Musical Money – Carnival of Personal Finance #102

Come sing your money worries away at the Carnival of Personal Finance – Musical Money edition! Everyone loves a good tune, I’ve set about half of the submissions to music from Pink Floyd, Linda Ronstadt, Tupac Shakur, Kenny Rogers, The Beatles and more….. Check out the editor’s picks then look around for your favorite songs, enjoy!

Editors Picks
These articles caught my eye, who knows which will catch yours. Read on to find out.

-Alice Cooper has “Skeletons in his closet”. The Financial Jungle warns us about The Dirty Secret Behind Closet Index Funds. Don’t pay fees for a managed fund that mirrors a low-cost index fund.

-“Mmm mmm, my makeup’s got a secret”, says Madonna. SavingAdvice lets us in on a little secret with Costly Secrets Cosmetic Companies Don’t Want You To Know. “Often, the same company will produce both an expensive and an inexpensive line under different brand names, and the products will contain virtually identical ingredients.” Sneaky!

-Anothery sneaky sales tactic, My Two Dollars warns you Why Your Next Mattress Will Never Be Free. Consumers beware the tricks retailers use to get you into the store and make the sale.

-“If I could turn back time”. The Dough Roller reflects on inflation predictions from 1978. What can we learn from the past?

-EquityScout :: Real Estate Investing presents Investors vs. Speculators :: which one are you? I first read about investors vs speculators in Benjamin Graham’s Intelligent Investor. The same logic applies to real estate.

-The Money Mythos presents Why you need more than an index fund, “you can increase your returns for the same, or less, risk”. If you have all your your money in an S&P index fund, here’s a look at how you can diversify.

Musical Money

-Forget lost salt shakers in Margaritaville, how about tax havens in Dominica!

-When Wierd Al says “I think I’m a clone now”, if others are using your identity you just might be as well. Fraudfiles warns us of Synthetic Identity Fraud.

-You’ve got to know when to hold ’em. Know when to fold ’em. Know when to walk away and deduct your losses.

-If you and Carole King think, “It’s too late baby, now it’s too late”, then you’re wrong! It’s never too late, start saving for retirement now.

-Ever wonder why your credit reports don’t match across TransUnion, Experian, Equifax? Like the Beastie Boys said, it’s Ill Communication.

-Are we “Puttin’ On the Ritz”? Lazy Man and Money presents Are We Living Larger or Living Differently?

-“We don’t need no education!” Campus Grotto disagrees with Pink Floyd and gives us ten tips for getting a scholarship.

-Althought the Broadway musical Rent is very popular, Paul advises us not to rent but buy a home instead.

-The Bullet Boys say it’s all about the “money, money, money!” Here’s a way to put some extra money in your checking account, $75 by May 31st.

-While British band Madness sings about “Our House, in the middle of our street”, My Personal Finance Odyssey asks was buying a more expensive house a good investment?

-While De La Soul sings about Shopping Bags, ProBargainHunter talks about his smart shopping philosophy.

-“You gotta fight! For your right! To be independent of your parents, huh? I thought it was “to party”! I guess it’s not the Beastie Boys, plonkee asks whether she can take money from her parents and still be independent.

-How do people with average IQ scores end up rich? They think like Tupac, it’s just “Me Against The World” . Research shows these people make their own rules, get knocked down and get up again, succeed through social intelligence, and take more risks which lead to more rewards.

It’s the end of the world as we know it! A falling dollar, Social Security pyramid scheme, and incredible government deficits, are almost dragging our whole world direct to an economic collapse. In addition Fil-am tells us how the falling dollar will effect us.

-As the Beatles sing about the Taxman, Kristine asks are you ready for the ecommerce tax?

-Even though Alice Cooper lets us know “Schools out for summer!” Save to Quit reminds us there’s life after summer and tells us Paying for College–4 Secrets You Should Know.

-“Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Life Goes On”, with universal life insurance and additional life insurance.

-“Take a little trip, Take a little trip… Low rider don’t use no gas now”. My Own Millions presents 11 Ways to Save Gas and Robert gives us One Road to Lower Gas Prices.

-This author contests the latest price gouging law even though it passed. He “fought the law and the law won.” Everyday Finance presents Should our Lawmakers Save us from Free Market Forces?

-Don’t worry Happy Rock, Linda Ronstadt tells you, “Somewhere out there” is a personal finance system that is right for you.

