The Money Mustache Community

General Discussion => Throw Down the Gauntlet => Topic started by: cdub on March 26, 2013, 10:53:47 PM

Title: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cdub on March 26, 2013, 10:53:47 PM
I started a quest to pay off my mortgage! I even created a blog to document my journey.

https://mortgagepayoff.club/ (https://mortgagepayoff.club/)

Who's with me?

Paying off our mortgages would certainly be badass. (I hope you enjoy the blog too)

EDIT - updated URL with new domain for the site :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cdub on March 28, 2013, 10:06:52 AM
I just added a new page to the blog where people can commit to pay off their mortgage early:

https://mortgagepayoff.club/articles/what-is-the-mortgage-payoff-club.1/ (https://mortgagepayoff.club/articles/what-is-the-mortgage-payoff-club.1/)

I hope you enjoy the site!

EDIT - updated outdated URL
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Emerald on March 28, 2013, 12:39:26 PM
Thanks, I'll check it out.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: makincaid on March 29, 2013, 05:38:56 AM
I wish I could join, but I paid off my mortgage two years ago : )
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Mr Mark on March 29, 2013, 09:35:30 PM
Sorry, but unless you have a monstrously large stash, I think this is a poor investment decision. Borrow at 3.5% fixed for 30years. Put the overpayments into the sp500, et al.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tomsang on March 29, 2013, 10:35:31 PM
I believe you are hurting your financial balance sheet. If you said let's refinance and increase our mortgage to the highest level possible because the silly government is giving away free money at 3.5% for 30 years or 2.75% for 15 years I might be excited. If you can't beat 3.5% over 30 years then your safe withdrawal rate would probably be 1% and more tied to your lifespan vs. investment returns.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dianas Report on March 29, 2013, 11:49:36 PM
mr mark & tomsang, the average return on my overall IRA investment portfolio is around 5%. So after taxes & other misc. fees deducted... the return be close to the 3.5% home loan. So either way it's pretty close. Unless you manage to ideally have a higher investment return rate of 10% then I could see holding on to the loan.

The only minor benefit I can think of to still hold a mortgage is the write off for mortgage interest paid.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tomsang on March 30, 2013, 08:31:23 AM
mr mark & tomsang, the average return on my overall IRA investment portfolio is around 5%. So after taxes & other misc. fees deducted... the return be close to the 3.5% home loan. So either way it's pretty close. Unless you manage to ideally have a higher investment return rate of 10% then I could see holding on to the loan.

The only minor benefit I can think of to still hold a mortgage is the write off for mortgage interest paid.

So you are saying that during one of the worst recessions of all time that you earned 5% on your investment. That is 1.5% better than your return on paying down a 3.5% mortgage. If you do the math you will see that 1.5% additional yield would make a huge difference to your net worth and financial stability over the next 30 years. A 30 or 15 year fixed mortgage is an unbelievable hedge against inflation and is a gift from the government. Look at those from Australia. They are paying 6% for their 10 year fixed. My point is don't get hung up on the Dave Ramsey and other mantras that debt is bad. If you are Mustachian than debt can be safer and more lucrative than assets when the government is pumping up the economy with free money. By the way my portfolio over the past 10 years has averaged 8.2% in plain vanilla Trowe Price funds. So you may want to analyze why you are getting 5%.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dianas Report on March 31, 2013, 12:05:55 AM
Tomsang, I verified the exact Vanguard Target Retirement 2045 Fund VTIVX 5 year return  is 4.99%.

So you recommend instead of paying off extra money on principle of the home, to invest it instead?

By the way Troweprice expense ratio is 3x the amount Vanguard charges and their 2045 fund performed .10% better. Pretty sure I'm the winner here =0)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tomsang on March 31, 2013, 08:17:31 AM
Tomsang, I verified the exact Vanguard Target Retirement 2045 Fund VTIVX 5 year return  is 4.99%.

So you recommend instead of paying off extra money on principle of the home, to invest it instead?

By the way Troweprice expense ratio is 3x the amount Vanguard charges and their 2045 fund performed .10% better. Pretty sure I'm the winner here =0)

Thank you for proving my point.  In the worst recession ever, paying off your mortgage cost you 1.5%. I also think you should be looking at long term investments not short term, which would show investments earning 8%+as my post indicated.  So you would be losing 4.5% yield which would be a huge blow to your net worth.

I did find it interesting looking at the 10 year returns of the various funds. It looks like the vast majority of the equity investments outperformed a 3.5% mortgage return. If you get a a 15 year mortgage you are looking at needing to beat a 2.75% return.

Again if you can't beat the mortgage rates right now, then most people are significantly in trouble as the Safe Withdrawal Rates would be around 1% and more closely tied to life expectancy.  From reading your other posts you are concerned about inflation. A 30 year mortgage at 3.5% is probably the best hedge for inflation that you can find.

Here is a link to the Vanguard performance by fund.
https://personal.vanguard.com/us/FundsByName
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dianas Report on April 01, 2013, 12:07:35 AM
tomsang, I could see what your saying does seem like valid advice.

Let's say you max out your IRA's & TSP for the year. You have a little over, so you would invest the rest? even though you pay the capital gains tax and not put that into your principle? It just doesn't seem right, since paying off my mortgage early saves me over $200,000 in interest.

According to Washington Post, Capital Gains Tax will increase from 15% to possibly 25%. Not pleasant news to us investors.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tomsang on April 01, 2013, 04:30:26 PM
It just doesn't seem right, since paying off my mortgage early saves me over $200,000 in interest.
According to Washington Post, Capital Gains Tax will increase from 15% to possibly 25%. Not pleasant news to us investors.[/color]

Paying off your mortgage may "Save You $200,000 in mortgage interest", but the bigger issue is how much does it costs you in "Portfolio Gain".

If you have a $600,000 mortgage and pay it off over 30 years at 3.5% mortgage rate, then you will pay approximately $370,000 in interest over the 30 years.  If you choose to make an additional $1,500 per month mortgage payment, then you will cut the 30 year mortgage down to 188 month mortgage and you will pay approximately $178,000 in interest.

So by making an additional $1,500 payment per month, you "save" $192,000 in interest.  Close to your $200,000 savings that you mentioned.

So how does $1,500 per month going to your mortgage cost your portfolio over time?

That depends on what return you have over a 188 month/close to 15.5 year time frame.

Starting with 0, your portfolio would grow to the following at the following yields:

11% = $746,000     
10% = $677,000
 9% = $615,000
 8% = $560,000
 7% = $510,000
 6% = $466,000
 5% = $427,000
 4% = $391,000
3.5% = $367,000

In 188 months your mortgage would be 0 if you made extra payments of $1,500  per month or it would be $367,000 if you paid $0 extra. 

188 payments of $1,500 = $282,000 of capital

So the taxes would be calculated based on the return - $282,000.  IE 11% = $746,000-$282,000 = $464,000 gain.  25% of the gain = 25% of $464,000 = $116,000 of taxes if you cashed them all in at once.  You would probably manage taxes better.  $746,000 - $116,000 = $630,000.  Subtract off the mortgage that you still have of $367,000 and you have a benefit of $263,000.

After your tax rate of 25%, the results would be as follows:

11% = $263,000
10% = $211,000
 9% = $165,000
 8% = $124,000
 7% = $86,000
 6% = $53,000
 5% = $24,000
 4% = $-3,250
3.5% = -21,250

This is calculated at a very high capital gain rate of 25%, and not managing any taxes.  Just cashing out in 188 months, and many other assumptions that don't make sense.  The biggest one is all the current tax benefits that you get by itemizing your taxes and claiming your home mortgage deduction. 

Using the current 15% tax rate would result in:

11% = $309,000
10% = $251,000
 9% =$198,000
 8%  = $151,000
 7% = $109,000
 6% = $71,000
 5% = $38,000
 4% = $7,650
3.5% = $12,750 

Again with managing your realization of the gains you should be able to bring down taxes even further and again this does not take into the benefits of having the home mortgage deduction on your tax return while you are still paying high tax rates while you are working.

So over a period of 30 years, if you can get anything above 4% you are better off keeping your 3.5% mortgage as long as possible.

I am confident that I can get above 4%, if I can't then I would probably be earning a 0% return after inflation.  If we have that then our Safe Withdrawal Rate would be close to 1% which would cause significant issues to everyone.  A 30 year fixed rate mortgage is a great hedge against inflation.  The Government is giving those who take it free money to jumpstart the economy.  Those who pay it down faster than required are foregoing the government's gift to homeowners.     
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Tyler on April 01, 2013, 05:29:51 PM
C'mon guys.  Let's apply some perspective here. 

It doesn't matter if keeping a mortgage and investing the balance can make you more money over the long haul.  Paying off a mortgage, if that's what someone wants to do, is an awesome accomplishment and deserves praise rather than criticism. 

Save the face punches for people who really need them!  I'm borderline on dishing out a few for being so focused on maximizing returns that we neglect to value and recognize tremendous savings accomplishments. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cdub on April 01, 2013, 10:44:35 PM
Being free from payments is the goal. As far as "The only minor benefit I can think of to still hold a mortgage is the write off for mortgage interest paid." - doesn't make sense to pay $10 to the bank to get $3 back from the government.

I'll just be able to stop paying that $10 to the bank and keep my money.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dianas Report on April 02, 2013, 12:30:51 AM
tomsang, I enjoy looking through all the calculations. Thank you. You helped me to see that I can certainly win bigger in the long term by investing the difference. "the bigger issue is how much does it costs you in "Portfolio Gain".

Tyler, for me it does matter "if keeping a mortgage and investing the balance can make you more money over the long haul." LOL Save the face punches for people who really need them! I don't think anyone was doing that here =>

Cdub, true, we must all do what is right in our individual cases. I can totally relate to what your saying... it would feel better to rest my head down at night knowing I don't have a Humongous mortgage waiting to be paid off.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: LizzyBee on April 12, 2013, 08:55:01 PM
Cdub, congrats on the goal. I am struggling with the choice between investing and paying down the mortgage. I know, as people have stated, that it makes more sense to invest, but there's something really mentally freeing about getting rid of debt.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jrhampt on April 13, 2013, 07:01:51 AM
C'mon guys.  Let's apply some perspective here. 

It doesn't matter if keeping a mortgage and investing the balance can make you more money over the long haul.  Paying off a mortgage, if that's what someone wants to do, is an awesome accomplishment and deserves praise rather than criticism. 

Save the face punches for people who really need them!  I'm borderline on dishing out a few for being so focused on maximizing returns that we neglect to value and recognize tremendous savings accomplishments.

Agreed.  It's a win-win situation, basically.  You can argue between better and best, but it's all good.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Mazzinator on April 15, 2013, 02:13:45 PM
Quote
In 188 months your mortgage would be 0 if you made extra payments of $1,500  per month or it would be $367,000 if you paid $0 extra. 

And after 188 months you would be "saving" about $2000-$3000/month by not having a mortgage payment..plus the extra $1500/month extra you were paying.. Shouldn't that count for something???
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tomsang on April 15, 2013, 10:44:26 PM
Quote
In 188 months your mortgage would be 0 if you made extra payments of $1,500  per month or it would be $367,000 if you paid $0 extra. 

And after 188 months you would be "saving" about $2000-$3000/month by not having a mortgage payment..plus the extra $1500/month extra you were paying.. Shouldn't that count for something???

No, because the math already takes this into account. If your portfolio was averaging greater than 3.5%, then your portfolio would be so big that you could liquidate a part of it, pay off the mortgage and have a sizable chunk left over. In an early chart I show the net benefit at various investment returns. At 8% you would be ahead by $151,000. If you can earn more than 3.5% then you are better off keeping the mortgage. If you can't earn 3.5%, then your safe withdrawal rate would be 1% or less based on age as you most likely will not be exceeding inflation.

I understand the psychological effect of paying down the mortgage, but mathematically it is a worse answer if you can hit 4% or more in your portfolio.

The government is giving away free money to jump start the economy. This is a once in the lifetime event. Those who pay it down faster are giving back the free money. If the choices are pay down the mortgage or blow your money, then obviously pay down the mortgage. If you are disciplined then invest in Vanguard and statistically you will be ahead.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tomsang on April 15, 2013, 10:58:38 PM
Being free from payments is the goal. As far as "The only minor benefit I can think of to still hold a mortgage is the write off for mortgage interest paid." - doesn't make sense to pay $10 to the bank to get $3 back from the government.

I'll just be able to stop paying that $10 to the bank and keep my money.

For me, the goal is to become financially independent. How I manage my balance sheet gets me closer or farther away.  With interest rates at all time lows, giving up 7-10% to save 3.5% doesn't make much sense. Again if it helps you from blowing money, then it makes sense to paydown the mortgage. If you can set up a Vanguard account, transfer money into it on a monthly basis, and invest it achieving 3.5% or better you will be in a financially better off position. This will help you achieve financial independence quicker.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: expatartist on April 15, 2013, 11:08:27 PM
Very interesting thread! Something we'll consider in a few years when looking at mortgages -- but the world will be a different time/place then, and we won't be in the US.

We've never had a mortgage, just own a small holiday home that we rent out, paid for it in cash ($10,000) and renovations in cash too. It's a work in progress...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: chatsc on April 16, 2013, 06:05:41 AM
I like the idea of paying off my mortgage.  I live in Canada, so we cannot claim the interest.  I realize that some people feel that investing is a better plan, but I think the mental aspect of it all is under rated.  I love the idea of owing my properties, free and clear.  Can you imagine....

I am not in a position to start adding significant extra money to my mortgage yet, but in a couple of years, when all the kiddies are in school full days, then it will be on....
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tomsang on April 16, 2013, 08:03:28 AM
I like the idea of paying off my mortgage.  I live in Canada, so we cannot claim the interest.  I realize that some people feel that investing is a better plan, but I think the mental aspect of it all is under rated.  I love the idea of owing my properties, free and clear.  Can you imagine....

I am not in a position to start adding significant extra money to my mortgage yet, but in a couple of years, when all the kiddies are in school full days, then it will be on....

In the US you never own your property. You always have to pay real estate taxes. If you don't pay your real estate taxes the government takes away your property. Also in the US, the government is trying to pump up the economy so they are keeping interest rates artificially low. I know this is not the case in Australia. The math done above does not take into account any benefits of deducting your mortgage interest for tax purposes, so the answer would be the same in Canada or anywhere else that has low interest rates. In fact the math above used artificially high capital gains rates, so it would be a worst case scenario. It would be hard to have capital gains rates this high unless your post retirement income was $150,000++. As I stated upfront, investing or paying off debt is good. I just see a lot of people focusing on debt, when they potentially would be better off investing at these artificially low mortgage rates. A long term mortgage is a great hedge. If you think the future will have inflation, then a long term mortgage is a huge asset. If you think that we are entering a stage of deflation then it is not an asset and owning a home outright would also be a bad answer. You should rent in a deflationary environment. It is in the US government's best interest to create an inflationary environment. How much is the question?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: lauren_knows on April 16, 2013, 08:06:57 AM
We just refinanced (last week) to 30yr @ 3.5%. Funny enough, our "extra" money at the end of each month (minus 401k/IRA/529 contributions) is about $1500, like the examples above.

We've agonized over the numbers and the potential psychological feeling of paying off the mortgage.  Fact is, coming out of this terrible recession is an even bigger long-term buying opportunity for the stock market, even before considering the fact that the stock market historically outperforms that 3.5% rate.   We've been making monthly deposits to our Vanguard brokerage account for the past 2 years, no regrets.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Mazzinator on April 17, 2013, 02:05:20 PM
Quote
Quote from: MrMurphy on April 15, 2013, 02:13:45 pm
Quote
In 188 months your mortgage would be 0 if you made extra payments of $1,500  per month or it would be $367,000 if you paid $0 extra.

And after 188 months you would be "saving" about $2000-$3000/month by not having a mortgage payment..plus the extra $1500/month extra you were paying.. Shouldn't that count for something???

No, because the math already takes this into account. If your portfolio was averaging greater than 3.5%, then your portfolio would be so big that you could liquidate a part of it, pay off the mortgage and have a sizable chunk left over. In an early chart I show the net benefit at various investment returns. At 8% you would be ahead by $151,000. If you can earn more than 3.5% then you are better off keeping the mortgage. If you can't earn 3.5%, then your safe withdrawal rate would be 1% or less based on age as you most likely will not be exceeding inflation.

I understand the psychological effect of paying down the mortgage, but mathematically it is a worse answer if you can hit 4% or more in your portfolio.

The government is giving away free money to jump start the economy. This is a once in the lifetime event. Those who pay it down faster are giving back the free money. If the choices are pay down the mortgage or blow your money, then obviously pay down the mortgage. If you are disciplined then invest in Vanguard and statistically you will be ahead.

Oh, Ok, i get it, because 188months is 15.5 yrs.. So, if you then invested the $3,500 for 14.5yrs after paying it off (total 30yrs) you'd still be ahead of investing $1500 for 30yr.. because that is the argument/misconception is that after it's paid off you'll have $xx extra to invest/catch up.

Is there a time frame, say if you could payit off in 2 yrs or 5yrs vs 15.5.. Would that make a diff?? Or does the interest rate make a diff?

I'm not trying to be an ass, i'm just trying to learn. I don't have a mortgage but big student loans.

Or you can see my situation here:
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/should-we-change-sl-repayment-plans/

I'd love any advice!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: AccidentalMiser on April 17, 2013, 03:21:04 PM
Anyone asking themselves whether or not to pay off their $367000 mortgage may be asking themselves the wrong question. 

The first question they should probably ask is "WHY ON EARTH DO I HAVE A $367000 DOLLAR MORTGAGE?"  The follow-up should be "Where can I buy a less expensive house that still meets my needs?"

OK, now that I've gotten that out of my system, I'll simply say that people who want to pay off their mortgages early do so more for psychological reasons than fiscal reasons.

In my case, one of my "Must Do" items before Early Retirement is to have my (small, reasonably priced) home paid for.  That way, if the bear comes and takes all my porridge, I can still live comfortably working whatever job I can find and I don't have to worry about living in my car or moving.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: peterpatch on April 17, 2013, 04:07:57 PM
With such a low interest rate I would be very careful about this gauntlet. Mortgages in the US are fixed , tax deductible (from what I understand) and low interest right now. Also in some states you can walk away from the debt and they can only take your home as collateral. Someone also mentioned the inflation hedge which is also important if and when there is a lot of inflation you still only owe the fixed interest rate. Inflation transfers wealth to high debt-to-equity people from low debt-equity people.

If this were high interest credit card, student loan or bank debt I would be all for it due to the higher interest rates and risk involved in trying to invest at higher rates to offset the interest. But in this case I would take a look at some very safe investments to see if you can't find something that would provide higher yield then the mortgage interest.

 

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: marty998 on April 17, 2013, 05:46:43 PM
With such a low interest rate I would be very careful about this gauntlet. Mortgages in the US are fixed , tax deductible (from what I understand) and low interest right now. Also in some states you can walk away from the debt and they can only take your home as collateral. Someone also mentioned the inflation hedge which is also important if and when there is a lot of inflation you still only owe the fixed interest rate. Inflation transfers wealth to high debt-to-equity people from low debt-equity people.


And there you have it...the causes of the financial mess we are currently in.

1) fixed interest rates*** which don't allow banks to reprice risk when market circumstances change, forcing them to take out trillions of swaps and derivatives to adjust the earnings on their loan books when their variable rate liability interest rates reset. (Note swaps and derivatives are not bad per se, it's the counterparty risk and interconnected nature of the system that is the problem)
2) tax deduction causes a distortion of the market which favours over-leveraging
3) low interest rates also favour over-leveraging
4) the option for borrowers in default to walk away from their obligations.

But I digress.

We have comparatively higher interest rates here, and I for one am comfortable with paying down my mortgage as fast as possible. I own an asset that is going up in value, that will be CGT free on sale, and I get a tax free guaranteed "return" of 5.39% before tax by paying it off.

***The problem I highlighted in (1) is actually far more complicated, and includes such bullshit accounting treatments involving booking revenue up front on 30 yr loans, not adequately pricing for default, securitisation and transfer of risk without appropriate price etc etc etc...oh I could go on forever.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: marty998 on April 17, 2013, 05:56:58 PM
Anyone asking themselves whether or not to pay off their $367000 mortgage may be asking themselves the wrong question. 

The first question they should probably ask is "WHY ON EARTH DO I HAVE A $367000 DOLLAR MORTGAGE?"  The follow-up should be "Where can I buy a less expensive house that still meets my needs?"


I actually find that statement quite funny. Mine is not that large, but many residents of the harbour city can only dream of getting their mortgage down to that level :) Horse has bolted here, nobody wants a falling property market just so mortgages become smaller on new purchases.

I think the real problem is many people don't understand that the 30 yr mortgage doesn't have to be 30 yrs. paying 1 or 2 hundred a month more than the min can knock 10 yrs off easy. Simple maths.

Regarding the above arguments on investing instead of paying the mortgage...Yes you could invest the difference and make more but thats the beauty of choice. We're all entitled to make our own.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cdub on July 09, 2013, 09:21:15 AM
New blog post: Just paid for a certified Honda Odyssey in cash for $17k. It is the "limited" edition - limited as it has jack squat. ie - no nav or fancy automatic doors... so we'll GASP have to use our hands. (you mean I actually have to POINT the remote!!?!?)

But it's our first cash car payment EVER which I'm really excited about.

http://mortgage-payoff-club.com/2013/07/08/just-purchased-a-2010-honda-odyssey-in-cash/
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Spudd on July 09, 2013, 10:31:52 AM
I like the idea of paying off my mortgage.  I live in Canada, so we cannot claim the interest.  I realize that some people feel that investing is a better plan, but I think the mental aspect of it all is under rated.  I love the idea of owing my properties, free and clear.  Can you imagine....

The other thing about Canada, is there's no 30 year loans like in the US. After 5 years, your term is up and your interest rate will reset, and it could be to a much higher rate.

Personally I am maxing out my registered accounts (TFSA & RRSP) and then throwing whatever is left into the mortgage.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: No Name Guy on July 09, 2013, 11:59:01 AM
Unspoken by Tomsang, but what needs to be understood by all, as one consideration of the strategy they (Tomsang) advocates:

The borrow / keep the mortgage and invest carries a risk that simply paying off debt doesn't have - eg counterparty risk. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterparty_risk#Counterparty_risk

In other words, you HAVE to earn a higher rate of return to just make the risk adjusted returns worth it.  An example of this is holding high yield (HY) debt (e.g. Junk Bonds") versus so called "risk free" US Government Treasuries.  "My 10% HY  beats your paltry 2%".  Well, not really, or its not so simple as simply comparing rates.  You HAVE to earn 10% (or what ever the current HY rate is) to compensate you for the higher counterparty risk - there's a reason junk bonds HAVE to pay so much versus the Treasury, they tend to default a lot more frequently.

Earning 5% (or 8% or 11%) with counterparty risks (e.g. the bond may default, the company may go bankrupt and wipe out equity, the dividend may be cut, Apple's next product can be a turd which kills the stock price, etc) versus 3.5% guaranteed with getting out of debt....well, one has to decide if the extra 1.5% (or what ever the exact number is) is worth that risk of losing part or all of ones investments.  After all, practically every mans asset (bond, equity) is another's liability which they MIGHT default on (hard assets such as real estate or physical commodities that are possessed are notable exceptions, but, obviously, carry their own risks).

The mortgage you're paying to the bank is your liability....but the bank holds it as an asset on their ledger.  See how it works?  The money in your checking or savings account is YOUR asset, but the bank records that as a liability on their books (since they have to hand you cash on demand).

Don't think there are counterparty risks?  Ask those GM bondholders, or Enron shareholders about it, to name 2 obvious examples.  Ask those long term RIMM shareholders about what happens when a former tech leader loses it edge and becomes an also ran.  Ask the depositors in Cypress who were "bailed in" and had their savings (assets to them, liabilities to the banks) confiscated.

I'm not saying either way is right or wrong, but one must understand the risks of various strategies and earn corresponding returns to make the risks worthwhile.  And one simply can't compare rate of return of Strategy A versus Strategy B without also discussing the inherent risks else it's an apples to oranges comparison. 

Risk tolerance is such a personal thing, so understand YOUR risk tolerance.  Understand the risks of your strategy on getting to FI / ER / IW and tailor those risks to your personal tolerance level.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cdub on July 09, 2013, 12:33:04 PM
Personally - even though my mortgage is at 3.99 which is pretty good - completely freeing up the need for the $1,300 or so mortgage payment is the goal for peace of mind.

I'm freelance - there's no guarantee I'll always be making what I'm making now. Reducing as many mandatory monthly expenses as quickly as possible is the best possible way for a stress free future.

Because all of the math examples above seem to rely on the fact that your income is steady - mine is not. Or at least it has the potential to not be.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tomsang on July 09, 2013, 05:08:32 PM
If your income is not steady than you are much safer investing vs paying off your mortgage. If you lose your job you can't just call the bank up and tell them that you lost your job, but no worries as I prepaid for 3 years. They will take your house. Yet if you lose your job and have 3 years of payments saved up you can draw them down to pay down your mortgage. Investments are liquid, 401k is protected by bankruptcy, and if a natural disaster destroys your house you most likely will get debt relief by FEMA or the bank va. a paid off house. If you can't beat a 4% rate of return then your SWR is lower than 4% and most likely close to 1%. Paying off the mortgage is much more risky even though it has an emotional level of comfort. Either way, as long as you understand how this is impacting your FI and the risk that you are taking on it is all good. Unfortunately many people feel that debt is bad at all cost and are willing to pass up the free money the government is throwing at you to jump start the economy.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cdub on July 09, 2013, 08:31:51 PM
If your income is not steady than you are much safer investing vs paying off your mortgage.

I have almost 6 months of living expenses saved up - so this aspect doesn't worry me. I just hate the idea of having debt.... and a mortgage free life will make it very easy to retire early.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ToeInTheWater on July 10, 2013, 04:54:24 AM
getting my mortgage paid off will be a huge step towards our FI, so we're doing it fast.  our 15 yr (july-11 refi) will be paid off by appr Dec 14.  i'll be 54 at that point, we have a pretty decent stache, so will then seriously consider RE. 

and yes, i get the math behind paying down vs investing.  this may be more of an elimination of risk vs potential for rewards decision being decided in favor of risk elimination.

probably won't do it that young (as i said in my "intro" post, i love my job), but not having the mtg will give us the freedom to do so if we choose.

long story, short, we're in with cdub.

b
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Coup on July 21, 2013, 03:01:23 PM
There is more to it than simple math. Owning your own home free and clear removes a level of stress from your life that opens up more opportunities in your head. Once we were mortgage free it gave us the courage to start our own business, which was slow to start but slowly grew to be fully supporting us both full-time earning a nice income.

I just don't think that we would have been in the same mental headspace where we could have started our biz and made as good of decisions if we had a mortgage to deal with.


Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cdub on August 19, 2013, 11:00:54 PM
After doing my most recent extra payment of $539.41 I realize that I've almost shaved a year on my 30 year loan already! Woot woot!

http://mortgage-payoff-club.com/2013/08/19/539-41-extra-paid-to-the-mortgage-this-month/
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Oltmanh on August 24, 2013, 08:34:57 PM
I am working to pay off our mortgage this year.  Owe $36k now... Just want to have zero debt.   I appreciate all the math arguments but I want fewer monthly bills.   And I have an MBA Finance so I can say I understand the math ;).  I think there is an argument for simplicity here as well.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Xavier on August 25, 2013, 06:07:04 PM
I'm with you on this brother!
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/my-first-challenge-pay-off-my-mortgage-by-june-30-2014/

Let's keep each other motivated on this.

I checked out your other blog on this as well.  Good stuff.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Katnina on August 27, 2013, 01:35:24 PM
Paid mine off 2 yrs ago & the peace of mind was sooooooooo worth it.  Sure, I could have made a higher return being in stocks, but sometimes peace of mind is Roth more than a higher rate of return.  Good luck!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cdub on August 31, 2013, 09:22:58 PM
Paid mine off 2 yrs ago & the peace of mind was sooooooooo worth it.  Sure, I could have made a higher return being in stocks, but sometimes peace of mind is Roth more than a higher rate of return.  Good luck!

Awesome! Yes I hope to pay it off within 10 years or less. Way less once my wife goes back to work - but at my current pay schedule it'll be 10 years. Probably around 5 when she does.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Katnina on September 01, 2013, 11:46:09 AM
excellent!  Very exciting ;).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: HumanCalculator on September 01, 2013, 12:44:29 PM
After long debates with my partner in life, we settled on doubling our current weekly mortgage payments. We agreed that we prefer having the peace of mind of owning our house outright. Payment is now 17% interest, 83% capital instead of 35% interests, 65% capital.

Done in 7.5, or 6 if we drop an additional 17k$ per year. But I figure this will only happens if both our RRSP and TFSA are fully invested in.

When I bought the house a year ago, I figured I would have to pay mortgage payments for the next 25 years. No way I decided, I want to be done by 35.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FrugalZony on September 26, 2013, 01:49:43 PM
Just realised I will be done next month!
Pretty much five years after buying the house!
Whew!! What a relief!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: medinaj2160 on September 27, 2013, 08:48:57 PM
Peace of mind is priceless...

I will be paying my home as fast as I can.. hopefully 27-25 years early :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: The knitter on October 05, 2013, 07:05:44 AM
Interesting thread.

The DH and I are about to buy our first home (a two-family at $215,000). We locked in a 4 percent interest rate and are hoping to close in a couple weeks.

Everything is going to change financially for us once we move, so we are working up hypothetical numbers and evaluating our goals.

We go back and forth about paying down the mortgage early, or saving up a big down payment for house number two, or investing the extra money into index funds, or a combination of all three.

I'll be sending this thread to him to help feed our discussion on the topic. I'm leaning towards keeping our regular mortgage payments and freeing up the extra money to do something smarter with it. But I can't deny the lure of having my own home paid off entirely.






Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cdub on October 26, 2013, 10:44:42 AM
New blog post! Extra $1,010.94 paid!

http://mortgage-payoff-club.com/
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Pollyanna on October 28, 2013, 07:48:55 AM
cdub, I'm with you, working on $0 balance by YE 2014.  However, I have to confess I am mid-50's and really should not even have a mortgage by now!  We refinanced in 2003 to a 15 year, and I have been paying extra for a while now, and we should be to zero balance by October 2014 barring anything unforeseen that creates an obstacle that can't be managed any other way.  Our goal is to have no payment going into retirement. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Hatawa on October 31, 2013, 05:25:55 AM
I'm in too. In my country the interest rates are extremely high so no investment can beat it. Mine is a 20 year mortgage but I hope to have it paid off in 6-7 years. Still seems really long :(
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: nora on October 31, 2013, 07:04:03 AM
 I am in. Intending to pay it all off in four years or less. This one is a big $600000 and 5.2% interest.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cdub on November 05, 2013, 11:03:33 AM
New blog post:

http://mortgage-payoff-club.com/2013/11/05/i-love-ynab-i-adore-chromebooks-heres-how-to-install-ynab-on-a-chromebook/

How to get the awesome budgeting app YNAB installed on the awesome low budget and did I say AWESOME and EASY TO USE Chromebook.

This will get ANY windows app working on a Chrombeook btw - it allows you to run Linux at the same time as Chrome OS and uses WINE to run Windows apps. :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jrhampt on November 05, 2013, 11:19:44 AM
I'm in, too.  We've been paying extra for a while, but started doubling our payments on our 15-year mortgage this summer.  At current payment levels, our payoff date is in 4 years.  I think we can improve on that, though, if we choose.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cdub on November 05, 2013, 01:59:34 PM
I'm in, too.  We've been paying extra for a while, but started doubling our payments on our 15-year mortgage this summer.  At current payment levels, our payoff date is in 4 years.  I think we can improve on that, though, if we choose.

Nice! - At our current rate we should be done in 11 years but once my wife goes back to work we should be able to get that down to 4 as well.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: OOBER on November 09, 2013, 06:35:42 AM
Good job OP, every bit helps.

I'm in.

We bought our house ~3 years ago, and bought about 1/2 the home that we could have "afforded" according to the bank. With two incomes and no kids (yet), we currently stand at 75% paid off and hope to be fully paid off in the next 12-24 months. My original goal starting out was <5 years, and it looks like we will beat it.

I have personal issues with investing in things that I am unable to control (at least somewhat) and hate owing people/businesses money. My aim is the KISS method. The less time I have to spend dealing with things that could just be "done" the more I can get done otherwise.

I plan to have my own small business going sometime soon and there is something to be said for not having a house payment. It is relatively easy to come up with just property taxes/insurance/utilities/groceries month to month especially with the Mustacian lifestyle.


*Don't get me wrong, I still have a 401K like everybody else which will be maxed out as soon as the house is paid off. But, I don't lose any sleep at night over the extra couple non-guaranteed % return that I am losing by not having it all in the market.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Moomingirl on November 09, 2013, 08:18:03 PM
I'm in too!

We have been working hard to pay off the mortgage, and any spare money has gone to this. We are on a fixed rate of 4.95% (living in New Zealand), and can only make one extra payment on the mortgage per year. Last year was $30,000, this year $25,000. We're only at the beginning of our mortgage year too.  :)

Next year the mortgage comes off the fixed rate, and interest rates are going up here now. The best fixed rates I have seen recently have been 5.65%. I think the banks only let you fix if you have a minimum of $200,000 and we are now down to $165,000. I can't make any more paydowns now, so I will be saving hard for the next year, then paying off as much as we can as soon as the fixed rate comes off.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on December 05, 2013, 06:54:36 AM
Nice topic! I'm in as well :)

Starting mortgage: 28-years 120k
Current mortgage: 26-years left 90k
Interest rate: 4% (3 years fixed left)

Total reduction per month: 1k

This does not seem like much but literally half my net income is used to reduce it ASAP :D

Additionaly, if I were to invest the same amount my sweet little government would claim 1.2% as taxable returns so the stock market would have to generate at least 5.2% to keep up. As this is unlikely we chose to remove our mortgage ASAP.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: shusherstache on December 05, 2013, 08:08:01 AM
I'm in.

Starting mortgage: 180,000 30-year @ 5.0% fixed 02/2011
Refinanced: 167,000 15-year @3.25% fixed 03/2012
Currently: 62,850 12/2013
Payoff date goal: March 2015

Curent house value: 270,000

My husband and I want to pay it off so we can pursue our other goals: adoption and new careers outside of our current sector (tech). Before we met, we both experienced extreme job loss in our families which severely impacted family structures and so don't want that mortgage payment hanging over our heads.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cdub on December 05, 2013, 10:21:13 AM
I'm in.

Starting mortgage: 180,000 30-year @ 5.0% fixed 02/2011
Refinanced: 167,000 15-year @3.25% fixed 03/2012
Currently: 62,850 12/2013
Payoff date goal: March 2015

Curent house value: 270,000

My husband and I want to pay it off so we can pursue our other goals: adoption and new careers outside of our current sector (tech). Before we met, we both experienced extreme job loss in our families which severely impacted family structures and so don't want that mortgage payment hanging over our heads.

Wow - almost 100k paid off already in 21 months. That's great! That's almost $5k a month you've been throwing at it Awesome!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jrhampt on December 05, 2013, 11:22:53 AM
I'm in.

Starting mortgage: 180,000 30-year @ 5.0% fixed 02/2011
Refinanced: 167,000 15-year @3.25% fixed 03/2012
Currently: 62,850 12/2013
Payoff date goal: March 2015

Curent house value: 270,000

My husband and I want to pay it off so we can pursue our other goals: adoption and new careers outside of our current sector (tech). Before we met, we both experienced extreme job loss in our families which severely impacted family structures and so don't want that mortgage payment hanging over our heads.

Great job so far!  We're at $178k currently with a similar home value and hoping for March 2016 as a payoff date, so a year behind you.  Trying to get down to $100k by this time next year.  Our reasons for paying off the mortgage early are similar to yours.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: shusherstache on December 05, 2013, 12:26:32 PM
I'm in.

Starting mortgage: 180,000 30-year @ 5.0% fixed 02/2011
Refinanced: 167,000 15-year @3.25% fixed 03/2012
Currently: 62,850 12/2013
Payoff date goal: March 2015

Curent house value: 270,000

My husband and I want to pay it off so we can pursue our other goals: adoption and new careers outside of our current sector (tech). Before we met, we both experienced extreme job loss in our families which severely impacted family structures and so don't want that mortgage payment hanging over our heads.

Wow - almost 100k paid off already in 21 months. That's great! That's almost $5k a month you've been throwing at it Awesome!

Thanks!  We had a couple of one-off windfalls to throw at it outside of our salaries.  We average 4K a month plus bonuses, etc. toward it and are trying to keep up the momentum.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Strawberrykiwi75 on December 08, 2013, 02:54:44 AM
I'm in too!

We have been working hard to pay off the mortgage, and any spare money has gone to this. We are on a fixed rate of 4.95% (living in New Zealand), and can only make one extra payment on the mortgage per year. Last year was $30,000, this year $25,000. We're only at the beginning of our mortgage year too.  :)

Next year the mortgage comes off the fixed rate, and interest rates are going up here now. The best fixed rates I have seen recently have been 5.65%. I think the banks only let you fix if you have a minimum of $200,000 and we are now down to $165,000. I can't make any more paydowns now, so I will be saving hard for the next year, then paying off as much as we can as soon as the fixed rate comes off.

What makes you think you can't fix it? I would check on that, the bank I work at certainly doesn't! I've done top-up fixed loans for 10k. With interest rates hiking up, it would be worthwhile fixing. And also check about re-documenting it if you want to still have some floating, and they can split it into 2 or more loans, so that you can spread your risk. Also if you have equity of 40% or more I'd ask for a discount- you'll more than likely get it at the moment!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on December 08, 2013, 08:54:19 AM
@Moomingirl:
It might also be interesting to see what the variable rates are like? Depening on that you might pocket the interest difference between your current fixed rate and the variable rate and use it as extra payment for the next run!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Moomingirl on December 10, 2013, 12:21:58 AM
Thanks Strawberrykiwi. Which bank do you work for (if you don't want to post in public you could message me...)?
I am pretty sure that when we fixed our mortgage with ANZ just over a year ago, that is what were told. Maybe I misunderstood.  I will of course be checking that out when we come off the fixed rate in October next year.

@ wauske - I will see what happens next October, hopefully we will have so much saved ready for the next paydown, that the rates won't make too much difference.  :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Maltipoomoney on December 10, 2013, 11:41:06 AM

We are in also!

Why? To decrease our monthly expenses after FIRE in 4 years. Then I will just work a little here and there to pay for college for the kids and take long 2-3 month breaks in between gigs. Yay!! So I want low monthly carrying costs.  My property tax in the midwest is pretty low.

Once I pad my Emergency Fund, I am throwing all $$ at the mortgage for 2 years and will be done, projected date to Payoff Mortgage is 6/2016. Likely it will be earlier.

Then amass larger amounts of cash to either (1) invest in stocks some more (2) buy rental properties for cash.


Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: medinaj2160 on December 11, 2013, 04:42:23 PM
We are in as well :)

Me 28 and my wife 29 purchased our first and last home June 2012.

Value of our home according to Zillow 180K. We only paid 126K since it was a foreclosure and have a 30 year mortgage at 3.75%.
 
As of today we own $64,385.

Payoff goal: March 2015

My reason for paying the house fast is peace of mind because you never know what the future will hold.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: secondcor521 on December 11, 2013, 06:41:49 PM
I'm vacillating.

I have roughly $48K left on my mortgage and would like to have it paid off by my 45th birthday, which is in May 2014.  That's a pretty aggressive payoff rate, and I don't know if I'll make it or not.  We'll see.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Charlotte on December 12, 2013, 04:46:52 AM
I have a similar dilemma Secondcor -- I would like to be debt free by my husband's 45th birthday (April 2014), but that is a fair amount of money to come up with in 5 months. (although not 48k....)

How about we both make a run for it and see what happens? I will definitely make it before he turns 46, so he will be able to say "I am 45 years old and debt free!"
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cdub on December 12, 2013, 08:02:18 AM
New post:

http://mortgage-payoff-club.com/2013/12/12/just-bought-a-shiny-new-ppo-health-care-plan-from-the-ca-health-exchange-for-870/

And only was able to pay $800 extra in November. :( December should be half that. Both due to holidays. It should pick up steam in the new year.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: secondcor521 on December 12, 2013, 05:42:22 PM
I have a similar dilemma Secondcor -- I would like to be debt free by my husband's 45th birthday (April 2014), but that is a fair amount of money to come up with in 5 months. (although not 48k....)

How about we both make a run for it and see what happens? I will definitely make it before he turns 46, so he will be able to say "I am 45 years old and debt free!"

Deal.  Although I have an extra month :-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Charlotte on December 13, 2013, 04:50:18 AM
You do have an extra month, but my debt is only $19,000 --- so I have less far to go!  ;-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: secondcor521 on December 17, 2013, 12:49:50 PM
Scheduled an extra payment today.

Remaining balance:  $47,324.28.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: secondcor521 on December 17, 2013, 06:46:06 PM
Figured I can live with a smaller emergency fund.

New balance:  $37,324.28.

Will probably make one more extra payment after Christmas depending on how things go.

Will make an extra payment in February depending on stock options vesting.

Will probably make extra monthly payments each month with extra cash flow.

Will throw the tax refund if any at the mortgage also.

Will make regular monthly payments as well.

Want it gone.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: secondcor521 on December 26, 2013, 07:08:00 PM
Made two post-Christmas payments, plus updated Quicken for the regular January payment.

New balance:  $31,071.28.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Empire Business on December 26, 2013, 08:10:03 PM
I haven't been paying mine early.  Nonetheless, I am excited because my balance just went below $30,000.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on December 30, 2013, 12:48:24 PM
Made two post-Christmas payments, plus updated Quicken for the regular January payment.

New balance:  $31,071.28.
Sheesh, you make me feel inadequate :D
Current balance: 78k (plus change) which is a reduction of about 23k (about half was emergency fund).

Goal for next year: 16k reduction!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: shusherstache on December 30, 2013, 01:08:20 PM
We're on hold until we see if I get laid off in the new year.  (The joys of the tech industry...)  In the meantime, we're saving the money in our allocated mortgage account and paying the regular payment.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: basd on December 31, 2013, 01:21:33 AM
I'm in as well, the wife seems to be on board finally as well.. All amounts in euros.

Original mortgage 238.500, 20 year fixed at 5.4%
Remaining 238.500 (we've only paid interest so far)

If we stick to the original schedule we will have paid off only 41.500 after those 20 years. However, I'd like to be mortgage-free by then (I'm 33 now), if not before. It's going to be an interesting challenge, but with our current savings rates I think we should be able to make it.

Bring it on.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mamagoose on December 31, 2013, 09:51:12 AM
We did it! 169,900 @ 3.75% paid in 2.5 years. Had a head start with a 50k down payment and saved about 44k interest by paying off early. We also chose 15 year term. Wooo!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: basd on December 31, 2013, 11:26:06 AM
Wow, well done mamagoose, that's some pretty impressive paying off, and a great way to start 2014!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Rural on December 31, 2013, 05:40:55 PM
Congrats!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: secondcor521 on January 07, 2014, 08:14:38 PM
Scheduled an extra January payment today.

Passed two little milestones:  If I just make my regular payments, I'll finish paying off my house before I finish all my child support payments.  Also, starting in February I'll be paying less than $100 per month in mortgage interest.

New balance:  $29,374.28

Hopefully will have a little bit to throw at it in early February, and then a larger payment hopefully towards the end of February, plus the regular payment.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FIreDrill on January 08, 2014, 01:32:30 PM
We did it! 169,900 @ 3.75% paid in 2.5 years. Had a head start with a 50k down payment and saved about 44k interest by paying off early. We also chose 15 year term. Wooo!

Awesome! Must feel amazing. :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: medinaj2160 on January 09, 2014, 11:13:37 AM
We are in as well :)

Me 28 and my wife 29 purchased our first and last home June 2012.

Value of our home according to Zillow 180K. We only paid 126K since it was a foreclosure and have a 30 year mortgage at 3.75%.
 
As of today we own $64,385.

Payoff goal: March 2015

My reason for paying the house fast is peace of mind because you never know what the future will hold.

New balance: $59,980

I miss judged my tax withholdings so I am not going to be able to pay as much on my mortgage next month :/
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mamagoose on January 09, 2014, 12:25:38 PM
We did it! 169,900 @ 3.75% paid in 2.5 years. Had a head start with a 50k down payment and saved about 44k interest by paying off early. We also chose 15 year term. Wooo!

Awesome! Must feel amazing. :)

Thanks! It sure does, being that much closer to FIRE is great, and it's comforting to know our family will always have a place to live :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mikaty on January 10, 2014, 07:42:37 AM
This is my goal for 2014

Of all the things I want to face-punch my past self for this is the one I have to live in!!  Our housing market didn't suffer as much but 5 years (and an expensive bathroom remodel) later it's worth exactly what I paid for it.  And trends show the average price of properties like mine declining in my immediate area at the moment.  And for some reason rental returns are really poor for our area.  I don't even want to consider what this has cost me in interest so far ($65k with floating interest that has varied between 13% and 6% - it's on the lower side now so I was paying massive interest on the bigger balance)

It's a small flat and we'll have to upgrade eventually if we want to start a family.  Once we pay off this place we'll start saving so we can make a huge downpayment (savings + sale of the flat) on our next home.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mamagoose on January 10, 2014, 10:57:46 AM
You might be surprised at how little extra space you need for that first little one. We're in a 4/3 (2000 sf) and it feels like a mega mansion with one baby. Reason is the baby sleeps in our room, we hardly ever go in her nursery. No plans to move her into her own room for a while since nursing is easier when you don't go across the house to fetch the baby. My cousin had her son sleep in her room until he was 2.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cdub on January 11, 2014, 04:22:51 PM
New blog post:

http://mortgage-payoff-club.com/2014/01/11/only-599-78-extra-paid-in-december-due-to-holidays-and-no-extra-payment-going-to-be-made-in-january-due-to-family-emergency/

Only just under $600 paid extra in December... and none being able to be made this month due to a family emergency forcing me to take off most or all of January.

But the "good" thing is - thanks to YNAB... this break from work and income isn't stressing me one bit. Not one bit. Amazing. A little bummed that I might have to rebuild my buffer - but that's about it.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Gray Matter on January 12, 2014, 06:22:08 AM
I'm in.

Starting mortgage: 180,000 30-year @ 5.0% fixed 02/2011
Refinanced: 167,000 15-year @3.25% fixed 03/2012
Currently: 62,850 12/2013
Payoff date goal: March 2015

Curent house value: 270,000

My husband and I want to pay it off so we can pursue our other goals: adoption and new careers outside of our current sector (tech). Before we met, we both experienced extreme job loss in our families which severely impacted family structures and so don't want that mortgage payment hanging over our heads.

Just want to say I find your other goals worthy and am rooting for you.  We have an adopted daughter--what a wonderful experience!  I also find it exciting to be thinking of mid-career changes.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: iris lily on January 12, 2014, 10:50:07 AM
C'mon guys.  Let's apply some perspective here. 

It doesn't matter if keeping a mortgage and investing the balance can make you more money over the long haul.  Paying off a mortgage, if that's what someone wants to do, is an awesome accomplishment and deserves praise rather than criticism. 

Save the face punches for people who really need them!  I'm borderline on dishing out a few for being so focused on maximizing returns that we neglect to value and recognize tremendous savings accomplishments.

Agreed. Being free of mortgage is a huge emotional plus.

I look at interest as The Enemy. I never want to feed The Enemy. I don't think we've paid interest on anything since I sold my first (and last) mortgaged house in 1989. Our next house that we bought was a gut rehab, we moved in when electrical was installed only in 1/3 of the house, we had plywood floors for 15 years, kitchen cabinets built over a  year period, a construction staircase with no railings for 23 years and etc. But never a mortgage, don't feed The Enemy.

Now the local Nanny G wouldn't issue an occupancy permit for us to live in this house in the state is was in 25 years ago and that is too bad. Really too bad because it eliminates an opportunity for building sweat equity and Mustachean lifestyle.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tomsang on January 12, 2014, 11:15:57 PM

Agreed. Being free of mortgage is a huge emotional plus.


My posts were to highlight this sentiment. Paying off your mortgage when you have a sub 4% mortgage is purely emotional. There is no logical reason to do this if you plan on retiring with a 4% safe withdrawal rate. Over the course of history, the stock market has outperformed these levels over a 30 year period every single time. By putting emotional connotations towards financial concepts then your logic is clouded. Paying interest is not evil, it is not bad, it does not hurt you; it is strictly a business transaction. If the government is trying to stimulate the economy by artifically keeping rates low then you are mustachian to take advantage of this environment.

I see Mustachian behavior as that of making logical choices that put you closer to financial independence. Paying off your mortgage does not do that when your mortgage is sub 4%.  When people talk about the interest they saved they should also figure out the return that they are missing out by not investing in the stock market. Over the past 10 years I am at 8.8%+, last year was 28%+, and the past three years I have averaged 18%+ in my investment accounts.  To save 4%, I would have pushed my retirement date out a few years.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on January 13, 2014, 09:31:02 AM
@Tomsang: I disagree with it being purely emotional. Currently we are paying down our mortgage by about 1k per month with approx. 275 in interest. If I was only saving/investing I'd have to cover an annual spending amount of 17k whereas without a mortgage I only need 12k. With every additional payment my montly fixed expenses lower slightly.
When the mortgage is payed off I have 2 advantages: my current 5k stash will last me nearly 8 months in case of an emergency (F-you I quit) whereas with my current expenses it would only last me less than 4.
Second advantage is i can devote 75% of income to saving and investing as opposed to less than 50% now.

The lack of compounding is likely negated by the lack of stash I need to build in total...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tomsang on January 13, 2014, 11:54:24 AM
@Tomsang: I disagree with it being purely emotional. Currently we are paying down our mortgage by about 1k per month with approx. 275 in interest. If I was only saving/investing I'd have to cover an annual spending amount of 17k whereas without a mortgage I only need 12k. With every additional payment my montly fixed expenses lower slightly.
When the mortgage is payed off I have 2 advantages: my current 5k stash will last me nearly 8 months in case of an emergency (F-you I quit) whereas with my current expenses it would only last me less than 4.
Second advantage is i can devote 75% of income to saving and investing as opposed to less than 50% now.

The lack of compounding is likely negated by the lack of stash I need to build in total...

I think you are missing the math!  Do two side by side calculations.  One with the $1,000 going to pay down a 4% mortgage and one going into an investment account that averages 8% over a 30 year mortgage term.  I think you can see logically that earning 8% and foregoing paying down a 4% mortgage is going to be the better financial answer.  There has never been a time where the market has not performed greater than 4% since records have been kept.  When you talk about compounding you have to take into account that your investments are compounding.  If it all hits the fan, you don't just have the $5,000 that is in your emergency fund.  You also have all the months and returns that you have been saving vs. paying down your mortgage. 

So if in two years something hits the fan you have the 24 months at $1,000 savings plus the returns on those savings.  So you have like $29k + your $5k emergency fund.  So your numbers would be figuring out how long could you support yourself with $34k in the bank. So you would have 2 years saved up vs.  4 months that you currently have saved ($5,000 emergency fund/ $17k per year to live and make payments).  You are much safer having your assets liquid vs. having them tied up in your house in a crisis. 

If you are half way done paying off the mortgage and you can't make the next payment, you can't just call the bank and say you prepaid the past two years.  They will say you are out of contract and make the payment or face foreclosure.  If you were investing the $1,000, then you could liquidate investments to pay the mortgage and support your family until you get back on your feet.  You would have two years to get on your feet vs. a 4 month buffer with the $5k. 

Mathematically it is pretty simple to see that earning 6 to 8 percent in investments is a better call than paying down a sub 4% loan.  To take the emotion out, calculate the loss of portfolio gain by paying down the 4% mortgage.  If the market returns anything greater than 4% you are better off investing.  If you think the market is going to earn less than 4% over the next 30 years then make sure that your safe withdrawal rate is 1% or closer to your life expectancy as all the models are based on historical performance.  We have never seen a sub 4% return on investments over a 30 year period of time.  If you think that we are going to see those low returns you should also sell your house as the economy is going to be crashing and your house is going to lose significant value.  You would be better off renting when we are in a deflationary time.

In an earlier post on page one I do the side by side analysis of paying off debt or investing.  Again, mathematically if you think we are going to average over 4% you are better off investing. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on January 13, 2014, 01:27:22 PM
Sorry if some comments are a bit blunt, but thanks for triggering me to calculate it. It feels good to review the numbers further in stead of just the feeling I've been operating on so far.

Doing the math:
Current mortgage payment minimum: 400 (interest/principal on an annuity based mortgage with 26 years left @4% for 2 years after which it is variable but i'll use the 4%)

Investable remains: approximatly 850/mo
Mortgage payed at the end: 124k
Investments returned (based on Excel 8 runs of random annual result between 2 and 8%):  450k/550k

Result when continuing current payment scheme:
Downpayment finished in approx. May 1 2020 (based on mortgage payment every 30 days with 4% fixed interest) for ease of calculation, total sum payed:  67k
This results in a loss of investments for 5.5 years or 56k in principle compared to the first scheme.
Investments starts now at 1250/mo for another 20 years (same runs as above):  291k/336k

So in principle you are correct. Even with the difference split the investment option returns a lot more.

However, in the last 20 years there have been some major crashes and major uplifts. If you factor in those risks (and I'm not good enough to use Excel for that) I think that the end result may be a lot more variable depending on the end-point measurement. Regarding your investments-as-safety (for a rainy day) you are not factoring in potential market loss. Depending on actual stock value my 24k saved might actually be 12k when I needed it most as well as 36k because the market is soaring. This scares me away from depending too much on this for income replacement (even in eventual retirement).

For my personal situation my current payoff scheme is financially viable (even though it is not optimal) because I do not expect to exceed the 4%. When I start building a stash my scheme does not weigh on 100% stocks/indexes (more like 30% stocks, 50% long-term savings at fixed interest and 20% short term/cash savings) so the overall returns will be lower than the projected 4-8% and thus the gap shortens somewhat. Also, my country taxes equity above 40k (except home-value) at 1.2% anually so returns will be lower still. In the end I think for me personally it does not make that big of a difference except the mortgage downpayment being certain whereas the market is not, this was always my main reason to kill the mortgage firts. It does not mean I don't invest though that is currently only play money (to see how my tax-forms need to be filled out next year).
When something does hit the fan my country also has several safety nets, so I'd have to be out of work for several years before the 5k actually come into play (unless I quit on principle, but I won't unless I've got 20k+ in investments/savings which would then last me 2 years easily :P)...

Last point: when my mortgage is payed off it does not matter whether the house loses value because so would most other houses in the same price-range. Prices have been dropping since 2009 with a staggering total of 20%. The housing market is subsidized by a hefty tax-refund by the govt (about 40-50% returned from payed interest) so any market implosion would have effect but not nearly as extravagant as 40% drops in 1 year like some stories I heard in the US :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: medinaj2160 on February 03, 2014, 05:09:36 PM
We are in as well :)

Me 28 and my wife 29 purchased our first and last home June 2012.

Value of our home according to Zillow 180K. We only paid 126K since it was a foreclosure and have a 30 year mortgage at 3.75%.
 
As of today we own $64,385.

Payoff goal: March 2015

My reason for paying the house fast is peace of mind because you never know what the future will hold.

New balance: $59,980

I miss judged my tax withholdings so I am not going to be able to pay as much on my mortgage next month :/

New balance: $55,556

little by little
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: reginna on February 03, 2014, 05:18:11 PM
We did it! 169,900 @ 3.75% paid in 2.5 years. Had a head start with a 50k down payment and saved about 44k interest by paying off early. We also chose 15 year term. Wooo!

So impressed with you and your badassity! Congratulations
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: secondcor521 on February 03, 2014, 10:32:00 PM
Made most of the larger February payment about a week early just because I am itchy.  Will reimburse my emergency fund when the check arrives in about a week.  Also recorded the regular February payment.

New balance:  $23,933.04

The other number I'm looking at is what I could throw at it if I reduced my emergency fund to 6 months and accounting for the fact that my emergency fund can be somewhat smaller if I don't have a mortgage payment.  If I get that close I'll be sorely tempted to pull the trigger and pay it the rest of the way off.

After this not too many big payments will be likely until May or so.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FunkyStickman on February 04, 2014, 05:24:37 AM
I'm in. I've looked at the numbers, and in my situation, paying the mortgage is the way to go.

I live in a mobile home, with 6.25% interest rate for 30 years. The House won't be worth anything in 30 years, its worth is steadily declining. We probably can't refinance it, either. Had a hard enough time getting any loan at all for it.

However, things are looking up since I started being Mustachian. I'm 5 years into it, and I've still got $72,000 left to pay on the principal... but $85K more just in interest if I keep going.

So, tax return (about $3900) is going on the mortgage, and I'm putting down an extra $500 a month. At this rate, we'll have it paid off (and not have paid an extra $85K) by 2020, if not sooner. Then we'll have $1200+ extra a month to invest.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on February 05, 2014, 06:57:06 AM
I'm in. I've looked at the numbers, and in my situation, paying the mortgage is the way to go.

I live in a mobile home, with 6.25% interest rate for 30 years. The House won't be worth anything in 30 years, its worth is steadily declining. We probably can't refinance it, either. Had a hard enough time getting any loan at all for it.

However, things are looking up since I started being Mustachian. I'm 5 years into it, and I've still got $72,000 left to pay on the principal... but $85K more just in interest if I keep going.

So, tax return (about $3900) is going on the mortgage, and I'm putting down an extra $500 a month. At this rate, we'll have it paid off (and not have paid an extra $85K) by 2020, if not sooner. Then we'll have $1200+ extra a month to invest.

Way to go! 6.25% is nothing to sneeze at and keeping most of 85k in your pocket most be a good feeling :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: shusherstache on February 05, 2014, 12:44:50 PM
I think I survived a layoff (woo!) but I'm interviewing for a job next week for 20-25% less money (boo).  It's time to throw in the cards with current company - if my health isn't there than there's not much use in having a paid-for home.  Plus, this new place is reliable, has free transpotation (no commuting costs!) and insurance and will pay for my continued education.

This isn't to say we aren't attacking the mortgage - we sent a 7.5k check this last month - but it may be more slow-going than we expected.  Health/wellness above all else especially as we move towards starting a family.

Current balance is roughly 50,500.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: robtown on February 05, 2014, 06:13:08 PM
We started a year ago.   We refinanced for a 5/1 ARM at 2.25%   We will have it paid in 2018 when the 5 year expires.   My wife will quit her job a couple months later.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jrhampt on February 06, 2014, 10:04:41 AM
At $167k now, but knocking off another $23k with this month's payment.  And depending on bonus, may be able to do the same next month, which would put us under the $100k mark this summer.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FIreDrill on February 06, 2014, 01:38:34 PM
At $167k now, but knocking off another $23k with this month's payment.  And depending on bonus, may be able to do the same next month, which would put us under the $100k mark this summer.

Awesome!  That mortgage will be gone pretty fast at this rate!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jordanread on February 06, 2014, 08:20:23 PM
Challenge accepted!
Not necessarily paying off the mortgage, but addressing other questions raised in this thread. I mentioned in another thread that things like the "LifeSpreadsheet" are too complex. I will accept the sub-textual challenge of creating a fully scalable, super-simple (to start), Badassity Calculator that should assist in overcoming the predictable irrationality we all experience. That being said, I do understand that there is a reason it's predictable. The emotional payoff is so variable that it almost cannot be calculated (but I'll try). I'll come back once the requirements gathering is done, and post for review. Any suggestions can be emailed to me, or just posted here. I'll make sure I check back.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Mortgage Free Mike on February 07, 2014, 09:30:24 AM
Just read through some of these post. I paid off my $86,000 mortgage (15 year, 3.75%) in 2 years and 2 months. It was the best decision for me, despite the low interest rate. I feel great about it.

For those who say they could make more money in the markets, perhaps it's true. But the reason I was able to accomplish this goal is because I had something to look forward to.  A finish line.  I was finding new ways to save and earn more in order to reach my goal. Had I not set the goal to pay off my mortgage, I think I probably would not have found a way to save $86,000 in 2 years, which means I wouldn't have had as much money to invest. 

This journey was about being financially free.  Now I am and the possibilities are endless.  I also blog about this topic at http://www.saveonalmosteverything.com (http://www.saveonalmosteverything.com) Keep me posted on your progress.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Sofa King on February 10, 2014, 01:25:56 PM

I live in a mobile home, with 6.25% interest rate for 30 years. The House won't be worth anything in 30 years, its worth is steadily declining. We probably can't refinance it, either. Had a hard enough time getting any loan at all for it.

However, things are looking up since I started being Mustachian. I'm 5 years into it, and I've still got $72,000 left to pay on the principal... but $85K more just in interest if I keep going.



That is crazy price for a mobile home. I paid LESS for a 3 bedroom 2 bath house in upstate NY that has gone up in value.  I have never heard of a trailer park home costing so much. But then again I never looked into buying one either.  If you spent this much why didn't you just purchase a regular house?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FunkyStickman on February 11, 2014, 07:50:04 AM

I live in a mobile home, with 6.25% interest rate for 30 years. The House won't be worth anything in 30 years, its worth is steadily declining. We probably can't refinance it, either. Had a hard enough time getting any loan at all for it.

However, things are looking up since I started being Mustachian. I'm 5 years into it, and I've still got $72,000 left to pay on the principal... but $85K more just in interest if I keep going.



That is crazy price for a mobile home. I paid LESS for a 3 bedroom 2 bath house in upstate NY that has gone up in value.  I have never heard of a trailer park home costing so much. But then again I never looked into buying one either.  If you spent this much why didn't you just purchase a regular house?

Actually, that includes the land, and we got it on a very large (double-sized) lot, so not all of that is the home. At the time, the housing market was wanting ridiculous prices for even small homes in rural areas... believe it or not, this was the cheapest thing we could find that wasn't trashed.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jrhampt on February 11, 2014, 08:38:02 AM
But the reason I was able to accomplish this goal is because I had something to look forward to.  A finish line.  I was finding new ways to save and earn more in order to reach my goal. Had I not set the goal to pay off my mortgage, I think I probably would not have found a way to save $86,000 in 2 years, which means I wouldn't have had as much money to invest. 

I think this is very true.  I can accomplish a LOT when there's a time horizon of 1-2 years...it's easier to stay intensely motivated.  Sure, I can hold steady for longer time periods, but at a lower level.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: secondcor521 on February 11, 2014, 12:57:09 PM
OK, I think I'm addicted.

New balance:  $9,999.99

I do have some expenses coming up (taxes, a small driving vacation next weekend with my son).  Will keep pressing forward; hope to have it done by my 45th birthday in May.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FunkyStickman on February 11, 2014, 02:48:16 PM
Just dropped $5K on principal... down to about $67K on principal! That cut about 4 years of interest. Going to keep plopping down per month as I can.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bateaux on February 12, 2014, 10:58:31 AM
It's hard to believe how good debt freedom feels.  Nothing you can buy can give this feeling.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: steveo on February 12, 2014, 01:07:21 PM
It's hard to believe how good debt freedom feels.  Nothing you can buy can give this feeling.

This is my first goal. We owe about 165k on the house at this point. The goal is to get it down to 100k this year and then pay it off within the following 2 years. Its the first step for us on our path to FI.

Still it feels so long to go.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: soccerluvof4 on February 13, 2014, 04:16:40 AM
Just going to say they need to be rid of the 30 year mortgage and back to 20% down. So I see both sides of the Arguement with basically getting free money. But i for one would rather pay off my mortgage which i havent had one in 20 years and have that behind me Just because as stated in the US we don't ever own our house. My fucking taxes are 9300$ and I hate it. I live in a great school system and community but I want out of this. By the time i add my water bill and other utitlites and maintenance i have a mortgage. So thats my stupidity. Its costing me 13-1400 dollars a month for a house thats paid for. 4-5 years max when 2 of my 4 kids are off to college I am cutting this at least in half . I cant move because of my biz as well so if that changed that to would make me move. Ok self inflicted face punches........last thing dont keep a mortgage for the tax credit. Dont think anyone was suggesting that but I know people that have argued that.  Do what lets you sleep at night. I have no debt and  i still only slept till 3am last night cant imagine if i did have any debt!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bateaux on February 13, 2014, 06:23:39 AM
Wow!!!
I can't imagine paying that much in property tax.  You are paying 10 times what I pay.  I'm sticking to the south.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: nicknageli on February 13, 2014, 08:29:51 AM
Yeah, those taxes are brutal!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jrhampt on February 14, 2014, 07:41:25 AM
Hmm, yes.  Our property taxes just got bumped up to $7200 this year.  I am not thrilled about this, and one of my top priorities in retirement will be to move to an area with lower property tax.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: secondcor521 on February 17, 2014, 07:09:05 PM
Yup.  I was addicted.

New balance:  -$98.71.

Overpaid a little just to take care of any residual interest.

Will have to wait until March 10th for all the scheduled payments to post and have it be official.

Surprisingly I am not debt free because I owe $133.34 to American Express at the moment and will be charging my vacation expenses this upcoming weekend in order to get 10,000 MR points.  Then I'll sock drawer that card and be debit card only.

Should be able to cash flow my tax bill in March/April time frame.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jordanread on February 24, 2014, 10:51:21 AM
Yup.  I was addicted.

New balance:  -$98.71.
Congatulations!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: train_writer on February 24, 2014, 12:58:30 PM
Great to read these pay-off stories!

As one of the Dutch members of the mortgage-payoff-club, it now makes even more sense to me to throw money at the principal:
I reached the stash treshold where I have to pay the extra 1,2 % tax on savings, bonds & stocks!

This means that the market has to yield 3,9 (mortgage 3,85%) + 1,2 = 5,1 % on average to even the mortgage payment.

I immediately paid an extra 2500 euros towards the principal and lowered our monthly annuity payment to 700. I can see how this can be addictive! Immediate results = extra motivation.

I hope to be able to make 2 more 2500 euros payments this year and bring the monthly payment down to a very low level within a few years

The total mortgage is now 144k in euros, we bought 1 year ago for 151k including transaction costs. Long way to go!



Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cdub on February 24, 2014, 02:17:52 PM
Just going to say they need to be rid of the 30 year mortgage and back to 20% down.

A-MEN! At least to the 20% down portion. Easy money is what inflated the market.

My fucking taxes are 9300$ and I hate it. I live in a great school system and community but I want out of this. By the time i add my water bill and other utitlites and maintenance i have a mortgage. So thats my stupidity. Its costing me 13-1400 dollars a month for a house thats paid for.

I think my property taxes are round $5k or 6k. It's about $460/month. But yeah - ouch that's alot.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Threshkin on February 24, 2014, 02:22:47 PM
It's hard to believe how good debt freedom feels.  Nothing you can buy can give this feeling.

+1 to that!  I paid off my mortgage last year even though it was a low rate, 3.75%.  The peace of mind was much more important to me.  The cash flow improvement sure helped as well!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: secondcor521 on February 24, 2014, 02:28:22 PM
Yup.  I was addicted.

New balance:  -$98.71.
Congatulations!!!

Thanks !!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: basd on February 25, 2014, 01:39:10 AM
The total mortgage is now 144k in euros, we bought 1 year ago for 151k including transaction costs. Long way to go!
At least you're on the right track! As I've posted before and as a fellow Dutchman, I still have to start working on ours. We've got a significantly larger mortgage amount (238.500) and a significantly higher interest rate as well (5,4%), so the urge is even bigger.

On the plus side, we're saving quite a bit of money at the moment (although that will dip again as soon as our son goes to daycare), so I expect to be able to pay off around 10% of the total mortgage amount before the end of the year. That will be the goal for the years to come as well, hopefully making us mortgage free in 10-15 years.

Again, well done and good luck on the rest of the journey :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: shusherstache on February 26, 2014, 10:06:40 AM
I'm switching jobs to lower pay (boo!) but staying in my old job until my bonus (yay).  Lower pay, higher sanity, better stability, free transportation!  Even if we don't make add'l payments we're set to payoff in 4 years - but we'll kick its ass.

Current balance: 50,600-ish
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: soccerluvof4 on February 26, 2014, 10:42:29 AM
Wow!!!
I can't imagine paying that much in property tax.  You are paying 10 times what I pay.  I'm sticking to the south.



I know its ludicrous! I so want to head South but be 4 years before i can consider it. Biz is here.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: nicknageli on February 26, 2014, 01:44:41 PM
I know its ludicrous! I so want to head South but be 4 years before i can consider it. Biz is here.

Not ludicrous at all.  You don't have to shovel sunshine!  (http://www.vwvortex.com/Anthony/Smilies/thumbup.gif)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Strawberrykiwi75 on February 27, 2014, 12:57:56 AM
I'm settling on a house tomorrow and I can't wait to pay it off. It's my first home, so I only had a 20% deposit.

212k lending (265k purchase price), I've split it into two parts: offsetting and fixed.
The offsetting is 32k, and any money in my accounts stand against the loan, reducing the interest. So say I had 20k in my accounts, I only pay interest on the 12k remaining. I'm planning on saving as hard as I can to get to about 30k in my accounts, so that I barely pay any interest at all. No principal payments on this loan for 5 years either, which means I can plow all my money at the other loan.

180k fixed for 3 years, and I'm paying it off assuming an interest rate 2.3% higher than mine. Then I'll chuck any bonuses I can at it too.

Hoping to get it all paid off in half the time or less!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: lbdance on March 01, 2014, 02:17:55 PM
I'm in. (About 95k owing at present) If we stick to the banks timeline - we would have about 8-9 years left. Our current conservative plan will have it paid off somewhere mid 2016.
The stretch goal is to have it paid off before the end of next year. And if possible before Oct 2015 to give my hubby an extra birthday present :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: medinaj2160 on March 03, 2014, 06:05:53 PM
We are in as well :)

Me 28 and my wife 29 purchased our first and last home June 2012.

Value of our home according to Zillow 180K. We only paid 126K since it was a foreclosure and have a 30 year mortgage at 3.75%.
 
