Feeling the Fall Financial Squeeze? Your Mortgage May Be Able to Help.

September has a funny way of getting expensive, fast.

Back-to-school costs, fall activities, new clothes, home maintenance, property taxes, and the regular monthly bills don’t politely take turns. They tend to show up all at once.
For many homeowners, that can mean leaning a little more heavily on credit cards or lines of credit just to keep cash flow comfortable. And while that may solve the immediate problem, carrying those balances month after month can get expensive.
This is where it can be worth taking a closer look at the bigger financial picture.

Your Mortgage Is More Than Just a Payment.

If you’ve owned your home for a while, you may have built up equity that could potentially be used to restructure higher-interest debt and improve your monthly cash flow.
For example, if you’re carrying balances on:

Credit cards
Personal loans
Lines of credit
Vehicle loans or other higher-interest

…it may be possible to consolidate some of that debt into your mortgage or another mortgage-based solution at a lower interest rate.

The goal isn’t simply to move debt around. The goal is to determine whether restructuring it actually puts you in a better financial position.

Three Signs It May Be Time for a Mortgage Check-Up
Your credit card balances aren’t getting paid off each month.
High-interest debt can become expensive very quickly, particularly when you’re making payments but not seeing the balance drop significantly.
You have too many monthly payments.
Several loans, credit cards and lines of credit—with different payment dates and interest rates—can make managing monthly cash flow unnecessarily complicated.
You have significant equity in your home but are carrying expensive consumer debt.

Your home equity may provide options you haven’t considered.
But Consolidation Needs a Strategy
Using home equity to consolidate debt isn’t automatically the right answer.

We need to look at the interest savings, mortgage penalties, fees, new payment, amortization and—most importantly—whether the strategy actually improves your overall financial picture.
Sometimes the numbers make sense. Sometimes they don’t.
That’s why we run the numbers first.

Feeling a Little Cash-Flow Crunched?

You don’t need to wait until your mortgage comes up for renewal to have a conversation with us.

At Geri Janes & Associates, we can review your existing mortgage, your current debt and the equity in your home to see whether there’s an opportunity to lower borrowing costs or create some breathing room in your monthly budget.

There’s no obligation to make a change. Sometimes the best outcome of a mortgage review is simply knowing that what you already have is still the right strategy.
And if there is a better option? We’ll show you the numbers and help you decide whether it makes sense for you.

Your mortgage should work for your life, not the other way around.