I Tried To Fix Government Tech for Years. I'm Fed Up.
When I helped create the United States Digital Service (USDS), it was not on my bingo board that it would become the U.S. DOGE Service a mere decade later. As a lifelong libertarian, the years I spent trying to make government more efficient at the Department of Veterans Affairs (V.A.) and USDS required a lot of patience. Now I'm fresh out.
We have been making tiny, barely perceptible "improvements," paid for with years of compromise and hand-holding in endless pointless meetings, and then celebrating this as success. I can't get Alana Newhouse's description out of my head: "Half the time our institutions feel like molasses, and the other half like concrete." I'm fed up with a government that can't implement its way out of a paper bag.
Apparently most of America is fed up, too.
I care deeply about trans people, immigrants, and others who are targets of so much hate right now. I do not support the harmful actions being taken against them. At the same time, I could not possibly care less that someone plugged in a server to create a new email list without a Privacy Impact Assessment. If no one ever adheres to FIPS 140-2 again—great, it's about time we took that "kick me" sign written in Mandarin off our back. Much of the current system hurts everyone and needs to go.
When I was chief technology officer of the V.A., a highlight of my career was persuading our inspectors general (I.G.) to allow cloud computing. At the time, most of our websites had business hours, and/or ran on servers that sat in mop closets under a fire sprinkler without backups. I wish I was exaggerating. Cloud would allow us to offer modern online services to America's 20 million veterans.
I spent countless meetings, demos, and lunch-and-learns overcoming I.G. arguments. One objection became a favorite interview question for new hires: "But how do you put the cloud in an evidence bag?" I cheekily baked cloud-shaped sugar cookies and distributed them—in evidence bags—around the office. More than two years later, the I.G. issued a memo approving the use of the cloud.
But you know what? I shouldn't have had to waste two and a half years of my life on this, while millions of veterans went without health care and other benefits they had earned. People in charge of regulating computers should know how computers work. They should even be good at computers.
As we got closer to launching a modern website, I was thwarted in a new and creative way. The Department of Labor bought the domain veterans.gov—the one we intended to use—and said they would only give it to us if they got to approve every page of our website.
Not going to happen. Beyond the delays this would add, the labor department sucks at websites. Their "My Next Move for Veterans," a multi-million-dollar website that every individual separating from the military is required to use, is one of the worst you could ever see. It tells veterans their primary skills are that they can "communicate by speaking" and "use [their] arms and/or legs together while sitting, standing, or lying down." Thanks for your service. If you don't believe me, look for yourself.
The White House got involved, requiring months of in-person mediation meetings. I was never able to get the domain back. (To this day, the labor department owns veterans.gov.) How exactly are we qualified to intervene in foreign wars if our processes can't even stop one agency from squatting on another's domain name?
Getting a government position description for a technologist approved—for what later became USDS—was even worse. On my first attempt, I posted a senior role for a graphic designer on USAJOBS. Human resources selected a candidate with multiple PhDs from the University of Phoenix with zero graphic design experience. I still lay awake at night and wonder: What would they have done if I approved that hire? How many other serious jobs are held by people with zero qualifications?
It took years of back and forth, questioning and fixing virtually every step of the hiring process with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) before we hired our first qualified technologist. I recently learned, in Bureaucracy by James Q Wilson, about the "China Lake OPM Demonstration Project." Facing a dearth of technical talent, China Lake sought to streamline the process for hiring technologists into government—in 1979. How many generations should it take to update a position description?
I hope DOGE will obliterate the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) from space. This law, which was written in 1980—before computers were common in homes—requires that every government form, and every change to every government form, must go through the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). This office has no expertise in user research or form design. It has no ability to check whether a form is asking for information that the agency has already asked for 100 times or whether multiple agency forms ask for the same information in different ways (making it harder to reuse or cross-reference). Agencies self-report how many "burden hours" it takes to fill out their forms, and OIRA has no way to check this either.
Some of the most talented people I've ever worked with have spent years of their own getting OIRA to agree to, and write down, such novel concepts as "legal things are legal." I'm not kidding—OIRA issued guidance last year that agencies are allowed to get feedback from the public, something which has always been legal, yet threats of going to "PRA jail" for doing exactly this persist today.
As part of the aforementioned new website, I wanted to have one form "wizard" that would allow a veteran to enter their information once, and automatically apply for all the benefits for which they were eligible. OIRA told me that to do this, I would first have to submit every possible permutation of this wizard for approval—a request I would have found delicious to comply with, were there enough trucks on the planet to deliver that amount of paper.
