Nifty Ways on to the Property Ladder

The following is a 3rd party contribution

With banks more reluctant than ever to lend and housing shortages across the length and breadth of the UK, times have never been harder for first time buyers. While fingers are still being pointed at who is to blame for this housing crisis, there are in fact ways out there to get on the property ladder even on a modest income. By simply reviewing your options and researching what’s available to you, a whole range of properties and locations become far more feasible from Houses for sale in Dover to Properties in London.

Shared Ownership

This fairly new scheme allows you to part buy and part rent your home while benefiting from a reduced deposit and more manageable mortgage. With Shared ownership you can own up to 75% of the home initially and rent the remaining portion from a housing association. Housing associations are not profit meaning you will receive far less rent costs compared to private landlords.

In addition, you will only have to pay a deposit on the percentage of the home you are buying, therefor for 50% of a house marked at £200,000 a deposit of £10,000 will be required compared to the £20,000 needed without the scheme. These homes span across the whole of the UK from houses for Sale in Lewisham to Liverpool, from quaint countryside dwellings to central city apartments, these new builds ensure you receive top quality for an affordable price in the area that is right for you.

5 Common Mistakes by First-Time Homebuyers and How to Avoid Them

The following is a guest post by Sean Cooper, bestselling author of the book, Burn Your Mortgage. Sean is also a mortgage broker at mortgagepal.ca.

When I bought my home six years ago, I found it both exciting and fun. If you buy a new property, as long as you have the budget, you can often customize it to your heart’s content. If you buy a resale property like me, you can choose to buy in a neighbourhood with everything that you’re looking for (provided it’s in your budget).

While I found house hunting a lot of fun, there were some costly mistakes I could have made along the way. I’m not perfect. I made some mistakes, but luckily nothing too big. (That’s why I wrote a book so other homebuyers wouldn’t repeat some of these bigger pitfalls I came across.)

Without further ado, here are five common mistakes by first-time homebuyers and how to avoid them.

Mistake #1: Not Getting Preapproved for a Mortgage

Before going house hunting, make sure you’re preapproved for a mortgage. Without a mortgage preapproval in hand, you won’t have any clue about how much you can spend on a property. You could spend $600K on a home, only to find out a lender will only approve you to spend $550K, leaving you scrambling to make up the shortfall. Don’t let this happen to you.

How to invest in the final few years of a bull market

The following is a guest post from Troy Bombardia from BullMarkets.co

The current bull market and economic cycle are extremely stretched. But remember that bull markets don’t die of old age – they die of excess. And although economic and market excess aren’t as high as they were in 2000 or 2007, excess is starting to creep in. You can see this slowly rising excess in rising debt, rising valuations, etc.

But the key point is that although these signs of excess are concerns, they are not significant enough to end the bull market in stocks and economic expansion right now. This means that although the economic expansion and bull market are getting old, they still have a few years left.

Here are the best ways to invest during the final few years of an economic expansion.

Is whole life insurance worth it?

The following post is written by Brian So from Brian So Insurance

If you have ever spoken to a life insurance broker or researched life insurance online, you may have come across a type of insurance called whole life insurance. What is whole life insurance and how does it compare to term insurance? More importantly, is whole life insurance worth it?

What is whole life insurance?

Whole life insurance is a type of permanent life insurance. Its premium is guaranteed and level for the life of the insured until age 100, when the policy is paid up and no further premium is necessary.

Because the premium never increases over the life of the policy, it starts out much higher than the premium for term insurance. The premium in the earlier years is more than necessary to cover the cost of insurance. The excess is kept inside the policy as a cash reserve. As the insured ages and his mortality rate increases, the premium he pays is no longer sufficient to keep up with the mortality rate. The excess premium paid in the early stages helps supplement the policy in the latter stages.

5 ways to build a million-dollar retirement fund

The following is a guest post

You are never too young to think about retirement investments. The reasoning behind this lies in the power of compound interest. As an example, this article explains how putting off retirement savings by just 10 years can cost you over half-million dollars until 65.

There are countless ways to build your retirement portfolio, depending on your income, lifestyle, the appetite for risk and resilience in saving money. Our top recommendations include:

opening an IRA next to your 401(k),
contact a broker and invest in stock market,
don’t ignore the cryptocurrency market,
automate savings,
don’t forget about catch-up contributions if you are over 50.

The importance of the IRA

Even if your employer generously offers a 401(k) which, by all means, you should take and match the contribution, consider also getting an IRA. Choose between the two available flavors. The first option is the traditional, tax-deductible IRA, which also grows tax-deferred until withdrawal. The Roth IRA consists of after-tax money and yields tax-free withdrawals on maturity. There is a third kind, non-deductible IRA for high-earners.

The best option of the three could be the Roth IRA since the money grows tax-free. By the power of the compound interest, by the time you take them out the fund could have multiplied a couple of times.

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