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By admin
Following the recent home mortgage lending debacle, where new home owners were provided loans they either didn’t understand (balloon payments?) or were under-qualified to actually maintain making payments on, it made me reflect on what I learned around the dinner table from my Mom, the realtor.
Mom said no one should ever go and look at homes for sale until they are pre-qualified for a loan. Don’t run around with a realtor looking at your dream homes, or any homes for that matter, because it you find something that you feel you simply must have, it will either be devastating for you to discover what the actual monthly payments will be, or you may have set your sights too high and then nothing else seems good enough, she admonished.
First, know what you can afford, and then go look at homes at and below this amount. Do not go over this amount, even a little bit, because you will invariably push the envelope into biting off more than you can chew. And nobody likes the taste of envelopes.
The home seller and/or their realtor will appreciate that you are pre-qualified, because they are not wasting their time showing you around. This is why my Mom would never have an open house. “Too many lookie-loos” she told me, meaning the curious neighbors, possible thieves, and general public seeking to amuse themselves and get decorating ideas after a Sunday brunch. She was selling homes in a prestigious community where humble homes began at over a million dollars, and the homeowners valued their privacy.
Before signing on the dotted line, review with your life partner (if there is one assisting you with a home purchase) what your financial life is like now, in five years, ten years, fifteen and twenty years. Why? Because more than likely the loan you will be paying on is for the next 30 years. Got kids? Well, they made need more than orthodontia. How about 4 years in college? Your expenses may fluctuate as wildly as your income.
Make sure you are totally comfortable with the minimum amount due each month, and evaluate if you could actually pay more. If you can round up a few hundred dollars each month early on, you will be delighted to find that your final payment may be due around year 25, as the extra amount you pay can go toward the principal, which then lowers the interest you pay on it. Even one extra mortgage payment annually will help lower your final loan cost a lot.
Remember, don’t let this, the most costly decision of your life, be driven by your emotions. Maybe your future will see higher earnings and allow you to trade up into a bigger, more costly home. A home that takes every spare cent from your pocket won’t be a happy one for its’ inhabitants. A house that prohibits vacations, helping family members in need or even donations to charity, is not a truly enjoyable one. Remember, be it ever so humble (because it was affordable), there is no place like home.
By admin
The holiday season ended a couple of weeks ago, but chances are that you are just now starting to receive your credit card bills. Let me explain to you how this experience is going to play out. First, you go to your mailbox hoping for some exciting mail. Second, you go through your mail and think “oh great,” because you just noticed that two of the articles of mail are bills from your credit card company. Third, you go back into your house/apartment/condo and you open the credit card bills. Last, someone in the house has to call 9-1-1 because you just had a heart attack after looking at the credit card bills’ balances!
Many people do not realize how much money they actually spend during the holidays. The worst part about that is when the person actually finds out how much “damage” has been caused. The bad news is that you do have to pay for this year’s damage. The good news is that you can prevent this from happening next year.
One of the best ways to avoid misusing your credit card during the holidays is by paying cash. A popular and very effective way to keep track of your gift spending budget is to create a list of everybody for which you want to buy a gift. Next, you assign a specific dollar amount that you want to spend on that person’s gift (do not go overboard on this step!). Last, you withdraw cash from your bank account (not your credit card) for the total amount of your gift spending budget, separate that money into individual amounts for the specified people, and place that specified amount into individual envelopes for each specified person.
By practicing this simple method you will know exactly how much you have spent during the holidays. By limiting your credit card use during the holidays, you will not be in for such a shock come January of next year. Save yourself the heart attack and the ambulance ride by keeping track of your holiday spending and by practicing the simple method explained above.
By admin
Life insurance may seem expensive. As long as everyone is alive and well the value of that costly life policy may be questioned. The money for those premiums may well be wasted. But in the event of an unexpected death, the high premiums suddenly become very worthwhile. There can be little doubt that the benefits of life insurance are worth the high premiums.
John and Myra were a happily married couple in their early thirties. They had a three year old son, a year old daughter and Myra was already expecting a third child. They had recently bought a new house and were building their lives. John’s career was beginning to take-off while Myra stayed at home to care for the family. Myra’s part-time work provided for a few extras and some luxuries and she planned to resume her career in law once the children were a little bigger.
