Mortgage Payoff Club!!

[Mrwannabemmm]

My saving account almost pays nothing , mortgage is 3.87 percent .
Maxing out my 401k but do not have any 529 for kids yet .

[manonfire1007]

I bought mine last year for 271k at 5% fixed with no points (long story). Have it on a 15 year. Should have it done in 58 months as I have a similar amount in student loans to kill first.

[Faraday]

I bought mine last year for 271k at 5% fixed with no points (long story). Have it on a 15 year. Should have it done in 58 months as I have a similar amount in student loans to kill first.

ON FIRE is right! Excellent, excellent, excellent.

[manonfire1007]

If I could burn it down faster, I would. That said, I would then have to add alimony to the expenses. Probably an unwise choice.

[RNwastash]

Made a small $500 extra payment.  Down to $123,536.82!!

[cdub]

I moved the Mortage Payoff Club blog from WordPress (which I hated) to a XenForo community which I know and love.

I also got it a much better domain.

Here it is:

http://mortgagepayoff.club/

I hope you like it.

Congrats to everyone on their progress!

[mom22boys]

My mortgage is still sitting around 156k, but I did sign on my refinance this morning, which was a good feeling.  Of course I'm not planning to pay off over 15 years but more like 5-7 years. :-) 

One victory is that last week I put an additional 10K against the special assessments on my house.  I didn't include that in my original post.  After that pay off, I'll be down to around 20K for the specials.  About half of that is at a pretty low interest rate (similar to mortgage) so I won't pay that off early.  I'm even thinking about just letting the full 20K ride, and instead move over to paying down the mortgage instead.  While I plan to be in this house for at least 10 years, I don't really see me recouping the specials when I sell. Plus, the new lucky owner would assume what's remaining of that debt.  What do others here do with specials?  Do you treat specials just like other debt and pay it off based on the interest rates?

[Faraday]

My mortgage is still sitting around 156k, but I did sign on my refinance this morning, which was a good feeling.  Of course I'm not planning to pay off over 15 years but more like 5-7 years. :-) 
...

hey mom22 - anything particular you can share about your refi? What interest rate, points, closing costs? Did you do anything like get quotes through lendingtree.com? Thanks for any info you can share!

[mom22boys]

mefla - No prob on the info.  I moved to a 15 year at 3.375.  No points, and $245 closing costs, most of which was the daily interest until the end of the month.  I could have gotten a lower interest rate, but didn't want to pay for points or high closing costs. The refi was through AimLoan.com.  Originally I went through LendingTree and I wish I hadn't.  Phone calls and email NON-STOP.  It was super annoying.  I had posted some questions on another thread and someone recommended AimLoan. They were really good to work with and came in at the lower rates/closing costs. The refi was completely done in less than 3 weeks.

[Uncle Scrooge]

Can confirm. Lending Tree was awful. Non stop calls for the first week or two.....and some are super aggressive salesmen.

I also looked into AIM Loans about a week to 10 days ago. We just had the appraiser at our house yesterday and I'm well on my way to refinancing. So far so good...

[Faraday]

re: AimLoans - INTERESTING! THANK YOU for the info, I'll check 'em out!

[peoria]

Refi in march of 2015 with first payment due on May 1, 2015.
$317,000 at 3.125%

We arw maxing out our Simple Iras and Roth Iras, then throwing everything extra at the mortgage.

We are down to $271,250 as of now.  We are trying to pay off another $15k by year end ( Christmas bonuses). Goal by 12/31 is 256,250.

[birdman2003]

My original mortgage was for $70k in 2012 (15 years @ fixed 3%) and now I think the principal balance is somewhere around $65k.  Obviously I have never made extra payments.  I think I will do that next year as I have extra monies not spoken for!

Thanks for the jumpstart to do this!

Still haven't made additional payments, but I do have a 15 year mortgage so it's like fixed double payments on a 30 year mortgage.  Remaining balance is now at $58k

[PFHC]

Initial mortgage was for $150k, 30 years at 3.5%.
Currently at $134k.
Just ran the numbers and shooting for an end date of Sep, 2018. Here we go!

