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mcfanely · 4 years

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The Ice Emperor and the Earth Dragon

Burdened with the knowledge that a rescue was most likely not on its way, both Zane and Cole change tact. Moving from thinking their stay in the new realm would be temporary, to being fully aware that their stay could last a lot, lot longer.

Chapter 05 - Dear Diary, 2043 words

That realisation had struck hard. Very hard.

Cole hadn't realised how much he'd been relying on their friends coming to rescue them. How the thought of a portal opening up in the sky at any moment, the same one that had spat him and Zane out was actually pushing him on.

That their brothers would come through and they'd have a ticket home.

But they'd realised that wouldn't be happening, that no rescue party was going to be coming for them any time soon, since why would they think that they'd survived a direct hit from Aspheera's staff?

Kai, Jay, Lloyd, Nya, Pixal, Wu.

What reason would they have to think that he and Zane were alive?

Cole couldn't imagine what they were going through at that very moment. They'd won the battle, the war. They'd vanquished evil, but they'd be entirely sure that it was at the cost of two friends, two brothers. A chunk of their makeshift family gone in one fell swoop. Or maybe he could in a way, with losing Zane during the battle with the Overlord. But again, and two of them?

Unfortunately, they couldn't ponder on what they might or might not be going through.

Still, they couldn't just sit around and do nothing.

Their circumstances had changed in an instant and they both knew it. They'd gone from the mindset of they had to wait, endure an unknown period of time between them arriving in the realm and them being saved by their brothers.

To being aware that they might not be coming at all. Endurance became surviving. It became the task of getting the mech working if only for the heat it could provide, the shelter or the aid it could give with going outside the cave and braving the elements. It became knowing that when exhaustion finally overtook them both at night, they'd wake up the next day, in the same cave, and repeat the process.

Routine maintained focus.

Routine was finding a source of food, or any food at all. It became firewood and a way to make a fire. They were ninja, they were trained survivalists. They had to be with the amount of times they'd been stranded. Yet, it didn't make the situation feel any less bleak.

They weren't giving up, though. Neither of them would curl up in a ball and let the world take them.

They had to believe that help would come. Be it their brothers, or from a different source.

Both Zane and Cole worked through impossible odds by keeping busy. Productive distractions, as Cole has once dubbed the process. Which was why, after what had felt like a few days, they had a good routine going.

They may have gone to sleep hungry and exhausted that first night, but by the end of the second day and after being blessed with a clear sky, Cole had found a partially frozen-over lake. Both fresh water, and food in the form of fish.

After the fourth day, they were rising with the sun in the morning, both Zane and Cole sparred together before either of them were really fully awake. They'd found wood for a fire, only it was too damp to work with and take a spark, not that they’d been able to suitably produce one.

The cave and it's shelter was probably the only reason Cole hadn't frozen to death, but they needed to amend the warmth problem quickly.

On the sixth day-- or the eighth-- Zane removed the screen from the control centre of the mech, and one of the many batteries the machine had in order to get at least something working.

He passed it down to a waiting Cole, who then situated it on the flattest surface they had in their shelter. A large and almost level rock they'd been using as a table. It was now home to an assortment of wires, jumper cables, and now a screen currently without power.

"You want to do what with this thing?" Cole questioned.

"Record a message." came the reply as Zane hopped down the mech, "I thought that we should document our findings, should anyone happen--"

"-- To come across this place and we're not here. That's smart." Cole smiled softly.

He'd been trying to keep himself upbeat over the past few days. One thing that helped was that Zane was in the same mindset. Power forwards, just keep on moving and doing and something good should come out of it.

Only, it felt like the good was still yet to come.

Or maybe the good was that Zane had stopped sparking since they'd spent a bit of time fixing his wiring. Cole wasn't the greatest with electronics, nothing compared to Nya, but he made do. Then the lump on his head had come and gone without much fanfare, so he hadn't been concussed.

They still both wore the stresses of the past couple weeks like a second skin. Their gis were ruined, oil stained and dirt tracked, ripped and frayed in parts. A part of Cole's trousers had electrical burns from stripped wiring, even. They were dishevelled, tired, but alive and keeping it that way.

And the discovery of the damaged processing unit in the mech had been a cause for celebration. They had something to look at, an actual possible reason behind the inhibited function and the fact that it just wasn't working no matter how much tinkering they both did.

It was what he and Zane were going to look at today.

That was the plan, but then they'd gotten sidetracked with removing the screen to document their progress.

Though Cole had to admit, it was a good idea.

He hooked the jumper cables up to the battery, then nearly jumped for joy when the screen flickered to life in front of them. Finally, something was going their way.

"Wow, didn't think I'd be missing technology already." Cole said, a slight smile on his face as he looked at the flickering screen. It was just a mirror image of himself, courtesy of the camera at the top of the console.

