Mortgage Assistance for Single Mothers

March 24, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

So you are divorced or are a single mom who had it all together until the downsizing in your department rendered you jobless. Such is the story of thousands of women all over the country. In danger of loosing homes they fought hard to get in the first place. You feel all is lost and you have no where to turn. This article will help you explore possibilities for Mortgage help that just might save the family farm so to speak.

At http://singlemotherhelp.org/s you will find links to various resources for single mothers including articles and tips on financial problems. It is well documented that getting a loan foe a home is a lot harder when you are a single mother. Heck it is harder for women in general. It is good to know that you can click on a link and find advice that could help you overcome the natural barriers to your dreams.

If you already own a home and are in danger of loosing it because your mortgage payment is behind or will be you can go to http://usmortgagerelief.org/is a site dedicated to helping you to find ways to relieve the stress and insecurities in your life. They explore the options with you, even offering a toll free number for live consultations.

 

THE FHA LOAN PROGRAM

This is a most unique and effective tool that van be used to obtain a loan for any need. if you need a FHA loan to consolidate bills, Refinance an existing home loan or become a first time home buyer you would do well to discuss this with the folks at http://www.lifestyle-mortgage.com/fha/single-parent.shtml they are dedicated to helping single mothers’ find financial solutions. The FHA program has several advantages for the single parent one of them is that there are compensating factors that just might help you to get some bad credit items “forgiven” by the loan underwriters. Then there is the fact that qualifying for this loan is a lot easier than most other loans. The flexible debt ratios is one of the reasons for this. That is why the FHA home loan is ideal for a single mother in mortgage trouble. It also has some really neat additions that can lower the rates and front end cost to the prospective buyer. One is the inception and inclusion of gifts from family members. They give you credit for any monetary gifts toward home ownership you receive from relatives. This company will help you to locate local grant programs that award money to single mothers for the purpose of home ownership. Finally the Federal Government regulates the closing costs on these loans. This means there is a maximum you can be charged.

The availability of this loan is perfect not only for a first time buyer but also the single mother who has owned her home for a time and are finding themselves in financial straits.

 

Mortgage companies look at the total assets and liabilities of the family applying for the loan. If you got the mortgage as a part of a unit and are not struggling to make the payments because of a death or divorce you can always talk to the loan officer and attempt to renegotiate the payments and schedule. When a spouse leaves that decreases the total of the assets and the liabilities most often stay the same and in some cases increase. This is when you have to first reassess you liabilities. It helps your case as a single mother to go into the negotiation with a budget and a reasonable repayment offer.

 

BUDGETING

To be fair you will have to make a budget.  And if you are not sure how to accomplish this you can click on this link http://www.bankrate.com/finance/money-guides/free-household-budgeting-work-sheet.aspx or http://www.dirjournal.com/shopping-journal/5-useful-free-online-budgeting-tools/ you will be redirected to sites that offer free budgeting tools and samples of how to prepare your budget. The first step to any budget is to find out how much you are actually spending and what you are spending it on. For one month keep track of all your spending. Even if you buy lunch at work write it down. At the end of this month go over what you spent. You are looking for superfluous expenditures. Some things could be left out of the liability column. Doing this will give you more of your income to devote to your needs.

 

Do not expect that the cutbacks will go over big at first you may have to go from a cable package that has all the movie channels to basic cable. Regulate the time spent on the Internet. Cut back on electrical consumption. This type of thing works better with younger children teens tend to take it a lot harder. Especially since the cell phone usage is one of the first things to need adjustments. You may also have to come to grips with the fact that the house may no longer be affordable for you. Selling and moving to a smaller home in a more economical neighborhood may be your only option.

 

Most budgets look a something like this. Shelter 33%, auto 15%, food 20% by now you are already almost in the red. If you have childcare cost and insurance you may have nothing left for clothing, entertainment and the other small items important to running a household.

 

You Are Not Alone

The national statistics state that at least 35% of households in the United States are Single parent homes. 40% of the homes that are headed by single mother are at or below poverty level. The single mother with incomes that are above the poverty level are finding it just as hard to maintain in these economic times. The prices are constantly going up faster than the incomes. Most single mothers do not care if the help comes from government assistance or donations form private organizations and individuals. All they care about is that they get to keep or buy their homes.

 

HUD – the Department of Housing and Development is a great resource for would be homeowners and single mother mortgage holders alike. They offer a lot of free help in all financial areas. You can contact them at http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page/portal/HUD. If you qualify for their loan guarantee program you may find it easier to get that loan you need.

 

The HOME program – This is a program that assist new home owners with funds for their down payment. You must meet the income criteria as well as being a single mom.

