Taking Control

Dear Friends and Family,

The ghost of mouse house. Actually, it's the rewards of mouse house. One of my Top 3 is refinancing the mouse pad with the proceeds from the mouse house to reduce the monthly payments on the mouse pad. This reduces significantly the interest paid each month which ultimately equates to interest savings. And, it makes the mouse pad completely affordable from Mr. mouse's paycheck. This means, if I ever want to take a year or two or three off, I can do so guilt free and worry free.

I assumed all this would involve refinancing the place. The re-finance cost plus the rate increase plus the extension of the term back to 180 months would be offset by the saved interest and the peace of mind. I called to kick-off the refinance process, and it turns out there might be a simpler option. Our back has a loan modification option. I'm not sure how exactly it works, but it seems like you keep your original loan length (so you don't restart the clock to payment #1). And, it seems like you keep your original rate (which is good since rates have risen since). And, it seems like the fee is a $250 processing fee vs. the typical refinancing costs of close to $2,000. Okay. Sign me up.

After learning all this, got a letter in the mail yesterday with the process. The paperwork and checks are due by the end of the month. From there, they do a bunch of hoop jumping and it looks like our payments change effective 4/1. It's a little longer than I expected, but a refinance would probably take us a similar amount of time. If we hustled, we might get it in for a 3/1 change, but in all likelihood, it'd be 4/1 for that as well.

I'll talk to Mr. mouse about it this morning and see where we land. I am hugely excited about it. In fact, I'm inordinately excited about it. It's a little scary how excited I can be about something this mundane, but I am. I'll keep you posted.


Cheers!
mouse