Earlier this month, I mentioned the Money Merge Account program on my feature site, and, as frequently happens, I find a magazine article coming to a similar conclusion.
The May issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine has a brief article titled “Don’t fall for this mortgage pitch.” It’s a pretty brief article which again questions whether even prepaying at all is a good idea, but concludes with this punchline; “Salespeople challenge whether you’ll follow through on your own – as if spending $3500 for software will ensure that you’ll use it. Tell that to couch potatoes whose high-end exercise equipment gathers dust.” Amen to that.
I’ve also added links to highly trafficked discussions regarding this topic, and also written a stand-alone page comparing one MMA agent’s example to my own approach using a spreadsheet. I don’t know what surprises me more, that the shortcoming of such systems is so obvious, or that people are so desperate they’ll pay $3500 for something they can do with a free spreadsheet. I am happy to send a copy of my MMA spreadsheet to anyone that requests it.
(updated 5/4 – I added the link to the article above as the May issue of Kiplinger is now accessible on the web.)
Joe
What happens if you were to follow through with the MMA until you actually paid off the mortgage? How long before you pay off the debt that you have accumulated in the ALOC once you no longer have a mortgage?
It depends what the MMA software is telling you, but ideally, it’s within one or two months.
Joe