The PRA creates dramatically more paperwork and makes agencies ask for the same information more times, and in more confusing ways. It also kills people. It took OIRA over a year to approve the addition of a single checkbox to a disability application form. This checkbox would enroll veterans with serious conditions like PTSD in health care for their disability. Instead, these veterans sat in a backlog of unprocessed paper health care applications. The I.G. of the V.A. may not know how to computer, but if you believe they know how to math, 307,000 veterans died in that backlog, waiting to enroll in the agency's health care that surely would have saved some of their lives.
The death toll continues: Transplant surgeons identified and approved life-critical form updates to the organ donation matching process in 2022, which OIRA is still sitting on today. OIRA has no medical expertise of any kind.
We were told this labyrinth of rules and regulations was required for democracy, fairness, and delivering services to a user base that couldn't exclude anyone. So we worked within the system. We respected it. We followed every rule or dutifully changed the rule before we moved forward.
The system blocked us from helping people at every turn. Yet today, it's totally rolling over in the face of actually harming our most vulnerable while people cheer on its collapse. The system is not coming to save you or anyone—because the system is not currently designed to do much of anything at all.
Let's fight for an America where you are free to live as yourself without fear—but let's not waste any time fighting to keep the status quo of molasses and concrete.
The post I Tried To Fix Government Tech for Years. I'm Fed Up. appeared first on Reason.com.
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an hour ago
- Business Journals
AI in the classroom and beyond: Preparing for a new era of learning
Recognizing the sweeping impact of AI on education and careers, the Austin Business Journal assembled a panel of educators, a technology expert, and a high school student to share insights on what lies ahead. Panelists included MacKenzie Price, Co-founder of 2-Hour Learning and Alpha Schools; Dr. Ju Long, Professor in the Department of Information Systems & Analytics at Texas State University; Bjorn Billhardt, CEO of Abilitie; and Alex Mathew, a student at Alpha High School. Moderated by Abby Mellott, Market President & Publisher of the Austin Business Journal, the conversation highlighted the opportunities and challenges AI presents — from personalizing education and accelerating skill development to navigating ethical concerns. Abby Mellott: How is your institution currently integrating AI into the classroom, and what impact have you seen on student learning outcomes? MacKenzie Price: I'll start, because this is absolutely my area of expertise. One of the most exciting things happening right now is that, with artificial intelligence, we can finally deliver that one-to-one, mastery-based experience to every student. In our model, we've completely thrown out the teacher-in-front-of-the-classroom approach. All of our academic instruction happens through personalized, adaptive apps. That allows us to transform the teacher's role entirely. Instead of spending their time on lesson planning, grading, or lecturing, our teachers focus solely on motivational and emotional support as well as elite mentorship for every student. As a result, our students are learning twice as fast in only a couple hours a day as their peers in traditional classrooms. What's really beautiful about this kind of personalized learning is that we can meet any student exactly where they are and get them learning, whether they're in the 10th percentile or the 95th. As a result, our students are consistently in the top one or two percent nationally. We can take a student who's behind and bring them up to the 50th percentile in a year, and up to the 90th percentile in two years. We're also able to fill in learning gaps — so if a fifth grader comes to us with holes in their second, third, or fourth grade knowledge, we can fill in those holes and get them back on track. Dr. Ju Long: At a large, traditional university like ours, we're doing our best to incorporate AI into our programs. In my department alone, we've launched two new programs with AI concentrations in the past year: one at the undergraduate level within the BBA program, and another at the graduate level, part of our MSD program — Master of Science in Data Analytics and Information Systems. We've also developed new courses. At the undergraduate level, we now offer a machine learning class that is really focused on deep learning. At the MBA level, we have a case-based class that focuses on generative AI business applications to prepare future business leaders to be AI-ready. For our graduate students, we also have a more technical course focused entirely on generative AI. Even in existing classes, we're including AI content. In my own course on product management, students use AI as a sort of co-pilot — helping with ideation and iterative development. I teach them how to prompt AI as if it were a product manager and then assess the results: when to accept, when to reject, and why. It's all very iterative and project-based. They develop a digital or physical product, sometimes using 3D printing to actually print out a prototype, and receive AI-driven critiques on their work. BJORN Billhardt: We've been doing leadership simulations that put people in real situations where they have to make decisions about business outcomes, and it's so much more engaging than any lecture or class discussion. That's been our model for 25 years, and