I know its football season -- but ....Don't Ignore Home Maintenance Chores This Fall

The crisp weather of fall is upon us and football season is well underway. While the prospect of relaxing into a lazy Sunday schedule calls to many home owners weary from the routine of weekend lawn mowing, don’t sleep on essential lawn care and home maintenance tasks that will see you through the winter.

Autumn Lawn Care Basics      

• Fall is a great time for new grass seed to take root, so consider reseeding in selected areas. Reseeding also eliminates areas for weeds to grow in the spring. Fertilize your lawn one more time with a high nitrogen fertilizer to encourage root growth. Look for a lawn fertilizer labeled “winterizing.”
• It’s also a good idea to rake leaves and debris off your lawn in the fall. Put some muscle into it and rake out any areas where heavy thatch has built up.
• Cut your lawn one last time after it has stopped growing, but before the first snow. Adjust your mower setting to cut your lawn to about one inch. Lawn care experts suggest doing the final mowing with a bagger to pick up cut grass, stray leaves and other debris. It also leaves fewer places for Snowmold to develop.

Fight Snowmold

• According to gardenersnet.com, snowmold is one of the most common lawn diseases and typically it shows up in the spring. As the snow melts, it uncovers a lawn that has spent several months hidden under a cold blanket of white, with little air and no sun. In its cold, wet, and dark environment, Snowmold slowly forms, leaving blades of grass dead and brown. New grasses will sprout up behind it, but unless you vigorously rake it away, the new growth will be slow and thin — so it’s a good idea to overseed.

Consider Aerating

• It also may be wise to aerate your lawn. According to Homestore.com, aerating your lawn is a great way to reduce thatch, loosen up compacted soils and pave the way for water and nutrients to reach the roots of your grass.
• Even with meticulous care, lawns can thin out and lose color due to excessive thatch buildup, hard or compacted soils, or periods of high temperature, high humidity, or drought. According to The Lawn Institute, more than two-thirds of American lawns are growing on compacted soils. These soils slowly reduce the amount of oxygen contained in the soil, thus retarding the penetration of both water and nutrients. Aerating and overseeding is recognized by experts as the best treatment to control thatch, reduce compaction, fill-in bare spots and revitalize growth.

Here are a few tips from lawnboy.com to help you determine if you should aerate annually:


 •If your lawn is more than seven years old, and rests on mostly clay soil.

•If your lawn is moderately to heavily used (walked or played on).

•If water collects on your lawn.

While lawn care is a hot maintenance item for home owners who value “curb appeal” or just want to escape the ire of neighborhood community associations, don’t forget there are plenty of other maintenance chores. Here’s a checklist of items you should address before the winter holiday season.

Exterior Tasks

1.Maintain your gutters.
Remove all debris from your gutters so water can properly drain. This minimizes standing water and slows the freeze/thaw expansion process that occurs in cold weather. Clogged gutters can cause landscaping, lawn and shrubbery, walls, foundation, basement, crawl spaces and existing gutter system damage. Consider installing “gutter guards,” which will prevent debris from entering the gutter and direct the flow of water away from the house and into the ground.

2.Trim your trees and remove dead branches.
Inclement weather can cause weak trees or branches to break and damage your home, car, utility lines or someone walking on your property. Keep an eye out for large dead branches in trees; detached branches hanging in trees; cavities or rotten wood along trunks or major branches; mushrooms at the base of trees; cracks or splits in trunks; leaves that prematurely develop unusual color or size; and trees that were previously topped or heavily pruned. If you see any signs of hazards, call a professional tree service.

3.Maintain your steps and handrails.
Repair broken stairs and banisters to prevent falls and injury.

4.Inspect your roof.
Be proactive and prevent emergency and expensive repairs. Things to look for include damaged or loose shingles; gaps in the flashing where the roofing and siding meet vents and flues; and damaged mortar around the chimney (especially at the joints, caps and washes). If you see any signs of damage, call a professional to repair the damage.

