It seems like everyone has thousands of dollars of debt they are trying to pay off. Whether it is student loans, car loans or credit cards, debt makes life stressful. If you want to achieve financial freedom you must pay off your debt. Even with the economy getting weaker you can still improve your personal financial situation.

When you are struggling just to make minimum monthly payments, paying off your debt entirely seems very far out of reach. Don’t get discouraged though, anything is possible if you are willing to make the sacrifices it will take. The first step to a debt free life is to make a list of everything you owe; every credit card, every car loan, your mortgage, student loans, everything. Make the list as detailed as possible. Include the balance, monthly payments, due dates, and interest rates.

Now for the truly hard part. Sell your stuff. It sound crazy but you are in debt because you bought a bunch of stuff you could not afford. Furniture, TVs, stereos, and even cloths can all be sold. Take the money your make off of your stuff and pay off the debt you created with it. Have a garage sale or sell your stuff on ebay, whatever will make you the most money.

Next you have to take a hard look at your car and your house. Can you afford them? If you bought a car that was really too expensive; replace it with a more affordable car that you can pay off in a short time. If your mortgage is too high for your income, you have to move. You might want to consider renting a small place until you get back on your feet.

With your debt paid down as much as possible you need to develop an organized method to pay off the rest of your credit cards. Organize your cards by interest rate. Make extra payments on the card with the highest interest rate until it is paid off. Then move on to the next card. You may have to get a second job in order to be able to pay extra. It won’t last forever though, just until you are debt free.

When you improve your financial situation you will improve your entire life. It is hard to know how to begin making your budget and prioritizing your needs. If you need help go to www.personalfinanceissues.com. They can provide the tools you need but you will have to put in the effort to make it work.

Whether you went to college or not you probably will have big plans for your children. You may want to make it easy for them by providing them with the funds it will take to get their education. If you are just making ends meet you might think you will not be able to start a college fund right now. The truth is you probably just need a little help adjusting your budget.

If you want to send your kids to college with ease, you really must first pay off your current debt. You will be able to save more efficiently if you are not juggling savings and debt at the same time. You may feel like it will take too long to pay off your debt but you will be surprised how quickly it will disappear once you have a plan in place.

The first step is to stop over spending. You need to make a list of all of your bills and monthly expenses. Decide what you can eliminate in order to put a little extra money towards paying off your debt. You can give up little things like trips to Starbucks or fast food. You will be surprised how quickly these little expenses add up.

Now write a list of all of your debt. Include the balance, interest rate and monthly payment. Now go down the list. Choose the one with the highest interest and pay as much extra on it as you can until it is paid off. Then move on to the next one. Remember to continue making the minimum monthly payments on all of your cards while you pay them off one by one.

Once your credit cards are paid off you can start putting the money you were spending on payments into a savings account for your kid’s education. You will find that after a few years you are debt free and have more in savings than you thought possible.

In order to save up to the amount your children will need for college it is a good idea to find out what the average cost of a four year college degree will cost when they are ready. Many schools will be able to give you a rough idea if you call the administration office and ask. Once you have a goal calculate how much you need to put into each savings account every month so that each of your children will have enough money when the time comes.

In this day and age you have to have a college education to make it in the world. You can easily create a savings account that will get them through college with a strict budget. If you need help with the calculations necessary to pay off your debt and budget your spending use an online financial calculator at www.personalfinanceissues.com. Remember if you make the sacrifices now and they will be obliged to care for you in your old age.

When you are drowning in debt you may start to feel panicky. Late payments are piling up and the total amount that you owe is going up every month despite the payments you make. If you are thinking about bankruptcy wait! You may be able to get yourself out of this hole with a change in lifestyle, a strict budget and possibly debt consolidation.

Often times as people fall deeper and deeper into debt they stop looking at their credit card statements. If you are ready to get yourself out of debt the first thing you must do is to know how bad it is. Look at all of your statements. Make a list of all of your credit cards and loans. Write down how much you owe and how much your monthly payments are.

