FHA Loans
An FHA loan is a mortgage loan in the United States insured by the Federal Housing Administration. The loan may be issued by federally-qualified lenders. FHA loans have been helping people become homeowners since 1934. FHA’s mortgage insurance programs help low and moderate income families become homeowners by lowering some of the costs of their [...]
My Credit Score
Beginning the process of searching for a mortgage, I recently received my credit report. The numbers look pretty good as I received scores of 783, 783, and 778. So, what the heck is a credit score anyway? When you apply for credit – whether for a credit card, a car loan, or a mortgage [...]
Can I get in on an IPO?
IPO is an acronym for Initial Public Offering. This is the first sale of stock by a company to the public. Getting a piece of a hot IPO is very difficult, if not impossible. To understand why, it helps to know how an IPO is done, a process known as underwriting. When a company [...]
Understanding Capital Gains Tax Rates
The advantage of capital gains, as opposed to ordinary income, is that the basic maximum tax rate on capital gains for property held for more than one year is currently 15 percent. In contrast, the top four ordinary income tax rates are all higher than this, with the top rate for 2005 through 2010 at [...]
Employee Stock Purchase Plans
Many large companies offer Employee Stock Purchase Plans (ESPP) that let you buy your employer’s stock at a discount. These plans are offered as an employment incentive, giving you an opportunity to share in the growth potential of your company’s stock (and, by implication, work hard to keep the stock price soaring). Usually, you [...]
Inflation
Why was a cup of coffee 10 cents in 1960 but over a $1 today? The answer- inflation. A Nexis search in 1996 found that inflation is the most commonly used economic term in the popular media. They found 872,000 news stories over the past twenty years that used the word inflation. “Unemployment” ran a [...]
How does the national debt affect the individual?
The U.S. national debt is the amount of money owed by the United States federal government. This does not include the money owed by states, corporations, or individuals. The national debt is over 8.1 trillion dollars. That puts each citizens share of that debt to over $27,000. The National Debt has continued to increase an [...]
