[bearishgurl]

[quote=SK in CV][quote=livinincali][quote=SK in CV]Not really. At least in big cities, new docs are commonly getting $100K sign on bonuses. Internal med and Peds starting at $175K plus. It can be a lot of debt, and takes a long time, but if those kind of salaries suck, I’d like to know what professions are getting good starting salaries.[/quote]

My point isn’t that the current salaries are bad. They’re reasonable compared to debt. The issue would be most general physician salaries are much lower in the rest of the world. Depending on the country it could be 30 to 50% lower. If our goal is to reform the medical system to something more like the rest of the world (many of you advocate for this), then there’s a significant risk that your salary will be lower than the current salaries.

If we’re trying to control medical costs it’s hard to imagine workers in the medical fields will be better off. Maybe if the government wipes out the debt and indirectly lowers salaries you might be about the same as before. It’s hard to say what the impact would be of a single payer control cost system if we ever get there.[/quote]

It’s not hard to imagine workers in medical fields being similarly situated to where they are now, even if medical costs are controlled. The big part of our costs aren’t going to providers. Providers don’t get $600 for bandaids. Providers don’t get $45 for a Cialis tablet. Providers don’t earn millions of dollars as hospital administrators. Providers don’t earn the 15 to 20% of medical insurance premiums that goes to pay insurance company overhead.[/quote]Agree, SK, but you forgot to mention the hundreds of millions/billion(s)? in taxpayer funds that got sunk into the cost of setting up and operating the state and federal health exchanges under the ACA.

This “sunk expense” has all been wasted on unnecessary bureaucracy who mostly can’t find their way out of a brown paper bag, let alone be able to do their jobs and solve problems timely and competently. Add in the beefing up of bureaucrats at state and county Medicaid/Medi-Cal agencies, the beefing up (or soon-to-be “beefed up” . . . not sure this has happened yet, lol) IRS personnel to process all those tens of millions of (IRC) Forms 8962 and 1095A, B and C as well as millions of “12C letters” to taxpayers, all due to the ACA. Add in the beefing up of state AG’s offices in those states who opted in on “expanded Medicaid” (for the sole purpose of filing and collecting on “Estate Recovery” liens) and “We, the People” are now burdened with a healthcare industry which is a burgeoning behemoth of layers upon layers of additional bureaucracy with LESS providers to choose from than before the ACA! As a result of this colossal mess (the biggest mess this country’s leaders have ever made, IMO), the cash-rich biggest health insurers in the US have been sitting on the sidelines in many states and cherry-picking the states (one by one) which they decide they will dip their toes into the water in (for a year at a time) to see if it’s “financially feasible” for them to continue to sell policies there for the long haul. Alas, these little “experiments” conducted by Big Insurance (plus the numerous ill-fated “healthcare-cooperative” experiments) in the past ~4 years have not ended well thus far :=0

[bearishgurl]

I know I sound a bit like one of my “contemporaries,” here, Suze Orman, “First things first (for young people),” and “Get your sh!t together before you pass GO and collect $200.”

But millenials don’t like to listen to this “boring” advice. They’re too busy standing in line to get the latest $800+ iphone hours before its release :=0

[bearishgurl]

[quote=HLS]Ahhh…if it were only so simple.
Are there ANY professions that guarantee LOCAL re-employment within 4-6 weeks ?[/quote]Short answer is NO!

[bearishgurl]

Well, Burkey can do whatever he wants, of course. It’s his and his firm’s money they’ll be lending out on RE at 100% LTV, lol. And his proposal seems like a bit of a scam to the poor schlump millenial who will take a mortgage/student-loan (assignment?) with his firm because Burkey and his firm aren’t legally responsible to pay a dime to the buyer’s student-loan lender.

Instead, I see structural problems with the thinking of millenials (and even some straggling Gen-X … who are indebted – or still indebted) with student loans, which needs to be corrected if they expect to function as a adult who is able to fully participate in society.

Millenials, in general, want it ALL right out of the gate. Many of them do things back a$$wards in life. They marry and start families (or just start families) WITHOUT first paying their student loans off. They buy $10K and up vehicles (even brand new vehicles) WITHOUT first paying their student debt off. They rent luxury apts and homes WITHOUT first paying their student debt off. Etc, etc, etc. In general, many (most) of them are “consumers extraordinaire” whilst still owing on mountains of 6.5% to 8% (non-dischargeable in BK, of course) student debt.