[cdub]

Can confirm. Lending Tree was awful. Non stop calls for the first week or two.....and some are super aggressive salesmen.

I also looked into AIM Loans about a week to 10 days ago. We just had the appraiser at our house yesterday and I'm well on my way to refinancing. So far so good...

I had a good experience with Quicken Loans. I refinance with them 2 years ago.

(be sure to check out my site that is perfect for people on this thread http://mortgagepayoff.club/)

I'm working on around $260k 30 year fixed at 3.99 right now.

[Faraday]

Initial mortgage was for $150k, 30 years at 3.5%.
Currently at $134k.
Just ran the numbers and shooting for an end date of Sep, 2018. Here we go!

Hey PFHC: I am aiming to have mine done in that timeframe. Maybe we set a Dec. 2018 Goal Date and move it around if needed?

[cdub]

Initial mortgage was for $150k, 30 years at 3.5%.
Currently at $134k.
Just ran the numbers and shooting for an end date of Sep, 2018. Here we go!

Hey PFHC: I am aiming to have mine done in that timeframe. Maybe we set a Dec. 2018 Goal Date and move it around if needed?

Wow that's pretty good. How much extra per month are you throwing at it?

[Money Badger]

I'm going to put a chunk towards my mortgage beast and would appreciate some advice...   Anyone have experience with Third Federal for HELOC, fixed equity loan or a first mortgage?    If my current first mortgage holder won't allow a recast, I saw these guys on bankrate site and their rates are a full percent lower with fixed equity loan and shorter amortization.    What's the catch?   Their reviews on BBB and other sites are mixed...  If they stink, pls keep the cursing to less than 10 F-bombs a sentence please!  ;-)

[Faraday]

Initial mortgage was for $150k, 30 years at 3.5%.
Currently at $134k.
Just ran the numbers and shooting for an end date of Sep, 2018. Here we go!

Hey PFHC: I am aiming to have mine done in that timeframe. Maybe we set a Dec. 2018 Goal Date and move it around if needed?

Wow that's pretty good. How much extra per month are you throwing at it?

Hey cdub: my income is "lumpy" so I don't do a set amount per month, but I'm reaching $30k in 2015. I'd like to go even more in 2016, but I'd have to cut into my Roth IRA, not sure I wanna do that. Both the wife and I are working right now and I've got our expenses trimmed out enough that we can throw a lot of our income at it.

[K-ice]

I'm going to put a chunk towards my mortgage beast and would appreciate some advice...   Anyone have experience with Third Federal for HELOC, fixed equity loan or a first mortgage?    If my current first mortgage holder won't allow a recast, I saw these guys on bankrate site and their rates are a full percent lower with fixed equity loan and shorter amortization.    What's the catch?   Their reviews on BBB and other sites are mixed...  If they stink, pls keep the cursing to less than 10 F-bombs a sentence please!  ;-)

I do not know about them in particular. But I had a mixed mortgage HELOC from my bank and it gave me the added confidence that I could throw big chunks at the mortgage but still have access to a squishy emergency fund. Luckily, I never needed the HELOC, but I would highly recommend it. 

[Monocle Money Mouth]

I'll be throwing another $2500 at my mortgage principal this week. That will get the principal portion of our regular monthly payment ($816) over $600.

The next short term goal on the mortgage is getting the monthly interest under $200. I want to get these monthly payments as productive as possible :)

[Neustache]

^nice, mies!  I will be happy when my principal payment is more than my interest payment, but you are doing great!

[pdxmonkey]

I've been working at my mortgage for a while now. I originally had a 30 yr $146000 loan. In 2012 I refinanced into a 15 yr @ 2.875%. As of today I have about $67,500 remaining.

