First Time Home Buyers

Looking to buy a house? Do it now.

Since my grandma has moved into assisted living I've been thinking about buying her little ranch house. My rent is currently $700 (includes heat) and if I can buy her house for less than that I'm all for it.

There is a new credit out there for first time home buyers that's gonna help me.

First-time home buyers who buy or bought a home between Jan. 1 and Dec. 1 of this year are eligible for a tax credit of 10 percent of the value of the home — up to $8,000 — and they don’t have to pay it back.

That’s right. The government is giving money to those who invest in a residence for themselves and live there for at least three years. - From the Bangor Daily News

Sweet! I love free money that I don't have to pay back! I've never actually ever been offered any, but I'll take it!

Last week I went to the credit union and was pre-approved for a loan. I was shocked. I mean, I have great credit but I also have $50k in student loans. Still -- they thought I was worthy.

I don't know about where you live, but where I live it seems that every other house on the street is for sale. To be honest, I wouldn't be in the market for a house if it wasn't grandma's house. I need a deal to make it work with my salary and my student loans. But all the press out there for first time home buyers is encouraging. Keep your fingers crossed!

Down East Downsizes

Down East magazine is "reorganizing" which is a nice way of saying they are laying people off. Six people will lose their job while others will have reduced responsibilities, reduced hours, or changed to independent contractor status.

"Even though our magazine readership is at an all-time high, advertising pages are down, mostly due to real estate sales… and when sales are down to this degree, there’s really only so far you can go before you have to come face to face with that reality," said Bob Fernald, president of Down East Enterprises, Inc. -- From Village Soup

If you've leafed through an issue of Down East you probably noticed how much of their advertising comes from real estate -- homes only the wealthy can afford anyway.

When even luxury food magazines like Bon Apetite and Gourmet are trying to change their content to be more frugal, magazines that rely on advertising from cars, real estate, and retail have to come up with new ways to bring in ad dollars. My own parents, who used to subscribe to Down East, stopped reading it because they said there were too many ads. They got sick of looking at them.

So what is a magazine to do? A high ratio of ads to content in a magazine is a turn off for readers, but without ad revenue a magazine can't survive. And luxury magazines are in a tug of war between creating content that is tackling the current economic crisis and potentially losing readers and continuing to create the same kind of content they've been doing all along and losing advertisors.

What's the winning solution? If we knew that I guess the newspaper and magazine industries wouldn't be in such a pickle.

Mapping out Unemployment

The New York Times has a nifty interactive map of unemployment rates in the country. A screen grab of the map is below but to get to the real one click here.

It really puts into perspective how hard hit some states are -- like Michigan, Alaska, Oregon, and California, for example. Mackinac County, located on the tip of that funny part of Michigan, seems to be the highest with a 24.2% unemployment rate. It looks like they should all move to the plains states like Kansas or to New Hampshire where the rates aren't nearly as bad.

How does your county fare?

Careless Marie Claire

One of my favorite things to do is go to Borders and read magazines. I did just that last night with my sister. I grabbed the March 2009 issue of Marie Claire to look through.

I came across a short article called "An Upside to the Downturn".

Born-again penny pinchers are suddenly discovering the pleasures of thrift and waxing about it with near-religious fervor.

"Because of the recession, I'm forced to pay attention to the things that really matter," says Jocelin Engel, a 28-year-old consultant in New York City. Instead of "carelessly wasting money running around town for overpriced cocktails," she's now spending time with her husband, cooking dinner with friends, watching movies at home, enjoying the people who mean the most to her.

This Jocelin chick couldn't sound more vapid and shallow if she tried. Thanks to the economy, Jocelin's husband and friends now become a top priority -- over cocktails.

The most horrifying part of this whole article, though, is the fact that literally on the next page was a photo of three one-legged women in bathing suits and Miss America-esque sashes. They were three Angolan women who had won the Miss Landmine Angola 2008. The mini article was titled "Eye on the World: Standing Tall".

While American women are learning to deal without their $19 flirtinis because of a bum economy, women in Africa are losing their legs due to landmines. If that doesn't put America's materialism and lack of empathy I don't know what is. Shame on Marie Claire for even considering that these stories run side-by-side in their magazine.

Cover Letter Quandry

It's a tough economy out there. Finding a job is difficult but not impossible. I have often wondered about the usefulness of cover letters when applying for a job. I've always written one up and sent one along, not knowing if they were really read. According to this Career Couch column in The New York Times, employers really do pay attention.

Cover letters are a graceful way to introduce yourself, to convey your personality and to impress a hiring manager with your experience and your writing skills, said Katy Piotrowski, an author of career books and a career counselor based in Fort Collins, Colo. You can also tailor them to a specific company in ways that you cannot with a résumé.

Ms. Piotrowski recently had a job opening at her small company, Career Solutions Group, and she was dismayed when about a quarter of the 200 applicants did not send cover letters. Most were within five years of graduating from college, she said, reflecting a more informal mind-set among younger people.

It's a worthwhile article to read, especially if you are looking to land a new job. I've listed some of the main points below:

1. Short, sweet, and to the point: Try to find out who is doing the hiring and send the letter to that person. Err on the side of conservativeness. If you don't know how to write a business letter....learn.

2. Sell yourself: Your cover letter gives you a chance to highlight qualities you possess that aren't present in your resume.

3. Double-hitting: If you apply to a job online, follow it up by sending a hard copy of your resume and cover letter. Attach a handwritten note indicating you applied online and that you are very interested in the position.

4. Spell check: It takes just a few seconds to spell check your document on the computer. Cover letters with typos and misspelled words may end up in the trash.

5. Specifics: Omit any specific salary or geographic requirements. Hiring professionals are looking for ways to narrow their pile of applicants down -- don't do it for them.

Illustration by Chris Reed