Money Questions and Answers

Filing Too Many Small Claims Can Hurt You

You purchase home insurance to protect yourself if something major goes wrong such as a pipe that bursts, there is a fire, or some other peril. In fact, most mortgage companies require you to have homeowner’s insurance if you have a mortgage on your house to protect their stake in your home as well. However, insurance companies are not in business to pay out too many claims. They would quickly find themselves out of business if they did that, and they take a negative view on customers filing too many claims in a short period of time as well. This is considered a red flag, and you can quickly find your insurance premiums going up or worse. What Is Considered … Read more

The Dangers Of 401k Loans And Your Retirement

by Hank Coleman

If you are in a financial bind, seeing the money sitting in your 401k retirement account can be tempting. It is a tempting source that you may consider tapping in order to help alleviate some of your financial problems. However, your 401k retirement plan is there to be your safety net in retirement. Your 401k is not designed to be your emergency fund now. It may seem like it is not a big deal because you are essentially borrowing the money from yourself with interest, but it does not really work that way. There are dangers of 401k loans. Here are some dangers of why you should avoid taking a loan from your 401k retirement plan.

You Must Repay Your 401k Loan

When you take out a 401k loan from your retirement plan, you must repay it. Defaulting on the loan can have serious tax consequences that can erode all of your hard work that took years to build up. Your employer is required to treat your 401k loan like any other loan or financial agreement. You must set up a repayment plan that starts immediately after taking the loan. Many 401k retirement plans now prevent future contributions to the 401k until the loan is repaid. This prevents you from continuing to grow your money and can serious degrade your future earnings that you will not be earning on the money you borrowed and on any contributions you are not allowed to make while you repay the loan. If you are lucky, you will still be allowed to contribute money to your 401k plan while repaying the loan. Or, you could consider forgoing contributions in favor of early loan repayment.

How to Make Preparing to Apply for a Mortgage Go Smoothly

by Hank Coleman

There are a few things that you can do to make applying for a mortgage go more smoothly and give yourself a better chance of success. By preparing to apply for a mortgage correctly, you can receive the best interest rate that you qualify for and save money on your mortgage. The key is that you should start working early when you decide that you want to apply for a mortgage. Here are a few ways that you should do when preparing to apply for a mortgage. Compare Mortgage Loans The best way to get the best interest rate is to compare different mortgages with each other. Using a mortgage calculator, you can find out how much you can expect … Read more

Not Living At Home? You May Need Vacant Home Insurance

by Hank Coleman

I didn’t realize that my wife and I may need vacant home insurance after deciding to become landlords until a family member mentioned it. You are at risk of violating your homeowner’s insurance policy if you move out, no one is living in your home, and you do not have the right insurance coverage.

You run the risk of having a claim denied because you did not keep your insurance company informed of changes to your situation.

What Is Vacant Home Insurance?

Vacant home insurance is just what it sounds like. When you move out of your home and it has been vacant for over 30 days in most cases (60 days with some insurers), you need to have a different type of homeowner’s insurance policy protecting your structure.

Vacant homes are often the target of vandals, thieves, and other criminals. And, vacant homes are also subject to burst pipes, flooding, and possibly fire without you realizing it because you are not there to check on your property.

Vacant home insurance is often a higher cost than your typical homeowner’s insurance that you have been paying while actually living in the home. Do not make the mistake of not informing your insurance company of the change.

Doing so can be grounds for denying a claim if you have to file one. Or, you could even face a cancelation of your homeowner’s insurance policy.

Reader’s Question: What Is The Savers Tax Credit?

by Hank Coleman

Here is the next installment in our the Reader’s Questions Series which highlight questions emailed to me by you, the readers of Money Q&A. Be sure to find out at the end of this article how you can receive a free copy of Dave Ramsey’s book, The Total Money Makeover if your money question is chosen to be featured on a future week’s blog post. If you’re not familiar with Dave Ramsey’s book, you should run right out and get it. It is one of my top ten best personal finance books that everyone should read. Now….on to our reader’s question.

What is the tax credit for investing in a Roth? And, how do I claim my Roth contributions on my taxes especially if I have already filed my taxes for this year?

What Is The Tax Credit For Investing In A Roth IRA?

It is called the Savers Credit. It used to be called the Retirement Savings Contributions Credit. Tax credits provide refundable credits that offset your taxable income. Tax credits are different than tax deductions. Tax deductions reduce your taxable income.

Tax credits reduce your taxes typically in a dollar for dollar fashion and can be very specific on who qualifies, what events trigger it and can even be a one-year event that benefits people. The beauty of tax credits is that you do not have to have a taxable income in most cases to earn the benefits or the tax credit also simply just add to your income tax refund.

The Best Investing Advice I Ever Received

by Guest Contributor

The following is a part of Yakezie’s blog swap from Dannielle. She blogs about personal finance and Barbados at Odd Cents. You can check out my post on her site this morning as well about the best investment advice I ever received – Start Early!

For someone that’s now getting acquainted with the investment world, I’ve been trying to get as much advice as I can. In the last six months, I’ve attended seminars, done research online and asked friends for specific investment advice. As a result of my persistence, I’ve received several helpful tips which I’m very excited to share.

Take Advantage Of A Disaster To Invest

The most recent bit of advice came from a post entitled Taking Advantage of Disaster to Invest on Bucksome Boomer. The post advised to buy stocks in companies which are going through a disaster. Kay Lynn, the author, recently bought stocks in Carnival Corp which owns the Costa Concordia ship ( the cruise ship in the horrific Italy accident). The accident caused share prices to drop significantly and opened up opportunities to buy shares at a “reduced” price. In a short space of time after her purchase, the stock prices were on their way back up.