How and Why to Diversify Your Income

Time and again we hear that investment diversification is a must, and rightly so. Diversifying investments – by investing in a variety of different types of index funds and/or ETFs, for example – is a wise strategy for reducing risk.

In contrast, how many of us maintain a similar diversification perspective with respect to our income? Multiple streams of income can be one of our greatest allies in the pursuit of financial security, and yet few pursue this sort of thing. Having additional sources of income serves to hedge against job loss and other employment variables, so shouldn’t income diversification be sewn into the fabric of our daily financial strategy?

Multiple streams of income

How much time you’ve spend diversifying your income (or even thinking about it) probably depends on the circles in which you run. I can say with confidence, however, that our culture generally does not place enough emphasis on the concept… So we need to think outside the box and adopt it ourselves.

In 5 years of marriage, I have had three separate employers and my wife has also had three (jobs in Michigan are particularly unstable). Since January of 2009, we have been focused on expanding our income sources to increase financial security and buffer risk. The possibility of job loss, pay cuts, furlough days, and dubious markets fed our desire to assemble a sprawling network of income sources that we continue to build upon today.

In 2008, we had 2 sources of income; today we have more than 10. The sources we have developed usually center around our passions, tend to be at least partially passive in nature, but also have the potential to grow with additional effort. We get out of them what we put in, and have become addicted to the direct control of our own success.

Don’t quit your day job

Do not misunderstand my appeal for income diversification as a call to quit your day job. The idea is to diversify income sources, not eliminate or constrict them.

Both my wife and I still hold our “career positions” and intend to do so until our debt is eliminated, or until our alternate sources are earning us enough for us to bow out gracefully – whichever comes first. Neither of us are crazy about our “day jobs,” but any discontent we have is rooted more in the necessity to maintain them due to our debt load than in the jobs themselves.

If you have recently lost employment and are in the process of looking for work, then you have a perfect opportunity on your hands! When you’re not out searching for a job, brainstorm a list of several alternate income sources that you could develop and get started. You will be as successful as you want to be… More than anything, success is driven by hard work and consistency.

Trim fat and reallocate existing income

Always remember that there are two parts to leading a healthy financial life. Earning more and spending less. In addition to searching for more income sources, you should take a close look at your spending and see if there are any areas where you can plug unnecessary leaks. For example, if you’re spending a ton of money on servicing your debts, you need to get serious about debt reduction. In the long run, you might find that “trimming the fat” improves your bottom line more than some of your possible alternate income opportunities.

How to brainstorm alternate sources of income

I started with a highly technical approach that I like to call “doing whatever you can think of to make an extra buck,” then tweaked things over time by visualizing things with a mindmap.

Mindmaps provide an excellent canvas to freely sketch out ideas in digital format. If you are unfamiliar with them, mindmaps are diagrams used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea (source).

The following image provides a fairly generic representation of my current income sources. I actually have a much more detailed and descriptive breakdown for my personal use that I update and refer to on a regular basis. Laying everything out in this manner helps me brainstorm and organize my projects with a much higher degree of success.

If you want to get started with mindmapping, here are some software options that I recommend:

• Mindjet MindManager – This is the software that I use. In my opinion, it’s the best option on the market, but it costs nearly $300. There is, however, a free 30 day trial.
• Freemind – A free and open source option that I recommend you use to get started with mindmaps.
• Xmind – Offers a free version and a more feature-rich pay version.

In closing…

Income diversification is a prudent practice that can increase financial security and even self-fulfillment. If you’ve never taken the time to map out a network of actual and potential income that incorporates all your gifts and passions, then I highly encourage you to do so. I promise that you will (at the very least) be intrigued by your findings, and you might discover some new possibilities.

Published on March 11th, 2010 - Leave a Comment
Filed under: Miscellany
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Best Places to Invest for Retirement

A reader named KC recently wrote in with a question about investing for retirement:

I’m 28 years old with a wife and a six month old baby. We’ve always been money-conscious, but would really like to focus our efforts. We both have Roth IRAs, but are not satisfied with them. They are heavily loaded, and we weren’t that familiar with them when we were advised to set them up. My question is where you would recommend I go for a long-term investing vehicle? I always hear to go with no-load mutual funds but would like your opinion.

This is a great question. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again… Friends don’t let friends pay mutual fund sales loads.

