Oops! We Did It Again: Refinancing with Dummies.

I wonder if there is a lifetime limit to the number of times you can refinance. I suppose not. The banks dig it. And they adore people like Husband and I. This week marked the third or fourth time we've refinanced, not including buying a different house -- in about eight years.

It's amazing, how, every time we have this great reason to do it. Only once, I think, it was done because interest rates were significantly lower. I've blocked out all the other reasons why we've done it because it's too painful.

And while the excuses may vary each time, one thing remains the same: every time it's the LAST time. But with the housing market the way it's been, it's surprisingly easy and oddly addicting for us. And when things get tough we actually consider refinancing as an option: "Well, we could borrow money from our parents, get out the frozen credit card or just refinance -- at least we'd get that one month where we don't have to make a payment, that would save us some money..."

This time, the goal was to roll in our home equity line of credit and Husband's student loan debt so we'd just have one tidy payment. And, without sharing all the gory details, this could seem perfectly reasonable, OR, if you knew all the details you might just want to smack us upside the head. Good, bad, or just plain ugly, we did it again.

But for sure, this is the LAST time we do any rolling, and from now on we are totally, for sure, not going to even touch the home equity line of credit again. The line of credit, that, Banker Chick somehow convinced us to leave open "for emergencies." I so wanted to say "Hey Banker Chick: Clinique Bonus Week is an emergency in my world, so no thanks," but held back.

Instead, we ARE keeping the line of credit open. It's a bad financial move, we know. But, we kept it open because we are Those People. We are those people, that:

If there is a 1.7% chance of having twins "spontaneously," that's us.

If there is a 1 in 5,000 chance that we'd not know we're having twins until we went into labor two and half months early, that's us. (Now, that's spontaneous!)

If there is a 1 in 50,000 chance that Husband would break his tooth on a Wint O' Green Lifesaver from a Val-U-Pak and need a non-covered crown, that's us.

If there is a 1 in 100,000 chance that I'd wake up thinking I had an ear infection, but it was really just an Asian Beetle that crawled IN my ear, died deep in the canal and had to be medically removed, that's us.

Swear to God, we are a Freak Show. And being a Freak Show ain't cheap.

So, we kept the line of credit open, knowing that lighting WILL strike us, we WILL spontaneously have triplets after a vasectomy, or, more realistically, we simply know that life truly is full of little emergencies. And sometimes Clinique's Three-Step Program is very Clarifying, does make me feel Dramatically Different, and little spending -- on an emergency basis, of course -- for some self-love now, just may save on therapy bills down the road.