Personal Finance guide

CALGARY, ALBERTA–(Marketwire – Nov. 5, 2009) – PENN WEST ENERGY TRUST (TSX:PWT.UN) (NYSE:PWE) is pleased to announce its results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2009

Corporate Strategy

- Penn West continued to focus on positioning the company to move from a trust to a corporate model prior to the end of 2011. In the future we will primarily use a combination of organic growth and dividends to provide a return on capital that will position us with the other senior independent North American oil and gas producers. Prior to the conversion to an exploration and production corporation, we will continue our focus on the advancement of our large scale resource plays within our existing suite of assets. As our results to date are promising, we will allocate a greater portion of our 2010 capital budget to drilling horizontal multi-stage frac wells within our oil resource plays. Our aim is to apply this technology to increase production and reserves from these large resources with a particular near-term emphasis on those plays that focus on crude oil, such as Waskada, Dodsland, Pembina and Leitchville. This will greatly expand our inventory of locations with a focus on reducing risk, while providing the type of scale necessary to move the company forward.

Operations

- Third quarter production averaged 178,124 (1) boe per day and was weighted 59 percent to oil and natural gas liquids.

- Production for the first nine months of 2009 averaged 179,600 boe per day which is at the higher end of our guidance of approximately 175,000 to 180,000 boe per day. During the first nine months of 2009, Penn West had net dispositions of approximately 3,000 boe per day.

- Crude oil and NGL production averaged 104,583 barrels per day and natural gas production averaged approximately 441 mmcf per day in the third quarter of 2009.

- Development capital expenditures were $171 million in the third quarter of 2009 or $142 million net of $29 million of net asset dispositions. In the quarter, we drilled a total of 36 net wells, including 29 horizontal multi-stage frac wells, with a success rate of 100 percent.

Continue reading ‘Its Results for the Third Quarter Ended September 30, 2009’ »

Online bookkeeping services and virtual assistants are an outsourcing strategy that can be used to gain competitive advantage. As a result, they have shot to prominence and firms of various sizes are utilizing them. The most recent recession has made businesses more prudent about how they spend their operating budgets making virtual assistants a hot commodity.

How exactly does using an online bookkeeping service help crush the competition? Paying as low as $5 per hour for online bookkeeping services vs. the typical $30,000 for an in-house bookkeeper yields tremendous cost savings for a small business. A small business owner can use the money saved to (a) beat the competition with lower prices for products and services, (b) invest in additional advertising to outgrow the competition, and (c) prepare better strategic plans.

Continue reading ‘Outsource bookkeeping services to crush your competition?’ »

Keeping good financial records has its payoff. In fact, it’s one of the key steps in building a good, and more importantly, successful business. Accurate bookkeeping makes it possible for a business owner to determine the exact financial condition of his company. More significantly, accurate bookkeeping from a small business is often the first step into the realm of top competitors in the ever changing market place.

Large and medium-sized companies have the resources to form an internal accounting department to do the books, which gives management enough time to do the more important parts of business management like formulating marketing strategies and creating new networks. But for small businesses who have limited budget and number of staff members, monthly bookkeeping just seems like such a daunting task, especially if you add it to the list of other duties to keep everything running.
Fortunately, small business bookkeeping doesn’t have to be so grueling anymore. Monthly bookkeeping services are now available online and are quite affordable. This cheap yet effective means of bookkeeping provides the same efficiency and accuracy a private accounting firm gives its clients. Online bookkeeping is a practical way for small businesses to get to where they want to be, when they want to. It’s like professional bookkeeping made to-go!

Online bookkeeping is exactly like doing the books on paper except it’s done faster. It gives the small business owner the same standard set of bookkeeping reports a big company would get from an accounting firm. A basic bookkeeping report, when done correctly, should be able to answer these questions:
1. How much income are you generating every month, and how much will you be expecting in the future?

2. How much cash is under your list of receivables and when will they turn to actual cash?
3. Which of your product lines or services are bringing in the most amount of profit, breaking even, and/or draining your resources?
4. How do the data compare with last year or the last quarter?
5. How do the data compare with projections?
6. How do all these information compare with the competition? Are you leading or falling behind?

