Apr 15, 2024
In the spirit of tax day today, we’re posting this handy infographic guide to print and pin-up by your desk. This guide helps you determine what tax records to save, how long to store them, and the best ways to keep your records secure. To start 2024 off on a good foot, follow this guide to help you organize and store your tax files properly for years to come.
If you need to securely shred your outdated tax documents, we’re hosting a free paper shred event this month! See details here:
Free Paper Shred Event
THIS WEEKEND IN ORANGE COUNTY
Now🔥Here’s what’s happening this weekend in OC!
Imaginology Apr 13-14 @oc_fair
This event is one of the best of its kind with a focus on STEAM education. For one weekend only participate in activities, watch demonstrations and let the kids immerse themselves in the wonderful world of STEAM
Race On The Base, Sat, Apr 13 @raceonthebase
The ever-popular UWS Race on the Base Reverse Sprint Triathlon and 5K Walk/Run is here!
GardenFest Sat, Apr 13
San Clemente’s Biggest, Best Plant Sale and Garden/Household Goods Flea Market. Waterwise Plants, California Native Plants, Succulents, Cactus, Perennials, Annuals, Herbs, as well as an assortment of other types of plants. 8am-2pm at the San Clemente Community Center.
Sake Festival, Sun, Apr 14 @gokumius
More than 40 craft sakes available for tasting and izakaya style appetizer buffets at Gokumi Ramen & Yakitori with 2 time frames available. 1-3pm or 5-8pm. Tickets are $50/ Each. Must be 21+ to attend.
Paws In The Park, Sat, Apr 13
There will be plenty to bark about at this event featuring pet-related vendors, rescue groups, DJ and games, crafts, activities and more. 10am-12:30pm On The Town Green In Ladera Ranch.
Springtime in Paris Boutique, Sat, Apr 13
Immerse yourself in the allure of Parisian charm as you peruse hand-sculpted treasures crafted by our talented local artisans and crafters. Featuring over 50+ vendors, our boutique offers an array of quirky and irresistible gifts. 8am-4pm at the Norman P Murray Community Center in Mission Viejo
Keeping Current Matters | Apr 1, 2024
Are you thinking about making a move? If so, now may be the perfect time to start the process. That’s because experts say the best week to list your house is just around the corner.
A recent Realtor.com study looked at housing market trends over the past several years (with the exception of 2020, since it was an unusual year), and found the best week to put your house on the market this year is April 14-20:
“Every year, one week stands out from the rest as that perfect stretch of time when it’s great to be a home seller. This year, the week of April 14–20 is the best time to sell—that is, if sellers want to see lots of interest in their homes, sell quickly, and pocket some extra cash, according to Realtor.com® data.”
Here’s why this matters for you. While the spring market is a great time to sell no matter the week, this may be the peak sweet spot. And if you’ve been putting your plans on the back burner and waiting for the right time to act, this could be the nudge you need to make your move happen. As Hannah Jones, Senior Economic Research Analyst at Realtor.com explains:
“The third week of April brings the best combination of housing market factors for sellers. The best week offers higher buyer demand, lower competition [from other sellers], and fewer price reductions than the typical week of the year.”
But, if you want to get in on the action, you’ll need to move quickly and lean on the pros. Your local real estate agent is the perfect go-to when it comes to figuring out a plan to prep your house and get it on the market.
They’ll be able to offer advice to balance your target listing date with what you need to do from a repair and renovation standpoint. And they can walk you through exactly how to prioritize your list so you know what to tackle first.
For example, if your house is already in good shape, you’ll be able to really focus in on the smaller things that are easy to do and make a big impact. As an article from Investopedia says:
“You won’t have time for any major renovations, so focus on quick repairs to address things that could deter potential buyers.”
Here are some specific examples from that article:
Just remember, even if you’re not ready to list within the next couple of weeks, that’s okay. The window of opportunity doesn’t close when this week ends. Spring is the peak homebuying season and it’s still a seller’s market, so you’ll be in the driver’s seat all season long.
