Mortgage Payoff Club!!

[FireLane]

As of today, I'm down to $60k left. I could pay it off this year if I got really aggressive, but I'm trying to divide my paychecks between that and putting money into Vanguard. Aiming to be mortgage-free by 2018!

Progress update: My September payment has cleared and I'm down to $51K. The end is in sight!

Down to $38K as of February. I'm getting impatient to be done with this now that the amount left is so small. :)

$28K remaining. At the rate I'm paying it down, I have less than a year left. The light at the end of the tunnel!

$13K left, now that my last payment of 2017 has gone through. I'll be mortgage-free by spring 2018!

My original plan was to make the final payment in May, but I'm impatient with the finish line so close. I'm thinking of withdrawing a few thousand from my emergency fund to expedite the end. It's earning less in interest than my mortgage rate anyway.

I did this, and now my balance is (drumroll, please)... $5,851.94.

Officially in to four-digit territory! This should be done and dusted by March.

[wannabe-stache]

Stopping in to say hello--paid off my mortgage in 2016 and still don't regret it.  Looking at some of the recent posts, I see there was a bit of the perennial debate over the intent of this thread and the merits of this choice.

While mathematically a face-punch, the psychological benefits of paying off the mortgage in 2016 turned out to be priceless for me. FI is/would still have been 7-10 years on the horizon if I'd not done the pay-off. But, paying it off put me into FU money territory, so after a really rough 2017 I decided to say FU to my job.  I 100% meant it and planned to take some time off to figure out the next act (which would certainly have been at a lower salary).

My employer was so eager to retain me, that they offered me a completely different job with better hours, more flexibility, better benefits and summers off.  In sum, it's the good parts of my prior job without the misery. With that housing albatross around my neck, I wouldn't have taken the leap that got me to a really happy place.

Wishing everyone who wants to payoff a dramatic principle decline 2018!

My wife and i are considering paying ours off.

i don't consider it to be a slam dunk "face punch" if you can't deduct the interest from your taxes, which we can't in our case, particularly with the new standard deductions.  as i see it, our interest costs us around $4500 per year.  my muni bonds, which will be liquidated in part to pay for it, don't earn anywhere near that.

my only "fear" is that it won't be as gratifying as i think it will.  we only bought our home 4 years ago so it's not like we've been paying it down for decades.

[Money Badger]

@wannabe,     At the very least, you're only 4 years into the amortization and can stop the bleeding on interest far sooner than many of the rest of us will be able to.   What's amazing is seeing how quickly you can/will re-accumulate after-tax equity in your investments as cash flow frees up from debt payment.   I saw this after recasting our current mortgage a couple of years ago...    If you need liquidity / reserves after cashing in the bonds, then a cheap HELOC (without a balance minimum) is good.   Eliminating debt "at the top" of market cycles and being able to access it at your discretion "at the bottom" leads to very sound sleeping at night.

[Eilonwy]

We slowed down our overpayments over the last year because we needed to build up a cushion again after spending our savings on a big project. I'm thinking it's time to start serious paying off again. We're just under $60k.

[honeyfill]

Hit a major milestone last week,  only 29 years to go on my fixed rate 3.5% mortgage.  Wish me luck!

[Money Badger]

Hit a major milestone last week,  only 29 years to go on my fixed rate 3.5% mortgage.  Wish me luck!

Were you joking?   Some of us will wail and gnash teeth if you weren't...    Please restore faith in humanity with a reply with your plan to kill that thing!

[honeyfill]

Sorry, I was just being sort of a  jerk.  We just refinanced to get a 3.5% rate last year. I still haven't made up my mind how I am going to handle my mortgage.  We have always been on the  pay the minimum and invest the rest team. We bought our first hours about 30 years ago and we have plenty of money to pay off this one now with what we have made with investments, so that part of the plan worked.  We are retiring this year so we thought we might just pay it off now. However, We would take a large tax hit this year and our stash would go down by about 270k so we have decided not to do it yet.  The general plan is to pay the minimum for 7 more years until we both hit 65. We will try to stay  under the ACA limits for subsidies. Then pay it off in a lump sum when we are both on medicare and receiving SS.     

[markbike528CBX]

The money wire is in progress to the final payoff.   Now waiting for the county to record it.

[couponvan]

The money wire is in progress to the final payoff.   Now waiting for the county to record it.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

[Trifle]

The money wire is in progress to the final payoff.   Now waiting for the county to record it.

Congratulations MarkBike!!!