I counseled my kids to never, ever marry anyone with outstanding student debt as they will be left holding the bag in more ways than one. I told them that Sallie Mae (or a SL private lender) can place a lien on a student debtor’s home in the event of default (which THEY may be half-owners of). I told them that Sallie Mae (a “pseudo-gubment organization”) doesn’t even need to file suit and get a judgment to do so!

This huge student-debtor group likes to cry wolf at the age of 35, 40 or beyond because they are still hamstrung in life by student loan debt and their kid(s) need braces, money for sports, diapers, formula, daycare … or even college, ad nauseam.

If they would have just hunkered down driving a parent’s old ’80’s/’90’s vehicle (or rode public transportation) and “rented” a parent’s back bdrm (or dive apt in another city) while working FT the first 3 years after college graduation, they could have RETIRED ALL of their typical $30-$35K student debt.

The ex-students who are now complaining they can’t buy a home right now due to student debt aren’t anywhere near ready to buy one, IMO.

[bearishgurl]

I forgot to add that in the major Option ARM programs I’ve reviewed, no matter what the index used, the 3-4 payment “options” ran out after 60 months (five years). Beginning in month 61, the borrower paid the index plus the margin.

I’m aware that the more current Option ARM programs had more nuances built into them (ex: borrower pays same index + margin for 12 months and then their mortgage is recast to the prevalent index (+ borrower’s margin).

[bearishgurl]

[quote=flu]The great thing about a 30 year ARM is that while one might get lucky during the first half of the 30 year watching the ARM come down during a period of declining interest rates, there’s an entire 14-15 years of political and economic uncertainty that one gets to see if rates move in the opposite direction.

If my memory serves me correct, many ARMs that were based on 11th district have a minimum floor that rates can’t go below and also no maximum cap, that will limit how much rates can be charged.

Personally, I would never gamble with an ARM with a floor on one end and no cap on the other, because to me, that would be a lot of risk. But that’s just me. Others could get it to work if that’s the loan product that’s best for them.

There are Helocs that have 3% rates with a 2% floor and 6%cap… I know, because I have one, though currently I’m not using it.[/quote]flu, I don’t know where you got the idea that the Option ARMs of yesteryear (2002/3 and prior) had no floor. Of course, they ALL had a floor which was usually equal to their margin . . . 1.75% to 2.75% at the time and the margins were different depending on the index (LIBOR, 1 YR T-Bill & COFI) and the year they were offered. As I previously posted on this thread 1-3 times, Option ARMs had an annual cap and a life cap. The annual cap was usually 2%, which could result in neg am if interest rates went ballistic quickly (as they did in ’82/’83). However, that never happened to any of my loans. The life cap was usually 10% to 13% depending on index and year the program was offered. Theoretically, it would take ~3.5 years to reach a life cap of 10% for an Option ARM borrower currently paying 3.6% with a 2% year annual cap (assuming the index really DID go up 2% per year and I’ve never seen this happen with the Prime/Alt A Option ARM products). That’s a lot of time for the borrower to figure out how to refi or pay the loan off.

Their really isn’t anything “scary” about the older Option ARMS if the borrower was a prime borrower when they took out the loan and always paid the fully amortizing option every month.

It’s the stupid borrowers who fell down the rabbit hole head first by not paying enough in to cover PI every month (choosing opt 1 or 2) to fully amortize the loan. This resulted in periodic “surprises” for these borrowers in the form of interest rate resets on some set anniversary dates. This same group of idiots also found themselves upside-down on their loan within 1-2 years of taking it out (and even upside down on their property if they put little down). However, ALL Option ARM lenders at that time capped the total of the neg am to 125% of original loan value. The unpaid principal rising to 125% of the original loan would trigger the borrower’s payment options being removed and the neg am tacked back onto their payment in monthly increments to force them to begin paying it down (plus the months already elapsed of the missing original principal payments).

