My soon to be brother in law’s computer died a week ago and like most computer illiterate people, he took the computer to a local computer repair shop. He was forced to do this because he knows nothing about computers and didn’t know what to do.
The repair guy obviously sensed this and tried to take my BIL for a ride. Fortunately for him, he could ask for my input when things seemed a little fishy to him. Basically the repair guy charged my BIL $35 for a diagnostic and said repairs would be $400-500.
His computer is not even worth that much money. He would be better off buying a new computer at that price. On top of that, it sounds like all that the computer needs is to have the power supply replaced. That’s a $50-100 repair, or less if you can get a Fatwallet Deal
So how do you protect yourself from being taken for a ride? Educate yourself about your computer. Anytime you totally rely on others, you open yourself up to being taken advantage of. You should have a general understanding of what is going on.
Here is my Computer Diagnostic 101 course:
Get yourself a couple guides on computer troubleshooting and repair. Make sure they are written in non geek speak so that you can follow them. Here are a few recommendations:
Morris Rosenthal has put together a free computer troubleshooting resource on the web. It’s easy to follow and has step by step directions. There is also a visual flowchart to help you out.
Morris Rosenthal Resource
If you are going to need more, you can try out a computer troubleshooting book. Here are some books that I found on Amazon. They have good reviews and are inexpensive.
Computer Repair With Diagnostic Flowcharts: Troubleshooting PC Hardware Problems from Boot Failure to Poor Performance
PC Help Desk in a Book: The Do-it-Yourself Guide to PC Troubleshooting and Repair
These resources have you answer yes and no questions to narrow down the cause of the problem. Through the process of elimination, the problem will be found, which will of course allow you to fix it.
Written by admin on June 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
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The 30 year fixed mortgage is by far the most popular among home buyers. What people fail to realize when getting a 30 year loan is that they are actually paying over 2 times what the home is worth.
You could save yourself a lot of money in the long run by getting a 15 year fixed mortgage instead. The payments are only a little higher for the 15 than the 30 but you will save yourself tens of thousands of dollars.
Let’s compare the loans on a $150,000 house with a 6.5% interest rate:
30 Year Mortgage
$948.10 monthly payment
$150,000 principle
$191,316 interest paid on principle
$341,316 total paid
15 Year Mortgage
$1306.66 monthly payment
$150,000 principle
$85,198 interest paid on principle
$235,198 total paid
Above you can see that you save yourself $106,118 by getting a 15 year mortgage instead of the 30 year one. Not only that, when you have your home paid off in 15 years, you can put your mortgage payment into investments and make that money work for you instead of working for the bank.
It should also be noted that the payments for the 15 year loan are $359 higher than the 30 year loan. This should not be a problem if you are living below your means. In addition, the mortgage payments should be a little lower than stated above because you can often receive a lower loan rate for a 15 year loan as opposed to a 30 year one.
There are plenty of places to come up with the extra money. You could buy a lot less car, control your everyday spending, or buy less expensive furniture. You would even be better off buying a less expensive house if that is what you had to do to make the payments.
$106,118 will go a long way, especially considering that it may very well turn into a lot more when it is properly invested. The question you should ask yourself is: can you afford to not go with the 15 year mortgage?
Written by admin on June 22nd, 2006 with no comments.
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