-“Round, round get around, I get around”. While the Beach Boys weren’t talking about stocks, getting around to all different types of investments and avoiding a 100% stock investment helps keep your portfolio diversified.

-“Mamma told me there’ll be days like this”. What would we do without mamma? The Digerati Life sounds off on mom’s pay.

-“Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie”. Where will you be the day the music dies?A new study shows that the American Dream is getting harder to achieve with each generation.

-“He works hard for his money”, and Kevin found a way to save hundreds of it with Geico.

-The Time & Money group asks, Homebuilders Rallying: How Could This Be? In my opinion it looks like they’ll be “shot down in a blaze of glory!

-MoneyChangesThings offers a $300 prom challenge & financial education for “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”.

-“You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes….” My Money Blog presents In Defense Of Buying: Our Housing Situation Explained. Johnathon knows what he wants but might have to wait out the real estate market to get what he needs.

-Can Prosper make me “free to do what I want any old time”? Finandom asks if we can leverage Prosper to achieve financial freedom?


-“Like a rollin stone”, Accumulating Money asks if we can rollover our 401k while still employed?

-Two years ago Getting Green decided to stop “workin for the man every night and day” and get serious about his debt.

-“Don’t look now, There’s a monkey on your back! Why can’t you set your monkey free?” HOWTO: Tackle Your Debt in Five Simple Step.

Investing

-The Sun’s Financial Diary presents Zecco Free Trading Account Opened, Plus a Review.

-Stock Trading 101 presents 6 Tips to Becoming a Successful Online Investor.

-FiveCentNickel presents Net Worth vs. Net Investable Assets.

Opportunities A Plenty presents Are Commodities the Next High Yield Investment?

-InsureBlog presents Taking Time (Off, that is). “Think you’re ready for your retirement? Here are some disturbing stats that show you might not be.”

-Money Analyst helps us decide Roth IRA vs. Traditional IRA – Which one is Better.

-My Wealth Builder presents Risk Allocation In A Wealth Portfolio.

Investment Jungle does some in-depth analysis into Encore Wire Company (WIRE)

Real Estate

-Salt Lake Real Estate gives us Condo Questions You Shouldn’t Forget To Ask.

-Smart Money Daily presents How Skipping One Phone Call Cost Me $100k. “I felt like I needed to decide if I wanted to be rich or poor…obvious answer right. If I wanted to not be poor, we needed to purchase a house…ASAP.”

-Grad Money Matters presents Rent Vs. Own: A Look at Our Expenditure Then, and Our Expenditure Now.

-Plus 6 presents Don’t buy a home warranty.

Credit & Debt

-Don’t let anyone borrow money, Money and Credit presents Family Screwing.

-Here’s one that could be titled “How to lose money with credit card arbitrage” from Moneymonk, Credit Card Arbitrage.

-Cash Money Life presents Debit Cards – Take Them or Leave Them?

-Mighty Bargain Hunter presents Debit, schmebit!

-Money, Matter, and More Musings presents Forcing Credit Card Awareness: There Should Be A Credit Card Qualifying Test.

Personal Finance

-Queercents presents Almost Debt Free: Organize Finances with Goals and Simple, Repeatable Systems.

-Blunt Money presents Automating Your Finances.

-Flexo from Consumerism Commentary presents How to Make Money With John Adams Presidential Dollar Coins.

-Fundszine presents Emergency fund.

-Home Finance Freedom presents Best-Worst Financial Measures: How To Track Your Financial Independence and Security.

-The Money Well presents Are You Pouring Money Down The Drain?

-Poorer Than You presents State of the War Address, an update on the financial objectives she set for herself at the beginning of the year.

-Rich Minx presents Money and Work Lessons via The Simpsons.

-The Finance Buff presents Successful Business Strategy: Selling Hope.

-Cheap as chips presents Making it happen.

-Stingy Student presents Throwing Away Money


-Living Almost Large presents Tipping for Takeout?


-Make Your Nut presents Advice for New Graduates: The Tao of the Job Hunt.

-FIRE Finance presents Online Checking Accounts: Part 3 – FreeNet Checking From EverBank.

-FitBuff presents How to Get Free Cable & Phone.

-Growing Money presents A Meeting With My Financial Planning Consultant.

Encore

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Thanks for visiting this edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance! If you’re interested in hosting a future edition, look for your chance to apply.

Be sure to check out this week’s Festival of Frugality over at Blogging Away Debt. Have a great week!


