Sealing them using foam, weather stripping or with a caulking gun will go a long way toward making your house warmer and more comfortable and keeping some of your money in your own pocket.

It is possible of course to seal your home up too well, preventing the fresh air from entering your house and keeping your air quality good for your healthy living, but trust me when I tell you that with an older house, or a mobile home, that truly isn’t very likely.

Try going over your home yourself and check for some of these often overlooked air leaks, such as around the outlets. If you find cool air moving in past the outlets in your home, there are small panel like insulators that are made specifically for insulating the home outlets, and will stop a good bit of draft.

Check your ductwork, and make sure that it isn’t leaking vast amounts of cold air into your home.
If you can feel cold air blowing through when the furnace and blower are not at work, then you do need to take steps to tighten the ductwork, not only for efficiency but also for safety.

Energy Star says:”In houses with forced-air heating and cooling systems, ducts are used to distribute conditioned air throughout the house. In a typical house, however, about 20 percent of the air that moves through the duct system is lost due to leaks and poorly sealed connections. The result is higher utility bills and difficulty keeping the house comfortable, no matter how the thermostat is set.”

Many of these ducts are hidden inside the walls and between or underneath the floors, making them hard to access and difficult to repair when they are separated, however those which are open to view in attics and etc can be sealed using the cure all for every opening.. duct tape.

In addition, insulating ducts that run through spaces that get hot in summer or cold in winter (like attics, garages, or crawlspaces) can save significant energy, and you will save a decent amount of energy and money by making sure that you do..

One very common place that air leaks occur in a mobile home will be beneath the windows, not necessarily on the window itself, but below it where it meets the wall.

Lay a hand there, or a mirror on a cool day and see if it fogs. If so, run a bead of silicone caulking along that seam to seal it better.

Another mobile home issue is under walls, where the molding is not necessarily down meeting with the floor. If that sthe case with yours, I recommend adding a strip of weather stripping between the molding and the floor, or sealing that with caulking as well, to save yourself money and comfort as the winter weather approaches.

Granted Prefab homes are not the best built in the world but they can be a safe and comfortable home environment if you take the time and effort to keep them sealed.

For more information on staying warm and lowering your utility bills, visit Energy Star.com.

Recently charitable trusts have been becoming more popular because they also offer a very valuable bonus in terms of what is paid currently, and what will be paid in taxes in the future, and help those of us who choose to, to be able to provide for causes and/or people that are foremost in our minds.

Trusts such as these are irrevocable and don’t generate capital gains taxes or immediate estate taxes either.

In recent years a charitable trust setup has become far more popular because they provide a valuable advantage to us in terms of what we pay currently and those taxes we will pay in future years, and permit us to provide for those causes or people who are important to us.

These trusts are irrevocable and will not generate capital gains and estate taxes immediately.
The charitable trust formation will increase your income for the rest of your life because it reduces your current tax payments.

Charitable trusts take some careful drafting to make them completely legal and legitimate but they are absolutely more than worth your time to look into formation of one. Of course some legal strictures apply to what you can and can’t do with a charitable trust.

There are excise taxes which are given for acts of what is termed self dealing, meaning any type of transaction between the charitable trust and an individual who is termed a disqualified person such as a family member or the family of a contributor.

Based on what you want to do with the money when you are gone, you pick a kind of charitable trust to build..

At the end of the trust, a specific time or year set by you, all assets are given to a charity that you will select.

• Audit yourself

A home energy audit is an assessment of how much energy you are using at home. It will tell you where energy is lost and where it can be saved. You can do the energy audit by yourself or get a professional to do it for you. It is also offered free by some utilities.

• Reduce the use of electricity

Follow these simple steps in achieving this:

• Turn off the lights and other devices when not in use.
• Replace your bulb lights with Compact Fluorescent Bulbs (CFLs)
• Television and other electronic devices that are on standby mode continue to use power. Unplug those devices when not in use.
• AC Adaptors or what you call “wall warts” on many power cables, pull current too/ Take them out when not in use.
• Cloth driers use a lot of power. Do line drying instead.

Appliances and other devices are one of the biggest users of energy. Always look for the yellow Energy Guide Level when buying your appliances. Also look for Energy Star rated products.

• Build your House that is Solar Friendly

Enormous savings can be realized when you design and build your home to incorporate natural light and ventilation. Use the sun’s path to warm your house in the winter and cool it in the summer using Passive Solar Design.

