Wealth Today

This lesson seems to be one of the longest in the book. It’s a very thorough lesson on the value of home ownership and does very nicely explaining a potential buyers options. Mr Chilton stresses that owning a home may not be for everyone. He states the importance of making sure you’re saving your 10 percent first and meeting your other financial obligations, including saving for retirement and protecting your estate with insurance, before committing to the purchase of a home. This has probably been the most comforting book supporting my decision to not immediately purchase a home. I’m not quite sure I’m ready for the financial impact. He states that while it’s not exactly all that much more, it does have considerable costs. He explains PMI, FHA and VA loans. For more about mortgages, he suggests The Common Sense Mortgage by Peter Miller. He discusses the advantages of condo ownership. He explains that it may not benefit to prematurely pay a mortgage, but also explains why a shorter term can save thousands. He makes it clear that if you’re obligated to move within the next one to two years then after fees and expenses, it may be more costly to purchase a home compared to renting. He explains the tax benefits of home ownership. With so much information, it’s easy to forget that the main lesson of this chapter is to carefully consider buying your own home and make an informed decision.

I’ve ran into an issue now where I get about 12-15 pieces of comment spam a day, so I’ve had to setup some way to manage it. To do this, I’ve installed Spam Karma 2. I set it to “Kinda Mean” for it’s attitude. Please let me know if you have any problems. It was really easy to install, so let’s test it out.

Has anyone else read any other good financial books or found a site worth mentioning?

Are you doing anything to prepare yourself for the next year?