Is your home your castle? Do you use it to mask reckless financial planning? Are you reducing your options by consistent self abusive life styles? Interesting questions considering what is going on in our country now. Even though real estate values recently have gone down your home is still your best investment.

There is a pandemic going on, and it is not the swine flu. It is call refinanceitis. Thousands of people refinance their house in order to save money. Are they really saving money, or employing an expensive procrastination strategy, I wonder?

Individuals refinance for two reasons. The first is to lower the rate reducing their monthly payment. Does this really save money? Utilizing this strategy, that house which was bought for $200.000.00 twenty years ago is now going to cost somewhere around $900,000.00 to pay off. No savings there.

The second reason is to pay off credit card debt. Well, let’s say you were going to pay off $30,000.00 of credit card debt with the equity in your property, would you save money? That 30K over the thirty years will cost around $90,000.00, too expensive for me. Credit card debt negotiation may be a better solution. Most of these programs significantly cut the amount owed. Typically the debt is paid off in one to three years; obviously much better than paying $90,000.00.

As I said your house is your best investment. You wouldn’t allow the exterior to go without paint. That reduces the value. Similarly, be financially nicer to your home. If you don’t, when you need the equity the most, such as the time retirement, it won’t be there. Remember, the best debt is the one that is paid off quickly. Credit card debt negotiation may be your least expensive solution and fastest solution for eliminating credit card debt.