Although the real estate market here in eastern Massachusetts has generally held up better than in other parts of the country, there are still plenty of people who are struggling with mortgages and many who are underwater on their loans — meaning they owe more than they could currently hope to sell their home for. […]
Media reports tend to highlight the tragic reasons why people run through their life savings, usually involving a catastrophic accident or other sadly life-changing event. Bankers know that those cases are extremely rare. Most of the people we see who have money trouble actually have a much more common problem. Specifically, they spend too much. […]
How come everyone else can refinance … and you can’t? If you read the news reports or listen to ads, you might think that every homeowner in the entire United States has recently refinanced into a mortgage rate so low that it practically amounts to a complete giveaway. That idea is making a lot of […]
A customer was buying a new car, and she could either take a zero percent loan from the dealer for 72 months or get a $9,000 rebate on the purchase price. She didn’t know how to make up her mind as to which would be the better deal for her, and actually called her bank […]
A married couple came to see me at the bank. They were deeply concerned about the wife’s father, a beloved and very proud gentleman who was spending about $2,500 a month responding to direct mail requests from charities both well-known and completely obscure. He could afford the donations and seemed to enjoy making them. But […]
