Make a list of the 10 most important things you would look for when choosing a house to live in.?

If you can pay more each month off your mortgage then I'd suggest you do that rather than put the money in a savings account. Interest rates on savings are hardly worth mentioning at the moment but you pay a much higher rate on your mortgage (nowhere near as much as it used to be though). If you pay extra on your mortgage you will be surprised how many years earlier you will finish because at the end of each year less interest is added because your loan has become smaller.

We did this, borrowing in 1970 at 8% (within 6 months it had gone up - month by month - to 15%) It almost crippled us but we had to keep up the payment or lose the house. We struggled and when interest rates began to fall we continued paying the higher monthly payment because we had become used to that and hubby was earning a little more by then. We continued with this until the house was paid for and the house was ours TEN years earlier than it would have been if we'd reverted to paying the amount they asked for each month.

There was a penalty for finishing early but it was only half of one months payment so we didn't object to that too much. Making that final payment was one of the nicest feelings I can ever remember having. That was when the saving began.

The amount I'd become accustomed to paying off the mortgage each month went into a savings account rather than buying new furniture and going on holiday (those could wait a little longer) and it was a fantastic feeling to know our money was slowly growing. It continued to grow until the interest slump of a few years ago and is now virtually static and certainly not keeping pace with inflation. If you have the attitude that the house is more important than holidays or the latest mobile phone etc. then pay off as much as you can, just saving a sensible amount to cover those unexpected things that happen to us all now and again.

EDIT Considering what Sew What says, the way we did it was good but not actually the best way. What we could have done, and had the same results, was to put the extra amount each month into a savings account and just at the end of the year (before the interest was added to the mortgage) pay that off as a lump sum. That way we would still have had the smaller amount of interest added to our mortgage (because the loan was now less) and have earned some interest on that which we could have had a savings.

However, we didn't understand that at the time but it's a point worth thinking of. Also, because a lot has changed since we did it our way, do check with your lender that you actually can alter the monthly amount because I think penalties are much steeper these days (for paying off early) than they were when our mortgage ended. They want every penny they can get from you.

I don't know if it's different for those of us living in the US, but if it were me & I had the funds to save, I most certainly would keep at least one years worth of living expenses in a high yield saving account first. Then I'd refinance at the lowest possible rate & if it was a substantial monthly savings...I'd just bank that money for my old age until I had my finances on a stable road to having the items that I want & need for a comfy life & then start saving as my budget allowed. A person never knows when they will get into a bind & be unable to work or have some other type of a crisis that causes them to need money that is in an account (ready to use) verses having to borrow at the high rates for money & credit cards that will require a bigger payout in the end.

The more a person has in savings determines their credit worthiness. The big credit card companies won't give a person a high credit limit if they have problems meeting their monthly mortgage payments. Showing money in a bank is good & makes you look more like an investor instead of a spender.

Banks & lending institutions cannot make a profit on people who spend with CASH or pay off their balances each month. It takes money to make money. Over paying on a long term loan just seems counter productive to me.

Maybe you should talk to a specialist in your area & come to your own conclusion before you get too old to do things the right way for your situation. You just might decide to sell the house before it is paid off & then what good will the extra payments do for you? Just ties up the money in my view.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.