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Blogger, husband and personal finance junkie at BibleMoneyMatters.com

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http://www.biblemoneymatters.com/

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Total Points: 42

Questions Asked: 2

Answers Given: 14

Best Answers: 0

At what point is it worth it to refinance?

We're looking at doing a refinance right now for our 30 year (27 yrs remaining) fixed mortgage at 6.5%. Remaining loan balance around 200k. We were going to do it a few months back with the rates were at around 5% with closing costs of about $3000, but a family medical issue meant that we needed to hold off for a couple of months. Now the rates have gone up quite a bit, but are obviously still lower than our current mortgage. At what point do you think it is a good idea to refinance? The threshold we had decided on was that we wanted to be able to repay the closing costs/etc within a year or so.. At what point would you think it would be worth it to refinance?

Asked in: Real Estate - 285 days ago - 8 answers

Hands Off Investing

We've just finally become debt free, and have saved up 6+ months of expenses in savings. What investment course would you suggest for someone who hasn't done a lot of investing before, and who wants to be as hands off as possible?

Asked in: Investing - 294 days ago - 3 answers

Upside down on my car loan - what is the best way out?

I owe about $3000 more then what my car is worth and HAVE to sell? Is it better to try to take out a small loan to cover the difference and sell on my own? Or should I go to a dealership and roll the difference into a new vehicle (which would be a used car)

Asked by: jenb6723 in Credit and Debt - 225 days ago

biblemoneymatters's Answer

It seems like there are a lot of things left unsaid about this situation..

Why do you have to sell? (and what is the loan balance - what kind of car?)
What's your current financial situation?
What type of used car do you plan on buying once you sell?

Without a lot of that stuff it's hard to answer your question.. In general i try not to have a total of vehicles that are worth more than 1/2 of what I make in a year. If your vehicles are worth more than that - and you have debts and other obligations on top of that, you may want to consider selling the vehicle yourself and getting into a decent used car that is more affordable for your situation. Once you've sold the vehicle and worked out a loan for the difference (I don't like debt in general, but you've already signed on for this particular one), and then work out a good solid financial plan to get your ducks in a row. if you're not doing a budget already, start on your first budget. Watch where you're spending your money, and have a plan on how you're going to get out of debt. Good luck!

Answered 225 days ago

Save for home buying or pay off student loan?

I have an emergency fund and a budget in place that is allowing me to make some good financial progress. I have used my debt snowball and now have no debt other than a 12K student loan at 2.3% interest. My financial goals include owning a home and paying off this student loan. Should I use my allotted cash toward paying off the loan and then building my down payment, or should I take advantage of my current low interest rate and work on building my down payment for a while?

Asked by: annabanana177 in Personal Finance - 246 days ago

biblemoneymatters's Answer

I might be the odd man out on this one, mainly because joe and pinyo's advice is sound... but I say if the student loan is weighing you down - it weighs heavily on your mind - you might consider snowballing that debt and paying it off ASAP. It may not be the most sound financial choice, but sometimes the best decisions aren't. I think it really depends on how you feel about debt, and how you view that student loan. If you'd rather have the peace of mind that comes from being totally debt free, I say pay off the student loan. Otherwise, ignore me and listen to them. :)

Answered 243 days ago

To sell a car or not?

I have a big confusion right now, need some suggestions. First bit background; I am SAHM with 2 kids, dh is out of work, 2 cars (2007 and 2003 van are paid off), only debt is mortgage, we have about 4 months of expense and have cut down on all un-necessary expenses as we could. Our biggest worry is mortgage, should we sell we sell of both cars and buy beat up old car, as we want to be debt free soon, or our next choice is what we normally do, use car/van till it dies, but that way we will not have extra money that we may need being payless, if dh does not find job soon, decision decision what to do?? Thank you.

