Tracking spending

I'm a pretty lazy guy, and I don't like balancing checkbooks, writing down all my purchases, or really anything that feels like make-work.  But, I know its important to track your spending, and to try and maintain a budget.  One tool that makes this much easier is Mint. 

Before I get into describing all the great things mint does for you, let me address one big issue with using Mint, or any website like Mint.  You will have to enter your usernames and passwords for all of your bank accounts, in order to really track your spending on Mint.  I'm not too excited about the idea of spreading my passwords around, but, in case my passwords are compromised, I do know that I can dispute any fraudulent charges.  Also, I'm pretty good about watching my accounts, so I should catch any issues pretty quickly.

The really advantageous thing about Mint is that it categorizes all your spending for you.  So, you can see how much your spending on groceries vs. eating out vs. utilities, etc.  I like to look at these categories, and figure out, if there's anything we could spend less on.  Also, this is good information to have when talking about your family budget with your spouse.  Even if you decide that you must spend $2000 on groceries each month, at least you are now aware of what your spending habits are, and you're talking openly about them.

Mint also allows you to set up allowances for each of your spending categories.  When you go over your spending limit, Mint sends you an email, letting you know.

Amerisave - Up Front Mortgage Lender

Rates for 30 year mortgages are significantly higher today than they were yesterday.  I called my preferred lender, and talked about refinancing yesterday, but the rates weren't quite low enough for me.  Hopefully they will go lower over the coming days.  In preparation for lower rates, I want to talk a bit about mortgage lenders.  I am a big fan of up front mortgage lenders.  These are basically lenders that make all of the costs associated with a mortgage, clear up front.  The most interesting piece of information that is divulged by most up front mortgage lenders is the yield spread premium (YSP).  This is basically the amount of money you can get for accepting a higher interest rate for your loan.  You can think of it like paying points, in reverse, because, that is exactly what it is.

I refinanced my home loan recently with amerisave.  They are an upfront mortgage lender, and had the best deal on rates, closing costs, and YSP that I could find.  The key requirement I have for any mortgage lender is: do what you say you're going to do.  On this score, Amerisave did well.  The loan I eventually closed was exactly the loan that was represented to me in my original good faith estimate.  Also, the communication from Amerisave was phenomenal.  If you look for reviews of Amerisave on the web, a lot of people comment that they have a hard time getting in touch with their mortgage processor.  I think Amerisave took this criticism to heart, because my mortgage processor would always get back to me within an hour, whenever I tried to contact him.  That is great service!  At the end of the day though, the main question is, did they give me the rate they promised at the price they promised.  They did this as well, so I was very happy with Amerisave.  My only minor quibble was the amount of documentation they wanted.  I have not refinanced since 2009, so maybe the level of documentation required by all lenders has risen, but it was a little crazy all the forms I had to fill out.  Regardless of the massive paperwork, I would definitely recommend Amerisave to anyone looking to refinance their loan.

Refinance NOW!

Are you considering refinancing your home loan?  Have you been waiting to lock your rate?  Today is a great day to lock.  10 year treasury rates are at 1.96%.  You can easily get a 30 year fixed mortgage at 3.75% with no additional points.  That isn't to say there will be no closing costs, and probably additional origination fees.  You can get a loan with no closing costs right now with a slightly higher interest rate of 3.875%.

If you're underwater on your loan, there are some good opportunities coming up to refinance into a lower rate.  I'll talk about those options in another blog post soon.