it's worked really well for subjects that we teach, like finance, financial literacy and supply chain management. But when we simulated anything that had to do with what's now called durable skills — the softer skills — we always had this struggle where the simulation environments we built were a little two-dimensional. And so two years ago, when I first had my kid show me what you can do with AI — my kid's in ninth grade — I realized it would change everything about how we teach, not just the soft, durable skills but also the hard skills. For us, it's one of those once-in-a-lifetime shifts. About a year and a half ago, we realized we needed to AI-enable every single product line. We're about 70% there. And there are use cases we're finding now that are even more powerful than we expected. We're just at the beginning of discovering how powerful these AI use cases are going to be. I think education is going to level up in the next 10 years in ways we're only starting to imagine. Abby Mellott: What challenges do you face or foresee as the adoption of AI continues? Dr. Ju Long: I think the challenge is that it's still too early. People are still trying to see what AI can do. It's a lot of trial and error, and a lot of learning is happening at the course and faculty level. What our university and our college are trying to do is see how we can integrate all this effort. We want to learn from each other and have more knowledge sharing so we can convince the people who are still hesitant. We want to show them that it's effective — and not very difficult to do at all. Ease of use and concerns about effectiveness are big issues we can address through sharing. Alex Mathew: From the consumer side, when I told my parents I wanted to go to a school that was fully run by AI with no teachers, they were scared. They were like, 'What is this place?' I think one of the biggest challenges is that a lot of people make assumptions about what this might look like, and they don't want to give it a try. There's a real worry about losing the humanity part of school or about not having as much interaction with friends. MacKenzie Price: What we found, as part of educating a broader audience, is that you have a kindergarten mom asking, 'What is the point of school? What does my kid need to learn for the next 12 years if you have everything at your fingertips?' You have computer science majors at Stanford questioning, 'Is my job going to exist in two years? What can I do?' You have law schools asking, 'How are we supposed to teach our lawyers when a brief can be written automatically?' Nowadays, it's no longer just about the three Rs — reading, writing and arithmetic — it's about the four Cs: critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity. We've shown that you don't need to sit in class all day plus hours of homework to crush academics. So the question becomes, 'What do you do with all of this extra time?' and 'How are humans going to continue to stay on the frontier of creativity when AI knows the black-and-white facts of the world so far?' Alex Mathew: I think another challenge or worry is that students might become too dependent on AI. And so the way to not become dependent on AI is to use it and beat AI. In high school, we actually have a workshop called How Can You Beat AI? In your masterpiece project — I can get to the masterpiece later — one of the biggest goals is to become a true expert in the project that you're building. If AI knows the same amount you do, you're only at the same level. Your goal is to be better than AI. One of the things we're always ourselves asking is, 'How can you be insightful and create new knowledge?' The only way to do that is to leverage the efficiency of AI, see where it's at, and then expand beyond it. Abby Mellott: How do you balance academic integrity with the rise of AI tools that can write essays or solve complex problems for students? Dr. Ju Long: AI is challenging for everyone, including teachers. The old assessment of learning outcomes can no longer work. If I ask students to write me a paper, I can't tell if it's written by AI. So what I do is move from product-based learning to more of a process-based learning. I want to see how they move from A to B and have them show me the steps. The homework I give and the exams and quizzes are a lot longer — it's not just "write me a paper." For example, if it's a simple homework assignment like reading, I don't ask them for a summary. I ask them to annotate the reading, to highlight what they think, so they have to really think critically. Another piece is that it's very experiential now. Students can choose their own personal projects, like what Alex mentioned. One of my colleagues collaborates with the Williamson County Police Department, where they have tons of audio and video evidence that they need to process. The students use the AI skills they learned in the classroom to analyze that evidence. So it can be very service and experience based, applied directly in the real world. BJORN Billhardt: I saw a cartoon recently where three people are standing on a beach. One says, "But what about cheating?" Another says, "AI can't draw hands," and another says, "AI can't do math," while a huge tsunami wave labeled "AI" looms in the background. It's going to happen. The best analogy I have is from 1998 when the internet first came out. Everyone worried, 'oh no, now anyone can post an answer key online.' But we figured it out. We still have tests. We learned how to incorporate that new technology while keeping the human element in education. Nowadays, you can't imagine doing a school project without internet research. We adjusted, and I think we'll be able to