This is a guest post from Lisa White.
For senior homeowners needing some extra cash, it’s sometimes better to look backwards instead of forwards – with their mortgage, that is.
Reverse mortgages are not easily understood, and many who could benefit from them shy away, afraid of making a mistake. Journalists who have only a cursory understanding [...]

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The foreclosure crisis has been going on for a couple of years now, but it wasn’t until this week that it really hit home. My wife called last night to tell me that our former neighbors – I’ll call them Bob and Sue – had lost their house and would be moving to another state.
For [...]

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Have you ever thought about buying mortgage protection insurance? Do you even know what it is? My husband and I first heard about mortgage protection life insurance from our mortgage company. They’ve been sending out little sales pitches along with our mortgage statements.
I’m usually skeptical about programs and accounts advertised by banks, but on the [...]

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Do you have any favorite financial rules of thumb? I recently ran across an interesting study in which the researchers looked at the impact of formal financial training vs. simplified, rule-of-thumb training on financial decision making.
While the focus of the study was rather narrow (micro-entrepreneurs in the Dominican Republic), the results were quite interesting. In [...]

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Debt reduction guru Dave Ramsey is well known for encouraging his followers to “live like no one else so that you can live like no one else.” Sound advice. But have you ever wondered how Ramsey himself lives?
I recently ran across an interesting article that provided details about Ramsey’s new mansion just south of Nashville [...]

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If you’ve ever bought a house, you’ve probably wondered if title insurance is really necessary. I mean, sure, it protects you in the event of a dispute over the ownership of your property, but how often does that really happen?
This issue has been brought into sharper focus by recent developments in the ongoing foreclosure crisis. [...]

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Are you swamped with high interest debt and looking for a solution? The airwaves are filled with ads for debt consolidation, but do you really need someone to do it for you? Why not do your own legwork and roll your debts into one low(er) interest loan?
One option for consolidating your debt is rolling it [...]

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Over the past few months, it’s become clear that a lot of homeowners are strategically defaulting on their homes. In other words, they’re intentionally walking away from their mortgage obligations because they owe significantly more than their home is worth, even if they can afford to keep making the mortgage payment.
But what then? Once you’ve [...]

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Wondering why everyone is talking about mortgage rates these days?
If so, then check out this graph…

This is a graph of historical mortgage rates going back to 1986. As you can see, rates on 15- and 30-year fixed rate mortgages are currently really low.
Back when we bought our first house in 2002, we were paying [...]

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In case you haven’t been paying attention… Freddie Mac says that mortgage rates have declined to a record low of 4.57% on a 30-year fixed rate loan.
Interestingly, even with these historically low rates, there hasn’t been much action. Home values are down and many homeowners are upside down, and thus unable to refinance. Others can’t [...]

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