VanDyk Mortgage - August 2021

VanDyk Mortgage - August 2021

AUGUST 2021

Letters From the Hart Give us a call! 239-437-4278 Or visit www.TimHartJr.com Corporate NMLS #3035 www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org

CONSTRUCTION, DONKEYS, AND WETTING THE BED

One of my favorite ways to spend time with my kids is to take them camping. We usually go once or twice a year. This summer, we spent three nights in a tent at Caloosahatchee Regional Park and had a pretty good time, but I think two nights of sleeping on the ground will be my limit from now on! The Caloosahatchee trip was a bit long, but it was nowhere near as bad as one my sons and I took to Fisheating Creek a few years ago. That will go down in history as the worst camping trip ever. The craziness started on our drive out to the campground when my buddy, who was supposed to go with us, called and said he couldn’t make it. Then, when we got there, I realized I hadn’t checked the weather. I was setting up the campsite on my own (the boys were 8 and 6, so they weren’t much help) when a cold front blew in. The wind kicked up to 20 miles per hour and chilly rain came down on our heads. After struggling for what felt like ages, I finally pitched the tent. Only then did I look around and realize there weren’t any other campers nearby. That seemed weird because we’d set up in a good spot between a lake and a farm, not far from the main road. I was cold and wet, though, so I didn’t think about it too hard. The boys and I crawled into the This Was a Camping Trip I’ll Never Forget!

tent and fell asleep — but we didn't stay asleep for long!

on the little blow up air mattress I’d brought. I felt like pulling my hair out — and then things got worse. One of my sons was sleeping against my back. It was like I’d been sucked into that scene in “Dumb and Dumber” where Lloyd (Jim Carrey) and Harry (Jeff Daniels) are riding a motorbike together and Harry pees all over Lloyd’s back! I couldn’t believe what had just happened, but I was so defeated and exhausted that I didn’t even get mad. I just got up, changed, and sat around until the sun came up and we could finally go home. On the way back, we stopped for breakfast, and I told both kids the story. It turned out my son had peed on me in his sleep and didn't even remember it. They thought my suffering was the funniest thing ever! To this day, they still laugh about it. I’ll never forget those two nights at Fisheating Creek. If you ever camp there, do yourself a favor and stay away from the farm.

It turns out our nice little campsite was in the worst possible place. Construction started on the main road after dark, and screeching tires, crashing machines, and yelling workers kept me up all night, my kids slept fine. I couldn’t have slept anyway because there was a raccoon outside the tent that kept getting into our stuff — flipping the lid off my cooler, rummaging around, and running away as soon as I stuck my head out. The thing was like a ninja! I never managed to catch it or kill it. As if the construction and the raccoon weren’t enough, we found out pretty quickly that the farm about 100 yards from our campsite had a donkey. Every half hour for the entire night, the animal went nuts with an ear-splitting “HEE- HAW.” The sound shot right across the lake, and it was so loud it felt like we had a donkey right there in our tent! That was just the first night. By night two, I was exhausted. I hadn’t slept a wink, and I’d entertained two little boys all day. I figured I’d finally be able to get some shut-eye, but then the construction, the raccoon, and the donkey started up again. The boys and I were freezing, so we huddled together

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IS THIS GOOD FOR ME? Apps to Help You Make Smart Food Choices

Sometimes going grocery shopping can leave you feeling more like a detective than a human just trying to feed yourself and your family. Sleuthing down the snack aisle brings up questions about whether gluten-free means “good” and whether no added sugars means “nutritious.” The foundation of healthy snacking includes fresh fruits and vegetables, but how can you make smart (or smarter) choices when buying packaged snack foods? New smartphone apps mean the answer is just one bar code away. Switch It Up FoodSwitch is a mobile app developed by an international health advocacy group, The George Institute for Global Health. Even packaged foods that purport to be healthy can have high levels of salt, sugar, and saturated fat. While valuable information

appears on nutritional labels, they can also leave you more mystified than empowered.

In that case, simply open the FoodSwitch app, scan the bar code of the item you’re interested in, and get instant nutritional information and options for healthier alternatives. Each item gets a Health Star Rating from .5–5, making it easy to understand where the item falls on the health spectrum and how it compares to other brands. If that item doesn’t meet your dietary needs, let FoodSwitch recommend an alternative. In a Snap If you’re already a dedicated Snapchat user and don’t want to add another app to your phone, you’re in luck. Snapchat has recently implemented a scanning technology powered by the nutrition- tracking app Yuka. While it has similarities

to FoodSwitch, the format Snapchat uses lays out the nutritional pros and cons of each item and gives each item an overall rating on the traffic-light system. Green means good to go, yellow means proceed with caution (moderation), and red means reconsider or only eat this item rarely. With these two apps, you can put down your magnifying glass and pick up your smartphone. Making healthier snack choices is right at your fingertips.

