Two headaches when identity thieves first use your identity to start your Social Security benefits, and then you having to contend with not having reported that income (you never got) to the IRS when Social Security sends the IRS and you the 1099 for that phantom income! Two bureaucracies to contend with for that single […]
Home buying can be daunting, even for those who’ve done it before. The question of getting loan approval can be tricky. Having your debt to income ratios evaluated for loan qualification is also confusing to some. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has a good short description as to the difference between pre-qualification and pre-approval. […]
When do you claim your Social Security when you want to retire (stop working) at age 60? Or 58? Or some other age before 70? 62 is the earliest you can claim your benefit (reduced), and age 70 is the latest you should claim because that’s the age the benefit is maximized. Your stop working age […]
The time for reflection comes to all of us at one time or another. These are 9 key questions an investor should ask themselves. This is not an exhaustive list, rather one that gets to the meat of the matter. The questions and answers are timeless, applying all the time. What sort of competition do […]
Lately it seems that many people are receiving offers to refinance their mortgages. Should you refinance? What does that offer tell you about expenses? It does say something about expenses. Here’s how you may determine what they’re saying those expenses are. Online there is a lot of discussion about the APR, but not a […]
Filial Responsibility Laws (in more than half the States) could surprise you when the State comes to family members to pay your relative’s long term care bills. Children or other heirs may become responsible for parent care expenses. This may not be what you, as a parent, have in mind. You want to be […]
What happens to a reverse mortgage when disaster strikes? 2017 had a number of fires in the West and Hurricanes in the South. Other devastating natural disasters like tornados, floods and earthquakes happen too. Disasters don’t need to be widespread to affect your home – you could easily suffer loss on just your home without […]
It is human nature not to be very good at imagining our future selves. Scientists call this “temporal discounting” (temporal discounting on Wikipedia). Various experiments have shown that we either imagine our future selves to be healthier, richer, or more disciplined than we turn out to be, or we feel disconnected from our future selves, thinking […]
You can get a sense of what “percenter” you are through a handy site that summarizes income or wealth (and other stuff too) called Shnugi. The numbers are based off of the results of the Survey of Consumer Finances by the Federal Reserve. There are two measures that people often confuse being similar. Income and […]
The main problem with blogs is that you can only see a few of the most recent article posts. How do you know what other information or topics have been discussed? How do you get the most out of a blog site? My blog design helps you answer these questions a couple of ways. If […]