Continue reading ‘One Small Step For Bookkeeping, One Giant Leap For Your Small Business’ »

Do you have bad credit and want to refinance your mortgage? Do you owe more than your home is actually worth? Struggling to make your monthly home loan payments? Are you in foreclosure or worried about it? Then President Obamas “Making Home Affordable” plan is perfect for you. This new stimulus program offers mortgage refinancing and modification options to millions of people, regardless of their financial situation. Here is how this stimulus can help you.

This plans goal is to reduce the overall number of foreclosures, help the housing market, and help millions of homeowners get an affordable monthly mortgage payment. The thought behind this program is that a homeowner will make their home loan payments, if they are affordable. That is why this program will help so many people. Homeowners who get a mortgage refinancing or modification through Obamas stimulus will not have to pay more than 31% of their gross monthly income towards their monthly home loan payment. Homeowners will get lower interest rates, a longer home loan length, or both to make payments affordable. There is even a chance that some principal on the actual loan can be reduced. This will save many people a lot of money, and their home from being lost.

Continue reading ‘New Mortgage Refinancing Stimulus Program from President Obama’ »

The New Good Faith Estimate & HUD Guidelines Effective 1/01/10

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has updated and re-released “Shopping for Your FHA Home Loan: HUD’s Settlement Cost Booklet.”

A large share of content in the 49-page publication, which helps consumers comparison-shop mortgages,
addresses the standardized Good Faith Estimate(GFE) and HUD-1 settlement statement forms that lenders must
start using on Jan. 1, 2010.

HUD estimates that consumers could save almost $700 in costs and fees per loan on average as a result
of the new requirement, which is one of several changes to the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA).

In addition to the updated literature, the agency has set up a RESPA “FAQ” section and other information
on a dedicated RESPA page so that consumers, settlement service providers and lenders can gain a better
understanding of the new rules.

Here is the location of the .pdf of the booklet that you can save or print out for your reference.
http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page/portal/HUD/documents/Settlement Booklet December 15 REVISED.pdf

Lenders are now required to provide loan applicants with the following:

?Good Faith Estimate—provided at the time of application to borrowers to outline the loan terms and
total settlement costs.

?HUD-1/HUD-1A Settlement Statements—to inform borrowers of final costs at settlement.

?Servicing Disclosure Statement—to inform the borrower whether another financial institution
may be servicing their loan.

?Settlement Cost Booklet—provided within three days of application to inform the borrower of fees
involved in home purchase settlement.

There are three categories of charges that a consumer will pay at closing. Some of the charges can change
and the Good Faith Estimate is just that ….AN ESTIMATE! Page 17 of the booklet outlines those charges that
are fixed and will not change, those that they have established a limit whereby the charges can only increase
by 10%, and those charges that have no limits. The charges that are limitless are available on the open market
and the borrow can shop for competitive rates or negotiate these charges as a condition of the contract.

Continue reading ‘The New Good Faith Estimate & HUD Guidelines Effective 1/01/10’ »

President Obamas mortgage bailout plan will help millions of people save a lot of money, their home, or both. This program will allow struggling homeowners with financial or mortgage problems to easily get a refinancing into a better more affordable monthly payment. Many homeowners will get lower interest rates, and a home loan payment that they are actually able to make. Here is how this plan works and what you need to know.

This program is designed to help homeowners even if they have bad credit, bad financial problems, no job, or owe more than their home loan is worth. This program works by lowering homeowners payments to an affordable monthly payment that is not more than 31% of a homeowners gross monthly income. This rate includes taxes, insurance, and any homeowner fees. This will be a dramatic reduction in payments for many homeowners and will allow millions of people to avoid losing their home, save a lot of money every month, or both.

To do accomplish this, the Government has set aside over $75 billion to help homeowners. Mortgage lenders and banks who are approved to offer the stimulus programs will get a cash bonus for doing so. This means that help is available even if you have been denied before, have little or negative equity in your home, want to switch loan types, or have a bad credit history. Never before has it been this easy for homeowners in all financial situations to get the help they need.

