About this episode

The episode discusses when borrowing against home equity is beneficial and when it can harm financial plans.

Americans are sitting on more home equity than ever -- and more of them are tapping it. Not because they're struggling, but because they locked in ultra-low mortgage rates and they're not giving those up. So instead of refinancing, they're turning to HELOCs and home equity loans. Joe and OG walk through the math, the psychology, the questions most people never think to ask, and the specific situations where borrowing against your home equity actually makes sense -- and the ones where it quietly destroys a plan that was working. What You'll Walk Away With Why home equity borrowing is surging right now -- and why keeping a 3% mortgage while opening a HELOC at 7.5% might still be the smarter move The Oreo problem: why having a HELOC open "just in case" is the financial equivalent of leaving a sleeve of Oreos on the counter and expecting not to eat them OG's CEO versus CFO framework: how to separate the decision of whether to do the project from the decision of how to finance it The rate math you should actually run before choosing between a HELOC, a home equity loan, and a full refinance -- including current Bankrate benchmarks Home improvements, credit card consolidation, college…

People in this episode

Hosts: Joe, OG

Topics covered

• home equity
• HELOC
• mortgage rates
• financial planning
• borrowing
• investing

Keywords

• home equity
• HELOC
• mortgage
• refinance
• financial decisions
• borrowing
• investing

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Bankrate

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