Buying a house means that you might be risking years and years of hard earned money and possibly putting yourself into debt that could take decades to pay off. There are lots of factors to take into consideration before you make your purchase in order to ensure you have a pleasant experience and come out financially healthy.

The rules are different if you are buying a house as an investment property than if you’re buying to live in it. In this article I will share some of the important things to consider about the property in question before you sign the contract and change your financial future.

1. How much was the home last sold for- Was it sold before the recession? I’ve noticed that nowadays, most houses at their 2001- 2002 price levels. If the house you are looking to purchase has not been reduced substantially (25 – 30%) from its 2005 – 2006 levels, you could be overpaying.

2. Identify the conservative estimates on the home value – Fortunately, you don’t have to hire an appraiser to do this. Zillow and eAppraisal are great websites which take into tons of factors to give you a price range. Don’t look at their estimate, but rather the lowest value possible in order to stay on the safe side.

3. How much are you paying for square foot of living space? The price per square foot is one of the most important factors you must consider when purchasing a house. You can easily find the average price per sq. foot in the same zip code or for similar houses in the area on Redfin and Trulia. Always aim to be on the lower end, especially if there is work to do on the house.

4. Are you buying a flipper? A “flipper” is a home purchased by an investment company or an individual with the sole purpose of making a profit on it. These houses are purchased as a foreclosure or a short sale, slightly renovated, and sold for a much higher price. Flippers are easy to identify – they almost always have fresh paint and new carpets, two of the cheapest ways to breath cosmetic life into a house. Also common in flippers are large mirrors, painted counter tops, painted doors. Remember, investment companies try to make the house look as new as possible while spending the least amount of money. Stay away from these because you don’t really know whats on the inside.

5. Leaky roof? Squeaky floors? Be sure to hire someone to check for mold. – You can always place an offer on a house without knowing the mold situation as almost all contracts allow you to rescind offers if it fails an inspection. Mold is a problem that can cause you to go under on your house and even presents itself as a health problem. Be sure to hire a sound environmental inspector to detect mold.

6. Sure, the house looked nice during the day – but have you checked the neighborhood at night? When buying a house, check the area during the day and during the night time. Sometimes, gangs and criminals tend to walk around at night. Also, do people walk around the house? Is it lit with street lights? Are their gang signs tagged on the walls of houses, markets, or street signs?

7. Is the plumbing in good shape? There are a few ways to run a quick check on the plumbing before submitting an offer. Go to one of the bathrooms and turn on the shower water, the faucet, and flush the toilet. See if the water drains properly. If not, you could have a problem at your hands.

8. Does the house have “curb appeal?” Although not a financial term, curb appeal describes the attractiveness of the house in terms of how people who might buy it from you later see it. Some houses are stunning on the inside, but look horrible from the outside – so much that they might be looked over for a less stellar house thats more attractive. If you’re buying real estate, its good to check how other people perceive it.

9. How much money do you have to spend out of pocket to bring your house to your standards? Besides the down payment, there are closing costs for a loan, furniture, renovation (paints, carpets, counters) and other small out of pocket expenses. Make sure you keep this in mind when putting down any sort of money.

10. Are you buying a corner house or a house in a busy street? Corner houses are priced much lower than houses in the middle of the street because they are often victims of car lights being shone into the house and more traffic. The same applies for houses in the middle of a busy street. Make sure when buying a house, you aim to be as far from the street traffic as possible.

Everyone knows that Bachelor degrees don’t carry the same weight they did 10 years ago and entry level professionals in today’s economy are urged more and more to have some kind of graduate degree to be seen as competitive job applicants.

Although many students consider getting their Graduate degrees to increase qualifications, most of them don’t know how to finance their education and leave it to the last second to do some quick research and get a loan. It’s not uncommon for a lot of prospective grad students to spends months searching for the right school and major but completely overlook the financial aspect. Student don’t realize that getting a Graduate degree can be a very costly endeavor and could leave you strangled with debt for a decade or more after graduation – even with the best paying jobs.

In order to be regret free after graduation and have more money to invest, grad students must consider all available options for financing their debt. In this article, I will talk about some of the ways you can pay for your graduate degree.

1) Assistantships

Colleges across the nation have used assistantships as a great way to find less expensive workers and give significant financial assistance to graduate students. This form of financial aid is usually enough to significantly reduce your loans, but varies from university to university.

