Five Home Trends We Never Saw Coming

Some of the latest trends in homebuilding and remodeling were not too hard to spot. Is anyone surprised that Americans, already living in monster homes, want even bigger ones?

But there were some developments we never saw coming.

Upscale Garages:
Who knew that those smelly, greasy spaces overstuffed with junk and empty boxes would morph into showplaces for Home Improvement types?

Today's owners want [garages] decked out with cabinet and storage systems, matching refrigerators, air conditioning and residential looking flooring.

The Web site contractor.com reports a garage remodeling starts at around $7,500 and goes up, sometimes steeply, from there depending on size and just how nice you want it.

Some home sellers are so infatuated with their upscale car storage unit that they become livid when house hunters get a bit of dirt on the floor.

Caving:
People want more personal space - for both mom and pop. Apparently, married people often like time alone. Who knew?

So, an amenity of choice these days is personal, dedicated space for one person in a household to go and work on projects or simply 'chill'.

Rejuvenation Rooms:
No, This is not simply to work out in. These are one-stop sites for exercising, meditating, yoga, sauna and fancy steam showers.

This is kind of a new age, serenity room where you do these quiet exercise things and then jump in the spa.

First you get your head together, then your body and then you steam off the sweat you expended doing it.

Heated Patios:
Northerners want to reduce their winter workouts shoveling snow, so they're installing heated patios, walkways and driveways.

Plus they want to add a couple of weeks of outdoor enjoyment in spring and fall and the warmth radiating off these outdoor surfaces makes the differences between just comfortable and "Let's go inside."

Snoring Rooms:
Husband (never wives) have often been banished for excessive snoring but it must be a lonely feeling to trudge out of the master bedroom suite and down to the living room couch. Now they don't have to

The huge master suites being installed in upscale housing typically come with large sleeping areas, a big walk-in closet and a gigantic bath. More and more now, they'll be equipped with another room entirely, a 12' by 12' or so space with a double bed and chair that will spare the innocent sleeper from the worst ravages of the noisy snorer.

It's not just for dad, the first person to start snoring has to make the exit.

On The Way Out:

In addition to up-and-coming trends, there are a few things destined for the trash heap of home-design history. These include:

Spiral Staircases:
Which were once the rage, are now death to the home seller. Aging boomers don't care to climb them and they're tough on pets and small children. Sellers should remove and replace them before putting a home on the market.

Bamboo Floors:
Are also out. The early reviews are in and owners have found them to be easily scratched and prone to warping.

Hardwood Laminate Flooring:
Is also a no-go. They don't stand up to multiple sandings to change color or remove stains.

Lastly, sellers should never smoke in the house. Buyers hate the stale smoke odors.


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The Average Family

Financial Facts:

The median income for American Families is $47,000 before taxes.

The average family has an average mortgage of $87,000, at an interest rate of 2.4% and more than 28 years of payments left to make.

The average family owes an average of $12,750 on their cars, and more than $8,000 at 18% interest on their credit cards. The average family spends about $1.20 for every after tax dollar they earn.

According to some experts the average debt load is expected to grow by double digits this year, and that doesn't include future expenses like college tuition (over $100,000 for every child who attends a university after the year 2015.

This year the average retiree benefit from social security is $895 a month.

According to the social security administration, 2/3, that's 66% of all retirees rely on social security to provide 50% or more of their income.

For 1 out of every 5 retirees, social security is the only source of income.

Current projections estimate that social security will run out money by 2041.

The Federal Reserve reported that 1/2 of households with people close to retirement had less than $55,000 in savings and 1/4 had less than $13,000.


Medical Facts:

Way we are dying.....

1) Heart Attacks
2) Cancer
3) Weight--Over 60% of the population is overweight. 1 in 4 children are also overweight.
4) Asthma
5) Allergies
6) Diabetes
7) Eye Impairments
8) High Cholesterol
9) ADD/ADHD
10) Chronic Fatigue

Money Saving Tips

For most Americans, saving money is a necessity of everyday life. We clip coupons, watch for sales, and hope there's not too much month left at the end of our paycheck. Today, the challenge is how to reduce spending on a longer-term basis. Here are some money-saving tips for everything from vacationing to laundering!

Airline Fares-- Make sure your trip includes a Saturday evening stay over and purchase your tickets in advance. Consider using alternative airports and keep an eye out for fare wars.

Auto Leasing--Don't decide to lease a car just because the payments are lower than on a traditional auto loan. The leasing payments may be lower because you don't own the car at the end of the lease.

Auto Insurance--Raise your deductibles on collision and comprehensive coverage to at least $500 or, if you have an old car, dropping this coverage altogether.

Life Insurance--If you want insurance protection only, and not a savings and investment product, buy a term life insurance policy.

Checking--Select a checking account with a low (or no) minimum balance requirement that you can, and do, meet.

Credit Cards--Pay off your entire bill each month or use a check, cash or debit card for purchases.

Mortgage--Refinancing Consider refinancing your mortgage if you can get a rate that is at least one percentage point lower than your existing mortgage rate.

Telephone Service--Check your phone bill to see if you have optional calling services you don't use. Dial your long distance calls directly.

Food Purchases--Shop at the lower-priced food stores. Convenience stores often charge the highest prices. You will spend less on food if you shop with a list.

Prescription Drugs--Use generic drugs whenever appropriate. When taking a drug for a long time, consider using a mail-order pharmacy.

Around the House Savings:
Use compact fluorescent bulbs. They last 10 times longer than regular lights.

Set your water heater to 120 degrees F.

