Product Description
Focus on Personal Finance is a brief, 14-chapter book, covering the critical topics in Personal Finance courses. This 4-color, paperback text is designed and written to appeal to a range of ages, life situations, and levels of financial literacy.

A unique aspect of this text is its active approach. This text will not only get your students thinking about their current situation and financial goals, but also to put these in writing to use as a guide and revise over the course of their lives. The more a student involves themselves in the assessments, exercises and worksheets provided, the more they will discover about their current habits and how to improve them for greater financial freedom.

Students have many different financial goals, but none are more important than having a basic understanding of financial issues and peace of mind with regard to their decisions. The ultimate goal of Focus on Personal Finance is to get students to this point as a first step to achieving the many financial goals they have set for themselves.

Focus on Personal Finance

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• Essential Steps for Success as a Mortgage Loan Broker.
• Updated Charts, Economic Graphs and the Latest Loan Programs, including the newest URLA form.
• Expanded Loan, Appraisal and Employment Form Coverage ? now including English and Spanish versions of FNMA forms.
• Realistic Sales Price Calculations – based not on $215,500, but on present-day $425,500!
• The authors detail the workings of the mortgage loan business and give individuals a complete overview of the career opportunities in this fiercely competitive real estate industry.

Product Description
Ideal for real estate licensees, individuals seeking to enter the mortgage loan business, and those already actively working in the industry, CALIFORNIA MORTGAGE LOAN BROKERING AND LENDING covers key topics including appraisal, credit agencies, title and escrow, and computer programs used in the industry. Important legal concepts such as trust fund handling and both federal and state compliances are included to meet the state’s course requirements. Extensive coverage of necessary forms such as loan application FNMA form, credit authorization, actual escrow instructions are included.

California Mortgage Loan Brokering and Lending

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According to the economics teams at three leading investment banks, the Australian economy is slumping right now and will continue to worsen well into 2009 at a rate lower than the forecasts from Treasury and The Reserve Bank.

The economics teams at Goldman Sachs JBWere and Merrill Lynch have slashed their estimates of 2008 and 2009 economic growth for Australia and are now predicting recession.

And ABN Amro reckons the economy is stalling right now and growth is close to zero.

They all agree that as a result the Federal budget will go into deficit, unemployment will rise to 7.5%, and the Reserve Bank will cut interest rates to a low of 3.5%, a point suggested late last week as well by Macquarie Bank interest rate strategist, Rory Robertson.

He and the two teams now say we will get a 1% cut in interest rates from the Reserve Bank at its meeting next Tuesday, which will take the cuts since September to 3%, a measure of how seriously the RBA views what is happening in the economy.

But debt futures market are tipping the RBA to cut the cash rate by a massive 1.25% next Tuesday, which if it happens, would be the largest official rate cut since the 1990 recession.

ABN Amro’s chief economist Kieran Davies said a shrinking Australian economy, falling asset prices and recession-like levels of business confidence will make the RBA more inclined to cut rates aggressively.

“The wealth effect of falling asset prices is snowballing and the Chinese economy is slowing very sharply. Also, we think the economy is contracting now. We are close to zero.”

A 1.25% rate cut in December would take the cash rate to 4%.

The cash rate was at 4.25% in late 2001 and has not been below that level since the RBA began publishing its cash rate target in 1990.

Economists point out that the debt futures market is signalling a cash rate low of around 3%, which would be the lowest level for rates since 1960, when the credit squeeze hit that year and

Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan still claims the budget won’t go into deficit: the forecasts reckon it will, and they were supported by the latest update from the well-connected Access Economics team in Canberra.(Source).

Goldman Sachs JBWere’s downgrade follows one in the US from their economics group there for the US on Friday:

Goldman Sachs said US GDP was shrinking at a 5 % annual rate in the current quarter and will drop 3% and 1% in the next two quarters.

It said in a note US unemployment will reach 9% by this time next year. In contrast the US Fed reckons unemployment will get to 7.6% next year (it’s 6.5% at the moment).

This morning in a note to clients sent out over the weekend, Goldman Sachs JBWere said:

“We have revised down our economic growth forecasts from 2.0% in 2008 and 1.7% in 2009, to 1.8% in 2008 and 1.0% in 2009.

