Thought variable rate mortgages were a scam until I did the math

I was dead set against variable rate mortgages for years after hearing horror stories from my dad's coworker in the 90s. But my broker in Vancouver showed me the numbers from the last 20 years and I couldn't argue. Over a 5 year term the variable would have saved me about $8,000 even with the recent rate hikes. Has anyone else changed their mind on something like this after looking at the actual data?

2 comments

2 Comments

smith.blair14d ago

Jeez, $8,000 saved even with all the rate hikes? That's wild. I always figured the risk wasn't worth it but that's a hard number to ignore.

troy_adams14d ago

My neighbor tried the same thing back when rates first started climbing, ended up netting close to ten grand after a year. Reminded me of that old saying about playing with fire and getting burned, but $8,000 is $8,000. You make a good point there, @smith.blair, sometimes the numbers just don't lie no matter how much you wanna ignore them.