Lot’s of options pop up when you start saving money. We will explore some of those options a little later on. But right now I would like to point out that you could be saving money by refinancing your home and getting a lower interest rate or you could convert from a 30-year loan to a 15-year loan. Great ways to save money. After all, rates ARE historically low, but it’s more than just saving money. It is what you can do with that money.

So lets be clear; you could save tens of thousands of dollars!! All that sounds great, but before we look at what you could do with the savings lets look at some very basic numbers. I hate living in the world of disclaimers…you know the small print on the back of preparation-H that says not for human consumption. We all know that means that at some point in the past some knuckle-head got the crackers and sat down to watch the game and made a pretty big mistake…then tried to blame the manufacturer. So with that being said…if you want to find out how much you could actually save…don’t go by the generic numbers provided in a blog! Go see your local mortgage professional! There! Now back to the numbers.

Option 1: Refinance to a lower interest rate to help with monthly savings!

– Based off $150,000 30-year loan and 6% interest rate = monthly payment around $900
– Same information but lower rate to 4.5% = monthly payment around $750
– Total savings over the life of the loan = around $42,500

Now what could you do with $42,500?

· You could buy about 10-sets of really hip spinners for your car (you know the wheels that keep spinning even when your car comes to a halt…very cool and very sound financial decision!)
· You could get 2 Cessna planes…USED…but still you could own 2 planes!
· If you normally pay around $25 bucks for a manicure…you could get 1700 manicures…that is one a month for over 141 years! So you will be a very well groomed really, really old person!

Option 2: Simply convert from a 30-year loan to a 15-year loan:

– Based off $150,000 30-year loan and 6% interest rate = monthly payment around $900
– Same information but a 15-year loan instead = monthly payment around $1240
– It is more monthly…BUT savings over the life of the loan = almost $88,000

Now what could you do with $88,000?

· Alaskan Cruise: A good rule of thumb when planning an Alaskan Cruise is to expect to spend around $1500 bucks per person (which can vary depending on what you do and when you go). So, if you have 4 people in your family that is a grand total of = $6000. YOUR FAMILY COULD TO ALASKA ALMOST 15 TIMES…NOW THAT IS MAKING MEMORIES!
· A Porches Carrera GT cost over $400,000 dollars…so you could never really afford that. However you could probably get 2 Ford Mustangs decked out and ready to roll…and have some gas money left over!!!
· The average deck cost around $30 bucks a square foot…that means you could build a 2900sq.ft.deck. That is a big deck!
· The average cost of college is around $13,000 per year. That means you could send 1 of your children to college for over 6-years…just a FYI…most don’t graduate in 4 years anymore!

I didn’t say my ideas were practical…but some of them would be pretty cool!

How about these ideas?

Start a savings account…prepare for retirement…have a rainy day fund…send your son/daughter to the school you want…keep it!!! After all IT’S YOUR MONEY!!!

Find out if you could be spending more than you need to call Peoples Home Equity at 423.591-9801 or visit www.chattmortgage.com OR listen to our radio show ‘The Buyers Market’ every Monday night on WGOW Talk Radio 102.3FM and on-line at www.wgow.com.