We saw two couples over the span of several programs who had well over 20% available to put down. One of the couples almost made a mistake because the future wife wanted alot more house then they could afford. Finally they came to their senses and purchased a home where they could put 20% down. On the other end of the spectrum there were couples who did not even have 10% to put down. One couple did a 85/15 split where they had to take out two loans with the smaller one at a significantly higher interest rate. Another couple didn’t even have a down payment and could barely handle unexpected closing cost. In essence, they were trying to get into a home with no money.

I shared with my wife that it would be better for many of these couples to continue renting until they had at least 20% to put down on a home. The ideal scenario would be a 15 year mortgage with at least 20% down.

The reason I am bringing this up now is because of some hype coming up soon. Is it a good time to buy a home. With all due respect to Jeff who is in the second video, it may not be. You should avoid like the plague FHA mortgage insurance.

Mortgage insurance is a policy that protects lenders against losses that result from defaults on home mortgages. FHA loans require mortgage insurance primarily for borrowers making a down payment of less than 20 percent.

Mortgage insurance is charged to the homeowner each month at the rate of .5 percent per year. (As Jeff noted that is about to increase significantly)

FHA’s monthly mortgage insurance payments will be automatically terminated when these conditions occur:

For mortgages with terms 15 years and less and with Loan to Value ratios 90 percent and greater, annual premiums will be canceled when the Loan to Value ratio reaches 78 percent regardless of the amount of time the mortgagor has paid the premiums.

For mortgages with terms more than 15 years, the annual mortgage insurance premiums will be canceled when the Loan to Value ratio reaches 78 percent, provided the mortgagor has paid the annual premium for at least 5 years.

Mortgages with terms 15 years and less and with loan to value ratios of 89.99 percent and less will not be charged annual mortgage insurance premiums.

http://www.fha.com/

Here is a verse from the Bible:

The blessing of the LORD makes a person rich, and he adds no sorrow with it. (NLT)

I think having to pay high interest rates and being forced into expensive mortgage insurance would qualify as sorrow.

During the months following this tragedy it was a good time to reevaluate some things in our lives including my decision whether to continue with this website.  I have finally decided to keep it going but with some significant changes.

We will be posting alot more content including video and audio.  Lood for the focus to be more on personal development with very practical strategies on how to improve your life. Till next time, Jim

The news of four family deaths within nine months spread quickly. So did the news of my husband and I becoming GRGs, grandparents raising our twin grandchildren. I’m often complimented on how I’m coping with multiple losses and my grandparenting approach. These compliments are supposed to be comforting, but they make me squirm. Some of the compliments I’ve received:

* “You’re doing a wonderful thing.”

* “I admire you; you’re so strong.”

* “You’re an angel.”

* “I think you’re a saint.”

* “Your grandchildren are lucky to have you.”

* “Your grandchildren are keeping you young.”

The compliments make squirm because they are not true. Though my grandchildren have adjusted to living with my husband and me, they wish their parents hadn’t died in separate car crashes. When I think about my grandchildren’s losses I could sob for a week. They have lost their mother, their father, their dog, their house, their neighborhood, and to some extent, their way of life.

C. Sue Miles, PhD Program Leader of the Family Development Program at the West Virginia University Extension Service, writes about the challenges GRGs face in “Grandparents Raising Grandchildren.”

“In the best of circumstances,” Miles says, “children who are being raised by their grandparents are going to experience loss and abandonment as well as other issues relating to their place in the family.”

Miles thinks grandparents can provide a calming influence, dependability, unconditional love, and the stability needed for personal growth. Despite all of the responsibilities that come with being a GRG, Miles says “raising a second generation has many joys and satisfactions.” Raising my grandchildren brings me constant joy and satisfaction.

Why does the compliment about being strong bother me? I’m a strong person, but strong people cry and regress like weak people. No one, not even my sweet and loving husband, can bear the grief burden for me. I work at staying strong for my grandchildren and myself. “Why do people say I’m strong?” I asked a friend. Her answer: “Everyone expected tragedy to crush you. It didn’t.”

As for being a saint and an angel, I am neither one. I’m a grandmother and any grandmother faced with a similar situation would raise their grandchildren. That’s what grandmothers do. We care for our grandchildren, protect them, teach them, cherish them and love them more each day. It is nice to know that grandmothers are still needed in a fast-paced world.

Friends are being kind when they tell me my grandchildren are keeping me young. I am not young and am aging at an accelerating rate. My grandchildren are not keeping me young, they are keeping me young in spirit. I live an active life for myself and them.

Anthropologist Margaret mead once said, “The closest friends I have made all through life have been people who also grew up close to a loved and loving grandmother or grandfather.”

We are our grandchildren’s only grandparents. Years from now, when my grandchildren think about this painful time in their lives, I hope they remember us as loving grandparents. I hope they tell funny stories about us and realize how hard we tried. My husband and I aren’t perfect grandparents, we are plain, ordinary, old-fashioned grandparents.

Some day our grandchildren will understand this and find comfort in it.

Copyright 2008 by Harriet Hodgson

http://www.harriethodgson.com

Harriet Hodgson has been an independent journalist for 30 years. She is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists and the Association for Death Education and Counseling. Her 24th book, “Smiling Through Your Tears: Anticipating Grief,” written with Lois Krahn, MD, is available from amazon

Centering Corporation in Omaha, NE — North America’s oldest and largest grief resource center — is publishing her 26th book, “Writing to Recover: The Journey from Loss and Grief to a New Life.” The company is also publishing the “Writing to Recover Journal” and the “Writing to Recover Affirmations Calendar.”

Please visit Harriet’s website and learn more about this busy author and grandmother.

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Most of us know what it’s like to spend some time here – standing on the threshold. It usually happens just at the point where we’ve made decisions about the changes we want to make, designed our vision for the future and can see it beckoning us ‘on the other side’ and all we have to do is get there.

It sounds so easy….all we have to do is get there… and yet the threshold of change is where many of us loiter indefinitely only to remain separated from the place we want to be.

So what’s going on? What stops us from actually making the changes we yearn for? The paralysis we experience is the result of fear, together with a few other things like resistance, doubt and procrastination thrown in for good measure. When they choose to combine forces they form an effective ‘mental canyon’ between where we are now and where we want to be. For many of us, the realisation that we have to actually step onto the bridge that will take us to the other side is so daunting, we become immobilised and stranded by our fear.

Yes, fear can certainly be a crippling poison but action is a powerful antidote. Now, if I was to suggest that the best way over the bridge was to just keep running, no matter how much it sways, until you reach the other side, you might understandably prefer to stay put. But what if instead, all you had to do was step onto the bridge secure in the knowledge that it would cause little more than a slight quiver? Then, when you’ve got your balance, what if you took another step …and then another… and another, until you stand triumphantly on terra firma, at the place you want to be.

No amount of dreaming, planning or positive thinking in the world will get you past the threshold of change without taking action. And without taking action, your vision, hopes and dreams will always remain on the other side.

Karen Knott is a life coach who works with midlife women who are eager to reconnect with their sense of purpose and enthusiasm and make lasting changes that have a positive impact on their lives.

Get a taster by registering for her free e-Programme ‘Turning Midlife into the Time of Your Life’ at http://www.midlifematters.co.uk

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Karen_Knott http://EzineArticles.com/?Standing-on-the-Threshold-of-Change&id=1413159