My personal preference when it comes to long-term investing centers on low cost, no-load mutual funds. When I say low cost, what I’m really talking about is “passively-managed” index funds that seek to match the market as a whole, or some segment thereof.

As for my favorite places to invest, Vanguard is at the top of my list. We also have some money with Fidelity and have been quite happy with their offerings. A third option would be Schwab, who has a bunch of low cost mutual funds with a low minimum investment of $100.

A slight variation on the above would be to go with index ETFs instead of index mutual funds. The underlying premise is the same, but you get a bit more flexibility when it comes to trading shares. If you do go this route, make sure you select a good discount broker so the trading costs don’t eat you alive.

Of course, there are other options to consider, such as opening a Treasury Direct account so you can buy Treasury securities such as T-Bills, T-Notes, T-Bonds, Series EE Savings Bonds, Series I Savings Bonds, etc. This will allow you to purchase these securities direct from the Federal government with no middleman.

Just keep in mind that the optimal composition of your portfolio depends on many factors, so you really need to give a lot of thought to your time horizon, risk tolerance, etc. before you make any major moves.

Published on March 10th, 2010 - 3 Comments
Filed under: Retirement, Saving & Investing
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Four Good Ways to Maintain Good Savings Habits After the Recession

This is a guest post from Richard Barrington, who is a banking analyst for MoneyRates.com. Richard previously spent over twenty years as an investment industry executive.

Many people got religion about saving money during the recent recession. This reversed a trend of steadily climbing U.S. debt burdens–or is it just a temporary pause in that trend?

The answer depends largely on whether people continue the good savings habits they acquired during the recession. You may not be able to do anything about national savings rates, but you can take some steps to make sure your own savings rate stays on track.

Keeping the savings habit going

On the surface, it may seem counterintuitive to find that savings rates actually improved during the recession. After all, incomes were down, and low bank rates created little incentive for saving. Even so, people were scared into good savings habits, and found they could get by with less.

Here are four things you can do to continue good savings habits as the economy turns from recession to expansion:

1. Lock-in low interest rates. If you refinanced your home loan, make sure you locked in those lower interest rates with a fixed-rate mortgage.
2. Eat in more often. Many individuals cut down on their restaurant habit during the recession. Continuing to eat at home more often will make going out seem special again–and could be good for your waistline as well.
3. Reduce your credit card usage. By choice or by force, many people have cut down on the number of credit cards they have. Even once credit becomes more freely available again, keep in mind that having fewer credit cards gives you fewer ways to get into financial trouble.
4. Avoid “expense creep.” Over the years, it seems bills for services like mobile phones and cable television have ballooned drastically. The recession forced people to cut back to what they really need, and you can keep pocketing those savings if you guard against letting unnecessary services or luxuries gradually creep back into your lifestyle.

If Americans were able to increase savings rates during a recession, just imagine how powerful those habits could be once incomes start rising again and there’s more to put into your high yield savings account. If you really want to build wealth rather than just fight off trouble, maintaining good savings habits in an economic expansion is the way to do it.

Published on March 10th, 2010 - 4 Comments
Filed under: Banking, Frugality, Saving & Investing
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Saving Money on Car Insurance?

Our homeowners insurance (and now life insurance) agent gave called last week. He wanted to see if we would let him price an auto insurance policy for us as “rates have gotten more competitive.”

He seems determined to get us to use him for all our insurance needs. I told him that would be fine; we’re always trying to get a good deal. I doubted he could offer something comparable to what we have now since it’s already such a good deal.

He called again Friday and told me his quote, and suggested that we review the copy he’d be sending in the mail. That’s good, because I don’t make big decisions like that over the phone; my husband and I like to research the numbers and ask around for opinions on customer service. I also look at companies like NetQuote, Geico, Esurance, and Progressive to make sure I’m getting a fair deal (compare rates and get tips on how to save at our post on how to save money on car insurance).

Examining car insurance coverage

The first we did when comparing rates was to pull out our existing car insurance policy so we could compare apples to apples. Here’s what we’re looking for in car insurance coverage:

Bodily Injury ($100,000/$300,000): We need to coverage to protect us from medical bills and lawsuits from any injuries or death that are our responsibility. North Carolina has a lower requirement for bodily injury ($30,000/$60,000), but we believe medical bills can easily top those amounts so extra coverage is important for us.

