Your credit score defines you financially. Establishing and maintaining good credit will make your life infinitely easier. To establish a good credit score you must make your payments on time and in full every month. You can also improve your credit score by minimizing your debt. Learn more here about your credit score and what it means for you.
How Much a Credit Score Can Cost You When Getting a Mortgage
This article was updated on 4/25/17. If you are gearing up to buy a home, your credit score could mean the difference between a manageable mortgage payment and one that breaks the bank. That’s because your credit score is one of the biggest factors lenders use to determine your mortgage interest rate and how much [...]
Tax Questions: Can Unpaid Taxes Affect My Credit Score?
This article was written by guest blogger Eva Rosenberg. It’s one of the tax questions I’ve been asked more than once: Can unpaid taxes affect my credit score? Unfortunately, if you’re not careful, the answer is yes. Once upon a time, a friend quit his job and opened a business. In the first year, he [...]
Why Your Credit Score Matters During Retirement
A lot of nasty financial warnings went out during the Great Recession, including one that baby boomers wished they didn’t have to hear: Your credit score still matters. Boomers are plowing through the retirement gates at the rate of 10,000 a day, but the gate opened at about the same time that the bottom fell [...]
First-Time Homebuyers: The Four Mistakes You Need to Avoid
Homes are more affordable than they’ve been in decades, and mortgage interest rates are at historic lows. As a result, many first-time homebuyers feel that this is the perfect time to jump into the real estate market. Buying a home is exciting, but it can also come with unforeseen economic obstacles. If you are a [...]
Missed a Mortgage Payment? How it Affects Your Credit Score
If you missed a mortgage payment, you might want to know how it affects your credit score. Missing mortgage payments can hurt your credit score. Q: I met Ilyce at a speech she was giving last year about financial planning and retirement. Last week, I was laid off by the company that sponsored the speech. [...]
Why Aren’t More People Selling Their Homes?
Inventories of homes for sale are so low this spring that bidding wars are breaking out in overheated real estate markets. Rising prices and shrinking supplies are hitting buyers with a double whammy as they anxiously scroll through limited choices to find a house to buy before prices and mortgage rates rise even more. In [...]
Real Estate Market: Are We Becoming a Renter Nation?
Is the U.S. shifting from a nation of homeowners (and aspiring homeowners) to a nation of long-term renters? It may depend on your perspective of homeownership. Homeownership has been trending down, while renters are snapping up vacant properties. In fact, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, homeownership may be at its lowest rate since the [...]
A Blind Date with Your Insurance Agent
Meeting an insurance agent and buying an insurance policy for the first time is sort of like going on a blind date. You’re hoping to find someone who makes you happy and fulfills your needs. But while you know a little bit about what you want, you’re not quite sure what you’re actually going to [...]
New Year’s Resolutions for Home Buyers in 2013
In the nearly 20 years that we’ve been writing this column, we’ve offered New Year’s Resolutions for home buyer and home sellers, plus New Year’s Financial Resolutions that everyone can use to start their year off right. This is the first year since 2007 that we’re starting with a brighter outlook for real estate. Home [...]
Four Rules For a Home Run Refinance
Mortgage interest rates are rising. But it's not too late to refinance your mortgage and hit a home run while you do it. While interest rates aren't quite at rock bottom, it's still a great time to refinance. If you have the ability to refinance, do it. Even if you have already refinanced, if you can [...]