Mortgage | refinancing

Dear Dr. Don, My wife and I have a mortgage balance of about $60,000. Our principal and interest expense is about $1,000 per month. We’re about eight years into a 15-year mortgage. I was told that if we made a lump-sum additional principal payment of either $10,000 or $20,000, we would pay off our mortgage earlier and our monthly interest payment would go down quite a bit. At the same time, our    .. more …

*Note: This was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Do you have a personal finance story that you’d like to share? Sign up with the Yahoo! Contributor Network to start publishing your own finance articles. Before we sold our home, we were on track to pay off our 15-year, fixed-rate mortgage in under 10 years. While I never got the opportunity to see my goal through to fruition, I have no doubt that    .. more …

LONDON, January 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ –Despite recent research showing that overpaying on a mortgage offers better longer term rewards than saving, twice as many mortgage holders save regularly rather than pay down their debt according to new research from online bank first direct .A survey of 1022 UK mortgage holders[1] found that 42% are saving regularly – double the proportion that regularly    .. more …

New Spring Florida Homes 2006Search Florida battled several hurricanes last year. The local residents worry on how the hurricanes affect the real estate market, while investors look to cash in. Surprisingly, the home values gain twenty five up to thirty seven percent. Five metro of Florida (Bradenton, Melbourne/Titusville/Palm Bay, Ocala, Ft. Myers/ Cape Coral/Punta Gorda,    .. more …

With the new year comes an opportunity to assess your finances and make improvements. Like overstretched European governments, we should all be thinking about how we’re going to balance the books a bit better this year. A little fiscal rectitude may be in order: spending less, saving more and taking a cautious approach to debt.It’s time to stress-test your finances and consider implementing at    .. more …

The different types of mortgage calculator range from the very simple to the much more complex.The simplest type of mortgage calculator just enables you to enter your personal information and find out how much you can borrow.Some sites offer the standard mortgage calculator, with the additional benefit that you can specify the interest rate for which you want the repayment calculated. This is    .. more …

Intro: Potential homebuyers need to understand that the cost of a home is about more than just the monthly mortgage payments. So, whether you’re a first-time homebuyer or a seasoned pro looking to upgrade to a bigger home … you need to know how much you can afford.Take VO: Before you start your search for a home, it’s imperative that you have a realistic budget. Determining how much house you    .. more …

10:28 a.m. Mark Kantrowitz, a financial aid expert and founder of the Web sites FinAid.org and FastWeb.com , is taking questions this week on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or Fafsa . Mr. Kantrowitz is the author of “Secrets to Winning a Scholarship,” published last February.In this third round of responses, Mr. Kantrowitz addresses questions on unemployment, the accuracy of net    .. more …

Admit it: Whether you’re 35 or 65, the prospect of retiring without a mortgage is an attractive one. No more monthly checks to your lender means extra money to spend on having fun once you exit the workforce. After years of punctual principal-and-interest payments, it’s the least you deserve, right?There are several smart ways to retire without a mortgage. We’ve come up with six that fit a variety    .. more …

Anyone who enjoys surfing the web can find a mortgage calculator available at almost every lending website, especially those that offer multiple lender queries. Some good examples are Lending Tree and eLoan, both of which offer a free mortgage calculator. In addition, local banks and lending institutions may offer a mortgage calculator via their website for added convenience. Most shoppers enjoy    .. more …