I flip flop between investing more and paying off the mortgage. I have been maxing out my contributions to a Roth IRA since my mid 20's and last year I maxed out my 401k (Roth) for the first time and will be doing so again this year. I had always considered retiring early, but have only recently considered retiring extremely early and finally about 2 months ago opened up a taxable investment account in addition to my 401k and IRA accounts as I'll need money outside those accounts to live on. I've put some money into this and started paying the mortgage down less aggressively although still more than the minimum payment. I really want to get it paid off even though mathematically it is not necessarily the best idea. If P/E ratio goes lower on the market I will probably not pay any extra on the mortgage.

[cdub]

I'll be throwing another $2500 at my mortgage principal this week. That will get the principal portion of our regular monthly payment ($816) over $600.

The next short term goal on the mortgage is getting the monthly interest under $200. I want to get these monthly payments as productive as possible :)

That's awesome. I'm hoping to be able to start sending that much $$$ at my mortgage soon enough.

[Monocle Money Mouth]

Thanks cdub and neustache! October has been a fairly inexpensive month so far which has helped. I may or may not be able to do an extra a principal payment in November because of this one. I'm ok with that.

[Faraday]

On track for a nice little principal abatement payment for that third paycheck in October. Been accumulating post-tax savings the entire month of STOCKTOBER. Looking forward to getting much closer to the Sacred Refinance Objective for January, 2016!

The plan is to refinance in January to a 10 or 8 year mortgage under 2.875%.  It's possible interest rates won't go down in January 2016. If not, then we don't refi, we just keep pushing hard as we can go.

[Jon_Snow]

Never looked at this thread before. Just want to say to everyone that you are kicking all sorts of mortgage-ass!

We killed our mortgage about 5 years before I FIRE'd...really, that was the point at which it was "all systems go" to FI...and beyond. This thread provides wonderful nostalgia and a nice reminder about the excitement created by watching a mortgage balance dwindle until it is GONE.

[cdub]

Never looked at this thread before. Just want to say to everyone that you are kicking all sorts of mortgage-ass!

We killed our mortgage about 5 years before I FIRE'd...really, that was the point at which it was "all systems go" to FI...and beyond. This thread provides wonderful nostalgia and a nice reminder about the excitement created by watching a mortgage balance dwindle until it is GONE.

Yes that's my goal too. I want to kick the mortgage payoff into high gear asap. I'm hoping to have that same joy and excitement too. :)

[Faraday]

We killed our mortgage about 5 years before I FIRE'd...really, that was the point at which it was "all systems go" to FI...and beyond. This thread provides wonderful nostalgia and a nice reminder about the excitement created by watching a mortgage balance dwindle until it is GONE.

Jon - thanks for chiming in on this thread. It truly helps when someone who is already FIRE touches back base to let us know we are on the right track.

[YoungGranny]

Refinance is complete! Mortgage balance is $131,500. Decided my goal will be to get it under $100k in 1 year. Hopefully completely paid off in 5 years or less but I think I need a short-term goal to focus on for motivation.

[Faraday]

Refinance is complete! Mortgage balance is $131,500. Decided my goal will be to get it under $100k in 1 year. Hopefully completely paid off in 5 years or less but I think I need a short-term goal to focus on for motivation.

ROCK ON YoungGranny! Same here, I've got the refi goal for January. You are right, you need an interim goal or a milestone to work to, so you can "feel the progress".

[K-ice]

We killed our mortgage about 5 years before I FIRE'd...

I would like to think I am on the same track. Mtg is gone as of last year and maybe 4-5 years until FI maybe RE.

I wonder if there is some math behind that?  If you can kill the mtg, then keep saving those payments in investments for 5 years after being mtg free. At that point it is probably a good time to retire. It would all depend on how big your mortgage payments were....

[Monocle Money Mouth]

Refinance is complete! Mortgage balance is $131,500. Decided my goal will be to get it under $100k in 1 year. Hopefully completely paid off in 5 years or less but I think I need a short-term goal to focus on for motivation.

Breaking it up in to smaller goals is a great idea YoungGranny. There are a lot of ways to do it. You can aim for a certain amount of principal to be gone by the end of the year. You can try to get the principal portion of your monthly payment up to a certain amount. You can try to get the interest portion of your monthly payment under a certain amount.
 
