A lot of people love satelite TV, and I can understand why. What I can’t understand, though, is justifying such an expense every month.

I was looking at a row of houses built by Habitat for Humanity and started wondering. I’m not here to make judgment calls about these people’s habits, but I plugged in some numbers you and your friends might want to think twice about.

If you paid an additional $50 toward your mortgage every month, a thirty year mortgage could be paid off in 24 years! (I assumed a 7% interest rate, which is higher than you want for your own home.) 24 years!

Think about what a few extra bucks each month could do to any loan. Interest is a powerful thing, especially when it works to your advantage. Know of any other powerful examples?

(NOTE that some lenders don’t allow prepayments without penalty, so read the fine lines of the contracts you have signed.)

Experts are saying that the dollar is only going to get weaker.

My husband, a German, threatened to move back to Germany when Bush was elected. Maybe we should have! Anyone else been watching the euro grow against the dollar? We were in Germany exactly one year ago when the exchange was $1.20 per euro. Now it’s $1.45.

Just think if we had all decided to work in Europe then transferred our dollars to the United States. Minus taxes, think of the effortless gain you’d create.

Maybe we should have moved to Germany. Maybe it’s not too late. Check out what these experts are saying on currencytrading.net

It turns out your people-pleasing work ethic may not get you ahead. You’re not taking any risks to make the company—and you—any better. Kate White, author of Why Good Girls Don’t Get Ahead but Gutsy Girls Do is already teaching me a few useful strategies… and I just started the book.

This subsection really stood out in my mind:

Never Appear at the Mercy of Your Time

Because it’s important to a good girl to be perceived as a hard worker, she never minds (in fact she likes it) if someone catches her looking a little frantic: riffling through papers, dashing down the hall with her hair flying, lugging home a huge pile of work on Friday afternoon. Begin in overdrive, she believes, shows everyone that she not only has lots to do but is getting it done.

Though it’s import to be perceived as energetic, acting frazzled or short on time actually creates the impression that you aren’t under control, and that calamity is waiting just around the corner to ambush you. It makes bosses reluctant to turn more responsibility over to you and it makes co-workers and subordinates as anxious as passengers on a bumpy 747.

Anyone else seen him/herself doing this same thing in the past?

The National Realtors Association keeps an up-to-date database of recommended books on real estate and personal finance. Check out their Weekly Book Scan for some good reads, many of which you may never have heard of before.

Last night, I picked up “The Everything Homebuying Book” at my local library. As a real estate agent, I expected this book to be as dry and mundane as my real estate courses were. But the book was surprisingly to the point with tidbits scattered throughout.

The book covers everything from buying a fixer upper to selecting your town (with consideration to taxes, schools, and community programs) and determining the perfect home and finance strategy. The only thing the book lacked from my opinion was sample paperwork. What does a deed look like? How about a buy/sell agreement or rental contract when I rent out a bedroom?

We have an article on Aridni that might be useful to you, too.

And when you’re thinking of buying a home, this book may be invaluable to you… especially if you can get it for free at your local library, too!

Todd and I both made a lot of money at casinos that allowed us to go to school and buy the things we wanted. For us, casinos provided a guaraneed increase of wealth. Oh how I loved the wad of cash in my pocket when I walked out the door!

Of course, we were casino employees, not patrons. While I’d typically stick to the theory that the only people at casinos who make money are:

(1) employees (who don’t then gamble at the end of their shifts)
(2) owners

But it turns out that every so often, casinos produce another winner:

(3) turns out one gambling couple actually did profit at a casino in North Dakota… to the tune of $3 million in one 75-cent bet.

I didn’t even know you could win that much in one bet. In Montana, the max is $800.