies of important documents (birth certificates, car title, passports, proof of immunizations, insurance information, etc.) in a three-ring binder with zippered plastic pockets. If disaster strikes, you can grab it and go.

47. Add address book pages sorted by category: kids’ friends, gourmet food club, tennis friends, etc., DeBroff suggests.

48. Avoid a last-minute scramble to find rental videos by leaving unwatched and just-watched movies in a bag by your door.

49. Stock your nightstand drawer with pencils, notepads, a phone book and a flashlight.

50. Corral an unwieldy bedroom reading pile with a small bookshelf next to your nightstand.

…read part 2 on tomorrow’s blog

www.StLouisHomesByGina.com The Gina Koerner Team

Is Budgeting the Best Way to Save? Seven Personal Finance Myths

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barter, bartering, budgeting, credit card debt, credit cards, credit counseling, dave ramsey, debt, financial freedom friday, Free Money, gina koerner, interest rates, money, pay less, prosperity, saving money, savings, st louis by gina, st louis homes by gina, stlouisbygina, stlouishomesbygina, tax refund

By CNBC

Think you’re financially savvy? When it comes to their personal finances, people carry around notions all their lives that may or may not be valid. For example, you’ve heard that money can’t buy you love, but can it buy happiness? Most people believe that it can’t — but science may prove them wrong.

Here are seven personal finance myths that happen to be everyday beliefs about the way we consider and handle money. Many of these myths fool even the smartest of savers. The latest research will help you discern the facts and see through the smoke.

Budgeting Is the Best Way to Save Money

A study by researchers from Brigham Young University and Emory University shows that consumers who shopped with a spending limit spent up to 50 percent more on a single item than consumers without a budget.

Jeff Larson, the study’s co-author and an assistant professor of marketing at Brigham Young, says when consumers set a budget for a specific item, they oftentimes limit their searches to items priced close to the budget’s upper limit. If given $1,000 for a flat-screen TV, for instance, consumers are likely to limit their selection to televisions priced between $800 and $1,000 before looking at each TV’s features.

“We don’t claim that this indicates that you shouldn’t ever budget, that budgeting is overall a bad thing,” Larson says.

The effect is only present when shopping for single items. “Aggregate budgets” used for multiple products, such as groceries, generally help the user save money, Larson says.

He adds that consumers can potentially reverse the effect by limiting their selection based on qualities and features before looking at price.

“Instead of saying ‘I’m willing up to spend $1,000 on a TV,’ you say ‘I want a 42-inch TV,’” he says.

More Earnings Mean More Wealth

“The more people earn, the more they tend to spend,” says Stephen Goldbart, co-author of the book “Affluence Intelligence” and co-founder of the Money, Meaning and Choices Institute, a San Francisco-based company that provides advisory services for wealthy clients. “As people acquire more money, they almost immediately start purchasing things that they’ve felt they’ve always wanted rather than thinking about what percentages that they should put away and the consequences of changing their spending habits.”

This may explain why lottery winners are more likely to go bankrupt as those who didn’t stumble into thousands, according to researchers from the University of Kentucky, the University of Pittsburgh and Vanderbilt Law School. Or why 78 percent of NFL players are bankrupt or under financial stress within two years of retiring and 60 percent of NBA athletes are broke within five years of leaving pro sports, according to data from Sports Illustrated.

To ensure that higher earnings translate into higher net worth, Goldbart says, “Be conscious as a consumer. (Ask yourself:) ‘Is the purchase or spending of my money aligned with my values and moving me in the direction I want and need to go?’”

Higher Degrees Always Mean Bigger Salaries

A college degree pays off for almost everyone. Research from Georgetown University shows that the average college graduate earns nearly $1 million more than the typical high school graduate over a lifetime. For those with higher degrees, the discrepancy becomes greater. The average doctoral degree holder earns nearly $1 million more than those with four-year degrees and nearly $2 million more than high school grads.