Asked by: avenger90 in Personal Finance - 248 days ago

biblemoneymatters's Answer

Sorry to hear about your tough situation. I hope your husband finds something soon. I think I would consider selling either one or both of the vehicles, especially if the outlook for finding another job in your husband's field isn't great right now. We all know that the economy is in the dumps, and sometimes it can take awhile to find a new job. Having a bit of a cushion provided by selling your vans, and downgrading to something cheaper - at least for now - may be what you need to get by. With that said, it would be important to really check and make sure what you can get for your vehicles - realistically. I would check sites like these to figure out what you can expect to get in a private party sale:

KBB.com
edmunds.com
carsoup.com
cars.com

If the price you can get for your vehicles isn't that high, it may not be worth it to sell them. If you can sell your vehicles (or even one of them) for a decent price, and the cost of a reliable cheap car isn't too great, you may want to move ahead on it. If you do sell your cars, and buy a cheaper car - you may want to consider building up as much of an emergency fund as you can with any extra cash, in case your car breaks down - or other eventualities. Some tips for you in your situation:

Answered 247 days ago

Should the government regulate the salaries/bonuses of Wall Street executives?

whats your opinion?

Asked by: Tamalero59 in Business and Economy - 248 days ago

biblemoneymatters's Answer

I think the government is getting way too involved in way too many sectors of private industry these days. I think we're headed down a slippery slope to where the governement will hold more and more control over our lives. Should the salaries necessarily be as high as they are for some of these Wall St. execs? Probably not. Is it the government's business? I dont' think so. If the salaries aren't sustainable the market will correct it.

Answered 247 days ago

Gas Guzzler Credit , How to protect myself against shady dealers?

I know how the program is supposed to work. What I am wondering about is how can I be sure that I get most of the $4,500 credit and not the car dealer? I can easily see the car dealer be less willing to sell me the car at a better price because of this government credit. I can't believe the government thinks that these car dealers will do the right thing and cough up the full amount each time.

Asked by: Kelly in Business and Economy - 248 days ago

biblemoneymatters's Answer

I would say to make sure that you are educated as to what a good price on the car you're looking for is. Do your research on sites like edmunds.com, carsoup.com, cars.com and other car info and classifieds sites. Send in a few price requests to local dealers to find out what they're offering for the lowest pricing on the vehicle you're looking for. If they try to give you a higher price once you go in and ask to get the cash for clunkers trade-in, you'll know you've been had. I would report them. In addition you should be able to get all the dealer rebates/credits/etc in addition to cash for clunkers - so make sure you research and talk about all of those things with the dealer before you let them know that you're trading a clunker. Also, make sure you're buying from a cash for clunkers authorized dealer, you can find out which dealers are on the government site once the program is implemented.

Answered 248 days ago

Build emergency fund or pay credit card debt first?

My finances are horrible. Trying to budget/figure things out. should i build an emergency fund first or should i pay my credit card debt first?

Asked by: orchid in Personal Finance - 271 days ago

biblemoneymatters's Answer

I come down somewhere in the middle. I would build up a small $1000 emergency fund in order to take care of small events that might come up while you're paying off debt. If you don't, you'll have to continue the spiral of debt to fix the "emergency" and any progress you might be making will be stunted. Once you've got $1000 saved, go crazy on your debt and get it paid off as soon as possible. Once you've paid off debt, then I would build a larger emergency fund of 6-8 months of expenses.

Answered 271 days ago

Debt collection agency call, what to do?

Week or so ago, we got a call from automated machine at our home about collection of debt, all it mentioned was they are MCO corp debt collection agency and call at their 800 number. They called on weekend when we were away. Now, thing is we are current in our bills, never have been late, paying our CC in full etc, so this call came as a surprise. I did Google and Yahoo search on this agency and their phone, I got 2 different answers, one is MCO corp is some business (not debt collection) and phone they gave, turned out be from some small university. So ignored the computer generated message. Meanwhile my husband and I thought, possible identity theft, so we checked our all 3 credit report, thanks you Moolanomy info. and there is no problems whatever in in all 6 reports, except once for me, my SSN is different and name spelled wrong, which I have filed for correction but reporting agency said, name and SSN variation are common and they will get back to me in 45 days. Now, we got a call from MCO corp again last evening when we are out, and this in person's voice, urging us to call right away about debt. They have never mentioned who it is for. Only thing is we are thinking, someone might have used our phone # and/or address and did not pay bill, but it is not showing up on credit reports right now. My question is, never have been this situation before, what to do? should we call and asked them to stop as it is surely not us. My problem is that they are calling in weekend and evening and I heard them to be very pushy. what are my options to stop these calls for whomever and not affect my credit or my life with pushy people trying to get monies which surely we did not do. Thank you so much.

