Home Mortgages: What Essential Things Should You Know

Strictly speaking, a home mortgage is a very specific type of loan that is designed to cover the purchase of a new home. A home mortgage doesn’t operate identically to other types of personal loans that you may have taken out, even if you take them both out from the same financial institution. While you may have a few months or even a year or more to pay back a loan for a few thousand dollars, for example, you would have 25 or 30 years to pay back the balance on a mortgage. Interest rates are also determined by a different set of criteria when talking about home mortgages. Before you sign on the dotted line with your local bank and look forward to purchasing that new home, there are a few very important things that you’re going to want to know about.

One important factor of buying a home that you need to consider is just when you start the mortgage process. According to Fox Business, experts indicate that you should always start preparing the paperwork needed for your mortgage between six months and one full year before you actually start shopping for a house. The mortgage application and approval process can be a long one, so you want to get things started as early as possible to avoid delays later on. Additionally, knowing what type of mortgage you qualify for will affect the types of houses that you should be looking at.

You can find out about additional mortgage rate information by using sites like kanetix.ca. You’ll be able to see current rates, view fixed rate trends and track any changes that may be emerging in the market at large. The information on the site can be a great way to stay up to date as possible with mortgage information and to get an accurate gauge of how much you can expect to pay when it comes to buying that home of your dreams.

You should also be aware of the fact that the total amount of money that you use as a down payment on your house will directly affect the overall terms and conditions of the mortgage that you sign up for. You may not actually have a choice when it comes to how much you can put down depending on the situation. Some banks are going to require a 20% down payment before you can be approved for a mortgage, while others may only need 10% or even 5%.

Another factor of buying a home that you’re going to need to consider are the closing costs associated with the final parts of the process. Closing costs generally aren’t part of the down payment on a home, so they will likely have to be rolled into the total amount of money that you’re using the mortgage for. Also keep in mind that the overall closing costs on your home will vary depending on a number of different factors including the total price of the home and even the area in which you live.

Donald Ayers enjoys blogging about his personal finance know how. His articles mainly appear on money saving blogs.

Wine is a Hot Investment- Invest in What You Drink

The history of wine and investment goes way longer than one could anticipate. The fine wine market has gained popularity only after the 1990s, but history has proved that wine collectors have been storing wines for hundreds of years. The past 25 years have witnessed more than 15% rise in wine investment on an average. According to experts, the past 20 years have seen best wine among the best investment options available in the market. However, it is a long-term investment and one need to give it plenty of time to grow. The impact of the financial crisis is comparatively less intense in wine investment as compared to other financial products.
 

 
If you are a budding fine wine investor, here is a short guide for getting started with the investment. 

How should you start with Wine Investment?

• Understand Wine Investments: The financial market is full of investments including commodity products, traditional products, and alternative financial products. It is necessary to be aware of the product you want to invest your money in.Fine wine investment is another mainstream investment unlike cars and the arts. These are long-term investments and offer returns in double figures or more. 
• Research the Wine Investment Industry:Every investor should do ample research about the industry before investing, and the same is true for wine investing. The wine market is driven by the extraordinary demand and limited supply principle. Compare wine investment products with other traditional ones and analyze its returns for the past few years. Keep in mind that only a few products in Bordeaux witness a significant increase in value and it are best to understand the reason behind its popularity. 
• Benefits of wine investments: The key to investing is to find out the benefits for the investor. Fine wine investments have performed very-well and offer high ROI (Return on Investment; comparatively low risk; rising prices (low supply=high demand principle); recession-proof; and status symbol. At the same time, you need to consider the shortcomings of wine investments. It includes fraud and scam suppliers; drinking it yourself; past performance does not guarantee future benefits; unregulated market.

