Mortgage Loan Basics – Interest Only Loans, Pay Option ARM
Mortgage Loan BasicsTo understand loans and mortgages we need to understand loan limits first. If your loan amount exceeds the amount below, you will qualify for a Jumbo Loan, which carries higher interest rate.One-Family (single family homes) $417,000Two-Family(duplex) $533,850Three-Family (triplex) $645,300Four-Family (fourplex) $801,950FIXED Loans:30 Year Fixed Mortgage RatesThis loan program is fixed for 30 years. Your interest rate will not change for 30 years. This is ideal for people who plan to stay at their present property for a long period of time.20 Year Fixed Mortgage RatesFixed for 20 years. Your payment will be higher than 30 year fixed loan because your loan term is only for 20 years. Interest rate will not change for 20 years.15 Year Fixed Mortgage Rates15 year fixed loan has a loan term of 15 years and will not change during this period. Your monthly payment on this loan program will be much higher than 20 years fixed or 30 years fixed. Use this loan program if you plan to sell your home in 5-8 years. Interest rate will not change for 15 years.ARM (Adjustable Rate Mortgage)ARM Loans are fixed for a certain period of time, where after that period ARM loan becomes an adjustable loan. How do they work?Each ARM Loan Program has these options:1) Index: Most common index-LIBOR2) Margin: Is given to you by your lender, and it is the difference between the index rate and the interest charged to the borrowerFor example 5/1 ARM. This loan is fixed for 5 years after which in 6th year it becomes an adjustable loan. Your loan officer will tell you what your index is and what your margin is. Usually 5/1 arm is tied to 1-year treasury index and margin is around 2.00%-3.00%Your index + margin = Fully Index rate. Your new note rate (interest rate) after 5th year.What about the 6th year? What would your payment be?Let’s say that your loan officer told you that your margin is 2.5% with 1 year treasury index. You will have to look up 1 year treasury index for a specific month.1 year treasury as of Oct.2005 is 4.18, and you know that your margin is 2.5%. Therefore you new interest rate is 1 year treasury 4.18% (index) + 2.5% (margin) = 6.68% for the beginning of 6th year.Index rate are move on monthly basis, therefore your payment may fluctuate each month. In most cases banks wills end you a statement advising you that your rate will change.3) To protect consumers from high index rates, lenders implemented a CAPS.An example of this is a 2/6 cap, which allows the interest rate on your ARM loan to go up or down by no more than two percent every adjustment period, and has a total limit of six percent for cumulative changes. Therefore a 2/6 cap on a 5% ARM will allow a maximum rate (6 + 5%) of no more than 11%.In some cases you will see 2/2/6, which means 2% adjustment with 2 year prepayment penalty and total of six percent of cumulative changes.4) With an arm you can have either a fixed rate or you can choose an Interest Only structure loan.1/1 ARM Mortgage Rates1 year ARM (Adjustable Rate Mortgage) is fixed for 1 year and in 2nd year it becomes an adjustable.3/1 ARM Mortgage Rates3 year ARM (Adjustable Rate Mortgage) is fixed for 3 years and in 4th year it becomes an adjustable.5/1 ARM Mortgage Rates5 year ARM (Adjustable Rate Mortgage) is fixed for 5 years and in 6th year it becomes an adjustable.7/1 ARM Mortgage Rates7 year ARM (Adjustable Rate Mortgage) is fixed for 7 years and in 8th year it becomes an adjustable.10/1 ARM Mortgage Rates10 year ARM (Adjustable Rate Mortgage) is fixed for 10 years and in 11th year it becomes an adjustable.Interest Only LoansFor example, if a 30-year fixed-rate loan of $100,000 at 8.5% is interest only, the payment is .085/12 times $100,000, or $708.34. This is an example of interest only payment.Each loan payment consists of Interest and Principal. Here you will be paying an interest each month and your principal will be adding to your balance, thus increasing it. You may also pay both principal and interest.If a lender offers you an Interest only Loan these loans are tied to an index just like ARM loans.MTA Index: The MTA index generally fluctuates slightly more than the COFI, although its movements track each other very closely.. 1 Month MTA ARM Mortgage Rates. 3 Month MTA ARM Mortgage Rates. 6 Month MTA ARM Mortgage Rates. 12 Month MTA ARM Mortgage RatesCOFI Index: This index rise (and fall) more slowly than rates in general, which is good for you if rates are rising but not good for you if rates are falling.. 1 Month COFI ARM Mortgage Rates. 3 Month COFI ARM Mortgage RatesLIBOR Index: LIBOR is an international index, which follows the world economic condition. It allows international investors to match their cost of lending to their cost of funds. The LIBOR compares most closely to the CMT index and is more open to quick and wide fluctuations than the COFI.. 6 Month LIBOR ARM Mortgage Rates. 