[Dicey]

Hit a major milestone last week,  only 29 years to go on my fixed rate 3.5% mortgage.  Wish me luck!

Were you joking?   Some of us will wail and gnash teeth if you weren't...    Please restore faith in humanity with a reply with your plan to kill that thing!

Surely you were joking, I4N? I have complete faith in honeyfill's decision! Not one iota of wailing and/or gnashing of teeth from this quarter of humanity. Glad you did the math first, honeyfill! Sounds like you have a great plan for a prosperous retirement. Congratulations.

[Bird In Hand]

The money wire is in progress to the final payoff.   Now waiting for the county to record it.

Congratulations on achieving your goal!  What are you going to do with the $$ that previously went to the mortgage?

[birdman2003]

The money wire is in progress to the final payoff.   Now waiting for the county to record it.

Nice work markbike!

[markbike528CBX]

The money wire is in progress to the final payoff.   Now waiting for the county to record it.

Congratulations on achieving your goal!  What are you going to do with the $$ that previously went to the mortgage?

Thanks for the congrats, also thanks to Trifele and couponvan, you'll get there if you haven't already.

I skimmed of the amount of the stache above the "enough" amount (well above the FIRE #) to do this.

Method: I was unmmarried and stacheing away, with the understanding that if I ever got married, my priorities would get changed.   I got married late in life, got a house and made paydown a priority.  I only did 401K max and Roth IRA adds after the house buying, not much in taxable.

The stache payed for 57% of the house, and has kept going up anyway.
Down payment 40K, all cash-like stuff (cash, matured savings bonds etc) for initial downpayment, no equities.
2013  56K extra pay from stache (well, it was "at the top" wasn't it?).
That made current cashflow payments much more effective for principal paydown
2017 Remaining 27K from portion of stache  in the "more than enough"  category, because "the top is in" :-)

[Money Badger]

Hit a major milestone last week,  only 29 years to go on my fixed rate 3.5% mortgage.  Wish me luck!

Were you joking?   Some of us will wail and gnash teeth if you weren't...    Please restore faith in humanity with a reply with your plan to kill that thing!

Surely you were joking, I4N? I have complete faith in honeyfill's decision! Not one iota of wailing and/or gnashing of teeth from this quarter of humanity. Glad you did the math first, honeyfill! Sounds like you have a great plan for a prosperous retirement. Congratulations.

dicey,  Ha!  Surely I wasn't of course (given the goal of this payoff club and my posts favoring early pay-off as a launching point to FIRE and using freed cash flow to reinvest or be flexible as life demands during RE).   Glad honeyfill has a plan that works for his/her/their family's retirement needs and to manage capital gains (assuming the market avoids major upheaval within that 5 year horizon).   

[Dicey]

Hit a major milestone last week,  only 29 years to go on my fixed rate 3.5% mortgage.  Wish me luck!

Were you joking?   Some of us will wail and gnash teeth if you weren't...    Please restore faith in humanity with a reply with your plan to kill that thing!

Surely you were joking, I4N? I have complete faith in honeyfill's decision! Not one iota of wailing and/or gnashing of teeth from this quarter of humanity. Glad you did the math first, honeyfill! Sounds like you have a great plan for a prosperous retirement. Congratulations.

dicey,  Ha!  Surely I wasn't of course (given the goal of this payoff club and my posts favoring early pay-off as a launching point to FIRE and using freed cash flow to reinvest or be flexible as life demands during RE).   Glad honeyfill has a plan that works for his/her/their family's retirement needs and to manage capital gains (assuming the market avoids major upheaval within that 5 year horizon).

But surely you know there is no need for such an assumption. Lots of folks are practically salivating for a downturn, or at least a decent slump, so they can get even more bang for their bucks. It's always fun to buy stocks when the market's "on sale."

[Eilonwy]

So after talking with my husband, we've settled on a goal. We'd like to get paid off by the time our son graduates from high school (June 2019) because at that point we'll have a lot more options about how we can live the next chapter of our lives.

Can anyone point me to a calculator that tells you how much principal you need to pay to get paid off by a specific time?

[MrMoneySaver]

Lots of folks are practically salivating for a downturn, or at least a decent slump, so they can get even more bang for their bucks.

Or at least, they think they are. Sometimes it's a classic case of "be careful what you wish for ..."

[thedigitalone]

Can anyone point me to a calculator that tells you how much principal you need to pay to get paid off by a specific time?