There are three types of assistantships and many of you are probably familiar with all three of them. The first one, research assistantships, are more common in the sciences where the college pays the graduate student a stipend for helping in a specific research project or a certain professor. The second type is a teaching assistantship and usually involves the grad student teaching an undergraduate class or a discussion section. The third type of assistantship is the graduate assistantship, which usually consists of grading papers or preparing lectures.

2) Employment Assistant Programs

Employment tuition aid packages are often overlooked by many grad students in their search for money. On average, employers contribute just over $4,000 to tuition, most of which is tax free.

This benefit sometimes comes with some fine print, so students have to be aware what they must do to keep earning the free tuition money. Some employers require their student-employees to maintain a certain GPA, usually around 3.0, and some require that the student work a certain amount of years with the employer after graduation. One of my friends got their entire Master’s program paid off with a certain firm after agreeing to work with them for three years.

3) Grants

Grants are usually gifts from federal programs or private sources that the student does not need to repay. There are several types of grants available – including need based and merit based. Government grants are given on a first come first serve basis and usually have some sort of GPA requirement. Sometimes these grants are given for doing research in a specific area and can also be given by the university. Grant amounts vary widely from state to state and from person to person.

Private grants are known as scholarships, which most of you are aware of. However, scholarships in the graduate level are more scarce than for undergrads, so make sure you do your research early and apply to several sources. Even if its a few thousand dollars a year, these scholarships can be very important in lowering your overall debt. Scholarships are given for a variety of reasons – but the underlying feature in most of them is their merit base. There are, however, scholarships for ethnicities, religious backgrounds, fraternities, and more. Check out some scholarship books at the library for a vast number of these money trees. Don’t forget to apply to many and apply early.

A good credit score is considered something over 720 and an excellent score is around 780 – 800 and above. However, a credit score under 600 is considered poor.

There are several ways to raise your credit score and all the real ways take some time. If you find advertisements with enticing quick credit score fixes, you can be certain it’s a scam. Following a few or more of these tips can give a significant boost to your score allowing you to finally finance your dream car or buy a house.

1) Manage your Balances.

As simple as this tip sounds, managing your balance can be the fastest way to raise your credit score. Try to keep your balance under 50% of your total credit and ideally close to 25% and you will get a significant boost. Your credit score is lowered when your balance is high because you become a high risk borrower.

2) Can’t Find a Credit Card? Apply for a Secured Card.

If your credit score is too low to get approved for a standard credit card, you can open a secured credit cards. With a secured credit card, you pay an initial deposit that is going to be your credit limit. This is like a small collateral that minimizes risk and ensures the credit companies that you will pay back the credit. The great thing about secured credit cards is that they also report to credit agencies, allowing for a boost after only 3 to 6 months.

3) Reduce Mistakes on Your Credit Report

Almost ten million Americans a year report problems on there credit report- coming from identity theft, reporting errors, and false claims. Under federal law, if the reporting agency does not provide proof of your status to any of the three major credit report agencies, they have to remove it from your score. This is the fastest way to raise your credit report – with an average turn around of 1 month. Once the mistake is removed, your score automatically shoots up.

4) Pay Your Bills on Time.

Delinquencies will really lower your credit score. Make sure you pay your bills on time. Not only will late payments lower your score, but on-time payments will increase them. In fact, every on time payment adds a little to your score.

5) Reduce the number of hard credit card inquiries.

There are two types of credit card inquiries- hard and soft. Hard credit card inquiries are those done by credit card companies and other companies that are going to give you credit. They are initiated by you, the borrower. Each hard credit inquiry stays on the credit report 12 – 24 months. Fortunately, if you are applying for a car loan or a mortgage and have several inquiries in a small time period, only one of these inquiries will count.

6) Diversify your credit.

You don’t want all your outstanding balance to be student loans or a single mortgage. Although I don’t recommend adding to your debt to increase your score – keep this in mind in the future. Having a healthy mix of credit card, car, and house loans is a great way to increase your score.

7) Don’t open new accounts. Loyalty pays off.

Don’t switch credit cards and add accounts too often. The average length of your accounts is very important in determining your credit score. Its better to have 2 credit cards for ten years, then ten for 2 years.

8 ) Don’t bother with store credit cards.

Not only will opening a store credit card decrease your average length of credit, the actual store credit card has a negative impact on your credit score as well. This is because most of these store credit cards are given to everyone- so you aren’t seen as being qualified for having one.

