Mortgages
Money Roundup: Where NOT To Use a Debit Card, Free Ways to Make Your Child’s Life Better, and More
Friday, December 30th, 2011
Every week I scour the web, looking for the most useful and interesting money-related articles. Here are 10 that are worth reading. How to Land a New Job in 2012 (US News). There are some great nuggets here, including one that a lot of job seekers don’t pay enough attention to: preparing great questions to ... [Read more]
No Comments » 
Money Roundup: What You Didn’t Miss By Staying Home on Black Friday, The $50 Christmas Budget, and More
Friday, November 25th, 2011
Even on holiday weeks, I try to keep up with the world of personal finance (don’t worry, I didn’t work yesterday). Here are 10 of the best articles I came across in the past 7 6 days. Think Black Friday Has the Cheapest Prices? Think Again (Time). Worried that you might have missed something by ... [Read more]
Friday Roundup: Lessons from the Last Recession, Bills NOT to Automate, and More
Friday, August 19th, 2011
Every week, I read lots of personal finance stories so you don’t have to! Here are ten of the best, with five from traditional sites and five from blogs. Retirement Savers Who Didn’t Blink Saw Big Gains (via MarketWatch). I know it’s scary to stay the course when the markets go crazy, but here’s a ... [Read more]
How to Get the Right Mortgage at the Right Price
Wednesday, July 20th, 2011
A home is typically a person’s largest expense, which is why it’s so important to choose well when buying a house. And there’s a lot more to it than choosing what type of countertops to get. From a financial standpoint, it means buying a home you can truly afford and getting the right mortgage at ... [Read more]
Applying for a Mortgage? Check Your Credit Score First
Monday, June 13th, 2011
Your credit score plays an important role in determining whether you will qualify for a mortgage and, if so, at what interest rate. On a $200,000 mortgage, for example, someone with a good score (760 or higher) will pay nearly $200 less per month than a person with a bad score (639 or lower). You ... [Read more]
How Much Should I Spend on a House?
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
Housing is most people’s biggest expense. That’s why, of all of the expenses we each have, it’s essential to get our housing costs right. It’s one of the most important keys to being able to be generous, save and invest adequately, and live with financial margin and peace of mind. How Much of a Down ... [Read more]
Money and Marriage: Living With Financial Freedom
Monday, October 4th, 2010
For many couples, money is a tough topic. That’s why, for the past couple of months, I’ve been using the first post of the month to focus on ideas for making money work in marriage. It’s also why I created a financial workshop to help engaged and newly married couples get their relationship started in ... [Read more]
Five New Financial Normals
Monday, August 23rd, 2010
Writing about the “new normals” brought on by the Great Recession has become, well, a new normal for many media outlets. Adding to the conversation, Fortune magazine has come up with five new normals that it believes really will stick. Here they are, along with my thoughts. 1. Long-term unemployment. For those who have jobs, ... [Read more]
Help for Home Buyers
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
If you’re in the market to buy a house, there are two resources I came across recently that I recommend. First, the book Mind Your Own Mortgage has a lot of helpful advice, especially author Robert Bernabé’s recommended process for finding the lowest-cost mortgage. By that, he isn’t talking about interest rates or monthly payments. ... [Read more]
Does Your Home Own You?
Friday, April 16th, 2010
Garrison Keillor once joked that when people are young they often dream about being painters or poets, but the single biggest destroyer of all such romantic career notions is a 30-year mortgage. Get one of those, he said, and you’ll chain yourself to an eight-by-eight cubicle for the next 30 years as you labor to ... [Read more]
