No. The full sales price goes to the seller. The down payment only determines how much of it the bank has to kick in.

The reason is that the seller has a vested interest in whether the lender approves the buyer. The stronger the buyer's position, the more likely that the bank loan will go through. If it falls through, the seller has to start all over again with a new buyer. Time is wasted, which is often of great concern to the…

I don't know what it is about taxes, but it always brings out dumb tail-wagging-the-dog advice.

What? Your clients call you before they make these financial decisions???? ;p

Not true. When I had a tax practice, I agreed to that one time, and one time only. It's way more work and a lot more nerve wracking to proof someone else's work - if the practitioner is conscientious about it. My brother who is also a CPA said the same thing. He charges more if someone wants to do that.

"On the flip side, if you skim a bunch of articles amidst a maelstrom of other blog posts and media, you may agree that great headlines are valuable, but your decision to implement strategies will be less likely to stick. Two weeks from now, you come across a similar article to remember, "Oh yeah, I meant to focus…

I'll never find out if this is true. In my company, Tuesday is the day everyone always wants to schedule meetings. My day is 6 hours of conference calls like this:

Left to my own devices, I wake up just before dawn as the light starts to change. Unfortunately, being employed means I am not left to my own devices often enough.

I've heard great things about Scrivener, and will probably buy it soon. I may be confused, but can you use it to gather research, too?

Also, not to be overlooked is the quality of the water. Where I live, the water is very hard and tastes terrible. I use distilled water for coffee and tea and get excellent results. YMMV.

I haven't had a chance to check these all out yet, but I have a question to those in the LA area. I live 15 miles from downtown and work only 10 miles from there, yet when I check the coverage maps for some of these that I've heard of (Freedom Pop, for instance) there is very little coverage. Odd for such a populated…

A subject line "Hey" from someone I don't know will immediately be deleted as spam. No curiosity created at all.

I just came on to post something similar. Emergencies arise from two situations: The event was unexpected or there was a lack of preparation for events that will certainly occur.

Yeah; I feel your pain. Something about getting started seems to trigger a reaction in the universe in response to your intent. :)

I thought the author was clear. The farmers who were "defensive" had shepherds to defend against the wolves. That's just a metaphor for being vigilant on your own behalf.

Please reconsider thinking of your 401k as a fall-back emergency fund. It's usually a terrible idea and if you consider it a viable option, you are more likely to tap into it for a minor emergency thus jeopardizing your retirement for reasons you will kick yourself for down the road. I say that from the voice of…

I've been using this method for a few weeks now, and it really works for me. Otherwise, I develop grandiose plans for all that I'm going to get done "when I have time."

This.

Yeah, me too. I was thinking "Ha. Forget the kids. I wonder if it would work on me."

Yes, that's my favorite configuration - L workspace with a corner computer desk. It's been several years since I had one like that. I was just wondering last night if it would allow for dual monitors, because I'd like to get that set up again but I've gotten used to dual monitors. I'm very happy to see that it does.…