Set your thermostat to 68 degrees, or lower if you're away from home or asleep.

Keep your showers to five minutes or less and switch to lower-flow showerheads.

If nobody's in a room, turn off the lights and any computers, stereos, TVs or other appliances.

Use toaster-broilers or the microwave whenever possible instead of the range.

The refrigerator should be kept at 38 degrees F., and the freezer at 10 degrees.

Try using the cold-water wash cycle, and use the coolest dryer setting you can. Only run the washing machine, and the dishwasher, when they're full.

Make sure your home is insulated, and that all doors and windows are sealed properly.

If you have a fireplace, keep the damper closed when you're not using it and use a glass screen to minimize heat loss.

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Yahoo Brings Party Planning To Your Cell Phone

Yahoo has delved into the growing world of mobile social networking with "Mixd," a newly introduced service geared at new-media-savvy youths.

But Mixd, isn't really social networking in the traditional sense. You aren't creating a profile a la MySpace and striving to build a bigger and better-looking friends list. Rather, it's like cattle herding for the partygoer sector: you use Yahoo's service to organize a group of your friends for a "Mixer" (a party or night out), coordinating it all through text and picture messages.

Mixd is geared toward sociable young people who are already avid text messengers. The mobile phone is like a piece of their body. It's inseparable from them.

But traditional text-messaging, has its limitations. It's great for point-to-point, one person to one person, but there's no concept of 'reply all. Mixd aims to ease the organization of parties, bar outings, study groups, football game excursions, and the like.

Once a "Mixer" is formed, members of the group--who do not need to have Yahoo accounts--can message each other in both text and picture formats, and a log of the entire Mixer is posted at a corresponding Web page.

At its most basic, it's a mobile-messaging and media-sharing application for events-based groups. There is no charge outside of carriers' regular text messaging packages, and additionally, participants do not need a mobile Web plan or a cell phone camera (though the latter is preferable).

Mobile social networking, until this point, has largely been associated with youth-oriented carriers like Helio and Boost. And along with mobile music, mobile podcasting, and other forms of cellular-borne media, it's still a fledgling phenomenon.

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Credit Card Tips

Credit cards can be helpful in emergencies or if you are able to pay off the balance each month, but be wary! Credit cards can also get you into trouble. Here are some helpful hints on using credit cards:

Fees
Watch out for carrying balances. Some cards charge 20% or more in interest. (Interest is usually called "finance charges" on your statements.)

Fixed rates aren't always fixed! A credit card company can change the rate by informing you 15 days before changing the rate.

Look at your statement carefully and call the company right away if you have any questions. Some things are time sensitive.

There is usually a large finance charge for cash advances and interest begins accruing as soon as you take the money out, not after the next statement closing.

Be aware of annual fees. Many times you are charged $50 or more just to have the card.

Watch out for introductory offers! When you receive a credit card offer in the mail with a low rate, it may expire in three or six months. Note when and by how much the rate increases after the "introductory offer" expires. You may not remember when it expires, but the card company will.

Think about your purchases. If you are not able to afford the purchase now, chances are you won't be able to afford it in a month when the credit card bill comes in!

If you get behind
Cut your recreational expenses.

Call your credit card company. They may be willing to work out a repayment schedule with you.

Develop a budget and stick to it! Everyone makes mistakes, but credit will follow you and hurt your eligibility for mortgages or loans down the road.

Look into credit counseling services. Many offer educational programs or individual counseling sessions to help you get back on track.

Establish and maintain a positive credit history
AnnualCreditReport.com was created by the three credit reporting companies, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act), consumers can request and obtain a free credit report once every 12 months from each of the three credit reporting companies.

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Save That Energy

It's an old kitchen-table debate: Does it cost more to turn the lights off when you walk out of the room than it does to leave them on? The answer is worth considering because many homes today have more — and more varied — electronic gadgets. Wasted electricity can really add up.

It is smart to turn off lights when you're not using them. Incandescent bulbs, the cheapest but least efficient kind, do last longer if they're left on but burn through enough electricity to make it worth flipping the switch. With fluorescents, especially the bulky institutional tubes, you'll save less but turning them off won't cost you anything.

Switch to bulbs with a lower wattage where you can. Halogen bulbs are more efficient than traditional incandescent ones and compact fluorescent bulbs cost 10 to 20 times more but last 10 to 15 times as long and use far less energy.

Many electronic appliances — DVD players, stereos, video-game consoles — draw power even when off. You can cut down on the draining of "idle" energy by hooking your appliances to a power strip and flipping the power switch on the strip when you turn your gizmos off. There are even "smart" power strips that cut the power automatically.

You may be tempted to leave you computer on since most now come with a sleep mode. But even in sleep mode, your computer will use 30% of the energy it uses when active.

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Ready To Consolidate That Debt?

If you're a homeowner saddled with debt (and we're talking about bad, high-interest debt like the kind you pile up on credit cards) then Alan Greenspan has offered you an escape route. How so? Well, while credit-card interest rates have become increasingly immune to Fed rate cuts (with the average fixed-rate credit card now charging 13.5%), home-equity lines of credit, or HELOCs, have fallen below 4.0%. That's one of the lowest rates we've seen since these products first became popular back in the mid-1980s. And better yet, that rate is before you consider the tax break on your interest payments. Indeed, from a pure number-crunching perspective, consolidating high-interest, nondeductible debt into a HELOC or a home-equity loan, or HEL, is a no-brainer. Of course, your home is the collateral for such a loan, and foreclosure could leave you bunking down in Mom's den.

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