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en suisse

The Swiss health care system sounds pretty good to me.

It does seem likely, however, that everyone's (in the world) costs would go up if the US starting regulating drug prices. Right now, as far as I can tell, we are basically subsidizing drugs for Canadians and Europeans, and possibly other things as well.

4:49 p.m. - Oct. 01, 2009

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refinance

Thank you for choosing Bank of America. It was a pleasure assisting you with your mortgage application. I have included your loan number and the phone number to our processing center at the top of this email for your convenience.

Woo hoo. I have just committed to re-financing my house. My rate is 4.375%!!

It's something I'd wanted to do for ages. First, I didn't get around to it and rates went up (last Spring). Then I was just too swamped with the wedding to think about it. My co-worker mentioned to me that rates were really low today, and I owe him lunch, because are they ever. I called B of A (which now owns Countrywide) and checked Becu's awesome online listing of rates. B of A was much cheaper, so I went with them. I really wanted to go with Becu, but it was cut and dried. Anyway, my monthly payment will go up about $175 depending on how my appraisal shakes out, but I'll have a 15 year loan instead of 27 years left on a 30 year loan. To put that in perspective, when I priced 15 year loans 3 years ago, they were at least $400 a month more expensive.

Hopefully this whole process will not be a huge hassle. I have locked in the rate, anyway. There will be a certain amount of hassle involved with closing, no doubt. Depending on what my house appraises at (significantly less than I paid for it, sob), I'll have to pay off some of the loan to avoid mortgage insurance. Hopefully it won't come in lower than I expect.

4:39 p.m. - Oct. 01, 2009