stock market average is 8-9% over long periods and with some diversification via international stock exposure, high yield stocks and other alternative investments, you can pretty easily attain a 7% return without a great deal of risk over multi-year time horizons. This is especially true if you're investing in a tax-advantaged account like putting more toward your 401K or investing in a self-directed IRA (I've included a link here to my self-directed IRA account holdings). This is a much better use of excess funds than paying down a low rate loan at less than 5% effective rate.

Even more importantly, if you have any high interested debt, paying that down is absolutely your best investment, as you're not going to earn the 20%+ you might be paying on credit card debt in any reasonable risk-adjusted return investment.

If you do feel compelled to pay down your mortgage early, you could simply do this on your own by making voluntary additional payments as your budget allows, as opposed to relying on this unnecessary system at exorbitant costs

Finally, if you want something easy to cut your mortgage in half, why not just consider a 15 year mortgage, where you're likely to get a lower rate than the 30 year conventional you took on to begin with? According to recent data, the 15 year rates are close to 50 basis points lower than the 30 year rates. Why would you take on a higher rate 30 year mortgage, pay what equates to multiple points in this $3800 fee + HELOC fees when you could simply have a lower rate and a 15 year mortgage, still with the flexibility to pre-pay as you see fit?


I wish I wrote this article sooner, but I was awaiting completion of my documentation outlining my blog as a Limited Liability Corporation. As such, Everyday Websites, LLC acts as a barrier between the content here and my personal holdings in the event of legal action. While everything I've stated here is based on facts as I understand them, I've seen the message boards with rather aggressive and sometimes outrageous minions of UFirst MMA Associates attacking anyone highlighting the deficiencies of the system. As my blog isn't worth much (and a lawsuit liquidating its assets wouldn't be devastating to my family), and I have this new level of protection, I feel compelled to highlight this article to my readers. Incidentally, I used the Company Corporation to form my LLC. For anyone publishing content in print or on the internet, I highly recommend you form one yourself. It's quick and easy and you'll sleep better at night. You may find that you're no longer inhibited in writing that scathing review next time that idea pops in your head. Here's the link:




To answer the opening question, I wouldn't go as far as classifying the Ufirst Money Merge Account as a scam, since they do provide enough transparency and disclosure to understand what the gaps are and the unnecessary nature of the system to investigative readers. However, I think it's completely unnecessary and was devised to intentionally appear sophisticated and useful, when all that's needed to accomplish the same result is some old-fashioned discipline.