With wedding season on the horizon, I thought it might be a good time to talk about marriage and sharing finances. There are a host of differing opinions on this subject – and for good reason. Today I’ll talk about my personal thoughts on the three main options, share some pros and cons, and share some other thoughts on marriage and money. Read more
Greetings, frugal friends!! Today we welcome this guest post from fellow personal finance blogger Elsie, who blogs over at Gundo Money. Always nice to have the fresh perspective of a young person around here. Enjoy!
Back in 2012 I was living with a boyfriend who always reminded me about saving water. When the toilet was flushed or the shower got turned on we always had to state a reason. This all sounds funny to write about now but back then it was pretty serious—almost like our little water game. Sure California was in a drought but we weren’t poor and or desperate. Why the heck did we bother?
We’re pleased to share this guest post (with my thoughts) from our friends over at The Simple Dollar. No compensation was given for this post.
A home equity loan can be a convenient ways to get cash, whether you’re looking to make improvements to your home, consolidate debt or even start a small business. But a home equity loan’s costs can vary significantly based on the rates that you get. The better your rates, the cheaper your loan — the cheaper your loan, the more money you can actually borrow. The team at The Simple Dollar dug into the industry to make sure you understand how these loans work and what to look for. They put together a lot of great information and research on everything you need to know about getting the best home equity loan rates. You can also consider a reverse mortgage.
The Current National Averages
Home equity lenders tend to have a base rate for their equity loans, which can vary depending on the current economy and the federal interest rates.
The Lender
Online loan companies tend to have lower rates than brick-and-mortar companies. Likewise, lending companies, banks, and credit unions will all have different rates, calculated based on the amount of risk that they personally are willing to take on. Riskier lenders will have higher rates but lower requirements.
The Borrower
As with any type of lending, your personal credit score and credit history is going to have a significant impact on the rates that you can acquire. For that reason, it’s usually best for you to improve your credit as much as possible before you even apply to loans.
You should be comparing multiple loans before you consider any particular lender; the rates and terms vary so significantly throughout lenders that you won’t be able to know whether you’re getting a “good” rate without a comparison. One of the fastest and easiest ways to get multiple quotes is to fill out an online request form. There are many companies such as Lending Tree that will connect you to a variety of lenders, each of which will tell you how much you can borrow and what your interest rate will be.
As mentioned, your credit score has a significant impact on your borrowing rates. Begin by pulling your credit reports and correcting any mistakes — a common mistake is misreporting the limit on your credit cards. Once you’ve corrected any mistakes, you should take action to improve the amount of credit you currently have out. Pay down your credit cards and other loans, but don’t close any lines of credit. Closing your lines of credit can actually have an adverse effect.
Your debt-to-income ratio matters. If you can’t improve your income, you need to improve the amount of debt that you presently hold. Something as simple as paying off your car beforehand could have an impact on a substantially larger home equity loan. Remember when you calculate your income to include things such as projected over-time, retirement fund matching, and scheduled or projected bonuses — all of these things do matter to a lender. Pulling your old tax returns may be able to help you if you’re concerned that you might be forgetting any form of income.
When shopping for a vehicle, you may have noticed that sometimes car dealerships have very low introductory rates that then increase to unusually high rates. The same can go for a home equity line of credit. There are certain companies that may advertise teaser rates, but the rate is adjustable. You always want a flat rate loan — no exception. A payment that is comfortable to make now may increase to a payment that is completely untenable otherwise. This also highlights the importance of comparing apples-to-apples when you compare your quotes.
It isn’t enough to just look at interest. Many lenders have hidden fees related to loan origination and loan maintenance — or even the payoff of the loan itself. Make sure that you go through a list of all of the costs associated with the loan so you properly understand how expensive each loan will be. A loan that looks like a good deal on the surface could prove to actually be fairly expensive long-term. As an addition to this, you should always stop to reassess if the lender that you’re currently working with starts adding on more fees — it could indicate that the lender you’re working with is about to become a more expensive option.
If you can’t get a fixed rate loan, you can also look for loans that lock a certain amount of the loan in at a fixed rate. This is far preferable to having an entirely adjustable rate loan, though still not quite as preferable as having a fully fixed rate loan. When using an adjustable rate loan, pay attention to how much the lender is able to adjust that rate; some loans may actually give the lender leeway regarding the amount the rate can be increased, thereby making it so that you can’t even anticipate the potential increase.
Remember, home equity loan rates will fluctuate from day to day, in addition to being influenced by your credit. If the current rates are too high, just keep checking — you may find them going down sometime in the near future. You can also always consider refinancing an expensive loan later on, though this can be a risky proposition.
My Personal Thoughts on Home Equity Loans
It’s always important to be careful when you’re borrowing money against your home. I do NOT recommend borrowing additional monies against your home if:
So, I’m confessing off the bat that I’ve ripped off this post idea from Rockstar Finance. The short, but thought-provoking post needed an expansion – at least in my mind.
The fact of the matter is that too many people don’t have as much of a clue about their money as they should. They have no idea how much debt they have, when they’ll be able to retire or what they’d do if the financial SHTF in their house.
This post today is designed to help you answer those questions. Read more
This is a question many people ask themselves on a regular basis. Or, rather, a question that others ask many people on a regular basis.
Given the fact that fully 47% of Americans don’t have enough cash to cover a $400 emergency, this is no big surprise.