As of today we own $64,385.

Payoff goal: March 2015

My reason for paying the house fast is peace of mind because you never know what the future will hold.

New balance: $59,980

I miss judged my tax withholdings so I am not going to be able to pay as much on my mortgage next month :/

New balance: $55,556

little by little

New Balance: $51,171
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: train_writer on March 04, 2014, 11:39:46 AM
we're saving quite a bit of money at the moment (although that will dip again as soon as our son goes to daycare), so I expect to be able to pay off around 10% of the total mortgage amount before the end of the year.


Paying off 10 %  per year is huge, how much does it save you on monthly payments? Also, wow, juggling daycare with saving and paying off and investing, way to go!
-we are thinking about having a kid and pondering on what timing is best, waiting a year, a few years?-
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: basd on March 05, 2014, 01:53:39 AM
we're saving quite a bit of money at the moment (although that will dip again as soon as our son goes to daycare), so I expect to be able to pay off around 10% of the total mortgage amount before the end of the year.


Paying off 10 %  per year is huge, how much does it save you on monthly payments? Also, wow, juggling daycare with saving and paying off and investing, way to go!
-we are thinking about having a kid and pondering on what timing is best, waiting a year, a few years?-
No idea, but I guess it will amount to a save of around 75 euros net monthly. I'm not sure whether we can reach 10% every year as we have a bit of savings lying around which would go to the mortgage this year and you can only spend them once) but I like a challenge :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on March 05, 2014, 03:19:23 AM
we're saving quite a bit of money at the moment (although that will dip again as soon as our son goes to daycare), so I expect to be able to pay off around 10% of the total mortgage amount before the end of the year.


Paying off 10 %  per year is huge, how much does it save you on monthly payments? Also, wow, juggling daycare with saving and paying off and investing, way to go!
-we are thinking about having a kid and pondering on what timing is best, waiting a year, a few years?-

If you have an annuity based mortgage you can easily calculate this via the PMT formula (you do have to know the number of months left for the remainder of the mortgage).

My mortgage has been reduced to 75k in the meantime, 60k at the end of the year looks doable :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jrhampt on March 06, 2014, 08:45:47 AM
New balance: $143k

Bonuses next week!  Then we'll know how big this month's payment can be.  This time last year, we were at $203k, so we've made 60k progress over the past 12 months, and that was before we decided to really get serious about paying it off ASAP.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: RNwastash on March 06, 2014, 10:21:16 PM
Count me in!! My balance is $144,000.  APR is 3.375% .  After reading so many different articles on whether to prepay or not, I have decided to bite the bullet.  My goal is to pay it off in 5 years so I can go part time.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cdub on March 06, 2014, 11:09:53 PM
New balance: $143k

Bonuses next week!  Then we'll know how big this month's payment can be.  This time last year, we were at $203k, so we've made 60k progress over the past 12 months, and that was before we decided to really get serious about paying it off ASAP.

Woah! $60k in 12 months. That's awesome. I hope to get there soon. Need to rebuild my e-fund though.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: smalliswell on March 11, 2014, 11:50:53 AM
I'm in. We have been on the Dave Ramsey path for some time, but really started to hit paying down the mortgage aggressively when I realized I wasn't a fan of my stressful job with long commute and great pay. In my head I thought I could rationalize a change if our home was paid for, and thats all the motivation we needed. I'm thankful for it now. Every single cent since August of 2013 has gone to the remaining 58K left on our house. We will pay it off on April 15th. The job has improved in the mean time, although the commute hasn't. I'm not the type to make fast career decisions either, so we will have to see what being mortgage free feels like when we get there. We are not there yet but dang we can feel what its going to be like. We have started to really think about how we will spend our days. We can hardly wait we are so excited at all the possibilities.

One strategy I've found to work is to snowball our financial goals one at a time. We only big goal at a time, thereby allowing us to get to our goal faster. We did not stop our 401K match, but we did stop funding our ROTH in Jan, and Christmas fund, and vacation fund, home update fund, and will play catch up with that after April 15th.

Here is our facebook page if you want to follow along. Its a work in progress.
https://www.facebook.com/ocsmalliswell
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Kipp on March 11, 2014, 01:39:33 PM
@Tomsang: I disagree with it being purely emotional. Currently we are paying down our mortgage by about 1k per month with approx. 275 in interest. If I was only saving/investing I'd have to cover an annual spending amount of 17k whereas without a mortgage I only need 12k. With every additional payment my montly fixed expenses lower slightly.
When the mortgage is payed off I have 2 advantages: my current 5k stash will last me nearly 8 months in case of an emergency (F-you I quit) whereas with my current expenses it would only last me less than 4.
Second advantage is i can devote 75% of income to saving and investing as opposed to less than 50% now.

The lack of compounding is likely negated by the lack of stash I need to build in total...

I think you are missing the math!  Do two side by side calculations.  One with the $1,000 going to pay down a 4% mortgage and one going into an investment account that averages 8% over a 30 year mortgage term.  I think you can see logically that earning 8% and foregoing paying down a 4% mortgage is going to be the better financial answer.  There has never been a time where the market has not performed greater than 4% since records have been kept.  When you talk about compounding you have to take into account that your investments are compounding.  If it all hits the fan, you don't just have the $5,000 that is in your emergency fund.  You also have all the months and returns that you have been saving vs. paying down your mortgage. 

So if in two years something hits the fan you have the 24 months at $1,000 savings plus the returns on those savings.  So you have like $29k + your $5k emergency fund.  So your numbers would be figuring out how long could you support yourself with $34k in the bank. So you would have 2 years saved up vs.  4 months that you currently have saved ($5,000 emergency fund/ $17k per year to live and make payments).  You are much safer having your assets liquid vs. having them tied up in your house in a crisis. 

If you are half way done paying off the mortgage and you can't make the next payment, you can't just call the bank and say you prepaid the past two years.  They will say you are out of contract and make the payment or face foreclosure.  If you were investing the $1,000, then you could liquidate investments to pay the mortgage and support your family until you get back on your feet.  You would have two years to get on your feet vs. a 4 month buffer with the $5k. 

Mathematically it is pretty simple to see that earning 6 to 8 percent in investments is a better call than paying down a sub 4% loan.  To take the emotion out, calculate the loss of portfolio gain by paying down the 4% mortgage.  If the market returns anything greater than 4% you are better off investing.  If you think the market is going to earn less than 4% over the next 30 years then make sure that your safe withdrawal rate is 1% or closer to your life expectancy as all the models are based on historical performance.  We have never seen a sub 4% return on investments over a 30 year period of time.  If you think that we are going to see those low returns you should also sell your house as the economy is going to be crashing and your house is going to lose significant value.  You would be better off renting when we are in a deflationary time.

In an earlier post on page one I do the side by side analysis of paying off debt or investing.  Again, mathematically if you think we are going to average over 4% you are better off investing.

Hello Tomsang,

If my situation stays the same it is better for my to pay off the mortgage ASAP over investing first.  Why?  Well, with being a bit over median income and planning on having kids in the near future, getting rid of the mortgage allows both full contributions for both my spouse and I toward our retirement funds.  This would drop our taxable income considerably and allow us to claim the EIC credit.  Doing a side by side analysis using your 4% difference, investing my planned $4,800 annual extra mortgage payments to investing, waiting to invest until after the mortgage is paid off generates ~$9,500 in more gains over the 17 year comparison.  If either of us happen to get a promotion some time before the mortgage is paid off then we can adjust accordingly and max out our 401(k) then.  But without considering taxes and their potential benefits, you cannot just blindly say a 4% mortgage should never be paid off early.  If someone were earning six figures I would agree since they cannot obtain the EIC.  But for the Median family, I would say pay off the mortgage and THEN max out the 401k.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tomsang on March 11, 2014, 02:55:42 PM
If my situation stays the same it is better for my to pay off the mortgage ASAP over investing first.  Why?  Well, with being a bit over median income and planning on having kids in the near future, getting rid of the mortgage allows both full contributions for both my spouse and I toward our retirement funds.  This would drop our taxable income considerably and allow us to claim the EIC credit.  Doing a side by side analysis using your 4% difference, investing my planned $4,800 annual extra mortgage payments to investing, waiting to invest until after the mortgage is paid off generates ~$9,500 in more gains over the 17 year comparison.  If either of us happen to get a promotion some time before the mortgage is paid off then we can adjust accordingly and max out our 401(k) then.  But without considering taxes and their potential benefits, you cannot just blindly say a 4% mortgage should never be paid off early.  If someone were earning six figures I would agree since they cannot obtain the EIC.  But for the Median family, I would say pay off the mortgage and THEN max out the 401k.

Can you provide your math?  I think I am missing something. 

In your scenario I don't see you touching your investment accounts to fund your 401k, but you can liquidate your investments at any time to pay-off your mortgage or to fund your 401k contributions.  So you don't have to lock into making monthly extra payments to provide you with the opportunity to get the EIC in the future.  If you conduct appropriate tax planning when you need the funds you can cash out your investments that have minimal gains as well.  So if you want to fully fund your 401k so that you can get the EIC then you can still do this by funding your 401k with your after tax investments.

Let me know what I am missing.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Kipp on March 11, 2014, 03:38:57 PM
Hello Tomsang,

I think there is a slight misunderstanding, I currently do not have investment accounts outside my ROTH and 401k. 

If you are referring to investing my planned 4800 into a taxable account instead of directly to the mortgage and then just pay it off when the paths cross, I can see how that is the best scenario in theory.  However, there are no guarantees in investment returns and with a time frame of less than 10 years I don't feel completely comfortable doing this strategy.

Attached is my spreadsheet showing my math.  In my scenario you can see the 4800 being invested for the first 9 years and then it stops there.  Why?  Because I would be investing that same amount when the home is paid off.  Likewise regarding the investing when the home is paid off, I have an extra $9,439 through no principal and interest payments and the available EIC based on current income and tax laws.  To compute the gains I subtract out the ending balance of each investment of $4,800 while subtracting out only $6,439 with the mortgage since the $3,000 from EIC is all free money.  This comes to the difference between the two options of almost $10,000 as you will see on the spreadsheet.

Again this isn't any option for all mustachians, but those with median incomes whom can take advantage of the EIC.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tomsang on March 11, 2014, 09:28:42 PM
@Kipp

If you are not comfortable investing then I think that paying off your mortgage is a way to get a 4% return.  I was still having difficulties understanding your spreadsheet, but a few things stood out.

1) You are using a 4% investment return. The stock market has averaged 8%+ over longer periods of time.

2) After 10 years you are increasing your investment amounts, yet you are not accounting for the principal paydown on the mortgage. That would most likely drop the benefit significantly. You should do side by side asset/liability based calc.

3). You are not doing any harvesting of gains or losses  to minimize income to eliminate any EIC discounts. You should be able to minimize taxable income to claim the EIC in most years.

4) You are not taking any tax benefits for having a mortgage, which may be warranted based on charitable giving, taxes and mortgage interest.

5) You have not placed any value of having liquidity to purchase assets at a discount or the flexibility to get yourself out of trouble with liquid investments.

You are also banking on doing this to structure your income to get the EIC in 10 years. Your income and the rules around the EIC may change significantly in 10 years. As you may have heard a certain portion of the population do not like the idea of giving the less fortunate money. Tax laws will most likely be revamped in the next decade. In any case if you felt comfortable to invest you could liquidate your investments to pay off our mortgage and still get the EIC.

The government was trying to stimulate the economy. They purposely created an environment where interest rates were depressed. We have never seen rates this low. If you can't beat a 3.5-4.5% interest rate over the next 20+ years, then your Safe Withdrawal Rate would be around 1% or your actuarial life as all the models have the markets earning in excess of 4%, with the average being 8%+


Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Kipp on March 12, 2014, 08:40:33 AM
@Kipp

If you are not comfortable investing then I think that paying off your mortgage is a way to get a 4% return.  I was still having difficulties understanding your spreadsheet, but a few things stood out.

1) You are using a 4% investment return. The stock market has averaged 8%+ over longer periods of time.

2) After 10 years you are increasing your investment amounts, yet you are not accounting for the principal paydown on the mortgage. That would most likely drop the benefit significantly. You should do side by side asset/liability based calc.

3). You are not doing any harvesting of gains or losses  to minimize income to eliminate any EIC discounts. You should be able to minimize taxable income to claim the EIC in most years.

4) You are not taking any tax benefits for having a mortgage, which may be warranted based on charitable giving, taxes and mortgage interest.

5) You have not placed any value of having liquidity to purchase assets at a discount or the flexibility to get yourself out of trouble with liquid investments.

You are also banking on doing this to structure your income to get the EIC in 10 years. Your income and the rules around the EIC may change significantly in 10 years. As you may have heard a certain portion of the population do not like the idea of giving the less fortunate money. Tax laws will most likely be revamped in the next decade. In any case if you felt comfortable to invest you could liquidate your investments to pay off our mortgage and still get the EIC.

The government was trying to stimulate the economy. They purposely created an environment where interest rates were depressed. We have never seen rates this low. If you can't beat a 3.5-4.5% interest rate over the next 20+ years, then your Safe Withdrawal Rate would be around 1% or your actuarial life as all the models have the markets earning in excess of 4%, with the average being 8%+

@ Tomsang

It's not that I am uncomfortable investing, I am still investing a little over 10% of my gross income during this entire time, what I am unsure of is that the time frame is less than 10 years.  To my knowledge the S&P 500 hasn't lost money in a 10 year time frame, but it has in less than 10 years.

1.)  The difference is 4% investment return (the amount earning more than the mortgage interest)

2.) After 10 years I am still accounting for the principal and interest pay down, which is why that money is shown with the the difference of 4% in gains (8% over the 4% return on the mortgage).

3.) If you look at how EIC works, it takes the higher of your AGI or earned income, harvesting losses really won't have any effect unless if I can get my earned income lower (which is possible by putting more in my 401k, and I can put enough in my 401k once I have less debt obligations).

4.) I might get 2-3 years of this benefit, and it is very minimal.  As the standard deduction rises this would go away on its own very shortly without making any additional payments.  I suspect I will be between $600-1000 this year over the standard, so without paying extra towards the mortgage, as interest decreases and the standard increases, I am looking at maybe 2 years to claim this deduction - then the following years I have to claim the refunds of state and local as income.  So this could be a benefit of $135 the first year then maybe $45 the next.  If it makes you feel better I can add that into the calculation, but I don't think $180 is going to drastically change the outcome.

5.) Liquidity is nice... but a 401(K) isn't exactly liquid either.  Besides, dropping expenses decreases the need for liquidity.  What assets do you see as a discount with the current P/E ratios?  It's not like I have $0 going into the market, so I am still dollar cost averaging.  If the market tanks, then I can look into investing that $4,800 in the market and then paying off once it is crosses the paths, but at market highs I am going for the guaranteed return.

If my income changes significantly I will adjust then, and consider it a win.  But I need to plan based on what is known.  If tax rules change it could change how everything works, 401k's, ROTH's, etc.  But one thing that is actually being pushed for is an expansion of the EIC by economists, and it was even in a republican's tax change proposal!  So it may change, but everything could change with a large tax reform, so why would the risk be greater looking to claim the EIC then putting the money in a tax advantaged account?  I guess I have another advantage since I work for a government and it gives me the opportunity to invest in a 403(b) as well as a 401(K).  This would allow me to defer additional an income increase of up to $17,500 (based on current contribution limits), allowing for more flexibility to claim to EIC if my income does increase.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tomsang on March 12, 2014, 05:57:08 PM
Kipp - I put together this worksheet to try to put down my logic.  Check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Tom
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: MrCash on March 12, 2014, 06:04:28 PM
I would like to join the mortgage payoff club!  My plan is to buy our first house in cash and then work towards FI.  So I won't technically have a mortgage, but hopefully this doesn't disqualify me from the club!  Let's do this!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Kipp on March 13, 2014, 05:54:37 AM
Kipp - I put together this worksheet to try to put down my logic.  Check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Tom

Tom - your calculations are correct.  The one thing I do not see considered is all of the free cash flow to invest once the mortgage is paid off (the principal and interest portion).  I will have to play around with it to add this comparison and also add another spot where I can additionally invest the EIC amount to see the difference over the comparable 30 year period and get back with you.

Kipp
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tomsang on March 13, 2014, 08:05:46 AM
Kipp - I put together this worksheet to try to put down my logic.  Check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Tom

Tom - your calculations are correct.  The one thing I do not see considered is all of the free cash flow to invest once the mortgage is paid off (the principal and interest portion).  I will have to play around with it to add this comparison and also add another spot where I can additionally invest the EIC amount to see the difference over the comparable 30 year period and get back with you.

Kipp

@Kipp. In the scenario where you would have paid off your mortgage you can liquidate your investments, pay the taxes, pay off the mortgage and still have money left over.

You can also go to the math tab, find the month that your loan would have been paid off, then go over to the investment column on the yield and you can see that the investment yield plus the additional contribution is greater than the contribution plus the extra amount of the mortgage payment. If the investment yield is greater than the loan yield the benefit will continue to grow throughout the loan term.  So the answer remains the same of which is better, yet the dollar benefit is off by the difference between the mortgage interest rate and the investment yield after the loan is paid off.

For a work around you can figure out what month this occurs and change the formula for all the remaining months to grab the investment yield vs. the loan rate in the paid off loan scenario.  I will try to work on an If/than formula so you don't have to change the formula every time you change the amount.

Thanks,

Tom
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Kipp on March 14, 2014, 12:35:43 PM
Kipp - I put together this worksheet to try to put down my logic.  Check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Tom

Tom - your calculations are correct.  The one thing I do not see considered is all of the free cash flow to invest once the mortgage is paid off (the principal and interest portion).  I will have to play around with it to add this comparison and also add another spot where I can additionally invest the EIC amount to see the difference over the comparable 30 year period and get back with you.

Kipp

@Kipp. In the scenario where you would have paid off your mortgage you can liquidate your investments, pay the taxes, pay off the mortgage and still have money left over.

You can also go to the math tab, find the month that your loan would have been paid off, then go over to the investment column on the yield and you can see that the investment yield plus the additional contribution is greater than the contribution plus the extra amount of the mortgage payment. If the investment yield is greater than the loan yield the benefit will continue to grow throughout the loan term.  So the answer remains the same of which is better, yet the dollar benefit is off by the difference between the mortgage interest rate and the investment yield after the loan is paid off.

For a work around you can figure out what month this occurs and change the formula for all the remaining months to grab the investment yield vs. the loan rate in the paid off loan scenario.  I will try to work on an If/than formula so you don't have to change the formula every time you change the amount.

Thanks,

Tom

Yea I was thinking I would need to create an If / than for under the scenario of paying off the mortgage.  Doing this you would do something like balance less than equal to zero add the principal and interest portion to investments plus X.  X indicating a different cell in which I could add an additional investment (such as EIC).  That is my thoughts for adding this to the spreadsheet.

Previously I did say I agree with you that investing then paying off mortgage with invested dollars works best in theory, it is the time frame for the return that makes me wonder if that is best.  If the S&P 500 were to drop 20% from it's high it would be a no brainer for me to invest then pay off with invested dollars.  I guess it is my preference in avoiding stock valuation fluctuation risk and yours in avoiding liquidity risk.  Either way there is risk.  I suppose a hybrid plan would be the best way to offset those two risks (say 50% invest 50% mortgage).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: train_writer on March 15, 2014, 02:52:10 PM
Interesting discussion in the last posts, Kipp and Tomsang. You made me rethink my strategy.

What I haven't seen in the calculations is recasting the mortgage with every extra payment towards the principal. Recasting = a 30-year mortgage is still a 30-year mortgage but the minimum monthly payment is recalculated.

I personally own a 30 year mortgage that is recasted automatically with every extra payment. After reading your discussion, I might stop paying down the mortgage once the monthly minimum payment feels more comfortable. Which would be -in my current estimations- around 600 euros or the equivalent of where I could no longer find a rental appartment in my region.

I see this recasting as building in extra resilience in case of unemployment; illness; other unforeseen hazards; or sudden urge for more travelling-less working.

Example
Mortgage: 200.000 dollars, 30 years, 4 %.
Fixed monthly payment for 30 years: 955 dollars
Extra payment of 10.000 in the first year, recasted: 907
Extra payment of 10.000 in the second year, recasted : 856

If the person in the example feels comfortable with around 850, he can stop paying extra towards the mortgage. If however, the comfortable level lies around 700, he should continue.

Edit: my automatic recasting is without any additional costs. I just realised this might not be the case in the US, depending on the policy of your lender.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Cassie on March 15, 2014, 03:11:12 PM
You guys are all doing awesome!!! Our home is paid for and it really is a wonderful feeling plus our taxes are low-Nevada.  There has been a lot of discussion on other threads about saving versus paying off mortgage & many say the math points that direction but paying off your home is a guaranteed savings plan with no risk. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dabears847 on March 16, 2014, 10:26:30 AM
It just doesn't seem right, since paying off my mortgage early saves me over $200,000 in interest.
According to Washington Post, Capital Gains Tax will increase from 15% to possibly 25%. Not pleasant news to us investors.[/color]

Paying off your mortgage may "Save You $200,000 in mortgage interest", but the bigger issue is how much does it costs you in "Portfolio Gain".

If you have a $600,000 mortgage and pay it off over 30 years at 3.5% mortgage rate, then you will pay approximately $370,000 in interest over the 30 years.  If you choose to make an additional $1,500 per month mortgage payment, then you will cut the 30 year mortgage down to 188 month mortgage and you will pay approximately $178,000 in interest.

So by making an additional $1,500 payment per month, you "save" $192,000 in interest.  Close to your $200,000 savings that you mentioned.

So how does $1,500 per month going to your mortgage cost your portfolio over time?

That depends on what return you have over a 188 month/close to 15.5 year time frame.

Starting with 0, your portfolio would grow to the following at the following yields:

11% = $746,000     
10% = $677,000
 9% = $615,000
 8% = $560,000
 7% = $510,000
 6% = $466,000
 5% = $427,000
 4% = $391,000
3.5% = $367,000

In 188 months your mortgage would be 0 if you made extra payments of $1,500  per month or it would be $367,000 if you paid $0 extra. 

188 payments of $1,500 = $282,000 of capital

So the taxes would be calculated based on the return - $282,000.  IE 11% = $746,000-$282,000 = $464,000 gain.  25% of the gain = 25% of $464,000 = $116,000 of taxes if you cashed them all in at once.  You would probably manage taxes better.  $746,000 - $116,000 = $630,000.  Subtract off the mortgage that you still have of $367,000 and you have a benefit of $263,000.

After your tax rate of 25%, the results would be as follows:

11% = $263,000
10% = $211,000
 9% = $165,000
 8% = $124,000
 7% = $86,000
 6% = $53,000
 5% = $24,000
 4% = $-3,250
3.5% = -21,250

This is calculated at a very high capital gain rate of 25%, and not managing any taxes.  Just cashing out in 188 months, and many other assumptions that don't make sense.  The biggest one is all the current tax benefits that you get by itemizing your taxes and claiming your home mortgage deduction. 

Using the current 15% tax rate would result in:

11% = $309,000
10% = $251,000
 9% =$198,000
 8%  = $151,000
 7% = $109,000
 6% = $71,000
 5% = $38,000
 4% = $7,650
3.5% = $12,750 

Again with managing your realization of the gains you should be able to bring down taxes even further and again this does not take into the benefits of having the home mortgage deduction on your tax return while you are still paying high tax rates while you are working.

So over a period of 30 years, if you can get anything above 4% you are better off keeping your 3.5% mortgage as long as possible.

I am confident that I can get above 4%, if I can't then I would probably be earning a 0% return after inflation.  If we have that then our Safe Withdrawal Rate would be close to 1% which would cause significant issues to everyone.  A 30 year fixed rate mortgage is a great hedge against inflation.  The Government is giving those who take it free money to jumpstart the economy.  Those who pay it down faster than required are foregoing the government's gift to homeowners.   

I crunch these numbers all the time and I came to the value of piece of mind that paying off my house would provide a greater return should my wife or I lose our jobs.

1. I've built massive excel charts and equations evaluating the cash flow of the before cash and after cash. One thing I found is the opportunity of cash flow after the mortgage is paid off, that has to be calculated as well for the return comparison. ie. the second half of the mortgage or 15years of no mortgage payments invested and the benefit of compounding.

2. I could pay off my rentals and take the tax savings which is marginally better than paying off my house. However, I would lose the comfort of something unexpected happening to our cash flow. Maybe we have another downturn in the real estate market so I'm waiting to pay those off last.

3. I look at paying down my house as a form of bond buying as part of my investing strategy.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tomsang on March 16, 2014, 11:00:51 AM
I crunch these numbers all the time and I came to the value of piece of mind that paying off my house would provide a greater return should my wife or I lose our jobs.

1. I've built massive excel charts and equations evaluating the cash flow of the before cash and after cash. One thing I found is the opportunity of cash flow after the mortgage is paid off, that has to be calculated as well for the return comparison. ie. the second half of the mortgage or 15years of no mortgage payments invested and the benefit of compounding.

2. I could pay off my rentals and take the tax savings which is marginally better than paying off my house. However, I would lose the comfort of something unexpected happening to our cash flow. Maybe we have another downturn in the real estate market so I'm waiting to pay those off last.

3. I look at paying down my house as a form of bond buying as part of my investing strategy.

Are not taking into account that the investments kick off yield that can be tapped?  Your cashflow will be significantly better off if investments yield greater than your mortgage rate.  If you don't have a paid off mortgage, then prepaying your mortgage puts you in a significantly riskier situation if you or your wife lose your jobs.  Have investments provides a huge emergency fund vs. having your money locked up in your house.  If you prepay your mortgage by $50k, then you have an emergency where you don't have the money to pay the monthly payment the bank will not say do not worry about your payment as you prepaid $50k.  They will say make your payment by x date or we will begin foreclosure.  If you have excess dollars in investments you can liquidate your investments, payoff your bills, payoff your mortgage, etc. until you get back on your feet.

It is clear that many forget to include the investment side of the income to offset the mortgage side of the expense. If you look at in this way the peace of mind should/would be greater than having a partially or fully paid off mortgage as you in effect have a huge emergency fund earning longterm market rates.  Check out my Excel spreadsheet to see the impact on your finances based on various assumptions.

This is a very personal choice and there are no terrible decisions, but I want to point out to you and everyone else the math behind the decision.  Most don't see or don't count the investment side of things.  If they have good reasons for that, then I think it would be great to share those with the board.

If you are comfortable I would like to see your Excel file to see your assumptions and calculations.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dabears847 on March 17, 2014, 04:46:10 PM
I crunch these numbers all the time and I came to the value of piece of mind that paying off my house would provide a greater return should my wife or I lose our jobs.

1. I've built massive excel charts and equations evaluating the cash flow of the before cash and after cash. One thing I found is the opportunity of cash flow after the mortgage is paid off, that has to be calculated as well for the return comparison. ie. the second half of the mortgage or 15years of no mortgage payments invested and the benefit of compounding.

2. I could pay off my rentals and take the tax savings which is marginally better than paying off my house. However, I would lose the comfort of something unexpected happening to our cash flow. Maybe we have another downturn in the real estate market so I'm waiting to pay those off last.

3. I look at paying down my house as a form of bond buying as part of my investing strategy.

Are not taking into account that the investments kick off yield that can be tapped?  Your cashflow will be significantly better off if investments yield greater than your mortgage rate.  If you don't have a paid off mortgage, then prepaying your mortgage puts you in a significantly riskier situation if you or your wife lose your jobs.  Have investments provides a huge emergency fund vs. having your money locked up in your house.  If you prepay your mortgage by $50k, then you have an emergency where you don't have the money to pay the monthly payment the bank will not say do not worry about your payment as you prepaid $50k.  They will say make your payment by x date or we will begin foreclosure.  If you have excess dollars in investments you can liquidate your investments, payoff your bills, payoff your mortgage, etc. until you get back on your feet.

ANS: This is all about timing, in a perfect scenario you could yield 10% but you could also lose 10%. This is how opportunity of cash flow comes into play and the time horizon.

ANS: I'm actually closing a Home Equity Line of Credit next week. This will allow me access to my homes equity that I've paid into the house in the event I need the funds. Also my goal is to payoff the house so I can retire sooner while reducing the amount I need in retirement.



It is clear that many forget to include the investment side of the income to offset the mortgage side of the expense. If you look at in this way the peace of mind should/would be greater than having a partially or fully paid off mortgage as you in effect have a huge emergency fund earning longterm market rates.  Check out my Excel spreadsheet to see the impact on your finances based on various assumptions.

ANS: Your assuming investing in the DOW at 16,500 will yield you short term and long term returns which I'm finding it hard to invest with the market so high currently. You should also consider the potential for a loss in your equation.

This is a very personal choice and there are no terrible decisions, but I want to point out to you and everyone else the math behind the decision.  Most don't see or don't count the investment side of things.  If they have good reasons for that, then I think it would be great to share those with the board.

ANS: Last part to consider, opportunity of cash flow

A: One scenario shows the return in the market and yielding perfect returns vs the current mortgage yield

Scenario B: Consider the after mortgage payoff cash flow available for the 15years of no mortgage payments and the extra payments previously going to principal payments now going to the market and now give it the same perfect returns.

P&I 1500 + Extra example of 1000 = 2500 Monthly for 15 years will yield a great return compounding all while having the piece of mind of your house paid off.

Also, now consider a shorter term for Early Retirement, your horizon plays a big role.





If you are comfortable I would like to see your Excel file to see your assumptions and calculations.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jrhampt on April 01, 2014, 06:19:56 AM
New balance: $143k

Bonuses next week!  Then we'll know how big this month's payment can be.  This time last year, we were at $203k, so we've made 60k progress over the past 12 months, and that was before we decided to really get serious about paying it off ASAP.

New balance: $123k

Sold some company stock after it vested, so this month will be another big payment.  Should be able to get it under $100k.  That will be the last of the unusually large payments this year, though.  Hoping to get into the mid-forties by the end of the year.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Cassie on April 01, 2014, 12:39:52 PM
You are doing an awesome job!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Norrie on April 01, 2014, 02:49:51 PM
Waiting for our most recent payment to be processed, but new balance will be around 43,000. The goal is to have it paid off by the end of August, which may be a bit too rowdy. We'll see.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cdub on April 01, 2014, 03:17:59 PM
Waiting for our most recent payment to be processed, but new balance will be around 43,000. The goal is to have it paid off by the end of August, which may be a bit too rowdy. We'll see.

Awesome! Do to Murphy coming to visit I'mm going to have to build back my EF until I start throwing all the money at the mortgage. But that's great for you!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: medinaj2160 on April 02, 2014, 04:09:45 AM
We are in as well :)

Me 28 and my wife 29 purchased our first and last home June 2012.

Value of our home according to Zillow 180K. We only paid 126K since it was a foreclosure and have a 30 year mortgage at 3.75%.
 
As of today we own $64,385.

Payoff goal: March 2015

My reason for paying the house fast is peace of mind because you never know what the future will hold.

New balance: $59,980

I miss judged my tax withholdings so I am not going to be able to pay as much on my mortgage next month :/

New balance: $55,556

little by little

New Balance: $51,171

New balance: $47270
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Cassie on April 08, 2014, 05:11:47 PM
Allsummer long: you are doing an awesome job! Having our house paid off  helps me to sleep at night and helped me to be confident that we could actually retire.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: serious_pete on April 17, 2014, 12:25:30 PM
I'm in! £122,000 left to go on a £128,000 mortgage. Interest rate set at 4.99% So far made a grand total of £1000 overpayments so got quite a way to go. The plan is to overpay by £500 per month to start with and change mortgage deal in December.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jrhampt on April 22, 2014, 12:30:47 PM
New balance: $143k

Bonuses next week!  Then we'll know how big this month's payment can be.  This time last year, we were at $203k, so we've made 60k progress over the past 12 months, and that was before we decided to really get serious about paying it off ASAP.

New balance: $123k

Sold some company stock after it vested, so this month will be another big payment.  Should be able to get it under $100k.  That will be the last of the unusually large payments this year, though.  Hoping to get into the mid-forties by the end of the year.

Agh.  Missed getting it under $100k by $85.  Forgot to account for property tax/escrow increase.  Have to wait until next month to lose that extra digit.

New balance: $100k. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Davids on April 23, 2014, 08:06:28 PM
Love this, my goal is to have my house paid off by 2020 (bought in 2010). Currently have a mortgage balance of $144K (4.25% interest). I have been getting more aggressive the past year as well. Perhaps I will use this thread as well to post my progress.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: medinaj2160 on May 02, 2014, 04:01:52 AM
We are in as well :)

Me 28 and my wife 29 purchased our first and last home June 2012.

Value of our home according to Zillow 180K. We only paid 126K since it was a foreclosure and have a 30 year mortgage at 3.75%.
 
As of today we own $64,385.

Payoff goal: March 2015

My reason for paying the house fast is peace of mind because you never know what the future will hold.

New balance: $59,980

I miss judged my tax withholdings so I am not going to be able to pay as much on my mortgage next month :/

New balance: $55,556

little by little

New Balance: $51,171

New balance: $47270

New balance: $43,868

Me and my wife changed our 401k contributions to max them out; there for principal payments for the rest of the year will be way smaller.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Rural on May 02, 2014, 05:34:01 AM
We are in as well :)

Me 28 and my wife 29 purchased our first and last home June 2012.

Value of our home according to Zillow 180K. We only paid 126K since it was a foreclosure and have a 30 year mortgage at 3.75%.
 
As of today we own $64,385.

Payoff goal: March 2015

My reason for paying the house fast is peace of mind because you never know what the future will hold.

New balance: $59,980

I miss judged my tax withholdings so I am not going to be able to pay as much on my mortgage next month :/

New balance: $55,556

little by little

New Balance: $51,171

New balance: $47270

New balance: $43,868

Me and my wife changed our 401k contributions to max them out; there for principal payments for the rest of the year will be way smaller.


With the interest rate on your mortgage, I think that's the wisest course for you to take. If it starts to get frustrating, look at the balance in your retirement accounts. :-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: shusherstache on May 04, 2014, 05:29:37 PM
So, even with the job change my paycheck is higher than expected thanks to free insurance (!) and other swanky benefits like free public transit.  The paycheck is still $500 lower every other week, but not the $800+ that we were expecting.  Yay! Between that and some unexpected checks we are still progressing, though slower originally than planned.  After DH is reimbursed from his travel later this month we will have another couple thou to throw at it.

Currently at: 38,600ish
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Norrie on May 04, 2014, 09:20:34 PM
We're at $42,099. Well, I actually just threw another $100 at it because I couldn't stand seeing that $99 hanging out there. So just under $42K.

It's going to be a stretch to get it paid off by the end of August. A biiig stretch. But that's still our goal.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on May 05, 2014, 12:21:44 PM
We're at $42,099. Well, I actually just threw another $100 at it because I couldn't stand seeing that $99 hanging out there. So just under $42K.

It's going to be a stretch to get it paid off by the end of August. A biiig stretch. But that's still our goal.

Wow, just wow... You'll be paying off in a month about as much as I'm expecting to pay off this year (not for lack of trying though)...

Status 1-1-2014: 78k
Current status: 72.5k
Expecting go under 70k next month!

To be fair, I did use ~48% of my net income as extra principle...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Davids on May 06, 2014, 04:00:28 PM
My current mortgage balance is $141,500. Looking to have it at $138,500 next month.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: JD_ on May 08, 2014, 04:54:24 PM
I'm in on this.  Joined MMM forum because of it.  Great discussion, guys.

It's nice to share the motivation and hear from other's on the same mission.

My background:

- August 2012 (Age 28): purchased home for $321,400
- Original Mortgage balance: $250,400 (3.75%, 30 year fixed)
- Monthly mortgage payment: $1,160

- Current balance: $200,663

GOAL: Payoff by Fall 2019 (Age 35)

PLAN: Additional $2,200 to principal each month

My wife and I each contribute to 401k to the extent we max out our employer match.  We each have ROTH IRA which we contribute very little to so far, just opened them in December 2013. 

Emergency fund ~ 3 months livings expenses.  We would set aside more for an emergency fund but I work a Saturday job in addition to my full time.  If I were to lose my FT job, I am fortunate that I could pick up close to (if not) 40 hours /week at the Saturday job (never burn bridges!).

Like many others here, I highly value the peace of mind of being mortgage free and the zero risk involved in throwing extra money at a mortgage.

Keep up the good work!

-JD
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: McGeens on May 09, 2014, 04:03:18 AM
We're in for this challenge! In Australia interest rates are higher and not tax deductible so it makes good sense to squash the mortgage quick-sticks! We're 37 and 32yrs old.

Starting sum: $230k in 2007
Current: $87k

We've been aggressively paying it down for 3 years, since our son was born. We aim to have it cleared in 2 more years, at which point we will have saved $220k on interest. Unreal!!

I'm proud because we've done this on one FT and some part time salary, with lots of cost cutting badassity.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jrhampt on May 22, 2014, 02:43:42 PM
New balance: $143k

Bonuses next week!  Then we'll know how big this month's payment can be.  This time last year, we were at $203k, so we've made 60k progress over the past 12 months, and that was before we decided to really get serious about paying it off ASAP.

New balance: $123k

Sold some company stock after it vested, so this month will be another big payment.  Should be able to get it under $100k.  That will be the last of the unusually large payments this year, though.  Hoping to get into the mid-forties by the end of the year.

Agh.  Missed getting it under $100k by $85.  Forgot to account for property tax/escrow increase.  Have to wait until next month to lose that extra digit.

New balance: $100k.

New balance: $94k!  Nice to be under $100k finally. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: medinaj2160 on June 03, 2014, 11:00:34 AM
We are in as well :)

Me 28 and my wife 29 purchased our first and last home June 2012.

Value of our home according to Zillow 180K. We only paid 126K since it was a foreclosure and have a 30 year mortgage at 3.75%.
 
As of today we own $64,385.

Payoff goal: March 2015

My reason for paying the house fast is peace of mind because you never know what the future will hold.

New balance: $59,980

I miss judged my tax withholdings so I am not going to be able to pay as much on my mortgage next month :/

New balance: $55,556

little by little

New Balance: $51,171

New balance: $47270

New balance: $43,868

Me and my wife changed our 401k contributions to max them out; there for principal payments for the rest of the year will be way smaller.

New balance: $42750.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Davids on June 03, 2014, 04:01:28 PM
My current mortgage balance is $141,500. Looking to have it at $138,500 next month.
Update: My new balance is $138,300. Purposely threw in an extra $200 to beat my goal. My goal for next month is $135,000 balance.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: medinaj2160 on June 11, 2014, 04:05:09 AM
We are in as well :)

Me 28 and my wife 29 purchased our first and last home June 2012.

Value of our home according to Zillow 180K. We only paid 126K since it was a foreclosure and have a 30 year mortgage at 3.75%.
 
As of today we own $64,385.

Payoff goal: March 2015

My reason for paying the house fast is peace of mind because you never know what the future will hold.

New balance: $59,980

I miss judged my tax withholdings so I am not going to be able to pay as much on my mortgage next month :/

New balance: $55,556

little by little

New Balance: $51,171

New balance: $47270

New balance: $43,868

Me and my wife changed our 401k contributions to max them out; there for principal payments for the rest of the year will be way smaller.

New balance: $42750.

Sold one of my cars and decided to send some money to the house.

New balance: $32750.

The goal is to pay the mortgage completely before I turn 30 in January... It is going to be difficult.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Jazzpolice on June 11, 2014, 06:03:50 PM
Very exciting with everyone working hard towards being mortgage free!

We have $7099 left and hoping to be done by August.  Can't wait!!  Even though we're a little older than some others on here…still better late than even later.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: fitzgeralday on June 12, 2014, 02:52:40 PM
I started a quest to pay off my mortgage! I even created a blog to document my journey.

http://mortgage-payoff-club.com/ (http://mortgage-payoff-club.com/)

Who's with me?

Paying off our mortgages would certainly be badass. (I hope you enjoy the blog too)

I am so here for this!  I am aiming to have my mortgage paid off in the next 8 years and will be supporting your blog and mortgage payoff efforts :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Strawberrykiwi75 on June 13, 2014, 03:44:33 AM
Started my loan at the beginning of March with 212k, now sitting at 204 :-) pretty happy with that starting effort in 2.5 months

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: nora on June 13, 2014, 05:54:31 AM
I am in. Intending to pay it all off in four years or less. This one is a big $600000 and 5.2% interest.

Down to 481544! Doing much better than I expected! So exciting.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: JD_ on June 18, 2014, 06:09:09 PM
I'm in on this.  Joined MMM forum because of it.  Great discussion, guys.

It's nice to share the motivation and hear from other's on the same mission.

My background:

- August 2012 (Age 28): purchased home for $321,400
- Original Mortgage balance: $250,400 (3.75%, 30 year fixed)
- Monthly mortgage payment: $1,160

- Current balance: $200,663

GOAL: Payoff by Fall 2019 (Age 35)

PLAN: Additional $2,200 to principal each month

My wife and I each contribute to 401k to the extent we max out our employer match.  We each have ROTH IRA which we contribute very little to so far, just opened them in December 2013. 

Emergency fund ~ 3 months livings expenses.  We would set aside more for an emergency fund but I work a Saturday job in addition to my full time.  If I were to lose my FT job, I am fortunate that I could pick up close to (if not) 40 hours /week at the Saturday job (never burn bridges!).

Like many others here, I highly value the peace of mind of being mortgage free and the zero risk involved in throwing extra money at a mortgage.

Keep up the good work!

-JD

Update: down to $195.5k!

A few changes I've made in the past month or two in order to increase my badassity/effort to payoff the mortgage:

1. FINALLY signed up for a cash back credit card, and use it for every expense/purchase possible.  I 'm kicking myself for not doing this sooner!  Every little bit helps!

2. Learned about the commuter benefits available through my employer.  I get $100/month tax free to use towards public transportation.  This saves gas $ as well as serious wear and tear on my car (50 mile round trip commute).

Just when I think I'm doing everything I can to payoff the mortgage ASAP, I find new ways to work even harder at it. 

Love the forum, thanks to all.  I don't post much but I read often and appreciate the helpful insight and tips from the board.

-JD
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: theincurableapprentice on June 18, 2014, 07:57:03 PM
my husband and have about a year to go before we will have the extra cash to throw down on the mortgage.  I constantly think about what is the right move for us: paying down vs. investing.  So many good posts in this thread - I appreciate all the points of view. 

what I love about savings goals/paying off debt is you can choose to do what is right in the moment and change the strategy when needed. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on June 21, 2014, 05:30:35 AM
I'm here!!

Starting Mortgage:  123K
Current Balance: 122K

Mortgage is at 4.25% with PMI, so while I may switch up strategies at some point, right now the goal is to get the PMI off as quickly as possible, hopefully by August 2015 (we only had 5% down).  If we don't switch strategies, goal is to pay this off in the next 3 or 4 years. 


I love seeing everyone else's progress on this thread. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: theincurableapprentice on June 25, 2014, 08:27:03 PM
I'm here!!

Starting Mortgage:  123K
Current Balance: 122K

Mortgage is at 4.25% with PMI, so while I may switch up strategies at some point, right now the goal is to get the PMI off as quickly as possible, hopefully by August 2015 (we only had 5% down).  If we don't switch strategies, goal is to pay this off in the next 3 or 4 years. 


PMI is on my mind as well - pay off all other debt first and then get rid of that pointless $118 fee that goes to waste every month.  I plan to get rid of it by December 2015.  Good luck to you :)

I love seeing everyone else's progress on this thread.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: medinaj2160 on July 02, 2014, 05:53:09 AM
We are in as well :)

Me 28 and my wife 29 purchased our first and last home June 2012.

Value of our home according to Zillow 180K. We only paid 126K since it was a foreclosure and have a 30 year mortgage at 3.75%.
 
As of today we own $64,385.

Payoff goal: March 2015

My reason for paying the house fast is peace of mind because you never know what the future will hold.

New balance: $59,980

I miss judged my tax withholdings so I am not going to be able to pay as much on my mortgage next month :/

New balance: $55,556

little by little

New Balance: $51,171

New balance: $47270

New balance: $43,868

Me and my wife changed our 401k contributions to max them out; there for principal payments for the rest of the year will be way smaller.

New balance: $42750.

Sold one of my cars and decided to send some money to the house.

New balance: $32750.

The goal is to pay the mortgage completely before I turn 30 in January... It is going to be difficult.

New balance: $28,050

Omg so close, I probably own less money on my house than my coworkers paid for their cars lol.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jrhampt on July 02, 2014, 02:34:13 PM
New balance: $143k

Bonuses next week!  Then we'll know how big this month's payment can be.  This time last year, we were at $203k, so we've made 60k progress over the past 12 months, and that was before we decided to really get serious about paying it off ASAP.

New balance: $123k

Sold some company stock after it vested, so this month will be another big payment.  Should be able to get it under $100k.  That will be the last of the unusually large payments this year, though.  Hoping to get into the mid-forties by the end of the year.

Agh.  Missed getting it under $100k by $85.  Forgot to account for property tax/escrow increase.  Have to wait until next month to lose that extra digit.

New balance: $100k.

New balance: $94k!  Nice to be under $100k finally.

$84k!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cdub on July 02, 2014, 03:06:11 PM
Nice! I got hit by some serious medical bills so I need to rebuild the e-fund but this thread is inspiring me. I can't wait until I can start throwing money at the mortgage again.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: basd on July 02, 2014, 03:07:45 PM
Good work everyone!

We'll finally be starting our payoff as well, first 10K will be paid this week. That will bring the remaining mortgage down to 228.500. We've started saving up this 10K in January after paying off the remainder of my student loans, so pretty happy with that. Especially since we're now with three instead of two in our household..

Seeing everybody's progress on here has been really motivating.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Davids on July 02, 2014, 06:34:39 PM
My current mortgage balance is $141,500. Looking to have it at $138,500 next month.
Update: My new balance is $138,300. Purposely threw in an extra $200 to beat my goal. My goal for next month is $135,000 balance.
My new balance is $134,900. Decided to throw in an extra $100 to beat my goal. Unfortunately I am not sure what next month will bring as this month will have some extra expenses (Auto insurance renewal and paying baby delivery bills). Also my wife will be going part time when her maternity leave ends at the end of this month so the next 6-9 months will have a slight wrinkle in putting in as much extra as we can toward the principal but we will still be putting as much extra as we can. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tanhanivar on July 03, 2014, 10:50:23 PM
Joining the club!

Situation
I bought a house just above my budget in 2009, with a 30 year mortgage ($391k loan), single income. I felt bad only having a $20k deposit, but the bank said I was well above average in that. That was fixed-rate, and my income stagnated for those 5 years, but I paid the permitted extra $20k on top of the regular payments and saved up $25k for when I could get an offset account.

Now I owe $324,450. This is mostly fixed at 5.05% for 3 years. $46,100 is variable (5.08%), and set-off against my 100% offset account, which I try to keep over $25k.

Decision
Long-term, the jury is still out on pay-down vs invest. However, for at least the next 3 years my goal is to pay down as much as possible. At the end of the fixed-rate period, I can reassess pay-down vs buy a flat vs invest.

Goal
Based on current income, etc. I can aim to pay this off in 10 years with weekly repayments of $819 (from weekly income of $1,335) . I really, really want to pay it off before I'm 40 (i.e. 6 years), which should let me be FIRE by 45. I can't *quite* get the calculations to come out at less than 8 years. However I am not including side-income (or corresponding expenses), windfalls or further mustachian ratchetting in my calculations, so it's not impossible.

Latest payment
In June I paid $5478 on my mortgage, which is $3259 more than my minimum payments, and $1929 more than what I aim to pay! I don't expect to manage this every month. It was helped by five payment dates in the month and several side-business cheques coming in at once. But it has brought my forecasted repayment date down to 1 month less than 10 years. So hurrah!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: commodore perry on July 06, 2014, 06:27:32 PM
I'm joining this club too! We just moved to a new state and I've gotten it in my head to pay off the mortgage as fast as we can for peace of mind and avoid interest!

I know on paper I could maybe make more investing but wife and I both max out our 401k's and make extra contributions to taxable accounts so it's really not an either-or thing. And with the past few years of returns in the market I don't feel the need to hold on to the mortgage just to put more in the market at this point. Guaranteed interest savings and peace of mind are worth it for me right now.

Purchase price = $248,000 Oct/2013 / financed $154,000; 15 year at 3.5%.
After most recent payment we owe $108,850...good bonus year helped!

Goal is to pay off by March 2016. 21 more payments - who's counting? :) I'll be 37. We'll save $37,500 in interest.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ltt on July 08, 2014, 06:58:33 PM
C'mon guys.  Let's apply some perspective here. 

It doesn't matter if keeping a mortgage and investing the balance can make you more money over the long haul.  Paying off a mortgage, if that's what someone wants to do, is an awesome accomplishment and deserves praise rather than criticism. 

Save the face punches for people who really need them!  I'm borderline on dishing out a few for being so focused on maximizing returns that we neglect to value and recognize tremendous savings accomplishments.

Not only that, it's just so freeing to not have to pay one more mortgage payment.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: basd on July 09, 2014, 01:06:07 AM
Good work everyone!

We'll finally be starting our payoff as well, first 10K will be paid this week. That will bring the remaining mortgage down to 228.500. We've started saving up this 10K in January after paying off the remainder of my student loans, so pretty happy with that. Especially since we're now with three instead of two in our household..

Seeing everybody's progress on here has been really motivating.
Aaand... done. Feels good making that first payment and bringing down the monthly payment. Now it's time to save for the next 10K!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on July 11, 2014, 08:47:08 PM
I'm in on this mission, super excited and focused on getting this done as soon as possible.  Both my husband and I are feeling done with the 9 to 5 world.  Been at it for over 20 years and are ready for a new focus.  Being mortgage free will give us the freedom to choose what we want to do with our time.  Going to hang on in the corporate world until this baby is gone!

Purchased a new home in September 2013 for $655,000 (no judging - it's expensive where I live!)

- Starting mortgage = $435,000, 5 year term @ 3.26%
- Making weekly payments of $800
- Goal:  Make additional payments averaging $2700 a month = $32,400/yr.
- Realistic Mortgage Free Date:  March 2020
- Long Shot Mortgage Free Date:  September 2018 - the end of our current 5 year term.  Depending on bonuses received over the next few years and staying focused on the budget we actually have a shot at making this happen.

- Current Mortgage:  $407,500

And go.........!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: libertarian4321 on July 12, 2014, 05:51:41 AM
Sorry, but unless you have a monstrously large stash, I think this is a poor investment decision. Borrow at 3.5% fixed for 30years. Put the overpayments into the sp500, et al.

Incorrect.

In THEORY, it may be a mildly bad investment decision from a pure numbers point of view.

But life doesn't always follow the theoretical numbers.

I paid my mortgage off early in the late '90s.  As you said, in THEORY, that was a "mistake."

In reality, I came out ahead, because the stock market essentially stagnated for years after I paid off my mortgage.

Many of the theoretical calculations you see are deeply flawed.  They calculate the "tax benefit" of holding a mortgage, but neglect the fact that one can get most of that deduction even without a mortgage (through the standard deduction).

These theoretical calculations also almost always neglect the psychological benefit of having paid off the mortgage.  Knowing you are 100% DEBT FREE is pretty important to some people- worth far more than a few THEORETICAL bucks one way or the other.

So I can't join the club.  I already paid off my mortgage years ago, and never regretted it for a minute. 

And honestly, even if the numbers had worked out the other way, and shown that I would have made a bit more money by holding mortgage debt, I wouldn't change my decision.  Call me a radical.  Call me crazy.  But I think owing NOTHING to anyone is fantastic.  Being completely debt free is a great feeling. 




Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on July 12, 2014, 01:14:41 PM
I'm in on this mission, super excited and focused on getting this done as soon as possible.  Both my husband and I are feeling done with the 9 to 5 world.  Been at it for over 20 years and are ready for a new focus.  Being mortgage free will give us the freedom to choose what we want to do with our time.  Going to hang on in the corporate world until this baby is gone!

Purchased a new home in September 2013 for $655,000 (no judging - it's expensive where I live!)

- Starting mortgage = $435,000, 5 year term @ 3.26%
- Making weekly payments of $800
- Goal:  Make additional payments averaging $2700 a month = $32,400/yr.
- Realistic Mortgage Free Date:  March 2020
- Long Shot Mortgage Free Date:  September 2018 - the end of our current 5 year term.  Depending on bonuses received over the next few years and staying focused on the budget we actually have a shot at making this happen.

- Current Mortgage:  $407,500

And go.........!


Happy to have another Canadian here! RE is crazy expensive where I live, too (BC). It feels so great to see that mortgage dwindle every month!

Weekly payments are a great idea! We've got semi monthly, but may change it up for the next period :)

Yep, crazy expensive is right!  Weekly payments make a huge difference.  Definately worthwhile to make the change.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Jazzpolice on July 12, 2014, 06:40:45 PM
$4000 left...will be all done in 3 weeks!  So close I can taste it :). Wahoooooo!!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on July 14, 2014, 09:34:08 AM

Starting Mortgage:  123K
Current Balance: 122K



Just made my first extra payment of $1300...new mortgage balance is $119,800.00
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on July 14, 2014, 09:35:47 AM
$4000 left...will be all done in 3 weeks!  So close I can taste it :). Wahoooooo!!!!


YAY!!!  Jealous but happy for you at the same time. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Jazzpolice on July 14, 2014, 08:34:58 PM
Thanks Neustache!  Keep up up with those extra payments and you'll be there before you know it...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Happyback on July 17, 2014, 01:50:28 PM
I just paid off my land 100% and now have ZERO debt in this world!
:D
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on July 21, 2014, 03:50:04 PM
Congrats, Happyback!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bob W on July 23, 2014, 09:39:33 AM
IMHO,  paying off a mortgage is the equivalent or paying your rent 30 years in advance.  Why in the world would I ever do that.   If it is some psychological need simply put your money into a REIT account and label it "paid off home."  Set up withdrawals to be automatic so you will never be writing a check or thinking about it.   

Paying off a mortgage = wussassity,   having the money to pay it off and investing it = baddassity. 

Here's a link that explains why paying off a mortgage or even owning a home is a bad idea.  http://www.dailyfinance.com/2014/07/19/the-worst-investment-you-can-make-buying-a-home/?cps=gravity

There is a nice calculator there that will help you evaluate renting vs buying.

Really, you could avoid restaurants,  never heat your home,  drive with the ac off and never drink a Starbucks and you wouldn't even be close to saving the money that paying off a mortgage early will cost you. 

It is a multimillion dollar decision.  One that most people will make with emotions rather than a calculator.

Some other food for thought -

Your home is too big --- shoot for 400 sq ft per person
Your home is too expensive  --- shoot for a home valued at no more than 2 times your annual income.
You live in an area that is too expensive --- rural Midwestern communities have housing at 1/3rd what the coasts do.
Your home owns you --- you don't own it.

If your serious about paying off your home  you should also pay off the maintenance, taxes and insurance 30 years in advance.   Most people would say that is crazy.   But then why pay your rent 30 years in advance?   

There seems to be a big contingent here on the forums in favor of paying off homes and owning homes in general.  For me owning a bigass or even smallass home is the equivalent of driving a Hummer clown car down the road.   It is the biggest consumerism item in the world.   I cry a little every time MMM is bragging about his uber expensive chunk of consumerism.   I feel sorry for him that he is too lazy to walk or bike to the park and insists on owning a home with a park in the back yard.  I shed tears for his engineering degree,  knowing that he is can't or won't do the simple math on mortgages vs. investing. 

Sorry to rain on your parade.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Mike2 on July 23, 2014, 02:06:08 PM
I'll join in on this.  Current mortgage is about $94k.  I pay an extra $350 a month towards the principle and if everything stayed the same it will be paid off in 10 years.  However, my goal is to have it paid off in a maximum of 8 years by throwing extra money at it.  I think the peace of mind of not having a mortgage will be huge and it really motivates me to pay it down.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bob W on July 24, 2014, 11:02:36 AM
IMHO,  paying off a mortgage is the equivalent or paying your rent 30 years in advance.  Why in the world would I ever do that.   If it is some psychological need simply put your money into a REIT account and label it "paid off home."  Set up withdrawals to be automatic so you will never be writing a check or thinking about it.   

Paying off a mortgage = wussassity,   having the money to pay it off and investing it = baddassity. 

Here's a link that explains why paying off a mortgage or even owning a home is a bad idea.  http://www.dailyfinance.com/2014/07/19/the-worst-investment-you-can-make-buying-a-home/?cps=gravity

There is a nice calculator there that will help you evaluate renting vs buying.

Really, you could avoid restaurants,  never heat your home,  drive with the ac off and never drink a Starbucks and you wouldn't even be close to saving the money that paying off a mortgage early will cost you. 

It is a multimillion dollar decision.  One that most people will make with emotions rather than a calculator.

Some other food for thought -

Your home is too big --- shoot for 400 sq ft per person
Your home is too expensive  --- shoot for a home valued at no more than 2 times your annual income.
You live in an area that is too expensive --- rural Midwestern communities have housing at 1/3rd what the coasts do.
Your home owns you --- you don't own it.


If your serious about paying off your home  you should also pay off the maintenance, taxes and insurance 30 years in advance.   Most people would say that is crazy.   But then why pay your rent 30 years in advance?   

There seems to be a big contingent here on the forums in favor of paying off homes and owning homes in general.  For me owning a bigass or even smallass home is the equivalent of driving a Hummer clown car down the road.   It is the biggest consumerism item in the world.   I cry a little every time MMM is bragging about his uber expensive chunk of consumerism.   I feel sorry for him that he is too lazy to walk or bike to the park and insists on owning a home with a park in the back yard.  I shed tears for his engineering degree,  knowing that he is can't or won't do the simple math on mortgages vs. investing. 

Sorry to rain on your parade.


I'm not going to get in an argument with you over where one should put one's money. This topic has been thoroughly discussed in-depth elsewhere in the forum, and generally speaking people are divided.

You, of course, are able to put your cash wherever the heck you would like. As are we. Everyone's situation is unique, and we each have different priorities, goals, and abilities. Please do not presume to know ours or assume that we are not aware of what we are doing.

I'm being a complete jerk here, so please forgive me.

Of course everyone can spend money anywhere they like.   I always think to myself the point of this blog and the community is to help us make thoughtful informed decisions regarding the use of money.   I'm probably off base on that thinking.

It is just perplexing and frustrating to me that MMM will go on and on about the virtues of hacking cable,  not eating out and driving crappy cars and then give up 20K per year on the mortgage/investment split.   

Put me in the "have the money to pay it off,  never pay it off, but far more likely to rent camp" 

and good luck with your goal!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on July 26, 2014, 03:16:17 AM
I'm being a complete jerk here, so please forgive me.

Of course everyone can spend money anywhere they like.   I always think to myself the point of this blog and the community is to help us make thoughtful informed decisions regarding the use of money.   I'm probably off base on that thinking.

It is just perplexing and frustrating to me that MMM will go on and on about the virtues of hacking cable,  not eating out and driving crappy cars and then give up 20K per year on the mortgage/investment split.   

Put me in the "have the money to pay it off,  never pay it off, but far more likely to rent camp" 

and good luck with your goal!

You are entitled to your opinion as is everyone else. Personally, I think this specific topic is not the place to put this one though, we've got a mortgage (for better or worse) and have made the choice to pay it off ASAP and this topic is a big motivator for it. The fact that you are calling it a wussasity is counterproductive and I would ask you to refrain from such comments in this specific topic.

On that note, I just dropped my amount payed off to 55%. Maxed out for the year (any more and I will have to pay fines) so I won't be posting much here for a while :P
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: medinaj2160 on August 02, 2014, 10:28:33 AM
We are in as well :)

Me 28 and my wife 29 purchased our first and last home June 2012.

Value of our home according to Zillow 180K. We only paid 126K since it was a foreclosure and have a 30 year mortgage at 3.75%.
 
As of today we own $64,385.

Payoff goal: March 2015

My reason for paying the house fast is peace of mind because you never know what the future will hold.

New balance: $59,980

I miss judged my tax withholdings so I am not going to be able to pay as much on my mortgage next month :/

New balance: $55,556

little by little

New Balance: $51,171

New balance: $47270

New balance: $43,868

Me and my wife changed our 401k contributions to max them out; there for principal payments for the rest of the year will be way smaller.

New balance: $42750.

Sold one of my cars and decided to send some money to the house.

New balance: $32750.

The goal is to pay the mortgage completely before I turn 30 in January... It is going to be difficult.

New balance: $28,050

Omg so close, I probably own less money on my house than my coworkers paid for their cars lol.

Update time :)

New balance: $23,100
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: shusherstache on August 02, 2014, 10:44:35 AM
So, even with the job change my paycheck is higher than expected thanks to free insurance (!) and other swanky benefits like free public transit.  The paycheck is still $500 lower every other week, but not the $800+ that we were expecting.  Yay! Between that and some unexpected checks we are still progressing, though slower originally than planned.  After DH is reimbursed from his travel later this month we will have another couple thou to throw at it.

Currently at: 38,600ish

WIth the payment for August we should be down to 27,900 soon.

My mortgage company is so incompetent at dealing with principal payments that I am even more encouraged to pay this thing off.  The way they want to fix it is to gain access to debit my bank account - and with the fact that they have handled my payments correctly TWICE in the entire year they have had the account, there's no way in hell I trust them with more acess than I give them via paper check.

I'm now to the point where I walk the checks down to the bank branch close to work and they STILL mess it up every month, which results in me having to call them.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Happyback on August 02, 2014, 11:13:49 AM
I JUST PAID OFF MY MORTGAGE!  DONE!  NEVER AGAIN!! WHOOO HOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

I'ma gonna sleep sooooooo good tonight!
(*doin' a happy dance!*)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Rural on August 02, 2014, 12:06:35 PM
I JUST PAID OFF MY MORTGAGE!  DONE!  NEVER AGAIN!! WHOOO HOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

I'ma gonna sleep sooooooo good tonight!
(*doin' a happy dance!*)


Congratulations! Don't burn the real document, but it's officially okay to make a copy just for torching purposes...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on August 02, 2014, 12:19:03 PM
I JUST PAID OFF MY MORTGAGE!  DONE!  NEVER AGAIN!! WHOOO HOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

I'ma gonna sleep sooooooo good tonight!
(*doin' a happy dance!*)

Yay!  Congrats!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FIreDrill on August 02, 2014, 01:28:31 PM
I JUST PAID OFF MY MORTGAGE!  DONE!  NEVER AGAIN!! WHOOO HOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

I'ma gonna sleep sooooooo good tonight!
(*doin' a happy dance!*)

Awesome! Congrats :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Cressida on August 02, 2014, 11:40:03 PM
I JUST PAID OFF MY MORTGAGE!  DONE!  NEVER AGAIN!! WHOOO HOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

I'ma gonna sleep sooooooo good tonight!
(*doin' a happy dance!*)

Congratulations, that is truly fantastic.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Davids on August 04, 2014, 04:18:57 PM
I JUST PAID OFF MY MORTGAGE!  DONE!  NEVER AGAIN!! WHOOO HOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

I'ma gonna sleep sooooooo good tonight!
(*doin' a happy dance!*)
I expect to be doing the happy dance in 4 years!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Davids on August 04, 2014, 04:22:33 PM
My current mortgage balance is $141,500. Looking to have it at $138,500 next month.
Update: My new balance is $138,300. Purposely threw in an extra $200 to beat my goal. My goal for next month is $135,000 balance.
My new balance is $134,900. Decided to throw in an extra $100 to beat my goal. Unfortunately I am not sure what next month will bring as this month will have some extra expenses (Auto insurance renewal and paying baby delivery bills). Also my wife will be going part time when her maternity leave ends at the end of this month so the next 6-9 months will have a slight wrinkle in putting in as much extra as we can toward the principal but we will still be putting as much extra as we can.
My new balance is $132,400. In addition to extra expenses of auto insurance renewal and the baby delivery bills we had to replace our hot water heater since it was leaking but I am still happy with what I put for extra even though it is not as much as I have lately been doing. With my wife working part time now with maternity leave ending we will see how much extra each month we can do. We should definitely though be under $130,000 for next month update!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tanhanivar on August 04, 2014, 08:00:47 PM
My annual pay rise turned out double what I calculated it to be (there were some other simultaneous changes which threw me). If I throw it all at the mortgage, that buys me an extra five months! With a very small effort, I may even get this down to 7 1/2 years after all.

I realised the other day that I have 6 1/2 years until I'm up for long service leave at the current job, so that is my new stretch goal: Paid off before I take long service leave.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ecmcn on August 05, 2014, 12:49:05 PM
RE the pay off vs invest argument, I think there's a middle way that can provide both piece of mind and maximum returns. Instead of, say, paying an extra $X/mo to pay off the mortgage in 15 years rather than 30, invest that money and earmark it for paying off the mortgage in 15 years. At any time you can compare your principal due to the value of that account and get the warm fuzzies knowing you're closer to the end of your mortgage. But you also get the financial advantages described elsewhere in this thread, and it allows for much more flexibility. You may find you can pay it off in 12 years, or perhaps you'll decide you're better off keeping the mortgage, etc.

I know it's a subtle change in outlook and isn't really that different from the "invest" side of the argument, but it works for me. Personally I would *love* the feeling of having my mortgage paid off, but my logical side can't escape the numbers, and this approach injects a little of the emotional element into the cold, hard finances.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: gobius on August 05, 2014, 03:26:13 PM

Here's a link that explains why paying off a mortgage or even owning a home is a bad idea.  http://www.dailyfinance.com/2014/07/19/the-worst-investment-you-can-make-buying-a-home/?cps=gravity

There is a nice calculator there that will help you evaluate renting vs buying.

That is a cool calculator.

I live in the Midwest (a few hours from you).  Granted, you said the Midwest is cheaper, but the article is making assumptions such as buying a $350K house vs renting a similar place for 3/4 the mortgage payment.  Where I live, you can get a 15-year mortgage with a smaller payment (including insurance/taxes) than what someone pays in rent.  His assumptions would perhaps be good if you live in an area with a housing boom where the values of the homes have skyrocketed but people have options of renting from landlords who have owned their homes for awhile.  In the places where I have lived, that isn't the case (all are Midwest areas).  If his assumptions were true about the monthly payment, then all the landlords on this forum wouldn't be able to retire as early as they want.

When I put my assumptions into the calculator, it said I would break-even at $590/mo rent costs (living there 5 years).  I assumed 9% investment growth rate as well.  To rent the house where I live in, I would probably pay at least $700/mo (without including utilities).  According to the calculator, I would have to live in it for at least 3 years to beat that.  Sure, I used to rent an apartment that was less than $590/mo, but to fit my wife and me into it would yield less than the 400 SF/person you recommended.  About half that, actually.  That would be more mustachian I suppose, but since I'm at 80%+ savings rate I'm not that worried about it.  We also live in a house that is worth less than our combined annual salaries and allows us to bike almost everywhere.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: guzzler on August 15, 2014, 06:09:34 PM
I am 33 years old. 

I have been in this debate with myself for past 6 years:  I have decided to pay off.  For piece of mind and simplicity.

I bought 2 homes:
1) 2008, Primary: 550K >> down to 385K >> refinanced to 15 years term.  2855 monthly payment, out of which almost 2K towards principal.
2) 2007, Investment: 120K >> paid off in 2 years.  Now the house is worth 250K

I cannot express in words how good it feels to OWN the house fully and to say that if I quit my job today I can live in that #2 house and live off my dividend income. 

Also renting vs buying calculators dont address this important fact:  Fixed payment for 30 years and no payment there after!!

No matter what you do, will need a house to live in, whether you are 20 or 90 years old.  If I can get a fixed monthly payment for next 30 years by having a mortgage it just makes sense.   Coz rent is gonna go up dramatically 30 years later say in 2044!!

See second table:
https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/census/historic/grossrents.html

Take a look at 30 year diff in the past: 1970 and 2000:  Rents have gone up 6 times. 

If i decide not to buy because of some calculator and my rent today is 1000$, it will become 6000$ when i become 60.  At that i time I cannot afford that rent.





Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jrhampt on August 16, 2014, 11:17:15 AM
New balance: $143k

Bonuses next week!  Then we'll know how big this month's payment can be.  This time last year, we were at $203k, so we've made 60k progress over the past 12 months, and that was before we decided to really get serious about paying it off ASAP.

New balance: $123k

Sold some company stock after it vested, so this month will be another big payment.  Should be able to get it under $100k.  That will be the last of the unusually large payments this year, though.  Hoping to get into the mid-forties by the end of the year.

Agh.  Missed getting it under $100k by $85.  Forgot to account for property tax/escrow increase.  Have to wait until next month to lose that extra digit.

New balance: $100k.

New balance: $94k!  Nice to be under $100k finally.

$84k!

$79k, forgot to update last month.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tomsang on August 16, 2014, 11:50:24 AM

Also renting vs buying calculators dont address this important fact:  Fixed payment for 30 years and no payment there after!!

No matter what you do, will need a house to live in, whether you are 20 or 90 years old.  If I can get a fixed monthly payment for next 30 years by having a mortgage it just makes sense.   Coz rent is gonna go up dramatically 30 years later say in 2044!!

See second table:
https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/census/historic/grossrents.html

Take a look at 30 year diff in the past: 1970 and 2000:  Rents have gone up 6 times. 

If i decide not to buy because of some calculator and my rent today is 1000$, it will become 6000$ when i become 60.  At that i time I cannot afford that rent.
Just a FYI.
The calculators do take this into account. If you have a paid off $600,000 house vs an investment account with $600k. At 4% you could pull out $2k a month in today's dollars for life for rent.  The stock market averages 7%+, so when you back off inflation that is where you get the 4%.

You listed rents from 1970 to 2000. If you also listed the stock market from that point in time you will see that you would be far ahead to invest vs having a paid off house.

Logically you can see that if your investments pay out greater than your mortgage rate then you would be better off keeping your mortgage and investing the difference.

Everyone should do what is best for them, I just wanted to clarify a few areas that you may have been mistaken.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: guzzler on August 16, 2014, 02:48:19 PM
In theory it makes sense financially..  But in practice it doesnt work out.

