Suit of the Week: McQueen
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Sales of note for 1/31/25:
- Ann Taylor – Suiting Event – 30% off suiting + 30% off tops
- Nordstrom – Cashmere on sale; AllSaints, Free People, Nike, Tory Burch, and Vince up to 60%; beauty deals up to 25% off
- Banana Republic Factory – 50% off everything + extra 20 off your $100+ purchase
- Boden – 15% off new season styles
- Eloquii – 60% off 100s of styles
- J.Crew – Up to 40% off winter layers
- J.Crew Factory – 50% off sweaters and pants
- Rothy's – Final Few: Up to 40% off last-chance styles
- Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off
- Talbots – End of season clearance, extra 70% off markdown tops + extra 60% off all other markdowns
And some of our latest threadjacks here at Corporette (reader questions and commentary) — see more here!
Some of our latest threadjacks include:
- My workload is vastly exceeding my capability — what should I do?
- Why is there generational resentment regarding housing? (See also)
- What colors should I wear with a deep green sweater dress?
- How do you celebrate milestone birthdays?
- How do you account for one-time expenses in your monthly budget?
- If I'm just starting to feel sick from the flu, do I want Tamilfu?
I get to give my first appellate argument as a junior associate for a pro bono criminal appeal. I’m very very excited, but still nervous. I’m all set on appearance and demeanor. But, are there any tips you would like to share regarding actual argument/techniques? I have a practice argument for a few partners scheduled a few days before the actual argument. So I will get in at least one real practice.
Exciting!
Practical tips:
-Speak slowly! Every time i appear in superior court I am chastised.
-Arrive early if you can, and set up your materials in court in the manner that makes the most sense to you–if you will have exhibits or transcripts, have them tabbed and accessible.
-Don’t read your argument straight from the page.
-Look at your judge(s); are they nodding? Bored? Are they able to keep up with your submissions as they write, or are they struggling?
-Outline your argument in your opening – Accused A was convicted of [offence] on [date], and sentenced to [x]. We are appealing on [x] grounds, and seeking [x] remedy.
-Be prepared for questions about the facts, the law, and the remedy. Don’t let them throw you off; if you get off-track take a moment to find your place and return.
Good luck!
Thank you! Aside from exhibits/transcripts, do you take an outline with you to the podium? My argument is bound to lean on the intellectual side and there’s a big chance they will ask me something I don’t know (b/c I’m sure that always happens, but this is also not my area of practice). What’s the best way to concede that?
In terms of replying to a question where you really don’t know the answer, have a scripted sentence ready such as “I’m honestly not sure about that at this moment, Your Honor, but I would be happy to address it in a letter to court.” Some states have a provision in the rules of appellate procedure for post-argument letters like this – maybe check that.
Yes. When I practiced appellate law, I always brought up a multiple section folder with a page for each issue. I rarely had to use it but there were a few times a judge wanted a quote or specific citation. I’d only bring up a few pages though.
Other tips: take a breath before answering Ny question and remember that it is better to say you don’t know but that you will file a supplemental pleading than to accidentally concede. Good luck!
I argue in front of my state’s appeals court a lot on criminal cases. You have limited time and you’re going to be interrupted with questions – be prepared for it. Notes are fine but make sure you look up at the judges as much as you can. I would stay away from the above advice to say “accused A was convicted…” They know that already. They have read the transcript and the briefs and they want to jump right into the issues. I always start with “Good morning, may it please the court. MY NAME on behalf of CLIENT’S NAME. I’d like to begin with the Bruton violation in this case…” They will let you know if they want you to address anything specific.
Try to have fun! Because it really can be fun. You don’t have to sound perfect (yesterday the attorney in the case before mine had a coughing fit and the court actually told him to take a minute and drink some water and they added a minute onto his time limit.) They are people too. Be respectful but don’t forget that.
I second the advice to get right to the issues – everyone knows going in what the most disputed area of the case is – start there. Also, just to calm your nerves, you would be shocked at the poor level of arguments I saw in my year as a clerk. The judges have seen it all. Know your case, answer their questions, and be prepared to deal with the weak spots!
If you live if any area where snow is possible, have a backup travel and outfit plan, especially if you need to wear boots to commute. You will have a million things on your mind that AM. You don’t want to add to it by having to rethink what you are going to wear and how you will get to the Court on time despite bad weather traffic delays.