Don’t Throw Away Those Pool Noodles! 3 NOODLE HACKS YOU HAVE TO TRY AFTER POOL SEASON

You may only have a few more weeks of great pool weather left, so soak it up while you can! Afterward, you may find yourself taking stock of the pool toys that survived this season or notice an end-of-season sale on pool noodles. Don’t scoff! These fun pool toys can also be handy tools around the home.

door. The noodle will take the blow, and your car won’t get dinged! Another easy way to protect your car is to attach pool noodles to the top of a vehicle’s luggage rack. This will prevent your cargo from scratching the top of your vehicle! (Just be sure to strap everything down so it doesn’t slide off.) Stop the Pinch Pool weather may be ending, but trampoline season is still in full swing. Despite how fun trampolines can be, they can be risky. But pool noodles can help relieve some of your fears. Simply measure the length of a single spring on your trampoline and cut pool noodles into same- length sections so you have one piece for every spring. Then, cut the noodle pieces lengthwise and fit them over the springs.

You may need to replace the noodles every few months, but fingers and hair will be protected from those sturdy metal jaws. Relieve Pain As we age, life takes its toll, so why not have a little cushion? A pool noodle is an easy solution for this. You can cut a pool noodle the length of your keyboard, and then cut it in half to create a soft and affordable wrist guard at your desk. Try the same method with ladder rungs to protect your knees and shins or cover handles with noodles for an easier grip! Need a few more noodle hacks in your life? Reader’s Digest has you covered. Check out their extensive list online at RD.com.

Check out these affordable life hacks that are all thanks to the common pool noodle.

Protect Your Vehicle Create extra padding and prevent scratches and dings just by manipulating a few pool noodles. If you have a tight garage space, cut pool noodles lengthwise and slide them over garage beams, work benches, or other items that are frequently hit by your car

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Fortunately, when they came to me, I saw the solution. They had a great house with a mortgage and a ton of equity. (Like I said, if you’re a homeowner in our area, you probably have equity, too. For example, home values in Fort Myers are increasing and the median listing home price has been climbing 18.8% year over year.) With their equity in mind, I set this couple up with a debt consolidation cash-out refinance. They took out equity in their home and paid off their first mortgage, their installment loan, AND all of their credit card bills! Amazing, right? Just by getting the right loan, these two people went from an old life of paying $3,662 per month to a brand-new life of paying just $1,732 — with no credit card debt to speak of. That’s a savings of $1,930 every single month! Now, I can’t promise you’ll save $1,930 per month if you do a debt consolidation cash-out refinance with me; the amount you’ll save depends on your debt load and the equity in your home. Maybe your savings will be $300, $400, or $700. Heck, maybe you have more debt and more equity and you’ll save $3,000! You’re not obligated to do this refinance, but if you want to wipe out your credit card debt and get a low fixed-rate mortgage, you have a shot at doing that, and I can help. To learn more about how this kind of refinance can change your life for the better, call me today at 239-437-4278 or visit TimHartJr.com to apply online.

got you into this hole in the first place. You can’t just wipe out your debt and think, “Yay, look at all of the money I’m saving!” then go out and finance a new Harley, a boat, and five vacations. You have to take a good, hard look at your lifestyle and change the spending habits that got you here. Say it with me, folks, “This is a one-time fix. I will not use my house as an ATM card.”

Cheers to refinancing responsibly!

P.S. There’s one important thing to note with all of this: If you try this type of refinance, you also need to change the spending habits that

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TRIVIA QUESTION: Where did Tim take his sons camping?

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PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID BOISE, ID PERMIT 411

Tim Hart, NMLS #354676 8280 College Parkway, Suite #101 Fort Myers, FL 33919

Give us a call! 239-437-4278 Or visit www.TimHartJr.com

Inside This Issue

Tim Recalls the Worst Camping Trip EVER PAGE 1

Apps That Help You Snack Smarter

Save Your Pool Noodles for an Easier Life

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Testimonial From the Hart PAGE 3

How We Saved a Homeowner $1,930 a Month PAGE 4

CAN’T PAY OFF YOUR CREDIT CARD DEBT?

Try Tapping Your Mortgage!

Do you know how much credit card debt the average person has? As of this summer, here’s how it broke down by generation:

• Millennials: $4,322 • Generation X: $7,155 • Baby Boomers: $6,043

people and it works! If you have a mortgage and equity in your home — and you probably do, since the real estate market is so hot right now — you can use that equity to pay off your credit card debt! Just this year I used a cash-out refinance to save a nice local couple a whopping $1,930 per month. Initially, they had a lot of debt. I’m talking about a $235,000 balance on their mortgage, a $10,941 installment loan, and four credit cards with balances running from $3,021 to $9,844. Every single month, these people had about $3,662 in payments. That’s more than a lot of people’s paychecks!

That’s just credit cards. If you’re reading this article, you’re probably right there in the middle of the pack, looking for ways to get out from under that debt. This is something we see all the time here at VanDyk Mortgage, and fortunately, we have a way to help you wipe out debt and change your life for the better. It's called a debt consolidation cash-out refinance.

I know “change your life” is a big promise, and I swear I’m not being goofy or salesy here, but my team has closed loans like this for real

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