Posted by, Jessica Markam

Saving money on your home may seem like it is risky or too good to be true. It may seem impossible, or not worth your time. Saving money with on house, however, is really easy, and can help you pay off your home more quickly and cost you less money in the process.

Purchasing a home is a great investment; it allows you to find financial freedom and acumulate wealth in your personal life as opposed to helping somebody else achieve it. Buying a home can also be a great risk, with the possibility of losing everything and then needing to start all over again. The possibility for reward, however, is great, and can lead to the freedom and ability to create a strong foundation and continue to be involved in other interests. But what if the cost of your home is too high? What are your options? And can you save money and keep your home as well?

It is possible to save money on your home, and there are quite a few options that may benefit you. Thanks to the decline in the housing market, home prices and interest rates for home loans have come down quite a bit over the past few years. This has led to a slew of new financing options for homeowners, two of which are the FHA streamline refinance and the conventional streamline refinance. Both options are pretty similar, but availability and qualification depends on your individual situation. Let’s look into these two options a bit more.

FHA Streamline Refinance
If you originally financed your home with a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage, you may qualify for an FHA Streamline Refinance. This kind of refinance is available only for people who have an FHA mortgage. The main difference between an FHA mortgage and a conventional mortgage is that the FHA insures and guarantees FHA loans. If you have a conventional mortgage, you are required to purchase private mortgage insurance. The FHA can also make special lending agreements for first time homebuyers, including issuing loans to buyers with as little as 3.8% for a down payment. This makes FHA loans enticing options for those who want to buy a home but don’t have money saved for a down payment. If you have an FHA mortgage, you are able to apply for an FHA streamline Refinance. This refinance allows you to refinance your home without an appraisal, saving you time and money. It also enables you to pay the closing fees over time, requiring no out-of-pocket expenses when you close the refinance. This allows you to lower your monthly interest rate and pay less each month while still paying for your house in the same amount of time.

Conventional Refinance
A conventional refinance is almost the same as an FHA refinance, except that it is not insured by the FHA and is available for anybody, whether you have a conventional mortgage or not. A conventional streamline refinance enables you to lower your interest rate without a home appraisal, and saving you time and money. There are closing fees associated with this kind of refinance, and unlike the FHA refinance, they must be paid in full at the time of closing and are not able to be rolled into the final price of the loan. A conventional refinance also required you to purchase and pay for individual private mortgage insurance. A conventional streamline refinance is a fantastic option for people without an FHA loan, and can be issued and completed very quickly, whereas a non streamline refinance takes quite some time to complete.
What do I do now?
Now that you know what a refinance can do for you, the next step is to speak with several different lenders and find out what kind of refinancing options are available. Each lender will be able to offer slightly different interest rates, closing fees, and other options that may fit your budget. It costs you nothing to discuss possibilities with lenders, so be sure to check around with several to ensure you are receiving the best deal possible. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to pay off your house in the same amount of time but for a cheaper price! Enable yourself to save, take a vacation, pay of loans, or do something else that you have always dreamed of doing.

A Brief Guide to Credit Card Stoozing

Posted by Andy Boyd

Stoozing is a technique is sometimes used by investors as a way to earn interest on money that is borrowed for free. This is a strategy that is often used in conjunction with credit cards that offer a 0% introductory rate but the key is in knowing how to find a great deal on a credit card. Then before the introductory interest rate expires, the individual takes the necessary amount of money out of the savings account and pays off the debt. The money that was earned from interest can then be kept by the individual as profit.

Snoozing is essentially a type of arbitrage investment. The investor takes advantage of the free money that is available from interest-free credit cards. There is very little risk involved with this type of investing because the money is sitting in a bank account that is guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (USA), (UK) or Australian government (Australia). Then you simply have to take it out of the account to pay off the balance at the end of the term.

Throughout the process, you will most likely have to make a minimum payment to the credit card company each month. For this payment, you could take money out of the savings account or you could make the payments out of your own money each month.

Although this type of investment can be beneficial as it essentially urns you free money for doing very little, it does have some limits. For instance, you typically will not earn that much from this form of investment. With interest rates on savings accounts very low, you may not be able to earn that much for your trouble. For example, if you borrow $10,000 from a credit card and you earn 2% per year from a saving account, that would get you an extra $200 for this process. If you have to pay an annual fee for the credit card or any other type of transaction fees, then this quickly eat up the profit that you would make. When you have to deal with $10,000 just to make $100 or $200, it may not be enough profit for you.