• Install a home energy alternative system

This is becoming more and more cost effective. Photovoltaic, or solar electric are the most common. It can provide all the energy in a typical home. This system has solar panels that get the sun’s energy and make it useable electricity for your home. Check with your local power utility about other available programs.

• Sign up for Green Power

Power utilities offer a green power option program. When you avail of this, the local utility will buy renewable energy such as solar or wind power and then passes it along to customers. It would cost a little bit more but you will help support the green power industry.

• Put your homes on a diet

Homes are the big consumers of enormous amount of energy especially in cooling and heating. Do these simple moves that can cut your electricity bill.

• Use natural ventilation instead of air conditioning as much as possible
• Use in-room ceiling or whole house fans to move air throughout the house
• Wrap your water tank in an insulating blanket to save on power
• Block the sunlight during hot hours of the day to lower your cooling load.

Many of us will avoid the issue, because it is not a pleasant thing to consider, but also because the cost of an attorney is not inconsiderable.

DIY Wills

As disconcerting as that may sound, about a quarter of adult Americans have a will and don’t update it regularly when they do have one.

It is no longer necessary to pay an exhorbitant fee to provide for the future of your children and property, since a wider and wider selection of software and programs that are now online exist to provide that will for you.

While most people can and should make a will, they should also realistically evaluate whether a do it yourself will will be adequate for their purposes.

You should in fact consider hiring an attorney if you want a trust fund set up or have a special needs child who requires some financial arrangements made for their future.

You should also consult an attorney if you believe that there is a family member who will contest that will.
If it is your intent to completely overlook your spouse.

Fop the record, you cannot normally do this while you are married, however an attorney can explain your options.

Quite unlike older versions of a preprinted will, the software that is in place today, both online and for sale, has advice and legal assistance to help you create a will in under two hours and update it whenever your personal information or situation might change.

First things first, you will need a financial calculator, a trusted lending company offering home refinancing services, as well as a real estate broker. And here’s what you do:

Contact your real estate broker and ask about the current interest rates. If you can’t find one, then check out the Sunday newspaper. In the real estate section, you’ll find the fixed interest rates for mortgages.

The next decision you have to make could make or break your future. So take your time deciding which mortgage loan you want, fixed or adjustable. Most likely, your parents would have had a fixed mortgage loan, which meant that they are paying lower monthly payments for a fixed number of years. A lot of lending companies offer 30 Year Fixed Rate Mortgages; others have 15, 20, 25 and even 40 year term mortgages. One thing to remember is that the longer your mortgage term is, the total interest you’re paying will be higher. An adjustable mortgage loan has lower initial rates because both the lender and borrower are sharing the risk of higher rates in the future. This type of mortgage is better suited for homeowners who have an income that can support the unpredictability of the interest rates as well as those who are not looking for long term home ownership.

Once you decide which type of loan you want, you will have to compare the new interest rates to your current mortgage. The financial calculator will help you figure out what your new monthly payments will be by using the remaining amount of money you owe on your existing loan. After such, subtract the new monthly payment from your current monthly payment to see how much you can actually save. If you don’t see any significant difference, it’s better to stay on with your current loan. However, if you are saving a whole lot of money that you can spend elsewhere, take advantage of the loan.

Home refinancing will give you access to extra cash and at the same time lower your monthly mortgage payments. If you feel that you have been cheated or that you want a shorter mortgage term, this could be your chance to correct your past mistakes.

This is becoming, sadly more and more common, and in just the past year alone, many thousand people have lost their homes; people who never imagined it could happen to them.

There are ways to avoid, or to forestall foreclosure and perhaps to prevent some of the damage that might be done to your credit rating if you begin to think and plan as soon as it becomes clear to you that you will have a problem paying a monthly payment. The time to act is immediately to begin planning for the eventuality, and if it becomes clear that you will be able to meet the payment, no harm is done by your having been prepared for the worst case scenario.

Certain steps are necessary if you are going to attempt to keep your home.

*never avoid the letters and calls from your lender. Conversely call or write to them immediately. Explain your situation and offer information as to how much and when you might be able to pay. Offer them information on your financial standing, bills outstanding and payments due, so that they will be in a position to assist you in deferring payments, meeting the obligation in several installments per month or other means to meet the payment.

**Do not abandon the home. You may and probably will lose rights to the property and your equity in it. Additionally there are assistance programs available to you if you stay with the home.

