I went to our bank yesterday to lock in a new interest rate for our preexisting home equity loans that we had taken out two years ago when we were renovating our home. We had two outstanding loans out, one fixed and one adjustable. My husband was getting nervous that the rates might be going up soon and wanted the assurance of predictability. After an hour, I walked out of the bank with the security knowing we locked in a lower interest rate and a lower monthly payment. That means that we will be able to knock out that loan sooner because we will be making extra payments over the minimum amount due.
Our ultimate goal is to be completely debt-free. In hindsight, we should have saved the money needed for projects in advance before we started it. We now know better. The additional work we have done since then have been on a cash basis. That's the reason we still have unfinished projects, but it does not worry me in the least. It will get done. . .eventually. We went to visit Biltmore Estate in North Carolina this past summer, and were told during the tour that even that "house" had an unfinished room that was boarded up and never used when the Vanderbilts lived there! I don't plan on not getting our projects done, but we can wait a while longer. No big hurry. For the time being, we have security in knowing that we will not be hit with an unexpected rate hike on the loan.
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