5.Inspect your home’s exterior walls.
Look for possible weather-related damage, like cracks and loose or crumbling mortar. Wood trim and siding can suffer from deteriorating paint or become loose. Windowsills may be cracked, split or decayed.

Indoor Chores

1.Check your home’s insulation.
Your attic should be five to 10 degrees warmer than the outside air, otherwise too much heat escapes and causes frozen water to melt and refreeze which can result in a collapsed roof. Don’t neglect your basement and crawl spaces, and well insulate pipes in those spaces to protect against freezing.

2.Maintain your pipes.
Wrap your pipes with heating tape every winter and insulate unfinished rooms such as garages, if they contain exposed pipes. Check pipes for cracks and leaks and have any damage repaired immediately to prevent costlier repairs later. Keep your house warm — at least 65 degrees.

3.Check your heating systems.
Be sure to maintain your furnace, fireplace, boiler, water heater, space heater and wood-burning stove and have your heating system serviced every year. Check smoke and fire alarms and carbon monoxide detectors and change your heating and air conditioning filters regularly.

4.Know your plumbing.
Learn the location of your pipes and how to shut the water off. If your pipes freeze, the quicker you shut off the water, the better chance you have of preventing pipe bursts. Check weather stripping and caulking around windows and doors and replace or repair as needed. Caulking helps keep your house weather-tight, lowers your heating and cooling bills, and can also help keep insects and rodents out of your house. Also look for chipped or peeling paint around window frames and trim. Repair broken glass and loose or missing putty. When needed, use a modern glazing compound instead of putty for a waterproof seal.

5.Clean and vacuum dust from vents, baseboard heaters and cold-air returns.
Dust build-up in ducts is a major cause of indoor pollutants and can increase incidences of cold-weather illnesses. Check all your faucets for leaks and repair any you find. Replace washers if necessary.

By setting aside a few weekend days now, you’ll save yourself from a lot of hassle later. Once your home passes your fall inspection, you and your family can relax and enjoy the coming holidays free from worry about potential home maintenance catastrophes.

Article Courtsey if NAHB http://www.nahb.org/generic.aspx?sectionID=124&genericContentID=125909

Women's History Month (March 2010) - Financial Secrets from Mellody Hobson ... and it includes buying shoes ....

Her Secrets
Act like a Depression Baby: When the household bills arrive, like her phone or cable, Hobson pays more than what's due, so she won't get another bill for a while. "It may be ridiculous, but I sleep better if I'm prepared for the worst-case scenario," she says.

Aspire to ownership: Hobson takes part of her pay in company stock and saves more with each raise. "I know these days there's a big move to diversify your investments — but if you think you work for a good business that has wonderful prospects, put some of your money there," she advises. "The wealthiest families didn't get there on paychecks alone, but by owning all or part of their companies."

Splurge on something practical: Hobson admits she has too many leather blazers. But in the "very tailored" banking world, she explains, it's how she shows her personality yet stays "acceptable."

Get your $$$ worth: Hobson won't spend on "consumables." This means she avoids pricey restaurants but will splurge on her home and clothes. "I'd rather be sitting on it or wearing it than eating it

As president of Ariel Investments, Mellody is responsible for firm-wide management and strategic planning, overseeing all operations of Ariel’s business outside of research and portfolio management. Additionally, she serves as chairman of the board of trustees for Ariel Investment Trust. Mellody has become a nationally recognized voice on financial literacy and investor education. She is a regular financial contributor on ABC’s Good Morning America, a featured columnist in Black Enterprise magazine as well as a spokesperson for both the annual Ariel/Schwab Black Investor Survey and the 2009 Ariel/Hewitt study, “401(k) Plans in Living Color.” Beyond her work at Ariel, Mellody is a director of three public companies: DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc.; The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. and Starbucks Corporation. She also serves on the Investment Company Institute’s board of governors and the SEC Investor Advisory Committee, and is a director of various professional and civic organizations. Mellody earned her undergraduate degree from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of International Relations and Public Policy and is a former trustee of the University.

Go Back to www.ahbcustomhomebuilders.com

When to invest in real estate - What about now?