Myra was at home preparing the evening meal when she heard the door bell ring. It rang again. Whoever was out there was quite persistent! It was the police. There had been an accident caused by a hit and run driver in the heavy rain. John has been killed.
Myra felt her plans for the future beginning to crumble. Why me, why John? Myra was devastated.
After the funeral it slowly began to dawned on Myra that she had no resources with which to carry on. Even the funeral costs would drain her limited resources. The mortgage repayments alone amount to more than her total income.
Myra has been dealt a double blow. The life insurance that was deemed too expensive just a few months ago would have kept the family on their feet. Now what?
In the long term Myra may be able to overcome this financial blow. In the short term, funds are required and she has nowhere to turn.
Life insurance may be compared to pouring money into an empty hole. But when tragedy strikes the cost is justified many times over.
Life insurance should be only a part of a balanced financial portfolio that includes investments and savings. If the cover recommended by the broker is beyond your means, then settle for less. As your investments grow, the need for life insurance diminishes.
Many life companies prefer to market whole-life or universal life policies that include an investment portion. These are the most profitable types of policy. They pay huge commissions to the broker at the expense of the investment. The premiums are high and the investment rarely performs.
The only type of life policy that you should ever take is a pure life or term insurance. These pay limited commission and the benefits are there to see. A fixed monthly premium will cover you for a fixed death benefit. Term insurance is not expensive for the young. While it does become more expensive as you grow older, it still provides good value for money and will provide a benefit in the event of your untimely death.
Your term insurance should be coupled with a separate investment and the discipline to maintain the investment. Once the term of the insurance has expired, your investment could be enough to cover a major loss. Your term insurance could also include a renewal option that allows renewal without additional medical evidence.
Life cover may be expensive, especially if you have opted for one of the investment type of policies. If you cannot afford the cover you need then you should consider settling for a little less. Some cover is always better than nothing. Before you question whether you can afford life cover, ask whether you can afford to be without it. Life insurance may seem expensive but when a loss occurs, the premiums are repaid over and over again.
By admin
You are already familiar with Real Property Appraisers, they appraise real property, your house and land, crops in the ground, buildings which are not moveable. A personal property appraiser appraises nearly everything else. Your car, boat, grandma’s Haviland, Suzie’s Barbies, tools, equipment, jewelry, furs, antiques, the ‘41 Buick in the back storage building, crops after harvest, the landscape plantings that the real property guy forgot or didn’t notice, your furniture, tractors and bulldozers, horses and livestock. It’s all personal property, even your Rembrandt and your VanGogh, especially them.
Alone? Of course Not.
Personal Property Appraisers work together for you, I handle antiques and residential contents, horses and those pesky landscape plantings. Yes, that means trees and shrubs on which you spent lots of money and you should be able to add their value to the price of your home or office. You should be able to insure them. People steal trees. Yes, planted trees. Happened to a close neighbor a few years ago: New planting, forty young Locust Trees all planted, mulched, watered and in the morning…gone. Value, forty times $90.00 each, uninsured. Other personal property appraisers handle all the other “stuff” mentioned and much, much more.
So, you need an appraisal to insure stuff and you need an appraisal to claim against loss, damage or theft using your insurance. You need an appraisal and a rider on your insurance for sterling silver, fur coats, jewelry and antiques both house antiques and garage antiques. You need an appraisal for an estate when someone dies and leaves over a certain amount of value, you need an appraisal to donate something other than cash if the value is over a certain amount and you may want an appraisal to buy or sell something.
You need an appraiser if you wish to donate something other than green money. There are some pretty specific rules about that but it’s doable. Many things are acceptable as donations, even horses. It is possible to donate items to an organization which wishes to sell them but there are even more strict rules about that and it takes time.
An example for a personal restricted use appraisal: You want to buy something rather exotic…a helicopter. There’s a really cute little one for sale over at the local airfield but how much should you pay? Enter your friend the personal property appraiser. A call goes out to the helicopter guy who’s a mechanical and equipment appraiser with make, model, year, engine hours and pictures via email. The helicopter guy does some research and gets back. Down and dirty: It’s called a restricted use appraisal and it’s just for you to help you when you need a value to clarify your thinking. OK, helicopters are awfully exotic. Try this one: Your daughter has talked you into a horse, it’s always a daughter, sons want cars. Same process, only this time we go with her, have her try the horse, stop her if we think that the horse is beyond her or a poor choice in some other way. Maybe suggest some places for a suitable horse, a boarding stall and lessons on how to handle and ride that very large animal. Then we help establish what the selling price for that horse should be in the same restricted use format, FYI.
