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Are you House Poor?

The great American Dream has always revolved around owning a home. Sure,
having the 2.3 kids, the cushy corporate job and the stylish car to drive
to work everyday are part of the myth, too, but nothing quite summed up
Americana quite like the white picket fence. But if recent economic numbers
are any clue, this dream is becoming a nightmare for many in the US.

According to date released by the United States Census Bureau, an
increasing number of homeowners are spending a larger and larger amount of
their incomes on housing than in previous years. People in 49 out of 50
states reported an increase. The only state that didn’t, Alaska, spent the
same amount. The report showed that people are spending around 21 percent
on their housing needs, up from 19 percent in 1999.

This is a huge problem for first-time buyers (more…)

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Gated Communities – Are they for you?

There is something uniquely American about gated communities. Usually
tucked away in the suburbs, they are given majestic titles, such as
Yosemite Rivers or Acadia Meadows. They feature narrow, winding streets
that also have cutsey names like Bubbling Brook Circle. If you can stand
the naming, you have the actual houses. While many of them tend to be large
3-bedrooms or bigger, they do tend to all look the same. Most of them
feature manicured lawns that look better than the local municipal golf
course. But for some people, this is a snapshot of the American Dream.
Should you buy a home in a gated community? Let’s take a look at some of
the plusses and minuses.

A big plus for most potential homeowners is that houses in gated
communities keep their value. Since maintenance rules for most gated
communities are so strict and there (more…)

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Flipping a House – Is it Right for You?

Of all the reality TV shows that have come and gone since the fad started,
very few have caused people to sit up and say, “hey, I can do that, and I
can make a mint!” like the house-flipping shows that seem to be everywhere
on cable these days. But is what you see on TV accurate? Can the process
really be that easy? Let’s take a closer look.

The first step is analysing your finances to see if you can afford to take
on a second home and remodel it. You should have an idea as to how much
your total budget is going to be for the project, and make sure to factor
in closing costs on the project home, contractor overruns because things
are bound to take longer than you thought, and then money for incidentals
and accidentals (more…)

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The Incredible Falling Mortgage Rate

Of all the factors that helped push the recent real estate boom of the last
5 years, low mortgage rates were perhaps the biggest. A recent climb in
mortgage rates was also thought to be one of the big reasons the market can
cooled so quickly. But with recent economic news showing a drop in rates,
does that mean the bust is coming to a premature end?

Not so fast say the experts. Housing inventories are through the roof
across the United States, and sales are down in most of those same markets.
Recent rate news is good, however, with mortgage rates peeking in July of
2006 at 6.79 percent for a fixed mortgage (30-year), while rates in mid-
October have slid to 6.40 percent. While that may be cause for relief on
the surface, if you take a look at where rates (more…)

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A Second Home: Take it or Leave it?

For many, wanderlust is just a part of life. You buy a beautiful home
somewhere, settle down, have a family, but there is always a part of you
that’s itching to get away. Vacations are part of that wanderlust the
chance to get away someplace beautiful. And then you see it. The local
newspaper at your vacation destination, and lo and behold, there is a real
estate section right there. Dare you even look? You can’t afford it, can
you? Two homes? Is dual home ownership for you?

A second home can work for you, but you have to go into the process knowing
what to expect. If you’re looking to get rich quick, don’t count on it.
According to recent data, the price of real estate in areas that are deemed
“Vacation Markets” has risen twice as fast as real estate in (more…)

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Bankruptcy: A Matter of Pride

Bankruptcy is a financial technique in which you declare that you cannot
repay your creditors now or see a way to repay them in the future.
Depending on your income and the amount of money you owe, an individual may
declare chapter 7 or chapter 13 bankruptcies. However, in either case,
bankruptcy is a fairly public affair. Your name and address will be
published in at least one of the local newspapers for all of your friends
to read, and your neighbors will see movers coming to repossess some of
your items. For many people, the worst part of bankruptcy isn’t losing the
money it’s losing pride and dignity.

The first way to deal with this is to realize that most of your friends and
family have gone through money problems at one time or another in their
lives. Although they may not have resorted (more…)

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Money matters: Punches of Debts

Debt, who has not experienced having it? Who does not get pushed to a
situation to have it?

Money says it all. Though some people say that money is not the most
important thing in life, the paradox happens around us. People do
everything just to keep their pockets full. Many even tries to do all means
just covet it without considering the morality of the action. People dive,
box, steal, swindle just for that thing. People want to live with comfort.
Affluence is so influential today. Money pulls opportunities nearer to one.
Just imagine one day; you realized that you have too much debt. What will
you do? Hide or seek?

There are these effects which are less talked about but they are so true.
If one’s debt pile up, it will really give a hard time to the individual.
Just the thought (more…)

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The Bull & The Bear

The world of investing is filled with colourful jargon and phrases that may
seem strange if you don’t know what they mean. A great example of this is a
“Bull market” and a “Bear market.” These two terms refer to market trends.
A Bull market means that the market is headed up and it’s time to make
money. A Bear market means that stocks are headed down and it’s time to be
careful. But where do these terms come from? That is a question that is
harder to answer than you think. There doesn’t seem to be any consensus of
the origins of these terms, but there are some solid leads.

Some link the origin of Bear and Bull to a book written in the 1700’s
called Every Man His Own Broker by Thomas Mortimer. The book describes the
tendencies of some investors and (more…)

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Bankruptcy and Taxes

When it comes to bankruptcy and taxes, there can be several serious things
that you are going to want to think about. If you are going to file for
bankruptcy, you are going to want to make sure that you are doing
everything you can to save yourself as much trouble, money, and time as you
can.

You should know that any income tax debts might be eligible for being taken
care of under Chapter 7 or chapter 13. If you are willing to file for
bankruptcy, this is one of five ways that you can get out of tax debt.
However, you should remember that in order to get your taxes discharged by
filing for bankruptcy, you are going to have to meet certain requirements,
so you should make sure you meet them before you file for bankruptcy to get
out of tax debt.

If you (more…)

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Understanding mutual funds in the newspaper

We’ve all seen the financial pages in the newspaper. Usually we flip past
it on the way to the comics, the horoscope, of if you’re like me, to the
sports section. But what do all those squiggles and arrows mean anyway,
and now that you’re thinking about investing in mutual funds, can you see
how your fund is doing every day in the morning paper?

The answer is, of course, yes. And not only that but mutual fund listing
are a bit easier to read with less complicated jargon that reading the
stock prices next to it. Most major daily newspapers have the mutual fund
section separate form the rest of the stock and bond information. There
is usually a large, bold headline showing where the fund are listed.

Now that you’ve found (more…)