 

• Choose a reliable wine broker: It is essential to find a reliable wine broker group or an individual. For large-scale investment, it is better to choose reputable wine broker agencies. Invest some time and find out about the history and track record of the company in wine investments. 
• Develop an investment strategy: It is up to the investor to establish requirements and expectations from an investment. Devise your own strategy including potential risks; long-term and short-term goals; potential returns; and a strategy for the portfolio. It is the investor who will lose or gain money, and it is best to avoid relying on others for your best interests. 
• Invest in stock:After developing a portfolio strategy, it is time to purchase stocks. The wine investment broker will help in choosing wine products depending upon the goals of the investor. If you are investing a large sum, prefer high capital growth options and crosscheck the options suggested by the broker. Maintain proper communication with the broker and get your ownership certificate after purchase. 
• Authenticity and Provenance of Wine: It is important to test the provenance and authenticity of the wine. With the increasing interest in the wine industry, there has been an increase in the number of scammers and fraudulent ripping off new investors.The lack of proper storage history and damaged bottle may lower the price of the investment. Make sure to receive the storage details and certificates as a proof. 
• Storage of Wine: In the end, it all comes down to the storage of wine. You can rent storage space for high-value luxury wine bottles, as it requires specific temperature and humidity level for perfect taste. A wine with an excellent storage history will attract high-end buyers and yield maximum profits. One should prefer bond storage to avoid any duty or taxes at the later stage.

 

Sell at a profitable price: Once your wine has matured, it is ready to be sold in the open market. There is no time-period attached with wine and it can be sold in any currency or market. Consult your broker for perfect market and get best results from your investment. You are ready to repeat the cycle.

Author Bio: The article is written by a well known freelance writer and blogger Jason Phillips. He divides his time among work, writing and family life. Moreover he is running a site wineinvestment.com which has a highly trained team of investment specialists.

Old Fashioned Solution to a Current Problem

Loans (Photo credit: zingbot)

Mounting debt is an increasingly common issue for people throughout the UK and one of the most effective methods of getting debt back under control is something that has been around for a surprising period of time. Guarantor loans are a different type of loan which involves utilising a third party who guarantees to continue making repayments should the borrower fail to do so. Often, guarantor loans are chosen when an individual has a bad credit history or no credit history at all as they would generally be viewed as high risk by financial institutions.
However this risk is significantly reduced if a guarantor is willing to take the responsibility of repaying the loan in the event that the borrower defaults and often the lender will agree to grant a loan. 

What are Guarantor Loans?

A question that we are often asked is what actually are guarantor loans? Widely regarded to be an innovation in the financial world, it is understandable that people may have doubts or queries regarding how they work but in the details below, we hope to outline exactly what they entail.


When it comes to applying for a guarantor loan from a lender such as UK Credit, the key difference between this type of loan and standard unsecured loans is that the applicant needs to nominate someone who will support their loan application - this person is called the guarantor. The guarantor can literally be anyone including family (not spouse or partner), friends, work colleagues etc who know the borrower well and will be willing to support their loan application.


It is essential that the guarantor satisfies a number of criteria, such as being a homeowner with a regular income of their own and a good credit rating. Assuming these criteria are satisfied, the application looks far more favourable to the lender and this is what makes an application much more likely to succeed when compared to a normal unsecured loan.


If you opt to apply for a guarantor loan, it is important that you discipline yourself. Not only because you were provided with a loan despite your current credit rating but also because defaulting on the repayments could make your credit rating even worse.


You should be disciplined to ensure all of the required monthly repayments are made on time with any type of loan but in the case of guarantor loans, you must take into consideration that if you fail to pay the loan, it is your guarantor who will be asked to cough up the money. Although they have been put in place to act as a safety net should things not work out, it is not a good practice to let your guarantor pay for the loan when they offered huge help with your loan application!

Benefits of Guarantor Loans

Contrary to popular belief, although the guarantor loan is an unsecured loan, they are generally available at comparable interest rates to other unsecured loans.


Guarantor loans are great for people who need to improve their credit rating or to get a positive credit score behind them. The applicant must be certain that they can afford to repay the loan to gain the benefits this loan provides and as with any type of loan, it can always prove to be beneficial to shop around for the best deals.


Bio – Amanda GillamI work as a blog writer for a finance company called Solution Loans which specialises in Guarantor Loans. I hold a degree in financial management and enjoy writing about a variety of topics including finance, transport, travel, sport and business.

Four Reasons Why Businesses Should Insure their Employees

Offering health benefits to employees should not be considered controversial. Yet, there will be quite a bit of deliberation on the part of many small business owners regarding whether or not they should offer insurance coverage to their employees. Often, the deliberations will revolve around whether or not the the business can afford benefits or if the procuring a policy will be cost-effective.
Once a small business owners looks at the benefits of having a company insurance plan, a decision to offer health coverage to employees will likely be made. The following are four reasons why this is so.