Asked by: avenger90 in Credit and Debt - 279 days ago

biblemoneymatters's Answer

As others have mentioned, I might try calling them back (from my home phone since they have that) and then getting some more details about this supposed debt. Keep in mind that you do have rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices act, and that if they are indeed a debt collecter, they have to abide by those rules. Inform them that you don't owe any money, and that this is in fact an error. Don't give them any further information. Good luck!

Answered 272 days ago

Will improving the landscaping to my house add market value to it?

I have been putting quite a bit of money into the landscaping of my backyard lately, and I just wanted to know your thoughts on the return on investment of landscaping to a home.

Asked by: erikfolgate in Real Estate - 281 days ago

biblemoneymatters's Answer

I would think increasing your curb appeal from the front of the house would have the most return on your money. Depending on what you're doing in the back yard exactly, I think it could definitely have an effect, but certainly i wouldn't want to get carried away. here's a tool to help calculate ROI for certain home improvements at Homegain and an article on a blog about return on investment for home improvement projects at The Digerati Life.

Answered 279 days ago

At what point is it worth it to refinance?

Asked by: biblemoneymatters in Real Estate - 285 days ago

biblemoneymatters's Answer

Thanks for the responses so far. Part of our problem is that we no longer have 20% equity in our house, even though we put 20% down when we bought it. Because the bottom dropped out of the market, we would now have to start paying PMI again if we were to refinance through another company. If we refinance through our current servicer, we would qualify for the "Making Home Affordable" program, which means we wouldn't have to start paying PMI. PMI would add an additional $100+ to our mortgage. As we are now we would be able to get a rate that is about .65% lower than what we're currently paying. We're shooting for 1% lower. We'll see if we can get it.

Answered 285 days ago

At what point is it worth it to refinance?

Asked by: biblemoneymatters in Real Estate - 285 days ago

biblemoneymatters's Answer

Just an update on this - we decided to refinance now that the rates have dropped to where we can get a zero point refinance with no added PMI - and our rate will drop from 6.5% to 5.375%. So we'll drop more than a point off of our interest rate and save thousands in interest over the life of the loan. Our payment will drop by almost $200/month, and the payback time on the closing costs/etc is just over 14 months. We plan on staying in this house for at least another 5 years. thanks for all your helpful advice - it really was beneficial!

Answered 251 days ago

How to keep track of my credit score without spending any money?

I'd like to stay of top of my credit score a little better because I know it's the right thing to do. But how can I do this without spending any money? I am already having hard time saving money, so I don't want to spend any more. Please help.

Asked by: Kelly in Personal Finance - 286 days ago

biblemoneymatters's Answer

As the others have mentioned you could use CreditKarma.com for free credits score monitoring. I use it and it has worked pretty well and been pretty accurate. I also use annualcreditreport.com for the free credit report from one of the big three agencies. If I understand correctly you can stagger your free reports out from each of the three, and get one every 4 months with no charge. (also, don't fall victim to freecreditreport.com - it's bogus)

Answered 285 days ago

How do you find a good home lender?

I am getting ready to buy my first house and I would love to get some advice from others about how to find a good lender?

Asked by: ChristianPF in Real Estate - 290 days ago

biblemoneymatters's Answer

My suggestion would be to ask people you know - and ask on Twitter. That's what I did recently and found a great (and helpful) mortgage broker on twitter @mortgagereports (who is also a blogger). T

Answered 290 days ago

How old do I have to be to get a credit card?

I am 15 years old and I can't wait to get my own credit card. I really want to have more financial freedom, so I was wondering what the minimum age for getting a credit card is?

Asked by: Scott in Credit and Debt - 296 days ago

biblemoneymatters's Answer

I agree with the others, using credit for financial freedom is a one way ticket to being a slave to debt. Instead try saving up for what you need and pay cash. Try delayed gratification!

Answered 285 days ago

How can I get an online job?

How can I get an online job? I am free in evening and I want earn more money.?

Asked by: Gavilan in Careers and Employment - 296 days ago

biblemoneymatters's Answer

It really depends on what you're good at, what you want to do, and how much time you want to spend. If you just have a few free hours every evening, you could try your hand at blogging and try making some extra money through advertising. If you're good ad design, you could design logos and sell your work online. The opportunities are endless! You're only limited by your creativity! for a few ideas i had a post a while back giving a few ideas.

Answered 290 days ago

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