it’s just too painful to pay extra cash for a discount you might have gotten free in the next couple months, regardless of the math involved. refi with a rebate just feels better.

I did a refi at the for now bottom in early 2013, and if that really is the bottom, yeah, I should’ve paid tax deductible money to get it even a little lower instead of taking a large rebate. yet i dot feel nearly as bad about that possibility of lost gain as I would had i written a large check and rates kept chugging downward, even if the potential gain exceeded the potential loss.

. the problem is it’s just very very difficult to write a check at the time of the refi, and very very easy to accept money, esp. when you can look at a graph and see the trend is down, down down. . i think the psychology of the sales pitch of no cost to refi is just too compelling, even if you crunch various scenarios, plan to stay a long time, and have thought about options…

im not saying it’s a bad pitch. I’m acknowledging its tremendous power, even among the somewhat analytical.

the psychologists tell us that humans are wired much more strongly to have an aversion to losing money than to feel pleasure at gaining money, even if the math says take a risk. we hate losing stuff. it’s probably wired into us evolutionarily. a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, if you’re trying to survive as a proto human on the african savannah plain. or in the jungle of the refi market.