Being in an upside-down mortgage or other type of upside-down loan situation is just like being on top of an upside-down yacht. All it will take to wipe you out is one more, large knock. In the sea it’s a wave, in the debt arena it’s a cut in income, a splitting of income such as in a divorce, the loss of income that occurs with death. Or it could be a big additional expense; maybe medical costs or the increase in payments that a resetting of an adjustable-rate mortgage might cause.

But just as the crew does not simply abandon ship but will take action to right the yacht before the next big wave, you can take action to work towards rectifying your debt to equity ratio, or rather debt to negative equity ratio, so that you again can start building an equity position in your asset.

Historically, autos have been where most upside-down loans occurred. After all, just driving a new car off the lot reduces its value significantly. The last few years have been notably all about the reduction in value of housing. Recent data shows that 29% of homeowners who bought a home, or refinanced one, in 2005, were either upside-down, or at least simply on their side with no equity. The drop in housing value has been large enough to result in 15.2% of mortgage holders in that 2005 group to be upside-down to the level of 10% or more.

An upside-down mortgage/loan situation can lead to the homeowner having to sell the house short or to go through foreclosure proceedings. If you however can afford your debt payments, and are dreading waiting, maybe 10 years, to recoup your equity, there is a way you can probably mitigate your losses, possibly recoup that equity loss, or maybe even exceed that and build equity sooner. The Money Merge Account® program from United First Financial® can help you save significant interest over the life of your debt load, interest saved that might equal or even exceed the loss in equity you have experienced. We’ve prepared an example of how this would work.

Please take the time to read how you can turn your yacht upright again.

United First Financial is using the Money Merge Account system to help keep the financial system in the USA and Canada from turning upside-down.