The new forecasts incorporate a deeper recession through 2H08 than we first forecast in early October and a shallower recovery path through 2H09.

“We have also revised our interest rate forecasts, with the RBA now expected to cut the cash rate to 3.5% by March 2009 (75bp lower than our previous forecast).

“The combination of dramatic financial wealth destruction, debilitating tightness in money markets, rapidly slowing credit growth, sharp falls in commodity prices and evidence that Australian house prices are declining led us to formally adopt a recession in Australia as our base line view on 12th October.

“Since that time our conviction that Australia is poised for its first recession in 17 years has strengthened.

“The reduction in commodity prices by our resource strategy team suggests that Australia’s terms of trade will decline ~20% year on year by end- 2009, sufficient to strip around 3.0% from domestic demand growth.

“We now expect business investment to decline 7.0% in 2009 (was -1.7%) and domestic demand growth of just 0.6% in 2009 (was 1.8%). As such, we have also raised our estimate of the unemployment rate from 6.5% by end-2009 to 7.5%.

“We believe economic growth will contract -0.5% in the September quarter, -0.3% in the December quarter and -0.1% in the March quarter.

“This would be sufficient to see GDP decline -0.6%yoy in the March quarter 2009 and -0.3%yoy in the June quarter 2009 before an acceleration to +3.25%yoy by December 2009 as the combined effects of the interest rate cuts, A$ weakness and fiscal stimulus coagulate in 2H09 and drive a rebound in demand.

“We remain convinced that the Australian economy faces a debt-deflation cycle. The risk of deflation was brought home to all policymakers by the sharp fall in US inflation in October.

“In essence, we believe the threat of deflation (no matter how small) will accelerate plans of interest rate cuts and we now expect the RBA to cut interest rates 100bp in December, 50bp at its next meeting in February and a further 25bp in March.
“This will take the RBA cash rate to 3.5% by March 2009, a 375bp cutting cycle since September 2008.

“We believe the government should worry less about protecting an underlying surplus and more about providing the conditions to promote aggregate demand growth.

“We have downgraded our Market Forecasts reflecting a reality check due to the current market turmoil as well as incorporating the recent revisions to our commodity forecasts and domestic economic growth forecasts.

“Reduced our Industrial top-down FY09 EPS forecast from -5.0% to -15.0% (bottom-up forecast is +3.3%). – Reduced our resources FY09 EPS growth forecast from 0.0% to -15.0% (bottom-up +4.4%) and our FY10 from +15% to -5.0% (bottom-up +20%).

“Our revised forecasts for the ASX200 are: Dec’08: 3400 (previously 4525; -25%) – Jun’09: 3780 (4975; -24%) – Dec’09: 4100 (5350; -23%). The ASX closed at 3374 yesterday , so it’s already under the 2008 forecast of GSJBW.”

Merrill Lynch wrote yesterday:
The Australian economy is being overwhelmed by the global financial crisis and external growth shock, impaired credit markets, collapsing asset prices, and imbalances on the household sector balance sheet.

We are downgrading our 2009 GDP forecast to 0.2% (down from 1.7% previously).

We expect the economy to contract on a through the year basis over FY09.

In our view, the very substantial monetary and fiscal policy response and adjustment in the exchange rate will not be sufficient to avoid a recession over 1H2009.

Our business cycle analysis and leading indicator frameworks are pointing to a rapid deceleration in domestic demand growth over the next 3-4 quarters.

Lead indicators of employment (and income growth) have deteriorated significantly over the past quarter.

Our downgrade to GDP growth covers all components of private demand (household spending, housing and business investment) and export volumes.

Business investment in particular will be negatively impacted by the global recession, the fall in the terms of trade and the tightening in the supply of credit.

Global lead indictors have fallen deep into hard landing territory. ML is forecasting global growth of just 1.5% in 2009, down from 3.4% in 2008.

The commodity price and terms of trade decline in 2009 will sharply reduce gross domestic incomes (both directly and indirectly).

The steep decline in asset prices over the past 12 months and need for households to lift savings and de-lever reinforces a very weak outlook for household spending through 2009, despite the cash-flow relief coming from lower interest rates and petrol prices.

