I am updating my Standard and Beginner Savings Plans and will put them in a guide to download and a free ebook and follow with worksheets and tips for credit building as well.
They will contain various ways to track your spending, where to put your savings to get the most out of your money and how to grow it exponentially on any salary.
Stay tuned for more and remember to check out my videos on instagram @snowplowsandcacti for more tricks to save and get approved for a loan.
Start with my Beginner Savings Plan and grow $1200 every year plus extra interest on this account. ⬇️
Email me for an updated link to get a free and easy sign up bonus for both HYSAs and other SoFi accounts. HYSAs are High Yield Savings Accounts that are free to open and use and pay way more than any traditional savings account can dream to pay you. Make dollars on your money, not cents.
You have to start somewhere and aim for a minimum of $50-$100 every month in deposits that you DON’T TOUCH 🙅🏼♀️. This is going to be your savings beginning and what you will put into a CD to grow even further every year.
Start here. If you’re really broke I’ll bet you have one streaming service you can cancel and transfer that same amount every month to the HYSA. $15 adds up!!
And keep building. If you need more help building credit and savings. DM me on IG @snowplowsandcacti for more help and a personal recommendation plan.
Get your current bank account ready and follow this link to open a free and easy High Yield Savings Account. You’ll earn at least 10x the interest and get your money flowing separate from your debit card. This is just for savings! If the link expires, just email jenniferlarsonent@yahoo.com for an updated sign up bonus!
Deposit $100 from your current bank account and start there. You don’t need to open a new checking account or move everything. SoFi will automatically give you a debit card account and you can use it if you choose or keep the HYSA as your main account there. You can also automatically schedule deposits every pay period to put $100 every time. This is what I did to start my account and grow slowly. I really love this savings plan to build an account balance and start small. Over time you will want to grow this more but this is a great way to start and turn $100 into $3000+interest every year. Whenever you’re reading this, open the HYSA with $100. On the first of next month, begin following the schedule wherever it is in the year. You’re going to follow this plan when the new month begins:
If this is a difficult schedule to follow in the beginning check out my Beginner Savings Plan to get started before moving up to this plan. To get me new and updated Standard Savings Plan Full Version, you can get your free booklet by emailing jenniferlarsonent@yahoo.com and I will send it to you.
At the end of every year, you can also look at CD rates. Some have a $5k minimum but others will let you turn your annual HYSA balance into a CD with a little bit more APY and since you can’t touch it, you won’t spend it! This allows banks to use that money and grow. As a result they pay you more interest on the Certificate of Deposit. After the CD term you can put it back into another CD if rates are still good or just transfer it back to your HYSA until rates improve. They vary with the Fed Rate but usually are always much better than regular accounts. Then repeat for the next year. You’ll have over $15,000 at the end of five years. That money can continue to go into CDs and grow with interest without you doing anything. You’re letting your money “season” and marinate in interest and it’s safe from being spent.
There are other ways to grow your money very affordably with a financial advisor. You can use the free service on SoFi or other companies like Edward Jones and invest there. They are NOT expensive to use and they make money when you do. They make you more money than when you walked in the door and many account holders get them free even with a small balance. That’s their job and everyone should have one. You don’t pay for things you’re not invested in so it’s absolutley free to consult and gain information. They’re commissions come off the sales of stocks and funds. There are a lot of low risk and low cost mutual funds that can give you even more ROI than an HYSA or CD but it’s best to go over that with an investor who looks at those numbers every day. I have a few but not all are as good and a couple I am currently moving to try better ones. I definitely didn’t lose money and my account does grow every year but I want it to grow even more! Basically, I want to beat my HYSA and CD rates by at least a percentage point.
I currently am buying VOO and VTI on the SoFi app in flat dollar amounts since they’re a little pricey. They are ETFs so cheapere and more tax efficient than mutual funds and pool some of the best stocks in history including Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, and new rockstars like Nividia.
For personalized savings and credit plans DM me on IG @snowplowsandcacti
If your finances are, or were, wrecked and you’re basically starting from scratch, what do you do? Besides any current mortgage, unless you’re behind on payments, the next major expense for most people might be student loans. If your income isn’t substantial and a lot of your income goes to them, they could impact your ability to obtain a loan; especially if you also have any car payments. In fact, you probably won’t qualify without a good income netting over $100k if not a bit more if you have one or both of these expenses for the next year.
To start, you’re going to need the right kinds of accounts. You need an HYSA and to get those student loans refinanced or the interest rate negotiated. You need to pay them down a bit more and see if you can get your payments lowered which helps your DTI and loan chances. If you don’t have them, the next thing is car payments.
Even one car loan is absolutely high cost nowadays and can destroy how much you can afford and be approved for on a home. Unless your income is good and in the six figures with these current rates still high, your payments need to be made until you have 10 payments left so they don’t affect your approval. If you have two car payments, you need to pay one off ASAP. So many of my clients get approved for such a low amount, if at all, because they both have car payments and their income can’t overcome the interest rates on home loans as well. It’s just too much for the average person to afford them all.
Get a savings plan in place even if you have none of these but can’t seem to save enough money. If you need to pay down one or more of these, then the savings plan will be for that. It’s different and requires you to pay at least an extra $50 towards one or more each month. The last expense is credit cards. Stop charging up debt and get those paid down! If more than 30% of your total credit limit is charged at any given time, you’re spending too much. Stop. 10% is even better. Even paying off your credit card in full, you’re charging more than 30% of your total credit limit, that is wreaking havoc on your credit score and DTI from a lender perspective. Credit Karma is not what lenders use and being a charging queen on those cards is not good for a home loan. It’s not just the balance we look at but HOW MUCH YOU SPEND IN TOTAL on those cards. It matters.
