Personal Finance, Real Estate | featured news

A couple of weeks ago, I responded to a couple of questions about paying off your mortgage early. This week, I got the opposite question. Given record low mortgage rates, does it even make sense to ever pay off your mortgage at all?

If you save money by putting cash under your mattress, then inflation does indeed rob you of purchasing power. But if, like most of us, you hold your nest egg in a savings account, a money market fund, real estate, or a 401(k) plan then what you care about is your real rate of return, not the inflation rate per se.

Refinancing can be a great way to save money, but it's not a sure thing. Before you take the plunge, ask yourself these six questions to avoid making a major money mistake.

Since 1974, Americans have had the ability to use IRA assets to buy investment property. Yet the means to do that -- called a self-directed IRA -- remains one of the least known and unheralded investment vehicles in the vast financial marketplace.