Dow me up

Geez...nice week for the indices for a change. We ended up for the week which at the beginning of the week seemed nearly impossible to think of. I have this slight suspicion that the market might head up quite a bit from here with a few bumps along the way. If the S&P can break 883, I think we'll see 940 within a few weeks. For those of you with 401K's or equities in IRAs or taxable accounts, this may prove lucrative.

I'm considering refinancing my mortgage. Rates have gone back up into the 5's, so I'm not in any rush really. I'll wait until I can get around five before I pull the trigger. Plus my job is not 100% secure, so I'll wait until the end of the month to initiate any process. I think my company will be done the bloodletting by early March. My partner and co-owner of the house has a fairly stable job, but it too will be in jeopardy if the economy doesn't bottom out soon.

Right now the mortgage is locked in at 6 1/8. We actually had the monthly payment go up this month by about $100 due to higher taxes. Even more reason to refi soon. I was contemplating a 15 year mortgage if we do refinance. It would only add about $300 a month and we'd have the house paid off in 15 years instead of 29. Tempting but $300 can make a big difference when you don't have a job. For those of you shopping for rates or want more ideas on refinancing, including if you should refinance, make sure you check out bankrate.com. Bankrate is pretty damn cool if you've never checked it out. They have a mess load of calculators to help you with everything from deciding if you should refinance to how much you'll need for retirement. Bankrate is also a public company. You can check out their stock quote here. Their stock symbol is RATE and actually took quite a digger today - down more than 7% on lower profits (missing expectations) and analysts downgrades. Might be a good buy for me soon if it goes lower.

I hope everyone enjoyed a positive week in the markets for a change. I'm expecting some follow-through next week if the stimulus package goes through (no reason why it shouldn't).

Happy saving! Shoot me an e-mail at dproxima@yahoo.com if you have any comments or ideas for future posts.