Then, Cole just stared. Stared into his own eyes on the screen. How tired he actually looked. The fact that he was in dire need of a shower that wasn't cold lake water, or new clothes that weren't representative of being pulled through a hedge backwards several hundred times over. He tugged lightly at the hem of his gi with a small frown, picking off a loose piece of dirt and flicking it away. As if that made all the difference.

"We both aren't exactly the most well kept individuals." Zane said at his left shoulder, which dragged Cole out of his stupor with a quiet chuckle.

"What gave that away? Was it the fact that I'm using my belt to keep my hair out of my face whilst I work, or the oil you didn't tell me was on my forehead?" He questioned.

"I was more focused on the twig you've had stuck in your hair since we were sparring this morning."

The noise Cole made at that reveal was a mix of an indignant huff and a sound of surprise, which really made for an unusual mix. Then he brought a hand back and started feeling through his hair. After a few seconds of fruitless searching, and the fact that Zane didn't change his expression during that time keyed Cole in on the situation.

"There's no stick, is there?" Cole raised both his eyebrows at his friend in question, and Zane's almost perfect facade broke into a smile. "You absolute-- wow, Zane, and I thought I trusted you." He laughed and lightly punched the nindroid in the shoulder, only to get the action returned to him when he turned his attention back to the screen.

Naturally, the only reaction was to grip his shoulder and give the most affronted ow he could muster.

Zane smiled, rolled his eyes, and looked at the screen too.

"I believe this would help keep up a routine." He said, shifting the subject so he wasn't risking Cole turning and returning the jovial punch a second time. Smart. "At the end of the day, we document what we did."

"Like a diary."

"Of sorts." Zane cleared his throat. "It also helps to keep track of the days here. Especially the ones where it feels like the sky does not open."

Cole just nodded slowly. The days that sometimes were hard to distinguish from the nights. When the snowstorms got so bad that they blocked out the sky, all light and severely inhibited vision. When it was hard to figure out if the day had begun, or if it was still the dead of twilight.

Keeping track of days helped to keep thoughts focused, heads on straight. There was nothing worse than losing track of time. Counting days, it was something to measure.

"I know we're both confused as to how long we've been here. And with my internal clock broken, I'm not able to keep track exactly."

Cole just shook his head and draped an arm over Zane's shoulders, giving him a sideways hug. "We can't do anything about it now. But we can document today, make our first message to an empty realm."

Zane sighed, and leant slightly into the hug, "The point of making a message is the knowledge that someone could see it."

They both looked at the screen.

It was unspoken, but if anyone actually ended up seeing these messages, they knew who they'd want it to be.

Cole blew out a heavy breath and tapped the button in the centre before Zane could tell him not to. The screen flickered once, before a small recording symbol appeared in the top left corner.

"Cole, we haven't even spoken about what we will say." Zane observed, and Cole just nodded.

Though he sort of knew, if he hadn't pressed the record button, they would have been dancing around the idea of recording a message for a while before either one of them plucked up the courage to actually go ahead and do it.

It made everything feel final, like they were accepting their situation for the long run.

Maybe that was what they needed to do?

"I know." He smiled, before turning to the screen and glancing into the camera.

"Hey," Cole said, then just closed his eyes for a moment at how stupid that had sounded.

He should have thought of what he was going to say.

"Uh-- we don't really know if there's anyone else out there. You know, anywhere. But this is a message to document the fact that we're here. Or at least, at the time of this recording, we're here." He paused, then reached over and tugged Zane fully into sight of the camera.

"My name is Cole, and this is Zane." Cole continued, then paused. It was hard to think of what should be said. What could he say? Anything that his mind was providing just felt too morbid, too much like giving up.

If you find this message, we're not here anymore.

We don't know if, by the time you're seeing this, this cave has been empty for a while.

We were counting on a rescue, but we figured out pretty early on that it might not be coming.

"We're strangers in this land." Zane took over when he noticed that Cole was floundering. "And we're trying to find our way home."

Cole just watched, still on the screen, as Zane managed to capture the situation in the best way possible. In the lightest way. Like his words were there to provide hope for whoever might end up viewing this recording, as if their personal efforts to get back home meant that in the future they could be successful.

Even when the odds were stacked against them.

"We've found it hard to keep track of days in this place, it feels like it's been a long time." They shared a glance for a second.

Cole, he was convinced they were on day eight. Zane, his guess was a little more, ten to fifteen days. It didn't narrow anything down.

"-- But we're not giving up hope."

From the beginning

Ch 04 > Ch 05 > Ch 06

AO3

#The Ice Emperor and the Earth Dragon AU #The Ice Emperor and The Earth Dragon #cole #zane #cole brookstone #zane julien #cole ninjago #zane ninjago #ninjago #lego ninjago #lego #The Ice Emperor #mcfanely writes #mcfanely aus #mcfanely

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amazingstories · 6 years

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Back in 1968, Alexi Panshin published a critical study of Robert A. Heinlein entitled Heinlein in Dimension (now available online at the link). His book had a rather odd history – you can find a one-sided account* of its story here – but it was a rather interesting overview of Heinlein’s works to that point. It does have its flaws, but – in its honour – I decided to entitle this essay Heinlein in Reflection.

