Hi Robyn, Can you explain further what you mean by this statment? "As you are discovering,..." yadda yadda from me... I misread the explanation, apologies. You are in strong shape, *AND* thinking quite sharply about your equity management. Is it your opinion that using the equity in our home is a dumb idea and to only do it if we are unable to pay the other debt on time? Quite to the contrary! Retaining your net worth overwhelmingly in your primary residence is neither safe, nor growth oriented. If you are still building your tax-preferential retirement strategies, you most certainly would be wise to shift your equity from your real estate to other safer, more growth oriented methods. I am confused, because for some reason I feel like we would be better off financially if our cc and student loan debt was gone and we just had a mortage payment. What am I not understanding? A) You were accurately confused because I misread... my apologies, B) Your student loans *MIGHT NOT* be "bad debt"... they are sometimes tax advantaged, and may have very low interest rates (or may be consolidated/refinanced to very low student loan consolidated rates.) C) Credit card debt... yes, eliminate that... but leave the lines on the cards open, empty & alone. Also, how does one go about finding a well-sources mortgage broker? Well... I do be one ;~) But aside from me, you can do a web search, seek out referrals from friends, family, co-workers &/or real estate agents. What *I* would strongly recommend, in ANY case... is to seek a Financial Planner who happens to have a lending license... rather than a vanilla Mortgage Broker. In your case (and frankly, in most people's cases) the lowest rate in the wrongly structured overall financial picture can be far more costly than the properly designed & implemented plan overall... even if it comes at the cost of a premium planner. Sending you all the best! Dave Donhoff Leverage Planner

The truth is he doesn't want to give up the house. He thinks an older home will require more for him to do around the house. We bought a fixer upper the first time around and I had to hire someone to come in and do the work all of which he was capable of doing. Its all about materal wants, brick, etc.etc. I guess he thinks that big house makes him more of a man? We had one row with his parents several years ago but other than that it is fine. He just doesn't want to downgrade. The other home is priced at $89,900. It has a new roof and heat pump but has older siding. Obviously it is smaller but I have heard nothing else but fixing up this car and wanting a motorcycle for the past two years. Well this way he could have them without us being in the poor house. I take care of all of our finances even though I am not good at them. We have about $4k of cc debt which I am just about to get paid off. He seems to think we only have to pay for the big things. The little things don't count!

I have watched the TSP quarterly. I'm not totally sure of the % of the total goes to which fund, but I believe we are fairly diversified and have some funds in 4 or 5 of the different funds (not sure that's the right word). Our pay goes into each according to the % that we alloted the last time we did it. =0) You're doing yourself a disservice to your future retirement if you don't know in what funds your money is allocated, how the bi-weekly pay is allocated and especially how much growth you've had. I only say this because you have recently put your retirement planning to the forefront of your brain and that should include monitoring and learning about the TSP since it will be the vast majority of your husband's retirement. BTW is he under CRS or FERS? Since I started watching the TSP several months ago, I learned that this is not the best time to be in the "F" fund because the USD is constantly down. The domestic US economy is 39th in the world with many of the countries in the "I" fund way higher and close to the top. I originally had everything 20% into each fund, but have since moved things over to the more profitable funds since I"ve learned alot about how the TSP works. 1. Is there a max on the TSP? Hubby says it "used to be 10%", but he thinks that changed. Max amount for 2007 is $15,500 or 20,500 if you're over 50. The max contribution does not include the matching, so that is over and above the limit. We allocate a specific number, not a percentage. We put $425 per pay period into the TSP and that is nowhere near the max, but is over 20% of dh's pay. The more you put in, the more matching you get. If your husband has received any pay increases, then it might be a wise option to increase the TSP contributions. That's what we do whenever dh gets a raise. It allows for a greater tax benefit and more matching dollars. No, I don't mind differing opinions, it helps my brain entertain new ideas and learn something. =0) I know that I am focused on the rental properties and mortgages on them, because at the moment, those are closer to paying off, than the IRA or TSP. I believe in diversification, so the rental properties are currently part of my "retirement plan". They are a part that will begin to pay off long before we retire, and continue once we do retire (or at least that's the plan). I am learning the IRA and TSP world and language (and remember we're looking at 27 years before taking anything out of them, and we are already putting funds into both), but I already understand the houses. =0) It's good that you're looking to diversification and that you're open to look at all avenues. I think what you're missing is the tax benefit to the TSP, especially if you can afford higher deductions because it reduces your taxes that could be offset by the additional tax you pay with your rental properties and paying them off early. Having said that, I prefer to have a home paid for, which goes against many other people's belief here that the funds should go to investment vehicles. I try to diversify that as well by having money in a high yield account plus pay a bit more to principal. Sorry, I thought you were closer to retirement than 27 years to take out of the TSP. That gives you a long time to make the most of your investment opportunity there and is even more reason to learn everything you can about it. If your funds are diversified btwn the 4 or 5, that means you're losing a strong growth opportunity because you would have some money allocated to the G and/or F fund, which aren't producing very well these days. I was extremely overwhelmed when I first started paying attention to the TSP. It's definitely a long learning curve, but I am learning. It is imperitive that you know in what funds you are invested, how much is going into each fund and how they are doing - an not just quarterly. At minimum, you would be best served by checking weekly.

OUCH OUCH OUCH!!!! This is all making my head hurt!!! The MOST FINANCIAL CONTROL you can ever get in the mortgage origination process is in the selection of your actual PROVIDER. The E in Good Faith ESTIMATE stands for.... well.... ESTIMATE!!! An ESTIMATE is "NOT" in any way a BINDING QUOTE! The law does not recognize any estimate as a binding quote. The INDUSTRY does not recognize any estimate as a binding quote. Trying to shop mortgage financing as though it were a commodity is a complete waste of effort, time and resource. Your results will NOT be related to the "research" of advanced estimates!!! While one is searching the numbers, IF THEY ARE RANDOMLY LUCKY they will accidentally happen to select a trustworthy service provider who is competent and handles your process well, which will result in whatever the eventual numbers end up being. If they end up happy with the final numbers, they'll hold that out as supportive evidence of the "magical thinking" that the initial snipe-hunt was worthwhile. If they end up unhappy with the final numbers they'll make up some accusatory reason why the provider was predatory, etc. THE TRUE CAUSE OF THE RESULTS; The competence of the specific individual who is controlling the origination and managing the process. Choose your provider by any other means, and you may as well go to Vegas and have some FUN along the way... your results will be equally stacked against you. Luck! Dave Donhoff Strategic Equity & Mortgage Planner