I like this one, it shows you the result of additional payments vs the original timeline.
https://www.calculator.net/mortgage-payoff-calculator.html

[Eilonwy]

Thanks, but that one isn't really right for my needs, because we've been overpaying all along.

[NoraLenderbee]

So after talking with my husband, we've settled on a goal. We'd like to get paid off by the time our son graduates from high school (June 2019) because at that point we'll have a lot more options about how we can live the next chapter of our lives.

Can anyone point me to a calculator that tells you how much principal you need to pay to get paid off by a specific time?

Maybe this?
https://www.hsh.com/its-my-term-prepayment-calculator.html

That site has lots of calculators.

[Eilonwy]

I don't think I can make that one work either. We're paying largely principal at this point, so a standard calculation is not useful. Possibly there isn't a simple way to do it.

[Money Badger]

Eilonwy,  Just Google search for Excel based amortization tools or web page (likely full of clickbait though) that allow you to enter the principal and number of months and that show the resulting amortization table with a column for entering principal payments along the timeline.    Then simply start with your current balance and plug in the number of months remaining on your particular loan.   This way you can "what if" specific principal payments along the way and see exactly what it does towards accelerating the pay off.   There's nothing different in a 360 month schedule vs. say a 279 month schedule as far as the math goes.   Of course, the bankers and mortgage brokers would love to convince you otherwise and lock you in for 30 years.  No way sukkas!  ;-)

[Money Badger]

But surely you know there is no need for such an assumption. Lots of folks are practically salivating for a downturn, or at least a decent slump, so they can get even more bang for their bucks. It's always fun to buy stocks when the market's "on sale."

Surely there is actually. (As the OP wants to retire in 5 (or 7) years so there's less room for a market recovery).   There's no need to wring one's hands and entirely cash out just due to that timeline of course.  But there is need to balance risk so it's perfectly reasonable to prudently lock in some gains at an all time high to recast a 29 year loan or otherwise free up cash flow to increase the likelihood of FI.    Of course, we all want to buy the market "on sale".   Lots of us choose to to do so confidently with a risk balanced approach of yummy free cash flow from a zero debt personal balance sheet and passive income from other equity assets.   Risk is always a part of life whether our chosen math or path acknowledges it or not.   Cheers!

[Debts_of_Despair]

So after talking with my husband, we've settled on a goal. We'd like to get paid off by the time our son graduates from high school (June 2019) because at that point we'll have a lot more options about how we can live the next chapter of our lives.

Can anyone point me to a calculator that tells you how much principal you need to pay to get paid off by a specific time?

I would recommend rolling your own. Gives you a much better understanding of what is happening when you aren't just punching numbers into a box.  PMT and IPMT functions will put you well on your way.

[Highbeam]

The money wire is in progress to the final payoff.   Now waiting for the county to record it.

Me too! Saved in VTSAX brokerage until I hit the payoff amount plus a margin and then made it happen. VTSAX sales taxable in 2018 tax year. Pierce County.

[Murr]

We sent our last payment on Tuesday this week, great to see remaining balance as $0.00 "paid in full". We too saved up in a taxable account with VTSAX and then paid off in one chunk. Worst part was having to sit with a banker at Wells Fargo where we bank and try to set up the wire. They were hard selling setting up a brokerage account with them and didnt seem to understand why I would rather do this myself with vanguard.

[Bird In Hand]

I don't think I can make that one work either. We're paying largely principal at this point, so a standard calculation is not useful. Possibly there isn't a simple way to do it.

I have a calculator that does this, and takes into consideration prior extra payments.  If you post here (or PM if you're more comfortable) your mortgage parameters -- original loan balance, start date, term, and rate -- along with your current balance, I can tell you the number you're looking for...or show you how to use a calculator to accomplish it.

[BlueHouse]

I use an excel Mortgage Amortization template that I downloaded from the excel website years ago.  You can enter the amount of extra payment each month individually.  Or you can just estimate it.  It's extremely flexible.  There's a newer version on the Microsoft Office website now.  I just stumbled across it last week. 

[Eilonwy]

Thank you for the offer, Bird in Hand. I don't have the info at my fingertips, but I'll dig it up when I get a chance.

[birdman2003]

If we pay an extra $5k per month we'll be done by September 2019.  If we pay an extra $10k per month we'll be done by December of THIS YEAR *. . . drooling . . .*

[Dicey]

Today our mortgage is $54,960. Below $55k!

The end is in sight - only 16 months left to go.