Keep in the back of your mind: always advance your argument. Whatever they ask, answer the question (evasive is bad), but link it to the point that you want made. Somehow that mantra always helps me to focus my impromptu answers.
+1. The best advice I’ve ever gotten about appellate arguments is this: Oral argument is when the judges get a chance to work out whatever issues they are having with your appeal. Answer their questions directly, but always try to do so in a way that links back to the larger points you actually want to make.
This. And also, do not tell the judges that a hypothetical they pose isn’t the fact pattern presented and then expect not to have to answer the question. You can say how the hypothetical differs and why that matters, but you still need to answer the hypothetical. Judges pose those for very specific reasons, and (from my experience clerking) are not pleased when counsel try to evade those questions.
Thank you everyone! This is all very helpful. Hopefully I can get past my nerves and enjoy myself. :-)
PSA for anyone doing a SoFi refinance or anyone that refers people to SoFi. The referral program is changing. Links with the word “friend” in them expire 1/22. That includes the link I used in my guest post. They are no longer paying bonuses via paypal and you have to go to sofi.com to link your bank account instead. That is how you get your new link. You still get your bonus in cash though.
If someone signed up using the old link before 1/22, they will still get the $100 bonus so long as their loan is funded within 60 days. If you are just signing up for the first time though, make sure you are using a new link. You will get no bonus for using an old link after 1/22. Here is my new link for referencee:
https://www.sofi.com/refer/4/8854
If you are using someone else’s, make sure it doesn’t have the word “friend” in it and it is structured like mine. Kat, you may want to update the guest post in case people come upon it from Google.
Is this type of repetitive post really necessary? Perhaps you can have a link to a website where you direct people who are interested in this type of referral. I just don’t really see why you are using Kat’s website to make money for yourself???
Hi. It is not repetitive. The terms of the program changed. I would feel bad if someone was using my link to get a bonus and the link was old and expired and they got no bonus. I’m saying if you want a bonus, make sure you use the correct link.
Prior to this and my guest post I have only posted one other time about SoFi and that was to warn that they were exposing email addresses and I thought it was a privacy issue people would want to know about. SoFi fixed it but before they did, I felt I had a duty to raise the issue since I had previously recommended the company.
You may also be thinking of an unrelated link I posted last week, Capital One, in response to someone that asked for one.
I think you’ve posted other times about it. Personally, I had no idea what the heck you were talking about any of the times, and I missed the guest post. Has anyone asked for this information? It seems really sales-y and spammy.
I think it is useful information. Thanks for the update!
It is really sales-y and spammy. If Blonde Lawyer wanted to update her guest post to avoid the “confusion” (and don’t people know that webpages change and links don’t always work after a period of time???), she could have asked Kat to do so.
I haven’t minded your updates. I think without knowledge of what SoFi is, or even a quick read of your updates, it’s not clear you’re talking about bonuses that *I* would get when following your link. Only that you are referencing a bonus *you* would get (which I’m sure you do and I have no problem with). But you might be able to see how that comes off “sales-y” if it appears you’re updating your links for your own bonuses.
Bottom line, if you don’t want to read about SoFi updates, maybe just don’t read them?
It is repetitive. Youve posted about it a ton it seems- you copy and pasted your warning about the referral 3 or 4 times and have responded whenever someone is talking about so fi to link back to your post. I have to agree that I feel like you should send this info directly to Kat if you want your stuff updated.
Replied below.
Without having knowledge of or interest in SoFi, I didn’t think Blonde Lawyer’s post came off as repetitive or sales-y at all.
She posts often on many topics of interest and gives good advice, and this is just a post or two in the grand scheme of things – frankly, I hadn’t read the guest post and this comment is easily skipped over.
Agree – I skip over the place-specific comments which don’t apply to me, why shouldn’t I also skip over SoFi which also doesn’t? I read it as a PSA rather than a sales post.
I think a separate site would be helpful so people who miss this post don’t miss out on the SOFI deal. Don’t some guest posts include a link to the poster’s blog?
Thanks for the feedback. I’ll refrain from posting about SoFi again unless someone specifically asks for a link. I’ll look into creating a separate page with the info somewhere that I can link from my screen name.