How to Use Credit Cards to Simplify Your Finances

Want to keep on top of your spending with minimal time & effort? Not only do credit cards offer cash back, if used properly they can also help you simplify & organize your finances.

Use Credit Cards Wisely
As I mentioned the other day, we use American Express Blue Cash to earn cash back but we only use this approach because we’re responsible with our spending and pay off our balance in full each month. If you’re not confident you can be responsible with a credit card then using it to earn cash back and organize your finances in not a smart move.

Tracking Your Finances
One of my favorite things about using a credit card is it makes it easy to keep track of what you’re spending your money on with little effort. All of the cards I’ve ever used have features where you can download the last several months of activity to your computer. They typically offer direct downloads into Quicken, QuickBooks and Microsoft Money or you can save the data on your PC in a QIF, CSV, or Excel format.

I often download directly into Quicken and save it off as a CSV in case I want to use it for some other purpose later on. One thing to keep in mind is that many credit card companies only store your data for three or four months so make sure you keep up to date on your downloads.

Keeping It Simple
The ideal approach would be to use only one credit card so you only have to download information from one company. Since some merchants don’t accept American Express, I keep a Chase Visa card as a backup so I have to manage two different cards. The fewer you have, the easier it is to keep up with downloads and payments

Electronic Statement Archive
In addition to offering the capability to download your spending data, many companies also offer electronic statements where you can view current and old statements online in HTML or PDF format. They keep your statements online for several years, making it easy to go back on check on old statements. If your bill is stored in PDF format you can also easily save it to your computer to keep your own statement archive.

In an effort to save money on printing & mailing costs many credit card companies are urging customers so sign-up for electronic delivery only. They may not give you access to online statements unless you agree to stop receiving paper documents in the mail and only view them on the Web.

Analyzing Your Spending
Once you have your spending data downloaded onto your desktop or into personal finance software such as Quicken or Microsoft Money you can use that information to look for trends in your spending and make any necessary adjustments to your budget.

Both Money & Quicken offer great reports and charts that categorize your spending and give you a good overview of where your money goes. You may have to manually set categories for your purchases but some credit card companies help you save time by including the category for each purchase when you download your spending data into personal finance software.

Some credit card companies provide analysis of your purchases on their website, without even having to go through different software. For example, our Blue Cash card has a year end summary online that breaks spending down by categories. I can tell from a quick glance that we spent $1,745.85 eating out and $4,645.07 on our car last year. Of course if you use multiple credit cards you’ll have to consolidate this information to see the bigger picture.

Simplifying Your Finances
So how do all of these things simply my finances? The answer is one simple word, time. Having your credit card data and statements in one place, easy to access, categorized, and summarized gives you a quick and easy window into your spending habits. The best part is it requires minimal effort from you, which saves time. If you have a million things going on in your life like I do, keeping it simple and quick will mean you’re more likely to keep up to date on your money.

Credit Card Benefits


Personal Finance Review – Backup Your Data Edition

During the course of my financial housekeeping this weekend I saved an older version of a spreadsheet over top of a new one. The mistake set me back hours & hours of work, which could have been avoided if I regularly backed up my data. I do have another copy of the spreadsheet but it’s four months old which doesn’t help me out now. So I’m adding “create a better backup procedure” to my to-do list. Hopefully you’re better about backing up your data than I’ve been. If not, you’ve been warned!

– Binary Dollar points out a calculator that can help you decide whether a home equity loan or car loan is better for you when buying a car.

– Five Cent Nickel is asking for your input on a tax question about a 415(c) limit.

– Lazy Man saves money by just saying no to a pushy kid selling newspaper subscriptions.

– Blueprint for Financial Prosperity points out that smarter people earn more money but save less of it, not too smart if you ask me!

– Generation X Finance tells us about a mutual fund for those looking to invest in international real estate.

– I bought some John Adams dollar coins this week in hopes I might be able to make a little money off of the newly released coin. Thanks to some research on coin errors by Consumerism Commentary and coin tips from Mighty Bargain Hunter I’ve decided to break the rolls open and look for errors. Thanks for the help guys, I’ll let you know if I find anything!

– Wedding season is here and the Frugal Duchess has some timely tips for saving money on weddings and honeymoons.

– The Simple Dollar gives some tips on how to avoid spending too much in an effort to “keep up with the Joneses“.

– I’ve been giving additional thought to life insurance recently so this article on golden eggs and geese made sense to me.

– eFIPO says no to corporate America and hello to being an entrepreneur.

