I recently took a new job in another state, which caused me to sell my home and find a place to rent. I’ve now been renting for over a year and must say that I love it. I like not having to worry about repairs or paying property taxes. But one of the things I…
By thinking through your individual needs and wants, as well as saving up and positioning your finances, you can successfully get through buying your first home and make the most of your money. Getting ready to buy your first home is a big deal. It involves a lot of preparation, saving, and legwork. So before…
Saving for a down payment to buy a home is both exciting and overwhelming. When my wife and I were saving to buy our first home, I thought we’d never have enough for the down payment. But somehow we came up with the money. One of the keys to our success was saving the cash…
The decision to pay off your mortgage early is a controversial one. But for some who have tackled many of their big financial goals and erased other debt, putting their home mortgage in their crosshairs can make sense. Since your mortgage is such a large, long-term debt, it can be surprisingly easy to pay it…
If you’re looking to buy a new home – particularly if it’s your first home – you’re probably asking yourself a few big questions. “How much house can I afford?” is likely at the top of that list. It makes sense, too, as this is a pretty significant concern. Ensuring that you can not only…
Depending on how you look at things, there’s never been a better or worse time to take out a home purchase or refinance a loan than right now, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. On the one hand, mortgage interest rates have repeatedly hit record lows. And securing a mortgage at these historic rates could save…
Should I pay off my mortgage early is an important decision. For some, it’s a question of whether to allocate some extra cash each month to the mortgage. For others, it’s a question of whether to pay off the home loan all at once. The lump-sum approach often becomes an option for an inheritance or…
In the past three years, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has changed its rules regarding private mortgage insurance (PMI). These rules have changed the entire nature of PMI as it applies to FHA mortgages, specifically. Though the FHA tweaks rules frequently, there have actually been two significant changes: one good, and the other not good…
Some people call it “good” debt because it could increase your net worth. That said, its still debt, which means you’re paying interest in order to use that money. Financially–and to some degree, psychologically–it can sometimes make sense to pay this debt off quickly. This is where the debate over 30-year versus 15-year mortgages comes…