Joe's Money

Mortgage rates continue to decrease.  A 30 year fixed rate came through at 4.76% and 15 year fixed rate settled at 3.97%.

These rates are amazing!  When I locked in close to two years ago at 4.875, I didn’t think that rate would be around very long, much less, go lower.

Here we are almost two years after my purchase, and in my opinion, this country is still facing the same challenges.  Most people have strong opinions about how housing got to where it is today.  About four or five years ago, I announced my thoughts, and stick to them to this day.

When the housing market crashed, I think we can all settle on the fact that home owners simply couldn’t afford their payments in the first place.  You can pass the blame on the banks for issueing the loans, or take the personal accountability route and blame it towards the borrower.  Either way, I don’t think the borrowers could afford the payments in the first place.  Of course in return, we get the wave of forclosures.

So why after a few years, are we still experiencing the same issues?  The housing market is flooded with vacant homes, why aren’t people buying?  Well, on the surface we have high unemployment so those buyers are taken off the table.  Most folks that are well off, more than likely have already settled somewhere.  That leaves the poor and middle class.  The issue with these groups, is they still sipmly can’t afford a home.  The remainder of the market is simply waiting for homes to come down in price enough to meet their needs.  Until then, nothing will change.

To be honest, I thought rates would have been raised by now.  Once Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stopped buying mortgages, I didn’t think there would be anyone left to borrow money at such low rates.  I was wrong.  Since the rates have stayed around 5% for a 30 year fixed rate, the only answer is lower home prices, or I suppose even lower rates, but I don’t see that happening.  There simply won’t be enough incentive to borrow the money out.

Hopefully, the market returns and stabilizes shortly, however, I think we’ve got a long road ahead.

With the recent run up in price for gold, silver, and many other commodities, you may be wondering where to score the deals for those precious metals.  I haven’t personally been buying too long, only a couple of years.  However, here are my experiences.

Apmex (Online Merchant)

A few years ago, I made my first silver bullion purchase from Apmex.com.  Little did I know, they cater more to large volume buyers as the only time you can get a decent price is if you are ordering 100+ ounces of silver at a time.  To some, that may not be that much, but I certainly couldn’t afford it.  On otp of the high premiums for low volume buyers, there are shipping fees, credit card fees, etc.  If you pay by check or money order, the credit card fees are obviously removed.

Final Say: Better for large volume buyers, no so much for the low volume.  Service is impecable.

eBay Auctions

Boy ohh boy, where do we start here?  In the past, deals were difficult to find, but were there.  With prices where they are now, this is not the case.  Lots of buyers have been bidding well past the normal premium prices as of late.  I did a little research and have found that most of these buyers fall into the category of simply being unfamiliar with their purchases.  Another group is folks that only buy an ounce or two at a time and are willing to pay a high premium.  The last and likely smallest group of folks paying these insane premiums are folks using reward programs like eBay bucks or eBay gift cards.  The discounts bring the actual paid price to a level consistent with other venues.

I have however heard that there are still respectable deals to be found in “junk” silver.

Final Say:  For well versed buyers, this is probably the last place you should try to strike a deal.  Individuals just looking for a piece or two of silver, this could be an ok route.

Local Coin Shows

Keep in mind my findings around local coin shows may not be what you experience, all markets can vary greatly depending on the amount of buyers and sellers.

Local coin shows around my area (Twin Cities Metro Area) tend to have some of the best prices around.  Silver eagles usually go for a much smaller premium than online sellers or eBay.  Eagles have almost always been available.  These are likely the most sought after silver bullion items available.  Generic silver bars or rounds can be difficult to find, especially in quantities.  However, premiums when you can find them, are very low, barely over spot price.

Other common selections from my local shows are the Australian Kookaburra round, the Chinese Panda round, and the Canadian Maple Leaf.  All of these coins have detailed, beautiful designs.

Final Say:  Likely the best prices around, no tax, get to work with folks from your own community, etc.  Possibly a limited selection.  Clearly the best choice as far as pricing goes.

Amazon’s most popular seller, the Kindle, is now available at a lower price point than in the past.  The catch, it’s ad supported.

What does this mean?  It means the kindle screen will add sales offers in different positions on the screen.  It sounds like the ads only appear on the top of the page, bottom of the page, and as a screensaver for power save mode.

The savings?  Only $25.  The standard Kindle is $139, while the ad supported version is $114.

Check out the full details at Amazon

For the longest time, I had been using a Bank of America rewards based credit card.  There were many redemtion options on this guy.  Generally, you could redeem for giftcards for fewer points than redeeming cash.  While you would earn 1 point for every dollar spent, rewards were quite expensive.

Recently, I switched to the no hassle card from Capital One.  They offer 2% cash back on gas and groceries, and a straight 1% on everything else.

So far, its been better than expected.  We do our grocery shopping at Walmart.  (Bring on the hate Walmart crowd, hey they got the low low prices)  While Walmart obviously sells more than groceries, and the card is only supposed to give 2% cash back on groceries and 1% on everything else, there must not be a way to differenciate the different items.  The result?  2% cash back on everything at Walmart.  A nice little surprise!

The card also has online offers to earn points faster.  Lots of places you arlready shop offer bonuses both online and in store.  Not a bad gig.

Overall, I’ve earned a few $100 cash back checks.  You can also redeem the points for a simple statement credit.  I like to take the check and toss it in my Roth or other savings account.

Overall, the card is a good deal if you pay the balance off monthly.  Nothing like free money!

Well, let me start off by saying you won’t be getting a buy one fill up get another free with this deal, a guy can dream right?  So bare with me and I can show you how to ease the latest gas prices just a little bit.

Super America and Speedway both offer the Speedy Rewards card.  All it entails is a free discount card that racks up points as you spend your hard earned cash on everyone’s favorite expense, gas.  The card also ears points on just about everything found in the store as well.  For gas you typically earn 10 points per gallon.  Most in store items reap 20 reward points for every dollar spent, sometimes more for bonus items.  Only a few categories do not earn points like tobacco, lottery, etc.

So right now it takes 24,500 points to get a free $25 gas card.  Yes, you’re absolutely right, that takes a lot of spending to rack up that many points.  However, here is a little trick that will help you get there faster.

When you purchase giftcards, you get a bonus of 1,000 points for every $50 put towards the giftcard.  So when I go to the gas station, I put on a few hundred dollars until it runs out, then repeat.  Gas is a fairly fixed expense so if you budget you should be able to do this as well.  Once the cash is on the gift card, you use that to purchase your gas replacing your cash or credit card.  In addition to the bonus points from purchasing the gift card, you also earn points when you purchase the gas.

Picking up the gift cards in $50 incriments will sure help you get there faster.  While you won’t get a ton in free gas, a little extra never hurts.