If you have tried and failed to get a loan from one of the big banks (Bank of America, Chase, etc) don’t despair, you still may be able to get what is called a non-conforming loan from a local bank or credit union.
A non-conforming loan is a loan where the borrower does not meet the [...]
This is a tough question that I’ve been pondering ever since I graduated from undergrad in 2000. On the one hand, student loans give you the best interest rates by far. My student interest rates were only 3.5% and I was pretty sure I could do better than that with other investments elsewhere so I [...]
One of the often forgotten benefits of investing in real estate is that it’s fairly easy to borrow money for the investment. No bank will lend you money to buy stocks or gold but banks will lend you money to buy real estate. Why? Because real estate is a tangible asset that is generally considered [...]
If anyone still has some degree of faith in the United States banking system, you should consider reconsidering after the various bailout packages of the past several months. It’s no secret that these bailouts are going to increase the rate of inflation considerable. In 2007, the inflation rate was 2.85%, in 2008 it was 3.85%. [...]
As I mentioned before, the government uses the federal tax system to influence our behavior as citizens and residents of the United States. If you look at any tax break, tax credit, or tax write-off you will see that they are designed to direct you toward a certain type of behavior. Incidentally, I think this [...]
I am going to start a section of this blog dedicated to personal finance which is another hobby of mine. Part of it will deal with developing passive income, that is, income that doesn’t get reported on a 1040. The key to passive income is purchasing things that pay you to own them. One of [...]