Feds have lowered interest rates and PRIME is now 3 1/4% ... that means my current line of credit is 2 1/2%!!! Holy smoke!!!! My first mortgage is 5.75% fixed, my line of credit ($500K with a balance of $90K) is Prime minus 3/4. Woohoo!! Ok folks. IF you are in a higher interest mortgage, you MAY want to start looking at the possibility of refinancing. Some of you may have to pay money at closing but if it will lower your interest rate (or even lock in your interest rate) it may be well worth it for the rough financial ride we have ahead. It does not hurt to inquire. Start making your phone calls. If your current lender will not refinance, start looking around to other banks. JPMorgan, Chase, Countrywide, ING Bank, PFG, and so on (these are just ones that come off the top of my head). My theory in life has been if those you are loyal to are not loyal to you, find a new person who will be. I work in real estate law and deal with mortgages & all every day. I hear the sad sad stories of those who are losing their homes. I hear the sad stories from the lender that if you are currently making your mortgage payments, they can NOT rework your loan (after all, you are showing the ability to currently repay under the current terms). The housing bubble is not quite over yet. Not to mention all the other things on the downward spiral. Things will be tough, I bet until mid 2010 if not later. Anyways, this was not to be a doom & gloom post ... but rather a moment of rejoicing on my side!!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Smelly Shoe Fix!

Image
Honestly, we have real good hygiene habits in my house, I can assure you of that! But, lets face it, living in paradise with 125% humidity can be a little trying sometimes ... my running shoes (which have NOT seen much running action for quite a while) get a little ripe smelling ... and oh man, you should smell the shoes that Hubby wears outside in the yard, patio, garage and boat that constantly get wet ... enough to suck the oxygen right out of your body ... whew! Then you have the Boy ... who works out pretty darn hard and doesn't always wear socks, nor does the Princess ... I mean, seriously, I've had to throw shoes away because you could smell them just sitting there. No one wants to be the person that people are wrinkling their nose at when they are walking by you! So when I saw the featured post for the Smelly Shoe Solution (and dang, I'm still trying to find the original post because I had no need to bookmark it, such a simple fix!) Yes. That's IT!
Read more

Non Toxic Mosquito Spray

Image
Let's face it, living in Paradise does have a few drawbacks with the #1 complaint being ... BUGS. Yeah, bugs.  Mostly mosquitoes that can just ruin an evening of relaxation on the patio ... those pesky little guys can really do a number on you quickly!  Heaven forbid if you are one of those who are very sensitive to the bites (the Boy), you will have welts in no time. So Hubby always decides to spray AFTER everyone starts swatting the air and scratching. We have to gather up our drinks and appetizers, go indoors and wait for 20 minutes or so for the toxic fog to flat away ... only to be swatting and scratching AGAIN in 30 minutes. After seeing THIS tip a few too many times, I figured, what the heck, $5 at Walmart is worth it to try, right? Guess what?  It seems to work!!!  I need to do a few more nights to say for certain but I say it's WAY better than that can of toxic stuff ... and cheaper to boot! You must use the ORIGINAL flavor, and yes, it nee
Read more

Rice Cooker - Hard Boiled Eggs

Image
One of the things I picked up at Costco was a new Rice Cooker. The one I have, well, I gave that to the Boy when he went away to college (so he could make his macaroni and cheese), not to mention, it was small as heck, like mini size! So, I figured, you know, Hubby likes to make rice occasionally. The Boy makes brown rice in the microwave every other day and leaves the bubbly residue behind for ME to find when I go to heat something up (I hate a dirty microwave, totally wigs me out and sends me running for the windex!) ... so I grabbed the rice cooker ($29.95), a 10 pound bag of organic brown rice and a 20 pound bag of Basmati rice. I'm asking myself now, a whole week later, what the hell am I going to do with 20 pounds of Basmati rice? Anyways. Then I was reading the recipe booklet that came along with the cooker. They had one recipe that said to add the eggs, unshelled, to the steamer basket.  Ok. That made me re-read it a few times. Unshelled? Did they mean out of the shell?
Read more