Property Damage ($100,000): This coverage will pay for any property we damage (such as to someone else’s car) due to an accident. This amount reflects the maximum paid per accident; we think $100,000 should be enough to cover these expenses. North Carolina only requires $25,000, but we think that is too low. We could save money on our premiums if we went lower, but we’d then be responsible for anything over our coverage limit.

Uninsured Motorist Coverage ($100,000/$300,000/$100,000): If we get into an accident due to the other driver’s fault and they don’t have insurance, then this protects us and our property.

Collision: Collision coverage can help when your car is damaged and is in need of repairs. It also includes repairs if your car is broken into. We currently only have collision for my car (2000 VW Jetta). If you have a car loan, most lien holders will require collision, but it’s optional once you pay the loan off. Since collision typically pays up to the value of the car, having coverage for my husband’s car (a 1994 Acura Integra) didn’t make financial sense.

Coverage-wise the new offer looks about the same, but I noticed that our current policy is has slightly lower premiums.

Discounts for car insurance

While reviewing the new policy, I noticed it was lower than what he had been quoted by the same agent months before, and I wanted to know why. I noticed that we now qualified for more discounts. Besides having a multi-car policy, we were now having a multi-policy discount with this insurance company. After getting some more information on our cars, he included discounts for having car alarm systems installed, and we also qualify for something called NC Tiering Program.

Beyond the above, you can also get a better rate though big things like not having any accidents as well as little things like having a clean credit report. With everything included, our 12 month car insurance premium would be around $775/year or about $65/month. It’s definitely in the ballpark with our current policy so we’re considering it. One thing in favor of the new policy is that it would simplify things a bit, as we’d only have one insurance agent.

Consider your Circumstances

Besides price, we’re also looking at any extra benefits of the policy. The car insurance policy the new agent quoted has lower deductibles ($500 instead of $1,000), but our current policy has towing and roadside assistance included with no additional charge.

The new policy quote doesn’t include towing on it, so I’m going to ask the agent if that’s an additional charge. We’ve already used the roadside assistance with our current policy a few times, so we’re definitely interested in keeping it. While celebrating our anniversary, for example, our car got stuck in the mud. All it took was a quick phone call to get a tow truck dispatched, and there was not out-of-pocket expense.

How do you save on car insurance?

Now that you’ve heard about our situation, I want to hear about your tricks for shopping around for car insurance and getting a better deal. What tips do you have for saving money on car insurance? Please let us know by leaving a comment.

Published on March 9th, 2010 - 6 Comments
Filed under: Automotive, Insurance
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How to Handle a Missing W-2 Form

This is a guest post from Jim at Bargaineering. If you like what you see here, please consider subscribing to his RSS feed.

If you haven’t yet received your W-2 form, which reports your wages for the past year, chances are the post office monster ate it. By law, your employer is required to mail a copy of your W-2 to you by January 31st, which means it should get to you at the latest before mid-February. Since it’s early March, we are way past the deadline and since your employer probably didn’t forget, it’s likely disappeared into the abyss of the postal system.

So what are you supposed to do? The easiest way to handle this situation is to go to your payroll or human resources department and ask them for another copy. If you’re eager to get your taxes done and/or don’t want to risk it getting lost in the mail (again!), you can ask them to print you out a copy and hold it for you to pick up in person. If you’re due a tax refund (the average tax refund last year was almost $2700), requesting an in-person pickup can help you file and thus get your refund that much faster.

What if you received your W-2 form but lost it? Do the same thing, go to payroll or HR and request another copy. In either case you might have to fill out a form, depending on how strict your company’s policies are, to get a new copy but it’s usually not a big deal, and you also don’t have much of a choice.

What if you never received a 1099 form? That’s easy… This post explains how to handle a missing 1099 form.

Happy filing!

Published on March 8th, 2010 - Leave a Comment
Filed under: Taxes
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Don’t Let Short-Term Events Disrupt Long-Term Planning

This is a guest post from Darwin’s Finance. If you like what you see here, please consider subscribing to his RSS Feed.

While it’s difficult to overcome the urge to react to unexpected events in our lives, patience and consideration of the facts almost always yields better results than emotional reactions. We encounter this every day, from holding off on hitting that send button on a nasty email you haven’t yet fully digested, to not punching the guy in the face who just said something stupid to your girlfriend.