12 Month LIBOR ARM Mortgage RatesPay Option ARM LoanPay Option ARM in a new loan program allowing customers to choose from up to 4 different payments. This loan program is part of an ARM, but with added flexibility of making one of the 4 payments.Your initial start rate varies from 1.000% to anywhere around 4.000%. The initial start rate is held only for one month, after that interest rate changes monthly.4 major choices are:1) Minimum payment: For the first 12 months interest rate is calculated using the start rate after that interest rate is calculated annually.Example:Loan Amount: $200,000.00Initial Rate: 1.25%Index: 3.326 (MTA as of October 2005)Margin: 2.75%Payment Cap: 7.5%Fully Indexed Rate: 6.076% (index + margin)Minimum Payment Changes:Year 1 $666.50 Minimum PaymentYear 2 $716.49 = $666.50 + 7.50%Year 3 $770.22 = $716.49 + 7.50%Year 4 $827.99 = $770.22 + 7.50%Year 5 $890.09 = $827.99 + 7.50%The Option ARM’s 7.5% payment cap limits how much the payment can increase or decrease each year, except for every fifth year (beginning in the 10th year on certain programs), when the cap does not apply. In the event your balance exceeds your original loan amount by 125% (110% in N.Y.), the payment amount may change more frequently without regard to the payment cap.Because you are paying “minimum payment” this option will defer a payment of an interest which will be added to your balance.Minimum Payment Adjustment Period: The minimum payment is usually set to 12 months, unless negative amortization limit is reached.Minimum Payment Cap: This is a limit on how much the minimum payment can change. Your payment cap will be 7.5% for the first five years. On your next payment due, your minimum payment cannot increase or decrease more than 7.5%. If it does than a loan is recast.Recast (Recasting) or re-calculating your loan is a way of limiting negative amortization (neg-am). Option ARM’s recast every 5 years. When the loan is recast, the payment required to fully amortize the loan over the remaining term becomes the new minimum payment2) Interest Only Payment: With Interest Only you will avoid differed interest, because you are paying principal and interest. If you pay only Interest or Principal your loan balance will increase because you are adding either principal payment or interest payment to your loan balance, thus leading towards Neg-Am Loan.Your payment may change on monthly basis based on ARM index (LIBOR, COFI, MTA).3) Fully Amortizing 30-Year Payment: It’s calculated each month based on the prior month’s interest rate, loan balance and remaining loan term. When you choose this option, you reduce your principal and pay off your loan on schedule.4) Fully Amortizing 15-Year Payment: It is calculated from the first payment due date.Negative Amortization Loan (Neg-Am Loan) Negative amortization loans calculate two interest rates. The first is called the payment rate the second is the actual interest rate. The true interest rate is calculated as simply the index plus the margin without periodic caps. Borrowers are given a choice of which rate to pay. Thus advertisers of negative amortization loans often refer to these loans as “payment option” loans.A loan that allows negative amortization means the borrower is allowed to make a monthly mortgage payment that is less than the interest actually owed during that month. For example, let’s say we have a $200,000 loan with an adjustable rate that’s currently sitting at five percent. Simple interest on this loan is easy to calculate. Multiply the interest rate by the loan amount and you have the annual interest of $10,000. Divide $10,000 by 12 months and the monthly “interest only” payment is $833.33 or simply here is the formula for your monthly payment for interest only loans: loan balance x interest rates / 12 = monthly payment.Now, let’s say that there’s a provision in the loan documents that allow the borrower to make a minimum payment based on a “payment rate” of four percent. So your lowest payment would be $666.67 because the “payment rate” is based upon four percent, not the actual interest rate, which is five percent.So if you make make the lowest allowable payment you are actually losing $166.67 in equity. The balance of the loan increases to $200,166.67.Exotic MortgageYou may have heard this term before. So what are they?The latest and most exotic mortgages out there include:1. The 40-Year Mortgage: This is similar to a 30-year fixed rate mortgage, except the payment is being stretched over an extra 10 years. The lender will charge a slightly higher interest rate, as much as half a percentage point.2. The Interest-Only Mortgage: With an interest-only mortgage, the lender allows the borrower to pay only the interest for the first so many years of a mortgage. After the grace period, the loan essentially becomes a new mortgage with the interest and principal being stretched only the remaining years. Please refer above for Interest Only Loans.3. The Negative Amortization Mortgage: This interest-only type of mortgage allows a buyer to pay less than the full amount of interest. The difference between the full interest payment and the amount actually paid is added to the balance of the loan. Please refer above for more information.4. The Piggy Back Mortgage: This is actually two mortgages, one on top of the other. The first mortgage covers 80% of the property’s value. The second covers the remaining balance at a slightly higher interest rate.5. 103s and 107s: You may not need to save for a down payment at all. You could borrow 3% or 7% more than your home is even worth. These loans give you the option of borrowing money needed for closing costs and moving costs. You can include it all in the mortgage.6. Home Equity Line of Credit: These aren’t just for those who own a home! They are commonly known as HELOCs, and they can finance an original home purchase using a credit line instead of a traditional mortgage. HELOCs are variable-rate mortgages tied to the prime rate. If you use this mortgage as your first mortgage, all of the interest is tax deductible.