Some Option ARM programs were offered at 95% LTV BUT the borrower had to be Prime (high 700 FICO) to be considered by the underwriter’s PMI company for a 90-95% LTV program. I personally have never had to take out a PMI policy but, as we all know, PMI premiums can be very expensive (on top of PITI).

My current mortgage interest rate has never been above 7.1%, IIRC. I believe the prevailing fixed interest rate was about 6.75% – 7% at the time I took out the mortgage. It’s been a great ride following the COFI index downhill for well over half the ~15 years I’ve had the mortgage!

You need to bear in mind, however, that during the time these prime Option ARM loan programs were being offered (mid-late ’80’s thru ’02/03), the prevalent fixed mortgage interest rates were ~6.5% to 10.5%.

The COFI Option ARM programs (both portfolio and FreddieMac) were almost all assumable (buyer must qualify with lender and pay an assumption fee of $500, which includes doc drawing, I believe). Assumable mortgage programs seem to have become extinct in the past decade or so. They used to be a “selling aid” when fixed interest rates were higher.

Of course, no one knows what will happen to the mortgage indexes once a new president gets sworn in and gets to work early next year. At this stage of my life, I couldn’t give a rat’s @$$. If the index goes thru the roof next year, I can always pay it off or consider selling. I will never take out another mortgage again, unless it is very tiny (well under $100K) and 10 years or less in duration (likely seller-financed). And I would only agree to do that for a very exceptional property which I couldn’t possibly get (after wrangling) for the budget I had earmarked to spend on my retirement home.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=HLS][quote=bearishgurl]n(a true “option ARM” which doesn’t exist today under the former terms), they would have an interest rate today in the 3% range. They would be paying ~3.6% with a 2.5% margin and ~3.85% with a 2.75% margin. In previous years, the COFI index has been as low as .931% (in Sept 14). Those (now few) borrowers still left on the COFI train have been able to take advantage of current low rates without lifting a finger!

after paying 4 years of $150 annual fees and having already paid $600 in annual fees (which almost covered those two “free” RT plane tix I rec’d),

I get 6% cash back in all standalone grocery stores and 3% cash back at all standalone gas stations. Now THAT is my kind of card!

You posted that the opportunity for “no-cost” (to the borrower) mortgage loans may never happen again, HLS. When did they start to “come into vogue” and when do you think they will become unavailable?[/quote]

Options ARMS were promoted by the lowest of the low.
Downey Savings, Country Wide & World Savings were 3 of the most aggressive. AN absolutely disgusting product that paid huge commissions and were ‘weapons of financial mass destruction’
The reps made a small fortune and truly had NO IDEA what they were selling and what the risks were.
I studied them and decided that I would NEVER offer one and I never did.

There was an index + a margin. What most people don’t know is that there were multiple options for the margin.
The higher the margin, the larger the commission.
Many mortgage lowlifes put their friends, relatives, neighbors & clients into OA’s with high margins because of huge commissions & low payments that very few people understood.

As you put it, ‘Lifting a Finger’ could save people tens of thousands of dollars… and have ZERO risk of future rate increases.

NOT LIFTING A FINGER has cost money and there is future risk of rate increase.
Not something I would do OR recommend.

BG, you took a chance that most people shouldn’t take.
In hindsight, assuming that you could qualify, you would have been MUCH better off doing what AN & FLU did, pocketing money all the way down, and today refinancing into a 10 or 15 year rate, FIXED and lower than you are quoting, still variable.
You’d still be on the track you’re on,, with no rate risk. I understand that you can pay it off if you wanted to…I agree with FLU that it makes little sense to be collecting 1% and paying over 3%.

5YR & 7YR ARMS exist today, with a 5% cap; not recommended for someone with a long term horizon.
the lender credits are not as big on ARMS, but the rates are a bit lower

You should have cancelled your AMEX card after the 1st year, the points were already in your Rewards acct if you hadn’t used them. There was no reason to pay 4 years of annual fees.
I believe Preferred Blue has an annual limit at Grocery stores.($6000 spend = $360 rebate limit & $75 annual fee?) Most gas stations charge a premium to use a credit card, what are you really saving ??the Costco option with AMEX ends June 19th.
THAT is NOT my kind of card.

I can save 3%-5% at ARCO AM/PM with credit card… I’d rather get $500 credit my way, I’m glad yours works for you.

