US College Loans Tool

US College Loans Tool

In the US today, President Obama’s office promoted a new online tool to help college students understand a raft of financial information that will likely be of interest to them. The tool advises students on student loans, costs for study and how much they might be able to earn when they graduate. You can find the…

“Dirty” Loans?

“Dirty” Loans?

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has declared that although seen historically as “dirty”, equity release loans are likely to become a “normal” component in the financial planning of the over 55s. In many cases where property is owned (or at least mortgaged), the over 55s can have a significant asset (their home) but be cash poor….

Homemakers & Retirement

Homemakers & Retirement

A report published by AEGON proposes that homemakers need to buck up their ideas in terms of retirement planning. AEGON’s Retirement Readiness Survey 2015 (titled “Homemakers Are Not Off the Hook How Should They Be Planning for Retirement?”) found that homemakers are in a potentially worse fix than workers, since approximately 67% of them received a…

Women’s Start Up Loans

Women’s Start Up Loans

The UK “Start Up Loans” program, a scheme backed by the British Government, appears to be drawing more successful female applicants than other more traditional business start-up loans. According to the UK Office for National Statistics, 37% of all successful applicants for the Government backed scheme are female compared to 18% for other similar loans schemes. Furthermore, in the first…

Chase Jumbo Loans Changes

Chase Jumbo Loans Changes

Chase announced in early August that it was making its jumbo loan product more simple and also lowering the requirements for FICO and downpayment. What this means in real terms today is that buyers with a FICO of 680 or above (previously a minimum of 740) seeking finance to acquire a single-family property can downpayment…

Financial Freedom & Social Imbalance

Financial Freedom & Social Imbalance

Markus Persson, the creator of the the Minecraft gaming sensation who sold his game to Microsoft for a reported $2.5 billion last year, has declared in a Tweet that although wealthy beyond his wildest dreams, he feels isolated because his wealth has created a situation where “human interaction becomes impossible due to imbalance”.