by Athena Paquette | Jul 8, 2018 | Blog
July 4th was US Independence Day. This week I thought a lot about independence and what that means to me. There is of course financial independence, independence of thought, of lifestyle and living, etc. When I speak with older people, they say that losing their...
by Athena Paquette | Jul 1, 2018 | Blog
Tuesday: May housing starts were down 3.6% building with building permits down 1.8%. This news, while being a little negative, was good for rates. Wednesday: May home sales data was 0.5% lower than a month earlier. If the number had come in much higher, then that...
by Athena Paquette | Jul 1, 2018 | Blog
A client followed my advice 2 years ago and bought property (a duplex) in the Miami area. Her first investment property! She only had $40,000 to invest, so SoCal was out of the question. We focused on Miami because I have a team built up out there. She bought a duplex...
by Athena Paquette | Jul 1, 2018 | Blog
This week I was thinking about what it takes to go from where you are to where you want to be. I thought back to times where I wanted to reach a goal so bad that I was willing to do anything. I can be pretty “black and white”, which in this case is good, because I...
by Athena Paquette | Jul 1, 2018 | Blog
Tuesday the CPI or consumer price index was up 0.2% with the core rate up 0.2% which was benign news. Wednesday was a busy day: the May PPI or producer price index was up more than expected, jumping 0.5% on higher field costs but the core rate was up only 0.1%. The...
by Athena Paquette | Jul 1, 2018 | Blog
A longtime client (did her first loan in 1992) called me to see if she could get a HELOC converted to a fixed rate (I actually got 3 such calls this week cause of the fed raising the rate) or should she refi. I said it’s cheaper if her current HELOC lender would just...