I rarely book a hotel room directly, the flexible options at Hotwire & Priceline usually get 4 star rooms (Sheraton, Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, Suites etc) for the price of Motel 6 or Best Western

Lastly, my comment about will never happen again was referring to the opportunity to refi 5-10 times in a declining interest rate environment as FLU & AN did.

Credits from lender to cover all closing costs have been available for over 10 years but spreads were different.
I don’t see these going away any time soon.

Most people who chose to pay anything for a primary residence loan in the last 5 years probably made a mistake, although some may not of had an option for various reasons.
It’s more difficult to get a rental property loan at no cost because of pricing hits[/quote]HLS, my option ARMs had lower margins (1.75 to 2.5%) which do not exist anymore. None had prepayment penalties (as fixed programs did at the time). The program I am in required a minimum 740 FICO score (mine was 804 at the time) and was only available to prime and Alt-A borrowers. Prior to the MBS’s taking complete control of the mortgage market, there were far more choices in loan products to choose from with great terms. The older Option ARMS for prime borrowers were NEVER an exploding loan with exotic terms and up to 12 points to the lenders/loan brokers (like the toxic products you are mentioning here which were peddled during the “go-go years” by “crooked” mortgage brokers). They were pure Option ARMs which adjusts monthly and during its first five years, it offered 4 and then 3 (by the 5th year, I think) “payment options.” Of course, I ALWAYS SELECTED the fully amortizing payment. If the borrower is not a stupid gambler who ends up with neg am before the first year runs out, Option ARMs are fine. These programs cannot all be painted with the same broad brush. There were GREAT Option ARM programs out there backed by COFI, 1yr T-Bill and LIBOR (I like COFI the best) and nearly all of them had 0 point programs. They typically only cost $2200 to $2800 to close back then for a conforming loan. However ancillary services (escrow, title, etc) have increased in price a lot since then.

Of course, you understand that all those HUGE interest rate resets at the beginning of the 3rd, 6th, 9th or 11th year (even on ARMS offered between 2004 and 2007) were primarily due to STUPID BORROWERS who elected to pay I/O every month (Opt 2) or LESS THAN I/O (Opt 1) and then cry wolf when they had to face the music. That’s insanely stupid and they got no sympathy from me (unless they were English-challenged and got “roped” into taking the loan so the mortgage broker could defraud them out of big chunks of equity at loan closing). Yes, this DID happen numerous times in my neck of the woods.

Just like health insurance, I feel the US mortgage market has far more limited choices to choose from today than it did in prior years/decades …. all due to too much gubment intervention.

I have on occasion used AMEX Travel and Expedia to book a room but I would really prefer the flexibility to change my plans on the day of check-in (due to deciding to stay longer in the previous town/city) without penalty and you can’t do that with those online travel aggregators. You have to pay up front to get the deep discount and then forfeit the amount paid if your plans change.

I know I kept the Gold card too long. I was on “autopilot” until a few weeks before I was to be billed for another year’s annual fees. I guess that’s how they can offer the 2 “free” RT tix to new signups. The members on “autopilot” just pay their annual fee every year whether the card really meets their needs … or doesn’t.

I didn’t know ARCO accepted CC’s, HLS. And I’m only a one-person household (except holidays) so I’ll never hit the $6K AMEX grocery award limit … ever :=0

Oh, and btw, most Best Westerns these days are 4-star hotels. While road tripping, I like to park right outside my room door (motor-lodge setup). I don’t park underground and take elevators to my room unless I’m at a ski-in/ski-out resort and leave my skis in a locker on the ground floor. That’s where the Sheraton, et al, comes in :=]

[bearishgurl]

WOW, I’m shocked that the SDDT will shutter its website as well as its long running paper!

SDDT used to be the ONLY source in the county for getting NOD’s, NOS’s and many other forms of public record announcements such as what was being built by who, addresses recently sold by city, for how much and to whom, names of parties case numbers/assigned depts of new lawsuits filed, legal announcements, service by publication and a myriad of legal and business want ads along with great articles on the regions “movers and shakers” in real estate, law and business.

I guess they slowly lost all their ad clients over the years due to most public records (allowable by law) now stored in cyberspace and available for purchase.

