If you’ve been in the dark (pun intended), maybe you haven’t heard about Earth Hour.  Earth Hour is where people from all over the world turn out their electricity for one hour to conserve energy and make a statement about global warming.  This year it’s on Saturday, March 28, 8:30 PM local time.  I’m definitely going to be partaking, and I’m going to make sure I’ve got some beeswax candles to light and I’ll be probably sitting in the dark drinking wine.  Or reading by candlelight, either way they are equally as fun, right?  Let me know if you are planning on taking part!  I’m interested to see how many readers are interested in Earth Hour!

A few weeks ago, my friend Kacie was talking about how she’s changing up her plans on paying her car loan off early.  She was saying that she’d have to pay a 1% “prepayment penalty” for paying off the loan early.  I was so excited when I realized I could help her save that money instead of paying it. I hate that banks charge clients for paying off loans early.  That just seems so backwards to me.  Every time I get to the prepayment penalty line during a loan closing, I explain to my clients how they can get around the prepayment penalty. Here’s how you can do it.  Say you’ve got enough money saved to pay off your loan in full.  The bank you’re using charges a 1% prepayment penalty.  Your remaining balance is $10,000.  If you go to the bank and ask for a payoff amount, they are going to tell you somewhere in the ballpark of $10,100.  ($10,000 principal balance plus 1% prepayment penalty)  It will probably be a little more because of unpaid interest that hasn’t [...]

I think there is way too much gloom and doom in the economy right now, so I’m going to do something about it!  I’m going to offer a lovely giveaway to one lucky reader! I’m going to make someone a custom blog header and assist with a new layout if preferred, like this: (click for full size) You just have to let me know the dimensions (I can help you with this if you need), colors, wording, etc. It will be made to your liking. I will also make two other people 125 x 125 buttons like this, also made to your liking: (winner of banner will also get one) Here’s how you can win: +1 entry for a comment on this post +1 additional entry for making a blog post about it and linking. (please post another comment with link) +1 additional entry for twittering about it (please post another comment with link) Contest ends on Midnight March 28, 2009! Let me know what you think about this giveaway!