Bottom Line
Ready to get the ball rolling? Connect with a real estate agent to schedule a time to go over your next steps.
Keeping Current Matters | Apr 3, 2024
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Hip2Save.com | Mar 16, 2024
Try these silly easy April Fools’ pranks for the family! This post is full of April Fools’ ideas that bring on the laughs!
Do you like playing harmless and silly April Fools’ Day pranks on your family?
I personally think it’s fun to become a little bit of a prankster once in a while to lighten the mood and make my kids laugh. Here are a few funny and easy April Fools’ pranks for the family. These clever ideas sure to bring some giggles – even year-round when they least expect it! Ha Ha!
Try these easy April Fools’ pranks for the family:
1. “Ice Cream” Sundaes that are savory, not sweet.
This is one of the best April Fools’ pranks for the family! Use an ice cream scooper to serve up these “ice cream” sundaes that are actually made from mashed potatoes and gravy. Don’t they look so realistic?
Collin actually played this prank on her daughter, Piper, a few years back. Check out this April Fools FAIL video as things didn’t go as planned.
2. Bug on a Lampshade is sure to create some jump scares!
Tape a plastic bug (find plastic spiders at your local dollar store or on Amazon.com!) on the inside of a lampshade and then ask a family member to turn on the light. Yikes!
3. This Donut Box Trick is full of veggies no one expected.
This April Fools’ prank for the family is bound to get everyone! Grab a donut box and fill it with fresh veggies for a funny fake-out!
4. This Oreo cookie trick will result in disappointment.
It’s a classic prank! Replace Oreo cookie filling with toothpaste! Use a butter knife to scrape off the Oreo filling and place a little white toothpaste in the middle of one side. When you put it back together, it looks exactly like a real Oreo cookie!
You could even leave some of the outer edges of the original cream filling so that from the outside, the cookie won’t look tampered with at all!
Hip Tip: Worried about eating toothpaste? Instead of making prank Oreos, make prank toothpaste instead. Take an old toothpaste tube and fill it up with peanut butter. When your loved one goes to brush their teeth, they’ll get a tasty surprise!
5. That’s not orange juice!
Do you know that orange powdered cheese packet that comes with packaged Mac and Cheese? Pour it into a pitcher, mix it with water, and it looks exactly like orange juice!
6. Give out some Cracker Jack carrots.
For a fun lunch box prank, replace a snack box like Cracker Jacks with fresh baby carrots. This trick also works well with a small bag of chips. Just remember to seal the package back up with a little double-sided tape for a more realistic effect!
7. “Spaghetti and Meatballs” cupcakes are the perfect April Fools’ dessert.
While it’s technically an April Fool’s prank, this easy cupcake recipe actually makes for a yummy treat amidst the joke. Plus, they look so realistic!
8. Put a healthy surprise in your cake pops!
Hip Tip: Have some extra chocolate? Use it to make chocolate-covered rocks or cotton balls. Your fam will think it’s candy! Just make sure the prank recipient doesn’t actually eat them!!
9. Put fake eyes on the inanimate objects in your home.
Take a page from Hip2Save’s Liz. She gifted her nephews a pack of
silly craft eyeballs. For April Fools’ Day, the boys stuck these googly eyes on inanimate objects all over their house. The family kept finding them for weeks, so this is one April Fools’ prank that can keeps the laughs coming!
10. Put some confetti in a vent!
You can either buy
confetti or cut up some paper, stick it in someone’s car vents, and wait for them to be covered when they turn the air on! A few of our readers did this funny prank, and the results were hilarious.
11. Place plastic wrap over your toilet bowl.
Hip2Save’s Angie has a mom with a sense of humor! One of her easy April Fools’ pranks for the family included placing
plastic wrap over the toilet bowl. When someone has to go, hopefully they notice the clear barrier first! This prank might get a little messy
but it’s a tried a true April Fools’ Day idea!
