3
Getting Personal
Getting Personal
To view this content, Javascript must be enabled and Adobe Flash Player must be installed.
About the author
Christopher Farrell is economics editor of Marketplace Money, a nationally syndicated one-hour weekly personal finance show produced by American Public Media.
I purchased a bank-owned home in early 2008 for just under $800K. Few months later, I realized I can not afford the monthly payments but kept my mortgage payments current at the cost of running high credit card debt(~$8K) and watching every penny I spend. I have contacted my lender to change the terms of my loan, and said I will very likely be behind on my payments in the months ahead. The bank if currently processing my request (they say it could take 45 to 90 days).
My question is, am I better of running behind in my mortgage payment and use that money to pay my credit card debt, or stay current on my mortgage and carry my credit debt. If the bank fails to change the term (rate or/and amount) of my loan, the most likely outcome is I will walk away from the house. If I am behind on payment, does this help or hurt my case with the bank. Is this a good time (considering my loan could be reworked) for me to use some of the mortgage payment to pay credit debt?
Childcare vs. Extra Mortgage. My wife and I are both teachers, 31 years old, making about $90K combined. We currently own two homes: our primary residence, for which we pay $1000/mo, and a rental property, with the same monthly mortgage payment, but we collect $1200/mo in rent. We are expecting our first child in September, and are trying to figure out if moving my in-laws (which means buying them a house) is a better option than paying for childcare. Our thoughts are that childcare is about $1000 - 1400 a month. The houses we are looking at for the in-laws are about $200K, or about $1500/mo. We like the idea of having an investment, versus paying money to some provider, but are worried we are just exposing ourselves to too much risk. Making that extra mortgage payment will be tough as it is, but if our tenant decides to leave our rental property, and we are stuck paying three mortgages on our own, we are in trouble!!! After closing on a house, we would have about $20K in liquid savings, plus an additional $60K in IRAs. We had thought about refinancing our primary residence, taking some money out ($10K) to provide a cushion. We'd love to hear your thoughts!
I have I Bonds. I downloaded the most recent redemption values using the "Savings Bond Wizard" It shows that my I Bonds will not get any interest added for May tru November 2009. How can this be? I have had these bonds since 2003 and I always see an increase in the interest added every month.
Thanks for your help!
Maxine Taymore
