Personal Finance News

Grandma may be moving in instead of heading to the retirement home and the jobless college grad may be back bunking with her teenage sister.

That trend was pinpointed by Coldwell Banker recently, in its first ever multi-generational housing survey of its members. "We were just getting some vibes that this was happening in the marketplace and we reached out to see" what people were hearing, Diann Patton, a California broker and Coldwell's consumer specialist, told WalletPop.

What they got was an earful. More than a third -- 37% to be exact -- of those surveyed said that in the past year they have found themselves encountering growing numbers of buyers looking for places that could accommodate grandma and the grad. Almost twice that many said they expected to see more demand in the future for multi-generational living space. The top incentives were finances and health concerns.

To some extent, Coldwell needed look no further than one of its Pittsburgh agents, Nancy Snider, who three years ago sized up, instead of down, to accommodate a family expanding in unanticipated ways. With two grown children out of the house, Snider had adopted a young girl. Then her parents moved in and, with them, her mentally challenged brother. (Her mother and daughter are pictured at right.)

"Our theme is 88 to 8," Snider told WalletPop, laughing.

For Snider, the solution was a "sprawling ranch" house, with five bedrooms and three bathrooms "so you really can get away from each other." Since she's an agent, finding the house was not complicated.

"I went to list a house, I'm looking around at it and I said to the seller, 'I'm pretty much thinking we ought to just get an appraisal because I think I am going to buy this house,'" she told WalletPop.

For other agents faced with buyers who want to house more than one generation, the trend means reassessing their inventory.

"It's just an eye-opener for sellers," Patton said. "We're ... having them look around and say, 'Could we convert this attic? This basement? Wow, could actually put a wall here, an exterior door here."

Some of the now unfashionable monster homes with two master suites, Patton said, may even find themselves sought after by these extended families.

Patton recommends that families considering such arrangements formalize them with a written contract -- either informally or via an attorney -- laying out everything from financial arrangements to chore sharing.

"Put some of the expectations in writing, so everyone understands who is responsible for what financially, in terms of the chores and so on," she said. "It's not a business venture exactly, but it's kind of like one."

Snider, however, said her arrangement was not codified in any way. She bought the house, her parents pay rent. Her mother cooks and helps care for 8-year-old Jayla. The biggest conflict they have faced was deciding which furniture from their combined households to keep and which to retire.

"Furniture was a nightmare," Snider said. "You wouldn't think that would be a big deal, but I liked my stuff, she liked her stuff. We just had stuff everywhere, blending two households. We hired a designer...and she didn't know whose was whose – she just chose what worked."

Once the furniture hurdle was cleared, the multi-generational arrangement began working so well, she said, that her friends are jealous.

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This deal expires Tuesday, March 16 at 11:59 p.m. PST. Read the redemption rules before you buy as they vary by restaurant but often include a minimum purchase amount above and beyond the certificate. Almost all exclude alcohol, tax, and tip.

You can only buy one certificate per restaurant at a time. They cannot be combined with any other discounts or applied to previous purchases.

Buying a certificate supports WalletPop.com.

You know how your teachers always say that the "stupid question" you want to ask is probably the same one on everyone else's mind? Well, here's one:

What's the difference between credit cards and debit cards?

Maybe you thought you were the only one who didn't actually know, but that's where you're wrong. Credit cards and debit cards have real differences, and not knowing what they are can create major problems for college students.

Since the rise of cheap designer collections and the plummet of the economy, savvy stylists and fashion editors alike have had a wardrobe mantra: mix high and low.

One of the easiest shopping destinations for doing just that is the online home of Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy and Piperlime -- their sites are combined and, more importantly, so is the shipping.

All of the brands have rolled out their warm-weather shoes, and many are marked down in an effort to give early bird shoppers an extra push. For less than $100, you can pull items from the cheap-chic Old Navy and the well-edited, higher-end Piperlime -- and enjoy perfect shoe updates for when the sun finally comes out.

On Sunday clocks around the country will "Spring Ahead" an hour to mark the beginning of Daylight Saving Time. For most of these clocks, on newer devices connected to the Internet, will update to the correct time automatically. But older items like microwaves, ovens, clock radios, coffeemakers, digital cameras and VCRs won't update on their own.

Even if you have a device that automatically changes the time to observe DST, thanks to the changes made in 2007 it might not make the change on the correct date. But thanks to Retrevo's Set Your Clock page, figuring out how to change the time for DST is as simple as changing the clock on an analog watch.