THESE FACTORS MAKE FOR A GREAT INVESTOR REAL ESTATE DEAL

I know it sounds strange, but it's true. Today's dire economic circumstances have conspired to produce the perfect real estate storm. At least that's the case if you are in the market to find a bargain. Huge inventory, low interest rates, and highly motivated sellers all combine to make this an ideal time to pick up a house, or two, or even three. But before we all rush out and buy the first house we can find, let's look at the four most important factors of an investor real estate deal:

** LOCATION

If you are looking for a rental property that will pay for itself on a monthly basis, you may be best off looking in lower middle class neighborhoods where most of the owners occupy their homes and keep their homes in relatively good condition.Gang graffiti and boarded-up doors and windows are signs to avoid, while accessibility to transportation and relatively recent construction make for good rental income properties. Good public schools are also an important feature for many prospective renters.Another desirable feature related to location is a neighborhood where most of the homes are similar in size and amenities. You want to buy in a neighborhood where the other properties won't pull down your value due to wide-ranging sales prices.

** CONDITION

Try to avoid neighborhoods where most of the homes are less than three bedrooms and two baths, or where most of the construction is pre-1950. Homes more than fifty years old will eventually need almost all systems updated, and that is an expense to avoid in a rental situation.Homes less than ten years old have almost all up-to-date systems, and shouldn't need major renovations any time soon. In addition, newer homes sometimes offer space for expansion, an inexpensive way to add a bedroom or office.In an ideal situation, the home should need no work before the renter moves in. However, in today's real estate market, the condition is where you are going to find the greatest degree of variation. At no time in the past thirty years has there been such a large number of homes on the market needing significant repairs.Many of these homes are bank-owned, and some are uninhabitable. Others may need nothing more than paint and carpet. Being able to distinguish between the two extremes is critical to your success in finding a great deal. At the very least, make all offers contingent upon a full inspection of the property and a satisfactory estimate for all needed repairs.

** PRICE

The glut of bank-owned homes has, in my opinion, kicked the floor out from under the Atlanta residential real estate market. We don't know what anything is worth, because so many of the comparable sales that appraisers use are distressed sales.But if you can get a price discount in the 40% to 50% range, it really doesn't take a great investor to see that there is plenty of room for upside profit, both in the monthly cash flow and in the long term resale price.I believe that most lenders had, until recently, hoped for a "Resolution Trust Company style" bailout from the federal government. But now that the Obama administration has indicated that troubled bank assets will not be purchased directly, pressure to sell is mounting on a daily basis. Seller motivation is growing.Investors making initial offers on bank-owned homes should be especially careful to stay in touch with the current market of bank resales. Discounts of 25% are not uncommon, and sales at 50 cents on the dollar are being seen by investors. My advice is to start low, then be prepared to negotiate up.

** FINANCING

This is the big wildcard for investment property, because the current Fannie Mae "four property rule" has kept many veteran investors on the sidelines. But if FNMA were to return to the "ten property" limit, or if banks began offering any kind of reasonable seller-financing, the floor under housing prices in Atlanta could be re-established fairly quickly.All but the most ardent "doom and gloomers" believe that the current condition of variable home values will end sooner rather than later, and anyone who can lock in a low price now will be glad they did. But the real key is how to finance that low price.A super-low price combined with a great financing makes for a fabulous real estate investment opportunity. And I believe the solution to this problem is seller financing. I am already starting to get reports of banks selling their houses and agreeing to carry back some sort of financing.The key for investors is not necessarily a 30-year fixed rate loan at 6% interest with nothing down, although that would be nice. Instead, the key is for banks to be able to convert their non-performing assets (the vacant houses) into performing assets (loans requiring a substantial down payment and reasonable qualification guidelines).These loans can be good for the banks and good for the borrower, and they could still be attractive with terms as short as five to seven years. The investment community is ready, but needs the financing to act. Once the banks make this leap of logic, the huge oversupply of vacant houses in Atlanta can begin to disappear, and we can get on with the business of re-establishing a market for real estate.