I considered emailing Kat to update the guest post. My concern was everyone that already read it wouldn’t likely be going back there. If they had bookmarked the link or used the link to sign up but not yet apply I was worried it wouldn’t work right.
I totally get why it seems spammy. Carry on.
Thanks for thinking of folks :)
I’ve seen her post multiple times about her referral link and I don’t read every post. I will say it’s irritating because I posted about common bond and my post with my referral link was deleted. Why does she get to post referral links but I do not? *flounces off*
Having redone my budget recently, I have a discussion for the hive
Do you consider yourself financially literate? Financially savvy? How did you get there? Did your parents teach you about money, or did you learn otherwise? Are you better than your parents with your money? What constitutes being “good with money”?
My parents didn’t teach me, I just kind of learned. Suze Orman’s book Young, broke, and Fabulous was a great starter for me, helpimg me figure out how to handle a 401K and other retirement accounts, what the heck PMI is, credit scores, etc.. If you are money-clueless, it’s a great place to start.
I also read a lot of blogs. Donna Freedman runs a great one for those into frugal living, and Get Rich Slowly is great for people at every stage of their finance journey.
For me, good with money means contributing a solid amount to retirement, no debt (or paying off “good” debt like a student loan or a mortgage), living within your means, and building solid savings to a good emergency fund.
I think you could take a bucket approach to the idea of being good with money. Something like:
Bucket 0: Tracking spending/using a budget
Bucket 1: Spending less than you earn and saving the difference
Bucket 2: Have a small emergency fund; contributing to retirement
Bucket 3: Have a longer-term emergency fund (6-12 months’ living expenses), fully fund retirement savings, have additional savings (down payment, travel, kids college, etc)
Bucket 4: Major investments in assets (house equity, stocks, partnership, business)
Bucket 5: Able to live off investments without working.
I didn’t realize until college that we were poor growing up – for instance, my parents used coupons and took us to free events because it was the only way we could get by, at least when I was very young. I hated being the kid whose parents packed a cooler to eat lunch at the amusement park, but it instilled a lot of good habits that I understand now. It also helped me appreciate how much they saved and sacrificed on the day-to-day things to focus on the big ones (college).
When I was 22 and in my first job I immediately started contributing to my retirement – long before I did things like tracking my spending or having a retirement fund. I didn’t do things like budget then – I just spent the money I had until I had no more money – so I definitely would’ve spent it on beer if I hadn’t automatically contributed to retirement before I even got my paycheck.
I’m in buckets 4-5. I could live off my returns, but I don’t, obviously. I’d consider myself financially savvy. I’m in my mid 20s and grew up below the poverty line, so my parents were very frugal but I learned investing and all that myself. I basically take whatever I don’t spend on basic living expenses (food, gas, mortgage) and invest it, so I don’t really budget per se. I mostly pick stocks (other than real estate); I don’t have anything in bonds/index funds etc. It’s definitely more risk than most want to incur, although I’d say most of my portfolio consists of fairly conservative stocks.
Having to pack lunch to go to an amusement park is not poor. Maybe it’s lower middle class, but the poor aren’t spending their money on amusement partks. They are spendign their limited money on food, rent, and other essentials
+1 I had the same thought.
Also, when you have money you get to choose what to spend it on, and even the richest people might not want to spend their money on overpriced bad for you amusement park food when you can pack a cooler of caviar and champagne, or whatever.
I would say that I am moderately financially literate. Not savvy. I know the difference between stocks and bonds, how index funds, ETFs and mutual funds work, how to use debt responsibly, and some insurance basics.
I could be more knowledgable about insurance, complicated investments (options, futures, currencies, etc.), budgeting, and tax.
I learned a lot by taking an adult Ed course on personal finance and doing online research on my own. I don’t follow any one particular philosophy except for being frugal, watching my expenses, hitting my bonus levels at work, maxing out my HSA and 401k, and investing in index funds.
I am so much more financially literate than my parents. One grandparent is a financial whiz but I didnt know that until I started investing. My father was way too conservative in his investments and it is hurting him. My mother knew next to nothing about money but I am trying to help her prepare for retirement by setting her up with a target date fund and being a sounding board for her when she needs to make a financial decision.
Being good with money is simply not spending more than you make. I know way too many people who have way too much stupid debt.
