Need Advice: Better to pre-pay mortgage, or pay ones taxes? Who is bigger and badder: Mortgage Co or IRS?

-- Artful Dodger (?@?.?), July 09, 1999

Answers

Pay the taxes.

One idea: If you refinance your house up to the hilt it won't be worth near what you owe on it next year when property values plummet. (This is one way Y2K will erase wealth rather than redistribute it.) Owing $100,000 or so on a home that is worth $15,000 would put you in a good bargaining position. But that is risky and for me, preparing for Y2K means avoiding risks.

But I certainly wouldn't pre-pay anything. Save your money and wait and see what the priorities will be next year.

-- Gus (y2kk@usa.net), July 09, 1999.

you're kidding right??

Mortgage co.

If you don't pat they take you to court and if they prove their case, you lose your house and anything else they can grab. (could take years before they get it all)

IRS

If you don't pay they take everything you have then you go to court and if you don't prove they are wrong they keep it. (It will be gone before you can say ooops)

You make the call.

-- DOC (?@?.?), July 09, 1999.

Pay the taxes and the mortgage. In anything less than a total collapse (such as a deep recession or depression), both the mortgage co. and the IRS will still be in business (perhaps after an interruption), as will the courts. Of course, if you want to bet on the total collapse, feel free to do so. Personally, I'm betting on a disruption, with some semblance of normalcy some time later. We'll have courts...

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), July 09, 1999.

Keep your cash. If there really is an emergency, you may need it for something else. If there really is an emergency, the mortgage company won't be able to bill anyway and will be getting hundreds of no-pays. Same with the IRS.

Decide later what to do.

Bryce

-- Bryce (bryce@seanet.com), July 09, 1999.

Best advice that I have ever read on Y2K preparation: "Don't put yourself in the position of where the world HAS to end for you to come out ahead."

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), July 09, 1999.