Mega Millions has been getting the headlines lately, with a jackpot currently estimated at $735 million, but the jackpot for the other big national lottery game — Powerball — has also crossed the half-billion-dollar mark, with the next drawing set for tonight.
Powerball and Mega Millions tickets are sold for $2 apiece in 45 U.S. states, as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
To play Mega Millions, pick five numbers between 1 and 70, and a sixth number between 1 and 25. If you don’t want to pick the numbers yourself, you can get a set of numbers generated for you.
To play Powerball, pick five numbers between 1 and 69 and a Powerball number from 1 to 26 (or have them randomly generated).
How much is the Mega Millions jackpot?
The current jackpot is estimated at $735 million. Winners can opt to take their winnings in the form of an annuity or as a single lump sum, known as the cash option. The cash option for the current jackpot is estimated at $356.7 million.
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By taking the annuity option, the winner would get the full jackpot advertised by Mega Millions, but it would be spread out in payments over 30 years.
No matter how lucky you are, you won’t get around paying taxes on a lottery jackpot. After mandatory federal income tax withholding, you’d get roughly $271.1 million, if you took the cash option. How much more you’d pay come tax time depends on whether you take where you bought the ticket — and where you live. To prepare, make sure you know the ins and outs of how the lottery works.
When is the next Mega Millions drawing?
The winning numbers will be drawn Tuesday, March 12 at 11 p.m. Eastern Time.
If there’s still no jackpot winner, the grand prize will continue to grow.
The odds of winning the jackpot are roughly 1 in 303 million.
How much is the next Powerball jackpot?
The current jackpot is estimated at $532 million.
Like Mega Millions, winners of Powerball can choose between an annuity that pays out over 30 years or a single lump sum. The cash option for the current jackpot is $260.1 million. After mandatory federal taxes, the holder of a single winning would keep about $197.7 million, minus any state taxes.
When is the next Powerball drawing?
The winning numbers will be drawn Monday, March 11 at 11 p.m. Eastern Time.
If there’s still no jackpot winner, the grand prize will continue to grow.
The odds of winning the jackpot are roughly 1 in 292 million.
The jackpot isn’t the only way to win. Both games have prizes for ticket holders whose chosen numbers match the drawing in a variety of combinations.
10 largest lottery jackpots
$2.04 billion (Powerball, Nov. 8, 2022 — one winning ticket).
$1.765 billion (Powerball, Oct. 11, 2023 — one ticket).
$1.586 billion (Powerball, Jan. 13, 2016 — three tickets).
$1.58 billion (Mega Millions, Aug. 8, 2023 — one ticket).
$1.537 billion (Mega Millions, Oct. 23, 2018 — one ticket).
$1.348 billion (Mega Millions, Jan. 13, 2023 — one ticket).
$1.337 billion (Mega Millions, July 29, 2022 — one ticket).
$1.08 billion (Powerball, July 19, 2023 — one ticket).
$1.05 billion (Mega Millions, Jan. 22, 2021 — one ticket).
$768.4 million (Powerball, March 27, 2019 — one ticket).
Hey, I’ve just been featured on CNBC and I want to say hello to all of my new readers. You can read the CNBC article here – 34-year-old mom dropped $50,000 to cruise the world with her family: ‘It was some of the best money I ever spent’ If you are a new visitor –…
Hey,
I’ve just been featured on CNBC and I want to say hello to all of my new readers.
You can read the CNBC article here – 34-year-old mom dropped $50,000 to cruise the world with her family: ‘It was some of the best money I ever spent’
If you are a new visitor – welcome to Making Sense of Cents!
I have received many emails about how I was able to afford this trip. I have a free How To Start A Blog course that you can sign up for here. I also talk about this below and how I’ve been able to earn over $5,000,000 blogging over the years.
If you want to read more about my world cruise trip, I recommend reading Around-The-World Cruise With A Kid (25+ Countries In 4 Months!).
Here are some blog posts that you may find helpful and enjoy:
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below or send me an email.
Thanks for stopping by.
-Michelle Schroeder-Gardner
—-
In addition to reading the CNBC article linked above, I also want to talk about how I grew a blog that has earned me over $5,000,000. I know I will get a lot of questions, so I figured it’s best to lay it all out right here 🙂
What started as just a hobby turned into one of the most life-changing things I’ve ever done – that’s starting my blog, and learning how to make money with it.
Since learning how to monetize a blog over 10 years ago, I have now earned over $5,000,000 from my site. This is still hard for me to believe, and I’m the one who’s lived it!
In the beginning, all I was doing was tracking my own personal finance progress as I finished school and started paying off my student loans. Blogging was a very new concept to me at the time – I heard about it from a magazine – and people were just learning how to monetize blogs back in 2011.
Most bloggers started back then with display ads and sponsored posts, but the options have only increased.
Because of all of the new ways to make money blogging, like affiliate income and selling your own products, you can make somewhat passive income as a blogger.
Passive income is my favorite way to make money because it makes blogging even more flexible and something I can do as I work from home, travel, and work whenever I want.
Blogging has changed my life for the better, and I’m now earning thousands of dollars a month doing something I love.
Learning how to monetize a blog takes work and time, but it’s 100% possible to do. I started earning money after just six months of blogging, and I didn’t even set out to make money when I created Making Sense of Cents. Just think of the potential if you start out knowing that making money blogging is possible!
Starting my blog is one of the best things I’ve ever done for my work, personal, and financial life. And, I urge anyone who is interested to start a blog and learn how to monetize it.
How I earned my first income from blogging
Many of my readers have heard this story, but I love sharing it because I started out like many of you, except I had no idea that blogs could make money. When I started Making Sense in August of 2011, I simply wanted a way to keep track of my financial progress and meet others who had similar goals.
As I started getting to know other bloggers in the community, a blogger friend of mine connected me with an advertiser who was willing to pay me $100 for an advertisement.
I couldn’t believe someone would pay me $100 to advertise on my site!
While it wasn’t a lot of money, especially considering the amount of time and work I put towards my blog in those 6 months, it was very motivating to see that something I loved doing could actually make money.
After that first $100, I started doing a lot of research on how to monetize a blog, and my blogging income quickly grew from there.
One year after I started my blog, I was earning around $1,000 a month, and I was making around $10,000 monthly two years after I started Making Sense of Cents.
My income only continued to grow, and I am still earning a healthy income from this website today.
How To Start A Blog FREE Course
If you want to learn how to monetize a blog and you haven’t started your blog, then I recommend starting with my free blogging course How To Start A Blog FREE Course.
Here’s a quick outline of what you will learn in this free course:
Day 1: Reasons you should start a blog
Day 2: How to determine what to blog about
Day 3: How to create your blog – in this lesson, you will learn how to start a blog on WordPress, and my tutorial makes it very easy to start a blog
Day 4: How to monetize a blog – this is where you learn about the many different ways to make money blogging!
Day 5: My tips for earning passive income from your blog
Day 6: How to grow your traffic and followers
Day 7: Miscellaneous blogging tips that will help you be successful
This is delivered directly to your email inbox, and you will learn how to grow a blog from scratch.
Start with a plan for your blog
Sure, you can start on a whim, and that’s kind of what I did, haha.
But, I do think that creating a plan is a good idea if you want to learn how to monetize a blog. This can help you get an organized start, identify your blog’s niche, decide on your blogging goals, find opportunities for blogging income, and more.
It wasn’t until 2015 that I finally created a blogging plan (that’s 4 years after I started!), and my blog income grew significantly after that.
I credit that growth to creating a plan!
Having a plan would have been a huge help in the beginning, and I wish I would have started with one. I probably missed some income opportunities because I had no real plan or direction in the first couple of years.
Since creating a blogging plan, I became more focused on goals and motivated toward improving and building Making Sense of Cents.
Here are some questions that you may want to ask yourself when creating a plan for your blog:
What will you write about on your blog?
How do you want to make money with your blog?
What will you do to reach readers on your blog?
What are your goals for your blog?
Thinking about, researching, and answering these questions will help guide you on your journey and help you decide what to do next.
Write high-quality and engaging blog posts
Your blog’s content is extremely important. This will be what attracts your readers, has them coming back for more, earns you blogging income, and more.
Now, you don’t need to be an expert or need a degree to start talking about a subject, but you do need to be knowledgeable or interested in what you are talking about. And, always be truthful! This will show in your writing and actually help your readers.
