Parchayi.com – Personal Finance Simplified

Finally Parchayi.com is entering the modern age. With this new theme, I’m hoping things are easier to read, even though they are not as colorful Also now that this theme supports tags (yes the previous one didn’t!!), I’ll be using Tags a lot more often.

Looks like I’m Posting a lot about Microsoft lately. Miscrosoft missed analyst estimates and revenues were down 17% and earnings down more than 1.2 billion$ (yes that is billion) as compared to last year.

Maybe Vista is to blame, maybe the bad economy though Intel’s results would indicate otherwise. Every few weeks I hear about something new from Google. I just got invited to Google Voice and recently discovered Google Wave. The only thing new and exciting I’ve heard from MS in the online front is Bing. I did make a post a few weeks back criticizing Microsoft but they did one good thing. Released the Win 7 beta for everyone to try and also establish that it really is not as bad as Vista.

In related news, Amazon posted bad results too. MSFT + AMZN both posting bad results is driving the markets down today but the Dow is still over 9000. A few more bad earnings and we might fall below 9000 once again. A few more good earning and we might stay above for a few months.

If you are looking at investing in one of Amazon or Microsoft after they fall today, my pick would be Amazon.

Intel and Google, both companies that I own stock in, both recently reporting. Intel reported spectacular results on Tuesday (as compared to analyst estimates and the previous quarter, still below last years results). Intel also upped it’s guidance. Positive news from Intel lifted the market up.

Google was the next to report and even though Google made it’s biggest profit ever, growth was the slowest ever. Google also had some fewer employees than last year. Also Google’s profit was more a result of shaving off expenses and not from increasing revenues. This was a disappointment that dragged Google stock slightly lower.

Apple (I own and the stock is finally approaching my average buying price), Microsoft (don’t own) report next week. Positive earnings are expected from Apple and the stock is hitting new 52 week highs. Micrsoft, not so much even though Windows 7 might cause an upgrade cycle.

In any case, some good some bad, overall the picture is neither good nor bad. Just so so. Personally my expectations are for tech stocks in general to be sideways or slowly go upwards. I have been wrong before and I probably wil be wrong again but I just don’t have very high expectations in the near future from the market overall. Next year might bring some better news?

So you’re hunting for a house? You want to make use of the 8000 new home buyer credit? You look at closing costs and you get a shock. You look around for lenders and everyone quotes wildly varying numbers for the same things and you are not sure who to pick or what will actually save you money or whether the good faith estimates are correct. Here is a simple guide on figuring out which lender is best for you.

First thing naturally to compare is the Mortgage Rate and the APR, which directly affect your monthly payment. In todays times, 30 year fixed rates are probably your best option which makes things a little simpler. Just compare rates/apr and monthly payments for the same kind of loan across lenders. Find the ones that best suit you and start narrowing down lenders.

But once you find the rate, how do you know whose closing costs are the lowest? For that exclude all the items that the lender has no control over such as taxes and insurance. Next take out everything to do with Title insurance and settlement costs (sometimes put in as Attorney costs). These are just estimates from the lender and often lenders will make very low estimates to make their closing costs appear lower.

What remains (mostly items that are numbered in the 800′s on the Good Faith Estimate) is what the lender has control over and will often negotiate if you try and pit lenders against each other. These items include Origination Fees, Processing Fees, Document Preparation Fees, Mailing Fees, Commitment Fees etc.

Simple thing to do is make a spreadsheet which just lists all these for each vendor and then sum them up to find the lowest.