Better late than never… some good reads from around the Web.
I enjoyed reading a guest post this week from American’s superstar coupon blogger Money Saving Mom [1], all about slapping down a suitcase of dollar bills to buy a house.
In How we paid cash for our first home on the ever-gigantic Get Rich Slowly [2] blog, Crystal explains how she and her husband dug their way out of debt, then decided to avoid getting a mortgage altogether:
It felt like a mammoth goal and we weren’t sure if we could do it, but we decided to go for it anyway. We figured that, even if we didn’t make our goal in five years, we’d at least be a lot closer to it than if we didn’t try at all!
Plus, from our calculations, we’d be in a lot better position to wait to buy — even if it took seven years to save up enough for a house — than if we were to go ahead and get 15-year mortgage and pay it off early.
The blog comments are worth reading, too; there’s clearly a Stones Vs Beatles / ZX Spectrum Vs BBC Micro / Jamie Vs Gordon / Cats Vs Dogs type split.
Were I to decide to buy a house here in the UK, I often wonder whether I’d use a mortgage or pay cash:
- On the one hand, I hate debt.
- On the other hand, I fear inflation and consider a mortgage a decent hedge [3].
My situation would be complicated by the fact that I’d have to sell a slew of investments and deal with capital gains tax to raise the money to buy a house.
On balance, I think I’d probably consider the mortgage a way to gear-up my investments [4] relatively safely, but I don’t guarantee it.
It’s very possible that running my finances like a mini-hedge fund [5] that’s up to its eyeballs in debt would pale when my righteous debt-slaying hand hovered over the death sentence mortgage documents!
From the investing and money blogs
- The foreclosure project: Final numbers (and pics!) – Mr Money Mustache [6]
- Why we love the one we’re with – Canadian Couch Potato [7]
- What can we learn from past performance? – Oblivious Investor [8]
- Back to retail shares – ValuehunterUK [9]
- Why do students study fruitless subjects? – Simple Living in Suffolk [10]
- 10 more old wives’ tales about money – Len Penzo [11]
- Obama plans aggressive clean energy push – EarthTechling [12]
Deal of the week: If you need some brainy reading to impress that hottie (gender neutral!) from the investment bank, try Models.Behaving.Badly [13]. (Hat tip to the Psy-Fi blog [14]).
Mainstream media money
- The myth of Japan’s failure – NY Times [15]
- On John Bogle (the inventor of index funds) – Alan Roth / CBS [16]
- How my nano portfolio beat the S&P 500 – Reuters [17]
- RBS and the banking bonus culture – Peston / BBC [18]
- When average hides a multitude of sins – FT [19]
- Could FSA ban structured products? [I hope so [20]] – FT [21]
- Lender unveils all-time low 3.99% ten-year fix – FT [22]
- UK savers offered Renminbi-denominated accounts – FT [23]
- Two extra days for self-assessment returns [Deadline now 2 Feb] – FT [24]
- How to make money out of dying – Telegraph [25]
- Record £68 billion dividends paid by UK listed companies – Independent [26]
- Is PayPal secure for sellers? – The Guardian [27]
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