To write high-quality content on your blog, here are some tips:
Figure out exactly what it is that you’d like to write about and why you think the content is important. Being passionate about a subject will give you the motivation to write content that people want to read. Just think about it: If you don’t enjoy writing your content, then why should you expect someone else to want to read it?
Ask your audience what they want you to write about. Many of my best ideas come from expanding on reader questions.
Research your blog topics by reading news articles, going to a library, searching for statistics and interesting facts, and more.
If your blog posts are more personal in nature, then dig deep and share your thoughts, and be personable in your writing – your readers want to hear your story!
Write long, helpful content. Sure, some great content may only be a few hundred words, but to be as helpful as possible, long content is usually the best. My content is usually over 2,000 words, and this article is around 5,000. Now, you don’t want to just write a lot of fluff content in order to get more words in – you want to actually be helpful!
Reread your content. I used to read my content 10 times or more before I would publish it. Now, I have an editor who makes sure I’m always publishing high-quality content.
Network, network, network
If you want to learn how to monetize a blog, then networking can be extremely helpful.
Networking can mean:
Making friends with other bloggers
Attending blogging conferences
Sharing content that other bloggers have written
Following other bloggers in your niche on social media
Signing up for other bloggers’ newsletters
Joining blogging groups on Facebook
Some bloggers don’t do any of these things and purely see other bloggers as competition. I don’t believe this is the correct way to approach blogging because you will hold yourself back immensely!
Networking is important because it can help you enjoy blogging (friends are nice to have, right?!), teach you new ideas (such as how to make money blogging or how to grow a blog), make valuable connections, and more.
Keep in mind that networking is even how I earned my very first $100 blogging. My blogging friend connected me with an advertiser, which helped changed my blogging journey.
I have learned a lot about blogging from the blogging community, and the people I’ve connected with have been a tremendous support as I’ve grown my blog.
Be prepared to put in a lot of hard work
Starting a blog is relatively easy. But, growing and learning how to monetize a blog takes a lot of work.
You’ll have to:
Start a blog, design it, create social media accounts, and more
Write high-quality blog posts
Attract an audience of readers
Monetize your blog
Continue learning about blogging
And more
Even when I was just a new blogger and had no plans of making money blogging, I was still spending well over 10 hours a week on Making Sense of Cents.
When I was working my full-time day job and earning an income from my blog, I was working around 40-50 hours a week on my blog on top of my day job!
Now that I blog full-time, my hours vary. Some months I hardly work, and there are other months that I may work 100 hours a week.
It’s not easy, and there’s always something that needs to be done.
But, I absolutely love blogging, which makes the hard work a little less tough.
How to monetize a blog: 4 different ways
There are many different ways you can monetize your blog, including:
Affiliate marketing
Advertisements and sponsorships
Display advertising
Create your own product, such as an ebook, course, physical or online products, and more
You could choose to monetize your blog using all of these methods, or even just one. It’s just a personal decision.
For me, I like to be diversified and monetize in many ways, so I do them all.
Below, I am going to dive a little deeper into each way to make money blogging.
1. Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing can be a great way to make money blogging because if there is a product or company that you enjoy, all you have to do is review the product and share a unique affiliate link where your readers can sign up or make a purchase.
In fact, this is my favorite way to monetize a blog. I enjoy it because it can be quite passive – I can create just one blog post and potentially earn an income from it years later. This is because even though a blog post may be older, I am still constantly driving traffic to it and readers are still purchasing through my affiliate links.
Affiliate marketing is a blog monetization method where you share a link to a product or company with your readers in an attempt to make an income from followers purchasing the product through your link.
Here are some quick tips so that you can make affiliate income on your blog:
Use the Pretty Link plugin tocleanupmessy-lookingaffiliatelinks. I use this for nearly all of my affiliate links because something like “makingsenseofcents.com/bluehost” looks much better than the long, crazy-looking links that affiliate programs usually give you.
Provide real reviews. You should always be honest with your reviews. If there is something you don’t like about a product, either don’t review the product at all or mention the negatives in your review.
Ask for a commission increase. If you are doing well with a particular affiliate program, ask to increase your commissions.
Build a relationship with your affiliate manager. Your affiliate manager can supply your readers with valuable coupons, commission increases, bonuses, and more.
Write tutorials. Readers want to know how they can use a product. Showing them how to use it, how it can benefit them, and more are all very helpful.
Don’t go overboard. There is no need to include an affiliate link 1,000 times in a blog post. Include them at the beginning, middle, and end, and readers will notice it. Perhaps bold it or find another way for it to stand out as well.
You can learn more about affiliate marketing strategies in my course Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing.
2. Advertisements and sponsorships
Advertising on a blog is one of the first ways that bloggers learn how to monetize a blog. In fact, it’s exactly how I started!
This form of blogging income is when you directly partner with a company and advertise for them on your website or social media accounts.
You may be writing a review for them, a tutorial, talking about their product or company, taking pictures, and so on.
If you want to learn how to increase your advertising-income, I recommend taking my Making Sense of Sponsored Posts course.
3. Display advertising
Display advertising is one of the easiest ways to make money blogging, but it most likely won’t earn you the most, especially in the beginning.
I’m sure you’ve seen display ads before. They may be on the sidebar, at the top of a post, within a blog post, and so on.
The ads are automatically added when you join an advertising network, and you do not need to manually add these ads to your blog.
Your display advertising income increases or decreases almost entirely based on your page views, and once you place the advertisement, there’s no direct work to be done.
If you want to learn how to monetize a blog through display advertising, then some popular networks include Adsense, MediaVine, and AdThrive.
Personally, I use AdThrive for my display advertising network. I don’t have many display advertisements on my blog, but it is easy income.
4. Sell your own products
Another popular way to monetize a blog is to create a sell your own products.
This could be an online product, something that you ship, and so on, such as:
An online course
A coaching program
An eBook
Printables
Memberships
Clothing, candles, artwork, hard copy books, and anything else you can think of
And the list goes on and on. I have seen bloggers be very successful in selling all kinds of things on their blogs.
What’s great about selling your own product is that you are in complete control of what you are selling, and your income is virtually unlimited in many cases.
I launched my first product about 5 years after I created Making Sense of Cents, which was a blogging course called Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. I regret not creating something sooner because this has been an excellent source of income and has helped many people along the way.
Have an email list
If you really want to learn how to monetize a blog, I recommend that you start an email list from the very beginning.
I waited several years to start my email list, and that was a huge mistake!
Here’s why you need an email list right away:
Your newsletter is YOURS. Unlike social media sites, your newsletter and email subscribers are all yours, and you have their undivided attention. You don’t have to worry about algorithms not displaying your content to readers, and this is because they are your email subscribers. You aren’t fighting with anyone else to have them see your content.
The money is in your email list. I believe that email newsletters are the best way to promote an affiliate product. Your email subscribers signed up to hear what YOU have to write about, so you clearly have their full attention. Your email list, over any other promotional strategy, will almost always lead to more income and sales.
Your email subscribers are loyal to you. If someone is allowing you to show up in their inbox whenever you want, then they probably trust what you have to say and enjoy listening to you. This is a great way to grow an audience and a loyal one at that.
Email is a great way to deliver other forms of content. With Convertkit, I am able to easily create free email courses that are automatically sent to my subscribers. Once a reader signs up, Convertkit sends out all the information they need in whatever time frame I choose to deliver the content.
Attract readers
As a new blogger, you’ll want to find ways to attract a readership to your blog and your article.
No, you don’t need millions and millions of page views to earn a good living from blogging. In fact, I know some bloggers who receive 1,000,000 page views yet make less money than those with 100,000 monthly page views.
Every website is different, but once you learn what your audience wants, you can start to really make money blogging, regardless of how many page views you receive.
Having a successful blog is all about having a loyal audience and helping them with your content.
Even with all of that being said, if you want to learn how to monetize a blog, learning how to improve your traffic is valuable. The more loyal and engaged followers you have, the more money you may be able to make through your blog.
There are many ways to grow your readership, such as:
Write high-quality articles. Your blog posts should always be high-quality and helpful, and it means readers will want to come back for more.
Find social media sites to be active on. There are many social media platforms you can be active on, such as Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Youtube, and others.
Regularly share new posts. For most blogs, you should publish content at least once a week. Readers may forget about you if you go for weeks or months at a time without a blog post.
Guest post. Guest posting is a great way to reach a new audience, as it can bring new readers to your blog who will potentially subscribe to it.
