Jim at Bargaineering made a post about this really cool and addicting Flash game called Mansion: Impossible. The object is to buy the £10 million mansion as quickly as possible. You start with £100,000. Houses pop on to the market — literally, as in whack-a-mole style — and you proceed to “flip” your way to … Read more
More comments on my post Missed Fortune 101 — Horrible Advice! Please chime in here or there with your comments! I’m the first to admit that I don’t like any debt that isn’t making me a lot more money than it’s costing me. However, I don’t buy into the argument that I’m “running from debt … Read more
Scott Burns wrote for the Star Tribune a few weeks ago, asking: Is insurance the answer to pension-taxes dilemma? This idea, described in detail in Douglas Andrew’s Missed Fortune 101, “doesn’t survive testing in the Reality Lab,” according to Burns. Burns actually runs some numbers. Among other things, he cites: the high commissions charged for … Read more
How about “[a]n interest-only, payment skipping/minimum-payment-option-enabled, negatively amortizing, no-money-down, no documentation, prepayment-penalizing, 3-month LIBOR 40-year adjustable-rate mortgage with a balloon?” Let’s break this down, shall we? Interest-only means that you’re not paying down the principal, the mechanism by which you reduce what you owe to the lender; Payment skipping means that any interest you would … Read more
Walter Updegrave’s “Ask the Expert” column on CNN Money has an article entitled Starting with an interest-only loan which is a response to a reader’s question about — you guessed it! — starting with an interest-only loan with the purchase of a house. The reader is writing from Baltimore, which is a hot area for … Read more
I’ve had a couple of recent posts about mortgage refinancing, and I promised some instruction on how to crunch your own numbers to see if it’s a good deal for you. Some lenders will be up-front with you and tell you that it’s not worth it to refinance; others will not. WARNING — LOTS OF … Read more
The first time I used LendingTree.com (back in 2001) I got only one response. Not so this time. Today I got three calls back to back from three different lenders regarding my refinance request. I was starting to answer the phone, “Hello … Lender Central …” Some things I’ve learned through all of these calls: … Read more
This insurance is sometimes thrown in by the seller in a real estate purchase contract. It protects the buyer from unexpected repair costs in their new home for a period of time — typically one year after purchase. Repairs on most major systems in the house (heat, air conditioning, septic, etc.) and most major appliances … Read more
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