To Refi or Not to Refi? #127

I saw a recent report that on average, for folks who can refinance their home, that each individual could say about two and seventy dollars a month, totaling one point six billion dollars, which is a huge amount of money. So we're gonna talk about if you should be refinancing your home, and we're gonna talk about how to do that on this episode. Yeah, and there are some good rules of thumb. I think they will be able to offer folks. But but it's also very specific and gonna

get into some of those specifics. But like you said, Matt, a lot of people could save a lot of money, and a lot of people either have heard or seen an article refinancing, like everyone's doing it right now. And yes, you should feel the peer pressure to at least consider it, even if you don't have a home. Consider refinancing. Yeah, we're gonna sell you that hard, you know, but refinancing

is a good idea for a lot of folks. And if you're one of those folks who can save a ton of money every month by by doing a REFI I mean that's big news, sure is, man. But before we kick things off, I wanted to talk about going green or that zero waste lifestyle that you might see kind of cropping up here and there. I'll tell you what you do. One search for anything now on the Internet, and then before you know it, you're getting fed all

these different ads, specifically for me Instagram. Anytime I google anything, three seconds later there's an ad for that very thing or a competing company popping up in my Instagram feed. And it is crazy. So evidently I searched something that made the algorithms think that I want to spend a bunch of money on these zero waste products because I'm getting fed things like these bees wax wraps. Have you seen these? I mean it's cloth and it's like confused

with wax. And instead of using typer wear like use that you go to the butcher and you put your raw meat in this fabric and you take it home and then you wash it when you take the meat out of it, like that kind of stuff. I I actually just reuse plastic ziploc back. Yes, well, that's I think that's the real answer. That's why I want to talk about this is because so much of those products

it's just marketing and it's consumption driven. It's it's so ironic that we're being fed these advertisements to buy these things that will miraculously allow us to become less wasteful, when in fact, that's sort of the epitome of waste, right, purchasing something that you don't really need because you already have some products that can actually provide that utility that

you are truly needing. And I'm not saying that I'm immune to this either, right, Like I get sucked in the advertisements, Like I see the cool stainless steel straw, the drinking straw, and I kind of want that because I see it looks awesome. It looks like something I can keep in my pocket. And I like putting cool metallic things in my pocket. You know, like one of those I might be turning into one of those every

to care you guys. You know, I got like my little pocket knife, Like what else can I fit my pockets that that might come in handy. If you get some cargo shorts, then you can do it even more,

or cargo kilts. But I think a good challenge is to, instead of looking at the different products out there that will allow us to become something that we aspire to be in this case, like look at our actual waste, Like look in the trash can, what's going in the trash And by identifying those things, I think we can

find ways that allow us to become less wasteful. And not to mention, on top of that, the things I think that oftentimes have a lot of packaging tend to cost more because they're the sort of like one time use things, or they're the convenience foods or products, and in reality, we could probably do with less of those products altogether. Yeah, Matt, and we talked with someone who's

kind of an expert in this field. Back in episode number seventy two, we brought Katie Wolk Stanley on and she goes by the moniker on the internet, the non consumer Advocate, and the title of that episode was stopped buying new stuff, and Katie is is concerned with how we treat the earth and the things we waste and the money that we waste at the same time, and I think she would completely agree that buying new things in an attempt at becoming greener is just not the

way to go about it. Really, the clutch move. The biggest thing that we could all do as human beings is to stop buying new stuff and focus instead on filling our homes or apartments wherever we live with used items, whether that's clothing, furniture, the car we drive. If we can prioritize buying used and holding onto those things longer, that's the biggest dent we can make in a culture that attempts to spur us on towards more and more consumption.

And so yeah, I agree, don't buy into the advertisers. Don't think that you're becoming more green by buying more things. Shifting our mindset of what it takes to be a greener individual in the society, I mean, that's that's the key. Yeah, Yeah, that's so true. Man, That's that's a great challenge for us,

something that we can implement in our lives. I guess, you know, you just see so many things in our world that oftentimes seems silly, and sometimes when you actually see it for what it is, it can kind of be darwing almost right, Like I'm thinking specifically too, of like the fancy water bottles. I'm not going to name any of the name brand ones out there, but they're really expensive, like the stellated you know, bigger water bottles.

