Single Cyber Parent

Image via CrunchBase

The first step in purchasing a home is qualifying for a mortgage.  To qualify for a mortgage a home buyer needs a credit score of 620.  However, it is best to get a copy of your credit report before going to the mortgage professional because there is often mistakes on your credit report.  The reason there is often mistakes in your credit report is that the report is done by people and computers.  Sometimes, the computer can compile or mis-compile information of people with similar names, similar numbers in their social security number, similar addresses, etc.  The reason I know these errors can occur as a result of the latter reason is that I had a client who was a junior.  His father filed a bankruptcy and the bankruptcy was showing on the son’s credit report.  I helped the son and father correct the incorrect information, and the son was able to purchase his home.

To find out if errors are on your credit report visit the credit bureau:

• Experian -www.experian.com
• Equifax - www.equifax.com
• Transunion - www.transunion.com

Once you have a copy of your credit report and you discover errors.  Dispute the errors with the credit bureau.  It will take 30 to 45 days for the credit bureau to investigate.  If the error can not be substantiated then the information will have to be removed.  By the way, the remove of the negative information does not automatically increase your credit score.  It may take as long as 60 to 90 days before the removal of the negative information will affect your credit score.

There are two additional facts that you need to know to be successful with getting a mortgage.

The first thing is that the mortgage company uses all three credit bureaus’ scores to create what the mortgage industry terms as a tri-merge.  Once the tri-merge is compiled the mortgage company uses your middle or median score to determine your eligibility for the mortgage.  This is the reason it is important to get a copy of all three credit bureau’s report.

Another fact that you need to know is that shopping around for a mortgage lowers your credit score, so take a copy of your credit report with you to prevent the reduction in credit score.  If the mortgage professional is not willing to use your copy of the credit report to give information about what products or mortgages they have to offer find another mortgage professional to work with that will.  Once you are happy with the product or mortgage allow the company to pull your credit report and begin the process.

However, before you finalize your choice in products please read tomorrow’s post to find out the difference between fixed and adjustable rate mortgages.

Related articles on credit

• Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion: How Credit Reporting Agencies Use Social Media (ariwriter.com)
• Go Direct To Credit Bureaus for Credit Score (bargaineering.com)
• 5 Ways To Kill Your Credit Scores (creditra.blogspot.com)
• A Free Credit Score Followed by a Monthly Bill (nytimes.com)
• How to Improve a Good Credit Score (bargaineering.com)

• SEO Report Payment SEO Report Payment. To complete your payment for your affordable SEO Report, please fill in the fields below with your Website Address and Keyword information click on the Add To Cart button and enter in your payment amount. Keep in mind that we will still customize your report based on......
• Money Mistake Monday - The Closing Credit Card Accounts Syndrome. I will admit right off the bat that a lot of people with credit problems will disagree with me on this one, in that they think the best thing to do with a credit card account is to close it immediately when you are done paying it off. And while......
• Beacon Credit Score? What's That And How Does It Relate To FICO? A person's credit score can make the difference between getting a lower interest rate on a loan or having to pay a higher interest rate that can cost several thousand dollars over the life of the loan. What's A Beacon Credit Score? The Beacon Credit Score, distributed by the credit......
• Settlement Gives Everyone Free Copies Of Their Credit Report & Score. If you have already used up your free credit reports for 2008 (I have one more to use in the last quarter of the year), a settlement of a class-action lawsuit that was filed against Transunion lets you get your report and your score, as often as you want, for......
• Credit Law Repair "Firm" Allegedly Steals Money & Causes Customer's Credit Scores To Drop! "Credit law repair 'firm' did nothing for me but steal my money month after month and drop my scores from where they were," complains Marcia S. of Orlando, FL. Unfortunately, Marcia is not alone in her disgust with credit (dis)repair companies. According to Marcia, Lexington Law Firm is the most......

Image via Wikipedia

There are challenges in every family, even if you are a celebrity.   Here are some of those challenges from around the blogosphere:

Jean Smart Announces Adoption of Daughter Bonnie – Celebrity Baby …

I’m very close to 58 and while choosing to parent a toddler would not be my choice at this age, if I had to or wanted to, I could. And I’d not only do a great job, I would have every expectation that I could continue to do a great job until … With both Jean and Richard at the cusp of 60 years old, a mileston that eliminates them from the normal adoption pool (the age limit is 50 plus you can’t be single, gay, obese, or poor), my bet is the child has “special physical or …

