The process of obtaining a mortgage for your home can be very confusing. There are many parties involved in your mortgage and it can be easy to become overwhelmed by all of the new information. Taking out a mortgage is not as simple as just paying the price of the home over a certain period of time. There is interest factored into your payment along with principal, tax and insurance. When your house gets foreclosed it's easy to throw your hands in the air and say, “It's not my fault, I must be a victim of predatory lending!”. However, this is not always a reasonable conclusion. Here are the signs to look for in order to figure out if you are truly a victim of bad lending.
The importance of money is impressed upon most Americans as soon as we’re old enough to buy candy. But the importance of money management is an entirely different story, says self-made millionaire Mike Finley.
“Think about all that we do to prepare children for the world; we fill them up with things we think are most important for doing well as adults and spend tens of thousands of dollars for higher education, but they never take a class on how to manage personal finances,” says Finley, author of “Financial Happine$$,” which discusses his journey to financial literacy and applying the principles that allowed him to retire from the Army a wealthy man. “Our culture celebrates privacy and self determination, which is why, I think, we don’t want to tell students how they should spend their money, but I think young people are hungry for guidance.”
Seventy-six percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, according to a recent CashNetUSA survey. That percentage varies with other studies; however, the percentage never dips below at least 50 percent of Americans who have very little in savings, says Finley, whose voluntary night class on financial literacy at the University of Northern Iowa is always packed beyond capacity. Finley identifies your best allies and the voices that do not have your best interests at heart when it comes to money management:
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) offers the following tips to protect yourself against becoming a victim of mortgage fraud.
Be an informed consumer! Be wary of anyone who approaches you with an offer to make "easy money" in real estate. Remember: if a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Protect yourself and your family from becoming victims of or accomplices to mortgage fraud. This means:
New rules will provide homeowners and consumers shopping for a home mortgage with new rights and greater protection from harmful practices. These rules should eliminate or sharply reduce the runarounds and painful surprises that hurt so many homeowners during and after the financial crisis.
(BPT) - In the next few months, high school seniors across the country will be anxiously checking mailboxes for college acceptance letters. With two-thirds of recent high school grads enrolling in college as of 2012, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it is the first step on a journey towards personal and financial independence for many Americans. Whether an incoming freshman, soon to be senior or recent grad, it is never too early to get financially fit. The key to success is to make the process fun and manageable.
Easy and enjoyable financial planning is the premise behind TheMintGrad.org, a new website from Northwestern Mutual, intended to encourage 18-24 year olds to embrace the notion of F.L.C. (financial loving care) - or the importance of strong financial habits as an essential component of overall well-being. In addition to a wide spectrum of content on topics ranging from investing to interview tips, the site features columns by well-known financial bloggers and user-friendly interactive tools. According to experts at TheMintGrad.org, the quickest way to jumpstart a financial fitness program is to mind your B.I.S.:
Budgeting - Less than one third of Americans (32 percent) put together a monthly budget. Learning to track income and expenses is essential to staying out of debt, especially for someone with limited means. Successful budgeting is similar to dieting. It is important to be realistic with goals and work towards incremental improvements. And like dieting, "cheating" once or twice will not undermine progress unless it becomes an excuse for abandoning the effort.
By John Voket
In this report, I will pick up where I left off: reviewing details from the Connecticut Public Interest Research Group - ConnPIRG - about new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rules that just went into effect to help protect homeowners and homebuyers from mortgage abuses.
ConnPIRG is a non-profit, non-partisan advocacy organization that takes on powerful interests on behalf of its members. As a founding member of the coalition Americans for Financial Reform, ConnPIRG helped lead the fight to establish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Abe Scarr, ConnPIRG Director said in addition to the CFPB's new rules protecting homebuyers and homeowners, the agency has released a variety of self-help tools so consumers can protect themselves.
Mortgage Shopping 101
Making Sense of the Mortgage Market
Shopping for a mortgage can be time-consuming and difficult for homebuyers, especially in today’s market where many buyers don’t know where to begin. The Federal Reserve Board has put together the following tips so that you can make sense of the mortgage market and be sure you are getting the mortgage that is right for you.
