Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum silenced many critics during the 2024 NBA playoffs.
July 2024
All-Star Game starting pitchers, Rece Hinds is smashing, the door is open for the Boston Red Sox
Jake Mintz & Jordan Shusterman talk about who should be the starting pitchers for the 2024 MLB All-Star Game, the Reds getting an impact from Rece Hinds, the Mets making a trade and the Boston Red Sox having a door of opportunity.
Jaylen Brown posts cryptic response after being passed up for Team USA in favor of Celtics teammate Derrick White
Jaylen Brown is a Finals MVP, but he’s not an Olympian.
Why a 40-Year (or Longer) Mortgage Is a Terrible Idea
The dream of home ownership has never been more challenging in this country—home prices are soaring and interest rates are at the highest point in more than a decade. And even if you manage to find a strategy that lets you consider buying a house within your budget, the reality of home ownership is that it’s really expensive. Buying the house is step one—paying for that house is steps two through 360 (monthly mortgage payments).
Getting those mortgage payments down to a more manageable level has sparked the rise of “non-qualifying” (NQ) mortgages with longer terms (they’re “non-qualifying” because they don’t fit within the guidelines set out by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and thus don’t qualify to be sold to Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae). Most “conforming” mortgages have 7-, 15-, or 30-year terms, but NQ mortgages offer 40-year terms—or even longer, in some cases. Just like with a car loan, a longer term translates into lower monthly payments, so these NQ mortgages might seem like a way to work a home purchase into your tight budget.
Most 40- or 50-year mortgages are the result of modifications of existing loans, but it’s possible to find one for the purchase of a home. This isn’t a great idea, though, because of math.
Why a 40-year mortgage is a bad financial choice
At first glance a 40- or 50-year mortgage might seem like a good option. Lower monthly payments? Yes, please. But when you crunch the numbers, the benefits are actually kind of small compared to the downside.
Say you’re looking to get a loan to buy a home that costs $400,000. You have $80,000 to put down as a deposit (yay for you!), so you need to borrow $320,000 to buy the place (we’ll ignore closing costs, insurance, and other expenses in this example). If you go with a traditional 30-year fixed-rate loan at an interest rate of 7%, your monthly payment would be $2,128.97 and the total cost of the mortgage will be $766,428.47, so you wind up paying $446,428.47 in interest (assuming you never refinance or sell the place).
If you opt for a 40-year mortgage at the same 7% rate, your monthly payment drops to $1,988.58—but the total cost of the loan balloons to $954,518.45—and you wind up paying a whopping $634,518.45 in interest, or $188,089.75 more. If you somehow finagle a 50-year mortgage from someone, your monthly payment becomes $1,925.40, and your total cost will be $1,155,241.83, $835,241.83 of which would be interest. That’s nearly $400,000 more than the 30-year mortgage.
When you look at the numbers like that, it’s pretty clear that the monthly payment is only marginally smaller, but your overall cost skyrockets.
Other problems with the 40-year mortgage
The extra cost is the main downside of a 40- or 50-year mortgage, but even if you’re okay with that tradeoff there are some other negatives to consider:
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Lack of choice: Another reason to avoid 40- or 50-year mortgages is the limited selection of lenders. Because these are non-conforming loans, a lot of banks and other lenders don’t offer them—there’s higher risk for them. They’re out there, but instead of shopping around for the best deal, you might find yourself stuck with the one lender willing to work with you on the mortgage terms.
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Higher rates: Another downside is that these loans often carry higher interest rates, because they’re riskier and it takes a lot longer for the lender to get their money.
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Slow equity: Paying off your mortgage increases the amount of the house you actually own—your equity. If you put down 20% when you bought the place, you’re starting off with 20% equity and building from there. While most mortgages are structured to pay more money to interest at first, you’re usually building equity relatively quickly as you pay down the principle of the loan—typically you’ll have significant equity after 5-10 years of steady payments. But with a 40- or 50-year mortgage, this process is a lot slower—lower monthly payments mean less equity being built every month.
If you can’t seem to make your budget work for a traditional 30-year mortgage, the reduction in monthly payments might make a longer mortgage seem attractive. It’s only an option if you’re okay with paying hundreds of thousands of dollars more for the home and working with a very limited number of lenders, or if you have a solid plan to refinance very quickly and just want the lower payments for a short while.
You Can Use Spotify Entirely From the Command Line
Spotify might be the least keyboard-friendly music player ever made. I spend so much time clicking around in this application when I’m trying to find something to listen to and it all just feels so…slow. That’s why I love spotify-player, which goes to the extreme the other way. It’s a complete interface for Spotify that you control entirely from the command line.
Yes, I realize this is ridiculous. I’ve been trying it out for a couple of days hoping to write a joke article but I’ve found myself actually using it. And I was going to list all the things you can do in Spotify’s desktop app that you can’t do in spotify-player, but after using it for a few days the only thing I’ve noticed is that podcasts and audiobooks aren’t offered (which is, to me, a plus) and I can’t get the AI DJ to launch. Everything else—creating and managing playlists, radio stations, browsing or searching for playlists—works, if you put the time in to figure it out. If something else is missing I haven’t found it.
This application requires a Spotify Premium account and works on Mac, Windows, and Linux. To install and use it, you’re going to need to be at least a little bit comfortable with the command line. The simplest thing to do is to grab a binary—on Windows you can just launch it directly and it will open, which is an easy way to try it out. On Mac I recommend installing it using Homebrew, which is a tool any Mac user who is interested in this app should probably have set up anyway. (Linux users know more than I do about how to install this on their operating system so I won’t attempt a clumsy summary—you’ve got this.)
After getting the application installed and running, you will be asked for your Spotify username and password. Provide that and you will be brought to your Spotify library.
Credit: Justin Pot
You can use the arrow keys to go up and down inside a list and the tab key to switch between lists. Hit enter to open a playlist, album, or artist, then hit enter to play a specific song. It’s all extremely speedy, which I love.
Are you looking for the searoch? You can press G then S. From here you can search—the results will be spread across four lists—tracks, albums, artists, and playlists. Again, you can use tab to switch between these lists.
Credit: Justin Pot
Open an artist and you’ll see their top tracks, albums, and related artists. The more you use this the more you realize that it gives you access to everything Spotify does in just a few keystrokes.
There are a lot more keyboard shortcuts—way more than I could break down here. You can type a question mark from anywhere in the user interface to see a complete list; you’ll get a handle on it faster than you think.
2024 MLB Draft: Top 50 player rankings
Here are the top 50 high school and college prospects most likely to hear their names called on Sunday in Forth Worth, Texas.
NBA finalizes TV contract with ESPN, NBC and Amazon, but TNT still in the game: Report
According to The Athletic, TNT Sports is still working to match and could target the Amazon package.
USDA Announces $100 Million Investment to Help Families Buy Food for Their Children During Summer Months
WASHINGTON, July 10, 2024 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced it is providing $100 million in grants to help states, Tribal Nations, and U.S. territories implement SUN Bucks – a new, permanent program that helps families buy groceries for their children during the summer.
Team USA camp: Kawhi Leonard decision not surprising; Bam Adebayo still irked about DPOY
No one seems truly surprised by Kawhi Leonard’s decision to pull out of the Olympics and focus on the upcoming NBA season.
Step inside Team USA camp: Was Kawhi ever really ready to go?
No one seems truly shocked by Kawhi Leonard’s decision to pull out of the Olympics and focus on the upcoming NBA season.