YAHOO ANSWER: … first time getting a mortgage

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

*** begin quote ***

My first mortgage?

This is my first time getting a mortgage. I have no clue what to even look for. I know that I need to shop around and get quotes… But I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO LOOK FOR! If anyone else out there has shooped around, can you please let me know exactly what I need to know about getting a mortgage before I call a bunch of places and sound like an idiot…and then they might take advantage of me. Please help.

*** end quote ***

First take a deep breath. Then, marshal your resources. Do you have a relative that is financially sophisticated? Use them as your sounding board.

If you haven’t signed for the property yet, or maybe even if you have, find and retain a Real Estate attorney that you can afford. It’s a GIANT mistake to get into a real estate deal without a liar … err, I mean lawyer. Don’t use the seller’s. Don’t use the mortgage company’s. Have your own. When I bought my first house in 1975, that single piece of advice from my Mom saved me about 15k$. My lawyer said “my client isn’t responsible for that” about a dozen times. Without him, I’d have said “yeah whatever”.

Then you need an accountant. Same deal. Cheaper and easier. Have them review whatever you are going to sign up for. Promise you’ll let them do your taxes and I bet they’ll come dirt cheap. Shop around. I SHOULD have done that with my second house and I’d have saved a bunch of bucks.

Then you need a “home inspector”. Licensed, certified, insured, with lots of references. This is no guarantee of being problem free, BUT, when you’re in front of Judge Judy you can saw “I didn’t know about houses so I hired him! Pointing accusingly to the defendant.) It’s all about changing unknown risks into modest upfront costs.

Find or found, the house of your dreams.

Now you are ready to consider mortgages.

You can get them from a bank, brokerage, mortgage broker, credit union, and private lenders. Start with a credit union. (IMHO you’ll we get the most honest deal there.) Find a rich relative with a brokerage account and as if they can get you a deal. (I have a Merrill account and my relative could have gotten a mortgage with them with my “sponsorship” — not cosigning — at an attractive rate. Dumb, but they wanted to do it on their own. I think they made a mistake. But not my problem.)!

Look at the type (Suggest you want fixed), term (15 if you can afford it), points (extra interest cost), fees (Yuck!), and gimmicks (i.e., credit life insurance; buyer protection).

Your lawyer, accountant, and home inspector can tell you if you are getting a “fair deal”. No balloons, teaser aprs, negative amortizations, interest onlys, nothing tricky.

Your family member, or Yahoo answerer, can tell you if you can afford it. No more than 20% of your salary in mortgage payments. OK 25%, but that means no eating out.

Hope this helps, and you’re happy with your new mortgage, let me know how it turns out,
fjohn

# # # # #

1 Comment | YahooAnswers | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

YAHOO ANSWER: Free Advertising For My Purse Party Buiness

Thursday, May 24, 2007

*** begin quote ***

Free Advertising For My Purse Party Buiness???

I’m looking for free or very cheap ways to advertise my purse party business. I’m looking for local and nationwide ideas! Any suggestions would be great!

*** end quote ***

Well for under a fifty bucks, some sweat, and a few months calendar time, imho, you can get “known”. I’d suggest a blog as the underlying engine for your biz advertising.

(1) Check for an available domain name you like (www dot party purse business dot com), but don’t buy it yet.

(2) Get a free wordpress blog at www.wordpress.com. Sign up as PartyPurseBisuiness blog. Or whatever domain name you decide on.

(3) Buy the domain name feature from wordpress for $15 — it includes the registration of the domain name. (How’s that for cheap)

(4) You now have a web site and a domain name. Use the blog part to put fresh content on your blog. Put something meaningful there daily.

(5) Use the static pages part to put picture or stories or prices or events out on your “site”.

(6) Sign up for the free Gmail for Domains and get email via your domain. You can be party.purse at pursepartybusiness dot com.

(7) Sign up (free) at the various blog directories.

(8) Submit to the search engines

(9) Use the search engines to “find” yourself which improves your site in the search engines eyes. :-) [That’s circular reasoning! By telling the search engine to look for me and finding it, it makes me more find-able by regular people.]

So you’ll have a professional website with up to date content for cheap.

Yell if you want help with it. And, let us know how you make out.

# # # # #

UPDATE 30 May 2007 @ 14:35 edst This answer was selected as “best”. Happy dance time.

1 Comment | YahooAnswers, YahooAnswers - Best | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

YAHOO ANSWER: starting college, advice

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

*** begin quote ***

I am starting college this fall, advice needed please?

