By financen | January 31, 2011 - 2:10 pm - Posted in Mortgage, Refinance Mortgage Loan

When a person is determined to refinance their mortgage, there are lots of important factor that one should be aware of. There are lots of people nowadays looking for assistance on the best refinance company which would have low mortgage loan rates, this is mainly happening due to global financial crisis and recession. Refinancing is one of the ways where one has a mortgage and wants to save their home from foreclosure.

If you want to make decision on which refinance company you want to go for, then you may read reviews from the people who has used these companies or you can do your own research on internet. It is next to impossible of refinance loan rates going lower, that is the reason why long term rates are totally different.

There are lots of refinance mortgage companies which can be surfed on internet. However you can make your own decision to choose one of the best companies from these web sites. It is also advisable that you should contact them and clarify all your doubts before you go ahead and sign up.

It is easier to do a research on an online refinance companies because they are available on the internet and you may get one that would suit your needs. Once you have done your research and satisfied with a company that will meet your needs in financial context, automatically you would see that you make your stay in the house for at least some years. Now this is the time when you should try to change your adjustable rate to a fixed one. This will also give an assurance that your monthly payment remains the same, in any case if there is any fluctuation in the market environment.

This would help you to sustain your life when the rate in the market booms. There are institution which would offer you loan, however be very sure to read all the terms and condition before you make up your mind. There is something called GFE which you can ask the lender to provide you, GFE is also known as Good Faith Estimate. This kind of estimates are not assured by the government, however you should ask the lender to guarantee the GFE.

The reason why it is advised to ask for guaranteed GFE is because non guaranteed GFE is worthless. To gain your confidence the lender would not have any problem in showing any commitment. This will help you on your refinance mortgage loan rates that will not be excessive on you financially. There are financial institutions from where you can take financial advice if in any case you are confused about how the interest rates work.

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By financen | January 24, 2011 - 2:36 pm - Posted in Home Loan

Obama’s home loan modification plan is officially known as the Making Home Affordable (MHA) plan. This plan is expected to reach up to 9 million families, so that they can refinance or modify their loans in the meantime they can look for jobs and hold their houses during this economic recession. Even if you think you won’t qualify, Learning about the requirements for modifying your home loan might surprise you.

The first criteria for modification is that your loan has to be a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac insured loan. One also must be the primary resident of the house in order to refinance or modify your home loan under the plan. At the present time loans that are qualified under the MHA plans has to be either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac insured loan in order to get special refinancing and modifying loans under the MHA plan.

The MHA plan gives homeowners tow separate options. The first avenue is refinancing; the second is modifying their loan. Borrowers who have not yet fallen behind on mortgage payments and owe below 105% of the principal of their loan can take advantages of a special refinance. It’s important to know that borrowers who are still current on payments can refinance under the MHA act. Borrowers whose mortgage payment are on time and owe below 105% of the principal of their loan can take advantages of a special refinance.

People who have been paying their current as well as people who have fallen short on their mortgage payments can get loan modification. As long as you own and occupy the house and have monthly payments that exceed 31% of your gross monthly income.
If you’re having difficulty making ends meet and paying your monthly mortgage premiums, then getting a loan modification with the government-sponsored MHA plan could be for you.

The loan modification plan target at-risk borrowers and adjusts the terms of their mortgages so they will pay below 31% of their gross monthly income. This is called their debt-to-income (DTI) ratio. The first step is for lenders to reduce the interest rate to a floor of 2% to try to meet a 38% DTI. If the interest rates hit the floor and still do not meet the 38% DTI, then further modifications can be made. The lender can extend the loan for up to 40 years, and then they can begin to forbear principal on the loan. After meeting the 38% DTI, lenders and the Treasury will work together in a dollar-per-dollar matching program to bring the rate down to below 31% DTI for borrowers.

After coming to an acceptable modification, borrowers will have three months to prove that the new loan rates are something they can handle. If they keep current for a trial period of three months, the new mortgage terms stay fixed for the next five years. This is the procedure that the MHA plan uses to prevent foreclosures and let millions of U.S. families remain in their houses.

By financen | January 20, 2011 - 4:35 pm - Posted in Credit Card

There are several people who have decided that they would give up on their credit card, seeing the global recession. However putting down or closing your credit card account is not supposed to be an intelligent idea, while doing so one must be very aware of the consequences.

Why is it necessary for you to be aware of the consequences while closing the credit card? Your credit report could be one of the reasons. It can have both positive and negative effects. Having plenty of debt can put your credit score in bad situation while closing each credit card.

The age of the credit card plays a vital role in your credit score, saying that it means the longer you have maintained a credit card the better it would be for the credit score. However if you are given an option then you should close the new card rather then closing a old credit card, hence older card helps you to maintain your credit score. If you have decided to bring all your existing balance under one card then it is advisable that you keep your old credit card open.

Closing card with nil balance is not at all an intelligent thing to do, because it affects your credit report and also minimizes your debt to credit ratio. It is always suggested to leave the nil balance account open. Leaving this account open will help you in your days of crisis.

Keeping one credit card open is highly recommended. As you know that your credit score is based on one key factor, that is how many different types of credit card you have, there are one category of credit cards. To have one revolving credit card is important in case in future if you require any kind of loan it would help you then.