Make sure it’s easy to share your content. I love sharing posts on social media. However, it gets frustrating when some blogs make it more difficult than it needs to be. You should always make sure it’s easy for readers to share your content, which means your social media icons should be easy to find, all of the info input and ready for sharing (title, link, and your username tagged), and so on. Also, you should make sure that when someone clicks on one of your sharing icons the title isn’t in CAPS (I’ve seen this too many times!).
Write better titles. The title of your post can either bring readers to you or deter them from clicking over. A great free tool to write better headlines is CoSchedule’s Headline tool.
Apply SEO strategies. SEO (search engine optimization) is not something I can teach in this small section, but I go over it below in another section.
Have a clean and user-friendly blog design. If you want more page views, you should make it as easy as possible for readers to navigate your blog. It should be easy for readers to find your blog homepage, search bar, blog posts, and so on.
Now, I also want to talk about helpful resources, courses, and more that can help you to learn how to grow your page views on your blog.
Below are some of my favorite blogging resources to help you improve your traffic:
Grow through SEO
SEO (search engine optimization) is how you get organic search traffic to your blog.
When you search a phrase on Google, you’ll see a bunch of different websites as the results. This is the result of these websites applying SEO strategies to their blog.
This is a great way for readers to find your blog, and SEO is important to pay attention to as you learn how to monetize a blog!
Below are some of my favorite SEO resources:
Stupid Simple SEO: This is my favorite overall SEO course, and one of the most popular for bloggers. I highly recommend taking it. I have gone through the whole course, and I constantly refer back to it.
Easy On-Page SEO: This is an easy-to-follow approach to learning on-page SEO so your articles can rank on Google. I have read this ebook twice, and it is super helpful.
Easy Backlinks for SEO: This ebook will show you 31 different ways to build backlinks, which are needed for SEO.
How To Get 50,000 Pageviews per Month With Keyword Research: This ebook shares the steps for keyword research so that you can get SEO traffic to your website.
Common questions about how to monetize a blog
Below, I’m going to answer some questions I’ve received about how to start a blog such as:
How many views do you need to monetize a blog?
How do beginner bloggers make money?
Why do bloggers fail?
How many posts should I have before I launch my blog?
How many times a week should I post on my blog?
How many views do you need to monetize a blog?
The amount of page views needed to make money blogging varies, and there is no magic number that you should be aiming for.
This is because it depends on so many factors, such as how you will monetize your blog, your niche, the number of email subscribers you have, the quality of your website, and more.
You may see success with 10,000 page views a month, or you may see success with over 100,000 page views a month. It simply depends on the factors above.
How do beginner bloggers make money?
Beginner bloggers can make money in many different ways, such as display advertising, affiliate marketing, creating their own products, and sponsorships.
You can start any of these right from the very beginning.
Display advertising is usually the easiest way to begin monetizing a blog, but the payoff is not very high, especially in the beginning when your page views are not high.
How many posts should I have before I launch my blog?
I recommend just launching your blog as soon as you have one blog post and a design. Building a huge backlog of blog posts isn’t usually needed, and it can prevent you from ever getting started!
How many times a week should I post on my blog?
The more blog posts you have, then the more traffic you may get. That’s because it’s more opportunities to show up in Google searches or share your posts on social media.
I recommend publishing a new blog post at least once a week. Anything less isn’t advised.
Publishing blog posts consistently is smart because readers know to expect regular content from you.
Why do bloggers fail?
Bloggers fail for many different reasons. These reasons may include:
Giving up too soon. It takes time to make money blogging, and sadly, many people give up just a few months into starting a blog.
Not publishing consistently. I recommend publishing content at least once a week, as described in the previous section. Some new bloggers may go months without publishing, and this will take them much longer to make money blogging as they are simply not dedicating enough time to their blog.
Not spending enough time learning about blogging. Blogging is not as easy as you may think. There is a lot to learn in order to make it work. You may need to learn about how to grow your blog’s traffic, how to monetize a blog, how to write high-quality content, and more.
Not having your own domain and self-hosting. If you want to make money blogging, I highly recommend owning your domain name and being self-hosted. The longer you put this easy step off, the longer it will most likely take for you to make money blogging. You can learn more at How To Start a WordPress Blog.
And much more. Blogging is like any business – there are things to learn, things to improve on, and more.
How do I start a blog?
If you have any other questions related to starting a blog, I recommend checking out What Is A Blog, How Do Blogs Make Money, & More. In this article, I answer more questions related to blogging such as:
How do I come up with a blog name?
What blogs make the most money?
How do you design a blog?
How many views do you need to make money blogging?
How many blog posts should I have before launching?
It was an interesting day for the bond market. Yields dropped to the lowest levels in more than 3 weeks amid several apparently valid motivations. But upon closer inspection, most of the improvement happened far enough away from those motivations to give them much credit. On a day with JOLTS (job openings data) and a Powell testimony, the most obvious market mover was a series of headlines and trading halts surrounding NYCB, although those ultimately canceled each other out. We’re left with modest but important improvement ahead of Thursday’s ECB announcement and Friday’s jobs report.
ADP Employment
140k vs 150k f’cast, 107k prev
Job Openings
8.863m vs 8.9m f’cast, 9.026m prev
09:00 AM
Sideways to slightly weaker overnight, but gains kicked in at 7am. 10yr down 2.8bps at 4.123. MBS up an eighth. ADP and Powell’s prepared remarks doing no damage.
10:01 AM
Minimal reaction to JOLTS. 10yr down 4.7bps at 4.104. MBS up 9 ticks (.28).
12:31 PM
Gains on NYCB circuit breaker at 11:53am ET. MBS up 10 ticks (.31). 10yr down 6bps at 4.092
02:50 PM
Some volatility surrounding NYCB headlines. MBS off highs, up a quarter point on the day. 10yr down 4.3bps at 4.108.
Download our mobile app to get alerts for MBS Commentary and streaming MBS and Treasury prices.
Hedging, Renovation, QC, Validation, Verification Products; Investor and Correspondent News and Metrics
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Hedging, Renovation, QC, Validation, Verification Products; Investor and Correspondent News and Metrics
By: Rob Chrisman
6 Hours, 35 Min ago
“I saw a woman at Walmart with March Madness teeth… She was down to the final four.” No one is talking about 30-year mortgage interest rates heading down into the 4’s; many would be happy if they came down into the 5’s. Heck, forget about mortgage interest rates because they’re going to do what they’re going to do. Originators are equally interested in potential or existing borrowers. New data reveals that Americans are spending nearly as much on interest payments for credit cards and other kinds of consumer debt as they are on mortgage interest. But hey, if your client has their debt under control, LOs can help them by passing along Home Facts so that they can do an analysis of where they might like to live. (Found here, this week’s podcast is sponsored by Richey May, a recognized leader in providing specialized advisory, audit, tax, technology and other services to the mortgage industry for almost four decades. Hear an interview with Lending Tree’s Jacob Channel on the rent-versus-buy debate and just how far people should stretch their finances to achieve the dream of homeownership.)
Lender and Broker Services, Products, and Software
Collecting interim servicing payments is a pain, but not with Fee Chaser. With its seamless integration into Encompass® by ICE Mortgage Technology™, Fee Chaser automates upfront fee collection and can handle those pesky interim servicing payments as well. Check out Fee Chaser by LenderLogix here.
Today’s mortgage landscape demands greater efficiency. Xactus, a leading verification innovator, makes it easy to obtain all the verifications lenders need to be more efficient and advance the modern mortgage. For example, with its ICE Mortgage Technology Encompass Partner Connect™ integration, you can streamline your consumer verifications. Encompass Partner Connect provides direct access to Xactus verification products including Credit ReportX, Flood ReportX, Undisclosed Debt VerificationX, Tax TranscriptX, Employment VerificationX, Income VerificationX, Fraud ReportX, and Social Security VerificationX. In fact, Xactus was the first third-party service provider to integrate credit with Encompass Partner Connect, and won the 2023 ICE Innovation Award for Lenders’ Choice for Innovative Service Provider. Heading to the ICE Experience in Las Vegas? Experience Xactus’ award-winning innovation. Stop by Xactus’ booth or email [email protected] to schedule a meeting. For the latest updates and news about important industry innovations, follow Xactus on LinkedIn.
