Anna's Blog

I spent Saturday with my dad, chopping down our Christmas tree and getting it up and decorated. The moment the tree was in the house, my animals were all over it. And that reminded me of some good holiday pet safety precautions… so here you go, I hope they help to keep your pets safe!!

1. Keep holiday plants out of reach from your pets as many are poisonous – like holly, poinsettias and lilies.
2. Secure your tree to a wall so that climbing pets don’t knock down your tree (this almost happened to me on Saturday!)
3. Don’t feed your pets meat bones – many will damage their stomachs.
4. Look out for wrapping ribbon – cats like to play & eat them and the ribbon can do serious damage to their insides.
5. Cover the water in your tree base – it may have pesticides from the tree and could make your pet sick!

Equity – What is it and what do you do with it? I am always so dismayed at how easy it is to take on high interest debt. Who knew you could go to a Brewer game to watch a baseball game and get a new credit card? You can sign up for store credit cards right as you are checking out. It’s unbelievably easy and really quite unsettling. It’s important that homeowners understand what equity is, and that tapping into it is a possible consideration in lieu of sky high credit plans that are offered here, there, and everywhere.

Equity is the difference between what your house is worth (per an appraisal) and what you owe. If your house appraises for $200,000 and you owe $150,000, you have $50,000 equity. I have a friend that has a line of credit for a portion of the equity she has in her home. The interest rate is low and payments are manageable. She uses the line of credit when big purchases come up…a roof for the house, refinishing the basement, purchasing a replacement automobile. For the time she carries a balance, the interest is tax deductible.