Five Tips to Choosing the Best Home Loan

Buying a house is a major decision, and obtaining a home loan can be a complicated and stressful process. Because the housing industry has expanded so much over time, the lending services offered to home buyers have grown increasingly complex. To avoid being left in the dark or otherwise feeling like you’ve lost control of the process, check out these five tips that will help ease the stress of choosing the right home loan for you and your family.

1. Understand your finances – Before going into any lending situation, it’s extremely important to know how much you can pay for a home. Purchasing a house you cannot afford runs the risk of foreclosure so choose the house you can afford now rather than the one you think you can afford later and borrow accordingly.

Know your credit score, reduce your debt – Knowing your credit score is crucial to this process because the score indicates how much you’ll be lent and the interest rate. There are plenty of free credit report offers and it’s in your best interest to take advantage of them. Similarly, the way to increase your credit score is to reduce your debt. You want to go into this process as close to debt-free as you can to receive the lowest interest rate possible.

3. Research different types of loans – Go in confident by understanding the different types of loans that a particular lender offers. Similarly, be aware of the different fees and penalties that different lenders charge, such as late fees and closing costs.

4. Be wary of the cheapest option – This concerns fixed versus adjustable rate mortgages. A fixed rate may not the be cheapest option at the time, but it’s fixed meaning that it won’t change. An adjustable rate mortgage is only fixed for a certain period of time and then is ‘adjusted’ sometimes as often as monthly.

5. Utilize online comparison websites –There are several mortgage lending sites online that ask basic questions about your yearly income, the size of the home you want, and so forth. These sites will provide a realistic idea of the type of home you can afford and what your payments will be like if you decide on this home or that. Choose a rate and payment schedule you’re comfortable with.

Generally speaking, choosing the home loan that suits you best comes down to understanding your finances as thoroughly as possible. And like any other product you purchase, researching ahead of time is always a smart move. Know your finances, know your lender, and go into this process confident and as worry-free as possible.

Northwest Georgia Bank is a leading Chattanooga bank that offers Chattanooga loans and Chattanooga mortgages with an unbeatable level of customer service.

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Steps To Take To Develop Money-Saving Habits

People aren't born from birth to be savers. It takes time to develop money-saving habits. Follow these tips and you'll be saving hundreds of dollars a month in no time.

Budgeting

The first thing you need to do before you can develop your money-saving habits is to decide realistically how much you can save. To accomplish this, you must first devise a budget that lays out all the money you earn and your essential spending. This tells you how much discretionary income you have that you could be saving.

Don't Pay Too Much

The first money-saving habit you should develop is a paranoia about prices. Assume you are paying too much for everything from groceries to car insurance. Then test that assumption. Go to online price comparison sites to see if you can get lower prices on insurance, loan rates, rates for TV, Internet and phone service, and many other services and products. If you can get a lower rate, don't be shy about switching, as long as the new product or service meets your needs. Make sure to take advantage of any chance to lower your prices. This includes bundling insurance policies and cable, TV and Internet services to get discounts.

Spend Money to Save Money

Making impulse purchases is not a good thing, but that doesn't mean its always bad to buy more than you need. If your local supermarket is having a huge sale on products you need and use regularly, buy large amounts and stock them away for future use. If you have a freezer or extra refrigerator, you can buy large amounts of meat and vegetables when they are on sale and freeze them for later use. You can compound your savings by using supermarket coupons or vouchers during these sales. When buying clothes and shoes for your kids, take advantage of really good sales by buying extra items in larger sizes for use a year or two down the road.

Don't Be Brand Conscious

The best savers out there don't get hung up on the names on their labels. To save money, buy the store brand for food and household purchases. And stay away from designer clothes and shoes. Most of the time they are not better quality than off-brands, they simply cost more because of their name.

Don't Pay for Something You Can Get for Free

If you like to read books, get them from your public library instead of buying them. Read newspapers and magazines online instead of paying for subscriptions. Trade services with friends and neighbors.

These are just a few of the ways you can get started on your way to becoming a saver. There are many more. Follow as many steps as you can and you'll be a much richer person.

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How to get a 100% home loan

How to get a 100 % home loan? This a question that many would like to here the answer to. Is there really such a thing? Is there even just a small percentage of a possibility that the answer to this mythical question could be a positive one? To understand more on how to get a 100% home loan we must first understand the facts behind this so-called witches brew for the new families of tomorrow.

Banks, this is the first word that would also play the most important role in your quest of finding the holy grail to a 100% percent home loan. Banks offer a lot of different plans to help you achieve that house that you always wanted. Most often than not if you have a stable income you will be granted a housing loan applicable to your monthly salary capability. Interest, accrued payments and monthly amortizations are all part of the formula. But is getting a 100% home loan part of the banks plan in pursuing your hard earned salary. Hate to burst your bubble but almost 90% of the world’s banks in different counties would say it is impossible. There is no such loan nowadays in the U.S. and neighboring countries by banks alike that would give you a 100% home loan, with no down payment and collateral required.

