My Money Blog

Weekend Links: Snowflakes And More

Posted on February 11, 2008 // 2 Comments

Here are some more links from my weekend reading: Nina of Queercents found out the hard way that Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOCs) can be revoked! It was done because her property value had dropped significantly, which makes sense. But not … [Read the rest]

Avoiding Jumbo Loans By Combining a Conforming Loan and Second Loan

Posted on February 8, 2008 // 22 Comments

Conforming loans are those that satisfy the criteria that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac set regarding what kinds of loans they will buy. Besides certain credit-related guidelines like debt-to-income ratio, one major constraint is the maximum loan … [Read the rest]

Spending, Recession, and the Great Depression

Posted on February 7, 2008 // 65 Comments

With all of this talk about recession and after watching too much History Channel, I've been reading up about the Great Depression of the 1930s. Check out this excerpt from a paper entitled Main Causes of the Great Depression: One obvious … [Read the rest]

Choosing Between a Fixed or Adjustable Rate Mortgage

Posted on February 6, 2008 // 41 Comments

Before shopping for rates, we had to figure out what kind of mortgage loan we were going to get. The first decision was between a fixed-rate or an adjustable-rate mortgage. Quickly, here are some very general definitions: Fixed rate mortgages … [Read the rest]

February 2008 Financial Status / Net Worth Update

Posted on February 4, 2008 // 18 Comments

Credit Card Debt If you've recently starting reading, you may have some concerns about my high levels of credit card debt. I'm actually taking money from 0% APR balance transfer offers and instead of spending it, I am placing it in high yield … [Read the rest]

Homeowners: Where Did You Get Your Mortgage?

Posted on February 4, 2008 // 67 Comments

I'm curious as to where people initially found their mortgage loans, even if later on it was sold to someone else. Here are the options, along with a brief and very generalized impression of their pros and cons. National Banks. In general have … [Read the rest]

Deep Thoughts While Driving A $150,000 Maserati

Posted on February 3, 2008 // 37 Comments

For some reason, my friend received a postcard from Maserati offering him some Omaha Steaks if he came in for a test drive. You'd think buyers of $150,000 luxury vehicles couldn't be convinced to do a test drive for $50 worth of meat, but I guess … [Read the rest]

NotchUp: Get Paid to Interview For Jobs

Posted on February 1, 2008 // 22 Comments

You read it correctly, a new site called NotchUp is trying to replace pricey headhunters by actually paying people hundreds of dollars to interview. The twist is that they are actually looking for people who are already happily employed! From this … [Read the rest]

Revolution MoneyExchange: New Person-to-Person Payment System and $25 Bonus Promotion

Posted on January 31, 2008 // 62 Comments

Yes, here's yet another new financial service vying for your attention. This time it's RevolutionMoneyExchange, which is a person-to-person payment system similar to PayPal. It's free to send, receive, and withdraw money, but the only funding … [Read the rest]

AAA Basic Only Tows 5 Miles?

Posted on January 30, 2008 // 109 Comments

It seems that my car troubles aren't over yet. So the only financial thing I learned today was that AAA Basic only pays for the first 5 miles of towing. After that, it's $6 a mile. What's up with that? I won't complain though, as a family member … [Read the rest]

Earn Rewards For Paying Your Taxes And More

Posted on January 29, 2008 // 30 Comments

For a while, the site OfficialPayments.com has been offering people a way to pay a variety of federal, state, and local taxes with their credit card. While you can earn rewards for doing so, the 2.49% processing fee usually canceled everything out. … [Read the rest]

Free Credit Score Monitoring With CreditKarma

Posted on January 28, 2008 // 78 Comments

Last week, I pointed out how to get a free Experian credit score via Prosper. You can already get free credit reports from AnnualCreditReport.com as well as in other special situations. But what about services like daily credit score … [Read the rest]