Money, bank, property and financial advise? Thank you.

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Have an average house, about half of mortgage remaining, taxes around 2200 yearly, 1 credit card, no other debt, no money IN bank, what is the safest financial move TODAY and in coming months, to secure the house? Which is more important, making the house payment or the taxes? What are the smartest financial strategies considering a possible decline in the dollar and upcoming banking problems. If no one has dollars, how will property taxes be collected, and what will they do about it if no one has money? What about mortgage payments, credit card payments? What happens if the banking system takes a complete nose dive in the next several months? Thanks for the advise and insight.

-- Nancy (Nancy@midwest.com), August 08, 1999

Answers

Cash! You have to have cash! Almost everyone has a mortgage but if you do not have cash to pay the mortgage then what is your house worth? Foreclosure? No money in the bank? Where do you plan to live when you have been foreclosed upon? So where is your cash flow? Do you have have a 401K, IRA? Do you live pay check to paycheck? Your property taxes of $2,200/yr is outrageous. trhat really has nothing to do with your present situtation. It all has to do with economics. More info is needed here......

-- moreinfoplease (Moreinfoplease@needmoreinfo.com), August 08, 1999.

Nancy,

Almost all of your questions have been discussed in detail - look in the archives - look under banking, general and unclassified wtc - do searches on 401k, bank, house, credit, foreclosure etc.

good luck

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), August 08, 1999.


is it possible to move to house that could be paid for with your profits from this one? from what i've read, in the Great Depression, people lost their homes because they couldn't pay their property taxes; houses were typically paid off.

-- sarah (qubr@aol.com), August 08, 1999.

Hi Nancy:

If I were in your shoes, I would hold my cash to make the mortgage payments first and withhold tax payments as long as possible. Depending on mortgage terms, mortgage holders typically initiate forclosure proceedings after two or three missed payments, while delinquint property taxes generally enjoy a two to three year grace period before seizure for non-payment occurrs. In either case (mortgage or taxes) if things get universally ugly, you can bet new laws will be enacted to protect some types of debtors... particularly homeowners.

Just my personal opinion, of course.

-- Yan (no@no.no), August 08, 1999.


Indeed, you need to consider a lot of things. Perhaps the most important three items for Y2K are: location, location, location. If your house is in or near a large city, what good will it do you? And even if it is not, where do you stand in general with your Y2K preps?

Some options to think about would be to borrow against the equity of your home, thereby being able to finance your preps, including perhaps even a rural survival property.

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.net), August 08, 1999.


There is also Chapter 11 bankruptcy that can be filed in dire conditions. If this is your only debt the home will be protected. I have seen instances of mortgages being $25,000 or more in arrears and the mortgage holder cannot foreclose. Get legal advice first.

-- Mike Lang (webflier@erols.com), August 08, 1999.

Hi Nancy - I have those questions too. For now we have decided to prepay several months of the mortgage payments (soon as our new payment booklet arrives) and also of our health insurance premiums. That will take us to April 1st. I figure they collect taxes once a year and it's not till October here anyways.

It seems consumable assets may be the most useful if everything fails. There are plenty of people on the Motley Fool discussion boards talking about how to turn a profit on the whole thing. Good luck!

-- mommacares (harringtondesignX@earthlink.net), August 08, 1999.


Sorry. Chapter7 is personal BK, Chapter 11 is business BK, and Chapter 13 consolidates debt and protects assets while debt is paid off.

-- Mike Lang (webflier@erols.com), August 08, 1999.

don't prepair in a manner where the sky must fall in.Yes,I expect cross cascading bank defaults,and I expect my loan payments to be wasted money that could be going into food prep.But maybe we are just nutbags.

-- zoobie (zoobiezoob@yahoo.com), August 08, 1999.

Hi Nancy: You may still have time to do what I did. Last Oct. I sold my property, I then sold my business. Located a very nice transition apartment. Got all my money and profits into one account. Then systematically stated to remove the cash in large amounts, filling out the CTR ( cash transmittion report) each and every time. I still use the account which I will go into the $2500. overdraft next week. Once thats all out in cash, I will pay the monthly minimum only. I have also Maxied all my credit cards, and got the cash. Payind only the monthly mimimum. If the banks are wright, I will galdly put all the money back in sometime next year, and thenlook at all the interest I have paid as Y2K insurance. If the Banks are wrong then Im left holding the bag, the bag of money that is. good luck!

-- Les (yoyo@tolate.com), August 08, 1999.


More info. Y2K preps are solid, fairly well prepared, have several months cash, income is fixed and retirement. Pretty well out of market, used this to reduce overhead and for preps also. Am anticipating that Social Security will be messed up for several months and that this money will not be available, and have been contemplating the best course of action. Guess though if the SSA goes down, so may everything else. We have pretty good credit, the banks call us with offers. But we are still faced with a fixed income. The advise is sincerely appreciated. Our area is one in which most people are not even sure as to what Y2K is so this is one of our few sources for information.

-- Nancy (Nancy@midwest.com), August 08, 1999.

More info. We are located in a midwestern city of about 250,000, have been here for over 60 years, and feel some safety in knowing all of our neighbors (in a crunch, we will be able to pull together, even if they dont get it now) and the "lay of the land". We also have some military background.

-- Nancy (Nancy@midwest.com), August 08, 1999.

I don't plan on paying anything ahead on my mortgage. IFSHTF no one will be going anywhere if they are prepared. The mortgage company doesn't want your house back so don't throw good money away in the event you have to leave it behind. Your money should be going into supplies and items for barter. Anything that we import such as quality shoes, clothing, etc., will be in big demand. I have noticed 2 recreational vehicle lots in a nearby town is completely sold out of travel trailers and only a couple of motor RV's. I also have a couple of friends who have parked their RV's at a sportman's lodge and plan to bug out there. Time is running out and merchandise is going fast!

-- staying put (stayingput@stayingput.com), August 08, 1999.

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