In retrospect, such instinctive responses that were delivered without considering the full context, the facts and the likely outcomes most often lead to regret and often, financial pain, down the road.

“Storm of the Century”

While the media loves to talk about the “Storm of the Century” every few years to keep eyeballs glued to the set, we actually have had the snowfall of the century this year in many parts of the Northeast.

Well… We have some friends who tend to make rapid, emotional decisions that often have heavy financial implications. Last week, they proclaimed, “We’re moving to California. This snow is ridiculous and we’re not dealing with another winter like this.”

In truth, they probably won’t see another winter like the East Coast has had, but their minds are made up. They’ve already talked their parents into moving out West with them so they can still see the grandkids, and he’s already looking for work.

They’re serious; they’re moving because of snow.

Take a deep breath

Based on my recollections, this winter has been off the charts. In fact, I can recall several winters where we didn’t even have any snow to speak of, perhaps a dusting here or there. So, I looked into it a little further.

As it turns out, we haven’t had this much snow in our region for over 100 years, dating back to when they first started tracking snowfall in 1884. Hmmm… Maybe it was a Storm of the Century. But still… Moving?

What’s the big deal about moving? Well, if snow is the sole catalyst, it just strikes me has highly irrational – and expensive.

• An equivalent house (they have a roughly 3,000 sq ft new-construction home) in a reasonably desirable area of California is going to cost more than double what it does here.
• California is essentially bankrupt. It’s inevitable that services will be cut while taxes are being raised – and current tax rates are already higher than most states. Is this a place you want to be moving TO? Or running FROM?
• Moving costs are not trivial.
• What if the job doesn’t work out? It’s tougher to find high paying jobs than it used to be.

It’s now evident this wasn’t a typical snowfall season. Since we haven’t had this much snow in over 100 years, it is unlikely that we’ll see something similar anytime soon. This winter was an outlier, pure and simple.

Wanting to avoid bad winter weather is a lot like the understandable, yet irrational feeling of not wanting to drive a car again after a bad car accident, or even people that are afraid to fly even though the trip to the airport is more hazardous than the plane flight itself. While disasters do occur, they are extremely rare, and repeat events of similar magnitude are nearly non-existent.

So, if there’s a once per hundred year earthquake on the fault line which causes damage and fear, will our friends turn around and move back East? This business of reacting to rare events can get pretty expensive!

Investment decisions

This brings me to how similar thinking affects investors. Left to their own devices, millions of retail investors damage their prospects for an optimal retirement asset allocation by constantly tinkering with it. In the midst of the financial crisis, friend after friend proclaimed that they were boldly moving all their money out of stocks and into bonds – Treasury Bonds that is.

Many retirement accounts offer some sort of “conservative” bond fund, and tons of people have flocked into such investments. Not only did most of these people exit at the worst possible time – pivot bottom in March 2009, but they then shifted money into a money-losing Treasury fund while stocks rallied over 60% from their lows in less than a year (compare Mar 9 onward)!

If you thought Treasuries could never lose money, think again. With yields so low that investors were actually taking a negative yield just to stay liquid in short term paper, the only direction for Treasuries to move was down (driving yield up). And they did. It was so plainly obvious to me in 2009 that I shorted Treasuries in my trading account with a practical risk-free gain in my book.

So, what you have here is people that initially had a reasonable asset allocation suited to their risk tolerance and time horizon (often 20-30 years from now!) shifting money around at the worst possible time. By deviating from a long-term strategy with short term reactive measures, their nest egg at retirement could be hundreds of thousands of dollars short.

While stocks make people nervous, no responsible financial adviser would propose a 0% stock allocation and 100% Treasury bond allocation for a 30 year time horizon. History has demonstrated that you’re lucky if you even beat inflation over decades long periods of time in Treasuries, while equities always outperform other conventional asset classes over long time periods.

Regardless of what your long term strategy is – be it asset allocation in your 401K, career moves, altering a small business strategy, or whatever the situation may be – before you “go with your gut” and make a major decision based on a single data point, your emotions, or a perceived reality, make sure you consider the context and what the possible long-term implications are.

What are some of the worst “Gut Reaction” moves you’ve seen?

Published on March 8th, 2010 - 9 Comments
Filed under: Saving & Investing
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How to Report Visa and MasterCard Violations

In the past week, I’ve written up the credit card acceptance guidelines for both Visa and MasterCard. But what if a merchant doesn’t follow the guidelines? What recourse do you have?