I’m between buckets 2 and 3, although a lot of that can be attributed to living in a HCOL area. My parents were extremely frugal and financially responsible, which I’ve learned, but not particularly savvy, and I’d like to learn more and actually make my money work for me. Do you have any recommendations for online sites or books or courses?
I kind of poke around the Internet. I like Mr Money Moustache for the reminder to stay frugal (but I think he is extreme), JL Collins has a series of posts on stocks that is really good, Get Rich Slowly is helpful, and I obsess over real estate on Redfin. I read a lot of the articles on Vanguard and search the Bogleheads discussion boards when I have specific questions.
The course I took was offered by the public schools system in my community. I imagine similar courses are available at community centers too.
There are some great podcasts that have a lot more in-depth information than a typical finance article from Yahoo Finance or whatever. I enjoy the Morningstar podcast and the Motley Fool is interesting too. I can access Morningstar data for free through my Charles Schwab account. I subscribe to their newsletters, which can be solid resources as well. I wouldn’t consider myself an expert, but I think those can be great starting points.
Please rethink setting your mom up with a target date account. For people close to retirement age, those funds are heavily weighted toward bonds, and given the current interest rates, it is way risky to have a significant portion of your retirement in bonds. (The fees also tend to be outrageous.)
I agree, my own allocation is light on bonds for this reason and I am hesitant to even increase it to what it probably should be at. But the Vanguard target date fund was better than the fund that money was in, and she was super spooked about buying into the stock market. This isn’t her primary savings so I wasn’t going to push her too hard.
Somewhat financially literate but not even remotely savvy. I do the basics well, but even various retirement options confuse me.
I’m MUCH better with money than my parents. My parents fought tooth and nail to give us a lower-middle class (but middle class!) upbringing, so really they had no money to invest or even put into a CD, so it was a moot point for them. Why consider the pros/cons of pre vs post-tax retirement funds when the realistic scope of “financial planning” is paying bills on payday so the remainder can buy groceries and paying for big purchases with lowest interest rate possible.
I didn’t learn anything from my parents other than cautionary tales. “Advanced” topics I’ve learned from a mix of one particular ex-boyfriend who run an investment fund, financial planners (independent and employer-related), personal research, and misc articles that cross my path. And, well, trial and error.
One of my goals this year is to just get our family’s finances straight. We are just beyond paycheck-to-paycheck, so we need to take a good look at our spending and really begin to save.
I have no idea how literate my parents were when I was growing up, but I feel like I have just totally failed the “fiscal responsibility” portion of adulthood. I personally do not have any debt (hubs has student loans, and I don’t really consider a mortgage debt), but I also have no savings either. I have only my employer-contribution retirement system (a state system, in a state that’s doing pretty well), but that’s it. Using the above bucket list, I (and our family) would be somewhere in the 0-2, but more like 0-1.
But, it’s abysmal, and sad and it makes me anxious and overwhelmed.
My parents were conservative with money (but savy). I read The Westing Game in grade school and really got into personal finance (so I bought bonds with my babysitting money). I was also good at math (but in the Algebra II sense of math).
I like the buckets idea – I’m between 2 and 3. I save a not insignificant portion but if I could cut down on the shopping, I could probably save considerably more.
I don’t know if I’m better or worse than my parents but I know that I’m better off financially than they were, so I probably don’t have to make a lot of the tough decisions they did.
I’m in bucket 3 but for the maxed out 401ks. We’re saving hard for a down payment, so we are just shy of maxing, but that’s honestly ok for us right now.
I think I’m better than my parents at my age as far as money in the bank, but about the same education level. My dad is excellent at this stuff, and I know I got so much of it from him. Honestly… I wish I appreciated this better when I was younger, but at 30 I’m so thankful.
I will say I have no idea what to do with my “savings” outside of my 401k. For example, we have these nearly maxed 401ks, $75k in savings (75% of which will go to a down payment shortly), and no debt. After the down payment and maxing out 401ks, do we just continue to collect cash in this account? Do we invest it with a safe interest-bearing account at Schwab/Fidelity/place of choice? I have no benchmark for how much cash-on-hand we should have, and then what to do when that pile gets big. Not a bad problem to have I suppose, but I’m totally clueless what to do after I’ve “done what I’m supposed to”.
