Finances

So you’re thinking about building your own house, are you? Well, you’ve come to the right place! It’s a lot of fun (hard work and eventually fun!) to build your own home and it will save you thousands of dollars(we saved over a Hundred Grand by doing it ourselves - that’s pretty significant cash!). If you happen to live in a Large City, like Los Angeles, or anywhere that Real Estate Values are ‘close-to-insane’, you could potentially save millions of dollars. Interested, you say?? Read on, My Friend, Read on…!

Here’s a little list of things you’ll need to know:

How to Get Money: You’ll need lots of money! Don’t stop reading! There are ways of getting financial support in order to build a house . It certainly helps if you have a swack of cash in the bank. I’d say at least $20,000. - $100,000. to have as a back up - there are a surprising number of things that seem to come out of nowhere that require a quick injection of cash. The amount you will need to ‘get in the ground’ is, of course, dependent on the style and size of your home.

Gearing is where you borrow money to invest. As already mentioned, it is best to clear all your debt before looking at investment. However, there will arise situations where the investment is a good one and it is necessary to borrow a small amount to make the deal work. The borrowing may be for property or shares.

Gearing allows you to increase your investment and potentially obtain a higher return. On the downside, however, if the investment does not pay off you stand to lose a lot more. Negative gearing comes about when the interest you are paying on your borrowing is greater than the income from your investment (for example, from a rental property). You can claim the loss or difference against your taxation and write it off as a deduction against other income.

Negative gearing is not necessarily the best investment strategy. Even though you get a tax break it is still costing you money. That is, you may be saving yourself 25 cents in the dollar, but you have to spend one dollar to achieve that.

An online debt consolidation loan allows even people with a poor credit to reduce their overall monthly payments and regain their financial footing. While there are personal loans that allow you to do this, tapping into your home’s equity is a better option.

Choosing A Loan

Refinancing your home to access your home’s equity enables you to pay off your short-term debt and write off the interest on your taxes. A line of credit won’t let you do that.

With bad credit, your interest rates will be slightly higher than a traditional mortgage, but they will be lower than a line of credit. You also have the option to refinance your loan in two years, after you have established a good credit record.

Applying To Online Lenders

Online mortgage lenders offer financing to all sorts of credit situations, including those with bankruptcy or a foreclosure in their records. Before you begin the process, take the time to research refinance options by different lenders. Compare rates and terms to find the best fit for your situation by requesting quotes.

In their quest to get you to sign up for their credit card, banks and financial institutions are coming up with more and higher incentives to entice you. Frequent flyer miles gave way to gas miles which opened the door for cash rebates and reward points to be used at ‘our fine member merchants’. When most other things are equal (APR, annual fees, fees for transfers et al), the style of reward points and how you can make use of them can be the deciding factor in which card you choose to put in your wallet.

One of your best options for a credit card these days is one of the current crops that offer higher rewards/rebates for purchases made in gas stations, convenience stores and supermarkets. These so-called ‘everyday purchases’ are the market that credit card companies want to capture. That’s why the big push to highlight the convenience of using a credit card for things like grocery shopping - a great way to keep track of your purchases, they point out - gasoline purchases and other everyday incidentals. In order to get you to do that, they’re offering rewards and cash back on those purchases that are higher than those for other purchases.

A Bridging Loan is a short-term loan used as a way to provide funding for the purchase of a new property while the borrower awaits the sale of an existing property. Unless all the stars are in perfect alignment, it’s tricky to coordinate the sale of one property and the purchase of another property in such a way that the transactions occur simultaneously.

A Bridging Loan or "Bridging Finance" as it is also commonly known, makes such transactions possible. They keep the borrower from getting stuck in a rough financial corner, which typically means being forced to pay two mortgages at the same time. Bridging Loans can be used either for commercial or personal reasons.

Short term in nature, the application process for a Bridging Loan is similar to that of a standard loan. Most importantly, it’s advisable to work with a lender that is experienced with this type of loan. Plus, as the need for a Bridging Loan often arises with little advance notice, being pre-approved for such a loan is a smart move.

