Financial Freedom Help Blog

Most people have a fantasy that the easiest and the best way to get out of debt trouble are filing bankruptcy. These people are not fully aware about this industry and all they know is that there is no other way out other than filing bankruptcy. They think all their major problems will go flushing down the toilet drain if they go for it. When you go for this option your troubles start to mount up instead of getting away from you.

Interest rates have dropped to enticing levels again, prompting many to think of refinancing. In fact, if you’ve been in your home a while you may be considering refinancing with a 15 year mortgage, since rates are around 4.5%. But refinancing involves closing costs. Is it worth it?

Let’s take an example. Let’s say that you bought your house 5 years ago, borrowing 0,000 at 6% for 30 years. Your mortgage payments are ,800. Now your principal balance is about 0,000. If you refinance with a 15 year fixed mortgage at 4.5%, your payments will go up from ,800 to ,135. Why do they go UP, you ask? Because you’re now scheduled to pay your house off in 15 years, instead of the 25 remaining on your current mortgage.

These days we can expect to live in retirement for twenty or thirty years — that’s almost as long as we spend working. It makes sense then to do something about preparing for this time of life. As Mark Twain said: “Plan for your future that is where you are going to spend the rest of your life”. Here are five things you should do to prepare a retirement plan.