While buying a home can be a great investment, it is also a major purchase—often the biggest purchase a person will make in their lifetime! In many markets, a mortgage is actually cheaper than renting, but there are many more upfront costs associated with buying a home that are important to consider. Budgeting for buying a home is about a lot more than what you can afford to pay each month and the amount of your down payment, but fortunately, we have a guide to help. Read on →

Regardless of what age you are, there is no better time to start thinking about retirement savings than right now. Conceptualizing what we will need in retirement can be tough, and with a long timeline, many people assume they can play catch up with their savings goals as their target date approaches—however, due to compounding interest, starting early is much more beneficial, even if you are only saving a small amount each month. Read on →

If you are looking into signing up for a credit card, it is vital that you do plenty of research on the topic before you commit to one. Credit cards can be a great way to build your credit, earn rewards such as cash back and points and get better control of your cash flow—but on the other hand, they can be a slippery slope to debt and high interest rate accumulation. Read on →

If you are trying to get your finances under control and make an effort to save more money, building a household budget is the best place to start. It is impossible to know how much you can save without knowing how much you have to spend each month, and by categorizing all your expenses, you can better evaluate areas where it may be possible to cut back. There are many structures out there that can work for budgeting, but if you are just getting started, the 50/30/20 method is often the easiest place to begin. Read on →

Ideally, we would all like to save more money—but by the time you add up monthly expenses, household needs, recreational funds and your current rate of savings, it may seem like there is no wiggle room to help you save more. That may be true, but it is also likely that you just have not been thinking outside of the box. That is what we are here to help you do! Read on →

When it comes to taking charge of your money, there are many ways you can make alterations to your budget to create more room for saving and investing. While there are plenty of ways to purchase less and spend more thriftily, today we wanted to look at another aspect of budgeting that can make a big difference: recurring expenses. Recurring expenses can consist of utility bills, subscription services and any other cost you are logging consistently on your budgeting tally—and while they may seem like costs that are fixed, there are actually great tricks for saving on some of them. Read on →

Saving money is one of the biggest challenges that most people face, and for good reason. Every penny can quickly add up, and when a person gets accustomed to spending on a regular basis, it can be difficult to make the lifestyle changes needed to work within a budget. While general budgeting and reducing recurring expenses are great savings strategies, today we will be talking about a type of spending that often does not get discussed at length: money leaks. Read on →

While selling your home may be a bit less stressful than buying a home, there are still some parts of it you’ll need to pay attention to. Among those is the appraisal, a required step for anyone who needs to borrow money to make a purchase. Unlike the home inspection that focuses on details inside and out, the appraisal is all about establishing the value of your home and pays less attention to issues and improvements. Read on →

If you’re following news about mortgage rates, you’ve likely heard the months of record-low rates may be giving way. The numbers started rising in February and are now above 3% for 30-year loans for the first time since the fall. The increases aren’t a surprise; experts predicted a rise this year, though they may not have seen how quickly it would move this early in the year. But they’re certainly likely to be unwelcome news for those who didn’t get in on the housing market boom of the last year. Read on →

As you move through the mortgage process, you’ll be part of checks meant to protect you and the lender. In the first category is the home inspection, which isn’t required but we highly recommend it because it gives you a chance you figure out what you’re getting into. In the second group is the property appraisal. An appraisal is required in almost every home purchase because it provides assurance to the lender that the property is worth what you’re borrowing to purchase it. Read on →