Saving for College

We’ve been in this home for 11+ years. We had previously owned homes before this one but never in this area of Wisconsin, so it was a new adventure for us. 

It’s located near our extended family, which is very important to us! The home is in a beautiful neighborhood that has other kids the same age as ours and has a great school district, so it was no doubt the perfect option for us.

Looking at this house reminds us of taking each kid’s “First Day of School” pictures, building the playset in the back yard together (that’s now ready to come down), hosting baby showers, birthday parties and of course Sunday football game parties.

We have so many memories and milestones that have taken place in this home over the years and we feel lucky to have enjoyed making improvements to it to truly make it our own.

We received our initial mortgage loan with 0% down, and after about a year we had enough equity in the home to refinance to a lower interest rate while keeping our payment nearly the same. Five years after that we chose to do another rapid refinance into a 12-year loan that had an even lower interest rate. With refinancing twice, we can pay off our home faster and put more money towards home projects and our children’s college fund.

We’ve been members since 1994 so we go to UW Credit Union first for any of our financial needs. Their customer service is great, and they are always ready to answer any questions we have in a timely manner and often with more details to help us better understand our options.

There were a few hiccups during our initial mortgage. For instance, the water wasn’t turned on during our appraisal. Luckily, our mortgage loan officer, Rick McKinley, went above and beyond to help us through challenges like this. He was always there to answer our questions and make us feel comfortable through each process of getting the initial mortgage loan and both refinances.

Paperwork isn’t the most exciting part about getting a new home but having the ability to process everything electronically was essential with our busy schedule. We truly felt that UW Credit Union was our partner through each phase and they truly had our best interest at heart.