First, a brief recap. Some months ago, I volunteered to do a Retro Review of Starship Troopers for Amazing Stories. Steve Davidson suggested I review the remaining two books in the three that Heinlein believed encompassed his politics; Stranger in a Strange Land and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Somewhere along the line, this turned into a review of Farnham’s Freehold and To Sail Beyond The Sunset. (Earlier, I also reviewed Podkayne of Mars, at least partly because I read a strongly negative review and felt the urge to reread the source material.) Looking back left me convinced of two things: first, Heinlein was far more diverse than his critics painted him (which became the subject of another essay) and, second, he was never as black as his critics painted him. Heinlein was, in effect, a man who was before his time and after his time, but never truly a man of his time.

Perhaps because of this, Heinlein and his legacy have been savagely attacked. The hoary old chestnuts of ‘racist’ and ‘sexist’ and ‘fascist’ have been trotted out of the stable and aimed at Heinlein, simply because Heinlein was not a man of our time. Some critics have latched on to tiny details – Meade’s lack of presence and characterization in The Rolling Stones, for example – and used it to accuse Heinlein of sexism. Others cherry-pick examples from Heinlein’s earlier works and use them to slam the author, while still others just point and shriek at Heinlein without bothering to apply any critical thought. One may argue – many do – that attacking Heinlein is attacking the roots of science-fiction itself, that the haters are motivated by spite and/or a simple refusal to accept Heinlein’s works on their own terms (The Rolling Stones is a book for young male teens; Starship Troopers is about another young man maturing). Others might point out, in response, that Heinlein lived in a world that, in many ways, was very different to ours. He saw further than most, but he still had his blinkers.

There is, if I can be blunt, an understandable tendency to assume that a writer’s characters are speaking for him, that their impulses and goals match the authors. Yet any author will tell you that that is simply wrong. An author must develop a sense of empathy, even for a fundamentally wrong character; an author must play fair with his characters, particularly the ones he doesn’t like. (Straw characters are rarely amusing, whatever the politics behind them.) Indeed, given how much Heinlein wrote, anyone who assumed that Heinlein agreed with his characters would have to believe that Heinlein suffered from multiple-personality disorder. At base, it is difficult to believe that Heinlein wanted both the worlds of Stranger in a Strange Land and Starship Troopers. They simply don’t go together. As Larry Niven put it:

There is a technical, literary term for those who mistake the opinions and beliefs of characters in a novel for those of the author. The term is ‘idiot’.”

One may think that this is a harsh judgement. And yet – looking back – critics have been happy to blame Heinlein for being what he was, a man who was born in 1907 and lived through a profound period of social and political change that, understandably, may not have sat well with him. Heinlein’s life – 1907-1988 – spanned both world wars, the cold war and all its assorted engagements, the fall of the European empires, the civil rights era and the loss of American innocence … Heinlein saw a lot. His experiences – and those of his country and world – shaped his development, as surely as my experiences shaped mine. Heinlein grew up in a profoundly unsafe world, where – eventually – the threat of nuclear annihilation arose to promise the destruction of everything he held dear; his critics grew to adulthood as the world stabilised – for a while – and the prospect of imminent death and destruction faded into the background. Heinlein never knew the safety (and immense comforts) we used to take for granted – and, in many ways, his harsh view of the universe was more practical than anything put forward today.

Looking at his career in reflection, I think it is possible to say certain things about Heinlein that shine through his books. It is, of course, impossible to say for sure, but … I think it works. (And someone else will call me an idiot. That is the way of the world <grin>.)

Heinlein was, I think, a dichotomy. Just as Stranger in a Strange Land and Starship Troopers represented, for a while, the bibles of both Left and Right, Heinlein himself was a complicated mixture of cold-blooded realist/pragmatist and hot-blooded fantasist. He knew too much about humanity – particularly men – to fully embrace the more rationalist (in the sense that their characters are rational) worldviews of some of his successors, but – at the same time – he wanted people to be better. He was aware – realistically speaking – of how society’s chains held people, particularly women and blacks, in bondage, yet he also preached of worlds where those chains had been left in the past and forgotten.

It sometimes produced odd results. Hazel Stone, of The Rolling Stones, is an engineer, yet she faced considerable resistance from men in a male-dominated field (and eventually retired to raise her son). It isn’t actually clear if she gave up or not, unlike the main character of Delilah and the Space Rigger, who kept going until she had proved herself. It is clear that she advises her granddaughter, eighteen-year-old Meade, not to go into engineering even though she has the talent – a bad piece of advice or a practical one, given that Meade would have to work hard to prove herself? (Notably, Heinlein never suggests that barring women from engineering is a justifiable attitude; an alternate view of the whole situation might suggest that Hazel’s attitude ruffled too many feathers.)

