The couple who owns my old house still has to make monthly payments for another four-and-a-half years. Seems like forever.

I used to write to them every month to urge them to take out a bank loan to pay off their loan in one lump-sum payment. Would have been nice to get a that $10,000 chunk of change in one check. But now, I've become accustomed to getting that little $210 monthly bump in my checking account. Why not? I can always use the extra cash, and at the end of the year, I've earned $750 in interest payments from them. Profit's a good thing. (Right, Martha?)