If you thought McDonald’s® invented the combo meal, you’d be wrong. The honor actually belongs to defunct fast-food chain Burger Chef, which introduced the classic trio of burger, fries and a drink as one meal. Known as “The Triple Threat,” it sold for just $0.45. While that kind of pricing belongs to a bygone era, lenders using Fannie Mae’s Desktop Underwriter® (DU®) validation service can enhance their validation processes by leveraging AccountChek by Informative Research to validate income, employment and assets with a single report. By using direct deposit banking data to evaluate income and employment, lenders can streamline borrower eligibility. Additionally, current AccountChek users don’t have to change their process. The AccountChek report they have been using for years already provides the needed transaction data to DU. To get started, visit Fannie Mae’s webpage, and submit the request form to begin the activation process.
Most lenders are painfully aware of rising loan origination costs, which is a common trend in a down market. But certain costs like credit (surging by 400 percent) and verifications (up by 141 percent) have soared disproportionately, with incumbent providers exploiting their market dominance as virtual monopolies. Yet some lenders are fighting back… Like Lower, which has found a way to save as much as 80 percent on these operational line items and win more loans. Sign up for this exclusive webinar taking place on March 21 at 2pm ET, featuring Rob Chrisman, James Duncan and Donielle Geiser (Lower), and Richard Grieser (Truv), where they’ll share their take on today’s market and how they’ve reduced costs on operational line items previously thought to be beyond a lender’s control. RSVP today!
Introducing the All-New Quarterly Conversations About QC Newsletter! Get the latest quality control news delivered directly to your inbox with QC Ally’s new email newsletter. Designed to be your trusted loan quality resource, you’ll get the latest industry headlines, helpful tools designed to inspire your business, and regulatory updates each quarter. Recent features include eGuides to strengthen your QC processes, webinars discussing how to successfully implement new requirements, and industry conference takeaways. Sign up today to stay in-the-know on updates designed to spark discussion and inspire your business!
TPO, Broker, and Correspondent Product News
Renovation lending fuels loan production, boosts profits, and fortifies housing inventory in competitive markets. Explore the rising demand for renovation loans with Planet Home Lending’s Guide to Renovation lending, tailored for correspondent lenders. From seizing opportunities to fostering robust partnerships, it offers a step-by-step roadmap. Request your exclusive copy today.
Freedom Mortgage Wholesale reminded brokers that it is historically, currently, and forever wholesale, and has posted some solid numbers about its status. In 2023 Wholesale increased its sales force by 20 percent, 25 percent of whom were rehires. Wholesale increased its Ops staff by 125 percent, 70 percent of whom were rehires. Freedom doubled its production two months in a row and is still growing.
But not to be overlooked is that Freedom is very active in the philanthropic arena through Freedom Cares. Last year it donated $660,000, used a holiday toy drive to raise $60,000 to support Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), The Salvation Army, and Toys for Tots, has, for 11 years, donated over $100,000 and nearly 2,000 backpacks (with school supplies) to Rucksacks to Packpacks. Freedom Mortgage’s employees and vendors raised $50,000, providing 500,000 meals for people facing hunger through Feeding America’s “Freedom from Hunger, and in 2023, through Project Gratitude, sent 1045 handwritten and video thank you messages to active-duty service members. And let’s not dismiss the 2,300 logged hours of employee volunteer engagement.
The real estate investment trust affiliated with Angel Oak Companies posted a $28.6 million profit in the fourth quarter. For the full year of 2023, the REIT generated a profit of $33.7 million; all but forgotten is 2022’s reported loss of $187.8 million. Angel Oak REIT participated in four non-qualified mortgage securitizations in 2023, contributing $662 million in unpaid principal balance to the issuance. The REIT’s earnings increased after it sold off non-QMs with relatively low interest rates. Its statistics reflect the industry’s: The REIT held $380 million in whole loans at the end of the fourth quarter, up from the $284 million held at the end of the third quarter. The company increased the weighted average coupon on its whole-loan portfolio to 6.78 percent as of the end of the fourth quarter compared with an average WAC of 5.83 percent at the end of the third quarter. As of the end of February, the WAC on the REIT’s portfolio had increased to 7.14 percent.
One should know the big news from Fannie Mae: Lenders now will be able to validate assets, income, and employment with a single 12-month asset report in Desktop Underwriter®. That same asset report will also identify the borrower’s positive rent payment history and cash flow history. This could be a boon for both lenders and homebuyers: Think faster cycle times, less paperwork, and enhanced access to credit, not to mention the ability for lenders to get Day 1 Certainty®, which can help improve loan quality and reduce the risk of repurchase. “Fannie Mae is continually focused on modernizing the mortgage finance experience and exploring new ways to help our lenders open more doors for aspiring homeowners in a responsible and sustainable way. With this new update in Desktop Underwriter, we are removing a hurdle from the loan application process and bringing greater speed, simplicity, and certainty to both lenders and borrowers,” said Cyndi Danko, Fannie Mae’s SVP and Single-Family Chief Credit Officer. The enhancement goes into effect in DU on March 29. Reach out to your Fannie Mae representative for help getting started.
Capital Markets
Interested in learning more about moving from best efforts to mandatory loan sales? Maybe you’ve already moved to mandatory and are looking for even more pickup and ways to mitigate risk? Join MCT’s Moving to Mandatory Loan Sales webinar on April 4th at 11am PT to learn how mandatory loan sales is helping lenders improve profitability while reducing risk. In this webinar, MCT’s Scott Holtz, Vice President of South Regional Sales, will discuss how to leverage mandatory loan sales to improve profitability, manage risk with pipeline hedging, and operational changes needed for the transition. Register for the webinar or join MCT’s newsletter to receive the latest educational content.
Between Fed Chair Powell testifying before the House Financial Services Committee and the latest Beige Book, there was a lot of Fed news for investors to digest yesterday. A slew of stronger-than-expected economic data has raised concerns that the FOMC is preparing to walk back its anticipated 75 basis points of easing in 2024, and the Fed Chair told the House panel that he’s in no rush to lower rates, though doing so will probably be appropriate “at some point this year.” He repeatedly stated that he does not see a risk of recession right now. Powell will be back on Capitol Hill today to appear before the Senate Banking Committee, though the potential for market-moving remarks is low.
The Fed’s Beige Book for March described overall economic activity since the last report as having “expanded at a modest pace since earlier in the year.” Consumers showed more sensitivity to rising prices and spending softened in recent weeks as businesses found it harder to pass through higher costs to their customers. Leisure and hospitality sectors varied from District to District, the Fed said in its survey of regional business contacts. Manufacturing activity was little changed while residential real estate demand improved. Employment rose at a slight to modest pace while price pressures persisted. If the economy evolves broadly as expected, the Fed is likely to begin dialing back policy interest rates 25 basis points between three and four times this year.
Ahead of February payrolls this Friday, we received a couple of labor market indicators yesterday. Job openings fell slightly in January to 8.86 million, and the number of job openings per unemployed worker was little changed at 1.45. The ADP Employment Change report pointed to the addition of 140k payrolls in February, slightly less than 150k expectations, while the January increase was revised up to 111k from 107k. The JOLTS data signal that the jobs market is slowly settling down, consistent with wage inflation pressures cooling and without a troubling slowdown in net job creation and overall economic activity. The gradual softening in the labor market will likely keep the FOMC comfortable in waiting a little while longer before beginning to cut rates.
Today’s economic calendar kicked off with Challenger job cuts for February: U.S.-based employers announced 84,638 cuts in February, up 3 percent from last month and 9 percent higher than the 77,770 cuts announced in the same month in 2023. Markets have also received the latest European Central Bank decision and remarks from ECB head Lagarde in her press conference, the latest jobless claims (217k last week, unchanged from 217k), trade deficit (high at $67.4 billion, a subtraction from growth), and productivity and unit labor costs (3.2 and .4 percent respectively). Chair Powell will be back on Capitol Hill before the Senate Banking Committee to testify on the Monetary Policy Report later this morning, and other releases of note include Treasury releasing the details of the mini-Refunding consisting of $56 billion 3-years, $39 billion reopened 10-years, and $22 billion reopened 30-years, remarks from Cleveland Fed’s Mester, Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey, and January consumer credit. After the initial salvo of news, we begin Thursday with Agency MBS prices better .125-.250, the 10-year yielding 4.07 after closing yesterday at 4.10 percent, and the 2-year at 4.53.