And again, there's nothing wrong with getting one of those water bottles if you're going to use it, and so literally there's a hole in it, right, but if you're getting one of those because you don't want your plastic bottles to end up in a landfill, but in reality, you're buying a new one of those water bottles maybe every six months, right, You're like you're getting the new, latest and greatest color, or there's a new model that

actually does this. I think it's just important for us to realize that we're being marketed to and that we're being sold these products that are a not making us any happier, be that they're costing us a lot of money, and and see in reality they may not be helping with waste and pollution. Yeah, as you brought this up, it kind of made me think about energy efficiency too, and So let's say new TVs or new refrigerators use a whole lot less energy than their predecessors of ten

years ago. That's great, And if you're one of those folks that needs a new refrigerator soon or a new TV, that's gonna save you every month on your energy bills. But just because that new TV uses fifty less energy than the one you currently have, that certainly doesn't mean you should go to your local best Buy or go to Amazon whatever buy a new TV right now. That's just faulty logic. And I think the same thing is true for the kind of the green product movement. Some

of those things can potentially be helpful. So yeah, just like you wouldn't buy new TV to save eight dollars a year in electricity, you also shouldn't assume that buying products that are marketed as green and great for the earth are instantly helping you to waste less. Yeah, and Joel all that to say, I mean, we're not against products that are better for the earth, right Like, we love the earth, we like there to be less waste

in the world. But we just want you to be to be smart about it and to take it back to our friend Katie. She has her motto or her slogan, which is use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without. Make sure to keep that in mind. Cool, Matt, All right, let's mention the beer that we're having on the show today. We're drinking Old Toffy and it's brewed by New Belgium Brewing at a Colorado. This is a Logger beer sent to us by listener Maggie. So, Maggie,

thanks for sending this one our way. Yeah, and it's worth mentioning. Joel, you said Old Toffie, this is the mascot for NC State, and she certainly picked a beer that she has a vested interest with because she is actually a professor there at NC State. So I just wanted to mention that you and I have no collegiate ties necessarily it to NC State. I'm sure a second, not gonna let this beer go to waste, and we're gonna enjoy this one and share our thoughts at the

end of the episode. Yeah. I have a feeling though, that they're going to contact us pretty shortly for honorary doctorates or something like that, so then we will have ties to the institution. How do you even get one of those an honorary degree. Do you have to be invited to give the speech at the at the end of the year, the commencement end of the year's sort of speech there at graduation? You know, I don't know

how you do it. I assume it's similar to the way you get united in in England and it's just kind of one of those rare things that happened. But the fact that we featured their beer on our show, I mean, they're totally going to do it for us. I think Dr Matt has a nice ring to it. Dr Joel, great to see you today. All right, Matt, let's get onto the topic at a hand. Today we're asking the question to refin or not to refy, And

basically we're in a refinance boom right now. Taking the advantage of a refi on your house can lower your interest rate and lower your monthly payments. But there are also costs involved in refinancing that can make it prohibitive, and not everyone is a good candidate to refinance. So is it the right move for you? Well, Matt and I were going to discuss what you need to consider and how to make sure you're refinancing effectively if you

decide to go through with it. Yeah, joint to quickly sort of lay the groundwork right as to what a refinance is. Essentially, you're finding a new lender, and that new lender, once you move forward with them, they are going to pay off your current loan, and then you have a new loan with that new lender, and your payments go to them. Hopefully you have a lower interest rate. Oftentimes you're gonna have a different length of time, right, a different term once that refinance is complete. And so

first let's talk about the why. Let's go over some of the sort of overarching guiding principles of why you might want to refinance. And you all, we kind of touched on this a second ago, but oftentimes folks refinance in order to lower their monthly mortgage payment. So by lowering your rate, you can potentially lower your monthly payments and give yourself a little more financial breathing room, just a little bit more margin in your life. But that

