Here are 3 things you can do to give you some financial reprieve during these uncertain times.
1. Reduce your monthly mortgage payment. There are two ways to do this.
a) If you are making accelerated bi weekly payments, change it to biweekly. Accelerated essentially pays an additional month of mortgage payments per year., by stopping the acceleration you are removing the additional increase on your regular scheduled payment.
B) Talk to your mortgage broker about your options for changing your amortization- which is the which is the length of time it will take to pay off your mortgage . By increasing your amortization, you will reduce your monthly mortgage payment.
Your monthly payment is based on your balance, interest rate and the amortization length.
2. Refinance your mortgage.
If you have enough equity in your home, you can use it to consolidate high interest debt into your low interest monthly mortgage payment. Another option is to add a low interest secured line of credit , this way you have access to cashflow, should you need now or down the road. You are only charged interest on how much you borrow.
3. Renew you mortgage early.
This makes sense if rates are lower, if there are cash back options you can use and if it reduces your mortgage payment.