Now start saving and paying things off! Follow my debt pay down plan and savings plans to get in the right financial position to not be in debt anymore and actually have money in the bank. For a copy of my new and updated Standard Savings Plan email jenniferlarsonent@yahoo.com for the free booklet and program.
Over the years I have talked about not liking credit cards for many reasons because of how it can send clients into a spiral of bad spending and lowering their DTI score for their loan. The problem is, some people have no credit and need to build it. What then?
Unfortunately it is true that building credit is most easily and quickly accessible through opening a card. I eventually did this when secured cards weren’t readily doing much for me. I opened a Capital One card and was approved initially at $300 which is actually GREAT. You want just enough to build credit but not any more to get you into trouble and debt. The Quicksilver ONE card is geared for people who have no bad credit but not good credit either. It starts you on a small credit limit and gives you at least six months to prove your creditworthiness of ontime payments and responsible spending before you’re eligible for a credit increaase or new cards.
If you have low to no debts and a decent income of even $25,000 you might get approved. If you have a higher household income that’s even better. Again, other debts always impact your approval chances which is why it’s so important to not have any or low in relation to your income. If you approve just on your income with no rent or car payments, student loans, etc you will have a great chance. I did this and built my credit quickly in a few months by never being late and always paying before the due date. Of course, you can use combined household income too which helps.
If you want to get one too, email me for an account credit. Their pre-approval tool makes it easy to see what cards you’re eligible for with no impact on your credit score. Plus, no credit score is required to apply. The app is so easy to use, make payments, track your credit score free, and monitor your accounts instantly. This is not an ad but I do love my card and the customer service.
There is no magic trick to building a credit profile and growing your score. It just takes a few months, paying your statements on time, not overcharging, and slowly applying for a second card, and having an excellent payment history there too. Don’t close accounts either but rather pay them down and keep them open, even if they’re unused. They still produce a score and show lenders you do have established credit history even if it’s not in use–which is good!
Remember when states were encouraging, even compensating, homeowners to build ADUs to help ease the affordable housing crisis in many areas and rent those units in their properties with little oversight requirements to encourage as many as possible to build them? There’s a newer trend and some are utilizing those differently now.
Multi-generational housing is on the rise. Properties with casitas, pool houses, ADUs, guest houses, backyard cottages, etc were all once considered a luxury and feature of the rich. Not anymore. Now they’re not just in law suites or apartment income to rent out; they’re permanent rooms of entire families moving onto the same property full time. They’re not for when they visit. Extended families are buying and moving in with each other to afford housing and share living expenses so they can live off shrinking incomes as costs soar ever since Covid now almost five years ago.
Some homes are now being built brand new by developers as these homes to be intended for families to buy with their grandparents, aunts and uncles, or even older siblings. There are all kinds of dynamics in play but basically, they’re moving in with other family members living next door in the same land or attached at the studs; literally. Garage conversions and ADUs are now being done for families to move in their aging relatives home or others in their family who can’t afford to live elsewhere because rents are so high and buying a home is not a possibility on their own.
Many of my relatives and myself own large plots of land. If we ever had to build a small house or cottage on it for family to live that’d be mult-generational housing. We even considered it for our aging mothers since we have acres to share and they’d be close to us in case something happened. Would you consider this to buy a home and/or help your family?
This is the actual approval process of your loan and when you’re actually going to be determining eligibility for the loan you applied for. This is a deep dive into your account history and all of your finances, line by line, and everything on your credit report. They’re doing an investigation basically into your employment status, your balances, your credit usage, your past history, and everything else.
A lot of these begin right away but basically coincide and are part of the bank decision making the loan or not. How does the home appraise, what’s in the title chain, and verify everything listed on your end and the rest about the property. If you get past all of the above and underwriting, you’re good to go usually.
You need to know the basics of how credit and your mortgage payment are calculated while you’re planning to buy a house. Remember for your down payment you also need to account for other fees and closing costs so double your down payment needed and that’s the minimum you need to close.
This is the time to compare rates, call multiple companies, and get a policy in place because it is a requirement of your loan and for some can take longer than others. You also don’t want to forget! Get it done soon after escrow is started.
There are phone numbers listed for you to call if you have questions regarding your tax rate and tax bill. Here’s a quick snapshot how to calculate your taxes and estimated amounts when buying a house or confirming your amount due:
Check your statement! And when buying a home make sure the current owner is up to date on their taxes!! Here’s a real life example I found while checking a property history:
Always check the property before buying and run a preliminary title report with your agent before offering or ASAP afterwards. Sometimes the seller will also have HOA liens too and expect the buyer to help their financial woes at escrow! As a buyer I wouldn’t negotiate to help cover a seller’s back taxes but some have a lot of gulf and will absolutely try to insist the buyer cover part of the bill during negotiations because those liens have to be paid to the county and city before escrow and the county recorder’s office will allow the sale to happen and transfer the deed. The seller may also not disclose it before asking for the concessions and many agents may not even look it up before listing so they’re unaware at contract.
Things to be aware of!
Jennifer Larson 