We expect the labour market to weaken significantly over the next 12-18 months with employment growth falling to -2.0% by late 2009 and the unemployment rate rising to 7.5%.

The household savings rate is assumed to rise to 3.75% (from 0.9% currently) as de-leveraging intensifies.

We are more optimistic about 2010, with substantial global and domestic policy stimulus expected to support a recovery in growth. We expect GDP growth of 2.2% in 2010, led initially by a cyclical recovery in housing activity and strengthening global growth.

We expect the RBA to lower the cash rate to 3.5% by Q1 2009 in response to the global downturn, the deep slump in domestic demand growth and reduced inflation pressures.

The main focus of policy over the next 6-9 months will be addressing falling corporate and household income growth, which run the risk of exacerbating the de-leveraging underway in the economy.

And on Friday:

Citigroup’s global economic team issued its weekly update with these gloomy forecasts:
Financial conditions in the United States continue to deteriorate, increasing downside risks.

Collapsing US bond yields reveal considerable scope and need for fiscal action. Fed officials seem poised for further aggressive steps.

With a deepening recession in the euro area, and inflation likely to undershoot the ECB’s target, we expect the ECB to lower rates to 1% by mid-2009.

The Japan economy is likely to contract further, and we expect the BoJ to lower rates again.

The UK economy faces a long, deep contraction. But substantial policy action should eventually generate a recovery.

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Major stimulatory packages were outlined on both sides of the Atlantic overnight.

They were overshadowed though by the Citigroup bailout, which sparked a solid rebound in markets across the board.

In the US president-elect Obama introduced his new economic team, lead by Treasury secretary nominee Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers, the putative head of the National Economic Council, whose importance will grow in the new administration after being shoved into the background by the Bush mob.

He scheduled another press conference for tonight to reveal more details of his economics team

He said he would also present more details of a planned stimulus package that some reports said could top 700 billion US dollars.

The package should be the first order of business for the new Congress in January.

“It is going to be of a size and scope that is necessary to get this economy back on track. I don’t want to get into numbers now,” Obama said overnight.

“I think the most important thing to recognize is that we have a consensus, which is rare, between conservative economists and liberal economists, that we need a big stimulus package that will jolt the economy back into shape.”

In the UK the Government of PM Gordon Brown outlined a 20 billion pound, $A46 billion stimulus package for the slumping economy.

A combination of the Citigroup announcement and the spending package saw UK markets surge:

London’s FTSE 100 had its biggest-ever one-day percentage gain overnight, lifted by the US government’s bail-out of Citigroup and surging markets on Wall Street.

At the close, the FTSE 100 was 372 points higher at 4,152.96, a bounce of 9.8% – the biggest single-session percentage gain the index has seen in its 24 years.

The announcements will be important, not only for the UK and the US, but for global confidence next year and into 2010.

In a weekend radio address, President-elect Obama revealed the outlines of a sweeping program aimed at creating or saving 2.5m jobs by January 2011 through investment in infrastructure, public services and “green” technology.

He continued to sell his ideas overnight in confirming the leaders of his economic team, with several high-powered appointments to the White House.

Their first tasks will be the bailout and the stimulus package. Both will be all consuming.

Democratic Party officials indicated the package will be big, not small.

David Axelrod, Mr Obama’s chief political adviser, said passing a massive economic stimulus package would be the president-elect’s top priority when he took office in January.

He told Fox News on Sunday; “Our hope is that the new Congress begins work on this as soon as they take office in early January.”

Austan Goolsbee, a senior economic adviser to Mr Obama, confirmed the plan would be significantly bigger than the $US175 billion package proposed during the presidential campaign because the state of the US had worsened since then.

And Senator Chuck Schumer predicted it could be as much as $US500 billion-$US700 billion, almost as big as the bailout package of the Bush Administration.
 
To give the estimate some context, the Bush Administration pushed a $US160 billion tax rebate for individual and corporate taxpayers through Congress. It came and went as it was consumed by the downturn from May to July.
Republicans are already moaning about the size, but with the likes of Goldman Sachs estimating that the US economy is contracting at an annualised 5% at the moment, and will continue contracting well into 2009, size should not be a concern.

