Get financial freedom http://www.getfinancialfreedom.info Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:43:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Reallocate Your Mutual Funds http://www.getfinancialfreedom.info/reallocate-your-mutual-funds/ http://www.getfinancialfreedom.info/reallocate-your-mutual-funds/#comments Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:43:54 +0000 admin http://www.getfinancialfreedom.info/?p=10 If you have some mutual funds through your employer, now may be a good time to see how they are allocated. You can find companies with holdings in various industries, like the payday loan industry or food commodities, which are less affected by recession than other areas of commerce.

When technology stocks dropped, those people who did not have the majority of their portfolio in technology at the time managed to get by and recover many of their losses. Now, we are seeing a decline in various industries across the board. Most experts agree that some of your portfolio should contain foreign investments to help when the dollar declines. This means you should know exactly what industries your mutual funds are distributed within and keep an eye for any red flags, like high real estate holdings.

]]> http://www.getfinancialfreedom.info/reallocate-your-mutual-funds/feed/ 0 Good Faith Estimate (GFE) http://www.getfinancialfreedom.info/good-faith-estimate-gfe/ http://www.getfinancialfreedom.info/good-faith-estimate-gfe/#comments Sun, 01 Mar 2009 13:33:28 +0000 admin http://www.getfinancialfreedom.info/?p=6 The good faith estimate (GFE) is one of several government-required disclosures that you will receive at the time of or within three days after application. It is a legal requirement that all lenders must follow.
The GFE provides the borrower with an honest approximation of the closing costs, down payment balances, prepaid expenses and all other charges that the borrower must address at the closing. The borrower should hold the lender to this estimate, with some obvious leeway. The lender must inform the borrower immediately of any changes in the loan program, rate, pricing and closing costs. Obviously, the lender can only guess at the time of application what expenses such as attorney fees, title charges, investor fees, inspection costs and other such variable expenses will be. These expenses are set by other parties or chosen by the seller or buyer, not the lender. However, the lender should be accurate with its own fees. As a rule of thumb, the borrower should be concerned if the final closing costs are more than 15% higher than the estimate. The exception is if the borrower is fully informed by the lender beforehand that these items will be higher, and the borrower accepts. Note also that other expenses not anticipated by the lender may appear during the processing period. If they are legitimate, they will often be unavoidable.

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