You Don't Need These Things to Buy a Home!
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Considering Solar Panels?
With soaring energy costs, many homeowners are turning to solar for both their homes and their cars to save money. With solar companies touting huge monthly savings for electricity costs, how can you know what makes sense for your needs? Here are the basics of solar panels to help you start the process. How do solar panels work? Solar panels are positioned on your roof and absorb energy when the sun shines on them directly. The amount of energy generated will be affected by the amount of square footage of the panels. Therefore, your roof must have enough area with extended direct sunlight each day to be effective. How to find a solar panel company? There are a lot of solar panel companies advertising their service right now. Some companies specialize in panels as well as roofing companies adding solar as an option and big-box home improvement stores. It’s important to consider both price and expertise when choosing a contractor to install the panels. You should read reviews and
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Should I use my 401K to buy a home?
Buying a home can be a financial stretch. With soaring home values and rising interest rates, many potential first time home buyers find saving for a down payment increasingly difficult. For many people, the main source of savings is in the form of a 401k and tapping into this resource for a home purchase is one way to find the down payment necessary to finance a new home; but should you use your 401k to buy a home? Experts are conflicted. A 401k is a retirement savings plan offered by employers which takes pre-tax earnings and deposits it into an investment account for use in retirement. The money in a 401k account can be accessed by either taking out a loan against the balance or by a straight withdrawal. A withdrawal before the age of 59.5 is also subject to a 10% penalty. Taking out a loan from a 401k account may be a viable option for potential home buyers. For one thing, a loan from your 401k should not count against your borrowing power. You also don’t need to qualify because
