15-Year vs. 30-Year Mor...

There is no shortage of decisions to be made when applying for a new mortgage loan. You have to select a lender and decide between a fixed or an adjustable rate – and then you must make the biggest decision of all. Paying on a mortgage loan for 30 years is typical, and in fact,...

The Four Most Important...

Here’s another post that adds to our conversation of what will/should fund your retirement income . This one is from US News and they list the four most important sources of retirement income as follows: Social Security. Social Security is the most utilized retirement benefit, with...

6 Tips to Get Approved ...

Some people don’t know the first thing about getting a mortgage loan. They hear reports of dropping interest rates and lower home prices and hastily decide to jump into home ownership. But the process of getting a home loan differs from getting a car loan or renting an apartment,...

How to Break an Apartme...

Leases are legally binding contracts, and vacating a rental property before your lease expires can have serious consequences. But what are you supposed to do if you can’t make rent? You can skip the payment and dodge your landlord until you’re able to drum up the cash....

What the Heck is Early ...

The following is a guest post from Steve at Money Infant . Steve is an early semi retired guy living in Thailand and blogging about personal finance from the perspective of someone who values experience over material things. For more on early semi retirement, see Is Early Semi-Retirement...

The War Against the Ric...

The following is excerpted with permission of the publisher John Wiley & Sons, Inc. from Economic Warfare: Secrets of Wealth Creation in the Age of Welfare Politics by Ziad K. Abdelnour with Wesley A. Whittaker. Copyright (c) 2012 by Ziad K. Abdelnour. It’s on the border of...

Help a Reader: Real Est...

Here’s an email I recently received from a reader: My wife and I are currently living in a classic brick townhouse that I am renting directly from a home builder.  The property is in one of the nicest areas in my state of residence.  My wife and I are within walking distance of a...

Forget New Year’s Res...

The following is a guest post from Todd Tresidder who writes regularly about advanced personal finance topics and investment strategy at Financial Mentor . Every year it’s the same charade – New Year’s resolutions you don’t keep. Unfortunately, when your resolutions are designed...

I Hired a New CPA...

As most of you know, I use a CPA to do my taxes (click the link if you want to know why.) Recently I made a change from one CPA to another and thought I’d explain the situation to you all. I had used my former CPA for 10 years or so. Actually, it was the firm that I had used for 10...

Good Advice from FMF Re...

There have been several insightful comments lately here at FMF on a variety of topics. Since I know that everyone doesn’t read all the comments in every post, I wanted to call these to your attention so you didn’t miss them. The first is from Apex and was left on my post...