Читать книгу Home Buying Kit For Dummies - Eric Tyson - Страница 38

Just because borrowing on credit cards bears a high cost doesn’t mean that all credit is bad for you. Borrowing money for long-term purposes can make sense if you borrow for sound, wealth-building investments. Borrowing money for a real estate purchase, for a small business, or for education can pay dividends down the road. Note: The amount that you borrow should be reasonable in comparison to your income and ability to repay.

When you borrow for investment purposes, you may earn tax benefits as well. With a home purchase, for example, home mortgage interest and property taxes are generally tax-deductible (as we discuss in Chapter 3).

If you own a business, you may deduct the interest expenses on loans that you take out for business purposes. Interest incurred through borrowing against your securities (stock and bond) investments (through so-called margin loans) is deductible against your investment income for the year.

In fact, you can even make wise use of short-term credit on your credit cards to make your money work harder for you. For example, you can use your credit cards for the convenience that they offer, not for their credit feature. When you pay your bill in full and on time during each monthly billing cycle, you’ve had free use of the money that you owed from the credit-card charges that you made during the previous month. (See Chapter 5 for details on how to use your positive credit experiences to obtain the best possible mortgage.)

If retirement isn’t one of your goals, terrific! Should you want (and be able) to continue working throughout your 60s, 70s, and 80s, you don’t need to accumulate the significant savings that others must in order to be loafing during those golden years. But counting on being able to keep working throughout your lifetime is risky — you don’t know what the job market or your personal health may be like later in life.