Want to learn how to frame out a house, hang drywall, install light fixtures, and become an overall do-it-yourself sort of person? Luckily, someone has done some of the work for you, compiling a how-to for free or cheap how-to resources where you can learn the tricks of nearly any trade.
Real Estate & Homes
A Bad Credit Score Can Cost You Over $200K
Two friends go about their lives, taking out student loans, buying cars and homes, and taking on a bit of credit card debt. While their expenses are identical, their credit scores—and corresponding monthly payments and interest charges—are not. Over a lifetime, the person with credit rated “fair to poor” can expect to pay over …
Why Buying a Foreclosed House on the Cheap Is Harder Than You Think
The truth is that there are a lot more buyers and a lot fewer homes on the market than you’d expect.
It’s a Deal: 20% Off Everything in L.L. Bean’s Home Department
Now through Sunday, February 21, all bedding, furniture, rugs, pet accessories, and other items in L.L. Bean’s Home Department are marked down by 20%.
Foreclosure Rage
By now, you’ve probably heard of IRS rage, with the story of a disturbed man who was apparently so angry at the government and tax collectors that he crashed a plane into an IRS building in Texas yesterday. Here’s another rage-filled incident, with no violence, but plenty of destruction: A man in Ohio bulldozed his home before a bank …
Shout Out: “The Best Places to Buy an Old House”
In its annual roundup, This Old House features some affordable neighborhoods—and not only in Detroit.
What’s Up? Also, What’s Down
The economy has had its ups and downs—OK, mostly downs of late. Here, some statistics showing the economic fallout on all sorts of things, including cheap booze sales (they’re up), military recruits with college degrees (also up), and excuses for getting out of jury duty (way up).
How to Get Someone Else to Pay for Installing Solar Panels on Your Home
A woman renovating a 1902 farmhouse and barn in Connecticut explains how, thanks to various government incentives, she can have solar panels installed for $0 upfront and monthly lease payments that are lower than her current electric bills.
Why People Aren’t Sold on Energy Efficiency in their Homes
How many residents of Boulder, Colorado, does it take to screw in a light bulb? 100,000: Taxpayers foot the bill for teams of techies to go door-to-door and caulk windows, swap old light bulbs for compact fluorescent ones, and install programmable thermostats, all in the name of energy efficiency. Should saving energy—and money—be …
How Homeownership Is Like Marriage
There are forces that eagerly want you to enter these institutions—the federal government with homeownership, nagging family members with marriage, and society as a whole for both. You hear over and over that entering into these commitments is the fulfillment of a dream. But neither homeownership nor marriage is right for everyone. And …
Fighting Words from the Visionary of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency
“Without a watchdog in place, the big banks just keep slinging out uglier and uglier products.”
Do You Spend Less than $2,000 Annually on Internet, TV, Cell Phone Service, and Video Games?
If so, you’re in the minority. All of these expenses traditionally fall into the entertainment category, as “discretionary” spending. But more and more, they’re viewed as indispensable, right up there with electricity, water, and food.