 

Habitat – Habitat for Humanities is an excellent option for single mothers who are trying to get a home. Follow the link to find the offices nearest you. http://www.habitat.org/cd/local/

 

States usually have assistance programs specifically for their residents you should look into this aspect as well. you may also want to speak with a person that writes grants for a living. They have the inside scoop on what grants may be available and some of them will even work for noting as a gift to the neediest applicants. Grants.gov may not have any money to lend but they can point you in the right direction.

 

If you are having mortgage trouble you may also want to speak with someone at http://www.fairhomeloan.org/, they can assist you by helping you to be certain that the actions being taken against you are legal. With the recent “RoboLoan” scandal it might be to your best interest to investigate any action of a foreclosing nature brought against you.

The Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan offer help in a couple of areas. Single mothers can find assistance here if their initial loans were through the government Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac programs. President Obama introduced this refinancing initiative in 2009.
HOPENOW – This is an organization that is designed to match homeowners with others who might have a vested interest in keeping a single mother in her home. They act as a go between or mediator. Though not a solid financial solution it is a way to keep you in your home while you search for another way.

 

Mortgage Insurer – The insurance company has a vested interest in keeping you in the home. If you have no home they get no premiums it as simple as that. They offer counseling and other services to homeowners it is worth a try.

 

There is always other loan modification programs on the horizon. These can allow homeowners breathing room for at least the next five or so years. One thing you should do is keep the lines of communication open between you and the mortgage holder. Read all incoming mail from them and talk with them about your situation openly and honestly. It does them more harm than good to actually foreclose on a home. Most often they are willing to work out a mutually beneficial agreement with you. Seeing them as the enemy will ultimately be a downfall. Keeping them on your side and in the battle with you can work out better in the long run.

 

CONCLUSION

Hard times can happen to anyone at anytime. Even if you failed to plan for them initially it may not be too late to salvage your situation. Single mothers have it worse than most but with a little effort you can find those willing and able to assist you with your mortgage. It will take effort on your part and extreme patience but it can be done. When you decide to make a search keep accurate records pertaining to who you spoke with, sites you visited and the outcome of each. This will help you narrow down the field of prospect in an orderly manner. Hey, you could even start a blog about your searcch and include that information. There are others doing the same search and your information could be helpful to them. This could also turn into a money making venture. You could use the blog for affiliate marketing and actually earn the extra income you need to save your home.

Filed Under: Motgages Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Budgeting Tips for Single Mothers

March 15, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

When you’re supporting a family on a single income, budgeting becomes more than trying to decide if you can afford dinner out once a week. You not only have to make sure your earnings or other money supply stretches to last through the month—you also have to make provisions for unexpected expenses and future expenses like health care, purchase of a home, college, and more.

That’s a lot to handle on a limited income. It’s the rare person who can balance all the financial needs of the family perfectly—but anyone can become an expert on where their money goes, and that’s the important first step.

Keep a notebook (or spreadsheet, if you like doing things on the computer) of expenses every day. Enter into it everything you spend—and I mean every penny. If you put money in a parking meter, enter it. If you give the kids money for an ice cream or a movie, enter it. Don’t worry yet about what category it falls under, but do note what the money was used for. If your kids just ask for “money”, find out afterwards what they spent it on.

After a week, review your expenses and assign them to categories that make sense to you. If you think ice cream belongs under “entertainment” instead of “food” or “treats”, that’s fine—but remember that making distinctions like that will force you to comb through grocery store receipts to categorize every item. Budgeting should be easy enough that it doesn’t become a second job in itself. Here is a list of common categories that you can choose from. Remember that if they don’t make sense to you, they won’t work, so mix and match or combine categories to reflect your actual thinking about spending:

Repeat this activity every week until you have a month’s worth of data. By that time, you will have paid credit card bills, rent or mortgage, and utilities—those should be included in your list of expenses. Then look over your expenditures for the month. The fixed expenses you can’t do anything about—that’s why they’re fixed. There might be small gains you can make in some things like utilities, but at this stage of the budget game, don’t worry about it.

A good combination of essential expenses to shoot for is 30-15-15. That’s:

  • 30% of your income on housing: includes rent or mortgage, utilities, maintenance and so forth.
  • 15% on food: it’s recommended you keep this to necessary food, the kind you buy at the grocery store. If you shop wisely, that should make all other food (restaurant meals, lattes, lunches bought at work instead of prepared at home) fall neatly into the “entertainment” category. It’s much easier to cut back on this category.
  • 15% on transportation: includes car payments, insurance, fuel and maintenance.

