http://www.mortgage-loan-help.com/home-loan/home-equity-line-of-credit.html A home equity line of credit is a great idea if you don't have a set budget, time frame, or even a set need. Keep things loose with a home equity line of credit. en-us Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:00:00 EDT Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:00:00 EDT Weblog Editor 2.0 So you have all that available home equity from the five years you've watched your home's value appreciate at an annual clip of about 20%, meaning you have as much equity to play around with as you initially spent on your home itself! Don;t get too crazy, but don't hold back too much either - you are in a great position. And even if you don;t have a clue where you want to put your equity you should still consider a home equity line of credit. Get ahead of yourself Go ahead - do something crazy and access that equity before you actually know what to do with it. We're not talking home equity loans here, because that would be just down right crazy. You need something flexible, a home loan that will allow you to access money at your discretion, to whatever amount you need up to a certain point. Five years form now - who knows what will happen and who knows what sort of financial position you will be in? But with a home equity line of credit you can take advantage of whatever situation and put your equity to good use. A home equity line of credit will pump you up! How does it work? Easy as pie: You apply for a home equity line of credit for a specific credit amount - usually $30k or $50k but anywhere up to the amount of your available equity is possible. Over an initial ten year withdraw period you can access the money whenever and for whatever amount - $5,000 here for debt consolidation, $10,000 four years later to fix up your basement. Over that initial ten year period you will only be responsible for the interest payments, and the home equity rates attached to HELOCs are significantly lower than the ones for straight up equity loans. Start repaying on the money you took out years down the line - when financial stability is your main bag and you've built up your assets to a high level. Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:00:00 EDT