Mortgages
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]
1 Comment » Your Life is an Open Book
Thursday, October 8th, 2009
It sounds like a horrific scene out of some sci-fi movie set decades down the road – lots of computer databases filled with lots of information about…you! But it’s not some fictionalized account of the future; it’s today’s reality. As described in Consumer Reports, information about your use of credit, insurance claims, medical history, and ... [Read more]
Car Loans Gone Crazy
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
America is a car-crazy culture. Consider these statistics from a recent Minyanville article. In 1970 there were 529 cars per 1,000 people in the U.S. Today there are 765 cars per 1,000 people. The number of cars per person in the U.S. is 40 percent higher than in Europe, 500 percent higher than in China, ... [Read more]
Heroic Money Management
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” – Joshua 1:9 During what would be my father’s final year of life, I wrote him a letter. His health was declining rapidly, and he was ... [Read more]
Extra Credit for Homebuyers
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009
One element of the Obama administration’s economic stimulus package is a tax credit for first-time homebuyers of up to $8,000. As described in an LA Times article, the credit recently got even more valuable when it was made available to help cover closing costs or for use as part of the down payment. For those ... [Read more]
Building On a Solid Foundation
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
Much of the financial crisis gripping our country can be blamed on bad mortgages. Some say the mortgage mess is due to a lack of regulation or corporate oversight. Others say borrowers simply bit off more than they could chew. While the blame game intensifies, the Associated Press just reported on new Census Bureau data ... [Read more]