The next step is to check your interest rates. You need to know the interest rates on all of your credit cards and loans. This includes your car loans, mortgage and student loans. You need to know your interest rates in order to know which line of debt is hurting you the most.

Now that you know where you stand you need to sell the things you do not NEED and pay down your most detrimental debt. If you bought a big screen TV on a credit card with 20% interest, sell the TV and pay off some of that card. No item is worth that kind of interest. If you have a very high car payment with a high interest loan, sell the car and get a more affordable car that you can buy outright or pay off quickly.

After you have sold off some of your unnecessary purchases is the time to think about debt consolidation. You must calculate the time it will take to pay off your debts, the interest you are charged each month and your monthly payments. You must then look into debt consolidation. You do not want to simply save yourself money each month; you want to pay off your debt as quickly as possible.

If consolidating your debt will help you pay off your debt more quickly by lowering interest rates then it might be a good idea. If consolidation will lower monthly payments but cause you to take longer to pay off the debt then it is not the best choice. Working out all of these calculations can be very time consuming and difficult. If you need help, don’t spend a fortune on a financial planner. Go to a website like www.personalfinanceissues.com. They offer online financial calculators that will help you make well informed decisions about your personal finance.

Now is the time to change your life. Set a goal for each month and put in the effort it takes to get there. You will be able to watch your debt shrink until you finally can say, “I am Debt Free!” You can do it. The hardest part is getting started.

When a seller and buyer agree to a purchase agreement for a home sale, the buyer is requested to place some small amount of money into a trust account.
Such a front end deposit is referred to as “earnest money.”

A sales contract’s earnest money requirement will vary from contract to contract. It can be as high as 10 percent of the purchase price and could be as low as $500; earnest money is a negotiable item between buyers and sellers.

Factors influencing amounts of earnest money:

*Seller psychology: an uncertain seller may request more earnest money
*Market conditions: a stronger market may result in more earnest money
*Buyer economics: first time buyers may be asked for less earnest money

This particular financial transaction is a confirmation made in “good faith” by the buyer to show that he intends to complete the agreement. How much or little is paid doesn’t matter.

If it should happen that, during the process, the buyer violates the terms of the purchase
agreement or backs out of the deal, the earnest money can be kept by the seller. This does not
occur much because, when the purchase agreement s are written , there are “escapes” for the
buyer, called “contingencies” written into the original agreement.

There are traditional contingencies that include passing a home inspection, buyer receiving a clear title, and buyer financing confirmed by a certain date.

In the case that any of the contingencies are not met, the purchase agreement will be void and the buyer will have earnest money returned to him.

When the contingencies are met, the earnest money is applied to the amount that the buyer will be responsible to provide at settlement. For example, if the buyer
owes $55,000 at closing, the amount will be $55,000 less the earnest money.

Earnest money customs vary from state to state, city to city, and even locale to locale. Be sure to ask your real estate agent and/or real estate attorney for professional counsel before signing purchase contracts. The earnest money you save may be your own.

During this year, there have been 22 Fannie Mae updates. Fannie Mae has been a semi-independent company. However, its last act as such occurred several weeks ago.

The new guidelines first set a limit on the number of properties that can be owned by one person. Formerly, one person could own 10 properties. Now, mortgage requests for a loan for second homes or investment properties will be denied if the mortgagee already
finances more than a total of 4 properties.

There is a loophole, however. Fannie Mae will not count properties against the 4-property limit if they are held in the name of a corporation. This holds even if the real estate investor is the sole owner of said corporation.

Therefore, it might prove beneficial for investors to restructure their properties into a corporation and avoid the 4 property limit. Now, this is a good idea to help gain mortgage approval even though some investors have taken this action for tax and liability reasons.

The second part of the guideline change cannot be so easily avoided. Fannie Mae is assessing new, loan-to-value based loan fees on all investment property mortgages.

