Wondering about buying your first home? Are you ready to move up or down-size?

Have you heard they aren’t making loans any more? Or that you have to have LOTS of money to even qualify?

Let’s unravel the mystery…..

In simple terms Lenders want:

*Stable work history; Two years Employment in the same field is considered stable. School can be considered part of those two years.

*Strong income; your new House payment + all debt should not exceed 33% - 41% of your Gross income. Depending on which program best meets your needs.

*Good credit; your credit score needs to be 620 or higher, in most but not all cases.
FHA is more flexible than Traditional Loans! If you have been battered and bruised Don’t Give UP!

**This is the time to call your local Credit Bureau and request your FREE, once per year, credit report.**

By evaluating these steps, you have prequalified yourself!

If you have a small nest egg/savings then an FHA loan will make more sense, in fact, up to $729,750 it makes sense!

There are many reasons why:

*Sellers can contribute up to 6% of the purchase price with an FHA loan.

*Old Aunt Sally can ‘gift’ you cash for a down payment.

AND

*You don’t need stellar credit with FHA loans!
Bad things happen to Good people, FHA knows that!

You DO need, generally, 3 Trade-lines showing 1 year Excellent Payment history.
Trade-Lines can be your cell phone bill, electric bill, rent history, car loan (even on a tote-the-note lot).

With FHA, your credit can be quite damaged as long as you can show it was caused by a job loss or other difficult situation, not Miss Management.

For more in-depth information on FHA loans check out this fabulous resource.

It’s a lot easier than you think to move into your Today Dream Home, large or small.

Melissa can be found blogging at The Cottage Rose.

Easy Answer: It depends on the stock and who you use to buy the stock.

The absolute lowest price you could buy a stock for (that I’ve found to date) is $9.96 - that would happen if you bought one stock valued at one penny through ShareBuilder (the trading arm of ING Bank) with the price of the trade costing $9.95.

So for less than ten dollars you could own a stock.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not recommending you buy a stock that’s worth a penny, because that’s not going to help you retire.

But to be able to own one share of Johnson & Johnson or Coca Cola for less than a hundred dollars…maybe it’s not a bad place to start.

Back in the day, you had to buy stocks in packs of 100 shares. Easy to trade, easy to add up. But with the use of computers now, companies like ING allow everyday people to make a trade of 1, 5, or however many shares they want at the flat rate trade price of $9.95.

What you have to do to get the $9.95 price
It’s pretty simple. Upload some money into your account two days before you’re going to start trading. ING holds that money in a mutual fund (so you’re in stocks already, just not individual ones you have chosen) - then when you are ready, you put in a “buy order” (it’s a lot like buying something after you win an auction on eBay) and you will find yourself the proud owner of stock.

Make sure to check out the blog post on LImit Orders vs. Market Orders before you buy!

Jennifer Gniadecki is a freelance writer making finances easier to understand. She blogs at Beyond Mom. My opinions on stocks are just opinions, don’t go all crazy in the stock market and sue me, k? Thanks! Oh…and never, ever buy stocks on credit. 

Everyone is looking for a great interest rate. Unfortunately, even the gold standard of high yield savings accounts, ING Direct, cut back from 3% to 2.75% when the fed cut rates.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still try to make money from your money. Even if it is less money, free cash is nothing to sneeze at. Seriously, who doesn’t like free money?

The problem has been, other than savings accounts, if you want to get into a good money market checking account or other interest-bearing checking account you needed a huge sum of money you would just, you know, leave in the bank. (By huge I mean $5,000 or more. If that’s not huge for you, can we be friends and you can totally buy me lunch?)

At Charles Schwab, if you open up a brokerage account (meaning you’re going to buy a share of stock or more) you qualify to open a high yield checking account that (after the fed cut) pays %2.2 interest. With no minimum balance required.

They send you checks, a debit card…it’s a real bank. The only downside is that the bank is located in Nevada. So you can’t just walk in. But if you need deposits overnighted to the bank you can find a local Schwab office and drop your deposits there instead of mailing them. (If you do send them in the mail they provide a self addressed, stamped envelope.

Jennifer Gnidecki is an investor, a mom, and a pretty cool chick. She writes about fun things at Beyond Mom, too.

When you buy stock though an online program (or even through a broker), one of the most important questions you need to know the answer to is if you want to place a Limit Order or a Market Order. Your decision could be the difference between owning the stock and not owning the stock. Or owning the stock for the price you wanted to pay….and owning a stock at a price you didn’t choose….

Market Order

When you place a market order, you’re basically handing the final price over to the broker. If you choose to buy when a stock is at $50.00 but you place a market order, don’t be surprised if you find out you bought your stock at $55.00. It means “Buy it now! I don’t care if it turns out to be a little more expensive…I trust you Mr. Computer Broker Man somewhere on the other end of the line!”

Pros: If you want to own the stock as soon as possible because you think something is going to happen or the stock isn’t going to be available anymore.

Cons: It’s not a smart way to trade. You could pay more than the stock is worth and have no way of saying, “Hey, you can’t do that!” It’s rare that the price jumps dramatically, but it can happen.

Limit Orders

When you place a Limit Order, you say what you are going to pay for the stock. If you place an order for $50.00 and when you click “buy” the price has gone up to $50.01 - your order just doesn’t go through. When and if the price falls back down to $50.00, your order will automatically go through. A limit order usually stays in effect for 60 days or until it is cancelled. In most cases you don’t pay the trading fee unless you actually make the trade, so you’re not out any money.

Pros: Save money and don’t get fleeced by a lazy stockbroker that gives someone else too much money for your stock.

Cons: If you want to own the stock right this very second, a limit order could have you worrying and wondering if the stock price will drop back down.

Unless you’re messing around with some serious daytrading, it’s best to stick with limit orders. They carry less risk of you spending more money than you can afford.

My first two trades were market trades and on one I paid almost twice the price of the stock when I wanted to buy it. Today I made a limit order trade and it did not go through by the close of the market. It’s a little nerve wracking having an open order out there, but I don’t want to pay more than the price I saw when I made the order…I’d rather wait.

Jennifer Gniadecki is a freelance writer in love with finances and investing.Links to her blogs as well as her portfolio can be found on her web-site!

Image Source: linder6580

A portfolio is money you have that isn’t in a checking or savings account. If you have a 401(k) or a 501(b) you have a portfolio. Usually when people refer to a portfolio they are referring to stocks, but also bonds, money market accounts and other investments.

Keep Your Balance
A “balanced portfolio” or a “diversified portfolio” is one that doesn’t have just stocks or just bonds in it. It will have some higher risk investments as well as lower risk investments. The balance helps you feel you might make a lot of money from the higher risk investments while letting you sleep at night knowing all of your money isn’t in high risk investments.

How risky your balanced portfolio is based on a few factors:

1. How long it’s going to be in between now and when you retire.
2. Your health. (You might have to have guaranteed options like an annuity if you have health problems).
3. Number of dependents, an elderly parent, other family issues, etc.

About Risk
When you are twenty and not planning to retire until you’re 60 (or even 70 or more) you can be in high risk stocks, because if you lose it all you have more than enough time to start over. If you’re 50, well, you’re closer to retirement age and should not have such a risky portfolio.

Send your questions about finances and investing to jen@jennydecki.com and I’ll be happy to mix research with knowledge and cook up a great answer for you!

Image Source: by Gurney