Refinance Mortgage

My mortgage payment is $1500 a month, my interest rate is 8.55%
I purchase the house in April 2007 for $175,000. I have $158,000 left on the loan. I call my mortgage company and they told me If I refinance before march 2009 I will get a pre-payment penalty for $7000.

My mortgage is attach to libor, my credit score is around 630.

I was wondering should I take the hit with the $7000 and save money or should I wait for march 2009.
I have check the calculators online and I saw my payment might drop. Please help any comments is appreciated.

I used to work at a mortgage company that specialized in refinancing. It’s been about…8 years…but..I do recall you must wait a year before refinancing. Try calling a different lender. Contact the bank yourself. If you go through a mortgage company, you will pay more in closing costs.

The $7000 hit…couple things to consider…how much interest will you have paid if you wait until March 2009? If the interest is less than 7000, wait. How much will you actually SAVE between now and then AND will your new interest rate be less than 8.55%? ALSO, consider the drop in real estate sales. You have equity in your home right now and who knows what will happen to the market in a few years. We may not be able to get even close to what we paid for our houses!! So, in saying that, if you can’t afford your mortgage payment because of this crazy economic turn, you should sell. If you can refinance for the better, do it. But not for a higher interest rate. Make sure it is fixed rate, if you didn’t already know.

Hope I helped…

Here is my problem, I feel like I am finding it hard to watch my spending, I dont even know where to start, especially when it comes to grocery shopping I find myself going to the store every day to buy more food or little items that I forgot for the meal, i am just so lost in how to save money on top of having a gas hog that I cant get rid of and high payments with bad credit that I cant even refinance. I just need help I want to save money and just dont know how, I cut out all my expenses like getting my nails done which was my only relaxing time, but still I am not saving could anyone please provide some advice or any websites that have like a budget calculator.

You and thousands of Americans have a similar problem, while budgeting is helpful it will not eliminate all of your financial problems. The first step is to find out what is causing you to spend so much. Take a look at your grocery bill, are there ways to cut on it?

First, here is a link to the Microsoft Template site

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT101172321033.aspx?av=ZXL000

Pick out a budget that you can use for you and your family. These are very user friendly and it will give you an idea of how much you can save.

Some things that you can do is cutting back on non essential items. For example, is coffee really necessary? Can you go to regular cable instead of premium?

Look for ways to cut your spending, try using store brand food instead of the brand name label. If you are buying food, try not to buy processed foods because they are much more expensive due to the cost of labor. Buy in bulk if you can, but also consume it so it doesn’t go to waste. If you are a member of Costco, Sam’s Club or BJ’s you can buy a lot of meat and a discount and freeze to use for later.

Take a look at what your children spend. Do they buy their clothes at department stores or do they buy them at cosignment?

You can also try www.clarkhoward.com Clark Howard is a consumer awareness radio host in Atlanta. He is very knowledgable when it comes to budgeting and keeping an eye out for scams.

Controlling your spending is difficult, but it is a life change and not a financial change.

Good luck

Debt calculators tell me that if I refinance the term to 30 years, my payment will be over $900/mo. Practicing attorneys, would you suggest I do this, or should I chose a more affordable school. Keep in mind, the average starting salary for this school of choice is $130k/yr, but on the east coast.

Real:

The general rule of thumb is that a student should not borrow more than his/her first year’s salary. A slightly more accurate estimate is that a monthly student loan obligation should never represent more than about 15% of income.

From that perspective, you’re close to "reasonable", but a little bit over.

A few cautions, though:

The legal profession is hardly immune from the larger economic environment. Visiting here: http://www.law.com/jsp/tal/PubArticleTAL.jsp?id=1202425647706 , you’ll find a list of layoffs at the Largest 200 law firms in the US.

You’ll see headlines like:

"Baker & McKenzie announces associate layoffs in New York"

"Firms continue to scale back attorneys and staff"

"Chicago’s Bell Boyd & Lloyd Lays Off 10 Associates"

"Boston Based Brown Rudnick Lays Off 20 Lawyers"

Only the large firms pay the kind of salaries that would enable you to bank on a $130,000 offer, and those are amongst the firms that have been hardest hit.

I’d strongly recommend that you read this article, published today: http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202429842204 "Five Sobering Future Trends Could Impact Younger Lawyers", and this one: http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202428296289 "The Coming Law Firm Hiring Crisis".

Listen – my point is not to dissuade you from following your dream to study law, but you’d be short-sighted to ignore the ongoing shifts in the legal profession. It may be feasible to borrow $150,000 to attend your dream school IF it leads to one of the $130,000 jobs that you are counting on. If it doesn’t, well – you’re going to find yourself in a big, big hole.

The other thing I wanted to mention – it’s also not a given that you’ll be able to consolidate or refinance your loans over 30 years. Consolidation loans have been even harder hit than education loans in general – I can count the number of lenders making student consolidation loans on about one hand, at the moment.

This is a very risky time to be committing to an expensive law school, and you’ll have to weigh your options carefully. If the economy picks up, and law firms immediately return to their once profligate ways, you could hit the jackpot with your big name degree. If the economy continues to slump, and/or if the firms spend a few more years simply retrenching, that $150,000 in debt is going to be a tremendous albatross around your neck, especially if you’re not able to extend the repayment period on those loans.

Good luck to you – I’m sorry I couldn’t give you a definitive answer.

I have a 1.30% negative am loan that i need to get out of, i currently owe 650,000.00 for both my first and my second, my question is can i get a loan that is not a negative am loan and have my payments at 2,450.00 including my taxes? Even if i have to get myself into an interest only loan for the first 3-5 years or so, by then my wife and i would be off better financially and can refinance into something fixed. My home is worth about 750,000 so i still have some equity in it and have had this negative am loan for about 2 1/2 years now. I was on lending tree and put my info in the mortgage calculator and it brought out different scenarios and one did have a payment of 2,450.00 is this realistic? i pay 8,200.00 in real estate taxes a year.

If you really can’t make the payments for a 5yr ARM Interest Only of about $3,365 + net wages and toy. Then you’ll need to sell the home and get into something affordable, or refinance into another Option ARM with a 5yr fixed margin, I credit your currently Option ARM is rising at a monthly rate. If you really need more time before say nothing credit is damaged, I think the winner bet will be another Option ARM but enamored a FIXED MARGIN..

http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/mortgages/refinance-calculator.aspx

http://www.lendingtree.com/mortgage-refinance/calculators/

http://www.bankofamerica.com/loansandhomes/index.cfm?template=learn_calculators&context=financenter&calcid=home11

I used each of these mortgage calculators to see if I should refinance, using the same conditions for each one. I have gotten answers from I will save $50K in interest (bankrate) to I shouln’t refianance (lending tree). What gives? Some ask for a savings rate and some don’t.

Which do you think is most accurate?

because of difficult financial circumstances countless Americans are in debt. what i advise doing to prevent being in debt is to check your credit score and report monthly. check out http://creditinfoplace.notlong.com if you need aid.