Across the Atlantic the UK economy is already a basket case and after the $US37 billion bank support package and guarantee, the Government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown outlines its stimulus package.

In fact it’s what’s known as a “pre-budget’ report and it will total around $A38 billion, or 3 times our $A10.4 billion package that is already in the market and helping first home buyers, and which expands on December 8.

The UK Chancellor, Alistair Darling is in the hot seat.

A year ago he was grappling with the failure of Northern Rock and growing worries about other leading UK banks and mortgage loans. Now it’s a huge tax-cutting and spending package.

He said overnight: “These are extraordinarily challenging times for the global economy.”

He downgraded the UK’s 2008 forecast for growth to 0.75%, while next year growth is estimated to fall by between 0.75% and 1.25%. Growth in 2010 would recover to between 1.5%- 2%.

Government Borrowing would rise to 78 billion pounds (around $A180 billion) this year and then 118 billion pounds (around $A230 billion) in 2009-10, and would only fall to the level of net investment by 2015-16.

Public sector net debt would surge above the current limit of 40% of national income this year, reaching 57% by 2013-14.

The Government argued that without the package, the already nasty slump will become a severe recession, with a surge in misery and unemployment.

Predictably the UK Conservative opposition attacked the package, but so far hasn’t put forward a policy of its own.

The UK is due to go to the polls in 2010, so the Brown Government’s package does have an element of pre-poll priming, but then the Conservative Party’s view should be seen in that context, and the fact that its once huge lead in opinion polls has narrowed in the past month.

To pay for multi-billion pound spending package, the Government will set out a series of deferred tax rises, alongside reductions in the growth of spending, designed to reassure markets that the borrowing figure will decline sharply from 2010 onwards.

A major move will be a cut in the VAT (GST) from 17.5% to 15% (The maximum allowable under EC rules).

That will cost about £11 billion ($A26 billion) and will last just over a year before reverting back to 17.5% in early in 2010.

There is a 1 billion pound package to get banks lending to small and medium companies; a rise in corporation tax for small companies will be postponed and firms will be told they can delay payment of tax bills if they are in trouble.

The government would also introduce a 0.5% rise in all national insurance contributions, a move designed to raise many billions of pounds a year.

To help multinational companies, the government said it would exempt foreign dividends from corporation tax. Small businesses would be able to spread over time payment of all their tax bills, including corporation tax, national insurance and VAT.

School and hospital building projects will be brought forward to help the construction industry, as will a big “green” program to make council houses more energy efficient.

The Chancellor announced a new top rate of tax of 45% that will apply to those earning more than 150,000 pounds (around $A350,000).

That is designed to appeal to ordinary taxpayers who are concerned about high income earners paying low tax levels while benefitting from the bailout of banks and other groups.

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Like if I have $1000 now gathered from working as a student for 2 years, can I use that to pay some of the loan back? Or, is it that once I start paying back loans, I can’t stop, and I must consistently pay them back every month?

Also, do student loans have minimum sums we are allowed to pay every month? Like can it be that i’m only allowed to pay if i’m paying in a minimum sum of $800 or $1000?

P.S. this is not for me, so its not like I can look over a contract or anything like that.

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A plan that has been hovering in the breeze for the last few days to establish a bank to handle the billions of pounds of worth “toxic debts” is expected to be announced today.  Continuing the trend of “state-owned” banks and interventions to try and breathe some life into a very ailing economy, the “toxic bank” will function to “fence off “an area where all that remains of the UK banks don’t want to go. The billions of pounds of very bad debts that no one can handle yet won’t go away. In an attempt to prevent write offs and further devalue the banks’ value, Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling see the freezing of these debts as the lesser of several evils, in their undying efforts to squeeze some optimism into the life of the UK economy. Under the terms of the toxic bank scheme, a new state-controlled insurance company is to be established to provide cover in the event of bank customers defaulting on loans as well as allowing banks to have their bad loans underwritten. The terms are yet to be announced, but it is understood that the banks will be required to pay a fee to have their bad loans underwritten by the taxpayer, and only up to a certain level.  

All of these measures are being made to encourage the partly state owned banks as well as the wholly state owned Northern Rock building society to begin to ease up on their self imposed lending restrictions.

