Today's question comes from Cindy in Kansas. She says we have about $185,000 of equity in our house.

With rates being what they are right now, is there anything we can do with our equity?

Or should we wait till rates drop to possibly take out money to finish the basement and redo the deck?

We have great credit and owe $150,000 on the house.

We just don't understand if there's any benefit to having all this equity.

We do plan to move in the next two years due to better schools.

We're pulling from the equity of our house to finish the basement to increase our square footage to 3,000 square feet be smart.

I got an offer from the bank saying I could take out an interest only payment for 10 years.

But I never heard of that before and I didn't know if it's a good thing.

Um We're from the bank and we're here to help. before and I didn't know if it's a good thing.

We're from the bank and we're here to help. Yeah, those words don't go together.

And if they do, they're lies.

They're not here to help.

I want to make sure we're speaking the same language here

because words like debt and loans and interest rates,

I don't care a whole lot about that.

What I do care about is this equity in your home.

And the great thing about that equity, Cindy,

is that's of value to you,

that's wealth that you're building in your home.

And no, I would not take that out to do repairs.

You're stealing and robbing from your future when you do that.

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