The economy - has anyone else experienced the opposite of what we hear on the news?

[LizzyBee]

Earlier this year, we jumped the gun and refinanced our house just before our ARM expired. If we had waited, our payment would have gone DOWN $80/month. Our rate would have dropped from 5.75% to 4.825%; instead, we locked in to a 30 year mortgage at 6.5%. I was so upset, but I totally expected our ARM to go up, not down. And the refinance was very easy, even though we keep hearing that mortgages are getting harder to get. Our bank did a Fast Track loan, meaning that we didn't have to submit any income information or have an appraisal.

 

Then last week, we got my dh's health insurance adjustment for 2009. His rate is going down rather than up, for the first time ever since he's had this policy. It's only going down $1 a month, but hey, we'll take it, because we were sure it would go up again.

 

Also, I keep thinking that credit card companies are going to stop sending out 0% offers, but we still get a couple every week. I don't know if we're living in a twilight zone here or what.

[Sharon H in IL]

No insight, just wanted to say 'congrats' on the upside-down world you've got going there. ;)

[mom31257]

I'm glad some are experiencing better than the news says. My dh teaches school. They are talking about shaving 3 days off next year's contracts to save money. It would mean 3 days less pay, but at least it will be next year when he should get a pay scale raise, too. Gas coming down has helped us a lot. Gas and food are our main expenses other than regular house bills.

 

Our health insurance is going down, but it's because they are offering a new plan that is a cheaper premium. It's an HRA plan, and says we'll have less out of pocket than the plan we have now. It pays 100% of the first $1500 in bills. Last year, we only had about 1-2 visits per person. If we have as healthy a year this coming year, we won't have one dime out of pocket other than our premium, which will be about $135 a month. You also get roll over to the next year what you don't use of the $1500.

 

We're not sure what to do about our mortgage. We're in a 7 year fixed, with balloon payment. We've got 5.25% amortized like a 30 year mortgage. There's over 2.5 years left on it, and we'd love to move from here, so we're not sure if we want to refinance. We're not sure what our house would appraise for right now. We put 20% down when we bought it, and don't want to be above the 80% loan value because of PMI.

 

We are Christians, and God has always provided in so many miraculous ways. He is our provider, not the economy or government.

[Michelle T]

but used way too many technical terms. He said it depends on what your margins were when you got the adjustable loan. Apparently this is something the bank can tell you. People assume their adjustable will reset higher, but that's not always the case.

 

Here in our part of CA, it is very hard to refinance, because most people have upside-down houses. DH hasn't done a refinance in months. Most of his business these days are people buying foreclosures :sad: of which there are plenty in our area.

 

Our health insurance will be going up next year.

Michelle T

[OhM]

Benefits haven't changed (but haven't gone up, as in past years), and with the sharp reduction in gasoline prices (and the less-than-expected increase in my natural gas bill) and the reduction in my ARM, things are actually better than had been expected for us.

 

Now, our retirement savings has taken a hit, but we have years to go to see that recover, so I'm not panicking about that yet - especially since I've been through two of these "market resets" and seen it bounce back before.