A quick cash loan also called payday loan, cash advance loan or a deferred deposit service is a small, short-term loan typically ranging from $ 100 to $ 500. These quick cash loans are issued against paychecks. In 2003, payday lenders like bank departments, credit companies or independent cash lenders serviced between 10 million and 12 million customers. A typical borrower of such cash loans pays $15 for every $100 borrowed. The loan period normally lasts for two-weeks. If you do the maths, youl’ll quickly see that this accumulates up to an annual percentage rate of about 400%.

Now, you may inquire that since the loan period is only two weeks, you only pay 15% period. Yes, that’s right if you are able to take no more than one cash advance loan a year. However, statistics shows that many of the first time borrowers are taking this type of loan again and again. And here is the real danger with such loans: We have seen over and over again that if you first have started with payday cash loans, it is very difficult to stop taking them. Therefore this type of loan creates a vicious and costly circle.

Recently I was driving in my Car and I heard an Ad for a Mortgage lender who claimed they would help you find the Best Loan out of over 400 Different Loan Types. 400 Different Loan Types now that has to be confusing. How do you find the Best loan for you. Clearly the Best loan for you is not the Not the best loan for your bank. Learn the Secrets your Banker doesn’t want you to Know.

Some Questions to ask when Choosing a Loan.

• How Long will you keep the Loan?
• How Long will you keep the House?
• How much profit is the Bank Making on this Loan?

The Average Homeowner will get a New Loan every seven years. If you are going to move or refinance in the Next 7 Years is a 30 Year Fixed rate loan Really Best for You. A 30 Year Fixed rate loan is certainly Best for the banks. A Typical in Force 30 Year Fixed rate Loan in force today has an Interest Rate of between 5 and 6%. The Average cost of Funds for a Bank is about 1% (How much interest do they pay you own your checking account,Your Saving account). This means on a 30 Year Fixed rate Mortgage the bank Earns about 4% to 5%. If you keep your loan less then 7 Years why get a 30 Year Fixed rate Loan.

Where is the second biggest deposit of oil reserves in the world?

In the oil sands region of Alberta, Canada. Oil sands are a thick, viscid mixture of bitumen, sand, clay, and water. Alberta’s oil sands is comprised of 3 regions with the Athabasca area being the largest and the closest to the surface. Underneath these gooey tar sands lie trillions of barrels of oil.

So then you may ask why have we been so dependent on Mideast oil. Why haven’t we just stayed nearby and relied on Canada? In fact, Canada is the largest supplier of crude and refined oil to the United States, having supplied 2.1 million barrels per day in 2004. But the percentage supplied to the US and other parts of the world is about to grow much larger.

The big difference between oil sands and oil from the desert sands of the middle east is difficulty of extraction. The oil sands process essentially entails extracting bitumen from the sand, and upgrading it to light crude oils. Easier said than done because this is thick stuff and has been expensive to mine and extract. However new technologies are changing the equation and making it much more cost-efficient to mine and extract from the oil sands.

In addition to the APR (annual percentage rate) and the finance charges, most credit cards have a number of ‘fees’ associated with their use. Some fees are unavoidable with a particular card (like an annual fee or a program participation fee), while others are triggered by certain circumstances. The most common fees are listed below. To get a better idea of what your credit card may cost to use over the course of a year, check your card’s terms and conditions and your user agreement to see which fees may apply to you.

Annual fee:

An annual fee is charged for the privilege of having the card, whether you ever use it or not. Many credit cards offer no annual fee and a low interest rate to their best customers, or to those with excellent credit. If you’re trying to recover from a bout with bad credit, your only choice may be a card with a relatively high annual fee. In that case, look for one with the lowest APR you can get, and be careful to avoid triggering other fees.

Cash advance fee:

With interest rates being at an all-time low, I can understand the urgency for people wanting to purchase a home. But I caution the first-time home buyer to learn how to budget their money before buying a new home.

I happen to live in a state with one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country. I was so shock to learn that many people loose their homes within the first couple of years. I wondered why so soon. Sure the economy is not the best and people are getting laid-off and having hardships, but some people are simply not prepared for the unforeseen problems and expenses that comes with owning their first home.

When I received a call from a friend telling me about a property less than a mile from my home that was in the process of being foreclosed on, I quickly made arrangements with their agent to view the property. It was a nice single family residence with some minor wear and tear. The family that was loosing the home was a basic middle-class family. I had less than three weeks to close the deal since the home was to be sold on the courthouse steps the following month.