I am left with constant stress and active involvement to make sure i get good returns for 60 years of my life:  25 to 85 age.

Also technically you would not be earning from your age 60-90 but rather withraw from your investments.  At that point your capital starts decling which may not provide you 6000$ for rent or at that point buying a home might not be an option either.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: YeahNo on August 17, 2014, 07:44:41 PM
In theory it makes sense financially..  But in practice it doesnt work out.

I am left with constant stress and active involvement to make sure i get good returns for 60 years of my life:  25 to 85 age.



This is EXACTLY how I feel.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tomsang on August 17, 2014, 08:48:19 PM
Also technically you would not be earning from your age 60-90 but rather withraw from your investments.  At that point your capital starts decling which may not provide you 6000$ for rent or at that point buying a home might not be an option either.

I am not discounting emotions, but it might make sense to read up on investments and the 4%SWR. In most scenarios your Stache will grow. In the few worst case scenarios you will eat into principal, but that is the exception not the rule. In most scenarios your Stache will be greater than what you started with in real dollars. Play around with cfiresim. You might be shocked by the projected size of your stache based on historical returns.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Cassie on August 17, 2014, 11:18:03 PM
In another forum I participate in many older people including myself were commenting that many young MM's think it is wiser to invest because the returns have been so good for awhile but they have not lived thru the many long downturns. Many of us think that those that pay off the mortgage are the smartest!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tomsang on August 18, 2014, 06:56:54 AM
In another forum I participate in many older people including myself were commenting that many young MM's think it is wiser to invest because the returns have been so good for awhile but they have not lived thru the many long downturns. Many of us think that those that pay off the mortgage are the smartest!!

Investment returns have been so good since 1929 or as long as we have financial models. There is no period of time where the market has performed less than 5% over a 25 to 30 year period. I was thinking about your comment and may flip your remark; that young people may have grown up in the worst economic times since 1929 and feel that the market is risky. The mortgage rates are at all time lows as the government is giving away free money to spark the economy. Even with this complete meltdown that we have witnessed in 2008, we have seen returns in excess of 8% over the past 10 years, 20 year and 30 years. Again if we don't earn greater than 6% over 30 years the 4% SWR does not work. 

MMM's shockingly simple math calc uses 5% after inflation. So if you are paying off a 4% mortgage you are pushing your retirement back from the calcs as MMM was using 7%+ for his investment returns. Also note that he kept his mortgage for several years after retiring until he said that he has so much money that he doesn't need the hassle to gain more.

Based on all of the historical returns since we started tracking them you would have beat a 4% mortgage over 20 or more years. So it isn't that the young whippersnappers don't have the wisdom, the facts when you look at them are clear that paying off a 3.5% mortgage is pushing back your retirement date, creating a situation where your net worth is tied up in an illiquid asset, where you are still responsible for your monthly mortgage payment until your mortgage is 100% paid off. A bank doesn't care if you prepaid your mortgage by $50k. They still want your payment.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on August 18, 2014, 09:39:48 AM

Starting Mortgage:  123K
Current Balance: 122K



Just made my first extra payment of $1300...new mortgage balance is $119,800.00

Ahem....back on topic.

Made my August extra payment...new balance is........ $117,719.00   Woot!  Sent $1900 to the mortgage, plus Augusts regular payment.  Goal is to hit 80% LTV by my birthday in January. We shall see. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Cassie on August 18, 2014, 05:33:51 PM
You will be done before you know it!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: RNwastash on August 18, 2014, 05:45:25 PM
I FINALLY got my act together and made my first prepayment of the principal.  I feel great!! Balance: $139,318.  Great job everyone.  I feel inspired reading your posts. :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: financialforager on August 20, 2014, 09:43:32 AM
I am trying to pay mine off in about 6 years. I am hoping to refinance to a 10 year and a lower rate soon. I am making extra payments of $800 a month towards the principal. I owe about $180,000. It will be such a great feeling to have no mortgage payment.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FunkyStickman on August 21, 2014, 07:24:35 AM
Homeowner's insurance went up on me, still have $66K left owed on principal. I'm seriously debating on dumping my savings and tax returns into it and paying it off in 4 years instead of 7.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: medinaj2160 on September 02, 2014, 06:42:34 AM
We are in as well :)

Me 28 and my wife 29 purchased our first and last home June 2012.

Value of our home according to Zillow 180K. We only paid 126K since it was a foreclosure and have a 30 year mortgage at 3.75%.
 
As of today we own $64,385.

Payoff goal: March 2015

My reason for paying the house fast is peace of mind because you never know what the future will hold.

New balance: $59,980

I miss judged my tax withholdings so I am not going to be able to pay as much on my mortgage next month :/

New balance: $55,556

little by little

New Balance: $51,171

New balance: $47270

New balance: $43,868

Me and my wife changed our 401k contributions to max them out; there for principal payments for the rest of the year will be way smaller.

New balance: $42750.

Sold one of my cars and decided to send some money to the house.

New balance: $32750.

The goal is to pay the mortgage completely before I turn 30 in January... It is going to be difficult.

New balance: $28,050

Omg so close, I probably own less money on my house than my coworkers paid for their cars lol.

Update time :)

New balance: $23,100

New balance: $15,560

:) so close... I can't wait.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Davids on September 03, 2014, 08:10:43 PM
Quote
My new balance is $132,400. In addition to extra expenses of auto insurance renewal and the baby delivery bills we had to replace our hot water heater since it was leaking but I am still happy with what I put for extra even though it is not as much as I have lately been doing. With my wife working part time now with maternity leave ending we will see how much extra each month we can do. We should definitely though be under $130,000 for next month update!
My new balance is $129,000. Excellent month to say the least. My goal is to be under $120K by year end.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: LLCoolDave on September 06, 2014, 04:02:46 PM
My mortgage balance just went under $20k. My last payment was $3800. I bought the house 5 years ago with a mortgage of $157k. I should be finished in January or February, my income fluctuates. I'm on the home stretch. Pun intended. Congrats to the posters who hit the milestone.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: falcondisruptor on September 07, 2014, 02:56:39 PM
Add us to the pay down debt club!  Today I saw our balance under $100,000 for the first time, it feels great!  We're hoping to have it paid off in four years.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tanhanivar on September 07, 2014, 07:37:30 PM
As of this month, my debt is $318,000: $100,000 less than the house cost. My net position is $100,000 less than what I borrowed.

I feel like it's the first major milestone, and am hoping to be under $300k in debt ($275k net) by the end of April next year, and paid off (at this rate) by mid-2022.

I'd really like to knock at least another two years off that, and pay it off before I'm 40 and take long service leave.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Roland of Gilead on September 07, 2014, 07:41:23 PM
Paid off our loan.  Was $200,000 3 years ago, made extra payments and zeroed it out on Friday.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on September 08, 2014, 07:52:17 PM
Paid off our loan.  Was $200,000 3 years ago, made extra payments and zeroed it out on Friday.

Whoot!  Awesome job!  Big congratulations on that payoff!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: falcondisruptor on September 21, 2014, 02:32:06 PM
Paid off our loan.  Was $200,000 3 years ago, made extra payments and zeroed it out on Friday.


Wooohooo!  Congratulations, that is huge!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Happy Little Chipmunk on September 21, 2014, 09:27:50 PM
Go Roland of Gilead!

We have been dabbling with this challenge; we've been paying extra but not focusing too much because we also want to be stashing cash in investments and our loan is pretty low at 3.25%. We have $107K left on a $126K loan. But we recently bought a "new to us" car. And in a most non-mushtachian move we financed part of it so we have an auto loan for the first time in 14 years.

I'm finding that adding consumer debt (even really low interest debt) makes me cranky, so we won't pay extra on the mortgage until I get the car paid off.

I hope to soon be back on track!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Herbert Derp on September 21, 2014, 11:01:35 PM
I gave the point plenty of thought and decided to pay cash for my condo. The way I see it, my FI was delayed for about a year, but now I am locked into a stable living situation with very low expenses. If I was renting, I would be paying at least $1,000/month + utilities for my location. With roommates, I could go a few hundred cheaper a month, but I would be hard pressed to beat what I'd be paying in dues + mortgage if I bought.

So basically, the cheapest options in my case were buy a condo and have my own apartment or rent and have roommates. There wasn't a significant financial difference between the two so I bought. Paying in cash was mostly a gut instinct decision: my thoughts on the matter are that I chose to make a safe investment at ~4.5% return rather than gamble with the stock market and hope I get over 4.5% (even though on average, this is very likely).

In any case, by the time I reach my 30s, my home equity will represent a relatively small percent of my net worth so I like to think of it as a nice little diversification in my investments.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: medinaj2160 on October 02, 2014, 04:35:21 PM
We are in as well :)

Me 28 and my wife 29 purchased our first and last home June 2012.

Value of our home according to Zillow 180K. We only paid 126K since it was a foreclosure and have a 30 year mortgage at 3.75%.
 
As of today we own $64,385.

Payoff goal: March 2015

My reason for paying the house fast is peace of mind because you never know what the future will hold.

New balance: $59,980

I miss judged my tax withholdings so I am not going to be able to pay as much on my mortgage next month :/

New balance: $55,556

little by little

New Balance: $51,171

New balance: $47270

New balance: $43,868

Me and my wife changed our 401k contributions to max them out; there for principal payments for the rest of the year will be way smaller.

New balance: $42750.

Sold one of my cars and decided to send some money to the house.

New balance: $32750.

The goal is to pay the mortgage completely before I turn 30 in January... It is going to be difficult.

New balance: $28,050

Omg so close, I probably own less money on my house than my coworkers paid for their cars lol.

Update time :)

New balance: $23,100

New balance: $15,560

:) so close... I can't wait.

New balance: $10,550
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: secondcor521 on October 02, 2014, 09:45:56 PM
^ Looks like you're going to beat your March 2015 goal :-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: steveo on October 03, 2014, 02:30:12 AM
I have just under 100k owing at this point. I'd like to pay it off by the end of next year.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Pants on October 03, 2014, 03:07:16 AM
I need to join this thread :) I only got a mortgage a bit over a year ago for over $200,000 - probably huge by the US standards, but minuscule by Australian! Since finding MMM and doing a bit of thinking about mortgage pay off vs investing, I have decided to throw everything into the mortgage. Currently at 5.18% interest rate plus I feel like the peace of mind it will offer me is worth several percentage points on top of that. And the rates are expected to go up next year after a long pause at current levels...

Current balance $195,660 and I am hoping to pay it off in about 6 years (though that's being conservative).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bytowner on October 03, 2014, 06:40:42 AM
After long debates with my partner in life, we settled on doubling our current weekly mortgage payments. We agreed that we prefer having the peace of mind of owning our house outright. Payment is now 17% interest, 83% capital instead of 35% interests, 65% capital.

Done in 7.5, or 6 if we drop an additional 17k$ per year. But I figure this will only happens if both our RRSP and TFSA are fully invested in.

When I bought the house a year ago, I figured I would have to pay mortgage payments for the next 25 years. No way I decided, I want to be done by 35.

Similar boat to you. We have a 30 year mortgage that I hope to pay off in under 8 years (I'm 30 now). I'm waffling back and forth between paying it off and chucking everything into our TFSAs and RRSPs. I know what the math says, and I doubt mortgage rates will be that much higher in 5 years when we need to refinance, but I'm having a really hard time putting money into this market with the S&P500 looking like it does. A big(ger) correction in October would make the decision a lot easier!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FunkyStickman on November 04, 2014, 08:25:29 AM
We still owe $64K, but back on track for paying it off in less than 7 years.

It makes me sick that we've actually only paid $24K on principal over the last 7 years.

Cannot wait to get this albatross off my neck.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: medinaj2160 on November 08, 2014, 09:24:41 AM
We are in as well :)

Me 28 and my wife 29 purchased our first and last home June 2012.

Value of our home according to Zillow 180K. We only paid 126K since it was a foreclosure and have a 30 year mortgage at 3.75%.
 
As of today we own $64,385.

Payoff goal: March 2015

My reason for paying the house fast is peace of mind because you never know what the future will hold.

New balance: $59,980

I miss judged my tax withholdings so I am not going to be able to pay as much on my mortgage next month :/

New balance: $55,556

little by little

New Balance: $51,171

New balance: $47270

New balance: $43,868

Me and my wife changed our 401k contributions to max them out; there for principal payments for the rest of the year will be way smaller.

New balance: $42750.

Sold one of my cars and decided to send some money to the house.

New balance: $32750.

The goal is to pay the mortgage completely before I turn 30 in January... It is going to be difficult.

New balance: $28,050

Omg so close, I probably own less money on my house than my coworkers paid for their cars lol.

Update time :)

New balance: $23,100

New balance: $15,560

:) so close... I can't wait.

New balance: $10,550

New balance: $9,035

Finally in the 4 digits :) ... I think that I should be able to pay the house completely in January before turning 30 if everything goes well.

Will see what happens....
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: eyePod on November 12, 2014, 08:39:28 AM
OK, I'll bite. I'm not sure how quickly we'd like to pay of our mortgage, but here's our stats.

Mortgage started at 223,200 in June 2014. We are paying PMI to the tune of $80 a month. We plan on keeping this in our monthly mortgage payment since we're used to it.

It's now November, and to date, we are at $217,524.10. So that's $5,675.90 off of principal in the first 5 months. I wish we could keep that pace.

We've been able to do this in sort of a two-pronged approach.

1 is our dependent care from work, I get 5k that's removed throughout the year and when it comes back, it automatically goes to principal - wife and I agreed about this.

Other miscellaneous non-allocated money at the end of the month is also going to principal.

Things that we've saved up for since we got in our home include: new carpet upstairs, new carpet in the basement (only one rooms worth), and new furniture for my daughter.

For general house repairs and the like, including major appliances, we're trying to only use money from my eBay side business. Currently, we've put away ~1500, and that will keep going up. This is for replacement of the hot water heater, furnace, and hvac system since they're all pretty old. We do have a home warranty through June, but we feel pretty good about all of this.

Sorry for the novel, but I really love the idea of not having to make these types of payments in the future. Probably would like to hit FI around/before 40 (11 years from now), and we would love to pay off the house before then too. Currently have cut off (with the $80 continuing) ~25k on the total amount paid and 43 months. This is 15 years further out from my 40th, so we have some work to do.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: JD_ on November 12, 2014, 12:03:34 PM
I'm in on this.  Joined MMM forum because of it.  Great discussion, guys.

It's nice to share the motivation and hear from other's on the same mission.

My background:

- August 2012 (Age 28): purchased home for $321,400
- Original Mortgage balance: $250,400 (3.75%, 30 year fixed)
- Monthly mortgage payment: $1,160

- Current balance: $200,663

GOAL: Payoff by Fall 2019 (Age 35)

PLAN: Additional $2,200 to principal each month

My wife and I each contribute to 401k to the extent we max out our employer match.  We each have ROTH IRA which we contribute very little to so far, just opened them in December 2013. 

Emergency fund ~ 3 months livings expenses.  We would set aside more for an emergency fund but I work a Saturday job in addition to my full time.  If I were to lose my FT job, I am fortunate that I could pick up close to (if not) 40 hours /week at the Saturday job (never burn bridges!).

Like many others here, I highly value the peace of mind of being mortgage free and the zero risk involved in throwing extra money at a mortgage.

Keep up the good work!

-JD

Update: down to $195.5k!

A few changes I've made in the past month or two in order to increase my badassity/effort to payoff the mortgage:

1. FINALLY signed up for a cash back credit card, and use it for every expense/purchase possible.  I 'm kicking myself for not doing this sooner!  Every little bit helps!

2. Learned about the commuter benefits available through my employer.  I get $100/month tax free to use towards public transportation.  This saves gas $ as well as serious wear and tear on my car (50 mile round trip commute).

Just when I think I'm doing everything I can to payoff the mortgage ASAP, I find new ways to work even harder at it. 

Love the forum, thanks to all.  I don't post much but I read often and appreciate the helpful insight and tips from the board.

-JD

Update: down to $176.2k come this Friday.  Aiming for a payoff date of Sept 2018.  Keep going strong, fellow M's.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: YeahNo on November 13, 2014, 02:17:45 PM
Glad to find you guys. I'm of the same exact mindset...the freedom of being completely debt free completely outweighs "the math" of not paying off and investing the money. Gaining an extra point or two changes my life very minimally, paying off my mortgage transforms my life.

Thanks frugalJD for the template ;)

My background:

September 2011 (Age 29): purchased home for $325,000
Original Mortgage balance: $260,000 (4.25%, 30 year fixed)
Original Monthly mortgage payment: $1,726.87
Original Extra Principal Paydown: $500/month
Original Payment frequency: Monthly

Current balance: $211,197.92
Current Payment frequency: Bi-Weekly
Current Monthly Mortgage Payment: $1,868.30
Current Extra Principal Paydown: $1,631.70/month + 2 months a year where an extra $1,750 each month goes in

GOAL: I am a business owner so there are periods where my income is stable and periods where it fluctuates. If we have a good 6 month run I could take a distribution that would pay off 1/2 the remaining balance in one shot. At the same time, if the money isn't there I will continue getting my monthly paychecks and making the "current" numbers from above work. I'd really like to have this beast paid of within 2 years, age 35.

PLAN: Keep routine "current" plans, use extra business income to pay down big chunks of principal.

Side note: We own 50% of a rental townhouse. We saved up to finally pay off the remaining ~$40k on that mortgage. We did get a little taste of the "no mortgage" freedom with that. It gave us a $600 swing in cash flow each month.

My wife and I each max out 401(k).  We are above income thresholds for IRAs. Max out HSA for family of $6500.

Emergency fund - None. We will use funds in checking account and/or credit cards for immediate needs(<72 hours). After that would sell some stock and transfer funds to checking account.

Very curious to know what it feels like to have literally 0 debt.






Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Threshkin on November 14, 2014, 08:08:31 AM
Glad to find you guys. I'm of the same exact mindset...the freedom of being completely debt free completely outweighs "the math" of not paying off and investing the money. Gaining an extra point or two changes my life very minimally, paying off my mortgage transforms my life.

...clip...

Very curious to know what it feels like to have literally 0 debt.

It feels GREAT!  Congratulations on your excellent progress!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jrhampt on November 18, 2014, 04:42:04 AM
Mortgage mutilated.  Struck the final death blow last week - totally debt free.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Primm on November 18, 2014, 04:54:13 AM
Mortgage mutilated.  Struck the final death blow last week - totally debt free.

Awesome work!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FunkyStickman on November 18, 2014, 08:01:53 AM
My hours got cut back at work, it will end up costing me about $600 a month, which is what we were using to pay off the mortgage. Will probably put my Christmas bonus on it, and most if not all of my tax return. So still not doing badly, but kind of irritated I have to push it back a few months.

Current balance is $64K.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jrhampt on November 18, 2014, 11:16:40 AM
Mortgage mutilated.  Struck the final death blow last week - totally debt free.

Amazing! Congrats!

I hope to be in your shoes in 4.5 years :)

Thanks!  Took us just over 6 years; still can't believe it's all gone.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: serious_pete on November 20, 2014, 12:56:10 PM
I'm in! £122,000 left to go on a £128,000 mortgage. Interest rate set at 4.99% So far made a grand total of £1000 overpayments so got quite a way to go. The plan is to overpay by £500 per month to start with and change mortgage deal in December.

Now down to £116,500 and interest rate is now down to 3.09% as of January. Still working on 500 overpay per month. Slow but steady!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on November 20, 2014, 07:44:04 PM
I'm in on this mission, super excited and focused on getting this done as soon as possible.  Both my husband and I are feeling done with the 9 to 5 world.  Been at it for over 20 years and are ready for a new focus.  Being mortgage free will give us the freedom to choose what we want to do with our time.  Going to hang on in the corporate world until this baby is gone!

Purchased a new home in September 2013 for $655,000 (no judging - it's expensive where I live!)

- Starting mortgage = $435,000, 5 year term @ 3.26% (starting Sept. 30, 2013)
- Making weekly payments of $800
- Goal:  Make additional payments averaging $2700 a month = $32,400/yr.
- Realistic Mortgage Free Date:  March 2020
- Long Shot Mortgage Free Date:  September 2018 - the end of our current 5 year term.  Depending on bonuses received over the next few years and staying focused on the budget we actually have a shot at making this happen.

- Current Mortgage:  $407,500

And go.........!

Update on this mortgage payoff madness!

- 3 years 10 months left on term @ 3.26%
- Increased weekly payments to $900
- Revised monthly payment increase goal to $2333 a month = $28,000/yr (reduced due to increase monthly payment)
- Still shooting for Long Shot Mortgage Free Date:  September 2018 - the end of our current 5 year term.  Depending on bonuses received over the next few years and staying focused on the budget we actually have a shot at making this happen.

- Current Mortgage:  $394,537.49
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on November 21, 2014, 06:20:25 AM
I'm so happy for you all!  I've had to take a break due to some major house repairs (foundation !!! and new roof on the rental) so I probably won't be able to do much for the next 8 months or so.  Just wanted to say "Congrats!" to those making progress and a "WOOOOOT" to those paying off their mortgages.  So cool!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on November 21, 2014, 07:28:58 AM
Nice!  Our kids will know about our payoff, too, and we plan to cement it in their minds with a WDW trip.  I want them to forever remember going to WDW as a result of "Mom and Dad paid off their mortgage" which will make the trip very special for us and hopefully they'll assume that paying off a mortgage with young kids is just what people do.  :D

 (no face punches, please, I intend on making this celebration trip as mustachian as possible by utilizing points/card churning when it happens!)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on November 21, 2014, 08:14:55 AM
LOL!  Are you millionaires?  If not, I think you will be in short order!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mnsaver on November 23, 2014, 08:07:39 PM
Hello,

   I'm a new member and have been mostly frugal my entire life. I'd working on stepping up my game. I bought a condo in July and want it paid off in now less than 20 years (can probably do 15)

Starting date Sept 2014 Age 34 108750 (I put 25% down)
payment is 534 per month, paying an extra 66 + toward principle each month
due to my parents giving me money has a housewarming present + OT mortgage is currently 107,000
payoff date has gone from 8/1/44 to 12/1/43. Will pay an extra 250 next month.

At my job I regularly have OT and I save 40% of that in a separate fund to eventually pay off my condo. Due to health issues and the fact that I'm single I feel better with a larger emergency fund. I would like it to be about 2 years worth. Currently it is about 13 months worth. My goal for next year is to get it to 18 months + get balance of mortgage to less then 102,000.

Currently contribute 7% for 401K (and my employer gives a 6% match!) I have about 80,000 in retirement funds.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: shusherstache on December 01, 2014, 06:33:04 PM
We're down to 16 and some change.

I was sitting there tonight writing the check to physically take to my mortgage provider (they have mucked up every payment I have ever mailed in) and I finally decided I'm tired of it.  We get no deduction next year on our mortgage interest and so we have decided to bite the bullet and knock the last barnacle off.  Waiting on the payoff amount to show up tomorrow and then the check's on the way.  (Or, delivered in person, more likely.)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jordanread on December 03, 2014, 06:40:09 AM
We're down to 16 and some change.

I was sitting there tonight writing the check to physically take to my mortgage provider (they have mucked up every payment I have ever mailed in) and I finally decided I'm tired of it.  We get no deduction next year on our mortgage interest and so we have decided to bite the bullet and knock the last barnacle off.  Waiting on the payoff amount to show up tomorrow and then the check's on the way.  (Or, delivered in person, more likely.)

When you do deliver it in person, I must insist that you do something like this:

(https://d12edgf4lwbh8j.cloudfront.net/photo/image/gif-happy-dance.gif)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: medinaj2160 on December 03, 2014, 05:33:55 PM
We are in as well :)

Me 28 and my wife 29 purchased our first and last home June 2012.

Value of our home according to Zillow 180K. We only paid 126K since it was a foreclosure and have a 30 year mortgage at 3.75%.
 
As of today we own $64,385.

Payoff goal: March 2015

My reason for paying the house fast is peace of mind because you never know what the future will hold.

New balance: $59,980

I miss judged my tax withholdings so I am not going to be able to pay as much on my mortgage next month :/

New balance: $55,556

little by little

New Balance: $51,171

New balance: $47270

New balance: $43,868

Me and my wife changed our 401k contributions to max them out; there for principal payments for the rest of the year will be way smaller.

New balance: $42750.

Sold one of my cars and decided to send some money to the house.

New balance: $32750.

The goal is to pay the mortgage completely before I turn 30 in January... It is going to be difficult.

New balance: $28,050

Omg so close, I probably own less money on my house than my coworkers paid for their cars lol.

Update time :)

New balance: $23,100

New balance: $15,560

:) so close... I can't wait.

New balance: $10,550

New balance: $9,035

Finally in the 4 digits :) ... I think that I should be able to pay the house completely in January before turning 30 if everything goes well.

Will see what happens....

New balance: $6,011

So close....
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Primm on December 04, 2014, 03:20:51 AM
Oooh, so so SO close!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on December 04, 2014, 12:50:15 PM
Mortgage mutilated.  Struck the final death blow last week - totally debt free.

Awesome!! Congrats!~!

It's almost January which means I can pick up again. Saved up a bunch too so I'll probably schedule a payment to clear on the 2nd of jan! Current balance is just under 53k, on the 2nd of january it'll be 49k hopefully, jay \o/
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BBub on December 05, 2014, 02:11:01 PM
Joining to follow.  Current mortgage 15yr $112k @ 3.625%.  Not paying real aggressively as it's our only remaining debt, and our main focus is building the stash for the time being.  But I'm all about some debt payoff - spreadsheets be damned.  Once I hit a certain number in assets I will put every next cent into annihilating the mortgage.  My current projections place me on schedule to simultaneously hit my FI number and achieve pay off in 8 yrs. But I may pivot mid-course and decide to curb stomp the mortgage.  Who knows.  For now I'm just coming out of lurker status on this thread & will periodically post numbers and congrats going forward.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jordanread on December 05, 2014, 05:13:05 PM
Our goal was $150k by Dec 2014. In Nov we were at $156k.

Yesterday we brought it down to $149k! We met our goal, and are actually going to bring it down to hopefully $145 (or even less!) in the next month.

I am so pleased that our determined efforts are making such a difference. Our ~4 year goal is within reach, for sure!

Congrats to medinaj2160 and shusherstache! great job!

Damn!!! A $148,855 payment in the next month? I hope you have a really high interest rate, otherwise it doesn't seem worth it. :P
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: shusherstache on December 08, 2014, 07:03:04 PM
So we walked in to our CU on Saturday and sent off the death blow via wire transfer.  I still don't trust the mortgage company to acknowledge receipt of the transfer nor apply it correctly to our account as they have yet to do anything correctly in the two years since they bought our mortgage, so I'm waiting until Wednesday and then giving them a call. 

On the other hand, it feels awesomely freeing to have no debt to anyone in the world.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: hdatontodo on December 08, 2014, 07:27:11 PM
So we walked in to our CU on Saturday and sent off the death blow via wire transfer.  I still don't trust the mortgage company to acknowledge receipt of the transfer nor apply it correctly to our account as they have yet to do anything correctly in the two years since they bought our mortgage, so I'm waiting until Wednesday and then giving them a call. 

On the other hand, it feels awesomely freeing to have no debt to anyone in the world.

That must feel great. Congratulations.

We've gone from $166K to $99K in 2014. For my plan to work, for a payoff at the end of 2016, the Mrs and I have to manage to pay off $50K/year, via a monthly extra principal payment plus a $10K single payment each year. My job is on very shakey ground, and if it goes away when I'm in my mid-50's, we'll have to switch back to normal payments for more years than that.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on December 09, 2014, 08:13:12 PM
Hi all!   Loving the thread and what it means to be able to stop being "owned" by the bank!    Mrs. Indentured and I have the goal of payoff in 5 years on a $249k mortgage without gutting our current stash.    Big challenge for sure but have the kids college accounts already funded and just made the Baddass moves to eliminate the easy list of stupid expenses other debt and free up cash flow.    The goal is to apply chunks from annual bonuses these years totalling of $75k PLUS $40k a year in principal from investments and salary.   Right now, I only know how to make half of that amount happen...   Dont care though because this community can make it happen!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: birdman2003 on December 13, 2014, 03:17:46 AM
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!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Davids on December 13, 2014, 07:39:04 AM
Update from me is I am at $119,900. My goal was to be at $120K by year end and I threw in an extra $100 just to purposely beat it.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: WynnDuffy73 on December 13, 2014, 10:28:47 AM
I'm going to implement a slightly different mortgage payoff strategy.

My goal is to have liquid assets greater than my mortgage balance within the next 16 months.

Our mortgage balance is currently $171k and our liquid(non retirement) assets are currently $112k.

Once I hit that tipping point in 16 months i will make the final decision whether to retire the mortgage and become completely debt free.  Just the thought of being completely debt free within 16 months is already providing incredible peace of mind. 

We have a double income family and once the mortgage is gone in 16 months only one income will be needed essentially forever.  Next up after that will be complete financial independence.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: brooklynmoney on December 14, 2014, 02:49:24 PM
WynnDuffy73 -- I did that last year. It felt good to get to the point that if I need to I can pay off the mortgage. I would have almost nothing left in my taxable accounts, but still a decent sized stache in retirement accounts.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: JD_ on December 17, 2014, 12:06:56 PM
Update: Just made our final additional payment for 2014 of $3k.  Balance is now $172.6 ($250k starting).  Shooting for $130k by end of 2015!

-JD
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: McGeens on December 18, 2014, 05:11:29 AM
We're in this club and incredibly excited that 2015 should be our last year with a mortgage- yippee! We started owing $230k in 2008 and currently owe $57k. With a big effort this will be cleared by dec '15. We're a 1.5 income family with two young kids, so really happy to be on the path to FI once it's cleared. Incidentally, we're in Australia and the house value is now $450k+, which still feels like Monopoly money to me!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on December 18, 2014, 06:44:55 PM
Mrs. Indentured and I have the goal of payoff in 5 years on a $249k mortgage without gutting our current stash. 
Baby step here so humor me and treat me like I just walked for the first time...

Balance was actually just under $250K.   Now under $248,500 with this payment.   Mulling a chunk payment depending on annual bonus (maybe?)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mnsaver on December 19, 2014, 07:54:59 PM
Hello,

   I'm a new member and have been mostly frugal my entire life. I'd working on stepping up my game. I bought a condo in July and want it paid off in now less than 20 years (can probably do 15)

Starting date Sept 2014 Age 34 108750 (I put 25% down)
payment is 534 per month, paying an extra 66 + toward principle each month
due to my parents giving me money has a housewarming present + OT mortgage is currently 107,000
payoff date has gone from 8/1/44 to 12/1/43. Will pay an extra 250 next month.

At my job I regularly have OT and I save 40% of that in a separate fund to eventually pay off my condo. Due to health issues and the fact that I'm single I feel better with a larger emergency fund. I would like it to be about 2 years worth. Currently it is about 13 months worth. My goal for next year is to get it to 18 months + get balance of mortgage to less then 102,000.

Currently contribute 7% for 401K (and my employer gives a 6% match!) I have about 80,000 in retirement funds.

Mortgage balance is currently 10653.98 and payoff date (assuming no extra payments) is 10/1/43. I was offered and accepted a promotion to another department. It comes with a 10% raise! It is close enough that I will walk and can drop my bus pass (currently 76 a month. I will have 20 put on a stored value card. This will be 80% of my transportation costs)

This department doesn't have much OT but the raise is more then I've ever made in OT. I can spend some of my free time working on some of the computer skills to improve my prospects for future promotions :)

I'll be able up my 401k to 10%. For the first year at least my plan is to put all of my raise in saving so give myself an extra cushion.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on December 20, 2014, 09:00:42 AM
I'm in on this mission, super excited and focused on getting this done as soon as possible.  Both my husband and I are feeling done with the 9 to 5 world.  Been at it for over 20 years and are ready for a new focus.  Being mortgage free will give us the freedom to choose what we want to do with our time.  Going to hang on in the corporate world until this baby is gone!

Purchased a new home in September 2013 for $655,000 (no judging - it's expensive where I live!)

- Starting mortgage = $435,000, 5 year term @ 3.26% (starting Sept. 30, 2013)
- Making weekly payments of $800
- Goal:  Make additional payments averaging $2700 a month = $32,400/yr.
- Realistic Mortgage Free Date:  March 2020
- Long Shot Mortgage Free Date:  September 2018 - the end of our current 5 year term.  Depending on bonuses received over the next few years and staying focused on the budget we actually have a shot at making this happen.

- Current Mortgage:  $407,500

And go.........!

Update on this mortgage payoff madness!

- 3 years 10 months left on term @ 3.26%
- Increased weekly payments to $900
- Revised monthly payment increase goal to $2333 a month = $28,000/yr (reduced due to increase monthly payment)
- Still shooting for Long Shot Mortgage Free Date:  September 2018 - the end of our current 5 year term.  Depending on bonuses received over the next few years and staying focused on the budget we actually have a shot at making this happen.

- Current Mortgage:  $394,537.49

End of the year update:

Mortgage amount as of December 25, 2014:  $380,819.42  Making some great progress!

Goal for 2015 - to break the $300's and get into the 200's!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FunkyStickman on December 23, 2014, 06:57:24 AM
End of year report:
Started the year with a principal balance of $72,206 (started with $81,900 seven years ago and have gotten it down to $62,973.

I have knocked my principal down about as much in one year as I did the previous six.

Here's to early retirement, folks. Happy new year!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: APowers on December 25, 2014, 11:38:46 AM
Started 4.5 years ago:

$68,800
3%

Minimum payment = 290.06

We started out paying the exact amount, and after a while we decided to just pay an even 300. After a while we decided we didn't want to be paying this for 30 years, so we dumped about $16k from savings into it (leaving us with about $8-10k in the bank). After that, we upped our payment to $750, and a couple months later we bumped it to an even $800-- which has been our payment for the last 3 years.

There's $22,512 remaining at this point (we already paid for December). We've got $18k saved up and should be able to squirrel away enough to match the balance remaining by February or March of 2015. I will be extremely happy once that payment is gone. Without having to pay the mortgage, our monthly expenses will be $1,100 or less, and I will be able to quit my soul-sucking job, and will be able to handily pay the bills, save a good bit, and have a bunch of free time to be productive in other income-producing areas that aren't (bad)stressful. Also to not be working 7 days/week will be very restful.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: NEMPLS on December 27, 2014, 03:52:00 PM
11 months left! Last payment December 2014. No plans to pay it off any earlier now that we are paying about 95% principal on our monthly payments.

As a back story; 14 years ago we sold our previous 3,000 SF home to purchase a 1,500 SF home in order to lower our payments, Because of downsizing we halved the total amount we owed just by selling and moving. Our payment went down by a third, our utilities went down by half, our taxes went down by 60% per year (old house $7,600 year current house 3,100 per year), our yearly up keep went down by a third. The math on how much we saved in housing related costs is staggering.

We were going to take most of the cash that we made from the sale and bank it but the closing paperwork got messed up and we ended up paying our current house down to a 18 year mortgage just so we could close that day (it was the single best thing that could have happened). We have refinanced twice over the past 14 years using no cost refinancing to lower our payments and then payed a little extra each year to bring our time down from 18 years to 14 years while saving a bit in interest.

The best news is that we invested ALL of the money saved by downsizing into mutual funds and are now thinking of retiring soon or at least working part time.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ontario74 on December 27, 2014, 06:13:56 PM
Project pay off year: 2020, right before my child goes to university

135K to go, with 7K in extra payments yearly
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: medinaj2160 on January 03, 2015, 07:26:22 AM
We are in as well :)

Me 28 and my wife 29 purchased our first and last home June 2012.

Value of our home according to Zillow 180K. We only paid 126K since it was a foreclosure and have a 30 year mortgage at 3.75%.
 
As of today we own $64,385.

Payoff goal: March 2015

My reason for paying the house fast is peace of mind because you never know what the future will hold.

New balance: $59,980

I miss judged my tax withholdings so I am not going to be able to pay as much on my mortgage next month :/

New balance: $55,556

little by little

New Balance: $51,171

New balance: $47270

New balance: $43,868

Me and my wife changed our 401k contributions to max them out; there for principal payments for the rest of the year will be way smaller.

New balance: $42750.

Sold one of my cars and decided to send some money to the house.

New balance: $32750.

The goal is to pay the mortgage completely before I turn 30 in January... It is going to be difficult.

New balance: $28,050

Omg so close, I probably own less money on my house than my coworkers paid for their cars lol.

Update time :)

New balance: $23,100

New balance: $15,560

:) so close... I can't wait.

New balance: $10,550

New balance: $9,035

Finally in the 4 digits :) ... I think that I should be able to pay the house completely in January before turning 30 if everything goes well.

Will see what happens....

New balance: $6,011

So close....

New balance: PAID IN FULL

Sorry guys we are out of the club lol...

Thanks for all the encouragement; it feels great to be done.

Good luck to everyone in the club, every little counts
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Groovin Old Hippie on January 03, 2015, 05:38:10 PM
Medinaj2160 - Whoo hoo!!!  Congratulations on "graduating" from the club!  Such an incredible job.  You are so inspiring to us.  We are just joining today.

Our starting balance January 1, 2015: $26,881
Payoff goal date:  December 2015

It will be super tight for us to reach our goal but we are going to throw every extra penny at this thing.  My husband is 61 and he wants to retire!  We're looking forward to all of the support this group offers  :)

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on January 04, 2015, 08:08:24 AM
@medinaj...,   Congratulations!!!!  You now get to start the "Paid off the mortgage, now what?!" thread where you brag about increasing passive income with your freed-up active income!   :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Peacefulwarrior on January 06, 2015, 01:17:31 PM
Sorry, but unless you have a monstrously large stash, I think this is a poor investment decision. Borrow at 3.5% fixed for 30years. Put the overpayments into the sp500, et al.

If this was such a great idea, don't you think the banks would put all their money into S&P500 instead of lending it to you?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tomsang on January 06, 2015, 05:43:09 PM
Sorry, but unless you have a monstrously large stash, I think this is a poor investment decision. Borrow at 3.5% fixed for 30years. Put the overpayments into the sp500, et al.

If this was such a great idea, don't you think the banks would put all their money into S&P500 instead of lending it to you?

In the US Banks are regulated on the amount of money that they have in each investment bucket.  The reason that they make great money is that they can borrow from the government and depositors at a rate of 10+ times equity.  If they took the money, then the government would not allow them to be as leveraged, which would eat into their profits.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: h2ogal on January 06, 2015, 08:06:35 PM
We paid off our mortgage recently. I agree that it may not be the highest returning investment, but for us the feeling of security and freedom was worth it. 

We would not feel comfortable 'retiring' with an outstanding mortgage.

Maybe you can consider it as a sort of diversification.....if the stock market goes way down, at least you have very low expenses!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on January 07, 2015, 12:29:41 PM
New balance: PAID IN FULL

Sorry guys we are out of the club lol...

Thanks for all the encouragement; it feels great to be done.

Good luck to everyone in the club, every little counts

Wow, that's some awesome progress and a killer ending too! Don't be a stranger though, alumni are always welcome ;)

Also did 6K on mine, 46.8K to go...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: steveo on January 07, 2015, 01:11:04 PM
We owe about 165k on the house at this point. The goal is to get it down to 100k this year and then pay it off within the following 2 years. Its the first step for us on our path to FI.

Still it feels so long to go.

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

We owe a little over 80k right now. I'd love to pay it off this year and its possible however we might not get there 100% spot on. If not it doesn't really matter because it will be done soon after that.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on January 15, 2015, 12:32:51 PM
In 2014 we paid down 70K on the mortgage.  Only 154K to go!  Hoping to pay off 80K in 2015- it's a big stretch but doable.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: nora on January 16, 2015, 03:42:15 AM
I am in. Intending to pay it all off in four years or less. This one is a big $600000 and 5.2% interest.

Down to 481544! Doing much better than I expected! So exciting.
Down to 354502. But interest rate is up to 6.25%!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on January 17, 2015, 08:04:21 AM

Starting Mortgage:  123K
Current Balance: 122K



Just made my first extra payment of $1300...new mortgage balance is $119,800.00

Ahem....back on topic.

Made my August extra payment...new balance is........ $117,719.00   Woot!  Sent $1900 to the mortgage, plus Augusts regular payment.  Goal is to hit 80% LTV by my birthday in January. We shall see.


Okay, so not going to hit my original goal - had to pay cash for a roof replacement for our rental, plus my husband took up hunting ($$$) hopefully we can really be serious about this going forward.  And my hubby owes me..oh...like 10 deer before he can give up his new hobby. 

Current principal:  $113,199.00

Not terrible for having to shell out almost six grand in unplanned expenses.  My revised goal is to get this down to 80% by my next birthday, Jan 2016.  We have to pay for some foundation repairs to our current house, also, that's why I'm almost a year off of my original goal.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on January 20, 2015, 08:30:10 PM

[/quote]
Down to 354502. But interest rate is up to 6.25%!
[/quote]

That's fantastic progress over 18 months!   I didn't look back to 2013 for the backstory on your goal and situation so forgive my asking, but surely you can refi now to below 3% or so on another ARM with less than a 1 year payback?  Just not sure if the rate of paydown is going to be sustainable and with another 2 years in the plan or so, it could put 4-digit $ into your account if not 10digit $.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on January 21, 2015, 07:11:59 AM
We had a great 2014 with paying down the mortgage.  We went from 225k down to 155K.  We're hoping to get to get it down to 90k in 2015!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jordanread on January 23, 2015, 09:39:09 AM
I guess I'm not asking an impartial audience, but curious if you guys could look at this as a mini case study.  I'm on the fence about whether to just attack the mortgage or not.

Info:
Personal: 25M, married
Take home pay: ~112k (about 40% comes quarterly)
Current Net worth (excluding home): ~215k
Purchase price, 8/2013: $275,000
Current mortgage rate: 3.5% @ 15 years (from March 2014, we refinanced already from 4.875)
Current balance: $196,000
Current home value: $280,000*
Monthly payment: $1960 (includes insurance, property tax and interest)

We currently round the monthly payment up to $2,000, so call our required payments $24,000 per year.  We have an additional $50,000 or so each year (hopefully increasing but you never know) to throw at this.  By my estimation we could pay it off by early to mid 2018.

Pros:
*Wife wants to do it.  Would love to be debt free (this is the only thing we owe)
*From the "heart" perspective I guess I would like it too.  I don't like the idea of being 40 with a mortgage, so I guess the logical extension is I don't like the idea of a continued one at all
*We will be purchasing the business we work at in 2019 or so.  Having low monthly expenses would reduce stress when making payments on that.  Now we should be making plenty of money at that point but it would be a hedge against a leaner year

Con:
Math

Other info:
We only live 3 miles away from work but wouldn't mind moving.  We love the house but neither of us are emotionally attached to it.  It's just the two of us and it's 2200 sq ft.  I wouldn't mind moving downtown (within walking distance of work) or just to a smaller place with less maintenance. Especially so when we purchase the business.  We will have kids at some point but have no immediate plans.

So what do you say?  Given the information above, would you pay off the mortgage or stay the 15 year course and invest the difference?




*Having a realtor friend giving me an estimate on this as she offered.

Well, Mr. Frugal Toque kind of agrees (http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/01/21/mortgage-freedom/) with the emotional value of paying it off. For me, I'm not paying mine off since it's so small, I have the 'cash' to do it immediately if I needed to, the interest rate is really low, I'm less risk averse, and don't get too emotional.

What I would do in your situation would be to start looking at moving. That would be a huge increase to the 'stache, and you could potentially use the cash from the sale to pay a new place in full. No mortgage, and no big dent in your current net worth. It might be a good compromise. The net worth numbers look good, the monthly costs go down, and you get all of that piece of mind mentioned in the article I linked. If that's not an option just yet, I'd try to sit down with your wife (well...not your wife), and put some numbers on the emotional value of it all. The emotional part of it all does have some non-direct financial impact. There have been some huge changes to people's health and budget just from the lack of slight stress it brings.

A caveat, though: $2000/month does kind of freak me out personally (for anything), especially with my goal of keeping costs low, so emotion might play a bigger role if I was in your situation...and I only make slightly less than you.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jordanread on January 23, 2015, 10:44:48 AM

Well, Mr. Frugal Toque kind of agrees (http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/01/21/mortgage-freedom/) with the emotional value of paying it off. For me, I'm not paying mine off since it's so small, I have the 'cash' to do it immediately if I needed to, the interest rate is really low, I'm less risk averse, and don't get too emotional.

What I would do in your situation would be to start looking at moving. That would be a huge increase to the 'stache, and you could potentially use the cash from the sale to pay a new place in full. No mortgage, and no big dent in your current net worth. It might be a good compromise. The net worth numbers look good, the monthly costs go down, and you get all of that piece of mind mentioned in the article I linked. If that's not an option just yet, I'd try to sit down with your wife (well...not your wife), and put some numbers on the emotional value of it all. The emotional part of it all does have some non-direct financial impact. There have been some huge changes to people's health and budget just from the lack of slight stress it brings.

A caveat, though: $2000/month does kind of freak me out personally (for anything), especially with my goal of keeping costs low, so emotion might play a bigger role if I was in your situation...and I only make slightly less than you.

Thanks...I'd be open to moving but don't want to do anything rash.  We have only been in the home for 1.5 years.  Additionally, we got water after the thaw last spring.  I am worried we'd take a hit on the home even though we've mitigated the issue.  I figure going through a thaw with no issues would solve that issue.

Say we get 280 for the house.  After fees and closing costs I'm looking at what...255k?  So basically I walk away with about $60,000.  That's a good chunk of change but not enough to pay in cash for a new place. 

The 2k doesn't freak me out for now.  our monthly income is very stable and we get bonused each quarter.  Outside of our house and giving we spend about 27k per year.  Could definitely cut back but it isn't horrible.  Our base salaries would cover our house and living expenses with 0 changes, should our quarterly bonus go to 0.  That said, if the quarterly bonus is 0 it means the business isn't doing well, and we have bigger problems.  At that point we'd probably move to a new town with better job opportunities and sell the house anyway, eliminating said 2k/month payment.

I keep forgetting not everyone lives in the ghetto like me. Most of the houses around me are 900-1200ft2 and go for $50K-$90K. It sounds like you've thought it through, so I'll go with the last suggestion above (valuing the mortgage beyond purely monetary gain). Did you read the article I linked? I think MFT did a good job of really showing the ancillary benefits of paying off the mortgage. I've yet to sell a property, so I'm not that great at working those numbers out.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Lyngi on January 24, 2015, 12:28:59 PM
Emotionally, I'd love to have a paid off house.  Been only reading MMM since September 2014 and have been cutting costs, small baby steps.   I kind of take a middle road, I max my 401K, max out my Roth, and pay $1000 to principal each month.  Set to be paid off in 2018, in time for DD to graduate high school.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: nora on January 29, 2015, 05:13:40 AM

Down to 354502. But interest rate is up to 6.25%!
[/quote]

That's fantastic progress over 18 months!   I didn't look back to 2013 for the backstory on your goal and situation so forgive my asking, but surely you can refi now to below 3% or so on another ARM with less than a 1 year payback?  Just not sure if the rate of paydown is going to be sustainable and with another 2 years in the plan or so, it could put 4-digit $ into your account if not 10digit $.
[/quote]

I would love to refinance but the mortgage is on a property in New Zealand and it seems that rates there are going up :(   We live in Australia but I don't think I can get a mortgage here for an international property. But maybe I will ask..
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks2 on January 29, 2015, 05:49:20 AM
We made an extra principal payment of $1,536 in January.  Our balance is now $117,899.54. 

I am going to double check our contributions to retirement and kids' college accounts -- we want to save in multiple areas, but our surplus after those things will go to mortgage pay down.  It is slightly pleasing to see us under $120k.   

I am going to look at selling some stuff to make a few extra dollars to throw at the mortgage.

My aggressive goal is to have it done in 5 years, but we can flex a little, it may take longer  If we had gotten a 15 year at the start, our mortgage would be done by now.  But we refinanced a few times and now have 11 years on regular schedule left. 

I think my reasonable target should be a balance of $105,000 at the end of the year.  Stretch goal would be $100,000 at the end of the year.







Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: eyePod on January 29, 2015, 06:32:40 AM
New balance: PAID IN FULL

Sorry guys we are out of the club lol...

Thanks for all the encouragement; it feels great to be done.

Good luck to everyone in the club, every little counts

Woohoo! Congrats!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: eyePod on January 29, 2015, 08:15:03 AM
We made an extra principal payment of $1,536 in January.  Our balance is now $117,899.54. 

I am going to double check our contributions to retirement and kids' college accounts -- we want to save in multiple areas, but our surplus after those things will go to mortgage pay down.  It is slightly pleasing to see us under $120k.   

I am going to look at selling some stuff to make a few extra dollars to throw at the mortgage.

My aggressive goal is to have it done in 5 years, but we can flex a little, it may take longer  If we had gotten a 15 year at the start, our mortgage would be done by now.  But we refinanced a few times and now have 11 years on regular schedule left. 

I think my reasonable target should be a balance of $105,000 at the end of the year.  Stretch goal would be $100,000 at the end of the year.

We are right along with you (just add 100k to your numbers). We got the house last year and have put 9400 toward principal since June last year. Another ~2k will go in this month since it's a three paycheck month for us.

Definitely feels good. We're currently paying PMI right now, but we'll be out of that soon enough. Would love to be below 80% by the end of the year. Just being below 200k will be a big monument in my mind. Feels like such a dark mark on my net worth. :-/
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: RNwastash on January 29, 2015, 08:47:51 PM
Paid extra $400, down to $132,800.  Will keep plugging along.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bolshevik Artizan on January 30, 2015, 12:56:29 PM
Paid mine off in 2007 at 37. As I always say to people starting on that journey, just remember it's only one building block of the entire FI package - no debt is great, but real invested capital is also vital and just as hard to come by. for me, invested capital always came after being debt free, and that's how I did it - but when I look back now, I wish I'd invested outside of my 401(k) schemes etc much earlier, and hung on to the capital instead of using it to pay down the mortgage. We're fine now, but I repeat - going from "mortgage free" to FI is just as much of a journey as going from hair on fire to mortgage free. Just saying... BA
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Groovin Old Hippie on January 31, 2015, 11:10:27 PM
Medinaj2160 - Whoo hoo!!!  Congratulations on "graduating" from the club!  Such an incredible job.  You are so inspiring to us.  We are just joining today.

Our starting balance January 1, 2015: $26,881
Payoff goal date:  December 2015

It will be super tight for us to reach our goal but we are going to throw every extra penny at this thing.  My husband is 61 and he wants to retire!  We're looking forward to all of the support this group offers  :)

Here's our one month update.  Tracking all purchases has been key this month.  Hope to get the February payment to $2,500.

Paid in January: $2,441.90
Balance February 1, 2015:  $24,439.10
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on February 02, 2015, 01:13:28 PM
Also did 6K on mine, 46.8K to go...

Alrighty, did another double whammy and totalled the payof to 10k and change. Current remaining balance € 42.250, monthly mortgage is now less then what most families pay per month on health insurance... I've got the momentum, now to keep hold of it with steady monthly payments!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: serious_pete on February 03, 2015, 08:22:45 AM
I'm in! £122,000 left to go on a £128,000 mortgage. Interest rate set at 4.99% So far made a grand total of £1000 overpayments so got quite a way to go. The plan is to overpay by £500 per month to start with and change mortgage deal in December.

Now down to £116,500 and interest rate is now down to 3.09% as of January. Still working on 500 overpay per month. Slow but steady!

As of today mortgage stands at £114, 975.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: gluskap on February 03, 2015, 12:58:52 PM
How do people feel about a hybrid strategy?  Refinancing to a 15 year loan to get a low interest so saving on interest payments.  Then just making the minimum payment and saving any extra money in a brokerage account.  Then when the brokerage account has grown enough to payoff the mortgage then selling it in tax efficient lots and paying off the mortgage then.  That way if something happens and say someone lost their job, you would still have some safety as you could sell off some stocks to make your monthly mortgage.  But you also have the higher returns from the brokerage account versus just prepaying the mortgage.  If you can time the mortgage pay off with your retirement date, it serves the extra purpose of lowering your monthly expenses when you retire so you can withdraw less from your retirement accounts and thus be in a lower tax bracket.  It also maximizes your mortgage interest deduction when you are working because you are paying the interest then but when you are retired and have no income, it makes no sense to deduct mortgage interest.  This seems to me the best win win strategy.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on February 10, 2015, 11:00:30 AM
Woohoo!  Was able to drop a $5,000 bomb on the mortgage this month!  Down to $150k!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: JD_ on February 12, 2015, 12:14:20 PM
Woohoo!  Was able to drop a $5,000 bomb on the mortgage this month!  Down to $150k!

Great job!  We're right behind you at $165k!  I estimate 3.5 years to go for us.  Maybe a few months less.

-JD
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: The knitter on February 14, 2015, 07:11:43 AM
We're going to make 2015 the year we pay down enough to get rid of PMI and refinance to a 15 year loan.

Just threw an extra 1,000 payment toward the principal.

Once that payment registers we'll owe $197,027.50.

I'm in this challenge for the next 11 months. After that, we plan to divert the extra into investments, including possibly a second rental property. (The first is our two-family home, where we live and rent out one unit.)


Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on February 17, 2015, 05:17:59 PM
That's great, IowaStache!  I accidentally sold my car and rented my house that way (not intending to, but people wanted what I had!)

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FunkyStickman on February 18, 2015, 01:31:04 PM
I went back in and re-did the math on my mortgage, and if I put all my tax returns AND extra payments, I'll be done around 5 years from now, or sooner. Previously, I had estimated around 7, but was way off.

I told my wife that, and her jaw hit the floor.

Here's to financial freedom!
Currently at $62,600 and dropping rapidly.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on February 18, 2015, 05:54:26 PM
Mrs. Indentured and I have the goal of payoff in 5 years on a $249k mortgage without gutting our current stash. 

Working the plan, enjoying selling and clearing some clutter and putting other investment dividends towards the beast.  The March payment will get it to $245,500.  That's more than $3K farther along than we would have been.  Under $210K by year-end or bust!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: aj_yooper on February 19, 2015, 07:56:28 AM
I went back in and re-did the math on my mortgage, and if I put all my tax returns AND extra payments, I'll be done around 5 years from now, or sooner. Previously, I had estimated around 7, but was way off.

I told my wife that, and her jaw hit the floor.

Here's to financial freedom!
Currently at $62,600 and dropping rapidly.

Good on the pay down!  Your tax return refund means you are losing the mortgage interest rate on that money for about half a year.  I would take a look at withholding amounts and work to get to $0 tax refunds.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: hdatontodo on February 19, 2015, 11:37:42 AM
We got the mortgage down from 166K to 99K in 2014.  I sent extra this Feb; we are down to $84K.

I sold some items (several $K) and I should get my annual bonus on Feb 27, maybe $5K), so in March I should be able to send in another $10K.

Unfortunately the Mrs is having neck surgery and will be out of work for months, and her place doesn't pay disability until after 30 days.

If everything goes perfectly this year, maybe with the extra monthly principal, we'll have it down to around $30K.

There are a couple of wild cards like layoffs and such. Off to a good start nonetheless.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: MarciaB on February 19, 2015, 05:46:49 PM
I'm in the club and will be done this year (October, or maybe a month or two sooner). Woot!

My situation is a little different though because my house sits on 44 acres of property (with an income producing vineyard) and no one will touch the mortgage with a refi. Meaning I'm stuck with the 5.75% rate...and am throwing cash at it madly. There wasn't a question for me about paying it down vs. investing because at that rate it just seemed the most prudent thing to do.

I'll end up paying this big 30-year bastard off in 8-1/2. I feel like Super Woman.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: aj_yooper on February 19, 2015, 08:26:04 PM
I'm in the club and will be done this year (October, or maybe a month or two sooner). Woot!

My situation is a little different though because my house sits on 44 acres of property (with an income producing vineyard) and no one will touch the mortgage with a refi. Meaning I'm stuck with the 5.75% rate...and am throwing cash at it madly. There wasn't a question for me about paying it down vs. investing because at that rate it just seemed the most prudent thing to do.

I'll end up paying this big 30-year bastard off in 8-1/2. I feel like Super Woman.

Would you be eligible for a mortgage through a farm agency?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: MarciaB on February 19, 2015, 08:31:20 PM
I'm in the club and will be done this year (October, or maybe a month or two sooner). Woot!

My situation is a little different though because my house sits on 44 acres of property (with an income producing vineyard) and no one will touch the mortgage with a refi. Meaning I'm stuck with the 5.75% rate...and am throwing cash at it madly. There wasn't a question for me about paying it down vs. investing because at that rate it just seemed the most prudent thing to do.

I'll end up paying this big 30-year bastard off in 8-1/2. I feel like Super Woman.

Would you be eligible for a mortgage through a farm agency?

That's where I've got a mortgage now (NW Farm Credit Services). In this area they're the only ones who deal with acreage and agricultural property. And they wouldn't lower the rate either (I asked maybe once or twice a year...nope). I'm thrilled to just jettison this altogether.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: aj_yooper on February 19, 2015, 08:45:07 PM
Well then, you are making a wise move! and in a very short time to finish it.  Congrats.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Rural on February 20, 2015, 06:19:52 AM
I'm in the club and will be done this year (October, or maybe a month or two sooner). Woot!

My situation is a little different though because my house sits on 44 acres of property (with an income producing vineyard) and no one will touch the mortgage with a refi. Meaning I'm stuck with the 5.75% rate...and am throwing cash at it madly. There wasn't a question for me about paying it down vs. investing because at that rate it just seemed the most prudent thing to do.

I'll end up paying this big 30-year bastard off in 8-1/2. I feel like Super Woman.

Would you be eligible for a mortgage through a farm agency?

That's where I've got a mortgage now (NW Farm Credit Services). In this area they're the only ones who deal with acreage and agricultural property. And they wouldn't lower the rate either (I asked maybe once or twice a year...nope). I'm thrilled to just jettison this altogether.


We did something very similar; you got a good rate on a farm loan at 5.75%.


Ours was was 7.5%, so we took out a 15 year loan and paid it off in four. :-)


Good for you!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FunkyStickman on February 27, 2015, 08:42:46 AM
Just dropped my tax return on principal, now we're down under $60K.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Groovin Old Hippie on March 02, 2015, 10:58:05 AM
Medinaj2160 - Whoo hoo!!!  Congratulations on "graduating" from the club!  Such an incredible job.  You are so inspiring to us.  We are just joining today.

Our starting balance January 1, 2015: $26,881
Payoff goal date:  December 2015

It will be super tight for us to reach our goal but we are going to throw every extra penny at this thing.  My husband is 61 and he wants to retire!  We're looking forward to all of the support this group offers  :)

Here's our one month update.  Tracking all purchases has been key this month.  Hope to get the February payment to $2,500.

Paid in January: $2,441.90
Balance February 1, 2015:  $24,439.10

Well, we didn't get our February payment to $2500.  DH car needed a repair and our dishwasher broke.  But we still made the minimum amount to meet our payoff goal on December 31, 2015

Paid in February: $2200
Balance March 1, 2015:  $22,292.02
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on March 11, 2015, 06:37:31 AM
Another $1,200 extra on the mortgage in Feb.  Less than I wanted, but still...it's something. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: sansimeon on March 14, 2015, 08:37:00 PM
Been following along for some time now.  Really enjoyed all the inspiration. Time to post now...

Feb 2013 Original loan amount = 226k
Mar 2015 Current balance = 167k
Expected payoff = Sep 2019

I remember telling someone close to me about the roughly 6 year plan right after I bought the house.  They did that condescending partial laugh - unspoken meaning:  "That's impossible and naive, but good for you for trying."
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dabears847 on April 02, 2015, 07:50:48 PM
Feel free to punch holes in this worksheet attached. I've been paying down the mortgage for the last five years and our balance is down to $75,000. The worksheet compares investing vs paying down our house and rentals from our perspective three years ago.

Please note I created this today with about two hours of work on the spreadsheet so it is not perfect. 

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on April 03, 2015, 09:03:46 AM
Yay!  Another $5k on the mortgage this month. 
Original loan amount November 2011= 249,900
April 1 balance= 143,458. 
Best part is that we're on track for a 2016 payoff!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on April 03, 2015, 11:19:17 AM
I'm in on this mission, super excited and focused on getting this done as soon as possible.  Both my husband and I are feeling done with the 9 to 5 world.  Been at it for over 20 years and are ready for a new focus.  Being mortgage free will give us the freedom to choose what we want to do with our time.  Going to hang on in the corporate world until this baby is gone!

Purchased a new home in September 2013 for $655,000 (no judging - it's expensive where I live!)

- Starting mortgage = $435,000, 5 year term @ 3.26% (starting Sept. 30, 2013)
- Making weekly payments of $800
- Goal:  Make additional payments averaging $2700 a month = $32,400/yr.
- Realistic Mortgage Free Date:  March 2020
- Long Shot Mortgage Free Date:  September 2018 - the end of our current 5 year term.  Depending on bonuses received over the next few years and staying focused on the budget we actually have a shot at making this happen.

- Current Mortgage:  $407,500

And go.........!

Update on this mortgage payoff madness!

- 3 years 10 months left on term @ 3.26%
- Increased weekly payments to $900
- Revised monthly payment increase goal to $2333 a month = $28,000/yr (reduced due to increase monthly payment)
- Still shooting for Long Shot Mortgage Free Date:  September 2018 - the end of our current 5 year term.  Depending on bonuses received over the next few years and staying focused on the budget we actually have a shot at making this happen.

- Current Mortgage:  $394,537.49

End of the year update:

Mortgage amount as of December 25, 2014:  $380,819.42  Making some great progress!

Goal for 2015 - to break the $300's and get into the 200's!

First quarter update!  Mortgage amount as of April 2, 2015 - $359,144.  On track to see the $200's by the end of the year. :o)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on April 03, 2015, 11:20:03 AM
Yay!  Another $5k on the mortgage this month. 
Original loan amount November 2011= 249,900
April 1 balance= 143,458. 
Best part is that we're on track for a 2016 payoff!

Awesome!  You are making some great progress!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: hdatontodo on April 03, 2015, 02:13:18 PM
Still chipping away at ours.

Came into the year at $99K and got it down to $70K. I got the Mrs to pitch in some money and we just mailed off a check for $21K.

We'll keep paying extra each month as planned, but I won't have any more windfalls except the extra check in July and end of Dec.

I'm hoping we'll have the mortgage gone by the end of 2015, but it might end up being Jan or Feb since the calculators didn't take payment used to replenish escrow into account. After today's check clears, I'll run their extra monthly payment calculator and see how it works out.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Heckler on April 04, 2015, 08:39:08 AM
1996: bought a brand new house  for $145k in Ontario
2000: sold it for $145k, pulled out $20k equity
2000-2003: rented in Vancouver BC because we knew we shouldn't afford a ridiculously priced place.
2003: bought a 35 year old townhouse in Vancouver BC for $279k and what I thought was a 25 year mortgage.  Scary times! Paid twice as much as our brand new house.
2015: similar units in the same complex selling for $540+.  But we will buy and hold, because we won't afford a house we don't need.  Good times!

Wife increased payments anytime we could afford it, and we pay biweekly.

Low and behold, we are less than a year from being 100% debt free!   Look how our savings rate will increase in a year from now!  We almost cut that baby in half. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Heckler on April 04, 2015, 08:48:17 AM
This tells me we saved $54,000 in interest by paying off in 13 years instead of 25.  Badass!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Stachesquatch on April 04, 2015, 06:28:51 PM
Chapter closed for us!

I've been a long term reader of these forums.  We just paid off our mortgage, it didn't seem real until the letter from the mortgagee came in stating that the loan was closed paid in full.  A couple years ago I envisioned framing this letter when it arrived but now that the time has come it just went in a file with other documents.  It's still listed as a loan in good standing on Credit Karma, but I'm fine with this as long as it shows good standing.  We literally don't have any other debt to show on the credit report other than paid in full every month revolving balances on our credit cards.

Keep up the good work everyone, for me the self set 'milestones' in the mortgage payoff process made the progress seem tangible.  The investment accounts are getting a huge bump every month now, the next goal is FIRE.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dabears847 on April 04, 2015, 07:06:38 PM
Quote
In 188 months your mortgage would be 0 if you made extra payments of $1,500  per month or it would be $367,000 if you paid $0 extra. 

And after 188 months you would be "saving" about $2000-$3000/month by not having a mortgage payment..plus the extra $1500/month extra you were paying.. Shouldn't that count for something???

No, because the math already takes this into account. If your portfolio was averaging greater than 3.5%, then your portfolio would be so big that you could liquidate a part of it, pay off the mortgage and have a sizable chunk left over. In an early chart I show the net benefit at various investment returns. At 8% you would be ahead by $151,000. If you can earn more than 3.5% then you are better off keeping the mortgage. If you can't earn 3.5%, then your safe withdrawal rate would be 1% or less based on age as you most likely will not be exceeding inflation.

I understand the psychological effect of paying down the mortgage, but mathematically it is a worse answer if you can hit 4% or more in your portfolio.

The government is giving away free money to jump start the economy. This is a once in the lifetime event. Those who pay it down faster are giving back the free money. If the choices are pay down the mortgage or blow your money, then obviously pay down the mortgage. If you are disciplined then invest in Vanguard and statistically you will be ahead.
The Cash Flow is everything as long as the extra cash once the mortgage or rental is paid off is used accordingly. ie. apply the same rate of return on all funds for the 30 years in the 7-11% range.

I'm worried for my own calculations that I'm missing something here but if I pay off my house 10 years early and then apply those extra payments to the Market with normal P&I and extra previous payments, the compounding comes very close to equal to investing the funds.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dabears847 on April 04, 2015, 07:37:09 PM
Quote
In 188 months your mortgage would be 0 if you made extra payments of $1,500  per month or it would be $367,000 if you paid $0 extra. 

And after 188 months you would be "saving" about $2000-$3000/month by not having a mortgage payment..plus the extra $1500/month extra you were paying.. Shouldn't that count for something???
I agree with this... Take the 189 to 360 payments, extra cash flow and invest the cash to see the net comparable difference.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: REAL WORLD EXPAT on April 05, 2015, 07:21:00 AM
Finding this thread a little late but I'm in, I only have 2 more payments left and it will be paid off in just under 11 years since we bought it. I hear all the arguments against paying it off and investing but I was able to invest too and considered the additional payments as safe returns (eventually), had my E-fund, maxed retirements accounts each year so paying it off made sense to me.

Plus the feeling of owning my home will be great! Still the nearly $10k in taxes are a kicker but once we get to FIRE we'll move.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dabears847 on April 05, 2015, 09:28:35 AM
Quote
Quote from: MrMurphy on April 15, 2013, 02:13:45 pm
Quote
In 188 months your mortgage would be 0 if you made extra payments of $1,500  per month or it would be $367,000 if you paid $0 extra.

And after 188 months you would be "saving" about $2000-$3000/month by not having a mortgage payment..plus the extra $1500/month extra you were paying.. Shouldn't that count for something???

No, because the math already takes this into account. If your portfolio was averaging greater than 3.5%, then your portfolio would be so big that you could liquidate a part of it, pay off the mortgage and have a sizable chunk left over. In an early chart I show the net benefit at various investment returns. At 8% you would be ahead by $151,000. If you can earn more than 3.5% then you are better off keeping the mortgage. If you can't earn 3.5%, then your safe withdrawal rate would be 1% or less based on age as you most likely will not be exceeding inflation.

I understand the psychological effect of paying down the mortgage, but mathematically it is a worse answer if you can hit 4% or more in your portfolio.

The government is giving away free money to jump start the economy. This is a once in the lifetime event. Those who pay it down faster are giving back the free money. If the choices are pay down the mortgage or blow your money, then obviously pay down the mortgage. If you are disciplined then invest in Vanguard and statistically you will be ahead.

Oh, Ok, i get it, because 188months is 15.5 yrs.. So, if you then invested the $3,500 for 14.5yrs after paying it off (total 30yrs) you'd still be ahead of investing $1500 for 30yr.. because that is the argument/misconception is that after it's paid off you'll have $xx extra to invest/catch up.

Is there a time frame, say if you could payit off in 2 yrs or 5yrs vs 15.5.. Would that make a diff?? Or does the interest rate make a diff?

I'm not trying to be an ass, i'm just trying to learn. I don't have a mortgage but big student loans.

Or you can see my situation here:
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/should-we-change-sl-repayment-plans/

I'd love any advice!!
Take a look at this updated worksheet. I worked  on Tomsang's sheet and found two primary concerns. I was seriously considering cutting back on mortgage pay down now that I'm under $100,000 balance but now I'm not so certain anymore. If I'm wrong, I'll probably shift more to Vanguard but I'm not seeing the risk reward.

1. Future Cash Flow is not calculated accurately for the accelerated Payoff club, not including the normal payment and extra payment once paid off.
2. The Investment rate is not applied to extra cash once the mortgage is paid off.

I added columns to the math and input sheet to show the differences. Notice the big swing in the compounding at the end of the cashflow. We went from lossing money paying off the house early of by 1.9Million and now we are making $550,000 by compounding the future cash flow.

D - C   Compounding Future Cash Flow         
   with Mortgage Paid Off         
Benefit (Loss)   7% Future Cash Flow 7038.56, year 6         
Investing vs.   Without Tax Gain Holdings         
Paying Down             
Mortgage   Neg Loss with Payoff, Positive Gain Compounding Future Cash flow         
 $669.26     $(904.81)   12   Tax Difference   
 $20,829.02     $(27,784.76)   60   Tax Difference   
 $245,687.97     $(97,661.48)   120   Tax and Compounding   
 $550,993.38     $(160,632.72)   180   Tax and Compounding   
 $925,475.73     $52,826.56    240   Tax and Compounding   
 $1,391,028.37     $203,111.20    300   Tax and Compounding   
 $1,977,557.12     $505,474.90    360   Tax and Compounding   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FIRE me on April 06, 2015, 02:16:39 AM
Finding this thread a little late but I'm in, I only have 2 more payments left and it will be paid off in just under 11 years since we bought it. I hear all the arguments against paying it off and investing but I was able to invest too and considered the additional payments as safe returns (eventually), had my E-fund, maxed retirements accounts each year so paying it off made sense to me.

