In 2016, my husband and I hired Truth in Equity. My goal today is to give everyone who is interested in hiring them a full review on the Truth in Equity mortgage acceleration program from someone who actually has experience with them.
As I write this, the year is 2019. That means I waited 3 years to write this review because I wanted to be certain that I knew everything about this company before I started recommending them.
I will start by explaining the company, then I will go over my personal experience. If you want to know even more about my personal experience with Truth in Equity, I recommend that you check out “From Food Banks to Paying off Over 100k of Debt.”
What is Truth in Equity?
Simply put, Truth in Equity is a company that helps walk people through a mortgage acceleration process.
They have been in business since 2006 and have an A+ rating on the Better Business Bureau (BBB.)
What is Mortgage Acceleration?
Simplified version: Mortgage acceleration involves using a HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit) as a way to pay off your mortgage. Your HELOC then basically becomes your checking and savings account which results in your money working to keep your interest down. Thus, paying off your mortgage faster.
A lot of people get confused by this method and slam the process crying out that it is a scam. Go ahead and look around online. You’ll find something like this:
Curious Person: Hey, has anyone ever tried an accelerated mortgage program? I was just looking for some opinions from people who have tried it.
Commenters: Those don’t make sense! What a scam! You have to pay someone to do that. Just pay extra on your mortgage!
Here’s the thing… everyone is an expert on the internet. I really hate when I see people specifically asking a question directed towards people who have actually done what they are inquiring about, but everyone and their brother decide to just puke their thoughts all over their question. That is like asking someone who doesn’t have kids for parenting advice.
Anyway, even though I don’t like when people give advice on things they haven’t tried, I do understand that new things scare people. After all, paying off a 30-year mortgage in 5-7 years does sound impossible right?
Well, spoiler alert… it’s not. Their formula is actually quite clever.
How does Truth in Equity help people?
The founders of Truth in Equity, Bill Westrom and David Welles, along with their team of financial strategists analyze each potential client’s unique financial situation.
After you collect all your financial information, they will input all your debt, income, assets, mortgage, etc. into their software. (This part is free.) Then, together, on a live demo you can see your estimated payoff date and how many thousands of dollars you will save in interest.
If you decide you want to give mortgage acceleration a try you can:
1. Completely do it yourself (No charge, obviously.)
2. Do it yourself and buy their software to help you.
3. Buy the software and hire them to help you through it (includes lifetime support.)
Unless you are a financial genius with a great track record with finances, I suggest that you hire them to help you through it. They will do all the work for you, you just have to do what they tell you to do.
Truth in Equity Review: My Personal Experience
Again, I wrote another post with a lot more detail called, “From Food Banks to Paying off 100k of Debt.” To summarize, my husband and I were in a “broker than broke” situation for years.
Then, we managed to turn our finances around with the help of Truth in Equity and a lot of personal finance books. Not only that, but we did much better than we imagined.
In 2016, we didn’t have $100,000 dollars of credit card debt but we did have a mortgage, student loans, car loans, and medical bills. We also lived off of a very low income. I’m talking about living off of 28k a year for a family of four. The struggle was real.
We hired Truth in Equity not because we did extensive research and were financial geniuses but because we were desperate. I can’t lie, it did sound like a “get rich quick” scheme – mortgage edition. However, I did see the numbers right in front of my face and when I would do the math, all the numbers added up.
Afterward, my strategist helped me get on the right path. I watched our numbers like a hawk every day (and still do.) Everything Truth in Equity said would happen did happen. We were paying off debt faster than we ever did.
Since I paid for my lifetime strategist, she has helped me stay on track when “life” happens. For example, a year or so into our HELOC we found out we had foundation issues totaling 10k. A quick call to our strategist put our minds at ease.
*UPDATE*
I am happy to announce that on April 1st, 2020 we became completely debt-free! To watch our Debt Free Celebration, click here! In total, it took us 7 years to pay off our mortgage and the rest of our remaining debt.
What is the Catch?
There’s always a catch isn’t there? This wouldn’t be a good review of Truth in Equity if I didn’t mention the catch. Here’s the thing with this process:
First, if you don’t pay your bills on time and have bad credit, you probably won’t qualify. You will have to raise your credit score first (Truth in Equity can guide you with that.) The good news though is that Truth in Equity won’t lead you on. If they can’t help you, they will tell you.
Second, it will cost a good chunk of change to get started. When we signed up in 2016, we thought Oreos were expensive, so you can imagine what we thought about dropping a couple grand on a website we just discovered.
I believe their price right now for the software and personal lifetime strategist is $3500. That price has risen in the last few years and I wouldn’t be surprised if they raise their price even more.
That said, even with that price tag, Truth in Equity is still something I recommend that you invest in if it is right for you. Look at the big picture. What is a couple of thousand dollars when you would be paying the banks possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest with a traditional mortgage instead anyway?
Conclusion:
Without a doubt, I recommend that you consider getting a free consultation from Truth in Equity. If you qualify for their help and want to give mortgage acceleration a shot, hiring them to help you is probably the best route.
Afterward, for even better results, use the life tips you find here on Family and FI. If you stick to it and learn all you can about how to become financially independent, you are going to thank yourself in the future!
In today’s world, most of us are taught the same thing. We are taught to get good grades, go to college, buy a house, and work the rest of our lives to pay off that debt. Banks really love this thinking. You (and the rest of America) need to start looking at ways to beat the banking system for the sake of your own future.
If you would like someone from Truth in Equity to give you a call and review your finances, you can fill out the guest book HERE.
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