Everyone knows how important it is to regularly put money into savings, but research shows that 25% of Americans have no emergency savings at all.

HELOC

A home equity line of credit, commonly referred to as a HELOC, is a line of credit that allows you to tap into the equity of your home to access those funds. Similar to a credit card, you can borrow funds up to a set limit throughout the “draw period” or set time limit. These funds can be used to consolidate loans, pay off other debt, home improvement projects, and more.

What is an interest rate?

Let’s start first with the basics of understanding what an interest rate is. The interest rate is the rate at which a lender will charge for you to borrow the funds from them. This rate is a percentage of the loan amount, so the amount you pay in interest will be based off the principal balance of the loan.