Interest rates are steadily rising here in Canada. We can only lock in for a max of 5 years here, and in our experience, the lowest fixed rates have only been for 2 year terms. We just renegotiated at a higher rate than previously, but it was the lowest available. Our current rate is locked in for 2 years, but we will pay off the mortgage before we have to renegotiate again in 2020. :)

Congratulations!

[never give up]

Ah yes I remember the point when I knew my mortgage rate could never ever again rise. I'll never forget that moment of relief and I'm sure my quality of sleep permanently raised a notch from that point forward. I'm based in the UK and from what I can make out on these boards the mortgage situation is fairly similar to Canada. 2, 3 and 5 year fixes are the norm. There are a few 10 year fixes but they are expensive. I was always so worried I'd come out of a 5 year fix to find mortgage rates were 12% or something. It terrified me if I'm being honest.

That really is a great milestone allsummerlong. Congrats and enjoy.

[Trifle]

Our balance is now at $29,999. Very exciting to know it will be gone soon!

[wannabe-stache]

just wired in the final $48K today to reduce the mortgage balance to...$0.

12 months ago the balance was $376K i believe.

and for the "don't pay off your mortgage" crowd, don't fret.  we plowed more into the stock markets the last 12 months than we did to our mortgage.

it was a good year.

[markbike528CBX]

We're in:

Start:2012. 171k
paying 6K extra/year
Dec 2013: got impatient and sold some VTSAX to drop a 56k hammer on it.
2016, this year, put all of "retention bonus" in ,6k, so I don't need to be retained as long :-)
Just put regular 6k extra in
Sept 2014 {edit 2016} 61k left. 

Getting impatient again, as the mortgage is one of the few things between me and FIRE.

The downside is that the house price is up which means nothing to me but higher taxes.

Put 12K of 13k bonus in for 2017

Killed it at 27k.   1/4/18  Used stock gains above our "enough" number(20% over a comfortable FIRE #)

[Dicey]

just wired in the final $48K today to reduce the mortgage balance to...$0.

12 months ago the balance was $376K i believe.

and for the "don't pay off your mortgage" crowd, don't fret.  we plowed more into the stock markets the last 12 months than we did to our mortgage.

it was a good year.

Holy cow,that's a lot of money! Good for you! FIRE must not be far away.

[birdman2003]

Huge congrats to wannabe-stache and markbike528CBX for finishing those mortgages off!

[Money Badger]

Way to go wannabe-stache and markbike528CBX.    And to Trifele preparing to take a bow soon!

[robtown]

We refinanced almost 5 years ago with a 5/1 adjustable at 2.25%.  We've been paying 3x the nominal payment.   The rate is going to 4% in April but that is our last payment!   We have  $10,500 to go,  $7,000 by Monday.

Since we trained ourselves to  pay such a large mortgage,  when our costs drop to tax and house insurance we'll have a large windfall each month.  It is a big part of our FI plans.

[cheddarpie]

Congrats, everybody! Great work!

Since we trained ourselves to  pay such a large mortgage,  when our costs drop to tax and house insurance we'll have a large windfall each month.  It is a big part of our FI plans.

Robtown, this was a big part of my strategy too. I'm six months in to the mortgage-free life and still very happy with my decision, haters be damned. :) I enjoy my job so not looking to retire anytime soon, but it's great to know that I could -- with no mortgage payment, my rental cash flow is enough for FI if I go back to my uber-frugal ways (which I will confess I have relaxed quite a bit in recent months ... trying to re-engage a bit here to jump start my frugality again!). I am plowing all my mortgage payment money into investments and am targeting an 80% savings rate this year, which seems completely nuts to me but also totally awesome.

The actual pay-off experience was a bit anti-climactic, but I'm feeling the benefits pretty dramatically now and it is GREAT to be FREE!

[Trifle]

Balance is $9,999 as of today.  Not long now!

[Livethedream]

Cool to read all the positive progress people have made.

Purchased house 10/2016. $357,000

Mortgage of $187,500 after down payment. 30 year 3.5%

Down to $139,900.

Will be putting a big chunk, $40k+ once taxes are done for the year sometime this next month.

Our goal is July 2020 and we are looking right on track. If our payout at tax time is drastically more we might consider pushing the envelope and aim for next year.

We are still able to max out our Backdoor Roth’s along the way.

Looking forward to seeing our balance drop below $100k soon!

[Dicey]

Since we trained ourselves to  pay such a large mortgage,  when our costs drop to tax and house insurance we'll have a large windfall each month.  It is a big part of our FI plans.