Grandma just moved to a nice little one floor condo where dinner is served in the “club house” every night and there’s always something happening. She’s tired of dusting that generational junk so she’s left it to you to handle. Relatives have come out of the wood work all saying that grandma or grandpa promised them the same thing. Grandma won’t say but she does say, “NO QUIBBLING!”. Now this is a little different, you don’t give…well, you don’t care what a single item in that house is worth but you want grandma to have as much money as possible because you like seeing her smile and play Bridge or Euchre or Texas Hold ‘em for all you care and have friends again instead of a big old empty house.
You have a liquidation problem. There’s a lot of that going around right now, liquidation, that is.
We can help with that, too. Most personal property appraisers also handle liquidations or auctions or some other form of dispersal of personal property. We will help you decide whether to sell the stuff locally or perhaps it would sell better in a regional auction house such as Cowan’s in Cincinnati, Ohio, Neal’s in New Orleans or Jackson’s in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. these are just three of many reliable regional auction houses in the Mid-West. There are others in other parts of the country and there are also reliable “country auctioneers” everywhere in the United States.
Now you have another problem, squabbling relatives. Grandma refers them all to YOU! there are many ways to handle this, auction houses are one, local well advertised liquidation sales, sometimes called “estate sales” are another If your choice is auction we help you get the stuff organized, packed and delivered, you pay us by the hour. If you choose a liquidation type sale we come in price and organize everything. The family comes in and makes it’s choices, bookeeping is done so that each member knows what each other member took. When the sale ends, the money is divided in such a way that all the family members come out about equally. It’s all about what grandma said, “no quibbling”. Whatever is left over goes to St.Vincent De Paul or your church or the reStore or the curb. Is it easy? No, it’s hard work but you don’t do it.
Haven’t hit your hot button yet? Well, I’m trying. I really want to tell you what you want to know. Lets see: Insurance, donation, estate tax liability, litigation support, asset valuation. How about collateral for a bank loan? You think you have something that might be enough, a heard of fancy cattle with a bull? A small airplane? A VanGogh? well, maybe not that but how about six John Marin water colors from early in his career or the cells from an early Disney movie with a letter from Old Walt Himself? The banker looks askance. You need a personal property appraiser, those things have value.
Do we do this out of the goodness of our hears? Of course not. Do you put in forty hours a week at your office out of the goodness of your heart, of course you don’t. We charge by the job or by the hour. Never do we charge by the amount of value we will bring to you, that’s unethical, a very big no, no. We take photos, make inventories, do research, help you to understand what kind of value you need. Remember sentimental value is zero.
Once more What would you like to know about personal property appraisal? How can we help you solve your value problems and the value problems of your clients. Don’t hesitate to phone or email, we can usually go most anyplace in Michigan.
By admin
Property and casualty insurance takes care of many risks to the individual or the business’s property, such as theft, damage, loss of money, furniture, machinery, records, even trademarks, brand names, and supplies. There are certain particular insurance policies available which cover natural disasters like earthquakes, fires, and floods which damage your residence or business.
Your property can get insurance for multiple or specific dangers. You will be asked to identify very specifically what was lost in the incident. An example being, your house burns down, you may make your claim under “fire disaster property insurance”, so long as you explicitly asked to have your house insured from fires. Other disasters very commonly covered: lightning, flood, explosion, earthquake, and theft. One should consider the potential dangers of their property and location to decide upon a sound property and casualty insurance option. If careful planning is not used, you may find unnecessary expenses for insurance you don’t really require.
If you acquire what are called “open perils”, these cover all the causes of damage and loss, which are not excluded by your policy. Unless the contract denies it, you should be able to obtain assistance from the “open peril” insurance for almost all instances. If you decide to refuse coverage for floods, obviously you won’t receive reimbursements for damages caused to your home or business by flooding. You will find these items on the list of exclusions to open perils: earthquake, war, nuclear incidents. Your property might be susceptible to such events, and you will be able to purchase specified property and casualty insurance for these open peril circumstances. People on the west coast may want to be conscious of earthquake dangers; people in the south may consider tornado dangers, while people in Hawaii may have the potential danger from volcanic activity.