Every year, I used to make some statement full of bravado, like, "OK, by December 31, 2002, I will have lost 30 pounds."

Or:

"It's 2004, but by 2005, the world is going to see less of me."

Or:

"All right, 2007, get prepared. Once I hit the gym, you won't know what hit you." [Insert maniacal laughter here.]

But every year, usually by Jan. 2 or 3, my wife would walk into the living room and see her husband passed out on the sofa, remnants of a Lean Pocket on his face, surrounded by a couple of empty Pringles' cans.

And so on Jan. 1, 2010, as regular readers of this weekly column are very aware, I pledged to myself that I would start what I fondly called "The Money Diet." I figured I needed to do something drastic. In late December, I saw my weight reach an all-time high (264 pounds), so I resolved to do something different. And I thought I would try writing about my weight loss on WalletPop, reasoning, "Maybe if I hold myself accountable to more than just my family, I might finally lose that weight."

If you think the deficit should be closed in 2010, be ready to pay more than twice what your currently pay in taxes. That's what the nonpartisan Tax Foundation found in its new report. In order to close the 2010 deficit, joint filers would need to pay at tax rates of 24.3% to 84.9% versus the current 10% to 35% we actually pay.

"Assuming deductions, exemptions and credits were kept the same as they are now, Congress would have to raise each personal income tax rate by a factor of almost two and a half to erase the 2010 deficit," William Ahern, Tax Foundation director of policy and communications, wrote in his report titled, "Can Income Tax Hikes Close the Deficit."

Perhaps no area of life affects undergraduate students more than credit. In this article, Money College writer Peter Sachs offers seven essential tips; please check out Money College's Katie Drews' insights into credit and college here.

What better way to take advantage of your new-found financial independence in college than to sign up for a credit card ... or two? The feeling of having spending power in your pocket -- even if you're barely making any money -- is thrilling at first. But financial experts warn there are some big drawbacks to having a credit card as a college student. New laws are changing parameters such as minimum payments and the difficulty of getting a card in the first place. But they won't protect you if have bad spending habits. Here are some of the biggest pitfalls, and how you can avoid them.

1) If you're trying to get a credit card for the first time, new laws have made it much harder. Your best bet is to try to sign up for a basic card at the same bank where you have a checking or savings account. Even then, you may need a parent or older adult to be a cosigner on the account -- meaning that if you forget to pay your bill, they are held responsible for the balance. Expect a low credit limit, often less than $500 at first, and no free pizza or water bottles for signing up.

2) Your credit score matters, but many college students don't realize it. Every time you apply for a card, even if your application gets rejected, your credit score will drop 5-10 points. Go on a spree trying to get every store charge card you can, just for the 15% discount each time, and you could find your score 50 points lower in a matter of months, even if you pay your balances on time. That could hurt when it comes time to rent an apartment, get affordable car insurance -- or apply for your dream job.

"A lot of employers check credit reports before they hire you," youth financial expert Peter Bielagus told WalletPop in a phone interview. "So if you have a lot of debt and you have a late payment here and a late payment there, certain companies aren't going to want to hire you."

If you're due a state tax refund this year, you should probably prepare to wait awhile for that check to arrive. Four cash-strapped states, including Alabama, Hawaii, New York and North Carolina are planning to delay refund payments this year in order to cover budgetary shortfalls. And it's possible that more states may follow suit.

The problem? Many states are simply struggling to stay afloat. A recent report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says the recession has "caused the steepest decline in state tax receipts on record." The organization found that at least 41 states face budget shortfalls for fiscal 2010, which in most states ends June 30. Nine states have budget gaps that are more than 10% of their 2010 budget, including Arizona, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Virgina.

Perhaps no area of life affects undergraduate students more than credit. In this article, Money College writer Katie Drews relates the stories of college kids in a credit crunch; please check out Money College's Peter Sachs insights into credit and college here.

Twenty-two-year old Matthew Alonzo juggles so many credit cards that keeping track of payments is like wrestling a nagging homework assignment that never ends.

The senior at Loyola University Chicago is approaching graduation with around $3,500 in credit card debt, spread across five cards. Despite the stress of managing his bills, Alonzo said he never would have been able to get through college without plastic, which he needed for essentials such as books, furniture and plane tickets home to San Antonio, Texas.