So sad to see it go. SDDT was truly a daily staple and an icon in SD … especially in the legal community.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=AN][quote=bearishgurl]Um, HLS, how long have these deals been going on?[/quote]
It has been going for for many years. As I’ve stated in the past, I didn’t pay a dime in property tax or insurance for 2-3 years a few years back (around 2011) or so. I’m about to close on another one now, and hoping to start the paper work process on another one in a few months.

1st, I make sure that there’s no prepayment penalty and 2nd, I make sure I ask the mortgage broker how long I have to keep the loan so they don’t have to pay back to credit to the bank/lender. I don’t want to burn them by refinancing too early. I could and the broker can do anything about it, but I don’t want to be a dick.[/quote]Yeah, I was with someone at the dealer who bought a new vehicle from a great and helpful salesman and they said the same thing.

I just asked cuz I was wondering why these lenders don’t insist on prepayment penalties. Up until the “fog-a-mirror, get-a-loan era” (approx 2004) 3-year prepayment penalties were standard fare on fixed rate conventional loan program docs.

It’s a LOT OF WORK for several people to originate just ONE mortgage loan so I don’t understand how lenders can afford to let the opportunistic AN’s of the world “run amok” by repeatedly “working the `system'” as they have been ;=]

[bearishgurl]

[quote=HLS][quote=bearishgurl]

I just wonder why someone would repeatedly refi just to shave .125% or .25% off their current interest rate (especially if they didn’t need to take any cash out) and then shortly thereafter retire the loan! I mean, what’s the point? How much did they really save on their mortgage over their entire period of ownership . . . especially if their mortgage was continually or even on some occasions reset back to 30 or 15 years upon successful refi?[/quote]

It’s actually a BRILLIANT strategy to refi about 6 months before paying off a loan with a high balance….
6 months is a reasonable amount of time to say my life changed, I’ve decided to pay off my loan. (Nobody is going to ask)

Credits are always a % of the loan amount, there are more dollars available (and easier to get no cost) with a higher balance.
On a $200K loan, you could get anywhere from $1000 to $4000 and a 400K loan double that.
Pay $40 a month more for 6 months, get a few thousand dollars! That’s the point…. Very few people do it OR even understand they can do it.
Does that make it a loophole?.

I’m not clear on why you keep bringing up reset of a mortgage when you stated that you know payments
can be adjusted. Reset is only one option of a refi.
Those who understand adjust their payments accordingly.

the MINUMIUM payment ALWAYS resets a loan. Adjusting payments will change the term.[/quote]So, HLS, you’re essentially saying here that it’s worth it to go thru the laborious motions of refi when you have plans to retire the mortgage in the near future, just to receive the cash back at closing. In order to get the max cash back at closing, you refi at a slightly higher interest rate cuz that will yield the borrower a higher cash back amount at closing. The borrower doesn’t care if they are making a slightly higher payment than they would have had they taken out a zero point mortgage cuz they plan to only make a few payments before paying it off.

Um, HLS, how long have these deals been going on? If it’s been longer than a few months, why haven’t lenders become wise to this practice? Whatever happened to the prepayment penalties (typically 3 yrs) that all fixed mortgage products used to have in their docs? Why would lenders let this practice continue to go on without protecting themselves? And how can they survive repeatedly originating these kinds of mortgages and still pay a respectable YSP to the procuring broker? What am I missing here, HLS??

This practice is sort of akin to a new vehicle buyer with good credit planning on paying all cash for a new vehicle when they walked into the dealership but ended up applying for a “0% interest auto loan” offered by the vehicle’s mfr because the dealer offered them an even better deal on the vehicle if they do so. So they take out the 0% loan and make 1-6 monthly payments (just long enough for the dealer to receive their kickback for bringing in the loan from the vehicle mfr) and then pay the vehicle off.

Those that don’t need credit at all are the ones who are being showered with credit offers left and right (they go right into my shredder) …. and usually under the best terms …. terms beyond unimaginable in past decades …. That’s the way it’s always been :=0

Joe and Jane 6p working stiffs with a 640 FICO score (they’re youngish and still trying to build their credit) can’t borrow enough mortgage to buy a home in a coastal CA county or even get a credit card on decent terms. A lot of folks in this group are undoubtedly still using secured credit cards and branded debit cards for everyday purchases.