I've found using amortization calculators that are available online help me to set these types of goals. It helps make the money you are saving seem more real too since it's laid out in front of you in black and white.

[Money Badger]

The latest...   The option of cash in $135K and refi to a HELOC is boiling down to choosing either a 3% fixed equity loan or 4-ish% flexible HELOC line with options on fixed and flexible draws in the loan.    The following are rough numbers so don't pick...   A 15 year amortization on a fixed loan drops the monthly interest $300 a month and the total P+I monthly nut from $1100 to just under $600 after the cash in.   No risk on the $130k ever after and that frees up $500+ monthly cash flow and saves $250 in the remaining HELOC balance's interest amortization (despite higher % rate), and the ability to accelerate the $100k payoff to meet my "done in '21" FIRE goal.   I know investing could grow $130K faster but we save well already to catch back up and I sleep better.    Do it??

[Imonaboat]

Paid off our home last month ;)

We spent 2 years looking for the perfect house, saving tons of money while occasionally submitted very low ball offers on a house we liked. We finally found the perfect house and they accepted an offer of $200,000, down from the asking price of $235k. Since we had been saving for 2 years I was able to put 50% plus closing costs down.

After we moved in we made a budget based on the least amount of money I could possible earn. Everything extra went into the house, including last years tax return and my retention bonus plus a few weeks of unexpected overtime work. I also put in 2 full paychecks since we receive 26 per year.

First payment on the $100,000 mortgage was on June 16th, 2014
Final payoff payment was on October 6th 2015

Ended up paying about $6,000 for the loan including interest (3.625% @ 15 years).

Age 33
Married with 2 children
Total family salary around $120,000
Net worth was below $30k 4 years ago, Around $275k today with no outside sources of income.

Next step is reducing our budget further/again (It started slipping as soon as we were close to paying the house off) and to start investing

[YoungGranny]

mefla - any reason you're waiting until January to refinance? Just out of my own curiousity :)

mies - I LOVE amortization tables :) I actually enjoy building my own in excel so I can track numbers better and it's how I convinced my SO to pay down the mortgage faster and refinance. We're on track to pay $20,000 in interest over the life of the loan vs the $130,000 originally projected with our 30 year mortgage. (plus $1,400 we paid in PMI but at least that's off now....face punch for sure!)


Congratulations Imonaboat! Must feel nice to have that sucker paid off!!

[Faraday]

mefla - any reason you're waiting until January to refinance? Just out of my own curiousity :)

mies - I LOVE amortization tables :) I actually enjoy building my own in excel so I can track numbers better and it's how I convinced my SO to pay down the mortgage faster and refinance. We're on track to pay $20,000 in interest over the life of the loan vs the $130,000 originally projected with our 30 year mortgage. (plus $1,400 we paid in PMI but at least

YoungGranny: two reasons:
1) Principal will be at-or-below $100k, so a refi will free up at least $400/month of cash flow. We will then be able to live on one salary and save the other.
2) it has been my experience that interest rates are at their lowest in January-February months.

[freeatlast]

I may be facing a layoff, but luckily I have another income stream. If it happens, things will be tight but ok til I can get another gig. Even if I don't get layed off, I will likely leave cause the job is causing anxiety and is soul sucking.....

I have reduced my 30 year fixed at 3.625 from $262k to $222k. I can get it down to $200k with cash on hand still having a cushion of a few months emergency fund. 

Doing the math, if I reduce to $200k at 15 years with an APR of 3, my payments only go up a couple hundred bucks which we are paying in extra anyway.  So I am thinking I need to refi right NOW while I still am employed (layoffs wouldn't be til 2016 first quarter).

If I can pay this sucker off, then I am fully FI..... Gonna do it no matter what!

[Faraday]

I may be facing a layoff, but luckily I have another income stream. If it happens, things will be tight but ok til I can get another gig. Even if I don't get layed off, I will likely leave cause the job is causing anxiety and is soul sucking.....