Employment and Transitions
Unlock success with PrimeLending’s East Meets West Podcast! Join EVPs Karen Blakeslee and Al Velasco, the production leaders from the Eastern and Western divisions, for a lively discussion about the pulse of the housing market. Discover how PrimeLending empowers our loan officers to compete and win. Karen and Al also discuss leveraging new products to create more opportunities. Tune in for exclusive access to the wisdom of Dallas-based Branch Manager and perennial top producer, Mark Raskin (NMLS# 176513). Mark shares invaluable insights and proven tips, providing a backstage pass to success in today’s market. Check out East Meets West to learn why PrimeLending loan officers rank our engaged, experienced leadership as a game-changer. If you’re a top producer ready to turn up the volume on your career, contact Nic Hartke today!
Landmark Bancorp, Inc. announced that it has appointed Abigail (Abby) Wendel to serve as president and chief executive officer of the Company and Landmark National Bank, its wholly owned bank subsidiary, effective March 29. Wendel also will join the respective boards of directors of the company and bank, and succeeds current President and CEO, Michael Scheopner, who will serve in a non-executive role until his retirement at the end of the year. Congratulations!
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In the bigger picture, mortgage rates would still be best described as “trending gently higher,” but in the shorter term, today was a victory. The average lender moved from quoting conventional 30yr fixed rates near 3 month highs yesterday to the lowest levels of the week today. The disclaimer is that this says more about the narrowness of the recent range than the ground covered.
Another disclaimer is that you may well encounter mortgage rate headlines that say something completely different today. This would almost certainly be due to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey number rising to the highest levels in more than 2 months. Freddie’s survey is an average of the 5 days ending yesterday, nor does it account for points or a few other idiosyncrasies that can cause it to deviate from the reality in the trenches.
That reality is a conventional 30yr fixed rate that remains in the low 7% range for top tier scenarios. If someone were to pay discount points or receive a relatively more aggressive quote, the high 6% range isn’t out of the question. It’s just not “average.”
Today’s improvement was ostensibly driven by the bond market’s reaction to hotly anticipated inflation data. There is indeed a case to be made that the as-expected reading on PCE inflation helped rates recover today, but other economic data was also helpful (jobless claims and Chicago PMI).
Ultimately, today’s data is not what the market is truly waiting for. The most important reports hit next week, culminating with Friday’s big jobs report. The following week’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) is at least as important. More than anything, those two reports will shape the dialogue in financial markets and the Fed meeting that takes place the week after CPI.
While each investor may have their own approach to investing, there are some best practices that have been honed over time by those with years of experience.
That’s not to say that one investing strategy is right and another is wrong, or that any strategy is more likely to succeed than another. When it comes to putting your money in the market, there are no guarantees and no crystal balls. But understanding some basic guidelines that have stood the test of time can be beneficial.
Basic Investing Principles
Following are a few fundamentals that hold true for many people in many situations. Bearing these in mind won’t guarantee any outcomes, but they can help you manage risk, investing costs, and your own emotions.
1. The Sooner You Start, the Better
In general, the longer your investments remain in the market, the greater the odds are that you might see positive returns. That’s because long-term investments benefit from time in the market, not timing the market.
Meaning: The markets inevitably rise and fall. So the sooner you invest, and the longer you keep your money invested, the more likely it is that your investments can recover from any volatility or downturns.
In addition, if your investments do see a gain, those earnings generate additional earnings over time, and then those earnings generate earnings, potentially increasing your returns. This is similar to the principle of compound interest.
2. Make It Automatic
One of the easiest ways to build up an investment account is by automatically contributing a certain amount to the account at regular intervals over time. If you have a 401(k) or other workplace retirement account you likely already do this via paycheck deferrals. However, most brokerages allow you to set up automatic, repeating deposits in other types of accounts as well.
Investing in this way also allows you to take advantage of a strategy called dollar-cost averaging, which helps reduce your exposure to volatility. Dollar cost averaging is when you buy a fixed dollar amount of an investment on a regular cadence (e.g. weekly or monthly).
The goal is not to invest when prices are high or low, but rather to keep your investment steady, and thereby avoid the temptation to time the market. That’s because with dollar cost averaging (DCA) you invest the same dollar amount each time, so that when prices are lower, you buy more; when prices are higher, you buy less. 💡 Quick Tip: If you’re opening a brokerage account for the first time, consider starting with an amount of money you’re prepared to lose. Investing always includes the risk of loss, and until you’ve gained some experience, it’s probably wise to start small.
3. Take Advantage of Free Money
If you have access to a workplace retirement account and your employer provides a match, contribute at least enough to get your full employer match. That’s a risk-free return that you can’t beat anywhere else in the market, and it’s part of your compensation that you should not leave on the table.
Recommended: Investing 101 Guide
4. Build a Diversified Portfolio
By creating a diversified portfolio with a variety of types of investments across a range of asset classes, you may be able to reduce some of your investment risk.
Portfolio diversification involves investing your money across a range of different asset classes — such as stocks, bonds, and real estate — rather than concentrating all of it in one area. Studies have shown that by diversifying the assets in your portfolio, you may offset a certain amount of investment risk and thereby improve returns.
Taking portfolio diversification to the next step — further differentiating the investments you have within asset classes (for example, holding small-, medium-, and large-cap stocks, or a variety of bonds) — may also be beneficial.
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5. Reduce the Fees You Pay
No matter whether you’re taking an active, passive, or automatic approach to investing, you’re going to have to pay some fees to managers or brokers. For example, if you buy mutual or exchange-traded funds, you will typically pay an annual fee based on that fund’s expense ratio.
Fees can be one of the biggest drags on investment returns over time, so it’s important to look carefully at the fees that you’re paying and to occasionally shop around to see if it’s possible to get similar investments for lower fees.
6. Stick with Your Plan
When markets go down, it can feel like the world is ending. New investors might find themselves pondering questions like How can investments lose so much value so quickly? Will they ever go back up? What should I do?
During the crash of early 2020, for example, $3.4 trillion in wealth disappeared from the S&P 500 index alone in a single week. And that’s not counting all of the other markets around the world. But over the next two years, investors saw big gains as markets hit record highs.
The takeaway? Investments fluctuate over time and managing your emotions is as important as managing your portfolio. If you have a long time horizon, you may not need to be overly concerned with how your portfolio is performing day to day. It’s often wiser to stick with your plan, and don’t impulsively buy or sell just because the weather changes, so to say. 💡 Quick Tip: Newbie investors may be tempted to buy into the market based on recent news headlines or other types of hype. That’s rarely a good idea. Making good choices shouldn’t stem from strong emotions, but a solid investment strategy.
7. Maximize Tax-Advantaged Accounts
Like fees, the taxes that you pay on investment gains can significantly eat away at your profits. That’s why tax-advantaged accounts, those types of investment vehicles that allow you to defer taxes, or eliminate them entirely, are so valuable to investors.
The tax-advantaged accounts that you can use will depend on your workplace benefits, your income, and state regulations, but they might include:
• Workplace retirement accounts such as 401(k), 403(b), etc.
• Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
• Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), including Roth IRAs, SEP IRAs, SIMPLE IRAs, etc.
• 529 Accounts (college savings accounts)
Recommended: Benefits of Health Savings Accounts
8. Rebalance Regularly
Once you’ve nailed down your asset allocation, or how you’ll proportion out your portfolio to various types of investments, you’ll want to make sure your portfolio doesn’t stray too far from that target. If one asset class, such as equities, outperforms others that you hold, it could end up accounting for a larger portion of your portfolio over time.
To correct that, you’ll want to rebalance once or twice a year to get back to the asset allocation that works best for you. If rebalancing seems like too much work, you might consider a target-date fund or an automated account, which will rebalance on your behalf.
9. Understand Your Personal Risk Tolerance
While all of the above rules are important, it’s also critical to know your own personality and your ability to handle the volatility inherent in the market. If a steep drop in your portfolio is going to cause you extreme anxiety — or cause you to make knee-jerk investing decisions – then you might want to tilt your portfolio more conservatively.
Ideally, you’ll land on an asset allocation that takes into account both your risk tolerance and the amount of risk that you need (and are able) to take in order to meet your investment goals.
If, on the other hand, you get a thrill out of market ups and downs (or have other assets that make it easier for you to stomach short-term losses), you might consider taking a more aggressive approach to investing.
The Takeaway
The rules outlined above are guidelines that can help both beginner and experienced investors build a portfolio that helps them meet their financial goals. While not all investors will follow all of these rules, understanding them provides a solid foundation for creating the strategy that works best for you.