Continue reading ‘Stimulus Plan from Obama Offers New Mortgage Refinancing Options’ »

So, you’ve decided to go for a mortgage. How do you go about the process of applying, and getting the best mortgage possible? Here are our five top tips that will help you apply for a mortgage, be approved quickly, and wind up with the best terms and rate for your budget.

1. Estimate how much you can pay on a mortgage loan per month, and stick to it.
One of the first things that your lending institution will do is try and decide how much you’re able to pay each month and what your borrowing limits should be. However, it’s not the bank that’s best-able to make this decision, it’s you. When you take out a loan, you’ll need to become aware of all the various hidden or unexpected financial expenses that your lifestyle and your new home will require. Therefore, don’t allow the lender to dictate to you what monthly payment you’ll be able to afford. You tell them, and stick to it. Make sure you leave room for all the important expenses, such as:

• Is your income likely to increase in the near future?

• Have you calculated all the expenses for maintaining your family, such as school costs, medical necessities, and repairs?

• Will your home require you to buy appliances and furniture, or to hire contractors to modify the home?

By making sure that you think through matters such as the above in a thorough way, you’ll help yourself. You’ll be ensuring that you take out a loan that is neither too big, nor too small, to handle the purchase of the home and the cost of living in it.

2. Check your credit score.
There are two reasons to continually monitor your credit score. First, you need to make sure that it’s not falling based on things you’ve forgotten about or overlooked. Secondly, you need to make sure that it’s accurate. There can be occasional gaps in reporting that can result in faulty information that might affect your credit score without your knowledge. There are several factors that can occasionally result in inaccurate credit reports and credit scores. Check your credit score; check the math, check the codes and statuses that are shown for your closed accounts, and check the payment history to make sure that it doesn’t contain inaccurate reports of late payments.

One common mistake is that credit accounts will be reported as charged off or abandoned by the creditor, when, in fact, you closed it willingly with a positive balance. All of these mistakes will damage your credit score, and, as a result, damage your ability to take out a mortgage.

You can communicate directly with the credit reporting agencies in order to correct these mistakes. They will usually be more than happy to help you work out where they went wrong.

Continue reading ‘Five Simple Steps for Applying for a Mortgage’ »

0 APR credit card APR, cash back and optional rewards etc. are several reasons for any one to opt for a good credit card. They are also a useful and a smart way to meet ones financial needs. Most of the credit card companies offer most attractive features to lure their customers.

These credit card companies offer 0 APR credit card for several reasons and in several manners. Many cards offer 0 APR credit card for first six months and after the introductory period is over the regular APR is applicable on any purchases made through the cards. This offer for regular period ranges from 12.49% to 15.99% on such a 0 APR credit card.

Continue reading ‘Balancing The Benefits Of Reward Programs Against Credit Card Costs’ »

Finding the best credit card after bankruptcy is not that difficult, if you know where to look and what to look for.

Let’s start by talking about secured and unsecured credit cards. When it comes to applying for a credit card after bankruptcy one question that a lot of people seem to have is: Should I apply for a secured credit card or unsecured credit card?

In case you don’t know the difference, a secured credit card is “secured” by a special savings account you establish with the credit card issuer which acts as collateral for your credit limit.

Continue reading ‘Best Credit Card After Bankruptcy – How to Find One’ »

There are hundred of home loan products available in the market to choose from, and the most important thing is that choosing interest type for the loan affordability. Most of lender offers fixed rate and floating rate for home loan.

With floating rate home loans, the monthly payment fluctuates during the entire term of the loan. This means outgoing can be unpredictable, it can be lower or higher. Floating rate can be great option when interest rate falls down, because the monthly payments will also decreases. If the interest rate goes up, the monthly payments will be higher.

Many people opt for a fixed rate home loan in the sense of financial security. For the fixed rate home loan, the interest rate and monthly repayments are fixed for a set period. It doesn’t change even if the economy of the country changes.

Budgeting the finances is also very much easier, as the borrower knows what has to be paid as monthly payment for the loan. This helps borrower in household budgeting their monthly expenditure as he know that the monthly payment will be same even when the interest rate changes.

Continue reading ‘Advantages of fixed rate home loans’ »