What’s a Prenup Worth? Tiger Woods (And We) Will Find Out …

But as so often, highly visible celebrity dramas are not just entertaining, they are also free education for the rest of us. If there is a prenup, can it be challenged? And if so, what is the best way to do it. Sit back, relax and enjoy the show (sorry Elin, we are entirely with you, but this is just what it is.) You can already find plenty of lawyers talking about who might get what on Google News or  morning TV shows. …. Single Parent Gossip Lifecasters …

Celebrity Single Parent - Oct 23,2009

What is it like to be a single parent and be a celebrity? Kim & Eddie talk to  celebrities who are raising their children under the watchful eye of the public and the media. Find out how they try and maintain a normal life while being a …

<a href=”http://www.singlemomsguidetoeverything.com/2009/12/celebrity-single-mom-bridget-moynahan.html”>The Single Moms Guide to Everything: Celebrity Single Mom Bridget …</a><p>As most of the people who commented on Hilton’s blog post noted, he knows nothing about being a single parent or the dynamics of co-parenting and perhaps should have just kept the drama-rama to himself. Kudos to Bridget for attempting …</p>

Related articles  on celebrity single parenting

• the two-income myth (bripblap.com)
• Jean Smart Says Adoption ‘Took a Lot Longer’ Than Expected (celebrity-babies.com)
• Alexis Hutchinson, Single Mom, Charged By Army For Refusing Deployment To Care For Infant Son (huffingtonpost.com)

• Top-Ranked Federer, Williams Win Singles Trophies at Australian Open The top ranked players in both men's and women's tennis took home the trophies at the 2010 Australian Open. Roger Federer won the men's singles competition after losing there last year to Rafael Nadal, the number 2 ranked player who dropped out of the Aussie open this year because of......
• Bodybuilding.com Personal Trainer Guide I was just searching around the net and I cam across the "Bodybuilding.com Personal Trainer Program". This is a free site that contains a great deal of information about setting up a program to help you meet your fitness goals, whether building muscle, losing weight, sexual health, aging gracefully or......
• Martinez Marina, Martinez, CA Martinez Marina is located in: Martinez, CA Phone: 925.313.0942 Average water depth: The average depth at this marina is 6 feet. However, this can change. We recommend contacting the marina ahead of time before you arrive. Is there a marine standby channel? Yes, the marina monitors Channel 16 and you......
• Adoption Corruption 8) For AP's--Join online groups... 8) For AP's--Join online groups like Adoption_Agency_Research and learn and participate. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Adoption_Agency_Research/ (The Adoption Agency Research Group was formed to help prospective adoptive parents (PAPs) in their research and selection of an international adoption agency. If you have already completed an adoption, please share your experience with us! This group......
• Best Products for Healthy Fingernails In tough economic times, one of the first things that have to go is the sweet indulgences like our spa appointments. Luckily, you can keep on pampering your hands with a manicure that is wallet friendly and absolutely wonderful. Here are some tools that you absolutely need to have to......

Image by Beverly & Pack via Flickr

Dating maybe a touchy subject when you are a single parent.  Here are some tips from around the blogosphere to help you through this subject:

<a href=”http://www.datingsecretsforyou.net/2009/12/dating-tips-if-you-are-a-single-parent/”>Dating Tips If You Are A Single Parent</a><p>Single parents face many other challenges than those who are just single and dating. Single parents may feel apprehensive when beginning to date. For those who have already taken the plunge into dating; some single parenting tips to …</p>

Single Parent Dating: Safety Tips

Online dating can be an intimidating world, In order to keep the process of meeting new people light and fun, here are some basic tips to protecting yourself. 1. Single Parent personals are the starting place for people looking for …

Single Parenting - Raising an Emotionally-Strong Child | Parents …

They have finally been introduced to the man that their mother is dating, but they prefer to call him her “friend” and not her “boyfriend.” To them, boyfriend is just too serious of a term to be using. Further tips on single parenting …

Single Parent Dating Tips - Dating Advice For Single Parents

Single parents also need their own time. Explore the article to know single parent dating tips and advice.

children/”>Four Useful Tips for Single Parents Dating with Children | Dating

Whatever the reason is, you have found yourself in the position of being a single parent. Not only do you have yourself to look after, you have your children to look after too. That is what makes dating with children a very different …

Related articles by Zemanta

• The Search for a Good Parenting Tip for Divorced Parents (parenting-success.com)
• Parenting - 10 Things That Will Improve Family Life (parenting-success.com)
• Single Parents: ‘In 2010, I Resolve to Help My Children Heal from the Divorce’ (deaconforlife.blogspot.com)

