You did some research on the housing market and decided that you want to buy a 2 bedroom apartment in Norbrook, or perhaps after some calculations you decided that you could only manage a quad in Portmore.

How do you save to buy a home? Here are my two cents..

A Thread You have to have a savings plan in place. Mortgage companies typically have a requirement for anyone getting a loan to have a down payment of 10 – 20% of the value of the house. That can amount to a lot depending on where you want to live and what you want to buy.

RTGS, ACH, SWIFT - What are they ?

ACH, RTGS and SWIFT are payment systems that facilitate the transfer of money from one bank to another.

ACH = Automated Clearing House
RTGS = Real Time Gross Settlement and
SWIFT =Society for Worldwide Financial Telecommunications

A thread ACH – This method, facilitates payments between banks and financial institutions. Local banks can send amounts lower than J$1M only through this method. It is cheaper than RTGS and is done in batches twice per day, with cutoff times for transactions.

Payment holiday, moratorium, forbearance, loan deferral – I am sure you have been hearing all these terms in light of the Covid-19 pandemic and may not have a clue what they are. What do they mean and how could they affect you?

A thread on loan refinancing
#financetwitterJa If you currently have a mortgage, car loan, business loan, student loan, unsecured loan etc., then you may be able to seek some type of reprieve from making payments if your income has been cut or curtailed. How will taking advantage of one of these programmes affect you?

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Have you ever wondered why is it that you need to provide so many documents to operate a bank account, to apply for a loan or to do business at most financial institutions in Jamaica?

It may be frustrating, but there's a reason . A thread on KYC #FinanceTwitterJa As a Jamaican trying to access financial services for the first time, you may wonder for example why you need to show proof of income to open a bank account when you may have never worked before! Overseas the process is usually digital, simple and has little to no paperwork

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Have you been thinking about purchasing a car, but are unsure about whether to buy new or used?

Did you know a new car loses 10% of its value as soon as its driven off the lot?

Is a car an asset or a liability?

A thread

#FinanceTwitterJa The purchase of a motor vehicle is considered by many as acquiring an asset, but there is a school of thought that since a motor vehicle only depreciates in value, it can be considered a liability.

An asset is defined as “a useful or valuable thing.”
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Ever wondered what the benefits of using the NHT are or perhaps you are making NHT contributions and don’t know why or how you can get them refunded?

I don't work with/for the NHT but here are 10 benefits that I think everyone should know!

#FinanceTwitterJa
A thread 1. Lowest mortgage rates!

The NHT has rates as low as 0% for certain income groups. The highest interest rate is 5%, which is still lower than rate available in the mortgage market (about 8.15%).

You can borrow up to $6.5 Million as seen in the table below.

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What's the difference between a reducing balance loan & an add-on loan?

For a $100,000 loan at 8% over 1 year the difference is $3,600. It may not seem like a lot but stick with me to understand why you should ask the question on how interest is calculated for a loan

A thread I was recently a guest on @Earnings_Season Podcast & I spoke about the journey towards home ownership, which included everything from applying for a loan, to searching for a house to what to expect as a new home owner & my thoughts on whether or not Ja is in a housing bubble
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- Only 14% of Jamaicans have a credit card according to the Worldbank Global Findex Database.

- Credit Cards in Jamaica have interest rates averaging at 40.05% and ranging from 34% to 51.99% for Jamaican dollar cards.

A thread on credit cards in Jamaica

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#FinanceTwitterJa Jamaica's usage falls in line with its ranking as an 'Upper Middle Income' country, which means that the credit card usage is higher than many 'Low Income' countries like Haiti and lower than 'High Income' countries like the US, UK and Canada.

The graph below shows this.

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Since 2020 is rolling around I thought I would share some of the budgeting tips & templates that I use.

The key to saving is to pay yourself first! Knowing how much you can pay yourself can only be done if you have a budget.

A thread on budgeting .

#FinanceTwitterJa Perhaps you are saving towards a life goal like a wedding, a house purchase or school etc. or perhaps you just want to develop a habit of saving.

Start off 2020 with a savings plan!

Even if you only have a small amount left after you pay your expenses, start somewhere!
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Based on my calculations, one could earn over $300,000 AFTER the payment of a mortgage by listing on Airbnb (conditions apply- stay to the end).

A thread #FinanceTwitterJa

1/ In 2018, the short-stay market in Jamaica grew by 62%, attributable to the increase in Airbnb bookings from 55,000 in 2017 to 89,500 last year.

Airbnb has its advantages for vacationers (locally and abroad) & has created multiple income opportunities for Jamaican homeowners. 2/

Do you know what your credit score is? Have you ever accessed one of your free credit reports?

Imagine you applied for a loan & thought everything was ok until they said that you can't qualify because of your credit score.

Let’s talk credit reports.. A thread
#FinanceTwitterJa If you have been denied a loan because of your credit report, the most you can do is go to other financial institutions that lend to high risk customers, but you will likely pay a higher interest rate for them taking a bigger risk by lending to you.

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A thread of my threads:

I will link all new ones here to make it easier to follow: How to get a Mortgage:

https://twitter.com/MsGillyJ/status/1160154974237679617?s=19

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The NIS Benefit for persons who have retired is currently $3,400 a week or $13,600 per month. Most persons who are currently contributing to NIS would not be able to sustain their current lifestyle with that benefit because it is lower than minimum wage.

A Thread on Pension 1/ The National Insurance Scheme (NIS) is another deduction that will come out of your salary to assist with giving you an income when you can no longer work.

The current NIS deduction rate is 2.5% for employee & 2.5% for employer up to a maximum of $1.5 Million

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1.. Did you know that if you borrow $10M the difference between 7% and 8 % interest for a 30 year loan will translate to an additional $2.4 million paid in interest? Your mortgage interest rate matters.

Check out the mortgage calculator I created here: bit.ly/2YD518c 2.. Five years ago I simultaneously bought my own home and was selling my parents home on their behalf. Buying a home can seem complicated and in my search there has been no central place to explain the process in JA so here is somewhere for you to start.