Knowing how much you should spend on home maintenance each year is hard to figure out and may be preventing you from buying your first home. The types of costs you'll incur depend on the house you buy and its location. The one certainty is that you should start saving now. Read on to figure out how much to start setting aside based on the home you own.
The Age of Your House
Consider several factors when budgeting for home repairs. If you've purchased a new home, your house likely won't require as much maintenance for a few years. Homes built 20 or more years ago are likely to require more maintenance, including replacing and keeping your windows clean. Further, depending on your home's location, weather can cause additional strain over time, so you may need to budget for more repairs.
The One-Percent Rule
An easy way to budget for home repairs is to follow the one-percent rule. Set aside one percent of your home's purchase price each year to cover maintenance costs. For instance, if you paid $200,000 for your home, you would set aside $2,000 each year. This plan is not foolproof. If you bought your home for a good deal during a buyer's market, your home could require more repairs than you've budgeted for.
The Square-Foot Rule
Easy to calculate, you can also budget for home maintenance by saving one dollar for every square foot of your home. This pricing method is more consistent than pricing it by how much you paid because the rate relies on the objective size of your home. Unfortunately, it does not consider inflation for the area where you live, so make sure you also budget for increased taxes and labor costs if you live in or near a city.
The Mix and Match Method
Since there is no infallible rule for how much you should spend on home maintenance, you can combine both methods to get an idea for a budget. Average your results from the square-foot rule and the one-percent rule to arrive at a budget that works for you. You should also increase your savings by 10 percent for each risk factor that affects your home, such as weather and age.
Holding on to savings is easier in theory than practice. Once you know how much you should spend on home maintenance, you'll know what to aim for and be more prepared for an emergency. If you are having trouble securing funds for home repairs, consider taking out a home equity loan, borrowing money from friends or family, or applying for funds through a home repair program through your local government for low-income individuals.
We are currently living through one of the worst financial crises ever, but when it comes to handling money, the world is no stranger to messing things up. While the current economic situation is no laughing matter, there have been a slew of hilarious mishaps that have cost countries a bundle. From Superman's obscenely expensive CGI-ed mouth in 2018's Justice League, to Spain building a luxury submarine that was unable to resurface, here are some of the biggest money mistakes in history.
The 'Walkie Talkie' Building Melted Cars
20 Fenchurch Street's eyesore of a building was already hard to look at considering how reflective it was in the sunlight. But when Martin Lindsay returned to his new Jaguar on a hot day, the London skyscraper was actually so reflective that it had melted parts of the cars body and rearview mirror. In addition to the 946-pound payout to Mr. Lindsay for damage to his car, the building had come up with a way to give the already 200-million-pound building more sunscreen. Needless to say, the whole ordeal was quite expensive and embarrassing.
Henry Cavil's mustache
Tepid action actor Henry Cavil had just wrapped up filming for Justice League when he had started filming for Mission Impossible – Fallout, but Warner Brothers decided a few scenes needed to be redone for the former. Unfortunately, Cavil had worked very hard to grow out a pencil thin mustache, and the filming schedules were too set in stone for him to shave. Coordinating the reshoots, and CGI-ing out Cavil's facial hair all cost around $25 million, and they didn't even succeed, as fans were quick to point out how weird the actors face looked on the big screen.
French Train Company Made Trains Too Big For Track
(Photo by Frederick Florin/AFP/Getty Images)
French train company SNCF purchased 2,000 trains in 2014 for around 15 billion euros, but they soon realized their platforms were too narrow for the new orders, a mistake which cost them an additional 50 million euros. It was all at the fault of the operator, who didn't factor in measurements of train platforms that had been built more than 50 years ago.
Spain's Submarine that Couldn't Resurface
Spain coughed up around $2.2 billion to build a luxury submarine named The Isaac Peral. But before the vessel was completed in 2013, engineers discovered that the unfinished submarine was so heavy that it probably would not resurface if placed underwater. The design flaw was fixed, but it was embarrassing when news broke.
Mizuho Securities loses $225 million dollars Due to a Typo
In 2005 Japanese security company Mizuho lost an enormous sum when a single stockbroker mistyped some financial data. Instead of offering a single share in J-Com's stock for about 610,000 yen (or $5,000 dollars,) he offered 610,000 shares for 1 yen. The disaster meant investors were buying out Mizuho's stock for an insanely low amount of money, costing the company around $225 million in damages.
