Spouses who decide to stay home with their kids know that they will be making sacrifices. It’s difficult to put a career on hold and easily be able to pick it back up again several years later. And losing one parent’s income means money is tighter, which can often lead to strife and disagreements. Most…
Last year, my husband and I looked into the possibility of purchasing a rental home. It seemed like a good time to buy real estate, and we could swing the down payment on a small home in our area. However, despite the fact that we were comfortable with the idea of being landlords and everything…
When one parent decides to stay home with the children, families will often have to do quite a bit of belt-tightening in order to make the transition to one income. One place where it may seem smart to economize is on life insurance for the stay-at-home spouse. After all, without an income to replace, why…
One of the biggest financial mistakes I ever made was during my senior year in college. I was having trouble paying off my credit card each month, and so I decided I could let myself get into a little bit of debt, since I’d be working a “real” job after I graduated and could take…
Whether you want to increase your home’s footprint to make room for your expanding family, or you want to undo the ugliness perpetrated on your home by a previous owner, planning a major home makeover can be an exciting prospect. Unfortunately, that excitement can often blind homeowners to the enormous price tag for a big…
The 30-year fixed rate mortgage has long been the standard loan term for homebuyers, and for many good reasons. A 30-year loan helps to keep monthly mortgage payments lower, keeping home ownership (and larger homes) within reach of the average homebuyer. And for years, the slight interest rate improvement offered by the 15-year mortgage was…