Monthly Archives: March 2016

living with roommates

Pet is not a problem when living witha roommate

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Roommates with pets

Having a pet, just like having a baby, entails too many responsibilities (even if you are not the pet owner) and certain household adjustments. That is why, having pet when you live with a roommate in NYC is an issue, so if  you are either sharing a place with a pet owner or being a pet owner living with a roommate yourself, you might find this article interesting.

IF YOUR ROOMMATE HAS A PET

your rommate's cat

Do not adopt the pet! 

Make sure you don’t become the pet’s care giver, cleaning, feeding, walking and treating it instead of your roommate. There must be a reason why you didn’t get a pet for yourself, and whatever it is, it can only mean one thing- you don’t need it now, so don’t let it be imposed on you by a careless owner.

Lay out some rules

Think of the pet free zones in your apartment, meaning the areas where you don’t want your roommate’s cat/dog/tea cup pig have access to,  and make sure that your roommate understands the full meaning of “pet-free”.

Take precautions

roommates with pets

Get all the things that might be damaged by a pet and get them safely out of reach. As we said above, having a pet in the apartment entails the responsibilty from both sides, so be responsible for your stuff. Better safe than sorry.

Communicate

Don’t hesitate to talk to your rommate if you feel an issue arising, and be sure to do it right away to avoid escalation.

IF YOU ARE THE PET’S OWNER

Train your pet

Make sure you pet is properly trained. Biting puppy or a not (potty) trained cat is a problem that could cause your roommate to start hating your pet and all pets in general.

Set boundaries

Confine your pet.  As a pet owner you might be ok with your dog’s chew toys scattered around the apartment,  but your roommate is most likely not going to be ok with it. So it makes sense to get a puppy pen if you have a dog.

roommate's cat

Be extra clean

Don’t fail to clean after your pet right away, even if you feel that it can wait a few hours, and make sure you give your pet a proper bath as often as it takes, to ensure that it doesn’t stink.

Take extra care about your pet

Again, if you have a dog, maybe, it makes sense to hire a dog walker, to make sure your canine is healthy, and not going nuts inside the apartment out of boredom.

Even if you are sharing an apartment with someone, you can still enjoy having a four legged baby in your house, the only thing that  you should watch out for, is making sure that your pet is not causing any problems to your roommate turning his/her life into a nightmare. That is why it is important to let your roommate know about your pet upfront, before you got into a commitment, and the perfect way to do it, would be to put the pet in your profile, when you are just looking for a roommate, and maybe even put your pet as a profile picture to let everyone know about it right off the bat.

living with roommates

Why should you improve your credit when living with a roommate?

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Why is it good to have a good credit score?

Whether you like it or not, having a good credit score is really important, at least if you choose to live in a big city in The US. Let’s face it, life is just so much easier when you have some little extra money, which you borrow and then comfortably pay back over time. Plus, borrowing is being encouraged by our system, so you can get a whole bunch of nice perks when using (the right) credit card. So, again, why is it important to have a good credit score?

fix your credit while living with a roommate

A)It helps you save money. You can get a better interest rates if you are deemed reliable by your lender.

B)You can apply for credit cards that give you better rewards and bonuses.

C)You can borrow bigger amounts of money (which is good if you want to invest in something).

D) Our system is designed so that the more financially reliable you are, the easier, faster and cheaper it is for you to rent an apartment, get a car, go to school and do other things like that, that are imortant for your life’s success.

So, I say, right now, while we are living with the roommates and, therefore, have a bigger financial margin to use, is our time to tune our financial life for success.

What does a good credit score depend on?

ce_FICO-Score-chart.jpg

The word is, FICO has been working on a new credit scoring system, which they are planning to launch by the end of this year/beginning of the next year. This system is designed to give a fairer judgement and better chance of getting approved for a loan or a credit card for people who are in the higher credit risk group. Things like rent, phone, cable and utility bills payments, as well as how often does this person change the address,  will be taken into consideration when determining their credit score. So there might be some room for improvement for all of us out there!

When is it better use a credit card rather than cash?

Using your credit card is good when you receive cash back, miles, points or other rewards and bonuses on the money you spend. Therefore using credit is better than using cash when you have the right type of credit card and if you manage to avoid paying interest interest charges. To simplify it even more, paying by card is better if you can get the item for less money than you would get it for if paying cash (sorry, did I make it more complicated right now?).

Another situation when you would want to use your credit card rather than a debit card is when there is a possibility of fraud present. When someone steals money from your debit card they are stealing your hard earned cash while with the credit card, thiefs basically steals bank’s money, and you don’t have to pay it back because, according to federal law, you can’t be held liable for unauthorized credit or debit card transactions.

How to improve your score?

I’m absolutely positive that you already know what I’m about to tell you, but I’ll tell it anyway just in case some school kids are reading this. If you want to improve your credit score these are the things you should do:

Lower your utilization rate to 30% by either increasing your line of credit or applying for another credit card and transfering part of your balance from one card to another.

Make payments on time to avoid interest charges.

Try to pay off your outstanding balance as soon as possible.

Keep an eye on your transactions and stay in touch with your credit card company, negotiating your debt down.

What if you are in a credit debt trouble?

