Fighting Poverty One Woman At A Time
Inspiring and empowering stories about women who are being given a hand-up through the power of microfinancing. It is a novel concept that is having a load of success. As a business woman, I applaud this group that has gone above and beyond to help families through empowering women to be successful.

• Each year, more than 8 million people around the world die because they are too poor to stay alive.
• Over 1 billion people-1 in 6 people around the world-live in extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $1 a day.
• Over half of the world’s population-nearly 3 billion people-lives on less than U.S. $2 per day.
• More than 800 million go hungry each day.
• Every year, 6 million children die from malnutrition before their fifth birthday.
• Over 11 million children die each year from preventable causes like malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia.
• Every 3.6 seconds another person dies of starvation and the large majority are children under 5.
• Over 100 million primary school-age children cannot afford to go to school.

Unitus Battles Global Poverty Through The Microfinance Project
Microfinance is based on the belief that the poor need a hand up, not a hand-out. This new philosophy emerged in the 1970s in places like Bolivia and Bangladesh as social innovators began to offer financial services to the working poor – those who were previously considered “un-bankable” because of their lack of collateral. Once given the opportunity, not only did clients of microfinance institutions (MFIs) expand their businesses and increase their incomes, but their high repay…

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It is not uncommon to see lenders offering deals that are too good to be true. Loans agreed with a 15 year fixed mortgage keep the same interest rate throughout the entire life of the agreement. This is of great benefit for anyone that does not like surprises. Both my wife and I decided to research fixed rate mortgages when we started looking at homes for sale.

Even though it was important for us to pay off our loan at the earliest possible opportunity, we didn’t want high, unrealistic monthly payments which we would have trouble maintaining. When we considered fixed rate mortgages we also looked into even longer term loans that spanned 30 years as well. No-one likes the idea of having a mortgage when they are close to retirement, and we were no different, so it was still our hope that a 15 year fixed mortgage rate plan would still be an option. Too much pressure was placed on the early repayment of the mortgage loan.

Taking everything into account we finally went for the easier 30 year mortgage plan instead. There were many things that lead us into making this choice. The main reason was that I found out my wife was pregnant. My wife decided she wanted to raise our child at home so I couldn’t be certain of her monthly financial commitment to our household expenses. The financial commitment per month on the 15 year fixed mortgage rate was just too high. For us it just wasn’t feasible as we would just be in over our heads. The 30 year loan repayments were considerably lower than the 15 year figures.

If we have spare cash throughout the year then we can use it to reduce the capital sum. My making just a few of these payments each year we discovered that a number of years could be taken off the mortgage term. In the long term, this is a strategy well worth pursuing if you are able. It was hard going against our preference for a shorter term, 15 year fixed rate mortgage, but we had to think about more immediate needs and abilities. Anyway, everything worked out fine despite our hesitancy.