Robtown, this was a big part of my strategy too. I'm six months in to the mortgage-free life and still very happy with my decision, haters be damned...

You might be surprised to learn that those you call "haters" actually care enough about others, total strangers no less, to spend time sharing the math to any and all who wish to learn. That is something other than "hate". For those who understand Invesment Order and the Rule of 72, there is exactly nothing to gain, except the satisfaction of helping others reach their goals faster, with fewer earned dollars, in a way that is sustainable for life.

[frizzywhiskers]

End of the year update!

Starting mortgage = $435,000, 5 year term @ 3.26% (starting Sept. 30, 2013)
Goal = Full Mortgage Payoff by end of 5 year term (Sept. 30, 2018)

Progress:
- Mortgage amount as of December 25, 2014:  $380,819
- Mortgage amount as of April 2, 2015: $359,144
- Mortgage amount as of July 9, 2015: $324,055
- Mortgage amount as of December 31, 2015:  $285,708
- Mortgage amount - June 2, 2016 - $253,560
- Mortgage amount - September 8, 2016 - $232,502
- Mortgage amount - December 30, 2016 - $194,252
- Mortgage amount - March 30, 2017 - $161,932
- Mortgage amount - July 16, 2017 - $137,809
- Mortgage amount - November 30, 2017 - $107,678
- Mortgage amount - December 30, 2017 - $99,838

Hello 5 digit club :-)

Mortgage payoff update after receiving yearly bonus!
Mortgage amount - February 28, 2018 - $75,072

If my husbands bonus comes in where it should be, we are looking at payoff in July 2018 instead of September.
Ya Baby :-)

[cribby1531]

New to the club...

Bought in 12/2016 - mortgage $563,999 at 4.5% fixed; SoCal house value conservatively $800k (purchased at $704k)

Balance as of today - $394,000

Set to payoff June 2019. Still investing, but focused on mortgage payoff for the next year. Ages 38 & 29.

[talltexan]

putting more than $30,000/month toward the mortgage is pretty badass. Best of luck!

[BlueHouse]

Showing progress in terms of % paid off against initial home value (equity against initial sale price) so I don't get facepunched for too big of a house.
% Equity (against initial sale price)

• 06/2012 - 25%  (downpayment & first monthly payment)
• 06/2013 - 27%  (now paying a few hundred extra monthly)
• 06/2014 - 30%  (now paying 1000 extra each month)
• 06/2015 - 33%  (still paying 1000 extra each month)
• 08/2015 - 46%  (big fat payment in preparation for a requested recast next quarter)
• 03/2016 - 48%  (now paying 1400 extra each month)
• 08/2016 - 53%  (now paying 6400 extra each month (only did that for 4 months))
• 12/2016 - Long-awaited recast finally settled.  New payment is $1k less than previously.  Term resets to original 30 years, but I still want to pay this off before the 15-year mark, so I'm paying an extra 1945 each month going forward. 
• 04/2017 - 55%  (now paying 1945 extra each month)
• 02/2018 - 58%  (still paying 1945 extra each month)

Current payments (payment + 1945 extra each month) [STILL] feels like the right amount for my goals and circumstances. 


I'm updating my progress (it's been consistent, but slow) so that if I make another big lump payment, I'll see the progress jump.  Yay!

[frost7777]

Hello, first post after following MMM for several years.  Started getting serious about paying the mortgage off in 2014.  Hopping to join the club by next March!

Single income.
My wife stays at home with our three children.

12/2010 < 80k
03/2013 < 70k
04/2014 < 60k
12/2014 < 50k
09/2015 < 40k
03/2016 < 30k
03/2017 = 0 ??

Just to follow up:
12/2016 < 20k
03/2017 < 10k
05/2017 = 0

Missed my goal by a couple months, but I wasn't too worried about it since the balance was so low.  Now that I have been living without a mortgage for nearly a year, I can report that I have no regrets about paying it off.  Being free of that debt has freed up additional mental energy to think about other possibilities regarding investments and life goals in general.

Thank you everyone for your inspiration and support.

[Money Badger]

Update as of end of Feb, down to around $45K.   Focusing on pay-downs the next few months, plus hoping for a June bonus that will finally kill it mid-year.   [fingers and toes crossed]

@frizzy...   Race ya to July!  ;-)
@frost...  Great job killing that mortgage as sole bread winner especially.   Focus on being the best Dad and investor you can now be... happily debt free!