being said, that is not our favorite reason to actually refinance. Yeah, the best reason to consider doing a refinance on your house is to save money on overall interest paid over the life of your loan. This is the even more important reason to consider a refight. It's going to have a bigger overall impact on your finances. Yeah, Jill, both of those are good reasons right to refinance. But the idea of sort of stepping back and looking at the total cost, the total amount that you're gonna pay for

financing your home. The idea there is to be able to step back a little bit and to not just focus on making payments, not just seeing how much house you can afford month to month. It's essentially more of a holistic, sort of bird's eye view of your overall finances. Yeah. I mean, just like we would recommend when someone's buying a car, well, you don't want to finance it over seven years. Sure it's going to give you a lower monthly payment, but that's not the biggest thing you want

to take into consideration. In the United States of America, we've kind of become payment buyers, and for only considering the actual outgoing number every month and not that holistic overall picture, it's going to lead us to make some poor decisions. So, just like with buying that car, you don't want to refinance your house just to get a lower monthly payment, although that could be a nice side ben Fit and Joe, you know what, to refinance? It

costs money, right, it costs a lot of money. Because it does cost so much, there are a number of things that you want to consider. One of the things you want to consider is how long you'll actually own that home. If you think you might only be there for another a year or two, it's probably a bad

idea for you. It's not gonna make a whole lot of sense because you'll never make up that money that you spent on those closing costs in the amount of money that you're gonna be able to save every single month. But then maybe on the other end of the spectrum, let's say you're gonna be there for like, say, at least ten years, Well, for you, it's likely going to be a pretty good move, right. It's it's not a matter of if you'll be able to earn that money back,

but just when. Yeah. Good rule of thumb is a thirty month rule. So if you run the numbers and you will break even, And because the savings of your new loan and lower interest rate, you'll break even versus the cost you incurred in order to make this REFI happen, well, then likely it's a good idea for you to do the refi. It's so incredibly rare for someone to stay in their house for an entire thirty year mortgage term,

right that that almost never happens. And so really it comes down so how long you're planning on being in the house. Obviously, things can happen and life doesn't always work out the way we think it's going to, but it's important for you to assess how long do I think I will be in this home? And if you think you will be in the home for quite a while and the math works out in regard to that thirty month break even point, well, then refinancing can make

a whole lot of sense. So next we're gonna cover some of the specific considerations that you want to keep in mind as you are deciding whether or not you should refinance. We're gonna get to those right after the break all right, man, We're gonna get to some of those specific factors that are really helpful as you are

working through whether or not you should be refinancing. And honestly, it's a question on so many people's minds because mortgage rates are near all time loads again, and they've really plummeted over the last year. And I feel like, as we're asking ourselves this question, should we be refinancing? This is an instance where analysis paralysis can keep you from taking advantage of uber low rates. The bottom line is that nobody knows where rates are going, but they're currently

incredibly low. So right now is a specific time where a lot of people should be considering refinancing. So is now the right time? Well, it could be, and Matt, let's talk about the specific factors that will help you determine whether or not it's the right time for you. Yeah. Well, first I wanted to address if someone is listening to this episode and they happen to be listening, say six months later, and you're thinking, dang it, like I totally

missed the train on refinancing. Well, there's two things that you can do. First, you can look at a graph and you can see where rates currently are as you are listening to this episode. And you can probably zoom out a little bit and look at the past couple of years and see rates are still historically low. You know, we are still in a great spot even if they're not the lows they've ever been exactly could still be

really good. And secondly, we would recommend that you look at the mortgage rate that you currently have right now, because it doesn't really matter if rates were historically low and you kind of missed that boat. If the current market rates are significantly lower than the rate that you currently have, then you should still really consider a refinance.

