Net Worth

Low Mortgages

Webhead: Bryan Buus, 26, Web Master at XOR Network Engineering in Boulder, Colorado.

Financial Headache Refinancing my house at the best possible rate.

Favorite Web Site: I first visited FinanCenter http://www.financenter.com when I bought my house two years ago, using their "Am I Better Off Renting?" calculator to help me understand the tax advantages of buying.

Then, in the spring of 1996, I began using it to figure out if I should refinance. I did calculations comparing 15-year loans with 30-year loans. I decided to go with the 30-year, unless the 15-year rate came down to 6.5%. It's easy to be specific because the site gives you a side-by-side comparison of the results for each type of loan. For example, my closing costs for the new loan were going to be about $2,000, and I wanted to make that money back within a year, based on my lower interest rate. My rate was 9.5%. By using the loan comparison tool, I figured I should wait until rates hit 7.5% before refinancing.

FinanCenter posts daily updates of interest rates. I watched the rates for about six months, coming back once a week to look at its graph of rate trends. When the rates fell to 7.5% this past October, I filled out the online application, submitted it, and received an overnight package the next day from American Finance. I signed my name about a dozen times, sent the forms back, and closed the loan a few weeks later. Minimal effort, to say the least.

Tip: Use the loan calculator to figure out what percentage of your payments will be interest versus principal; that helped me calculate what my tax savings were going to be.

What to Avoid: Be aware of the default settings in the calculators. If you're not exactly sure what percentages of your current mortgage are principal, interest, and insurance, the calculator will estimate for you using average figures. But those averages may not match your mortgage exactly. You have to play around with them until they match up to your mortgage statements; then you can go back and create more accurate comparisons with other loans.

Coordinates: Bryan Buus, buus@xor.com

Bonus Mortgage Site: Homebuyer's Fair (http://www.homefair.com)

Check Out: The Salary Calculator. Let's say you're not just refinancing, you're thinking of moving from Atlanta to New York City. If you make $50,000 in Atlanta, the Calculator will tell you that your salary in Manhattan needs to be a whopping $99,408 if you want to maintain the same lifestyle. The Moving Calculator will figure the approximate cost to move the furniture from your two-bedroom house 870 miles north to New York: between $4,067 and $4,976. Homebuyer's Fair covers all the major cities in the United States.

Free Scholarships

Webhead: Sherry Bradford, 43, assistant to the editor of the "Journal of Marketing" at Oklahoma University in Norman, Oklahoma.

Money Headache Finding money to pay for an associate's degree in management information studies at Oklahoma City Community College.

Favorite Web Site: In the fall of 1995, I decided to quit my job as an academic counselor for graduate students at the University of Oklahoma and go back to school full-time. I needed financial help, but I knew there'd be limited funding for a middle-aged woman returning to school. I'd seen fastWEB (http://web.studentservices.com/fastweb) before, so it was one of the first sites I went to. It's the Internet's largest free-scholarship search engine, run by Student Services, Inc. and sponsored by eight companies.

I entered my bio on fastWEB and about 25 suggestions with real potential came back immediately, including a $10,000 Tylenol Scholarship based on grades and accomplishments and the $500 Jeanette Rankin Foundation Awards geared to women over 35 with demonstrated need. Each suggestion included a contact name, the award amount, criteria for the award, and a filing deadline.

The most promising was a $1,000 AVON Scholarship for Business and Professional Women. The application deadline was this past March; I heard back from them in July. Out of over 400 entries, 50 were selected for awards -- and I was one of those 50! I'm not stopping there: I've used fastWEB to identify other scholarships that I'm applying for.

Tips: Write a 500-word essay that clarifies your long-term goals. Once you send in an application letter, almost all of the organizations write back asking for an essay -- sometimes the deadlines hit very fast. And as soon as you hear back from fastWEB about potential scholarships, study each foundation's Web page so you can reframe your essay for the specific sponsor.