For all that money just lying around

I had previously written about how I'm saving money in the short term by shaving my head in the new year. But I am also thinking about how I can save some money in the long term as well, one of those ways is making additional payments to the principle of my mortgage. It is really scary how much money we're all paying in interest charges to own our homes, so anything we can do to reduce that amount of interest is welcome advice.

Here is an example. Let say the mortgage is $250,000 and the interest rate is at 5% on a 25 year term. Your monthly payment towards the principal and interest is around $1462. Over the life of the mortgage, you'll be paying $188,443 in interest. Yikes!!!

Now here is the awesome part, if you make just one additional payment of $1462 at the beginning of each year you have the mortgage, you will save yourself $29,590.26 in interest charges. Plus you'll have it all paid off over 3 years earlier.

Alternatively if you make a monthly payment of $122 ($1462/12), you can save $30,021.21 and have it paid off 3 and a half years earlier.

Note: I do not work for a bank nor do I have a degree in accounting, I just know how to do math and fill out a spreadsheet.
Another thing to keep in mind that some banks might charge you for making extra payments and that there is usually a limit of how much you can pay straight to the principal. But I am willing to bet that even if you have to pay a bank fee, that you'll be saving thousands of dollars in the long term.

Don't believe me. Let your numbers and the math do the talking!!

"Cutting" back on spending

In a moment of cheapness, I drove out of the hair salon parking lot refusing to pay $30 dollars for a haircut. Instead I make a short journey and found myself in the men's hair care product aisle in Wal-Mart.

For the same price as the haircut I purchased a hair-clipper set and after setting myself up in the garage I proceeded to shave my head. It felt like such a victory; I was still out $30, but it was on my terms.

I share this memory as it relates to one of my New Year’s resolutions - to save and make some extra money in 2012. If a hair cut costs between $25-30 dollars and I get one every two months, that adds up to saving $150-180 dollars on the haircuts alone.

There are also the residual savings as well. I won't be needing to purchase any hair products like gel or hair spray. My usage of shampoo and conditioner will been reduced so we won't be replacing those items as quickly.

Plus the best part, since I'm Canadian, it works like Velcro and helps keep my winter hat on.

What are your new year’s resolutions?
Have you done anything strange to save a few dollars?

The Facebook Break-up

It has been a few weeks since I decided to deactivate my Facebook account and I don’t find myself missing it all too much. Or at least I don’t know what I am missing and I am OK with that. I wondered how I would react to deactivating the account having read articles about the addictive nature of the social media site. The only behavioral thing I observed was that my use had become habitual. We had the Facebook app on the iPod Touch, and each morning as I was making breakfast I would see what was new with people. Or if I had posted something the night before, I would see if anyone had responded to it. I remember feeling let down if I didn’t receive any recognition via a ‘Like’ or a comment. This is sad that I was using the site as some form of validation for who I was. That is exactly why I felt the need to break-up with Facebook. I just have to be careful not to repeat the same sins on this Blog.

Some interesting InfoGraphics:

Are We Too Obsessed With Facebook?

Facebook versus Twitter

Television Options in the Digital Age

A while back I wrote about my homemade television antenna and how I had given up on it. Well it has made a comeback. Across Canada recently, television signals switched from analog to digital to free up bandwidth across the airwaves. When that happened, the local station that used to come in slightly snowy stopped coming in at all.

I initially tried the store bought antenna that was supposed to be able to pick up the new digital signals with no luck. Then I decided to try the homemade antenna (pictured to the right) and was happily surprised when it worked like a charm. The local channel come in with 95% signal strength much better than it did when the signal was analog. Plus I was able to get another channel come in crystal clear which was TVO. (Which by the way has some pretty cool programming, check it out.)

This inexpensive solution helps support our decision a long time ago to cut the cord on our cable service. Of late a lot of people I know have also cut the cord on their traditional television subscription. Often the argument is "Why am I paying for all these channels that I don't even watch?"

Now with more TV programming services showing up on the internet and television sets becoming smarter and able to able to access that content, I am not surprised by the trends we're all seeing. This infographic at http://dailyinfographic.com/cutting-the-cable illustrates what I'm talking about.

Personally, I am waiting until Netflix offers Canadians more current programming but the price point is exactly the amount I want to pay. Plus I just learned that I can now get AirMiles through that service. I would need to upgrade some hardware to connect the internet to my TV, but I never find that task a hardship. (This is what I would buy.)

Until then I will continue to enjoy my two channels; CKCO and TVO. You won't hear me complaining about how much I've spent since it was very minimal and it was a one time expense.

How do current Netflix users find the service? What will the cable and satellite TV companies have to do to compete with online services? Do you want instructions on how to make your own antenna?