After You Buy
Reassemble Your Finances
Feeling a squeeze in the budget when you buy a home is perfectly normal. After all, your housing expenses are probably higher than before. In addition to taking a lean-and-mean approach to the rest of your spending, here are some other suggestions.
Ignore Solicitations
Soon after you move into your home the mailbox will be flooded with solicitations offering you mortgage life insurance, mortgage disability insurance as well as solicitations for accelerating your mortgage payoff.
Tax Assessments
If home prices have dropped since you bought your home, you may be able to appeal your assessment and enjoy a reduction in the property taxes that you're required to pay.
Refinancing
Keep half an eye on interest rates. If interest rates decrease from where they were when you took out your mortgage, you may be able to refinance your mortgage and save yourself some money.
Keep Receipts for Improvements
Sooner or later, you will spend money on your home. Some of what you spend money on should be tracked and documented for tax purposes in order to minimize the capital gain that you may owe tax on in the future.
