Withdraw from IRA to buy a house

October 8, 2009

You can’t borrow against your IRA, but you can take out a certain amount to pay for your first home. The government lets you take out up to $10,000 to buy your first home. This money is taxed when you take it out (just like it would be when you retire), but there is no [...]

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Government Student Loan Consolidation

October 5, 2009

The government doesn’t offer a debt consolidation program where you can take all of your credit card and home equity debt and roll it all into a big low interest loan to the government. While the government is supporting banks in some situations to help them rewrite the terms of mortgages for home owners, this [...]

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Debt Consolidation Dangers

July 4, 2009

When used correctly that consolidation can be a wonderful thing. It allows you to take high interest loans and replace them with low-interest loans. This means more of your money will be going toward principal and less of it toward interest. Sounds like a good thing all around right? It is if you continue to [...]

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Buying a House for Debt Consolidation

July 4, 2009

It used to be that buying a house was a simple way to consolidate debt as long as you weren’t too far underwater. Banks were often willing to loan of 125% of the appraised value of a piece of property. So if a piece of property appraised for $100,000 they would loan me $125,000 to [...]

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Borrowing From an IRA Account

April 3, 2009

A lot of readers want to know if they can borrow from their IRA.   This is a common question.   Most places you will find advice saying that you can’t borrow from individual retirement account.   This is almost true, but it doesn’t consider the whole picture. The IRS is very specific that you [...]

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Worst Time to Borrow From Your IRA

March 30, 2009

Borrowing from your IRA isn’t really allowed. There is a loop hole that will let you borrow money from your IRA for very short periods of time. Basically it involves transferring your IRA to another account. When you do this you can use the money for 60 days, so you effectively borrow from your IRA [...]

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American Express Dropping Customers

March 23, 2009

American Express has been dropping some of their customers.   Here are a few examples that I’ve heard of happening. One customer was in Europe on vacation and their Amex card stopped working.   They finally got ahold of American Express and discovered that their account had been canceled.   They never were given a [...]

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Stimulus for First Time Home Owners

March 23, 2009

First time home owners can get $8,000 from the government for buying at house in 2009.   And it isn’t just for first time home owners.   If you haven’t owned a house in the past three years you qualify. The $8,000 is the maximum amount of the credit.   If you buy a house [...]

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Borrowing Against an IRA

March 13, 2009

With the current financial crisis, many people are looking for ways to use the money in their IRA and 401k plans to help with current expenses.   There is a way to borrow from an IRA for 60 days, but keep in mind that if you are unable to pay the money back you will [...]

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Dangers of Debt Consolidation

December 18, 2008

Debt consolidation is often the primary back up plan for someone that can no longer make payments to multiple creditors. Advertisements for debt consolidation companies often make this plan sound like a difficulty-free way to dissolve debt, as if with a magic wand. While debt consolidation can be beneficial, what the companies will not tell [...]

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