– Warren Buffet prompted KMull to save hundreds on car insurance with Geico.

– 1 Million to My Name argues that you should save money for retirement instead of pre-paying your mortgage.

Enjoy the long weekend!


Financial Maintenance to Keep Your Money Engine Running Smooth

Just like every business has support tasks that keep the income generation going, every household has financial housekeeping that needs to be done to keep expenditures low and things running efficiently. I usually have too many things going on at once and tend to neglect some of these support tasks so this weekend I decided to catch up on some financial housekeeping.

Organizing Documents
I went through and filed a bunch of personal and documents that have been on the to-do list. We use the HomeFile Financial Planning Organizer Kit to keep our personal documents organized. It breaks documents out into sections such as Auto, Bank Account, Credit, Expenses, Employment, etc.

HomeFile has an overview for each section that suggests what type of documents to store under that category, which type not to file in the category, and when its time to remove certain documents you have filed. The system comes with a a work book and quick find index to help locate documents more quickly.

Securing the Computer
I spent the morning installing anti-Virus Updates on our computer. It’s a dangerous thing but I was considerably out of date on my anti-virus and Windows updates. Now that I’m caught up, I’ll have to do a better job of staying on top of keeping our computer secure.

I’ve been running a security system by Invisus for about a year but recently found a great deal on Norton Internet Security and am going to switch back over to Norton when I find the time.

Hard Drive Cleanup
I’m a digital pack rat. I save practically everything I think I might need in the future. As a result our hard drive on our PC stood at almost 100% capacity this morning. I’ve cleaned off over one Gigabyte of data so far and still have several more to go.

Bill Analysis
As I looked through our bills, I realized we’re probably spending too much on phone service for an additional phone number I keep for business reasons but hardly ever use. Now I’m in the process of searching for cheaper phone service, thanks to Lazy Man‘s recommendation I’m checking out Skype to see if it will meet my needs.

Glamorous No, Necessary Yes
Support tasks such as these aren’t particularly fun but they’re necessary to prevent us from missing bill payments, encountering computer issues, and spending over our budget. I’d rather be writing on this site, building my business, or just relaxing with my family but sometimes a little maintenance is required.

I’m go to do a better job of doing small incremental tasks to help stay on top of things instead of putting them off then burning a whole Saturday. Hope you don’t have to spend your whole weekend doing maintenance like me, enjoy!


Personal Finance Midweek Review – PayPal Reports Edition

PayPal has new reporting features that allow users to get a good overview of all their online financial activity for a specified time period. I use PayPal for the majority of my online transactions so I was eager to try out the new reports when I saw them announced today.

The report I looked at this morning is the PayPal Financial Statement, it organizes the activity on your account into Sales Activity, Fees, Transfers & Withdrawals, Purchase Activity, & Other Activity (Debit Card Cashback or Money Market Dividends). You can specify the time frame for the report up to a 31 day time period. It has the capability to download the report as a csv file or you can drill down past the summary to get a detailed list of activity, which is also downloadable.

PayPal introduced several other reports which I haven’t had time to look over yet but I’m glad to see they are improving their product. The enhancements are probably spurred in part by the looming threat of Google Checkout, competition is good for consumers! Here are some personal finance articles that helped increase my money IQ, maybe they’ll do the same for you.

Golbguru thinks there should be a credit card qualifying test. Not a bad idea, I’m sure the credit card lobby would have something to say about that.

Five Cent Nickel tells us how to invest like Vanguard’s John Bogle.

Silicon Valley Blogger lets us in on 5 things your banker never told you.

Free Money Finance discovers that Nobel prize winners use index funds.

Sun reveals American Express plans to allow card holders to pay their mortgage with their credit card.

Ask Dong wonders if private colleges are worth the money.

My Money Blog speculates that long-term stock returns may be under 8% over the next 25 years.

Only two more work days until Memorial Day weekend. Almost there!


Donald Trump, You’re Fired!

What goes around comes around Donald. For six seasons now Trump has “fired” a different aspiring business person every night in his television show “The Apprentice”. Television viewers have now fired Trump as the show’s ratings have fallen by nearly two thirds since the first breakout season.

Some may disagree with me but the end of “The Apprentice” is a sad day in TV land. As I’ve mentioned before, I think there were many business lessons to be learned from the show, it was one of two TV programs that I watched regularly.