Ready to invest in your goals? It’s easy to get started when you open an investment account with SoFi Invest. You can invest in stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), mutual funds, alternative funds, and more. SoFi doesn’t charge commissions, but other fees apply (full fee disclosure here).
Invest with as little as $5 with a SoFi Active Investing account.
SoFi Invest® INVESTMENTS ARE NOT FDIC INSURED • ARE NOT BANK GUARANTEED • MAY LOSE VALUE SoFi Invest encompasses two distinct companies, with various products and services offered to investors as described below:
Individual customer accounts may be subject to the terms applicable to one or more of these platforms.
1) Automated Investing and advisory services are provided by SoFi Wealth LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser (“SoFi Wealth“). Brokerage services are provided to SoFi Wealth LLC by SoFi Securities LLC.
2) Active Investing and brokerage services are provided by SoFi Securities LLC, Member FINRA (www.finra.org)/SIPC(www.sipc.org). Clearing and custody of all securities are provided by APEX Clearing Corporation.
For additional disclosures related to the SoFi Invest platforms described above please visit SoFi.com/legal.
Neither the Investment Advisor Representatives of SoFi Wealth, nor the Registered Representatives of SoFi Securities are compensated for the sale of any product or service sold through any SoFi Invest platform.
Financial Tips & Strategies: The tips provided on this website are of a general nature and do not take into account your specific objectives, financial situation, and needs. You should always consider their appropriateness given your own circumstances.
Investment Risk: Diversification can help reduce some investment risk. It cannot guarantee profit, or fully protect in a down market.
You’re probably seeing headlines almost daily screaming about layoffs, layoffs, layoffs. The ubiquity of those stories may make you worry about your own job stability.
There was a 10% increase in layoffs last year from the previous year — 19.8 million in 2023 compared with 17.6 million in 2022, according to an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
But monthly layoffs throughout 2023 were actually slightly below pre-pandemic levels after a massive spike during the start of the pandemic, BLS data shows.
“I’m cautiously optimistic. I think there are some signs that we’ll still see robust demand for workers, be that through hiring or a relative absence of layoffs,” says Nick Bunker, economic research director for North America at the Indeed Hiring Lab, which tracks employment trends.
The current job market is incredibly resilient, and labor market indicators show that workers who are laid off aren’t likely to stay unemployed for long. The unemployment rate has stayed steady between 3.4% and 3.9% since December 2021. Unemployment claims, meanwhile, are largely in line with pre-pandemic claims, Department of Labor data shows. That goes for initial claims — by those unemployed for the first time — and for continued unemployment claims — those who have remained unemployed beyond an initial claim.
“I’m not particularly concerned,” says Elise Gould, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
If economists aren’t panicked, it means you probably shouldn’t be either. Unless, of course, you’re in one of the sectors that’s seen an uptick.
Where are layoffs happening?
Gould and Bunker both say layoffs are largely siloed in the information sector, which includes both tech companies and media companies (hence all those layoff headlines). They say that shedding is likely to continue into 2024.
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In the scope of the entire labor market, tech and media remain the outliers when it comes to layoffs, Bunker says. “This time last year there were concerns about what’s happening to the tech or media industries or the broader information sector. And you could see from the data that layoffs did tick up, but that was not representative of what you saw in the rest of the market — it didn’t spread out.”
The transportation and warehousing industry has also seen a rise in layoffs since companies began downsizing after more rapid expansion during the pandemic. But employment in the sector is still well above pre-pandemic levels.
Among other sectors, a Feb. 1 report by Challenger, Gray and Christmas, an outplacement company, shows the financial industry has had the most job cuts so far in 2024 with a total of 23,238 in January. That’s the highest monthly layoffs among financial companies since September 2018.
Gould says layoffs like these aren’t necessarily signs of industrywide distress. Some reflect the churn that happens in the economy in any given month — jobs lost are offset by jobs added, she says. Throughout 2023, the amount of jobs added often exceeded expectations. That trend remained in January: The amount of jobs added was double what was projected.
“There’s a lot moving,” says Gould.
Some other areas with layoffs include the food industry, which announced 6,656 layoffs, the highest number since November 2012. The retail industry announced 5,364 cuts in January — a 4,776% increase from December. But take that big, scary percentage with a grain of salt: Layoffs happen every year in the retail industry after the holidays are over because companies hire a ton of temporary workers to meet demand.
Layoffs spiked among tech companies in 2023
Last year was not a good one for tech and neither was the one before that. Let’s face it — this year isn’t looking much better. In 2023, more than 1,190 tech companies laid off some 262,000 workers, according to layoffs.fyi, which tracks layoffs in the tech industry.
The biggest layoffs in 2023 were at big-name companies, including Amazon (27,410 workers) Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram (21,000), Google (12,115) and Microsoft (11,158).
But so far in 2024, over 34,000 employees have been laid off among more than 140 tech companies, according to layoffs.fyi. Some of the big names this year include Snap, which owns SnapChat, Zoom, PayPal, Salesforce, Microsoft, eBay, TikTok, Wayfair, Google, Discord, Audible and Rent the Runway.
Job availability may also be dwindling. “Employers are still looking to hire at fairly robust rates across a variety of sectors,” says Bunker. “And that’s not the case for job titles related to the tech sector; they’re still pretty depressed there.”
The downsizing is likely due to some pullback from the hiring spree in the tech industry during the start of the pandemic, experts say. And layoffs in this sector, particularly for highly skilled tech professionals, don’t mean workers stay unemployed for long. They’re likely being gobbled up by other companies pretty quickly, Bunker and Gould say.
“For workers that have higher levels of education, oftentimes their unemployment rates are much lower,” Gould says. “Oftentimes they are able to get back on their feet. Obviously, that average story does not tell everybody’s experience, and there are people that will be worse off.”
Randi Weitzman, executive director of technology talent solutions at Robert Half, an international human resource consulting firm, says workers in tech positions have an in-demand skill set that every company needs.
“It’s not so much we’re seeing the demand in high tech, but in industries like health care, manufacturing, government, retail, hospitality and leisure. We also saw an uptick in professional services. But all of those industries need IT professionals to help them drive their companies,” Weitzman says.
Media layoffs soared as companies struggle to profit
For the media, 2023 was a proverbial bloodbath. The industry, as a whole, announced 20,324 cuts last year — the highest since 2020, according to a report by Challenger, Gray and Christmas, Inc. As a subset of media, news announced 2,681 cuts, which was more than layoffs in 2021 and 2022 combined, according to the report. Bloomberg estimated news media losses even higher — about 3,000.
“I think that is very much a structural story that’s more about long-term trends,” says Bunker.
“The issue for the media is internet.”
Media was once mostly funded by advertising — “they were sort of a one-stop shop for lots of advertisers,” Bunker says. But the advent of the internet changed advertising, and media paid the price. The other issue, Bunker says, is consumer expectations of the price they pay for information, that is, most people don’t want to pay for articles.
“It’s just more difficult for media to be profitable, and so you’ve had a pullback and a decline in employment in that sector of the economy,” Bunker says.
The past year saw cuts at Buzzfeed News (15%), Time Magazine (15%), NPR (10%), Business Insider (8%), Gannett (6%), Vox (11%), Conde Nast (5%), Vice Media (around 10%) and others. The Washington Post completed 240 buyouts last year to avoid laying off workers.
Since the start of 2024, even more news media organizations have announced staff reductions.
On Jan. 17, Conde Nast announced it was laying off staff and folding Pitchfork into the GQ umbrella. On Jan. 19, Sports Illustrated announced it would be giving its entire staff the boot within 90 days. On Jan. 23, the Los Angeles Times announced it was cutting 115 reporters — about 20% of its staff. Back in June, it slashed its workforce by 13%. The paper was reportedly losing somewhere between $30 million to $40 million a year.
Layoffs aren’t just hitting news outlets. Streaming services have disrupted traditional television. On Feb. 13, the TV network giant Paramount announced it was laying off 3% of its staff.
Mass layoffs across the labor market aren’t likely in 2024
Despite some worrisome trends in the information sector, widespread layoffs throughout the labor market still aren’t likely to happen anytime soon under current conditions, experts say.
“The outlook for layoffs is a function of what you think a broader economic outlook is, and we’ve gotten very strong economic growth data as of late,” says Bunker.
While the labor market is tight, and the industries with layoffs are generally contained, it doesn’t mean we won’t see more employment churn coming this year. CEOs aren’t feeling the need to hoard labor as much as they once did: A quarterly survey of CEO confidence released on Feb. 8 by The Conference Board, a think tank, shows 23% of CEOs expect to lay off workers in the next 12 months, up from 13% from the previous quarter.