How to Lower Your Student Loan Interest Rates
Refinancing student loans is a decision that approximately 2 out 3 college graduates face each year. After your graduation you have approximately 6 months to begin a repayment program of some kind for your student loans, and it is always a good idea to consider refinancing student loans as a way of reducing your monthly payments and your overall cost of the loan. You reduce your overall loan ownership cost when you find a consolidation loan that has an interest rate lower than the loans you currently have. It is important to understand the process of refinancing student loans before you set out to actually get involved in signing a loan agreement.There are a lot of reasons to consider refinancing student loans. Each loan carries its own service charge each month and consolidating those loans will eliminate the multiple service charges and bring it down to just one service charge. If you can find a consolidation loan that has an interest rate lower than the lowest interest rate of the multiple student loans you currently have, then you will lower your monthly payments as was mentioned before. A couple of interest points can make a huge difference in how much you wind up paying each month, and how much interest you are responsible for paying back throughout the life of the loans. It is possible that you graduated college with multiple loans that you have to pay back and it is just easier to have only one loan to pay versus having to administer several loans each month.The process of consolidating student loans varies depending on what kind of student loans you have. If you have loans that are guaranteed by the federal government, then there is a program you can get involved in after graduation that will allow you to consolidate those loans at the lowest available interest rate. Many students have what are called Stafford loans, and these are loans backed by the federal government. Getting a consolidation loan for government back student financing is not a difficult process, and it can be done at any bank that participates in the Stafford program. In most cases government-backed student loans do not cover the costs of going to school; so many people are forced to get private student loans. Unfortunately these loans are not backed by the federal government, and in order to consolidate these loans the student must work out a loan program with the financial institution directly.When you consolidate your student loans you have the potential to lower your monthly payments, and you make life a lot easier by only having to worry about having one loan payment as opposed to multiple loan payments. You have been accruing interest all throughout school, and depending on what kind of loan you have you may be responsible for paying that interest back as part of your student loan repayment. A consolidation could make those payments lower by offering a lower interest rate. If the numbers match up, then consolidation becomes a good choice.Sometimes the numbers do not match up and getting a consolidation loan is not a good business decision. If you secured all of your student loans back when interest rates were very low, and you are considering consolidating at a time when rates are high then a consolidation loan could cost you more than paying them off individually. It is also smart to consider the size of the loans you are looking at before you group them all together into one loan. If you take a relatively small loan and group it into a consolidation loan you have then added more interest to it and extended the amount of time it would take to pay that loan back. Look at each loan individually and determine which ones you can pay off relatively quickly, and which ones need consolidation due to the size of the loan.