I think I learned more from the failures of the people on the show than I did from the winners. One way to get experience is to try something and make mistakes yourself. Another way is to watch someone else mess up and learn from their mistakes. I’d rather learn at the expense of someone else, but that’s just me.

“The Apprentice” was a window into the world of competitive business people fighting their way to the top. I thought it was extremely educational watching them apply a wide variety of leadership, marketing, social, and organizational skills to the task at hand. I was fascinated by this unique view into the efforts of successful business men & women striving for greater achievement and am sad to see the end of the show. However, in business the bottom line makes or breaks a venture and unfortunately the numbers caught up with “The Donald”. The other viewers have spoken. Trump, you’re fired!


How To Avoid Losing Your Paycheck

Several months after getting married my cleanly wife was a little too ambitious in her cleaning and threw her first paycheck in the trash. Luckily, I discovered it the next day before the trash man came and after an hour of digging through the dumpster in our apartment complex I unearthed the precious check. Needless to say she’s been signed up for direct deposit ever since.

Automate Your Paycheck
Our human resources department sent out an email the other day reminding us that the replacement of lost payroll checks requires a notarized Affidavit and Indemnity form. To avoid going through such a hassle they recommend using on of two different methods to get paid electronically.

Direct Deposit
This method makes use of the Automated Clearing House (ACH) to deposit DirectDeposityour paycheck directly in your bank account. This method is usually a breeze to setup. You supply your employer with your bank account number and the bank routing number, both of which you can find on the bottom of your checks, and they’ll electronically transfer money into your account.

I’ve been using direct deposit for years and it makes life much easier. The nice thing about getting paid with direct deposit is that your money shows up in your account the day you’re paid and you don’t have to hassle with going to the bank to deposit a check.

Prepaid Visa Card
Some employers offer a prepaid card system that allows them to deposit the balance of your paycheck directly onto your prepaid cash card, ours AdpTotalPayuses ADP Total PayCard but I’m sure there are similar cards available from other merchants. I checked out the card website to read about the card’s benefits.

You can use the card at any merchant where Visa is accepted. You can also use the card to withdraw money from an ATM but you want to be sure to use an in-network ATM to avoid paying a withdrawal fee.

One nice feature, if the card is lost or stolen fraud protection from Visa will cover its replacement so you don’t lose any money. The ADP website points out you can use the card as a budgeting tool. You can deposit a portion of your paycheck on the card and designate the card to be used only for certain items. Of course you’d have to use this in conjunction with direct deposit for the remainder of your pay to avoid hassling with a paper check.

I don’t know what happens if you try and spend more than the available balance on the card but that’s an important question to ask when signing up for a prepaid card. They could potentially charge you fees for spending above the card’s balance which you’d definitely want to avoid. Another thing to watch out for would be if they let you charge over your paycheck balance but then charge interest on the overage.

Enter the Digital Age
Whether you use direct deposit or a prepaid card, getting rid of your paper paychecks has many benefits. If you’re not convinced, just wait until you’re digging through a dumpster looking for the paycheck you threw away by accident and you’ll come around. Are there any other ways to get paid electronically that I missed?


Life Insurance Questions & Answers

Our insurance company sent us an advertisement listing several questions about life insurance. The spin was “don’t let unanswered questions keep you from getting the financial protection your family needs.” So I called them up to see how they answered the questions. My plan is to go back and do my own research on life insurance and see if what I find matches up with their answers.

1) Do I need a doctor’s physical before getting a life insurance policy?
Yes, some insurance companies will send someone to your home to perform the checkup at your convenience.

2) How do I know what amount of life insurance is right for me?
The insurance company looks at your assets, liabilities, and dependents and recommends how much insurance you need.

3) I’m young and healthy. Why should I buy life insurance?
The answer to this one was to plan ahead. Whether you qualify and how much you pay for life insurance depends on factors such as your health, age, occupation, and others. His argument was that 15 – 20 years from now you may find yourself in a much more expensive category or even uninsurable so you should lock in your insurance rates now.

4) I have a life insurance policy from my employer. Isn’t that enough?
He recommended against relying wholly on my employer for coverage. If a person wants coverage their company doesn’t offer, moves to a new job that doesn’t have the coverage they need, or wants to start their own company then having a separate life insurance policy would fill those gaps.

5) Wouldn’t I be better off investing the money I’d otherwise spend on insurance premiums?
He gave a pretty simple answer to this one. You could just put the money in the stock market but there is more risk using this approach. You could lose all your money in the stock market but the coverage provided by the life insurance policy is guaranteed.

