Got the call that loan funded.



4.875% Baby.

In the knick of time too. For us, the one shaky item was our equity. I am not sure we could have gotten an appraisal for 25%+ equity if we waited a couple of more weeks. Seriously. & around here (Cali) you need 25% equity to get the best rates.

This is my Christmas present to me.

Entire $200/month savings is going to our ROTHs.

Prepay the mortgage? At 4.875%? Are you crazy?

I've said before, but my mortgage motto is to pay it off early, but not in lieu of retirement or funding tax-advantaged accounts. I fall squarely in the middle. Paying off the mortgage early is important to me. But so is investing and liquidity. Though sometimes I struggle with it, I think I am pretty happy to let the mortgage pre-payments go for a bit. When you can easily beat the rate with investing. In Cash. (Maybe not right now, but I imagine in the future, yes). Just, WOW!

I often compare our financial situation to our parents. Who have done quite well.

When they were our age they were buying their forever home and they had a 12% interest rate on about $100k. Factor inflation, and 4.875% on $200k just seems phenomenal. I think we are on a good track. I asked my dad out of curiosity and he said the lowest interest rate they ever had was 7%, on their mortgage. (They paid off their home a few years back - around age 50).

{I mean, think about it - they had the same house payment (as ours now) in the early 1980s!!!!!!!!!!! They have a more modest home than us, but it's the HCOL thing where they live).

Kind of interesting. It remains to be seen what kind of advantage we will gain from this, over them, in the long run. If any. It's not exactly apples to oranges. But I guess our parents are kind of our base, and we have a number of legs up on them, it seems.

P.S. I am recommending my mortgage broker to everyone. We closed in less than 2 weeks! Easy peasy. (Plus he held open our app for a year, until we were able to get 5% or lower). & I swear to you, I have never been in a loan signing before where I didn't have to tell them, "I don't want impounds!" You say it 100 times, but it always pops up at the loan signing. Maybe a small thing, but yeah, I like the guy. Though he's not perfect. He wants us to buy rental real estate. LOL. But you know, take what you can get. I told him to call me if we can get a 15-year loan for 3%. I've said it before, but yeesh, this has to be our last refi ever. I am not fond of them!