Archive for October, 2009

Wise Bread is a community of bloggers dedicated to helping people you live well on a small budget. Unlike writers like the Washington Post’s Michelle Singletary, they don’t think that living frugally is synonymous with giving up everything that makes life worth living. The Wise Bread philosophy: You can have fun saving money.

One of the cool things that you’ll find on Wise Bread is a directory of personal finance blogs and (drumroll, please) Debtbeat is now listed with their Top 100+ Personal Finance Blogs! They also have a supplemental list of financial blogs by big media. And a list of personal finance Twitterers for those of you down with the blue bird of tweets.

The entire Debtbeat team (our writers, interns, engineers, publicists, security, drivers and masseuses) is humbled by the honor. Except the accountants. They are a surly bunch…

Unless you’ve sold your TV and don’t surf the web (which would make it really hard for you to read this) then you probably know that Microsoft is touting its new Windows 7 operating system as the greatest thing since sliced bread. Many critics do agree that this is the best version of Windows ever and for people frustrated by the slow runs times and bugs that they experienced with Vista, 7 will be a welcome change.

But before you run out and order an upgrade to Windows 7, which will set you back at least a c-note and at least some headaches to convert over to the new hotness, consider other things that you can do to improve the performance of your current machine and hold off getting Windows 7 until you can get a new computer that comes with 7 pre-installed. (Especially if your’e considering buying that new software on credit.) Remember that we’re here to pay down debt.

There’s a great article on SmartMoney.com with 6 ways to boost your PC without shelling out big bucks. To get more performance out of your XP or Vista machine while saving for that new computer, try the following tips :

1. Increase your RAM. This is my number one recommendation as well. For little money (<$50) and with little technical expertise you can usually double the horsepower that your computer has to work with. Many electronics stores will even install additional memory for you for free if you buy it there.
2. Add an external hard drive or subscribe to an online backup service. If your hard drive is maxed out with all of your music and movies, consider getting extra storage instead of a whole new system.
3. Cure your PC. If you don’t have the proper virus protection, surf sketchy sites and open unknown e-mail attachments, your computer might be infected with the PC version of swine flu. There are many free and low-cost tools to check your system for bugs and spyware which slow down your machine.
4. Accessorize. A new monitor, trackball, keyboard, printer or other inexpensive add-on can add life to your computer. Remember to visit Freecycle.org (a website for Debtbeats) to see if there may be folks giving away what you’d otherwise buy.
5. Remove unwanted programs. Your operating system allows you to dump the bloat that you’ve collected over the years, freeing up hard drive space and juicing up your system speed.
6. Reformat your hard drive. This is the riskiest move, since you’ll need to back up your data (see point 2) but next to adding more memory this is probably the best way to get that next-to-new computer feel you’re looking for.

For a more in-depth checklist and resources to accomplish all of this, visit SmartMoney.com and read the full article.

With high unemployment showing little sign of abating, foreclosures are now spreading throughout the country and hitting areas that didn’t benefit from a scorching hot real estate market in the earlier part of the decade. The new story of foreclosures is even more frightening.

It’s not speculators and investors losing the multiple properties they were hoping to flip, or people with exotic mortgages who shouldn’t have bought the pricey homes they did having to move. Now the jobless around the country are being forced from their modest homes after exhausting every option to make on more payment.

While homes are still being padlocked at a high rate in traditional foreclosure hot spots like Las Vegas and Orange County, unlikely candidates like Burlington, Vermont and Lincoln, Nebraska are on the list of areas with the fastest growing foreclosure rates.

In addition to employment woes, adjustable rate mortgages are also contributing to the trend hitting places like Boise and Salt Lake City, according to RealtyTrac.  In a recent press release their CEO, James J. Saccacio, is quoted as saying “Rising unemployment and a new variety of mortgage resets continued to gradually shift the nation’s foreclosure epicenters in the third quarter away from the hot spots of the last two years and toward some metro areas that had avoided the brunt of the first foreclosure wave.”

The Mortgage Bankers Association predicts that unemployment and foreclosures won’t peak until next year. So things will continue to get worse before they get better.