Health Coverage Helps Retain Good Employees

Good help is worth paying for because it is not always easy to find or retain good help. If a water boiler repair company has a top technician under its employ, it really does not want to lose him. To keep such skilled talent in the fold, offering health insurance would be one such way to do so.

Those Working for the Company Maintain Good Health

On the surface, making sure the health of an employee is maintained may seem outside the responsibility of the employer. Actually, the health of an employee can contribute to the fiscal health of a small business. A service company cannot send out its top technician on a job if he is ill. Health benefits ensure the worker is able to take better care of him/herself. As a result, less sick days are required and the worker will perform at the highest level of effectiveness when on the job. A boiler service, for example, would certainly not want to see technicians taking too much time off. Without workers available to handle repair requests, clients might go elsewhere.

There are Tax Breaks Available to Employers that Offer Health Benefits

The tax code might be complicated in certain areas, but it is rather straight forward when it comes to the deductions a small business can take when it offers health coverage to an employee. Quite often, the money saved on state and federal income taxes thanks to this deduction will contribute towards the money paid for the healthcare policy. As a result, the health coverage is bought at a discount.

Employees Can Acquire Group Insurance Through Your Offer

This can prove to be very appealing to employees. If the employees see this as an asset, they may keep it in mind when weighing options to stay with your company or moving elsewhere.

Offering health insurance coverage to employees benefits the employer as well. Once a small business comes to this realization, it becomes a lot easier to make the affirmative decision to make health coverage plans available.

4 Signs That You Need Professional Debt Help

Wipe our Debt (Photo credit: Images_of_Money)

When you are struggling with your finances, it can be hard to know the right time to get help. Debt is not just a financial issue, it is one which can affect your entire life. Feelings of frustration and helplessness are commonly associated with debt, and can be overwhelming if you don’t start to seek external assistance. 

 Here are 4 common signs that suggest you need to get some professional debt help.

Struggling to Meet Deadlines

You know when your bills are due and when your loan repayments need to be made, yet you still feel like there just isn’t enough time to get the money together. If this is the case, and you find yourself struggling to meet your financial deadlines, it’s time to get some help. Having difficulty paying your bills is one of the first signs that your finances need attention, so it’s best to address the problem now before it becomes anything more serious.

Missing Repayments

The next step is when you simply don’t have the money on the due date, and find yourself missing repayments or becoming overdue on your bills. This is a dangerous practice, as you can be doing serious damage to your credit rating. A bad credit rating can take years of hard work and dedication to undo, so it’s essential to take action as soon as you can. A professional debt help provider such as Fox Symes will not only help you to sort out your finances, they will alleviate the pressure by negotiating better terms with your creditors to help you get back on track with repayments.

Relying on Credit for Assistance

Using your credit card to bail you out of a difficult financial situation is definitely a danger sign that your debt could be spiralling out of control. Credit card debt can really sneak up on you and quickly lead to seemingly insurmountable financial difficulty. If you have to use your credit card to buy groceries or other everyday necessities, it signifies that your current budget is not coping with your expenses, and that you need to get some help.

Your Budget Doesn’t Add Up

When you evaluate your budget, you should have enough for all of your expected expenses, bills and repayments. If you have calculated your budget and found that you are running at a loss, you should seek professional financial advice immediately. It is only a matter of time before your savings run out and you are left with debts that you simply cannot pay.

Professional help is a great way to get back on track and in control of your finances, even if you aren’t experiencing any of these tell-tale signs. It is never too early to seek help, and in fact the sooner you get help the better chance you have of success. A professional debt solutions agency such as Fox Symes can give you the strategies you need to beat debt for good. As a leading Australian firm specialising in debt reduction, their expertise and professionalism is assured. You can read a review of their services by clicking here. Don’t let debt dictate your life, be proactive and seek out expert help today!

Adjusting our Budget for an Empty Nest

My husband and I have been married for 21 years and this is one of those years in which our lives will change dramatically. Our youngest goes off to college and we will once again plan our household budget around just the two of us. With two in college we have plenty to cover in our overall budget, but if we are careful and make adjustments we will end each month with savings that can be set aside for our rapidly approaching retirement years.