9) Before applying for a new loan, study your credit score.

Being denied new credit or a loan can have adverse results on your overall score. Its wise to study your credit before you apply for a new loan – remove mistakes and try to build up your score a little. It’s also wise to apply for something you are sure to be approved for rather than risking a rejection.

10) Take your time.

Nothing really happens overnight. Take your time, study your credit score and highlight the negatives, then work to fix them. If you feel like one of your accounts is going under, call the creditor and talk to them – they are usually responsive in changing your plan so you can fix your debt.

Have any of you followed these tips to turn around your credit history? Are there any other methods you can try? Let me know, your knowledge is useful!

Applying for the correct loan depending on your particular situation seems to be essential. If you apply for the correct loan, but request a short term loan with high monthly payments you obviously cannot afford, chances are nobody will be willing to fund you. It is as simple as that. But besides these evident considerations, there is a loan eligibility criteria which is universal and might help you obtain a better understanding of the process and hopefully assist you in achieving loan approval.

Employment Status

Before I start describing what I mean by employment status, I want to break down three factors that are looked at when a creditor checks your employment- job security, length of time on the job, and who your employer is.
This is something lenders will take into account when assessing your application for any loan. Unfortunately, sometimes you do not have the chance to choose over many job opportunities and might end up with one which does not certainly scream “risk free applicant”, but this is beyond your control. If your job is unstable (provided that you have changed jobs many times in the last few years, it will be considered unstable by financial institutions), if you are self-employed or if you are unemployed, you might be considered somewhat of a risk factor, only because loan repayment capabilities in your particular situation might fluctuate, and lenders are looking for financial stability. What I recommend is to meet the lender personally and let him or her know in detail about your employment circumstances. They will feel more at ease.

Current Salary

It is only natural that this variable be taken into consideration for the approval of your loan. It is the most tangible evidence the lender has regarding your repayment abilities. You will also be required to show proof of income if you are employed, and tax returns if you are self-employed (so as to check your monthly income). Nowadays, incomes over $70,000 combined with good credit almost guarantees the loan.

Possession Of Assets

This is essential if you are applying for a secured loan. If you have a property to pledge as security or even a car, your chances of approval will be better. You might feel that it is not worth it to risk the security of your asset, but provided that you need a large loan or that you are sure you will be able to repay it timely, then a secured loan is definitely the way to go.

Age Limits

The applicant must be older than 18 years of age when applying for a loan. And you must not be older than 65 years of age at the completion of the loan. The reasoning behind this particular criterion is pretty obvious. Banks want their money and they know its hard to collect when age is an issue.

Let us dissect the benefits and possible uses for each of the loans in order to help you narrow down your choices.

There are three types of student loans you can apply for: Federal, private, and personal student loans.

Federal loans are the best option if you can be accepted. There is definitely no debate. Since it is a government loan, it usually has lower interest rates and sometimes can be subsidized so the child does not have accruing interest while they are in school (Subsidized Stafford Loan). These loans also include a 6 month grace period, allowing for the student to find work and settle in before repayment.
One can save lots of money by applying for this loan.

Federal programs are the single largest source of college loans. The two main programs are the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) and the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program (FDLP).

You can apply for a FFELP loan through many private banks, credit unions, or education finance companies. Although your school might recommend specific institutions, you’re free to get your student loan from any participating financial institution.

This loan has very attractive terms:

* You’ll get lower interest rates compared to other loans.
* Your interest payments may be paid by the federal government while you’re in school.
* You may not need to make loan payments while you’re in school.
* You get longer repayment terms.
* You may benefit from flexible credit requirements.

Some schools participate in the Federal Direct Loan Program, where you get loans with the same terms as FFELP loans, but you borrow from the U.S. Department of Education.

Widely used federal education loans

* Federal Stafford loans
* Federal Perkins loans
* Federal PLUS loans

Private loans are offered by private lenders and companies, and obviously they are in this business to make a hefty profit. The interest rates are a bit higher than federal loans.

However, if the government loan is not enough for you or if you can’t get your loan approved in the federal option, it is still a good idea to use private lenders to get the money you want to continue your education.

Personal student loans are another financial option you have available if you still have an outstanding balance on your cost of college bottom line. Consider personal loans as a last resort, a subset of private student loans. This family of financial products is due some respect: approach them when you are completely apprised of their requirements and contingencies.