**Some companies offer special circumstances assistance programs such as forbearance, partial claim or preforeclosure sales which while not always permitting you to keep the home, will avoid a foreclosure and may save your credit, permitting you to purchase another home at a future date. In many cases by skipping a payment or two, adding them to the end of your loan, you will be able to keep the home. Ask about these services.

There are many artists who practice a scam known as equity skimming. They will promise to assist you out of your problems by paying off your mortgage. Usually this does not happen, and the financial institution forecloses on the property in the end, but only after your home has been used by these artists for their own purposes.

Things that sound too good to be true. usually are. and need researched.

Be particularly aware of scams, or scam artists who will claim to want to assist you with your difficulties.
Use only reputable counselors, or third party assistants when attempting to resolve financial difficulties.

Particularly for older people, or those on a fixed income, significant rises in the cost of utilities can create real hardships. Finding a way to lower the cost of your utilities is particularly important for these folks.

There are some simple ways to lower your utility costs that are easily doable by any do it yourselfer.
Take a look at your own, and check out those of your parents as well so that their heat and light bills can be lowered, giving them a break on the monthly bills.

Lower your thermostat

Taking it down a notch, even only by 5 or 10 degree’s will save about ten percent on your heating bill.
Before you head for bed, lower the heat, and cuddle under warm blankets.

Use fluorescent bulbs:
Replacing just four or five light bulbs with fluorescent light bulbs can reduce the cost of your home electric bill by about 25 % on the cost of the bulb operations.
Try to remember to turn off the lights in the rooms that you are not in. Many people who have difficulty seeing at night and leave on a light, can benefit from a small night light that will see when you enter the room and turn on for your, using electric eye technology.

Lower your water heaters temperature setting by about 20 degrees, and wrap your heater in an insulating blanket to prevent it from cooling so rapidly.

This will save you about 100 dollars per year in the electric bill to heat your water.
Insulation blankets are not recommended for gas water heaters.
Consider changing from gas hot water heater to electric, which is not only a cleaner but a less expensive source of heat.
Many electric co-ops, among them Southern Power District, will offer you a free hot water tank for your home if you will permit them to install a timer to turn off the power to your heater for certain overnight hours.

Check the Attic Insulation:
Many times the heat will be lost when attic insulation is compromised and it should be checked each year. Heat rises and most of it is lost to the attic.

Weather Stripping:
If you lay your hand against the edge of your door and you can feel a draft, then some felt weather stripping is in order to keep your home warmer and your utility bill lower.
The more drafts that enter your home, the harder that your furnace or heater has to work to keep your house warm.

These are the top five ways to lower your utility bills and there are others that are out there for you to explore.
Making sure that our homes are warm and our bills are affordable is something we are all concerned about.

If you’d like to find other methods to keep your house and your family warm without breaking the bank, pay a visit to Energy Efficient.com

At some point along the way taking into account all of lifes other expenses we realize that we’ve been overwhelmed by the debt of our education.

Take a deep breath, step back and then consolidate. By taking all your loan payments adding them together and consolidating the amount, the new loan will benefit you in several ways.

Multiple loan payments will not be due at multiple times during the course of a month requiring that you memorize more dates and times than you did for history class.

Your new loan will afford you a lowered monthly payment than those you had separately.
You will have just one lender as opposed to several or many.

Only one interest rate will be part of your loans and if you had several chances are that your interest was fairly steep and a large portion of what you paid each month due to the multiple loans.

You will have the added benefit of improving or adding to your credit rating as the loans which you consolidate will be effectively paid off, improving your status, having paid off several of your student loans.

Many consolidation loans will afford you multiple repayment options. You may take a fixed amount for a period of ten years.

This option provides for a larger payment but at the end of the time span the student loans are gone and you are cleared of debt faster.

You may pay a smaller loan for a period of up to thirty years, or choose to pay a smaller amount now, and raise the amount every two years.

Should you be fresh from medical school or a higher paying position and expect that your options and employment will improve your financial situation in a short time, this option is probably the best that you can take.

Lastly there is an income contingent plan in which your repayment is ascertained dependent upon your current income which is reevaluated yearly.

This option will be excellent for those who do not immediately find employment upon leaving school. You are still making progress with the payment of your loans albeit perhaps only interest, but the loan does not default and when you are earning more your payments will rise, providing more payment toward the principle aspect of the loan.

Whichever option you choose will afford you to at least take a breath and start the act of living rather than holding your breath each time the loan bill comes in.

Once the consolidation is effective the savings will be immediately apparent to you with less money leaving your pocket each month to pay the student loans and a bit more staying for the simple things like buying groceries.