To determine whether or not to refinance your home, find the "break-even point". Take these five steps for a "quick and dirty" refinance analysis:

1. Add all costs - Points, fees, attorney's fees, loan origination fees, extra insurance, appraisals, inspections, recording, and survey fees' title insurance, credit reports, etc.

2. Determine the monthly savings - Subtract the current payment from the amount due with a refinanced loan. If the current payment is $3,000 and the refinanced amount is $2,750, the monthly savings is $250.

3. Multiply - Take the monthly savings and multiply by the federal and state tax rate.

4. Subtract - Take this cost (3) from the monthly savings to arrive at net monthly savings.

5. Divide - Total cost by the net monthly savings to find the number of months it will take to break event (pay off the cost of refinancing)