That leaves 40% of your income to cover clothing, insurance and/or medical payments, entertainment, debt repayment, and miscellaneous. Part of that “miscellaneous” should be some kind of savings plan.

If your figures for the month show that you’re paying significantly more than 30% for housing, you need to take some action. If you can’t think of any easy solutions that will work for you (such as taking in renters, moving in with family, and the like), here are some links to housing assistance programs that might be able to help:

If you find you’re spending much more than 15% of your income on food, it’s possible you’re not doing everything you could be to minimize this expense. Here’s some helpful links on how to cook nutritious and enticing food your kids will eat, and that will also help a lot in your budgeting efforts:

If your expenses fall within the ranges above, good for you! You’re completely average! Now why not do even better in the savings category by trimming items you really don’t need from the other categories? The only sure-fire way to make money is to save money.

If you are pretty computer literate, and you find you kind of like the budget process, try to find a copy of Quicken or another computerized budgeting tool. These are basically more sophisticated spreadsheets, with all the budget aspects already programmed. They have common expense categories already set up, but you can still add your own.

This is a great tool to have, because at any time you can see all your finances at a glance. With paper records, you’re stuck with pulling out statements to compare where you were last week or last month, and having to manually calculate where you are this instant. But again, the tool is only valuable if you keep it up, and are computer-savvy enough to use it to full advantage.

Does the whole budgeting process sound too boring for you? Don’t fret—there are many like you. You don’t like to nit-pick about expenses, but at the same time you need to get control of your spending. The following story is a more philosophical view of budgeting from someone who managed to rein in her spending without becoming an accountant in a little green cap:

One important thing to keep in mind when budgeting as a single mother is that most likely, you’ll have to cut back somewhere. That “somewhere” might be things that your kids are used to having, like cable TV, or lots of snacks in the house, or maybe spending money that you don’t keep track of. It’s important to share with your kids that the family’s budget needs to be under control, and they might have to give up some of these goodies. Don’t worry—they might make a fuss about it, but if you’re firm and keep explaining to them that giving up a little now, might prevent giving up a lot later, they should be capable of understanding.

You might have some success by enlisting them to help you meet the budget when shopping. Instead of a brand-name cereal they like, send them on a mission to find the generic brand, and compare how much cheaper it is. Or (a better bet, since kids are so computer-savvy), put them in charge of finding recipes on the Web that you can make with inexpensive, basic ingredients, instead of all the over-priced prepared foods the shops try to entice you to buy. If you have girls, see if they’re interested in learning how to make bread and pizza dough, or even something really challenging like canning. For boys, send them off to a mechanically-inclined relative or trusted neighbor to learn how to change the oil on the car, or do basic home repairs. They’ll not only help the family save money—they’ll learn skills they can use their whole lives to continue the tradition of common-sense budgeting and saving.

Filed Under: Financial Help, Personal Finance Tagged With: , , , , ,

College Grants for Single Mothers

February 19, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

College Scholarships for Single Mothers – Tips on Filling out Your Application

One of the main reasons many get rejected from college scholarships for single mothers is that they do not pay close attention to the application process. Overlooking eligibility requirements or specific requests on what documentation needs to be submitted are two of the main problems for people applying for scholarships. This article will attempt to give you a few tips on things you should look out for when applying to a scholarship program.

First impressions are very important, and your application is the first thing that scholarship administrators will see. It will show them how committed you are to moving forward and whether or not you deserve to take the scholarship, maybe even from someone else. By presenting a rushed, incomplete or unprofessional application you will be proving that you are not mature enough or committed enough to make the best of what that scholarship may provide.

To avoid this problem, you should begin preparing well in advance of the deadline so you will have plenty of time to check everything over four or even five times. The better your application, the more chance you have to get accepted into programs offering college scholarships for single mothers. Some guidelines you should follow include:
1. Type it out – unless the application specifically requests you to print it out, you should type it out to give it a professional look. Double check your work for any spelling and grammatical errors, and reread the final version before sending it.
2. Early submission – you should send in your application as early as possible since many scholarships apply the first-come, first-served principle, and if the funding runs out, you have to wait until the following year.
3. College test scores are very important and if you feel you could have done better, then you can retake the test. Make sure that the educational institutions you are applying to have received you scores.
4. Include a CV – even though most applications have an area for you to add your activities and awards, it is more professional to include a CV.
5. Never leave a blank space as it can be interpreted that you overlooked the question. Just fill in with NA, for not applicable.
These are just a few guidelines to help you prepare your application but the first thing you should do is check with the institution if you are eligible or not as nothing can get you rejected faster than sending in an application for a program you do not qualify for. This can hurt you with other programs as well because the same institution may have other options but you will be remembered as the candidate who couldn’t do a little research beforehand. It pays to take an extra five minutes to sort through the programs and see which you are eligible for.