This is me. I feel like I’m very smart about budgeting, saving, and living frugally. But I have no knowledge of how to invest “smart” beyond my 401K and building equity in a house. I’d like to learn, but it seems intimidating.
After you max out 401(k)s, I would stick everything in an index account at Vanguard/Schwab/Fidelity. If you want to get fancy, you can break it down into large cap/small cap/global, but whatever the “regular” index fund is should be fine for a while.
Keep in mind that after you buy a place, you will also have home-related expenses crop up, so there might not be as much extra as you think. :)
I’m in same boat as you, post house purchase. We saved up a ton of money for the down payment, and now have money coming in that doesn’t really have a “job”. We have a bunch of stock in my husband’s company that I would like to put in an index fund, but beyond that, all of the stock stuff is beyond me.
On the other hand, I’m very thankful to my parents for keeping me in the loop about general financial matters growing up. My dad always stressed the importance of a 401k, and saving everything you can before you have lots of expenses. I have friends who don’t put any money in their company provided 401k with a good match, which makes me want to explain to them that it is free money.
I would say both. I handle some investment stuff for work and my DH is super financially savvy on asset allocation, etc. We are in bucket 3.
My parents were also good with money and helped me to grow up frugal, but they were NOT transparent at all with us knowing whether we were well off or poor. So much so that when I applied to college I had to ask whether I needed to apply for financial aid or not! So I don’t really recommend going to that extreme. We also didn’t get allowances at all growing up, so the default was no-you-can’t-have-X. I am planning to give the kids allowances so they can have more practice with their own $$ growing up than I did!
I think allowances are a great idea.
My parents didn’t have a lot of money, but they were pretty aware of financial issues and interested in investing even though they’ve never undertaken anything with high risk.
They put me on a credit card while I was still at home so while they were cosigners and monitored the usage, I could practice having one and paying it off every month (which is what they also modelled) with my own allowance and money I earned from tutoring and once I was old enough, actually working after school (remember blockbuster?).
Currently at 3.
My parents did this too, which has also helped me build a credit history. Endlessly thankful for it.
I’m financially savvy. I know what to do, even though I don’t always do everything right. I’m currently in Bucket 3, as for various personal reasons I’m not ready to commit to home ownership. I learned a ton from my parents (an accountant and an investment banker, both with MBA’s) as well as from my undergrad finance degree. As an example, my parents made us create a budget for each semester when we were in school that included everything from textbooks to food, which was excellent practice for when we were completely on our own.
I would say that my parents are better than me with money, but they also married fresh out of college and had the benefit of dual incomes pretty much their entire adult lives. They also went directly to grad school, so they had an earlier start on their careers and definitely made more than I do at my age. Being good with money is being able to live a good life without compromising your future needs and wants.
We are working on bucket 3. I would say I’m more financially savy then my parents were at my age, but that’s because my husband and I are just plain frugal. I have loans, but we have 6-12 months of emergency expenses and we both contribute to retirement well (I can’t max out 401K–paycheck just isn’t high enough). I think I got there through reading things online and budgeting out of necessity because my loan payments are high and I live in a HCOL area. My husband was raised with frugal parents so that’s been instilled in him.
I’d say I’m in between Buckets 3 and 4. I don’t know that I’m savvy but I’m definitely literate. My parents modeled responsible financial behavior which combined with them paying for college and me always managing to be fully employed in jobs with good pay and benefits, living within my means has never been an issue. I’d say I’m a bit too dependent on my father when it comes to selecting the investments but otherwise I do it all myself.
Definitely still in bucket 1 but working on it.
I don’t like these buckets. I’m halfway in like 5 of them, and I definitely plan to buy property before my retirement is “fully funded.”
True. I don’t feel like I can say I am in 2 until I’ve mastered 1, but that’s not 100% accurate.
and skinny pants — I am so over these
and don’t even get me started on leggings
These particular pants are horrible. I like slim pants but cropped and high-waisted looks awful.
I would look terrible in pants this skinny. Might be ok as weekend pants/jeans for me but not for work.
I lurve ankle pants (for work). And don’t even get me started on skinny pants and leggings (for casual).
Interested in individual experiences. I know this is a question of personal comfort, but I’m really curious: when you bought a house/condo, how much did you put on a down payment versus leave in your savings?