When do you think the “reward the borrower” party will end, HLS? Or will it??

[bearishgurl]

[quote=HLS]I know that AN is definitely on top of the game and pretty sure that FLU is too.

We’re not talking abut HELOC’S & 2nds,,,
We’re talking about refi of 1st mortgages at a rate that comes with absolutely NO COST to the borrower and in many cases includes additional CASH credit to the borrower.

Who knew 10 years ago that there would be the opportunity to refi 5 to 10 times if somebody wanted to, each time at no cost AND many times pocketing extra cash.
I usually recommend saving at least .25% on at least $200K but it still makes sense for less. The larger the spread, the lower the loan amount can be.

The cash would have been a losing decision after 5-7 years but because they refi’d within a shorter window, they kept the upfront cash and did it again, and again, and again.
I’m pretty sure FLU cashed out well, before he rang the register.

AN posted recently about having enough credit to pay most/all of his property taxes for several years.

**This opportunity will probably never happen again in our lifetimes**
These guys rode the wave…Had they been surfing in Hawaii it would have been an amazing ride.

As far as ‘gambling’ with an ARM, I would never recommend that for anyone planning to hold property long term regardless of the index and/or margin.

It worked for BG, but in the grand scheme she got lucky. AN & FLU benefited each and every time with Fixed rates, all the way down, never risking exposure to a huge swing to the upside.

For most borrowers I always recommend fixed. 10-15-20-30 whatever. The shorter the term, the lower the rate.
I guarantee you that anybody who got a 30yr fixed loan- 15 years ago doesn’t have a 3.00% rate. Refinancing today for 15yrs keeps them on the same track at a much lower payment.
If they keep making the same payment they can possibly shave 5 years and be done in 10 years.
(depending on their current balance, it may be difficult to get no cost)

I do not suggest gambling with the biggest financial decision of their lives. AN & FLU never gambled.

If anybody is so sure which way rates are headed,up or down, learn how to trade on Wall Street. You can make so much money that you can pay cash for a house, why bother with a mortgage.
Symbol TBT (-2x 20YR Treasury) has been a wonderful short the last 5 years, having gone from $134 down to $36. Many people think it can’t go much lower, I have no opinion.

The reality is that most people have no business having money in the stock market controlled and manipulated by various forces and forced to ONLY have long positions.
Most people have no idea how or why to short a stock
or what puts & calls & LEAPS are yet they have substantial amounts of money ‘invested’ in something they really know very little about, and just hope and pray that it goes up. (To me, HOPE is not a strategy)

Managed by 401K plan admin who make money every second of every day managing funds whether the investor ever makes a penny or not.

If investors cant identify stocks that are overpriced and should be shorted they probably shouldn’t be comfortable trying to identify stocks that are cheap.

ALL credit card plans allow transfer of free flights, cruises & hotel nights to friends or family members.
IMO there’s no reason why anyone with good credit shouldn’t be taking advantage of these teaser offers.[/quote]Good post, HLS. Except you didn’t mention that COFI follows the mortgage interest rate closely (and even lags it up to a month or two). Hence, when rates went down … and down … and down again, so did the COFI index, negating the need to refi. While fixed mortgage rates have been jostling around at the bottom (last 5+ years) the COFI index has moved very little up and down (no more than the spread of fixed mortgage interest rates for prime borrowers). If one took out a COFI ARM ~15 years ago (a true “option ARM” which doesn’t exist today under the former terms), they would have an interest rate today in the 3% range. They would be paying ~3.6% with a 2.5% margin and ~3.85% with a 2.75% margin. In previous years, the COFI index has been as low as .931% (in Sept 14).

http://www.freddiemac.com/finance/cofi.html

Those (now few) borrowers still left on the COFI train have been able to take advantage of current low rates without lifting a finger!