Los Angeles Times: Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images News via Getty Images
Google: Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images News via Getty Images
Microsoft: Photo by Tim Heitman/Getty Images News for BIG3 via Getty Images
TikTok: Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images News via Getty Images
Paramount Studios: Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images News via Getty Images
Why should lenders and vendors care about servicing? (STRATMOR’s current blog is titled, “It’s 2024: Do You Know Where Your Servicing Is?”) Not only do servicing values fluctuate, which impacts the prices that borrowers see, but servicing is a huge touchpoint with consumers and therefore garners the attention of regulators like the CFPB, headlines, and the courts. The latest example is a California couple suing Specialized Loan Servicing, LLC for negligence that led to a “lost home and destroyed life.” Of course, anyone can sue anyone at any time, but the multi-count lawsuit against Specialized Loan Servicing, LLC alleges breach of contract, theft, and several other counts, accusing SLS of negligence as the mortgage servicer added a quarter of a million dollars to the couple’s mortgage, leading to their “financial and personal ruin.” (Today’s Commentary podcast can be found here and this week’s is sponsored by Lender Toolkit and its AI-powered AI Underwriter and Prism borrower income automation tools. By providing lightning-fast underwriting decisions, your market reputation with borrowers and Realtors will soar, which means more repeat and referral business. Hear an interview with Jeremy Potter and Marvin Chang on broader and more flexible tools for homeowners to navigate our fast-paced and modern economy.)
Lender and Broker Software, Products, and Services
What’s better than a free consultation from a mortgage tech expert? Getting the advice of six. That’s what’s in store if you join “Strategies to Master the Market Now with the Right Mortgage Technology,” next Wednesday, Feb. 21 at 2 pm ET. This free webinar, co-sponsored by Floify and Truv, Christy Soukhamneut, chief lending officer at UFCU; Raven Johnson, VP business systems at Legacy Mutual Mortgage; Craig Ungaro, COO AnnieMac Home Mortgage; features Jodi Hall, founder & CEO of DandaRoad, LLC; Richard Grieser, vice president of marketing at Truv; and Sofia Rossato, president & GM of Floify. Click here to register.
Shake it up + flashback to the 80s with Sagent at MBA Servicing! Be part of the most EPIC MBA Servicing party and shake it up with Sagent on Wed. 2/21 at 7PM ET at Jo Jo’s Shake Bar. Join the team and top industry players for some boozy milkshakes + throwback jams, where you’ll be dancing ‘All Night Long’… Don’t forget to pack your best 80s attire (think Member’s Only jackets, parachute pants) because this party is one you don’t want to miss. Click the link here reserve your spot and we’ll see you there!
“Tired of messy or late closings? LOs know that even if they provide the most amazing customer service, it won’t mean anything if there are delays in getting their borrower’s mortgage approved and closed. The biggest lenders are offering same-day approvals, and so can you. Lender Toolkit’s AI-powered AI Underwriter™ and Prism™ income automation help streamline underwriting so that you can get loans approved faster than ever. By providing almost-instantaneous underwriting decisions, your market reputation with borrowers and Realtors will soar, which means more repeat and referral business. Notes Mark Workens, CEO Mortgage 1: “My company’s ability to be profitable in any market condition is largely due to Lender Toolkit’s Maas™ Platform, including AI Underwriter and Prism.” So why get left behind? Schedule a demo here, or meet us in person for a live demo at EXP24 next month by booking here. We can’t wait to show you what’s possible with our high-tech solutions.”
New: Maxwell’s Q4 2023 Mortgage Lending Report Shows Signs of Market Recovery. Wondering what to expect from 2024’s market? Maxwell’s brand new Q4 2023 Lending Report shows powerful signs of market recovery. In a major reversal, loan volume in Q4 grew year-over-year for the first time since 2021. Plus, the report reveals areas where lenders are finding opportunity, such as through outside-the-box offerings like HELOCs. To gain exclusive data, charts, and advice on how to get ahead of the market reset, click here to download Maxwell’s Q4 2023 Mortgage Lending Report.
Get a Sweetheart Deal with Loan Stream’s February Specials on FHA/VA and Non-QM Price Improvements! Get 37.5 BPS Price Improvement on all FHA and VA, Low Balance, and High Balance >=680 FICO, excludes DPA and 25 BPS Price Improvement on FHA Streamlines/IRRRLS. Plus, a Non-QM Price improvement of 50 BPS on all Non-QM, not including Closed End Seconds and Select Programs. Valid for loans locked 2/1/2024 through 2/29/2024. Terms/Conditions apply see our site and talk with your Account Executive. Don’t miss this month’s webinar on Closed End Seconds and how to Prepare for the CalHFA Dream for All. Register now!
Lenders and borrowers deserve technology that improves the mortgage process, saves time and money, and is intuitive. As both a startup and a company with decades of technology experience, Dark Matter Technologies (DMT) has a unique vantage point for identifying how to improve value for customers, and how to work with an ecosystem of like-minded partners to bring many of those ideas to fruition. In its latest podcast episode, The Spotlight, we meet Chief Product Officer Stephanie Durflinger, the 15-year industry veteran now guiding DMT’s product development team. Stephanie formerly held key positions at both ICE Mortgage Technology and Ellie Mae and brings her unique perspective and discerning eye to guiding the future of Empower and other DMT products. The podcast is hosted by DMT Vice President of Marketing Wes Horbatuck. Listen to the interview now.
Picture this… it’s Saturday afternoon and your borrower finds out they were out-bid and have a small window to decide if they want to offer more on their dream home. You’re at your kid’s soccer game and they’re in panic mode… how much does the payment increase? How much more cash will I need? When can I get an updated pre-approval letter? Fortunately, it’s 2024 and lenders using QuickQual never have to worry about this. Borrowers AND Realtors AND Loan Officers can run accurate payment and closing cost scenarios from their phones and they can generate updated pre-approval letters within guardrails set by the loan officer. Crisis averted with QuickQual.
Technology and operations leaders who care about making sure their technology and operations are competitive for today’s market, as well as learning what’s possible when you push the limits, you don’t want to miss this live event! On February 15, at 1PM CT come join Jonathan Spinetto, COO and Co-Founder of NFTYDoor, Janelle Lindseth, Senior Product Manager of Docutech, and Richard Grieser, Vice President of Marketing of TRUV, as they unpack how Jonathan and his team launched the business with zero loan volume, and in just 2 years, NFTYDoor debuted its digital home equity loan platform, was acquired by Homebridge, and is now on track to reach 3,000 loans per month in 2024, making them a major player in the market. Their technology is built from the ground up and processes everything from credit, KYC, valuations, disclosures, closing (RON), and payments, and all in full regulatory compliance. This is a success story as Jonathan and his team pushed the limits and accepted the risk, but those lessons learned can be immediately applied by you. Come and see the future of lending technology.
Capital Markets
The link between interest rates, mortgage rates, and borrower behavior is always changing. Although the Federal Reserve is apparently “on hold” until its May meeting, it is still important to see and understand what will cause interest rates to move higher and lower over time. Mortgage rates have stayed close to where they started the year, despite swings in Treasury yields because of slowing inflation offset by stronger than expected readings on the job and the housing markets.
The U.S. Federal Reserve is keenly aware of inflation. No news was good news when it came to inflation revision data to close last week, with the Consumer Price Index revised downward slightly in December and the fourth quarter left unchanged at 3.3 percent. A year ago, revisions to the November and December 2022 reports showed higher core inflation than what was initially reported, sending bond yields higher as investors prepared for a “higher for longer” interest rate environment. Dallas Fed President Logan said that disinflation progress has been “tremendous,” but the central bank is in no rush to start lowering interest rates.
The CPI revisions likely give the Federal Reserve further breathing room while allaying any concerns traders might have had about progress on inflation. The revisions were also in sharp contrast to last year’s, in which CPI was revised significantly higher. It’s not at the “magic” 2 percent level, but there is progress. Easing inflation data, a resilient economy and a solid earnings season so far have sparked this year’s stock market rally, which has seen the three major averages tallying their fifth straight weekly gains, and this adds to consumer confidence.
The narrative of late has been a resilient U.S. economy, with low unemployment, inflation largely under control, and the Fed’s fabled soft landing very much in sight. Focus now shifts to January’s CPI tomorrow and if price pressures continue to recede, it may pave the way for the Fed to begin cutting interest rates sooner rather than later.