The primary advantage of this type of investment is that you don’t really have to do anything to earn the money. You are not really putting the money at risk because it is safe in the bank account and you simply sit back and collect interest. This allows you to focus on your job and other projects without having to worry about losing any money. By comparison, with other investments, you have to continually check up on them to make sure that they are performing and deal with minimizing risk. This investment has no such requirements and is basically a “hands off” way to earn money.

Stoozing Tips

If you are thinking about getting involved with credit card stoozing to earn a few extra dollars, you need to keep a few tips in mind.

• Go for long balance transfers: When you engage in this activity, you need to look for credit cards that offer the longest introductory rate periods. For example, some credit cards come with introductory interest rates of up to two years. This will provide you with interest-free financing for a longer period of time, so that you can continue to earn interest on the money.
• Always pay your minimum repayment on time: When stoozing, you also have to make it a priority to always pay your minimum payment on time. If you are even one day late on your minimum payment, the introductory interest rate on the credit card can jump up to the full rate, which could be 20% or more. If this happens, your entire plan goes out the window. You’ll then have to pay interest on the balance on the card. This means that you’ll have to take the money back out of the savings account and pay off your card if you want to avoid the interest fees.
• Shop around for savings accounts: When stoozing, you should also shop around for the best savings account to use. Some savings account have restrictions such as a minimum balance or a maximum number of transactions. Make sure that the same is account you choose is compatible with your stoozing strategy.

Dave writes about balance transfers on CreditCardHelp.com.au, an up-and-coming comparison website based in Australia.

Posted by, Neil Shillito

The whole point of a business plan is to present your proposed business in the most attractive light to whoever reads it. Good financial advice is therefore vital, since you do not want to give anyone a reason to dismiss it out of hand.

A business plan is a vital document that sets out the scope of your proposed business, how you intend to approach key areas of its operation and, arguably most importantly, information about its profitability over time. For this reason, consultation with a financial adviser is critical, since you will need to consider various eventualities concerning your business, your assets and the effects of success or failure on you personally.

The components of a business plan

There are several sections you should include in your business plan. You need to describe the opportunity that you hope your business will be able to profit from. You will need to list the facilities you need to achieve this – buildings and services, equipment such as computers, machinery and so on. You need to think about your marketing, and the problems posed by competitors already operating in this area. And, of course, you need to think about what each of these things means in terms of money. This is where financial advice becomes so important.

Financial advice for budget and projections

If you need some guidance on the contents of your business plan, you can find plenty of help online (the government’s Business Link website has templates to download, as well as other information – see http://www.businesslink.gov.uk). The section of your plan that relates to money should be approached particularly carefully, since this is the part which investors will scrutinise most thoroughly. If your business requires any level of funding then you should speak to an accountant or financial adviser to discuss what this could mean for you.

The section dealing with projections has great significance when it comes to accessing funds to get your business off the ground, usually requiring some degree of financial advice. It has to be as detailed and accurate as possible – whilst, at the same time, remaining as succinct as you can make it. You need to think about the investment you will have to make to start the business, early profit/loss forecasts, and a risk assessment that addresses the implications of various circumstances (unforeseen competition, supply problems, market changes) that could undermine your odds of success. If you need to take out a loan to satisfy your capital requirements, your financial adviser will be able to discuss collateral with you, as well as advising you on how you will be able to pay it back.

The probability of you securing funding from one source or another relies heavily on the ability of this section to convince potential investors. This is why financial advice should be sought: this part of your business plan has to be watertight if you are going to convince others to part with their money.

The executive summary

The executive summary, which will introduce the business plan, is the most key section. Its purpose is to give an overview of everything else in the document, in order to provide an at-a-glance version for potential backers and other interested parties to access quickly. This is the part you need to spend most time over, since it is all that many people will read. It has to be as concise as you can make it, but also as informative as possible. The summary should include the figures that you arrived at with your financial adviser, since these will be of most interest to investors. Make sure that your business plan as a whole, but particularly the summary, are well-crafted and thoroughly checked for spelling and grammatical errors, and are properly laid out. Clear headings and a sensible font size are key: you want this document to be as easy to read as possible, and to ensure that deficiencies of presentation do not put people off the substance of what’s inside.

Neil Shillito is co-founder and director of SG Wealth Management, a forward-thinking, FSA regulated company offering impartial, fee-based financial advicer Norwich and featured regularly on Asset.tv