>>>
this morning on "today's money 911" our panel is here to answer your questions.
sharon epperson
is cnbc's personal financial correspondent,
david bach
is author of "debt free for life" and carmen ulrich is author of "the real
cost of living
." good morning.
>>
good morning.
>>
we're starting off with the skype. serena from arizona is on the line. good morning. what's your question?
>>
good morning. my question is i am 23 years old, fwrgraduating with my master's degree. i want to purchase a condo, but i don't know where to start being a first-time buyer.
>>
how does she save for the first purchase?
>>
it's tough to do. at 23 it's great she's thinking of buying her own home. now worry about having 20% of the purchase price of the house, condo or
whatever you want
to buy. if you don't, you need to keep saving. one of the things you could do perhaps is get a government-backed loan, an
fha loan
which takes 3.5% but then you have to pay
private mortgage insurance
. those fees continue to go up. so pretend you have the condo or the house already. start making payments into a
savings account
for condo fees or mortgage fees and insurance and utilities. everything that you will need to spend on a house. put it in a
savings account
. start building up for the down payment and you will be in great shape for when you want to actually purchase it.
>>
pay all the bills on time.
>>
good
credit rating
. good luck. donna from brooklyn calling in. good morning. what's your question?
>>
good morning. my question is how do i know which company to trust when purchasing
life insurance
? i'm a new mom with a 9-month-old daughter. i decided i need to buy
life insurance
just in case something happens. now with the financial debacle i know that companies nowadays can collapse. i don't want my investment in the
life insurance
company to in the future not be able to pay the money.
>>
all right. let's get carmen here to answer for you. very cute
little girl
.
>>
donna, this is ap great question. first of all you need
life insurance
asap. once the child is here you can't waste a day. she brings up a good point. when you sign a term or whole
life insurance
policy you're in a relationship for 20, 30, 40 years with a business. try to do all that you can do to make sure the business is sound. look at the credit ratings. with aig and all that happened it's hard. no guarantees but go to iii.org. this is the
insurance information institute
. there they have three links to the credit ratings that you want to look up. don't go with a
credit rating
the company gives you. it may not be up to date. may not be the most recent. of course they want to give you a certain rating. but check yourself. that's your responsibility. also look for the insurance management standards association seal of approval. this is an ethics code some companies have to get. this is a great standard. go to imsaethics.org to look for the seal. do what you can to be with the best company you can.
>>
now, let's go to an e-mail. we are talking about
student loans
from robin in new
york city
. i have a large amount of
student loans
, one of which is in collection for $15,000. i received some money from a grandfather who passed away. i don't know if it's better to pay off the loan or save for a down payment on a home.
>>
everybody thinks having the home, the
american dream
. this woman has
student loans
in default. she needs to focus on that first. that's the top priority. if they are federal loans one thing she can do to get them off her
credit history
is pay over the nine to ten months the full monthly fa lly payment. she may be able to get it off her
credit history
.
>>
so use a chunk to pay off the loan?
>>
there may be other debts to pay off. try to get her credit in a better situation. finaide.org is a great place to go for more information.
>>
my husband and i have been told by friends we should do a
reverse mortgage
on our homes. we could use money for repairs on the house. i have heard bad things about them. the house is probably worth $115,000. we owe just over $46,000.
>>
first of all, nobody does a
reverse mortgage
to fix their home. that's presuming you're over age 62 and you need income. basically you are getting money back from the bank but you are losing the equity in your home
over time
. it's the wrong thing for you. even if you want to do
reverse mortgage
, go to reversemortgage.org or hud.gov. you have to take a course before you are approved. you can get a
home equity loan
or maybe
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