First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit

A tax credit of up to $8,000 is available for qualified first-time home buyers purchasing a principal residence on or after January 1, 2009 and before December 1, 2009.

Saving Money By Picking a Better Credit Card

As hard as it is to get your teenager to kick the charging habit, one thing you can do to lessen the financial impact is to choose cards with better terms. Doing so can save you thousands of dollars in fees and interest.




The Federal Reserve bank has published a free 13-page e-book to help you know what your options are. Click here to get your free copy.

The Story of Dave Ramsey's Financial Turnaround

You may have heard about financial guru Dave Ramsey. He's an author, has a radio program and gives good solid advice about getting your financial house in order.
There was an article about his story in our church magazine a few weeks ago.




Here's the link to the story, I found it inspiring.

Enjoy it here.

100 Great Tips For Saving Money For Those Just Getting Started

This article has a great collection of simple ideas that can add up to make an important difference in your financial life.



Here's the article, "100 Great Tips For Saving Money For Those Just Getting Started"

The collection is written by Trent Hamm, author of the book "365 Ways to Live Cheap"

Understanding Loan Modifications

I created a presentation to explain the loan modifications process during a seminar.
Video not displaying correctly? Click to view on YouTube.

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Do You Have a History of Problems With Money and Debt?

I'm talking to many people these days about their current problems with their mortgage and other bills. For some the squeeze is due to a job loss, or other recent event. For the rest they have had problems for many years.




To determine if your problem is longer term, answer these 15 questions and score yourself.

Ten Questions to Ask When Choosing a Financial Planner

A big part of the mortgage planning advice that I give involves integrating the mortgage into a person's overall financial plan. If you do not have a financial planner in your life now, I can recommend several excellent ones.



If you are looking for a guide to hiring one, you have come to the right place. The link below will take you to: Ten Questions to Ask When Choosing a Financial Planner

CNN reports on difficulties of modifying a mortgage yourself

Here's a heartbreaking piece from CNN about two mothers that tried to modify their loans by contacting their bank. We hear this alot and encourage people to use our services to avoid this happening to them. Call me at 877-700-3200 ext 2.

Pathways to Getting Ahead

How do you get on the path to getting ahead? How do you get from where you are financially to where you want to go? Those are the questions answered in this e-Book from the Federal Bank of Boston.



This information is about “assets” you can build. Assets are the capacities
and resources that people need to succeed in today’s economy. They
include the following:

• Knowledge, skills, and experience that you need to get a job and move up.
• Jobs and the benefits they give you beyond that very important paycheck,
and also resources that boost your income when your earnings fall short
or jobs aren’t available.
• Financial resources, such as money in the bank or other kinds of savings
and investments such as stocks, bonds, and real estate.

These resources can get you through a personal emergency
or crisis, help you become a home owner, start a
business, pay your way through school, or make life in your
later years that much more comfortable.

The book is free, to download yours, click here.

Free Help With Family Budgeting

I came across a person that has an informative website about family budgeting. Her name is Michelle Jones and the tagline for her website is "Dedicated to Helping Families LIVE A BETTER LIFE...Not by Spending More Money, but Less!"



She offers a free e-zine also. I recommend that you visit the site and see what she has to offer.

To visit Michelle's website is, click here.

How To Repair Your Credit

By LaToya Irby, About.com

Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking you need to hire a professional to repair your credit. The truth is, there is nothing a credit repair company can do to improve your credit that you can’t do for yourself. So, save yourself some money and the hassle of finding a reputable company and repair your credit yourself.

Full article here.

U.S. Home Values Continued to Slide for the Eighth Consecutive Quarter

From Zillow.com, U.S. home values continued to slide for the eighth consecutive quarter, declining 11.6 percent from a year ago, and falling 17.5 percent since the market peak in 2006. Additionally, one in five homes sold in the past 12 months was a foreclosure, and one in six of all homeowners have negative equity.



Zillow Q4 Real Estate Market Reports track 161 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) throughout the U.S., identifying market trends including, but not limited to: five and 10-year annualized change, homes selling for a loss, negative equity, short sales and foreclosure transactions.

Full story here.

Save Money on Your Cell Phone Bill

Simple Ways to Cut the Cost of Owning a Cell Phone
By Erin Huffstetler, About.com

Does your monthly cell phone bill send you into shock? It doesn't have to. Here are fourteen ways to save money on your cell phone bill.



Track Your Talk Time
Do you go over your minutes each month? Then, it's time to start tracking your talk time. Sign up with overmyminutes.com, (a free service) and you'll receive an e-mail or text message to let you know when you're about to run out of minutes.

Read the full article by Erin here.

Mommy, how much is a million?

These days I hear millions, billions and trillions mentioned repeatedly.

How much are these amounts? It's hard for me to comprehend the differences.

I just read good illustration that gave me an idea of the scope if difference between the three amounts, on the Time.com website:

"My favorite way to think of it is in terms of seconds," says David Schwartz, a children's book author whose How Much Is a Million? tries to wrap young minds around the concept. "One million seconds comes out to be about 11½ days. A billion seconds is 32 years. And a trillion seconds is 32,000 years. I like to say that I have a pretty good idea what I'll be doing a million seconds from now, no idea what I'll be doing a billion seconds from now, and an excellent idea of what I'll be doing a trillion seconds from now."

The full article is here.

Scout Out Home Deals

For prospective home buyers, it's hard to ignore the sales pitch: Home values nationwide have fallen on average some 20%, while mortgage rates recently plumbed record lows below 5%.

According to the latest Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, prices for existing single-family homes were down 23% from their 2006 peak in 20 cities as of October.

Read entire article here:Wall Street Journal Online.

Why Most People Who Owe More Than a Property's Worth Will Still Keep Their Homes

From the Wall Street Journal

What does being "underwater" in your house really mean? Probably not that you're drowning.

The number of underwater homeowners -- those who owe more on their mortgages than their home is now worth -- has been growing sharply since 2006 as real-estate prices have tumbled. By some estimates, between one in six and one in eight homeowners are in that position, most of them people who bought homes in the past few years or who put down small or no down payments.

This worries economists and policy makers, since owing more than your home is worth is the first step toward foreclosure. And it's a concern to the rest of us because foreclosures are roiling the financial markets and, closer to home, they drag down our neighborhoods. (Most people who still have equity, by contrast, would rather sell their houses at a loss than lose what's left of their investment.) Read entire article

Help for People Behind On Their Mortgage Payments

An incredible 10% of homeowners in the USA are behind their mortgage payments. Fortunately there is help for people in the form of loan modification.

What is a loan modification?

A loan modification is a process where the borrower that is behind on their mortgage payments re-negotiates the terms of their mortgage with their existing lender.

I have recently made a career decision to work with a company that negotiates on behalf of the borrower to get them the best terms possible. Since we have a staff of attorneys that have done numerous modifications successfully, we are better equipped than a homeowner at negotiating.

Our goal is to help people stay in their homes.