Here are tips from the federal government to help you save up for a down payment:

Here are suggestions from the federal government for buying a home. See more recommendations at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development web site.

• Figure out how much you can afford — What you can afford depends on your income, credit rating, current monthly expenses, down payment and the interest rate. The calculators below can help, but it is best to visit a lender to find out for sure.
• Shop for a loan — Save money by doing your homework. Talk to several lenders, compare costs and interest rates, negotiate to get a better deal. Consider getting pre-approved for a loan.
• Shop for a home — If you choose a home in a neighborhood with a Home Owners Association (HOA), be sure to request a copy of the HOA packet, so you can review before closing.
• Make an offer — Discuss the process with your real estate agent. If the seller counters your offer, you may need to negotiate until you both agree to the terms of the sale.
• Get a home inspection — Make your offer contingent on a home inspection. An inspection will tell you about the condition of the home, and can help you avoid buying a home that needs major repairs.
• Shop for homeowners insurance — Lenders require that you have homeowners insurance. Be sure to shop around.
• Sign papers — You’re finally ready to go to “settlement” or “closing.” Be sure to read everything before you sign!

Health plans ranking highest in their respective regions are (in alphabetical order):

• Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kentucky and BlueCross and BlueShield of Alabama (these two plans tie in the East South Central region)
• BlueCross BlueShield of Arizona
• BlueCross BlueShield of Florida
• BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois
• BlueCross BlueShield of Nebraska
• Dean Health Insurance
• Harvard Pilgrim Health Care
• Health Alliance Plan (HAP)
• Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield
• HIP Health Plan of New York
• Humana (which ranks highest in the South Atlantic and Texas regions)
• Kaiser Foundation Health Plan (which ranks highest in the California, Colorado, Northwest and Virginia-Maryland regions)
• Medical Mutual of Ohio

The study found that—while satisfaction levels have increased significantly from 2008 in the New England, South Atlantic, California, Arizona-Utah and Illinois-Indiana regions—health plan members in the New England, Michigan, Pennsylvania-Delaware, California and South Atlantic regions are the most satisfied overall.

Source: J.D. Power and Associates

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Here are tips from the federal government to help you save up for a down payment:

• Invest in Savings Accounts, Insured Money Market Accounts, and CDs — With these products, your money tends to be very safe because it’s federally insured, and you can easily get to your money if you need it for any reason. But there’s a tradeoff for security and ready availability. Your money earns a low interest rate compared with investments. In other words, it gets a low return.
• Stocks — Over the past 60 years, the investment that has provided the highest average rate of return has been stocks. But there are no guarantees of profits when you buy stock, which makes stock one of the most risky investments. If the company doesn’t do well or falls out of favor with investors, your stock can fall in price, and you could lose your money.
• Bonds — The company’s “promise to repay” your principal generally makes bonds less risky than stocks. But bonds can be risky. To assess how risky a bond is you can check the bond’s credit rating. Unlike stockholders, bond holders know how much money they will make, unless the company goes out of business. If the company goes out of business or declares bankruptcy, bondholders may lose money. But if there is any money left in the company, they will get it before stockholders. Bonds generally provide higher returns (with higher risk) than savings accounts, but lower returns (with lower risk) than stocks.
• Mutual Funds — Mutual fund risk is determined by the stocks and bonds in the fund. No mutual fund can guarantee its returns, and no mutual fund is risk-free.
• Manage Your Credit — Many adults—and plenty of students—have wallets filled with credit cards, some of which they’ve “maxed out” (meaning they’ve spent up to their credit limit). Credit cards can make it seem easy to buy expensive things when you don’t have the cash in your pocket—or in the bank. But credit cards aren’t free money. Most credit cards charge high interest rates—as much as 18 percent or more—if you don’t pay off your balance in full each month. If you owe money on your credit cards, the wisest thing you can do is pay off the balance in full as quickly as possible. Few investments will give you the high returns you’ll need to keep pace with an 18 percent interest charge. That’s why you’re better off reducing your credit card debt.
• Keep Trade-Offs and “Opportunity Cost” in Mind — Unless you’re lucky enough to have an unlimited amount of money, you’ll have to choose how you spend your money. That means you’ll have to make trade-offs and consider the “opportunity cost,” meaning what you give up by choosing one option over another. For example, let’s say you’ve got $100.00: If you put the money in an account that earns 5 percent interest, you’ll have $105.00 at the end of the year. If you spend it on new clothes, you won’t earn that extra $5.00, although you should still have the clothes. But if you wanted to sell them, they’d probably be worth less, especially if they’re used or out of style.

Other ways to gather a down payment:

• Gifts from family or friends — Family and friends can provide you with cash gifts that can become the basis for a down payment.
• Tax refunds — If you are fortunate to receive a tx refund, set aside the majority of your return towards your savings for a home.
• 401k — If you have a 401k or retirement plan, you may want to use those funds for a down payment on a house. But remember you have to pay back the loan plus interest.

Here are the major steps for repairing your credit score. Go to Bankrate.com for complete details:

1. Order your credit reports — Here are the top three credit bureaus:

Equifax
P.O. Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
(800) 685-1111

Experian (formerly TRW)
P.O. Box 2104
Allen, TX 75013-0949
(888) 397-3742

Trans Union Corp.
760 W. Sproul Rd.
Springfield, PA 19064-0390
(800) 888-4213

2. Examine your reports carefully. Bankrate.com offers this primer on how to read and understand your credit report.

3. Correct any errors in your report – Sometimes it’s necessary to contact your creditors to resolve mistakes. Bankrate’s 7 steps to fixing your credit report will help you tackle the serious errors.