Modern Financial Management Theories & Small Businesses
The following are some examples of modern financial management theories formulated on principles considered as ‘a set of fundamental tenets that form the basis for financial theory and decision-making in finance’ (Emery et al.1991). An attempt would be made to relate the principles behind these concepts to small businesses’ financial management.Agency Theory
Agency theory deals with the people who own a business enterprise and all others who have interests in it, for example managers, banks, creditors, family members, and employees. The agency theory postulates that the day to day running of a business enterprise is carried out by managers as agents who have been engaged by the owners of the business as principals who are also known as shareholders. The theory is on the notion of the principle of ‘two-sided transactions’ which holds that any financial transactions involve two parties, both acting in their own best interests, but with different expectations.Problems usually identified with agency theory may include:i. Information asymmetry- a situation in which agents have information on the financial circumstances and prospects of the enterprise that is not known to principals (Emery et al.1991). For example ‘The Business Roundtable’ emphasised that in planning communications with shareholders and investors, companies should consider never misleading or misinforming stockholders about the corporation’s operations or financial condition. In spite of this principle, there was lack of transparency from Enron’s management leading to its collapse;ii. Moral hazard-a situation in which agents deliberately take advantage of information asymmetry to redistribute wealth to themselves in an unseen manner which is ultimately to the detriment of principals. A case in point is the failure of the Board of directors of Enron’s compensation committee to ask any question about the award of salaries, perks, annuities, life insurance and rewards to the executive members at a critical point in the life of Enron; with one executive on record to have received a share of ownership of a corporate jet as a reward and also a loan of $77m to the CEO even though the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the US bans loans by companies to their executives; andiii. Adverse selection-this concerns a situation in which agents misrepresent the skills or abilities they bring to an enterprise. As a result of that the principal’s wealth is not maximised (Emery et al.1991).In response to the inherent risk posed by agents’ quest to make the most of their interests to the disadvantage of principals (i.e. all stakeholders), each stakeholder tries to increase the reward expected in return for participation in the enterprise. Creditors may increase the interest rates they get from the enterprise. Other responses are monitoring and bonding to improve principal’s access to reliable information and devising means to find a common ground for agents and principals respectively.Emanating from the risks faced in agency theory, researchers on small business financial management contend that in many small enterprises the agency relationship between owners and managers may be absent because the owners are also managers; and that the predominantly nature of SMEs make the usual solutions to agency problems such as monitoring and bonding costly thereby increasing the cost of transactions between various stakeholders (Emery et al.1991).Nevertheless, the theory provides useful knowledge into many matters in SMEs financial management and shows considerable avenues as to how SMEs financial management should be practiced and perceived. It also enables academic and practitioners to pursue strategies that could help sustain the growth of SMEs.Signaling Theory
Signaling theory rests on the transfer and interpretation of information at hand about a business enterprise to the capital market, and the impounding of the resulting perceptions into the terms on which finance is made available to the enterprise. In other words, flows of funds between an enterprise and the capital market are dependent on the flow of information between them. (Emery et al, 1991). For example management’s decision to make an acquisition or divest; repurchase outstanding shares; as well as decisions by outsiders like for example an institutional investor deciding to withhold a certain amount of equity or debt finance. The emerging evidence on the relevance of signaling theory to small enterprise financial management is mixed. Until recently, there has been no substantial and reliable empirical evidence that signaling theory accurately represents particular situations in SME financial management, or that it adds insights that are not provided by modern theory (Emery et al.1991).Keasey et al(1992) writes that of the ability of small enterprises to signal their value to potential investors, only the signal of the disclosure of an earnings forecast were found to be positively and significantly related to enterprise value amongst the following: percentage of equity retained by owners, the net proceeds raised by an equity issue, the choice of financial advisor to an issue (presuming that a more reputable accountant, banker or auditor may cause greater faith to be placed in the prospectus for the float), and the level of under pricing of an issue. Signaling theory is now considered to be more insightful for some aspects of small enterprise financial management than others (Emery et al 1991).The Pecking-Order Theory or Framework (POF)
This is another financial theory, which is to be considered in relation to SMEs financial management. It is a finance theory which suggests that management prefers to finance first from retained earnings, then with debt, followed by hybrid forms of finance such as convertible loans, and last of all by using externally issued equity; with bankruptcy costs, agency costs, and information asymmetries playing little role in affecting the capital structure policy. A research study carried out by Norton (1991b) found out that 75% of the small enterprises used seemed to make financial structure decisions within a hierarchical or pecking order framework .Holmes et al. (1991) admitted that POF is consistent with small business sectors because they are owner-managed and do not want to dilute their ownership. Owner-managed businesses usually prefer retained profits because they want to maintain the control of assets and business operations.This is not strange considering the fact that in Ghana, according to empirical evidence, SMEs funding is made up of about 86% of own equity as well as loans from family and friends(See Table 1). Losing this money is like losing one’s own reputation which is considered very serious customarily in Ghana.Access to capital
The 1971 Bolton report on small firms outlined issues underlying the concept of ‘finance gap’ (this has two components-knowledge gap-debt is restricted due to lack of awareness of appropriate sources, advantages and disadvantages of finance; and supply gap-unavailability of funds or cost of debt to small enterprises exceeds the cost of debt for larger enterprises.) that: there are a set of difficulties which face a small company. Small companies are hit harder by taxation, face higher investigation costs for loans, are generally less well informed of sources of finance and are less able to satisfy loan requirements. Small firms have limited access to the capital and money markets and therefore suffer from chronic undercapitalization. As a result; they are likely to have excessive recourse to expensive funds which act as a brake on their economic development.Leverage
This is the term used to describe the converse of gearing which is the proportion of total assets financed by equity and may be called equity to assets ratio. The studies under review in this section on leverage are focused on total debt as a percentage of equity or total assets. There are however, some studies on the relative proportions of different types of debt held by small and large enterprises.Equity Funds
Equity is also known as owners’ equity, capital, or net worth.