Here are the areas of our family finances where I think we can save.

Household Budget

Cooling and Heating

For nine months out of the year we will have an entire floor of our home that is uninhabited. We’ve been here for seven years and we plan to stay until it is time to downsize. That doesn’t mean we have to cool, heat and light up those areas of the house we aren’t using.

Whether your empty nest means a couple of rooms become vacant or an entire wing of your home goes empty, here are some tips for taking advantage of energy savings on the unused portions of your home.

• Close blinds and curtains - It will stay hot during the days throughout the month of October in our area. To help keep out the heat the first step is to close the blinds and curtains of the windows facing east, west and especially south. Then switch that up during the cold months and open the blinds of the windows that face south. 
• Close vents - Another step is to close the vents in the rooms that will not be in use. This diverts heat to the common areas that you will want to keep warm. 
• Close doors - This one is obvious and it is something many energy conscious people do already. As much as I like an open house, it saves energy to keep doors closed so we aren’t cooling or heating areas that aren’t in use. 
• Change thermostat - The final step will be to adjust the thermostat upstairs. We don’t want to make the downstairs unit work harder, so the adjustment will be slight, but it will certainly help save money each month. 

Cleaning

This may not seem like much, but along with not heating and cooling the rooms that are no longer in use, we will save time and money by not having to clean those same rooms as often. While I make a lot of my own cleaners, the ingredients still cost money. So does the electricity used to run the vacuum. The actual dollar figure saved may be small each week, but when combined with other savings it makes a difference.

Since I’m self employed, the time I save can be used to produce more income. If you work outside the home, this extra hour or so each week can mean a little more time to relax and unwind after a long day at work.

Laundry

Again, this might seem like a minor savings, but our child heading off to college accounted for more than a third of our laundry expenses this past year because of her very active life. We are already saving a lot with Energy Star high efficiency appliances, but this fall our laundry load will be cut in half. Over time that is a substantial savings.

With both daughters doing their own laundry at school we will save on detergent, water and energy costs. I won’t realize much of a time savings here since the girls have washed their own laundry for some time now.

Gas Budget

As a family we spend very little of our budget on gasoline for our cars. I work from home so don’t drive on a daily basis and while we live in a rural area pretty far from town, we have always organized errands to use as little gas as possible.

Once the kids are on their own and paying for their own gas, most couples will see a reduction in their fuel costs. However, some will fill their empty nests with new activities and may actually get out more. The good thing is that you’re in control of this lifestyle change.

Grocery Budget

Cooking for two may be where many empty nesters can save the most money once the kids move out. Even if you occasionally splurge on expensive foods that you’ve avoided when there were more mouths to feed, careful menu planning can offer serious savings.

No matter how hard you work to keep your food budget low, teens eat a lot and are often the reason many families have snack foods in their pantries. Now is the time to break old habits and revamp your grocery list and the way you buy, prepare and store foods.

• Check your recipes carefully to see how many servings they offer. If it is something that will not freeze or keep in the refrigerator, or if it is something that won’t be good reheated, don’t make more than you and your spouse can eat at one sitting. 
• Plan a menu in advance and base your shopping list on this menu. I use SouthernSavers.com to track store specials and I plan my menu around as many sale items as possible. Find a site that lists specials for stores in your area. 
• Invest in storage containers sized for one or two servings so there is less air in the container. This will help prevent freezer burn. It is also helpful if the container can go from freezer to microwave for defrosting. 
• Keep a list of meals you have stored in your freezer and rotate them so they don’t go stale or get freezer burn. 

A freezer stocked with meals ready to thaw and reheat offers flexibility to your food budget and your evenings at home.

When your children leave home, life immediately becomes less expensive, so make a conscious effort to take advantage of all the little ways you can save. Pad your savings account with all that extra money so you won’t feel guilty when the lure of dining out or off-season vacation rentals tempts you to splurge.

Betsy Muse is a staff writer for ConsumerFu where she offers tips to help people find ways to earn more and save more. She is the mother of two college-age daughters and spent much of her early career in the banking and insurance industries.