http://www.ratestate.com/news Personal finance and budgeting Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:37:47 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en [caption id="attachment_47" align="alignleft" width="238" caption="Free budgeting tool"][/caption] Here is a simple Zero based budgeting tool created in Excel for your personal finances that we created for your use. It is based on Dave Ramsey's "zero based budget". The idea is that whatever money you bring in per pay period gets 100% ... http://www.ratestate.com/news/index.php/free-budgeting-tool/ Forbes put out an interesting article about the least affordable real estate in the U.S. When I see these articles I always wonder where we're going with all this. I mean, when do the fundamentals come back if ever? What I mean by this is when do average incomes ... http://www.ratestate.com/news/index.php/least-affordable-us-real-estate/ Here's an article worth mentioning off Bankrate via MSN. (Confused) Anyways, it contains some good "not to do's" regarding your money. In a nutshell you shouldn't do the following... Spending without a budget. Carrying a balance on credit cards. Ignoring interest rates. Not investigating disability insurance. Failing to see how little purchases add up. Not matching employer's ... http://www.ratestate.com/news/index.php/10-money-habits-the-nasty-ones/ Many of you have already heard the news, Subprime loans are going to be the death of many a lender. Many subprime borrowers are beginning to default on their loans and there too many defaults for the market to absorb. Other reasons are rising interest rates and declining home prices. This ... http://www.ratestate.com/news/index.php/subprime-crash-whats-next/ This is a shameless self promotion. I guess I'll just admit it. Here it is: If you want to refinance your mortgage you should consider using our free mortgage comparison tool. It's easy to use, takes just a minute to fill out, and you get comparisons from the top mortgage companies ... http://www.ratestate.com/news/index.php/mortgage-refinance-how-to-do-it/ There is a whole lot of "noise" about real estate investing. Will it make you rich? Will it make you bankrupt? How about, "Will it help you just barely get by?" Believe it or not, it will do all these things. You can take my word for it, I'm a ... http://www.ratestate.com/news/index.php/the-truth-about-real-estate-investing/ I know this is a sensitive question, but why are you in debt? More specifically why are you in debt with credit cards and other non-mortgage debt? I know why I was in debt. I wanted more than I could pay for. And once I had more than I could ... http://www.ratestate.com/news/index.php/why-are-you-in-debt/ Here is a link to the latest version on the housing price tracker. I like this site because it gives unbiased data about local housing markets. In our uncertain real estate market it's good to be familiar with the raw data. This helps us make decisions about what and where ... http://www.ratestate.com/news/index.php/housing-price-tracker-revised/ Selena Maranjian wrote an article on Fool.com that is a very clear description of a possible (and likely) impending mortgage crisis. Of course most of us have heard this warning time and time again but it's worth revisiting if not for the simple fact that the more we understand about ... http://www.ratestate.com/news/index.php/mortgage-disaster-need-to-refinance-to-save-home-probably/ Part of ultimately being financially successful is both being a good saver and a good worker. Being an independent businessman man myself I'm always fascinated by individuals (and couples) who succeed in their entrepreneurial ventures. Once such example is the couple who started the POM Wonderful group of beverages. It ... http://www.ratestate.com/news/index.php/success-in-business-the-juice-business/