Then again, you should negotiate your settlement plan with your credit company and be relentless about it, maybe even go for “pay for delete” option here. But make the reps on the other end of the line really work with you finding the best solution for your problem.

Talk to your credit counselor to have him help you work out a startegy.

Ask a family member, a friend or a roommate with a better credit score to add you to their credit card account to help you improve your credit score (which could help you to get a loan to pay your credit card debt).

fix your credit core while living with a roommate

So why should you work on your credit score now, when you live with a roommate? Well, you don’t have to of  course, and who am I to tell you what to do, right? Speaking for myself, I invest a lot of time and effort in fixing my not-so-perfect-credit score right now, because I have a very clear goal: I want to have my own place without having to share it with anyone, and a good credit score will definitely help me in achieving it faster. So I manage my finances wisely and fix things that need to be fixed in my life while I have a chance to do it, preparing myself for a bright and happy future.

living with roommates

Laughter yoga as an antidote for a roommate stress

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Me and my roommate have been sharing the living space, bathroom and kitchen in my little flex two, for more than six months already and, so far, managed to maintain pretty friendly relationship and not get into any fights. I think what saves us from all the drama is our ability to laugh at things. We both have pretty good sense of humor and find something to laugh about in any situation. That’s why hanging out together is a joy, and that is why I call her my soul sister.
make your roommate laugh

I have recently read that laughter has a powerful (almost magical) effect on your body. Let’s take a look at what happens to you when you respond to something funny: according to numerous researchers when you hear a joke and crack up laughing, a strong electrical wave is being sent through your cortex engaging all parts of it, which, basically, boosts the vital processes of your body. Laughing is known to promote release of endorphins (hormones of happiness) and reduce the level of cortisol (stress hormones), strengthen your immune system, slow down your heart rate and lower blood pressure. It is also said to boost your creativity and help to cure various deceases such as cancer and diabetes and promotes healthy sleep patterns.

Norman Cousins an American political journalist, author, professor and world peace advocate was diagnosed with a rare form of arthritis and was said by a doctor that he had “little chance of surviving” and had cured himself by watching comedies and taking vitamin C. His own quote was: “I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep”.

confront your roommate with laughter

There is a whole study dedicated to the healing power of laughter called Gelotology, which offers us three kinds of laughter therapy:

Humor and Laughter Therapy – it consists of watching comedies, reading funny books, telling jokes and anecdotes or doing basically anything to make the patients laugh and engage in a conversation sharing their personal humorous experience with others. It’s done as a part of rehabilitation process to help the body activate it’s regenerating processes.

Laughter meditation- Performed pretty much as a regular meditation, only focusing on laughing instead of breathing. It is, traditionally, a three-step process including stretching, intentional laughing and the meditative silence.

Laughter yoga – includes about 45 minutes of laughter exercises incorporated in its usual routine.

The good part about these activities is that they don’t require any emotional effort on your side. Everything is pure mechanics. The laughter meditation instructions lay it out in one simple step-by-step system, suggesting us to start by “gently turning corners of our mouth upwards and starting with a soft smile”, no imagine-the-funniest-moment-of-your-life crap here, that will make your mind freeze while trying to remember it.

laughing roommate is a good roommate

People that laugh a lot are more successful in life than those who don’t, as  laughter is a natural ice breaker helping people to open up and create a personal bond with those around them. It was stated that laughter is increasing creative thinking and improves productivity.

To summarize it all, laughing can help you reduce the amount of stress in your life, stabilize your blood pressure, strengthen your immune system, increase your vital energy level and improve the overall quality of your life, it is free and there is no cap on how much of it you can use. Isn’t it funny?!

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living with roommates

Why is having roommates good for your taxes

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There is a time once a year that takes place in winter-early spring period, when adults of the United States talk nothing, but taxes.  Yes, paying taxes is among few things that are certain to happen in our life, and of course we want to be smart when paying it.

having a roommate affects your taxes

That is why I was really excited to discover that having a roommate can affect my taxes, possibly in a good way, even though I am not a homeowner. Although I have to claim the rent payments I receive from my roommate as a rental income (because I charge her more than half of my own rent, hence, profit from renting my room out), I can deduct all the rent-related costs such as advertising, repairs, improvements etc, that could help to ease my tax payments if I do it right.

So here are the things I, personally, plan on claiming as my rental related expenses: the rental room improvements (the A/C and closet I have bought for the room before my roommate moved in), the costs of painting the room prior to her move in, the registration fee I paid at roomster.com to join and post my profile there (which resulted in me finding the best roommate ever), basically anything I have spent on my roommates room + 50% of all my household charges!!

having a roommate can affect your taxes

There is one more thing that needs to be considered when deducting expenses of your rental room: the percentage you can deduct will depend on how long has your roommate been living in that room for the year and how long have you had it for your personal use. For example: if the tenant has occupied the room for the whole year, you can deduct 100% of all your expenses. If your roommate has only been living in your room for three months, and before that the room was used by you, then you will have to divide the amount of days in year to the amount of time your roommate has stayed there to find out what percent of your expenses is deductible.

And again, remember that sharing an apartment can be fun experience in your life which you can benefit from both financially and personally, if you arrange everything about it the right way.