Alvin Hall, personal finance expert and author of
You and Your Money: It's More Than Just the Numbers (Atria, 2007), talks about end of year financial decisions you need to make.
his advice on first-time homebuyers always avoiding adjustable rate mortgages is not so solid.
at this time, a 3/1 may be a little dicey, but if your way into owning your first apartment is a 5, 7, or 10/1 amortized ARM (and you can legitimately afford the payments), then odds are excellent that your little first apartment will be worth substantially more than you paid for it when that rate is ready to be adjusted.
even if you sell it for what you paid, you still come out way ahead - 5 years of free living, plus some awesome tax breaks.
Dec. 06 2007 11:13 AM
Score: 0/0
Wendy
from New York
Our "extended family" has agreed to limit gifts to $5 from/to a particular person, with the rule that you may combine up to $10 -- and I think it's working great! We're 9 people total, so each of us spends $40 (8 x $5). For example, I can buy one $5 gift for my sister-in-law or I can buy a $10 gift for her and her spouse. It's fun and challenging to try to find inexpensive gifts that are still something appropriate for the particular person or just fun or even useful. For example, a used book, a funny notepad, kitchen linen towels, etc. It's really not very hard to find items in the $5-$10 range. And I like this MUCH better than the name-drawing idea where each person gets only one gift from whoever drew your name -- and they've spent the same or more, as they would've buying all the little gifts. It's nice to have gifts under the tree :-)
Dec. 06 2007 10:53 AM
Score: 0/0
Sean Pisano
from Brooklyn
What kind of savings account is best?
Dec. 06 2007 10:53 AM
Score: 0/0
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Comments [3]
his advice on first-time homebuyers always avoiding adjustable rate mortgages is not so solid.
at this time, a 3/1 may be a little dicey, but if your way into owning your first apartment is a 5, 7, or 10/1 amortized ARM (and you can legitimately afford the payments), then odds are excellent that your little first apartment will be worth substantially more than you paid for it when that rate is ready to be adjusted.
even if you sell it for what you paid, you still come out way ahead - 5 years of free living, plus some awesome tax breaks.
Our "extended family" has agreed to limit gifts to $5 from/to a particular person, with the rule that you may combine up to $10 -- and I think it's working great! We're 9 people total, so each of us spends $40 (8 x $5). For example, I can buy one $5 gift for my sister-in-law or I can buy a $10 gift for her and her spouse. It's fun and challenging to try to find inexpensive gifts that are still something appropriate for the particular person or just fun or even useful. For example, a used book, a funny notepad, kitchen linen towels, etc. It's really not very hard to find items in the $5-$10 range. And I like this MUCH better than the name-drawing idea where each person gets only one gift from whoever drew your name -- and they've spent the same or more, as they would've buying all the little gifts. It's nice to have gifts under the tree :-)
What kind of savings account is best?
Leave a Comment
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Please stay on topic, be civil, and be brief.
Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. Names are displayed with all comments. We reserve the right to edit any comments posted on this site. Please read the Comment Guidelines before posting. By leaving a comment, you agree to New York Public Radio's Privacy Policy and Terms Of Use.