“A man complained that [on] his way home to dinner he had every day to pass through that long field of his neighbor’s. I advised him to buy it, and it would never seem long again.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson “Everyone says buying your first apartment makes you feel like an adult. What no one mentions is that selling it turns you right back into a child.” – Anderson Cooper
A condominium association can’t adopt a rule that prohibits owners from displaying religious objects outside their unit entrances. That’s the word from a federal appeals court in Chicago, which allowed a Jewish family to bring a lawsuit after their condo association removed a mezuzah from their front door. (A three-judge panel of the court had earlier sided with the association, but the full court reconsidered and sided with the family.)
The amount that homeowners can borrow with a reverse mortgage has been reduced by 10% by the Federal Housing Administration. The new rule applies only to reverse mortgages obtained after October 1, 2009. If you took out a reverse mortgage before that date, you won’t be affected. But if you want to take out a new FHA-insured reverse mortgage, the maximum amount you can borrow will be 10% less than it was. In a traditional mortgage,
The Federal Housing Administration, which insures up to a third of all new mortgages, has adopted some limits on the mortgages it will insure. The FHA doesn’t make loans, but it insures loans made by other lenders in order to encourage lenders to give mortgages to people with shaky credit or little in the way of a down payment. The new restrictions will make it somewhat harder for such people to get mortgages.
When a couple buys a home, they often simply put both names on the deed. When a homeowner gets married, he or she often adds the spouse’s name to the deed. And when a single person shares a home with an elderly relative, they often put both names on the deed. This may be common, but it’s not necessarily the best idea. Here are some things to consider: Capital gains. Under certain circumstances, if you add
Anyone looking for a mortgage (or other loan) needs to worry about credit scores. But how much do you really know about your score? Take this quick test and see. 1. If I pay my credit card bill in full each month, that will significantly improve my credit score. True False 2. Any time I miss a bill payment, my credit score is negatively affected. True False 3. If my income
Some people are worried that after they die, family members may be unhappy about certain provisions in their will and may try to challenge the will in court. This is particularly true if one child is getting less in the will than others, for instance. Here are some ways to head off a will contest: Talk to your heirs now about what you’re doing and why. Many will contests are triggered because a relative is surprised
Ordinarily, there’s no estate tax on assets that pass at death to someone’s spouse. But that’s true only if the surviving spouse is a U.S. citizen. If the spouse isn’t a citizen, then the estate tax generally applies…unless you set up something called a “Qualified Domestic Trust,” or QDOT. Instead of leaving your assets directly to your spouse, you can put them into a QDOT for his or her benefit. When you die, there is no
A large number of people have changed their investment manager recently – or have decided to become their own manager – as a result of the 2008 market collapse that led to widespread terrible returns. That’s fine – but keep in mind that if you change your manager, you should check with your estate planner to make sure that any new account you create is titled properly and in accordance with your estate plan. Many estate
A lot of websites offer retirement planning calculators, where you can enter your age, assets, and other types of information and find out how much income you can expect in retirement. These calculators may be somewhat useful, but many of them have serious flaws, and in general they produce results that are way too optimistic, according to a new study by the Pension Research Council.
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