do the same with AI. MacKenzie Price: A lot of people, when they think about AI and learning, think of a chatbot, right? That's actually the one thing we don't use in our education model. Instead, we're using AI as the underlying platform that monitors the level, accuracy, efficiency, and effectiveness of what the student is learning. We believe that kids now have the ability to put knowledge into their brain almost like Neo in "The Matrix." It can be put in very efficiently. So we take the approach of getting that academic knowledge in quickly, and then spending the afternoons applying it in project-based ways. We don't have homework, so it's not like kids are going home and asking ChatGPT to write essays for them. They're doing their academic work in the morning, and then we're able to incorporate all the proven learning science techniques — spaced repetition, rapid feedback, regular quizzing — that help kids learn without cheating. Abby Mellott: Alex, let's transition to you. Tell us about your journey from public school to Alpha School and what it was like moving from one end of the spectrum to the other. Alex Mathew: Yeah, very wild experience. At my traditional school, I spent about eight hours a day in class, learning the normal way — teacher at the front of the room, students at their desks. Then I'd go home and spend another three or four hours locked in my room trying to study, finish homework, and complete all these busywork assignments. After that, I would try to cram in all the things I actually loved doing, like hanging out with friends or exploring what my passion is. I would end up losing a lot of sleep, and every day felt like I was changing my focus. I was struggling on the academic side, and on the passion side and being present with my friends and family. Overall, it was just a bad quality of life. I was also just so tired of being defined by this one metric — grades — and constantly comparing my grades with my friends. It turned into this toxic feedback loop. When I heard about Alpha, I was like, 'I have to go there.' What really stood out was the focus on process-based learning and actually learning how to learn. When I came to Alpha, I was reading at an eighth-grade level — even though I'm an 11th grader — but I was doing college-level math. So I could go at the pace I needed to for each subject. Now, I'm at a college level in both reading and math. But my favorite part about Alpha isn't the academics, it's the masterpiece. So a masterpiece is a passion project where you dive deep into something you love, but with the highest standards possible. We're not aiming to be the best for our age group; we're aiming to be the best in the world — like an Olympian. You can take it in any direction and go as deep as you want. When I got to Alpha, I quickly found what I was passionate about, and I'm still diving deep into that rabbit hole. Abby Mellott: Very cool to hear your story. I'm sure your parents are proud of you and glad that you convinced them you should go to Alpha. Alex Mathew: Yeah. It took a lot of convincing. Abby Mellott: Can you talk about some of the partnerships or collaborations you're working on — whether with tech companies, universities or others — to help prepare students for the job market, especially as AI continues to evolve so quickly? Dr. Ju Long: In my own classes, where I teach machine learning and generative AI, we often have to be resourceful. Universities don't have the deep pockets that major tech companies do, so we work with open-source technologies whenever possible. One company we collaborate with is GaiaNet. We also use open-source large language models like Meta's Llama, as well as many other models that are publicly available. And on the university side, we benefit from partnerships like the one we have with Microsoft. Through Azure, students receive $100 in credits, which is plenty to support a full course in a semester. MacKenzie Price: Bjorn, since we're talking about preparing students for an AI-driven market, and I know you're already leveraging AI for other purposes, are you also offering AI training as well? BJORN Billhardt: That's a good question. We really have not created a "how to use AI" course. Actually, I feel that a lot of the AI courses out there right now might be less effective than they appear to be at first. I often compare it to when the Internet first became popular. Back in 1997, there were tons of courses on "how to use the Internet," but in the end, it was really just about learning how to search online. I feel like a lot of today's AI courses are similar — focused on things like how to write a good prompt. That's valuable, but it's a five-minute training, not a full course or curriculum. So I predict that, just like there's no degree in Internet Studies today, we probably won't see a degree or full curriculum in AI Studies. MacKenzie Price: I don't think there will be either. But what we focus on with our students is helping them become AI-first in everything they do. I think that's going to be the biggest shift moving forward. We've actually partnered on an initiative called Gauntlet AI — it's a 12-week boot camp program. Our first cohort ranged in age from 17 to 54, and after just 12 weeks, many of them graduated with $200,000 job offers waiting for them. Corporations want AI-first people, not because they've graduated in AI Studies, but because they can go be expert marketers, coders, or entrepreneurs. That's what's so exciting — giving people the durable skills they need. And that's exactly what we want for our students: to go into whatever passion or interest they have and utilize AI to free up more time for the human side. BJORN Billhardt: