Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[techanalyst1]

Well.................

She has been paying well over 9% this whole time, not to mention the home equity loan she took out to buy stocks in the summer of 2000 that she's just now paid off by refinancing. Was that smart? How much would she have saved by reducing the interest all those years? More than the cost to refinance I am sure.

I just refinanced my loan that I got in 1998 for $500 (total fees......... no appraisal, no points, no nothing but $500) with the same lender and shaved the interest rate from 6.75% to 5.625% but didn't extend the life of the loan. The terms remain the same with the loan maturing on the same date. Only thing that changes is the amount of the payment.

I've paid down the loan from day one with extra principle. Even though the interest rate is lower, my payments remain the same as I've paid since I got the loan in 1998 by my own choosing which means slightly more than half now goes to principle. Course the bank thinks my payments are much lower than me and I'm sure they would like it if I only made the minimum payment.

When it gets low enough........... I'll just pay it off......... same as I did two houses ago.

TA