November Housing Guide

Housing GuideMonday, November 9, 2009 !"#$%&'(%)*#"+2

Monday, November 9, 2009Housing Guide !"#$%&'(%)*#"+ 3


MOVE.COM

Are you thinking about moving into your first apartment? Are you worried you won’t have enough mon-ey? Try setting up a budget which will help you save money and es-tablish good spending habits before you get out completely on your own. Financial adviser Nancy Dunnan and MetLife came up with the fol-lowing guidelines to help you create a reasonable balance of expenses:

Item PercentHousing 25 to 30Food 8 to 15Health care 5 to 7Insurance/pensions 7 to 9Clothing 6 to 8Entertainment 5 to 9General savings 6 to 10Total spent 62 to 88

Of course, these percentages will vary depending on your individual needs, but this is a general guideline. Start saving 25-30 percent of your paycheck for rent while you’re still living at home. You’ll want to have about three month’s rent saved in your account before you move in so that you can pay the security deposit and first month’s rent, and then have some left over so that if for some rea-son you go over budget one month, you won’t have to worry about mak-ing any payments.

Once you’ve moved in, you should continue to follow the bud-get. If you feel you need to save even more money, there are other ways to cut back. Consider spending less on food, transportation, and entertain-ment. This doesn’t mean you have to starve while you sit at home doing nothing, but there are easy ways to save money.

According to the Statistical Abstract of the United States 1994, most Americans spend about 5 per-cent of their income on eating out. One easy way to save money is by packing lunch for work or school rather than stopping at a local cafe. You’d be surprised how much of a difference this could make.

For instance, Mr. Smith usu-ally leaves work for lunch every day to go to a burger joint. He spends around $5.00 each time. That turns into $25.00 a week, which is $1,300 a year.

It’s always cheaper to buy in bulk from the grocery store than it is to buy in bulk from a burger barn. For example, if Mr. Smith packed a fruit salad for lunch every day, not only would he be eating healthier food, but he could buy all the fruit he needed for a week for around $10. So instead of spending $1,300 per year on eating out, he’d spend $520 and save nearly $780 a year.

According to the Insurance Information Institute, average Americans spend about 16 percent of their yearly income on transporta-tion. To save money in this category, consider carpooling instead of com-muting alone. You might cringe at the thought of ride sharing, but if moving to a new apartment is your ultimate goal, you really should con-sider it.

If Mr. Smith took the bus to work instead of driving, he could eliminate many expenses. By ending the cost of gasoline alone (3 percent annu-ally according to the Statistics of the United States in 1994), you’re sav-ing close to $1,000 annually. This doesn’t even include the extra money you’ll save on car maintenence, etc., and you’ll even be helping out the environment.

So, let’s look at the figures so far. According to the Insurance Information Institute, Americans are spending 32 percent of their income on housing, 16 percent on transpor-tation and 14 percent on food (62 percent of their total income).

If you reduce the amount of money allowed for the transporta-tion and food, that leaves more for the housing category. For example, by bringing his lunch to work every day as well as using public transpor-tation, Mr. Smith has now increased the amount of money he has for his home by 6 percent.

If he chose to, Mr. Smith could also decrease the amount allowed for entertainment, clothing and other unnecessary expenditures, and so could you. Consider going to a dollar movie or even a matinee rather than the $8 or $9 night time movie.

Most art exhibits are free. Most theaters offer a “pay what you can night.” Rather than taking a date to dinner and a movie, try going on a picnic in the park. It’s cheaper, and much more romantic. There are countless options to help you save for that new apartment.

Don’t give up on moving out un-til you’ve thoroughly evaluated your budget. You might be able to pinch enough pennies to move into a new place, and you will establish some better spending habits in the mean time.

Another tip — The Millionaire Next Door recommends that in or-der to build wealth and have a cush-ion, a rental payment should be no more than half the realized income. (income after taxes.)

MetLife says you should spend no more than 65 percent on housing, transportation and food combined.

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Kate KempMOVE.COM

Now that everything’s boxed up and ready to go, you’ll want to tackle those mystery stains in the hallway and dingy bathroom tiles. If you have enough people helping you move, some people can be cleaning while others help finish packing up.

Just like packing, there’s a meth-od to cleaning up your old place. The materials you’ll need are paper towels galore or cleaning rags, an old toothbrush, scrubbing brush, sponges with one side that scrubs, rubber gloves, broom and dust-pan, mop, vacuum cleaner, bleach, bathroom cleaner, carpet cleaner, glass cleaner, tile floor cleaner, a couple of boxes marked “Do Not Move” (I’ll explain later) and a small jam box (optional but highly recommended).

A few cleaning tips:1. Make sure you have every-

thing on in the materials list. Put all of the cleaning stuff into the box-es. Why should you mark them “Do Not Move?” When I moved this weekend, I tackled the bathroom tiles while my friends took a load of boxes to my new place.

Not knowing any better, a friend of mine took the cleaning supply box with him and for the next two hours I had nothing but a scrub-bing brush, some rubber gloves and some store brand tile cleaner. In case you’re wondering, you cannot dust with a scrubbing brush nor clean glass with tile cleaner.

2. Start in one room and don’t leave until it’s spotless. If you pick up bits and pieces all over the house, you won’t feel like you’ve accom-plished much.

Don’t clean the floors, toilets or bathroom sinks until right before you’re leaving. If you do, you’ll just have to do it all over again.

3. Clean from top to bottom. If you don’t, you’ll be cleaning some spots twice.

Don’t blister your knuckles trying to make the carpet shine. Remember, you’re responsible for coffee and pet stains, etc... but landlords will understand normal wear and tear. If you’re really wor-ried about any stains you’ve made, consider renting a carpet cleaning system from your local grocery store (usually around $20.00 per day).

If you smoke or have stinky pets, you can get rid of some of the smell by sprinkling baking soda on top of the carpet, letting it sit for about 15 minutes and then vacuuming it up. You should do this before you dust.

Your new place should already be clean ... but you may want to go over a few areas again:

The insides of cabinets. Chances are, the management had pest control come in and spray after the previous tenant left. While most pest control companies boast that their products are completely human friendly ... I wouldn’t take the chance. Take a warm, wet rag and clean the insides of drawers and cabinets to get rid of any possible residue. Once you’ve done this, you may want to line the cabinets/drawers with contact paper.

!"#$%&'()"**"+(,-./.(0*.1%$%&(,$2/There’s a method to scrubbing down your old place

November Housing Guide

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