In short, you can report them to Visa or MasterCard and (hopefully) corrective action will be taken. Here’s how to get in touch with the two companies…

Reporting Visa credit card violations

Perhaps the easiest way to get in touch with Visa is to call them at 1-800-VISA-911. Alternatively, you can call the number on the back of your card.

If you would prefer to send a written complaint, you can address it to:

Visa U.S.A. Inc.
P.O. Box 194607
San Francisco, CA 94119-4607

You might also be able to register your complaint online through your card issuer’s website, but Visa doesn’t have a centralized way of doing this.

Reporting MasterCard credit card violations

Once again, you can call in your complaint to 1-800-MASTERCARD, or you can call the number on the back of your card.

Alternatively, you can register your complaint online via the MasterCard Merchant Violations page. You’ll be asked for your name and address, details about the merchant, and the nature of the problem. There is also space for freeform comments.

Have you ever reported a merchant?

Have you ever reported a merchant for violating the terms of their credit card agreement? Perhaps they required ID, attempted to add a surcharge to your purchase, or tried to enforce a minimum purchase amount.

If so, please share your experience in the comments.

Published on March 5th, 2010 - 17 Comments
Filed under: Credit Cards
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MasterCard Credit Card Acceptance Guidelines

Last week I wrote about Visa’s credit card acceptance guidelines. This week, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at MasterCard’s merchant guidelines.

MasterCard credit card rules

What follows is a synopsis of MasterCard’s rules regarding card acceptance straight from their merchant guide. The rules regarding card acceptance aren’t quite as explicit as Visa’s in some areas, though there are many parallels. Also note that there are many more rules that what I’ve listed below — I tried to filter out the ones with the least everyday relevance.

Honor all cards. Merchants are required to honor all valid MasterCards without discrimination when properly presented for payment. Merchants may not discriminate amongst customers who seek to make purchases with a MasterCard, nor can they discriminate against or discourage the use of a MasterCard in favor of another brand.

Additional cardholder identification. A merchant must not refuse to complete a transaction solely because a cardholder who has presented a card to pay for a purchase refuses to provide additional identification.

Charges to cardholders. A merchant may not directly or indirectly require a cardholder to pay a surcharge or any part of the merchant processing fees charged in connection with a transaction. However, fees are allowable if they are charged regardless of the form of the payment, and merchants can provide a cash discount.

Minimum/maximum transaction amount prohibited. A merchant may not require, or indicate that it requires, a minimum or maximum transaction amount in order to accept a valid and properly presented MasterCard.

Sale or exchange of information. Merchants may not sell, purchase, provide, exchange, or in any manner disclose MasterCard account numbers, transaction details, or a cardholder’s personal information.

Noncompliance assessment. If MasterCard learns of a merchant’s non-compliance to their rules, they will notify the “acquirer” (i.e., the bank that processes transactions for the merchant) and the acquirer must “promptly” bring the merchant back into compliance.

Failure to safeguard account data. If a merchant is found to have violated any of the security rules (there are several listed), MasterCard can impost a noncompliance assessment of up to $100,000 per violation. They also specify the steps a merchant must take if they believe account data has been compromised, including notification of the acquirer withing 24 hours.

There are a handful of other requirements that I’ve heard about with MasterCards that weren’t listed in the their merchant guide. For example, the cards have to be signed to be valid, and so on. Once again, I’m betting that the biggest hot-button issue will be asking for ID, followed closely by minimum transaction requirements.

What’s your biggest annoyance when it comes to merchants accepting (or not) you credit card?

Source: MasterCard.com

Published on March 5th, 2010 - 16 Comments
Filed under: Credit Cards
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Sallie Mae Introduces High Interest Savings Account

This is interesting… Sallie Mae, traditionally a provider of federal and private student loans, has just entered the retail banking world. Their initial products include a high interest savings account and CDs with fairly competitive rates.

The current rate on their savings account is 1.35% APY, and their CD rates range from 1.50% APY for 12 months up to 3.00% APY for 60 months. The savings account has no minimum balance and no monthly fees. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any mention of a minimum deposit for CDs. Not surprisingly, all accounts are FDIC insured up to current limits.