Article Courtesy of http://money99.com/content/view/134/1/

Comments or questions? Send e-mail to
InsideAdvice@gmail.com

What about trust? --- I mean a family trust.

Not Bob Johnson, Oprah Winfrey, or Shaquil O'Neal --- you may still benefit from a family trust.

It used to be that only the extremely wealthy set up trust funds for their children and grandchildren. Today, with ordinary people becoming millionaires through the increased property value of their homes, stocks, and retirements accounts. Trust funds are becoming more commonplace. Parents and grandparents in this category are undertaking estate planning to preserve their wealth and minimize death taxes.

The term family trust refers to a discretionary trust set up to hold a family's assets or to conduct a family business. Generally, they are established for asset protection or tax purposes.

A family trust:

• is generally established by a family member for the benefit of members of the 'family group';
• avoid unnecessary stress by dealing with inheritance issues before death.
• gain peace of mind in the knowledge that property will pass upon the terms of the trust after death.
• avoid delays after death. Properties in Family Trusts may be sold without a Grant of Representation. The trustees can sign all the paperwork.
• can be the subject of a family trust election which provides it with certain tax advantages, provided that the trust passes the family control test and makes distributions of trust income only to beneficiaries of the trust who are within the 'family group';
• can assist in protecting the family group's assets from the liabilities of one or more of the family members (for instance, in the event of a family member's bankruptcy or insolvency);
• properties in Family Trusts may be sold without a Grant of Representation. The trustees can sign all the paperwork.
• provides a mechanism to pass family assets to future generations; and
  can provide a means of accessing favourable taxation treatment by ensuring all family members use their income tax "tax-free thresholds".
• benefit from tax advantages. In most cases, there is no Capital Gains Tax or Income Tax payable by transferring your home into a Family Trust. Inheritance Tax will remain unaffected.

A family trust has many other potential benefits, including avoiding issues such as challenges to the will following a death of a senior member of the family.

Important note
This page contains only the briefest of summaries relating to Family Trusts. It is not a substitute for full legal advice. Advice can only be given after consideration of all relevant facts. This is a complex area of law and therefore any planning should be done on the advice of an expert, in order to ensure as far as possible the protection of the estate.

From whom should one receive real estate advice? -- well maybe Terrell Owens.

Throughout his NFL career, Cowboys receiver Terrell Owens has collected touchdown passes, including four this season. Now, he's also collecting Dallas real estate.
T.O. owns six townhouses and condos in the city, valued at more than $2.5 million based on tax records. He acquired five of the properties within the last year, most of them as investments.

"Those are going to be worth a lot of money someday," he said, when asked after a recent practice about his holdings near the eastern end of Commerce Street. "I think it's going to be a big area in a few years."

The units are a short distance from the Fair Park Station, scheduled to open next year, on the DART Green Line. It's a transition neighborhood with a mix of older buildings, newer residential buildings and vacant lots.

Owens formerly lived in one of the units and acquired three more in nearby projects. They range in value, according to tax records, from $356,000 to $405,000.
Britt Fair, executive vice president at Hexter-Fair Title Company, closely follows local sales trends. He said there is risk, as well as potential reward, in pioneering an area. I'm not sure I'm going to take investment advice from Terrell Owens," Fair said. "But he may be on to something."

Patience is critical, especially in a slow market like this, advises Realtor Jerold Smith, who blogs about Dallas and Plano real estate. Smith said an investor such as Owens should plan to hold the units "for a minimum of five years to see a return."
Owens now lives at the Azure, a high-rise building in Uptown. His home is on an upper floor, where one of his neighbors is Cowboys running back Marion Barber. Former Cowboy Deion Sanders owns a penthouse unit, according to tax records.
Owens also owns a smaller unit on a lower floor, valued at $346,000. He is disputing the assessed value of the larger unit. Condos in the same position on nearby floors range in assessed value from $719,000 to $1.2 million. Assessed valuations often are lower than market values.

"I don't want to talk about my stuff," Owens said, when asked why he decided to invest in Dallas real estate. In a telephone interview, Jeff Rubin, Owens' financial adviser, acknowledged that the townhome purchases are investments. He said that rents are covering mortgage payments and that the holdings are being put into a limited liability corporation, a common practice for tax purposes. He declined to give further details.