Plus the feeling of owning my home will be great! Still the nearly $10k in taxes are a kicker but once we get to FIRE we'll move.

Paid mine off in 7 years. Now my savings rate is 70%.

Those are some awful property taxes, mine is less than 1K annual.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tomsang on April 06, 2015, 09:36:08 AM
Quote
Quote from: MrMurphy on April 15, 2013, 02:13:45 pm
Quote
In 188 months your mortgage would be 0 if you made extra payments of $1,500  per month or it would be $367,000 if you paid $0 extra.

And after 188 months you would be "saving" about $2000-$3000/month by not having a mortgage payment..plus the extra $1500/month extra you were paying.. Shouldn't that count for something???

No, because the math already takes this into account. If your portfolio was averaging greater than 3.5%, then your portfolio would be so big that you could liquidate a part of it, pay off the mortgage and have a sizable chunk left over. In an early chart I show the net benefit at various investment returns. At 8% you would be ahead by $151,000. If you can earn more than 3.5% then you are better off keeping the mortgage. If you can't earn 3.5%, then your safe withdrawal rate would be 1% or less based on age as you most likely will not be exceeding inflation.

I understand the psychological effect of paying down the mortgage, but mathematically it is a worse answer if you can hit 4% or more in your portfolio.

The government is giving away free money to jump start the economy. This is a once in the lifetime event. Those who pay it down faster are giving back the free money. If the choices are pay down the mortgage or blow your money, then obviously pay down the mortgage. If you are disciplined then invest in Vanguard and statistically you will be ahead.

Oh, Ok, i get it, because 188months is 15.5 yrs.. So, if you then invested the $3,500 for 14.5yrs after paying it off (total 30yrs) you'd still be ahead of investing $1500 for 30yr.. because that is the argument/misconception is that after it's paid off you'll have $xx extra to invest/catch up.

Is there a time frame, say if you could payit off in 2 yrs or 5yrs vs 15.5.. Would that make a diff?? Or does the interest rate make a diff?

I'm not trying to be an ass, i'm just trying to learn. I don't have a mortgage but big student loans.

Or you can see my situation here:
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/should-we-change-sl-repayment-plans/

I'd love any advice!!
Take a look at this updated worksheet. I worked  on Tomsang's sheet and found two primary concerns. I was seriously considering cutting back on mortgage pay down now that I'm under $100,000 balance but now I'm not so certain anymore. If I'm wrong, I'll probably shift more to Vanguard but I'm not seeing the risk reward.

1. Future Cash Flow is not calculated accurately for the accelerated Payoff club, not including the normal payment and extra payment once paid off.
2. The Investment rate is not applied to extra cash once the mortgage is paid off.

I added columns to the math and input sheet to show the differences. Notice the big swing in the compounding at the end of the cashflow. We went from lossing money paying off the house early of by 1.9Million and now we are making $550,000 by compounding the future cash flow.

D - C   Compounding Future Cash Flow         
   with Mortgage Paid Off         
Benefit (Loss)   7% Future Cash Flow 7038.56, year 6         
Investing vs.   Without Tax Gain Holdings         
Paying Down             
Mortgage   Neg Loss with Payoff, Positive Gain Compounding Future Cash flow         
 $669.26     $(904.81)   12   Tax Difference   
 $20,829.02     $(27,784.76)   60   Tax Difference   
 $245,687.97     $(97,661.48)   120   Tax and Compounding   
 $550,993.38     $(160,632.72)   180   Tax and Compounding   
 $925,475.73     $52,826.56    240   Tax and Compounding   
 $1,391,028.37     $203,111.20    300   Tax and Compounding   
 $1,977,557.12     $505,474.90    360   Tax and Compounding

Here is the updated workbook.  I placed it here 

Since I believe you posted a modified workbook that doubles up the mortgage returns, I wanted to post the correct one here as well.  Check it out and let me know if anything needs to be updated.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on April 06, 2015, 10:16:52 AM
This is all super duper interesting....and I want to discuss....shall I start a new thread for it?  That way we can high five over here for mortgage payoff progress....and discuss the particulars elsewhere?  'Cause I just ran some rough numbers, and it looks like it's close to a wash for me, personally, which I find very interesting.  But I wonder, too, if it's very specific to numbers in a case by case basis?  Basically, our FI is not extended by much because I still need extra income to pay for my mortgage if I don't pay it off first.  I'm talking...work a few months extra to make up the difference. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tomsang on April 06, 2015, 10:43:59 AM
This is all super duper interesting....and I want to discuss....shall I start a new thread for it?  That way we can high five over here for mortgage payoff progress....and discuss the particulars elsewhere?  'Cause I just ran some rough numbers, and it looks like it's close to a wash for me, personally, which I find very interesting.  But I wonder, too, if it's very specific to numbers in a case by case basis?  Basically, our FI is not extended by much because I still need extra income to pay for my mortgage if I don't pay it off first.  I'm talking...work a few months extra to make up the difference.

I would be interested in hearing about your situation and agree about clogging up the High Five page.  I just posted the calculator as I feel like the calculator that was by posted by dabears847 of my calc was not calculating correctly. 

We are discussing lots of mortgage related topics over on this thread:
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/investor-alley/paying-off-mortgage-early-how-bad-is-it-for-your-fi-date/
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dabears847 on April 06, 2015, 04:12:03 PM
I'll check out the other thread and maybe we need a new thread to reflect all the new information gathered. Also, I've checked the numbers on all three sheets posted and the greatest concern is missing the key elements I posted recently about future cash flow and applying the investment rate to future earnings.   

Balance on the House $75,900 and two rentals next.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tomsang on April 06, 2015, 04:52:10 PM
I'll check out the other thread and maybe we need a new thread to reflect all the new information gathered. Also, I've checked the numbers on all three sheets posted and the greatest concern is missing the key elements I posted recently about future cash flow and applying the investment rate to future earnings.   

Balance on the House $75,900 and two rentals next.

All the cash flows and investment rates are working properly in the updated worksheet.  I think you are not following how the calculator works.  It calculates a mortgage to term, it calculates it with a loan pay down(switching to investing when the loan is paid off), and it calculates a pure investment account.  It then figures out the benefit of investing vs. paying off the mortgage by month.  The summary page is just capturing different years. 

You are better off keeping your mortgage if your investment returns exceed your mortgage rate.  IE if you are getting 7% by investing or saving 4% by paying off your mortgage, you will be better off from month one through the 30 years by keeping the mortgage.  Let's take further discussions to the other thread.  I just wanted to clear that up that the calculator is taking into account the current and future cash flows or balances.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on April 07, 2015, 07:37:39 AM
Awesome!  Think of all that $ you can save now.  Can't wait to be in your shoes soon.
Chapter closed for us!

I've been a long term reader of these forums.  We just paid off our mortgage, it didn't seem real until the letter from the mortgagee came in stating that the loan was closed paid in full.  A couple years ago I envisioned framing this letter when it arrived but now that the time has come it just went in a file with other documents.  It's still listed as a loan in good standing on Credit Karma, but I'm fine with this as long as it shows good standing.  We literally don't have any other debt to show on the credit report other than paid in full every month revolving balances on our credit cards.

Keep up the good work everyone, for me the self set 'milestones' in the mortgage payoff process made the progress seem tangible.  The investment accounts are getting a huge bump every month now, the next goal is FIRE.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on April 11, 2015, 12:50:11 PM
Mrs. Indentured and I have the goal of payoff in 5 years on a $249k mortgage without gutting our current stash. 

Under $210K by year-end or bust!
Ugh, took a hit on $1K net tax bill that slowed progress.   The tax benefit of our mortgage coincidentally is just $1K per year for the privilege of throwing away another $6k net in interest.   New balance as of April 1 is $244880...   Hoping a bonus will knock $5k off that to get to the $230-ish range.   Also sold another $500 of junk towards the cause recently and have another $1k in clutter for sale to beef up the emergency/maintenance fund as well.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: hdatontodo on April 11, 2015, 07:01:11 PM
Update on trying to pay off the $99K mortgage balance this year.

I used bonus money, motorcycle sale proceeds, OT, $8K from the Mrs, money from selling a cabinet full of expendables from certain outdoor sport, and monthly extra principal payments, to reduce the balance to about $40K. Not bad for a little more than four months.

We will send about $2K extra each month ($18K). I have two 3-check months ($6K). I have about $500+ per month extra ($5K). I will have some OT this year.

I am a bit impatient thinking about the 150-some workdays left to get it done.

I will be 55 this year and might get laid off next year when a contract is over. My wife's salary can cover most of our expenses if our 15-year mortgage is gone.

Side note. She seldom spends money on clothes, jewelry, hair, etc but just bought a $3K mountain bike. Ouch.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on April 12, 2015, 06:36:54 AM
@hdatontodo - SO CLOSE!!  Rooting for ya! (and for everyone else!)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Emerald on April 15, 2015, 12:18:45 PM
Compared to y'all, I'm moving a little slower.  I just crossed the 50% mark, so now I officially own more of my house than the bank does.  I'm on track to pay it off completely by the end of 2017.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: sequim on April 17, 2015, 02:51:28 PM
Our home listed for sale today and we are hoping in this market we can accept an offer and closed before the end of May.  Once our mortgage gets paid off from the proceeds, we will be headed to Salt Lake where we just bought a home for cash.  And then we'll be officially FIREd (or free to do what we want) and mortgage-free.  Can't believe I first posted only once almost exactly one year ago with hopes of becoming a mustachian but the "plan" wasn't in place quite yet.  And here we are a year later with that plan having been mostly executed.  Feels like sliding into home base...

Such a good feeling yet it seemed so overwhelming to contemplate in the beginning.  Will love having more time to read this forum and connect with like-minded people.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Frugalite on April 18, 2015, 02:02:56 PM
I have been a long time lurker, but am not quite cool enough to join the group yet, LOL. In January hubby and I paid off the last of our student loans, and now are working diligently at the last bit of a car loan we have. Projecting having it paid off by July and then we are going to begin chipping away at our modest mortgage of about $115,000. :) Looking forward to joining you all soon- in the meanwhile, good luck and keep soldiering on!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks2 on April 20, 2015, 06:15:21 AM
I have started sucking at this a little bit.  But I have been working on putting more into our kids' college savings.  Where is the balance? I'm not that sure.  But I paid an extra $300 this month, an extra $513 in March, and an extra $1,500 in January.

Our mortgage balance is currently at $115,000. 

I might make small swipes at this for a while. I am also debating investing vs. paying down mortgage, and I may try to split our contributions between the two.  I think no mortgage will be a huge emotional load off my husband though, moreso than an investment total.  However, I expect our investments can / will gain 7+% annually at a minimum.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Able was I ERE on April 25, 2015, 11:35:18 PM
Just got a "Satisfaction of Mortgage" in the mail today!   After almost 11 years from purchase, and 2 rates-can-never-go-lower refinances, it's finally completely paid off.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: boarder42 on April 26, 2015, 07:55:58 PM
Those who have paid their mortgages off should consider cash out refi at today's rates.  Its a great inflation hedge. Plus u will make more investing than the interest
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on April 27, 2015, 05:32:19 PM
I just registered to get in on this action!

Since I've been a homeowner, 2015 was the first year where we didn't have any car loans or student loans between us.  Now it's time to get serious about ridding ourselves of the mortgage!  Started out with 92k when I bought the house eight years ago.   When I made my first principal-only payment in March I was at 77k.  I'm already down to 67k.  In a good month without any unexpected expenses, I can throw 4k in principal at it.  When I get down to 20k, I'll be pulling that amount from my rainy day fund to make one final balloon payment.  I hope to be completely done with it in a little over a year.

Anyway, I was pretty excited when I realized I could make this happen and this thread is good motivation to keep me going.  I will be posting update!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on May 07, 2015, 05:22:59 PM
Pay week!  Down to 65.3k.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on May 08, 2015, 10:43:56 AM

Starting Mortgage:  123K
Current Balance: 122K



Just made my first extra payment of $1300...new mortgage balance is $119,800.00

Ahem....back on topic.

Made my August extra payment...new balance is........ $117,719.00   Woot!  Sent $1900 to the mortgage, plus Augusts regular payment.  Goal is to hit 80% LTV by my birthday in January. We shall see.


Okay, so not going to hit my original goal - had to pay cash for a roof replacement for our rental, plus my husband took up hunting ($$$) hopefully we can really be serious about this going forward.  And my hubby owes me..oh...like 10 deer before he can give up his new hobby. 

Current principal:  $113,199.00

Not terrible for having to shell out almost six grand in unplanned expenses.  My revised goal is to get this down to 80% by my next birthday, Jan 2016.  We have to pay for some foundation repairs to our current house, also, that's why I'm almost a year off of my original goal.

Current amount:  $111,523

Pretty sure I'll reach our goal of 104K by Jan 2016 if not before - although I am changing up strategies a bit and maxing out IRAs for tax savings and then throwing additional towards the mortgage.  Will make the mortgage payoff slower, but the tax savings and investing earnings will be worth it!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: boarder42 on May 11, 2015, 11:15:40 AM

Starting Mortgage:  123K
Current Balance: 122K


i really hope you're maxing out all tax advantaged account before dumping money into a mortgage


Just made my first extra payment of $1300...new mortgage balance is $119,800.00

Ahem....back on topic.

Made my August extra payment...new balance is........ $117,719.00   Woot!  Sent $1900 to the mortgage, plus Augusts regular payment.  Goal is to hit 80% LTV by my birthday in January. We shall see.


Okay, so not going to hit my original goal - had to pay cash for a roof replacement for our rental, plus my husband took up hunting ($$$) hopefully we can really be serious about this going forward.  And my hubby owes me..oh...like 10 deer before he can give up his new hobby. 

Current principal:  $113,199.00

Not terrible for having to shell out almost six grand in unplanned expenses.  My revised goal is to get this down to 80% by my next birthday, Jan 2016.  We have to pay for some foundation repairs to our current house, also, that's why I'm almost a year off of my original goal.

Current amount:  $111,523

Pretty sure I'll reach our goal of 104K by Jan 2016 if not before - although I am changing up strategies a bit and maxing out IRAs for tax savings and then throwing additional towards the mortgage.  Will make the mortgage payoff slower, but the tax savings and investing earnings will be worth it!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: hdatontodo on May 11, 2015, 11:43:08 AM
Current amount:  $111,523...Pretty sure I'll reach our goal of 104K by Jan 2016 if not before...

I don't know if you get paid on this schedule, but a number of people will get 3 pays in December since January 1 is a Friday and becomes a December pay for some (like me, which should be part of our final mortgage payment in January.)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on May 11, 2015, 12:16:03 PM
i 'think' I'm in too. my rate is 5.9% and 86k to go.
since i am crap at stocks, and don't know anything about it, although i am learning right now on this forum (thanks!) is this not a wise decision?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: birdman2003 on May 11, 2015, 12:31:13 PM
i 'think' I'm in too. my rate is 5.9% and 86k to go.
since i am crap at stocks, and don't know anything about it, although i am learning right now on this forum (thanks!) is this not a wise decision?

You could always open a taxable investment account, add money and grow it until it surpasses the 86k mortgage balance.  Then you liquidate the account, pay taxes on your gains, and then "retire" your mortgage.

Otherwise you could send in extra principal payments as you accumulate cash, and get a "guaranteed" 5.9% rate of return (which is close to the historical average for the stock market).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on May 11, 2015, 12:36:34 PM
i 'think' I'm in too. my rate is 5.9% and 86k to go.
since i am crap at stocks, and don't know anything about it, although i am learning right now on this forum (thanks!) is this not a wise decision?

You could always open a taxable investment account, add money and grow it until it surpasses the 86k mortgage balance.  Then you liquidate the account, pay taxes on your gains, and then "retire" your mortgage.

Otherwise you could send in extra principal payments as you accumulate cash, and get a "guaranteed" 5.9% rate of return (which is close to the historical average for the stock market).
Thank you bird man! i have a Q.. if i have a 403b with transamerica through my work, should i do it with them since i can see those Vanguard stocks i have some already, or do a separate thing with Vanguard where it is not coming straight off my paycheck tax free? Not sure if Transamerica 403b account lets me set up other things like this.. thought i can ask them too. I know nothing! learning much! Also, can you put money in to Vanguard and then get it out any time you like?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on May 11, 2015, 04:13:07 PM
Current amount:  $111,523...Pretty sure I'll reach our goal of 104K by Jan 2016 if not before...

I don't know if you get paid on this schedule, but a number of people will get 3 pays in December since January 1 is a Friday and becomes a December pay for some (like me, which should be part of our final mortgage payment in January.)


We get an extra paycheck in May and October - but the October one usually gets eaten up with property taxes (about $700 - thank goodness this will keep going down each year as our cars age!) Christmas ($500) and other normal budget stuff (food/giving/sitar lessons).  But yes, I should still, even with all of that, have about $900 extra to throw at either the mortgage or maxing out our IRAs.  Woot!  Love three paycheck months, but especially the one I get in May as the only odd thing that comes out of that is our life insurance which is about $500 and then the rest goes to our current goal.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ACLR8R on May 11, 2015, 04:41:33 PM
Just found this thread, so I thought I would toss my numbers in as well.

Trying to become more mustachian since I found MMM about 8 months ago. Luckily we bought our house at the bottom of the recession and only owed $121k. I refi'd last year to a 15yr at 2.75%, then I sold my FF Cobra, and my C6 Corvette and have dropped 70k or so and we are down do 50k left. Hoping to have it paid off by June 2016!

I know for most the math doesn't work out, when comparing it to investing but I always wondered, what if the house then becomes a rental property. Do the numbers get better?

Our plan is to pay this house off and then buy another and rent this one out. Yes we will have another mortgage, but the rent from our current house will pay for the mortgage on the next plus $3-400 per month. So we would still have our mortgage paid for, essentially, but increase our income by $3-400 per month.

I feel like that is a pretty good return on our money, especially when you factor in the house appreciating in value by 3-10% each year as well. (this house has already gone from 161k to 240k in value in 4 years due to the housing market recovering).

I know we got lucky in our timing, but I figure that has to be on par with investing the $121k, or is there a hole in my thinking somewhere?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: boarder42 on May 12, 2015, 06:10:50 AM
Just found this thread, so I thought I would toss my numbers in as well.

Trying to become more mustachian since I found MMM about 8 months ago. Luckily we bought our house at the bottom of the recession and only owed $121k. I refi'd last year to a 15yr at 2.75%, then I sold my FF Cobra, and my C6 Corvette and have dropped 70k or so and we are down do 50k left. Hoping to have it paid off by June 2016!

I know for most the math doesn't work out, when comparing it to investing but I always wondered, what if the house then becomes a rental property. Do the numbers get better?

Our plan is to pay this house off and then buy another and rent this one out. Yes we will have another mortgage, but the rent from our current house will pay for the mortgage on the next plus $3-400 per month. So we would still have our mortgage paid for, essentially, but increase our income by $3-400 per month.

I feel like that is a pretty good return on our money, especially when you factor in the house appreciating in value by 3-10% each year as well. (this house has already gone from 161k to 240k in value in 4 years due to the housing market recovering).

I know we got lucky in our timing, but I figure that has to be on par with investing the $121k, or is there a hole in my thinking somewhere?

If the math doesnt work out for it not being a rental it still doesnt work out when it is a rental.  Essentially at a 2.75% rate you're just burning money putting it in your mortgage as your rate is under the avg inflation rate. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ACLR8R on May 12, 2015, 10:27:08 AM
Just found this thread, so I thought I would toss my numbers in as well.

Trying to become more mustachian since I found MMM about 8 months ago. Luckily we bought our house at the bottom of the recession and only owed $121k. I refi'd last year to a 15yr at 2.75%, then I sold my FF Cobra, and my C6 Corvette and have dropped 70k or so and we are down do 50k left. Hoping to have it paid off by June 2016!

I know for most the math doesn't work out, when comparing it to investing but I always wondered, what if the house then becomes a rental property. Do the numbers get better?

Our plan is to pay this house off and then buy another and rent this one out. Yes we will have another mortgage, but the rent from our current house will pay for the mortgage on the next plus $3-400 per month. So we would still have our mortgage paid for, essentially, but increase our income by $3-400 per month.

I feel like that is a pretty good return on our money, especially when you factor in the house appreciating in value by 3-10% each year as well. (this house has already gone from 161k to 240k in value in 4 years due to the housing market recovering).

I know we got lucky in our timing, but I figure that has to be on par with investing the $121k, or is there a hole in my thinking somewhere?

If the math doesnt work out for it not being a rental it still doesnt work out when it is a rental.  Essentially at a 2.75% rate you're just burning money putting it in your mortgage as your rate is under the avg inflation rate.

My thinking (again could be flawed), but once the house is rented and it is bringing in around $1400 per month that's 16,800 per year. Which using the $121k payoff amount is almost 14% per year. Now I know you have to account for taxes and a month or two every couple of years that it isn't rented ( I have another property that was vacant two months in the past 3 years). But I would say a conservative 7-9% annually, and that still isn't factoring in appreciation of the home itself which has been almost 50% over the last 4 years (I know that wont continue, but home prices in Gilbert have been recovering very well).

What am I missing?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on May 12, 2015, 10:38:46 AM
I've decided I'm in! yay! Gonna send a huge check to them this week :) take me down to 68k owed. Then we are going to put an extra 1000 towards it every month. yippee.
We want to sell it in a few years maybe 3, once we have it paid off and have cash for a downpayment on another house.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: birdman2003 on May 12, 2015, 03:52:06 PM
I've decided I'm in! yay! Gonna send a huge check to them this week :) take me down to 68k owed. Then we are going to put an extra 1000 towards it every month. yippee.
We want to sell it in a few years maybe 3, once we have it paid off and have cash for a downpayment on another house.

Sounds like a good plan.  If you did want to open an account with Vanguard (or any other broker) it would be separate from any other retirement plans offered through your work.  You would link it to your bank and transfer money to your Vanguard account which can then be used to buy your favorite funds.  You can sell them at any time, but most of the funds have a minimum required balance (if your account is at $5000 and you decide you need to pull out $4000 for an emergency, you can't sell $4000 worth of funds unless the minimum balance for that fund is $1000. Most of the funds have a minimum of $3000).  When you sell funds and transfer the money back to your bank, you'll pay taxes on the gains at tax time.  So don't spend it all. *smile*

But yeah, I would probably do what you describe and just send in an extra $1000 principal payment to your mortgage owner every month.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on May 12, 2015, 04:22:41 PM
I've decided I'm in! yay! Gonna send a huge check to them this week :) take me down to 68k owed. Then we are going to put an extra 1000 towards it every month. yippee.
We want to sell it in a few years maybe 3, once we have it paid off and have cash for a downpayment on another house.

Sounds like a good plan.  If you did want to open an account with Vanguard (or any other broker) it would be separate from any other retirement plans offered through your work.  You would link it to your bank and transfer money to your Vanguard account which can then be used to buy your favorite funds.  You can sell them at any time, but most of the funds have a minimum required balance (if your account is at $5000 and you decide you need to pull out $4000 for an emergency, you can't sell $4000 worth of funds unless the minimum balance for that fund is $1000. Most of the funds have a minimum of $3000).  When you sell funds and transfer the money back to your bank, you'll pay taxes on the gains at tax time.  So don't spend it all. *smile*

But yeah, I would probably do what you describe and just send in an extra $1000 principal payment to your mortgage owner every month.
Thanks! You just answered all my Q's i had swilling in my head and on another thread :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: boarder42 on May 13, 2015, 06:17:29 AM
Just found this thread, so I thought I would toss my numbers in as well.

Trying to become more mustachian since I found MMM about 8 months ago. Luckily we bought our house at the bottom of the recession and only owed $121k. I refi'd last year to a 15yr at 2.75%, then I sold my FF Cobra, and my C6 Corvette and have dropped 70k or so and we are down do 50k left. Hoping to have it paid off by June 2016!

I know for most the math doesn't work out, when comparing it to investing but I always wondered, what if the house then becomes a rental property. Do the numbers get better?

Our plan is to pay this house off and then buy another and rent this one out. Yes we will have another mortgage, but the rent from our current house will pay for the mortgage on the next plus $3-400 per month. So we would still have our mortgage paid for, essentially, but increase our income by $3-400 per month.

I feel like that is a pretty good return on our money, especially when you factor in the house appreciating in value by 3-10% each year as well. (this house has already gone from 161k to 240k in value in 4 years due to the housing market recovering).

I know we got lucky in our timing, but I figure that has to be on par with investing the $121k, or is there a hole in my thinking somewhere?

If the math doesnt work out for it not being a rental it still doesnt work out when it is a rental.  Essentially at a 2.75% rate you're just burning money putting it in your mortgage as your rate is under the avg inflation rate.

My thinking (again could be flawed), but once the house is rented and it is bringing in around $1400 per month that's 16,800 per year. Which using the $121k payoff amount is almost 14% per year. Now I know you have to account for taxes and a month or two every couple of years that it isn't rented ( I have another property that was vacant two months in the past 3 years). But I would say a conservative 7-9% annually, and that still isn't factoring in appreciation of the home itself which has been almost 50% over the last 4 years (I know that wont continue, but home prices in Gilbert have been recovering very well).

What am I missing?

your thinking is extremely flawed.  its not just the pay off amount ROI you need to look at its the entire value of the home.  Meaning what you could sell it for.  if your home is worth anymore than 70k which it is... it doesnt even meet the 2% rule of renting.  at 1400 a month.  Not to mention just the amount of capital you're tossing in the trash paying it off any faster than minimum payments and investing the rest in other properties or the stock market.  Home appreciation typically keeps up with inflation.  you bought at a bottom so it has been higher.  but you will come out miles ahead selling that house and putting it into a smarter investment.  and also by not paying it down.  Paying down ALL debt is probably one of the biggest flaws of people on this site.  A mortgage at your rate is costing you 2-3 years of FIRE by paying it down vs investing the money in more property or stock investments.   And your house is not currently rentable its worth way too much for the rent you would bring in.   

post actual numbers

Home value - ???
assumed rental income - 1400
what you owe is not relevant.  only the rate which we already have.
what is your expected FIRE annual income
what do you currently have in savings

i can do the math and show you how bad an idea you're currently contemplating.  assuming that you bought it for around 140-150 and it has appreciated like you say ... you should not be renting this place even based on original purchase price. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ACLR8R on May 13, 2015, 10:40:05 AM
Just found this thread, so I thought I would toss my numbers in as well.

Trying to become more mustachian since I found MMM about 8 months ago. Luckily we bought our house at the bottom of the recession and only owed $121k. I refi'd last year to a 15yr at 2.75%, then I sold my FF Cobra, and my C6 Corvette and have dropped 70k or so and we are down do 50k left. Hoping to have it paid off by June 2016!

I know for most the math doesn't work out, when comparing it to investing but I always wondered, what if the house then becomes a rental property. Do the numbers get better?

Our plan is to pay this house off and then buy another and rent this one out. Yes we will have another mortgage, but the rent from our current house will pay for the mortgage on the next plus $3-400 per month. So we would still have our mortgage paid for, essentially, but increase our income by $3-400 per month.

I feel like that is a pretty good return on our money, especially when you factor in the house appreciating in value by 3-10% each year as well. (this house has already gone from 161k to 240k in value in 4 years due to the housing market recovering).

I know we got lucky in our timing, but I figure that has to be on par with investing the $121k, or is there a hole in my thinking somewhere?

If the math doesnt work out for it not being a rental it still doesnt work out when it is a rental.  Essentially at a 2.75% rate you're just burning money putting it in your mortgage as your rate is under the avg inflation rate.

My thinking (again could be flawed), but once the house is rented and it is bringing in around $1400 per month that's 16,800 per year. Which using the $121k payoff amount is almost 14% per year. Now I know you have to account for taxes and a month or two every couple of years that it isn't rented ( I have another property that was vacant two months in the past 3 years). But I would say a conservative 7-9% annually, and that still isn't factoring in appreciation of the home itself which has been almost 50% over the last 4 years (I know that wont continue, but home prices in Gilbert have been recovering very well).

What am I missing?

your thinking is extremely flawed.  its not just the pay off amount ROI you need to look at its the entire value of the home.  Meaning what you could sell it for.  if your home is worth anymore than 70k which it is... it doesnt even meet the 2% rule of renting.  at 1400 a month.  Not to mention just the amount of capital you're tossing in the trash paying it off any faster than minimum payments and investing the rest in other properties or the stock market.  Home appreciation typically keeps up with inflation.  you bought at a bottom so it has been higher.  but you will come out miles ahead selling that house and putting it into a smarter investment.  and also by not paying it down.  Paying down ALL debt is probably one of the biggest flaws of people on this site.  A mortgage at your rate is costing you 2-3 years of FIRE by paying it down vs investing the money in more property or stock investments.   And your house is not currently rentable its worth way too much for the rent you would bring in.   

post actual numbers

Home value - ???
assumed rental income - 1400
what you owe is not relevant.  only the rate which we already have.
what is your expected FIRE annual income
what do you currently have in savings

i can do the math and show you how bad an idea you're currently contemplating.  assuming that you bought it for around 140-150 and it has appreciated like you say ... you should not be renting this place even based on original purchase price.

Lo, I think throwing it in the trash might be a tad extreme, but here are my numbers.

Home value - $240,000
assumed rental income - 1400
what you owe is not relevant.  only the rate which we already have.
what is your expected FIRE annual income- Shooting for 30-50k, but wife and I will still be working part time at hobbies we enjoy. Only need about 20k in investment income.
what do you currently have in savings- $30k in cash in the bank, but approx $200k (not including equity in primary residence) , between 403b, Precious Metals, Roth, IRA, equity in other rental property, and State retirement (both teachers).

Ages 32, and 27.

I have a feeling this is going to hurt :)

Not planning to pay the rental off early, that is at 2.375%
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: boarder42 on May 13, 2015, 12:31:32 PM
that home is worth 240000 ... meaning if you sold the home vs renting.  you would have 240k to invest in a good investment.  This home renting at 1400 is not that investment.  lets just use the annual market returns which can grow tax sheltered til you withdraw.  and lets pull out inflation so lets say 7% annual returns. that gives you 16,800.  you may say its the same as the house ... yes but you're not accounting for the fact that a good rule of thumb for rentals is to assume 50% goes to other things.  so you're making half that on you rental.  and you have to worry about tennants and working on the house and fixing it up each time and managing your property.  all to get less than half the return of just sitting it in a taxable account and putting it in VTSAX. 

Most people follow a 2% rule (most successful real estate investors)  you arent even at a 1% rule on this house.  Go read bigger pockets forum and you can learn alot about owning rentals.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ACLR8R on May 13, 2015, 03:17:42 PM
that home is worth 240000 ... meaning if you sold the home vs renting.  you would have 240k to invest in a good investment.  This home renting at 1400 is not that investment.  lets just use the annual market returns which can grow tax sheltered til you withdraw.  and lets pull out inflation so lets say 7% annual returns. that gives you 16,800.  you may say its the same as the house ... yes but you're not accounting for the fact that a good rule of thumb for rentals is to assume 50% goes to other things.  so you're making half that on you rental.  and you have to worry about tennants and working on the house and fixing it up each time and managing your property.  all to get less than half the return of just sitting it in a taxable account and putting it in VTSAX. 

Most people follow a 2% rule (most successful real estate investors)  you arent even at a 1% rule on this house.  Go read bigger pockets forum and you can learn alot about owning rentals.

OK, I see one of the major differences in our thinking. I am looking at the investment I have made in the house of $121k, and you are looking at the value of the home $240k.

I do manage my properties and luckily in that last 4-5 years of doing it I have been no where near the 50% rule, probably no even 10%. Could be luck or doing my due diligence in the application process. I honestly spend less than 10 hrs per year managing.

I appreciate your perspective.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: boarder42 on May 15, 2015, 08:46:12 AM
selling that house and buying a house that costs less and has higher return to value is your 100% best option.  Doing what you're doing you are better off investing in vtsax.  its not a prespective its simple math
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ACLR8R on May 15, 2015, 11:15:59 AM
selling that house and buying a house that costs less and has higher return to value is your 100% best option.  Doing what you're doing you are better off investing in vtsax.  its not a prespective its simple math

Thanks I'll keep that in mind, there really aren't any less expensive houses in my area so I will just continue on my path. Might not be the absolute best way to do it, but being mortgage free by 33 isn't the end of the world either :)

I appreciate your input, even if it did seem a bit condescending.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: boarder42 on May 15, 2015, 02:08:48 PM
selling that house and buying a house that costs less and has higher return to value is your 100% best option.  Doing what you're doing you are better off investing in vtsax.  its not a prespective its simple math

Thanks I'll keep that in mind, there really aren't any less expensive houses in my area so I will just continue on my path. Might not be the absolute best way to do it, but being mortgage free by 33 isn't the end of the world either :)

I appreciate your input, even if it did seem a bit condescending.
+

then why ask the question if you just wanted a yes man .
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: hdatontodo on June 02, 2015, 08:47:23 PM
[January] $99K mortgage balance...
[April] balance ... $40K. ...

June 1, $31.6K. Need to increase the next 7 payments by $25 to finish in January 2016.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on June 04, 2015, 07:09:19 AM
Was able to throw another couple grand at the mortgage this month.  Down to 131K!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: hdatontodo on June 04, 2015, 08:40:22 AM
[January] $99K mortgage balance...
[April] balance ... $40K. ...

June 1, $31.6K. Need to increase the next 7 payments by $25 to finish in January 2016.

Quite impressive, you already got all the cash sitting still in another account or you just pull a NFL paycheck?

I read posts here once in a while and figure that some of you throw on your mortgage more than our gross familial income. The special thing about you guys is not to repay the morgage fast but to dont follow the royal lifestyle (including housing) that your collaterals probably run.
The Mrs and I can just afford to scrape together the $5K payment from our paychecks. Only one of my 2 monthly checks had been needed prior. Getting OT @40/hr take-home covers a dinner out that was not in the budget. I have nil in savings but she has some. I plan to replenish savings next year.

At the peak of the market, the Mrs had gotten this house for $285K with a 30 year mortgage by herself before I came along. She had been renting out a room. My coming into the picture initially led to refi to a 15 year loan with some extra principal on top. It was about a year ago that I started really making big extra payments on the principal (after we finished the prepaid MD 529 for the kid.)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: latetotheparty1977 on June 05, 2015, 10:23:09 AM
I've decided I'm in! yay! Gonna send a huge check to them this week :) take me down to 68k owed. Then we are going to put an extra 1000 towards it every month. yippee.
We want to sell it in a few years maybe 3, once we have it paid off and have cash for a downpayment on another house.

Sounds like a good plan.  If you did want to open an account with Vanguard (or any other broker) it would be separate from any other retirement plans offered through your work.  You would link it to your bank and transfer money to your Vanguard account which can then be used to buy your favorite funds.  You can sell them at any time, but most of the funds have a minimum required balance (if your account is at $5000 and you decide you need to pull out $4000 for an emergency, you can't sell $4000 worth of funds unless the minimum balance for that fund is $1000. Most of the funds have a minimum of $3000).  When you sell funds and transfer the money back to your bank, you'll pay taxes on the gains at tax time.  So don't spend it all. *smile*

But yeah, I would probably do what you describe and just send in an extra $1000 principal payment to your mortgage owner every month.
Thanks! You just answered all my Q's i had swilling in my head and on another thread :)

Forgive me, beginner question here: but what do you do if you do want to get your full amount of money out of the Vanguard brokerage account? You would get no gains on the money that is below the $3k minimum?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on June 07, 2015, 04:51:59 PM
Pay week!  Down to 65.3k.

61k at time of this post.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: birdman2003 on June 08, 2015, 01:12:31 PM
I've decided I'm in! yay! Gonna send a huge check to them this week :) take me down to 68k owed. Then we are going to put an extra 1000 towards it every month. yippee.
We want to sell it in a few years maybe 3, once we have it paid off and have cash for a downpayment on another house.

Sounds like a good plan.  If you did want to open an account with Vanguard (or any other broker) it would be separate from any other retirement plans offered through your work.  You would link it to your bank and transfer money to your Vanguard account which can then be used to buy your favorite funds.  You can sell them at any time, but most of the funds have a minimum required balance (if your account is at $5000 and you decide you need to pull out $4000 for an emergency, you can't sell $4000 worth of funds unless the minimum balance for that fund is $1000. Most of the funds have a minimum of $3000).  When you sell funds and transfer the money back to your bank, you'll pay taxes on the gains at tax time.  So don't spend it all. *smile*

But yeah, I would probably do what you describe and just send in an extra $1000 principal payment to your mortgage owner every month.
Thanks! You just answered all my Q's i had swilling in my head and on another thread :)

Forgive me, beginner question here: but what do you do if you do want to get your full amount of money out of the Vanguard brokerage account? You would get no gains on the money that is below the $3k minimum?

If you had $2900 and the fund minimum is $3000, your money would be sitting around idle until you transfer another $100 to meet the fund minimum investment.  Once you have $3000 in your account, you can buy $3000 worth of shares.  For example, if the mutual fund was worth $44 a share, you could buy $3000 worth of that fund and have 68.182 shares in your account (68.182*44 = 3000).  Then a few months later, the fund price has increased from $44 per share to $49 per share.  Now your 68.182 shares are worth $3340.92 (68.182*49 = 3340.92).  You can't pull out more than $340.92 from this mutual fund or else your balance would be below the required minimum of $3000.  If you had an urgent need for $500, you would need to sell all your shares of the mutual fund.  That's why you shouldn't put money into a mutual fund unless you can leave it alone and let it grow.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: birdman2003 on June 08, 2015, 01:13:12 PM
More on topic, I am now below $60k left on my mortgage!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Heckler on June 08, 2015, 01:28:59 PM
$27,610 remaining. 8 months to go!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on June 14, 2015, 02:42:06 PM
Mrs. Indentured and I have the goal of payoff in 5 years on a $249k mortgage without gutting our current stash. 

Under $210K by year-end or bust!

Slow and steady...  Threw the bonus at the mortgage (but decided to beef up the kid's 529 plans to cushion us from the college years instead of just paying down principal now at an unsustainable rate later)...   Now $239,500 half way through the year...   Putting passive income into it and the paydowns are starting to make notable positive momentum to the tune of $30 a month or so since we started accelerating a year ago...   So tracking to be around $225K by year end.    Sounds silly, but also as a Trekkie, I'm keeping Frugal Toque's "Jean Luc Picard" post on mortgage freedom bookmarked on my phone for inspiration.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks2 on June 16, 2015, 02:12:58 PM
We're putting $1600 on the mortgage this month.  Balance will be about $112k.  I'm trying to put our extra on this and get it done. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: rjbf65 on June 18, 2015, 08:19:37 PM
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.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: LanceThrustington on June 22, 2015, 06:57:52 PM
I'm in too

Started in Feb with about 90K. 50% share of a $560k house in Melbourne Australia, interest rates are about 4.7% here
so its an easier decision to pay it off now rather than ivest.

Trying to smash down the loan ASAP preferably before the end of 2016 to then start saving for a family / future

down to 66,400 as of today.

Average wage, just funneling everything into it.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Rheagar on June 23, 2015, 01:07:26 PM
I'm in.

We bought our house in Nov 2015, mortgage of ~123k. We have ~117k left on the mortgage, but we are squirreling money away in  an ETF with the intent of paying off the mortgage in one lump sum once we have enough. The rationale is that we can hope to earn more in the market than we would save on interest, so we are sort of finding a happy medium in the pay it off/don't pay it off debate.

We currently have ~62k in that account, so 55k left to go! My very optimistic goal is April of next year. Hoping for bonuses to help out!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on June 27, 2015, 04:12:55 PM
Pay week!  Down to 65.3k.

61k at time of this post.

Now at a little over 50k.  Wife is a teacher and gets a lump sum check at the end of the school year.  Put all of it into mortage.

Right now I'm ahead of schedule.  This is way easier than I thought it would be so far.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: WWMD on July 01, 2015, 11:11:29 AM
Ok,

I'm in. I have been waffling over this for years now, just steadily saving. At this point in time if I got a rate of return of over 3.25% on my investments it would make sense to keep the money there and not pay off the mortgage. When all is said and done, my current loan would land me 10 years from now having paid $30,000 in interest. Nothing to sneeze at, but not an insurmountable loss.

BUT, I see a lot of benefits to paying off the mortgage instead:

I have about $60,000 to go if I want to keep a year's living expenses worth of savings/investments on deck for safety.

I believe it. No matter how many times I look at it and the financials tell me to invest instead, I believe in the peace-of-mind power of a mortgage-free existence.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: JD_ on July 01, 2015, 11:25:42 AM
Midway through 2015, we got it down to $144k.  Our goal for 2015 was to cut it to $128k by year end.  Now aiming for $120k!

-JD
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on July 07, 2015, 12:11:06 PM
Woohoo!  Down to 124,600!  This marks our half way point through the mortgage.  All down hill from here!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Farmgirl on July 07, 2015, 01:30:54 PM
20 payments left.  I can't wait.  The game changes seriously for us after that.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on July 07, 2015, 01:50:26 PM
Pay week!  Down to 65.3k.

61k at time of this post.

Now at a little over 50k.  Wife is a teacher and gets a lump sum check at the end of the school year.  Put all of it into mortage.

Right now I'm ahead of schedule.  This is way easier than I thought it would be so far.

Wow, you're going quite fast, nearly 15k in a few monts 0_0;

Ours is doing well too, got a tax return and made some smaller payments so we're down to just under 33k. 4.5k to go this year which should be easy!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: hdatontodo on July 07, 2015, 02:46:42 PM
[January] $99K mortgage balance...

July 7, $27K left. 6 more payments from Aug->Jan. I hope my job holds out.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Fiveyearclub on July 07, 2015, 11:13:11 PM
Hi.  SW engineer here.  Income $140k.  $106k left on a 10 year fixed on $117k.  Property worth $350k.  Originally purchased in 2009, 30 year fixed on $122k.  What a waste!  Refinanced in 2014.  I want to start a business, so I want to minimize living expenses.  Really difficult in San Jose, CA.  Instead of thinking about my life as arbitraged percentages, I just want to maximize my chance of success to start a business that allows me to make more money than the stock market could ever return.  I will always need a place to live, so might as well get it out of the way now.

Instead of paying the mortgage directly, I think I will just pile up money over the next 18 months, just in case I end up moving for some unknown reason... Job change, whatever.  With a monthly principal portion around $850 in theory I will be putting around $5700 total toward the mortgage.  I will also be selling from my hoard of collectibles, worth $50k-$100k to accelerate the process.  $2000 a month and I finish in 12 months.  I have spent a lot of money... But at least it was on physical items I can resell.

I have around $35k in investments outside retirement for safety. I think I can finish this before the end of 2016 as long as I sell enough stuff.  It's kind of a bummer to be doing this alone, but I guess it has freedom also. 

I'll be 31 when this finishes.  Houses here are $750k or more, and my net worth will be only around $450k including the $350k condo.  Too high a percentage in real estate!  I've really had to change my expectations about what having a family will eventually be like.  3 people in 784 sq. ft.  Just have to keep reminding myself that it would be normal in Hong Kong.

I've really changed my life a lot in the last 18 months.  Attached is a graph showing how I paid off my debt and then started saving like crazy.  My name is five year club because I think a comprehensive, meaningful program can be developed to help people completely change their money and happiness situation in about 5 years.  1 is too short and 20 is too long.  I'm 1.5 years in, and so far it's kicking ass!  It's more fun to do it with other people...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: plainjane on July 08, 2015, 07:37:57 AM
And we're under 30k, 1 year left in the term (our second 5 year term), just over 1 year left on amortization.  We're doing some extensive exterior work on the house in August so we have a decent contingency fund set aside if something horrible is found (the house is a century old, so it's best to assume something will be found).  If that goes smoothly, we'll throw the contingency at the mortgage and be done that much sooner. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Comar on July 08, 2015, 02:55:04 PM
I'm joining in.

I have a house in Iceland. Bought it for 123k dollars (16.5 million icelandic crowns) in 2012. Started making extra payments early last year and am now down to 88.4k dollars. Currently I throw about 560 dollars at it each month. I have also thrown some extra cash at the mortage, such as tax repayments and such.

From the start I have used the strategy of adding to the payments each month. Each downpayment reduces the monthly mortage payment so for the next downpayment I have added the extra dollars the mortage payment has been reduced. Call it a snowball strategy?

My goal is to KO the mortage in 5 years. I'm turning 30 this month and want it finished before I turn 35.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on July 09, 2015, 08:27:50 PM
Halfway through 2015 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

We are hammering this baby down!  We are on track for a balance of about $285,000 by year end if all goes as planned and pushing hard for a Sept. 2018 finish.  We've paid off over $110,000 since we started in 2013, while continuing to invest for retirement - whoot!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: PharmaStache on July 09, 2015, 08:33:22 PM
Hi!  We are not paying off our mortgage super aggressively, but still want to pay it off early.

2009: 165k
2014: 110k
2015: 90k
2019: Goal to be at 0 (to coincide with our current 5 year term ending)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bee21 on July 27, 2015, 05:01:04 PM
Newbie here- I'm totally in! The plan is to pay off the last 25k by the end of the year and be mortgage free. I live w a very non-mustachian Husband and paying off the mortgage early is the only investment decision I managed to persuade him to make.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: seemsright on July 28, 2015, 01:32:44 PM
26 days!

The only reason we have to wait is because we have a prepayment penalty. But we are very excited.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on July 28, 2015, 02:08:28 PM
^congrats seemsright!! 

What was your beginning balance, and how long did it take you to pay it off? 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: plainjane on July 29, 2015, 09:19:55 AM
Newbie here- I'm totally in! The plan is to pay off the last 25k by the end of the year and be mortgage free. I live w a very non-mustachian Husband and paying off the mortgage early is the only investment decision I managed to persuade him to make.

Have you started to discuss what you will do with the extra cash flow?  With a non-mustachian husband it's probably better to get it agreed upon before he starts spending it all.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: seemsright on July 29, 2015, 03:17:49 PM
^congrats seemsright!! 

What was your beginning balance, and how long did it take you to pay it off?
We took 13 years to pay it off we started at $148K.

We also had student loans that we had to pay it back my BS degree cost us 45K. Hubby had a side hussel the last few years that took a ton of time but we were able to bank the profit to pay off the house.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: K-ice on July 31, 2015, 11:15:27 AM
Started with $325,000 at 4% for 25y.

Threw an average of 35K at it every year. The max allowed was 48K but we couldn't come up with that. 

I have noticed that most long term mortgages can be paid off within 5 years if you max out, but stay within, the bank's pre-pay limits.

At renewal time (5y mark) we were not happy with the renewal terms.

So SO paid off half. I threw a good chunk down and got a LOC at 1% on the remaining.  Paid that off in 6 months!!

We basically had no additional savings during this time so that could hurt our investments in the longterm but being mtg free feels good!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: hdatontodo on August 02, 2015, 07:08:51 AM
[January] $99K mortgage balance...
July 7, $27K left. 6 more payments from Aug->Jan. I hope my job holds out.

So the Mrs has been getting irritated about BOA not properly posting occasional Principal Payment Only checks that I mail in after the monthly $5K automatic payments ($2K + 3K extra) on our 7-year-old, 15-year-loan. I have to get her to call them about her loan and repost it.

So also gets irritated when I have her move the automate payment date or change the pay amount based on pay dates and cash flow. (She likes just to have her automatic-payment set up and spend her evenings with hours of Facebook and Real Housewives. )

So here's the facepunch-worthy action I took. I made a normal August $2K payment. I told her to cancel her $5K automatic payment. I borrowed $20K with a short term 401K loan and did a principal payment, leaving the mortgage balance at under $5K. Later this week, she'll get a payoff figure and bring them a cashiers check from her Wells Fargo account for the payoff.

My original plan was to have the mortgage paid off by the beginning of January 2016. Now, it will be paid off in August, and I'll have payroll deductions until January. I also told her that I'm not going to give her any money monthly until next year so I can build my savings back up. I had used my savings, person property sales (Mustang, motor scooter, etc) and almost all my income to get this year's starting balance of $99K paid off.

The incentive for starting this project in 2014, when we owed $166K, was that I did a cash flow sheet, and found that paying off the loan and eliminating the payment (and $4,500/year interest) would make for a better cash flow if I got laid off in 2016 (after the contract that pays my salary is gone). We could live on her salary, and even if she wanted me to take 1/2 the family expenses out of my 401K (using the age 55 rule), it wouldn't be much.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on August 02, 2015, 08:40:35 PM
^^^
That is all really confusing.  I have KeyBank and I do everything on the website.  Anytime I make a payment greater than the minimum due it asks me if I want to apply it to principal or apply it to next monthly payment.  I also cancelled auto debit since I began my payoff project.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: rjbf65 on August 06, 2015, 11:31:21 AM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Comar on August 08, 2015, 06:07:33 PM
I'm joining in.

I have a house in Iceland. Bought it for 123k dollars (16.5 million icelandic crowns) in 2012. Started making extra payments early last year and am now down to 88.4k dollars. Currently I throw about 560 dollars at it each month. I have also thrown some extra cash at the mortage, such as tax repayments and such.

From the start I have used the strategy of adding to the payments each month. Each downpayment reduces the monthly mortage payment so for the next downpayment I have added the extra dollars the mortage payment has been reduced. Call it a snowball strategy?

My goal is to KO the mortage in 5 years. I'm turning 30 this month and want it finished before I turn 35.
87.5 k left. Paid 562 extra this month.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on August 10, 2015, 04:33:55 PM
I'm here!!

Starting Mortgage:  123K
Current Balance: 122K

Mortgage is at 4.25% with PMI, so while I may switch up strategies at some point, right now the goal is to get the PMI off as quickly as possible, hopefully by August 2015 (we only had 5% down).  If we don't switch strategies, goal is to pay this off in the next 3 or 4 years. 


PMI is on my mind as well - pay off all other debt first and then get rid of that pointless $118 fee that goes to waste every month.  I plan to get rid of it by December 2015.  Good luck to you :)

I love seeing everyone else's progress on this thread.


Current principle:  $103,457.43 - PMI is OFF

Now I switch gears to max out IRAs for 2015, then in 2016 we will have to payoff our foundation repairs (currently at 0%), max out IRA's and pay for school for me...so not a lot of progress will happen on the mortgage front.  I'll see you all again sometime in 2017.  I'll still watch and read others make progress towards their goals.  Good luck, everyone!!


Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: eyePod on August 10, 2015, 05:54:06 PM
OH oh, for PMI folk.

We are currently at 80.1% after throwing another 2k at the mortgage. I contacted my bank to find out the process for removal of PMI.

We had put 10% down last July, so we're just over a year.

They said that if we are at 80% of the loan value, then we could request PMI cancellation with 2 years of payments. So we're way ahead of that. If we're below 78%, then we can request it then. So that's another bit of change now that we have to come up with. I only talked with one of the loan guys at our bank, not the actual escrow group though.

Then we have to get it appraised, and then we have to figure out what happens if the home value is lower and all that. It's a bunch of malarky. The inspection will cost between $400 and $450, but that saves us $5k over the rest of the loan.

Really frustrated but we knew that we'd be a year out till we had the extra 10% based on the new job and all that, so we knew what we were getting into and the bank needs to de-risk. I get it. I just wish it wasn't so damn hard to get out of this once you're in. It's definitely convoluted for a reason.

We probably plan on paying the extra $81 per month that goes to PMI to our loan principal. We don't know if we're going to pay off the whole home loan early, but if the market is only staying status quo, that might be our plan of attack.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on August 10, 2015, 07:20:45 PM
Oh man, that sucks.   My credit union is nothing like that...just as soon as you drop down below 80% they take it off.  I e-mailed their loan servicing department and it was gone within 24 hours.  They don't require an appraisal or anything like that, unless you refi. 

I'm sorry getting rid of your PMI is such a PITA, eyePod!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: eyePod on August 11, 2015, 05:58:25 AM
Oh man, that sucks.   My credit union is nothing like that...just as soon as you drop down below 80% they take it off.  I e-mailed their loan servicing department and it was gone within 24 hours.  They don't require an appraisal or anything like that, unless you refi. 

I'm sorry getting rid of your PMI is such a PITA, eyePod!

Maybe I was just talking to the wrong person. I'm going to call the loan and escrow department to see if they can make it any easier. It can't hurt.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on August 11, 2015, 07:13:09 AM
Woohoo!  Down to 117,930!  Started 3 years ago at 249K!  Saw the principal to interest number flip to the next hundred too- I get way too excited about that.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on August 11, 2015, 07:16:06 AM
eyePod...yeah...double check.  I've only done it through my credit union, I have no idea what the process is for other banks.  My credit union also pays me a bonus each year depending on what accounts I have with them.  Last year it was over $400 and this year will be around $300 (no car loan this year, so it's less).  I love credit unions.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on August 12, 2015, 09:27:06 AM
I'm joining the club!!  I want to be out from under the crushing debt of my mortgage.
I've been on the fence about this for a few years and stashing all of my rental income into a sinking fund invested in VTSAX.  Last month I sold all of the sinking fund and I took a big chunk from a cash account to pay down the mortgage prior to a reamortization.  Goal is to pay the mortgage down to a point that I could afford payments even if I'm not employed.  That might be all the way to zero, or it might not.  Even with my plans to continue paying 1000 extra each month, I'm still a looooong way away from retiring this debt, so I'm trying to speed that up.  I still have a long time to figure out the end result.

I'm in a HCOL city in a big house.  I'll show progress in terms of % paid off against initial home value (equity against initial sale price).

Progress (%equity against initial sale price)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on August 12, 2015, 11:23:52 AM
^Nice progress, BlueHouse!

I'm considering a mortgage recast eventually, too.  But I'm going to go back to work fulltime right when it'd be worth it to do the recast, and by then we'd only have a year or two left on the mortgage with my extra earnings.  We'll see when we get there.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on August 12, 2015, 03:18:12 PM
Pay week!  Down to 65.3k.

61k at time of this post.

Now at a little over 50k.  Wife is a teacher and gets a lump sum check at the end of the school year.  Put all of it into mortage.

Right now I'm ahead of schedule.  This is way easier than I thought it would be so far.

46.1k.  Kind of in the doldrums right now with only one paycheck coming in and had some unexpected expenses pop up.  Should be ready to hit it hard in September when wife goes back to work and gets a small raise.  Payoff before the end of the calendar year is not out of the question...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tonysemail on August 20, 2015, 12:17:52 PM
Earlier this year, we refinanced our home with cash out for the purposes of paying off our rental property.
We finally made it to the finish line this week!
Went to the post office and got a money order for the pay off balance and sent it in via certified mail.  Quick and easy.
This rental property was bought in 2007 at the height of the housing market :(
Now it's generating a tidy profit which we will use to pay down the mortgage on another rental property.
My balance on mortgage #2 is $213,425.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on August 20, 2015, 07:24:18 PM
Earlier this year, we refinanced our home with cash out for the purposes of paying off our rental property.
We finally made it to the finish line this week!
Went to the post office and got a money order for the pay off balance and sent it in via certified mail.  Quick and easy.
This rental property was bought in 2007 at the height of the housing market :(
Now it's generating a tidy profit which we will use to pay down the mortgage on another rental property.
My balance on mortgage #2 is $213,425.
I don't understand the purpose in paying off a rental prop before your own home. I use the expenses on my rental to offset rental income. I can't do that with my personal property. What am I missing? 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: eyePod on August 21, 2015, 08:04:58 AM
Oh man, that sucks.   My credit union is nothing like that...just as soon as you drop down below 80% they take it off.  I e-mailed their loan servicing department and it was gone within 24 hours.  They don't require an appraisal or anything like that, unless you refi. 

I'm sorry getting rid of your PMI is such a PITA, eyePod!

Maybe I was just talking to the wrong person. I'm going to call the loan and escrow department to see if they can make it any easier. It can't hurt.

I called the actual department that handles this stuff and all of the information I was given was wrong. It might have been true if I wanted to remove the escrow account, but for PMI only, I just needed to have a letter written and fax it over. We just went over the 80% mark (79.99) so we sent the letter first thing on Monday morning. I'm going to call next week since we haven't heard anything yet.

Thanks for letting me know that it shouldn't have been that hard.

Lesson learned - loan officers are very knowledgeable at getting a sale. They don't know how their own systems work otherwise.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tonysemail on August 21, 2015, 11:14:57 AM
I don't understand the purpose in paying off a rental prop before your own home. I use the expenses on my rental to offset rental income. I can't do that with my personal property. What am I missing?

the mortgage interest on my house can be deducted from my W-2 income.
Are you using itemized deductions or standard deduction?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tomsang on August 22, 2015, 12:09:44 AM
I don't understand the purpose in paying off a rental prop before your own home. I use the expenses on my rental to offset rental income. I can't do that with my personal property. What am I missing?

the mortgage interest on my house can be deducted from my W-2 income.
Are you using itemized deductions or standard deduction?

What country do you live in?  Sounds like the US, as you said W-2, but mortgage interest does not get deducted from W-2 income. It becomes an itemized deduction if they are greater than the standard deduction.

Offsetting rental income is usually better if your AGI is below a $100,000 and the losses are below $25,000. Also the bankruptcy rules would probably say it is better to have a paid off personal residence vs a rental.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on August 22, 2015, 05:03:05 AM
I don't understand the purpose in paying off a rental prop before your own home. I use the expenses on my rental to offset rental income. I can't do that with my personal property. What am I missing?

the mortgage interest on my house can be deducted from my W-2 income.
Are you using itemized deductions or standard deduction?

What country do you live in?  Sounds like the US, as you said W-2, but mortgage interest does not get deducted from W-2 income. It becomes an itemized deduction if they are greater than the standard deduction.

Offsetting rental income is usually better if your AGI is below a $100,000 and the losses are below $25,000. Also the bankruptcy rules would probably say it is better to have a paid off personal residence vs a rental.
I do itemize for the house and other stuff. My AGI is above 100 and being able to offset rental income is about the only thing that helps out on that property. I'll pay off my personal property long before I pay off the rental. If I go belly up and have to risk losing one, I don't want it to be my personal home! 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: LadyMaWhiskers on August 22, 2015, 08:30:51 AM
I did a similar thing to tonysemail - took a cash-out on a paid-for personal residence to pay off a rental earlier this year. Now trying to go full-steam and payoff the mortgage in 7 years or less.

Taxes were roughly a wash - interest on Schedule E or Schedule A (I'm in the U.S.) My rational came down to the type of loan I could get on the properties.

Home loan: Fixed rate @ 3.25% interest
Commercial loan on rental (12-unti residential): 5.5% fixed for 5 year (through 2018) then yearly readjustments and a balloon at 10yrs.

Even if the rental loan were a 1-4 family, the rate is higher when you don't live there. If equity is tight, it would be better to have the home paid for, but if one whole property is paid off, equity seems good!


Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on August 23, 2015, 08:12:11 PM
I did a similar thing to tonysemail - took a cash-out on a paid-for personal residence to pay off a rental earlier this year. Now trying to go full-steam and payoff the mortgage in 7 years or less.

Taxes were roughly a wash - interest on Schedule E or Schedule A (I'm in the U.S.) My rational came down to the type of loan I could get on the properties.

Home loan: Fixed rate @ 3.25% interest
Commercial loan on rental (12-unti residential): 5.5% fixed for 5 year (through 2018) then yearly readjustments and a balloon at 10yrs.

Even if the rental loan were a 1-4 family, the rate is higher when you don't live there. If equity is tight, it would be better to have the home paid for, but if one whole property is paid off, equity seems good!
Oh yes, I wasn't considering the different interest rates. Mine is still based on a personal rate because I initially lived in it. I would like to refinance, but don't want the higher rate. Maybe not a bad option for me after all. Need to think on that some more. Thanks! 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: plainjane on August 25, 2015, 08:48:25 PM
I've decided to shift my approach to paying off the mortgage.  I had been planning on drawing down the house eFund, using that savings to pay down the mortgage, and then rebuilding that fund.

I've decided to keep that fund high as a hedge against uncertainty, but I'll stop adding to it.  Instead, I'll redirect the cash flow that would have gone to rebuilding to fund to the mortgage.  That should put us on track for final pay-off March 2016 if all goes well.  And then our annual expenses will be _sweet_.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on August 25, 2015, 09:06:55 PM
We paid off our home mortgage about 5 years ago.  It was a great feeling!  I can promise you all it's worth working hard to make happen!


We're taking out a home equity loan to finance purchasing another rental property and its renovation. 
Our intent is to pay it off within 5 years, maybe less, if the other rental properties do well.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: seemsright on August 26, 2015, 09:14:13 PM
Done...paid it off today!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: K-ice on August 26, 2015, 09:35:14 PM
@ seemsright

Congrats!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: plainjane on August 27, 2015, 04:32:24 AM
Done...paid it off today!

Congratulations!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: eyePod on August 28, 2015, 06:15:11 AM
PMI Update. I received wrong information again from the 2nd person. Now they say that I do need to be at 78% since I don't have 24 months of payment history. If I were at 80% and had the 2 years of payment history I'd be fine. So even though I've paid off 10% in just about a year, they really need that extra 2%. I won't have the 5k for a few months so I'm super frustrated. They're basically milking me for a few hundred dollars of PMI. I let them know that when I refinance, there's literally no chance that I'll work with this bank. It shouldn't be this hard to remove PMI.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on August 28, 2015, 07:55:47 AM
PMI Update. I received wrong information again from the 2nd person. Now they say that I do need to be at 78% since I don't have 24 months of payment history. If I were at 80% and had the 2 years of payment history I'd be fine. So even though I've paid off 10% in just about a year, they really need that extra 2%. I won't have the 5k for a few months so I'm super frustrated. They're basically milking me for a few hundred dollars of PMI. I let them know that when I refinance, there's literally no chance that I'll work with this bank. It shouldn't be this hard to remove PMI.

Well, that's a bummer.  You know, we were right at 2 years of payments when we got to 80% so I have no idea if that was an issue at our bank. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on August 29, 2015, 03:06:41 PM
Done...paid it off today!

Congrats!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on August 29, 2015, 03:17:51 PM
Done...paid it off today!

Hell yeaaaahhhh!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on August 29, 2015, 03:22:56 PM
Chipping away...    Another grand to equity so 238K as of today...    with the recent market drama, was also able to pick up another $250/month in income producing funds at 5+ year market lows...   Accelerating the mortgage payoff!   Once the mortgage is dead, the jump to hyperspace (towards FI) begins!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: eyePod on August 31, 2015, 04:13:12 AM
PMI Update. I received wrong information again from the 2nd person. Now they say that I do need to be at 78% since I don't have 24 months of payment history. If I were at 80% and had the 2 years of payment history I'd be fine. So even though I've paid off 10% in just about a year, they really need that extra 2%. I won't have the 5k for a few months so I'm super frustrated. They're basically milking me for a few hundred dollars of PMI. I let them know that when I refinance, there's literally no chance that I'll work with this bank. It shouldn't be this hard to remove PMI.

Well, that's a bummer.  You know, we were right at 2 years of payments when we got to 80% so I have no idea if that was an issue at our bank.

The plot thickens. Our contract says that we have to have no late payments within 2 years. We don't! It doesn't say "for" to years, so they're misinterpreting it. I'm going to be calling them again today and getting ready to escalate as needed since they're in breach of the contract.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bee21 on September 02, 2015, 03:44:02 AM
The balance looks good. I think we can do it by the end of November/early December if we reshuffle money sitting around in various accounts. We are extremely motivated now as it looks like HB’s job is on the line.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: PFHC on September 02, 2015, 04:18:10 AM
C'mon guys.  Let's apply some perspective here. 

It doesn't matter if keeping a mortgage and investing the balance can make you more money over the long haul.  Paying off a mortgage, if that's what someone wants to do, is an awesome accomplishment and deserves praise rather than criticism. 

Save the face punches for people who really need them!  I'm borderline on dishing out a few for being so focused on maximizing returns that we neglect to value and recognize tremendous savings accomplishments.
Now you're talkin.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on September 02, 2015, 05:53:34 AM
 
[/quote]

The plot thickens. Our contract says that we have to have no late payments within 2 years. We don't! It doesn't say "for" to years, so they're misinterpreting it. I'm going to be calling them again today and getting ready to escalate as needed since they're in breach of the contract.
[/quote]

Good luck!  Keep us posted.  I can't recall...how much is your PMI a month?  Ours was $51 so while not life changing, still nice to have gone.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: rjbf65 on September 04, 2015, 06:53:00 AM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on September 12, 2015, 08:52:10 AM
Pay week!  Down to 65.3k.

61k at time of this post.

Now at a little over 50k.  Wife is a teacher and gets a lump sum check at the end of the school year.  Put all of it into mortage.

Right now I'm ahead of schedule.  This is way easier than I thought it would be so far.

46.1k.  Kind of in the doldrums right now with only one paycheck coming in and had some unexpected expenses pop up.  Should be ready to hit it hard in September when wife goes back to work and gets a small raise.  Payoff before the end of the calendar year is not out of the question...

42.6k.  Projecting payoff on 1/30/16.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: nora on September 14, 2015, 01:51:37 AM
Down to 140000 but have another 60000 of credit cards on 0% interest balance transfers to pay off at the end.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Mntngoat on September 16, 2015, 08:37:36 AM
Being free from payments is the goal. As far as "The only minor benefit I can think of to still hold a mortgage is the write off for mortgage interest paid." - doesn't make sense to pay $10 to the bank to get $3 back from the government.

I'll just be able to stop paying that $10 to the bank and keep my money.

  I agree  no payments is my goal too.    we got a $410K  Mortgage in 2007, with the extra payments and refiing  we are down to  18 years today.   I won't miss the interest write off  when its paid off  I'd rather  not have the payment. As for investing the extra payment instead of paying off early   that a whole nother topic.

ML
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: seemsright on September 16, 2015, 07:46:05 PM
Being free from payments is the goal. As far as "The only minor benefit I can think of to still hold a mortgage is the write off for mortgage interest paid." - doesn't make sense to pay $10 to the bank to get $3 back from the government.

I'll just be able to stop paying that $10 to the bank and keep my money.

  I agree  no payments is my goal too.    we got a $410K  Mortgage in 2007, with the extra payments and refiing  we are down to  18 years today.   I won't miss the interest write off  when its paid off  I'd rather  not have the payment. As for investing the extra payment instead of paying off early   that a whole nother topic.

ML

We did the math...If we would have left our mortgage the way it was the day that the bank gave it to us...we would have spent a 100K more than we did. We played the refinance game, and payed extra. I do not believe for a minute that I would have made a 100k by investing the extra payments. If anyone has a idea how to make that kinda cash in 13 years (that is how long it took us to pay off the house) then I am all ears.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: McGeens on September 17, 2015, 10:28:32 PM
I'be been onboard with this challenge for four years now. We started with our mortgage in 2008 with $230k owing. When our first child was born in 2011, we went down to one income and a deep desire to get rid of the debt. After contributing to superannuation (Australia), we've been throwing all our extra savings and surpluses into this sucker.

Balance today is $19200, and I CAN'T WAIT to make that final payment !! We're aiming for January 2016 free and clear- what a way to start the new year!! I love reading this thread, there's just no one in real life to discuss this with (we're 33 and 38).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on September 18, 2015, 10:01:03 AM
I'be been onboard with this challenge for four years now. We started with our mortgage in 2008 with $230k owing. When our first child was born in 2011, we went down to one income and a deep desire to get rid of the debt. After contributing to superannuation (Australia), we've been throwing all our extra savings and surpluses into this sucker.

Balance today is $19200, and I CAN'T WAIT to make that final payment !! We're aiming for January 2016 free and clear- what a way to start the new year!! I love reading this thread, there's just no one in real life to discuss this with (we're 33 and 38).

Wow!  That's really impressive - maybe when you reach your goal you can give more details on a journal.  :D  Makes my goal of paying off 103K over the next 5 years look pretty sorry.  Ha!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: McGeens on September 18, 2015, 10:48:22 PM
Neustashe, I think it makes your goal maybe seem a bit more achievable. I have lurked on this thread for ages, I find great comfort knowing we're not alone in our quest.

I must say that pumping (almost) everything extra into the mortgage became very boring after a while, especially when unexpected expenses popped up and progress slowed. We celebrated each $10k milestone, but it does sometimes feel like the end will never come. I'm mighty tired of working just to pay off the mortgage! The new year will see us start investing in ETFs or similar, a first for anyone in our families/friend group. Once more we'll seek support from Internet strangers on the same path. I'll update here when it's paid off- it does feel like the finish line is in sight!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on September 21, 2015, 07:52:14 PM
I'be been onboard with this challenge for four years now. We started with our mortgage in 2008 with $230k owing. When our first child was born in 2011, we went down to one income and a deep desire to get rid of the debt. After contributing to superannuation (Australia), we've been throwing all our extra savings and surpluses into this sucker.

Balance today is $19200, and I CAN'T WAIT to make that final payment !! We're aiming for January 2016 free and clear- what a way to start the new year!! I love reading this thread, there's just no one in real life to discuss this with (we're 33 and 38).



Great job!

I could not agree more on the bolded part... I really appreciate the support & stories from this thread :)

So true!  The topic of mortgages came up the other day with friends.  I didn't dare mention where I'm at. ☺
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Threshkin on September 22, 2015, 10:11:20 AM
I'be been onboard with this challenge for four years now. We started with our mortgage in 2008 with $230k owing. When our first child was born in 2011, we went down to one income and a deep desire to get rid of the debt. After contributing to superannuation (Australia), we've been throwing all our extra savings and surpluses into this sucker.

Balance today is $19200, and I CAN'T WAIT to make that final payment !! We're aiming for January 2016 free and clear- what a way to start the new year!! I love reading this thread, there's just no one in real life to discuss this with (we're 33 and 38).



Great job!

