Quoted from jonny_eh

Ya, I made the goof up of buying my house with a 5 year fixed mortgage, ugh.

You should look at the closed period of your mortgage. Usually on a 5 year fixed rate the closed period is 3 years and you can renegotiate then without penalty. It would be in the fine print. When your trying to make ends meet paying a fixed rate is like insurance that your payments won't get out of hand. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose but I can remember mortgage rates back in the 80's of 16 to 18% so when you have seen them jump that high you start to wonder if you would be able to afford to stay in your house. My first mortgage was 11 3/4% and that was considered a good rate at the time. The forces aren't in place right now for that to happen but rates are a consideration if you have budgeted at a certain rate and can't afford them to jump up.

I wouldn't beat yourself up about it. Your basically buying piece of mind of not having to watch the daily rate changes.

Quoted from necro_nemesis

You should look at the closed period of your mortgage. Usually on a 5 year fixed rate the closed period is 3 years and you can renegotiate then without penalty. It would be in the fine print. When your trying to make ends meet paying a fixed rate is like insurance that your payments won't get out of hand. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose but I can remember mortgage rates back in the 80's of 16 to 18% so when you have seen them jump that high you start to wonder if you would be able to afford to stay in your house. My first mortgage was 11 3/4% and that was considered a good rate at the time. The forces aren't in place right now for that to happen but rates are a consideration if you have budgeted at a certain rate and can't afford them to jump up.

I wouldn't beat yourself up about it. Your basically buying piece of mind of not having to watch the daily rate changes.

It's only at 5.5%, and is just over a year old. It's only a point or 2 above the current rate, so it's not like I'm getting taken to the cleaners.

Quoted from jonny_eh

It's only at 5.5%, and is just over a year old. It's only a point or 2 above the current rate, so it's not like I'm getting taken to the cleaners.

2% on a $100,000.00 mortgage amortized over 20 years for your 4 remaining years is just over $7,000 interest. If you can get out in two more years and the rates are still 2% lower you have saved enough to buy a very nice TZ.

Quoted from necro_nemesis

2% on a $100,000.00 mortgage amortized over 20 years for your 4 remaining years is just over $7,000 interest. If you can get out in two more years and the rates are still 2% lower you have saved enough to buy a very nice TZ.

Sweet!

Quoted from jonny_eh

First of all, innocent until proven guilty. That means we don't keep people in prison unless we think they might ditch the country before the trial. The judge decided that Madoff wasn't a flight risk, so there ya go. Don't worry, if he's guilty he'll do time. Just look at Conrad Black, his fancy lawyers didn't help him one bit!

Trust me - the US puts plenty of people in prison before proven guilty in court and I disagree that he wasn't a flight risk.  There is security outside of his penthouse but the security is paid for by his wife to protect him from being killed - not to keep him from fleeing.
The bottom line is he confessed to his sons - and his sons called the authorities.
Madoff then confessed everything to the federal authorities.
His bail was 10 million dollars - one guess where he got that money from.
One of the conditions of his bail was that he had to get four people to vouch for him - he got two, his wife and his brother, no one else in his family including his children would do it.  The judge gave him bail anyway.
He clearly violated the conditions of his bail which proved he cannot be trusted - the judge allowed him to remain free anyway.
He not only ripped off rich people, he ripped off his own family, he ripped off countless charities that invested in his fund, at least two people who lost everything with him have committed suicide.
This wasn't a well meaning man who started a legitimate financial company who went bad - he's admitted it was a ponzi scheme right from the beginning.  Do you really think a man who would knowingly rip off charitable foundations would think twice about jumping bail if he had the chance?  The only thing keeping him inside is there are people standing outside hoping to rip him limb from limb if they ever got their hands on him.  Well that and the mob - whom he is also rumoured to have ripped off.

The point is that justice is supposed to be blind - but it sees the colour of green very well.

Are you saying the judge was bribed to grant bail? BTW, I agree Madoff is a complete sleezball that deserves hard time, but I also defend the system.

To be honest, I don't know why, I always thought judges and the justice system were supposed to do what a reasonable person would do but it seems increasingly they've become politicized (like every other aspect of America it seems).  Liberal judges will let accused sex offenders/killers out on bail and conservative judges will lock you up for saying that evolution is a fact.

I'd like to believe in the system as well but it sure seems like there are two systems - one for the weathy/powerful and another for the rest of us.