You're gonna want to dig a little bit de peper, specifically into your own finances, all right, So let's talk about those specific things that people should be considering before they decided to actually get going and make a refi happen. Even though mortgage rates are insanely low, that doesn't mean that it's a no brainer for you to refinance before you actually do it. Here are the main factors you need to consider to know whether you're a good candidate

or not. The first thing is to know your credit score. To qualify for the lowest of mortgage rates, you're gonna need a really solid credit score, and that means typically in the range of seven seven forty. If you're above seven twenty, in all likelihood with most lenders, you're going to get the best rate that they offer. Some lenders might have a threshold of seven forty, but if you're in that range, you know that you'll be able to

get a really good rate. And if you don't know what your credit score is, well, we've talked about multiple resources for you. Go check that out. Your current credit card company might offer that every month. If not, credit scorecard dot Com is a great tool, and so is credit Karma. Basically, if refinancing is on your radar, you need to know your credit score because that is going to have a huge impact on whether or not it's

gonna make sense for you. Ye dull, you know. The size of that impact is going to depend on a lot of different things. But for instance, let's just say you had a hundred point drop in your credit score from seven forty maybe down to six forty. That score is gonna cost you anywhere between like sixty and eighty bucks a month on a median home in the US.

And that doesn't sound like much, right, You think sixty bucks, that's not that big of a deal, But over the course of the loan, that's over twenty five dollars that you're gonna be paying just for having a credit score that got busted up a little bit. Before you're refinanced.

All Right, Another factor that you want to keep in mind when you are considering if you're a good candidate for a refinance or if your house actually is a good candidate to be refinanced, right, is equity and real quick equity is just the market value of your home less the amount that you owe on it. And if you have less than equity in your home, a conventional loan refinance is likely not going to be possible for you.

And so if you don't have enough equity, bringing cash to the closing table can actually help you to get

a conventional loan. Well, it's not impossible, but you're gonna be paying private mortgage insurance right p m I, which is a p I T A so many abbreviations on this episode, right, So keep in mind though that if you don't have enough equity, you can bring cash to the closing table and that can help you to get a conventional loan at a great rate without p m I. Another but maybe similar scenario is if the value of

your home has gone up since you purchased it. Well, guess what if you didn't have enough equity initially when you purchased it, but the value of your home has gone up. Well, in that case, you don't have to come to the table with additional funds. Are Another thing you're going to need to know in advance of pulling the trigger on a refinance is your d T I ratio. That's debt to income. Knowing your debt to income ratio

is a crucial factor in qualifying for a loan. Lenders are going to look at you if you have a debt to income ratio of more than forty and your debt to income ratio you can find that out by dividing your monthly debt payments by your gross monthly income. That number is the way that lenders measure your ability to be able to repay your loan. So the lower your debt to income ratio is, the more favorable you look, which means they're happy to lend you money. Yeah, you know,

calculating your debt to income ratio. That's not tricky math, right, You're just kind of making a calculation. But you do want to make sure that you are getting accurate numbers in there. And so when you are calculating your debt payments, you want to calculate everything. We're talking student loans, credit card, debt, car payment, any debt that you owe, any payment that you have that needs to go into your total debt number in order for you to get an accurate debt

to income ratio. All right, Matt, Now let's get into some of the specific good reasons to refinance. We talked about the big picture that it's helpful to lower your monthly payments. It's even more helpful to save in overall interest paid over the years. But additionally, let's say you're

in an ARM an adjustable rate mortgage. Well, considering we just talked about the fact that we're at historic low rates, the likelihood of your interest rate going up on your adjustable rate mortgage is decently high because as rates fluctuate ultimately over the years, they are barring something catastrophic going

to rise. So getting out of an arm getting out of an adjustable or mortgage and into a fixed term makes a whole lot of sense for a lot of folks, especially if you're going to be in the house for

quite a while. All Right. Another good potential reason to get a refi is if you can knock out some p m I. If you're able to get rid of private Morgan insurance while at the same time securing a lower rate, so that would end up saving you, you know, twofold in the long run, then you definitely want to consider p m I. On a typical two home, you could be paying anywhere between one d two hundred bucks a month and p m I, and so you get enough equity in the home to where you no longer

have to pay that. Yet your lender has to stop charging you for p m I once you hit a seventy eight percent loan to value ratio. But that is based on the initial appraisal price of the home, and if your home has gone up in value a good bit, you could still be waiting a long time for p m I to naturally drop off so that you're not charged for it anymore. And and that can be a

