Another Really Good Reason to Pay Off Your Mortgage Early
Posted on January 10, 2009
Filed Under Family Finances, Money Merge Account program, United First Financial |
I’ve known a woman for several years now who is a College-Funding consultant. She was in my BNI group, and virtually every week she would mention something in her “infomercial” about the government FASSA form (at least that’s what I thought she called it - turns out its a FAFSA form). My son is only 13 now, and although he is definitely college-bound, I figured I had a few more years before I really needed to think much about college financial aid, scholarships, etc. Wrong!!
There was a Guest Opinion in yesterday’s “The Stump” (?) on The Oregonian newspaper’s website, www.oregonlive.com. The author, Angus McCamant, is pretty upset about how FAFSA (it stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid) calculates wealth in order to determine how much, if any, Federal financial aid your kids can expect to receive to help them out with their college tuition.
Mr. McCamant says “What I should have done is pay off the mortgage, buy expensive cars, and maximize investment in retirement accounts. Here is a quote from Fafsaonline.com: ‘The more cash and cash equivalents you have on hand, the less aid you’ll be qualified for. Here are some strategies (some more ethical than others) to dump cash quickly before completing your FAFSA.’”
He goes on to explain that FAFSA takes into account only certain types of wealth when determining how much college financial aid your family could qualify for. It does NOT take into account the equity in your home, the value of your vehicles or your assets that are sitting in retirement accounts.
In my mind, this is just one more compelling reason why the Money Merge Account program from United First Financial is such a necessary financial tool. By properly leveraging your discretionary income, you can pay off your mortgage (saving potentially tens of thousands of dollars in interest charges), invest in your retirement accounts and/or tax sheltered vehicles (such as annuities) and go out and buy really cool cars! (Just joking!)
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13 Responses to “Another Really Good Reason to Pay Off Your Mortgage Early”
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Tom Humes
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