4. Solve and dissolve debt — Devise a spending plan to reduce your debt and set a schedule to pay on time, every time. Check out Bankrate’s 10 steps to paying off credit cards for more ideas.

5. Build a solid credit history — Secured credit cards offer people with no credit and those repairing their credit this opportunity. Shop around for the best deal available, but limit your applications. Opening a savings account at your bank shows creditors that you are working to save and that you have reserves to repay debts.

For 2009, personal exemptions and standard deductions will rise and tax brackets will widen because of inflation adjustments announced by the Internal Revenue Service. By law, the dollar amounts for a variety of tax provisions must be revised each year to keep pace with inflation. As a result, more than three dozen tax benefits, affecting virtually every taxpayer, are being adjusted for 2009.

Key changes affecting 2009 returns, filed by most taxpayers in early 2010, include the following:

• The value of each personal and dependency exemption, available to most taxpayers, is $3,650, up $150 from 2008.
• The new standard deduction is $11,400 for married couples filing a joint return (up $500), $5,700 for singles and married individuals filing separately (up $250) and $8,350 for heads of household (up $350). Nearly two out of three taxpayers take the standard deduction, rather than itemizing deductions, such as mortgage interest, charitable contributions and state and local taxes.
• Tax-bracket thresholds increase for each filing status. For a married couple filing a joint return, for example, the taxable-income threshold separating the 15-percent bracket from the 25-percent bracket is $67,900, up from $65,100 in 2008.
• The maximum earned income tax credit for low and moderate income workers and working families with two or more children is $5,028, up from $4,824. The income limit for the credit for joint return filers with two or more children is $43,415, up from $41,646.
• The annual gift exclusion rises to $13,000, up from $12,000 in 2008.

Source: Internal Revenue Service

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1. New York, NY
2. Salt Lake City, UT
3. Denver, CO
4. Jackson, MS
5. Grand Rapids, MI
6. Norfolk, VA
7. Montgomery, AL
8. Wichita, KS
8. (tied) St. Louis, MO
10. Arlington, TX

Read more at Men’s Health Magazine.

Consumer Reports analyzed hundreds of credit cards and named nine that are worthy of consumers’ consideration — and three to stay away from:

Best Low Interest Cards

• Capital One Platinum Prestige
• Clear from American Express
• Iberiabank Visa Classic

Best Cash-Back Cards

• Capital One No Hassle Cash Rewards
• Chase Freedom Visa
• Discover More

Best Gas Cards

• Chase PerfectCard MasterCard
• Discover Open Road
• Hess Platinum Visa

Cards To Avoid

• First Premier Bank
• HSBC American DreamCard
• New Millennium Visa or MasterCard

The full report is available in the redesigned October issue of Consumer Reports and online at the Consumer Reports web site.

Source: Consumer Reports

Good credit or bad credit, consumers must keep tabs on their accounts. Consumer Reports offers the following tips on how to get the most out of a credit card:

• Use credit wisely. If a consumer has a lot of high-interest debt, they should find a card that has a zero-percent-interest transfer offer and no transfer fee.
• Open the mail. Card issuer letters could look like advertising, but they also could be a notice of an increase in rates or a reduction in credit limit. Issuers often provide an opt-out clause, allowing customers to stop using the card and pay off the existing balance under old terms.
• Contact the lender. Cardholders who are dissatisfied with account changes or errors should call the card issuer and ask to speak to a manager or customer-retention person.
• Steer clear of traps. Federal banking regulators are pushing for rule changes that could take effect as early as next year. Some current practices that could be eliminated are raising rates on existing balances and applying payments to the lowest-rate charges (such as balance
  transfers.)
• Pick the right card. Consumers should select the right card for the type of borrower they are. CR also found that smaller issuers including credit unions and community banks are worth checking out for various interest-free offers.

For more information, visit the Consumer Reports web site.

Source: Consumer Reports

J.D. Power and Associates analyzed the responses from more than 7,600 credit card users to understand what made them either satisfied or unhappy with their current cards. The study measures customer satisfaction with credit cards over five key factors: interaction; billing and payment process; fees and rates; reward programs; and benefits and services.

Here’s how cardholders scored high performers in areas they identified as important to them:

Rewards (Transactors)

• AmEx
• Discover
• Chase

Fees/Rates (Revolvers)

• AmEx
• US Bank
• Discover

Call Center

• AmEx
• Discover
• Chase

Problem Incidence

• Target Visa
• Discover
• WaMu

Accepted Everywhere

• National City
• WaMu
• Chase
• Target Visa

Some additional credit card insights:

• Transactors are, as a whole, more satisfied with their credit cards than revolvers and are twice as likely as to remain with their primary credit card issuer.
• Even though transactors are most interested in rewards programs, 72 percent of all cardholders participate in some type of reward program.
• Hotel stays are the most satisfying type of reward, followed by cash rewards.
• One quarter of all cardholders don’t know if their card offers them additional benefits and one-third haven’t used any during the past year. Those users have lower satisfaction levels than their better informed counterparts.

For more information, view the complete credit card ratings at the J.D. Power and Associates web site.

Source: From J.D. Power and Associates