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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In case you haven’t heard, the House of Representatives voted yesterday to extend the homebuyer tax credit by three months, but only in a limited fashion.
More specifically, they’re looking to extend the deadline for closing on your new home if you went under contract before the April 30th deadline. If, on the other hand, you’re [...]

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What would you do if you had a little windfall come your way? Would you spend it all, or would you look for ways to improve your finances, such as paying off some of your debt? Right now, many people are struggling with this question as they decide how to use their tax return and/or [...]

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This is a guest post from RJ Weiss, who is an aspiring financial planner. RJ writes about financial planning for twenty-somethings at Gen Y Wealth. If you like what you see here, please consider subscribing to his RSS feed.
Want to start a fight on a personal finance world? Just ask someone if it makes more [...]

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The big news earlier this week was that pending home sales in March were up 21% vs. the same period in 2009. While that sounds promising, it must be kept in mind that many buyers were rushing into the market to take advantage of the homebuyer tax credit, which expired at the end of April.
At [...]

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This is just a quick note about the $8000/$6500 homebuyer tax credit. As you may recall, this credit was originally introduced as an $8000 first-time homebuyer tax credit that was set to expire on November 30, 2009.
Shortly before its expiration, Congress acted to push the expiration date back to April 30, 2010. At the same [...]

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I just checked the balance on our mortgage to make sure this month’s payment went through. I’m excited about accelerating our mortgage payments and seeing the principal decrease. We’re still waiting on first-time homebuyer’s tax credit, and will be using that $8,000 to take a chunk out of our mortgage.
While looking at the breakdown of [...]

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This past Monday, I sent Lending Club a final check for $1,582.05 – thus settling our Lending Club loan and reducing our creditors to four. The debts we owe are now limited to two student loans and two mortgages. Today, I’m asking for your advice as to which we should repay next.
Only student loan and [...]

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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 [...]

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After less than a month in our new home, we’re still adjusting to being home owners (or ‘home loaners’ as my husband likes to say). Among many other changes, we have some new expenses that we didn’t have as renters.
Mortgage payments
For example, our first mortgage payment is due in March. Along with our mortgage payment, [...]

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