What does Indian food have to do with interest rates?

If you read last Tuesday’s post, by now you’ve checked your free credit and should be feeling rather skinny and rich.  This is good, because I need to tell you about an Indian restaurant at which I breakfasted this weekend.  And I’ll figure out one way or another to tie it into you buying or refinancing a house.  Just you wait. 

I’m not swanky enough to seek out Indian food on my own.  That’s why it’s handy to keep friends around that are a few percentage points cooler and trendier than you are.  It provides ample opportunities to increase in trendy ranks (so helpful on Facebook).  The trendy friends invited me along on their breakfast adventure to Pondicheri.

Because I am not cultured, I assumed we were going to a place with thick carpets and Indian music in the background with odd smells of unknown spices.  That didn’t happen.  We pulled up to an industrial looking café with lots of windows and sunshine. 

And get this…my trendy friends know the pastry chef there.  And we chatted it up with the guy.  I immediately updated my Facebook status to let everyone know “Christina Ledbetter is hanging out with Pondicheri’s pastry chef finding out what she should order,” then sat anxiously waiting for like buttoning.

I ordered the Morning Thali – a sampling of the chef’s favorite dishes.  Straight from the menu:  Beef keema, oats, potato curry, yogurt, fruit, paratha & fried egg.  Twelve bucks.  Straight from my brain:  this stuff was good.

Okay, at that point I hadn’t pulled my free credit report, so I didn’t have the skinny mirror effect rubbing off on me yet.  That said, I skipped dessert.  But my trendy friends didn’t, and they enjoyed the chili chocolate chip cookies made from scratch so much that I plan to go back and try them myself.

This gets better.  You know how I told you the ole Bosses are spending lots of time chatting it up with folks just like you, with mortgage questions?  Well, I think these meetings are happening at the office.  But, I bet you could convince them to meet you at Pondicheri off Kirby.  Tell them you can’t make it to the office and that you are craving a Bournvita ice cream sandwich.  Then, tell them you were hoping to get to meet me one day.  That’s when I need you to suggest we all go there for lunch one day next week.  You, me, the ole Bosses, and chili chocolate chip cookies.  Please help me out on this.  If you don’t really have any mortgage questions, that’s fine.  Just email me and I’ll send you some. 

Here’ a few to get you rolling:  “How much house could I even wisely afford if I want to start looking?”  “How much money can I save if I refinance my house with these wicked low interest rates?”  “Can we do this again sometime soon? Because Just the Assistant I would like to try everything on the menu in this joint.”  “Waiter?  We need seconds on those cookies, please.”

Finally, you should know how low rates are right now.  They’re so low the people at the office keep thinking they’re going to step on the poor little guys, just like you have to watch out for kittens, or children’s Legos.  The ole Bosses didn’t tell me to write this, and neither did the Indian restaurant.  I just like to blab about things I think are helpful.  So:  it’s a smart time to buy; it’s a smart time to refinance if you own; it’s always smart to buy organic apples; when cooking beef stew in the crock pot, it’s smart to brown your meat in a skillet first; and, it’s smart to watch your step, because you might get a mortgage interest rate stuck between your toes like lint.  Even my trendy friends think so.