Unemployment and You
October 2008 unemployment rates hit 6.5%. At the time many economic experts were predicting a rate of eight percent in the next few months. Looks like they were a little low on their estimates. Many reading this article will be without and job and in an instant you will be forced to make a career change and a life change.
Being unemployed is a significant event in ones life. Being unable to pay your bills causes stress and anxiety. It also has a paralyzing effect on your motivation. After the initial shock of being laid off, you need to make something happen.
Prepare yourself t be retrained in another field as the likelihood of becoming employed in your career field may be limited. Many professions transfer over to new fields. If you are a business manger in a tech firm, you can become a business manager in a heath care facility.
Hopefully you have been saving for this occurrence by saving money regularly. If not you are going to have to make something happen right away. Check out community colleges and see if you can take your present skill set and transfer to a new career. So many people fell trapped in this situation and you need not feel this way. The demand for quality, skilled personnel is going to work to your advantage, it will just take time.
You may have to settle for something temporarily to provide an income for your family. There is nothing wrong with that, but keep your eyes on your goal.
Financial stress can ruin the best of marriages and relationships. Try to commit to one another that as a team you will see your way through this time. This requires daily encouragement and affirmation. Stay the course as you seek new opportunities for employment. You are not the first person to become unemployed and you will not be the last
Subscribe to the comments for this postCan Tenant Loans Work For You
A tenant loan is a relatively unheard of type of loan compared to home equity loans or auto loans. Tenant loans are actually a type of unsecured loan that allows loans to anyone who does not have their own home but is on a tenancy contract.
Tenant loans can actually be used for any purpose. Most loans are used for daily expenses, for emergencies, for wedding expenses and any other expenses. The amount can range from 1000 - 25000. In the same manner, tenant loans typically have higher interest rates. This type of loan are also short term, the payment period can last from 1 year up to 5 years. Bad credit standing can also obtain you more restricted terms. On the other hand, good credit standing may afford you with lower interest rate, more flexible paying period or a higher amount, if you wish and lower amount of monthly payment.
Tenant home loans can be secured using some important documents. These documents include proof of being a non-minor. Another is the proof of your residence and that you have been in the same country for more than a year. Those applying for tenant loans would also need to present certificate of employment. This would mean that that applicant should be holding a stable job. The amount of your loan would also be determined using your pay slip. Other relevant information would also be gathered by the agency. Information like, the amount of your monthly rent, your bill payments and if you have other types of loans would be investigated by the agency.
There are various lenders of tenant loans. Check out the banks nearest you, they may have tenant loans. Though, you have to compare the rates and terms by your self. There are also high street lenders that can give you this type of loan. But one of the most popular is online agency lenders. There are also some sites that offer comparisons of different online lenders; this would make comparison of important terms easier. Some important terms that should be examined carefully are interest rates, end of contract fees, other fees and fees associated with the loan. Online agencies are also very convenient, because it is easy to find and you can apply right then and there.
Remember that in finding the right tenant loan (or any loan) would require the right amount of work, work on them.
Home Buyers Are Increasing , Who Will Take The Credit
Homebuyers in The United States increased in April by 6.7 percent, the largest gain in almost 8 years. It was the biggest monthly jump since October 2001, when pending sales rose 9.2 percent, and so the sales job continues. Things are better and these numbers prove it or so they would have you believe.
The media is jumping on the bandwagon in support of the Obama administration crediting the $8000.00 tax credit for first time homebuyers that was include in the stimulus bill signed by President Obama in February.
Lawrence Yun, The National Association of Realtors chief economist, cautioned that the pending sales data is more volatile than in the past because many sellers need banks to agree to take less than the original mortgage — a so-called “short sale.” That process is often difficult, time-consuming and can wind up falling apart before the deal closes.
So it would appear that we are supposed to believe that first time home buyers, those eligible for the tax credit, are scooping up all these deals from distressed banks and homeowners.
Perhaps a more likely scenario is a beginning bottoming out of the home market and that could be a positive, unless of course you are not a homebuyer , but a home seller.
Left in the wake of the “good news” is the fact that American homeowners are taking on huge losses through either selling their homes or losing them to foreclosure. The national median sales price in April plunged more than 15 percent to $170,200, from $201,300 in the same month last year. That was the second largest yearly price drop on record.
The Bankruptcy of General Motors
President Obama forced General Motors Corp. into bankruptcy on Monday and said the federal government will act as “reluctant shareholder” when it assumes a 60 percent ownership of the smaller car maker that emerges.
So not only has the United States government given bailout billions to private industry to prepare the former auto industry giant for bankruptcy, taxpayers will now be partnered ith the automaker and the President has pledged 30 billion more to Government Motors when they emerge from bankruptcy court.
