Steve Barns Finance

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Home Owners

Your home is an asset

For most homeowners, your home will be the biggest asset you’ll ever own and your home loan will be your biggest financial liability. What is your goal for your home loan? Even if you’re happy with your home loan, it’s normal that you may want to get more out of it. Being likely your biggest recurring expense, it’s a good place to start when looking at your finances as even small changes can have a big impact.

Would you like to:

Pay off your home loan as quickly as possible?
Minimise your loan repayments to maximise the cash in your pocket each week?
Build equity to use in the future?
Access your hard-earned equity?

What is your strategy to manage your home loan to achieve your goals? Some things to consider:

Property values have continually increased over time, do you know what your property is worth at the moment? What does that mean for you?
Is everything in your life the same as it was when you got your loan? Life changes constantly. Has your family grown? Have you changed jobs? Chances are your needs have changed, has your loan changed with them?
Have your goals changed? Are you looking to renovate? Do you want to go on a big family holiday? Do you need a new car? Are you looking for money for an investment opportunity or to invest in a business? Have you thought about how your home loan could help?
I don’t charge you anything for a consultation with me, ever! My home loan and personal finance education and advice services are complimentary and I get paid by lenders when clients settle loans obtained through my mortgage broking services.
Option 1 is always to do nothing. If you’re happy with your home loan, I respect that. I provide you with information and advice[JW1] [SB2] based on your current financial goals and circumstances so you can make educated, well informed decisions. I want to make sure you know all your options.
I’m here to be your home loan professional for the long term. Let’s stay in touch and catch up for a coffee every six to 12 months.

A lot of people with a home loan haven’t considered how to make it work hard for them, have you? Steve Barns Finance is your home loan and personal finance educator and adviser to help you identify and understand the options available to you to make your home loan work as hard as it possibly can for you. Below are some strategies to manage home loans which could apply to you.

What are some strategies to manage my home loan?

These strategies are general in nature, and your full needs and financial situation have not been considered. You should seek lending advice from a mortgage broker (like me, I want to be your mortgage broker) and consider seeking financial advice from an appropriately qualified professional (such as an accountant or financial advisor) to learn more about how these may work for you.

What can I do to pay off my home loan more quickly?

The easiest way to pay your loan off quickly is to make additional repayments and minimise the amount of interest, fees and charges you have to pay. Small savings each month can add up to big savings over the duration of a 30 year home loan. Have you considered:

Could you get a lower interest rate on your home loan?
Have you minimised your fees and charges?
Does your loan have all the features you need to make additional repayments the way you want?

A Home Loan Health Check with Steve Barns Finance can help you see if your home loan is still the right fit for you and your goals, and if there are other options you can consider. Steve will meet with you, learn more about your needs, go through your current loan with you to see what you like and dislike about it, then check your loan against current options available to you. Steve will talk you through the options that are available to you and leave you to consider if you’d like to pursue any options further. Remember, option 1 is always to do nothing, Steve will show you all the other options you may not know about.

I could use some extra money and want to minimise my home loan repayments

There are a couple of ways we could look at this for you. Firstly, we could do a Home Loan Health Check to confirm that your loan is still meeting your needs and see if there are more suitable options available for you to consider.

Beyond that, refinancing with an extended loan term could help reduce your repayments. It’s important to note that if you do this and only make the new minimum repayments you will pay more in interest (and possibly fees) over the full term of your new loan. But that may be suitable to you and your needs right now. Steve will help you understand your options.[JW1]

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I want to access the equity built up in my home

What is equity? Equity is the difference between the value of your home and the amount you have left to pay on your home loan. If your home is worth $500,000 and your home loan balance is $350,000, you have $150,000 in equity.

Your home builds equity in two ways. Firstly through you making repayments (reducing the balance of your home loan). Secondly, by the value of your home increasing over time. Two ways to be able to access this equity are by selling your home or through borrowing money using the property as a security. If you already have a home loan, this can done through refinancing your mortgage.

You may also be able to access additional repayments you’ve made previously if you have a redraw facility or an offset account. If your loan doesn’t have these features and you would like them, contact Steve to learn more about what options are available which suit your goals and circumstances.

You may want to access your equity to buy a new car, consolidate debts, go on a family holiday, start a business, capitalise on an investment opportunity, renovate your home, buy your next home or for myriad other reasons. Whatever your motivation, Steve can help you identify and understand the different ways you can unlock the equity in your property by using your home loan.

I want to build equity and be able to access it when I want

Making additional payments on your loan is one way you could build equity in your home. If you want to access them easily, we can make sure you have a redraw facility and/or offset account to facilitate it.

We can also make sure you minimise as much as possible the amount of interest and fees you’re paying on your loan. A Home Loan Health Check will help to make sure your loan supports your needs.

You could also minimise the minimum repayments on your loan by refinancing, extending your loan term and continuing to make your previous repayments or increasing them.

Steve is here to help you understand whether a strategy like this could work for you. There are a number of things you should consider when employing any strategy to do with your loan and you should seek appropriate advice.