There are many institutions which offer college scholarships for single mothers as well as more generalized scholarship programs which you may qualify for. As long as you present yourself in a positive light and show your dedication to furthering your education nothing can stand in your way.

Filed Under: Financial Help, Grants, Personal Finance, Scholarships Tagged With: , , ,

College Scholarships for Single Parents

February 19, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Many single parents experience a financially challenging life. The responsibilities a single parent has can make it difficult in making ends meet. College is a fantastic way to improve income – which ultimately can improve the quality of your lifestyle. But, with many single parents already facing a tough time financially speaking, college isn’t an option for some. In fact, many single parents are not aware of the help that is out there. College scholarships for single parents are a fantastic way of providing financial aid, to get you back into school. There are various different scholarships that can, and will help you to improve your life.

  • Raise the Nation

Raise the Nation is one of the best single parent scholarship programs available. If you are a single mother who is in need of money to go to college, or if you have been denied funding from various different other scholarship programs, then Raise the Nation should be priority.

  • The Assistance League

The Assistance League offer excellent scholarship programs for single parents. They deal primarily with community based programs that will help you pay for your tuition. They have a full website that includes resources, and details on programs in specific states.

  • Federal Pell Grant

The Federal Pell Grant is probably one of the most popular college scholarships for single parents. With an extremely high acceptance rate, the Federal Pell Grant can offer up to $5,350 for educational purposes. To apply, you’ll need to visit your financial aid officer after having completed a FAFSA online.

  • Women’s Opportunity Awards – Soroptimist.org

The Women’s Opportunity Awards is a major program by Soroptimist. They assist women who provide the primary source of financial support for their families by giving them the resources they need to improve their education, skills, and employment prospects. They distribute over $1 million in cash awards at various different employment prospects each year. They offer fantastic support, and give tremendous advice about how to get back into school.

  • The Jeannette Rankin Foundation

The Jeannette Rankin Foundation, JRF for short, provides scholarships for women who are 35 and older and are part of the low income bracket. Over 97% of JRF scholars in the last 3 years have graduated, or are still in school. They offer exceptional college scholarships for single parents, yet are very specific as to who they invite – if you are determined, positive and understand your future goals, including having a lot of passion for what you want to achieve, you are guaranteed a place there!

Above is just a small handful of institutions that offer college scholarships for single parents. It’s important that you never give up searching and applying for financial aid – college could be the one big thing that changes your life completely, for the better.

Filed Under: Education, Financial Help Tagged With: , , ,

Financial Aid for Single Mothers

February 19, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

A single mother may find completing routine daily activities very difficult. Whether the task is managing a healthy career or taking care of your children, a single mother can get the assistance she needs through the Financial Aid for Single Mother program.

Not knowing where to turn for such financial assistance, the single mother will look to her father or to friends for the income assistance she needs. A single mother going through unemployment lives a very traumatic experience and therefore it is critical that she knows where to look for the financial assistance she needs. The cost of buying food, clothes and raising a child can be quite expensive.

The good news is that there are many organizations that can provide Financial Aid for Single Mother quite quickly to the needy single mother. Ideally, a single mother wants to be able to raise her child without the daily stress of not having enough money. Living under this financial stress can seriously impact a single woman’s work life and her relationship with her friends.

Financial Aid for Single Mother program is available to provide help and the well-being of the child is given the utmost priority. Before applying for a grant, the single mother should first research what is currently available to meet her needs. She can begin by seeking the advice of a careers counselor or child support advisor. But there is an even faster way to get that information. She can access the website Uncle Sam’s Money’ for full details on available grants.

Grants are also available for furthering her education for career advancement, and this information is also provided on the website. Although a large number of government programs and agencies exist to provide grant information, it can be quite bewildering to a student seeking this information. This makes it extremely important to first do research before settling on a particular form of Financial Aid for Single Mother.

This website allows the single mother to easily find the right program for her situation and will also help her to identify what she needs to successfully apply. Care must be taken to only apply for those grants for which she is eligible. Helpful tips are provided on the Financial Aid for Single Mother application completion and document organization.

Websites of this type attempt to simplify the tasks the single mother will need to perform. Financial Aid for Single Mother will simplify her job. It relieves the financial stress from her life and allows her to raise her child in a happier more abundant environment. It is important to always do research. Information provided on the website will further assist her but she is the one to make final decisions on which programs will best meet her needs.

Filed Under: Financial Help Tagged With: , ,
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