Reply #8: Indeed it was [View All]

[Xithras]

I already had a first and second on my home that I was wanting to consolidate (my second still had an 8% rate), and since I have about $150k in equity I just went ahead and pulled $40k out to renovate our much abused kitchen.

I could pay it back to avoid the interest, but that would mean either refinancing again in six months and taking a loss on the roughly $5,000 in closing costs that I just paid. Alternately, I could just take out a second mortgage again at that point, but very, very few institutions are willing to offer 30 year fixed rate home equity loans at rates comparable to what I have on my first right now.

Basically, any course of action that I take will result in my taking a bath for several grand. Just dealing with the interest seems like the path of minimum damage, and investing it seemed like a great way to both keep it safe AND recoup at least part of that loss.