Loan-to-value less than 75 percent : 1.75% loan fee
Loan-to-value 75.01-80.00 percent : 3.00% loan fee
Loan-to-value 80.01-90.00 percent : 3.75% loan fee

It is obligatory that these fees be paid along with any other fees incurred from other risk fees assessed by Fannie Mae. These fees currently are % at a minimum for
investors.

Our government hasn’t, since the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac takeover, indicated whether or not mortgage guidelines will be altered. This would be positive for investors because,
as we know, low mortgage rates won’t help much if those who want to invest in real estate can ‘t qualify for a loan .

If you’re currently in the market for an investment property (or two), consider that it may be cheaper and simpler to purchase over the near-term versus the long-term. And consider moving your existing properties into a corporate structure first.

There is a sub-group of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that is known as the FHA which is the Federal Housing Administration. The FHA came about as a by-product of the National Housing Act which was passed in 1934.

The FHA is not a lender nor does it build homes. The FHA exists to insure lenders against loss in the event that a homeowner defaults on a mortgage.

Therefore, even though it is an inappropriate label, FHA backing is referred to as an FHA loan. For correctly referring to the function of the FHA, the term “FHA-insured” should be used.

Because of the FHA guarantee to back loans, more lenders might grant loans that they would not consider without such backing. With this backing, lenders could feel more secure about granting the loan. Borrower rates may stay lower in such situations.

An FHA loan may be worth considering if a borrower needs a loan that is less than 80% of the property value. This would mean that the borrower has a down payment less than 20%. If this is the case, there will be mortgage insurance payments required which will be 1.5% paid at closing against the loan and 0.50% annually which is paid monthly.

When the mortgage loan balance for any homeowner gets to 78% of the value of the home, the yearly mortgage insurance requirement is no longer in effect. Also, if the property owner has a fixed rate 15 year FHA loan , this insurance isn’t required.

FHA loan rates have typically been higher than comparable mortgage loans. However, because of the recent new Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae risk based loan pricing, people who have credit scores lower than 680 may find that FHA can be less expensive and more appropriate.

Source FHA Loan Wikipedia, April1, 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FHA_loan

The definition of refinancing is when you pay off an existing loan with the proceeds from a new loan, usually of the same size, and using the same property as collateral.

Let us talk about the types of refinancing.

We can have two general categories of mortgage refinancing: no cash-out refinancing and cash-out refinancing. For no cash-out refinancing, the amount of the loan is under the mortgage money currently owed. Up to 95 percent of the appraised price of the home is permitted for the applicant. It is a great benefit as it makes the monthly expenses and all related final and financial costs lower.

On the other hand, with cash-out refinancing, the loan taker wants a loan that exceeds the quantity of the present mortgage that he owes. With this kind of refinancing one is only allowed to take a loan of no more than 75 to 80 percent of the appraised price of his home.

You can pay off other loans with the excess money. Or you can take a much needed vacation or buy something for the home or you can simply keep the money for any unexpected expenses.

You can even opt for an extended time refinancing to further decrease the monthly installments. Actually, extended period refinancing is the in-thing nowadays and many are enjoying the advantage of substantial reserves incurred by making the mortgage term longer and using the net savings for further paying down the liability.

Another advantage of refinancing loan is tax advantage. You can convert into tax-deductible money the non-tax deductible unpaid amount.

That’s it, the definition of refinancing. Are you ready to make the next move?

Stories on TV about the national real estate market are misleading to Americans. This is because there is no such thing as a “national real estate market”.

There are 124,377,000 homes in the United States according to the most current American Housing Survey. These homes are within:

– 50 states
– Incorporated cities numbering more than 30,000 and
– Innumerable local neighborhoods

These 124 million homes get bunched together by the media and we hear the analysis of the undifferentiated clump of homes. These national statistics are not “one size fits all.” The market in Pocatello, will be different than the market in Boulder. National statistics are not helpful.