hundred and fifty two hundred dollars a month. And by refinancing, getting a lower rate and knocking out p m I at the same time, that can save you hundreds of dollars every month while paying less interest over the life and a loan. That can be just a win win for folks in a pm I situation where they have seen a good bit of equity growth. You know, refinancing your home to knock out p M I, REFINANCI your home to get out of an arm. Those are both

great reasons to refinance. Now let's talk about a reason that might be a good reason to refinance, and that is if you're gonna do a cash out REFI. That is when you basically refinance, but you remove equity from the home. Yeah, it's basically like saying, give me some cash in my palm while I'm doing the three five. I'll take that lower interest rate and some cash in

my pocket at the same time. Like we said, that might be a good idea, but you will pay a higher rate of Sometimes you're gonna pay an eighth or a quarter of a point higher if you go with that cash out. And this is only ever going to be a good idea if you're going to use that money in a positive way. So basically, if you're investing it. That could be if you're investing in yourself, right, so like higher education or more traditionally you know, an a

rental property or in another business. In any case, you're taking this money and you're looking to grow it more than it would grow if it was just sitting there tied up in your house. Actually did a cash out REFI on a propty that we owned in order to take that money, and we use that as a down payment on another house that we're buying. So we ended up renovating the house. We essentially flipped it, sold it, and man, we made a good bit of money that

year in that specific instance. You know, it was a smart move for us, but you've got to be really, really careful, honestly, Like, even looking back, I'm not sure if I would do that again. Yeah, And I'm considering doing a cash out refinance right now in order to build the accessory dwelling unit in my backyard. Mat We've talked about that, so I'm just kind of in the middle of thinking through is it a good idea or not, And based on the hard numbers, I think it is.

For me. I still hesitate at going to cash out refi route. So cash out refis can be a good idea for seasoned investors who know what they're doing, but I would be very very careful before taking that route, and it's definitely not a good idea to go the cash out refined direction if you're pulling that money out to consume it. If you're planning on taking a vacation

or something like that, or buying a boat. Let's say you're doing that like that, there's definitely not a boat, right like maybe a tesla right like that sounds like a lot more fun to me. The boat. Well, at least it's gonna save you a little on electricity every month, right, but always cash. Our refis are a total no if you're looking to add to your consumption or inflate your lifestyle by doing so. Okay, So those are some different reasons why folks refin You know, this is called how

the money. So we're gonna talk about now how to refinance, and we're gonna get to that right after the break. All right, Matt, we've talked a lot about refinancing, but we haven't really covered how to do it yet. So let's get into that. If you feel like you're a good candidate based on the things that we've covered, The biggest key to saving money when you are refinancing is to shop with multiple lenders. Oftentimes we shop a lot

for the home. We go into fifteen or twenty homes before we make an offer, but we shot very little for financing. Lots of times people go with the lender that their real estate agent recommends without shopping the market. Online lenders can be a great option. Quiking Loans is a great place to check. Their Rocket mortgage product has done well in customer satisfaction surveys. Credible has a new online mortgage shopping tool that's really really good. Costco has

a mortgage program that shops rates with multiple lenders. I know you're gonna try to find a way to slide Costco in there. I always do, man, I go there by my favorite Kirkland signature branded products and then you know what, I also shop for mortgages with them. Yeah, I'd like to sign up for that Kurrikland Signature Premium refinance. Please. And if only the company that did your refive was

