The Home Crowd

Very often, in both my professional and personal life, I find myself crunching numbers.  For one, out of necessity, and second, out of curiousity.  Recently, I have found a great resource in Yahoo’s Finance section.  The mortgage calculator works just as how you’d expect, you drop in the figures, and the calculator pops out the appropriate information.

So thinking about buying that 350,000 dollar home?  Well crunch the numbers, add in taxes, home insurance, and get a clear figure in your head before making the big leap.

Yahoo Finance Mortgage Calculator

As you look over your results, you’ll notice your estimated mortgage payment, as well as a comprehensive payment schedule, and also what your home will cost you total (principal + interest).  Now, if you find that simple tool useful, there are many others on the Yahoo Finance page which help out with financial planning, College Saving, Taxes, Insurance, Loans and Retirement Planning.

But if you’re mainly interested in the real estate aspect of the calculator tools, then I also recommend moreso than the Mortgage Calculator, the  “How much home can I afford” calculator.  This calculates home affordability in a more “traditional mortgage’ sense.

Yahoo Finance’s Home Affordability Calculator

These tools, combined with real estate searches such as through various real estate sites and those in the similar vein such as Zillow, can save you some time pounding the proverbial pavement as you’re able to do your homework during the evenings and weekends.

The site however, is run by Yahoo, which therefore means I find it pretty reliable.  That is, unless microsoft succeeds in buying out yahoo.  In which case, your results and reliability may vary.

There’s a BEST way to load a dishwasher?  News to me.

Here’s my explanation of the dishwasher:

1. Open door, there’s two racks in there… a small one on top, and a big one down low
2. Fill up top rack as bending over is a huge pain in the ass.
3. Attempt to close top rack, take large washable items which prevented the top rack closing, and place them on the bottom rack.
4. Fill soap, shut hatch, and dish-wash!!!

Consumer reports, however, has a better approach from their Q&A where someone wasn’t pleased with how the kids filled the dishwasher.  Number one, I’m with the kids on this one, and number two, these people had kids so they wouldn’t have to rely on a dishwasher in the first place, right?

1. Load large items at the sides and back of the dishwasher, so that they don’t block water and detergent from reaching other dishes.

2. Place the dirtier side of dishes toward the center of the machine to provide more exposure to the spray. Don’t let dishes or utensils nest, or rest side by side, which can prevent water from reaching all surfaces.

3. Use the top rack for plastic and delicate items that are dishwasher safe.

4. Rest glassware on prongs to prevent breakage. And to prevent chipping, make sure that china, crystal, and stemware don’t touch other items. Don’t machine-wash brass, bronze, cast iron, disposable plastics, gold-colored flatware, gold-leaf china, hollow-handle knives, pewter, tin, or anything made of wood or with a wood handle.

More from this article, and dishwasher reviews at Consumer Reports