Mauie Flores

Buying a house is no joke. Before we made the big decision to buy one, we initially had to make our personal financial statement so that we could assess if we could meet the financial demands of the move. It has been almost two years since we moved in and I am glad that my husband and I carefully planned our finances before we took the plunge.

Our home is mortgaged under a 30-year Pag-ibig home loan. We opted to apply for a Pag-ibig loan instead of making a bank home loan because in 2007, Pag-ibig's home loan rates were lowered so we grabbed the opportunity immediately. Also, the principal loan maker, who is my husband in our case, has the security that just in case anything happens to him or he will be disabled, the loan is considered fully paid. We opted to apply for a 30-year loan f0r the meantime to give us the chance to pay the lowest ammortization possible. We will be restructuring it to shorten the loan period once we are sure that our finances can handle a more expensive monthly loan payment. Oh, another benefit of having a Pag-ibig loan by the way is that the member gets to enjoy a bigger dividend come retirement. This is another one of the agency's move to encourage members to loan from them.

I am not sure how home loans work in foreign countries. Here's a site though for readers in the States. Compare home mortgages online at Amerisave, the nation's fastest-growing retail mortgage company. Head over to Amerisave's profile for more background information. It always pays to make a research first before making the big move. As I said earlier, buying a house is no joke at all.