I could not agree more on the bolded part... I really appreciate the support & stories from this thread :)

So true!  The topic of mortgages came up the other day with friends.  I didn't dare mention where I'm at. ☺

I hear you on this.  It seems to be a badge of honor to have the biggest mortgage with the most dismal prospects of paying it off.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: rjbf65 on September 22, 2015, 10:22:54 AM
I'be been onboard with this challenge for four years now. We started with our mortgage in 2008 with $230k owing. When our first child was born in 2011, we went down to one income and a deep desire to get rid of the debt. After contributing to superannuation (Australia), we've been throwing all our extra savings and surpluses into this sucker.

Balance today is $19200, and I CAN'T WAIT to make that final payment !! We're aiming for January 2016 free and clear- what a way to start the new year!! I love reading this thread, there's just no one in real life to discuss this with (we're 33 and 38).



Great job!

I could not agree more on the bolded part... I really appreciate the support & stories from this thread :)

So true!  The topic of mortgages came up the other day with friends.  I didn't dare mention where I'm at. ☺

I hear you on this.  It seems to be a badge of honor to have the biggest mortgage with the most dismal prospects of paying it off.


My wife and I would like to upgrade in home at some point.. but it's going to be a tough decision to go back into debt to do it.  Maybe we can put it off a few years, but it's going to happen at some point.  I can't wait to pay my current one off.  I'm just a few months away from having a greater amount of cash in the bank versus mortgage balance.  Once that happens, and I have a $10K buffer, I'm pulling the trigger.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: K-ice on September 22, 2015, 12:24:33 PM
Here is my mortgage payoff story.  Our mortgage was paid off within the past year. Of course I want to brag, don’t we all ;). But I also want to show what is possible. We were able to do this on a combined income between $85K and $150K depending on the year. In addition to that, one year we cashed out $40K in stocks as a one-time extra payment.  We did very little other savings and focused every extra penny on the mortgage. (Yeah, Yeah invest vs mtg is a whole other debate.) We had a blended mtg HELOC so every payment added to our “squishy debt” fund. This actually gave us more confidence to pay larger lumps.
 
Here is the breakdown starting with $326,500. 25y at 4% pmt about $1700,  max extra lump sums allowed per year $48K

Y1 $326,500   extra pmt $45,000 (Good year at new job)
Y2 $273,500   extra pmt $30,000 (Had a baby.)
Y3 $233,000   extra pmt $0  :(  (Work was unstable. We still stashed some cash.)
Y4 $221,000   extra pmt $48,000  (Yeah! We hit the max lump sum.)
Y5 $160,000   extra pmt $57,500 (This included double down of  $1700 extra for 6 months)

Balance on renewal about $90,000 (We were pissed at the bank and didn’t want to renew.)
“What do you mean you won’t renew, what bank are you transferring to?”

SO now has $45,000 extra
I had $30,000 extra
Argghhhh not quite enough.

I took out a LOC for remaining $15,000  (Mortgage officially paid off but no Champaign yet. SO doing their own dance of joy.)
LOC paid off within 6 months.  (Cork popped!)
Time to pay 5y 6 months

Total interest paid about $45,000 (This still seems like a lot considering how hard we hit the M0F**ing extra payments)
Total interest we would have paid if we took the scheduled 25y  $189,000 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on September 23, 2015, 06:57:36 PM
Niiiice K-ice!   

Putting an extra grand towards our $238K beast this month after actually getting $400 for a surfboard I'd inherited and saving other shekels so down to $236K...   Mulling over putting a chunk before end of year so your payoff results are tempting me...   

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: The knitter on September 26, 2015, 06:28:06 AM
PMI Update. I received wrong information again from the 2nd person. Now they say that I do need to be at 78% since I don't have 24 months of payment history. If I were at 80% and had the 2 years of payment history I'd be fine. So even though I've paid off 10% in just about a year, they really need that extra 2%. I won't have the 5k for a few months so I'm super frustrated. They're basically milking me for a few hundred dollars of PMI. I let them know that when I refinance, there's literally no chance that I'll work with this bank. It shouldn't be this hard to remove PMI.

Well, that's a bummer.  You know, we were right at 2 years of payments when we got to 80% so I have no idea if that was an issue at our bank.

The plot thickens. Our contract says that we have to have no late payments within 2 years. We don't! It doesn't say "for" to years, so they're misinterpreting it. I'm going to be calling them again today and getting ready to escalate as needed since they're in breach of the contract.

My husband and I bought our home in 2013. We were told PMI at this point no longer automatically comes off at 80% equity. (New rule that says it is with you for the life of the loan, which is outrageous.) Our plan has been to refinance to a new loan. We are a couple weeks away (finishing up a project before our re-assessment).

Is it possible we were misinformed? I'd much rather have the PMI come off by itself. We have a good interest rate now and we are worried we will miss the window before the fed increases the rates.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on September 26, 2015, 11:25:03 AM
The knitter -

FHA loans (to the best of my knowledge) do keep PMI for the life of the loan.  We have a conventional loan.  You might look into refinancing if you have enough equity now and the rate would be better.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: The knitter on September 27, 2015, 09:01:55 PM
Ah, thanks Neustache. After I posted I did some searching around and saw some articles about conventional loans that allowed for smaller down payments.

We were first time home buyers and didn't know that was an option. We were told our only option was an FHA loan. It may have been true at the time, but we probably should have researched more.

Here's hoping we can refinance before interest rates go up!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mom22boys on September 28, 2015, 07:32:23 PM
I just started the refinance ball rolling today. I bought my house less than a year ago, and decided I wanted to move from a 30yr at 4.125 to a 15yr mortgage. Got locked in for 3.375 with only around $400 closing costs (in total). My goal is still to pay it off within 10 years, but I first want to pay off the darn specials.... much higher interest rate... then start plugging extra payments to the mortgage. Just the refinance alone with no extra payments will save me over 22k. Can't wait to get this mortgage gone!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on September 28, 2015, 08:17:46 PM
I'm in. Why?

- I can "sell" mortgage paydown to DW. I can't "sell" investment vs. paydown in a down equities market.
- I have an obligation to DW in case I'm hit by a bus.
- In the "hit by a bus" scenario, investments have to be managed. A paid off mortgage is clear and simple.
- refi objective in January 2016 will make the house "as cheap as a double wide"
- My timeframe to FIRE is 5 years, not 30 years.
- While I do enjoy buying more value in this down market, I'm using a kind of "blended" approach by paying some against the mortgage. That means my total YTD returns are still beating the S&P while I'm simultaneously lowering risk.
- I'm building in solar hot water heat, solar PV panels, more efficient heat pump and the lot has an almost endless supply of hardwood for burning. That means my home is NOT a fungible asset.

I like the comments above in the thread about relative risk. I got wiped out in Thermo* stocks when the principals set a honeypot and then obliterated the stock value. It wasn't on the scale and visibility of an Enron, but it had a similar effect on me. No one can decide one day your house is worthless - although they can take it from you if it's not paid off free and clear.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on September 29, 2015, 05:52:25 AM
^ Yep, mefla...that's kind of where we are.  Hubby wants to pay down the mortgage - I've got him talked into doing t. IRA contributions though, to decrease taxes, but after that any extra goes to mortgage pay down.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: plainjane on September 30, 2015, 07:05:44 AM
It was painful to wait until 9am to see the numbers flip over this morning, but we're officially below $20k.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cheddarpie on September 30, 2015, 12:06:31 PM
That way, if the bear comes and takes all my porridge, I can still live comfortably working whatever job I can find and I don't have to worry about living in my car or moving.

This. It's not about maximizing financial gains, it's about peace of mind and almost-guaranteed long-term stability.

I'll have my $250+k mortgage paid off in less than five years from inception. I'm fully funding my retirement accounts and have a hefty emergency fund in the meantime and A-OK missing out on any potential gains (and losses!) in my liquid stash as I work on my mortgage payoff goal. Mortgage first, stash next, then FIRE with no ongoing payment or debt obligations other than utilities and taxes.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on September 30, 2015, 02:08:31 PM
That way, if the bear comes and takes all my porridge, I can still live comfortably working whatever job I can find and I don't have to worry about living in my car or moving.

This. It's not about maximizing financial gains, it's about peace of mind and almost-guaranteed long-term stability.

I'll have my $250+k mortgage paid off in less than five years from inception. I'm fully funding my retirement accounts and have a hefty emergency fund in the meantime and A-OK missing out on any potential gains (and losses!) in my liquid stash as I work on my mortgage payoff goal. Mortgage first, stash next, then FIRE with no ongoing payment or debt obligations other than utilities and taxes.

cheddarpie, I am doing almost the same thing. I put the stash first and mortgage second, but that's only because I pay the mortgage with post-tax money and stash using the pre-tax sheltering that the 401k's provide. (I have a Roth IRA but the yearly limits on that keep it a distant third.) Like you, I can't wait to get to only utilities and taxes as ongoing financial obligations. If I'm still working, I'll be ramming cash in the stash with prejudice.

Accidental Miser was hilarious and true with that quote. See, that's the crucial thing here: you can lose the house and all you've invested in it if you lose the ability to make the payments via job loss or sickness. What started me on this path is that I projected forward about 15 years and realized we have a high probability of losing the house should we run the mortgage to maturity because the mortgage becomes a cash flow problem in 5 years.

I've seen talk of the mortgage being a great hedge against inflation, but there's no hedge against having the note called by the bank and I KNOW people who've had that experience. (granted, they were consuma suckkas) So a paid-off home is an even more effective hedge against inflation and job loss. While a low interest rate might seem like some kind of wonderful, magic money (and I am getting the lowest I possibly can),  if you lose your job or get sick and can't make the payments, the lowest interest rates in the world aren't gonna help you then.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cheddarpie on September 30, 2015, 03:11:00 PM
I put the stash first and mortgage second, but that's only because I pay the mortgage with post-tax money and stash using the pre-tax sheltering that the 401k's provide. (I have a Roth IRA but the yearly limits on that keep it a distant third.) Like you, I can't wait to get to only utilities and taxes as ongoing financial obligations. If I'm still working, I'll be ramming cash in the stash with prejudice.


Mefla, that's great! I think we're doing the same thing, I just didn't explain it as well ... I also max out my 401k and Roth every year, then focus on mortgage after that. What I call my "stash" is the money to cover the ~30 years between now and when I intend to start drawing on the retirement accounts. There's not much in it yet. :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on September 30, 2015, 05:22:42 PM
Mefla, that's great! I think we're doing the same thing, I just didn't explain it as well ... I also max out my 401k and Roth every year, then focus on mortgage after that. What I call my "stash" is the money to cover the ~30 years between now and when I intend to start drawing on the retirement accounts. There's not much in it yet. :)

That's OK if there's not much in the post-tax stash: you're still in your 30's and have plenty of time for it to grow. DW and I are in our 50's so it won't be very long before we can get the 401k money and I expect we aren't going to see any appreciable market-based growth. So Roth is the only post-tax stash I have. 

BTW: that's probably the most crucial fact about why I'm prepaying the mortgage: all the arguments against presuppose floating your money in the stock market for 30 years. We have nowhere near that - I'm just desperately trying to make things happen before our 60's. I believe I have about 5 more "good years" to stash money, so I'm maxing pre-tax and paying the rest against the house.

BTW: I'm eagerly making my 401k contributions in this down market we're having, but the contributions to my "Home Mortgage Bond" give me yields that beat the market. Although my 401k is all S&P 500 Index, my rate of return is about 2% higher due to the positive effect of paying the mortgage.  House is maintaining value, so I'm not losing anything there either.

I'm hoping for very low interest rates in January (they traditionally are very low then) and I'll refi into a 10 year (at least).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on September 30, 2015, 05:32:20 PM
"Letting it Ride", A Cautionary Tale

I don't know if anyone here is old enough to remember higher mortgage interest rates, but my last home carried a 30 year mortgage at 5.25% and on the financial advice I had been given at the time, I "let it ride" because it was "good debt". (There was a home equity loan in there too, but that's a story for another day...). We didn't expect to carry the loan to term as we thought we would "upgrade" within five years.

The five year upgrade didn't happen and we were in the house 18 years into a 30 year loan. We got a little appreciation, but I was shocked at how small of a dent we made in the principal: even though the house appreciated, we walked away with only a net profit on the sale of $10k after paying realtor, legal fees and various costs the seller pays. That was a really, really hard lesson to learn and it seemed to make perfect sense until we sold, when we then saw the insanity of it.

I did refinance at one point. (That's how we got to 5.25% - the original loan was higher) In fact, the credit union was glad to "help me save some money" and push the interest rate down a point. Problem is, I didn't shop around - other people were getting better rates and I didn't know you could do such a thing as shop the mortgage. Plus, I got no breaks on the refi and paid the full suite of fees just to do so.

Now, to my credit, I did ask about and check into a 15 year loan. But I followed the advice that I could "turn a 30 into a 15 by paying ahead, and if you needed the cash, you could just stop the double payments".

See the evil here? Prepayments pay both principal and interest, when you should only be paying against the principal. And there wasn't a soul in the world, and certainly not at the credit union, who was gonna tell me that little information gem!

That damned 30 year credit union loan is the biggest reason we got such a late start on our savings toward FI. It made me physically sick to look at the amortization tables when we were done. Of course, that's when I learned the importance of the amortization table in truly understanding a mortgage loan.

Now: You could argue that I shouldn't have bought the house at all and should have rented. Nice try, but wrong. We live in a moderate-to-high COL area and our payments on that house were less than a 3 bedroom apartment. In other words, yes, the loan was an inflation hedge and we DID get back some money after the sale of the house. But it still kept us "house poor" for no good reason other than to pay interest to the credit union.

Now, I don't mean to come across like a complainypants whineybaby. That house was the best we could afford in the best neighborhood we could afford. Our boys spent all their growing up years in a safe and positive and fun environment. We got tremendous benefit out of that house and it did a great job for the time we needed it.

But calling a mortgage "good debt" and saying you should let it go to term is, like most financial lies, mostly based in truth. But it gets down to what your personal situation and goals are, how old you are, and how much income you have and how stable that income is. True, there is a good argument for investing instead of paydown, but if you are in the house already and you don't have a 30 year time window to let your investments grow, then you're on the track of paying the banker his interest and there's no point in that.

If I Had A Do-Over: what would I do differently?

1)  I'd shop mortgages and after 5 years, refi into a 15 or 10 year mortgage.
2) Drive a far more fuel efficient vehicle.
3) Cut costs of things like television, cellphone and utilities.
4) Pump everything I've got into 401k to cut tax burden.
5) Pump all the rest into the mortgage as hard as I could go until payoff.

That's exactly what I'm doing today with the second home.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: marty998 on October 01, 2015, 01:49:29 AM
Hmm.. I forgot to post here, but I suppose I joined the Paid Off Club on the 16th.

"Letting it Ride", A Cautionary Tale

I don't know if anyone here is old enough to remember higher mortgage interest rates, but my last home carried a 30 year mortgage at 5.25%

They got to 17% in Australia during the early 90s. Can you imagine the trouble people would be in if that happened today!

It won't happen (anytime soon). The economy would burn long before that happened, negating the need for rates to go that far.

The level of indebtedness is so high that minor movements in rates upwards will have a dramatically higher impact on households than historically.

I'm of the view that the Great Deleveraging* has to happen eventually. Whether it will be quick and painful or long drawn out and painful remains to be seen.

* My phrase, it's not a recognised economic term...yet :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Comar on October 01, 2015, 03:17:08 AM
I'm joining in.

I have a house in Iceland. Bought it for 123k dollars (16.5 million icelandic crowns) in 2012. Started making extra payments early last year and am now down to 88.4k dollars. Currently I throw about 560 dollars at it each month. I have also thrown some extra cash at the mortage, such as tax repayments and such.

From the start I have used the strategy of adding to the payments each month. Each downpayment reduces the monthly mortage payment so for the next downpayment I have added the extra dollars the mortage payment has been reduced. Call it a snowball strategy?

My goal is to KO the mortage in 5 years. I'm turning 30 this month and want it finished before I turn 35.
87.5 k left. Paid 562 extra this month.
Payed 1500$ this month which is larger than my average amount. Felt good. The 1st of each month is probably my favorite time of the month.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mom22boys on October 01, 2015, 10:56:21 AM
Ok, I think I'm going to make the leap and join in the club.  I originally was convinced with the 'invest it' and make more to pay off the mortgage later, but I just hate having this debt. I'm still going to take a hybrid approach though, similar to mefla and cheddarpie. I'm maxing out my 401k, HSA, rIRA (too high income for tIRA deduction benefit, so I do a tIRA and role over into a rIRA). Plus, so far this year I've even done 14k into my Mega backdoor 401K, which I'll roll over soon into a Roth.  I could do another 6K on the Mega backdoor, but I decided to switch gears and put that toward the house instead.

Mortgage info:
Oct 2105      156k

Goal:
Paid off in 5 years
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: NoraLenderbee on October 01, 2015, 11:39:00 AM
I'm interested in hearing everyone's stories. I understand the "invest it" argument, but if we paid off the mortgage, that would lower my living expenses by $900 per month. We're in our 50s and, like mefla, don't have a lot of time.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on October 01, 2015, 11:40:34 AM
Ok, I think I'm going to make the leap and join in the club.  I originally was convinced with the 'invest it' and make more to pay off the mortgage later, but I just hate having this debt. I'm still going to take a hybrid approach though, similar to mefla and cheddarpie. I'm maxing out my 401k, HSA, rIRA (too high income for tIRA deduction benefit, so I do a tIRA and role over into a rIRA). Plus, so far this year I've even done 14k into my Mega backdoor 401K, which I'll roll over soon into a Roth.  I could do another 6K on the Mega backdoor, but I decided to switch gears and put that toward the house instead.

Mortgage info:
Oct 2105      156k

Goal:
Paid off in 5 years

mom22 and nora, keep in mind, I get zero benefit from "selling" this idea to anyone. If it works for you, I'm thrilled. If it doesn't, well, plenty of people here have already called me stupid and that's A-OK by me.

In case this applies any to you, I can summarize my situation this way:

I'm 53 and my stash is about $200k, remaining mortgage principal is $100k.

With mortgage, I would need $1M stash to FIRE and make the mortgage payment at 4% SWR.
(That means I or the market would have to generate $800k.)

With no mortgage, I can FIRE whenever I reach $480k at 4% SWR.
(That means I would have to generate $100k, THEN I and the market would generate $280k, total of $380k to FIRE.

So you see where this goes? Maybe the market returns will produce more money than mortgage prepayment over 30 years, but I don't have that kind of time. If I don't prepay the mortgage, then I'm COMMITTED to the idea that my job plus the market will get me $800k in about however many years it takes. The other way, I reach FIRE poorer, but in a shorter time. I'll be able to FIRE with another $380k in about 5 years.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mom22boys on October 01, 2015, 12:11:53 PM
Thanks mefla.  I've read many threads on this topic, and I see benefit in BOTH approaches.  I just came to a point where I needed to draw a line in the sand, and decide on an approach. As we all know, we are all doing way better than most non-MMMers so I look at it as a win/win.


Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: plainjane on October 01, 2015, 12:27:35 PM
Hmm.. I forgot to post here, but I suppose I joined the Paid Off Club on the 16th.

Congratulations!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on October 01, 2015, 12:33:20 PM
mefla - I'm of the pay it down variety, myself, but you are over saving if you are trying to saving your annual mortgage payments times 25.   But I'm with you, I'm paying off the mortgage before FIRE and I have a lower rate than you (4.25).  I could spend some money and refi to a lower rate, but my husband doesn't want to, he just wants it paid off.  I for one will relish in the warm-fuzzy secure feelings I get when we own our home outright, even if we miss some returns.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on October 01, 2015, 02:13:19 PM
mefla - I'm of the pay it down variety, myself, but you are over saving if you are trying to saving your annual mortgage payments times 25.   But I'm with you, I'm paying off the mortgage before FIRE and I have a lower rate than you (4.25).  I could spend some money and refi to a lower rate, but my husband doesn't want to, he just wants it paid off.  I for one will relish in the warm-fuzzy secure feelings I get when we own our home outright, even if we miss some returns.

Neustache, you are right...if I had 30 years to save. There's another thread where boarder42 is trying to beat me up for the same reason (and he's not being as nice as you about it....). I don't have the cash flow it would take to "oversave", although it's a really nice thought. Before I found MMM, I was already hacking on the mortgage for the historical reasons I mention above in this thread, when I got my ass handed to me by my sweet little local credit union.

I'm on a 5 year plan to FIRE and taking a "blended" approach, because I can kill a $100k-remaining mortgage faster than I can save the extra cash I need to stash in order to generate a monthly mortgage payment of $1700.

What all the "don't pay down your mortgage, stupid!" people mean is that it makes sense over a 30 year window. But I'm hot on fire to FIRE because I'm already in my 50's. So I'm looking for the fastest possible route to FIRE.

What none of those folks can tell you is, how soon you'll be able to overtake the mortgage with payments from your stash. Some believe it's 14-16 years into a 30 year mortgage, but most don't know. cFIREsim doesn't predict that.

And all I have is 5 years. so I take the approach I take.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: YoungGranny on October 02, 2015, 10:42:34 AM
Been lurking here for a while but figured I'd finally make an account! I also am trying to pay off my mortgage (before I'm 30 ideally)... I bought my house 1.5 years ago with a PMI on it (dumb yes - but i believed it was a good time to buy). Finally paid my balance to 79.8% and they said the PMI won't drop off without an appraisal until it is originally scheduled to reach 78% (ie 7 more years!). Long story short I figured if I was going to pay for an appraisal I might as well re-finance to go from a 4.75% rate to 3.25%. That should be done next month and I just got the appraisal back and my home has gained $20k!! Excited now that it seems like my re-finance will happen with no issues and I'll have that nasty $80 PMI GONE! Sharing here since none of my real-life friends would think it's terribly exciting :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cheddarpie on October 02, 2015, 10:58:18 AM
YoungGranny, congrats!! It's SO AWESOME that you are thinking about all of these things and doing all of these things and educating yourself about all of these things when you are still in your 20s. I'm sure I am not alone in saying I wish I had been as on top of it as you are! :D
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: NoraLenderbee on October 02, 2015, 11:51:44 AM


mom22 and nora, keep in mind, I get zero benefit from "selling" this idea to anyone. If it works for you, I'm thrilled. If it doesn't, well, plenty of people here have already called me stupid and that's A-OK by me.



Mefla, I now you're not selling anything and I certainly am not calling you stupid. I violently agree with you, actually. I'm 52 and we refinanced a few years ago. I definitely don't want to be paying a mortgage for the next 25 years.

It's likely that I will get an inheritance in the next year or two that will be more than enough to pay it off, and I plan to do it despite the investing-vs-debt argument. (Thank you Mom and Dad for being good with money.)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: YoungGranny on October 02, 2015, 12:19:54 PM
Thank you cheddarpie! It can be discouraging to see everyone on here leaps and bounds ahead of me but I try to use it as motivation to get my butt in gear!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on October 02, 2015, 03:43:18 PM
mom22 and nora, keep in mind, I get zero benefit from "selling" this idea to anyone. If it works for you, I'm thrilled. If it doesn't, well, plenty of people here have already called me stupid and that's A-OK by me.

Mefla, I now you're not selling anything and I certainly am not calling you stupid. I violently agree with you, actually. I'm 52 and we refinanced a few years ago. I definitely don't want to be paying a mortgage for the next 25 years.

It's likely that I will get an inheritance in the next year or two that will be more than enough to pay it off, and I plan to do it despite the investing-vs-debt argument. (Thank you Mom and Dad for being good with money.)

I just wanted to make sure you know "I come in peace". :-) There be an awful lot o' hot air on this subject in these here parts. I'm a pre-payer but I maximize pre-tax stashing. My post-tax money goes into my "real estate bond". :-)

And please, by all means, violently agree with me anytime. :-) :-) :-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dabears847 on October 05, 2015, 07:32:23 PM
"Letting it Ride", A Cautionary Tale

I don't know if anyone here is old enough to remember higher mortgage interest rates, but my last home carried a 30 year mortgage at 5.25% and on the financial advice I had been given at the time, I "let it ride" because it was "good debt". (There was a home equity loan in there too, but that's a story for another day...). We didn't expect to carry the loan to term as we thought we would "upgrade" within five years.

The five year upgrade didn't happen and we were in the house 18 years into a 30 year loan. We got a little appreciation, but I was shocked at how small of a dent we made in the principal: even though the house appreciated, we walked away with only a net profit on the sale of $10k after paying realtor, legal fees and various costs the seller pays. That was a really, really hard lesson to learn and it seemed to make perfect sense until we sold, when we then saw the insanity of it.

I did refinance at one point. (That's how we got to 5.25% - the original loan was higher) In fact, the credit union was glad to "help me save some money" and push the interest rate down a point. Problem is, I didn't shop around - other people were getting better rates and I didn't know you could do such a thing as shop the mortgage. Plus, I got no breaks on the refi and paid the full suite of fees just to do so.

Now, to my credit, I did ask about and check into a 15 year loan. But I followed the advice that I could "turn a 30 into a 15 by paying ahead, and if you needed the cash, you could just stop the double payments".

See the evil here? Prepayments pay both principal and interest, when you should only be paying against the principal. And there wasn't a soul in the world, and certainly not at the credit union, who was gonna tell me that little information gem!

That damned 30 year credit union loan is the biggest reason we got such a late start on our savings toward FI. It made me physically sick to look at the amortization tables when we were done. Of course, that's when I learned the importance of the amortization table in truly understanding a mortgage loan.

Now: You could argue that I shouldn't have bought the house at all and should have rented. Nice try, but wrong. We live in a moderate-to-high COL area and our payments on that house were less than a 3 bedroom apartment. In other words, yes, the loan was an inflation hedge and we DID get back some money after the sale of the house. But it still kept us "house poor" for no good reason other than to pay interest to the credit union.

Now, I don't mean to come across like a complainypants whineybaby. That house was the best we could afford in the best neighborhood we could afford. Our boys spent all their growing up years in a safe and positive and fun environment. We got tremendous benefit out of that house and it did a great job for the time we needed it.

But calling a mortgage "good debt" and saying you should let it go to term is, like most financial lies, mostly based in truth. But it gets down to what your personal situation and goals are, how old you are, and how much income you have and how stable that income is. True, there is a good argument for investing instead of paydown, but if you are in the house already and you don't have a 30 year time window to let your investments grow, then you're on the track of paying the banker his interest and there's no point in that.

If I Had A Do-Over: what would I do differently?

1)  I'd shop mortgages and after 5 years, refi into a 15 or 10 year mortgage.
2) Drive a far more fuel efficient vehicle.
3) Cut costs of things like television, cellphone and utilities.
4) Pump everything I've got into 401k to cut tax burden.
5) Pump all the rest into the mortgage as hard as I could go until payoff.

That's exactly what I'm doing today with the second home.

[I don't think you paid the full interest amount on principle payments. The interest plan should adjust after each payment or each extra principal payment. If you did a 30 year and then refinanced to another 30 year then yes, but each extra payment would reset the amortization schedule.]
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on October 05, 2015, 11:34:22 PM
....stuff was here...
[I don't think you paid the full interest amount on principle payments. The interest plan should adjust after each payment or each extra principal payment. If you did a 30 year and then refinanced to another 30 year then yes, but each extra payment would reset the amortization schedule.]

Principal. And yes, you are correct, the loan re-amortizes with principal abatement. I take advantage of that principle regularly on the current 15 year mortgage. The next one will be 10 years.

I've avoided paying well over $100,000 in interest as-compared to the initial 30 year loan. I'm too lazy to look up the exact number right now but I think from my original documents it was somewhere around $163,000 if I had never refinanced nor prepaid.  I paid fees to refinance the first time, but I've gotten paid ever since.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on October 07, 2015, 09:04:51 AM
38.2k.

Burgeoning school tax bill due this month.  Went up 6% from last year.  WTF?! This should be my last major expense that gets in my way of payoff.  Also, I just finished paying into my employer's pension plan so that effectively is a 3% raise.  I don't need to tell you guys where that money is now going...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: rjbf65 on October 07, 2015, 11:21:55 AM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on October 07, 2015, 01:45:24 PM
I never thought I'd be saying this... but...please don't beat me up too badly:

I'm vectoring a little bit of money toward the market that I would otherwise have put toward the mortgage. I've not maxed my Roth IRA and this seems to be the right time to do that. So I'm pulling money originally earmarked for principal abatement and pushing it toward the market. About $1k, this week.

As has been mentioned, we've got three paydays this month and my mortgage payment already drafted, so I'll have money later to continue with mortgage abatement. I just hope the market doesn't turn into an even better bargain then.....
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Threshkin on October 07, 2015, 02:05:10 PM
No beating from me!

My sequence of priority for money is:

This presupposes you have a fully funded emergency fund.  Otherwise it is #2.

I never thought I'd be saying this... but...please don't beat me up too badly:

I'm vectoring a little bit of money toward the market that I would otherwise have put toward the mortgage. I've not maxed my Roth IRA and this seems to be the right time to do that. So I'm pulling money originally earmarked for principal abatement and pushing it toward the market. About $1k, this week.

As has been mentioned, we've got three paydays this month and my mortgage payment already drafted, so I'll have money later to continue with mortgage abatement. I just hope the market doesn't turn into an even better bargain then.....
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on October 07, 2015, 02:57:11 PM
(I'll top-comment since Threshkin did...)
I like your sequence, Threshkin. That's close to what I do, but where you have "Ordinary Savings", I have "Vanguard Roth IRA". Normally, any extra dough goes to the house but I also make sure I max out the Roth IRA to the yearly allowed maximum. I'm still under that, so I need to do something about that, and now's a great time. I was going to wait for December profit-taking, but I think now's not a bad time to kick some $$ that way.

And BTW: while I'm confessing, I DO have a "January Objective" I have to make - I need to get my principal to 50% of original in January so I can refi to a number I want. So while I'm pushing $1k toward the market right now, that doesn't change my January Objective - I still have to make that because I still believe interest rates will be AWESOME in January. And if interest rates AREN'T awesome in January, I'll just keep prepaying the current mortgage as-is until I reach a point where it makes sense to do something.

I always come down on the side of the mortgage prepayers in these discussions, in general.  Not because I'm a believer in vectoring after-tax cash toward the mortgage, but because I disbelieve it's an either-or proposition.  There's no law saying we can't take advantage of a market downturn to get a little more investment lovin'.

No beating from me!

My sequence of priority for money is:
  • Current expenses (utilities, food, gas, regular mortgage payment, etc.)
  • Tax advantaged retirement accounts (401k, IRA, or equivalent - until maxed out!)
  • Additional mortgage payment
  • Ordinary savings

This presupposes you have a fully funded emergency fund.  Otherwise it is #2.

I never thought I'd be saying this... but...please don't beat me up too badly:

I'm vectoring a little bit of money toward the market that I would otherwise have put toward the mortgage. I've not maxed my Roth IRA and this seems to be the right time to do that. So I'm pulling money originally earmarked for principal abatement and pushing it toward the market. About $1k, this week.

As has been mentioned, we've got three paydays this month and my mortgage payment already drafted, so I'll have money later to continue with mortgage abatement. I just hope the market doesn't turn into an even better bargain then.....
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Threshkin on October 07, 2015, 03:22:49 PM
I consider Roth IRAs to be tax advantaged savings. and put them in #2. 

Full disclaimers 1) I joined the Mortgage Payoff club two years ago.  2) I have always maxed my 401k accounts since they were first available to me.  3) I did not always prioritize additional mortgage payments over ordinary savings on a monthly basis but instead would put some in each of the two.  Then, as the ordinary savings grew I would intermittently make a 5 figure payment on the mortgage from savings.

(I'll top-comment since Threshkin did...)
I like your sequence, Threshkin. That's close to what I do, but where you have "Ordinary Savings", I have "Vanguard Roth IRA". Normally, any extra dough goes to the house but I also make sure I max out the Roth IRA to the yearly allowed maximum. I'm still under that, so I need to do something about that, and now's a great time. I was going to wait for December profit-taking, but I think now's not a bad time to kick some $$ that way.

And BTW: while I'm confessing, I DO have a "January Objective" I have to make - I need to get my principal to 50% of original in January so I can refi to a number I want. So while I'm pushing $1k toward the market right now, that doesn't change my January Objective - I still have to make that because I still believe interest rates will be AWESOME in January. And if interest rates AREN'T awesome in January, I'll just keep prepaying the current mortgage as-is until I reach a point where it makes sense to do something.

I always come down on the side of the mortgage prepayers in these discussions, in general.  Not because I'm a believer in vectoring after-tax cash toward the mortgage, but because I disbelieve it's an either-or proposition.  There's no law saying we can't take advantage of a market downturn to get a little more investment lovin'.

No beating from me!

My sequence of priority for money is:
  • Current expenses (utilities, food, gas, regular mortgage payment, etc.)
  • Tax advantaged retirement accounts (401k, IRA, or equivalent - until maxed out!)
  • Additional mortgage payment
  • Ordinary savings

This presupposes you have a fully funded emergency fund.  Otherwise it is #2.

I never thought I'd be saying this... but...please don't beat me up too badly:

I'm vectoring a little bit of money toward the market that I would otherwise have put toward the mortgage. I've not maxed my Roth IRA and this seems to be the right time to do that. So I'm pulling money originally earmarked for principal abatement and pushing it toward the market. About $1k, this week.

As has been mentioned, we've got three paydays this month and my mortgage payment already drafted, so I'll have money later to continue with mortgage abatement. I just hope the market doesn't turn into an even better bargain then.....
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on October 07, 2015, 04:12:05 PM
I'm joining too. My goal is to have it paid off by June of 2018

We just refinanced over the summer from a 30 year 6.24% loan to a 10 year 3.39% mortgage. We paid off enough on the old loan to make the monthly payment about the same on the new loan (Old loan: $821/month New loan: $816/month). We'll now be paying substantially more in principal than interest every month. The last old mortgage payment we paid $453 in interest. The first payment on the new loan we only paid $234.

We also just threw an extra $3500 at the principal on the new loan after making the first payment (The bank wouldn't let us make a principal payment before the first regular payment was due). I'm hoping to throw an extra $1000 a month at the principal for the next few years. About 6 months before I want the mortgage to be over, I will dip into my savings and make a large payment. I will stop making extra payments at that point and just make the regular payment. We'll barely be paying any interest at that point anyway. I will use that time to start replenishing my savings and prepare for any taxes we might owe.

I would like to throw a larger sum at the mortgage now, but I don't feel comfortable dipping too deeply in to my emergency funds. My wife and I have pretty stable jobs, but I don't take anything for granted. At least with our new loan, we will be making a nice dent in the principal each month even without an additional principal payment :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on October 07, 2015, 04:32:48 PM
I'm joining too. My goal is to have it paid off by June of 2018

We just refinanced over the summer from a 30 year 6.24% loan to a 10 year 3.39% mortgage. We paid off enough on the old loan to make the monthly payment about the same on the new loan (Old loan: $821/month New loan: $816/month). We'll now be paying substantially more in principal than interest every month. The last old mortgage payment we paid $453 in interest. The first payment on the new loan we only paid $234.

mies: congrats on your refinance and your mortgage progress! You are designating your payments for mortgage abatement only, right?

Quote
I will stop making extra payments at that point and just make the regular payment. We'll barely be paying any interest at that point anyway. I will use that time to start replenishing my savings and prepare for any taxes we might owe.

I would like to throw a larger sum at the mortgage now, but I don't feel comfortable dipping too deeply in to my emergency funds. My wife and I have pretty stable jobs, but I don't take anything for granted. At least with our new loan, we will be making a nice dent in the principal each month even without an additional principal payment :)

Good ideas, what you are talking about. I have sacrificed some from the emergency fund to make an early mortgage abatement payment, but only when I know I can replenish it within a month or so.

You talk about stopping making extra payments whenever you are barely paying any interest. Do you have any feel for what percentages you are looking for? I was thinking of doing that about the time I started paying 95% principal and 5% interest.

What say ye? Are there any others in this thread who have reached that far end of the compound interest curve and have STOPPED prepaying for that reason?

And: does anyone think I am asking the wrong question above? I've seen people get to a point where they pay it off in a lump sum just to close the books on it as quickly as possible. So asking "do you let it ride at any point" would be counter to that.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on October 07, 2015, 04:56:46 PM
I'm joining too. My goal is to have it paid off by June of 2018

We just refinanced over the summer from a 30 year 6.24% loan to a 10 year 3.39% mortgage. We paid off enough on the old loan to make the monthly payment about the same on the new loan (Old loan: $821/month New loan: $816/month). We'll now be paying substantially more in principal than interest every month. The last old mortgage payment we paid $453 in interest. The first payment on the new loan we only paid $234.

mies: congrats on your refinance and your mortgage progress! You are designating your payments for mortgage abatement only, right?

Quote
I will stop making extra payments at that point and just make the regular payment. We'll barely be paying any interest at that point anyway. I will use that time to start replenishing my savings and prepare for any taxes we might owe.

I would like to throw a larger sum at the mortgage now, but I don't feel comfortable dipping too deeply in to my emergency funds. My wife and I have pretty stable jobs, but I don't take anything for granted. At least with our new loan, we will be making a nice dent in the principal each month even without an additional principal payment :)

Good ideas, what you are talking about. I have sacrificed some from the emergency fund to make an early mortgage abatement payment, but only when I know I can replenish it within a month or so.

You talk about stopping making extra payments whenever you are barely paying any interest. Do you have any feel for what percentages you are looking for? I was thinking of doing that about the time I started paying 95% capital and 5% interest.

What say ye? Are there any others in this thread who have reached that "far end of the compound interest curve" and have STOPPED prepaying for that reason?

Thanks mefla! Yes. The extra payments we make are principal only. I can do the payments online and click the checkbox for principal only which is nice. I don't have to be at the mercy of whoever processes a check noticing that it is meant to be principal only.

I haven't actually looked at any percentages. After examining my amortization schedule, paying the large sum 6-7 months before I wanted to end the mortgage seemed like the safest way to get the mortgage paid off quickly without compromising my emergency fund. I never had principal vs. interest percentage in mind.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Mrwannabemmm on October 07, 2015, 09:50:12 PM
Hi i am still on the fence , i am bit of conservative side ..actully a lot on conservative side always.I have 330 k in mortgage now ( paid off 160 k recently as lump sum off the original 490 ). I have 270 k in cash which i can either invest in real estate or pay off mortgage ...but that will delay my investing by 3 more years I think to collect down payment on house again . please advice...

mortgage 330 k
cash saving 270 k
401 k maxing out
no other debt
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ahoy on October 08, 2015, 02:36:35 AM
So glad my DH and I got rid of our mortgage, we only had one for about 3 years.  We had a huge deposit, small mortgage.  It was a fantastic 4 bed house.  Sold it during the peak (2006) moved countries and downsized.   I hated our current house for about 5 years and about 2 yrs ago realized it was the best thing.  We would never go back to paying a mortgage every month on our principle residence. 

 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: nora on October 08, 2015, 05:21:16 AM
Ours just dropped below 100000. Fantastic. I paid a bit extra to get it to 99997 or some such. Of course then the exchange rate changed (house is in NZ and we are in Oz)  and when I came to show the accounts to DH it was back over 100000! But I think we are on the home straight now, no pun intended.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: K-ice on October 08, 2015, 10:08:16 AM
Hi i am still on the fence , i am bit of conservative side ..actully a lot on conservative side always.I have 330 k in mortgage now ( paid off 160 k recently as lump sum off the original 490 ). I have 270 k in cash which i can either invest in real estate or pay off mortgage ...but that will delay my investing by 3 more years I think to collect down payment on house again . please advice...

mortgage 330 k
cash saving 270 k
401 k maxing out
no other debt

What are your interest rates on the mortgage vs savings?

Congrats on the large chunk of cash!

You can find many debates on the pay mtg vs invest.
Obviously on this thread, most are focusing on mortgage payoff.
Mathamatically investing in balanced ETFs should pay off better in the long run than rushing to pay your mortgage.

But saving does not equal investing. It appears that you are saving not investing.

If you are too conservative to invest I would pay off the mortgage first.
For the ultra conservative investor that is what you should do.

That is what I did with my primary residence. Now I am starting to invest in Vanguard and plan to slowly pay the mtg on a rental property.

Since you have a large chunk of cash you may want to "invest" a bit.

1) keep a good emergency fund ~20K (3-6 months spending, this should be your only cash savings)
2) pay a large chunk of the mortgage ~150-240K (how much can you prepay without being hit with penalty fees?)
3) start investing with a comfortable amount, for you this may be 10-100K. Research your low fee options & Max out your tax advantaged accounts.

If you are not quite sure about how to split your money in 2 & 3 hang on to more cash and decide what to do with it in 3-6 months.

Don't listen to anyone who says invest it all today. That is mathamatically correct but you mentioned you are very conservative and probably need to learn a lot more before throwing all that cash into investments.


Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on October 08, 2015, 10:52:12 AM
+1 to what K-ice said. Good advice.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bellatrix on October 09, 2015, 04:49:09 PM
I can't wait to pay off my mortgage. It feels like it will take forever though.   

Started with 400k at 3.25%.
Now at about 285k. 
Goal payoff date: Dec 2018.

I have an amortization schedule hanging on my fridge.  I look at it all the time and just need this mortgage to go away. 







Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on October 09, 2015, 05:51:53 PM
Nice work Bellatrix! I constantly check my amortization schedule too. I'm always calculating the numbers in my head :) If I can do a little extra principal this month, next month's regular payment will be that much more productive.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bellatrix on October 09, 2015, 06:59:52 PM
Nice work Bellatrix! I constantly check my amortization schedule too. I'm always calculating the numbers in my head :) If I can do a little extra principal this month, next month's regular payment will be that much more productive.

Thanks!  I get so excited when my paycheck is higher than expected... it means I get to tackle more of my mortgage.  I get so mad when I see how much I am paying in interest every month (down to about $800 now). 

Looks like 2018 will be a good year for both of us. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on October 09, 2015, 07:38:42 PM
Nice work Bellatrix! I constantly check my amortization schedule too. I'm always calculating the numbers in my head :) If I can do a little extra principal this month, next month's regular payment will be that much more productive.

Thanks!  I get so excited when my paycheck is higher than expected... it means I get to tackle more of my mortgage.  I get so mad when I see how much I am paying in interest every month (down to about $800 now). 

Looks like 2018 will be a good year for both of us.

Dec. 2018 will be here before you know it, awesome that you have a goal date for payoff!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Mrwannabemmm on October 09, 2015, 11:56:46 PM
Thanks k ice . I resonate with your advice too. I am planning to pay off mortgage down too till I have 100 k left. Planning to keep  100 k for getting another mortgage on a rental income. Then work on paying rest of mortgage and then the rental mortgage .

This was I will pay of one mortgage and then have another one to motivate me even more since that will create passive cash flow .
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Mrwannabemmm on October 10, 2015, 12:02:26 AM
My saving account almost pays nothing , mortgage is 3.87 percent .
Maxing out my 401k but do not have any 529 for kids yet .


Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: manonfire1007 on October 10, 2015, 08:26:11 PM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on October 11, 2015, 11:36:37 AM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: manonfire1007 on October 11, 2015, 07:05:10 PM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: RNwastash on October 15, 2015, 08:27:29 PM
Made a small $500 extra payment.  Down to $123,536.82!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cdub on October 16, 2015, 12:55:56 AM
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!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mom22boys on October 16, 2015, 09:49:04 AM
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?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on October 16, 2015, 11:05:15 AM
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!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mom22boys on October 16, 2015, 11:19:07 AM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Uncle Scrooge on October 16, 2015, 01:08:03 PM
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...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on October 16, 2015, 01:13:57 PM
re: AimLoans - INTERESTING! THANK YOU for the info, I'll check 'em out!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: peoria on October 16, 2015, 01:59:40 PM
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.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: birdman2003 on October 16, 2015, 03:10:57 PM
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
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: PFHC on October 16, 2015, 05:30:51 PM
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!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cdub on October 17, 2015, 12:17:17 AM
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/ (http://mortgagepayoff.club/))

I'm working on around $260k 30 year fixed at 3.99 right now.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on October 17, 2015, 07:14:19 PM
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?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cdub on October 18, 2015, 11:25:34 PM
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?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on October 19, 2015, 06:47:48 AM
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!  ;-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on October 19, 2015, 08:07:22 AM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: K-ice on October 19, 2015, 11:27:30 AM
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. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on October 19, 2015, 04:34:56 PM
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 :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on October 19, 2015, 06:16:50 PM
^nice, mies!  I will be happy when my principal payment is more than my interest payment, but you are doing great!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on October 19, 2015, 07:32:00 PM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cdub on October 20, 2015, 10:39:07 PM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on October 21, 2015, 02:05:02 AM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on October 21, 2015, 01:11:22 PM
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.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Jon_Snow on October 21, 2015, 02:58:53 PM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cdub on October 21, 2015, 11:05:44 PM
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. :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on October 21, 2015, 11:43:13 PM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: YoungGranny on October 23, 2015, 11:23:47 AM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on October 23, 2015, 01:21:00 PM
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".
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: K-ice on October 23, 2015, 03:14:34 PM
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....
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on October 23, 2015, 06:25:54 PM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on October 23, 2015, 10:59:17 PM
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??
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Imonaboat on October 26, 2015, 02:53:04 AM
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
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: YoungGranny on October 26, 2015, 06:42:40 AM
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!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on October 27, 2015, 10:42:24 PM
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.
Title: Facing Layoff but I am in Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: freeatlast on October 29, 2015, 01:29:33 PM
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!
Title: Re: Facing Layoff but I am in Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on October 29, 2015, 06:25:19 PM
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. :-/

Quote
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).

Quote
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
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bee21 on October 29, 2015, 08:27:41 PM
 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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on October 29, 2015, 11:20:17 PM
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!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FerrumB5 on October 30, 2015, 10:26:52 AM
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?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Clean Shaven on October 30, 2015, 11:34:26 AM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FerrumB5 on October 30, 2015, 11:43:10 AM
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).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on October 31, 2015, 07:54:43 AM
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! :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on October 31, 2015, 08:00:49 AM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Rural on October 31, 2015, 04:51:34 PM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: steveo on October 31, 2015, 11:57:40 PM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on November 01, 2015, 05:17:56 AM

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...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: rjbf65 on November 03, 2015, 08:22:31 AM
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. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BBub on November 03, 2015, 09:36:26 AM
Wow rjb you're kicking some ass.  I think the hard part would be holding $40k cash while eyeing the (40k) mortgage bal.  Especially as the spread widens & it becomes 42k vs (38), 45 vs (35) and so on..  Of course, that's assuming you have actual cash savings instead of securities or qualified holdings.  At some point I'd be tempted to simply wipe out the mortgage & still have $X cash on hand.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: rjbf65 on November 03, 2015, 10:17:25 AM
Wow rjb you're kicking some ass.  I think the hard part would be holding $40k cash while eyeing the (40k) mortgage bal.  Especially as the spread widens & it becomes 42k vs (38), 45 vs (35) and so on..  Of course, that's assuming you have actual cash savings instead of securities or qualified holdings.  At some point I'd be tempted to simply wipe out the mortgage & still have $X cash on hand.

It is actual cash in the bank.  It's a constant battle in my mind on what to do.  I've thought about throwing $20K at it now and keeping $20K in the bank.  Or wating till I have $20K balance left and $40K in the bank to knock it out.  Just looked and I should have another 3 check month in March of 2016.  Which is also about tax refund time.  Should really be able to put the hurt on the mortgage balance then. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: K-ice on November 03, 2015, 01:56:46 PM
It is actual cash in the bank. 

Since it is actual cash I would keep a small emergency fund and throw the extra at the mortgage. Your mortgage probably has a limit of what you can pre-pay. I would try to max that.

Now if it was invested, made some high savings interest within 1% of your mortgage interest, or you had a good investment plan for it, then you could slow down on the mortgage.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on November 03, 2015, 03:59:00 PM
Wow rjb you're kicking some ass.  I think the hard part would be holding $40k cash while eyeing the (40k) mortgage bal.  Especially as the spread widens & it becomes 42k vs (38), 45 vs (35) and so on..  Of course, that's assuming you have actual cash savings instead of securities or qualified holdings.  At some point I'd be tempted to simply wipe out the mortgage & still have $X cash on hand.

It is actual cash in the bank.  It's a constant battle in my mind on what to do.  I've thought about throwing $20K at it now and keeping $20K in the bank.  Or wating till I have $20K balance left and $40K in the bank to knock it out.  Just looked and I should have another 3 check month in March of 2016.  Which is also about tax refund time.  Should really be able to put the hurt on the mortgage balance then.

I am in almost the exact same boat as you.  I'm throwing 20k at the mortgage when the renaming principal gets to be near that amount.  With no mortgage I figure I my emergency fund doesn't need to be as large.  Inflation is eventually going to turn your savings to dust anyway.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BBub on November 03, 2015, 04:39:28 PM
Yeah the prudent move would be to decide on the minimum amount of cash you are comfortable keeping on hand & throw the rest at the mortgage.  If that's $20k, then throw the other 20 at the mortgage.

Now, personally.... I would probably wipe it out next month with the entire $40k then live on the edge for a few months with dangerously low cash levels.  But that's just one of my weaknesses.  I am impatient with financial goals & tend to freak out on them.  I haven't gotten serious yet about the mortgage payoff, but when I do it'll probably be an agonizing yet quick binge / sprint.  What can I say, I just like to rip the bandaid off.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: NoraLenderbee on November 04, 2015, 10:26:06 AM
I want to pay off my mortgage. But I live in California. If I did that, the amount of capital tied up in my house would be equal to about 50% of my liquid net worth. It makes me nervous to have that much of my money in one single asset. I keep going back and forth. What to do? I would save about 900/month (P&I).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on November 04, 2015, 12:58:21 PM
NoraLenderbee - one option is to look into paying down a chunk and then recasting your mortgage for a small fee, if your lender will do that.  Recasting is when they take any extra principle paid, and then re-amortorize for the rest of the life of the loan, so you get a smaller monthly payment.  It's a nice middle ground - you get the benefit of lower payments and more cash flow and for people like you then you don't have to have a huge percentage of equity in one place. 

We are paying off our house, but we are in the Midwest and the equity in this house will be about 1/8 of our total net worth - I'm fine with that!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on November 04, 2015, 06:18:29 PM
+1 to what Neustache said about the recast.   Our bank (that is now the 3rd or 4th servicer of our 3 year old mortgage) has OK'd the recast for a $250 fee.   So that frees up significant cash flow and cuts our interest payment by more than half.   The bank wins by getting to loan our cash out 3 or more times with leverage and at a higher rate.   The FIRE plan and the mortgage beast will be done by 2021!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on November 05, 2015, 02:28:33 PM
38.2k.

33.2k.  Pretty ideal month, other than a $250 furnace repair.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on November 05, 2015, 02:30:49 PM
38.2k.

33.2k.  Pretty ideal month, other than a $250 furnace repair.

You Studly McStuderson, I envy.
Someday, I'll be there. I hope I can enjoy the obsession as much as you do.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on November 05, 2015, 07:59:09 PM
Yeah, obsession is a good description but it's a short term project. The light at the end of the tunnel is almost blinding.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: NoraLenderbee on November 05, 2015, 09:32:24 PM
Thanks for the idea. We actually refi'd a few years ago, after paying down 50K, and we put another 50K on it this year. The problem is that I want to be mortgage-free *and* not have too much tied up in equity. #MustachianProblems
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Imonaboat on November 06, 2015, 05:55:23 AM
I dug deep into my emergency fund to pay off my house, dropping my normal 10k down to around 700. Now I'm fiddling my thumbs for a few months until it builds up when I really want to open my investment account. If I could do it again I would have let the last few months ride out while I saved for the next goal heh.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on November 06, 2015, 07:34:47 AM
I dug deep into my emergency fund to pay off my house, dropping my normal 10k down to around 700. Now I'm fiddling my thumbs for a few months until it builds up when I really want to open my investment account. If I could do it again I would have let the last few months ride out while I saved for the next goal heh.

Geez, makes me feel a little better about taking just 2/5 of my savings.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on November 10, 2015, 06:09:49 AM
Threw another chunk of $ at the mortgage this month!  Down to 100,800- hopefully I scrounge/ hustle the other 801 and be under 100k by the end of this month!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Imonaboat on November 10, 2015, 08:17:59 AM
Threw another chunk of $ at the mortgage this month!  Down to 100,800- hopefully I scrounge/ hustle the other 801 and be under 100k by the end of this month!

Keep it up! Before long it will be similar to a non-mustacian car note!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on November 10, 2015, 12:45:57 PM
Threw another chunk of $ at the mortgage this month!  Down to 100,800- hopefully I scrounge/ hustle the other 801 and be under 100k by the end of this month!

Hit it and git it!

I'm aiming to get under $100k in January 2016. Still on target, but it's gonna be close....
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: flowrider on November 10, 2015, 01:17:50 PM
We recently sold our house privately and bought in a slightly "less desirable" area about 1km away. This allowed us to carve $90k off the mortgage and we will now be paid off in 2 years instead of 10 years. We also now have a nicer yard for the kids and we are not positioned on a busy main road - bonus! Looking forward to being mortgage free!
Keep up the good work folks
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on November 10, 2015, 07:34:38 PM
The deed is done on the mortgage recast to drop the mortgage under $110K!   This was from a chunk inherited from what was left from sale of my Dad's house so somewhere he's hopefully smiling.    After analysis paralysis on this for months, a feeling of awesome Jean-Luc-Picard-esque calm has been with me all afternoon...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on November 10, 2015, 07:36:22 PM
The deed is done on the mortgage recast to drop the mortgage under $110K!   This was from a chunk inherited from what was left from sale of my Dad's house so somewhere he's hopefully smiling.    After analysis paralysis on this for months, a feeling of awesome Jean-Luc-Picard-esque calm has been with me all afternoon...

Komputah! Tea, Earl Gray, Hot!
Engage! Make it so, Numbaa Wan!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on November 11, 2015, 05:50:36 AM
The deed is done on the mortgage recast to drop the mortgage under $110K!   This was from a chunk inherited from what was left from sale of my Dad's house so somewhere he's hopefully smiling.    After analysis paralysis on this for months, a feeling of awesome Jean-Luc-Picard-esque calm has been with me all afternoon...

Sweet!!  Now you make me want to save a chunk and put it towards a recast!  Ha!  Our minimum is 10K but to make it feel more worthwhile I'd want to pay down about 30K to make our PITI payments under $700.  I really think recasts are a nice middle ground for people wanting to pay off the mortgage so that they can then benefit from the extra cashflow.  Shoot, once our mortgage is under $700 a month I may not pay it off early just because that amount is really easy to come up with plus our other monthly expenses even on a full-time job I could get (about 30K a year)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on November 11, 2015, 05:23:04 PM
Neustache (and all),  Just do it to the point it makes sense for your situation.   It all depends on the lender about the recast and whether your rate is above or below current market.   We did it with a new "servicer" that is obviously looking for ways to drum up business or cash in on the below market rate loans they bought.    In this case, it was PNC Mortgage and they are quite willing and easy to work with.    They were also quite eager to sell me a HELOC that requires a minimum draw hoping we'll borrow the money back at a higher rate for home improvements or toy purchases.   Good luck with that!  ;-)

Faraday, Very good!   Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be in my Ready Room!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on November 11, 2015, 07:18:43 PM
Faraday, Very good!   Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be in my Ready Room!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on November 12, 2015, 03:11:52 PM
Niiiiice!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: plainjane on November 17, 2015, 06:45:32 AM
The SO has always looked at my desire to pay off the mortgage as a personality quirk.  Where my parents paid off the mortgage soon after I was born, I think the other side only finished paying off their mortgage in the past 5 years or so.

Until last night, when they logged into that account (which they do on at least a monthly basis to populate the NW sheet), and realized that every sub-account has more money in it than is owing on the mortgage.  Our taxes+efund is higher, our travel fund is higher (we have a big trip planned for the spring), and obviously the retirement account is higher.  The conversation was a bit giddy.

It feels like we're now on the same page as to the possibilities, and I'm not just being humoured.  (I'm not deluding myself, there still won't be any traction on dumping cable.)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on November 17, 2015, 10:56:10 AM
The SO has always looked at my desire to pay off the mortgage as a personality quirk.  Where my parents paid off the mortgage soon after I was born, I think the other side only finished paying off their mortgage in the past 5 years or so.

Until last night, when they logged into that account (which they do on at least a monthly basis to populate the NW sheet), and realized that every sub-account has more money in it than is owing on the mortgage.  Our taxes+efund is higher, our travel fund is higher (we have a big trip planned for the spring), and obviously the retirement account is higher.  The conversation was a bit giddy.

It feels like we're now on the same page as to the possibilities, and I'm not just being humoured.  (I'm not deluding myself, there still won't be any traction on dumping cable.)

Now that's a great story! One helluva good "personality quirk" you have there!

Sorry about not being able to get rid of cable, though. Sucks, bad. When we got rid of it over 10 years ago, that $130/month made a HUGE impact!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bee21 on November 18, 2015, 06:56:59 PM
Under 3k people! 2 more payments to go.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bee21 on November 18, 2015, 07:06:55 PM
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.

Not entirely sure. But there are extra costs associated w paying it off early, some paperwork related to the property title etc etc. plus we will have to notify the insurance companies as well that the bank has no financial interest etc etc. nobody knows exactly what we need to do as having a mortgage is the norm :)  i guess it is better to have a meeting w somebody who is prepared w the necessary paperwork than ambushing a random teller w the last 5 dollars we owe them.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: K-ice on November 18, 2015, 10:15:40 PM
Under 3k people! 2 more payments to go.

Nice work.

As you mentioned, be sure to call your home insurance once the mortgage is zero.

Not having a mortgage & getting a new roof saved us over $300/year.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: YoungGranny on November 19, 2015, 06:35:19 AM
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.

Sent a chunk of money at it again this month, down to $129,532

My loan got sold to Wells Fargo does anybody else have them as a servicer? I absolutely hate their website, seems like it hasn't been updated since the 90's. No option to see an updated amortization schedule after a payment has been made or even what your updated maturity date is. I know I can stop being lazy and do this all in excel myself but it was nice to have those available for reference with my old servicer. Hoping I'm just missing these features somewhere on Wells Fargo's website.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on November 19, 2015, 11:32:05 AM
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.

Sent a chunk of money at it again this month, down to $129,532

CONGRATULATIONS YG!!! YOU GO grilfrand! :-)

I hope to join you in "Refinanceland" in the next 2 or 3 months!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on November 19, 2015, 08:42:51 PM
Under 3k people! 2 more payments to go.

So close Bee21...   Sweet freedom!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: YoungGranny on November 24, 2015, 07:42:21 AM
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.

Sent a chunk of money at it again this month, down to $129,532

CONGRATULATIONS YG!!! YOU GO grilfrand! :-)

I hope to join you in "Refinanceland" in the next 2 or 3 months!

Good luck with Refinancing! I honestly had a pretty pain-less process and a whole-lotta savings so I highly recommend it :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on November 24, 2015, 10:48:25 PM
Good luck with Refinancing! I honestly had a pretty pain-less process and a whole-lotta savings so I highly recommend it :)

Chunked another $3.5k at the principal today. We're on-target for a January refi.
Fingers crossed interest rates stay low.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on November 25, 2015, 04:47:18 AM
Go Faraday!   Just a thought, but you could refi a chunk NOW and get a small shorter term fixed loan or HELOC for the part you commit to kill early.   That reduces the risk of rate increase which indeed is imminent esp. on the shorter term fixed loans and ARMs next year.    And doing this in Dec is usually best as the bankers have less business and year end approaching.   (of course everyone else may be doing same thing to beat the Fed increase and it's a hassle at the holidays but it pays off)  We refi'd in Nov 2 years ago and it was great (closing atty came to our house to close, etc.).    Wouldnt get that treatment in the spring busy season for real estate.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on November 25, 2015, 06:34:13 PM
Go Faraday!   Just a thought, but you could refi a chunk NOW and get a small shorter term fixed loan or HELOC for the part you commit to kill early.   That reduces the risk of rate increase which indeed is imminent esp. on the shorter term fixed loans and ARMs next year.    And doing this in Dec is usually best as the bankers have less business and year end approaching.   (of course everyone else may be doing same thing to beat the Fed increase and it's a hassle at the holidays but it pays off)  We refi'd in Nov 2 years ago and it was great (closing atty came to our house to close, etc.).    Wouldnt get that treatment in the spring busy season for real estate.

I researched the prime rates, and indentured4now, you are right. In fact, RIGHT NOW is the optimum time to refi. The strange thing is, I've watched my lender's rates bottom out in January. It's as if they get their money from the fed first, then they offer it up. Seems like, anyway.

Regardless, I have a principal target to make of $100k or less and I don't have the available cash to make that target this calendar year. (My one cash resource, if I call on it, will bump up my tax burden too....) I can use my cash resource in January, but I can't use it right now or I will suffa.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: rjbf65 on December 02, 2015, 08:51:39 AM
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.


$38,922 -- $2,921 reduction this month.  More travel and eating out this month, as well as property taxes and insurance slowed us down a bit.  But we are at the goal of being under $40K balance!  It's going down at a pretty good pace that I'm happy with!  We will have some Christmas expenses coming up this month but it shouldn't be all that bad.  My target is to hope to be under $37K at the end of December. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on December 02, 2015, 08:44:06 PM
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.

Down to $60k as of tomorrow. I threw some dry powder at it as the S&P 500 is still near all time highs and I feel like I'm dollar cost averaging in enough per month right now. Flows out of my bank savings account into the market + my recent mortgage payments are greater than my current income so doing both isn't sustainable long term. I will probably have to slow down the mortgage payoff next year some time OR work more to keep paying it down quickly. $60k seems really close to being done, but calendar wise there is a good distance to go.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on December 02, 2015, 08:44:40 PM
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.

Down to $60k as of tomorrow. I threw some dry powder at it as the S&P 500 is still near all time highs and I feel like I'm dollar cost averaging in enough per month right now. Flows out of my bank savings account into the market + my recent mortgage payments are greater than my current income so doing both isn't sustainable long term. I will probably have to slow down the mortgage payoff next year some time OR work more to keep paying it down quickly. $60k seems really close to being done, but calendar wise there is a good distance to go.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on December 02, 2015, 08:45:32 PM
Threw another chunk of $ at the mortgage this month!  Down to 100,800- hopefully I scrounge/ hustle the other 801 and be under 100k by the end of this month!

Hit it and git it!

I'm aiming to get under $100k in January 2016. Still on target, but it's gonna be close....

I hope you can make it by the end of the year. Definitely a milestone to celebrate!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bee21 on December 02, 2015, 08:53:11 PM
@1200! One more to go.

Best Christmas present ever.we'll have a paid off house and a white kitchen, yay. and I managed to persuade the man to repaint the kitchen instead of replacing it. He is more enthusiastic about the painting since we found out that our butcher just spent 25k replacing his. : D

By the way, just wondering. Do you guys spend $ on renovations when being in the payoff mode? I always said that we would celebrate with forking out money for a new kitchen, but changed my mind. A repainted version would do, as long as it is not bluuuuuuue.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on December 03, 2015, 06:22:22 AM
@1200! One more to go.

Best Christmas present ever.we'll have a paid off house and a white kitchen, yay. and I managed to persuade the man to repaint the kitchen instead of replacing it. He is more enthusiastic about the painting since we found out that our butcher just spent 25k replacing his. : D

By the way, just wondering. Do you guys spend $ on renovations when being in the payoff mode? I always said that we would celebrate with forking out money for a new kitchen, but changed my mind. A repainted version would do, as long as it is not bluuuuuuue.

Wow!  Congratulations!  That is a HUGE Christmas present!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on December 03, 2015, 06:24:03 AM
Down to 94K!  Finally under 100K!  We may just pay this sucker off in 2016 (she says as she is simultaneously crossing all fingers and toes while knocking on wood).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on December 03, 2015, 06:33:17 AM
@1200! One more to go.

Best Christmas present ever.we'll have a paid off house and a white kitchen, yay. and I managed to persuade the man to repaint the kitchen instead of replacing it. He is more enthusiastic about the painting since we found out that our butcher just spent 25k replacing his. : D

By the way, just wondering. Do you guys spend $ on renovations when being in the payoff mode? I always said that we would celebrate with forking out money for a new kitchen, but changed my mind. A repainted version would do, as long as it is not bluuuuuuue.

I have plans for painting our front door red (it may or may not be a Dutch tradition to paint your door red when it's free and clear, but seems unlikely it's a long standing tradition, but I want to start the tradition) and doing some landscaping, making the curb appeal look nicer.  We might do some minor kitchen upgrades (new countertops, new floors, new wallpaper) but nothing major.  All of our stuff is just fine, if not dated, and as I get more and more into efficiency I just have a hard time replacing anything that is a want and not a need. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: plainjane on December 03, 2015, 07:15:51 AM
@1200! One more to go.
[...]
By the way, just wondering. Do you guys spend $ on renovations when being in the payoff mode? I always said that we would celebrate with forking out money for a new kitchen, but changed my mind. A repainted version would do, as long as it is not bluuuuuuue.

Congratulations!

Yes, we have spent money on renovations, but for most of it we weren't really in true pay-down mode.  At the time (roof, back deck, eaves, siding, basement, bathroom) we generally felt like holding off on the renovation would put us into a situation where the potential costs of delay.  For a couple of them, I had decided not to put so much emphasis on paying down the mortgage because the rates were so low - I had increased our savings rate up to the tax-advantaged maximums and put the leftover aside for renovations. We always split the focus three ways, which is why it will take us almost 10 years to get rid of the mortgage.

For the kitchen, I was initially planning on redirecting the mortgage-free cash flow, but currently the plan is to reach the next FI milestone (right now we have day to day living covered under the 4% rule, but not property tax or maintenance or travel) and then do the kitchen.  Or move/downsize.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on December 03, 2015, 02:45:17 PM
33.2k.  Pretty ideal month, other than a $250 furnace repair.

27.4k effective tomorrow.

After giving it a lot of thought, I want to be done with this project before the end of the calendar year.  To accomplish this, I am going to raid my savings a little bit harder than planned, take my checking account to lows it has never seen before, and push off all bills until the last possible day.  I essentially gained a "bill free" 30 days by going from paying them immediately in November to paying them on the due date in December.  Once I am done with the payoff I can recover everything in about a month.

My next post in this thread should be my last!  Thirteen more days!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Threshkin on December 03, 2015, 03:11:48 PM
33.2k.  Pretty ideal month, other than a $250 furnace repair.

27.4k effective tomorrow.

After giving it a lot of thought, I want to be done with this project before the end of the calendar year.  To accomplish this, I am going to raid my savings a little bit harder than planned, take my checking account to lows it has never seen before, and push off all bills until the last possible day.  I essentially gained a "bill free" 30 days by going from paying them immediately in November to paying them on the due date in December.  Once I am done with the payoff I can recover everything in about a month.

My next post in this thread should be my last!  Thirteen more days!

That is what I did for my last $70K.  It dropped my cash reserves lower (much lower!) than I liked but was worth it to say "goodbye" to my mortgage.

Congratulations!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on December 03, 2015, 09:32:47 PM
$139k (!!!)
$131,600
$126,000.
$119,200 !!

Now just squeaking in under $115,000.

I continue to be amazed at how good it feels to pass these milestones. 3 years left on our current plan.

& CONGRATS @Bee21 !! great way to ring in the new year.

You'll be under 6 figures in no time. Good work!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: rulesofacquisition on December 04, 2015, 09:34:40 AM
Posting to keep track of my progress. Bought house in June 2014 for $120,000 and financed $108,000. Owe $100,728.12. 30 year loan but have paid based on 15 years every month. Have been using debt snowball and have one more debt before attacking house payment.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: K-ice on December 04, 2015, 12:17:19 PM
Posting to keep track of my progress. Bought house in June 2014 for $120,000 and financed $108,000. Owe $100,728.12. 30 year loan but have paid based on 15 years every month. Have been using debt snowball and have one more debt before attacking house payment.

I love the "sign up for 30y pay it off like it is 15y" method. This gives you the peace of having a lower payment if needed, but the power to pay it off faster.

Check that those extra payments are going against the principal. (I think so based on your numbers but I'm not sure because I don't know your interest rate.)

What I love is that you cut your time in half but it is not the same as doubling your payments.

You have probably crunched your own numbers but here is an example for others:
Assume 30y at 3.5 % payment = $483
Assume 15y at 3.5 % payment = $770
Double payment 30y at 3.5% = $966  but this is paid off in 11.3y

Also, just be careful how big that other debt is and at what rate.  Is the other debt CC, student loan ... If it is higher than the mortgage rate I would pay the 30y mortgage at a 30y rate and throw the extra into the higher interest debt payment first.  As soon as that debt is gone then you should get back into the pay like it is 15y habit (or 10y).




Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: rulesofacquisition on December 04, 2015, 01:03:10 PM
Posting to keep track of my progress. Bought house in June 2014 for $120,000 and financed $108,000. Owe $100,728.12. 30 year loan but have paid based on 15 years every month. Have been using debt snowball and have one more debt before attacking house payment.

I love the "sign up for 30y pay it off like it is 15y" method. This gives you the peace of having a lower payment if needed, but the power to pay it off faster.

Check that those extra payments are going against the principal. (I think so based on your numbers but I'm not sure because I don't know your interest rate.)

What I love is that you cut your time in half but it is not the same as doubling your payments.

You have probably crunched your own numbers but here is an example for others:
Assume 30y at 3.5 % payment = $483
Assume 15y at 3.5 % payment = $770
Double payment 30y at 3.5% = $966  but this is paid off in 11.3y

Also, just be careful how big that other debt is and at what rate.  Is the other debt CC, student loan ... If it is higher than the mortgage rate I would pay the 30y mortgage at a 30y rate and throw the extra into the higher interest debt payment first.  As soon as that debt is gone then you should get back into the pay like it is 15y habit (or 10y).






The last debt is at 0% for about $15,000 to a lawyer. I would rather not stop the 15 year payment due to my age (47), but making the lawyer payment brings up pretty awful thoughts/feelings, so maybe better psychologically to kill it faster. We're not high earners, getting the $15,000 paid off is a year or 2 project. The extra mortgage payments per year are about $3,300. Advice?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: steveo on December 04, 2015, 08:09:51 PM
I now owe $13,800. It won't be paid off this year but it should be paid off early January.

