Finance2007   Finance for personal business

One of the most confusing things about borrowing money is calculating the interest rates. Interest rates vary and when you go to take out a loan or a mortgage it might seem intimidating when the loan officer starts talking about interest rates per annum, nominal rates and market interest rates.

There are different types of interest rates depending on whether you are borrowing money or investing money.

When you are borrowing money you have to pay interest back at a set rate. These rates are determined by several factors. One of these factors is risk. If you have a bad credit rating the rates at which you pay interest on loans may be significantly higher than someone who has a pristine credit rating.

The reason for this is that the lender sees you as a risk. When you are a risk, the rates applied to your lending rise. This can make it especially difficult for someone with a bad credit rating to purchase anything major including a home or a vehicle. They may be able to afford the initial payments, but once the interest rates are added, the amount exceeds their budget.

Another factor that determines interest rates is the length of the loan. Lower interest rates are often offered if the consumer extends the period of the loan. To the consumer this may seem like a windfall. They view the smaller interest rates as a savings to them. Short term it is but since the loan is being extended to take advantage of the lower interest rates, they are actually paying out more money in interest over the length of the loan.

Interest rates do not only affect just the consumer but they have an impact on the economy as a whole as well. When interest rates climb, people are less likely to purchase goods that arent essential to their lives. Car sales drop and home sales often plummet as well. The average consumer doesnt want to spend the extra money on the increased interest because the rise in rate just means less money in their pocket. The cost of the goods they are purchasing hasnt changed, its the cost of purchasing those goods that has.

On the other side of the interest rates spectrum is investing. People want to invest when interest rates are high so as to yield the biggest profit. Years ago the traditional savings account was often viewed as the traditional investment tool. The bank would post their interest rates and people would save their money in the hopes that it would grow substantially over the course of a number of years.

Today you are more apt to find people investing in many diversified things; money market funds, the stock market and bonds. If you decide to invest in bonds they will have a posted interest rate. The rates on bonds might be slightly higher than other investments because with many bonds you have to lock your money in to the investment for a specific amount of time. The period can be anywhere from several months to several years.

Interest rates impact our lives everyday whether we are aware of them or not. To keep on top of both your borrowing and investment needs its a good idea to follow interest rates.

Help yourself avoid overdraft fees by understanding checking.

While there is a lot of attention put on people who get into financial trouble based on the amount of money that they charge to their credit cards, that is not the only problem that people commonly have. For instance, checking accounts can cause trouble as well, especially if you do not know how checking works. Therefore, before you start using your checking account frequently, you should find out exactly how your checking account works.

Your checking account is just another bank account, though it is usually not the same or attached to your savings account. Many people find it worthwhile to have both a savings account and a checking account. The reason for this is that you get interest on your savings in the savings account – while in a checking account, you have more freedom with when and how you withdraw your money.

When you write a check, it is true that the money will not be taken out of your account immediately. However, trying to beat the system and writing checks before you have money deposited into your account is a good way to get into trouble with bounced checks. This is why it is important to keep a detailed checkbook, so that you will know exactly how much money is in your checking account at all times.

One thing that you should keep in mind, as well, is that in most cases, debit or check cards will withdraw the money from your account immediately. Therefore, you should make sure that you count these transactions in your check book just like you would any other transaction.

Another tip that you should think about is that it is usually a good idea to keep some extra money in your checking account. If you have a $200 buffer, then you’ll be able to take care of business if something unexpected should come up. For instance, if there is an emergency and you need to spend money at first, then the extra money in your account will come in handy. This is also useful just in case you are waiting for a deposit into your account and it is late.

Do you know how your life will be divided after your death? Who will your estate go to Who will look after your children? With an estate plan you decide. You are in control of your familys security in the event that something tragic should happen. Now perhaps you are a little foggy with some of the fundamental ideas associated with estate planning. Lets start at the beginning.

According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Law estate planning is:
The arranging for the disposition and management of one’s estate at death through the use of wills, trusts, insurance policies, and other device

Your estate is everything you own, your assets and liabilities. This includes things such as your house, account in your name, your insurance policies, and vehicles. The problem with dying without an effective estate plan is that even if your property is distributed to the proper people, a process known as probate court may cost your heirs up to 10% of your assets net value. Also you must take any children that you are the legal guardian of into consideration. If you do not have an estate plan it may be probate court that decides who looks after them after them after you are gone.

You dont want to let this happen to you and your family. You need an estate plan. Now, in order to start estate planning you are going to need to look into the following options: living wills, revocable living trusts.

A living will is a document in which you can spell out where all of your assets will be going. You may also modify this document at anytime. You are the one in control. This is a great way to avoid probate court.

A living trust allows you to name a person who will handle all of your legal affairs after you pass away. Your trust may either be revocable or irrevocable. Revocable means that, just like a living will, you can modify it at any time. However, in an irrevocable living trust you do not have the ability to change it.

Having an estate plan can help your family avoid many hardships after your passing. Dont let your whole life fall into the wrong hands. Take control. Make an estate plan today.

While some economists, during the early fall of the real estate boom, predicted that the situation will be soon under control, the latest forecast predicts a very uneven and rough road ahead for the housing market. And even a near miss with depression.

David Shulman, a senior economist for the quarterly University of California, LA, in his “A Near Recession Experience” report, stated from that the nation’s economic performance is expected to be “almost as close as you can get to avoid the technical definition of a recession.” That indicates the low growth in the nation’s Gross Domestic Product. It is predicted that there will be a growth of only 1 per cent during the last quarter of 2007 and in the first quarter of 2008.

Such a slow economy with 1 per cent GDP growth pace has a high risk of falling into an actual recession. This increases the danger of things becoming worse.

According to David Shulman, this forecast is based on a Federal Reserve’s last week’s report that gave an idea about the dull employment numbers, and the slight fall in the value of dollar in recent weeks. Both these factors would probably have further reduced expectations in the forecast.

While the previous forecast called for housing starts to bottom out at an annual rate of 1.2 million to 1.3 million, the forecast report revealed today expects a range of 1 million to 1.1 million for housing starts. This forces the belief that the recovery will be more halfhearted with starts hardly recovering to a 1.4 million unit annual rate by the end of 2009.

With home prices falling 10 percent to 15 percent, housing starts are expected to witness a 55 to 60 percent peak to trough decline. A very similar drop-off took place during the years of 1986 to 1991.

As Shulman said, home price declines are expected to drop by the end of 2009. Florida Arizona, California and parts of the Northeast are probably at the most risk to the larger price drops.

According to the report, the credit tightening in the mortgage market has complicated property purchases in the high-priced states and the mortgage industry is moving towards more full documentation, real cash down payments and more serious income standards and that is going to take a lot of people out of the market at the current price structure. The problems in the mortgage market could take towards some harsh adjustments in the home prices.

The report also mentions that the national scope of the real estate foreclosure problem in some ways look similar to the great depression in the market. The forecast expects that by the end of this year, the Federal Reserve will cut down the federal funds rate from 5.25 percent to 4.50 percent. The cut will be done to support the economy and not for the financial market.

The report also mentions that the mortgage defaults and the foreclosure of the mortgages is the main reason in the fall of the local housing market.