Is Your Money Keeping Up With Inflation?Written by Carlos T. Fernandez
In today's unpredictable global economy, you obviously never know what is going to happen next. Uncertainties and concerns regarding Iraqi threat, North Korean crisis, and hidden terrorist cells and networks continue to loom in back of minds of consumers. Moreover, stock markets and industries around world.Price inflation is another major concern for everyone. The latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) number released by U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics states that prices, in all U.S. cities, are up 0.1% in month of December for calendar year of 2002. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a program that produces monthly data on changes in prices paid by urban consumers for a representative basket of goods and services. Furthermore, national unemployment rate continues to remain steady at 6.0% for month of December 2002. Believe it or not, this may not be as bad as it sounds. Economic theory suggests that an increase in inflation rate will lead to a decrease in national unemployment rate. But since unemployment rate is currently 6.0%, this may also suggest that in order for this rate to eventually decrease, we should expect more inflation in future. The recent upsurge in oil prices together with precious metals supports this theory and may also be a hint of what's to come.
| | No Income Verification Home Equity LoanWritten by Levetta Rivera
A no income verification home equity loan is a second mortgage loan that does not require you to provide income documentation to qualify for loan. This type of loan is great for homeowners who need a home equity loan but have hard to document income.The majority of borrowers with hard to document income are either self-employed or commission based employees. Consumers who fall under these categories may have high income but have a lot of business related deductions that they write off on their taxes. This is good on one hand as it reduces taxable income and thus amount of taxes owed, however, when it comes to getting a home loan it can hurt as most lenders use average of your last 2 years taxable net income (the amount left after all of your deductions) to determine your income figure for qualifying purposes. This may cause you to have a debt to income ratio problem if you have a high debt load and thus keep you from qualifying for loan. With a no income verification home equity loan, however, your gross income can be used for qualifying purposes as opposed to net income.
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