You must be employed in high-tech too. :-/

I have reduced my 30 year fixed at 3.625 from $262k to $222k. I can get it down to $200k with cash on hand still having a cushion of a few months emergency fund. 

Remarkable! I don't know where you are located, but in the Southeast US, you will have gone from "Jumbo" territory into "Normal loan" territory, so you might be able to get under 3% (depending on your FICO).

Doing the math, if I reduce to $200k at 15 years with an APR of 3, my payments only go up a couple hundred bucks which we are paying in extra anyway.  So I am thinking I need to refi right NOW while I still am employed (layoffs wouldn't be til 2016 first quarter).

Not a bad idea! Historically, lower interest rates are available Nov - January:
http://www.freddiemac.com/pmms/pmms30.htm

[Bee21]

 We are getting very close to the finish line (<5000). I am pestering the man to book the meeting with the bank early December to finalise this before Christmas. And then, we will be co-owners no more. Somebody once wrote that paying off the mortgage is addictive, I am slightly obsessed with reducing the balance now.

[Faraday]

We are getting very close to the finish line (<5000). I am pestering the man to book the meeting with the bank early December to finalise this before Christmas. And then, we will be co-owners no more. Somebody once wrote that paying off the mortgage is addictive, I am slightly obsessed with reducing the balance now.

Wow! Great to watch someone actually get there!

[FerrumB5]

My *first* mortgage bill is due Nov. 1st, 2015.
225k for 20 years at 3.625%

I calculated that if I throw extra $100 each month towards principal, I save ~10k in interest and 1yr11mo in length. Let's round to 2 years, so mortgage length is 18 years.
Now, if I start from $3k, buy VSMTX and add $100 each month to it, in same 18 years my interest (given average 7%/yr) is $29k.

Net gain is $19k in favor of investing vs mortgage extra payments. Does it make sense to go this way? Am I doing the right math or did I not take into account some factors?

[Clean Shaven]

My *first* mortgage bill is due Nov. 1st, 2015.
225k for 20 years at 3.625%

I calculated that if I throw extra $100 each month towards principal, I save ~10k in interest and 1yr11mo in length. Let's round to 2 years, so mortgage length is 18 years.
Now, if I start from $3k, buy VSMTX and add $100 each month to it, in same 18 years my interest (given average 7%/yr) is $29k.

Net gain is $19k in favor of investing vs mortgage extra payments. Does it make sense to go this way? Am I doing the right math or did I not take into account some factors?

1) Does that net $19k gain factor in the $3k initial Vanguard purchase?  (did you also apply a $3k first extra payment of principal to the mortgage?)

2) Mathematically, a 7% average return on investment achieves a better outcome than prepaying a 3.625% mortgage. Nobody disputes this. The gray area where all the debate lies is your own personal comfort with that leveraged investment, vs. a guaranteed return by prepayment.

Me, I'm prepaying like crazy on a 30-year 3.5% note, which I hope to have completely paid in January 2016. Did I lose $ over the last 3 years (the duration of the mortgage so far) by doing this, rather than investing? Absolutely. But the market could have gone the other way and crashed in 2013-2014.  I'm saving plenty in other investments too, so I'm comfortable with these choices.

[FerrumB5]

Clean Shaven - thanks! I indeed forgot to add 3k towards one time payment in calculations. The savings ar 12.6k then, so net difference is still substantial in case of direct investments.
Comfort zone? Not sure yet, as I haven't made payments yet :) I will surely refinance in the next few years - already 30 year mortgage rates are approaching my 3.625% 20 year (when I applied, 30 yr was 4.01+, now it's around 3.7).

[SwordGuy]

Paid off our home last month ;)

We spent 2 years looking for the perfect house, saving tons of money while occasionally submitted very low ball offers on a house we liked. We finally found the perfect house and they accepted an offer of $200,000, down from the asking price of $235k. Since we had been saving for 2 years I was able to put 50% plus closing costs down.