Costand et al (1990) suggests that ‘larger firms will use greater levels of debt financing than small firms. This implies that larger firms will rely relatively less on equity financing than do smaller firms.’ According to the pecking order framework, the small enterprises have two problems when it comes to equity funding [McMahon et al. (1993, pp153)]:1) Small enterprises usually do not have the option of issuing additional equity to the public.
2) Owner-managers are strongly averse to any dilution of their ownership interest and control. This way they are unlike the managers of large concerns who usually have only a limited degree of control and limited, if any, ownership interest, and are therefore prepared to recognise a broader range of funding options.Financial Management in SME
With high spate of financial problems contributing to the high rate of failures in small medium enterprises, what do the literature on small business say on financial management in small businesses to combat such failures?
Osteryoung et al (1997) writes that “while financial management is a critical element of the management of a business as a whole, within this function the management of its assets is perhaps the most important. In the long term, the purchase of assets directs the course that the business will take during the life of these assets, but the business will never see the long term if it cannot plan an appropriate policy to effectively manage its working capital.” In effect the poor financial management of owner-managers or lack of financial management altogether is the main cause underlying the problems in SME financial management.Hall and Young(1991) in a study in the UK of 3 samples of 100 small enterprises that were subject to involuntary liquidation in 1973,1978,and 1983 found out that the reasons given for failure,49.8% were of financial nature. On the perceptions of official receivers interviewed for the same small enterprises, 86.6% of the 247 reasons given were of a financial nature. The positive correlation between poor or nil financial management (including basic accounting) and business failure has well been documented in western countries according to Peacock (1985a).It is gainsaying the fact that despite the need to manage every aspect of their small enterprises with very little internal and external support, it is often the case that owner-managers only have experience or training in some functional areas.There is a school of thought that believes “a well-run business enterprise should be as unconscious of its finances as healthy a fit person is of his or her breathing”. It must be possible to undertake production, marketing, distribution and the like, without repeatedly causing, or being hindered by, financial pressures and strains. It does not mean, however, that financial management can be ignored by a small enterprise owner-manager; or as is often done, given to an accountant to take care of. Whether it is obvious or not to the casual observer, in prosperous small enterprises the owner-managers themselves have a firm grasp of the principles of financial management and are actively involved in applying them to their own situation.” McMahon et al. (1993).Some researchers tried to predict small enterprise failure to mitigate the collapse of small businesses. McNamara et al (1988) developed a model to predict small enterprise failures giving the following four reasons:- To enable management to respond quickly to changing conditions
- To train lenders in recognising the important factors involved in determining an enterprise’s likelihood of failing
- To assist lending organisations in their marketing by identifying their customer’s financial needs more effectively
- To act as a filter in the credit evaluation process.They went on to argue that small enterprises are very different from large ones in the area of borrowing by small enterprises, lack of long-term debt finance and different taxation provisions.For small private companies, these measures are unreliable and textbook methods for judging investment opportunities are not always useful in organisations that are privately owned to give a true and fair view of events taking place in the company.Thus,modern financial management is not the ultimate answer to every business problem including both large and small businesses.However,it could be argued that there is some food for thought for SMEs concerning every concept considered in this study. For example it could be seen (from the literature reviewed )that, financial records are meant to examine and analyse corporate operations. Return on equity, return on assets, return on investment, and debt to equity ratios are useful yardsticks for measuring the performance of big business and SMEs as well.