SoFi Blog

What do you call it when someone buys a house and is responsibly paying off their mortgage every month? You could call it “adulting.” But what if there was a way to be even more responsible and pay less? Or what if there was a way to take advantage of all that value in your new home? That would truly be adulting. Well it’s possible there could be a way—through a mortgage refinance.

When you refinance your mortgage, you’re essentially paying off your existing loan and taking out a new loan at new terms. Generally, there are two types of refinances – No Cash Out Refinance: to get a lower interest rate or a different repayment period, or Cash Out Refinance: to take advantage of the equity in their home. If you refinance with a lower interest rate or term, it could save you thousands.

For example, using an online amortization calculator, if you pay on a $300,000 mortgage loan at a 5% fixed interest rate over 30 years, you’ll end up paying $279,767. With a 4% interest rate, you’d pay only $215,608 in total interest over the life of the loan.

Bad habits are hard to break, but good habits might be even harder to develop. And that’s especially true when it comes to personal finances. Growing your financial confidence takes time, like learning to care for a whole garden, not just a window succulent. But if you can develop good money habits now, you might thank yourself later.

For money-saving habits to take hold, you can work to develop good practices with your finances early on, and remain as consistent as possible in order to help avoid not-so-hot money habits down the road.

Establishing small, healthy habits now is a smart way to get your money organized. If you are able to incorporate at least some of these tips, you may be able to gain more confidence in your financial life.

Master’s degrees are more popular—and maybe more necessary—than ever. According to the U.S. Census Bureau , the number of people with a master’s has doubled since 2000 and, on average, a person with an advanced degree earned 3.7 times as much as a high school dropout.

Of course, whether you get a good return on your education and if it results in higher earnings depends on a lot of things: the type of program, the field of study, job prospects. Graduate school is a big time commitment and can be costly, so you want to weigh all the pros and cons. That’s also partially why online graduate degrees have become more popular.

If you’re wondering, ‘Can I get a master’s degree online?’ The answer is: yes, you can. Over 50% of master’s students got their degree either entirely online, also known as distance learning, or partially online.

Online classes can be an effective way to advance your education on your own schedule—and maybe save yourself some money. Graduate-level classes are no different.

My partner and I had been in the house not more than five minutes before I turned to our real estate agent and said this—practically yelled it.

The house was a tall, two-story affair that was almost 100-years old. I’d seen the French doors and old growth timber floors online, but they looked better in person. So, I turned to our agent and made my proclamation.

I thought she’d turn to me and yell “Sold!”, we’d high five and be able to move in the next day. But, as I’d learn over the next few weeks, buying your first house is never as easy as saying “we’ll take it.”

There’s a lot of home buying advice out there, and everyone who’s been through the process learns something different. Here are the 10 things I learned when buying my first home.

Our 20s can be such a wonderful time to learn about ourselves, bond with friends, and earn our first “real” paychecks. That said, our 20s do not come and go without their fair set of challenges. If you’re like most 20-somethings, you have plenty of mistakes under your belt—financial and otherwise.

And though it may not always seem so, that’s a good thing. Luckily, mistakes and missteps are often followed by learning and expansion.

Early in adulthood, trial and error is usually the name of the game when putting together a financial education. And while that’s great as an introduction to learning about money, there comes a time when everyone must be proactive with their money. Your mid to late 20s might be a great time for this.

While it is possible to create some guidelines on what to achieve by 30, keep in mind that everyone’s goals are going to be a little bit different because everyone’s personal financial situation is different.

For example, someone who has student loans will likely have financial goals that are different from someone who doesn’t. Therefore, you could pull from this list what makes sense for you, and amend as needed. (And none of this should be considered financial advice.)

Here are eight financial goals you might reach for before you turn 30.