Journal Club 7-30-21

Here's Journal Club 7/30/21! Every week, I hold a JOURNAL CLUB. After filtering through the articles on the web, I present a few that impacted my life this week. Be safe and stay well!

• If you're a homeowner, you probably know there's so much that goes into it. The process of buying a home comes with a mixed bag of feelings; excitement, confusion, stress, all at the same time. Moreover, thinking about saving money for closing costs can be overwhelming, to say the least. But did you know many of the lending terms are negotiable so that you can better utilize your hard-earned money instead of throwing it away at closing? Interested in finding out how you can save thousands of dollars at closing? Check out this article, How to save $8,000 in closing costs when buying a home by Love Success and the Sock Drawer. 

• If you often find yourself debating whether it is wiser to rent or buy, then let me tell you that you're not alone. Knight Kiplinger of Kiplinger's Personal Finance once said, “It often costs less to rent. The annual cost of owning a property, be it a house or a condo, is usually greater than the cost of renting, after taxes.” In the article, Is it better to rent or buy?, J.D. Roth, the author of Get Rich Slowly, evaluates the decision of buying or renting from a financial perspective.

• Whenever you're about to buy something big, do you feel a bit anxious and wonder if it's going on sale anytime soon? Well, it's a natural feeling and even more common when buying a house or any property for that matter. It's significantly harder to speculate when the housing bubble is about to pop or predict a market crash. Don't worry, the author of Five Year Fire Escape has a process of dealing with the housing market's ups and downs and can teach you a thing or two to stop stressing about the market. Read the article, Are we headed for a housing market crash? to understand the past and future market trends. 

• Is the concern of saving too much for a college stopping you from opening a 529 plan? Let's face it; it's no easy task to predict what your kids' college expenses would be like a decade or more in the future. But that's where the college compact comes into play. The author of Chief Mom Officer talks about the benefits of opening a 529 for your kids' college education and discusses legitimate ways to avoid paying penalties or taxes on the unused money in the article, Saving Too Much For College in a 529 – Now What?

That’s all, folks. I hope you enjoyed this week’s journal club. 

Read anything interesting this week? Please feel free to share them in the comments below!

Thank you for reading and sharing!

Peter