Personal loans specifically designed for you, the college student, are not as abundant as private student loans. Typical loan criteria:

* You must be enrolled at least halftime in a degree program.
* You must have a good credit history to be a sole borrower or you can borrow with a co-signor.
* Repayment terms could be limited.
* Maximum loan limits vary, but could be as much as the cost of your total tuition.

If you want to read more, here are some useful links:

http://www.finaid.org/loans/

http://www.collegescholarships.org/loans/personal-loans-for-college-students.htm

http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/DirectLoan/index.html

Check your own Credit History: Many people often forget about outstanding debt showing on their credit history, or there may be something they paid off that is still showing as an outstanding bill on their report. Reviewing your own report will allow you to bring your report up-to-date as well as clean up any outstanding bills resulting in an improved score.

Minimize Credit Score Checks: Every time you apply for a credit card, loan, retail store card, the company checks your credit score. The more hits that your report receives, the lower your credit rating score will be. To avoid credit rating damage, do not make applications that result in a credit rating check.

Pay your Bills on Time: Your history of bill payments can affect your credit history. Not paying your bills by the due date can lower your credit score. Bringing your bills up-to- date and then making sure all bills are paid on time each month will improve your credit score.

Keep your Debts at a Minimum: People who have low debt will have an improved credit score. For instance, if the maximum limit on your credit card is $5000, and you have accrued $4800, your credit score will be lower. The lower your debt amount, the better your credit score. Lenders check to see if you manage loans properly. If it does not appear you can manage your debts, your score will be lower. A customer’s payment history is an important factor when determining a credit score. If you have several cards with high debts and decide to consolidate them on one card which results in a debt that is close to your maximum limit, this will actually lower your credit score. If you transfer a high amount to several accounts, it will show that you are keeping bills at minimum. Most experts say that you should not have a debt over 30% on credit cards and other lines of credit.

Establish a Good Credit History Early: The longer you have a good credit history and maintain it, the better your credit score will be. If you open and close accounts often, it will negatively affect your rating score. Companies tend to go back a year to check your credit history. Maintaining several credit cards for a long period without any payment problems will also help improve your score.

Maintain Unused Accounts: If you have accounts that are rarely used, you should not close them. Maintaining accounts that show that they are always paid, and the amount in each is very low, will help improve your credit score. Keep Mortgage Rates Low: People with mortgages that have a high interest rate or a variable rate instead of a fixed rate, may be considered a higher risk because of the volatility of the market. Refinancing your mortgage for a low fixed rate will show that you are safe if the economy takes a down turn and interest rates suddenly increase.

Finally, here are some other tips I think would be beneficial in raising your credit score:

If you have bad credit, take out a secured credit card. Sure, you have to put into your account as much money as you are willing to spend, but some secured credit cards report to four credit bureaus and could go a long way in increasing your score.

Settle all your outstanding debt, collection account, etc. Settling these charges will give you a very good increase in a very short time span. You won’t get delinquent payments, you won’t show a fine on your account, etc.

A poor credit score can greatly reduce your chances of getting a mortgage, car loan, and many other types of loans. Implementing a number of measures that will improve your credit history will help you obtain your future financial goals.

What are some of the trouble areas that prevent a household from saving money and elevating themselves from the “poor”?  Easy financing is a hole that is always difficult to crawl out of, especially when a borrower has poor credit.  This leads to borderline predatory lending practices with no chance of profit on the horizon.  This immediately eliminates the possibility of you becoming rich, because the answer to riches is in slowly accumulating wealth.

Seven points of interest that deserve your attention include:

* Major spending on mortgages or rent, as in over 30% of your gross income
* Vehicle costs, as in over 10% of your gross, including all financing, repair work and gasoline
* Wants and Needs – deciding what you need (as in the basics to human survival) and then disciplining yourself as to the wants that are of exaggerated importance
* Paying back (in full) a payday loan or cash advance as well as credit card debt
* Failing to track where your money actually goes
* Living close to the edge of survival, having no cushion to fall on
* Squandering what you have

Some of these points are self explanatory, but let’s give special emphasis to the last point.  Let’s say you have a retirement fun, such as a 401k account, which you can always roll over when it is time to switch jobs.  However, if you squander what you have by cashing out – and losing money in taxes and penalty fees – then you have lost money that should have been profit to you.  By failing to plan for the future and create a positive cash flow, you have destined yourself to remain poor.