Many people today are caught in a vicious cycle. People are caught up in a cycle of consumption. I see it all the time when a person calls our office to sell their house and on the surface they seem to be in very good financial shape but after a little digging I find that they have some very big problems.

I’ll give you an example, a couple that I am very good friends with has purchased a single family house. They originally bought the house with the attitude that even though the payment was high, they would really like this big house and eventually they would sell the house at a profit. They are both employed and have good jobs making a sizable income.

On the surface it seems that they are living the dream. The couple bought the house and moved in about 10 months ago. When they moved into this large house they realized that they needed to furnish the house with new furniture because you can’t have a nice, big house and have cheap apartment furniture. Read more »

You’ve taken the plunge into wedded bliss, had a wonderful honeymoon and are ready to mesh you lives together into one big happy pile, all with great ease and no worries for the future. You have dreamed of a lifetime of happiness in all areas of your life, now it’s time to face the facts and make that dream a reality. One would think that a healthy marriage is a guarantee to financial success, but a few things need to be discussed when marriage and your finances meet. Below you will find a few helpful hints to make your marriage and your finances a happy union.

1. Know where you are financially.

When you sit down with your fiancé or spouse, you need to lay out all of the facts with your financial. Schedule a time to meet and gather together your credit card statements, car notes, student loans, rent payments, cell phone and other miscellaneous bills. Write down a list of what you both owe and what your individual incomes are for the year. If you want to purchase a home, knowing where you are financially will give you a head start and help you avoid many financial pitfalls before they happen. Fixing financial problems are much easier before you get into a home than after. Many couples find themselves trying to avoid foreclosure of their new homes all do to poor planning financially before they purchased the home. Knowing where you are financially makes budgeting for the future much easier. Read more »

The great American Dream of homeownership is what many in the United States diligently strive after. While homeownership brings a host of benefits, no one will argue that you take on an equal amount of responsibilities when you purchase your home. In the current real estate market, becoming a homeowner may come with little or no cash investment for what used to be a traditional down-payment of about twenty percent of the sales price of the home. The loan that is obtained by a first time homebuyer is usually a special loan designed to assist those at entry level, or those buyers who have not yet accumulated a substantial sum for the down-payment.

Banks will always prefer to lend to a borrower that has more money to invest for a down payment. Usually, the desired amount is at least ten or twenty percent of the purchase price in the form of cash. Almost without exception, the banks or mortgage lenders will make special loans with very little or no down-payment to a homebuyer because the loan is usually insured or guaranteed against loss of principal by a governmental or quasi-governmental agency.

Unfortunately, first time homebuyer loans are usually the first loans that go into default in an economic downturn. Financial hardships caused by either loss of a job, accident and/or injury, chronic illness or relationship problems can turn the long sought after American Dream into a nightmare. Although in a normal economy, there are very few people that actually end up losing their homes, those in the midst of the foreclosure process can find themselves in such emotional, as well as financial, turmoil that many do not see themselves successfully resolving the problem they have gotten into. Read more »