Mortgage rates remain at historical lows. How you can make the most of them?

Don’t cheer too hard. Leave the champagne on ice. Suck up to the boss. Batten down hatches.

Interest rate cuts, sure, are like a pay rise. Sort of. Sadly, they can be taken away from you. They eventually will. You have no control over it.

I don’t want to get all Nouriel Roubini (the guy who predicted the GFC) negative on you, but you need to know why we got this latest rate cut.

The Reserve Bank is concerned about unemployment, which has a trend rate of 6.2 per cent. That means your job could be on shaky ground. No point celebrating lower interest rates if you don’t have an income. And that is more of us than a year ago.

So, fortify your home. Build up some savings in the offset or redraw. Is your job secure? Can you do anything on that front to make it a little more so?

Then … take advantage of the current “mortgage war”. Banks are doing BIG deals. Those with existing loans might not know it. But those who are getting new loans, or refinancing, are cleaning up.

Banks are giving incredible deals to new clients at the moment. The discounts are getting bigger and bigger. But current customers will get squat unless they complain, or threaten to take their business elsewhere.

See a mortgage broker.

Gen Xers generally have the most to gain from lower rates. It’s the time of life that coincides with either be taking on bigger debt, or potentially we are at the peak debt of our lives.

Bruce Brammall is the principal adviser with Bruce Brammall Financial (www.brucebrammall.com.au) and author of Mortgages Made Easy.