I have applied for three loans and learned:

1. How much we owe and earn is called the Loan to Debt Ratio, which is very important.  Ideally, we would like to owe less than 25% of what you earn each month. You’re over the top, when we owe 43% of what we earn. Above 43% debt, we are a risky borrower and a red flag goes up, when we apply for a home loan.

2. Credit comes from several places. First, the credit bureaus are owned by the Retail Merchants of America. The worse your credit, the more money they make from your paycheck. Poor credit payments equals paying back more debt.  So, we need to know that the credit bureaus want us to do worse than better, then they make more money by charging higher interest rates to you. If we don’t pay or negociate a debt, and it goes to collection, we will pay a seven year higher interest  penalty. That is a long credit prison sentence. Make every effort to avoid collections. We can call the creditor and make arrangements to pay in smaller parts.

3. We need credit cards. Two cards is a maximum.  I know, everyone is saying get rid of them. How we handle them is the important issue. A mortgage lender doesn’t want us to have more than 45% of the max on each credit card. To raise your credit scores, it should be between zero and 25% owing.  Keeping payments there will raise credit scores. Pay your credit cards on time and if you can, pay them through an online account. This saves paper and your payment date is the day you pay them. Paper in the mail takes too long. I ‘ve had late charges, even though I mailed the payments on time.

4.  Where do you live and work right now? The mortgage lenders like us to live in the same place for two years. This proves your rent and shows your payment history. Moving around shows instability. Pay your rent on time every time. Your payment is like a house payment, but for someone else. Job stability requires a minimum of two years on the same job. You are rated  on your gross income. Bonuses count, but they are not part of income ratio. IRAs are important. If your company has one, use it! It is a valuable asset.

5. Start saving money, today. We could put 10% in a savings account every paycheck. If you have a 401K at work and they pay half, that is 50% interest on your money. Sign up, today. You can borrow against 401Ks for a downpayment for a home loan.

6. There is a gifting program, when we are buying a home.  Ask your mortgage lender how to do it. We cannot  ask the seller of a home to pay your downpayment. You cannot borrow the downpayment or use credit cards for it. The down payment can be gifted to us. We could ask your parents or family to gift you the downpayment. Let’s say we are getting married, instead of wedding gifts, we could ask for gifts for your future home you will buy. Set up a money tree or box that people can give at the wedding for your first home. Avoid spending it on the honeymoon, but add to the amount each month to make your downpayment grow. You could skip the honeymoon, $3,000+ and move into a home sooner. Interest rates are low right now.

7. You could ask the seller to pay the closing costs.

8. Paying your monthly bills on time is a reflection of your reliability. It counts for 35% of your credit score. So pay the lights, the garbage, phone, cell phone, cable on time. If you cannot and you are late, that is an indication you need to cut back on your spending and cut some services. I cut my cable, my home phone line, lowered my cell phone payment and car insurance. I even cut my elect bill by washing in cold water, having shorter showers, unplugging appliances that pull power all day long when not in use.

9. Look at your three credit reports. If the credit reported is older than 7 years, ask the reporting company to remove it from your report. Read the report carefully. Your current FICO score is going to be 25% less than it shows for a home loan. It is the way the mortgage companies rate it. It is lower than you see on your score. Your house payment and loan borrowing rate relies on your FICO score. The higher your credit score, the lower your interest on the loan, and the more money you save.

10. A home is your biggest purchase in your life, unless you have a major medical accident. Plan for both. With some care and planning, you’ll have a home of your own.

The loan companies want someone who gets a paycheck. You can get a loan if you are self employed. You must have 2 years Profit and Loss Statements. If you just started a business, you may have to wait to buy a house. However, Proverbs says, Plow your fields and plant your crops, then build your house (while your crops are growing). When harvest comes, your house will be built, you harvest your crops and are ready for the winter.

These habits can make you wealthy. You will pay less in interest, have more buying power, and have more to spend in your pocket, instead of the lenders. You deserve to have a better financial life. Money and Credit management are how much you  make, pay out and how much more you can keep.

When I learn more, I’ll update this post.

