Three Money Mistakes
July 8th, 2005 | by mbhunter |Liz Pulliam Weston speaks on MSN.com about the 3 worst money moves you can make. Borrowing from your 401(k), paying off credit card debt with a HELOC, and stretching to buy a house make her list.
You can check out the article here.
Her advice about the paying off your plastic with a home equity line of credit is very good. A couple of extra points: Sometimes there are extra fees associated with firing up a HELOC (origination fees, appraisal, title fees, etc.) and the lenders are more than happy to roll these into your loan balance so that you pay interest on the fees as well. Second, unlike a credit card balance, there are sometimes prepayment penalties. So you’re guaranteed to pay a certain amount in interest regardless of how quickly you pay off the loan.
