In this profile of young success, Arthur is a rising real estate star. Check out his story and see if his path to success and wealth is something you might be able to duplicate.

There are two main reasons people cite when arguing against paying off one’s mortgage.  They are:

You can invest the money at a higher rate of return than what you’re paying in terms of your mortgage rate.
Lose mortgage interest deduction

Let’s look at each briefly.
Investing the money at a higher rate of return is always assumed and isn’t really thought through much.  First, one should adjust their rate of return based upon the risk associated with it.  Clearly, the risk is much higher in investing versus paying off the mortgage debt.
Secondly, usually …

There has been recent talk about the possibility of the mortgage interest tax deduction going away.  First, Obama made some brief comments about it, then his debt commission included it as a possible way to improve the fiscal situation of the Federal government.
First off, the deduction isn’t going anywhere.  We’ll talk about whether it should go away in a second, but you can be assured that even if it is the right move, your politicians don’t have the backbone to push that on the American people.
Secondly, it would definitely impact …

Mortgage rates are are serious lows.  I have many people telling me these days that rates will never be this low again.  Therefore, it’s a great time to refinance.  While, it might indeed be a good time to refinance, I often remind these people that people have been saying the same thing about rates now for years.  They’re never going to be lower, until they are indeed lower a year later.
So, should you refinance?  Maybe.
I’m in the camp that thinks rates will keep going lower.  In an effort to somehow …

This is a guest post submitted by Kathleen Mackenzie
Whether you are looking to purchase a family home or considering snapping up some property as a form of investment, there are plenty of reasons why buying a foreclosed property is a sound plan. Certainly there are a few hurdles. For starters, it’s not the best time to be trying for a loan as mortgage lenders have significantly tightened the purse strings since the market went into freefall. And for first-time homebuyers who thought they could count on assistance from the federal …

What an absolute circus this GSE garbage is. Our leaders are putting on the charade of “brainstorming” to determine what to do about Freddie / Fannie and the entire mortgage market which is essentially completely owned by the government.  Freddie & Fannie are nothing without the government – they are implicitly a part of the government.  The only reason it’s not explicit is because our stupid politicians don’t want the trillions of mortgage debt to be added to the official U.S. debt because then they’d have to explain why …

When it comes to paying off your mortgage, I’m in the camp that you might be able to generate a better return, but I’d never try to convince you NOT to pay off your mortgage.  It’s a guaranteed return, a way to get debt free, and significantly lower your living expenses. When you start to consider future inflation, however, it definitely makes you pause with regards to paying off your mortgage.
Why?  Well, in inflation, debts become less.  If you owe $200,000 on your home and through inflation, the value of …

Housing is a mess, everyone knows that. But, what everyone doesn’t know is that we’re not going back to what real estate was doing during the peak of the bubble. To back up my point, I wish to give two reminders of what it was like during the real estate bubble.
First up, the raffle. Back in the hey-day of 2005/2006, people were staying up all night (including several people I know personally) to enter a raffle or drawing where a select group of winners will have the opportunity to buy …