Today its $7,665.45. 3 more pays (per fortnight) to go.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on December 05, 2015, 05:40:06 AM
^^Congrats!  So many are so close to paying theirs off - it's very exciting!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FIREby35 on December 05, 2015, 06:45:05 AM
Hey everyone - I posting for the first time. We have a balance of 41k on a 200k house. We bought in Feb. 2014. I'm posting to follow and just because I needed to share the story with someone - we have been pretty silent about it with family and friends.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on December 05, 2015, 08:20:35 AM
Hey everyone - I posting for the first time. We have a balance of 41k on a 200k house. We bought in Feb. 2014. I'm posting to follow and just because I needed to share the story with someone - we have been pretty silent about it with family and friends.

Nice Job! Sounds like you'll have that monkey off your back pretty soon.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: K-ice on December 05, 2015, 09:13:33 PM

The last debt is at 0% for about $15,000 to a lawyer. I would rather not stop the 15 year payment due to my age (47), but making the lawyer payment brings up pretty awful thoughts/feelings, so maybe better psychologically to kill it faster. We're not high earners, getting the $15,000 paid off is a year or 2 project. The extra mortgage payments per year are about $3,300. Advice?

Well with zero interest there is no need to rush.
But with the emotional closure I wouldn't drag it out too long either.

How's the payment made? Is it a cheque?

So you think you can pay it off in 1-2years.

Can you just get on an auto pay plan say $1,000 per month for 15 months?
Maybe $750 for 20 months.

Just be sure you have enough money in the account but you don't need to physically write a cheque.

I'd find a way to set & forget the lawyer payment if possible.



Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on December 06, 2015, 08:10:02 AM
Mrs. Indentured and I have the goal of payoff in 5 years on a $249k mortgage without gutting our current stash.   

Just mailed the December payment and the resulting balance as of 12/31/2015 will be (drum roll please):  $109,429.99!    Gonna be a challenge in 2016 to continue killing it due big ticket expenses coming, but will "git'r done" somehow.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cheddarpie on December 06, 2015, 10:21:41 AM
By the way, just wondering. Do you guys spend $ on renovations when being in the payoff mode? I always said that we would celebrate with forking out money for a new kitchen, but changed my mind. A repainted version would do, as long as it is not bluuuuuuue.

I'm down to just around 70k, which is just around what I have in my savings/emergency fund account ... I'm not ready to gut my savings or emergency fund yet, but it is amazing knowing that I could technically be debt free tomorrow if I wanted to be!! I don't want to also me money free, and I'm thinking about switching to a less lucrative career (SOON), so I'm going to hold tight for now ... but my plan is to keep paying 2k/month in 2016 and then see how things are going a year from now and potentially pay it all off then. WOOHOO!

As for renovations, I've done a few small things -- new lighting fixtures when I moved in, painting everything, some necessary repairs, some DIY landscaping, and 5k worth of work in my basement rental unit (with very necessary new carpeting), but no major projects. My big projects will be new kitchen counters (can't wait; I have pretty ugly laminate that is chipping and peeling in many places) -- will likely wait until mortgage is done for those, as a reward :) -- and removing the carpet on my stairs and upstairs hallway and refinishing (possibly replacing) the floor underneath. That one will wait until my very elderly dog has passed (HOPEFULLY NEVER) since he uses the carpet for gripping to get up and down the stairs.

TL/DR: I figure about ~5k/year max. of home improvement/renovation is within my comfort zone while I still have a mortgage. Next year it will likely go to a new furnace.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on December 06, 2015, 06:46:40 PM
Mrs. Indentured and I have the goal of payoff in 5 years on a $249k mortgage without gutting our current stash.   

Just mailed the December payment and the resulting balance as of 12/31/2015 will be (drum roll please):  $109,429.99!    Gonna be a challenge in 2016 to continue killing it due big ticket expenses coming, but will "git'r done" somehow.

Congrats indentured4now! I'm in the same ballpark as you right now, hoping to cross the $100k threshhold in January or February!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on December 08, 2015, 05:03:55 AM
Awesome job Faraday...   Looking forward to joining you in the 5-digit club!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: steveo on December 09, 2015, 12:30:42 PM
I now owe $13,800. It won't be paid off this year but it should be paid off early January.

Today its $7,665.45. 3 more pays (per fortnight) to go.

Now its at $4,595. 2 more pays to go.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on December 10, 2015, 11:12:08 AM
Awesome job Faraday...   Looking forward to joining you in the 5-digit club!

Thanks i4n! You just blew my mind...dropping an entire digit off the mortgage is an exciting way to see it. With good luck and continuity, I'll be there in February 2016. To owe less on my home than a mid to high-end luxury car would really be nice.

When I tell the DW about it, I refer to "making our house as cheap as a double-wide". (BTW: that's not a disparaging comment, I've grown up in-and-around manufactured housing. I would have done a modular instead if it had been possible.)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BBub on December 10, 2015, 01:01:17 PM
I just hit 5 digits today!  It's not showing up yet, but once today's payment clears my new balance will be $99,600 or so.  It's a pretty cool milestone.  I'll be waiting for you to join Faraday!

Although mine isn't as badass, to be honest, because I'm not aggressively paying down.  My mortgage was around $123k two years ago when I got it & I've been adding enough to pay down $1k principal each month.  So, this little milestone has been 2 years in the making.  Still fun though.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: PharmaStache on December 10, 2015, 02:48:37 PM
Under 100k was fun!  But under that- like 80-90k, suck.  So far from any milestone!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on December 11, 2015, 03:39:08 AM
Pay week!  Down to 65.3k.

61k at time of this post.

Now at a little over 50k.  Wife is a teacher and gets a lump sum check at the end of the school year.  Put all of it into mortage.

Right now I'm ahead of schedule.  This is way easier than I thought it would be so far.

Wow, you're going quite fast, nearly 15k in a few monts 0_0;

Ours is doing well too, got a tax return and made some smaller payments so we're down to just under 33k. 4.5k to go this year which should be easy!

OK, big update since last post.
Mortgage is now down to 29k and change. I would've gone further but the car "needed" replacing. Reason being that DW is expecting and our 4 seater Hyundai i10 just didn't cut it. So we put down a lot for an i30 (2nd hand of course) (with assistance from SIL) so there won't be any payments until (I'm guessing) late next year - also because DW will temporarily stop working and thus part of our income will be gone.

Still, having a mortgage that is less than the health insurance cost is very satisfying!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on December 11, 2015, 07:17:00 PM
65K to 29K in 6 months is fantastic.  Enjoy every step from here!   The auto expense is just life reminding you that it wants it's fair share every month.   But you'll get the mortgage done!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: plainjane on December 15, 2015, 06:00:48 AM
4 digits.  Technically the remaining amortization is four months, but I'm aiming to be done in two.

I'm thinking of celebrating once we're done by donating the equivalent of a payment to the local food bank.  How are the rest of you planning to recognize the milestone?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on December 15, 2015, 06:16:13 AM
^Plainjane -

Well shit, now you make our celebration seem really selfish.  Ha!

We plan on taking our kids to Walt Disney World.  They know now that it's the plan once we pay off our mortgage, and my daughter asks about it on occasion (do we own our house yet?).  I want it to be something pretty memorable as I want them to remember the day it happens for a long time, and for them to think that it's just something you do, or a good thing to want to do.

We are also painting our front door red, as it's supposed to be a tradition to do that when a house is free and clear.  Not sure that's true, but I've always wanted a red door.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: YoungGranny on December 15, 2015, 07:34:12 AM
4 digits.  Technically the remaining amortization is four months, but I'm aiming to be done in two.

I'm thinking of celebrating once we're done by donating the equivalent of a payment to the local food bank.  How are the rest of you planning to recognize the milestone?

That is SO awesome! I'm going to steal this and do something similar in 4 years :) I love the idea of being able to free up some of my money to donate to local charities.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: bzzzt on December 15, 2015, 09:13:44 PM
Nailed it! Sent a payment over on Sunday to stick the last knife in the Mortgage.

Balance as of Dec 31st, 2014 was $78,940.

Today, it was $18.55! The lender wouldn't let me send over a payment over the last statement amount through the online service, so I'll have to call tomorrow to kill it.

A high savings rate + pulling some money out of the brokerage account has given me huge piece of mind. The project I've been working on for the last 3 years is ending in Feb/Mar, but no worries about the house at least!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on December 16, 2015, 06:40:10 AM
congrats,bzzzt!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on December 16, 2015, 01:14:30 PM
Well other than a few dollars or cents of interest I will need to chase away tomorrow, I am done!!  The lump sum transferred in from savings on Monday and my paycheck provided the final death blow this morning. To summarize, I paid off 78k of principal in eight months. 52.6k off that was cash flowed and the rest came from savings.  Do not get me wrong, my wife and I make decent money but this still required some major dedication.  Discretionary spending was pretty much zero during this time.  I can probably count on a single hand the number of times we went out to eat, didn't do any vacationing, etc.

For the first time since being a "home owner" I am debt free!  Jan 2016 is the first month in over eight years that I don't owe anyone a house payment, car payment or student loan payment.  It is a damn good feeling and quite frankly will feel like I have a windfall coming in every month.  I never felt poor or anything and was still able to contribute quite a bit to retirement accounts but this is going to be like a whole new world for me.

Best of luck to all! It is easier that you think!

(http://s7.postimg.org/espbzzyu3/Untitled.png)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BBub on December 16, 2015, 02:23:10 PM
Wow.  Congratulations!

So... are you going to change your name?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jordanread on December 16, 2015, 03:03:41 PM
Wow.  Congratulations!

So... are you going to change your name?

Personally, I like the DOD acronym. But yeah.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BBub on December 17, 2015, 10:06:51 AM
Wow.  Congratulations!

So... are you going to change your name?

Personally, I like the DOD acronym. But yeah.

Yeah me too, but it doesn't seem applicable anymore. 

Coffers of Contentment?

Treasuries of Tranquility?

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: plainjane on December 17, 2015, 10:10:01 AM
Well other than a few dollars or cents of interest I will need to chase away tomorrow, I am done!! 

Those are some of the best kinds of graphs :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: steveo on December 17, 2015, 02:41:18 PM
Jan 2016 is the first month in over eight years that I don't owe anyone a house payment, car payment or student loan payment.

I'm going to join you. I'm not sure how long it is since we didn't have a debt payment however I'm 42 and we had a unit which we paid off but then we upgraded to a house. We've never really had a car loan or anything else but our house payments go away for good this January.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cheddarpie on December 17, 2015, 03:26:25 PM
Big milestone here! I just crossed the threshold where the amount of money I have in my savings/brokerage account is more than what I owe on my mortgage! Woohoo!!

I could cash everything out and pay it off for zero debt ... I'm not going to do that because it would gut my emergency fund and I'm going to have some financial turmoil in 2016 (major surgery + hoping to quit my job/find a better-but-likely-lesser-paying one), but it is SO GREAT knowing that I could. I will see how things go the next few months, keep saving as much as I can, and once I feel comfortable with the cushion I have will knock that baby out! I'm guessing/hoping for no later than mid-2017, hesitatingly assuming that the market stays up.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on December 17, 2015, 04:42:56 PM
Wow.  Congratulations!

So... are you going to change your name?

Heh, it was really more tongue-in-cheek than anything.  I will however keep it as reminder to myself and others that debt really does suck.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on December 17, 2015, 09:27:33 PM
CONGRATULATIONS to DoD and cheddarpie! That's one hell of a fine Christmas gift to give yourselves! Hope to join you in a couple years!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on December 18, 2015, 09:46:23 PM
I have some *shocking* news to report!!   Banks suck.

Here's why...   the aforementioned recast of mortgage back in early November was so easy when I talked to my banker and wrote the big check.    The constant reassurances from the Customer Service person AND branch manager were "this is great, you're good and will receive the new balance and payment Jan 1. 

This week I receive the statement that says I paid a chunk on the mortgage but no recast on the payment!   So followed up with Customer "no" Service person again at the branch and there's a form they forgot to have my wife and I sign.   

And another tidbit...   We planned to do a HELOC but the closing costs of $500 and an ANNUAL fee of $50 for the line of credit were fairly amazingly expensive considering the higher interest rate on the loan.  None of these costs were stated up front, other than just a nice "rates are low and zero closing costs" sales pitch was all the loan officer and Manager gave in 2 visits.

Yes banks must earn a living, but at 3 or 4% interest, they are covered considering prime rate and leverage they are able to exercise structurally (loaning the same $ 4 or more times and collecting fees on selling bundled debt of all types).

Bottom line, never trust a banker to reduce the amount of blood you give them each month.   And cross check and verify the "pitch" against documents and T's & C's on the loan app and loan documents.   Financial vampires they are!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on December 19, 2015, 11:13:58 AM
^I'm sorry you had that experience.  I'll let you know when I do my recast if credit unions suck as well. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on December 20, 2015, 06:52:58 PM
Neustache,   Usually, the credit unions are better at following through as they're smaller and more coordinated.   I re-read my post after cooling off a couple of days and realized it was harsher that it should be and might discourage others.   The challenge with the large bank that has my mortgage is there are 3 different cities involved in finishing the transaction.   One at the branch, another at the mortgage "unit" of the bank, and a 3rd that actually handles the deeds.   Apparently 2 of 3 did their job first time.   I've been assured it's fixed with the 1 additional document.   Persistence pays off.  Good luck!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: steveo on December 23, 2015, 01:43:52 PM
I now owe $13,800. It won't be paid off this year but it should be paid off early January.

Today its $7,665.45. 3 more pays (per fortnight) to go.

Now its at $4,595. 2 more pays to go.

Now its $1,525. 1 more pay to go.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on December 23, 2015, 05:11:28 PM
I now owe $13,800. It won't be paid off this year but it should be paid off early January.

Today its $7,665.45. 3 more pays (per fortnight) to go.

Now its at $4,595. 2 more pays to go.

Now its $1,525. 1 more pay to go.

Nice work Steveo! I can't wait till that day arrives.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on December 26, 2015, 07:12:37 AM
Go steveo, put a fork in it!!  Have you planned how you'll use the cash flow afterwards?    Drunken sailor binges every month?  Or max the retirement accounts?   Or somewhere in between?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: steveo on December 26, 2015, 02:02:39 PM
Go steveo, put a fork in it!!  Have you planned how you'll use the cash flow afterwards?    Drunken sailor binges every month?  Or max the retirement accounts?   Or somewhere in between?

Investing in index funds and looking forward to FIRE. No increased spending but we will celebrate with oysters and champagne. I don't really drink champagne but we have a free bottle that I got from work. We will buy oysters.

We already have our funds listed that we will invest in each month.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on December 27, 2015, 12:42:00 PM
End of 2015 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

We are making some serious progress all while continuing to invest for retirement.  We are also considering a change in 2016 but it will depend on the housing market.  We are looking at downsizing yet again, but this time to a condo in order to pay off the mortgage quicker.  Very dependant on how much we can get for our house though - exciting times ahead!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on December 28, 2015, 07:11:14 AM
I didn't think we would be able to do it, but we paid off $41,000 in mortgage principal this year :) We went from a little over $110,000 to about 69,000. If we can keep this kind of progress going, we might be able to cut a year off our pay off date goal. My original goal was June 2018, but I might be able to get it done by June of 2017. Once we get the house paid off, I'll be able to increase my 401k contributions significantly and we can start to fix up some of the things around the house we have been postponing.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bee21 on December 28, 2015, 03:02:15 PM
Ok, we are done!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Scubanewbie on December 28, 2015, 04:10:53 PM
$205K purchase price 9 years ago, refinanced twice to decrease interest rate/time-frame and wanting to pay it off so badly.  I know the math arguments against but I also think you work harder on the thing that bugs you most.  So, mortgage it is.  How soon can I do it?  Not sure.  Not sure DH or I are nearly as hardcore as most here but I'd love to continue to follow this thread to keep motivation high. 

Currently have $90K left (round numbers) and standard payments would have 9 more years.  Slightly increased payments (to keep payments to historical level) would bring that to eight and throwing the proverbial "extra paycheck" months would get close to 7 years.  Throwing one time work stock option bonus at it brings it to just over 6.  Without significant sacrifice I can't get it lower than that but hoping to get motivation to make those changes by hanging out here :)  If I can get it to 6 I'd have done a traditional 15 year mortgage payoff timeframe and if I can get it done in 5 I'll have it done before I turn 41. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: steveo on December 29, 2015, 12:09:49 AM
Ok, we are done!

Its completely gone ? If so - well done.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: plainjane on January 01, 2016, 06:35:55 AM
End of the year update - turns out I put more into the mortgage as "lump sum" prepayments this year than I did on the regular payments.  This was pure laziness, it was just easier to snowball the mortgage with extra cash than it was to open up a taxable investment account, and I hadn't really registered just how much that was adding up to be.  oops

Regardless, we're now under 6k, and I'm going to run us at a cash flow deficit for the next 3 pays and give myself a bit of a b-day present.  _Then_ we'll open up that taxable account.  We aren't taking the optimal route from a mathematical perspective, but that doesn't mean this path won't get us there too.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: rjbf65 on January 05, 2016, 12:54:59 PM
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.


$38,922 -- $2,921 reduction this month.  More travel and eating out this month, as well as property taxes and insurance slowed us down a bit.  But we are at the goal of being under $40K balance!  It's going down at a pretty good pace that I'm happy with!  We will have some Christmas expenses coming up this month but it shouldn't be all that bad.  My target is to hope to be under $37K at the end of December.

$35,898 -- $3,024 reduction this month.  Received a small bonus from work to more or less cancel out Christmas spending.  Also had to replace the wife's windshield.  Would love to be down to under $33K after January is up.  Have quite a few things on the horizon.  We are expecting our first child in late May.  With that we are planning on upgrading the vehicle fleet some.  While going from 3 vehicles to 2.  Just looking for more room and reliability.  Need to have the ability of hauling a child, 2 dogs, and luggage for trips to see our parents.  We have been on the mustachian side of things when it comes to vehicles.  Our 3 vehicles combined might be worth about 9 or 10K.  My goal is to have a paid for house as well as having atleast 1 newer vehicle also paid for by the time the baby arrives.  We are now at the position of having more cash than mortgage balance.  Really looking forward to knocking it out asap!  Another thing about having it paid off by the end of May is I'll finally be eligible to contribute to my 401K starting in July.  Would be wonderful to max out a 401K in just the remaining half of the year!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on January 06, 2016, 06:17:17 AM
Able to throw another chunk at the mortgage in December.  Down to 88,888.  I planned it to be all 8s b/c I'm a nerd and am easily entertained.  We started at 230k in Sept 2013- hoping to payoff at the end of this year!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: steveo on January 06, 2016, 01:44:48 PM
My mortgage is now done. All I have to do is close the account down. I have $10 credit. Freaken great.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Josiecat on January 06, 2016, 03:02:14 PM
Steveo - So very happy for you!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Clean Shaven on January 06, 2016, 03:06:39 PM
I'm waiting for January's monthly payment to process (tomorrow), then will request the loan payoff demand, and write one final check!

This will be the first time I am 100% debt-free since early college days, or maybe high school. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: steveo on January 06, 2016, 06:56:55 PM
Steveo - So very happy for you!

Thank You. Its a pretty big thing for us. I feel we now have a lot more money to throw into growing our wealth and FIRE assets plus we don't have any debt now which means we should basically have a roof over our heads for life.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: nnls on January 06, 2016, 06:58:06 PM
I'm waiting for January's monthly payment to process (tomorrow), then will request the loan payoff demand, and write one final check!

This will be the first time I am 100% debt-free since early college days, or maybe high school.

Congratulations!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Clean Shaven on January 07, 2016, 07:22:31 AM
Thanks! I posted about it because I feel like telling someone, and anonymous Internet forum members seems to be about the only people my wife and I can tell.

Seems like it shouldn't be this way, but telling coworkers "I'm happy, we paid off this huge debt in a few short years by carefully saving and not wasting money" wouldn't go over well. OTOH, "hey check out my new $50k car, payments are only $600/mo for the next 5 years" would go over just fine. Spendy pants logic, I guess.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on January 07, 2016, 07:36:33 AM
My mortgage is now done. All I have to do is close the account down. I have $10 credit. Freaken great.
Wonderful news!!! Congratulations!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: freeatlast on January 07, 2016, 10:34:38 AM
I need an incentive to stay in a job that is wearing on me, so I have chosen to pay down the mortgage even though I have a favorable rate of 3.625% on a 30 year.  I know the debate on this.... but I need a goal and there are worse things I could do with the money :)

I live in a high cost of living area so my house even in the "bad" part of town had a starting mortgage of 262k. I got that down to $200k as of Jan. 1 (3 1/2 years). Now I am getting serious. So I made a chart that takes me from $200,000 to $100,000 in 2016 and I mark on it every time I make a payment. Down to $197k! This chart is in my home office and it is a reminder of why I am doing what I am doing! This is a lofty goal and I am not sure I can make it.  I may sell some useless stuff I don't use to try to get there....

Love this thread - good luck to everyone and happy 2016!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on January 07, 2016, 11:41:27 AM
Thanks! I posted about it because I feel like telling someone, and anonymous Internet forum members seems to be about the only people my wife and I can tell.

Seems like it shouldn't be this way, but telling coworkers "I'm happy, we paid off this huge debt in a few short years by carefully saving and not wasting money" wouldn't go over well. OTOH, "hey check out my new $50k car, payments are only $600/mo for the next 5 years" would go over just fine. Spendy pants logic, I guess.

You really are best keeping it to yourself.  It only serves to make most people feel bad/dumb.  There are only a very few like minded people who I told.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Scubanewbie on January 07, 2016, 03:14:58 PM
I need an incentive to stay in a job that is wearing on me, so I have chosen to pay down the mortgage even though I have a favorable rate of 3.625% on a 30 year.  I know the debate on this.... but I need a goal and there are worse things I could do with the money :)

I live in a high cost of living area so my house even in the "bad" part of town had a starting mortgage of 262k. I got that down to $200k as of Jan. 1 (3 1/2 years). Now I am getting serious. So I made a chart that takes me from $200,000 to $100,000 in 2016 and I mark on it every time I make a payment. Down to $197k! This chart is in my home office and it is a reminder of why I am doing what I am doing! This is a lofty goal and I am not sure I can make it.  I may sell some useless stuff I don't use to try to get there....

Love this thread - good luck to everyone and happy 2016!

Great goal!  I agree that the things that motivate us are the best to work on.  $100K in one year, wow, you're my hero! :)  Not to be a downer but I'm assuming you're planning to do *some* retirement investing simultaneously?  Enough to get to match?  Enough to max out tax advantaged accounts?  With that kind of income the risk of waiting too long can be pretty serious.

We're taking a longer term goal, I'd love to be done in 5 years.  But I'm in awe of those with super-short timeframes, it's so exciting and I'd be happy to cheer you on!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: steveo on January 07, 2016, 11:13:07 PM
My payout went smoothly but it was interesting. Firstly the money was rejected because it was pushing my account into credit. I rang up and they said write a letter to close the account because there is a massive amount in redraw. I transferred the money back into the home loan and paid it to 0 to avoid any interest. I checked it today and that payment had been rejected. I called up today and said I wanted to close it and they just closed it.

It was sweet.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bee21 on January 08, 2016, 03:54:57 AM
Congrats.

Just wondering, what is happening with the property deeds in your side of the woods? How do you remove the bank from it? It is complicated/expensive over there?

We paid off the damn thing but the final paperwork is not organized because the lovely husband does not feel like dealing with lawyers and paperwork right now. I know, no comments on this one.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on January 08, 2016, 05:40:06 AM
@Bee21
I used to work at a title company, and the Deed of Release would be recorded at the courthouse when a mortgage was satisfied.  Sometimes the owner of the property would receive it and need to file it (for a small fee) but sometimes the bank would send it directly to the courthouse to be filed and the owner would received it afterwards with the recording information stamped on it.

At least in our world, (mid-US) attorneys don't factor into it at all. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bee21 on January 08, 2016, 01:14:16 PM
Thanks for that. We are in Australia, and the husband allegedly did his research on this. I am just kicking myself for not going with him to the bank when he closed the account as we could have organized it there and then. I will pop in the bank in my lunchtime next week and collect the necessary paperwork, lawyer up if necessary and drag him along. The little darling needs a bit of a push on financial matters unfortunately. He always admits that I was right afterwards :) like this house payoff thing. 3 years ago he said I was delusional.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: steveo on January 08, 2016, 02:14:14 PM
Thanks for that. We are in Australia, and the husband allegedly did his research on this. I am just kicking myself for not going with him to the bank when he closed the account as we could have organized it there and then. I will pop in the bank in my lunchtime next week and collect the necessary paperwork, lawyer up if necessary and drag him along. The little darling needs a bit of a push on financial matters unfortunately. He always admits that I was right afterwards :) like this house payoff thing. 3 years ago he said I was delusional.

Bee - I am Australian. I didn't discharge the mortgage as we have a line of credit with 50k. We don't owe anything on that and intend to use it as an emergency fund if it is required.

It should be really easy though to discharge the mortgage. The bank I am with thought that was what we wanted and sent us a form. I expect that is all you have to do. There will probably be a small fee.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on January 10, 2016, 08:59:49 AM
Bee21, Of course, you'll make the trip to the bank "his" idea and praise him like your first born taking his first steps right?  :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: freeatlast on January 13, 2016, 12:56:50 AM
I need an incentive to stay in a job that is wearing on me, so I have chosen to pay down the mortgage even though I have a favorable rate of 3.625% on a 30 year.  I know the debate on this.... but I need a goal and there are worse things I could do with the money :)

I live in a high cost of living area so my house even in the "bad" part of town had a starting mortgage of 262k. I got that down to $200k as of Jan. 1 (3 1/2 years). Now I am getting serious. So I made a chart that takes me from $200,000 to $100,000 in 2016 and I mark on it every time I make a payment. Down to $197k! This chart is in my home office and it is a reminder of why I am doing what I am doing! This is a lofty goal and I am not sure I can make it.  I may sell some useless stuff I don't use to try to get there....

Love this thread - good luck to everyone and happy 2016!

Great goal!  I agree that the things that motivate us are the best to work on.  $100K in one year, wow, you're my hero! :)  Not to be a downer but I'm assuming you're planning to do *some* retirement investing simultaneously?  Enough to get to match?  Enough to max out tax advantaged accounts?  With that kind of income the risk of waiting too long can be pretty serious.

We're taking a longer term goal, I'd love to be done in 5 years.  But I'm in awe of those with super-short timeframes, it's so exciting and I'd be happy to cheer you on!


Thanks Scub! I read your post and you are kicking it too! I'll be down to $194k by end of January. My goal may be aggressive but I am going to see how well I can do. I am older than you (47) and I feel like I am buying freedom on behalf of my older self. I don't want to be paying the mortgage when I am 70 - which would have happened if I did not repay early. I am investing enough in the 401(k) to cover the match, but I never seem to do well in the market...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bee21 on January 13, 2016, 02:27:10 AM
Thanks for the replies guys. Anyone has any idea how much does storing the deeds cost? Lawyers/banks/safe?

I am really keen having it discharged, as he is now researching yachts :D

I definitely don't want a line of credit.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: birdman2003 on January 13, 2016, 12:16:45 PM
You should be able to rent a safety deposit box at a bank for $50 a year.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dogboyslim on January 13, 2016, 12:39:52 PM
Happy to find this thread.  I know that strictly from a return perspective I'm better off investing than paying off the mortgage, but the reduction in required cash flow is very appealing to me, and knowing I have no debt at all other than revolving accounts that are paid off each month is an emotional gain for both my wife and I.  We moved a few years ago, so our original mortgage was 280k.  We put down the min on our house until we sold our prior home.  Once that house sold, we kept the money under the invest it philosophy, but both my wife and I were thinking we should just pay it down.  Last December we refinanced to a 10 year fixed HELOC at $99k using the proceeds from the prior home sale.  In 2015 we decided that the two of us didn't need 3 cars, so we sold our newest car and put another 25k into the mortgage.  Right now we sit at $34k $32k.  I ended up overwitholding my taxes last year after messing up the prior year due to the move, so we expect to have about $10k in state/federal refund, and we are paying down about $2k per month.  My office did well last year so I'm hoping for a bit of a discretionary bonus (they have done it in other years).  If that happens, we could be mortgage free by May.  Otherwise, December 2016 will be our last payment.

Edit: down to $32k after January pmt
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on January 13, 2016, 06:12:28 PM
@dogboyslim,   Great progress and very creative!   The margin of safety every month of your life from having a paid off home and the sense of "completion" brings a sense of confidence every day that's hard to describe... 

We're actually rolling coins, selling junk we never use otherwise and putting every bit of spare cash towards ours (after putting money towards some maintenance and education expenses we'd otherwise have to borrow to cover).    So will scratch together almost another 1% extra principal payment this month on our $109K balance this month despite my plan to hold off on mortgage pay downs for a bit. 

So beware, once you start, it will consume your destiny until it's complete (especially the closer you get)...  and that's a good thing!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: steveo on January 13, 2016, 07:03:08 PM
Thanks for the replies guys. Anyone has any idea how much does storing the deeds cost? Lawyers/banks/safe?

I am really keen having it discharged, as he is now researching yachts :D

I definitely don't want a line of credit.

Why not just store it at home. Its just some papers.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on January 16, 2016, 10:02:46 AM
It's officially official now for me.  The discharge showed up on the county clerk's website and the bank was removed as a lien holder on my insurance.  About a month long process from the time the final payment was made.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: RNwastash on January 16, 2016, 02:46:54 PM
$119,872 to date.  I so want to pay off my mortgage so I can go down to part time status.  Great job everyone and a wonderful, closer to debt-free year to all of you :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: serious_pete on January 19, 2016, 09:52:43 AM
I'm in! £122,000 left to go on a £128,000 mortgage. Interest rate set at 4.99% So far made a grand total of £1000 overpayments so got quite a way to go. The plan is to overpay by £500 per month to start with and change mortgage deal in December.

Now down to £116,500 and interest rate is now down to 3.09% as of January. Still working on 500 overpay per month. Slow but steady!

As of right now mortgage is at £105, 082.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BBub on January 19, 2016, 11:15:11 AM
It's officially official now for me.  The discharge showed up on the county clerk's website and the bank was removed as a lien holder on my insurance.  About a month long process from the time the final payment was made.

That's awesome DoD.  How does it feel - Relief, excitement, happiness, calmness?  Does the feeling of being debt free live up to your expectations, or did it just kind of feel like another milestone?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mustangchik83 on January 19, 2016, 11:45:11 AM
I've been following MMM for a few years now, but haven't been active in the forum.  However, last week my husband and I finally sold off a previous house that had become a no-better-than-break-even rental during a bad housing market.  The proceeds from that sale, plus a little extra bonus money will pay off our current home later this week. We are giddy with excitement at the prospect of being debt-free at 32, but unfortunately, most of our family and friends are busy living typical American lives and wouldn't be thrilled to hear our news.  So, I came here to celebrate quietly with like-minded people.  :)

To all those still striving to get to zero - keep up the good work!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on January 19, 2016, 02:55:38 PM
It's officially official now for me.  The discharge showed up on the county clerk's website and the bank was removed as a lien holder on my insurance.  About a month long process from the time the final payment was made.

That's awesome DoD.  How does it feel - Relief, excitement, happiness, calmness?  Does the feeling of being debt free live up to your expectations, or did it just kind of feel like another milestone?

To be completely honest, pretty lackluster.  All the money that would've previously went to the mortgage will go a 457b so it's not like there is any kind of windfall. I guess the only immediate benefit is knowing that if some kind of catastrophe strikes, the house is mine no matter what.  That does bring some peace on a daily basis.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: steveo on January 19, 2016, 11:50:24 PM
It's officially official now for me.  The discharge showed up on the county clerk's website and the bank was removed as a lien holder on my insurance.  About a month long process from the time the final payment was made.

That's awesome DoD.  How does it feel - Relief, excitement, happiness, calmness?  Does the feeling of being debt free live up to your expectations, or did it just kind of feel like another milestone?

I feel the same way. Now I'm starting to save more to reach FI.

To be completely honest, pretty lackluster.  All the money that would've previously went to the mortgage will go a 457b so it's not like there is any kind of windfall. I guess the only immediate benefit is knowing that if some kind of catastrophe strikes, the house is mine no matter what.  That does bring some peace on a daily basis.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: bzzzt on January 20, 2016, 08:38:00 PM
I guess the only immediate benefit is knowing that if some kind of catastrophe strikes, the house is mine no matter what.  That does bring some peace on a daily basis.

Agreed. It also gives me the ability to look at the market on down days and not feel total despair.

Indexes down 2% today? IDGAF. Burn baby burn! Daddy wants to buy low! ;)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on January 21, 2016, 08:06:08 AM
Quote from: bzzzt [/quote

Agreed. It also gives me the ability to look at the market on down days and not feel total despair.

Indexes down 2% today? IDGAF. Burn baby burn! Daddy wants to buy low! ;)
Oh yeah!  I'm not one to time the markets but it feels pretty damn good to have poured all my money into the house when markets were peaking and now shift my focus to investing while prices are going   down.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: YoungGranny on January 22, 2016, 08:11:40 AM
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.

Sent a chunk of money at it again this month, down to $129,532



Haven't updated in a bit... balance is sitting at $120,485 - I'm taking a blended approach to paying off the mortgage while still investing. Feels good to have one number moving in the right direction since my investments are not doing so hot this month. Extra large payment on the mortgage this month since it was bonus time.....if only I could do that every month haha.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Mermaid3011 on January 22, 2016, 05:45:25 PM
It's officially official now for me.  The discharge showed up on the county clerk's website and the bank was removed as a lien holder on my insurance.  About a month long process from the time the final payment was made.

Congratulations!!! What a wonderful success to celebrate!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on January 22, 2016, 08:14:12 PM
This sounds sad at first, then you have to embrace the mindset...  I've saved $125 in coins since Thanksgiving to go towards the mortgage.   That's 1% to my freedom!!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Mermaid3011 on January 23, 2016, 11:28:51 AM
This sounds sad at first, then you have to embrace the mindset...  I've saved $125 in coins since Thanksgiving to go towards the mortgage.   That's 1% to my freedom!!!!

That's awesome! Not sad at all! I've been thinking of going to the bank today as well and putting my change from the big cookie jar towards my mortgage!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Heckler on January 24, 2016, 09:43:32 AM
Quote
I've been footin' the bill for some time
Stretchin' my credit out of line
Well I may not get ahead but now I won't be far behind
I've got one more payment and it's mine, we're gonna swing it

Ain't that the way the heart goes
Seems they just attack without a sign
My mind's been on vacation
And my body's been workin' overtime
But I've done all that I can do
There's just one more balance due before it's mine

I've been footin' the bill for some time
Step by step and line by dotted line
Well I haven't bought the farm yet but I'm not that far behind
I've got one more payment and it's mine

One more payment and it's mine
One more payment and it's mine
One more, one more, one more, Lord


Read more: Clint Black - One More Payment Lyrics | MetroLyrics



In 2003, we bought our place in North Vancouver, BC.  Paid $275,000 for a three bed townhouse with enough space to store all our shit.  Mortgaged about $255,000 for a twenty year amortization. 

I knew nothing about money, interest, or savings rate other than I put 5 % away into my employer matched RSP, and spent the rest.  Luckily my lovely wife increased the mortgage payments any chance she could.  Payed biweekly, increasing over the years, plus bonuses went onto the mortgage. Figure we could sell it for $580,000+ now! but the best part, only 13 years later is...


ONE MORE PAYMENT AND ITS OURS!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Mermaid3011 on January 24, 2016, 09:50:35 AM
Quote
I've been footin' the bill for some time
Stretchin' my credit out of line
Well I may not get ahead but now I won't be far behind
I've got one more payment and it's mine, we're gonna swing it

Ain't that the way the heart goes
Seems they just attack without a sign
My mind's been on vacation
And my body's been workin' overtime
But I've done all that I can do
There's just one more balance due before it's mine

I've been footin' the bill for some time
Step by step and line by dotted line
Well I haven't bought the farm yet but I'm not that far behind
I've got one more payment and it's mine

One more payment and it's mine
One more payment and it's mine
One more, one more, one more, Lord


Read more: Clint Black - One More Payment Lyrics | MetroLyrics



In 2003, we bought our place in North Vancouver, BC.  Paid $275,000 for a three bed townhouse with enough space to store all our shit.  Mortgaged about $255,000 for a twenty year amortization. 

I knew nothing about money, interest, or savings rate other than I put 5 % away into my employer matched RSP, and spent the rest.  Luckily my lovely wife increased the mortgage payments any chance she could.  Payed biweekly, increasing over the years, plus bonuses went onto the mortgage. Figure we could sell it for $580,000+ now! but the best part, only 13 years later is...


ONE MORE PAYMENT AND ITS OURS!

Congratulations!! That's fabulous! and what a great area you picked!!
i just started 1.5 yrs ago with a 260k mortgage. My plan is to be done in 11 yrs, so pretty much same timeline as yours. Can't wait! :)
Again: well done and happy FIRE
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: rjbf65 on February 02, 2016, 07:13:18 AM
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.


$38,922 -- $2,921 reduction this month.  More travel and eating out this month, as well as property taxes and insurance slowed us down a bit.  But we are at the goal of being under $40K balance!  It's going down at a pretty good pace that I'm happy with!  We will have some Christmas expenses coming up this month but it shouldn't be all that bad.  My target is to hope to be under $37K at the end of December.

$35,898 -- $3,024 reduction this month.  Received a small bonus from work to more or less cancel out Christmas spending.  Also had to replace the wife's windshield.  Would love to be down to under $33K after January is up.  Have quite a few things on the horizon.  We are expecting our first child in late May.  With that we are planning on upgrading the vehicle fleet some.  While going from 3 vehicles to 2.  Just looking for more room and reliability.  Need to have the ability of hauling a child, 2 dogs, and luggage for trips to see our parents.  We have been on the mustachian side of things when it comes to vehicles.  Our 3 vehicles combined might be worth about 9 or 10K.  My goal is to have a paid for house as well as having atleast 1 newer vehicle also paid for by the time the baby arrives.  We are now at the position of having more cash than mortgage balance.  Really looking forward to knocking it out asap!  Another thing about having it paid off by the end of May is I'll finally be eligible to contribute to my 401K starting in July.  Would be wonderful to max out a 401K in just the remaining half of the year!

$32,026 -- a $3,872 reduction this month.  I always have to wait until the 5th or 6th of each month to process my extra payment.  I'm one of those weird ones that pay things as soon as I get the notice instead of holding on to the money for as long as possible.  If all goes well February and March have the potential to be good debt reduction months.  Tax refund in February hopefully and a 3 paycheck month in March.  We will be doing some vehicle upgrading with a new baby on the way but I will do everything I can to keep that cost to a minimum. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Mermaid3011 on February 03, 2016, 09:48:25 AM
Here are my stats

Condo (downtown Toronto) bought for $308,000 in July 2014
(value around 340k now after complete renovation)
started out w mortgage: $240k
as of Feb 1, 2016 - 205k

goal for 2016 - 198k
goal for 2017 - 180k
goal for 2018 - 162k
goal for 2019 - 142k
goal for 2020 - 118k
goal for 2021 - 95k
goal for 2022 - 70k
goal for 2023 - 43k
goal for 2024 - 11k
last payment hopefully in March 2025


That's a very long 9 yrs to go... sigh.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: HenryDavid on February 03, 2016, 10:03:39 AM
$3600 to go, six more biweekly payments, done in April.

Originally a 25 year mortgage, paid in 14 years, and we even took a few brief payment holidays while travelling . . .
and added a new roof and a coupla renos along the way. While earning around the median income for our town at the start, 30% above now. In other words, no magically gigantic cash flow.

Thank you low floating interest rates and amped-up payments. (And initial moderate price of course.)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on February 03, 2016, 08:35:50 PM
Another Mortgage Paydown Fan checking in. We broke $100k on the mortgage principal owed. Today it's $98,519.67.

Info: The mortgage company said they will do ONE "recasting" of the loan over the lifetime of the loan for $300. It's a bargain compared to refi, for someone who's planning to pay down the mortgage principal anyway.

http://www.moneycrashers.com/recasting-mortgage-loan/
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: plainjane on February 04, 2016, 06:37:51 AM
goal for 2024 - 11k
last payment hopefully in March 2025
That's a very long 9 yrs to go... sigh.

By the time you're under 40k, you'll be finding $100 here and there, and you can choose whether to snowball against the mortgage or put against FI.  It can go so much faster than you think.

We just finished in 9.5 years.  It is Schrodinger's mortgage no more.  The money is out of the chequing account and the mortgage no longer slows up when I log into the other bank. I suppose it doesn't _really_ count until we get the discharge papers, but I'm going to put a checkmark there now as complete.

Today we're celebrating (also, a birthday) by getting takeout pizza.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on February 04, 2016, 10:08:56 AM
goal for 2024 - 11k
last payment hopefully in March 2025
That's a very long 9 yrs to go... sigh.

By the time you're under 40k, you'll be finding $100 here and there, and you can choose whether to snowball against the mortgage or put against FI.  It can go so much faster than you think.

We just finished in 9.5 years.  It is Schrodinger's mortgage no more.  The money is out of the chequing account and the mortgage no longer slows up when I log into the other bank. I suppose it doesn't _really_ count until we get the discharge papers, but I'm going to put a checkmark there now as complete.

Today we're celebrating (also, a birthday) by getting takeout pizza.

I felt like 40k is the point where you can really start putting a hurtin on your mortgage.  Interest is almost not a factor and all the little sums of money you can throw at it really start to add up.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on February 04, 2016, 06:50:44 PM
goal for 2024 - 11k
last payment hopefully in March 2025
That's a very long 9 yrs to go... sigh.

By the time you're under 40k, you'll be finding $100 here and there, and you can choose whether to snowball against the mortgage or put against FI.  It can go so much faster than you think.

We just finished in 9.5 years.  It is Schrodinger's mortgage no more.  The money is out of the chequing account and the mortgage no longer slows up when I log into the other bank. I suppose it doesn't _really_ count until we get the discharge papers, but I'm going to put a checkmark there now as complete.

Today we're celebrating (also, a birthday) by getting takeout pizza.

I felt like 40k is the point where you can really start putting a hurtin on your mortgage.  Interest is almost not a factor and all the little sums of money you can throw at it really start to add up.

You get at least halfway down the curve and every payment is a very high percentage of mortgage abatement, so each payment makes an ever-more-visible dent in the remaining principal.

We're only halfway through our principal but we've gone from seeing each monthly payment go from 47% principal to currently 82% principal.  (exclusive of insurance and escrow, which are constants and independent of the loan). So now, every single mortgage payment makes a bigger and bigger difference to cutting the principal.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Mermaid3011 on February 05, 2016, 07:34:27 AM
goal for 2024 - 11k
last payment hopefully in March 2025
That's a very long 9 yrs to go... sigh.

By the time you're under 40k, you'll be finding $100 here and there, and you can choose whether to snowball against the mortgage or put against FI.  It can go so much faster than you think.

We just finished in 9.5 years.  It is Schrodinger's mortgage no more.  The money is out of the chequing account and the mortgage no longer slows up when I log into the other bank. I suppose it doesn't _really_ count until we get the discharge papers, but I'm going to put a checkmark there now as complete.

Today we're celebrating (also, a birthday) by getting takeout pizza.

Thanks for the encouragement! Yes! I'll throw everything possible against it to get rid of it sooner.

CONGRATULATIONS to you both! And happy birthday! What a WONDERFUL success and accomplishment!
You should be very very proud of yourself!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Mermaid3011 on February 05, 2016, 07:42:46 AM
Thank you Faraday and Debts_of_Despair!

It sure is fabulous to look at the amortization spreadsheet and see how quickly it goes down once I am raising my monthly mortgage payments. This year is still debt payback, but next year my monthly mortgage payments will go up from $1120 to $1800. That'll make a big difference in getting the principal down.

My next refinancing is due mid 2019, so in 3 yrs 5 months. I wonder where interest will be then. right now I am calculating with 6% (instead of 2.99% right now).

Do you think that is a decent assumption? Mortgage rates around 6% in 2019?

Considering the current low interest environment I can't really see interest rates going up more than 1% per year...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Heckler on February 05, 2016, 09:50:08 AM
Today is (better be!) the day!

I'm staring at the checking account, waiting for that final payment to come out.  Haven't heard a word from Mortco. about The End, but my calculations in relation to the balance 6 weeks ago says this final payment will be $200 less than normal. 

Then I have to crack the bottle of Muscato DAsti and drink it all myself, because on Monday my infertile wife of 20 years was told she shouldn't drink alcohol for at least the next three months!  It's been an exciting and confusing week!

Thank goodness for the three bedrooms!  Our friend who is a real estate developer suggested we buy the larger fixer upper instead of the smaller well decorated unit for the same price.  You can repaint, but it's impossible to add sqft. to a strata.    Now...  Which room has to go, the craft/sewing room or the spare bedroom for visitors from Ontario?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Mermaid3011 on February 05, 2016, 11:17:12 AM
Today is (better be!) the day!

I'm staring at the checking account, waiting for that final payment to come out.  Haven't heard a word from Mortco. about The End, but my calculations in relation to the balance 6 weeks ago says this final payment will be $200 less than normal. 

Then I have to crack the bottle of Muscato DAsti and drink it all myself, because on Monday my infertile wife of 20 years was told she shouldn't drink alcohol for at least the next three months!  It's been an exciting and confusing week!

Thank goodness for the three bedrooms!  Our friend who is a real estate developer suggested we buy the larger fixer upper instead of the smaller well decorated unit for the same price.  You can repaint, but it's impossible to add sqft. to a strata.    Now...  Which room has to go, the craft/sewing room or the spare bedroom for visitors from Ontario?


OMG Congratulations on becoming a DAD!!! And how awesome the timing is - it's supposed to be this way!

I would theoretically qualify as visitor from Ontario, but still suggest that room goes! As a knitter and crafter I think the hobby room will be VERY important in the next years to find some peace and quiet time...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Heckler on February 05, 2016, 12:15:12 PM
Whoa, heavy shit when you put that in CAPS.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on February 05, 2016, 08:55:56 PM
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.

Down to $60k as of tomorrow. I threw some dry powder at it as the S&P 500 is still near all time highs and I feel like I'm dollar cost averaging in enough per month right now. Flows out of my bank savings account into the market + my recent mortgage payments are greater than my current income so doing both isn't sustainable long term. I will probably have to slow down the mortgage payoff next year some time OR work more to keep paying it down quickly. $60k seems really close to being done, but calendar wise there is a good distance to go.

Jan. 2015 - ~100k
Oct. 2015 - ~$67500
Dec.3, 2015 - ~$60k
Feb. 5, 2015 - $52,108.53

Not allowed to contribute to a Roth IRA this year. I don't like the current market prospects enough to put the whole $5500 I was going to put into the Roth for 2015 into a taxable account so I used some of it on the mortgage. It's exciting to see my balance go down so quickly since the beginning of 2015, but disappointing to know this rate is no longer sustainable long term now that late last year I started investing in a taxable account as well. Because...the math.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on February 09, 2016, 06:18:59 AM
Dropped it another 3k this month.  Down to 85,500!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Scubanewbie on February 09, 2016, 07:10:08 AM
Love hearing everyone's progress.  Keep it up!  I'm in a slow and steady plod towards payoff in 2020, a little less than 15 years after purchasing the house.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Threshkin on February 15, 2016, 12:47:03 PM
Question for you guys -

Wife said something today as a joke that I kind of want to do.  Talk me out of it.

We have $X left on our mortgage, where X represents about 1-1.25 years worth of expenses.  We have 0.5X right now in cash (emergency fund), and will be receiving 0.5X in the form of a bonus in early April.  She was saying that we could pay the entire thing off then and we'd be mortgage free.  That'd put our payoff at just under a year which would be a ton of fun for me.
 
Obviously that leaves us with no emergency fund, which is why she was joking.  However, I know MMM has talked about having a HELOC open in the past as an emergency fund of sorts, which then allows him to have more money invested. We could open one for < $100 in the case of emergencies, and then build back our emergency fund over the next 3 months. I, the ever impatient one, want to do it.

Tell me this is a bad idea.

I spent my emergency fund to pay off the last of my mortgage.  I did not open a HELOC but instead just sweated it out.  I reallocated 100% of the old mortgage payment plus all non-401k funds to rebuilding my emergency fund.  It went pretty back up quick.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Threshkin on February 15, 2016, 01:59:22 PM
Question for you guys -

Wife said something today as a joke that I kind of want to do.  Talk me out of it.

We have $X left on our mortgage, where X represents about 1-1.25 years worth of expenses.  We have 0.5X right now in cash (emergency fund), and will be receiving 0.5X in the form of a bonus in early April.  She was saying that we could pay the entire thing off then and we'd be mortgage free.  That'd put our payoff at just under a year which would be a ton of fun for me.
 
Obviously that leaves us with no emergency fund, which is why she was joking.  However, I know MMM has talked about having a HELOC open in the past as an emergency fund of sorts, which then allows him to have more money invested. We could open one for < $100 in the case of emergencies, and then build back our emergency fund over the next 3 months. I, the ever impatient one, want to do it.

Tell me this is a bad idea.

I spent my emergency fund to pay off the last of my mortgage.  I did not open a HELOC but instead just sweated it out.  I reallocated 100% of the old mortgage payment plus all non-401k funds to rebuilding my emergency fund.  It went pretty back up quick.

That settles it! I told my wife that if Threskin* agreed with me that we should do it.

*Replace preceding name with any and all posters who agree with me

:).  Seriously, though, thanks for the reply. We'd be looking at a 3 month build back so I don't see it as a huge issue, and the payoff would be a ton of fun.

I had about a six month build back time.  But I also had a good amount of after tax investments that I could tap if necessary.  I consider it my own personal LOC.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cheddarpie on February 15, 2016, 08:12:28 PM
Question for you guys -

Wife said something today as a joke that I kind of want to do.  Talk me out of it.

We have $X left on our mortgage, where X represents about 1-1.25 years worth of expenses.  We have 0.5X right now in cash (emergency fund), and will be receiving 0.5X in the form of a bonus in early April.  She was saying that we could pay the entire thing off then and we'd be mortgage free.  That'd put our payoff at just under a year which would be a ton of fun for me.
 
Obviously that leaves us with no emergency fund, which is why she was joking.  However, I know MMM has talked about having a HELOC open in the past as an emergency fund of sorts, which then allows him to have more money invested. We could open one for < $100 in the case of emergencies, and then build back our emergency fund over the next 3 months. I, the ever impatient one, want to do it.

Tell me this is a bad idea.

Let us know what you do! I'm in a similar position where I *could* pay off my mortgage now, but it would mean liquidating my emergency fund and taking a loss on the investments (OK now for tax loss harvesting purposes and, while I don't like the hint of timing the market, it seems like an ok time to be gradually getting back in...). I hadn't thought about the HELOC idea before. That might be a good way to do it. Without a mortgage, I could probably get my savings back up within the year ... which also makes me think instead of saving more I should just save like a dog and send all my extra money to the mortgage.  I am talking myself in circles!

So if you have a 3-month build back, the alternative is you just pay your mortgage off in 3 months? That seems like a better idea ... but either way, so awesome that you are about to knock this baby out!! Congrats!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Lmoot on February 16, 2016, 12:13:53 AM
I officially joined the prepay club in December. Prepaid $15k so far with $41k to go...in my 7th year of a 30 year mortgage. I could pay it off by end of 2017, but I think I'll pay it down to $10k, switch to saving for the DP on an investment property, then pay it off after closing on the 2nd property. That way I don't mess with my credit score (which can drop 50+ points if paying off an installment loan...especially if it's your only one), right before a major purchase. So I'm hoping to have it completely paid off, and to have a second property by end of 2018.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on February 16, 2016, 08:51:41 AM
Update on the below and lots of thoughts swilling about what to do next.

So I continued with what I said I would do: I am now at $47,658.00!!
Also with a few sales in our condo area, we now owe less than what it is worth. Zillow says it is worth 79k now, though i think it would sell for more. I bought it for 140k in 2003 :( So it is sad to think of selling it for so much less.. but i really would like a bigger home so i can have a better art studio.
I am now wondering all sorts of things, could/should i get a 2nd mortgage, should i rent or sell this condo, should i stick some more savings in the principle or hold in case i need it for a downpayment.



I've decided I'm in! yay! Gonna send a huge check to them this week :) take me down to 68k owed. Then we are going to put an extra 1000 towards it every month. yippee.
We want to sell it in a few years maybe 3, once we have it paid off and have cash for a downpayment on another house.
 Logged
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on February 16, 2016, 01:38:36 PM
I've been reading some of this thread today and have a few Qs for you all.
Is there a nifty worksheet download anywhere to plunk my numbers in and see how much i am saving as i pay down?
Someone mentioned being fined for paying down, i never knew that. i have a coldwell banker loan, do you think i have payment penalties or paying off early penalties?
i just thought i paid it off and that was that, but do i have to have a meeting to discuss that with them??

Ive never bothered to refinance- wondering if i should at this late stage.. i have a 5.9% 30 yr on 130k with 47k left. I could pay it all off today if i really wanted to, but am thinking about buying another place.

thanks for any help given.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Heckler on February 16, 2016, 05:41:25 PM

*Replace preceding name with any and all posters who agree with me

:).  Seriously, though, thanks for the reply. We'd be looking at a 3 month build back so I don't see it as a huge issue, and the payoff would be a ton of fun.

I'd go 50/50.  Keep the EF, but dump the bonus onto it.  That said, we've stopped excess mortgage payments in the past two years since I learned how to invest smartly.  Still paid off the mortgage, but also increased savings by 40K.  Caveat - we paid of a 25 year mortgage in 13 years through bonuses, raises etc, but didn't have more than a $3k EF until two years ago.  Worth every penny!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on February 16, 2016, 05:59:19 PM
I've been reading some of this thread today and have a few Qs for you all.
Is there a nifty worksheet download anywhere to plunk my numbers in and see how much i am saving as i pay down?
Someone mentioned being fined for paying down, i never knew that. i have a coldwell banker loan, do you think i have payment penalties or paying off early penalties?
i just thought i paid it off and that was that, but do i have to have a meeting to discuss that with them??

Ive never bothered to refinance- wondering if i should at this late stage.. i have a 5.9% 30 yr on 130k with 47k left. I could pay it all off today if i really wanted to, but am thinking about buying another place.

thanks for any help given.
My mortgage provider has an amortization calculator that will show me how much I save at various payment levels. Mint.com will also do it for you if you set up a goal. I am sure there are generic calculators out there as well as both of those sites require accounts. Shouldn't be hard to find one on google I wouldn't think. Early payment penalties are not typical in the United States, but you should check with your provide. I always check before getting any loan that it has no penalties for early payment, so have never had to do so after the fact. 5.9% is really high. If you decide not to pay it off you should probably think about refinancing whats left into a 10 yr or 15 year with a rate under 3%. What is the remaining period left at a normal payment rate?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on February 16, 2016, 07:25:55 PM
ah I've never thought to remember that, so went to look, it says 2035.. I have been hacking away at the principle fairly well. I'm glad i probably don't have penalties for early payment of loan, but i should call them to see. One of my friends told me once that refinancing her home was so much work! and so i have just put it off because i haven't had time to deal with it and instead just thought i would pay it fast.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on February 22, 2016, 12:00:11 PM
I'm joining the club!!  I want to be out from under the crushing debt of my mortgage.
I've been on the fence about this for a few years and stashing all of my rental income into a sinking fund invested in VTSAX.  Last month I sold all of the sinking fund and I took a big chunk from a cash account to pay down the mortgage prior to a reamortization.  Goal is to pay the mortgage down to a point that I could afford payments even if I'm not employed.  That might be all the way to zero, or it might not.  Even with my plans to continue paying 1000 extra each month, I'm still a looooong way away from retiring this debt, so I'm trying to speed that up.  I still have a long time to figure out the end result.

I'm in a HCOL city in a big house.  I'll show progress in terms of % paid off against initial home value (equity against initial sale price).


Update: 
Progress (%equity against initial sale price)
So happy to be over 50%!  I still haven't signed the paperwork for the reamortization.  Should probably do that sooner rather than later, because right now, it's free, but I sort of want to see if I can get it to a nice even number before I do it. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dogboyslim on February 22, 2016, 05:14:07 PM
...Last December we refinanced to a 10 year fixed HELOC at $99k using the proceeds from the prior home sale.  In 2015 we decided that the two of us didn't need 3 cars, so we sold our newest car and put another 25k into the mortgage.  Right now we sit at $34k $32k.  I ended up overwitholding my taxes last year after messing up the prior year due to the move, so we expect to have about $10k in state/federal refund, and we are paying down about $2k per month.  My office did well last year so I'm hoping for a bit of a discretionary bonus (they have done it in other years).  If that happens, we could be mortgage free by May.  Otherwise, December 2016 will be our last payment.

Edit: down to $32k after January pmt

Office discretionary bonus was better than expected so we decided to pay it off.  As of today, We have no debt other than the temporary credit card debt that gets paid off every month.  While it feels good, it also doesn't really feel different as we are about to sit down to our baked chicken for dinner.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: nnls on February 22, 2016, 05:33:44 PM
...Last December we refinanced to a 10 year fixed HELOC at $99k using the proceeds from the prior home sale.  In 2015 we decided that the two of us didn't need 3 cars, so we sold our newest car and put another 25k into the mortgage.  Right now we sit at $34k $32k.  I ended up overwitholding my taxes last year after messing up the prior year due to the move, so we expect to have about $10k in state/federal refund, and we are paying down about $2k per month.  My office did well last year so I'm hoping for a bit of a discretionary bonus (they have done it in other years).  If that happens, we could be mortgage free by May.  Otherwise, December 2016 will be our last payment.

Edit: down to $32k after January pmt

Office discretionary bonus was better than expected so we decided to pay it off.  As of today, We have no debt other than the temporary credit card debt that gets paid off every month.  While it feels good, it also doesn't really feel different as we are about to sit down to our baked chicken for dinner.

Congratulations!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on February 22, 2016, 06:23:30 PM
...Last December we refinanced to a 10 year fixed HELOC at $99k using the proceeds from the prior home sale.  In 2015 we decided that the two of us didn't need 3 cars, so we sold our newest car and put another 25k into the mortgage.  Right now we sit at $34k $32k.  I ended up overwitholding my taxes last year after messing up the prior year due to the move, so we expect to have about $10k in state/federal refund, and we are paying down about $2k per month.  My office did well last year so I'm hoping for a bit of a discretionary bonus (they have done it in other years).  If that happens, we could be mortgage free by May.  Otherwise, December 2016 will be our last payment.

Edit: down to $32k after January pmt

Office discretionary bonus was better than expected so we decided to pay it off.  As of today, We have no debt other than the temporary credit card debt that gets paid off every month.  While it feels good, it also doesn't really feel different as we are about to sit down to our baked chicken for dinner.

This is fantastic! Congratulations! I'll bet that was the best baked chicken you've ever had!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on February 22, 2016, 08:22:19 PM
...Last December we refinanced to a 10 year fixed HELOC at $99k using the proceeds from the prior home sale.  In 2015 we decided that the two of us didn't need 3 cars, so we sold our newest car and put another 25k into the mortgage.  Right now we sit at $34k $32k.  I ended up overwitholding my taxes last year after messing up the prior year due to the move, so we expect to have about $10k in state/federal refund, and we are paying down about $2k per month.  My office did well last year so I'm hoping for a bit of a discretionary bonus (they have done it in other years).  If that happens, we could be mortgage free by May.  Otherwise, December 2016 will be our last payment.

Edit: down to $32k after January pmt

Office discretionary bonus was better than expected so we decided to pay it off.  As of today, We have no debt other than the temporary credit card debt that gets paid off every month.  While it feels good, it also doesn't really feel different as we are about to sit down to our baked chicken for dinner.

I'm betting next month feels different. No payment to make for the first time. Congrats!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Heckler on February 22, 2016, 09:32:10 PM

Someone mentioned being fined for paying down, i never knew that. i have a coldwell banker loan, do you think i have payment penalties or paying off early penalties?
i just thought i paid it off and that was that, but do i have to have a meeting to discuss that with them??



This is not a "do you think" question to ask us.   You have a mortgage contract that will define prepayment terms and conditions.   Understand what you've signed. Ideally before you sign it, but before you overpay by accident would be good too.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Heckler on February 22, 2016, 09:40:22 PM



I'm betting next month feels different. No payment to make for the first time. Congrats!

We just had our first pay check that didn't disappear to mortgage oblivion.  Thanks to MMM, it did however disappear to the wife's RSP account to buy emerging markets index which are currently lowest in our allocation. 

So, it didn't feel much different yet.  Still eating spaghettini with homemade meatballs.  We splurged and added green beans though!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dabears847 on February 24, 2016, 02:27:34 PM
Quote from: bzzzt [/quote

Agreed. It also gives me the ability to look at the market on down days and not feel total despair.

Indexes down 2% today? IDGAF. Burn baby burn! Daddy wants to buy low! ;)
Oh yeah!  I'm not one to time the markets but it feels pretty damn good to have poured all my money into the house when markets were peaking and now shift my focus to investing while prices are going   down.
I'm actually torn on this right now, $32,000 left on the mortgage, and I'd like to invest the bonus in April rather than payoff the house.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on February 24, 2016, 05:11:58 PM
Wait until April and see where the markets are. No need to worry about it now. You can't pay the mortgage or invest until you get the money. If the markets are significantly up or down from where they are now your decision may change.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on February 27, 2016, 09:34:37 AM
So after payoff, my credit score went down by over 30 points.  This is without any other major changes in credit activity. Not sure if I should care. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: William Cannon on February 27, 2016, 04:30:06 PM
I joined the club last December.  I sleep better at night now for sure.  I also feel a sense of accomplishment to reach this goal in our mid 30s on one income, while my wife stays home and raises our 4 children.  Not only that, but it brought me and my wife closer together since we had to work as a team, endure the same sacrifices for the good of our little clan, and collaborate on how to do it without burdening our family life.  I am truly blessed.

Tapa

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Lmoot on February 28, 2016, 10:05:45 AM
So after payoff, my credit score went down by over 30 points.  This is without any other major changes in credit activity. Not sure if I should care.

If you don't mind me asking:

1) Do you have a car loan or any other type of loan?
2) How many credit cards do you have?
3) How old was your mortgage when you paid it off?

I ask because I'm concerned about this happening to me when I pay off my mortgage because I don't have any other installment type loan and am wondering if because my mortgage will  be 8 years old when I pay it off, if that will impact my age of credit greatly when I close it. I'll be buying my first rental property about a year after the payoff and the interest rate will already be higher due tp it being an investment property so I want to minimize reasons for lenders to raise the rate of the new mortgage even higher.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on February 28, 2016, 03:14:13 PM
If you don't mind me asking:

1) Do you have a car loan or any other type of loan?
No.  Last had a car loan in Nov of 2014.
2) How many credit cards do you have?
Three, with a total limit around 50k.  I only use two regularly.  Utilization rarely goes beyond 4%. This is my only current credit usage.
3) How old was your mortgage when you paid it off?
About 8.5 years.

Keeping up a good credit score is a game for suckers, apparently.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on February 28, 2016, 07:19:53 PM
I ask because I'm concerned about this happening to me when I pay off my mortgage because I don't have any other installment type loan and am wondering if because my mortgage will  be 8 years old when I pay it off, if that will impact my age of credit greatly when I close it. I'll be buying my first rental property about a year after the payoff and the interest rate will already be higher due tp it being an investment property so I want to minimize reasons for lenders to raise the rate of the new mortgage even higher.

MMM frugalists live outside that realm and they know it. When you have zero "back end debt", your credit cards are paid off, cars are paid off and they figure out you've got investments cranking out your living wage, they fall all over themselves to loan money to you.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Lmoot on February 29, 2016, 09:36:14 AM
^ I definitely agree that they're for the lenders. They are not meant to reward us for sure. High rollers and high spenders are not the only ones that need to be concerned with credit scores though...folks who are into real estate investing need to maintain a high score as the interest rate will have a direct (sometimes significant) impact on monthly cashflow...which is where my interest lies.

Since I plan on floating multiple properties within the next 5 years, even the slightest increase in the rates I can qualify for could cost me thousands of dollars per year, per property, until I refinance or pay it off.

lol, I'm definitely not rolling around in a brand new 4x4. My 2003 Honda was paid off in 2009 (paid off in 9 months), and I expect to keep it for at least 7 more years, and my monthly requirements are under $1000. My non-necessities push that up a few hundred dollars more, but I could live on less than $1000 if I had to, which would cover mortgage, gas (work from home at 1 job, live 5 min walk from 2nd job), food (parents have a backyard homestead, and I can buy staples at Costco), and car insurance. I could probably even slip my phone bill in there at $40 and stay sub $1k. I could get access to internet via phone/friends/family/library/both jobs. Granted, I DON'T get by on the minimum right now because I don't have to...but it's comforting to know that I could. And I have purposely designed it that way.

And I'll approach my balancing of real estate expenses the same way...minimize minimize minimize....which unfortunately means playing the game I was never meant to win.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Lmoot on February 29, 2016, 09:44:27 AM
If you don't mind me asking:

1) Do you have a car loan or any other type of loan?
No.  Last had a car loan in Nov of 2014.
2) How many credit cards do you have?
Three, with a total limit around 50k.  I only use two regularly.  Utilization rarely goes beyond 4%. This is my only current credit usage.
3) How old was your mortgage when you paid it off?
About 8.5 years.

Keeping up a good credit score is a game for suckers, apparently.

Thank you so much for sharing that. My profile looks similar...paid off car, no other loans than mortgage, will be at 8 years at pay off, except I have 5 cc's. My current utilization is about 15-20% due to balances that are paid off in full each month, and a balance on a 0% promotion. But that will be gone by the time I apply for a new mortgage, and I'm aiming for 0-5% utilization.

I'm thinking about leaving a little of the mortgage left and paying it off after I buy another property so my credit doesn't drop, but it sure would be easier and faster to save for a DP with it completely gone so I won't have that monthly bill anymore.
Title: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: IndyPendent on February 29, 2016, 04:46:42 PM
Paid off today! Couldn't believe the size of the smile on my face!

Paid off in 4.5 years--the mortgage was just 1.5x salary at the beginning (pre-MMM days).

Ramped up efforts in early 2013, wrote the final check today!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: MrDelane on February 29, 2016, 08:47:35 PM
Paid off today! Couldn't believe the size of the smile on my face!

Paid off in 4.5 years--the mortgage was just 1.5x salary at the beginning (pre-MMM days).

Ramped up efforts in early 2013, wrote the final check today!

Congratulations.
4.5 years is an impressive achievement.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BBub on March 01, 2016, 06:54:53 AM
That's awesome IndyPendent!  Congrats!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on March 03, 2016, 10:17:30 AM
Congrats!!! Indypendant

I just wrote a 1000 check today for principle :)
That should take us down to 45k once our normal payment comes out in a few days too.
yippeeeee
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on March 07, 2016, 09:34:27 PM
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.

Down to $60k as of tomorrow. I threw some dry powder at it as the S&P 500 is still near all time highs and I feel like I'm dollar cost averaging in enough per month right now. Flows out of my bank savings account into the market + my recent mortgage payments are greater than my current income so doing both isn't sustainable long term. I will probably have to slow down the mortgage payoff next year some time OR work more to keep paying it down quickly. $60k seems really close to being done, but calendar wise there is a good distance to go.

Jan. 2015 - ~100k
Oct. 2015 - ~$67500
Dec.3, 2015 - ~$60k
Feb. 5, 2016 - $52,108.53

Not allowed to contribute to a Roth IRA this year. I don't like the current market prospects enough to put the whole $5500 I was going to put into the Roth for 2015 into a taxable account so I used some of it on the mortgage. It's exciting to see my balance go down so quickly since the beginning of 2015, but disappointing to know this rate is no longer sustainable long term now that late last year I started investing in a taxable account as well. Because...the math.

March 7, 2016 - 49,774.21
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on March 08, 2016, 09:22:10 AM
I'm joining the club!!  I want to be out from under the crushing debt of my mortgage.
I've been on the fence about this for a few years and stashing all of my rental income into a sinking fund invested in VTSAX.  Last month I sold all of the sinking fund and I took a big chunk from a cash account to pay down the mortgage prior to a reamortization.  Goal is to pay the mortgage down to a point that I could afford payments even if I'm not employed.  That might be all the way to zero, or it might not.  Even with my plans to continue paying 1000 extra each month, I'm still a looooong way away from retiring this debt, so I'm trying to speed that up.  I still have a long time to figure out the end result.

I'm in a HCOL city in a big house.  I'll show progress in terms of % paid off against initial home value (equity against initial sale price).
It seems that my timing was somewhat fortuitous - selling off my sinking fund near the top of the market and moving the cash to my mortgage and then slowly buying back in at a lower price as cash becomes available (earnings and 401k match).  It's great when things work out, but I'm under no illusions that it had anything to do with my acumen, and instead realize that the next time it could be the opposite.  So I still want to pay this house down, and plan to make one more sizable deposit before I sign the paperwork for the recast (can you believe I still haven't done it!?) 

Anyway, not huge progress since August, but here's the updated list:
Progress (%equity against initial sale price)
Here's the best part (to me):  Originally slated to make last payment at the age of 74.  As of today, my last payment is scheduled for age 64!  And moving each month. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on March 08, 2016, 11:54:25 AM
... broke $100k on the mortgage principal owed. Today it's $98,519.67.

I'm liking the energy this thread keeps tapping into. Awesome mortgage paydown energy here!

Even with my plans to continue paying 1000 extra each month, I'm still a looooong way away from retiring this debt, so I'm trying to speed that up....pay this house down, and plan to make one more sizable deposit before I sign the paperwork for the recast (can you believe I still haven't done it!?) 