Currently talking through our options with DH: stretch to hit the 20% down payment threshold and deplete liquid savings to $20k or less, or settle at 10% down payment, take the PMI hit on our monthly payments, and keep more cushion in the bank. We are in a very high cost of living area.
$20k is plenty of savings. Don’t pick the PMI unless the interest is less than that extra $10k would make for you in your account.
Disagree on 20K being plenty. I would hesitate to buy a house if it left me without 3 months (ideally 6) of cash in the bank. If you can buy with 10% down, buy with 10% down.
Where I work, a bunch of people got canned yesterday with no notice and no hint that layoffs were coming. Bad for them and has me rexamining my comfort levels and running doomsday scenarios.
Bottom line: if your #s work under rosy scenarios, they don’t really work. You can always pay your mortgage off faster and get out of PMI faster, but I think it’s better to pay for extra liquidity b/c you never know your exposure when you’re buying a house, regardless of how thorough the inspection is.
In running your doomsday scenarios though, it might help to keep this in mind for true worst case. If you are renting, in most states you can get evicted after 1 month of missed rent. If you own, it tends to take 6 months to a year to get foreclosed on. In some cases the banks take years to follow through if you are keeping up the home. You at least have a roof over your head while you find a new job and save first and last months rent before you are tossed on the street.
I think it depends. If there are two working adults, the chances of both getting laid off at the same time are less, plus the op said that was their liquid savings, implying that there were others. $20k is enough to deal with a few disasters like needing a new roof, and maybe for 3 months of living expenses depending on what your mortgage is, but maybe not enough for 6. To me it’s a reasonable amount of risk, but some people are more risk-averse. I guess the question is whether or not having that money sitting in an account and available for peace of mind is worth paying an extra $10-20k in PMI, or whatever the op’s PMI would be.
Wait, am I missing something? Using Anon@3:49’s 3-month standard, $20k seems plenty. $20k over 3 months is equivalent to $80k combined income per year, which would correspond to a solidly middle class standard of living (well above the U.S. median household income, actually, though I don’t know where you are/cost of living).
I understand that two lawyers (or similarly compensated positions) would normally make a lot more than that, but in the unlikely event both spouses were laid off at once I assume they’d exercise frugality. I don’t know your situation, and I apologize if this comes off as horribly insensitive if you have an expensive medical condition or something. But just wanted to point out that $20k for a couple over 3, 4 or even 5 months (depending on location) often corresponds to a middle-class lifestyle, so no, I don’t think it’s an unreasonably small cushion.
I have never bought a house, though, so take everything I say with a grain of salt! :)
Agreed. I would consider 20K more than enough for three months of living expenses! Probably more like 6 months or more.
Stretch for 20%. PMI is the devil and you’ll be glad for the lower monthly payments. Like Anon said above, 20K in savings is plenty.
This is what I did. And, depending on what type of loan you have, it’s not that easy to stop the PMI requriement. But I felt decently secure in my job and know that I could be able to re-build my emergency fund in a few months with bonus.
I stretched for the 20% downpayment. I wanted to avoid PMI an getting stuck with a high interest rate, and it made my offer that much more competitive relative to other buyers without 20%.
Good luck!
5% with lender paid PMI
They do this?! Where? What bank? Speak! :)
https://www.rmsmortgage.com/
I don’t know what the loan type was called though.
I did no down payment with no PMI through an 80/20 loan back in 2003. I wonder when Anon for this purchased?
November 2012. Interest rate 3.875%. Principal balance of loan was $257,000. I didn’t know these existed either until we asked RMS what our options were.
I’m glad to hear they still do.
Ok – apparently this is a thing I was entirely ignorant to… thanks for enlightening me!
Be careful with this though, because it usually means that you get a slightly higher interest payment. It’s not really fully lender paid, because you’re paying a higher interest rate than you would have qualified for. A higher interest rate for the life of your loan might work out to paying more than you would have in PMI. Depends on your numbers, of course.
You know, a lot of banks will require you to have a certain %age of the purchase price liquid at closing. If you are in a high COL area, $20k may not be enough. Check with your banker.
I am about to purchase real estate at the end of this month. Putting down $250K and will have around $250K sitting in savings ($100K of that in a 401K). Many would say that is conservative but I dread the thought of having so little in the bank. I’m on the West Coast and a major earthquake could cause enough damage to wipe out all of that savings (yes you can buy earthquake insurance but generally the high deductible means that you are only insured for a truly catastrophic loss…I’m talking about a 20-25% deductible).
