My wife and I are buying a house in Austin, Texas ( Steiner Ranch ). We are trying to figure out how we want to finance it. We have the means to pay for the house with cash. We are being offered a mortgage at 3.6%. The cost of the house would represent about 50% of our net worth. The other 50% is fairly liquid, with an even spread between 401k, index funds, 529's, and cash. Should we do it?
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posted by jasondigitized
on Jul 11, 2012 -
25 answers
How can I get the best deal on a car? Based on my
previous question, I haven't decided if I am going to buy or lease. For either path, what techniques and tactics should I employ to get the best deal. Where can I find reliable information on prices? Do I play dealers off of one another? This question is not about buying vs. leasing. Let's just assume I am going to buy one car and lease another. How do I get the best deal on both?
posted by jasondigitized
on Aug 19, 2011 -
12 answers
Help me decide how to finance my vehicle purchases. I need to get two cars for my family. Could be new, could be used. I want both of these cars to have very high safety ratings. Everything else doesn't really matter. I could pay cash for two new cars, but that just seems stupid to do on a depreciating asset. Is the best course of action to find two used, yet reasonably new cars and pay cash? What if we like having new cars? Should we just lease two new vehicles? I have read that the best course of action is to buy a used car and drive it into the ground. That's great, but what if I leave the country again in 5 years. And do I really want to be driving around in a
Hooptie in ten years. How do I approach the whole buy new / used, lease issue.
posted by jasondigitized
on Aug 10, 2011 -
16 answers
What things should people do that are in their best interest, but don't do either because of ignorance or lack of discipline. For example, if you have the discipline to pay every month, there is no reason not to use a rewards based credit card for all your purchases. Arguably, maxing your 401k is another example of this. So is exercise and sunscreen. What other smart behaviors and actions should we do, but don't because we don't know any better or don't have the will to do so. I will also take counter examples, e.g. stupid decisions / undisciplined behaviors / etc.
posted by jasondigitized
on Aug 2, 2011 -
39 answers
My wife and I will be moving stateside from Bermuda next year. We will be moving into an empty house with
NOTHING except outdated wardrobes and cash. With that said, we will be acquiring
a lot of stuff. We will need cars, furniture, appliances, electronics, art, tools, clothes, insurance, etc. etc. How can we maximize our investments in all this stuff? What is your opinion on getting good deals in each of these categories? Our financial planner suggested we
incorporate to get some tax write-offs. Another friend said to look into
SwapLease. Yet another said to buy all of our furniture in
North Carolina. If you were starting with nothing, how would you approach it? Should I walk into Best Buy and tell the manager to
make me a deal? Should we buy
used cars? Hit
garage sales? Buy
fine art and
antiques? Get a part-time job at the
Gap? Where and how can I find the best deals / best investments?
posted by jasondigitized
on Aug 14, 2007 -
12 answers
Does a company like
37Signals /
Basecamp have to charge its users for sales tax? Looking at
Basecamp, they charge different monthly rates for associated tiers of service. I would imagine they have customers from all over the States, as well as different countries. Are they required to apply sales tax to these monthly rates based on the customers geographic location. Or, because they are an e-commerce entity, and aren't really selling anything tangible, do they simply charge the flat rate and ignore sales tax?
More pointedly, I am wondering how complex tax collection / reporting is for a U.S. based e-commerce business of this sort.
posted by jasondigitized
on Oct 21, 2005 -
6 answers
What occupations have the potential to make over 100k+ a year? There seems to be a lot of high income earners all over the world, and I am sure they're not all doctors, lawyers, professional athletes, and famous entertainers. Based on the occupations of people I do know who make this kind of money, the Occupational Outlook Handbook seems demographically inaccurate.
Can you potentially make 100k as a hot dog vendor, an eBay seller, or a trapeze artist. Once I get a list, I am going to change careers......
posted by jasondigitized
on Sep 12, 2005 -
46 answers