Could you live around liars, thieves, grocery takers, strife, anger, termoil, poverty, heart ache and a feeling of never getting ahead, because you’re always hiding and cannot be yourself? What a mean way of living!
Being honest and paying for what you use and eat and where you live, then you can be happy, work for dignity, be a good neighbor and have a place where you can connect, have friends and share from the abundance with others.
Poverty is caused by lying stealing murder, strife, being dishonorable, turmoil, lack of food, rent and household items. Poverty is a state of mind, not how much money you have in your pocketbook. Riches are not measured only by your bank account, but by the influence in your community, favor, friendships, a place in society, skills and abilities, a good education, and out of these abundances comes a good living. Give and it shall be given unto you pressed down and overflowing. I like walking in the abundance of life. You can too.
“Behold I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I command you this day: And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way, which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which he have not known.” Deuteronomy 11:26-27
It is a simple decision: choose life or death. You can choose life!

If someone has not told you this recently or ever in your life, “I believe in you. I know you have good in you. I know you can do it. I give you permission to stretch yourself, pass your fears, and climb your visions and dreams, while having many friendships along the way. So, get busy living, choose life, instead of dying!”
Your:
Grandma Kris
May 25, 2010

So, turn off your TV and get out there and get going! Put one foot in front of the other, soon you’ll be walking cross the floor. Put one foot in front of the other, then you’ll be walking out the door. Get a vision and put it to work. You must take action!

I bought an outdoor play coat this weekend. Found a hiking group and ascended Beacon Rock on the Columbia River in Washington, this weekend. I wasn’t sure I could do it, but I had to give it my best effort. I did it! I was the oldest person there. Yeah for me, I broke a belief boundary and made my world larger.

David Bach is an author and financial Planner who teaches people to learn to be wealthy. You can find his books on the Internet and in the library. I recommend his book The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach. It tells in the first chapter how a common husband and wife can amass a million dollars using the daily cup of coffee or a pack of cigarettes factor of your every day work and live way to deal with your money. You must read to get ideas. If you are not ready for retirement your actions haven’t been working, so you must follow those who are succeeding. You need ideas and then put them to work. Books are borrowed ideas.

Phil Town is an advocate of Warren Buffet’s ideas on Rule #One by Phil Town. Rule number one is: Don’t lose money! Rule number 2 is refer back to number one! His second books if Payback Time.

I know enough to learn from others. Connect and learn, grow and be part of your community.
Grandma Kris

Put on your hat and coat and hurry down the byways, go out and meet folks on the selling side of the street.
All the desperate have left and it’s time to see the rest, go out and meet the Realtors and find your treat.

No, my Mom was not perfect and neither was Grandma, but they gave me so much and loved me, too.
My Mom has done things that caused a chasm between us. What turned me around? I went to consoling. The Pastor pointed out that the Ten Commandments are there as a short list to guide me in my life. The first four commandments are about how we react and honor, love and relate to the LORD God Almighty. The next one is: “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.”

I want to love a long life. That is a nice promise. So, I decided to forgive my Mother her faults and look on the good that she taught me over the years. I really enjoy her memories, today, and all the simple and uncountable tasks I learned at her side. I was fortunate to have such a good person for a Mom.

Some of you never met your Mom or had a Mom, well if you are a girl, you’ll be a Mom someday. The LORD God Almighty gave us the Bible to lead us as a manual of how to live. You can change your history in your lifetime. Trust in the LORD and serve Him. He will be your family and lead you through your life. There are plenty of older women at church whose children are far away. Take one of them to church with you and have dinner with them. Both of you need one another.

Love is more powerful than hate. Love wins friends and brings joy. Love makes room for you and me together. Love is truth and honest sharing. Love is a joy for me and you. We are connected as neighbors and family. God first loved us by creating this world and us in it. He wanted to know we loved Him. He loved us first and gave us parents to show us love. Then we can love our parents and love the LORD God Almighty, too, for HE is good.

So, if you are alone, today, call someone: a neighbor, an older woman, and an aunt. Talk to them and tell them what you appreciate about them, today. Then, have dinner with them and share time at church. You’ll both feel better.