Rents in newer buildings in the neighborhood near Fair Park run about $1 a square foot per month, according to current listings. Owens' units range from about 2,200 to 2,600 square feet, according to tax records.

In T.O., Owens' 2006 book, he wrote about his realization that, despite his big football contracts, he didn't have the financial security he thought he had. Pro athletes need to plan for when their playing days are over.

With the Eagles at the time, Owens fired his agent and hired Drew Rosenhaus as well as other advisers, including Rubin.

"I now had an effective, powerful machine working for me," Owens wrote. He added: "Although I respected their advice, the final decision was to be mine, not theirs."

The Cowboys signed Owens to a new contract this summer, a four-year, $34 million deal, which included a $12.9 million bonus.

Based on the contract amounts he details in his book and the terms of his new deal, Owens has earned about $67 million from NFL teams to this point in his career. If he completes his Cowboys contract, he could earn an additional $21 million through 2011.
Owens, who has 133 career TD catches, also owns homes in New Jersey and Georgia and condos in Atlanta and on the beach near Miami, according to online tax records.
The New Jersey home is listed for sale at $2.96 million, less than Owens paid in 2004With 20 percent down and a 30-year mortgage at 6 percent, the monthly payment would be $14,197, according to an online site that lists the house.

Tom Granese, a developer of one of Owens' units near Fair Park, said he anticipated that the area would develop more quickly than it has, but the economy has put everything on hold. However, Granese said, with the DART line opening, city investments in Fair Park, and a new bike trail, he expects substantial growth over time.

"I'm glad that someone like him is investing in a neighborhood like that," Granese said of Owens.

Article Courtesy of By GARY JACOBSON / The Dallas Morning News

So -- what is the price per Sq. Ft. ? ---The 10 Most Expensive Streets in the World

The Wealth Bulletin (a Dow Jones site) has come up with a list of the 10 most expensive streets in the world. Granted, this is an inexact science, but the list includes some jaw-dropping price-per-square-foot numbers for some of the richest blocks on earth.

Topping the list is Monaco’s Avenue Princess Grace, the palm-lined street named after Grace Kelly that overlooks the water. Forget buying a house there — just getting a beer at Jimmy’s Bar on the Avenue will set you back more than $100. But living on the avenue gets you a chance to rub elbows with Russian oligarchs, Middle Eastern oil sheikhs and the occasional Monaco royal.

The two streets to make the list from the U.S. are New York City’s Fifth Avenue and Carolwood Drive in Beverly Hills.

Here is the complete list, with some sample property prices as tallied by Wealth Bulletin:

1. Avenue Princess Grace, Monaco — $17,750 per square foot.

2. Severn Road, Hong Kong — $11,200 per square foot.

To see the complete list
http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2008/08/05/the-10-most-expensive-streets-in-the-world/

Is now a good time to invest in real estate? -- in Atlanta that is a YES!

Metro Atlanta ranks No. 3 on HomeVestors of America Inc.'s new list of the top 10 U.S. markets for residential real estate investing, released Tuesday.

For complete article: http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2008/07/14/daily32.html

So -- How much should you spend on lunch?

Lunch with Buffett Costs Record $2.1 Million
Warren Buffett is becoming an expensive lunch date.
An auction for a chance to have lunch with Mr. Buffett fetched $2.1 million on Friday night. The bid, by a Hong Kong-based investor, was the most-expensive charity auction ever held on eBay and set a new record for the annual lunch.

For complete story: http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2008/06/30/lunch-with-buffett-costs-record-21-million/trackback/

Finally making the cash --- How do I become wealthy?

