Is it really all that different though? If people sock all their money away in their house they can suck it back out with home equity lines, refinancing, constantly upgrading to a bigger house and so on. I guess there's a little more work involved than just calling your broker or logging in to your bank account and moving some numbers around, but if someone is financially irresponsible they're going to find a way to fuck up their finances no matter what.
Well 1st, its a lot harder these days to get HELOC's and cash-out refi's these days. The banks are a little gun-shy.
Good for you? That wasn't any kind of brag. It's certainly not the lowest possible rate.
It really is an entirely different ball of wax in Canada. Banks are A LOT more conservative in what they will lend you (one of the reasons why Canada didn't implode in 2008), the lending rate is higher, there is no tax deduction for mortgage interest, banks can actually put liens on your personal assets if you default on your mortgage, and unless you purely invest in Canadian stocks 50% of your capital gains get taxed at your nominal tax rate (which of course could easily be 45%). Essentially, the decision to invest rather than pay off your mortgage is one that needs to be carefully weighed in contrast to the scenario in the US where it's a no brainer.
Her rate is 3.125 on a 15 yr. She may have gotten lower online somewhere but given her credit score was like 720 I didn't get the impression they built pmi in.
