I recently took on a teaching position at Portland State University teaching what else, but Personal Finance. This new position brings a bit of additional cash into my budget.

When my husband and I purchased our house two years ago we wished that we could have afforded a 15 year mortgage, but it was something we could not work into our budget. We ended up getting a 30 year fixed at 5%. A rate I would have never believed when I bought my first home 13 years ago at a rate of 8.5%.

Since purchasing our home rates have continued to drop and now with the recent influx of cash to our budget we are revisiting our mortgage. We want to see if we can afford to get into a 15 year mortgage.

Our payments do go up by about $450 per month, which can be covered by the teaching income. But the amount of interest paid on the life of the loan is significant with a savings of about $200,000.

I feel confident that rates are not going to get any lower than they are now, so I think we have to proceed as soon as possible and lock this in!