The government’s hope is that by creating a “toxic bank” they would witness a lowering of the risk ratio on current loans. This would allow the banks to begin lending again without fear that their bad debt ratio would become out their boundaries. The formation of an insurance trust would prevent the loans being written off, in the hope that they would come good in time. Estimates are that there are 260 billion pounds of toxic assets spread across British industry, which the banks would have difficulty in reclaiming. This in fact means that the UK banking system is technically insolvent if only temporarily.  The 22 billion pounds that the taxpayer-funded injection could provide some temporary respite to the lending crisis.

Over the weekend, there was little else to be cheerful about . Ernst and Young predicted that by the end of 2010, there will be more than three and one quarter million unemployed, and this figure could begin to approach three and half million by the middle of 2011.  

One person moving jobs is Sir Philip Hampton, who is to become the next chairman of Royal Bank of Scotland. Sir Phillip, currently Sainsbury’s chairman has earned a strong reputation in UK banking circles due to his central role in the government’s “nationalisation” of the banks

The appointment was announced, as the bank’s shares had sunk to an all time low, with fresh fears of a further government intervention, diluting their share value even further.

Hampton will begin his introduction to the daunting task in front of him as early as today when he takes the post of deputy chairman of the RBOS, and will officially replace the incumbent chairman Sir Tom McKillop in April 2009, at the Bank’s annual general meeting. Sir Phillip will also remain in his post as chairman of Sainsbury, while stepping down as chairman of UK Financial Investments Ltd (UKFI), UKFI were established to manage the government’s 58 per cent stake in RBS as well as the other banks subscribing to its recapitalisation fund.

Also moving chairs is former UK Chancellor Kenneth Clarke who is expected will return to the Conservative front bench as part of a major reshuffle due to be announced later today, Clarke is expected to be handed the role of

The role of shadow business secretary by Tory leader David Cameron. 

This means a return to facing off to his Labour party counterpart, Lord Mandelson, with the current shadow business secretary Alan Duncan expected to be offered another post.  

Across the water, realities also continued to bite, and often quite hard. The long awaited announcement that the Irish government was nationalising Allied Irish Banks finally arrived. In the US, Bank of America announced that it was to receive a further a $20bn injection of emergency funding from the US government.

This was brought on by the news announced  late Friday that , against predictions very much to the contrary, Merrill Lynch, had made losses of more than fifteen billion US dollars in the last quarter of 2009.

Lagging not too far behind were the ailing Citigroup who announced losses of more than eight billion US dollars for the final quarter of last year. The bank announced that they will be splitting themselves into two separate divisions. One , and revealed plans to split itself into two .separate and autonomous divisions

This article was written by eCommerce Associates for Bank — Accounts and our Finance Blog

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What is the best place to find out what has been happening to economic variables (gdp, inflation, unemployment, etc) over the last 18 months?

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I’m planning on going to law school after I graduate from a 4-year college. I’m just wondering if I’ll have to start paying back my student loans after 4-year college, or after I graduate from law school?
P.S. I’m just doing some preliminary checks on student loans in general, I’m a senior in high school and I’m just thinking ahead.

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Even though longer-term business finance techniques might be appropriate for many circumstances, there are some important short-term business loan options that will be less costly in producing improved credit card processing and commercial mortgage results for business owners. Short-term business financing choices can be misunderstood because of a preference by many business owners for long-term commercial real estate loan and commercial loan programs.

Two Important Short-Term Business Finance Options

Two of the most overlooked short-term working capital business loan strategies are short-term commercial mortgage loan programs and business cash advance programs in conjunction with credit card processing. Both of these business finance options are relevant for most business owners but are frequently misunderstood.

Short-term Programs for Commercial Real Estate Investment Financing

A long-term business loan is appropriate for many businesses that own commercial real estate investment property. Business properties should normally be financed with a combination of short-term and long-term business finance funds. When a longer-term commercial mortgage is viable, it is preferable to secure long-term business financing, preferably for 30 years.

However there will be many commercial mortgage loan situations in which longer-term real estate business financing is not appropriate for the business owner. In such circumstances it is important for a business owner to realize that there are viable short-term working capital management options.