We also learned last week that January’s ISM Services Index rose to 53.4 from 50.5 in December. The expansion in the services sector of the economy exceeded economists’ expectations as consumers return to pre-pandemic spending behaviors. The prices paid subindex jumped from 56.7 to 64.0, a sign that inflationary pressures remain. This was the largest monthly percentage gain since August 2012.
Consumer spending remains strong and despite higher interest rates, expanded to a record $5.1 trillion in December, although the pace of consumer credit expansion declined from 7.6 percent in 2022 to 2.4 percent in 2023. Rising incomes due to a strong labor market are expected to support the pace of consumer spending as a meaningful slowdown in the job market has yet to materialize. Jobless claims fell to 218,000 during the week ending February 3 and continuing claims declined to 1.87 million, suggesting that those who do find themselves in the job market do not remain there for long.
This week sees the return of “first tier” data including updates on CPI, retail sales, industrial production / capacity utilization, PPI, and Michigan sentiment. Other data includes regional Fed surveys, import prices, factory orders, NAHB HMI, and housing starts. Fed speakers are currently limited to a few Fed presidents, while Treasury supply will consist of just bills. Regarding MBS, Class B and C 48-hours are tomorrow and Thursday, respectively.
Today’s lone data point is the January budget statement, due out this afternoon, with the CBO forecasting a deficit of $21 billion, compared with $38.8 billion in the prior fiscal year. Markets will also receive remarks from Minneapolis Fed President Kashkari. We begin Monday with Agency MBS prices a few 32nds (ticks) better than Friday afternoon, the 10-year yielding 4.16 after closing last week at 4.19 percent, and the 2-year is at 4.46.
Jobs
“Hey, mortgage sales professionals DO NOT join radius financial group for our amazing culture, president club trips, best workplace accolades, 100 percent 401K match or because of our shared success program which grants phantom stock to ALL employees. Join radius to grow your business, mortgage team and wealth. Over the past 23 years, radius has become the best at what we do by caring intensely about the career growth of our team members and investing in technology that simplifies and automates our process. We are a world-class customer obsessed team focused on our loan officers’ growth and success. So, if you want real opportunities to grow, the ability to make a positive impact starting on day one and the freedom to chart the career you’ve always wanted, at radius, you can! For confidential inquires please contact Carla Herrera and visit us at radius financial group inc., Mortgage Lending Careers.
The Money Store has announced that Coleen Bogle has joined the mortgage lender as its Chief Marketing Officer. Bogle has more than 15 years of experience leading marketing departments in the home financing industry, and in her new role, she will focus on enhancing the brand, expanding marketing services, and attracting top-tier mortgage origination talent to the organization.
Private mortgage insurance companies are hiring: MGIC, National MI, Arch MI, Radian, Essent, and Enact (in no particular order). And while’s we’re at it, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And my cat Myrtle’s friend the CFPB has career opportunities.
Don’t forget that anyone can post a resume, for free, at www.lendernews.com for potential employers to view for a nominal charge of $75 for several months.
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When are interest rates going to come down? Where should mortgage rates be before I buy or refinance my home? How much home can I afford today? These are just a few of the questions independent mortgage brokers get asked on a daily basis.
The reality is, borrowers are rate sensitive because it’s what they’re exposed to. Mainstream media often emphasize fluctuations in rates, which causes uncertainty and apprehension among borrowers. Furthermore, the average consumer is likely unaware of the variety of loan options available to them through the wholesale channel. This is why it’s more important than ever for independent mortgage brokers across the country to establish themselves as an expert and trusted advisor in the mortgage industry.
However, to do this, consumers need to know and trust that you’re the expert before they’re even going to consider you. So how do you build that trust and credibility? And how can you confidently talk to clients and potential clients about their mortgage needs?
Building trust
First, you need to establish trust and credibility. A mortgage is one of the biggest financial decisions someone makes in their lifetime. It can also be quite emotional and stressful. If they view you as someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about, or someone who just wants to get a commission check, you’re not likely to get their business, or if you do, it’s unlikely to result in any future or referral business.
Trust starts with your online presence. The way you present yourself across digital platforms can make or break that first initial layer of credibility. When’s the last time you made a purchase or did business with someone without Googling them or checking reviews first? You need to make sure everything that comes up when someone Googles your name or business makes a good first impression, whether that be your social media or Google Business Profile.
Once you get a borrower in the door, continue building trust by building a relationship with them. Your conversations with clients should extend beyond mortgages. Get to know them on a more personal level. Do they have kids? Are they passionate about their job? What about sports? Find something to connect with them on and extend the relationship past the transaction.
Breaking down the misconceptions about interest rates
The big question we’re all getting is, “When will interest rates come down?” As much as I would love to have a definite answer, I don’t, and no one else does either. Realistically, it could happen tomorrow, two weeks from now or six months from now. Rates are something we can’t control, so instead of trying to time the market, focus them on what you can control — finding the best option for your borrower that meets their expectations today.
When borrowers ask you about mortgage rates, you first need to understand why they’re asking. The consistent media chatter and click-bait headlines around mortgage rates have caused hesitation among consumers when it comes to buying, selling and refinancing. It’s up to you to shift their mindset from just the rate to the overall financial goal for their mortgage.
Are they looking to save money on a monthly basis? Do they need to tap into their equity to pay off other debts? Do they want to pay off their mortgage faster? Are they interested in buying, but worried about down payment and closing costs? Once you have a better grasp on their goals and financial situation, you can make a recommendation and work through the best option together.
For example, say you have a borrower who is living paycheck to paycheck. After reviewing your product offerings, you find a refinancing option that could save this borrower $80 a month. To you, that may not seem significant, but for this borrower, that $80 could make a huge difference. If they refinance, they also won’t have to make the payment until a month after the loan closes, which could provide some additional relief. The reality is most Americans have $1,000 or less in savings, and they are unaware of the savings options that may be available to them through a refi.
Let’s take a look at a fast-track borrower. This borrower wants to pay off their mortgage faster. After looking at their budget, you can determine what loan is best for them, and give them some options. If resetting their term is an issue, maybe use a flex term loan. If they’re able to make a higher payment, perhaps a 15-year or 20-year loan would work. Once a borrower is open and honest with you about their goals and financial expectations, you’ll be able to give them options that make sense, and together, move forward with a plan of action.
When you change the focus from rates to financial goals, you’ll be surprised how much more productive a conversation can be with your borrower. It’s also important to keep in mind that what works for one borrower may not work for another, but the key is to dispel their misconceptions and concerns and present them with options they may not even knew existed.
Becoming the expert
You have to know the ins and outs of the products you can offer your clients. Touch base regularly with the account executives at your lenders and make sure you understand the variety of offerings that are available to your clients. Read up on industry news every day. Connect with others in the industry and share best practices.
Become the expert so you can confidently help your clients with their questions about mortgages, interest rates and the market. That, paired with strong relationships, will take your business to the next level.
Alex Elezaj serves as chief strategy officer at United Wholesale Mortgage. Before joining UWM, he was CEO of Class Appraisal.
After several days of heavy volatility, the bond market is drifting into a sideways daze, lulled to sleep by the repetitive tones from multiple Fed speakers. One after another, they’re saying the same version of the same thesis (good progress on inflation, but need more, might cut in 2024, but not yet, surprisingly strong econ gives us time to decide, etc). Bonds have clearly heard it all before, which is why they didn’t care about Powell saying this stuff last week. NYCB headlines were worth temporary volatility, but not lasting changes. The largest ever 10yr auction passed without a trace.
09:11 AM
Initially stronger overnight on NYCB downgrade, but steadily weaker into domestic hours. Pushing back modestly now with MBS down 3 ticks (.09) and 10yr yields up 1.8bps at 4.108.
09:47 AM
10yr yields are quickly down a a few bps at 4.073 after new NYCB headlines. MBS up 2 ticks (.06).
11:46 AM
NYCB gains erased fairly quickly. 10yr now back to 2bps to 4.11. MBS down 3 ticks.
01:05 PM
Uneventful 10yr auction. 10s up 2bps at 4.11. MBS down 6 ticks (.19) on the day in 5.5 coupons.
02:26 PM
10yr unchanged from previous update. MBS tightening up a bit, now down only 3 ticks (.09).
04:42 PM
Weakest levels of the day with MBS down a quarter point moments ago. 10yr up 2.7bps at 4.117
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