I think the best way to prepare people is through real projects — the kind where you actually have to use AI to collaborate with others and create something, not just learn from a chatbot. As for the future of jobs, I think they're changing rapidly. STEM fields have traditionally been in high demand, but — and I may have a slight bias as a liberal arts major — I believe liberal arts skills are going to become more and more important. Skills like asking the right questions, connecting ideas across disciplines, and seeing the bigger picture will be paramount. Those are the kinds of human abilities AI won't easily replace in the next few years. MacKenzie Price: I'll share an example of that: We have a student at Alpha named Sloan who has 2 million TikTok followers. In the past, success in tech was all about knowing how to code. But Sloan realized that coding an app is the easy part; distribution is the real challenge. Building an audience is the harder, more valuable skill. Alex is leveraging this too, because if you can reach customers, the rest becomes much easier. Abby Mellott: Shifting back to you, Alex. You mentioned your passion project, which incorporates self-care, mental health and AI. Can you tell us a little more about it? Alex Mathew: Yeah, so the project I'm building is called Berry. It's an AI-powered stuffed animal you can hold and talk to about your mental health. I'm working with therapists, neuroscientists, and psychologists to design the back end, making sure all the advice Berry gives is very personalized, vetted by experts, and that it's legit. I believe that AI-powered transitional objects, like plushies, could actually be better than therapists for teens. There are numerous reasons behind this. One, teens often struggle to connect with much older therapists. Also, there's stigma around seeing a therapist, and traditional therapy can feel like a big commitment. Berry reframes support as a simple daily reflection tool — just five minutes a day — through something cute and approachable. And I believe that will genuinely improve mental health outcomes. Right now, I'm preparing to run a study with a group of 20 teens to track how Berry impacts their mental health over a six-week period. I'm also making a huge sprint toward partnering with a company like Build-A-Bear to launch a "Build-a-Berry" program that would let teens customize their Berry plushies. But my goal isn't to be the best plushie maker in the world — it's to build the best mental health tool in the world. That means focusing on the AI, rather than the manufacturing side, and finding the right partnerships to help streamline it. Abby Mellott: So is it basically a unit that sits inside the bear, like a small computer? And does it talk back to you? Alex Mathew: Yes, it is. And it talks back to you — you can have full conversations with it. There's also an app connected to it where you can enter information about yourself, and it customizes to you. I actually set a cap on how long you can talk to Barry. It's only an hour, because I don't want it to replace real friendships. It's meant to be a supplement. And so it will remember your name and say things like, 'Mackenzie, why are you talking to me so much? You should go talk to your friends.' Abby Mellott: In a more extreme situation, would it suggest to someone that they seek out more help? Alex Mathew: So if you go on Google and type in something related to self-harm or harming others, it'll pull up the National Suicide Hotline. But the problem is that people often don't really want to take action on it. But if someone is talking about those things with Berry, there's an emergency contact system in place. It'll text or call the emergency contact you set at the beginning, and it has to be a registered adult. In the future, I want Barry to be free for schools and covered by insurance. This summer, I'm going to a private school conference with Alpha, and I'm planning to show private school principals why they need to have a Barry in their counselors' offices, so kids can take one home with them. MacKenzie Price: And think about the financial barrier that this is going to remove, as opposed to the cost of weekly therapy, right? Abby Mellott: We touched on this earlier, but what about ethical concerns around data privacy and bias when using AI platforms? MacKenzie Price: Obviously there are valid questions about data privacy. I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on that. What I am an expert in is how to educate children really well. I understand there are concerns, but what we can show is transformative. One of the amazing things about our AI technology is that it's like doing a CAT scan of a child's brain. We know exactly what they know, what they don't know, and where the gaps are — and we can go in and fill those holes. Another thing that excites me is how AI lets us map not only a student's knowledge graph but also their interest graph, and then overlay the two. So that seven-year-old boy who hates to read but loves the Avengers and plays soccer with his best friends? Suddenly, he's reading a choose-your-own-adventure story about saving the world with his soccer buddies — at exactly the right Lexile reading level for him. Suddenly, he wants to read. You can extend that same approach to learning math through fashion design, or teaching financial literacy based on a student's personal goals. So yes, I get very excited about it. And no, I don't spend as much time worrying about the other parts. Abby Mellott: To wrap it up, what role do you see AI playing in education over the next five years? MacKenzie Price: There has never been a more exciting time to be a five-year-old, and there has