Estate Planning Vault

Watch Your Money

We all want to make wise money management decisions, but it’s easy to get overwhelmed with information. CNNMoney recently published 25 interesting rules of thumb related to helping your money grow. A few of the guidelines are shared below.

• If you can drop your mortgage interest rate by at lease one point, the cost to refinance is probably worth it if you will likely be staying in your home for a while.
  
  
• Stocks historically are great performers returning an annual average of 10.5% since 1926, but they may be too volatile for short-tem investors. To determine what percentage of your money should be allocated toward stocks, subtract your age from 120.
  
  
• To lower your insurance premiums, select the plan with the highest deductible you can afford. In addition, pay out of pocket for small damages rather than filing a claim, which tends to increase your premiums.

To view all the rules visit: http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/moneymag/25_rules/index.html.

Source: www.money.cnn.com, 10-30-06