National real estate statistics are not useful.
Look at a “local” real estate analysis for useful information. I’m referring to statistics from your “neighborhood” not your state. This is the best way to learn what is driving your neighborhood market.

However, it can be difficult to locate the needed information. The media won’t tell you about such a small area. Therefore, consult a local real estate agent or someone who can get the raw data for information.

A local professional will know the market and will be better able to give you the information, “thumbs up” or “thumbs down “than any national media expert.

Real estate is a local market so your real estate data should be local, too.

When buying a home, there are two stages in the home loan approval process.Stage 1 starts when a homebuyer submits a mortgage application to his loan officer for a pre-approval.

When pre-approval is requested, it will be a preliminary home mortgage approval indicating that the mortgage will likely be approved for a certain down payment and purchase price.

This preliminary approval becomes obsolete once the buyer signs a purchase agreement. Stage 1 is now over because the buyer must now secure the actual loan from an “underwriter” and not the loan officer.

It is the job of the “underwriter” to make sure that the buyer can meet the lending criteria of the banking institution. He does this by reviewing the buyer’s credit, assets, income, job history and other factors. This is Stage 2.

If the loan officer did his job in Stage 1, Stage 2 is just a formality. And most times, it all goes according to plan. Occasionally, though, a homebuyer sabotages his own mortgage approval by inadvertently changing his “risk profile”. It doesn’t happen on purpose, of course — it just happens.

It is important for the buyer to maintain a consistent “risk profile”. The following is the “DO NOT DO” list of 6 activities for a buyer to avoid during the period between Stage 1 and Stage 2 of the mortgage loan process:

1. Don ‘t miss a payment to a creditor 2. Don’t transfer large amounts of money in or out of your bank accounts (large may have different meanings to different people) 3. Don ‘t accept gift of cash without talking with your loan officer first (There are rules for gifts) 4. Don’t buy a new car (or increase loan or lease payment) 5. Don ‘t quit your job or change career(don’t switch to a “commission” job ) 6. Don ‘t open a new credit card (no matter the deal)

This is the basic starter list of things not to do. You may still make some errors, but talk to your loan officer if you have concerns or need to break a “rule.” There can be “glitches.” throughout the mortgage loan process. Therefore, keep the lines of communication open between you and your loan officer.

First off, let me clarify the meaning of refinancing. Refinancing means extending existing loans or replacing existing funds with alternative borrowings which may be at different interest rates or for longer or shorter terms.

Mortgage refinancing is popular among homeowners because with it they can get hold of a lower mortgage rate; shorten their mortgage term; or get extra money.

Mortgage refinancing is a serious business. You must be wise enough to realize that it takes more than one lender to talk to before you give in. You must shop around and look for packages that offer the best deal. Keep in mind that the reason you are into mortgage refinancing is that you need the money for something and without looking around for the best offer, how would you know if you got the best offer?

In the short term, mortgage refinancing will indeed cost money. The cost may extend to as much as a few thousand dollars. The people taking the loan should assume that they have to pay closing costs as mortgage refinancing closes the existing loan and opens a new one. One can never escape the payment of the closing costs.

In order to get accepted into a loan, the borrower must understand that he must have a good credit score to do so. If not, chances are he will never get anything. If he has a good credit score, he has a good chance of getting a deal when applying for mortgage refinancing.

The key to credit scoring is verification. If information cannot be verified it should be deleted from the file. The great news is, if you do clean up your credit score, you are more likely to get a lower interest rate when you are mortgage refinancing, applying for home equity loans or equity credit lines.

You can use your mortgage refinancing loans for different reasons. But remember that if you are applying for one just to lower down your monthly bills, there are other ways to do it.

Homeowners who have bad credits are not advised to apply for this kind of loan. There is a big probability that they will be turned down by the lender because of their poor standing, and if the lender will think that you don’t have the capability to pay back, they will probably turn you down. So keep a good credit score.