Even though Christmas and New Year is typically a time for letting go and having a bit of fun to celebrate the end of another year, it’s still important to think about your finances. This leads many people to looking for ways to save money over the holiday period. There are lots of things you can do, including scaling back some aspects of Christmas and considering a credit card ideal for balance transfers when the New Year comes…
Make savings now
With Christmas just a few weeks away, now is a good time to look for areas where you can make savings in preparation. For example, looking around now for your turkey is not only good practice in case they all sell out closer to the day, but it can also help you secure the best deals. You Read more…
A new analysis from credit rating company Fitch Ratings revealed that a third of prime borrowers are currently underwater on their mortgages.
And after everything is said and done, the company expects roughly half of prime borrowers, those at the top of the credit score range, to end up in a negative equity position thanks to a further 10 percent decline in home prices.
You may think it doesn’t matter much, given these are the crème de la crème of homeowners with mortgages.
But Fitch noted that over 12 percent of prime borrowers are already seriously delinquent on their mortgages, aka on the road to foreclosure.
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We can see them there, huddled under cover of night, assembled in the darkened corners of dimly-lit bars, conversing in hushed tones, eyes darting nervously, wondering who among them might turn coat. Which man here conceals a Ministry badge? Do I hide one myself? Dare I even ask?
How their hands do tremble. How their voices quiver, knowing that a second of free expression might cost the author his life. How shall we ever find our way home again, to the land of the free?
We awoke with a start. A dystopic vision had crept into our peaceful, evening reverie. We had dozed off somewhere over the Rio del Plata, on our return to Buenos Aires from Punta del Este.
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NYMEX crude oil prices tumbled to 3-month lows on Fri [14 May 2010] at the end of a volatile week in which the market was hit by eurozone economic concerns and a strong dollar. NYMEX light sweet crude for Jun 2010 delivery closed at $71.61 per barrel. The price had tumbled to $70.83, the lowest level since Feb 2010, before recouping some of its losses. Prices fell when American crude stockpiles rose by 1.9 million barrels, more than double the amount forecast by analysts. Crude oil prices had already collapsed by more than 10% last week as the market was rocked by euro contagion fears about the Greek debt crisis, a stronger dollar and sliding global stock markets.
The oil market had begun the week on a bright note, soaring on Monday after a $1-trillion EU-IMF eurozone rescue plan eased market concerns over the eurozone financial crisis.
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If you read my post about finding the melt value of junk silver coins, you probably wondered to yourself whether it was possible for you to melt the coins down yourself. Its definitely possible but its also illegal.
The Mint outlined new rules in 2006 that said it was illegal to melt coins, its illegal to export coins for melting, and you can carry up to $5 in pennies and nickels out of the country or ship $100 abroad for legitimate coinage and numismatic purposes. While pennies and nickels were explicitly called out in the 2006 rules, other coins were included as a result of previous rules.
What happens if you break it? The regulations authorize a fine of no more than $10,000 and/or up to five years in prison. Pretty stiff stuff.
Columbia University professor and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz is not optimistic about the prospect of the American Dream as the country moves into 2012. Stiglitz waxes philosophical about the countrys growing wage gap, terminal unemployment and financial crises that have erupted in multiple areas of the world. He opines that working on long-term problems like fiscal debt could actually solve short-term problems like unemployment if the worlds power players were not rooted in politics as usual. The fear, Stiglitz says, is that the system will cataclysmically right itself before cooler heads prevail. For more on this continue reading the following article from Economists View.
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Most decent mortgages come with at least 10% lump-sum prepayment privileges.
Since the average mortgage is about $151,000, that means the typical borrower can prepay at least $15,000 per year in lump sum(s) with no penalty.
The thing is, most Canadians don’t come close to paying 10% extra on their mortgage over the course of a year. In fact, only 17% of mortgage holders made any lump-sum prepayments at all in 2011. T Read more…