Another good example of where patience pays is with cars. You're likely to pay near full price for a car when new year model is released. If you have patience to wait 9 months, you can get same brand new car for a lot less as dealer tries to sell out inventory for next new car models coming in. If you have even more patience and can wait a couple of years (and don't mind a slightly used car) you can save yourself thousands more.

Patience can save is many small ways which together add up to a lot of money. You can pay $25 for family to go to movies to see latest release or wait a few months and rent movie for less than $5. That's a 500% savings. You can pay full retail price for latest Harry Potter book, or wait less than a month and pick it up on an online auction or used bookstore for a fraction of price. If you have a little more patience, you can borrow it for free from your local library.

While patience in combination with other traits like organization and research can multiply saving benefits, those who have a hard time with those other skills can still save by merely being patient. All it takes sitting back, taking it easy and waiting a few months until all hype around product in question disappears.

Popular with older citizens, reverse mortgage is often structured in such a way that loan only becomes repayable on death of home-owner. Depending on size of loan and current market conditions, there may actually be no equity left when loan is finally repaid, a matter only of interest to home-owners who prefer to leave something for their children. As with all loans, be careful not to default on ancillary charges, such as property tax, insurance, rates etc, as these could all lead to loan being reclaimed early (foreclosed). Typically, bank will have an option built in to contract to increase your debt by paying these charges on your behalf, should you default, and this is not an option you want exercised, as you will then start paying interest on those charges too!

To sum up - reverse mortgages can be useful, but treat carefully - they can have a sting in tail. Keep an eye on outstanding balance every month, versus value of your home for peace of mind.