Whether you’re seeking your first home or refinancing your existing mortgage loan, the tax landscape for 2018 will bring some changes for homeowners that should give them pause. Despite the passage of a new tax bill late last year, mortgage applications rose sharply...
Have you heard the adage, “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch?” The “free lunch” in the saying refers to the nineteenth-century practice in American bars of offering a “free lunch” in order to entice drinking customers. Those customers ended up paying a lot for...
If you’ve been losing sleep over the past month's stock market volatility as you watch your stock portfolio gyrate, perhaps it is time to consider taking some of those funds and investing in your local community bank. Your savings are Federal Deposit Insurance...
Compound interest is interest paid on interest already earned on a deposit or loan. Think of it as ‘interest on interest’. For those of you who struggle to pay off credit cards, compound interest is likely the culprit. Interest from the prior month is added to the...
Bankers get this question a lot – from customers, investors, and our bank boards. There are seemingly endless experts out there with an opinion based upon their assessment of the latest economic data, world events, and the psychology of the individual Fed governors....