Using a Mortgage Refinance as a Retirement Tool

Saturday, April 5th, 2008

If you are like most every other person, you have been putting off saving for retirement for far too long – and you now find yourself in a sticky situation. You had hoped to retire in less than thirty years, but the money just isn’t there. The answer to your dilemma may lie in your home, with a simple mortgage refinance.

However, you have to be careful when getting a mortgage refinance not to think of it as a means to lower your overall expenses. Your retirement is a bill too, and should hold just as much importance as the one that keeps your utilities on.

The Direct Retirement Funnel
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Picking a Good Broker for Your Mortgage Refinance

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

To put it quite bluntly – you absolutely, categorically, and without a doubt, can not trust the person taking care of your mortgage refinance. It does not matter if they are employed by some multi-national company or even someone you think of as a friend. Mortgage refinance professionals have far too much power, and it is all too easy for these people to casually decide that ripping you off is a good idea – and not only get away with it, but get thanked for it too.

Why? Well, just like every other salesperson of “blind” products who gets paid a commission (i.e. cars, mattresses, appliances, and other complex big ticket items), that person processing your mortgage refinance is getting paid based on the difference between the rate he can give you on a mortgage refinance according to the lender, and the rate he can sell to you. Yes, that means your broker picks your rate.

Look for a Character
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When to do a Mortgage Refinance

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

Pay no attention to all the gimmicks you see on television. The proper timing to do your mortgage refinance is entirely dependent upon you and your current financial situation, nothing more, and nothing less.

The truth is, all those financial professionals telling you “now is the time to refinance” and “there has never been a better time to do your mortgage refinance” are flat out lying. Nothing could matter less than the interest rate or current state of the market. Although those will factor into your mortgage refinance, it will be negligible at best – and any professional who tells you otherwise is just trying to pressure you into getting a mortgage refinance here and now.

The Right Time

So when is it the prime time to take care of your mortgage refinance? Well, pretty much whenever you can, but most especially when it would benefit you the most. A mortgage refinance is useful for so many more things than just shortening the term on your home loan or freeing up money from your mortgage to put into other things.

Take for instance, your mortgage refinance could enable you to get out of debt and retire faster. You could also include other revolving debt, such as credit cards or students loans, into the mortgage refinance. Although this would not lower your payments, in the long run, this will save a great deal of money for you.

It should be noted however, a mortgage refinance is not very effective as a means to keep your head above water – unless you are speaking in terms of retirement. If you find yourself needing a mortgage refinance just so you can make the payments on your loan, then it is time to get out of the loan, not do a mortgage refinance.

In a nutshell, the timing of your mortgage refinance is entirely dependent upon whether it would benefit you the most at that point. If you know of a debt you will be incurring in the near future or of more difficult times ahead – such as a new baby – then you might want to consider holding off on doing a mortgage refinance until after that point.