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How To Prepare Your
Kids for Moving Day
Amid the stacks of legal documents waiting to be signed, the stresses of last-minute negotiations, and the unappealing prospect of packing up all your belongings, sometimes the children -- and the feelings they're encountering -- get lost in the shuffle.
As you prepare to move, you'll want to make a concerted effort to ensure your children are in the loop. While they may be going about their normal routine with no visible sign of anxiety, it's there -- or will be there -- once the big day arrives. After all, moving means change -- new friends, a new school, new places to go,
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and a new set of concerns and worries.
There are many things you can do to help your child -- whether you have a 3-year-old or a 16-year-old -- ease the transition.
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Do You Have Valuable Papers?
While there is much talk of a paperless society, the reality is that you do have important papers -- especially if they can't be found. So before the moment of need arises, now is the time to review what you've got and create a checklist of important papers for you and for family, friends, and business associates.
Why should you gather such paperwork together? It will help you when it comes time to buy or sell property, figure taxes, or create wills and estates. It will also allow others to follow your wishes and directives, make their lives far easier, solidify insurance claims, reduce estate taxes, help children better understand your health history -- and theirs, and prevent the needless dissipation of assets that took decades to acquire.
Some 2.5 million people will die in the U.S. during the coming year, according to figures from the National Center for Health Statistics. This is not the world's most-comforting thought, but
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Home Staging Equals
Quick Sale
One of the most important things you can do to help sell your home quickly is to "stage" it. Basically, there are five steps to home staging.
Cleaning
Getting rid of clutter
Depersonalizing
Decorating and accessorizing
Maintaining
Cleaning: When I say, "cleaning" I don't mean your ordinary, weekly house cleaning. I mean a deep cleansing in which every surface, every window, every nook-and-cranny sparkle and shine. Clean windows, ceiling fans, curtains and blinds, carpet -- in short, everything. Eliminate unpleasant pet odors and even consider having someone else care for pets until the house is sold.
Getting Rid of Clutter: You're to be moving anyway so go ahead and start getting rid of the things you'll never need again and box up the things you can live without for a couple of months. Clean out about 50 percent of the things in closets, most of the knickknacks displayed around the home and enough furniture so that rooms look open and inviting. Kitchen and bath counters should be clean and uncluttered. Even the cabinets and drawers should contain only a few items, because prospective buyers will
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Why Lenders Have
So Many Charges
The mortgage lending procedure is, shall we say, not always a walk in the park. If you're a borrower, you likely face such commands as "document this," "apply here," "provide that," and "sign here -- and here and there." Meanwhile, lenders also keep talking about fees -- a fee for this and a fee for that. Lots of fees.
Administration fees.
Document fees.
Application fees.
Processing fees.
Underwriting fees.
Wire fees.
And -- who knows -- maybe "fee fi fo fum" fees.
Fees are a by-product of marketplace realities. A 30-year fixed rate mortgage is, well, just a 30-year fixed rate mortgage and similar loans tend to have similar prices -- especially in an era when borrowers can increasingly
compare
Daily News and Advice
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