What if there was a free way to market your hobby, in order to gauge interest, build an audience—and possibly, make money in the process? There is, and it’s called Pinterest. In fact, you may be one of the twelve million and counting registered users of the online pin board site (according to AppData tracking). But if you’re not using it in a way that can transform your your hobby into a potential profit, you may be missing out on a ripe opportunity to transform your finances and career. Here’s how to start:
There are many speculations for the phenomenon that is Pinterest, which may be attributed to the design simplicity, or creativity it inspires. Whatever the reason, Pinterest’s growth has boomed 866 percent from September 2011 to February 2012, according to Mashable. For some
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Fixed mortgage rates remained stable week-over-week and still hover near all-time record lows, according to the most recent data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).
For the week ending March 9, 2012, the MBAs Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey showed little movement with conforming fixed-rate mortgages.
Average rates for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages (loans with conforming balances of $417,500 or less) stayed even week-over-week at 4.06 percent. Average rates for shorter-term 15-year fixed-rate mortgages also stayed even in this weekly time frame, coming in at 3.36 percent.
Other types of 30-year fixed mortgages analyzed by the MBA showed mixed results.
Jumbo (loans with balances greater than $417,500) fixed-rate mortgages averaged 4.39 percent in this most recent data, an increase from 4.33 percent the previous week.
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The Federal Reserves answer to woeful economic performance since the onset of the recession in 2008 is to print more money to buy up U.S. government debt in a move described as quantitative easing. Now it appears that despite Chairman Ben Bernankes stance that the Fed was through with this practice following the end of QE2, there will be a need for another round of easing to keep stocks from plummeting as unemployment rises. The theory is that the stimulus encourages borrowing and spending by keeping interest rates lower while buying more time for a turnaround without default, but without sound policy decisions being made in the interim it just amounts to a delay of the inevitable. For more on this continue reading the following article from Tim Iacono.
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Dining with a big group of friends or family can be fun, but arranging it? Not so much.
Frugal Foodie recently tried to make dinner reservations in New York City for a family reunion. Her first-choice restaurant decreed that groups larger than eight must eat family-style from a smaller version of the regular menu, and that they don’t accept large parties on the weekends at all. A second-choice restaurant wouldn’t take a reservation for groups smaller than 20, and a third warned that it didn’t offer split checks. Finally, she and Mr. Foodie found a restaurant that didn’t blink at the group size and even threw in a few free appetizers.
If youre looking to organize a group dinner, here’s how to streamline your planning:
Search OpenTable.com for available reservations by party size. The free reservation site will sort them by area, time, and pricing. Savored.c
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Home prices are down year-over-year but remained stable quarter-over-quarter, Clear Capital said in a recent report.
Clear Capitals Home Data Index (HDI) Market Report, which includes data through the end of February 2012, showed that national home prices fell 1.9 percent year-over-year. However, this less-than-two-percent loss represents the lowest level of yearly decline in more than 10 months.
Home prices across the nation saw light levels of depreciation in February, consistent with the trend we have seen over the last several months, Dr. Alex Villacorta, Director of Research and Analytics at Clear Capital, said in a statement.
Villacorta went on to mention specifics about regional results, as well as make note of increased real-estate-owned (REO) saturation of the housing market.
However, the Northeast, Midwest, and West improved performance against last months quarterly declines in light of increases in REO saturation, which is unusual and encouraging, he said.
Quarter-over-quarter, the Midwest saw the largest home price decline, falling 1.8 percent.
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