Comments on: Tips On Interest Rates – Fixed & Variable Interest Rates

By: Carol

Carol — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:45:00 +0000

Traditional IRA takes pretax $$ and grows. Money is taxed when you withdraw the money many years later.

Roth IRA takes posttax $$ and grows. Then, when you retire and withdraw that money, it's all tax free.

For most people, this is the best way to go for their first $4000 of money since it grows unencumbered. But, you'll have to decide for yourself whether you think your tax rate'll be higher or lower at retirement.

For you, it probably makes more sense to do a ROTH IRA if your current tax rate is low or close to 0% right now.

Hope that helps!

By: We're Not Bouncy Balls!!

We're Not Bouncy Balls!! — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:20:55 +0000

try investopedia.com. it's like wikipedia.com, but it focuses on explaining finance terms. you can look up all the terms there.

By: TheDude

TheDude — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:52:12 +0000

Ron Paul cannot garner more than 4% in Republican Primaries. He will get less than that in the General Election.

By: fairylandk

fairylandk — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:20:09 +0000

Fixed rate means that the lender fixes the interest rate repayable for a set period – usually about 2 years. This is highly recommended for someone who is buying for the first time as it means that your monthly payments will stay the same for the fixed rate period.

Tracker means that the interest rate follows the Bank of England rates, so if their rates rise so do yours, but if they drop yours do to.

Whatever you do try to avoid an interest only mortgage – this means that you are only paying off the interest on the loan and at the end of the term you will still owe the original amount you have borrowed.

As the previous answerer said, offers are much more scarce at the moment with lenders being a lot more cautious about who they offer to, so you may not have a huge choice.

As a first time buyer I would recommend a fixed rate mortgage as I personally found when I bought my flat that I was inundated with bills and things going wrong which I hadn't budgeted for. If my interest rate had been going steadily up at the same time I don't think I'd have managed. The only thing with this is keep an eye on what the interest rate is doing and how it would affect your mortgage repayment, so that you don't get a huge shock when your fixed rate period ends.

I wouldn't recommend that you go for any of the silly gimmicks (thats if they're still around), like get a certain percentage back in cash. You pay for these somewhere along the line.

Good luck.

By: BlackDahlia

BlackDahlia — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:11:30 +0000

You would want to have decent credit, stable income and some money available for a down payment, the larger the better of course. There are other options for getting a mortgage if you have bad or low credit or even a reverse mortgage. Check out http://www.mortgagefigure.com for more information and articles about obtaining a mortgage.