Indeed, Meade is treated as the subject of a somewhat dishonest review of The Rolling Stones, which may as well serve as a good example of attacks on Heinlein himself. At the start, she is told to stay still … which the reviewer condemns … except she’s being painted, so she has to stay still. Later on, the adults wonder if she is ‘husband-high’ – i.e. old enough to get married. Which sounds awfully sexist, except for the minor detail that she might be spending a large chunk of her early twenties on a interplanetary freighter with no eligible men – a potential problem for someone of her age (and someone who has already shown an interest in men).

Odder still, this same dichotomy between realism and fantasy shows up in Farnham’s Freehold, Heinlein’s most controversial work. Farnham himself concedes that Joe – a black man – would make a good husband for his daughter, but notes that – at the same time – he would not advise such a marriage if they’d stayed in the distant past. The problems facing men and women in interracial marriages were stupendous, at the time. Is Farnham a realist or a racist? It can be argued both ways.

Heinlein did, I think, understand men very well. His grasp of male psychology was far better than most of his successors, although his grasp of female psychology was poor. He expected people to try to be better, but – at the same time – he didn’t condemn them for being what they were. Many of his juvenile novels were successful, at least in part, because he understood what his audience actually wanted. He understood the forces that shape the male mindset and suggested ways to push them in useful directions, instead of alternatively pretending that they didn’t exist or trying to crush them. Heinlein would not, I think, have had any time for either MRA or MGTOW activists, but he would have understood them. His male characters were recognisably human, even when their adventures were set in the far future. Heinlein preached the outwards urge, the desire to go on and found a new home. Our current stagnation owes much to the lack of a frontier.

This wasn’t really true of his female characters, although one could argue that they are reflections of their times too. Podkayne is a sweetly manipulative little teenage girl who reads poorly to our eyes, simply because her society doesn’t read like a natural outgrowth of ours. It is a curious combination of post-racial attitudes mingled with old-fashioned sexism, although it is clear that Poddy’s mother was a well-respected engineer in her own right. I think, at base, Heinlein simply wasn’t good at writing women. He could and did scatter references throughout his text to women who did ‘male’ jobs, but he was a great deal weaker when it came to using them as viewpoint characters. In some ways, indeed, he paid them the odd compliment of treating them as men, once they had been freed of society’s chains. Perhaps Heinlein’s greatest failure was not anticipating the effects – positive and negative – of feminism.

But this may be because of his early life. Heinlein grew up in a world that was very different from ours in many ways, even though it had a certain superficial similarity. (Indeed, many of his early works featured a background that was basically ‘USA IN SPACE.’) Because we don’t understand his world – and his assumptions about how it worked – his critics are quick to condemn. They do not see the past as a different country, nor do they try to engage its residents on their own terms. And while there have been many steps forward – many of which Heinlein predicted – there have also been some steps backwards. One of these, I believe, is a failure to grasp that human nature doesn’t change. Or that TANSTAAFL – There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.

This theme became more pronounced throughout the later years of his writing. In Starship Troopers, Heinlein asks what right mankind has to survive. And he’s right. Why do we have a natural right to anything? The universe doesn’t give a damn about us. Heinlein had no illusions about the world. He knew that expansionist powers – Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union – had to be fought. The peace that prevailed in Europe after WW2 was not the result of natural law, but NATO’s willingness to fight (and that peace is now at an end). Superior military force was, in his view, the key to defending freedom.

Panshin argues that Heinlein’s later characters are focused on survival at all costs, while some of his other critics insist that Heinlein thought that women should have children first and only later have a career. This may be true, but … what’s wrong with survival? What is wrong with wanting one’s culture to survive? The universe rarely admits of neat and tidy solutions to anything … sometimes, you just have to grasp the nettle and fight. It’s a harsh viewpoint, in many ways, but it is true. The universe, like I noted above, simply doesn’t care.

There are people who insist that the destruction of the Native American societies was effectively a horrific genocide. They’re right. It was. But no amount of breast-beating will change the simple fact that it happened, or that human history tells us that the strong will always overpower the weak. (All those jokes about how different history would have been if the natives had an immigration policy have a nasty sting in the tail – immigrants did come to America and displace the natives. Why would anyone want to repeat that experience?) I think that Heinlein understood reality in a way many of his successors simply did not.

In his later years, Heinlein loved to shock. He would push forward controversial ideas – cannibalism, incest, etc – forcing his readers to actually think … and then question the foundations of their society. He asked questions that needed to be asked, although many of his answers were weak; he shocked, but then tried to show the consequences and downsides of breaking society’s rules. In doing so, he laid the foundations for much – much – more.