Nine Truths That Can Set You on the Path to Financial Freedom

#1: Change the Way You Think About Money
The general population has a love / hate relationship with wealth. They resent those who have it, but spend their entire lives attempting to get it for themselves. The reason a vast majority of people never accumulate a substantial nest egg is because they don't understand the nature of money or how it works.
Cash, like a person, is a living thing. When you wake up in the morning and go to work, you are selling a product - yourself (or more specifically, your labor). When you realize that every morning your assets wake up and have the same potential to work as you do, you unlock a powerful key in your life. Each dollar you save is like an employee. Over the course of time, the goal is to make your employees work hard, and eventually, they will make enough money to hire more workers (cash).
When you have become truly successful, you no longer have to sell your own labor, but can live off of the labor of your assets.
#2: Develop an Understanding of the Power of Small Amounts
The biggest mistake most people make is that they think they have to start with an entire Napoleon-like army. They suffer from the "not enough" mentality; namely that if they aren't making $1,000 or $5,000 investments at a time, they will never become rich. What these people don't realize is that entire armies are built one soldier at a time; so too is their financial arsenal.
A friend of mine once knew a woman who worked as a dishwasher and made her purses out of used liquid detergent bottles. This woman invested and saved everything she had despite it never being more than a few dollars at a time. Now, her portfolio is worth millions upon millions of dollars, all of which was built upon small investments. I am not suggesting you become this frugal, but the lesson is still a valuable one. Do not despise the day of small beginnings!
#3: With Each Dollar You Save, You Are Buying Yourself Freedom
When you put it in these terms, you see how spending $20 here and $40 there can make a huge difference in the long run. Since money has the ability to work in your place, the more of it you employ, the faster and larger it will grow. Along with more money comes more freedom - the freedom to stay home with your kids, the freedom to retire and travel around the world, or the freedom to quit your job. If you have any source of income, it is possible for you to start building wealth today. It may only be $5 or $10 at a time, but each of those investments is a stone in the foundation of your financial freedom.
#4: You Are Responsible for Where You Are in Your Life
Years ago, a friend told me she didn't want to invest in stocks because she "didn't want to wait ten years to be rich..." she would rather enjoy her money now. The folly with this school of thinking is that the odds are, you are going to be alive in ten years. The question is whether or not you will be better off when you arrive there. Where you are right now is the sum total of the decisions you have made in the past. Why not set the stage for your life in the future right now?
#5: Instead of Buying the Product... Buy the Stock!
Someone once asked me why they weren't wealthy. They always felt like they were putting money aside, yet never seemed to get any further ahead. The answer is simple. I told them to stop buying the products companies sell and start buying the company itself! A survey of America's affluent (those who make over $225,000 a year or own $3,000,000 in assets) revealed that 27-30% of all the income the wealthy earned went into investments and savings. That isn't a result of being rich, that is why they are rich. When the pain of getting out of the bondage of financial slavery is greater than the pain of changing your spending habits, you will become rich. Either change, or be content to live as you are.
#6: Study and Admire Success and Those Who Have Achieved It... Then Emulate It
A very wise investor once said to pick the traits you admire and dislike the most about your heroes, then do everything in your power to develop the traits you like and reject the ones you don't. Mold yourself into who you want to become. You'll find that by investing in yourself first, money will begin to flow into your life. Success and wealth beget success and wealth. You have to purchase your way into that cycle, and you do so by building your army one soldier at a time and putting your money to work for you.
#7: Realize that More Money is Not the Answer
More money is not going to solve your problem. Money is a magnifying glass; it will accelerate and bring to light your true habits.
If you are not capable of handling a job paying $18,000 a year, the worst possible thing that could happen to you is for you to earn six figures. It would destroy you. I have met too many people earning $100,000 a year who are living from paycheck to paycheck and don't understand why it is happening. The problem isn't the size of their checkbook, it is the way in which they were taught to use money.
#8: Unless Your Parents Were Wealthy, Don't Do What They Did
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. If your parents were not living the life you want to live then don't do what they did! You must break away from the mentality of past generations if you want to have a different lifestyle than they had.
To achieve the financial freedom and success that your family may or may not have had, you have to do two things. First, make a firm commitment to get out of debt. To find out which debts should be paid off before you invest and those that are acceptable, read Pay Off Your Debt or Invest?. Second, make saving and investing the highest financial priority in your life; one technique is to pay yourself first.
Purchasing equity is vital to your financial success as an individual whether you are in need of cash income or desire long-term appreciation in stock value. Nowhere else can your money do as much for you as when you use it to invest in a business that has wonderful long-term prospects.
#9: Don't Worry
The miracle of life is that it doesn't matter so much where you are, it matters where you are going. Once you have made the choice to take control back of your life by building up your net worth, don't give a second thought to the "what ifs". Every moment that goes by, you are growing closer and closer to your ultimate goal - control and freedom.
Every dollar that passes through your hands is a seed to your financial future. Rest assured, if you are diligent and responsible, financial prosperity is an inevitability. The day will come when you make your last payment on your car, your house, or whatever else it is you owe. Until then, enjoy the process.

