It never ceases to amaze me how widespread and deep-seated the belief is that somewhere out there must be a good fairy who will solve all of our financial problems. This belief sustains lotteries, which help keep poor people poor, and a host of schemes directed at homeowners that promise to [tag]pay down their mortgage loan[/tag]s quicker and easier.

Some of these schemes are outright frauds, such as the one peddled by Success Trust and Holding that I warned readers against last year. It took until August of this year before the SEC took action against them, by which time they had relieved more than 500 homeowners of several million dollars. At the opposite end of the spectrum are schemes that discipline borrowers to [tag]make extra payments[/tag], of which the most important are biweekly programs. So long as borrowers understand that they don’t need a biweekly program to make extra payments, and that what they are purchasing is only a convenient way to discipline themselves to make the extra payments, these programs are fine.

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