Banks have reviewed the possibility of giving 100% home loans to their clients time and time again, and as the ball goes around the answer always came to same old conclusion. The banks would be at a loss if ever they implement such a risky deal on their part. There are a few banks that practice the 80-90% rule when it comes to home loans. This means that they are willing to lend you 80-90 % of the loan to value ratio (LVR) provided that you have a stable flow of income. Still this means that the client will be needing to shoulder the remaining 20 or 10 percent from his own savings.

Now you would ask me I mentioned only 90% percent of banks worldwide will not allow you this kind of loan, what about the remaining 10 percent? The best answer to this question is Australia. Why Australia you ask? There are still some banks and real estate lenders down there that would offer you 90 – 95% loan able value in regards to LVR. Still not the 100% value that we all are looking for, but it is surely the closest you can get to acquisition of the reality. You just have to look really hard for legitimate banks and real estate lenders.

The next time you ask the question of “How to get a 100% home loan?” with no strings attached, you might as well kiss your dreams goodbye. The banks don’t see this as a possibility unless you have tons of collateral which will still end up as down payment to that home you always wanted. There is no such thing as 100% free nowadays, but there is something called hard work and savings; and maybe the next best thing “Australia”.

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Thinking of Starting a Business – Think Capital Allowances

Since 2008 when the economic climate changed a lot of people have seen the entrepreneurial side to themselves rise to the surface and used this time as an opportunity to start their own business. There are many considerations you will need to look into when deciding if this is the right option for you with money usually being a fairly big consideration.

A recent study showed that few people knew what capital allowances were or understood them, when starting a business it is a good idea to familiarise yourself with incentives available such as capital allowances and tax relief and how your start up could benefit. As capital allowances can offer up to £100,000.00 of tax relief in the first year.

Firstly let’s look at what capital allowances are and who is eligible for them :-

When a business is thinking of investing in an asset, which can vary depending on the industry, but the overall areas to look at are:-

Enhanced capital allowances – environmental based tax relief.

Disposal of assets

Acquiring new assets

Ongoing fixed assets

They may be able to claim capital allowances (tax relief) to reduce the financial burden for the company, which early on in a company’s life can help the business grow, develop and be competitive.

Capital allowances, as the recent study demonstrated are a fairly complex subject and having an

understanding of how your business could benefit requires specialist knowledge to your specific situation and requirements together with looking at your specific investments/assets.

Also it is worth pointing out that from April 2012 the tax relief currently available is significantly reduced from £100,000.00 to £25,000.00.

At any time a business should be aware of when it can benefit financially and in this case from tax relief and capital allowances it should look at the above areas and identify whether any assets they have fall into these areas.

Chris Simons recently decided to set up his own business and found the possibility of capital allowances and tax relief to be a huge financial relief.

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Life annuity brings Peace & Happiness Unlimited for Retirees

After the successful completion of our working era, we head to another life dominated by security and peace. Well, it’s quite obvious for an individual to expect a hassle-free life where there will be no work responsibilities and unavoidable tensions. Despite, a certain way has to be adopted that can ensure monetary stability till your last breath. So, if you have already bid farewell to your work and therefore looking for extra income, why don’t you go for a long-term investment? People nowadays are going for life annuity policies for sustaining regular income for lifetime. So, let’s see the factors that are making retirees go for such long term investment policies.

·         A life annuity policy certainly scores higher when it comes to financial stability and monetary security. No matter what the market condition stands, you will get your deserved income according to your set time period.

·         Fixed annuity is the best life annuity policy that can let you enjoy a steady income. This means that the rate of interest initially set by you in the contract remains same despite any sort of monetary turbulence in the current market.

·         Life annuity policies are much safer. The annuitant needs to sign a contract with an insurance company. Here in the contract, the applicant is asked to state each and every detail including the series of payments, mode of payments, time period of the contract and of course your personal details.

·    There are no chances of facing duplicities. Remember, everything will be mentioned in a contract. In case of any convenience, you can easily catch hold of your insurance agent since he will be signing the agreement papers.

Now, what if the annuitant dies prior to recovering the actual value of the investment? In this respect, an annuitant can enjoy a superb advantage. If he/she had earlier mentioned the name of any beneficiary, the latter would start receiving the same amount after the death of the former. However, there are certain life annuity policies where the beneficiary gets lesser amount than the one the former used to receive earlier.

 Joint Life Annuities

This is one of the top life annuity schemes that can benefit the couples. In case of the life and joint survivor annuities, the payments stop once the annuitant or both the annuitants die. However, in case of a joint-survivor annuity plan, the first annuity will get a lesser amount than usual only after the death of the second spouse.

Annuity Payments for the Impaired

In case of severe medical problems, if the life expectancy of an annuitant gets reduced, the payment terms can be improved. For this, it’s always advisable to talk to an annuity expert who can help you understand all life annuity schemes other than this.

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