*** end quote ***

(1) Plan to be “balanced”. Eat, exercise, and sleep in normal proportion. Mange your time well. Do the big things first and fill in with the less important.

(2) Keep a written record of every person you meet in your travels. Try to “connect” with as many as possible. They can become your “network of contacts” in the future.

(3) Be ruthless in your financial discipline. You can bury yourself in debt. Think Return on Investment. Seek to earn some money with your education as it progresses. It’ll help later on getting a “real job”.

(4) Pick your major, minor, and electives with your future employment in mind. Your while collar job will provide the big component of your earnings in the future. Choose wisely.

(5) Try to pick up a blue collar skill that will allow you to earn money if you’re laid off of your white collar job and have some time to spare. Never saw a “poor” plumber. Pick something you like and make it fun while putting some coins in the bank.

(6) Be alert to any internet based business that you can “do” in parallel to the all the above activities. Look for synergy between the activities such that you can recycle, reuse, or repurpose. Write a paper for your college course, offer it to a blog – publication – other outlet.

(7) Have fun, (but not too much); it’s the “best time” of your life. Live it to the fullest.

I’m green with envy and wish I could do it again with what I know now. :-) But life doesn’t work like that. I can state authoritatively that the “woulda, coulda, and shouldas” will KILL you later in life. Don’t miss anything.you would, should, or could try. Consistent with good judgment.

Let us know how you make out.

# # # # #

Update: Voted “best”. Yeah! More menaingless points!!!

Leave a Comment » | YahooAnswers, YahooAnswers - Best | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

YAHOO ANSWER: trying to save up my money

Monday, May 21, 2007

*** begin quote ***

saving money?

hi ive been trying to save up my money for soo long but i keep spending some of it cuz i think it wont make a difference. I have a bank account that i put it in . Please if you have anytips please help. thanks

*** end quote ***

I’d suggest savings bonds. Put very small amounts into it. It’s semi-frozen for short periods of times and eventually can amount to something. You need to get some financial discipline. Maybe savings bonds with their lockup period might help. Use small denominations so if you just have to crack them, you can crack only what you need.

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | YahooAnswers | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

YAHOO ANSWER:currency conversion a la Google

Monday, May 21, 2007

*** begin quote ***

how many euros are 4 dollars????????????? please answer?

please i have to order something and i want to know…

how many euros are 4 dollars$$$$$$$$$$??? thanks

*** end quote ***

4 U.S. dollars = 2.96493959 Euros

Under the heading for teaching a man to fish, you can use google and put in the search field “4 usd in euros” and it’ll pop the answer. Now you can a whole class of currency conversion at your finger tips.

;-)

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | YahooAnswers | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

YAHOO ANSWER: Inheriting $35K

Saturday, May 19, 2007

*** begin quote ***

Hello! ..Inheriting $35K, would like to invest (secure but agressive), any ideas?

I own a home, so I’m not sure what’s the best thing, I have c.c. debt about 12k

Thanks

*** end quote ***

Since you’re ask here, I’d guess that you have no experience in investing. Assuming that you have no reason to do something odd, paying off the credit card debt is a great idea. (Unless you are going to run right out and charge more stuff!) You can then keep “paying” the credit card debt payment right into your investment account. (Training you to save.) With the balance, I’d suggest either a Treasury Direct account (very safe) to buy some 90 day tbills until you get “smarter”. Or, you can put it in a Vanguard account into a money market until you get savvy. Or you could do both splitting it 50-50.

You’ll learn very quickly. After all it’s your money. Either or both of those two options will keep it “safe” until you learn more.

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | YahooAnswers | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

YAHOO ANSWER: How am I ever gonna retire early?

Saturday, May 19, 2007

*** begin quote ***

How am I ever gonna retire early? I really want to but I’ll be like 35 when I finish paying for college?

PLUS, life expenses and stuff, I really am willing to SAVE UP ALOT. I’m not sure my job will have a 401K so what should I do to be able to put A LOT of money aside and retire by the time i’m 50? IRA’s kind of suck they only allow 4,000 YEARLY. And I don’t wanna gamble my money away by investing in stocks which I know absolutely nothing about. Does this have no solution whatsoever?

*** end quote ***

Well, of course it has a solution. The answer is “it depends”. It depends upon how much you want what when.

College debt, life, and then retirement.

How early do you want to retire and what do want to give up for it?