GO GO GO BlueHouse! You are in good company, don't fret that you delayed the recast - you well know, the more you do up-front, the lower the payment will be after the recast. (and if they are like my mortgage provider, they recast ONLY ONCE, so you gotta make it good....) I'm aiming for a recast by May 2016, which is much later than I'd planned, but it's not a problem.

Please keep us posted - I want to hear what happens to your monthly mortgage payment after the recast!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on March 08, 2016, 06:06:03 PM
We have $18K left...We've been adding an extra $1.25K to the payments certain months as we are able.  Plan to drop a large payment out of DH's bonus 3/15/16 and have our mortgage gone by 9/8/16....Of course last year I said something similar when the balance was around $26K and then the following week our kitchen and basement were flooded and we spent all last Summer redoing our kitchen.

The basement is still at the studs...We'd rather cash flow it without a 4.625% interest rate so we're trying to pay off the mortgage first.

Joining the club should give us the incentive to finish strong.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on March 08, 2016, 11:19:08 PM
I'm joining the club!!  I want to be out from under the crushing debt of my mortgage.
I've been on the fence about this for a few years and stashing all of my rental income into a sinking fund invested in VTSAX.  Last month I sold all of the sinking fund and I took a big chunk from a cash account to pay down the mortgage prior to a reamortization.  Goal is to pay the mortgage down to a point that I could afford payments even if I'm not employed.  That might be all the way to zero, or it might not.  Even with my plans to continue paying 1000 extra each month, I'm still a looooong way away from retiring this debt, so I'm trying to speed that up.  I still have a long time to figure out the end result.

I'm in a HCOL city in a big house.  I'll show progress in terms of % paid off against initial home value (equity against initial sale price).
It seems that my timing was somewhat fortuitous - selling off my sinking fund near the top of the market and moving the cash to my mortgage and then slowly buying back in at a lower price as cash becomes available (earnings and 401k match).  It's great when things work out, but I'm under no illusions that it had anything to do with my acumen, and instead realize that the next time it could be the opposite.  So I still want to pay this house down, and plan to make one more sizable deposit before I sign the paperwork for the recast (can you believe I still haven't done it!?) 

Anyway, not huge progress since August, but here's the updated list:
Progress (%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)
Here's the best part (to me):  Originally slated to make last payment at the age of 74.  As of today, my last payment is scheduled for age 64!  And moving each month.

Very nice work. Shaved 10 years off. My goal is similar. I want to not have to worry if I get laid off and have to sustain myself on unemployment for a bit vs draining the stache. I looked into recasting, but my provider does not recast, so it's zero or bust.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on March 09, 2016, 08:36:32 PM
(and if they are like my mortgage provider, they recast ONLY ONCE, so you gotta make it good....) I'm aiming for a recast by May 2016, which is much later than I'd planned, but it's not a problem.

Please keep us posted - I want to hear what happens to your monthly mortgage payment after the recast!
Thanks Faraday!  Yes, mine only does it once as well.  I don't think it makes any difference financially whether I wait a little longer to re-cast or do it immediately.  After all, interest is calculated against my outstanding principal.  Do you know if there's any advantage to recasting now vs. 6 months or a year from now?  (Assuming the option to do so for free still exists).

[I looked into recasting, but my provider does not recast, so it's zero or bust.
Yikes.  I thought all mortgages allowed for one recast.  I hope mine doesn't take the option away. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Lmoot on March 10, 2016, 10:20:53 AM
The benefit of recasting later is if you make pre payments along the way. I've prepaid my mortgage by $15k and even though my lender required a $5k payment within 30 days of recasting...the previous amount I've paid down will affect my new monthly payment. Most recasts won't affect your monthly payment that much unless you prepay early into the mortgage. I'm 7 years in, 15k prepaid. I want to get to 50% pre paid within 10 years, then recast the other 50% out to the remaining 20 years (which I'll probably pay off early once I reach a certain level of investment property cash flow).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ryan.triguy on March 11, 2016, 05:10:42 PM
Hello All..

I was wondering about some quick advice from fellow MMM's.  I was just introduced within the last month and have been eating the info as fast as I can.  My wife is totally on board as well which is awesome. 

The advice I am seeking follows the mortgage payoff.  We have started paying an extra third of our monthly payment in bi monthly payments on our 30 yr which is really at 28.5 yrs at 3.375%.  We were going to refi but after lots of consideration she wanted to hold off since the rate would not change much and we could still just make the same inflated payment.  We have an extra 20k sitting doing nothing in savings.  I know we have been ignorant to the ways of money working for us.  We are debating if it would be better to throw this at the mortgage or start a Vanguard type stock.  She already contributes to a roth IRA and I have retirement through work and a deffered compensation that I contribute to at work.  She is also finishing out her Military time with reserves which will benefit us greatly once we can draw from it.

My thinking is although we have several avenues once we hit the random ages set up by retirement.  I want to retire early, which will reduce my pension.  I know I will keep working part time and she will work as well. 

Would it be better to keep attempting to be mortgage free or put the 20k in say Vanguard and let it work or us. 

My long term plan is to pay as much as possible in the next 6 yrs on mortgage at that point retire at 15yrs on job which give me 30% at 60yrs old.  At that point sell our house moving back to the Midwest where her family is and buying cash for house.  Then working part time while kids are in school. 

Any thoughts?  Any and all are appreciated.  Sorry if im tagging on to the Mortgage payoff but in a way it is working toward the same goal.  Thanks
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Rural on March 11, 2016, 06:09:01 PM
Hello All..

I was wondering about some quick advice from fellow MMM's.  I was just introduced within the last month and have been eating the info as fast as I can.  My wife is totally on board as well which is awesome. 

The advice I am seeking follows the mortgage payoff.  We have started paying an extra third of our monthly payment in bi monthly payments on our 30 yr which is really at 28.5 yrs at 3.375%.  We were going to refi but after lots of consideration she wanted to hold off since the rate would not change much and we could still just make the same inflated payment.  We have an extra 20k sitting doing nothing in savings.  I know we have been ignorant to the ways of money working for us.  We are debating if it would be better to throw this at the mortgage or start a Vanguard type stock.  She already contributes to a roth IRA and I have retirement through work and a deffered compensation that I contribute to at work.  She is also finishing out her Military time with reserves which will benefit us greatly once we can draw from it.

My thinking is although we have several avenues once we hit the random ages set up by retirement.  I want to retire early, which will reduce my pension.  I know I will keep working part time and she will work as well. 

Would it be better to keep attempting to be mortgage free or put the 20k in say Vanguard and let it work or us. 

My long term plan is to pay as much as possible in the next 6 yrs on mortgage at that point retire at 15yrs on job which give me 30% at 60yrs old.  At that point sell our house moving back to the Midwest where her family is and buying cash for house.  Then working part time while kids are in school. 

Any thoughts?  Any and all are appreciated.  Sorry if im tagging on to the Mortgage payoff but in a way it is working toward the same goal.  Thanks


Wait a couple of months and read a lot more. I'm usually pretty firmly in the pay off the mortgage camp. But there are good reasons not to with a rate as low as yours. If you hang around here for a couple of months, you'll be in a much better position to make an informed decision for your $20k, and a couple of months almost certainly isn't going to make a big difference in terms of gains,
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on March 11, 2016, 06:56:45 PM
Down to 84k.  Picked up a couple of gigs for this month to make some more headway. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on March 11, 2016, 07:10:23 PM
@ryan.triguy,  What is the best way to improve your monthly "margin of safety" in cashflow?   Does $20K need to pay off any other debts that will increase your monthly free cash flow?   That's where the real magic begins to pay off debt...  when you turn the momentum in the your favor.

Also, without knowing your mortgage balance, it's impossible to say if putting the $20K in the mortgage is worth it.   If you put that chunk, plus other principal prepays together, you may be in a position to "recast" the mortgage, again to reduce your monthly "commitment" and improve free cash flow.   Then apply the free cast towards the mortgage (accelerating payoff since you'd no longer be paying off interest on that $20K that just extends your payoff timeline)!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FunkyStickman on March 14, 2016, 08:32:17 AM
Down to $56K, and about to drop my tax return on it (again). Just that will cut almost 9 years off the mortgage. (EDIT) We've cut 9 years off total so far... not from this 1 payment.

For every dollar I pay on principal, I'm paying $1.75 in interest.

Sickening. My wife is finally 100% on board with this.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ryan.triguy on March 14, 2016, 09:47:33 AM
indentured4now,  Mortgage is the only debt we have.  We haven't paid down enough to recast yet.  Im not really worried about the monthly payment now just thinking more of long term paying it down.  My thoughts are to pay down enough so when we are ready to sell 8-10 years we would net enough to downsize and pay cash, possibly enough left over to invest at that point.  Im just debating if it would pay more in the future to invest the 20k now in longer time in more would make.  Seems like either way is going to save me money in long run. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frost7777 on March 15, 2016, 12:09:24 PM
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 ?? 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on March 15, 2016, 12:47:12 PM
I have 12.5 months left on my mortgage. What do people around here do to celebrate, when it's all done? Would taking the kids to Disneyland be facepunch-worthy? they've missed out on fun stuff because of my financial priorities, so including them in the reward seems fair, and like an object lesson in priority-setting.

so: Disneyland in 2017?

Need more info.  Where do you live? how old are the kids?  Drive or Fly?  Why do you think going to Disneyland would be more fun for them than camping or going to the beach?  What lesson are you trying to teach them and how does Disneyland fit in to that lesson? 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on March 15, 2016, 12:58:07 PM
We are going to DisneyWorld for the first time when we pay off our mortgage (but we also go to Disneyland once a year on our huge road trip).   We'll drive down (MO) because there's things to do on the way there and the way back.  I personally don't find it face-punch worthy but most here would. 

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on March 15, 2016, 01:37:29 PM
I just put another 1k in, so down to 44k now :) Also, I figured out how to do it direct debit, so i saved a stamp and future stamps too. Bonus!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Kaydedid on March 16, 2016, 08:39:47 AM
I ask because I'm concerned about this happening to me when I pay off my mortgage because I don't have any other installment type loan and am wondering if because my mortgage will  be 8 years old when I pay it off, if that will impact my age of credit greatly when I close it. I'll be buying my first rental property about a year after the payoff and the interest rate will already be higher due tp it being an investment property so I want to minimize reasons for lenders to raise the rate of the new mortgage even higher.

MMM frugalists live outside that realm and they know it. When you have zero "back end debt", your credit cards are paid off, cars are paid off and they figure out you've got investments cranking out your living wage, they fall all over themselves to loan money to you.

Seconding this.  Check out local banks and credit unions if you can.  4 years ago, we had poor credit due to fiscal responsibility (no prior loans), and while the big banks wouldn't give us the time of day, both the local bank and credit union immediately approved us for much more than we were looking to borrow.  They actually sat down with us and got an accurate financial picture, whereas the big banks just ran the credit score.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Kaydedid on March 16, 2016, 08:44:20 AM
As of today, owe ~$8.7k on the mortgage, and looking to have it paid off by the end of the year!
Original mortgage was ~$45k 3.5 years ago, but we dumped another $40k into repairs (foreclosure that needed a TON of work).

We have enough in savings to kill the mortgage today, but will wait a few months to see how a major pay cut/job change shakes out.  Can't wait to be rid of this-our only debt! 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: McGeens on March 18, 2016, 04:31:02 AM
We've joined the club- paid off our mortgage in January. I've let the dust settle and rebuilt our Efund, but it feels wonderful. Started at $250k in 2007, but the first few years were slow going. Then we got focused and honed in on it in 2011, when we owed $165k. We're in Oz, so technically the account isn't closed but it is fully offset now. It feels wonderful to have it gone!!

Funnily enough, first thing the bank did was write to us offering a new mortgage and encouraging us to redraw for important life needs like renovations and cars (cars!! Seriously). I stuck that letter on the wall next to our payoff chart- ha!!

Good luck to all of you whittling down your balances. It'll all be worth it!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on March 18, 2016, 01:24:15 PM
I have 12.5 months left on my mortgage. What do people around here do to celebrate, when it's all done? Would taking the kids to Disneyland be facepunch-worthy? they've missed out on fun stuff because of my financial priorities, so including them in the reward seems fair, and like an object lesson in priority-setting.

so: Disneyland in 2017?
No- I think it's just whatever your family would like, fits in your budget and fits with your values.  Travel is our "thing" and it's been on hold while we knock out the budget.  We'll be taking the family to Belize when we pay it off (hopefully 12/16).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: redbirdfan on March 19, 2016, 07:37:21 AM
For those of you who knew you wanted to pay the mortgage off early at the time of purchase, did you go with a 15 year, 20 year, 30 year or ARM?  Did you value flexibility or paying less overall interest more?  If you could go back, would you make the same decision?   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on March 19, 2016, 08:40:44 AM
For those of you who knew you wanted to pay the mortgage off early at the time of purchase, did you go with a 15 year, 20 year, 30 year or ARM?  Did you value flexibility or paying less overall interest more?  If you could go back, would you make the same decision?

I knew I wanted to pay it off early, but I didn't have a job that would allow me to afford a 15 or 10 year mortgage at the time. We went with a 30 year loan at %6.24 in late 2007 and I paid extra principal when I could afford  it. We just refinanced to a 10 year %3.39 loan last year and have been making great progress with extra principal payments and the fact that the regular monthly payment now consists of more principal than interest.

With the benefit of hindsight, we should have stayed in our cheap 1 bedroom apartment for a couple of more years and saved like crazy. We could have bought a house outright or gotten a 10 year loan with a super low monthly payment. If we could have started with a 10 year loan back in 2007, I still would have tried to pay it off sooner.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on March 19, 2016, 10:52:07 AM
For those of you who knew you wanted to pay the mortgage off early at the time of purchase, did you go with a 15 year, 20 year, 30 year or ARM?  Did you value flexibility or paying less overall interest more?  If you could go back, would you make the same decision?
Flexibility. My job is not super-secure, and I'm risk averse. I want the flexibility of having a smaller minimum req payment, but I'd like to do it in 15 years (or less).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dabears847 on March 19, 2016, 03:09:17 PM
It's official, the house is paid off!

Happy Dance!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on March 20, 2016, 07:09:55 PM
indentured4now,  Mortgage is the only debt we have.  We haven't paid down enough to recast yet.  Im not really worried about the monthly payment now just thinking more of long term paying it down.  My thoughts are to pay down enough so when we are ready to sell 8-10 years we would net enough to downsize and pay cash, possibly enough left over to invest at that point.  Im just debating if it would pay more in the future to invest the 20k now in longer time in more would make.  Seems like either way is going to save me money in long run.

@Ryan...  Classic decision to make between "invest or pay down mortgage"...   With 8-10 years on the house and your age and other info given, it seems best to invest the $20K in a classic age-adjusted mix of index funds.   In your 30's, you've got a nice, long horizon and can afford to wait out a market drop to grow that stash so your situation favors investing the $20K.   Then once it's grown a bit, look for the right chance later to reduce lending costs significantly down the road using the gains such as refi to a 15 year loan or a recast for increasing your free cashflow and savings rate.   Or you guys do the ideal thing  and downsize now to really kill the mortgage and LBYM (and avoid lifestyle creep).   Hard to do as a couple and the temptations of "keeping up" with the Jones's I know, but amazing peace of mind if you guys can pull it off.   If both of you read "The Millionaire Next Door" and agree to live that way with shared goals in mind, it certain can be done.  Good luck!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on March 20, 2016, 07:59:16 PM
Hi All

I have been lurking around the MMM site for a while and been watching this forum with interest. I got past the $100 000 point and need some support to keep going and keep myself accountable.

 A little background I am a South African, lived in England for 10 years and have been in the USA for 8 years. My SO was in the USAF for 24 years. We bought our house in Las Vegas in 2012 for $158 800 at 3.75% and first payment was 03/2012. In SA things were different and I was used to living on nothing, moved to England things were easier, came to the US and things were easy. My husband spent money easily so I thought earned huge - only to discover the world of loans, credit cards and easy credit. Fortunately I hate shopping, material things - my only requirement from material things - they work. My SO on the other hand loves shiny things!  2013, my husband was retired, earnings shot up and we owed the IRS. I was told we had x days to pay - we didn't have it in the bank so I took over the accounts - showed my husband what we owed, gave him an allowance and worked at it. We now have no debt but this mortgage so I started concentrating on eliminating it.

Principal paid off so far

2012 - $3415
2013 - $3994
2014 - $8483
2015 - $38412 (yup got rid of all the debt and $10 000 windfall not expected)
2016 - $17262 so far

Remaining balance $87322. Projected pay off date 09/09/2017 - SO 51st birthday.

I max out my 401k and IRA Roth (terms I learned in the last 2 years.)

Thanks to everyone who allowed me to lurk and inspired me so far!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Rheagar on March 21, 2016, 08:14:06 AM
Paid off my mortgage on Friday!

Bought my house 3.5 years ago in Nov 2012 for ~129k. It was an FHA loan at 3.125%, IIRC the initial loan amount was ~121k. This was before I had discovered MMM so I wasn't quite as diligent about my finances as I am today. I have a relatively high income and when I initially got the loan I figured I could just pay down the loan pretty quick to get to 20% equity and get rid of PMI. But then I learned that I was required to pay PMI for a minimum of 5 years and that REALLY ticked me off. So I began looking into ways to get rid of PMI before that 5 years was up (beyond refinancing) the only thing I could think of was to pay off the entire mortgage. So I began to sock away money into a taxable account with the intent of paying off the house in under 5 years - because fuck the bank and fuck PMI.

Well this month after I got a bonus my taxable account had enough in it to pay off the entire loan balance. So I sold it all and paid off the house on Friday. It is awesome seeing 'Paid in full' on the account! I have taken a minute every morning since to appreciate the feeling, and it feels fantastic.

For those that are worried about the math behind paying off a 3.125% loan, trust me I struggled with it mightily. But after doing the math over and over again getting rid of PMI makes the math about a wash, and I'll take the guaranteed ROR and peace of mind any day. No regrets!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BBub on March 21, 2016, 09:00:41 AM
It's official, the house is paid off!

Happy Dance!

Congrats!

Hi All

I have been lurking around the MMM site for a while and been watching this forum with interest. I got past the $100 000 point and need some support to keep going and keep myself accountable.

Welcome to the forums.  I'm glad you decided to de-lurk & hope you'll keep contributing.  Congrats on getting your finances in order & best of luck with the payoff goal!

Paid off my mortgage on Friday!
Badass!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: rjbf65 on March 24, 2016, 07:54:25 AM
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.


$38,922 -- $2,921 reduction this month.  More travel and eating out this month, as well as property taxes and insurance slowed us down a bit.  But we are at the goal of being under $40K balance!  It's going down at a pretty good pace that I'm happy with!  We will have some Christmas expenses coming up this month but it shouldn't be all that bad.  My target is to hope to be under $37K at the end of December.

$35,898 -- $3,024 reduction this month.  Received a small bonus from work to more or less cancel out Christmas spending.  Also had to replace the wife's windshield.  Would love to be down to under $33K after January is up.  Have quite a few things on the horizon.  We are expecting our first child in late May.  With that we are planning on upgrading the vehicle fleet some.  While going from 3 vehicles to 2.  Just looking for more room and reliability.  Need to have the ability of hauling a child, 2 dogs, and luggage for trips to see our parents.  We have been on the mustachian side of things when it comes to vehicles.  Our 3 vehicles combined might be worth about 9 or 10K.  My goal is to have a paid for house as well as having atleast 1 newer vehicle also paid for by the time the baby arrives.  We are now at the position of having more cash than mortgage balance.  Really looking forward to knocking it out asap!  Another thing about having it paid off by the end of May is I'll finally be eligible to contribute to my 401K starting in July.  Would be wonderful to max out a 401K in just the remaining half of the year!

$32,026 -- a $3,872 reduction this month.  I always have to wait until the 5th or 6th of each month to process my extra payment.  I'm one of those weird ones that pay things as soon as I get the notice instead of holding on to the money for as long as possible.  If all goes well February and March have the potential to be good debt reduction months.  Tax refund in February hopefully and a 3 paycheck month in March.  We will be doing some vehicle upgrading with a new baby on the way but I will do everything I can to keep that cost to a minimum.


$31,609 --  a $417 reduction... I only made the normal payment this month and putting the agressive paydown on hold.  Some big possible life changes on the horizon and I want to have as much cash in the bank as possible just in case.  After the dust settles is when I'll finish it off.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dogboyslim on March 24, 2016, 08:28:50 AM
Office discretionary bonus was better than expected so we decided to pay it off.  As of today, We have no debt other than the temporary credit card debt that gets paid off every month.  While it feels good, it also doesn't really feel different as we are about to sit down to our baked chicken for dinner.

It is Official.  We got the note in the mail yesterday and confirmed that the release has been filed with the county.  Still hasn't set in.  The $2k just went to a different account.  I suppose the difference is that the account balance now goes UP with each transfer instead of down!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on March 24, 2016, 09:10:45 AM
Congrats - now for the happy dance.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Heckler on March 25, 2016, 12:19:48 AM

It is Official.  We got the note in the mail yesterday and confirmed that the release has been filed with the county.  Still hasn't set in.  The $2k just went to a different account.  I suppose the difference is that the account balance now goes UP with each transfer instead of down!

Us too!  the papers came yesterday.  Congrats!  It's awesome to see the mortgage payment going into savings instead of the floor drain!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dogboyslim on March 25, 2016, 12:54:56 PM
Congrats Heckler!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on March 25, 2016, 07:03:23 PM

It is Official.  We got the note in the mail yesterday and confirmed that the release has been filed with the county.  Still hasn't set in.  The $2k just went to a different account.  I suppose the difference is that the account balance now goes UP with each transfer instead of down!

Us too!  the papers came yesterday.  Congrats!  It's awesome to see the mortgage payment going into savings instead of the floor drain!

Congratulations DBS and Heckler! Fine Job, you've reached the end of a long, long road! Please - report back in the thread how it affects your spending, budget and lifestyle? The motivation is very helpful!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Heckler on March 25, 2016, 07:20:39 PM

Congratulations DBS and Heckler! Fine Job, you've reached the end of a long, long road! Please - report back in the thread how it affects your spending, budget and lifestyle? The motivation is very helpful!

Spending - $2k reduction because of the FIRE under our butt.  Last years (Nov 14-Nov 15) expenses (not including $40k mortgage) were $45k.  This past year (Mar 15-Mar 16) was $43k.  Now we save the $40k/year mortgage instead.

Budget - now putting $3,000+/month to TFSA instead of mortgage, open wife's TFSA because mine will be maxed in 3 months time, in addition to 30% pre-tax + employer match to RRSP.

Lifestyle - no change, other than I no longer worry about job security in a high tech industry. My next severance package is going towards travel!

Thank you MMM, or for sure I'd be driving a Porsche now like every one else at head office.  Still driving the 2006 Pontiac to work.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dogboyslim on March 28, 2016, 04:35:12 PM
Congratulations DBS and Heckler! Fine Job, you've reached the end of a long, long road! Please - report back in the thread how it affects your spending, budget and lifestyle? The motivation is very helpful!

We are just now shopping for our $90k Escalade so we don't experience a drop in our credit score by not having any debt.... ;)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Heckler on March 28, 2016, 06:01:53 PM

We are just now shopping for our $90k Escalade so we don't experience a drop in our credit score by not having any debt.... ;)

We've been putting all spending on 2 credit cards for the last 5 years and pay in full every month.  Don't even know my credit rating, but they keep trying to raise my limit, so it must be OK.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on March 29, 2016, 03:34:08 AM
We paid off the house last October and we are certain that it was the right thing to do.  For years we did all the second guessing and wondering about "gee, it is only 3.5%, we can make more in the market" but at some point along the line it became the obvious choice.  We are in the final stages of the FIRE journey and could actually go right now except for the pure fear of being so weird and not really having the nerve to jump.  We are still building a bigger cash 'stache to bridge to our over-funded 401(K)s.  I want a really big cash pile and I am sure that it will probably be over-funded as well knowing our conservative styles.  We know we had to get out from under any debt to be totally ready.     

Wouldn't you know it, my company had massive lay offs in November and hubby's firm went through the same thing just after that.  Even though both of us are among the survivors and still have jobs there was such profound relief in knowing that we are untouchable now.  Go ahead, fire us, we know we can be FIRE at any minute.  To face that situation with a big pile of FU money and zero debt was really peaceful.  Peers were sick with fear and I felt terrible for them, but I don't think my proselytizing early retirement is welcome.   

Therefore, to the financial calculators out there please don't bother to say how we made a mistake because of some theory about making more in the market.  We considered everything and lived on both sides of the equation.  This side is more peaceful.  My house is paid off forever and that return is guaranteed, guaranteed, guaranteed.  Plus, the NW chart now has this crazy hockey stick look to it--golly, it it sure getting steep to the right without that mortgage drag, even with a flat market!   

I am rooting for all of you mortgage burners!  GO FOR IT!   

Congratulations! What you mentioned about your job situation is the reason I want our mortgage gone. I know you can get money out of retirement accounts early for emergencies, but I'd rather just let it sit.

Great job!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on March 29, 2016, 06:39:43 AM
Therefore, to the financial calculators out there please don't bother to say how we made a mistake because of some theory about making more in the market.  We considered everything and lived on both sides of the equation.  This side is more peaceful.  My house is paid off forever and that return is guaranteed, guaranteed, guaranteed.  Plus, the NW chart now has this crazy hockey stick look to it--golly, it it sure getting steep to the right without that mortgage drag, even with a flat market!   

I am rooting for all of you mortgage burners!  GO FOR IT!   
Great motivation!  Thank you for this!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dogboyslim on March 29, 2016, 11:27:46 AM

We are just now shopping for our $90k Escalade so we don't experience a drop in our credit score by not having any debt.... ;)

We've been putting all spending on 2 credit cards for the last 5 years and pay in full every month.  Don't even know my credit rating, but they keep trying to raise my limit, so it must be OK.

Someone told me I'd be in trouble with my credit report and that I should go out and get a car loan to keep it solid, hence my jest.  Since I'm not looking for rentals my credit score really only impacts my insurance pricing now as we have no plans for future loans.  We also put most of our spending through a rewards CC that we pay off each month, but I suppose it is possible my score could drop a few points.  The reality is that our spending hasn't changed at all and we paid off the mortgage, and we have no plans to loosen up the purse strings.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: YoungGranny on April 01, 2016, 12:19:06 PM
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.

Sent a chunk of money at it again this month, down to $129,532



Haven't updated in a bit... balance is sitting at $120,485 - I'm taking a blended approach to paying off the mortgage while still investing. Feels good to have one number moving in the right direction since my investments are not doing so hot this month. Extra large payment on the mortgage this month since it was bonus time.....if only I could do that every month haha.

As of 4/1 the balance is at $112,377, still a long way to go but I'm actually feeling close to that sweet 5-digit mortgage! My birthday is in August and I think that would be a great target. It does feel like it's going much faster now so hopefully I can keep up this momentum!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: TheInsuranceMan on April 01, 2016, 12:20:23 PM
We paid ours off yesterday!  But wait, that was due to us selling it, and getting a new house....and a new mortgage.  However, we did have 51k in equity in the property we sold!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Ceridwen on April 01, 2016, 01:06:31 PM
We paid off the house last October and we are certain that it was the right thing to do.  For years we did all the second guessing and wondering about "gee, it is only 3.5%, we can make more in the market" but at some point along the line it became the obvious choice.  We are in the final stages of the FIRE journey and could actually go right now except for the pure fear of being so weird and not really having the nerve to jump.  We are still building a bigger cash 'stache to bridge to our over-funded 401(K)s.  I want a really big cash pile and I am sure that it will probably be over-funded as well knowing our conservative styles.  We know we had to get out from under any debt to be totally ready.     

Wouldn't you know it, my company had massive lay offs in November and hubby's firm went through the same thing just after that.  Even though both of us are among the survivors and still have jobs there was such profound relief in knowing that we are untouchable now.  Go ahead, fire us, we know we can be FIRE at any minute.  To face that situation with a big pile of FU money and zero debt was really peaceful.  Peers were sick with fear and I felt terrible for them, but I don't think my proselytizing early retirement is welcome.   

Therefore, to the financial calculators out there please don't bother to say how we made a mistake because of some theory about making more in the market.  We considered everything and lived on both sides of the equation.  This side is more peaceful.  My house is paid off forever and that return is guaranteed, guaranteed, guaranteed.  Plus, the NW chart now has this crazy hockey stick look to it--golly, it it sure getting steep to the right without that mortgage drag, even with a flat market!   

I am rooting for all of you mortgage burners!  GO FOR IT!   

This sums up our feelings so well! We are 4 years away from paying it off (max - hopefully earlier), and I can't wait to get it done.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on April 01, 2016, 05:21:01 PM
$27, 116 to go!!!!! So Exciting.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: theblackdahlia on April 04, 2016, 10:27:50 AM
$119,872 to date.  I so want to pay off my mortgage so I can go down to part time status.  Great job everyone and a wonderful, closer to debt-free year to all of you :)

That is my plan too. Ah, part-time. 86k left...hopefully it will be paid off in 5 years.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on April 04, 2016, 11:21:13 AM

Principal paid off so far

2012 - $3415
2013 - $3994
2014 - $8483
2015 - $38412 (yup got rid of all the debt and $10 000 windfall not expected)
2016 - $22724 so far

3/1 Remaining balance $87322. Projected pay off date 09/09/2017 - SO 51st birthday.

4/1 Remaining balance $81837
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: PFHC on April 04, 2016, 03:22:55 PM
Going to join the fun. :)

Balance is $126,942.

Been paying our full mortgage payment biweekly, (I.e. making 13 extra payments a year) until we decided to remodel our kitchen. We're currently rebuilding our savings, then plan to quadruple the mortgage. Hopefully we can start that in May.

I'll be posting our balance monthly.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on April 04, 2016, 06:50:16 PM
Anyone have projects planned for when they pay off the house?

Kind of struggling with this, actually. Our house is great, but there are some updates we want. Some we'll do cheap, some we won't. On the one hand we won't have a mortgage, and we purposely waited until we were paid off to do some upgrades.

On the other hand, it seems weird not to take full advantage of no mortgage land by dumping money into index funds or real estate. Opportunity cost is the issue I'm struggling with, I guess.

I'm planning to reward myself with some updates once my mortgage is paid off. Not a major addition or anything, but there are a couple doors that could use replacing, maybe some shutters instead of blinds.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on April 05, 2016, 03:49:16 AM
I wouldn't feel bad about fixing up your house with your newly freed up mortgage payment money. We are going to fix up some stuff once we pay off the mortgage too. We are going to repair or replace our front porch. It's brick. I want to see if we can replace the sandstone treads and replace any cracked bricks. If we can't, we'll demolish it and replace it.

Our carpeting is getting worn too. The berber and has gotten snagged and there are some pet stains from the previous owner that can't be cleaned. We'll either replace it or refinish the hardwood beneath it. If the pet stains ruined the hardwood, we'll probably just do new carpeting.

The last big upgrade would be a new furnace and air conditioner. They are getting pretty old.

We'd like to do do the kitchen, bathroom, and build a new garage, but I'm not sure if we are going to stay in that house forever. I don't want to dump a ton of money on non essential fixes if we aren't going to be there for a long time.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Heckler on April 05, 2016, 08:21:09 AM
Still holding off on the ugly iron railings, dishwasher and water heater replacements until my asset allocation is rebalanced at least.   I buy US and EAFE in my RSPs, and CND in my TFSA.  The CND allocation is $3000 low, so just a month or two left then we will get the water heater replaced.  I just upped my RSP contribution to 38% of gross pay, so will need the cash to keep up with my TFSA.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on April 05, 2016, 01:49:55 PM
$17,319 as of today remaining on the FIRE house.  Still trying to convince DH we should just pay the sucker off with available cash....
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on April 06, 2016, 08:36:36 AM
Down to 77,996!  Actually, when I made the payment, it brought it down to 78,013 so I HAD to transfer a little extra so I could see that thousands number tick over.  I'm so easily amused.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on April 06, 2016, 11:49:29 AM
$27, 116 to go!!!!! So Exciting.


Mortgage
Balance
$25,478.56

YEAHHHH i am going to put the 478.56 to round it up towards the end of the month if i can :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Astreja on April 06, 2016, 10:15:19 PM
As of Monday evening, mortgage balance is below $2000.  Principal is coming down nearly $175 a week, so I've got about 11 payments left to go and a projected payout date in late June.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on April 07, 2016, 06:25:10 AM
As of Monday evening, mortgage balance is below $2000.  Principal is coming down nearly $175 a week, so I've got about 11 payments left to go and a projected payout date in late June.
wowwwww so close :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on April 07, 2016, 07:07:20 AM
$27, 116 to go!!!!! So Exciting.


Mortgage
Balance
$25,478.56

YEAHHHH i am going to put the 478.56 to round it up towards the end of the month if i can :)

That's the best feeling isn't it?  When you can put enough pennies together to tip it over the edge?!  Love it!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: motiv8ed on April 07, 2016, 01:42:38 PM
Wow, after reading these posts, I had to join. Current Balance is: $119,781 Hopefully I will be able to stay motivated and join the club.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on April 07, 2016, 03:16:51 PM
Wow, after reading these posts, I had to join. Current Balance is: $119,781 Hopefully I will be able to stay motivated and join the club.

You'll be surprised how quickly it goes down when you really set your mind to it. Welcome to the forum!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on April 07, 2016, 06:45:41 PM
Anyone have projects planned for when they pay off the house?

Kind of struggling with this, actually. Our house is great, but there are some updates we want. Some we'll do cheap, some we won't. On the one hand we won't have a mortgage, and we purposely waited until we were paid off to do some upgrades.

On the other hand, it seems weird not to take full advantage of no mortgage land by dumping money into index funds or real estate. Opportunity cost is the issue I'm struggling with, I guess.

I'm planning to reward myself with some updates once my mortgage is paid off. Not a major addition or anything, but there are a couple doors that could use replacing, maybe some shutters instead of blinds.

Lol. Yeah your list sounds a bit more reasonable than mine.

Our deck needs to be replaced. Not actually safe. And for this I'm doing the cheap option and just doing the same footprint and doing the work myself. Awesome.

After that, however...

We have three bathrooms we want to do to varying degrees. The kitchen "needs" a facelift, too, which is my toughest one, as we won't again additional utility like we will with the bathrooms or deck.  Talked to my wife last night and I think the plan is to do the deck and 2 of the bathrooms (with one of those two hopefully being done by me) and waiting on bathroom 3 and kitchen until we have another year of solid investing.

It helps that my kitchen is brand new a few years back. I bought a foreclosure and it had only half a floor and roaches in there. I got to rebuild it with a counter/cabinet layout that suits me. IMO the old layout was pretty bad. The new layout is much better for food prep and cooking. The roof has been replaced since I owned it as well. I do sometimes dream about some nice bathroom upgrades though.

When moving, I highly recommend getting a trashed place for cheaper and fixing it up how you like it with the difference you would pay on somewhere move in ready if you can. With a move in ready place there will still be things you don't like and want to change eeven if they're new.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: motiv8ed on April 07, 2016, 06:58:28 PM
Wow, after reading these posts, I had to join. Current Balance is: $119,781 Hopefully I will be able to stay motivated and join the club.

You'll be surprised how quickly it goes down when you really set your mind to it. Welcome to the forum!

Thank you, I hope so. Does anyone have a recommendation on the best way of paying down the mortgage? I struggle with deciding on whether to
- Apply money to the principal as I get it.
- Save for a few months, in case I need the money for something, then apply it to the principal.
- Invest in a brokerage account and then pay it off once I have enough invested.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on April 07, 2016, 07:53:46 PM
these days i use mint.com to create a budget and have budgeted in 1 extra payment. a 2nd payment is what is left over from my budget etc and just before i get paid again. Makes me eager to not spend anything all month so the 2nd payment can be high :)
i always keep a certain amount in my savings too but that is built up already so i don't touch it.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on April 08, 2016, 04:53:07 AM
Does anyone have a recommendation on the best way of paying down the mortgage? I struggle with deciding on whether to
- Apply money to the principal as I get it.
- Save for a few months, in case I need the money for something, then apply it to the principal.
- Invest in a brokerage account and then pay it off once I have enough invested.
I do a mix of these. Each month I double the full principal amount when I make my payment, because I'm comfortable with and never really miss that amount. On top of that, every payment that I received from a rental for three years went into a sinking fund at a brokerage and last august I cashed that out and made a large principal payment. Now I'm waiting for my first work bonus and I'm going to apply that to principal. Once I get the mortgage down enough (hopefully this summer), I will recast the mortgage so that I'm not tied in to those high payments anymore and if I lose my high-paying job, I can still afford my house on a regular salary. Even after the recast, I plan to continue to pay as much monthly as I have been, just no more giant lump sums.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on April 08, 2016, 12:19:59 PM
Ok.  Down to 145k as we just signed on the new house.  We'll wait for it to go through today and then on Monday put additional $$ down.  If income and spending go as planned, with a little luck we'll be done in two years.

11 months and 23 days later - it's gone.

26, wife is 25. Think this will hit me tomorrow.

Won't really tell many people (besides thousands of people on the internet, I guess). My parents will know. Wife's brother/SIL will know. They're big mustachians thanks to me, and paid off their home last year and told us right away. Can't think of anyone else.

Cheers everyone.

CONGRATULATIONS!!! Amazing effort with $145K paid off in under a year.  You must have some great income levels and will power. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on April 08, 2016, 02:01:30 PM
$27, 116 to go!!!!! So Exciting.


Mortgage
Balance
$25,478.56

couldn't help myself- put 5k in from our savings so down to 20,478.56 now! Can't wait to be in the teens!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: motiv8ed on April 08, 2016, 02:43:21 PM
Ok.  Down to 145k as we just signed on the new house.  We'll wait for it to go through today and then on Monday put additional $$ down.  If income and spending go as planned, with a little luck we'll be done in two years.

11 months and 23 days later - it's gone.

26, wife is 25. Think this will hit me tomorrow.

Won't really tell many people (besides thousands of people on the internet, I guess). My parents will know. Wife's brother/SIL will know. They're big mustachians thanks to me, and paid off their home last year and told us right away. Can't think of anyone else.

Cheers everyone.

Congratulations, thats awesome.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on April 08, 2016, 03:39:43 PM
Ok.  Down to 145k as we just signed on the new house.  We'll wait for it to go through today and then on Monday put additional $$ down.  If income and spending go as planned, with a little luck we'll be done in two years.

11 months and 23 days later - it's gone.

26, wife is 25. Think this will hit me tomorrow.

Won't really tell many people (besides thousands of people on the internet, I guess). My parents will know. Wife's brother/SIL will know. They're big mustachians thanks to me, and paid off their home last year and told us right away. Can't think of anyone else.

Cheers everyone.
Amazing congrats!!!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: MrDelane on April 08, 2016, 09:46:54 PM
Wow.
Just wow.

That's an incredible achievement.
Congratulations to you both.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tightwaddy on April 10, 2016, 06:13:18 AM
I've been part of this challenge since Aug. 1, without even knowing it existed :)  When my husband and I saw we were at the last $100K (originally $300K in Sept. 2004), we decided to do everything possible to pay it off by Jan. 1, 2017.

Aug 1, 2015: $101,100
April 1, 2016: $64,669

So, $36,404 done in 8 months.  Not quite on track, but we're hoping to pick up some steam once the warmer months roll in (living in Maine, heat is a big cost in winter--no AC in summer).  Working some side hustles and attic purge sales to get a little extra for principal.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on April 11, 2016, 07:02:44 PM
Jan. 2015 - ~100k
Oct. 2015 - ~$67500
Dec.3, 2015 - ~$60k
Feb. 5, 2016 - $52,108.53
March 7, 2016 - 49,774.21
April 11, 2016 - 48,700 to go. Had to pay taxes this month.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: bzzzt on April 11, 2016, 11:08:19 PM
Great job to everyone.

Work has been slow over the last month (construction) but I don't hardly care since the mortgage is knocked out. I can pay my bills/spending by working one week a month. It's sweet!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: JourneyToLaunch on April 12, 2016, 08:40:31 AM
I would like to join this club!

Currently our mortgage is $357K at a 4.375% rate (30 years)

I would really like to pay off the mortgage as soon as possible since I would like to retire at 40 (in 7 years). My husband would continue to work and we would live off of his income. The goal is to payoff the mortgage as soon as possible since I can't foresee retiring and living on my husband's income comfortably with the mortgage in place.  How soon depends on how aggressive we want to get with paying it down. Here are some different scenarios (right now we are doing scenario 2 but would ideally like to move to Scenario 5 this year). It's hard to know how aggressive to be when we also want to put some money in 529 accounts and do taxable investing at the same time:

 
Scenario 1
Only paying off what owe, mortgage will be paid off when we are 61

Scenario 2
Extra $500 a month from investment property, mortgage will pay off when we are 51
 
Scenario 3
Extra $500 a month from investment property, AND my recent raise $235 per month, (round to a $300) ,  mortgage will pay off when we are 48

Scenario 4
Extra $500 a month from investment property AND my recent raise $300 , AND $10K a year from my annual  bonus , mortgage will pay off when we are 43

Scenario 5
Extra $500 a month from investment property AND my recent raise $300 , $10K a year from my annual  bonus AND $5K from Husband's extra jobs, mortgage will pay off when we are 42

Scenario 6
Extra $500 a month from investment property AND my recent raise ($300) , $10K a year from my  annual bonus AND $10K from Husband's extra jobs , mortgage will pay off when we are 41

 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on April 12, 2016, 10:59:48 AM
I would like to join this club!

Currently our mortgage is $357K at a 4.375% rate (30 years)

I would really like to pay off the mortgage as soon as possible since I would like to retire at 40 (in 7 years). My husband would continue to work and we would live off of his income. The goal is to payoff the mortgage as soon as possible since I can't foresee retiring and living on my husband's income comfortably with the mortgage in place.  How soon depends on how aggressive we want to get with paying it down. Here are some different scenarios (right now we are doing scenario 2 but would ideally like to move to Scenario 5 this year). It's hard to know how aggressive to be when we also want to put some money in 529 accounts and do taxable investing at the same time:

 
Scenario 1
Only paying off what owe, mortgage will be paid off when we are 61

Scenario 2
Extra $500 a month from investment property, mortgage will pay off when we are 51
 
Scenario 3
Extra $500 a month from investment property, AND my recent raise $235 per month, (round to a $300) ,  mortgage will pay off when we are 48

Scenario 4
Extra $500 a month from investment property AND my recent raise $300 , AND $10K a year from my annual  bonus , mortgage will pay off when we are 43

Scenario 5
Extra $500 a month from investment property AND my recent raise $300 , $10K a year from my annual  bonus AND $5K from Husband's extra jobs, mortgage will pay off when we are 42

Scenario 6
Extra $500 a month from investment property AND my recent raise ($300) , $10K a year from my  annual bonus AND $10K from Husband's extra jobs , mortgage will pay off when we are 41

I would go for Scenario 4.5, 50% of husband extra jobs (whatever those jobs might bring in) to the house....He can decide to put extra in or not.  Likely it will be somewhere between 41 to 42 and you will be all done.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: JourneyToLaunch on April 12, 2016, 11:39:00 AM
I would like to join this club!

Currently our mortgage is $357K at a 4.375% rate (30 years)

I would really like to pay off the mortgage as soon as possible since I would like to retire at 40 (in 7 years). My husband would continue to work and we would live off of his income. The goal is to payoff the mortgage as soon as possible since I can't foresee retiring and living on my husband's income comfortably with the mortgage in place.  How soon depends on how aggressive we want to get with paying it down. Here are some different scenarios (right now we are doing scenario 2 but would ideally like to move to Scenario 5 this year). It's hard to know how aggressive to be when we also want to put some money in 529 accounts and do taxable investing at the same time:

 
Scenario 1
Only paying off what owe, mortgage will be paid off when we are 61

Scenario 2
Extra $500 a month from investment property, mortgage will pay off when we are 51
 
Scenario 3
Extra $500 a month from investment property, AND my recent raise $235 per month, (round to a $300) ,  mortgage will pay off when we are 48

Scenario 4
Extra $500 a month from investment property AND my recent raise $300 , AND $10K a year from my annual  bonus , mortgage will pay off when we are 43

Scenario 5
Extra $500 a month from investment property AND my recent raise $300 , $10K a year from my annual  bonus AND $5K from Husband's extra jobs, mortgage will pay off when we are 42

Scenario 6
Extra $500 a month from investment property AND my recent raise ($300) , $10K a year from my  annual bonus AND $10K from Husband's extra jobs , mortgage will pay off when we are 41

I would go for Scenario 4.5, 50% of husband extra jobs (whatever those jobs might bring in) to the house....He can decide to put extra in or not.  Likely it will be somewhere between 41 to 42 and you will be all done.

Thx for the feedback, I think Scenario 4 is the best "middle ground" that still leaves some extra money to do other things.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: sonnys on April 14, 2016, 09:11:27 PM
Hi,

I have been really going back and forth on paying off the mortgage early or using the money to purchase extra income properties.  I have read about and discussed the HELOC method on other threads and wanted to bring it up again.  Speaking mathematically, the investment option makes more sense, but the heart wants to payoff the 30 year mortgage.  I believe with my current savings and savings rate I could pay off the mortgage in 6 years but at a cost of not acquiring any properties during that time which I don't like either.  Here is the calculator ("All in One" - needs Flash plugin) if you want to test for your financials -     

www.cmgfi.com/consumers/calculators

I think I have 3 options:

1. Use savings towards primary mortgage.  Any additional savings go towards payoff.
2. Use the savings and savings rate to purchase an investment property every year for 10 years a la "The Millionaire Real Estate Investor".
3. Use my savings to purchase an investment property outright and open a HELOC against it to use as a rainy day fund for emergencies.  I can then use the cash flow from rent to save money and buy another rental property in a year or two. 

It really bothers me that I have a 30 year mortgage and have money in the savings account earning nothing.  I don't want to buy multiple properties at the same time because I am still a novice and would like to go slow and do a "dollar cost averaging" method in real estate investing.  I think that the last option seems like a balanced approach to earning a better rate on my savings and still have flexibility for an emergency.  I have a 401K but I really have no faith left in the markets, especially over a short term.

I would appreciate any feedback.

Thanks,
Sonny
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: K-ice on April 15, 2016, 01:40:33 PM

I think I have 3 options:

1. Use savings towards primary mortgage.  Any additional savings go towards payoff.
2. Use the savings and savings rate to purchase an investment property every year for 10 years a la "The Millionaire Real Estate Investor".
3. Use my savings to purchase an investment property outright and open a HELOC against it to use as a rainy day fund for emergencies.  I can then use the cash flow from rent to save money and buy another rental property in a year or two. 

I would appreciate any feedback.


How about these steps?

1) Use your savings to pay off your primary mortgage. 
2) Then take out a HELOC on your primary.
3)  Use primary HELOC to purchase a rental "cash" when a good rental deal becomes available.   
4) Then get a mortgage/HELOC on your rental once the crazy purchase time has passed & you can shop for the best rate without stress. 
5) Now pay off your HELOC on your house
6) Repeat steps 3-5 to get a second rental, once you are comfortable being a landlord.

Especially in Canada, the tax savings of paying off your own property with cash vs the rental can save thousands a year. We can only write off mortgage interest on Rentals.


Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on April 18, 2016, 11:15:01 AM
$17,319 as of today remaining on the FIRE house.  Still trying to convince DH we should just pay the sucker off with available cash....

WE DID IT!!!! TODAY WE WIRED $17,327.01 TO THE BANK AND WE ARE MORTGAGE-FREE ON THE FIRE HOUSE. WOO HOO!!!

(The small extra amount is for recording deeds....)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on April 18, 2016, 12:04:03 PM
Congrats, Couponvan!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on April 18, 2016, 02:02:28 PM
Congrats, Couponvan!!

Thank you!

Congrats! Still hasn't really hit us yet. I'd be curious how long it took others who graduated the "club" to feel a difference.

My wife listens to Dave Ramsey for entertainment value most days and he always says you can walk around barefoot in the grass and it feels different. 

We literally tried that haha.  Nothing.

We're happy we did it, we are "excited" i guess, but it doesn't feel any different.

I expect next month it will feel nice to transfer that mortgage payment into the kids' college funds to see those grow. When they were born, we had visions of huge college funds.  I'm at least glad we didn't put off retirement funds....
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Lmoot on April 19, 2016, 11:25:00 AM
Hi,

I have been really going back and forth on paying off the mortgage early or using the money to purchase extra income properties.  I have read about and discussed the HELOC method on other threads and wanted to bring it up again.  Speaking mathematically, the investment option makes more sense, but the heart wants to payoff the 30 year mortgage.  I believe with my current savings and savings rate I could pay off the mortgage in 6 years but at a cost of not acquiring any properties during that time which I don't like either.  Here is the calculator ("All in One" - needs Flash plugin) if you want to test for your financials -     

www.cmgfi.com/consumers/calculators

I think I have 3 options:

1. Use savings towards primary mortgage.  Any additional savings go towards payoff.
2. Use the savings and savings rate to purchase an investment property every year for 10 years a la "The Millionaire Real Estate Investor".
3. Use my savings to purchase an investment property outright and open a HELOC against it to use as a rainy day fund for emergencies.  I can then use the cash flow from rent to save money and buy another rental property in a year or two. 

It really bothers me that I have a 30 year mortgage and have money in the savings account earning nothing.  I don't want to buy multiple properties at the same time because I am still a novice and would like to go slow and do a "dollar cost averaging" method in real estate investing.  I think that the last option seems like a balanced approach to earning a better rate on my savings and still have flexibility for an emergency.  I have a 401K but I really have no faith left in the markets, especially over a short term.

I would appreciate any feedback.

Thanks,
Sonny

Using all of your funds to pay cash on a rental...then waiting several years while saving up for another one is a lot of money you're not earning in those several years from rent. I say buy one rental, when you have a renter and costs have settled down, buy your second rental. At least make the cash work for 2 rentals. That way you have the renters paying down the mortgage, instead of using your savings. Also, the sooner you get renters, the quicker you can begin to apply the cash flow towards your income when applying for multiple mortgages....usually they won't do it until you have been receiving rental income for at least 2 years.

I'd be hesitant at using a HELOC on my primary for the rental property expenses. I'd rather risk one of the rentals than my personal property. But that's just a matter of tolerance of personal risk. Keep enough of the savings on hand to act as an efund (separate from your personal efund). Then when one of your rentals gains enough equity, take a HELOC out on that. Leave your personal residence out of it, is my opinion.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: write_stuff on April 21, 2016, 05:35:56 PM
I want in the club!

We bought our 375,000 house last September with 100,000 down and a 275,000 mortgage at 4.125%.

We are set up to pay biweekly payments, and starting in January we've been paying 1000 extra to the principle per month. That's already cut 6 years off the loan!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: K-ice on April 21, 2016, 07:58:36 PM
I want in the club!
...

 That's already cut 6 years off the loan!

Welcome! That's a great start.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on April 22, 2016, 06:26:18 AM
I want in the club!

We bought our 375,000 house last September with 100,000 down and a 275,000 mortgage at 4.125%.

We are set up to pay biweekly payments, and starting in January we've been paying 1000 extra to the principle per month. That's already cut 6 years off the loan!

Hello!  It sounds like you are doing all the "write stuff"!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: JourneyToLaunch on April 22, 2016, 08:50:57 AM
Hi,

I have been really going back and forth on paying off the mortgage early or using the money to purchase extra income properties.  I have read about and discussed the HELOC method on other threads and wanted to bring it up again.  Speaking mathematically, the investment option makes more sense, but the heart wants to payoff the 30 year mortgage.  I believe with my current savings and savings rate I could pay off the mortgage in 6 years but at a cost of not acquiring any properties during that time which I don't like either.  Here is the calculator ("All in One" - needs Flash plugin) if you want to test for your financials -     

www.cmgfi.com/consumers/calculators

I think I have 3 options:

1. Use savings towards primary mortgage.  Any additional savings go towards payoff.
2. Use the savings and savings rate to purchase an investment property every year for 10 years a la "The Millionaire Real Estate Investor".
3. Use my savings to purchase an investment property outright and open a HELOC against it to use as a rainy day fund for emergencies.  I can then use the cash flow from rent to save money and buy another rental property in a year or two. 

It really bothers me that I have a 30 year mortgage and have money in the savings account earning nothing.  I don't want to buy multiple properties at the same time because I am still a novice and would like to go slow and do a "dollar cost averaging" method in real estate investing.  I think that the last option seems like a balanced approach to earning a better rate on my savings and still have flexibility for an emergency.  I have a 401K but I really have no faith left in the markets, especially over a short term.

I would appreciate any feedback.

Thanks,
Sonny

So my husband agreed to putting $5K in from his extra jobs in addition to the $10K from my annual bonus every year to paying down the mortgage. However, I have thought of another strategy and want to get your wise  opinions.

What about instead of putting $15K a year towards the mortgage directly, we put it into a index fund/mutual account and at the end of the 7 years, decide what we want to do with the money from there. We will still be paying $800 a month towards the mortgage on a monthly basis (which gets the mortgage paid off by the time we are 48) but it seems like putting the $15K each year in an investment account allows us more flexibility. If in 7 years, we want to take all of the money and pay off the mortgage we can, or we can put it towards something else. Thoughts? I also posted more details on my blog but it doesn't get much traffic yet and I would like direct responses.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Indio on April 22, 2016, 12:21:05 PM
Hi,

I have been really going back and forth on paying off the mortgage early or using the money to purchase extra income properties.  I have read about and discussed the HELOC method on other threads and wanted to bring it up again.  Speaking mathematically, the investment option makes more sense, but the heart wants to payoff the 30 year mortgage.  I believe with my current savings and savings rate I could pay off the mortgage in 6 years but at a cost of not acquiring any properties during that time which I don't like either.  Here is the calculator ("All in One" - needs Flash plugin) if you want to test for your financials -     

www.cmgfi.com/consumers/calculators

I think I have 3 options:

1. Use savings towards primary mortgage.  Any additional savings go towards payoff.
2. Use the savings and savings rate to purchase an investment property every year for 10 years a la "The Millionaire Real Estate Investor".
3. Use my savings to purchase an investment property outright and open a HELOC against it to use as a rainy day fund for emergencies.  I can then use the cash flow from rent to save money and buy another rental property in a year or two. 

It really bothers me that I have a 30 year mortgage and have money in the savings account earning nothing.  I don't want to buy multiple properties at the same time because I am still a novice and would like to go slow and do a "dollar cost averaging" method in real estate investing.  I think that the last option seems like a balanced approach to earning a better rate on my savings and still have flexibility for an emergency.  I have a 401K but I really have no faith left in the markets, especially over a short term.

I would appreciate any feedback.

Thanks,
Sonny

So my husband agreed to putting $5K in from his extra jobs in addition to the $10K from my annual bonus every year to paying down the mortgage. However, I have thought of another strategy and want to get your wise  opinions.

What about instead of putting $15K a year towards the mortgage directly, we put it into a index fund/mutual account and at the end of the 7 years, decide what we want to do with the money from there. We will still be paying $800 a month towards the mortgage on a monthly basis (which gets the mortgage paid off by the time we are 48) but it seems like putting the $15K each year in an investment account allows us more flexibility. If in 7 years, we want to take all of the money and pay off the mortgage we can, or we can put it towards something else. Thoughts? I also posted more details on my blog but it doesn't get much traffic yet and I would like direct responses.

A lot of people prefer to go the route of putting the money into investments and then using that to pay off the mortgage. You need to consider the 7% market growth potential vs the guaranteed return of reducing interest payments.
One of the advantages of investing the money is that you still have access to it and it isn't tied up in a mortgage. This way if you have an emergency, like a layoff, you still have funds to live on and pay the mortgage. Keep in mind the bank still wants to get paid monthly, even if you have paid down the balance. Lots of threads on here about that.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: JourneyToLaunch on April 22, 2016, 06:14:59 PM
Hi,

I have been really going back and forth on paying off the mortgage early or using the money to purchase extra income properties.  I have read about and discussed the HELOC method on other threads and wanted to bring it up again.  Speaking mathematically, the investment option makes more sense, but the heart wants to payoff the 30 year mortgage.  I believe with my current savings and savings rate I could pay off the mortgage in 6 years but at a cost of not acquiring any properties during that time which I don't like either.  Here is the calculator ("All in One" - needs Flash plugin) if you want to test for your financials -     

www.cmgfi.com/consumers/calculators

I think I have 3 options:

1. Use savings towards primary mortgage.  Any additional savings go towards payoff.
2. Use the savings and savings rate to purchase an investment property every year for 10 years a la "The Millionaire Real Estate Investor".
3. Use my savings to purchase an investment property outright and open a HELOC against it to use as a rainy day fund for emergencies.  I can then use the cash flow from rent to save money and buy another rental property in a year or two. 

It really bothers me that I have a 30 year mortgage and have money in the savings account earning nothing.  I don't want to buy multiple properties at the same time because I am still a novice and would like to go slow and do a "dollar cost averaging" method in real estate investing.  I think that the last option seems like a balanced approach to earning a better rate on my savings and still have flexibility for an emergency.  I have a 401K but I really have no faith left in the markets, especially over a short term.

I would appreciate any feedback.

Thanks,
Sonny

So my husband agreed to putting $5K in from his extra jobs in addition to the $10K from my annual bonus every year to paying down the mortgage. However, I have thought of another strategy and want to get your wise  opinions.

What about instead of putting $15K a year towards the mortgage directly, we put it into a index fund/mutual account and at the end of the 7 years, decide what we want to do with the money from there. We will still be paying $800 a month towards the mortgage on a monthly basis (which gets the mortgage paid off by the time we are 48) but it seems like putting the $15K each year in an investment account allows us more flexibility. If in 7 years, we want to take all of the money and pay off the mortgage we can, or we can put it towards something else. Thoughts? I also posted more details on my blog but it doesn't get much traffic yet and I would like direct responses.

A lot of people prefer to go the route of putting the money into investments and then using that to pay off the mortgage. You need to consider the 7% market growth potential vs the guaranteed return of reducing interest payments.
One of the advantages of investing the money is that you still have access to it and it isn't tied up in a mortgage. This way if you have an emergency, like a layoff, you still have funds to live on and pay the mortgage. Keep in mind the bank still wants to get paid monthly, even if you have paid down the balance. Lots of threads on here about that.

Thanks for the feedback. I think we are going to go with putting the lump sums of the cash in investments for the next few years and see how things turn out from there.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on April 22, 2016, 08:03:13 PM
Hi,

I have been really going back and forth on paying off the mortgage early or using the money to purchase extra income properties.  I have read about and discussed the HELOC method on other threads and wanted to bring it up again.  Speaking mathematically, the investment option makes more sense, but the heart wants to payoff the 30 year mortgage.  I believe with my current savings and savings rate I could pay off the mortgage in 6 years but at a cost of not acquiring any properties during that time which I don't like either.  Here is the calculator ("All in One" - needs Flash plugin) if you want to test for your financials -     

www.cmgfi.com/consumers/calculators

I think I have 3 options:

1. Use savings towards primary mortgage.  Any additional savings go towards payoff.
2. Use the savings and savings rate to purchase an investment property every year for 10 years a la "The Millionaire Real Estate Investor".
3. Use my savings to purchase an investment property outright and open a HELOC against it to use as a rainy day fund for emergencies.  I can then use the cash flow from rent to save money and buy another rental property in a year or two. 

It really bothers me that I have a 30 year mortgage and have money in the savings account earning nothing.  I don't want to buy multiple properties at the same time because I am still a novice and would like to go slow and do a "dollar cost averaging" method in real estate investing.  I think that the last option seems like a balanced approach to earning a better rate on my savings and still have flexibility for an emergency.  I have a 401K but I really have no faith left in the markets, especially over a short term.

I would appreciate any feedback.

Thanks,
Sonny

So my husband agreed to putting $5K in from his extra jobs in addition to the $10K from my annual bonus every year to paying down the mortgage. However, I have thought of another strategy and want to get your wise  opinions.

What about instead of putting $15K a year towards the mortgage directly, we put it into a index fund/mutual account and at the end of the 7 years, decide what we want to do with the money from there. We will still be paying $800 a month towards the mortgage on a monthly basis (which gets the mortgage paid off by the time we are 48) but it seems like putting the $15K each year in an investment account allows us more flexibility. If in 7 years, we want to take all of the money and pay off the mortgage we can, or we can put it towards something else. Thoughts? I also posted more details on my blog but it doesn't get much traffic yet and I would like direct responses.

A lot of people prefer to go the route of putting the money into investments and then using that to pay off the mortgage. You need to consider the 7% market growth potential vs the guaranteed return of reducing interest payments.
One of the advantages of investing the money is that you still have access to it and it isn't tied up in a mortgage. This way if you have an emergency, like a layoff, you still have funds to live on and pay the mortgage. Keep in mind the bank still wants to get paid monthly, even if you have paid down the balance. Lots of threads on here about that.
I did this for a few years.  Then when the market reached an all-time high AND I wanted to reallocate, I chose to reallocate from that sinking fund into the mortgage.  I plan to add one more chunk to the principal before I recast the mortgage balance.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Heckler on April 24, 2016, 09:16:52 PM
Congrats! Still hasn't really hit us yet. I'd be curious how long it took others who graduated the "club" to feel a difference.


I immediately started saving $5k/ month to my TFSA account (tax refund and bonus season), and have ratcheted my RRSP contributions to 40% straight off my pay, reducing income taxes nicely.  Still trying to figure out the fine balance line of investing 70% of income and having enough to cover the bills without dipping into cash savings.   I've used the principles from YNAB to forecast expenses and pay dates two months out, allowing me to maximize investments as soon as we can afford it.

In life we haven't noticed a difference at all, except my work is trying harder to keep me from leaving than I am afraid of a layoff.  I'm curious if payroll talks to HR.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on April 25, 2016, 09:32:46 AM
A lot of people prefer to go the route of putting the money into investments and then using that to pay off the mortgage. You need to consider the 7% market growth potential vs the guaranteed return of reducing interest payments.
One of the advantages of investing the money is that you still have access to it and it isn't tied up in a mortgage. This way if you have an emergency, like a layoff, you still have funds to live on and pay the mortgage. Keep in mind the bank still wants to get paid monthly, even if you have paid down the balance. Lots of threads on here about that.
I did this for a few years.  Then when the market reached an all-time high AND I wanted to reallocate, I chose to reallocate from that sinking fund into the mortgage.  I plan to add one more chunk to the principal before I recast the mortgage balance.

BlueHouse, I'm tracking almost exactly along with you. (not on amount, but strategy).  I will recast sometime in May. (We get only one, so I've been working to exhaust all possible options for paying down the principal.)

When the market is low, I push more toward the market. When the market is high, I push more toward the mortgage.  IMHO, this is just good portfolio management!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FerrumB5 on April 25, 2016, 10:03:07 AM
Might be off-topic. Anyone here who were transferred from Flagstar to Regions? I can't establish an account at Regions, when I call they say - do it after May1st (which is my pay day), which makes me wonder if it screws my credit history etc.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on April 25, 2016, 08:35:22 PM
Jan. 2015 - ~100k
Oct. 2015 - ~$67500
Dec.3, 2015 - ~$60k
Feb. 5, 2016 - $52,108.53
March 7, 2016 - 49,774.21
April 11, 2016 - 48,700 to go. Had to pay taxes this month.
April 25 - 47,500 to go. Figured out all the other bills,taxes,etc and had enough to pay a bit more down.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: rjbf65 on April 26, 2016, 12:58:23 PM
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.


$38,922 -- $2,921 reduction this month.  More travel and eating out this month, as well as property taxes and insurance slowed us down a bit.  But we are at the goal of being under $40K balance!  It's going down at a pretty good pace that I'm happy with!  We will have some Christmas expenses coming up this month but it shouldn't be all that bad.  My target is to hope to be under $37K at the end of December.

$35,898 -- $3,024 reduction this month.  Received a small bonus from work to more or less cancel out Christmas spending.  Also had to replace the wife's windshield.  Would love to be down to under $33K after January is up.  Have quite a few things on the horizon.  We are expecting our first child in late May.  With that we are planning on upgrading the vehicle fleet some.  While going from 3 vehicles to 2.  Just looking for more room and reliability.  Need to have the ability of hauling a child, 2 dogs, and luggage for trips to see our parents.  We have been on the mustachian side of things when it comes to vehicles.  Our 3 vehicles combined might be worth about 9 or 10K.  My goal is to have a paid for house as well as having atleast 1 newer vehicle also paid for by the time the baby arrives.  We are now at the position of having more cash than mortgage balance.  Really looking forward to knocking it out asap!  Another thing about having it paid off by the end of May is I'll finally be eligible to contribute to my 401K starting in July.  Would be wonderful to max out a 401K in just the remaining half of the year!

$32,026 -- a $3,872 reduction this month.  I always have to wait until the 5th or 6th of each month to process my extra payment.  I'm one of those weird ones that pay things as soon as I get the notice instead of holding on to the money for as long as possible.  If all goes well February and March have the potential to be good debt reduction months.  Tax refund in February hopefully and a 3 paycheck month in March.  We will be doing some vehicle upgrading with a new baby on the way but I will do everything I can to keep that cost to a minimum.


$31,609 --  a $417 reduction... I only made the normal payment this month and putting the agressive paydown on hold.  Some big possible life changes on the horizon and I want to have as much cash in the bank as possible just in case.  After the dust settles is when I'll finish it off.


$31,190 -- $419 reduction .. Another minimum payment.  Will be spending about $15K out of pocket upgrading the worn down vehicle fleet and adding room for the new baby next month.  Hope to finish off the mortgage by the end of 2016 or before.  Looking forward to getting the baby home and healthy and pressing reset on the paydown plan that we were doing so well at before.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on April 29, 2016, 05:55:30 AM
$27, 116 to go!!!!! So Exciting.


Mortgage
Balance
$25,478.56

couldn't help myself- put 5k in from our savings so down to 20,478.56 now! Can't wait to be in the teens!

wooohooo just got paid, and a few extras- so just dumped a bunch in!
Now at $17678.00 Mortgage payment comes off in a few days too- should take us to 16k something yayayay
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on April 29, 2016, 12:58:38 PM
Yes!  $71,000 as of today!  Going to get a couple of side hustle checks in the next couple of weeks and am hoping to be able to knock that sucker down to the 60's!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on April 29, 2016, 01:06:45 PM
I can see how this gets exciting when you start getting close to zero.  I still have a really long way to go, so it's hard for me to get excited unless I'm making big dumps.  I am going to try to pass another x00,000 on the house-odometer before the summer though.  So I'll look forward to that!
Congratulations to those making great progress.  It really is inspirational.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on April 29, 2016, 03:15:30 PM
I can see how this gets exciting when you start getting close to zero.  I still have a really long way to go, so it's hard for me to get excited unless I'm making big dumps.  I am going to try to pass another x00,000 on the house-odometer before the summer though.  So I'll look forward to that!
Congratulations to those making great progress.  It really is inspirational.

Don't get discouraged! Just try to break your mortgage payoff down in to mini goals. We used to use getting to the next $10,000 dollar mark as a goal (Going from $90,000 to $80,000). We also used the goal getting the principal portion of your mortgage payment up to a certain value (If we pay this much extra principal, the monthly principal goes up to $800). It makes it a lot easier to stay focused on the big goal if you have some smaller milestones along the way.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: PFHC on April 30, 2016, 01:36:18 AM
Mar 2016: $126,942
Apr 2016:$126,644
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on April 30, 2016, 08:49:34 AM

Principal paid off so far

2012 - $3415
2013 - $3994
2014 - $8483
2015 - $38412 (yup got rid of all the debt and $10 000 windfall not expected)
2016 - $27707 so far

3/1 Remaining balance $87322. Projected pay off date 09/09/2017 - SO 51st birthday.

4/1 Remaining balance $81837

4/30 Remaining balance $76952 (I owed the tax man!)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Threshkin on May 02, 2016, 09:43:57 AM
Just a fun realization that the mortgage would have been due today had we not paid it off last month.

It is a glorious feeling isn't it?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Comar on May 02, 2016, 10:34:20 AM
I'm joining in.

I have a house in Iceland. Bought it for 123k dollars (16.5 million icelandic crowns) in 2012. Started making extra payments early last year and am now down to 88.4k dollars. Currently I throw about 560 dollars at it each month. I have also thrown some extra cash at the mortage, such as tax repayments and such.

From the start I have used the strategy of adding to the payments each month. Each downpayment reduces the monthly mortage payment so for the next downpayment I have added the extra dollars the mortage payment has been reduced. Call it a snowball strategy?

My goal is to KO the mortage in 5 years. I'm turning 30 this month and want it finished before I turn 35.
87.5 k left. Paid 562 extra this month.
82.8k left.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on May 03, 2016, 08:05:08 AM
Just a fun realization that the mortgage would have been due today had we not paid it off last month.

Us too, except we have a bunch of deferred maintenance items we are now tackling. But at least they will be at a minimum 4.6% discount because we waited to do them! :-) We're using the $1,500/month for those items and should be done in about 1 year.  Hopefully after that there will be very little big maintenance for 7-10 years.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Heckler on May 04, 2016, 08:52:11 PM
Keep up the great work everyone!  You'll realize it's worth it when you can max your TFSA in three months!  (as in, take it from $35k to $50k in $5k increments!)

(http://vomzi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/free-scrooge-mcduck-gif-810.gif)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on May 05, 2016, 01:51:54 PM
I'm proud to announce I am a member of the exclusive Mortgage Payoff Club :) We just paid the last of it off today. My initial plan was to get it paid off near the end of 2018. I got my wife on board and we pretty much obliterated it over the last 5 months using bonus money, money from a closed CD that was paying nothing, and whatever else we cold afford to throw at it every month. We finally got the balance down low enough that we felt it made sense to raid our savings and just finish it off for good. I estimate we have saved $100,000 in interest. Not a trivial sum of money.

So what are we going to do with our freed up cash flow? We're still going to throw money in a savings account to cover taxes, insurance, and house repairs. We are bumping up our retirement account contributions. I've already doubled my 401k contribution from 10% to 20%. My wife is stuck with a Simple IRA, but she is going to try to max that out for the year but we need to calculate the new percentage first. I will be working on rebuilding my emergency fund also. We will also be fixing up  and replacing some things around the house we have been neglecting.

