2. Make sure that your original mortgage does not have a pre-payment penalty or early payoff penalty of any kind. Sometimes people will get into their mortgage with mortgage having a pre-payment penalty and they will not even know about it. Pre-payment penalties usually range from 6 months to 3 years with a penalty for an early payoff. The penalty is usually about amount of 6 months worth of your mortgage loan interest, but this varies. You would have to be able to have some significant payment and interest savings on your refinance loan to justify refinancing a mortgage loan with a pre-payment penalty.

3. When evaluating different lender offers, in mortgage loan pre-approval process, pay closest attention to interest rates they are offering & closing costs. These are two biggest factors that will help you figure out which lender is right for you. If one of these two factors is too high, it could offset benefit of refinancing for you.

4. Get your interest rate and closing costs in writing as soon as you decide on a lender to work with. Get your lender to give you a commitment in advance of all of costs that will be involved with your loan. Find out if refinance loan you are getting has a pre-payment penalty as well. Sometimes lenders will leave out important information like this, if they think it might scare you away from refinancing with them.

Nobody lost money because he didn't understand works of Homer or properly appreciate a Wagner opera. But plenty of people have lost their shirts over not understanding money.

You can find many asset management self help courses on internet or in library that you like. Get quick rich schemes and plans for investing your retirement are just a click away for anyone.

This doesn't mean that you should try this yourself unless you understand it. Many people make mistake of assuming that they are smarter than they are (many also think that they are dumber than they actually are but this has a smaller downside).

Don't let yourself get fleeced because of pride or foolishness. If you don't understand how something works don't mess with it.