My regular readers will recognize this is a post regarding the Money Merge Account, an expensive mortgage accelerator I consider to be a scam. New readers should note, this was part of a series confined to a weekly Thursday post, and today this series ends as my intent is to provide a variety of articles well beyond this one issue. Now for the last MMA post…….
Well, I found this in my draft folder, seemed a waste to delete it:
I offer one agent’s rants, and my response:
“Yes, you might be able to do this kind of interest cancellation without the use of the software only IF:
1. you have the financial discipline and mathematical skill
2. you have the right kind of ALOC
3. you are willing and able to account for every penny at all times
4. you can tally all the variables and refigure your financial position each and every day
5. you can do this day in and day out for 5 to 10 years
6. you can do this without personal support if something goes wrong or you get confused
7. you are willing to forfeit tens of thousands of dollars in monetary gains in addition to doing all the work all by yourself.”
My response:
1. One need to write the checks regardless, the discipline is no different with or without this program. There is no mathematical skill required. If you can balance your checkbook, you’re all set.
2. The right kind? The “HELOC shuffle” provides little benefit and more risk than any agent understands.
3. Every penny? Hardly. This is just a scare tactic. You see, MMA with all its claims falls short by many dollars per month, adding up to quite a bit over the years. Skip MMA entirely, and now you’re watching those pennies.
4. Paying off your mortgage early is no more complex than paying extra toward your principal each month. The secret is…. there’s no math involved, just those payments. A spreadsheet or calculator will let you calculate the days until it’s paid in full, but MMA doesn’t add any value any more than a tape measure helps your child grow taller by frequent measurements.
5. I have better things to do with my time, so do you. It will take you a few seconds to make the extra payments at month end. You decide, do you really want to have to report every penny every night to your computer, and achieve worse results than you can on your own?
6. Per UFF disclaimer, they will not offer you any mortgage or financial advice, you want support, UFF isn’t going to be much help.
7. MMA costs you both time and money, doing it yourself will save you both.
Now, I think I’m done, the draft folder is empty. I will update the PDF to include the last set of articles in this series.
Joe
Joe,
I want to thank you as profusely as is humanly possible. The MMA_Sheet Excel spreadsheet you freely distribute is awesome. A friend and I watched a video demonstration on how that bull shit Money Merge account software is supposed to work. I followed along and entered the data in the spreadsheet and came up with the same results. We determined that the whole thing was about putting all disposable income towards the principal, in the case of the demo, $1000.00 a month. What a scam.
Thanks a ton. I had already been making additional payments towards my principal, but now I can track exactly where I am at any given time. You are the best.
James
Wow, what a note. You are most welcome. Funny, the MMA cultists will accuse me of writing this myself. Well, I’m not that clever. Feedback like this is much appreciated. Sometimes it seems like I am in a minority against 50,000 agents.
I wish you well James.