No Fee Mortgages Coming SoonWritten by Charles Essmeier
Buying a home, especially for first time, can be a daunting experience. There are endless credit checks, bank checks, employment checks, appraisals and more paperwork than seems to make sense. Adding to angst associated with buying a home is endless list of fees that are added to cost of mortgage. In addition to interest rate quoted for loan itself, lenders add other items to closing costs, including appraisal fees, loan origination fees, credit report fees, document preparation fees, postage fees and all manner of other items that are often not even mentioned by lender until closing time. The borrower often ends up suffering from a form of “sticker shock” at closing time, as costs associated with closing on loan are often substantially higher than expected. That may change, however, as several banks are about to introduce so-called “no fee” mortgages.
The concept of lending without a long list of additional fees isn’t new; banks have been offering “no fee” home equity loans for several years. The continued boom in national
| | Does the Moon Have Covers?Written by Kemberly Wardlaw
Recently, one late winter night, my four-year old son and I counted stars with one another. After a few minutes, he pointed to bright moon and asked, "Why doesn't moon have covers?""Covers? What do you mean?" I inquired. And in his own boyish terminology, he launched into a long description justifying moon's requirements for blankets to protect itself against weather's elements. To me, his ideas were plausible and thoughtful. As an investor, it may serve you well to consider your portfolio's protection. Have you protected your investments during this year's volatile cold snap and will you have necessary diversification to enjoy a potential market re-heating? The following may assist you in all types of markets. For individual stock investors, a defensive posture served them well during recent bear market. By employing "tight" stop losses, they created downsize protection. Even if sell price seemed undesirable at that particular time, building a cash position with such proceeds allowed investors a chance to re-enter market at lower levels. Risk of principal still existed in such scenarios and this strategy will not guarantee you a positive return. For many, this strategy is not proper. If your portfolio is growth oriented, no income generation necessary, it is important to keep focus on your pre-determined investment philosophy. Even so, you should not ignore short-term. Pay close attention to market behaviors and stick to your plan. I would speculate investors of Enron had long term goals, but little or no exit strategy. It is better to know and profit, than buy another's high price and blow it!
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