I’d likely still stretch to avoid PMI in your situation if your lender will allow it — but aggressively cut back and save post-closing. Don’t be tempted to buy all the furniture, etc., until you have a better cash cushion.
Related question—we can get a VA loan and have no PMI up to $400k loan. How much should we put down when we aren’t required to put a lot down? My husband would rather keep things in liquid savings, but I’m the type who would rather put more down and have a lower monthly payment (and more equity in the house….). We’re in the DC are so the housing market is *fairly* insulated but you never know. But the issue is that 20% down for houses in our area can be $75,000….
There are financial planners who specialize in military families/military benefits.
It depends what your interest rate for the loan is, honestly. If you have a low rate, I’m not sure that there’s a benefit to putting money toward your loan vs putting it in an Index fund or making investments that would generate a higher rate of return. So, if you have $10k, you can either use it to offset 3% on your mortgage or maybe make 5% elsewhere. Make sense?
This is a personal judgment call. The only criteria is really how well you sleep at night. I am not married but could you and your husband find some middle ground where you put enough down that you sleep at night but not so much that he can’t?
We also have a VA Loan. We put around 5% down in order to have cash on hand for some renovations. When you purchase home with a VA mortgage, you’ll have to pay a funding fee which is a percentage of the amount you borrow. If you put nothing down, you pay a 2.15% funding fee, between 5 and 10% it’s 1.5% and greater than 10% it’s 1.25%.
For us, it made sense to make sure we hit the 5% threshold, but it didn’t make sense to jump all the way up to putting 10% down but having to hold off on our renos.
Here’s a chart with more info about the funding fee.
http://www.benefits.va.gov/homeloans/documents/docs/funding_fee_table.pdf
We put 0 down because our mortgage payment, including tax, insurance, interest, was still less than renting, and we wanted to have that cushion in case something unexpected came up once we owned the house. However, we didn’t have to pay the funding fee Clementine mentions because of my spouse’s rating; if we had, we would have put 5% down. We did end up going through a lot of the cushion, even without any “big” expenses (just moving + little things getting settled in) so I’m glad we didn’t have to put anything down. Find out whether you’ll need to pay the funding fee and balance that against how much you’ll have for unexpected house expenses if you put down 5 or 10%.
ETA: 5% and even 10% was virtually negligible to our monthly mortgage payment because of property taxes where we live, so that was not a factor for us. YMMV.
When I bought my house in the summer, Wells Fargo had a program where you could put 10% down and avoid PMI if you had a lot of cash on hand after closing. And by “a lot of cash” I mean something like one year’s worth of payments on the new mortgage. And they would count 104(K) balances towards that amount. Seems like you might want to see whether that program is still available.
We didn’t put down 20% of the total price, but avoided PMI with a loan/equity line combo. Like you, we didn’t want that cash-depleting stretch. Ask your lender if a piggyback loan is a possibility.
I will have very little savings left once the process goes through, but I’m lucky enough that my parents have essentially offered to be my emergency fund for the next few years. I plan to buy at 24/25, so fairly young. They know that for me having security in terms of living in one place (UK rental terms and conditions are fairly unstable) is incredibly important and are helping me to achieve that.
It’s so interesting how this differs from one country to another – I have an Austrian friend whose parents gave him and all his siblings significant financial support to help them buy for just that reasons. The market was so unstable that it was difficult to plan financially for the long term because rent could swing so much.
It’s also that my parents live in a super-expensive area, so I can’t just ‘move back near home’ if things don’t work out. (There’s a whole cliche of people moving to London/ to the South, finding it expensive, and eventually moving back home where it’s cheaper – where I grew up that’s not possible as the houseprice/earnings ratio is over 20!).
Having access to an employee mortgage deal certainly helps too!
Has anyone booked vacations with sites like Luxury Link or Vacationist?
I don’t know, looks very 80’s to me.
I know Kat loves this color, but to me, it looks super, super dated.
I love this color too, but in moderation-like a pretty silk shirt. The ensemble echos the child who turns into a blueberry in Willy Wonka.
I agree it looks horrendously dated as styled. I do love the pieces but would never in a million billion years wear them together.