The property insurance premiums may be lowered if one has a positive claim history. Costs of property and casualty insurance may be reduced if one takes smart and proper precautions to avoidable damages. Examples being, smoke alarms, security cameras or personnel, flame retardant furniture, flame resistant building materials.
Many businesses and companies will often choose to insure their properties with what is called a BOP or business owner insurance policy. Property and casualty insurance, and liability insurance get combined into a single policy, to create these business owner policies. Some of the BOPs offer added expense interruption insurance. There is an option for “added expense insurance,” this giving you money that covers short term moves after incidences covered by the policy. This type of insurance will cover moving costs due to something like a flood. Interruption insurance covers losses of profits in case of interruptions, like requirements to retrofit.
BOPs typically provide less coverage compared with traditional property and casualty insurance, albeit convenient. So this is why many businesses and home owners decide to opt for additional coverage, as every location and situation may require a different level of care and caution. Be smart.
By admin
1. Begin to operate on an “I have to know everything” approach when you give out your personal information. Only give out your personal information to people you know and trust.
2. Protect your Social Security Number, credit card and other financial information. Do not give this information out over the phone unless you initiated the call or as we stated above are talking to a trusted individual from a trusted company.
3. Cancel all of your unused accounts including banking, credit card, licenses and permits.
4. At least once a year, if not more often, update and check your credit report and Social Security Earnings and Benefits Statement to make sure everything appears as it should.
5. Protect your mail. Make sure you have a secure locked mailbox to receive all of your mail. Always mail your payments and checks from a secure Post Office Box or from the Post Office. And, if you have a Post Office Box at the Post Office never discard your mail in a garbage can. Always bring your entire mail home.
6. Always crosscut shred all bank statements, credit card applications or information and important documents before discarding to recycle or the garbage. It is best to stir up the shredded documents to make it even harder for identity thieves to steal your information.
7. Purchase identity theft insurance. This will cover any losses incurred while recovering your lost identity once a crook has stolen it.
8. Invest in professional grade protection for your computer. The best protection available today comes from Managed Internet Security Service providers. The best security services include best-of-breed corporate grade security software for your computer, as well as unlimited service and support from trained security pros. Make sure it is the same kind of service that is used by major corporations around the world. Frankly, the over-the-counter and free security software programs available don’t keep up with today’s professional cyber thief. If those popular programs worked, why do we see the cyber-crime problem growing at a progressively faster pace?
A managed professional Internet security program should have the following technologies installed: A bi-directional or dual Firewall that prevents information from coming in or going out of your computer without your permission, anti-virus protection that is updated daily, and malware protection that is updated daily. Malware consists of spyware, adware, Trojan horses, keyloggers and more. It constantly changes so you will need a technology that keeps up with the professional hackers who want your identity. Your best bet is to find a professional security service that affordably manages all this for you.
9. Beware of e-mail scams like Phishing and Pharming. Phishing is an e-mail that looks like it came from a bank or business claiming you need to take care of a problem or your account will be closed down. It takes you to a page to fill out your personal information. Meanwhile, Pharming is redirecting your computer from a legitimate to a fake web site. For example, you may think that you are going to your banking site, but instead are redirected to a site that looks like your banks web site, but is hosted by an identity thief.
By admin
Many of you may already know what you can get from payday loan and how can they help your financial problem. Payday loan can help your financial problem like when you need an urgent cash for unexpected bills and expenses. For people with good credit score may not worry to find an unsecured loan, they can easily apply for it and get their application approved. But for people with bad credit they will find it very difficult to get quick loan. Finding personal cash loans like payday loan may the only solution for people with bad credit score.
Since you can get the easiness of payday loan. Easiness comes with price. The price is the rates of payday loan is insane. If you pay your loan on time or on the due date then you have to pay the APR for about 400%. And if you are late in paying your loan, then the APR will become 600% or more. So if you decide to take payday loan, make sure that you can repay your loan on time. If not you have to pay the huge rates and it is so difficult I believe. If you are not really sure to pay the loan on time, you can find another loan with lower rates.
By admin
Buying a house, for people who are new for this thing, could be troublesome. It is not just like making one simple decision. Buying a house includes making so many decisions, like where the best location of your house, what type of house you should choose, what mortgage company you should choose, and any other decissions.
