How much money do you actually need to retire in San Jose? A survey on retirement confidence from the Employee Benefit Research Institute indicates that 25% of working Americans have less than $1,000 set aside for retirement . Fewer than half of them have tried to calculate how much they’ll need to retire comfortably. The survey suggests that many of us just don’t want to think about it or have a current plan of playing the lotto, or for the non gamblers something like social security. About half the population, has less than $25,000 saved up. Now conventional wisdom says that you should have at least $1 million planned for your retirement, however, Scot-trade recently polled investment advisers and found that 71% don’t believe $1 million is enough for the average American family. To calculate what you might need for your retirement, you can visit www.choosetosave.org.
Octomom Nadya Suleman might be kicked out of her Southern California home. If you remember, she’s the woman who is famous for having 8 kids at once, during the time that she couldn’t afford the 6 she already had, and for being the poor man’s version of Angelina Jolie. The loan on her La Habra home was $4000 a month with a $450k balloon payment due earlier this month. Let’s face it, did anyone question her mental stability, much less her financial stability? Congratultions Nadya, you singlehandly just doubled the homeless population of La Habra. Actually, no need to worry, I’m sure her mom and dad will be delighted to have 15 guests moving in with them.
If you’re thinking about buying a house with an FHA loan, you better get a move on if you really want to save money. Starting April 5th, all FHA loan case numbers will see Up Front MIP increases from 1.75% to 2.25% of the loan amount. Although it is not a significant amount. Just to give you a feel of the difference: On a $250,000 sales price, it would increase the monthly payment by $6.67, but if you elect to pay the cost at closing instead of financing it into the loan, you’ll probably tack on between 2-3 thousand dollars more.
Analysts at Credit Suisse and FTN Financial Capital Markets predict that mortgage rates will stay between 5 percent and 5.25 percent for the rest of the year. Moody’s Economy projects about 5.7 percent, and Barclays Capital says 6 percent. So what does this mean? It means no one knows for certain what rates will be doing the rest of this year, so it’s important that you maintain frequent contact with me if you or someone you know is thinking about buying or refinancing a home. Thanks for watching the show, if you got some value out of this today, please do me a favor, don’t keep me a secret.
