Please forgive me if I might be asking a very dumb question... as Im not mathematically inclined. I have gone from a Dave Ramsey approach of aggressively paying off the mortgage with extra payments... which has allowed me to pay off half my mortgage and otherwise debt free but the house... to currently a WCI approach which I believe is investing the extra payments into a good taxable mutual fund and one day perhaps pay off ALL the mortgage lump sum.
Now this particular approach of using a HELOC to accelerate paying off the mortgage is interesting but questionable as it uses debt to pay off debt? But the debt of a HELOC is supposedly different than the amortization of a mortgage loan? Again, I don't think Im smart enough to understand if this makes financial sense nor am I sure if I can explain it well... so I will attach a link for the basic explanation?
http://www.wikihow.com/Follow-the-Mortgage-Accelerator-Plus-Program
The idea is interesting as if I could use a HELOC of 20-30k to payoff a chunk of the mortgage and save lets say 4-6 months of interests payments, then apply most of my monthly paycheck to the HELOC at the beginning of the month (except all planned savings such as retirements, 529, etc), any expenses such as grocery, gas, utilities all go on the credit card (more points or cashback), then at the end of the month pay off the credit card by withdrawing from the HELOC while still paying the monthly mortgage, and repeat each month until the HELOC is back to zero. Then repeat this whole cycle again and again until the mortgage is paid off...
Obviously this only works if you're cash flow positive each month and also there's obviously interest being paid into the HELOC as well.. but is there any meaningful savings if you minus the difference of the mortgage-interest-saved by the HELOC-interest-paid? Perhaps this makes more sense at the beginning of the amortization schedule where mortgage paid is mostly interest and less principal? And if this does makes sense.. how does this compare to the Ramsey or WCI approach?
I would really appreciate the thoughts from the mathematicians of this community?
Now this particular approach of using a HELOC to accelerate paying off the mortgage is interesting but questionable as it uses debt to pay off debt? But the debt of a HELOC is supposedly different than the amortization of a mortgage loan? Again, I don't think Im smart enough to understand if this makes financial sense nor am I sure if I can explain it well... so I will attach a link for the basic explanation?
http://www.wikihow.com/Follow-the-Mortgage-Accelerator-Plus-Program
The idea is interesting as if I could use a HELOC of 20-30k to payoff a chunk of the mortgage and save lets say 4-6 months of interests payments, then apply most of my monthly paycheck to the HELOC at the beginning of the month (except all planned savings such as retirements, 529, etc), any expenses such as grocery, gas, utilities all go on the credit card (more points or cashback), then at the end of the month pay off the credit card by withdrawing from the HELOC while still paying the monthly mortgage, and repeat each month until the HELOC is back to zero. Then repeat this whole cycle again and again until the mortgage is paid off...
Obviously this only works if you're cash flow positive each month and also there's obviously interest being paid into the HELOC as well.. but is there any meaningful savings if you minus the difference of the mortgage-interest-saved by the HELOC-interest-paid? Perhaps this makes more sense at the beginning of the amortization schedule where mortgage paid is mostly interest and less principal? And if this does makes sense.. how does this compare to the Ramsey or WCI approach?
I would really appreciate the thoughts from the mathematicians of this community?
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