Well we can help to make it easier for you on making the last decision. There are so many companies offer mortgage loans for house with their rates and promos. In our site, mortgagefindersnetwork.com, we can help to accommodate your different financial situations to match with the suitable mortgages you need. We have prepared an online form to fill. Fill the form to let us know your situations and your requirements, then we can help you find the suitable mortgages based on your needs.
Mortgagefindersnetwork also provide other sort of loan financing, such as refinancing and home equity loans. So you can also have researchs and comparations inside our site, before making a decision. Everything that you need about buying a house can be found here. So what are you waiting for? Visit our site now, read, browse, research, compare, and get the benefits.
By admin
Tenant usually does not own property to take a loan against and therefore unsecured loan option remains the only option. Unsecured loans however have harder terms-conditions attached to them because lenders are cautious about safe return of the loans. Considering this, unsecured personal loan for tenant is designed especially for offering hassled free loan to tenant so that personal expenses are met easily. Tenants, students, people living with parents are equally eligible for applying the loan. One can utilize unsecured personal loan for tenant for buying vehicle, clearing medical or education bills, enjoying holiday tour etc purposes.
Since unsecured personal loan for tenant is unsecured loan, there is no need for tenant to offer any collateral. This way the loan comes without any risk for the borrowers. Still the lender would like to ensure the safe return of the loan. The lender may ask you to prove or give details of your repayment capacity through income, employment or financial standing if any.
Once the lender is fully satisfied about a tenant’s repayment capacity, tenant can borrow any amount depending on his annual income, the post he is working in and his overall financial position. The loan is usually a short duration loan, offered for few years. This is because of the risks involved in the loan offer.
Unsecured personal loan for tenant has one slight disadvantage also. The lenders charge higher interest rate on the loan. This is mainly because firstly the loan is unsecured and involves high risks and secondly as it is availed for a shorter duration, lender likes to earn as much higher interest rate as possible.
The higher interest rate however is not of much concern to tenants since they normally borrow smaller amount which can be paid back in short duration and the loan is off their shoulders without burden. They do not carry the higher interest rate burden for longer period.
If tenant is having bad credit, unsecured personal loan for tenant is still available to him and without any hurdles. All a tenant has to do is ensure the lender that the loan will be paid back in time. Tenant can show his plan of repayment to the lender. Tell the lender that you earn enough annual income to repay the loan. Ensure that you intend to pay the loan back. Better pay off your easy debts before approaching the lender.
Prefer applying online for the loan for comparing different loan packages and settle for the loan offer having comparatively lower interest rate. Online lenders will not take any fee for loan processing that lowers cost of loan availing.
Unsecured personal loan for tenant is thus useful in many ways. Pay off the loan installments in time as this will also improve your credit score. Search for the suitable lender before sealing the deal.
By admin
The New Year often brings with it a desire to right the wrongs in your
life. From this desire springs the tradition of New Year resolutions.
You should take advantage of this to change your financial situation.
There is a good chance by the time many of you read this, you will
have already made and BROKEN your financial resolutions. Those of you
who have not already done so, know they are hard to keep. You can
change that. Anytime is a good time to make financial resolutions.
Since you are thinking about this, you must suspect a problem. The
first step is defining the problem. Define it specifically. “I spend
too much money”, is not good enough. You spend too much money on what?
Why do you spend too much money? It is not often you are speaking of
life’s necessities here. You need to specifically target your problem
areas.
The best way to identify problem areas in your spending, is to pull
out your check registers and credit card statements for the past
twelve months. Write down all checks and charges for items other than
necessities. This spending will be your gold to mine.
After making this list, add up the total amount of these expenses.
This will be a very revealing exercise. For some the total will be
staggering, especially when done for a twelve month period.
Pay close attention to checks and charges for restaurants and fast
food chains. Look at the amount and frequency of payments to
convenience stores. Examine closely the spending on your home and your
closet.
Using this information you become aware of your weaknesses and where
they occur. You are now better equipped to overcome them. You need to
make conscious decisions to stay away from the places where you
overspend. If you don’t go there you won’t be tempted to waste your
resources and place your financial life in peril.
Now, armed with these bits of information you can boldly and
successfully make resolutions. Remember, changing your behavior is how
you will keep these resolutions. If you fail, and you will, just climb
right back on the resolution wagon. Dogged repetition will help you
succeed. Check how you are doing on a monthly basis. Make any
adjustments needed.
Putting your financial house in order and becoming debt free is a
process before it is an event.
