8
Getting Personal
Getting Personal
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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.
Regarding your advice to the woman with an unsellable home in Michigan: Better advice would be to rent the home out, reducing her monthly expenses significantly until the market can recover enough to sell the home without taking a huge loss. It would also put her in a better tax position (i.e. can deduct repairs, perhaps reduce her taxable income, etc). As a landlord myself, I would also point out that hiring a management company [pick carefully!] eliminates many headaches.
Regarding your 12/14/08 show: I'm surprised that when advising the Brooklyn caller on land investment that the subject of property taxes was not mentioned. Investing in even vacant property can be very expensive in the long haul, costing hundreds, and often thousands, of dollars a year in taxes. This should definitely be considered when evaluating your return on the investment. I paid over $1000 last year in property taxes for my very small double lot in Florida where we plan to retire.
Question: I am a widow (a little over a year) of almost 50, and i would like to know if it'd be wise for me to pay off our mortgage. My husband talked about doing this before he dies. We have money in a cash account to use, and there would be some left over. I want to do the best thing for taxes etc.
Thank you.
Question: I am a widow (almost 50) of a little over a year. I want to know if it would be a wise move for me to pay off our mortgage with money we have in a cash account. There is enough there to do it, with some left over.... but for tax purposes etc., i want to make the smartest move. It would relieve my mind greatly to get this paid. My husband had frequently talked about doing this before he died. Thank you very much.
I was a huge fan of your show and generally thought the advice was sound and responsible. I was disappointed by the advice given to the person considering foreclosure. Although I can certainly sympathize with her predicament, filing foreclosure in will be certainly place her family in bad, potentially worse condition since they will be held accountable for the difference and their credit would be shot. Maybe a short sale should have been mentioned?
HELLO Chris,
Roth VS. 529 plan. So if we do not have enough cash to contribute to both what do you think of this strategy? Put our personal allocation for our children's education into our own Roth accounts. I have heard many people say "fully fund your roth first". It appears that we will be able to take out principle from the roth for the childrens education. what are the down sides to this strategy? It appears to me that the downside is our own book-keeping and then sticking to it if they need the money :) There appear to be many upsides, I can manage the $ myself in stocks and funds vs the restrictive plans of the 529 world and I am told that when applying for financial aid colleges do not look at the parents IRA's as available money. They would be looking at available 529's?
Could you comment on this strategy?
We enjoy your show here in Alaska.
Cheers
Joe
Hi,
Everyone talks about putting your money only in FDIC insured banks . . . and that's great. However, when one examines some of the "internet" banks with, for example, bankrate.com's "safe and sound rating" one notices that some of these banks are rated as somewhat risky. So the question I have is if I put a substantial amount of my life savings in one of these risky, albeit FDIC insured banks (for their higher interest rates), and they fail how long in practice does it take to get my money back? Is it a day? A week? A month? I need to know so I know what proportion of my money I can safely put in these type of banks and still cover my basic expenses should they in fact fail.
Let me also say that I love your show and thanks so much for all you do . . .
Andy :)
I am currently living in Texas but want to move back to Minnesota where I grew up. But, with the housing market in shambles I'm concerned I won't be able to sell my house in Texas. I have A manufactured home with a 30 year loan at 8.99%. I have been told i can get a better rate if I refinance it. If I keep it for now and refinance it till the housing market improves will this and if so how will it effect my chances on buying a home in Minnesota. I've done the math and will be able to afford both homes.