Costco under the Kirkland signature label, that'd be amazing. Another great place to go when you're looking to refinance is to check local credit unions. Credit unions oftentimes have the lowest overall rates in the market. Another place to go is to contact a mortgage broker who shops rates with a lot of different lenders. Basically, there are a lot of potential good places to go to look for rates. Just don't be one of those people that designs to do a refinance and doesn't shop for the best one

for them. Yeah. Man, it's all about that due diligence, right. And also, don't just look at the headline rates like you don't just go to the website and see whatever rate that they're advertising on the home page. You want to factor in all the different costs and you can see those on your loan estimate to give you sort of that apples to apples comparison. Lenders are actually required to give you those estimates within three business days after you apply with them, and those costs are gonna be

on that loan estimate. They're gonna be itemized. It's gonna be nice. And because you've shopped around, it's gonna be really easy for you to compare one of those loan estimates to the two other ones, because you're gonna have at least three loan estimates there, right, yeah, or right, or maybe five loann estimates. Okay, I'll do it, I'll do it. Yeah. You definitely want to make sure you're getting quotes, you're getting those loan estimates in hand from

a lot of different lenders. That's gonna be the biggest way you end up saving money in the refi process. And Joel, you know, I think a lot of folks would hear us say that, and they're gonna freak out because they're gonna think, what's gonna happen to my credit score? It's gonna plumb it when I fill out all of those applications, all those inquiries, They're gonna lower my score in a big way. Right, Well, they do a little bit,

but not nearly as much. If you make those inquiries, if you apply for that refinance within a short period of time, within a week or two, all those separate hard polls against your credit essentially kind of get lumped together as one. So when the time comes and you're shopping for that refi, man, just go about the business of knocking all those out because a you do want a bunch of them to be able to compare, but b you also want to make sure that you're not

damaging your credit. Yeah, Matt, And folks to just know that typical closing costs for a refinance are two to four pc of the overall loan value, So it costs a good bit of money to do a refi, which is why we mentioned earlier on in the episode that thirty month break even point. If you're refinancing your home and your total loan amount is a hundred fifty thousand dollars, well you can expect like four thousand dollars in closing costs,

so you want to make sure that it's worth it. Yeah, you know, the loan amount that you're refinancing like that has a pretty large impact on those closing costs. But there are a lot of different variables to to keep in mind, and because of that, it makes it difficult to sort of have a rule of thumb. You know, lowering your rate by one percent like that sounds pretty great, but refinancing still might not be worth it for you.

There just are so many different individual factors at play when determining if a REFI is the right move for you. Like you've got to look at the bank cost, title cost, there's different third party costs. Some of those things you can shop for, but others you can't. Just don't be afraid to actually negotiate on some of the different items that you do have control over. Yeah, once you have those loan estimates in hand, you can always go back to a potential lender and ask if there's any wiggle

room to pay less, Matt. The last mortgage I got, there was one lender I felt a little more comfortable with, but the overall cost I was going to incur by going with them were more than another lender. So I just showed them my other loan estimate. I asked if they can match it. They did some work and they actually ended up beating it. Nice man. Yeah, so don't be afraid to negotiate. Don't be afraid to ask the question to see if that lender can do better than

their initial offering. Yeah, negotiating closing costs on a refine like that is an instance where it is perfectly acceptable to show up at the table. You've got other numbers to compare to you, and you ask basically like can you beat this? Right? There's other instances where you shouldn't negotiate, like the price of your dinner. Yeah, but this is not one of those. And another tool that can be helpful in this whole process is an online mortgage to

re high calculator. It can help you analyze the numbers and the cost you might be going back to that over and over as you consider different loan terms and interest rates. The ultimate sweet spot for refinancing is lowering your rate and lessening your term at the same time. So let's say you originally got a thirty year mortgage, You've been in that home for eight years, you've got twenty two years left on it, and your interest rate

is four and a half. Well, the sweet spot for you is to go into a fifteen or twenty year mortgage, lower your interest rate by hopefully over a point, and at the same time lower your overall remaining years left on that mortgage. Not everybody can hit that sweet spot, but that is an ideal circumstance to make sure you at least consider lessening your term as part of refinancing.