• Internet Marketing Tips - Work With Pleasure Online I am going to show you that internet marketing business has got its nice and dark sides. I am going to show you that you have got every possibility not to meet any mistakes. You are able to work with internet marketing just now – it is relevant and you......
• Book Review: The Natural Child - Parenting from the Heart. Book review courtesy of Derek Markham at EcoBrain.com, the only online retailer of thousands eBooks from top publishers, about the environment and environmentally friendly living, is extending a $5 account credit to all new members. Signing up for an account is FREE and there are many titles that are priced......
• Guest Post - Do Your Senior Parents Need Help With Their Finances? This article was written by Matthew Paulson of Getting Green, who was nice enough to write an article for me to post while we are on vacation. If you enjoyed this article, be sure to check out some of his other articles. Eventually there becomes a point in everyone's life......
• Weekly Round-Up: Runaway Cat Yeah, last Friday our cat ran away. He's never done this and I was scared that he'd get hit by a car. The good news is that he's now back in the apartment and he's alright. Thanks to my sweet husband and all the help from my Twitter buddies. We had......
• Beginning Coin Collecting If there are people in your life who you think would enjoy beginning coin collecting, then there are some great resources that can help. Many websites assist parents and friends of those who are interested in beginning coin collecting to learn the basics about coins and what's available. Once a......

Image via Wikipedia

It is important to me to have a healthy self sustaining son; therefore, I feel it is important to teach him about money management now.  I started teaching him about finances by explaining to him about the importance of saving money.  He has a saving account that he is very proud of.

Even though I taught him about the importance of savings I knew there was so much more that he and I could learn about finances.  I would have to admit that for both our sakes I will have to conquer my compulsive spending hablits first in order to make us both financially free.  Therefore, I am trying to learn the information my finacee’ knows about stocks, mutual funds, bonds, and money market accounts.  She has a vast amount of information she has given me.  In addition, she recently, introduced me to some sources where my son and I can learn more.  Those source are Black Enterprise, Money Magazine, and the local newspaper’s business section.

Once, she challenged me to pick a stock from the paper and watch it performance to determine if it was a good investment.  She pointed out that a good investment would be a commodity, something a person needs no matter what the economy is doing.

I plan to do this activity with my son this summer.

Other tips I learned from Black Enterprise Magazine were:

• teach your child the basic terms of investing
• stick with companies that the child is familiar with like McDonald’s , Nike, etc.
• try programs that allow the individual to purchase directly from the company like (DRIP) programs
• encourage your child to do experiments like the one above and to read up on investing his or her self
• find and send your child to investment camps

Related articles  on money management

• Money Market Mutual Funds As an Alternative to Savings (kenyantykoon.wordpress.com)
• Where should I invest? (shabbir.in)
• 5 Reasons To Dump Your Strict Budget (frugaldad.com)
• Kick your budget into shape (money.cnn.com)
• How To Invest A 401(K) In Cash (savingcashtips.com)
• 10 Financial Resolutions For The New Year (businesspundit.com)

• U.S. Currency Bills, Bank Notes, Credentials in Finance Fun With U.S. Currency Bills I thought this was fun. In case these pics weren’t clear, these are $5, $10, $20 and $50 bills aligned against the buildings that are seen on each note. Quick trivia question: do you know which buildings these are? Source: Reddit For more cool currency......
• Things To Be Aware Of About Forex Training Courses Forex market is inevitably connected with the forex training. It is especially vital for the individual traders. There are many people who are trying to make their way on the forex market but cannot succeed in the forex trade because of lack of trading skills and knowledge. In order to......
• Forex: Becoming A Successful Trader Forex market experienced an increased interest from many people in the world as one of the alternative ways to make money in the times of economic hardships. Forex trading has a lot of benefits for us. One of the benefits is that you can trade 24 hours a day, which......
• Finding A Quick-Money Formula For Making Money On-line Is there such thing as a quick-money formula when it comes to creating money on the net? That depends on who you ask. There are actually lots of programs accessible that claim to supply a proven strategy for obtaining wealth on-line, however most of them will leave neophyte marketers scratching......
• Ways Of Learning Forex Trading If you want to start making money with Forex trading, you should first learn as much information about this market as possible. But, you shouldn’t just learn. You also have to use your obtained knowledge and put them into action to practice your trading skills. Just learning the theory is......

Image via Wikipedia

The latest news about single parenting tips from around the blogosphere:
Dating with Children – 4 Tips To Guide Single Parents

Keeping these two things in mind will make a huge difference in your dating experiences as a single parent. So what are some other tips for dating with children? * Keep your children safe psychologically and physically – by keeping your …

How Singles Can be Stay-at-Home Parents: Tips for Unmarried Moms …

Being a stay-at-home parent can be tough financially for many but it’s even more challenging for single parents. However, it is possible for single parents to be home.

