When you take out a conventional mortgage loan (not insured by the U.S. government), with a down payment of less than 20%, your lender will require that you pay monthly private mortgage insurance (PMI) which protects the lender in case you default.

PMI costs can vary between 0.58% and 1.86% of the mortgage amount. According to Nerdwallet’s PMI calculator, if you buy a home for $350,000, put down $35,000 or 10% with a 6% interest rate on a 30-year note, and with a credit score of 620 to 639, you’ll pay 1.50% PMI, or $394 per month. It’ll take 7.40 years for your loan balance to get to 80% loan to value (LTV). The earliest you can get a PMI cancellation is two years of ownership and an LTV of 75%. 

You can ask your lender to remove PMI when your loan balance reaches 80% LTV. At 78%, PMI should be canceled automatically, but there are steps you can take to get it canceled more quickly.

1. Make extra payments to reduce the principal.
2. Make payments on time—no late payments in the previous 12 months, no 60-day late payments in the previous 24 months.
3. Don’t have any other liens on the property, including a second mortgage.
4. Show proof of value with a professional appraisal or broker price opinion.
5. Make improvements to the home that add value.
6. Refinance the mortgage and get a home equity line of credit to pay off the PMI.

A rain garden isn’t as complex an idea as it sounds. You can just use a small depression in your yard—the one where a puddle always forms when it rains. According to LifeHacker.com, the goal of a rain garden is to “temporarily hold and absorb rain water runoff coming from roofs, driveways, patios or lawns.”

Instead of putting up with a puddle that turns into a muddy mosquito haven, you can plant shrubs, perennials, flowers, and native grasses into the slope and make it look intentional and attractive. BirdsandBlooms.com maintains that rain gardens can soak up as much as 30% more water than a conventional lawn. They can also provide a natural habitat for birds, butterflies, and other helpful insects, says the site. 

If you really want to get scientific about it, rain gardens serve an environmentally sound purpose. The technical phrase for rain gardens is bioretention facilities, which refers to a number of practices that helps soil reabsorb rain runoff, slows the flow rate of runoff, and filters pollutants from roofs, driveways, and walkways. Rain gardens help reduce the “heat island effect” which makes cities much hotter than rural areas.

Plant your rain garden on a slope, at least 10 ft. from the house. The garden should be twice as long as it is wide. Use plants that absorb nutrients and water and release water vapor back into the atmosphere, such as small trees, shrubs, rushes, wildflowers, and sedges, explains FamilyHandyman.com. Click here to find suitable plants.

Fabrics in your home are important to both your comfort and budget, so knowing the grams per square meter(GSM) is helpful when choosing textiles for bedding, furniture, and fabric accessories. GSM only measures the weight of any fabric. The higher the GSM, the denser and more durable the fabric.

A fabric’s GSM rating helps you better evaluate the performance you should expect, but it’s also important to consider fiber composition, weave and finishing. You want to choose the right type of fabric that will last, remain attractive, and feels good to the touch, so you won’t have to replace it sooner than you’d like. Towels need to be absorbent, so they range from 300 to 900 GSM, with 600 to 900 GSM in the premium luxury range. 

Fabric weight is measured by both the thickness of the threads and the density of the weaving and helps determine its suitability for a given purpose. You’ve heard of thread count for sheets which is the number of threads per one square inch. Fiber composition is more important. For sheets, flax linen at 170 GSM is best for temperature regulation and moisture wicking. Cotton may be less expensive but improves in softness with repeated washings and use. Microfiber is soft and durable, but it’s also less breathable and absorbent than linen or cotton.

Bolt fabrics will state the GSM number, or you can figure it yourself with this free online calculator.

Refinancing your mortgage is expensive, especially if you just want to lower your monthly payments. Closing costs can be in the thousands of dollars because you’re essentially applying for a new loan. Is there another way to lower your monthly payment? Yes: You can recast your mortgage.

In simple terms, a mortgage recast involves making a lump-sum payment toward the principal balance of your loan which the lender uses to create a new amortization schedule which will lower your monthly payments.

Every mortgage has an amortization schedule that directs part of your payment to reducing principal or toward paying interest. These amounts change slightly every month, until your payments go from paying mostly interest to paying down your principal. With a recast, your interest rate and term remain the same, but your monthly payments are lower because you paid a lump sum toward the principal.

To qualify for a recast, you’ll need a minimum of $10,000 and you’ll pay a service fee of approximately $250. Though the recast isn’t a new loan, you must qualify to get one: 

1. Lenders may have differing requirements and fees, from the amount of the lump-sum payment, to how many on-time payments you’ve made, to how much equity you have in your home.
2. Recasts are not available on government-guaranteed loans such as FHA, VA, or USDA.

When you receive a bonus at work or decide to close out your savings, it’s a great idea to build equity in your home.