There is a process to close a credit card, first and foremost if you are closing your credit card make sure that you have paid the existing balance or transferred the amount to another credit card. Then inform the bank in written that you want to close the account. Always keep a copy of such notice to remember the closing date in case if any lender asks for the information.

Having credit card is not a bad practice; it is just that we tend to spend more without even giving a second thought that the amount we are spending is taking you towards debt. However having control over the expenditure is a good habit.

By financen | January 11, 2011 - 3:39 pm - Posted in Mutual Fund

A particular mutual fund investment’s failure or success does not depend on their previous or present performance. It may be very attractive to buy funds when they are doing well in the market; however you being the new investor it is not advisable to buy funds depending on their past performance. The reason behind this advice is because you as an investor would want to buy mutual funds when the rates are low and sell them at the maximum price as much as you can.

Funds that are currently established have limited number of stocks in the market. This makes easy to analyze which stock is doing well and which one is not doing well. The stock that is doing well puts a huge effect because of their size being small and it is easy to evaluate this smaller stocks. It is very hard to remain at the same or top position as far as the stock market is concerned, that is the reason why we feel the effect to be less when the stock market is growing.

If you want maximum benefits from your mutual fund investment then you need to follow religiously the expanses and the tax charges that are applicable on these mutual funds. Some fund’s fees would cost you more than the other ones; in this case you should be able to negotiate the price in the market or with the stock broker in order to get good returns as an investor. In the long run if your fees or taxes are increased even by smaller percentage then it could be that your hard earned returns is being enjoyed by someone else. Being an investor it is very important to learn how the government taxes are applicable on your mutual fund investment. So the best ways to know about all this taxation is by reading prospectus that are available at the firm offices.

To buy bonds securities and stocks, a mutual fund manager always finds different ways to pull information from different small investors. This means that your investment is being analyzed by different buyers and you need not make any more investment on that particular mutual fund. Well if you are planning to buy different type of stocks that are available in the market then the investment might be required. However if you have sufficient funds then you could even go for international funds, which would give you more returns than the domestic funds.

There is an element of risk taken by the fund managers in order to get healthy returns. At times you may not agree with fund manager’s risk taken on the investment since you may not be thinking as he is doing. As far as we know, all mutual fund investment bears a minimum risk which is important to acknowledge.

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The Federal Treasury Department is offering loan modification help to the many homeowners who have found themselves unemployed due to the current recession and are at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure. Now, even if you are unemployed you may be able to get your mortgage payment drastically reduced to help you avoid foreclosure while you look for a new job. Although there is $75 billion available from TARP funds, however only few gets qualified due to its tough qualifying guidelines.

President Obama has been very strict to people who have shown a very poor record of assisting their borrowers with a Loan modification Plan for Unemployed Homeowners under the federal plan, HAMP. The statics of borrowers are far less than the original target of 5 million homeowners. Realizing that the recession is causing more homes to go into foreclosure, the federal govt. will offer a loan workout to people who are under this loan and are unemployed to avoid their homes from foreclosure in the meantime the borrowers can look for new jobs and stay at their home.

The HAMP loan modification plan will be used as a guideline, however under this plan the unemployed homeowners will be offered an extremely low mortgage payment for a specified period of time so that they can get the time to find a job and get back on track. Since the ongoing foreclosure crisis is affecting every aspect of our global economy, the goal is to offer help to as many borrowers as possible and keep them in their homes until a long term solution can be found.

If you are unemployed or facing a loss of income, then you should learn how to apply and qualify for the federal HAMP loan modification program. If you are confused about the approval guidelines and need help to figure your debt ratio, target payment and other calculations, you can take advantage of an easy to use software program that is specifically designed to help homeowners qualify for HAMP. There are standard approval criteria that must be met, so you would be well advised to learn just how to complete your financial statement correctly so that you are not turned down.

By financen | January 1, 2011 - 6:19 am - Posted in Personal Finance

As a human being we encounter common financial issues all most every day. If you know how to handle these common financial issues then you will have an upper hand then many other people who tend to pulverized when it comes to face these common issues. Realize these common issues in yourself and take control of your own life.

You know emotion run stronger than your thoughts, so one must know how to deal with this kind of situation. It is always difficult to make emotional decision and here we make mistake. Financial decision should be made by your brain rather than making it by heart. You may be offered a high return on the investment that you are making; however you should be intelligent enough to know the facts by making the right decision.

With facts there is fiction too, so you should be capable enough to distinguish between facts and fiction. If you are not expertise in the field of finance, then you tend to take suggestions from others which might not be the fact, perhaps it could be fiction. So it is necessary for you to know how to separate facts and fictions.

There is always a chance of you getting into a catastrophic financial risk. Many a times many people tend to get carried away by the high returns that are promised by the lenders. Do not take such financial risk be very sure about the program before you get into it. You should always keep your savings for emergency situation, there will be time when you will be tested with your intelligence on how you should use your savings make sure that you make use of your logical brain to tackle these kind of situation. It is very difficult in life to recover from any catastrophic financial failure.

Last but not the least do not focus too much of your time on money. Many people give the priority to the money than life, which is absolutely wrong. Just do the Wright thing in life an you will see that money is following you, in the long run you would see that people who run after money ends up with nothing. These kind of people end up spending money rather than making it because their focus is only money. They are different aspect involved in our life apart from money. I believe health and happiness comes first than any other things.

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