Yes, I DID get enticed into applying for an AMEX Gold card in 2009 (so I could get two free RT air vouchers shortly after sign on and my $150 membership waived for the first year). Yes, I DID book the flights for my kids to join me in the middle of one of my road trips. In 2014 (I think) after paying 4 years of $150 annual fees and not earning enough points to do much of anything with (and they were only worth .70/$1 on Amazon) and having already paid $600 in annual fees (which almost covered those two “free” RT plane tix I rec’d), I decided to close the account and apply for the Amex Preferred Blue Cash and I am VERY happy with it! I get 6% cash back in all standalone grocery stores and 3% cash back at all standalone gas stations. Now THAT is my kind of card! It also offers other monthly discounts for using the card at major retailers and big-box stores (usually $10 off $50). All the “cash-back” applies to future statement credit so I don’t waste a penny of my rewards.

I’ve also belonged to the Best Western for several years and just booked two more free rooms for my summer road trip!

If you book with a hotel chain directly with which you are a member, you can obtain great discounts without paying in full for the (non-refundable) reservation up front and also get other perks and earn free nights pretty easily. It doesn’t matter which credit card you use to book your reservation.

You posted that the opportunity for “no-cost” (to the borrower) mortgage loans may never happen again, HLS. When did they start to “come into vogue” and when do you think they will become unavailable?

[bearishgurl]

[quote=HLS]BG,
I’m just going to touch on a couple of points that cause most people to be confused.

The ONLY concerns about a loan should be the interest rate and the cost to get it.
(I don’t want to debate the difference between cost and no cost rates)
With a NO COST rate, who cares what the garbage fees are, they’re all covered.

The confusion arises when one ONLY looks at their new payment. Starting over at 15 or 30 years IS A CHOICE, not an obligation.
Any RESPONSIBLE adult can adjust their monthly payments to pay their loan off in 2, 6.5, 12, 15.7, 18, 23, 25, 27.2 or 30 years AS THEY CHOOSE. There are no prepay penalties any more.

The problem is that most loan advisers don’t understand this themselves so they cant explain it properly.

The ULTIMATE benefit to refinancing (at a fixed rate) is to continue making the same payment one is currently making but at a lower interest rate.
NOBODY has to start over at 15 or 30 years with the lowest payment; that’s just another OPTION to benefit from a refi but not the ultimate.

Without a doubt, there is hundreds of billions of dollars being wasted by people who are paying too much in interest on their mortgages.
Saving just .25% can amount to tens of thousands of dollars in savings.
Saving 1.00% can amount to $200,000 savings.
Of course it depends on loan amount and if people can qualify to refi.

Objections like hits to credit score, employment inquires and payments to out of area ‘lenders’ are quite frankly, ridiculous. Credit scores are meaningless & useless unless you need a mortgage or a car loan….
to be continued,,,[/quote]HLS, I have always been aware that a refi-borrower had a choice as to how many years they wanted their new loan for. I am aware that that all the fixed rate mortgages fully amortize for the amount of years they are taken out for.

I just wonder why someone would repeatedly refi just to shave .125% or .25% off their current interest rate (especially if they didn’t need to take any cash out) and then shortly thereafter retire the loan! I mean, what’s the point? How much did they really save on their mortgage over their entire period of ownership . . . especially if their mortgage was continually or even on some occasions reset back to 30 or 15 years upon successful refi?

I agree about credit scores being “meaningless” unless one needs to borrow. At the present, mine won’t even qualify me for a cup of black coffee :=0

But that’s okay …. for me … in the present time.

[bearishgurl]

What’s crystal clear here, flu is that you did not read my most recent post. If you had, you would have known that my short discussion of the PROGENY of Prop 13, in response to YOUR post was just a couple of paragraphs of it. Instead, you are back to taking 6++ paragraphs to insult me instead of reading, learning and realizing that what I have to contribute here is valuable and actually relevant to the topic of this thread and in response to your (partly gibberish) as well as false and misleading post.

In short, your post was ignorant and you’ve been posting by the seat of your pants lately with mostly gibberish, thinking that the more you insult me here, the more you’re going to be able to somehow destroy my credibility.

The truth is, you’ve spent years here creating threads about your various refi, HELOC and/or cash-out adventures on your primary residence. Even though thru reading all your “refi threads” over the years, ad nauseam, my first thought was, “Jeebus, another refi? Why, flu? Is it really `worth it'” …. I said nothing. I never tried to insult you on how foolish I thought you were or anything of the kind. You have now taken it upon yourself in recent days to rail on me for not refi-ing my residence and it’s really none of your business.