Article Courtesy of
How to Become Wealthy
From Joshua Kennon,Your Guide to Investing for Beginners.FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!

How do you get someone else to pay your downpayment? ----to buy a home!

1. Are you tired of paying your landlord every month so that he continues to build his assets and you have nothing to show for it other than a rent bill?
2. Do you want to have a safe environment for your children to grow up in?
3. Are you looking to become part of a community where you and your family can begin to build fond memories?
4. Did you think you’d have to wait until you saved enough money to buy a home?
5. Have you always wanted to own a home?
6. Are you looking to buy a bigger home?
7. Have you maintained decent credit especially with your mortgage or rent payments?

If you answered YES to any of these questions, then you probably have what it takes to own your own home.

If you are looking to buy in the city of Atlanta, this is the place to start.

(click here)
"HOME ATLANTA MORTGAGE PROGRAM"

Personal Finance Resolutions for the New Year

Pst ...It's only Four

Make some personal finance promises that you can actually keep in the New Year. Lose weight. Stop smoking. Learn Jiu-Jitsu. Making a pie-in-the-sky New Year's resolution feels great for about 10 minutes. Then you figure out that these goals were a stretch too far, and you settle down on the couch with a pint of Cherry Garcia and your old friend, Joe Camel. See ya next year, Sensei!It doesn't have to be that way.

Some promises can put more money in your pocket every day, and who wouldn't feel motivated by cold, hard cash incentives like that? Here are a selection of resolutions that can put more money in your pocket.

1. Commit to a realistic budget Sit down with your family and figure out where your money is going every month. Add up the non-negotiable bills, like car payments, mortgage payments, the kids' college or kindergarten tuition, or the electric bill. Then, for the next 30 days, calculate the variable costs, like food and clothing, gasoline, video rentals, and orange mocha frappuccinos. (You get the idea.)The grand total absolutely, positively cannot exceed the family's combined paychecks. If it does, make cuts in your variable costs, or plan to increase your income. Replace the latte with home-brewed coffee. Turn the light off when you leave the room. Wash the neighbor's car for extra cash.Write the whole budget down, item-by-item-and stick to it. You can have fun discovering where your cash ends up, but it's no fun getting caught under an ever-heavier debt load.

2. Hide your credit cards Do you use plastic responsibly? If you're paying off your entire credit card balance every month and taking advantage of cash-back or reward points offers, you're good. If not, you're better off paying cash, or using a debt card, whenever possible. Those finance charges add up very quickly, not to mention late fees.

3. Save and invest This resolution puts today's money in your pocket tomorrow-with compounded interest. Set aside three to six months' worth of living expenses in a high-interest savings account or short-term CD-you just never know when that rainy day comes around. Max out your 401(k) or IRA contributions, and earn tax-free interest until the day you retire. Invest in the stock market, or buy some gold. You won't miss that money today, knowing that it's hard at work growing for tomorrow.

4. Live it up Okay, this is not a financial commitment, at all. But you deserve to enjoy life. The best finances in the world can't make you happy unless you take some time for yourself once in a while. Think about last year and the purchases that made you unhappy-then resolve not to repeat the same mistakes. Find the highlights of last year, and make more of them in the next.

Article courtesy of

http://www.mortgageloan.com/four-personal-finance-resolutions-for-the-new-year-1431