“In general, (a bachelor’s degree) will lead to higher earnings,” says Stephen Rose, senior economist at Georgetown’s Center on Education and the Workforce and co-author of “The College Payoff” study. But there are exceptions. According to Rose’s research, a very select few professions, including postal service mail carriers and electricians, had no statistically significant pay hike between the bachelor’s and high school diploma levels. In professions such as editing, those with a master’s degree statistically earn less than workers with only a bachelor’s.

Rose is quick to point out that those cases are few and far between. “The data is pretty overwhelming that higher degrees lead to higher earnings in the labor force,” he says.

Money Can’t Buy Happiness

The truth is, money is correlated to happiness, particularly for low- and middle-income earners. Research from Princeton University shows that as test subjects increased their incomes, their overall life outlook improved as well. Regardless of economic class, jumps in salary and happiness increased at the same rate, meaning that a 20 percent increase in salary resulted in the same amount of overall happiness for both low-income and high-income people.

Income increases also improved subjects’ “emotional well-being” — the quality of their day-to-day existences — up until they reached the $75,000 mark. Earnings above $75,000 did nothing to improve subjects’ daily attitudes. As income dropped below $75,000, test subjects also reported more stress and less happiness.

Research from the University of California, Berkeley also suggests that money may influence happiness, but it’s not the most important factor. A series of four studies all show that the amount of respect and social influence a person wields has a significantly larger impact on their happiness level than their earnings.

Financial Aid Always Goes to the Neediest

While many federal and state aid programs are need-based, meaning that they go to families with the highest financial need, colleges and outside organizations also offer merit-based aid, which can go to families of all economic levels. According to data from the College Board (as analyzed by The New York Times), some schools, such as Hodges University in Naples, Fla., and Mississippi College in Clinton, Miss., award merit aid to more than half of their freshmen class. Students can get an estimate on how much merit aid they may qualify for by using the net-price calculator located on their school’s website.

Dan Davenport, director of student financial aid services for the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho, adds that financial need is relative. “(Families) can’t determine their need by their neighbor saying, ‘Oh I already filled out the (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), and I didn’t have need, so I know that you won’t have need.’”

As financial need is determined by weighing a family’s income and assets against its college costs, even high-income families may qualify for need-based aid at pricey institutions.

One Formula Determines Your Credit Score

Not so, says Gail Cunningham, spokeswoman for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, the largest network of nonprofit credit counseling agencies in the country.

There are actually dozens of different scoring models, but “FICO is usually credited with being the granddaddy of them all,” she says.

Many lenders use the FICO scoring model, but some organizations have their own formulas. Credit bureaus also have multiple methods of calculating your score. While most scoring models yield similar results, a study by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau shows that there was a “meaningful difference” for 1 in 5 consumers between different credit-scoring formulas, which could translate to a better or worse interest rate on a mortgage, auto loan or credit card offer.

What scoring models have in common, Cunningham says, is that they’re all based on information in your credit report, making it crucial to ensure that each of your reports from all three credit bureaus are error-free. Scoring models also use similar basic factors such as payment history and debt-to-credit ratio to calculate your creditworthiness. Instead of focusing on score, Cunningham says consumers should work on managing credit responsibly.

You’re Financially Prepared

You may be, but there’s a good chance that your neighbor isn’t. A study by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling shows that 39 percent of U.S. adults don’t have any savings outside of funds in retirement plans. The same percentage also carries credit card debt from month to month. What’s more troubling than what we know about spending habits is what the U.S. public doesn’t know. The NFCC study also says that more than 1 in 5 adults have no idea how much they spend on housing, food and entertainment, and more than 2 in 5 give themselves a grade of C, D or F when it comes to personal finance literacy.

“Most people simply do not financially plan,” says Goldbart of the Money, Meaning and Choices Institute. “We tend to deal with money by looking in the rearview. ‘Oh I see what I did;’ nothing about what I am doing or what I could be doing.”

Before creating a financial plan, Goldbart advises consumers to evaluate their core values about spending, saving and sharing money, and then devise a plan that’s aligned with those beliefs.

www.StLouisHomesByGina.com The Gina Koerner Team 636-229-8746