Cangkuang Temple

Cangkuang temple is a seventh century Shiva ancient temple that located in the small island. The island situated at the centre of Cangkuang Lake (Garut, West Java, Indonesia). We rented a bamboo raft to reach the island.
The Weekend in Black and White

6 Tips to Paying Off Your Home Loan Sooner

When it comes to paying off the mortgage, whether it is on a home or an investment property, the quicker you can repay it, the better off you will be! By paying off your home loan sooner, you can save thousands of dollars by reducing the amount of interest you have to pay in the long run.

To help those in the process of organising a home loan, below are 6 useful tips on how to pay off your home loan sooner.

Tip 1: Take Out a Loan with Repayment Options
When homebuyers go to take out a loan they generally try and get one with the lowest interest rate. This can sometimes be a HUGE mistake. Instead of focusing on the interest rate, you should be looking at a loan’s repayment options.

Some home loan options, like a standard variable rate home loan, might have a higher interest rate, but there are also a number of repayment options available. Some loans have the options of making larger and more frequent repayments, without any penalties. Some loans also have a redraw function, which allows you to also redraw on those extra payments if, for some reason, you desperately need the funds.

The benefit of making larger and more frequent repayments is that you pay off your loan sooner. You can save heaps by paying off your home loan sooner, despite the fact your loan has a higher interest rate.

Tip 2: Make Sure Interest on Your Loan is Calculated Daily
When searching for the right home loan, try and get one that has its interest calculated daily. This is because whenever you make a repayment on the principal of the loan, you will actively reduce the amount of interest you have to pay on your next instalment.

Tip 3: Connect Your Home Loan to an Interest Saver/Offset Account

Some home loans provide the option of being linked up to an interest saver or an offset account. An interest saver/offset account is generally an everyday transaction account, where the interest paid into that account is used to reduce the amount of interest calculated on your home loan.

With an offset account, you want to store as much of your savings and salary as possible into that account. This will help reduce the home loan’s principal quicker and the interest paid on all future home loan repayments.

Tip 4: Pump Extra Funds into Your Home Loan

If you accumulate any surplus cash you should immediately put it towards paying off your home loan. This reduces your chances of wasting your cash on frivolous things.

When taking out any kind of loan, you should also be on a budget and putting money towards only the essential things. This can be tough and not much fun. You have to constantly remind yourself, however, that every dollar you put towards paying off your home loan sooner can save you thousands of dollars in the long run. With the money you end up saving, you can treat the whole family to something nice!

Tip 5: Pay Your First Home Loan Instalment Upon Settlement
Usually your first home loan instalment is paid a month after the settlement of you loan. However, if you pay the first instalment upon settlement, you have immediately reduced the amount of interest you will have to pay on your next instalment and all future repayments.

Tip 6: Seek Professional Financial Advice
Speaking to a financial adviser can highlight a number of effective ways and strategies to help you find the right home loan and to pay it off sooner. You don’t (and shouldn’t!) have to do all the number crunching by yourself, as it can be quite overwhelming.

Financial groups know the tricks of the trade and have the experience to help you develop ways to efficiently use your income and assets to pay off your home loan sooner. Some groups, especially those dealing with investment properties, even have access to special software programs, like real estate development software, that can help in balancing out your positive and negative cash flows. This is particularly useful if the loan you have taken out is for an investment property.

How to Decorate Walls of Your Home?

The best part about decorating your home is that you need not be a professional home interior designer to decorate your home beautifully. All you would need is dedication, aesthetic sense, willingness and skills to do so. If you have that creative instinct inside you, let your home reflect that. A beautiful home is a true reflection of your own personality. Let the walls speak about your aesthetic taste and creative mind.

Well painted walls do not always add color, charm and your own decorating style to your home without painting the walls. A wall decoration project comprises of things like proportion, balance, scale, texture, variety, color, size and the list is long. Here are a few ways to beautify your home with decorating ideas that are a bit off the wall!

Arrange for a gallery wall:
Locate some focal point sand learn about dimensions before venturing out on wall decoration of your home. Draw a rough plan on a piece of paper before actually starting with the decorating. Put some photo frames on one wall of your living room and you will create a beautiful gallery wall. Measure the distance between the art piece, so that there is equal spacing between them. Select one picture that would serve as the gallery's main attraction. You can also hang some frames without pictures as this form of decoration is in vogue.

Photo collage
You can get more creative while decorating the walls of your personal room. Buy a wall-safe tape and start slapping your collection of photos on the wall of your room. But make sure to paste them in a sequence. Start from your childhood photos and then add photos of kindergarten and then high school, college, your wedding photos and go on further.

Contemporary wall art
Though wall art lack realism and meaning, these do not lack style. The beholder can always come up with his or her own meanings of the wall art. It is the best and the most dramatic way to express your style and character, which makes your home a true reflection of what you are.

Oil paintings:

Living room wall must be ornamented with an oil painting. Choose a painting carefully for your living room, as it is the best way to add grandeur to your living room. You can always seek service from a professional handyman london for hanging these paintings.

You can buy a full-length mirror for your room, as it will bring more light into the room. You can decorate the borders with paint pens. Removable wall graphics are also one of the many ways to decorate the walls of your living room, dining area and lobby. You can built floating wall shelves or bookcases to add vertical appeal to your walls. This not only enhances beauty of your living space but also acts as an extra storage space.

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Seeing through the Window

Thinker, my niece's cat, doesn't allowed to go outside. But when she's at school, once in a while, I let the cat out and kept my eyes open to ensure that she only played in the front yard.

The Weekend in Black and White