When a Short-Term Commercial Mortgage is Appropriate

If a business owner plans to sell or refinance their business within a few years, it is preferable to explore short-term business finance options. The best short-term business loan will have minimal prepayment penalties in comparison to terms commonly included with long-term commercial real estate investment property financing.

The avoidance of business finance prepayment fees and lockout fees fees in some short-term business financing programs is an important benefit of these short-term commercial mortgage approaches. The absence of these potential fees could produce a savings of up to 20% or more if the business property is sold during the period which would have involved lockout fees in a longer-term commercial loan.

Short-Term Commercial Real Estate Investment Property Financing Limitations

There are some trade-offs that need to be understood if a business owner chooses shorter-term business financing even though prepayment fees will usually be avoided with a short-term business loan. When short-term commercial real estate financing is a realistic option, the loan-to-value will usually be no higher than 70%, the commercial mortgage will not be readily available for special purpose business investment properties such as golf courses and the interest rate will frequently be in the range of about 12%.

Best Investing Possibilities for a Short-Term Commercial Mortgage Loan

Warehouse, multi-family, office, mixed-use and retail business properties are the best possibilities for short-term business financing. Business owners should be comfortable with a time period of less than three years for a typical short-term business loan.

Fewer Mortgage Lenders for a Short-Term Commercial Real Estate Loan

There will typically be a very small number of commercial real estate investment property lenders who are effective at implementing the short-term commercial mortgage loan strategy properly. There are also a number of problems to be avoided with a short-term commercial real estate loan, so choosing an appropriate provider is extremely important to any business owner considering a short-term business finance program.

Credit Card Processing and Business Cash Advance Programs

For any business that accepts credit cards as a method of payment, a business cash advance is a critical working capital management tool that is often overlooked. Even thriving businesses frequently need more working capital than they can borrow. One of the least-known business finance strategies for successful businesses is potentially the single best working capital loan strategy for obtaining needed cash for growing their business: the use of a merchant cash advance or business cash advance program.

Primary possibilities to take advantage of this business financing program are service and retail businesses. This credit card processing and credit card financing strategy uses credit card receivables to determine the amount of a merchant cash advance.

Working Capital Management: Credit Card Financing and Credit Card Processing

This business financing technique is called credit card financing or credit card factoring. Some business owners might have used a business finance technique referred to as receivables factoring to sell future receivables at a discount and receive immediate cash.

Many service and retail businesses cannot document business receivables to obtain a business loan. Businesses such as bars and restaurants do not typically have receivables to use for business financing.

What these businesses do have in many cases is documented sales volume and documented credit card sales activity. It is this documented level of sales volume and credit card sales activity that becomes a financial asset to the business and its business finance strategies. Business cash advances from $5,000 to $300,000 can usually be obtained based on a merchant’s sales volume and future credit card sales.

A business financing merchant cash advance must usually be paid back in less than 12 months. For business owners that want to renew the working capital cash advance program, it is typically possible to get more working capital after payback of the initial advance.

Limitations and Problems to Avoid with Credit Card Processing and Merchant Cash Advance Programs

As with any successful business finance strategy, there will typically be only a small number of commercial lenders who are effective at implementing this working capital management strategy properly. There are also a number of problems to be avoided with business cash advance programs, so choosing the appropriate provider of this commercial financing service is extremely important to any business owner considering a credit card financing program.

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• ISBN13: 9780380807000
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Product Description

Leave Home Without It…

Membership has its privileges, but it also has a huge share of disadvantages. Without the proper know-how and guidance, you could find yourself buried beneath an avalanche of credit card debt. Millions of Americans are just like you and are currently attempting to pay off $450 billion to credit card companies. It’s in a credit card company’s best interest to keep you in debt-after all that’s how they make their real money. Even by following their rules, you can quickly be put at a disadvantage. It seems as if there is no light at the end of the tunnel- that is, until now.

And All That Goes With It

Whether you are overwhelmed by credit card debt or trying to prevent it altogether, Credit Card Debt has the answers. The author’s basic three-step program provides the information you need to reduce interest rates, eliminate fees, and negotiate with credit card companies to keep your credit report clean. Uniquely designed to help you organize, analyze and reduce your debt, this book helps you understand how credit card companies make their money, how credit cards work, and how to use them responsibly.

Credit Card Debt:

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