You’ve been using both of these threads to claim that a retiree should have “fixed” expenses in your opinion and that the same recipe applies to everyone, even though you have been told otherwise by another poster (an “expert” in mortgage lending, I might add), who has also stated here that they feel it is “inappropriate” for one poster to advise another poster on financial issues who is in different life stage than they are.

In short, instead of contributing to the board, you recent posts to me of late don’t address anything I posted and are instead insulting, bullying, boorish, self-serving and contribute absolutely nothing to the forum.

flu, you’re so ignorant about some issues (in this case, CA property tax laws) that you can’t even acknowledge when another poster points out (with proof) that you’ve posted something which is false and/or misleading. That’s sad.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=HLS]I can rant on as long as anyone BUT can also provide info that can make/save people money AT NO COST. Guaranteed. PERIOD.
It’s not economic theory OR projections OR NPV gibberish. It’s reality.

As far as credit cards go, I get $500-$750 every time I open a credit card account, with an 800+ credit score

I’ve probably had over 100 credit cards and have been on lots of flights, cruises and hotel nights FOR FREE.
Use of credit cards responsibly is a goldmine for responsible adults. (and can RAISE a credit score)

I’d be embarrassed to say that I only had 4 credit cards.
I think I have 18 right now and just got a Delta Amex card last week, that comes with enough bonus miles for a FREE round trip nonstop LA-Belize or other Caribbean locations. (There’s $57 tax to be paid to Belize)
and get to check 1st bag free.

I’ve paid mortgages off with 1-2% loans from credit card companies. I deal with facts, not theories.
Certainties, not projections.

Just because 99.5% of people don’t ‘get’ certain things, it doesn’t mean they’re wrong.
There are plenty of loopholes and ways to benefit when people are willing to listen instead of argue about things that they really don’t understand.[/quote]I could have had 18 credit cards, HLS, as well as twice the credit limit I started out with on all of them.

But I don’t want or need that many bills to keep track of every month. And I don’t “need” the credit.

I think the cards with bonus airline miles are great and have been encouraging my kids to apply for them. Unfortunately I myself have vertigo and don’t fly (or ride on ships) very well. And I have never been able to go on most amusement rides. I need to stay on the ground and drive my car.

I believed you when you said you could offer no-cost financing back in an earlier thread a couple of weeks ago. I believe it was truly at “no cost.”

[bearishgurl]

[quote=HLS]I know that you’re intelligent along with many others, but cannot understand why you (and others) don’t see what FLU an AN have done… WAS BRILLIANT.

They have pocketed money tax free every time they refi’d to a lower rate. They had the OPTION of starting over OR the OPTION of staying on track for the same payoff.

FLU was genius in refinancing and pocketing money and then paying off his loan. It’s not illegal and it’s not immoral.
Had he known that’s what he was going to do, he would have been better off taking a rate that was .375-.50% above market on his last ref and pocket a pile of cash.
The credit is cash and it’s up front. The lender hopes to make it back over time but I guarantee you they didnt. FLU & AN are MUCH further ahead than 99.5% of others who don’t get it and don’t want to take the time to get it.
Your attempt to discredit what FLU did is completely off.

As far as making payments to far off lenders, most borrowers do not make payments to lenders, payments are made to SERVICERS and every loan doc package these days includes a disclosure that states Loan servicing can be transferred at any time to any place; Borrower cannot object.

The guaranteed compounding of interest rate savings on a mortgage is a huge secret that most people don’t get INCLUDING LOAN & FINANCIAL PROFESSIONALS.
It’s akin to doubling a penny every day for a month and not realizing what the end result is. It’s HUGE.

The numbers don’t lie. I’ve explained mortgage refinancing analysis to CPA’s, CEO’s CFO’s and other financial ‘experts’ who never really understood what the real benefits were until I showed them.

Plenty of people run around with grocery store coupons to save 25c but wont take the time to understand that they could save $10,000- $100,000 (or more) at NO COST[/quote]HLS, are you certain that these two posters obtained completely no-cost refinancing each and every time they refinanced (cash out?), HELOC’d or took out a 2nd TD??

[Author]

Posts