LivingAlmostLarge

So on the 4th of July we were hanging out with friends who own a condo in the city.  They have a 2 bd/1ba condo about 700 sq ft.  This place has a premium location, and was EXPENSIVE.  They are 33 and this was their first real estate purchase.  Thus they only considered the location [...]

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I’ve been escrowing our property taxes for 5+ years.  With our first condo, we did an 80% 1st, 10% 2nd, and 10% down payment, so we had to escrow our property taxes with the mortgage company.  However, after our property appreciated and we were able to only have 1 mortgage for less than 80%, and [...]

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I thought this a most apt and funny fairytale about mortgages.  I thought it a bit saddening though about all the truth in the story.  Enjoy.

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Reading about Mrs. Micah’s arrest outside her door made me think, gee, we’ve got neighbors from hell.  It makes me wonder why we ever bought a condo? And then I remember, we couldn’t afford anything better.  Sometimes being prudent sucks.
But anyway back to our neighbors from hell.  Typically we ignore them, which isn’t a huge [...]

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If I came into a million dollars what would I do with it?  Would I pay off my mortgage or would I invest it?  This is a very interesting question.  And could be applied to many different scenarios.  In the sense that if I inherited or won enough money to pay off my mortgage would [...]

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Let’s say you bought at the peak of the housing market, and since then home prices have dropped. What should you do? Panic and sell? Keep calm and wait?
I was contemplating today about our purchase of a home at close to the peak of the market. Because we moved cross country [...]

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One thing I’ve contemplated doing, and have done before to shorten the length of our mortgage is potentially taken out a Home Equity Line of Credit Second Mortgage. I have one in place now for $60k unused, and I’ve been thinking about it a lot more since the Federal Reserve cut rates by 3/4 point [...]

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In Dave Ramsey’s baby steps, step 7 is being completely debt free including the house, and being able to fully enjoy your money. It’s living like no one else because you are debt free. Wow what a concept!

But I’ve pondered this and I being a scientifically minded person, I’m not sure if [...]

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Well yesterday we discussed how difficult it can be to merge finances as a couple. It appears to be increasingly difficult as you get older. Even harder to navigate is whether to buy a house together. At around 30 whether you are single or not, it seems many people get bitten by [...]

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Last week Federal Bank President William Poole commented on the state of the subprime economy. He stated that the subprime mess had not yet necessitated an interest rate cut nor was it harming the US economy. He was of the opinion that unless the economy took a major dive a rate cut was [...]

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