Smart About Money: Delaying and experimenting your way to wealth?
This is not about delayed gratification, although delayed gratification can be a very useful way to build your wealth – especially when the…
Smart About Money: Working with a local lender strengthens homebuyers' offers
Like many local businesses, community bankers tend to be self-effacing. Sure, we’re proud of how we help customers and borrowers. We know…
Smart About Money: She did everything right - it is possible!
A customer recently made an appointment to speak with me. A woman in her 70s, she had a home equity line with a big national bank and she’d…
Smart About Money: How to get a good Home Equity Line of Credit
Most homeowners think it’s going to be pretty easy to qualify for a home equity line of credit – and generally it is. You already have a…
Smart About Money: Do the math the click-baiters wish you wouldn’t do
A few weeks ago, I came across a particularly annoying click-bait pop-up ad from a well-known online lender. “Do the math (the banks wish…
Smart About Money: “Did the tax code overhaul kill home equity loans?”
“Did the tax code overhaul kill home equity loans?” That was the headline of an article in The Washington Post in January. Considering that…
Smart About Money: Adventures in Check-Writing
I recently heard a story about a businessperson who discovered that the check a client had sent them had been intercepted somehow and…
Smart About Money: The Saddest Kind of Fraud
At a recent banking conference, a banker from the North Shore told me about a particularly unfortunate situation she had run into. A young…
Smart About Money: New Ways Your Mortgage Can Work For You Today
Up until about the mid-1980s, a homeowner who wanted to borrow against the equity in their home had to take out what was known as a “second…
Smart About Money: Protecting yourself from data breaches - why bother?
These big data breaches – like the recent Equifax hack – are very frustrating. Especially when they happen to huge companies that you’d…
Smart About Money: Paying for College in 2017 ... What I Learned
Every parent who has kids planning to go to college thinks about the cost. How could you not? When we’re starting to see the $70,000 a year…
Smart About Money: You can't get rich by saving - says who?
A few weeks ago, there was a radio commercial for some sort of money-making opportunity. I don’t remember the company or what they were…