To some extent, as his career developed, Heinlein slowly shifted from writing adventure stories to writing literature. Many of his early works were thrilling stories for young men – often subjected to the editor’s pen – but his later works were more elaborate pieces of literature, more interested in developing their ideas than telling a story. (One of the reasons I didn’t like Starship Troopers as a young man was because it is a philosophical work, rather than an adventure story.) In some ways, it allowed him to get his ideas across, but – in other ways – it weakened them. He was still more effective, as a writer, when he didn’t hammer his ideas home. He trusted his readers. It is a lesson that many more modern writers could stand to learn.

Over the last few decades, there has grown up a belief that figures of the past can be judged by modern-day standards … and then rejected, when they – unsurprisingly – fail to live up to them. George Washington has been attacked for keeping slaves, even though he also saved the American Revolution and ensured that America would neither shatter into dozens of smaller countries nor turn into a dictatorship. Other figures have been subject to the same treatment, even though they were never men of our time. Heinlein, for all his contributions to the field of science-fiction (and a progressiveness that was quite shocking, by the standards of his time), has been blasted for not being progressive enough. He has been quoted out of context, reviewed with neither comprehension nor contextualisation and his supporters have been attacked for daring to support him. Very few people – and Heinlein knew this – are wholly good or evil. Heinlein was neither a angel nor a devil, but a man.

I’d like to finish by paraphrasing a quote from Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrell that, I think, fits Heinlein like a glove.

It is the contention of modern critics that everything belonging to Robert Anson Heinlein must be shaken out of modern SF/Fantasy, as one would shake moths and dust out of an old coat. What does they imagine they will have left? If you get rid of Robert Anson Heinlein you will be left holding the empty air.”

***

(Editor’s note: while there are two sides to every story, Panshin’s accounting of the attempts by RAH to prevent the publication of Heinlein in Dimension and actions taken subsequently are supported by the historical record, as well as by eyewitness accounts privy to the “Good Day, Sir!” incident.)

(Editor’s second note: there is a wealth of coverage of Robert A. Heinlein, his works and his interactions with Fandom here on the site.)

Heinlein in Reflection Back in 1968, Alexi Panshin published a critical study of Robert A. Heinlein entitled Heinlein in Dimension…

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mikebrackett · 7 years

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Paying Your Taxes and Insurance Through Escrow

When you pay your mortgage, do you know everything that’s included in your mortgage payment? Often, it can be more than just the standard monthly principal and interest. When you own a home, you are also required to pay for your annual property taxes and home insurance. Lenders often require you to deposit money into an escrow account to make sure your taxes and insurance will be paid.

We’ll go over what an escrow account is and when you have to have one. Then we’ll touch on the implications for your property taxes and homeowners insurance.

What’s an Escrow Account?

An escrow account – a sort of savings account – is set up to protect the lender from borrowers who miss payments toward their real estate taxes and insurance premiums. If these are not paid, local tax authorities may place a lien on your property. So if the property is being sold and taxes are owed, it may cause problems until the party who is owed is paid.

Do I Have to Put Taxes and Insurance in Escrow?

It’s possible to avoid escrow and pay your own taxes and insurance under certain circumstances. This will make your monthly mortgage payment lower, but you’ll have to make separate payments for property taxes and homeowners insurance.

If you’re buying a home, an escrow account may not be required with a high enough credit score and a down payment of 5% if you have a conventional loan and a 10% down payment if it’s a VA loan. In New Mexico, a 20% down payment is required no matter the loan type.

If you’re looking to have your escrow account removed after you’ve been making payments for a while, Quicken Loans has a few requirements.

You need a minimum equity amount of 10% for removal from a VA loan. Conventional loan escrow removal requires 20% equity.

You need a FICO credit score of 680 or higher on a conventional loan and 720 or greater on VA.

If your mortgage is backed by Freddie Mac or the VA, the loan must be at least a year old. Fannie Mae loans must be two years old.

You must be current on your mortgage. This means you must have no 30-day late payments in the last year. Fannie Mae requires no 60-day late payments in the last two years.

You have to have a positive escrow balance.

FHA and USDA loans always require an escrow account.

You don’t always have to have one, but there are certain advantages to having an escrow account.

Why Should I Have an Escrow Account?

Paying taxes and insurance through escrow can be a great convenience. Mortgages can be complicated enough, and this is one less thing homeowners have to worry about. With an escrow account, your property tax and homeowners insurance payments are split into more manageable monthly chunks paid throughout the year.

Some people find it easier than having to write a large check in the summer and a larger check in the winter for their property taxes, as well as other checks to cover insurance premiums.

Are Escrow Payments Tax Deductible?

Your property taxes are generally tax deductible on your state and federal taxes. If you have any doubts regarding deductibility, please consult a tax professional.