The government’s partial stake in GM comes on top of a far smaller ownership of Chrysler LLC, as well as significant federal equity in banks, the AIG insurance giant and two mortgage industry titans — all victims of an economic crisis unrivaled since the Great Depression.
While the Democrats continue to try and spend the United States out of economic collapse, Some Republicans have lashed out at the latest plan.
“The only thing it makes clear is that the government is firmly in the business of running companies using taxpayer dollars,” said House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio.”Does anyone really believe that politicians and bureaucrats in Washington can successfully steer a multinational corporation to economic viability? It’s time for the administration to fully explain what the exit strategy is to get the U.S. government out of the board room once and for all,” Boehner said.
So it looks like we will continue to see the President beg and plead for Americans to buy American cars, (er uh especially those Government Motors Models) with no end in sight.
The president added , , “What I am not doing, what I have no interest in doing, is running GM.” Huh?
Economy Not Quite Ready For Recovery
Tough times? You bet! I don’t know anyone who hasn’t been affected by the down turn in the global economy. People who can’t make their mortgage payments, pay their credit card debts, and those still managing to get by through the use of retirement savings and other fiscally responsible actions are all feeling the pain and wondering when the end may be in sight.
The sad reality is that it is going to be a long protracted period before we begin to see any signs of recovery. Our economy has been displaying symptoms of a larger problem far longer than most mainstream media and other resources close to the problem have proclaimed. No matter your opinion of how we got into this mess, one thing is certain; it will take a collective ratcheting-down on the American way of life and exactly what the American dream means to everyday, ordinary people.
I have watched in amazement, the bailouts of AIG, Bear Sterns, The Automakers, and other meg-money financial institutions and have sat stunned as to how people who are a hell of a lot smarter than I am couldn’t see this coming down on us like an global ticking time bomb. I am a forty-six year old woman and I live in one of the six worst hit states as a result of the most recent housing bubble burst. Florida. I have owned five houses since the mid-eighties and have experienced two significant real-estate booms here in Florida, with the latter that started in the late nineties and ran all the way up to the big burst starting in 2007.
I remember debating with friends and real-estate professionals regarding the stability within the housing market and most everyone was of one mind. Real estate never goes down, at least not in Florida. To me, I have always been of the mindset of that which goes up will always, always, always come down. Well, we all know that to be true now, but how did we get here? To understand what has happened with the housing market, you must have a baseline understanding of economics, banking, risk, and simple mathematics. This presupposed understanding by even the most general of news accounts has been the impetus, in part, to the problem. Terms like collateralized debt obligation, securitization, and write-downs are familiar to those with a financial background but are foreign to the vast majority. This article will provide a simple explanation and introduction to the basis of our current crisis.
To begin to understand the problem lets first start with a simple example of how banks have functioned historically. Throughout history banks took in deposits from savings account customers and then loaned money to homebuyers. In our simple example, they paid 1% interest to the account holder, guaranteeing the savings customer access to his or her money and a small rate of return on their savings. The bank then loaned the money to other customers for mortgages and collected 6% interest on those mortgages. The spread, in this simple example of five percentage points is more than enough to compensate for any homebuyers who couldn’t pay their mortgages. Again, this is a very simple explanation of how banks historically loaned money.
Then, as any account of the “sub-prime” crisis explains, banks began to re-sell or securitize mortgages. If you have owned a home within the last twenty years or so you have probably made your monthly mortgage payments to different lenders (banks) who “purchased” your loan from the first bank you got your original mortgage from. This is securitization. Bank A loans you the money for your mortgage, bank B buys your mortgage from Bank A for the “stream of payments” thereby collecting the principle and interest you pay every month. Bank A merely essentially makes their money by the various fees collected though making the loan. In most cases, Bank B is typically an investment bank who will securitize your mortgage with thousands of other mortgages of similar type based on criteria like creditworthiness, loan-to-values ratios, interest rates, and other measurable factors.
Let say for example you have a pool of 10,000 mortgages with approximately $10 million in monthly payments streams coming in from mortgages (borrowers) each month. That entire pool has a price. The entire price being how much someone would pay for the risk associated with that pool to get all of those particular payment streams. In a securitization, the investment bank divvies up the pool into many small slices, lets say 1000 for this example. Each slice can be bought and sold separately and each slice entitles the owner/buyer to 1/1000th of the payments streaming into that particular pool. The riskier the slice, the lower the price for the payments streaming into that pool.
Now using this example and assuming a trend in housing to continually rise and appreciate in value, your return on your investment becomes very profitable. One can see how easily this can compound exponentially as long as market conditions remain favorable.
In our next post we will expound upon this concept and delve further into the current problem within the financial and banking sectors and sub-prime mortgage lending.