One year ago we were in the midst of refinancing our mortgage. It doesn't feel like it's been 1 year since rolling our car loan and some cc debt into the mortgage.

Has it been good? Well, it's been nice not having the crippling car payments every 2 weeks.

Was it the best thing for us? This question is secret code for have we racked up the debt again...and again the question, was it the best thing for us? Well, our cc's are sitting with some debt and that LOC is still there and we have not made any extra payments on the consolidation loan...

Did we learn? Did we break the rules? Did we do the right things?

I don't know. We did what we thought was right at the time. It helped ease the financial burden while we underwent job losses and financial uncertainty. For sure we didn't follow the rules. We acquired new debt. Do the benefits outweigh the drawbacks? I'm not sure. Sometimes I think we still have our heads buried in the sand.