never been a more exciting time to be a teacher. It's so important for people to understand that education is finally at the point where it can be truly transformed. It's one of the last major industries to experience such a profound change. I hope we see wide-scale adoption, where people really jump in and use these tools fully — not just continue with the old model and add a little smattering of AI here and there. Dr. Ju Long: To build on what Bjorn was saying, it's like that image where three people are standing on the beach and a tsunami is coming. We are definitely already facing the wave, and there's no way to avoid it. The only way forward is to go through it. But I think, in order not to get swept away by the wave, what anchors us is still the human side of learning. In our college, a lot of people, including my own students, ask me, 'Am I going to be replaced by AI?' That's a very legitimate question. What I tell them is: your human agency matters. You decide what you want AI to do for you and how you want to learn. It's the same for faculty — we ask, "Are we going to be replaced by AI?" But when we look at AI as our partner, we can see there's so much potential. We are still in the pilot's seat, even if AI acts as a co-pilot. BJORN Billhardt: What I'm seeing now, and what AI is enabling, is a real shift in the role education plays, not just for kids but also for adults who will need to be reskilled and adapt completely to new ways of working. I believe that's where the world is headed: education becoming integrated into daily life and work. It's a little scary, but it's also incredibly enabling. If we can figure out how to make that kind of education feel productive, not creepy, it will move education from being on the periphery of our society to being central. Alex Mathew: The last thing I'll add is that AI is helping create a more level playing field. It means you can be the best in the world at what you're doing. And it's really leveraging young people's natural curiosity. It allows them to discover what they really love doing at an earlier age, unlocking that potential sooner. Plus, there's now a much wider range of possibilities available to them.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Questions to ask a home loan lender
The home-buying process involves a lot of learning, from understanding your options to the ins and outs of making your first payment. Having a list of questions to ask your home loan lender can ensure a smoother experience. Aim to understand the types of mortgages the company offers and what to expect with the application process. You don't need a list of mortgage products. Instead, get the loan officer's perspective on the best option for you. Do you qualify for a conventional loan with more flexible loan terms? Or does a government-backed loan, like an FHA, USDA, or VA mortgage, make more sense for you? Lenders may also offer products or special programs for specific groups, such as first-time home buyers or borrowers with low incomes. Submitting all required documents can avoid delays in processing your application. You typically must provide recent pay stubs, income tax returns, and W-2 forms. If you're self-employed, expect to submit business tax returns or recent profit and loss statements. In a hot housing market, timing is everything. Ask the lender how long the application and approval process takes and how you can stay up-to-date on your application status. Online mortgage lenders may have faster processes, but not always. The length of time it takes varies based on the lender and the complexity of your financial situation. If there's any money you need to put down before closing, try to understand that sooner rather than later. While a 20% down payment will help you avoid private mortgage insurance (PMI) on conventional loans, you're often required to pay a lot less. You may be able to put down as little as 3% on a conventional loan and 3.5% for an FHA loan. VA and USDA mortgages don't have down payment requirements. Keep in mind that the less money you put down, the more you're borrowing. A higher loan amount means you'll pay more in interest and fees. Ask your lender if you qualify for their down payment assistance programs, if offered. If not, see if they'll help you navigate any national or local programs you may be eligible for. Down payment assistance can be in the form of a grant, forgivable loan, or a loan that's deferred until you sell or refinance the primary mortgage. These programs may be available for first-time home buyers, borrowers with a low income, or applicants who meet other criteria. Conventional loans usually only require private mortgage insurance if you put down less than 20%. However, you'll pay mortgage insurance on FHA and USDA mortgages regardless of the down payment. Make sure you understand the insurance requirements for the loan you choose. You'll come across several fees throughout the mortgage approval process. Many of them are due at closing. However, a mortgage provider can ask for certain fees before closing, like the application or origination fee. The interest and annual percentage rate (APR) largely determine how much it'll cost you to take on a mortgage. Ask these questions to know what you're getting into. Your mortgage interest rate depends on personal factors, like your credit score and income. But it's also determined by the lender's processes. That's why it's important to prequalify with more than one. But don't just look at the interest rate. Ask about your APR and what goes into it. The APR is often a better measure of the total cost of borrowing since it includes the interest rate plus lender fees or discount points. Many