And you know, the whole idea behind lessening that term shortening the number of years you have left paying that mortgage. It's not just a numbers game, but there's also that mental and psychological element to it. If you're a total nerd and you're all about the numbers, you might argue that, like, no, I want to have a thirty year term, and I

want to get that rate as low as possible. I'm gonna invest that money and While that might work or some I think for a lot of other folks, there is gonna be a greater benefit from not having a mortgage altogether because of refinanced that shorter term, and that's no longer a debt, that's no longer a payment that

they have every month that is hanging over their heads. Man, Personally, I'm not anywhere close to having a mortgage paid off on any of my properties, but I look forward to it knowing that one day that's just one of those huge outgoing payments that I'm no longer going to have to pay, just to have that burden lifted off of me, you know what I'm saying. What a sweet feeling that

would be, right, Yeah. Yeah. But by the way, on that mortgage three five calculator, we will link to one of our favorites in the show notes on our website, and also on our website, we're gonna have a picture of the beer that we're enjoying right now, Joel, you're

gonna take us back to the beer. Oh yeah, nice transition, Matthew. Okay, Yes, So today on the show, we drank a beer called Old Tuffie by New Belgium Brewing and It's a beer that New Belgium specifically brewed for NC State, and listener Maggie is a professor there and so she sent this on our way. Big thanks to Maggie. Dude. I don't always drink loggers, Matt, but when I do, I'm gonna drink Toffy Lagger. Name that beer commercial that I just

stole a line from. Oh, I know the commercial. I just wasn't gonna talk about a Mexican style beer because I personally feel that those are pretty terrible. There's a couple of good ones, Yeah, I like Negro Modelo a lot, so Yeah, a little more flavor going on there, Yeah, But I feel like when it comes to a logger, for me, I what I really enjoy about a logger is that they're so clean and refreshing, right and specific to this beer, That's what I like so much about

it is that it's just really clean. Sometimes with loggers you can kind of get this off putting, maybe like some metallic flavors or there's like a skunkiness to it. Man, that was not the case with this one. It was so good. I feel like, in my mind, like the essence of beer is a logger. You know, like if there's one beer that had to be qualified, like which one beer exists that you would call pure beer? Like

it's got to be a logger, you know. Yeah, I guess when you boil it down, the essence of a beer, yeah, probably is just a super clean, crisp, refreshing logger. Yeah yeah, And this was that it really was so much better than a macro beer logger. I would say it's perfect for an anti state basketball or football game, perfect for game day, right exactly. Yeah, it was like Hams. Have you ever had a Hams before? Yeah? I have. That's like the old school vine. Is kind of like an

old school one, but it's really good. It's like a hands but way better. Yes, most definitely, most definitely yes. So thanks to Maggie for sending this one our way. It was really enjoyable to drink on the show. And honestly, it's not the style that I gravitate to most often, but it's so nice to have a really good one. And most folks out there that are only drinking Butter Miller, like they just haven't had a good logger in their life yet, so yeah, they need to check out something

like this. Brewed by a quality craft brewer. Man. We don't drink a lot of laggers, but personally, the more good loggers I drink, I I also realized that that I've never really had a great logger in the course of my beer drinking years, and so it's a lot of fun to switch it up. So again, thanks Maggie so much for donating this beer to the show. All right, maw let's get to our final thoughts for this episode.

When we're talking about why you should consider refinancing, Well, the best reason to consider it is to save money in the overall interest that you're going to pay over the life of the loan. If you're going to be able to do that, then there's a good chance refinancing makes a lot of sense for you. But for you, really know, if you're in a financial position to refinance, there are some individual considerations that you need to take

into account. Your credit score. You want to make sure that you've got seven twenty or higher to get the best rate, and also the amount of equity that you have in your house. You want to make sure that you have at least or more in order to qualify for a solid conventional loan without p M I Yeah,

and don't forget to shop with multiple lenders. You can shop with online lenders, local lenders, even costco right, but the key is to apply and get loan estimates from a handful so that you can make the apples to apples comparison and choose the best lender that's going to save you the most money. I guess it doesn't have to be an apples to apples comparison. It can be like a logger to logger comparison. There we go, Well, man,

I think that's gonna be that for this episode. As always, you can find our show notes up on our website at how the Money dot com. Yeah, and if this is your first episode or you're new to the show, well, don't forget to hit that subscribe button so that you're notified of new episodes when they come out. Alright, buddy, until next time, Best friends out, best Friends out. Mmmm