Happy Mother’s Day
Grandma Kris

She is a person first. She could be a wife, a mother, a Grandmother or a great Grandmother. A woman is someone’s daughter, and a member of her family or tribe.  Without her, a man would have no heirs. A woman is the keeper of her future family generations. Her health and stability is a very important element and the foundation of the family. She keeps herself for her husband, so disease and problems will not plague her herself, her family or her children. The future generation of a man’s family name depends on a lineage of sons and daughters.  She is the child bearer of children, our future generations.  That is why men should treat all women of any age as if they are someone’s future wife and respect them privately and publicly.

She is the Mother of her children, and watches over her sibling’s children and her neighbor’s children. She is part of a community that brings safety and nurturing to her family and neighbors. Her community or tribe benefits from her contributions. She is the teacher and example of faith and love to her family and neighbors.

A woman’s life is her faith, husband, children, neighbors and community and her country. She binds & amplifies society. She holds the social fabric of living. She builds a world for her family with her husband and their families.

 In Jan, 2009 a new baby called Moses was born, and hours later his Mother dies from a rare ambolism. His Father needed breast milk for baby Moses,  which cost $5 an ounce. Some mothers the family knew agreed to give the baby their mother’s milk. More people heard about it and there are 20 women who donate milk for the child. The Father was shocked by the loss of his wife and the need to share his life with others to feed his newborn son. Moses is doing well, today. He has  a strong community around him to care for him and he is a year old.

In the land near Israel in 2003, women concerned for the food supplies of their families in a war-torn area,  asked for donations from charities to give them olive trees to plant, so they could have their own food. All the women in the neighborboods worked together to plant, and water the trees.

In early 1915 in America had a leaf blite that killed all the chestnut trees in the Northwest forests. In 2007, a group of women bought chestnuts and asked their friends and neighbors to carry them, wherever they go, and plant them back into the forests and road sides.  Working together builds our communities and helps us provide for our familes and future families.

Women are storytellers of the family. They take photos, scrapbook, remember to send birthday cards, anniversary and Christmas Cards. They keep letters and treasures of the children. My Mother treasured clippings that I didn’t remember from when I was born and through my years with her. She tells us of her youth and how her parents raised her.Their family history is a treasure to them.

As a woman, you can live up to our expectations and visions or diminish down to the criticism of others. You can choose! So, keep looking up with optimism and hope while building your life and future of your family, for each day is new and rises with the light of day.

1 I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. 2 For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens.
3 I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, 4 Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations. Selah.
5 And the heavens shall praise thy wonders, O LORD: thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints.
6 For who in the heaven can be compared unto the LORD? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the LORD?
7 God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.
8 O LORD God of hosts, who is a strong LORD like unto thee? or to thy faithfulness round about thee?
9 Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them.
10 Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain; thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm.
11 The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them.
12 The north and the south thou hast created them: Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name.
13 Thou hast a mighty arm: strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand.
14 Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.
15 Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance.
16 In thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.
17 For thou art the glory of their strength: and in thy favour our horn shall be exalted.
18 For the LORD is our defence; and the Holy One of Israel is our king.
19 Then thou spakest in vision to thy holy one, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.
20 I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him: 21 With whom my hand shall be established: mine arm also shall strengthen him.
22 The enemy shall not exact upon him; nor the son of wickedness afflict him.
23 And I will beat down his foes before his face, and plague them that hate him.
24 But my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him: and in my name shall his horn be exalted.
25 I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers.
26 He shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.
27 Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth.
28 My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him.
29 His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.
30 If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; 31 If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; 32 Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.
33 Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.
34 My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
35 Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David.
36 His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me.
37 It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.
38 But thou hast cast off and abhorred, thou hast been wroth with thine anointed.
39 Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant: thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the ground.
40 Thou hast broken down all his hedges; thou hast brought his strong holds to ruin.
41 All that pass by the way spoil him: he is a reproach to his neighbours.
42 Thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries; thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice.
43 Thou hast also turned the edge of his sword, and hast not made him to stand in the battle.
44 Thou hast made his glory to cease, and cast his throne down to the ground.
45 The days of his youth hast thou shortened: thou hast covered him with shame. Selah.
46 How long, LORD? wilt thou hide thyself for ever? shall thy wrath burn like fire?
47 Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?
48 What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah.
49 Lord, where are thy former lovingkindnesses, which thou swarest unto David in thy truth?
50 Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people; 51 Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O LORD; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.
52 Blessed be the LORD for evermore. Amen, and Amen.