I suggest that you need a blended solution. You have three priorities to balance — college debt, life expenses, and retirement savings. One thing you’ll have to avoid like the plague is credit card debt.

My standard answer for success in the future is that you need a ruthless dedication to financial discipline (i.e., earn money, save, invest, and keep everything working for you; no lazy money), a good white collar job, a blue collar skill like plumbing, and one or more internet businesses.

Roth IRAs are fantastic. You can accumulate gains tax free.

I think you need to do debt repayment, retirement savings, then allocate whatever’s left. You can get extra work and bank the difference. It’s about tuning and discipline.

I’d suggest you use Vanguard low expense mutual funds or etfs to do you saving in. Don’t try to be too fancy. Focus on getting it into the accounts and left he market work over time.

I won’t be around to see how you make out, but stay flexible and discipline. Where ever I am (upstairs or down), I’ll be rooting for you.

# # # # #

Update 2007-05=24 at 2200: Notified this was the best answer as chosen by the asker. Happy dance time!

  avatar3.png

Me, doing my happy dance. See the moves?

2 Comments | YahooAnswers, YahooAnswers - Best | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

YAHOO ANSWER: Credit unions good for car loans? Not good; great!

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

*** begin quote ***

Credit unions good for car loans?

I am looking to buy a used car that is $16000. a 72 month loan seems to be getting me an apr of about 11% no matter who i go through – would a credit unio be able to give me a lower rate – and are there any downsides to being a credit union member?

*** end quote ***

I just checked my credit union and you can get 48 months for 6%.

So they have good deals. I’ve blogged on how to bootstrap your way out of repeated car loans. Basically buy a car, finance it for three, but pay for six. The second three becomes savings for the next down payment.

I can’t give you a downside for a credit union loan, but I can give you a giant upside.

Most, if not all, credit unions don’t use the rule of 72 on your car payments. Most everyone else makes you pay the interest first and principal later. If you prepay the loan, then you’ve paid a higher rate for your money. CUs use a simple interest formula. Prepay early and you save interest expense. That prepayment also happens unexpectedly when the car gets totaled. So two good reasons to use the Credit Union. And, the CU usually has free credit life insurance thrown in.

So do your homework, it can save you big bucks.

Downside, you may have to bring a check from the credit union to the dealer, so you won’t have instant gratification of signing papers and driving away. So, I did think of a downside. But that dealer financing can be very “expensive” if you don’t really examine the details, which most people don’t.

Good luck,
Let us know how you make out.

# # # # #

1 Comment | YahooAnswers | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

YAHOO ANSWER: new blog … better

Monday, May 14, 2007

*** begin quote ***

I have a new blog…which are things I can do to make it better??

*** end quote ***

You might want to ditch the pop unders. Most people have them blocked and they make you look like a used car salesman. The site has a hodge podge of add ins down the right side that I found distracting. You might want to review the various A list bloggers, who blog on blogging. The first thing that caught my eye was that you don’t have you own domain. (neither did I at first) That’s something you need if you ever want to move, control your content, or own the “word” on the net.

# # # # #

1 Comment | YahooAnswers | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

YAHOO ANSWER: Wireless Limited Connectivity

Monday, May 14, 2007

*** begin quote ***

Wireless Limited Connectivity/ Local Access Only???

the last few days every time I try to use any public internet connection that previously worked fine….my computer will connect only with limited connectivity or local access. any tips? also I get the message “connecting to the network is taking longer than usual” sometimes when I try. If I run diagnostics it either says resetting the adapter might help or it says there is no problem OR it says cannot ping dns server (remote host). the wierd thing is no matter what public server I try it wont work. help!!

*** end quote ***

You didn’t say what OS you were running but let’s assume some version of Windoze XP. If not, please ignore what follows. WXP has a component called WirelessZeroConfig. When WXP “loses its mind” about wireless network restarting this service sometimes help. I have also had success in uninstalling the networking interface, and other “stuff” and letting WXP “rediscover” it all again. One tip. Always reboot COLD (i.e., power completely off for five minutes. not 4:59) TWICE (i.e., no joke two completely down cycles). Some times WXP needs a good enema to clean itself out. When I help colleagues, coworkers, or others with connectivity issues, I like to have a “dork” (i.e., a plain old working system so I know it’s not the network, but it’s the platform I’m working on that has the problem) with me. At home, I have an ancient thinkpad that barely runs WXP to be my “dork” when I have real problems on my real notebook. Hope this helps.

# # # # #

2 Comments | YahooAnswers | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »