Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
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Of course there will be things wrong with your dream house! The home inspection is designed to tell you that upfront so you can be an informed consumer. What do you do with those findings? Your Realtor is your main advocate when it comes to negotiating for repairs. You’ll review the home inspection report together and make a list of things you’d like the seller to fix. I’m here to beg you to keep your loan officer in the loop. (Heehee! That would be “me” – your loan officer in The Loop!) Your...
You've researched long-term care insurance (LTCI) and are seriously thinking of buying a policy. Just make sure you're doing it for the right reasons--don't be swayed by unsubstantiated sales pitches. Here are some claims you'll want to think twice about. A long-term care policy is a great tax write-off Though it's true that premiums paid on a tax-qualified LTCI policy can reduce your tax burden, you must itemize deductions to be eligible. When you're older, perhaps you'll no longer itemize...
We’re short and sweet this week: Here is an article posted in the National Mortgage Professional magazine. While the majority of prospective homebuyers do their research on home loans online, they prefer to handle their applications in the presence of a loan officer. According to a new survey of nearly 2,000 adults conducted on behalf of the American Bankers Association, 60 percent of Americans stated that, while they use the Internet to research their home loans, they would rather apply for a...
This article was written by Edward Jones for use by your local Edward Jones Financial Advisor. Unless you live near an amusement park that does a lot of advertising, you probably didn’t know that Aug. 16 is National Roller Coaster Day. Actual roller coasters provide people with thrills. But as an investor, how can you stay calm on the “roller coaster” of the financial markets? Here are some suggestions: Know what’s in front of you. If you’ve ever ridden a roller coaster in the dark, you may f...
How do the policies you’re considering stack up against each other? Which benefits and features mean the most to you? How much can you customize each policy to your needs? These are very important questions. Knowing how to evaluate LTCI (Long Term Care Insurance) coverage in light of your own needs is the key to comparing and weeding out policies. Your final list of policies should include only ones that can offer exactly what you’re looking for. Compare premiums Because LTCI policies vary so...
The Tehachapi Area Association of Realtors is holding a Community Wide Open House on July 22. Agents in the know tell me that if you want to have much of a choice in our current market, you’ll want to be looking at houses costing around $300,000. What does that mean money-wise? A survey of low-down-payment loan programs suggests that no matter how you slice it, you’d need to be able to afford around $1900 per month for those homes. Of course VA financing wins as the lowest payment and low...
They knew there just had to be a better, safer way to grow their client's money. Ron Mejia and Laura Asbill of Gold Star Financial spent 3 years searching for the answer. Somehow, consistent, respectable growth had to be available in all market types. No reaching for the moon...but no crushing losses, either. Gold Star Financial's 30 year solid reputation was on the line. They found the answer with Horter Investment Management of Cincinnati. Drew Horter had long ago realized that steady,...
Because long-term care insurance (LTCI) is a relatively new product, policies are not standardized. This can make it especially difficult to compare policies when you’re shopping for this type of insurance. However, comparing LTCI policies is a lot easier when you know what to look for and follow a few simple guidelines. Compare insurance companies One of your first steps should be to compare and evaluate insurance companies. But since there are many companies that sell LTCI, how do you n...
Don’t fall for the hype – Reverse mortgage isn’t for everyone. When you have a seasoned professional help you with the analysis about what these loans accomplish or not, you can see for yourself if they benefit in your situation. Of the past several reverse consults I’ve done, three resulted in “you could do this but it doesn’t get you where you want to be, so don’t do it.” Two current clients illustrate the “shoulds”. Here are their stories. Mrs. A inherited her home from her parents, who ha...
This article was written by Edward Jones for use by your local Edward Jones Financial Advisor. We’re getting close to the Fourth of July, when we celebrate the freedoms we enjoy in this country. The U.S. Constitution grants us many of these liberties, but we have to earn others – such as our financial freedom. What steps can you take to achieve the financial independence you need to reach your long-term goals? For starters, always work to build your resources. Contribute as much as you can aff...
Understanding your own tolerance for risk The concept of risk tolerance is twofold. First, it refers to your personal desire to assume risk and your comfort level with doing so. This assumes that risk is relative to your own personality and feelings about taking chances. If you find that you can’t sleep at night because you’re worrying about your investments, you may have assumed too much risk. Second, your risk tolerance is affected by your financial ability to cope with the possibility of loss...
They knew there just had to be a better, safer way to grow their client's money. Ron Mejia and Laura Asbill of Gold Star Financial spent 3 years searching for the answer. Somehow, consistent, respectable growth had to be available in all market types. No reaching for the moon...but no crushing losses, either. Gold Star Financial's 30 year solid reputation was on the line. They found the answer with Horter Investment Management of Cincinnati. Drew Horter had long ago realized that steady,...
Really, he was trying to help. Knowing that he needed a clean paper trail for the money they’d use to buy a house, he opened a new account. Since the bank puts holds on checks for the first month, he cashed his paychecks at the old bank to put cash in the new account. Then he met me and the fun began. These days when you’re buying a house, we get super nosy about where your down payment is coming from. When your bank statement shows deposits that aren’t payroll, we want to know where those...
Other types of risk Here are a few of the many different types of risk: • Market risk: This refers to the possibility that an investment will lose value because of a general decline in financial markets, due to one or more economic, political, or other factors. • Inflation risk: Sometimes known as purchasing power risk, this refers to the possibility that prices will rise in the economy as a whole, so your ability to purchase goods and services would decline. For instance, your investment mig...
It’s pretty great that parents watch out for their kids’ finances. A 2015 first-time buyer was in touch because their parents told them to refinance right now, while rates are low. But is that a smart thing to do? The purchase loan we did two years ago used the USDA program, which allows for no down payment under certain conditions. The family closed at a 3.625% interest rate with a few dollars of mortgage insurance, so their payment before taxes and insurance is something like $835 per mon...
Few terms in personal finance are as important, or used as frequently, as “risk.” Nevertheless, few terms are as imprecisely defined. Generally, when financial advisors or the media talk about investment risk, their focus is on the historical price volatility of the asset or investment under discussion. Advisors label as aggressive or risky an investment that has been prone to wild price gyrations in the past. The presumed uncertainty and unpredictability of this investment’s future perfo...
A repeat client phoned me and she was hoppin’ mad. “We got a VA buyer offer on our house and they want us to pay $11000 in closing costs!” That made me mad, too. Here’s why. The VA home loan program is pretty special. It allows qualified Veterans to buy a home with no down payment. Usually no down payment would mean having a monthly mortgage insurance premium in the payment, but not here. There is a one-time “funding fee” that goes towards the VA insurance fund, to cover lenders in case of you...
Beta A better method of measuring risk is referred to as beta. Beta measures an individual investment’s volatility in relation to the stock market in general, as measured by the Standard & Poor’s 500 Stock Index (S&P 500). The S&P 500 has a beta of 1. A security whose value goes up and down 25 percent less than the S&P 500 has a beta of 0.75; in other words, it has historically had less volatility than the market as a whole. A security whose value goes up and down 25 percent more than the S&P...
Kenneth Harney is a nationally-syndicated columnist on real estate for the Washington Post Writers Group. Here’s his March 29 post about credit scores. When is your “credit score” irrelevant in buying a house or refinancing a home loan? A new federal legal settlement with a major credit bureau has the answer: The only score that matters is the one your lender uses to evaluate you, not some random score you got on a website. All the others you might buy or see — there are dozens of them hawked...
If you’re like most Americans you’ve just passed two milestones this year, Tax Freedom Day, which is recognized on April 12, and Income Tax Filing Day, which is usually recognized as April 15 but for 2017 was Tuesday, April 18. Tax Freedom Day is the day of the year when the country as a whole has earned enough income to pay its taxes for the year. No explanation is needed for Tax Filing Day! The average American pays approximately 20% of their income towards their federal income taxes. To som...
Determine your investment time horizon The period of time for which you plan to stay invested in a particular vehicle is referred to as your investment planning time horizon. Generally speaking, the longer your time horizon, the more you can afford to invest more aggressively, in higher-risk investments. This is because the longer you can remain invested, the more time you’ll have to ride out fluctuations in the hope of getting a greater reward in the future. Of course, there is no assurance t...
This article was written by Edward Jones for use by your local Edward Jones Financial Advisor. If you’re a certain age, or getting close to it, you might hear something like this: “Now that you’re older, you need to invest more conservatively.” But what exactly does this mean? For starters, it’s useful to understand that your investment preferences and needs will indeed change over time. When you’re first starting out in your career, and even for a long time afterward, you can afford to i...
Is there a conspiracy surrounding the appraisal report for your home purchase or refinance? Recently a buyer was upset about an appraisal value matching the purchase price, so let’s review the process. There are layers of consumer protections surrounding the mortgage process. Within three days of application we have to give you a detailed list of fees associated with the loan. You get a chance to review this document, and must sign that you’ve seen it. You will be asked to formally “co...
What is risk? In the investment world, risk means uncertainty. It refers to the possibility that you will lose your investment or that an investment will yield less than its anticipated return. Simply stated, risk is the degree of probability that an investment will make or lose money. When evaluating risk, there are two important elements to understand. The first is the investor’s own ability to tolerate risk, and the second is the risk of the investment itself. Why is it important (risk vs. r...
Gotta love the media. They scream at us that interest rates are worse, and that interest rates are better. All they’re doing is reading from a teleprompter – so what’s true? It’s all about context. The Federal Open Market Committee did indeed raise the Federal Funds Rate at their March 15 meeting. So, “rates are up”, right? Not in our market. Mortgage rates actually liked it and are slightly better since the hike. The stock market has been on a tear since November. So, “rates are down”, right?...
