Asset Planning, Inc Blog

The government just announced another mortgage refinance program in hopes to aid underwater homeowners. The new program is called The FHA Short Refinance Option and it allows borrowers to refinance up to 97.75% of their home's value. However, a borrower's current lender must be willing to write down at least 10% of the current principal balance and the total mortgage debt on the property can not exceed 115% of the home's value.

A borrower must meet the below criteria to qualify:

• Be current on payments for their underwater mortgage
• Refinance their primary residence
• Have a mortgage debt-to-income ratio of less than 31 percent
• Have a total debt-to-income ratio of less than 50 percent after the refinance
• Have a credit score of at least 500

For more information on the program please vist the HUD website.

The website to search for your unclaimed property was incorrect in the last post. The correct web site is:
www.sco.ca.gov

Yesterday, I attended the Orange County Financial Planning meeting. The California State Controller - John Chiang, spoke to us about being controller of a state that is operating in a deficit.  Once a balanced budget is passed, he is fairly confident that the state can pay its bills for the next 2 years.  He is most concerned about 2012, because that is when the stimulus money is over and the temporary tax hikes expire.  He recently set-up a website that shows what he can and cannot pay without an enacted budget.  Here is the website:
www.sco.ca.gov/august_2010_payments.html

He also talked about the unclaimed property program that is run by his office.  They have a system in which you can type in your name and they list all the money that is sitting unclaimed for you.  There are forms that you have to complete and send in.  I found $27.44 owed to me!  This is from an old refinance I did a long time ago. The web site is www.sco.ca.gov.  Look under the Featured Links Column and click on "Search for Unclaimed Property" and then click on "Start Your Search" .  Good Luck! 

Just to let everyone know I successfully completed my half Ironman Triathlon race on July 31st. It is also called a 70.3 race, since I traveled 70.3 miles while swimming, biking and running, all back to back.

The race was held in the Santa Rosa or Northern California area. The swim of 1.2 miles was in the Russian River in Guerneville. We began the 56 mile bike portion of the race there, as we exited the water. We rode through the vineyards and extremely beautiful rolling hills, passing dozens of wineries. The course passed through the towns of Heraldsberg and Geyserville, before ending the bike portion in the town of Windsor. There were two significant hills on the course that made all my miles of bike training pay off. I was able to ride up the entire Chalk Hill, passing men and women who were walking their bikes up the steep grade.

From the town of Windsor, the 13.1 run portion began and ended. The run course went through the very hot and dry area where the temperatures were in the high 90's. I had set a goal of finishing within 8 to 9 hours, depending on the heat. I finished the race with one minute to spare, in 8 hours and 59 minutes!

It was an amazing journey to set a fitness goal this big and accomplish it. This took many months of training, sometimes six days a week of workouts. Now I can enjoy my summer!

Dream Big!

Sandy

The CoreLogic delinquent home borrower report released last week shows that late payments have increased from last year by 2.6% in Orange County and 3.15% across California.

The report can be found on the The Orange County Register website. 

Asset Planning, once again, is ranked among the top wealth managers in the country. We would like to say thank you to all of our clients that make this honor possible. To view and find out more about the ranking please visit Wealth Manager Magazine.

Below is a an excerpt from a Marketwatch article  that details the BP shares owned by state pension.  BP is coming under political pressure to cut it's dividend even though the company has the financial means to keep paying it.  The shortfall in funding of state pensions has been much publicized over the past few years. We can expect the states will fight back to preserve BP's dividend and share value.

• The New Jersey Division of Investment (51 million shares)

• The California Public Employees Retirement System (36 million shares)

• The Pennsylvania Public School Employees Retirement System (7.1 million shares)

• The Teachers Retirement System of Alabama (4.5 million shares)

• The Employees Retirement System of Texas (4.1 million shares)

• The Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (1.1 million shares)

• The Illinois State Board of Investment (1.1 million shares)

• The Indiana Public Employees' Retirement Fund (0.7 million shares)

• The Washington State Investment Board (1.2 million shares)

Of special note, the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund holds 21.9 million shares of BP.

Tomorrow - Friday, June 10, the SEC will implement new circuit breaker rules on all US stock exchanges.

This is what the circuit breaker does: when a stock in the S&P 500 drops 10% in a 5 minute period, there will be a 5 minute trading halt across all exchange platforms for that stock. The new rules are aimed at preventing a repeat of the May 6 "flash crash" in which the Dow Jones industrials lost 1,000 points in less than a half hour.

This is a pilot program for 6 months. For some reason ETFs are not included in this test. I am hopeful that they will be included soon, because an ETF is traded just like a stock and should come under the same rules.

For those of you that didn't catch last Sunday's paper, Sandy was the featured planner in the Money Makeover article. This time, she helped a young couple that was spending quickly through a large inheritance develop a budget and preserve what's left of their windfall.

Click here to read the full article. 

I just saw this article called Track Your Meds Better wtih This Little Trick by Real Age

When you take a daily pill, it can be tough to remember if you're on schedule or thinking of yesterday's dose. So use this little trick to jog your memory.

Be original. Each time you take your pill, do something different. One day, pat the top of your head. Another day, knock on the doorframe. Next time, do a slow twirl afterward. Adding a complex or unusual action helps people remember a routine task.

Enhance Your Memory
Unfortunately, your tendency to forget routine things gets worse as you get older. Pairing a quirky action with a routine task makes it more memorable because the action requires you to pay extra attention to what you're doing. Another easy tactic: Get a day-of-the-week pill dispenser. A little organization may be all you need to avoid missing or doubling up on doses.

I guess I will be twirling around in the morning now.