I bought this program… and I am about as cheap as they come. The most I have ever spent on an automobile is $3400. I paid $250 for the motorcyle I have driven for 18 years, $500 for my boat AND trailer, and my hang glider I got by trading in an old guitar.
I am also a sheep… as I have been paying my mortgage for almost 17 years and so have already paid the lionshare of the interest. This program is only going to save me about $48,000. in interest on the house I am in now.
That is a return on my investment of how much?
Now… could I do it myself?
Maybe.
First… Great news! I did not have to spend $100 on a book to explain the concept because United First Financial teaches the concept for free in their seminars. I had to listen several times and take notes… but I got it.
I figured there are two ways to do it without buying the software…
One – as a guessing game.
Since this is math… and not horseshoes or handgrenades, I discarded that option… as I realized a 7% margin of error (on this home) would cost me more than the software. For people who are saving $100K, $150K, etc., that margin of error gets much smaller.
Two – I could do the math.
I love math.
First… I had no ideal how to set up an excel spreadsheet so that I could do the math required. I figured that I could probably learn. That takes time. Then I would have to recalculate those numbers at least monthly, and I could not begin to guess how long that would take each month, month and month, every year, for the 6 more years it will take me to pay off my mortgage. SO… math… or… the beach… or sleeping late, or…?
I joined a gym years ago… only spent $450. Went 6 weeks. Quit.
Anyway… I discarded those two options and set about justifying paying $3500 for a software program to save $48,000.
Then I realized… I am going to be buying another home after this. Maybe two or three. So… since I can use this for those homes also, I started calculating how much it was going to cost me, per month, to use this program if I divided the $3500 cost by the number of months I would use it. I figured out it was going to be somewhere between $10 and $26 a month if I use it on this, and just one more house.
Since doing the math on my own (if I could learn how) would probably take me at least 1-3 hours per month… as opposed to using the software and taking 10-20 minutes, I realized that NOT using the software would mean that I was paying myself less than $10 an hour to do this job myself.
I pay my next door neighbors kid $15 an hour to work around my house. He is 14.
I pay $25 a month for my Blockbuster Movie Pass (I love Denzil).
Neither one of them is saving me a dime, paying off my mortgage, building equity or saving me time.
Then I realized I was an huge idiot and I wrote the check for $3500 out of my equity line.
Personal decision.