How to Make Single Parenting a Little Easier

Single parents are parents that care for their children without assistance from others in the home, though legal definitions may vary according to local laws of.

Helpful Hints For New Moms - Tips For New Mother - Advice For New …

… Tips for packing the bag for delivery, tips for parents, tips for reading to your child, tips for returning to work after maternity leave, tips for single moms, tips for skin and hair care for new moms, tips for work at home moms …

Tips for Step-parents : blended family soap opera

In January, Blended Family Soap Opera will officially change our name to Today’s Modern Family because some of our families are blended, step, single parent or same sex parent households, and we all can be classified as today’s modern …

Related articles by Zemanta

• Common Mistakes While Parenting Children (parenting-success.com)
• Parenting Plan Considerations (parenting-success.com)
• Promising Parenting Discoveries Revealed by Mental Health Practitioner (prweb.com)
• SpendDayWithKids.com - Make Your Kids Happy (killerstartups.com)

• Earn Passive Cash Flow Working At Home Successfully - The Crucial First Online Home Business Step There is nothing I enjoy more than helping driven folks to successfully make money from home. Succeeding as a home business owner myself, I know the life changing benefits when someone can successfully start a home business, and I enjoy seeing others make lasting changes in their life as well.......
• Three Reasons to Swim for Improved Mental Health We all are aware of the physical benefits of swimming - all it takes is a gander at the 2008 American Olympics swimming team to understand what swimming can do for you physically. In addition to become more toned and lean, physical exercise in the pool decreases stress on the......
• Work At Home Business Opportunity - Reasons Why You Should Pick It Needless to say that this economic recession has been very hard for the a large amount of folks. During these tough period a colossal amount of persons have lost their homes or foreclosed on by the bank. It should be as well mentioned that the amount of jobless persons......
• How to Learn from Your Competitors to Build a Better Corporate Blog Sometimes it can be pretty tough to get inspiration for a new corporate blog. You may understand that you need one, but you’re not quite sure where to start. There’s an easy way that you can put together a plan for your own blog and it will only take a......
• Telecommuting – How It Differs from a True Work at Home Opportunity The Internet is full of work at home get rich quick schemes, all promising big bucks with very little effort and time. The truth is that yes, there are many great opportunities that really do work. However, they are not the ones with all of the hyped up ads promising......

My son and I

As a parent it is easy to get overwhelmed by life and all its challenges; however, even with all its challenges I often find myself reflecting on my role as a parent.  As a single father, it is difficult and almost impossible not to allow life to bring you down.  Therefore, I find joy in remembering the joy my son brought me the first time I laid my eyes on him.  You see, he was born pre-mature and had a lot of challenges his first year in the world, but if he could find the strength to make it, through the grace of God, then I can too.

My handsome son is not only a fighter, but he is smart, bright and loves a challenge.  He loves his war video games and pizza like any kid, but he brings wisdom and an understanding that is beyond his years.  He still shocks me with the things he understands.  He is a very forgiving son, and that is great, but I do my best to do my best for him.  So my challenge to you is that you remember the joy that your child brings to you when the day is not going as planned or that car cut you off, because there is always one person who is  counting on you or will always be in your corner and that is your child.

Related articles on parenting

• Promising Parenting Discoveries Revealed by Mental Health Practitioner (prweb.com)
• There Are Responsible Parents Out There [True Story] (kotaku.com)

• Darcy & Elizabeth: Finding New Aspects of Their Characters to Explore by Abigail Reynolds, guest blogger and author of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy: The Last Man in the World Darcy and Elizabeth are wonderful characters for variations because Jane Austen leaves so much unsaid and unexplored about them.  Depending on which passages you choose, you can form very different impressions of......
• 10 Top Relationship Tips What's the key to a successful relationship? Some might think that's the million dollar question. Sometimes it's just the simple things, that we easily forget or think are unimportant that  hold the key to a healthy and happy relationship. Read through the helpful tips below on how to make your......
• When you die, the only thing you can take with you is love, by Jerry Hart One week after Patrick Swayze's death, I keep hearing him in my head. He said in his last interview, "The only thing you can take with you when you die is love."  If you're living your life completely on purpose, present, and deliberate, then you're probably motivated to make everything you do very special. Let......
• How I Hear the Father Speak to Me Unless you’re taking a test and the Teacher is silent, the Father is always speaking. It’s up to us to learn how He’s speaking in this season, or else we may just miss it. Job 33:14 says – For God speaks time and again but a person may not......
• Bass Instruments: The History of the Bass Guitar Instruments teach the people who use them a great deal. For playing an instrument, you can have your first example of love without need of love in return from a person loving their instrument, you can learn notes and patience and many other valuable lessons, some of which have to......