Compare your current monthly outflow - mortgage plus all your high-interest debt - against a single, bigger mortgage at today's rate. Includes the refinance penalty and legal costs in the math, so the savings number is honest.
Balance, rate, and years remaining on the amortization.
Credit cards, lines of credit, car loans - balance, rate, and what you're paying monthly on each.
New rate, new amortization, and refinance costs (penalty + legal, rolled into the new mortgage).
How many years to compare status quo against the consolidated scenario.
See whether consolidating frees up cash flow today, and what it costs (or saves) in total interest.
Consolidation works because you're swapping a mix of debt at 7–22% for a single mortgage at 4–5%. The bigger lever is usually the amortization - stretching the new mortgage back out to 25 or 30 years drops the monthly payment dramatically.
That's also the trap: a lower monthly is great for cash flow today, but over 25 years you can pay more in total interest than you would have on the original short-term debt.
Consolidating is the right call when high-interest debt is genuinely hurting you - when minimums barely cover the interest, when one bad month means missing a payment.
It's the wrong call when the debt is small, short, or about to be paid off anyway. Send me your numbers and I'll show you exactly which camp you're in.
Tools built by Jeremy LaHaie, mortgage professional with INVIS Inc., serving Winnipeg, Ste Anne, Steinbach, and all of Southeast Manitoba. Call or text (204) 995-7336.