Live Debt Free

Pay off debt. Save. Give. Live your mission.

My New Twitter Background – What do you think?

by //

Last night I was set to go to bed by 11pm after reading this article, but that plan did not end up panning out for me.  Once I began messing around with my twitter background it was inevitable I would be up until it was finished…that’s the way I work ladies & gentlemen.  That being said, I’m actually glad I stayed up.  The background is finished and I am quite happy with the look of it.  If you’re interested, I used the info on this post from Twitip to build the custom bg.  The biggest issue is making sure you are properly implementing the picture dimensions to match the browser dimensions of largest percentage of your readers.  All in all I am pleased with the end product.

Although I tweet under my given name of Matt Jabs, I decided to incorporate DFA into my twitter theme, since this site is currently my main focus.  Featuring DFA on twitter will help me spread it around the web & reach a greater audience.

I have two questions for you.

  1. What do you think of my new DFA themed twitter background?
  2. Do you think I should have created separate twitter accounts for DebtFreeAdventure.com, eJabs.com, & another separate one for my personal tweets (MattJabs)…or did I make the correct decision by using MattJabs as an umbrella twitter account for everything?

Help a brother out…

My Property Taxes for 2009 Decreased

by //

Yesterday I received my yearly property tax adjustment from my township. I was happy to see that the taxable amount of my home decreased by just over $6,000 for 2009.  What does that mean to me?  It will decrease my yearly property taxes by around $240 for 2009.  Although I would have liked to see them decrease more abundantly, so they more accurately reflected the current worth of my property, I’m simply happy they decreased at all!

How about you?  Did your property taxes decrease, and if so, by how much?

Did  you know that if you think your property taxes were not correctly assessed you can appeal the matter with your state tax tribunal?  The appeal process differs from state-to-state, but in most states you must file your petition by the middle of March of the current year.

I live in Michigan, so I will use my state as an example.  Per the State of Michigan website, “Property tax appeal” means any proceeding relating to real and personal property assessments, valuations, rates, special assessments, refunds, allocation, or equalization or any other proceeding brought before the tribunal under the state’s property tax laws”.

THE GENERAL PROPERTY TAX ACT of 1893 Section 211.154 Titled “Incorrect reporting or omission of property liable to taxation; placement of corrected assessment value on assessment roll; certification of taxes due; change in assessment; collection of additional taxes; penalty and interest; refund of excess tax payments; appeal.” states:  (7) A person to whom property is assessed under this section may appeal the state tax commission’s order to the Michigan tax tribunal.

This link lists all the forms you need to file and lists the “Top Ten Reasons Why Your Stipulation Will not be Accepted”.

Personally, for the minuscule amount of money it would save me, I wouldn’t put myself through the trouble and all the legal headache to most likely be denied in the end.

Would you take the time to appeal your property tax amounts?

Please visit DFA “in the flesh” to comment on the recent site updates

by //

Greetings all, and especially to those of you who subscribe to, and read DFA updates via your favorite feed reader!

I’m writing this post to specifically invite you to come out of your feed reader bubble world 😉 and visit DebtFreeAdventure to see the recent site updates.  To summarize, here are some of the updates I have made & would very much appreciate your feedback on.  Please leave a comment to let me know your thoughts.

  • I updated the look and feel to try & make it more “friendly and inviting” (well, that was my goal…what do you think?).
  • I made only the most recent post appear in full view, and all subsequent posts appear as snippets.
  • I added my Twitter feed to the left sidebar (ah…just go ahead & follow me!)  😉
  • I placed to very relevant graphs on the top of my right sidebar.  One is tracking the progress of my debt reduction goal for the year, and the other my savings goal.  I really like these!  Thanks to “Learn Financial Planning” creators for writing the plugin!
  • I added a widget half-way down on the right sidebar to search the Webster’s 1828 dictionary for word definitions.  I did this because the definitions in Webster’s original dictionary are far more accurate and biblical than the definitions in all subsequent versions.  Do you agree or disagree?
  • I added a picture at the end of each post that invites readers to subscribe to my RSS feed.  You only see this invite if you are viewing a single post.  Thanks to Trevor Fitzgerald for writing the Subscribe-Remind plugin.  PS…I use this instead of the WWSGD plugin.
  • Lastly I changed my Google Adsense ad placement quite a bit.  I removed all ads from the home page with the exception of a 125×125 block in the right sidebar (which I hope to replace with a sponsor soon).  I added a small banner ad to my other pages, and added a large rectangle to the beginning and end of my individual post pages.  I did this because through the trial & error of Adsense placement on eJabs.com, I have found the best result with this arrangement.  What do you use?

Thank you for “breaking out of your feed reader” to come visit DebtFreeAdventure in the flesh!  I hope you are in someway blessed by the content herein.  Please comment here to let me know what you think.

Matt the DebtFREEk!