This post is part of my Freaky Financial Fridays series, where I argue a case from an opposing view, generally in contradiction to my own philosophy or conventional financial advice.

Most financial planners and personal finance bloggers warn against having a large income tax return.  They argue that overpaying throughout the year is equivalent to giving the government an interest free loan.  While you might be better off keeping the money within your control, there are still some benefits to getting a large tax return, particularly during tough financial times.

Many People Don’t Save

If you were to have less withheld from each paycheck, you would get a smaller return at the end of the year.  If you were to save or invest the extra money you received in each paycheck, then a large refund could be a bad thing.  But many people don’t save.  More money in each paycheck would mean more to spend each week.  Configuring your withholding to get a large refund effectively forces you to save throughout the year.  Yes, you’re basically saving at zero percent interest and inflation makes your money less valuable when it is finally returned to you.  But isn’t it better to save something at 0% than nothing at a higher percent?  Of course it is.

Small Savings Returns

When online savings accounts were offering 5% interest, your interest free loan to the government seemed pretty bad.  But now rates are down around 2% and many brick and mortar banks are offering

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This post is part of my Freaky Financial Fridays series, where I argue a case from an opposing view, generally in contradiction to my own philosophy or conventional financial advice.

Interest only mortgages are often associated with the sub-prime meltdown and generally dismissed by responsible financial advisers.  While interest only loans are often poor vehicles for potential homeowners, there is one type of buyer who could stand to gain from their use.

Interest only mortgages are just that, only the interest portion of the loan is paid each month.  At the end of the term you’d owe just as much as when you started because no principal payments had been applied.  Unless the house appreciated, which is of course possible but less likely in today’s market, you would have zero equity in the home.  The one upside to that huge downside is that your monthly payment will be lower.  This fact has caused

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This post is part of my Freaky Financial Fridays series, where I argue a case from an opposing view, generally in contradiction to my own philosophy or conventional financial advice.

Why is it that we are afraid to maximize our single greatest investment, the home in which we live? There may be better investments out there, but the fact is that most of us don’t take advantage of those alternatives. Even those who realize the incredible growth potential of real estate usually stop after buying their own home. Unless you are planning to take on an investment property with positive cash flow or take full advantage of other, better investments, then buying the most expensive home you can afford may help your finances to grow the most.

If your house goes up in value by 30% between when you buy it and when you sell it,

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This post is part of my Freaky Financial Fridays series, where I argue a case from an opposing view, generally in contradiction to my own philosophy or conventional financial advice.

Comparison shopping sounds like a great idea. Research the best product or service to meet your need, exhaustively look for the best deal, and only make a purchase when you’re sure that you couldn’t possibly save any more money. The problem is that such a method is often a waste of time and thus a waste of money.

Undervaluing your time is selling yourself short. Your time is probably worth a lot more than your employer pays you on an hourly basis. To estimate what your time is worth, you can use this calculator.

Once you know how valuable your time is, you quickly see why comparison shopping isn’t worth it. A quick check on a comparison shopping websites might be worthwhile, but any more effort than that and you’ll probably be spending more money in terms of your time, than you can hope to save.

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Today, I will make my first post in a new series called Freaky Financial Fridays. For these posts, I intend to argue the opposing view to my personal opinion or a piece of generally accepted financial advice. My goal is not to show how ludicrous the opposing view is, but rather to try to make genuine arguments in favor of that view. Personal situation greatly influences which course of action is best, so it’s likely that some people will find this information applicable. Even if you do not, looking at things from another angle may help to strengthen your own opinion. I intend to write a post for this series a few times a month. If nothing else, this series should prove to be entertaining.