mortgage providers offer a rate lock, which can protect you from interest rate fluctuations during the loan approval process. While some lenders offer it for free, others may charge a fee. Understand the terms and costs with your loan advisor. Ask your lender to break down your monthly mortgage payment, which is often more than the principal and interest. Mortgage payments can also include mortgage insurance, property taxes, and homeowners insurance. The cash needed to close can be a hefty amount. Make sure you know what to expect. Closing costs are typically 2% to 5% of your loan, so you'll want a breakdown of the fees. Some of these costs are lender charges for processing your loan. Other fees go to the government or third parties who handle the appraisal, title search, and more. Once you understand your closing costs, ask the lender how you can lower them. Lenders have more control over their fees, so they may waive the application or origination fee if you ask. If you need to lower what you pay at closing, the lender may be able to roll the costs into the loan or apply a lender credit. With lender credits, you take a higher interest rate in exchange for lower or no closing costs up-front. Ask your lender how long it'll take to close the loan and whether the process is in person or if you can complete it online. 'Even if you don't need a quick close, it's a good question to ask, because it can indicate how prepared or on-the-ball the lender is,' said Ann O'Connell, attorney and legal editor at Nolo, via email. 'Of course, the speed at which the closing occurs also depends on the buyer getting all documentation to the lender in a timely manner.' Make sure you understand all the documents you'll need at closing. Your loan advisor should be able to provide the details needed for a smooth closing. These questions will give you an idea of what to expect when repaying your loan. Your loan servicer is the company that handles repayment. It may be the same lender that originated the loan, but sometimes lenders sell the mortgage to another institution. 'Many buyers aren't aware that lenders often sell the mortgage after closing, and that the loan might in fact be sold more than once, said O'Connell. 'By no means is this a reason to go with another lender. It just means that as a buyer, you'll need to stay on top of where you should send your mortgage payment each month.' Some lenders charge a prepayment penalty if you pay off your mortgage early. This can be a percentage of the remaining balance or a certain amount of interest. So if you plan to pay off your mortgage or sell your home within three or five years, this fee won't catch you off guard. First-time home buyers should ask about down payment assistance and other programs that can lower home-buying costs. They should also ask fundamental questions about the overall process, such as 'what requirements must I meet to qualify,' and 'what is preapproval versus prequalifying?' Prequalify with at least three lenders to get a good sense of the interest rate and loan amount you're eligible for. You can usually prequalify for a mortgage online by providing basic personal and financial information. While it's not a guarantee of approval or terms, you can compare offers and show the seller you're serious about buying. Before meeting with your mortgage lender, think through how much you plan to borrow and what down payment you can save. This will give the loan advisor an idea of your budget and borrowing needs. You can also gather important financial documents, like your recent pay stubs, W-2s, or income tax returns.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Trump's CIA director details strategy using Mandarin videos to tap Chinese dissent for intelligence gains
CIA Director John Ratcliffe detailed the reasoning behind the agency's strategy of releasing two Mandarin-language videos aimed at encouraging Chinese nationals to reach out through the dark web, part of a broader effort to gather intelligence from inside America's top adversary. In an interview on "My View with Lara Trump," Ratcliffe said the initiative was designed to tap into dissatisfaction among Chinese citizens and collect key information on the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] and its operations. "We released two Mandarin-speaking videos to the Chinese people, inviting them to contact us through the dark web because a lot of the people in China are not happy with what's happening," he shared on Saturday. Cia Videos Aim To Turn Chinese Officials And 'Steal Secrets' "They can be great sources of intelligence for us." The campaign was part of a larger strategy to counter threats from foreign and domestic adversaries and bolster U.S. leverage in high-stakes negotiations, including President Donald Trump's efforts to secure deals with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Read On The Fox News App Cia Director Says China Is #1 Priority, Poses Biggest Challenge From Adversary In Us History Ratcliffe also emphasized his commitment to depoliticizing the CIA and returning the agency to its core mission of intelligence-gathering – not political interference. He cited the use of the Steele dossier and attitudes that dismissed the Hunter Biden laptop as "Russian disinformation" as evidence. "Those were the types of politicization that really tarnish what the intelligence community is supposed to do," he said. "We're supposed to be apolitical, and that's what President Trump wants me to be. We're going to be better. We're gonna get back to what made the CIA great."Original article source: Trump's CIA director details strategy using Mandarin videos to tap Chinese dissent for intelligence gains
