Beware The Biweekly Mortgage

George Yacik - INO.com Contributor - Fed & Interest Rates


A few weeks ago in this space I recommended that people investing for retirement should avoid the overpriced stock and bond markets and any imminent market correction and instead invest in themselves, namely by paying down their mortgage. It's a 100% guaranteed risk-free investment, and the amount of money you'll save will dwarf the return you might get on bank CDs. And it will make your household budget in retirement a lot easier to balance.

But one way NOT to pay off your mortgage is by calling one of those outfits that promise to help you pay off your loan early, for a fat fee, of course. They often advertise a "biweekly" mortgage in which you agree to send them one-half of your monthly mortgage payment every two weeks. By doing that, you're essentially making one extra mortgage payment a year, thus paying down your loan faster.

What the consumer is paying for, I guess, is the discipline to make those extra payments that they might not make on their own. Continue reading "Beware The Biweekly Mortgage"