re is done, the house is yours and you are in debt for 30 years. Sounds appealing doesn’t it? Well, actually, it really is. But, before you get to the point where you can sign all those papers, you have to decide on what kind of loan will be best for you. There are a couple of differenAs the title of this article would suggest, I am going to take you on a journey through the ups and downs on fixed rate mortgages. When buying a house, especially the first one, I think that it is literally the most terrifying experience that I have been through, and I have combat experience as a military veteran. For those of you who find yourselves still anticipating the purchase of your first home, let me give you a brief rundown of what it is and what it isn’t. What it isn’t will be the easies to tell you about. It isn’t like going to the store and buying what you want by swiping your card. It isn’t even like buying a new car, although the new car buying experience is a little bit closer. It is like looking at dozens of houses that you hate in order to find one that you like, only to learn that it is $10,000 more than you wanted to spend. So you make an offer and wait to see if the seller takes the offer or sends back a counter-offer. Once the game of offer/counter-offer is through you set up a closing date. At the closing you sit down and sign enough papers to make Leo Tolstoy quake in his boots. Once that hour devouring procedure is done, the house is yours and you are in debt for 30 years. Sounds appealing doesn’t it? Well, actually, it really is. But, before you get to the point where you can sign all those papers, you have to decide on what kind of loan will be best for you. There are a couple of differentnce as a military veteran. For those of you who find yourselves still anticipating the purchase of your first home, let me give you a brief rundown of what it is and what it isn’t. What it isn’t will be the easies to tell you about. It isn’t like going to the store and buying what you want by swiping your card. It isn’t even like buying a new car, although the new car buying experience is a little bit closer. It is like looking at dozens of houses that you hate in order to find one that you like, only to learn that it is $10,000 more than you wanted to spend. So you make an offer and wait to see if the seller takes the offer or sends back a counter-offer. Once the game of offer/counter-offer is through you set up a closing date. At the closing you sit down and sign enough papers to make Leo Tolstoy quake in his boots. Once that hour devouring procedure is done, the house is yours and you are in debt for 30 years. Sounds appealing doesn’t it? Well, actually, it really is. But, before you get to the point where you can sign all those papers, you have to decide on what kind of loan will be best for you. There are a couple of differenant by swiping your card. It isn’t even like buying a new car, although the new car buying experience is a little bit closer. It is like looking at dozens of houses that you hate in order to find one that you like, only to learn that it is $10,000 more than you wanted to spend. So you make an offer and wait to see if the seller takes the offer or sends back a counter-offer. Once the game of offer/counter-offer is through you set up a closing date. At the closing you sit down and sign enough papers to make Leo Tolstoy quake in his boots. Once that hour devouring procedure is done, the house is yours and you are in debt for 30 years. Sounds appealing doesn’t it? Well, actually, it really is. But, before you get to the point where you can sign all those papers, you have to decide on what kind of loan will be best for you. There are a couple of differenke an offer and wait to see if the seller takes the offer or sends back a counter-offer. Once the game of offer/counter-offer is through you set up a closing date. At the closing you sit down and sign enough papers to make Leo Tolstoy quake in his boots. Once that hour devouring procedure is done, the house is yours and you are in debt for 30 years. Sounds appealing doesn’t it? Well, actually, it really is. But, before you get to the point where you can sign all those papers, you have to decide on what kind of loan will be best for you. There are a couple of differenre is done, the house is yours and you are in debt for 30 years. Sounds appealing doesn’t it? Well, actually, it really is. But, before you get to the point where you can sign all those papers, you have to decide on what kind of loan will be best for you. There are a couple of different options and, in this first installment, I will discuss the fixed rate mortgage.

Overview of a Fixed Rate Mortgage

As the name would suggest, the fixed rate mortgage is a loan that has constant payments. By constant I don’t mean that they will be due every month (although they will), rather I refer to the fact that they do not change. If you get a fixed rate mortgage and the payments are $900 per month, they will remain at $900 for the duration of your loan. Nothing changes, it is set in stone, and you can set your clock by it, $900 a month for 30 years.

Benefits of a Fixed Rate Mortgage.

There are a number of benefits to having a fixed rate mortgage. I would like to discuss two of them, the planning power that it gives, and the financial liberty that you can take from it. Let’s start with the planning power.

Planning Power

To take on the responsibility of a $150,000, $200,000, or even $1million dollar debt is, as a mentioned before, very scary. But, to know that all you will ever be required to pay is $900 a month (or whatever your payments end up being. I don’t in any way want to insinuate that all