We’ve become a nation that has gotten comfortable with living off of credit. With not having an emergency fund. With not building wealth or contributing enough to retirement funds.
“It’ll all work out eventually,” they tell themselves. I know this because we told ourselves that for years. Until we got to the point that it couldn’t “work itself” out anymore and we had to start working it out and taking responsibility for our financial situation.
So then, when the screws get tightened, when they run out of available credit, when the payment amounts start to get too uncomfortable, they come to you for help.
“Will you cosign a loan for me?” they ask.
And you start to get that icky feeling in your stomach. Read more
Do you want out of debt bad enough to deal with the roadblocks, the emotional stresses and the lifestyle changes?
Is having financial freedom important enough to you to give up current habits and lifestyles?
Only you can answer that question. Only you can decide if it’s worth the work to create a more secure financial future for yourself. But before you answer, let me ask you some questions. I want to find out if you’ve ever dared to think ahead to a future full of debt and money worries. I’m asking these questions because asking ourselves these questions is what gave us the motivation to begin our own dumping debt journey. So, here goes: Read more
Today we share a contributed post from fellow freelance writer Elaine Valarie. Enjoy!
In its simplest state, auto insurance protects motorists after their involvement in an accident. Different policies offer different coverages, with liability car insurance being the most popular among consumers. The reason for this is also simple: a majority of U.S. states require their auto drivers to carry liability car insurance. But the insurance industry is changing, with new technological developments raising customer service. Let’s check out some of these big changes and how they will impact the auto industry, and subsequently, you as an insurance-payer.
What exactly is telematics? Telematics is a technological device that combines information and telecommunications. Many insurance companies offer the option to install a device that measures your driving habits, such as how many miles you drive, how hard you brake and your speed. The telematics system sends this information to your insurance agency. If your insurance company believes that your numbers demonstrate you as a safe driver, you will get a good driving discount. But if the system reports that you are not a safe a driver, don’t worry; your insurance company will not raise your premiums, at least not yet. While telematics is currently in use, we’ll see widespread adoption by insurance companies in the coming years.
Insurance agencies base their premium numbers on risk factor. Factors they consider in determining your risk include:
After determining your risk factor, the insurance agency issues you your monthly premium. So what is Big Data? According to Forbes Magazine, Big Data refers to the amount of digital information that is generated and stored, and the sophisticated analytics procedures that are being developed to make sense of the data collected. In layman’s terms, this means agencies are collecting data about you and determining the likelihood of your involvement in an accident through predictive statistical modelling.
With forward-collision warnings, blind-spot monitoring and lane-departure warnings, the Insurance Information Institute (III) reports that the number of predicted auto collisions will drop dramatically. III further reports that the improvements in safety technology have led to lower fatality rates. Because of these developments, insurance agencies could lower their premium rates. But there is a catch here. Insurance companies haven’t yet compiled enough information on crash avoidance technology. Agencies are still gathering information on product liability claims. If product reliability claims should rise, insurance premiums will reflect this. So, where one area in your policy may give you a discount, another area may charge you for more coverage.
To stay competitive in the market, insurance agencies are offering auto insurance policies at discounted rates on insurance comparison websites. According to Property Casualty 360, in offering their services online through mobile applications and websites, insurance agencies are working to make it easier to file claims, get quotes and make appointments with agents to discuss policies. Comparison sites like CoverHound take your information and run it through a variety of filters. After evaluating your information, these sites show you the most affordable price ranges from top-rated insurance agencies. After you select the policy you want, you will continue through the portal to sign on for said policy.
With Google and Tesla working on self-driving cars, insurance agencies will have to establish insurance policies that take into consideration operating maintenance and product liability, such as is considered under crash-avoidance technology. Automated vehicles will engage in front-end braking and lane-departure warnings. Automated vehicles will also allow drivers to take control of the vehicle, going from automated to manual driving. This chosen balance of automation versus manual driving is likely to play a big factor in the premium prices a self-driving vehicle owner pays.
Driving technologies are evolving, and with it so is the auto insurance agency. Use these developments to save money when you renew or get a new auto policy.
Bio: Elaine Valarie is a ghost writer, curator, literature geek and author. She has several journals, articles and papers to her name. Writing is her passion. She writes about mostly all genres. She resides in Hoboken, Hudson County in New Jersey.
Today’s post is a guest post from fellow blogger Joseph Chiweshe, a physician and blogger who shares about the connections between health and personal finance.
The connection of our health and finances is undeniable. They provide the basis for the freedom and ability to do the things we love in our day to day lives, and if either is out of balance it seems like that’s all your mind is preoccupied with.
There are three mindsets in which, if you are intentional in both your money and your health, will help assure that both your health and your money are running smoothly. Today I’ll talk about those three mindsets and how you can utilize them to be physically and financially fit. Read more
If you are one of the millions of young adults in this country and you’ve been considering investing, congratulations! You’re already ahead of the majority of the other millennials out there. But don’t pat yourself on the back just yet. You still need to do the work to get the ball rolling. But what’s the best way to get started? It may seem difficult, but it doesn’t have to be. Here are some tips that can help you get started investing right away. Read more
Today we welcome a guest post from fellow blogger, Kate. Kate is the blogger behind the MaternityGlow blog, where she writes helpful tips & tricks for new parents.
It’s no surprise that becoming a parent for the first time can be ridiculously expensive and financially overwhelming.
My head began to spin just thinking about all hospital bills, baby expenses, and a college fund.
What should I do? Where should I start? Read more