12. Add a special “syrup” to their coffee.
Angie’s daughter once pranked her on April Fools’ Day by putting
soy sauce in the coffee. Angie didn’t even realize until she was in the car and sipping on her travel mug!
This idea is one of the easy April Fools’ Day pranks for family. It’s truly a cinch to pull off and very affordable!
13. Serve up a salty breakfast.
Start the day with a prank! For April Fools’ breakfast, serve up a grapefruit that’s covered in white pepper instead of sugar! Hopefully the victim doesn’t feel too salty about it afterwards!
14. Perform a manicure on a heavy sleeper.
This April Fools’ Prank was suggested by a Hip reader who tried it on her husband and we think it is too funny! If you have a very heavy sleeper in your family, surprise them on April 1st by giving them a manicure while they are sleeping. The weirder the paint job, the better!
15. Pretend you “peed” on the floor.
This is another reader favorite prank! Grab a bag or can of peas and place it on the bathroom floor. Shock your family when you tell them that you had an accident in the bathroom. They’re in for a laugh when they find out what you meant by “peed.”
“Last year my best friend took a bag of peas from the freezer, brought it to the bathroom, set the bag on the floor, and told her parents that she had peed on the floor. her dad’s reaction was so hilarious!!!!”
16. Fake a shopping spree.
This hilarious idea came from Hip reader Tracey and we LOVE it! Save your empty Amazon packages throughout the year and “deliver” them to your doorstep for an unsuspecting family member to find!
“Last year I pranked my DH by saving up Amazon & Target boxes and putting them outside the front door; I even filled them with some books so they would have some weight. He was like, “umm, what did you order?!” The worried look on his face was too funny. Amazon doesn’t use too many boxes these days, but it’d be easy to save up some of their shipping envelopes if you open them carefully.”
17. Star Wars fans won’t be able to get enough of this “blue milk”!
Reader’s Digest brought up the perfect prank to get the kiddos into the April Fool’s spirit – blue milk! Simply add a few drops of
blue food color to your milk carton, and you can serve up a glass of blue milk!
18. Serve up a bowl of cereal that requires a little extra work to enjoy.
Have kiddos that enjoy cereal? Good Housekeeping recommends creating some April fool’s prep a night in advance by pouring cereal and milk and adding a spoon then freezing it overnight. Your kiddos will be stumped trying to dig into this frozen bowl of cereal.
19. Keep the lights off.
KidsActivities.com recommends using colored tape for little ones and clear tape for older kiddos, leaving them confused about the lack of light.
About the writer:
Lina has a Bachelor’s Degree from Northern Arizona University with 11 years of blogging and photography experience having work featured in Today.com, Martha Stewart, Country Living, Fox News, Buzzfeed, and HGTV.
This report specifically benefits our Single Women Home Buyers to provide insight into the demographics, financial profiles, home buying motivations & lending experiences of women who purchase homes on their own.
We’d be happy to walk through this report with you.
Let’s connect and plan your next steps and find out if we’re the right real estate team for you!
CA Real Estate Group | Caliber Real Estate Group
👩🏻 Christine Almarines @carealestategroup
Realtor DRE# 01412944 | 714-476-4637
Tagalog speaking
👩🏻 Anaid Bautista @wealthwithanaid
Realtor DRE# 02179675 | 949-391-8266
Spanish speaking
happyhiller.com | Mar 18, 2024
While it may be easy to track down smells coming from your garbage can or garbage disposal, other smells require a keener nose.
In order to help you find all of the bad smells in your home, here are some common smells and where you can find the source:
Rotten Eggs
The smell of sulfur or rotten eggs is never a good sign. You either have some old eggs sitting around from a couple Easters ago, or you have a serious gas leak or electrical problem.
The two most common sources for rotten egg smell in the home are electrical components (inside of outlets for example) or a natural gas leak.
Natural gas manufacturers are required to add a chemical, called mercaptan, to their gas in order to make it easier to detect a leak. Without this additive, you wouldn’t be able to see, smell, or taste natural gas (much like carbon monoxide).
If you smell rotten eggs in the home, call the gas company to make sure you don’t have a gas leak.
If there is no gas leak in the home, you may have a problem with your electrical system. If you smell the rotten egg smell near an outlet, that’s probably where it is coming from. When the plastic components behind your outlet plate burn, it can smell like rotten eggs. This smell indicates that there is a dangerous arcing situation happening within the interior of your outlet that could cause a home fire.
We recommend turning off power at the circuit breaker to cut off electricity to the room with the smelling outlet.
One other possible cause of a rotten egg smell in your home is when you run the hot water. You may experience a rotten egg smell when the hot water is running due to an old anode rod.
Anode rods in hot water heaters should be replaced every 5 years or so. Replacing your anode rod will reduce corrosion in your water heater and may even be able to double its lifespan.
Call your local plumber to find out which kind of anode you should replace your old one with.
Sewage Smell
If you smell raw sewage in your home, you may have a dried out P-trap. The P-trap is the little curved section of piping that helps create a seal from the sewer gas that lurks behind it. The only problem is that the curved “P” section needs to be filled with water in order to create the necessary blockage.
If you haven’t used one or more of your sinks in a while the water that normally creates a seal in the “P” section has evaporated and dried out.
In order to prevent sewer gases from rising up through your pipes and into your home, it’s important to run water in all of your drains periodically. If you have a sink in your garage or another part of the home that rarely gets use, make sure you run the water in those sinks at least once a month to refresh the water in the P-trap.
If running water in your sinks doesn’t solve the problems, you may have a more serious plumbing problem. Speak with a professional plumber to discuss your options.
Fish Smell
Something smells fishy… and it’s not fish. Well, likely not. If you smell fish with no fish in sight, you could have an overheating electrical component somewhere.
Sometimes, burning plastic, wiring, and other electrical components smell like rotten eggs or sulfur to some people. Other people notice a distinctive fishy smell. Whether you get a whiff of fish or rotten eggs, it’s important to investigate the situation. You may have a dangerous arcing situation behind one of your outlets or switches that can cause a house fire.
Again, if you can locate the electrical source of the smell and It seems to be coming from one of your outlets or switches, turn off power at the breaker box and call an electrician right away!
Stale Air
If you frequently pick up a stale smell in your home, it may be because of air leaks around the home. Recessed lights that are often connected to the attic are notoriously leaky. If you notice the stale air smell around any of your recessed lights, you will have to go into the attic to seal the air leak.
Read our Attic Insulation Guide for tips on sealing your recessed lights, flue, and other common leaky areas in your attic.
If you detect any of these odors in your home, make sure it isn’t a serious electrical or natural gas problem. Sulfur, “rotten egg” smells are a big warning sign. For help dealing with odors in your home, contact experts in plumbing, heating, cooling and/or electrical.
CA Real Estate Group works with trusted experts in all fields. Contact one of our agents for a referral anytime!
CA Real Estate Group | Caliber Real Estate Group
👩🏻 Christine Almarines @christine_almarines or @carealestategroup
Realtor DRE# 01412944 | 714-476-4637
Tagalog speaking
👩🏻 Anaid Bautista @wealthwithanaid
Realtor DRE# 02179675 | 949-391-8266
Spanish speaking
By NerdWallet | Jan 30, 2024
Debt-to-income ratio shows how your debt stacks up against your income. Lenders use DTI to assess your ability to repay a loan.
Nerdy takeaways
- Debt-to-income ratio represents the percentage of your monthly income that goes to debt payments.
- Lenders use DTI — along with credit history and other factors — to evaluate if a borrower can repay a loan.
- Lenders have different DTI requirements. Personal loan companies may allow higher DTIs than mortgage lenders.
Debt-to-income ratio divides your total monthly debt payments by your gross monthly income, giving you a percentage. Here’s what to know about DTI and how to calculate it.
How to calculate your debt-to-income ratio
To manually calculate DTI, divide your total monthly debt payments by your monthly income before taxes and deductions are taken out. Multiply that number by 100 to get your DTI expressed as a percentage.
Here’s an example: A borrower with rent of $1,200, a car payment of $400, a minimum credit card payment of $200, and a gross monthly income of $6,000 has a debt-to-income ratio of 30%. In this example, $1,800 is the sum of all debt payments. When you divide $1,800 by $6,000 and then multiply that answer by 100, you get 30.
To get the most accurate DTI ratio, make sure to include all your debt payments and income sources.
Debt payments can include:
- Rent or mortgage payments.
- Auto loan payments.
- Student loan payments.
- Minimum credit card payments.
- Personal loan payments.
- Other debt payments, such as the minimum payment on a home equity line of credit.
- Child support, alimony, or other court-ordered payments.
Don’t include other monthly expenses, such as:
- Groceries.
- Gas.
- Utility payments.
- Phone bills.
- Health insurance.
- Auto insurance.
- Child care payments.
- Recreational spending.
Include all sources of income, such as:
- Salary from full-time work.
- Part-time wages.
- Freelance income.
- Bonuses.
- Child support or alimony received.
- Social security benefits.
- Rental property income.
How lenders view your DTI ratio
Lenders look at debt-to-income ratios because research shows borrowers with high DTIs have more trouble making consistent payments.
Each lender sets its own DTI requirement, but not all creditors publish them. Generally, a personal loan can have a higher allowable maximum DTI than a mortgage.
You may find personal loan companies willing to lend money to consumers with debt-to-income ratios of 50% or more, and some exclude mortgage debt from the DTI calculation. That’s because one of the most common uses of personal loans is to consolidate credit card debt, which can help you pay off debt faster and lower your DTI.
Does your DTI affect your credit score?
Your debt-to-income ratio does not affect your credit scores; credit-reporting agencies may know your income, but they don’t include it in their calculations.
Credit utilization, or the amount of credit you’re using compared with your credit limits, does affect your credit scores. Credit reporting agencies know your available credit limits, both on individual loan accounts and in total. Most experts advise keeping the balances on your cards no higher than 30% of your credit limit, and lower is better.
How to understand DTI ratio
DTI can help you determine how to handle your debt and whether you have too much debt.
Here’s a general breakdown:
- DTI is less than 36%: Your debt is likely manageable, relative to your income. You shouldn’t have trouble accessing new lines of credit.
- DTI is 36% to 42%: This level of debt could cause lenders concern, and you may have trouble borrowing money. Consider paying down what you owe. You can probably take a do-it-yourself approach; two common methods are debt avalanche and debt snowball.
- DTI is 43% to 50%: Paying off this level of debt may be difficult, and some creditors may decline applications for more credit. If you have primarily credit card debt, consider a credit card consolidation loan. You may also want to look into a debt management plan from a nonprofit credit counseling agency. Such agencies typically offer free consultations and will help you understand all of your debt relief options.
- DTI is over 50%: Paying down this level of debt will be difficult, and your borrowing options will be limited. Weigh different debt relief options, including bankruptcy, which may be the fastest and least damaging option.
Ways to lower your DTI ratio
Reduce your debt-to-income ratio to improve your chances of qualifying for future credit.
- Increase your income. Make more money by selling items online or starting a side gig, even for a short period, like babysitting or dog walking.
- Reduce your debt. Paying down your credit card balance can reduce your minimum monthly payments. Your DTI will also go down if you pay off installment loans, like student loans or a car loan.
- Refinance or consolidate debt. Refinancing or consolidating debt at a lower interest rate could lower your monthly payments and therefore reduce your DTI. Negotiating a longer repayment term could also lower your monthly debt payments, though you may wind up paying more interest over time.
- Avoid taking on additional debt. Try not to add to your credit card balance or take out additional loans if you want to lower your DTI.