In addition to a fairly competitive rate, Sallie Mae Bank will match up to 10% of your Upromise earnings (subject to some restrictions). I don’t have an account with Sallie Mae Bank, so I can’t vouch for their user interface or customer service. If any of you have experience with them, please leave a comment and let us know how you like it.

Published on March 4th, 2010 - One Comment
Filed under: Banking
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Two Common Mortgage and Housing Mistakes to Avoid

Like millions of other Americans, my wife and I are upside down on our home mortgage – i.e., the amount we owe exceeds our home’s value. If I had it to do over again, rather than buy with $0 down, I would rent, save money, and buy only after it made more financial sense than renting. If only I could go back in time to alter our decision to buy!

Oh well, our plan moving forward is to pay off our mortgage early and stay put until prices trend upward.

As an aside, if you want more information on buying a home vs. renting you can check out Laura’s view of the buy vs. rent dilemma, as well as my opinion on the same thing.

Mistake #1 – Zero down mortgage

So many new homeowners made the mistake of entering into a zero down mortgage. If you cannot afford a down payment of at least 20%, lenders typically require either a 2nd mortgage or carrying private mortgage insurance (PMI).

One positive result of the housing crisis has been a huge scaling back of the zero and low down payment mortgages, which has been a large contributing factor of plummeting home sales. Nowadays people who don’t have any money cannot buy houses. Go figure, right?

2nd mortgages and Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI):

Private mortgage insurance (PMI) is insurance payable to a lender or trustee for a pool of securities that may be required when taking out a mortgage loan. It is insurance to offset losses in the case where a mortgagor is unable to repay the loan and the lender is not able to recover its costs after foreclosure and sale of the mortgaged property. Typical rates are $55/mo. per $100,000 financed, or as high as $1,500/yr. for a typical $200,000 loan. (source)

A second mortgage (commonly used as an alternative to PMI) is a secured loan that is subordinate to another loan (your 1st mortgage) against the same property. The 2nd mortgage typically carries a significantly higher interest rate and is typically used as part or all of the 20% down payment. The higher rate is a reflection of increased risk to the lender, and results in much higher interest costs to the borrower over time.

We fell into this trap like so many others. We wanted to get into our new home now, and were ready to employ any creative financing necessary to make it happen… And so we entered into a 2nd mortgage for 25% of the purchase price (75/25 loan.)

To avoid a costly 2nd mortgages or PMI, save at least 20% of the purchase price of the home.

Mistake #2 – Buying high and selling low

Whether you’re trying to time the stock market or time real estate transactions, buying low and selling high should always be the goal. In a bad market the temptation to do the opposite can be powerful.

Take my housing situation, for example. I hate the fact that we have debt at all, and am very tempted to sell, despite the fact that we would have to take a loss! I’m tempted to sell our house for a loss and then rent for much less than our current mortgage payments and pay off our remaining debt while renting.

Though getting out from under the mortgages is tempting, I decided against it for mathematical reasons. If we were to sell now, we would not only lose money on the transaction, but we’d have to pay cash to our lender. If I could wind up even money, I would sell tomorrow. Instead, we are doing the next best thing… Making our 2nd mortgage the next victim of our debt snowball.

The faster we can reduce our amount owed, the sooner we can sell without any out-of-pocket costs. Our hope is that the housing market will bounce back in the mean time, affording us the option to sell for gain.

To avoid selling your home for less than you owe, increase mortgage principal payments and wait for the market to rebound.

It is worth mentioning that we cannot control market conditions, so we should spend our energy focusing on the factors that we can control:

1. Once you have high interest consumer debts under control, focus your debt snowball on reducing your mortgage – and look into refinancing your mortgage to see if rates are attractive as you may be able lock in a lower rate. If you have a 2nd mortgage, pay it off ASAP. Those of you with PMI should also focus on reducing your mortgage principal to speed your ability to drop the PMI once your principal is reduced below 80% of the home value.
2. Make property upgrades that raise the value more than the amount they cost to implement. DIY projects can cost very little, yet yield superb ROI.

In closing…

Most who fall victim to either of these housing and mortgage blunders end up paying dearly. I hope this article will help future homebuyers avoid the same mistakes. For our next home purchase, my wife and I intend to save 100% of our payment before buying… But that is a post for another day!

Published on March 4th, 2010 - 27 Comments
Filed under: Mortgages, Real Estate
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