Three Things You Should Know About Money Merge Accounts
Lin Ennis
May 09, 2008
Here are the top three things you need to know about the MMA, along with a few things you already know thrown in to complete the information package. You already know it costs $3500. That probably makes you think it´s something pretty sophisticated that you cannot do on your own. After all, the software was written by a mathematical engineer from GE aeronautics!
Number one fact is: You aren´t buying software. No. You buy the opportunity to log in to the software to manage your finances online. The software shows you results based on data (numbers) you´ve already entered about your mortgage, your debts and your living expenses.
It shows you these numbers all on one website, because you´ve gone to your other financial websites (or paper statements) and collected the numbers and put them in the MMA software. The software, then, knows only what you tell it.
It´s a bit like a cruise package. You pay $3500 for everything that has been prepared, planned and laid out in a way that appeals to the majority. But you don´t own it in the sense that it´s yours forever and ever or that you can resell it or even redecorate. If you don´t like ballroom dancing, tough. It´s included. If you do like shuffleboard, great. It´s also included. You have simply purchased access to all that is offered through the mortgage acceleration software.
Fact number two: It doesn´t do it for you. The money merge account does not pay off your mortgage early for you. It doesn´t move money from your home equity line of credit (HELOC) to your mortgage or from your household checking account to your HELOC or pay your bills.
All the software can do is perform calculations on numbers you enter into specified fields. The calculations don´t understand your emotional state or your fears, e.g. that your mother is ill and you may have to fly across the country at the drop of a hat.
The UFF website says the software cannot access your bank and mortgage accounts. Specifically, it states, "You are the only person with access to your accounts."
The software spits out suggestions to you to move money here or there or pay a certain bill—all according to the data you´ve previously fed the program. It´s entirely up to you whether to follow the merger account suggestions with your money. If you do diverge from the suggested path, you´ll have to enter corrective data into the MMA software, or else you´ll be off course and off track from then on out. (Wrong software is far worse than having no software at all.)
And finally, fact three. In answer to this question: "Can I do this concept on my own?" right on their website, UFF says the unequivocal answer is, "Absolutely." Of course, they add the equivocation you can "attempt" to do "something similar."
But the fact is, people have been using their home equity to quickly reduce mortgage principal for almost 30 years. The only thing new about the Ufirst system is how slick it is, including their 16,000 freshly dry-cleaned sales representatives.
Possibly the greatest appeal of the United First Financial money merge account is the bright eyes of hundreds and hundreds of people in meetings, or on videos, saying, "yes, we´re doing it," or even "yes, we´re considering it."
It´s important to keep in mind thousands of people, and tens of thousands of people, used the concept of cycling their money through a home equity line of credit to accelerate mortgage payoff long before the first slick video on the subject hit the Internet.
Most important is education. Ufirst says you don´t need $3500 software. They also say you do need education. And support. So find a good book on the subject, such as Let Your Mortgage Make You Rich! and see if you can educate yourself enough to pay off your mortgage years sooner, by simply knowing the facts of several ways it can be done. If you´re lucky, the book you choose will even come with support behind it!
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