Assuming your property taxes are deductible, they’re still deductible if you’re paying them into an escrow account. You’ll get a 1098 from your lender or servicer at the beginning of each new year, which will help you report the previous year’s deductible tax payments to the IRS as well as state authorities.

Why Do I Receive a Property Tax Bill if I Have an Escrow Account?

If you’re paying your property taxes through your mortgage servicer, you may wonder why you still get a bill (or statement) from your local taxing authority. In most cases, this is just for your awareness. Your servicer generally gets a copy of the bill and will pay it.

There are a few tax offices in Pennsylvania that don’t automatically send your tax bill to Quicken Loans. If this is the case for you, you’ll be notified to send us your tax bill.

Occasionally, you may receive a one-time or short-term supplemental property tax bill. We don’t collect for these. You’ll have to make an individual payment to your taxing authority.

Switching Homeowners Insurance Policies on Escrow

If you switch homeowners insurance policies before your policy expires, you may receive a refund from your former carrier that’s prorated for the portion of the insurance that went unused for the year. While it may be tempting to spend this refund check, if your policy is paid through escrow, don’t.

Quicken Loans pays for your homeowners insurance policy up front and spreads the payments out for you over the course of the year. If you switch insurance providers and don’t send the refund check to us, we’ll end up paying both policies, which will result in a shortage in your escrow account. When that happens, you’ll have to make up the difference the next year. You can avoid this by sending us the fully endorsed refund check. We have a previous blog post on switching homeowners policies.

Things to Keep in Mind

Be aware that even if you have a long-term fixed-rate loan, your mortgage payment can vary. The principal and interest portion of your payment is fixed, but tax assessments may change and insurance premiums may fluctuate. This makes your entire payment vary.

To be able to cover possible shortages in payments, lenders require an extra two months’ worth of payments be kept in the account as a reserve cushion. Tax assessments and premium adjustments can happen any time during a 12-month period, and lenders will have to cover those shortages either using your escrow account or their own money. If they use their own money, they will recover the shortage by requiring an increase in the amount you deposit monthly into escrow.

Also, when building a new home, understand that your escrow payments may spike once construction has been completed because when lenders calculate escrow, the amount is based on the last disbursement. The last disbursement may only reflect the taxes on the land (if there were no previous house on that land). When construction is complete, the land is now worth more because of the existence of the home; therefore, escrow will be higher.

Lastly, keep an eye on your escrow account since it’s always possible for mistakes to occur. It may be a case where the loan is transferring possession from one lender to another and, in the interim, wires are crossed and the tax bill gets paid by both lenders or by neither. As long as you have made your payments, the onus is on the lender to straighten things out. But the best way to tackle this is to keep a close eye on how your money is being managed.

If you’re unsure whether you should escrow, talk to an experienced mortgage banker who can answer all your questions.

That’s escrow in a nutshell. If you have any questions, you can leave them for us in the comments.

The post Paying Your Taxes and Insurance Through Escrow appeared first on ZING Blog by Quicken Loans.

from Updates About Loans https://www.quickenloans.com/blog/paying-your-taxes-and-insurance-through-escrow-5126

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aaronsniderus · 7 years

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Paying Your Taxes and Insurance Through Escrow

We’ll go over what an escrow account is and when you have to have one. Then we’ll touch on the implications for your property taxes and homeowners insurance.

What’s an Escrow Account?

Do I Have to Put Taxes and Insurance in Escrow?

If you’re looking to have your escrow account removed after you’ve been making payments for a while, Quicken Loans has a few requirements.

You need a minimum equity amount of 10% for removal from a VA loan. Conventional loan escrow removal requires 20% equity.

You need a FICO credit score of 680 or higher on a conventional loan and 720 or greater on VA.

If your mortgage is backed by Freddie Mac or the VA, the loan must be at least a year old. Fannie Mae loans must be two years old.

You must be current on your mortgage. This means you must have no 30-day late payments in the last year. Fannie Mae requires no 60-day late payments in the last two years.

You have to have a positive escrow balance.

FHA and USDA loans always require an escrow account.

You don’t always have to have one, but there are certain advantages to having an escrow account.

Why Should I Have an Escrow Account?

Some people find it easier than having to write a large check in the summer and a larger check in the winter for their property taxes, as well as other checks to cover insurance premiums.

Are Escrow Payments Tax Deductible?

Your property taxes are generally tax deductible on your state and federal taxes. If you have any doubts regarding deductibility, please consult a tax professional.

Why Do I Receive a Property Tax Bill if I Have an Escrow Account?

There are a few tax offices in Pennsylvania that don’t automatically send your tax bill to Quicken Loans. If this is the case for you, you’ll be notified to send us your tax bill.

Occasionally, you may receive a one-time or short-term supplemental property tax bill. We don’t collect for these. You’ll have to make an individual payment to your taxing authority.

