Dropping  Jan  temperatures, bring some warmth for the first time home buyers. Full credit is available for married couples filing a joint return whose MAGI (Modified Annual Gross Income) is $150,000 or less and for other taxpayers whose MAGI is $75,000 or less, for purchases on or before Nov 9,2009. For purchases after Nov 9, 2009, married couples 225 K to 245K and for other tax payers 125 K to 145K.

FOR 2008  HOME PURCHASES

A tax credit for the first time home buyers that can be worth up to $7500.00 for homes purchased in 2008, the credit is similar to a  no interest  loan and must be repaid in 15 equal installments, beginning with the 2010 tax year.

FOR  2009     HOME PURCHASES

The credit was expanded in 2009 for homes purchased in 2009, increasing the amount to $ 8000.00, and eliminating the requirement to repay the credit, unless the home ceases to be your principal residence within the 36-month period beginning on the purchase date.

FOR   2010  HOME PURCHASES

Deadline for a credit of up to $8000.00  is now extended. Home owners who have  a binding contract to purchase  a home before May 1, 2010, are eligible for the credit. Buyers must close on the home before July1, 2010.Now extended to Sept 30, 2010.

Credit of $8000.00 need not be paid back unless the home ceases to be the main residence of tax payer, within a period of three year, following the purchase.

Credit applies to the main residence of the tax payer,reduces his/her tax bill or increases his/her refund dollar for dollar.This  is fully refundable ,meaning  the credit will be paid out to the eligible tax payer,even if they owe no tax or the  credit is more than the tax owed.

Credit is claimed using  Form 5405 which you file with your original or amended return.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend like me. Coming back to work, lets begin our third day ritual on fixing the finance. On the third day, we are going to look into the number of bank accounts we have and how to set up the necessary number of bank accounts.

Take time to analyze if the account you hold in a bank solves your purpose. If you have just a checking account, set up a Savings account and start putting some cash each month into it. An online high yielding savings account is the best option to earn some extra cash.

Make it compulsory to have just 2-3 bank accounts to solve your purpose and not more in order to make your finance simple.

Make use of setting up automatic payment options to pay your bills and debt installments on time. Ask the bank for their time to time offers and make use of them to your benefit.

Isn’t it simple? Yes thats all you need to do for today.

The confusion of choosing between a 15 year mortgage and 30 year has been a common one prevailing among borrowers. Today i am going to throw some light on why a 15 year mortgage is better even if you have to increase your monthly installments and suffer for a few years.

When we have 30 years to pay a loan why should we take the trouble of paying it off in 15 years by increasing our monthly interest and suffering to make the ends meet every month? Well here is the reason.

One of the major advantages of opting for a 15 year mortgage is the lesser amount of total interest paid apart from its rate of interest being typically lower compared to the 30 year mortgage.Initially the money you pay is accounted only for the interest. As years go by the interest you pay on a monthly basis is allotted to compensate for the principal.

Imagine a person has taken a FRM for 15 years at the rate of 5% and another person for 30 years at the rate of 5.25% for a principal of  $200,000, lets see what happens:

15 year    30 year

Monthly Payment                     $1581        $1104

Interest Paid                               $84,686       $197,587

Total                                                $284,686     $397,587

With a 15 year mortgage you save about $112,901 which can be used for a constructive purpose.

Bored of searching for properties from the endless amount of listings on newspapers and websites? Fed up of not finding your dream home in spite of investing a lot of time and money? Then i have a solution for you.

Applying the concept of dating websites, Sellmestraight.com has come up with a fabulous idea where you can list your requirements and a list of homes and contact info of the sellers matching your criteria would appear. You can contact the seller and start the process of buying your dream home.

Doesn’t this sound simple? The system doesn’t not only benefit the buyers but also the sellers by saving them the cost of middle men. I think its a revolutionary idea that is going to save a lot of trouble as well as time for many.

If you have used this service, or if you are going to use it, tell us how you liked it.

If you are a regular reader of 8000credit, you must be familiar with the posts that tells you how to save money on travel, clothes, electricity bills, phone bills and television bills. Today there is an addition to this list. I am going to tell you how to save money on Energy and have a comfortable living while contributing to the ‘Go Green’ movement.

What will you gain out of home energy audit?

1. Save money on utility bills for all years to come
2. Learn to make your home feel comfortable during warm and cold seasons without having to spend a lot
3. Learn how your heating system works and why it doesn’t work sometimes
4. Learn to keep your home cool without the aid of air conditioning.
5. Less burden on earth
6. Spot the energy vampires of your house and learn to slay them effectively and save money in turn
7. Be sure about the safety of the air you breathe everyday

While this is just an attempt to creative an awareness about energy audit, more on this will be discussed in detail in upcoming posts.

Are you fed up of adjusting to the rule of landlords? Longing for the freedom which you might get at your own place? Then why not buy a home for yourself? Oh I see, the problem is that you do have saved up a little for making that dream of yours come true but the skyrocketing rates of the properties are de-motivating you, isn’t it? Then why not go for a foreclosed property?

Although you might hear radio commercials like houses for $12000, such is not the case. The truth is that, you can get a 20-40% off on the actual value of the home. Still as its much more affordable than a new home, its a pretty good option to explore.

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Is It possible to sell a property in such a short span of time? Well It is, Use the Ebay technique. If it can work for books, tickets, cameras and clothes, it surely can work for your house.

Start by displaying ads on local news papers, internet and sign boards for an open day.

Conduct 2 open days and ask the visitors to bid their amount in a piece of paper.

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Someone had said that if you want to know about the righteousness of your actions, all you have to do is ask if you would mind if the whole world knew about it! Well all of us certainly do not apply this rule to the ‘decision making’ part of our life. Why not apply it to personal finance and see of what gain it could be?

We all know that using credit card could be a tricky business. Every purchase you make is being tracked by the bankers and accordingly your credit score and cash limit is adjusted. So i suggest you to avoid using credit cards for 5 unique situations by which you could avoid lowering your credit score or credit limit.

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In the past, many people have used their homes as ATM machines. homes were being utilized as money spinners and people were inclined to improve their homes to increase their value. As the ongoing housing market disaster showed, a home should be treated as something which is an integral part of your existence rather than as a money spinner. 
 
The housing market has started to steadily find its feet and this may see people beginning to utilize their home equity as they did before. Seeing this change in fortune for the housing market, banks are offering second mortgage products such as the home equity line of credit (HELOC) and home improvement specialists have resurfaced with bargain basement charges. From previous experience, the right decision may be to enhance your home equity rather than go for home improvement.

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I have realized that financial decisions are complicated! If you are planning to look up information on mortgage on the net, it’s not as simple as purchasing books online which have user reviews about how many of them bought the book, loved the book or gifted it to someone.

You would see consumers spending time and efforts more time bargaining for a discount as low as $5 on their grocery shopping as compared to seeking information on mortgage or analyzing whether the timing is correct to purchase a house.

If it’s refinancing that’s on your mind (and concerns pertaining to the drop in your credit scores due to late payment of bills) or if you are buying your first home ever seeking to take advantage of really low rates of the past (even though they are fast rising), then by all means it’s the most daunting task for consumers today. Continue Reading