“He that can have patience can have what he will.” — Benjamin Franklin

A salute to readers who called mortgage brokers, then took advantage of the bargain residential loan rates mentioned in my mid-December column. Last week, I completed the refinancing of a 30-year loan, which locked in a 5 percent rate. Leaving behind the old mortgage, which carried a 5.625 percent rate, trimmed my loan payment by $95 a month.

Buying down the loan rate to 5 percent (by paying 0.75 percent of the amount borrowed) made sense to me because total costs of the refinancing will be recouped in less than 18 months. And since most refinancing expenses were rolled into the new loan, up-front costs were minimal.    Mortgage rates could trend lower — or not. For perspective, just a year ago, both 30-year and 15-year rates were quoted at 6.4 percent. Increasingly, lenders and their rates are fickle.

For example, when I closed on my refinancing more than a week ago, the benchmark rate available to Lincoln mortgage brokers had popped up to 5.5 percent. Brokers say rate quotes are now changing three or four times a day, instead of just at 10 a.m. “Potential borrowers need to keep calling us, just to keep up with the volatility,” one broker said.

Carnage still litters the stock, bond and credit markets. Against this backdrop, you may be determined to shore up the foundation of your safe haven by paying off the mortgage by the time you retire.

From my vantage point, being able to shop for 30-year money, priced at 5 percent, is a terrific opportunity — especially if this would be your only family debt. Depending on your tax bracket, the real cost of a 5 percent loan is in the 3.75 percent to 4.25 percent range.

Here’s why paying a 5 percent rate to “own” a home fascinates me: Over time, it’s a good bet that your house will increase in value at a pace just ahead of inflation, which historically has averaged 3 to 4 percent a year.

Moreover, Karl Case, a Wellesley College economics professor, in charting U.S. home prices back to the 1890s, found that they tend to increase about the same as household income — an inflation-adjusted rate of 2.5 percent to 3 percent a year.

In other words, this persistent up trend in home prices roughly keeps pace with inflation, per capita income, and today’s cost of residential mortgage debt.

These parallels beg a question: Is your home an investment or merely shelter? As your equity grows, a house can be a decent storehouse of value. But I’m not convinced that it should serve as a piggy bank for most of a family’s net worth. Remember, paying down a historically-low 5 percent mortgage (your good debt) doesn’t mean the home price will increase faster.

Whether your mortgage is paid off or not, you must have somewhere to live.

So, during the past 20 years, I’ve pursued a mortgage fail-safe strategy: Savings of one type or another have been squirreled away in taxable investment accounts, so the loan could be paid off.

n Have you been aboard for the market rebound?  You wouldn’t jump off a San Francisco trolley just because it lurched violently after passing over a rough linkup in the rail system. The view from those California hills is too glorious to head for home early on foot.

I fear that investors who liquidated their portfolio last summer, in the midst of extreme market volatility, have already missed out on a strong rebound.

Count me among the financial observers who feel the recent bear market in stocks bottomed about Nov. 20, the point at which my investable assets showed a 2008 year-to-date paper loss of 39 percent. From that market low, the value of these assets rebounded 18 percent over a six-week period.

If I’m correct in calling this bottom, as I was in October 2003, it’s because I watch multi-year indicators and valuation ratios. Sadly, I’ve never ever picked a market top, certainly not in time to protect investment portfolios from downturns, which happen several times every decade.

In other words, as a long-term timer, I only have a .500 batting average.

Even during a market rebound, an idea called dollar-cost averaging can be a hugely-effective way to time the market: By tenaciously putting money into the market, month after month, you’re able to acquire more shares while prices are low.

That’s also the reason I’m waiting for a winter day when the equity markets temporarily collapse to make my 2009 Roth IRA contribution.

A final sleep-better rule on timing: For money you’ll need during the next five years, focus on fixed-income investments, not stocks. 

If you have a Lessons Learned topic to suggest, you can call Gene Kelly at 421-2861, write to him at 2611 Bretigne Circle, Lincoln 68512, or e-mail him at  EKELLY1@neb.rr.com