Switching Homeowners Insurance Policies on Escrow

Things to Keep in Mind

If you’re unsure whether you should escrow, talk to an experienced mortgage banker who can answer all your questions.

That’s escrow in a nutshell. If you have any questions, you can leave them for us in the comments.

The post Paying Your Taxes and Insurance Through Escrow appeared first on ZING Blog by Quicken Loans.

from Updates About Loans https://www.quickenloans.com/blog/paying-your-taxes-and-insurance-through-escrow-5126

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topicprinter · 7 years

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edited to add a quick disclaimer: some folks are concerned about contracts and this type of thing getting some one fired. Want to advise that I got the blessing of management and ownership. This is advice from my own personal experience and you should for sure use your own judgement.I’m an ACD/writer at a fairly large integrated agency, in the past year, I created and launched what is now a successful business (Merino Wool clothing for travelers) while continuing to develop my career in advertising.It was an incredibly rewarding experience. Now, I have a job I love and I also have a great little start-up I continue to grow every day. And while I continue to be fully engaged at work, our business is honing in on doing $1MIL in revenue in its first year! The reason for this post is to highlight that as someone working in full-time, you have a chance to work on something profitable without the risk of giving up on your career – A side project that can have real legs to it, can be profitable, and you can still keep the comfort of working a great job with a salary. I want to share with you my experience so that you can maybe take a similar step. Or, maybe you already have an idea you’d love to get off the ground but can’t find time or are too distracted by your demanding career….If you have an idea, you can make it happen. Even if you fail, the experience of launching your own company will make you better at your job...whatever you do. Before I begin, I’d like to say that I have no interest in leaving my current job. I work at a great agency. I love my co-workers, I like my clients, and I still enjoy working on advertising every day. The beauty is that I have a business growing while my career continues to grow as well. With a little extra man hours outside of work, you can grow a business while the rest of the workforce is out getting wasted at the bar. If you stay committed to your job, and clear things with management and your co-workers, they’ll value your vision, work ethic, commitment and gumption. Heck, in the right culture, your employer may even throw resources at it. So here’s basically a play-by-play of how to turn your employed life into an entrepreneur life and let the two work in tandem: With a little bit of ingenuity, you can directly apply the insight you get from your day-to-day work life to starting your own company. And you’re side business will make you more curious and involved at work. Here are a few changes I’ve seen in my own career since starting to work on our project: 1) It set me apart: In my experience, advertising values someone who has creative, applicable interests outside of their work life. It’s just one more asset in your personal brand. 2) I became more aware of, and more into other sides of the business: I’m a creative, but this past year, I learned about things I just didn’t need to know about before. Things like analytics, media buying, brand strategy, design, social listening, PR, print production, product dev, front end dev, and then there’s the financials, supply chain, negotiation.. The list goes on and on. While it doesn’t change my agency work creatively, I definitely have a heightened sense of understanding of many of the clients I sometimes need to interact with. This awareness and heightened perspectives creates a new level of confidence in my pitching ability and strategic thinking capabilities. 3) I have a much better attitude about work: With a passion project to keep me fulfilled and busy, I found myself enjoying my work life that much more. Suddenly, everything I learn at work, I have a real world application that benefits me directly. Literally something I learned at a morning meeting, I made actionable that afternoon, and saw real dollar results that night. SO...If anyone out there has the inkling to start their own side project (whatever it may be) Here’s a few tips that may be useful: Build Your Team: You can go at it alone, but I found it was much easier and more fun complimenting my own skills with the complementary skills others. It really is like working on a client project - assemble a team that can collectively handle every aspect of getting the job done. Manage Your Time: Time management was a huge issue for me. To paint you a picture, I’m 32, I have 2 kids under 4 years old, a house that needs a lot of work, and a wife that works just as much as I do in an equally demanding industry. That said, I knew in my heart that casually working on it when the time felt right, or when inspiration struck – I knew that I’d never make it happen. So here’s what I did: I carved out time I most likely have spent either sleeping, watching Netflix, or spending money at the bar. Literally idle time. My side project work schedule looks like this: *Monday: 7am-9am *Wednesday: 7am-9am *Friday: 9pm-1amThis amounts to 8 hours per week of dedicated work. The key is coming to this work session knowing what tasks you will achieve and leaving the meeting with a plan for the next one. The key is sticking to the hours no matter what and making up missed hours. Another thing to keep in mind, if you’re only going to work for 2 hours, know exactly what you’re going to work on prior so you get in the flow of working immediately. Keeps you from going on reddit. Get on SLACK If you have a team, GET ON SLACK! Slack is an incredible way to communicate as a team. I can’t recommend this platform enough. It works across all devices and will keep every conversation about the project organized. It will also keep your side project related stuff off of Facebook. Win/Win. Use Trello: A fantastic platform for keeping every detail of the project organized and moving towards completion. It will let you organize every piece of the puzzle and then chip away at it as a team. Again, as someone who has a full time job, staying on track, and taking one little chunk out of the project at a time will be critical. Take Advantage of WORK Resources: For me, I worked at an advertising agency this may not be related to you, but may be you can gleam insight into how I got my co-workers involved.Either way – Here’s some rules of engagement that worked for me: 1)Pay people for their time whenever necessary. 