If you follow my blog, you know lately I have been writing a lot about the new realities of my business and my life as an event planner.  Without live parties, my business and my support shrunk significantly, leaving me with a lot of stuff and also with the responsibilities of running the "business-side" of my business.

Divesting of my "stuff"

In less than a year I have transformed not only to a Virtual Entertainer and Event Planner, but also into a bookkeeper, accountant, tax preparer and more.  Thank goodness I still have my fabulous assistant Alexis to handle the day-to-day operations of my business - otherwise I think I would be sleeping even fewer hours than I am presently.

Personally, I, like millions of others, have plenty of bills to pay as well - the largest of course being my mortgage.  I have been lucky to be able to keep up with these payments, which I know is not the case with many.  I must also admit that when I hear talk about mortgages, refi, equity, HELOC and everything else it sounds to me like the teacher from Charlie Brown.  Many, many people have advised me "Sophie you should refi, get a HELOC, cash out some equity.....I had no idea what that meant.  Nor whether it meant I was spending money, making money or saving money.  Finally someone said, "use one of the calculators online - you will see what we mean"

I found MortgageCalculators.info online.  The site is, as it states, "exactly what you need without the clutter and distraction of other personal finance websites".  They were right.  I had HELOC stuck in my head so I scrolled down and found that section.  I put in some basic numbers and it told me what amount I might expect to receive from my HELOC (I also learned it stood for Home Equity Line of Credit).  Honestly, that second part, learning the name, turned out to be the most beneficial.  Not only does MortgageCalculators.info offer all sorts of ways to calculate how much you can afford and what your payments will be, but it offers very straight-forward descriptions and explanations of what these products are.  After poking around the site I felt much more confident.  For the first time I understood what the Peanuts teacher was saying - and a little bit more about mortagages as well.

I'll be honest and tell you I think I am just going to keep things as they are with my home and my finances.  But, the list of things I know little about has gotten a little smaller.  That for me is a great way to start a New Year.