After we moved in we made a budget based on the least amount of money I could possible earn. Everything extra went into the house, including last years tax return and my retention bonus plus a few weeks of unexpected overtime work. I also put in 2 full paychecks since we receive 26 per year.

First payment on the $100,000 mortgage was on June 16th, 2014
Final payoff payment was on October 6th 2015

That's an awesome paydown rate!  Congrats!

I especially like it that you didn't "shop like a normal person" for your home.   Normal is defined as "Be in a hurry to buy.  Fall in love with a house and lose all sense of financial perspective.  Overpay.  Whine about it later."   :)

We've been looking for a new home for the last two years also.   While we were looking for rental properties we kept an eye out for ourselves.   When we found an interesting house we marked it down and kept an eye on it.   Most of them sold at a higher price than we were willing to pay.  The one we're buying in the next few weeks didn't.   We're getting our new house at 30% off the conservatively appraised value, at a price that really works for us. 

And because we remember how great it felt to pay the old mortgage off, our goal is to pay this house off faster than you did! :)

Due to circumstances we can take no credit for, that should require much less effort on our part than it did on yours.   But it will make us just as happy! :)

[Debts_of_Despair]

We are getting very close to the finish line (<5000). I am pestering the man to book the meeting with the bank early December to finalise this before Christmas. And then, we will be co-owners no more. Somebody once wrote that paying off the mortgage is addictive, I am slightly obsessed with reducing the balance now.

Is this meeting necessary?  What do you need to talk about?  Honest question.

[Rural]

We are getting very close to the finish line (<5000). I am pestering the man to book the meeting with the bank early December to finalise this before Christmas. And then, we will be co-owners no more. Somebody once wrote that paying off the mortgage is addictive, I am slightly obsessed with reducing the balance now.

Is this meeting necessary?  What do you need to talk about?  Honest question.

 I wondered this myself. When we were ready to pay ours off, we just walked into the bank.

[steveo]

I have just under 100k owing at this point. I'd like to pay it off by the end of next year.

I now owe $13,800. It won't be paid off this year but it should be paid off early January.

We killed our mortgage about 5 years before I FIRE'd...really, that was the point at which it was "all systems go" to FI...and beyond.

I think that we are in this situation now. 5-6 years and then we will be FI.

[Money Badger]

I do not know about them in particular. But I had a mixed mortgage HELOC from my bank and it gave me the added confidence that I could throw big chunks at the mortgage but still have access to a squishy emergency fund. Luckily, I never needed the HELOC, but I would highly recommend it.
[/quote]

@KIce,  THANKS!   For the suggestion about the HELOC as that is what we're going to do in case of God forbids...   I'm now waiting to hear back if our current lender will recast our first mortgage (doubtful as it's a 7 year ARM under market rate and instead they'd love to get our mortgage off their books AND sell us a new "full recourse" HELOC note at higher margins for them of course).   And the shopping continues with the most promising other lenders...

[rjbf65]

I'll join.

Started June 2014 at 71k.

It's currently $55k.  Goal is to finish it off by next June.   Have 20k in cash that would finish it off by then.  We are currently investing 15% as well.   Basically doing the Dave Ramsey plan.

Currently down to $51,500.  Hoping to get under $50K a month from today.

Down to $49660.  Was able to throw an extra $1555 at it this time.  Budgeting to be able to throw an extra $2500 next month.

$46,950 -- a $2,710 reduction this month.  October should be a little better with the magic of the 3 paychecks for me this month.  Should be under $40K by end of the year.

$41,843 -- a $5,107 reduction this month.  The 3rd paycheck was big this time.  Would love to be able to do that every month!  My goal for end of November is to get under 40K.  Once I'm at the $40K mark, I'll have about equal amounts of cash in the bank and mortgage balance.  Still also maxing out 2 Roth IRA's which speaks for $917 per month.  It is always tempting to stop the Roth or to throw a bunch of the available cash at it.  I think I'll just stay the course of throwing all the extra cash that was left over after the month at it.  Once the mortgage is gone, all towards investing.