What is honor? Websters defines it in a 1940’s dictionary, because the newer dictionaries are corrupted with atheism and Darwinism. Honor-(honos, whence honestus, honest) Esteem paid to worth: high estimation: reverence: veneration: any mark of respect or estimation by words or actions: dignity: exalted rank or place: distinction: reputation: good name: a nice sense of what is right, just and true: scorn of meanness: a particular virtue, as bravery or integrity in men and chastity in females: one who is that which is a source of glory or esteem: he who or that which confers dignity(an honor to his country): title or privilege or rank or birth: one of the highest trump cards as the ace, king, queen, or nave(jack):, respect now restricted, except among the vulgar, to the holders of certain offices (judges) v.t. to respect or treat with honor.

The King James Bible defines honor in Exodus 20:12 Honour thy father and thy mother; that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. Deuteronomy 5:16 16 Honour thy father and thy mother, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

Everyman influences 200 people they know in their community along with relatives to whom they are related. This number was told me by a Funeral Home, who has funerals for people all the time. You can give anyone respect. You can be an example to your children, your neighbors, your friends and strangers. The two-hundred people was before Social Media! Now one blogger can reach around the globe and across social lines. Opinions can influence, educate, inspire and change the minds of others in a more positive way. We blog, twitter(old fashioned telephone party line), You Tube(home movies for the world to see) and Face-(ourselves and others on an Internet) Book. I love the idea that I can tell stories to all the children, besides my own.

Every person grows up and has to wrestle with our Father and Mother. It is like facing our own failings and wanting to blame them. But they are imperfect and so are we. We can accept them with all their faults and love them for the good they gave us. The way to restore yourself is to forgive them the pain and suffering in your own life you think they caused. Then, decide how you will live your life and move past their faults into your new habits. The Bible is a manual of all the faults of mankind and how the LORD can change your life into something new, for God has prepared a new thing in your life.

For those children whose Mother and Father abandoned them, there is a heavenly Father, whose Son is Jesus who said if you call on my name and accept me as Lord in your life, I will never leave you or forsake you. You will become my children, my heirs,and the adopted heirs of my kingdom for which there is no end. Jesus said I go to prepare a place for you(when you die) if it were not I so I would have told you. I know about abandonment, for my family abandoned me. It is very painful, but Jesus comes and fills that place that was designed for Him when he created you. It was His Master plan that you would never be alone. He love me and I love Him. And He will do the same for you.
So, when you are lonely, go help your neighbor. If you both walk together, you can help one another. Learn to help others and the good will come back to you. The Bible says give and it shall be given unto you pressed down, overflowing. Go and find a Christian Church and they can become your new family, for they are part of the kingdom of God on earth until we get to heaven.

I think honoring people is the best way insure that you have a place, too. However, a proverb says, “If you call evil good and good evil, evil will come into to your house forever.” You must use discernment of the character before you honor them.
You can respect everyone even when they are mean to you.

The hardest lesson I have learned in the Bible is this one. “Bless those that curse you, do good to them that revile you. . . ” When dealing with other people someone is going to offend you. It is better if you can learn not to take offense. It doesn’t matter what color your hair, your teeth or your shoe size. You cannot change that, and neither can the other person. You can change your mind, your attitude and your outlook of how we judge others. That is where we get into trouble: judging others. We have discernment between what is good and bad. That is built into us from childhood by our Creator. Judgment belongs to the Lord God. He says, “Love your neighbor, do good to them . . . ” Start there. Whatever is good, whatever is kind, make room for your neighbor to live beside you and give them graceful allowances for their differences that are not like you. One of you has to reach out to another. It might as well be you.

We desire to belong and connect with others. We want to be part of a community and neighborhood. Let it start with you. Give and it shall be given unto you, pressed down and overflowing will be given back to you.