What the “Payment Status Not Available” Stimulus Check Error on the IRS Website Means
Thanks to the passage of the CARES Act, many Americans can expect a $1,200 check (or slightly less, depending on your income last year). The Internal Revenue Service is responsible for making these payments, either by mail or through direct deposit. If you filed your taxes last year and opted for a direct deposit option for your refund, you can expect to receive your stimulus check that way. If you opted to have your refund mailed to you, that's how you'll receive your check (likely much later than those who opted for direct deposit). Of course, making sure that every eligible tax payer receives this check is a very large task, and experts have warned that the IRS' antiquated system may struggle to handle the task.
If you aren't sure about the status of your relief check, you can use this tool to check. Unfortunately, over the weekend, many people found themselves unable to access their payment status through the tool. When these people entered their information through the portal, they were met with a "Payment Status Not Available" error.
While it's possible that you're receiving this error message because you aren't eligible for the relief check, there are several more reasons you may be receiving it. Luckily, the IRS updated their FAQ's with more information on the subject.
According to Forbes, a likely reason for receiving the error message is simply that the IRS hasn't finished processing your information: "In other words, they don't know your status because they haven't fully processed your information. If you recently filed a tax return for 2019 or used their Non-Filer form to give them your banking information, they just haven't processed that new information yet. It also doesn't include information for those who receive benefits through Social Security or Veterans Affairs."
Regardless of the reason for the error message, all you can do it continue to check the portal once a day for updates.
You're standing in line at Starbucks and purposefully not thinking about how many times you've paid for overpriced coffee this week. Next, you're wandering the aisles of the grocery store trying to remember what you came here to buy, resulting in one armful of useless condiments and two more armfuls of snacks. Finally, you're checking out and flipping through your credit cards and debit cards, randomly deciding which one to use to pay, before finally selecting one.
If that remotely sounds like you, then you're doing everything wrong. Luckily, with very simple, basic revisions of your daily habits and routines, you can stop wasting money and see your savings grow. Mind you, you should also be making monthly (or even weekly, for overachievers) budgets to track your spending, but if you're not quite ready for that... Then get your act together and stop making money-wasting mistakes!
1. Invest in a coffee maker
Yes, it seems like it will take so much more time in the morning to brew your own coffee. To put it kindly, you're wrong. Depending on which coffee maker you invest in, you can habituate yourself to set the timer to brew in the morning as part of your bedtime ritual, or you can take the few minutes in the morning to relax and think about your day. No matter what you decide, it's better than spending $5 on coffee every other week day.
2. Make grocery lists
A quick trip to the grocery store or convenience store every time you run out of something means that those spur of the moment purchases add up over time. Keep a running list on your phone of household items or groceries that you're running out of and plan one major trip during the week to stock up on everything. Having a shopping list not only keeps you accountable while you're shopping so you don't buy items on a whim, but it also serves as a rudimentary budget (i.e. stop buying energy drinks and Cheetos, you're a grown adult!).
3. Schedule transfers into your savings account
First, if you don't have a savings account, open one! It's incredibly simple to use your bank's mobile app to schedule regular transfers from your checking account into your savings. Setting up automatic transfers allows you to steadily save a portion of your paycheck without having to remember or stress about doing it. It's a small easy setting that can save up tremendously over time. (Ideally, open a savings account that has compounded daily interest, because Cartman's mom says so).
4. Find dupes for your favorite item(s)
This doesn't have to apply across the board; substituting just one of your pricey must-have items can save a significant amount of money over time. Whether you're a sucker for expensive cheeses or your craving for prosciutto is too big for you to curb, start with making one sacrifice with a cheaper substitution. As the savings grow, so does your incentive to make more cuts. Ultimately, it will make occasional indulgences even better.
5. Treat Yourself–Rarely
An easy trick to develop good spending habits is to allow yourself that $5 cup of coffee or that expensive soft cheese as a rare reward for keeping your spending low–but only if you've stuck to your goals. You obviously don't want to blow everything you've saved on this one extravagance, but keeping your goals and rewards small and realistic creates easy and positive reinforcement to be smarter with your money.
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