2)Keep your requests private. 3)Take people out for lunch if you just need some insight. 4)Buy a bottle of wine and a thank you card for someone if they went above and beyond. 5)For a small thing here and there, people are more than happy to help, but for anything big …pay people accordingly – don’t ask them to cheap out on their day rates. I’ve really asked for a lot of help and I’m grateful to everyone at my agency for all their help. Here are actual examples of people I work with (by job description) and examples of how they’ve helped. Writers: Proofreading, writing your website or crowdfunding campaign (more below) Art Directors & Designers: Logos, visual identity, brand standards, your website, the list goes on and on. You will need either one or both. Print Production: Amazing place to seek out help finding vendors. Usually these guys are owed a lot of favors, and so getting a deal for your project shouldn’t be too difficult if you ask nicely. I saved tons of money on printing materials because we went through a vendor that does a lot of work for a huge client of the agency. Planners: A good strategy person will help you get some privy to good data that can help shape your idea, or what channels to take it to. They can also help set up your social strategy and aid with media buying. Media: Eventually you’ll need to get the word out, a good media buyer will work with your limited start up budget and make it stretch. Ideally, they’ll teach you how to use Facebook Ad Manager. Dev: If you’re selling something, a Shopify template will most likely be your first stab at a store. We built our the first iteration of our website using a template and the help of a great developer friend who we payed hourly. Find a good, reliable, and affordable dev guy that will help you problem solve, not just count hours, and be a partner in every step of the process. Executives: If you feel like your work has a culture of supporting passion projects, or could benefit from the work that you are doing, take it up with management.. This really depends on the place – size and culture. Some great places even have programs and grants. For me, over time, most people I worked with knew that I had been working on this side-project and were all very excited for it. Eventually it trickled up to management, and they were happy to offer advice, and where also totally cool with me using office space for meetings, and in general loved the idea. A few thoughts on Developing your idea: It all starts with an idea. You might have one right now. But you might not. In my experience, we actively started looking for an idea to make happen. It wasn’t a moment of “Eureka!”.Don’t sit around waiting for something to pop into your head. Anything can work for this, the key is to do something about it. Even if you don’t hit it with your idea, it’s fun to execute and try. And if it’s a miss, you can always pivot. If you’re Canadian, you know the famous Wayne Gretzky quote “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”. It applies here.I thought this was a great resource for how to figure out what product or business might be right for you in the ecommerce space. It’s what we used. R/entrepreneur and r/startups is also rich with insight into launching a new company or ideas for products and services.In our case what we did was basically create a product for ourselves. We were our own core consumers. It was easy to start developing it because it was something that we actually wanted and couldn’t’ find elsewhere. Start with yourself and go from there. If you ever feel like you have the idea about how something can be better, you can do it. We knew nothing about making apparel when we started. We just knew we wanted better travel clothing. We figured it out as we built our launch plan. Which brings us to how we actually executed on our idea. Something I can’t recommend enough... Crowd Funding How you develop and launch your idea is really up to you. It might be a super grass roots local idea. It might be an app. Or it might be something more along the lines of an e-commerce site like we did. For us, we started and developed the project knowing we were going to launch it as a crowdfunding campaign. For one, it lets you start something completely risk free – you’re investing very little capital. Secondly, it is a proving ground for you to develop a brand and product to see if people actually want to support it. It’s a great place to see if an idea hunts.We were able to raise $360,000, and refine much of the sell and messaging that would work its way into our final product. It also helped grow our first pool of customers – 2500 in over 90 countries around the world!Creating a crowdfunding campaign is the ultimate test of your marketing / advertising agency chops. It’s everything from brand positioning to campaign building to marketing and advertising and a million things in between. We focused all our energy on the campaign. If it worked - we would figure the rest out then… If it didn’t we had a blast building it and maybe would have tried again with something different.It was fun to build and create and extremely rewarding. In our case it also happened to spawn a real business that’s run entirely virtually.We wouldn’t have been able to do it without all the agency knowledge and connections and I really hope everything I wrote is of some value to some of you.We’re all in a pretty cool position and there’s no better time to scratch that entrepreneurial itch (if you have it at all) than now.If crowdfunding is something you want to pursue – Tim Ferris has an incredible resource for how to crowdfund and idea. Well, that’s that. Hope it inspires some of you to get out there and make something – even if it’s just for the sake of having fun. This past 1.5 years has been a wild ride and I’m better for it at work and outside of work. If anyone has any questions about anything we’ve done - let me know! Happy to answer anything. Cheers!

#/r/startups #reddit

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