Friday, December 13, 2013

If I Only Had a Flat Screen TV

My co-worker likes to "enlighten" me and today he told me that I  should be paying my mortgage weekly instead of monthly.  Weekly, really?  Not bi-weekly?  No, no, weekly.  He insisted that paying weekly (not paying extra, just the same payment split in to weekly payments) would shave YEARS off of my mortgage because it would save tons of interest.  I was 99% disbelieving and 1% willing to look it up to see if there was some magical repayment plan that I had missed.

Then he told me that his new 40 inch flat screen TV was being delivered today.  He said, "I bet you still have a tube TV.  Actually, we have discussed this before and yes, I have 2 tube TV's.  He insisted that I should get a flat screen and that I could get a 35" for probably under $400.  Hmm...I hadn't planned to spend $400 for a TV ever.  I then added to his disdain of my lowly living situation by informing him that I usually watch Netflix on my 10" netbook while sitting on my bed with a dog on each side of me.  From there he decided that I was almost hopeless and should get on Match.com ASAP to find a man or else I was doomed to start dumpster diving.  I'm not sure how those things are related.

After he gave up on improving my life, I looked up weekly mortgages and found that most banks will hold partial payments until the end of the month so there is no interest savings.  I have no idea where he came up with that idea.  He has a new jumbo house and new mortgage as well as a new pool table and flat screen.  He likes to tell me that the kitchen is so big and has so many cabinets and drawers that he could put one pan in each cabinet and one utensil in each drawer.  I'm sure it is great if that sort of thing makes you happy.

10 comments:

Lizzie@her MFW Homeworld said...

Hilarious. Not the mortgage idea, which could have worked if you had daily mortgage interest but pretty sure it wouldn't save you that much. More to own, more to clean. What a waste of money, time, effort. Tell him you put a cardboard wall around your tube tv to make it look flat! I would prefer to be the crazy dog lady

Dave said...

This coworker sounds like a moron. He probably has tons of debt and little if any savings and will work until he dies. What he said about your personal life was rude and uncalled for, too. He probably has a bunch of kids, too, unlike us childfree people. You surely don't need any advice from HIM about improviing your life.

What you found in your research about making mortgage payments is what I know about it, too.

And you can get a flat-screen TV for under $200, just not a 47" one but one around 20" instead. My next TV will be one like that.

Anonymous said...

He who laughs last laughs best. An update on the coworker in about 5 years would be interesting, and noteworthy, I'm sure.

My Frugal Miser said...

I have read elsewhere about breaking up your monthly mortgage into bi-monthly payments and how it helps pay the mortgage early, but that may have been because if you pay every two weeks you end up making an extra payment every year. But making weekly payments... that's just too much to deal with.

Flat screen TVs use less electricity but that wouldn't justify the cost of replacing a TV that works.

Daizy said...

Lizzie, definitely more to clean! I think of that every time I am sweeping my house again and again. I can't imagine having a bigger house.

Daizy said...

Dave, my next TV will be flat. I just hauled one of my old ones out to the dumpter today. I hope they take it because I don't want to haul it to Best Buy. That thing is HEAVY! While unloading it from my truck I attracted the attention of a man being pulled down the street by a very large G. Shepherd. He told me he wished he could help but I said he had his hands were full so I understood. Anyhow, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it magically disappears this week. If not, perhaps no one will know it was mine? Oh that's terrible of me!

Daizy said...

Anonymous, I'm hoping that I will be on to greener pastures in under 5 years! I'm sure he will still be there.

Daizy said...

Frugal Miser, at first I thought he meant bi-weekly but then he didn't and I was just confused. my next tv will be a flat screen but since I have 2 tube tv's, it will be a long time before I need a new tv, unless they get hit by lightning or something.

thisisbeth said...

I pay my car payment weekly. My credit union accepts that. It does save on interest, because my credit union does use the money to pay off part of the loan. However, since it's a low interest rate, I know it's not really saving that much interest; the big advantage is that I make an extra payment every year. If they saved up my payment and put it as one lump sum, I'd definitely keep it in savings (and earn the teeny bit of interest) and pay it on its due date.

Daizy said...

That is great that they let you do it that way, beth. My mortgage is due on the first of the month so I think I would have to pay a month in advance it I wanted to pay weekly.