Smart Money Tips to refinancing

your monthly budget too much — your mortgage payment (including principal, interest, taxes, and insurance) should be a maximum of 28% of your pre-tax income.

3. Switch from a variable rate to a fixed rate: You may already have a low rate if you have a variable rate loan, but in the future that rate could move higher. Current low rates on fixed mortgages may make this a great opportunity to lock in an historically low rate that will not fluctuate over the life of the loan.

4. You are currently paying PMI: If you did not put enough down when you purchased your home, you may be paying private mortgage insurance or PMI. Many homes have seen a significant increase in value this year, so you may now have enough equity to eliminate your PMI. Refinancing is not the only way to achieve this, but you may be able to score a lower rate and get rid of your PMI at the same time.

5. Cash out refinances: There are many different reasons you might want to access some of your home’s equity such as a renovation or addition or to pay off higher interest credit card or student loan debt. You may be able to access some of the equity in your home while simultaneously the term and/or interest rate of your loan.

If you do lower your payment, consider how you will use that money. One option is to pay down other debt, like credit cards or student loans, more aggressively, or you could make additional principal payments on your mortgage.

This will reduce the amount you pay to interest on those debts. Another option is to save or invest your monthly mortgage savings. This is money that you are used to spending every month, so it’s a great idea to put it to work toward your financial goals.

Jenn Sokolowski is a certified financial planner for Metis Wealth Management and Planning. Marc Stuckart, CPFA® & Creighton Stuckart, CFP®

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SET YOURSELF UP FOR SUCCESS

INVESTMENT LESSONS FROM THE PANDEMIC

STORY BY MICK KUEHN

With 2020 barely in the rearview mirror and the headlines thus far in early 2021 feeling similar to last year’s COVID-driven challenges, investors may find themselves scratching their heads wondering why the stock market continues to establish new highs and what they should do in the face of this. How do you protect yourself from the potential for renewed market volatility? Will the rollout of the vaccines push the market even higher or are companies over-valued and due for a correction?

The stock market, as a forward-looking entity, is looking past COVID to a time, hopefully in the nottoo-distant future, when the set of recently approved vaccines have been widely administered, and herd immunity has been achieved. In other words, the stock market is refocusing on the trends that will dominate when life starts to look normal again.

Despite its generally upward trajectory recently, this is not to say that the stock market will continue to increase uninterrupted and without periodic corrections.

On the contrary, the market valuations will continue to be unpredictable in the short-term — in fact, there has been an average annual intra-year correction of approximately 14% since 1980. Yet, in spite of this “volatility,” the S&P 500 has increased from 108 at the beginning of 1980 to 3,756 at the end of 2020. So, what can you do to set yourself up for success