Are you delinquent on your first mortgage but still making monthly payments on your home-equity credit line or second mortgage? If so, a finance and real estate professor from DePaul University has some controversial advice for you: Stop paying on your second immediately. Rebel Cole believes you are simply throwing good money after bad. If you are seriously delinquent on the first mortgage, you’re likely headed for foreclosure unless both of your lenders agree on a modification or principal-reduction plan. But because you continue to make payments on the second, the bank that holds that revenue-producing note might have minimal motivation to participate in a workout, he thinks. Cole estimates that between 1 million and 3 million homeowners are in this position nationwide — making it a big problem.