6) Can children be named as beneficiaries of a life insurance policy?
Yes, but he stressed that it should be done through a will. The legal documents should appoint an executor to manage the money and a guardian to take care of the kids.

7) Why should I care if a company charges sales commission?
This one is pretty obvious but I asked it anyways because it was on the list. Sales commission will make your premiums higher. If you have a policy that builds value over time it will take longer to accumulate money

8) Should I buy life insurance on my children?
People do this for two reasons. The first is to help through a transitional stage in the horrible event you do lose a child. The second is to lock in life insurance at a low rate for your kids.

Of course the insurance agent ended by asking if I was ready to start the application process for a life insurance policy. I thanked him for his time and said I’d look into it. Now that I’ve heard the answers from the insurance company’s point of view my next step will be to go to an independent third party to research them farther. I’ll let you know what I find out. Do you disagree or find fault with any of their answers?

Life Insurance Quotes

Why Babies Never Go Into Debt

When a baby is hungry, tired, or angry they cry. As we get older we become socialized and learn to hold back these crying fits to integrate into society. In some cases this habit of suppressing our emotions can be dangerous to our pocketbook.

No Money = No Stuff
When kids want something they don’t have the money for their initial reaction may be to stomp and scream because they can’t afford it. They throw a temper tantrum but in the end they walk away without it because they don’t have the money.

No Money = Use Credit Card
It’s too bad that we can’t carry those traits over to adulthood. All too often when we can’t afford something now, we whip out the American Express. It’s much easier to put it on the credit card and breeze through the line. We can worry about the card balance and interest fees later in the privacy of our own home.

Throw a Fit, Save Your Wallet
If only we could revert to those toddler years. We’d be much better off in the end if we threw a fit in the middle of the store because we didn’t have the money and left empty handed. Sure it might be temporarily embarrassing but we wouldn’t be making someone else rich by using credit cards and killing our own financial independence.


Three Easy Ways to Lower Your Heating & Cooling Expenses

How long has it been since you’ve had your HVAC serviced? It had been six years for me until last week when I hired a local heating & cooling company to stop by for a tune-up visit. The friendly tech went over three simple things that can save us thousands of dollars.

Check Your Air Filter Once a Month
This one is a no-brainer but he stressed it’s the easiest & cheapest way to save money on heating and cooling. He visited one home that hadn’t changed the filter in over a year and the clogged air passage had caused major damage to the furnace that costs almost $1000 to fix. A blocked filter can also reduce the flow of cool or warm air into your home. He says to check it once a month and change it out if needed. I’ve done a decent job of this; I usually change the filter every three months.

It is hard to remember to change it and once I do, half the time I don’t have an extra filter. The best thing to do is buy a year’s supply of air filters at a time and set them somewhere you’ll see them occasionally to remind you to change it. I also write the last time I changed the filter on the little sticker that often comes with new filters. Changing the filter is a simple suggestion; basically it comes down to whether you want to spend a little time and money now, or a lot later on.

Keep Your Outside Unit Clean
I failed on this one. The sides of our air conditioning unit were caked with dirt and grass. The more crud on the outside of the AC unit, the less air that comes in and the hotter it gets. The tech had another story about an outside unit that overheated because it was never cleaned and cost hundreds to fix.

He stressed that when cleaning the AC unit you should use only water from the hose. Don’t use a nozzle on the hose or a brush to scrub the sides of the unit. You don’t want to bend the fine metal pieces because the bent metal that would block air flow as well, which is what we’re trying to avoid. Of course you should make sure the AC unit isn’t running when you spray it and he killed the electricity before cleaning it.

Adjust Your Heat Pump Thermostat
I always wondered what determined the point at which our heat pump shut off and the auxiliary heat kicked in. Once the tech removed the cover of the outside unit he showed me how to control this switch. There is an outside temperature thermostat on the unit that allows you to control how cold it has to be before the heating system moves to auxiliary heat, in our case a gas furnace. One word of caution, the tech recommended against me adjusting the gauge on my own because there are other components under the cover that could shock you even once the power to the unit is turned off.

If your outside temperature thermostat was set too high when it was installed and never adjusted, your auxiliary heat may kick in before it needs to, costing you money. A few extra hours or days running on auxiliary heat off and on during the winter as the temperature fluctuates can really add up. Here are some other heat pump tips I ran across when troubleshooting our air conditioner problems.



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