Our church bulletin this week had a bulletin from Focus on the Family. The bulletin contained some money principles from a Christian perspective: Debt can sentence you to a lower standard of living in the future. Quite true: if you pay off only the minimum balance on your credit card, you end up paying for … Read more
Mortgages that outlive you. The truest kind of mortgage, since a root of the word is mort — French for death. They’re all but guaranteed to build very little equity during the first years and put people at almost as great a risk as those with interest-only loans of going upside-down on their mortgage should … Read more
Wow. The response to my posts on Douglas Andrew’s Missed Fortune 101 continues to be lively. Just got a comment about it through e-mail today, in fact. This discussion has taken on a life of its own in some ways. On the main post people’s opinions of my comments have been everything from being a … Read more
Another take on the emergency fund or mortgage pay-down question: Say you have an internet savings account paying 4 1/4 % and a fixed-rate 4 7/8% mortgage. Say also that you have $100/month that you want to put toward either one. Which would you choose? Answer? It depends. There are good reasons for doing either … Read more
More talk on the good-debt-bad-debt question: Good debt versus bad debt A few people have labeled me risk-averse when it comes to debt, and that’s all right. I’m still of the opinion that it’s a really good idea to pay off any debt you have faster than you “have to” with regard to minimum payments … Read more
It’s common knowledge that it’s desirable not to have credit card debt, since the interest rates are usually pretty high (unless you have very good credit or get into a 0% balance transfer offer and are very careful) and they’re usually used to buy depreciating, non-performing consumer goods. Taking out loans to go to college … Read more
And No Credit Needed does, too. A loser of weight, that is! While the No Credit Needed Network has mostly people who want to chart their debt reduction and savings goals, NCN and I are charting our weight loss goals. I’m glad that he put his chart back up. After all, the habits you develop … Read more
I mentioned briefly in a previous post that I could stand to lose about seventy pounds. I got to thinking that this is similar to someone who needs to get rid of about $20,000 in credit card debt. Accomplishing both feats — weight loss and debt loss — have similar sets of actions that can … Read more