Personal Finance Daily: Closing on a home brings surprising costs

	Personal Finance Daily JUNE 22, 2012 Friday's Personal Finance Stories By MarketWatch Don't miss these top stories: Closing on a home brings unexpected costs Things you need to know about refinancing Home cooking isn't good for your portfolio You're getting a new home loan or refinancing. You read the good-faith estimate your lender gave you in a timely fashion. You think you know what all the costs and fees are. But on the day you go to sign those papers, you are astonished at numbers. We have two columns today that address this all-too-common complaint. Lew Sichelman, in our Realty Q&A column, says beware of banks' junk fees. Jennifer Openshaw relates how she was surprised at the costs for her no-points refi. Also on MarketWatch today, Chuck Jaffe writes about a recent study that shows how a home-state bias may be hurting your portfolio. There are times when you shouldn't be too attached to what you know best. — Anne Stanley , Managing Editor, Personal Finance Closing on a home brings unexpected costs Many of the fees lenders charge at closing are bogus, Lew Sichelman writes. Worse, perhaps, lenders have different names for their charges, so it's hard for a layman to figure out what each fee covers. And it's especially tough to compare one lender's tolls to another's. Read more: Closing on a home brings unexpected costs Things you should know about refinancing Little do you know when try to refinance a mortgage and save money, that you may be hit with a whopping bill for fees, interest and taxes. Read more: Things you need to know about refinancing. Home cooking isn't good for your portfolio More than a generation of investors has lived believing the "buy what you know" advice of legendary money manager Peter Lynch, but a new study of professional investors suggests that many are a little too focused on that advice, and that it ramps up the risks they take. Read more: Home cooking isn't good for your portfolio. INVESTING Dividend-paying stocks worth paying for More investors in search of higher yields are looking to equities to pick up the slack, but not all dividend payers are created equally. Here's how to find the best of the breed. Read more: Dividend-paying stocks worth paying for, Get used to your crummy shopping center If there's a crummy shopping center in your neighborhood, it will probably only get crummier, Al Lewis reports. Read more: Get used to your crummy shopping center Is the Death Cross the kiss of death? The Death Cross occurs whenever the 50-day moving average drops below the 200-day moving average. Read more: Is the Death Cross the kiss of death? Dump Greece, save Italy and Spain How will the euro-zone crisis be resolved? Greece may have to abandon the common currency. Spain and Italy will have to be bailed out, and Germany will have to step up big time. Read more: Dump Greece, save Italy and Spain. ECONOMY AND POLITICS China, Brazil in $30 billion-currency swap deal China and Brazil agree a currency-swap arrangement that enables each country to access up to $30 billion as part of efforts to build a financial buffer to help guard against a freeze up in global markets. Read more: China, Brazil in $300 billion currency swap. Capital controls can stabilize developing nations Nations that use capital controls to limit whipsaw flows of currency are apt to be more stable, writes Thomas Kostigen. Investors should know what the regulations are where they invest. Read more: Capital controls can stabilize developing nations. Fed helps borrowers, but savers get clobbered Less income, of course, means less money for spending, and the hit has been especially hard on retirees who are living off past investments, writes Kathleen Madigan. Read more: Fed helps borrowers, but savers get clobbered. Get the latest news on our mobile site: http://www.marketwatch.com/m MarketWatch has sent you this newsletter because you signed up to receive it. To ensure you receive this newsletter in the future, please add marketwatchmail.com to your list of approved senders. Sent to: kumaresan.selva.blogger@gmail.com Unsubscribe | Subscribe Copyright 2012 MarketWatch, Inc. All rights reserved. MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy (updated 6/26/07). MarketWatch - Attn: Customer Service, 201 California St., San Francisco, CA 94111