I don't anticipate any lifestyle inflation, but we are going to do some things we have been holding off on. I'm going to replace my office chair and my wife is getting herself a new bicycle. We're also going to take a nice vacation next year to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. Other than that, I still intend to clip coupons, look for the best value, and be happy with less.

For everyone else out there still working on your mortgage, keep up the great work. It will be worth it when you can finally start funneling those mortgage funds into saving and investing for the future.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on May 05, 2016, 03:23:31 PM

For everyone else out there still working on your mortgage, keep up the great work. It will be worth it when you can finally start funneling those mortgage funds into saving and investing for the future.

Congrats! & thanks for the encouragement!

Still plugging away here in one of Canada's most HCOL cities, hoping to be mortgage-free in 2018. About to hit the 5-figure club, so that will be an exciting milestone!

Keep up the great work everyone!  You'll realize it's worth it when you can max your TFSA in three months!  (as in, take it from $35k to $50k in $5k increments!)

Really looking forward to that day! :)

You're welcome! Getting under $100,000 was what finally made it seem possible to get rid of our mortgage. My only regret was not working harder on paying it off sooner. We could have probably saved another $10,000 in interest easily especially when we still had our 30yr 6.24% monster. Hindsight is always 20/20 :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tightwaddy on May 06, 2016, 07:05:28 AM
Monthly Check-in:
Aug 1, 2015: $101,100
April 1, 2016: $64,669
May 1, 2015: $59,586
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on May 11, 2016, 08:02:12 PM
$27, 116 to go!!!!! So Exciting.


Mortgage
Balance
$25,478.56

couldn't help myself- put 5k in from our savings so down to 20,478.56 now! Can't wait to be in the teens!

wooohooo just got paid, and a few extras- so just dumped a bunch in!
Now at $17678.00 Mortgage payment comes off in a few days too- should take us to 16k something yayayay
Down to 14k as of today
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on May 11, 2016, 09:28:06 PM
$27, 116 to go!!!!! So Exciting.


Mortgage
Balance
$25,478.56

couldn't help myself- put 5k in from our savings so down to 20,478.56 now! Can't wait to be in the teens!

wooohooo just got paid, and a few extras- so just dumped a bunch in!
Now at $17678.00 Mortgage payment comes off in a few days too- should take us to 16k something yayayay
Down to 14k as of today

So close!! Awesome work.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on May 13, 2016, 07:38:36 AM
Yay! 69,999!  I'm excited but have a question for other payoff club members.  Getting closer to my goal, I'm starting to feel like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop- like something is going to reach out and snatch my success.  Anyone else get this niggles every once in a while?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Mike2 on May 13, 2016, 08:27:16 AM
I want to join this club.  Current balance is $80,630.  A year ago it was around $90,000.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on May 13, 2016, 06:29:22 PM
Yay! 69,999!  I'm excited but have a question for other payoff club members.  Getting closer to my goal, I'm starting to feel like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop- like something is going to reach out and snatch my success.  Anyone else get this niggles every once in a while?

Just that you second/triple/quadruple guess your decision. Most here though say they would never go back to a house payment again and that peace of mind is worth it.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Cyaphas on May 13, 2016, 06:48:44 PM
Has anyone every run the numbers of not paying Home Owner's insurance anymore vs the investing side? If you no longer have a note on the property you're not obligated to pay home owner's insurance. I'm deeply considering not paying Home Owner's Insurance when the note is paid off.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on May 13, 2016, 08:33:29 PM
Has anyone every run the numbers of not paying Home Owner's insurance anymore vs the investing side? If you no longer have a note on the property you're not obligated to pay home owner's insurance. I'm deeply considering not paying Home Owner's Insurance when the note is paid off.

This only works if you are already FI and can self-insure.  The late Charles J. Givens wrote a book titled "Financial Self-Defense" in which this was one of the types of recommendations he provided.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_J._Givens

However, I grok your thinking on this: it feels almost wasteful to spend money on homeowner's insurance. I work with it by optimizing insurance costs and shopping around.

It seems to me that after mortgage payoff is when you would most need good homeowner's insurance. After all: you don't want to wake up one day and be snapped back to square one if your home is destroyed in a hurricane. (Full disclosure: I live in the southeast and hurricanes that make landfall here will spawn tornadoes that can destroy homes. It's a common enough event that I would never dream of going without insurance.)


Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Lmoot on May 13, 2016, 09:10:09 PM
I could see going without hazard if you know you can cover the cost of repairs or replacement and have somewhere else to stay. It's typically a finite amount so easy to determine. I would never go without liability though bc the moon is the limit and it's rare to find liability only. I suppose you can do an umbrella liability but I don't really know how that works or how much it is compared to hazard and standard liability.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Heckler on May 15, 2016, 06:55:00 PM
living in an attached townhouse with an older smoker two doors down, there's no way in hell I would go without home insurance.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on May 17, 2016, 10:59:03 AM
living in an attached townhouse with an older smoker two doors down, there's no way in hell I would go without home insurance.
I was going to say something very similar.  On my block, there have been two fires in the past 2 years.  The first one was from another neighbor flicking a cigarette into a trash bin that was touching my friend's house.  The entire back wall of their house caught on fire (all the siding).   They didn't even know the house was on fire until the Fire Department knocked on their front door and asked them to evacuate the house.  Luckily, a contractor was working outside and saw the flames and immediately dialled 911. 
The second was a neighbor a few doors down from me.  Their car engine burst into flames at 2:30am and their entire garage was on fire but was snuffed with sprinklers before it did any other damage.  The garages on our rowhomes constitute the first floor of our homes...so they were asleep directly above.  I admit, I have the least possible Home Insurance and it wouldn't be enough to rebuild, but it would be enough for me to start over somewhere else after selling the plot of land.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: rjbf65 on May 18, 2016, 10:08:48 AM
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.


$38,922 -- $2,921 reduction this month.  More travel and eating out this month, as well as property taxes and insurance slowed us down a bit.  But we are at the goal of being under $40K balance!  It's going down at a pretty good pace that I'm happy with!  We will have some Christmas expenses coming up this month but it shouldn't be all that bad.  My target is to hope to be under $37K at the end of December.

$35,898 -- $3,024 reduction this month.  Received a small bonus from work to more or less cancel out Christmas spending.  Also had to replace the wife's windshield.  Would love to be down to under $33K after January is up.  Have quite a few things on the horizon.  We are expecting our first child in late May.  With that we are planning on upgrading the vehicle fleet some.  While going from 3 vehicles to 2.  Just looking for more room and reliability.  Need to have the ability of hauling a child, 2 dogs, and luggage for trips to see our parents.  We have been on the mustachian side of things when it comes to vehicles.  Our 3 vehicles combined might be worth about 9 or 10K.  My goal is to have a paid for house as well as having atleast 1 newer vehicle also paid for by the time the baby arrives.  We are now at the position of having more cash than mortgage balance.  Really looking forward to knocking it out asap!  Another thing about having it paid off by the end of May is I'll finally be eligible to contribute to my 401K starting in July.  Would be wonderful to max out a 401K in just the remaining half of the year!

$32,026 -- a $3,872 reduction this month.  I always have to wait until the 5th or 6th of each month to process my extra payment.  I'm one of those weird ones that pay things as soon as I get the notice instead of holding on to the money for as long as possible.  If all goes well February and March have the potential to be good debt reduction months.  Tax refund in February hopefully and a 3 paycheck month in March.  We will be doing some vehicle upgrading with a new baby on the way but I will do everything I can to keep that cost to a minimum.


$31,609 --  a $417 reduction... I only made the normal payment this month and putting the agressive paydown on hold.  Some big possible life changes on the horizon and I want to have as much cash in the bank as possible just in case.  After the dust settles is when I'll finish it off.


$31,190 -- $419 reduction .. Another minimum payment.  Will be spending about $15K out of pocket upgrading the worn down vehicle fleet and adding room for the new baby next month.  Hope to finish off the mortgage by the end of 2016 or before.  Looking forward to getting the baby home and healthy and pressing reset on the paydown plan that we were doing so well at before.

$30,770 -- $420 reduction.  Spent about $22K to upgrade vehicles. Facepunch worthy I guess.  Now we are just waiting for the arrival of the baby!  I also switched from maxing out 2 Roth's to doing 15% in my 401K since I just became eligible.  This will give us a couple hundred more per month to throw at the mortgage.  Hopefully its paid off at the end of the year.  If not, it may be by my 33rd birthday in March. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on May 18, 2016, 10:51:04 AM
Has anyone every run the numbers of not paying Home Owner's insurance anymore vs the investing side? If you no longer have a note on the property you're not obligated to pay home owner's insurance. I'm deeply considering not paying Home Owner's Insurance when the note is paid off.
If you ever plan on purchasing rental property with a mortgage, the lender's going to ask for Proof of Insurance (POI) on your primary home, paid off or not. Just another wrinkle to consider...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FIREby35 on May 27, 2016, 04:53:40 PM
I've got to share this and, as others have said, sharing with family and friends seems to come with baggage. So here it is, we own our little slice of heaven - free and clear. We are now 100% debt free.

Myself and my wife are both 31. We have three kids (4, 3, 1). We bought our home for $172,000  26 months ago. We live in the midwest, so that bought us a 100 year old, three bed, 1.5 bath, 2000 sf Craftsman style home, 1.5 miles from the city center and my office. We also invested approx 20k into the home with a new roof, refinishing wood floors, fixing old wooden windows and their weight pully systems, making a brick patio, putting in a white picket fence, raised flower beds, taking out a wall to connect kitchen/dining room in a more modern open feel, creating built in shelves for our "library," and more. A lot of those renovations involved us doing it ourselves or calling in favors to pay only the materials. I love tinkering around and fixing things, so that is fun.

Anyway, we own it (for real).

For all you who think we should have invested. That's cool. We are aware of the arguments on both sides. Rate was 4.375%. We paid the $172k while also maxing two 401ks and putting a little extra aside. Total NW counting the house as 200k is $450,000. So, we still have a significant position in the market that will only increase now.

Two funny stories. First, I did tell my dad because he is pretty solid with money even if he has never fully become mustachian (didn't start buying used cars until he was 50 (He's 56 now) and I've had to tell him about management fees repeatedly). Still, he isn't going to starve and is a solid guy. He was funny because he didn't say anything for a minute or two. I just let the silence hang. Then I said,"What are you thinking." He replied, "I shouldn't have spent my whole life working for the man." He always kept the corporate job and I started my own business. I did tell him he was the inspiration for starting my business since he has talked about starting his own business (but never actually did). Anyway, he's a great guy and his reaction was interesting.

Second, the bank had NO IDEA HOW TO PROCESS A PAYOFF STATEMENT. Really can't say more than that. It was really clear mortgage payoffs are not a common issue they deal with.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on May 28, 2016, 03:44:41 AM
I've got to share this and, as others have said, sharing with family and friends seems to come with baggage. So here it is, we own our little slice of heaven - free and clear. We are now 100% debt free.

Myself and my wife are both 31. We have three kids (4, 3, 1). We bought our home for $172,000  26 months ago. We live in the midwest, so that bought us a 100 year old, three bed, 1.5 bath, 2000 sf Craftsman style home, 1.5 miles from the city center and my office. We also invested approx 20k into the home with a new roof, refinishing wood floors, fixing old wooden windows and their weight pully systems, making a brick patio, putting in a white picket fence, raised flower beds, taking out a wall to connect kitchen/dining room in a more modern open feel, creating built in shelves for our "library," and more. A lot of those renovations involved us doing it ourselves or calling in favors to pay only the materials. I love tinkering around and fixing things, so that is fun.

Anyway, we own it (for real).

For all you who think we should have invested. That's cool. We are aware of the arguments on both sides. Rate was 4.375%. We paid the $172k while also maxing two 401ks and putting a little extra aside. Total NW counting the house as 200k is $450,000. So, we still have a significant position in the market that will only increase now.

Two funny stories. First, I did tell my dad because he is pretty solid with money even if he has never fully become mustachian (didn't start buying used cars until he was 50 (He's 56 now) and I've had to tell him about management fees repeatedly). Still, he isn't going to starve and is a solid guy. He was funny because he didn't say anything for a minute or two. I just let the silence hang. Then I said,"What are you thinking." He replied, "I shouldn't have spent my whole life working for the man." He always kept the corporate job and I started my own business. I did tell him he was the inspiration for starting my business since he has talked about starting his own business (but never actually did). Anyway, he's a great guy and his reaction was interesting.

Second, the bank had NO IDEA HOW TO PROCESS A PAYOFF STATEMENT. Really can't say more than that. It was really clear mortgage payoffs are not a common issue they deal with.

Great job FIREby35! That's an impressive payoff timeline :) Since you own your own business, having the house paid for is probably one less thing to worry about. It's not always about maximizing investment returns.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: K-ice on May 28, 2016, 08:48:54 AM
I've got to share this and, as others have said, sharing with family and friends seems to come with baggage. So here it is, we own our little slice of heaven - free and clear. We are now 100% debt free.

.... fixing old wooden windows and their weight pully systems, ...


Nice Work.  Do you have any tips, links, on how you fixed the windows?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FIREby35 on May 29, 2016, 07:48:32 AM
This was the classic Mustachian project because there was nobody who would fix them. Everyone wants to sell you new vinyl windows and it was super expensive. Not to mention I didn't want to put new, modern windows in my old house. Plus, with storm windows there is basically no cost/energy savings. Now they all work. It's pretty cool because the house was built pre-ac and so the windows are placed in ways that create a gentle breeze inside the house if there is any outside air movement. Pretty genius for the guys who built it in 1917. I am still working on re-painting, staining, glazing and beautifying each of the actual window sashes. I am about 35% done with that. All you need for that is a sander, paint supplies and a putty knife.

This old house has a video on this and pretty much every old home issue.

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/video/0,,1631564,00.html
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FireLane on May 29, 2016, 08:26:00 AM
I definitely want in on this thread!

I bought my place in January 2009 for $265k and was paying the mortgage ahead for several years even before I discovered Mr. Money Mustache. In 2013 I refinanced at a very good interest rate, but kept my monthly payments the same so the payoff rate would accelerate.

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!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on May 29, 2016, 11:37:17 AM

Principal paid off so far

2012 - $3415
2013 - $3994
2014 - $8483
2015 - $38412 (yup got rid of all the debt and $10 000 windfall not expected)
2016 - $30706  so far

3/1 Remaining balance $87322. Projected pay off date 09/09/2017 - SO 51st birthday.

4/1 Remaining balance $81837

4/30 Remaining balance $76952 (I owed the tax man!)

5/29 Remaining balance $73836

Feels like a super bad month but onwards we go. The principle has gone to $500 per month which was a goal - so the next goal being set is being in the 50's. (of course the ultimate goal is Mortgage Free, but I like mini goals on the way.) Congrats to everyone who paid their homes off!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on May 29, 2016, 01:48:09 PM
What about instead of putting $15K a year towards the mortgage directly, we put it into a index fund/mutual account and at the end of the 7 years, decide what we want to do with the money from there. We will still be paying $800 a month towards the mortgage on a monthly basis (which gets the mortgage paid off by the time we are 48) but it seems like putting the $15K each year in an investment account allows us more flexibility. If in 7 years, we want to take all of the money and pay off the mortgage we can, or we can put it towards something else. Thoughts? I also posted more details on my blog but it doesn't get much traffic yet and I would like direct responses.

I missed this earlier. Yes, yes, a thousand times YES! Paying off the mortgage before maxing out other retirement/investment options is penny wise and pound foolish.

Stuff the savings vehicles full while inflation does its thing and your fixed rate mortgage will become relatively cheaper while your net worth ratchets. It's a more advanced concept than "Kill all the debt", but it's a smarter approach in the end. Soon enough, the paid-off mortgage feels "meh", primarily due to taxes, utilities and upkeep always increasing. Watching your investment account balances grow never gets old.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: K-ice on May 30, 2016, 02:51:55 PM
Paying off the mortgage before maxing out other retirement/investment options is penny wise and pound foolish.

Stuff the savings vehicles full while inflation does its thing and your fixed rate mortgage will become relatively cheaper while your net worth ratchets. It's a more advanced concept than "Kill all the debt", but it's a smarter approach in the end. Soon enough, the paid-off mortgage feels "meh", primarily due to taxes, utilities and upkeep always increasing. Watching your investment account balances grow never gets old.

If I had to give my 5y ago self some advice it would be this. "Max out the tax advantaged accounts then hit the mortgage hard."  Now I do have the mtg paid, and I am almost caught up with maxing out the tax advantaged investments. But having some more balance and more time for the stash to build with these low mortgage interest rates would have been the better choice.

I do still have a mortgage on a rental.  I may post updates here but it is quite slow and steady and boring.



 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: PFHC on May 31, 2016, 08:34:15 AM
Mar 2016: $126,942
Apr 2016:$126,644
May 2016: $126,350
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on May 31, 2016, 08:58:09 AM
Alright, we're down from 30k last year to around 24k after we put our latest "extra's" into the mortgage. We won't make the initial 2017 wish but we hope to finish by the end of 2017 which looks to be doable :)

The delay was caused by a new "2nd hand" car which we needed for baby nr. 2 and since we practically didn't have any savings (gosh, why was that :P) our SIL helped us out a bit. After paying her back we resumed the mortgage and dropped another 5K into it.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: flowrider on June 01, 2016, 08:43:00 PM
Dec 2015 $30,237
May 2016  $20,777
Planning to pay off around July next year:)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on June 02, 2016, 05:59:18 AM
Dec 2015 $30,237
May 2016  $20,777
Planning to pay off around July next year:)

Those super low numbers are exciting!  congrats!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on June 02, 2016, 06:00:20 AM
Down 5k to 65k this month.  Try to scrape together every penny to get this thing gone!

Observation: I've noticed that since we got under 100k that I'm completely obsessed with killing this thing.  As in cashing in change so I can pay an extra $3.50.  As in, yes, I'll teach your awful kid swim lessons b/c I'll get $100 obsessed.  Has anyone else found their intensity increase after they hit a certain number?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Threshkin on June 02, 2016, 09:11:48 AM
Down 5k to 65k this month.  Try to scrape together every penny to get this thing gone!

Observation: I've noticed that since we got under 100k that I'm completely obsessed with killing this thing.  As in cashing in change so I can pay an extra $3.50.  As in, yes, I'll teach your awful kid swim lessons b/c I'll get $100 obsessed.  Has anyone else found their intensity increase after they hit a certain number?

I went into this mode at about $75K.  It bugged me so I stripped my emergency fund down to almost 0 and paid it off.  I then sweated for months until I had some semblance of an emergency fund built back up.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on June 02, 2016, 06:54:13 PM
Down 5k to 65k this month.  Try to scrape together every penny to get this thing gone!

Observation: I've noticed that since we got under 100k that I'm completely obsessed with killing this thing.  As in cashing in change so I can pay an extra $3.50.  As in, yes, I'll teach your awful kid swim lessons b/c I'll get $100 obsessed.  Has anyone else found their intensity increase after they hit a certain number?

I went into this mode at about $75K.  It bugged me so I stripped my emergency fund down to almost 0 and paid it off.  I then sweated for months until I had some semblance of an emergency fund built back up.

I know that feel. Once we got under 6 figures, paying it off finally seemed feasible. I dipped pretty deep into my emergency fund when we paid off our mortgage. It was worth it. I freed up a bunch of cash flow. I can save more in my 401k now and build my emergency fund back up pretty quickly.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on June 02, 2016, 07:43:53 PM
End of 2015 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

We are making some serious progress all while continuing to invest for retirement.  We are also considering a change in 2016 but it will depend on the housing market.  We are looking at downsizing yet again, but this time to a condo in order to pay off the mortgage quicker.  Very dependant on how much we can get for our house though - exciting times ahead!

Inspired by everyone's progress, and jealous too of everyone under the 6 figures mark!  We are getting there slow but sure:

Mortgage amount - June 2, 2016 - $253,568

We will be into the 100's by the end of 2016 and are still on track to have it paid off in Sept. 2018.

In the meantime - we have listed our house in hopes of getting our asking price and doing a major downsize to be mortgage free.  Unfortunately the market is crap right now and we've had 2 showings in 2 months.  We will stay listed until our contract runs out at the end of June and then maybe try again in the fall.  I get this obsession - I've been obsessed since day one of this challenge - can't wait to be in the 5 figure amounts!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on June 03, 2016, 05:26:45 AM
End of 2015 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

We are making some serious progress all while continuing to invest for retirement.  We are also considering a change in 2016 but it will depend on the housing market.  We are looking at downsizing yet again, but this time to a condo in order to pay off the mortgage quicker.  Very dependant on how much we can get for our house though - exciting times ahead!

Inspired by everyone's progress, and jealous too of everyone under the 6 figures mark!  We are getting there slow but sure:

Mortgage amount - June 2, 2016 - $253,568

We will be into the 100's by the end of 2016 and are still on track to have it paid off in Sept. 2018.

In the meantime - we have listed our house in hopes of getting our asking price and doing a major downsize to be mortgage free.  Unfortunately the market is crap right now and we've had 2 showings in 2 months.  We will stay listed until our contract runs out at the end of June and then maybe try again in the fall.  I get this obsession - I've been obsessed since day one of this challenge - can't wait to be in the 5 figure amounts!
I am impressed by your 5 year term! Your progress is awesome. Wish we were 1/2 as disciplined.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: wintertell on June 05, 2016, 03:08:04 PM
Joining the thread! We are at $9997 with a payoff of $6354 in May.  Anticipating paying it off by this September. We started with a mortgage of just over 30k at 5.4% in July 2014. Can't wait to get rid of a payment!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on June 06, 2016, 09:52:28 AM
Joining the thread! We are at $9997 with a payoff of $6354 in May.  Anticipating paying it off by this September. We started with a mortgage of just over 30k at 5.4% in July 2014. Can't wait to get rid of a payment!

Love that you're getting that payment out of the way! You can do it!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on June 08, 2016, 07:43:43 AM
Down 5k to $65,700.  Still on track for a December payoff!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tightwaddy on June 08, 2016, 09:11:50 AM
Down 5k to $65,700.  Still on track for a December payoff!

Congrats! Looks like we're on nearly identical trajectories--we hit $49991 this week and are also shooting for December (though given pay schedule it might technically be the first week of January).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on June 08, 2016, 09:07:28 PM
Jan. 2015 - ~100k
Oct. 2015 - ~$67500
Dec.3, 2015 - ~$60k
Feb. 5, 2016 - $52,108.53
March 7, 2016 - 49,774.21
April 11, 2016 - 48,700 to go. Had to pay taxes this month.
May - failed to report in
June - $42,853.69 to go.

Wow. I didn't realize I was still at 48700 at the beginning of April. I think I turned up some leftover cash that month after taxes were paid, then made a decent sized payment in May as I get paid monthly and the April pay month had 5 weeks in it (this happens 4 times a year) resulting in a larger than usual check.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Astreja on June 09, 2016, 11:59:05 AM
It's done!  Rather than waiting for the last 2 payments to auto-withdraw on the next 2 Mondays, I phoned my Credit Union and had them pay out the balance right then and there.

*happy dance*
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: plainjane on June 09, 2016, 12:09:23 PM
It's done!  Rather than waiting for the last 2 payments to auto-withdraw on the next 2 Mondays, I phoned my Credit Union and had them pay out the balance right then and there.
*happy dance*

Happy dance indeed!

Wow. I didn't realize I was still at 48700 at the beginning of April. I think I turned up some leftover cash that month after taxes were paid, then made a decent sized payment in May as I get paid monthly and the April pay month had 5 weeks in it (this happens 4 times a year) resulting in a larger than usual check.

This is what happens when you get under 60k, you gather momentum without even realizing.  :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BiscuitsForBreakfast on June 10, 2016, 09:48:01 AM
Joining in to keep me honest, and also because there is so much to learn. I really wish I had found this site ten or twenty years ago.

I did a rate renewal on my 43,000 mortgage in April, and received a lower interest rate on my 5-year ARM -- 2.875. This brought my fortnightly payments down about $90 each. Yay, great, right? But here's where my (slowly eroding but seriously why did it take me so long) ignorance and unwillingness to do the math earns me a face-punch: I did not consider that basically i had also just extended the payoffs for another five years. When I DID figure this out, I put my payoffs back to where they had been -- only now a bigger proportion is going straight to principle.

The worst part is, this is my SECOND rate renewal (again to a lower interest rate at least), and I totally did not do the math 5 years ago.


Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on June 10, 2016, 02:40:44 PM
Joining in to keep me honest, and also because there is so much to learn. I really wish I had found this site ten or twenty years ago.

I did a rate renewal on my 43,000 mortgage in April, and received a lower interest rate on my 5-year ARM -- 2.875. This brought my fortnightly payments down about $90 each. Yay, great, right? But here's where my (slowly eroding but seriously why did it take me so long) ignorance and unwillingness to do the math earns me a face-punch: I did not consider that basically i had also just extended the payoffs for another five years. When I DID figure this out, I put my payoffs back to where they had been -- only now a bigger proportion is going straight to principle.

The worst part is, this is my SECOND rate renewal (again to a lower interest rate at least), and I totally did not do the math 5 years ago.

Don't beat yourself up too badly :) Better late than never. The important thing is now you are aware and you can take steps to get ahead on your mortgage. Good luck with your pay down!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on June 10, 2016, 04:28:39 PM
$27, 116 to go!!!!! So Exciting.


Mortgage
Balance
$25,478.56

couldn't help myself- put 5k in from our savings so down to 20,478.56 now! Can't wait to be in the teens!

wooohooo just got paid, and a few extras- so just dumped a bunch in!
Now at $17678.00 Mortgage payment comes off in a few days too- should take us to 16k something yayayay
Down to 14k as of today

$13, 392 left to go!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on June 10, 2016, 07:54:39 PM
$27, 116 to go!!!!! So Exciting.


Mortgage
Balance
$25,478.56

couldn't help myself- put 5k in from our savings so down to 20,478.56 now! Can't wait to be in the teens!

wooohooo just got paid, and a few extras- so just dumped a bunch in!
Now at $17678.00 Mortgage payment comes off in a few days too- should take us to 16k something yayayay
Down to 14k as of today

$13, 392 left to go!

So close. So very close. I keep around $10k + what I estimate the next years property tax to be in an emergency fund. Largely that 10k is to cover minimum mortgage payments for approximately one year. I'm likely to empty that to pay off the last 10k and then figure out what my new lower emergency fund # should be. Are you in any kind of similar situation where this will end up paid in the next month or two?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: wintertell on June 11, 2016, 08:58:34 AM
Yep! We just crossed under 10K and will pay it off in late August/early September. Current balance: $9677.

Unfortunately (and fortunately) I got excited and pulled from savings to get us below 10K. This means no extra reserves to pull down to cross the finish line. I just have to be patient, keep my job, and get paid.

Even if there is no incoming money from paycheck, I am putting any extra money that comes in immediately on the mortgage. Ex: We sold some stuff on Craigslist last weekend. I immediately sent the money off to the mortgage. Also have a pending reimbursement for $86 and pending leftover escrow money ($100) that I will throw on there as well.  All this 'extra' money will end up being about $500!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: 21runner on June 11, 2016, 09:07:47 AM
I look forward to joining this group in around 10 years! My balance is ~$89,700.00. Seems like a lot, but its a good feeling to know that I have enough investments/cash to pay it off now if I chose to.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ender on June 11, 2016, 09:18:28 AM
We're about to enter this race the wrong way! Buying our first home at the end of the month.

Putting 20% down. We haven't figured out exactly how we want to handle paying down the mortgage vs retirement accounts yet. I'm expecting my wife and I are going to want to hammer down the mortgage ASAP though as neither of us really has had debt.

I'd really like to take our floor plan and subdivide it into either $250 or $500 squares, each reflecting that amount of purchase price, and then color them in as we pay down the mortgage. Basically showing what percentage of our house we "own" vs the bank owns :-) Anyone done something similar?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on June 11, 2016, 11:57:22 AM
We have 15k in savings and I SO want to pay it off with that.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on June 11, 2016, 01:20:02 PM
We're about to enter this race the wrong way! Buying our first home at the end of the month.

Putting 20% down. We haven't figured out exactly how we want to handle paying down the mortgage vs retirement accounts yet. I'm expecting my wife and I are going to want to hammer down the mortgage ASAP though as neither of us really has had debt.

I'd really like to take our floor plan and subdivide it into either $250 or $500 squares, each reflecting that amount of purchase price, and then color them in as we pay down the mortgage. Basically showing what percentage of our house we "own" vs the bank owns :-) Anyone done something similar?
Congratulations on the purchase of your first home! I think a payoff chart is a fine idea, but I beseeeech you to only prepay your mortgage after you have maxed out every retirement savings vehicle available to you. If you plan to retire early, you'll need to fill up some taxable accounts too. Then, and only then, consider prepaying your mortgage. Your future self will thank you for being so smart.

Of course, I am assuming that you took out a fixed rate loan; -))
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ender on June 11, 2016, 01:24:26 PM
We're about to enter this race the wrong way! Buying our first home at the end of the month.

Putting 20% down. We haven't figured out exactly how we want to handle paying down the mortgage vs retirement accounts yet. I'm expecting my wife and I are going to want to hammer down the mortgage ASAP though as neither of us really has had debt.

I'd really like to take our floor plan and subdivide it into either $250 or $500 squares, each reflecting that amount of purchase price, and then color them in as we pay down the mortgage. Basically showing what percentage of our house we "own" vs the bank owns :-) Anyone done something similar?
Congratulations on the purchase of your first home! I think a payoff chart is a fine idea, but I beseeeech you to only prepay your mortgage after you have maxed out every retirement savings vehicle available to you. If you plan to retire early, you'll need to fill up some taxable accounts too. Then, and only then, consider prepaying your mortgage. Your future self will thank you for being so smart.

Of course, I am assuming that you took out a fixed rate loan; -))

We have a 3.625% fixed rate mortgage for 30 years...

And yeah, we're very likely going to max 401k/IRA/HSA stuff first. I expect my income to go up over the next <however many years we have the home> so hopefully we end up with tons of money to play with at some point :-) We've talked a fair bit about a separate investment account to put money into and then whenever it's greater than the mortgage knock it out right then.

Guess we'll see :-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tightwaddy on June 11, 2016, 03:42:04 PM
I'd really like to take our floor plan and subdivide it into either $250 or $500 squares, each reflecting that amount of purchase price, and then color them in as we pay down the mortgage. Basically showing what percentage of our house we "own" vs the bank owns :-) Anyone done something similar?

We printed and use this:
http://debtfreecharts.blogspot.com/2013/11/mortgage-chart.html

Every time we get to cross off lines, it's incredibly motivating!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on June 11, 2016, 05:02:19 PM
"I'd really like to take our floor plan and subdivide it into either $250 or $500 squares, each reflecting that amount of purchase price, and then color them in as we pay down the mortgage. Basically showing what percentage of our house we "own" vs the bank owns :-) Anyone done something similar?"

We use this app - it's actually really fun, highly recommend! 

http://mymountainofdebt.com
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BiscuitsForBreakfast on June 11, 2016, 06:42:26 PM
Joining in to keep me honest, and also because there is so much to learn. I really wish I had found this site ten or twenty years ago.

I did a rate renewal on my 43,000 mortgage in April, and received a lower interest rate on my 5-year ARM -- 2.875. This brought my fortnightly payments down about $90 each. Yay, great, right? But here's where my (slowly eroding but seriously why did it take me so long) ignorance and unwillingness to do the math earns me a face-punch: I did not consider that basically i had also just extended the payoffs for another five years. When I DID figure this out, I put my payoffs back to where they had been -- only now a bigger proportion is going straight to principle.

The worst part is, this is my SECOND rate renewal (again to a lower interest rate at least), and I totally did not do the math 5 years ago.

Don't beat yourself up too badly :) Better late than never. The important thing is now you are aware and you can take steps to get ahead on your mortgage. Good luck with your pay down!

Thanks, Mies. I appreciate the kind words!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KodeBlue on June 12, 2016, 12:00:18 AM
Yep! We just crossed under 10K and will pay it off in late August/early September. Current balance: $9677.
Same here- my current balance is $7640, if all goes well I expect to be finished by Aug or Sept. :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on June 13, 2016, 12:23:40 PM
"I'd really like to take our floor plan and subdivide it into either $250 or $500 squares, each reflecting that amount of purchase price, and then color them in as we pay down the mortgage. Basically showing what percentage of our house we "own" vs the bank owns :-) Anyone done something similar?"

We use this app - it's actually really fun, highly recommend! 

http://mymountainofdebt.com


yes!  I have windows on a house that I color in every $4,000.  Very motivating!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: eyePod on June 14, 2016, 10:39:27 AM
I have a google sheet for my mortgage payoff. It has the original amortization table on the left, and my "actual" on the right. Every month, when we pay a little more, I get to delete a payment at the end of the actual. Very rewarding.

We also 'strategically' had PMI (paid it off in a year and 1 month). Then we went from there and are still paying the $81.84 per month that we would have paid to PMI to the mortgage, so even if we have a tighter month, then we will put money towards that.

As to the retirement funds vs. house, we like to spread it around. 12k in the 401k this year, moving as much as possible from any raises into my wife's 457b (no early withdrawal penalty), and then some in the house. I know it's not necessarily the best from an optimization perspective (4.25% mortgage), but I have never talked to someone who paid off their mortgage who regretted it. Just the peace of mind alone seems well worth it.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: motiv8ed on June 20, 2016, 07:10:20 PM
Wow, after reading these posts, I had to join. Current Balance is: $119,781 Hopefully I will be able to stay motivated and join the club.

Still chucking along. Decided to go with a mixed approach to paying off the mortgage. Mainly because I'm not sure if we will be moving in the near future. Not sure if it's the best way to go, but it's what we are going with now.
1. Pretty much the plan is pay off the 30 yr mortgage like its a 15 yr.
2. Start a mortgage payoff fund in a brokerage account.

Current Mortgage Balance is: $116,828.23
Current Mortgage Payoff Fund Balance: $11,881.76
Balance Left: $104,946.47

Approaching the 5 figure mark, hopefully this provides some extra motivation.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: motiv8ed on June 20, 2016, 07:14:41 PM
I'd really like to take our floor plan and subdivide it into either $250 or $500 squares, each reflecting that amount of purchase price, and then color them in as we pay down the mortgage. Basically showing what percentage of our house we "own" vs the bank owns :-) Anyone done something similar?

We printed and use this:
http://debtfreecharts.blogspot.com/2013/11/mortgage-chart.html

Every time we get to cross off lines, it's incredibly motivating!

I will also recommend this mortgage chart. Currently using it and I enjoy coloring in a line when I can. Makes me feel like a kid again. If all goes well, I will be coloring next month.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: gggggg on June 21, 2016, 09:03:07 PM
So I could pay off my mortgage right now, but it would cut my emergency fund/cushion money in half. I'm unsure if I should pay most of the balance off, and keep my emergency money (about 8 months worth); or, just pay it totally off, and rebuild my emergency fund after. Any thoughts?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Heckler on June 21, 2016, 09:23:52 PM
So I could pay off my mortgage right now, but it would cut my emergency fund/cushion money in half. I'm unsure if I should pay most of the balance off, and keep my emergency money (about 8 months worth); or, just pay it totally off, and rebuild my emergency fund after. Any thoughts?

Have you ever needed more than 4 months EF in your life?  If not, I'd cut it in at least half.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on June 21, 2016, 09:48:19 PM
So I could pay off my mortgage right now, but it would cut my emergency fund/cushion money in half. I'm unsure if I should pay most of the balance off, and keep my emergency money (about 8 months worth); or, just pay it totally off, and rebuild my emergency fund after. Any thoughts?

Depends on whether your emergency fund is truly liquid or really "all your money in the world"...   If you have any other taxable, 401K or other assets besides that emergency fund, then drop that mortgage in a heartbeat!   Then pay yourself back faster with the monthly safety margin that frees up.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: gggggg on June 21, 2016, 09:58:24 PM
So I could pay off my mortgage right now, but it would cut my emergency fund/cushion money in half. I'm unsure if I should pay most of the balance off, and keep my emergency money (about 8 months worth); or, just pay it totally off, and rebuild my emergency fund after. Any thoughts?

Depends on whether your emergency fund is truly liquid or really "all your money in the world"...   If you have any other taxable, 401K or other assets besides that emergency fund, then drop that mortgage in a heartbeat!   Then pay yourself back faster with the monthly safety margin that frees up.

It's my liquid checking/money market cash. I do have 401/pension/taxable as well. And to the poster Heckler above, no, I've never needed multiple month's money. I do have a pretty stable state job, so I don't foresee having to use my emergency fund for anything big in the immediate future. I'll just pay it off tomorrow then. Thanks folks!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: PharmaStache on June 22, 2016, 08:35:15 AM
So I could pay off my mortgage right now, but it would cut my emergency fund/cushion money in half. I'm unsure if I should pay most of the balance off, and keep my emergency money (about 8 months worth); or, just pay it totally off, and rebuild my emergency fund after. Any thoughts?

Depends on whether your emergency fund is truly liquid or really "all your money in the world"...   If you have any other taxable, 401K or other assets besides that emergency fund, then drop that mortgage in a heartbeat!   Then pay yourself back faster with the monthly safety margin that frees up.

It's my liquid checking/money market cash. I do have 401/pension/taxable as well. And to the poster Heckler above, no, I've never needed multiple month's money. I do have a pretty stable state job, so I don't foresee having to use my emergency fund for anything big in the immediate future. I'll just pay it off tomorrow then. Thanks folks!

Awesome!  My plan is definitely to empty out the emergency fund once we get down to a low enough mortgage balance.  I don't think I'd be able to resist!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: gggggg on June 22, 2016, 12:43:46 PM
So I could pay off my mortgage right now, but it would cut my emergency fund/cushion money in half. I'm unsure if I should pay most of the balance off, and keep my emergency money (about 8 months worth); or, just pay it totally off, and rebuild my emergency fund after. Any thoughts?

Depends on whether your emergency fund is truly liquid or really "all your money in the world"...   If you have any other taxable, 401K or other assets besides that emergency fund, then drop that mortgage in a heartbeat!   Then pay yourself back faster with the monthly safety margin that frees up.

It's my liquid checking/money market cash. I do have 401/pension/taxable as well. And to the poster Heckler above, no, I've never needed multiple month's money. I do have a pretty stable state job, so I don't foresee having to use my emergency fund for anything big in the immediate future. I'll just pay it off tomorrow then. Thanks folks!

Awesome!  My plan is definitely to empty out the emergency fund once we get down to a low enough mortgage balance.  I don't think I'd be able to resist!

It isn't officially paid off, but I express mailed my payoff statement and cashier's check about an hour ago! Now I have to rebuild that emergency fund.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on June 22, 2016, 01:15:12 PM
So I could pay off my mortgage right now, but it would cut my emergency fund/cushion money in half. I'm unsure if I should pay most of the balance off, and keep my emergency money (about 8 months worth); or, just pay it totally off, and rebuild my emergency fund after. Any thoughts?

Depends on whether your emergency fund is truly liquid or really "all your money in the world"...   If you have any other taxable, 401K or other assets besides that emergency fund, then drop that mortgage in a heartbeat!   Then pay yourself back faster with the monthly safety margin that frees up.

It's my liquid checking/money market cash. I do have 401/pension/taxable as well. And to the poster Heckler above, no, I've never needed multiple month's money. I do have a pretty stable state job, so I don't foresee having to use my emergency fund for anything big in the immediate future. I'll just pay it off tomorrow then. Thanks folks!

Awesome!  My plan is definitely to empty out the emergency fund once we get down to a low enough mortgage balance.  I don't think I'd be able to resist!

It isn't officially paid off, but I express mailed my payoff statement and cashier's check about an hour ago! Now I have to rebuild that emergency fund.

CONGRATULATIONS! (Now you need less of an emergency fund because you won't have that monthly expense any more.) :-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: flowrider on June 22, 2016, 03:38:10 PM
Dec 2015 $30,237
May 2016  $20,777
Planning to pay off around July next year:)
Under $20k now $19,617
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on June 22, 2016, 08:02:44 PM
It isn't officially paid off, but I express mailed my payoff statement and cashier's check about an hour ago! Now I have to rebuild that emergency fund.

Absolutely AWESOME!   Congratulations!!!    Enjoy that sense of peace that the roof overhead is now entirely yours!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: RNwastash on June 22, 2016, 08:30:51 PM
$114,285 is my current balance after making an extra $750 payment this month.  Jealous of the others who have less than $10,000 left.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Diniecita on June 23, 2016, 09:04:53 PM
There is more to it than simple math. Owning your own home free and clear removes a level of stress from your life that opens up more opportunities in your head. Once we were mortgage free it gave us the courage to start our own business, which was slow to start but slowly grew to be fully supporting us both full-time earning a nice income.

I agree with this SO much! We are on our way to paying ours off early too. We got a 15 year mortgage and we have 7 more years to go at the rate we are paying. They think we should be done in 13 years...pppfffft. What a crock. I just want to be free from their chains and actually be able to say that I own it, free and clear. What's wrong with that? I don't need the fancy math. It's stressful to deal with every month.
Just my opinion. But, that's what we're doing! Mortgage free by 2020 is our goal.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: nora on June 24, 2016, 03:20:05 AM
Ours just dropped below 100000. Fantastic. I paid a bit extra to get it to 99997 or some such. Of course then the exchange rate changed (house is in NZ and we are in Oz)  and when I came to show the accounts to DH it was back over 100000! But I think we are on the home straight now, no pun intended.

Now down to $35000. Not long to go now.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Farmgirl on June 24, 2016, 06:04:22 AM
As of today we are down to $55,550.34.  That was on a $257K mortgage we took out in 2008.

It can be done.  There have been months (like recently) that we can only do the regular payment of $1611, but we have been working at it hard.  Our reasoning is that our small farm property (bought on the downside but not the bottom of the Great Recession) could be a hard sell if we decide we can't do the chores anymore.  And we wouldn't want to have to take the first offer that came our way because of the mortgage payments.

DH and I are looking to pay off the mortgage by year end.  Then I can renegotiate my current cube job to maybe a part time gig.  If my employer won't bite, then I walk and do my side hustles.

The end is in sight!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on June 24, 2016, 07:20:34 AM
As of today we are down to $55,550.34.  That was on a $257K mortgage we took out in 2008.

It can be done.  There have been months (like recently) that we can only do the regular payment of $1611, but we have been working at it hard.  Our reasoning is that our small farm property (bought on the downside but not the bottom of the Great Recession) could be a hard sell if we decide we can't do the chores anymore.  And we wouldn't want to have to take the first offer that came our way because of the mortgage payments.

DH and I are looking to pay off the mortgage by year end.  Then I can renegotiate my current cube job to maybe a part time gig.  If my employer won't bite, then I walk and do my side hustles.

The end is in sight!
Very impressive - what is the interest rate on this property?  I have a hard time justifying to DH paying down the main house early even though it is our only remaining debt at 2.625% since we plan to sell it in about 5 years. (It's at $244K.) Our real problem is that when we see money in the checking account we spend it - and there are deferred maintenance items creeping up on us.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: boarder42 on June 24, 2016, 09:30:16 AM
We're about to enter this race the wrong way! Buying our first home at the end of the month.

Putting 20% down. We haven't figured out exactly how we want to handle paying down the mortgage vs retirement accounts yet. I'm expecting my wife and I are going to want to hammer down the mortgage ASAP though as neither of us really has had debt.

I'd really like to take our floor plan and subdivide it into either $250 or $500 squares, each reflecting that amount of purchase price, and then color them in as we pay down the mortgage. Basically showing what percentage of our house we "own" vs the bank owns :-) Anyone done something similar?
Congratulations on the purchase of your first home! I think a payoff chart is a fine idea, but I beseeeech you to only prepay your mortgage after you have maxed out every retirement savings vehicle available to you. If you plan to retire early, you'll need to fill up some taxable accounts too. Then, and only then, consider prepaying your mortgage. Your future self will thank you for being so smart.

Of course, I am assuming that you took out a fixed rate loan; -))

We have a 3.625% fixed rate mortgage for 30 years...

And yeah, we're very likely going to max 401k/IRA/HSA stuff first. I expect my income to go up over the next <however many years we have the home> so hopefully we end up with tons of money to play with at some point :-) We've talked a fair bit about a separate investment account to put money into and then whenever it's greater than the mortgage knock it out right then.

Guess we'll see :-)

do the latter dont pay off extra slowly over time.  if you ever lose your income stream its incredibly unsafe to have all your taxable money tied up in a house that isnt 100% paid off. bank doesnt care you've been paying down principal when you start missing payments.

plus it will allow you the flexibility if you see the light sometime in the next 10-20 years that having that mortgage with the money invested is actually way better and something you'd like to keep when you FIRE.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ender on June 24, 2016, 01:05:59 PM
Yeah that'd be the plan :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on June 24, 2016, 02:21:14 PM
$12,800   eekkk no longer in the teens :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Farmgirl on June 29, 2016, 05:52:43 AM
As of today we are down to $55,550.34.  That was on a $257K mortgage we took out in 2008.

It can be done.  There have been months (like recently) that we can only do the regular payment of $1611, but we have been working at it hard.  Our reasoning is that our small farm property (bought on the downside but not the bottom of the Great Recession) could be a hard sell if we decide we can't do the chores anymore.  And we wouldn't want to have to take the first offer that came our way because of the mortgage payments.

DH and I are looking to pay off the mortgage by year end.  Then I can renegotiate my current cube job to maybe a part time gig.  If my employer won't bite, then I walk and do my side hustles.

The end is in sight!
Very impressive - what is the interest rate on this property?  I have a hard time justifying to DH paying down the main house early even though it is our only remaining debt at 2.625% since we plan to sell it in about 5 years. (It's at $244K.) Our real problem is that when we see money in the checking account we spend it - and there are deferred maintenance items creeping up on us.

Couponvan:  We are at 4% on that note.  We were both self employed at the time we took it out and were lucky to get that!  But we are so close now, another re-fi isn't worth it for us.  Just get the dang thing gone!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on June 29, 2016, 07:41:37 AM
As of today we are down to $55,550.34.  That was on a $257K mortgage we took out in 2008.

It can be done.  There have been months (like recently) that we can only do the regular payment of $1611, but we have been working at it hard.  Our reasoning is that our small farm property (bought on the downside but not the bottom of the Great Recession) could be a hard sell if we decide we can't do the chores anymore.  And we wouldn't want to have to take the first offer that came our way because of the mortgage payments.

DH and I are looking to pay off the mortgage by year end.  Then I can renegotiate my current cube job to maybe a part time gig.  If my employer won't bite, then I walk and do my side hustles.

The end is in sight!
Very impressive - what is the interest rate on this property?  I have a hard time justifying to DH paying down the main house early even though it is our only remaining debt at 2.625% since we plan to sell it in about 5 years. (It's at $244K.) Our real problem is that when we see money in the checking account we spend it - and there are deferred maintenance items creeping up on us.

Couponvan:  We are at 4% on that note.  We were both self employed at the time we took it out and were lucky to get that!  But we are so close now, another re-fi isn't worth it for us.  Just get the dang thing gone!

We just knocked out our FIRE house loan at 4.6%, so I see why you wanted to get the 4% one done. At $50K no one will refi you anyway....We are now going to start building the kids' college funds with extra cash.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: wintertell on June 29, 2016, 03:55:49 PM
Joining the thread! We are at $9997 with a payoff of $6354 in May.  Anticipating paying it off by this September. We started with a mortgage of just over 30k at 5.4% in July 2014. Can't wait to get rid of a payment!

We are at  7,392 for the end of June. That's a delta of 2,605 for June.

If the stars align for timely work reimbursements in August, we should be able to bump up the payoff from September to late August.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on July 01, 2016, 12:28:50 AM

Principal paid off so far

2012 - $3415
2013 - $3994
2014 - $8483
2015 - $38412 (yup got rid of all the debt and $10 000 windfall not expected)
2016 - $30706  so far

3/1 Remaining balance $87322. Projected pay off date 09/09/2017 - SO 51st birthday.

4/1 Remaining balance $81837

4/30 Remaining balance $76952 (I owed the tax man!)

5/29 Remaining balance $73836

6/30 Remaining balance $65388

Better month for us, everyone here is doing so well paying off or being close has fired me up to try harder. Thanks all!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on July 02, 2016, 03:50:07 AM
We are at $8,900 now after i dropped 4k in from an art sale yayayayayay!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Nederstash on July 02, 2016, 05:58:46 AM
It's really cool to see everyone's numbers dropping!

I'm on a 20-year fixed rate of 2.09% (includes monthly tax return) so I've hedged my bets on index funds. Still I would love nothing more than to completely own my own home, and not owe anybody anything. I'll probably kick an extra 10k a year off the mortgage, to scratch the itch. I don't like being in debt. And investing while in debt just feels kinda weird, no matter what the math says.

So don't take any crap from people who prefer investing over mortgage payments! It's a very personal choice and math is not the only variabel in the equation!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FerrumB5 on July 02, 2016, 11:25:49 AM
You are 2.09% on 20 years?? How? I'm 3.625% on 20 yr. Please share details :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on July 02, 2016, 01:01:45 PM
Mrs. Indentured and I have the goal of payoff in 5 years on a $249k mortgage without gutting our current stash.   

Just mailed the December payment and the resulting balance as of 12/31/2015 will be (drum roll please):  $109,429.99!    Gonna be a challenge in 2016 to continue killing it due big ticket expenses coming, but will "git'r done" somehow.

Hi all...   Getting back on the wagon after dealing with other distractions...  Normal amortization has us at $107,814 as of July 1st.   Under $100K by end of 2016 is the new goal.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: rjbf65 on July 05, 2016, 08:22:14 AM
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.


$38,922 -- $2,921 reduction this month.  More travel and eating out this month, as well as property taxes and insurance slowed us down a bit.  But we are at the goal of being under $40K balance!  It's going down at a pretty good pace that I'm happy with!  We will have some Christmas expenses coming up this month but it shouldn't be all that bad.  My target is to hope to be under $37K at the end of December.

$35,898 -- $3,024 reduction this month.  Received a small bonus from work to more or less cancel out Christmas spending.  Also had to replace the wife's windshield.  Would love to be down to under $33K after January is up.  Have quite a few things on the horizon.  We are expecting our first child in late May.  With that we are planning on upgrading the vehicle fleet some.  While going from 3 vehicles to 2.  Just looking for more room and reliability.  Need to have the ability of hauling a child, 2 dogs, and luggage for trips to see our parents.  We have been on the mustachian side of things when it comes to vehicles.  Our 3 vehicles combined might be worth about 9 or 10K.  My goal is to have a paid for house as well as having atleast 1 newer vehicle also paid for by the time the baby arrives.  We are now at the position of having more cash than mortgage balance.  Really looking forward to knocking it out asap!  Another thing about having it paid off by the end of May is I'll finally be eligible to contribute to my 401K starting in July.  Would be wonderful to max out a 401K in just the remaining half of the year!

$32,026 -- a $3,872 reduction this month.  I always have to wait until the 5th or 6th of each month to process my extra payment.  I'm one of those weird ones that pay things as soon as I get the notice instead of holding on to the money for as long as possible.  If all goes well February and March have the potential to be good debt reduction months.  Tax refund in February hopefully and a 3 paycheck month in March.  We will be doing some vehicle upgrading with a new baby on the way but I will do everything I can to keep that cost to a minimum.


$31,609 --  a $417 reduction... I only made the normal payment this month and putting the agressive paydown on hold.  Some big possible life changes on the horizon and I want to have as much cash in the bank as possible just in case.  After the dust settles is when I'll finish it off.


$31,190 -- $419 reduction .. Another minimum payment.  Will be spending about $15K out of pocket upgrading the worn down vehicle fleet and adding room for the new baby next month.  Hope to finish off the mortgage by the end of 2016 or before.  Looking forward to getting the baby home and healthy and pressing reset on the paydown plan that we were doing so well at before.

$30,770 -- $420 reduction.  Spent about $22K to upgrade vehicles. Facepunch worthy I guess.  Now we are just waiting for the arrival of the baby!  I also switched from maxing out 2 Roth's to doing 15% in my 401K since I just became eligible.  This will give us a couple hundred more per month to throw at the mortgage.  Hopefully its paid off at the end of the year.  If not, it may be by my 33rd birthday in March.

$30,349 -- $421 reduction in May -- Minimum Payment but our baby was born and is healthy!

$26,954 --- $3,395 reduction for June -- Back on the paydown train!  Feels good to throw a good chunk at it again!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on July 05, 2016, 08:35:54 AM
Gonna start this back up again.  Current goal is to get to 90K by the end of 2016. 

Starting Mtg Sept 2013:  $123,500

Today:  $98,504


It's fun to be back on this thread again!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on July 06, 2016, 08:05:01 PM
Jan. 2015 - ~100k
Oct. 2015 - ~$67500
Dec.3, 2015 - ~$60k
Feb. 5, 2016 - $52,108.53
March 7, 2016 - 49,774.21
April 11, 2016 - 48,700 to go. Had to pay taxes this month.
May - failed to report in
June - $42,853.69 to go.

Wow. I didn't realize I was still at 48700 at the beginning of April. I think I turned up some leftover cash that month after taxes were paid, then made a decent sized payment in May as I get paid monthly and the April pay month had 5 weeks in it (this happens 4 times a year) resulting in a larger than usual check.

July - $41,597.20

Lower payment month, but still above the minimum. Reeled in the final payoff @minimum payments date by 1 more month. November 2020 at the absolute latest now and in reality any date that I choose to drain money from my taxable investments. At present the rule is still early paydown can only be done with income earned that month.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on July 06, 2016, 09:28:47 PM
pdxmonkey,  Nice job staying on track only using "opex" income.   $60K in 18 months is a good burn it down rate!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on July 07, 2016, 05:37:32 AM
$8,165.58 left after regular monthly payment   ooooh!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on July 07, 2016, 07:29:35 AM
Yes!!!  We're now in the 50's!  At 57,400!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: hooch on July 08, 2016, 11:06:38 PM
Joining the thread.

At $53,095.  Paying an extra $1,100 per month.  Current plan is July 2019 payoff.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Nederstash on July 12, 2016, 01:45:23 PM
You are 2.09% on 20 years?? How? I'm 3.625% on 20 yr. Please share details :)

The rate is 3.6%, interest is deductible. I'm in the Netherlands, tax rate is 42%, so I'm getting 42% of the 3.6% back every month. That leaves me to pay 2.09% :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KodeBlue on July 17, 2016, 02:26:13 AM
Current balance $1733.00!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on July 17, 2016, 04:18:37 AM
Current balance $1733.00!
Oh my gosh, how do you contain yourself?  If I were that close, I'd be selling off anything I could get my hands on just to pay that off!  Hopefully the last few payments just increase your satisfaction.
Congratulations and great work! 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: freeatlast on July 17, 2016, 11:04:59 AM
I am so hoping to pay off my mortgage in 2 years.  I want to thank everyone on this site that encouraged me to not scratch the itch I had to buy a new (albeit used) car! THANK YOU.  Because I have fought that temptation, I am way more on track!

30 year mortgage at 3.625%

Original mortgage July 2012: $262,000 (I live in a HCOL area and this is actually pretty low for where I am)

July 2015: $237,000

December 2015 - got serious about this goal - made a huge line chart to watch my progress - that visual aid has really helped!

Today : $174,000

I want to be done by the time I am 50 (2 - 3 years) ... I know that is late by this board's standards :) I have two paid for rental properties and one other with a mortgage.  Once I pay my house's mortgage, the rental is next :) My plan is to live on rental income with no mortgage no later than when I am 53 :)

Good luck everyone!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on July 17, 2016, 09:14:10 PM
Wow. You paid off 63k in a year while still having hefty interest making it harder to do. And you only got serious in the last 6 months. I'd say you're off to a good start for getting to your goal
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: birdman2003 on July 18, 2016, 09:40:08 AM
Last month I paid off my mortgage (sold my house) and this week I get a new mortgage (new house).  Interest rate is 2.5% for the first 5 years.  Hoping to have it paid in full before the rate goes up.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ender on July 18, 2016, 06:08:07 PM
A journey of a thousand miles begins today.

Going to be slower than many of you all. But.. we'll do it, eventually. Right now if we put an extra $495/month against the mortgage we'll pay it off in 15 years...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on July 20, 2016, 05:17:16 AM
7,365.58 left to pay!

:)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on July 20, 2016, 08:01:20 PM
A journey of a thousand miles begins today.

Going to be slower than many of you all. But.. we'll do it, eventually. Right now if we put an extra $495/month against the mortgage we'll pay it off in 15 years...

I originally got a 30 yr mortgage and was hoping to pay it in 15. As rates went down I refinanced into a 15 year and my salary went up. The nice thing about buying and getting a mortgage is that your payment stays the same and inflation hopefully drives your salary higher. It's now looking like I'll get things paid closer to 9-10 years from the original 30 year loan vs the original hope of 15. It's easier to pay more extra on the mortgage now and also save a higher % in savings at the same time all these years later. You might be pleasantly surprised that your 15 year plan turns into something shorter.

As for those that say you/I shouldn't be paying early... I treat my home equity similar to a "bond" in my portfolio in that I don't expect the equity to go away and I am getting only a small return (mortgage % - tax breaks) of something less than 2%. As such I have no bonds in my actual portfolio. This is fine for me at the moment as I would only be using bonds for long term stability vs needing short term access to money. I'm likely losing out on some long term gains by not investing directly, but at the benefit of a smoother climb in net worth. If there's any chance of catastrophe wiping you to a negative number where you would need to file bankruptcy prepaying is probably a bad plan if you are not maxing your retirement accounts. 401k and IRA are protected during bankruptcy.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: motiv8ed on July 24, 2016, 10:05:48 PM
Wow, after reading these posts, I had to join. Current Balance is: $119,781 Hopefully I will be able to stay motivated and join the club.

Still chucking along. Decided to go with a mixed approach to paying off the mortgage. Mainly because I'm not sure if we will be moving in the near future. Not sure if it's the best way to go, but it's what we are going with now.
1. Pretty much the plan is pay off the 30 yr mortgage like its a 15 yr.
2. Start a mortgage payoff fund in a brokerage account.

Current Mortgage Balance is: $116,828.23
Current Mortgage Payoff Fund Balance: $11,881.76
Balance Left: $104,946.47

Approaching the 5 figure mark, hopefully this provides some extra motivation.

Mortgage Balance:$115,225.42
Payoff Fund:$15,769.88
What's Left:$99,455.54

Finally joining the 5 figure club also. I'm very excited to enter this part of the journey. Im shooting for a balance of $85k at the end of the year, $80k would be even better.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KodeBlue on July 25, 2016, 09:55:29 AM
made the last payment this morning! woo-hah!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on July 25, 2016, 10:03:57 AM
Congrats KodeBlue. <<<happy dance>>>
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KodeBlue on July 25, 2016, 11:48:57 AM
thanks! it feels great. :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: nnls on July 25, 2016, 04:08:25 PM
made the last payment this morning! woo-hah!


Congratulations!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: wintertell on July 27, 2016, 08:37:12 AM
Joining the thread! We are at $9997 with a payoff of $6354 in May.  Anticipating paying it off by this September. We started with a mortgage of just over 30k at 5.4% in July 2014. Can't wait to get rid of a payment!

We are at  7,392 for the end of June. That's a delta of 2,605 for June.

If the stars align for timely work reimbursements in August, we should be able to bump up the payoff from September to late August.

The stars and the hustle aligned so that we just paid off our mortgage today!!! WAHOOO!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on July 27, 2016, 08:47:43 AM
Joining the thread! We are at $9997 with a payoff of $6354 in May.  Anticipating paying it off by this September. We started with a mortgage of just over 30k at 5.4% in July 2014. Can't wait to get rid of a payment!

We are at  7,392 for the end of June. That's a delta of 2,605 for June.

If the stars align for timely work reimbursements in August, we should be able to bump up the payoff from September to late August.

The stars and the hustle aligned so that we just paid off our mortgage today!!! WAHOOO!!

Joining the thread! We are at $9997 with a payoff of $6354 in May.  Anticipating paying it off by this September. We started with a mortgage of just over 30k at 5.4% in July 2014. Can't wait to get rid of a payment!

We are at  7,392 for the end of June. That's a delta of 2,605 for June.

If the stars align for timely work reimbursements in August, we should be able to bump up the payoff from September to late August.

The stars and the hustle aligned so that we just paid off our mortgage today!!! WAHOOO!!

Well done you guys!!!


Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on July 27, 2016, 08:49:04 AM
We are at $6,715.58 now!
Next payment out comes in 5 days so will be under 6k and then I am sending off for the final payment coupon thingy and paying it all off !! Excited.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on July 29, 2016, 09:25:21 PM
Jan. 2015 - ~100k
Oct. 2015 - ~$67500
Dec.3, 2015 - ~$60k
Feb. 5, 2016 - $52,108.53
March 7, 2016 - 49,774.21
April 11, 2016 - 48,700 to go. Had to pay taxes this month.
May - failed to report in
June - $42,853.69 to go.
July - $41,597.20

Lower payment month, but still above the minimum. Reeled in the final payoff @minimum payments date by 1 more month. November 2020 at the absolute latest now and in reality any date that I choose to drain money from my taxable investments. At present the rule is still early paydown can only be done with income earned that month.

After paying everything else I put another $475 towards things in early July. Today I made my August payment and its a pretty decent one.

August 2016 - $39,000
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on July 29, 2016, 11:36:31 PM

Principal paid off so far

2012 - $3415
2013 - $3994
2014 - $8483
2015 - $38412 (yup got rid of all the debt and $10 000 windfall not expected)
2016 - $43750  so far

3/1 Remaining balance $87322. Projected pay off date 09/09/2017 - SO 51st birthday.

4/1 Remaining balance $81837

4/30 Remaining balance $76952 (I owed the tax man!)

5/29 Remaining balance $73836

6/30 Remaining balance $65388

7/29 Remaining balance $60825

Getting excited, I don't know why but the $50's has always been a milestone and the next payment will get us there. Congrats Dandypandys - I look forward to getting to where you are.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on August 01, 2016, 06:28:43 AM
Gonna start this back up again.  Current goal is to get to 90K by the end of 2016. 

Starting Mtg Sept 2013:  $123,500

Today (July 5th):  $98,504


It's fun to be back on this thread again!

8/1/2016:  $95,504

Won't see much progress next month as we are paying off the credit cards from our trip.   Asked the hubby if he wanted 3K on the mortgage or in the IRA, he voted mortgage so here it is.  I have until April to fill up our 2016 IRA's.

In other news...we are selling the rental next spring!  Well, we will try, at least.  Ha!  If we can get it sold, we should have 20-40K in equity that we will dump on this house.   That will be fun, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up that it will sell that quickly for the price I want.  We owe about 56K on it now, will owe 52K when we try to sell.  I'd love to sell it for around 100K but we'll see what the market is like at that time. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Highbeam on August 01, 2016, 09:34:47 AM
I'll join in. I have a 15 year mortgage, 3% rate, with a balance of 198147 on a home valued by Zillow to be 335000 so I calculate 115747 in equity. For various reasons, I am no longer able to itemize on my taxes so no mortage interest deduction benefit.

House payoff fund is at 126325 today.

Remaining balance to payoff the loan is then 198147-126325 = 71822.

I am saving up the payoff money in an after tax brokerage account with the intent of paying it off lump sum style. This, to me, sounds a lot better than dumping that money into the mortgage as I go which would lock those funds away but give me no relief on monthly cashflow requirements.

I expect to payoff the house when the house payoff fund exceeds the remaining balance by 20,000 or so. This for special income taxes and to keep the brokerage account in the "admiral" class. I see paying off the mortage the same way as I see having children. Not a wise financial move but with significant emotional value.

Love to read the success stories of you folks.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: rjbf65 on August 02, 2016, 10:57:08 AM
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.


$38,922 -- $2,921 reduction this month.  More travel and eating out this month, as well as property taxes and insurance slowed us down a bit.  But we are at the goal of being under $40K balance!  It's going down at a pretty good pace that I'm happy with!  We will have some Christmas expenses coming up this month but it shouldn't be all that bad.  My target is to hope to be under $37K at the end of December.

$35,898 -- $3,024 reduction this month.  Received a small bonus from work to more or less cancel out Christmas spending.  Also had to replace the wife's windshield.  Would love to be down to under $33K after January is up.  Have quite a few things on the horizon.  We are expecting our first child in late May.  With that we are planning on upgrading the vehicle fleet some.  While going from 3 vehicles to 2.  Just looking for more room and reliability.  Need to have the ability of hauling a child, 2 dogs, and luggage for trips to see our parents.  We have been on the mustachian side of things when it comes to vehicles.  Our 3 vehicles combined might be worth about 9 or 10K.  My goal is to have a paid for house as well as having atleast 1 newer vehicle also paid for by the time the baby arrives.  We are now at the position of having more cash than mortgage balance.  Really looking forward to knocking it out asap!  Another thing about having it paid off by the end of May is I'll finally be eligible to contribute to my 401K starting in July.  Would be wonderful to max out a 401K in just the remaining half of the year!

$32,026 -- a $3,872 reduction this month.  I always have to wait until the 5th or 6th of each month to process my extra payment.  I'm one of those weird ones that pay things as soon as I get the notice instead of holding on to the money for as long as possible.  If all goes well February and March have the potential to be good debt reduction months.  Tax refund in February hopefully and a 3 paycheck month in March.  We will be doing some vehicle upgrading with a new baby on the way but I will do everything I can to keep that cost to a minimum.


$31,609 --  a $417 reduction... I only made the normal payment this month and putting the agressive paydown on hold.  Some big possible life changes on the horizon and I want to have as much cash in the bank as possible just in case.  After the dust settles is when I'll finish it off.


$31,190 -- $419 reduction .. Another minimum payment.  Will be spending about $15K out of pocket upgrading the worn down vehicle fleet and adding room for the new baby next month.  Hope to finish off the mortgage by the end of 2016 or before.  Looking forward to getting the baby home and healthy and pressing reset on the paydown plan that we were doing so well at before.

$30,770 -- $420 reduction.  Spent about $22K to upgrade vehicles. Facepunch worthy I guess.  Now we are just waiting for the arrival of the baby!  I also switched from maxing out 2 Roth's to doing 15% in my 401K since I just became eligible.  This will give us a couple hundred more per month to throw at the mortgage.  Hopefully its paid off at the end of the year.  If not, it may be by my 33rd birthday in March.

$30,349 -- $421 reduction in May -- Minimum Payment but our baby was born and is healthy!

$26,954 --- $3,395 reduction for June -- Back on the paydown train!  Feels good to throw a good chunk at it again!

$26,523 --- $431 reduction for July -- made the minimum payment only.  Had over $2100 in hospital related expenses due to the baby born in May.  We had $4 left over for the month and it's not worth logging in to the system to move that over.  Feel blessed to be able to absorb the hospital bills in our normal cash flow.  Hoping for a good August.  Then September should be good with 3 paychecks.  Have $14K sitting in a checking account at my old bank that I plan to use to finish it off.  So about $12K away from being able to do that. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Gardo on August 06, 2016, 08:28:13 AM
Found this thread. 

I started back on Jul 1, 2009 with a mortgage principal of $255K.  So a total of 7 years of payment now.  I am still paying for my "sin" of having a 5.5% interest during the first 21 months before pulling the trigger on refinancing to 4%. 

The cost of this "sin" right now is $5,240.  This was arrived at by calculating if I had a fixed 4% on 15 years.  Without any overpayment and just straight fixed payment monthly, the interest projects to a total of $59,325 for 7 years. 

Since I had a "sin" of 21 months, my actual total interest paid the past 7 years was $64,565.   So the difference between actual and projected interest payment stands at an overpayment of $5,240.

I have been paying additional principal but was only able to start late due to me prioritizing other higher interest debts (credit card, car loan, etc.).  I currently stand $35K ahead of the fixed projection for 15 years.  So, I am excited to see in the coming months and years the fruit of the additional payments in the form of payment for my "sin" and eventually, an actual savings on interest payments. 

My principal balance is $122K. 

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on August 06, 2016, 08:33:43 AM
I have $5977.52 left and ordered the payoff coupon so will be paying it off Sept 1st woohooooooo!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Gardo on August 06, 2016, 09:10:51 PM
Found this thread. 

I started back on Jul 1, 2009 with a mortgage principal of $255K.  So a total of 7 years of payment now.  I am still paying for my "sin" of having a 5.5% interest during the first 21 months before pulling the trigger on refinancing to 4%. 

The cost of this "sin" right now is $5,240.  This was arrived at by calculating if I had a fixed 4% on 15 years.  Without any overpayment and just straight fixed payment monthly, the interest projects to a total of $59,325 for 7 years. 

Since I had a "sin" of 21 months, my actual total interest paid the past 7 years was $64,565.   So the difference between actual and projected interest payment stands at an overpayment of $5,240.

I have been paying additional principal but was only able to start late due to me prioritizing other higher interest debts (credit card, car loan, etc.).  I currently stand $35K ahead of the fixed projection for 15 years.  So, I am excited to see in the coming months and years the fruit of the additional payments in the form of payment for my "sin" and eventually, an actual savings on interest payments. 

My principal balance is $122K.

I was thinking about how I paid additional of $35K and yet faces $5,240 deficit and it just feels odd. 

Then it struck me.  I wasn't comparing it correctly.  I arrive at such decision when I thought about exaggerating and said, "If I pay it off today all my debt, that would still leave me with the $5,240 deficit, which does not make sense."  The solution was not to compare on time paid (i.e., 7 years so far) but on mortgage balance (i.e., $122K). 

So the correct comparison of interest paid are :

a) Projected interest paid through $122K balance : $70,600.
b) Actual interest paid through $122K balance : $64,800.

This now brings me from deficit to a surplus savings of $5,800!!!!!!!!!!!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jerseymark on August 07, 2016, 05:33:54 AM
My wife and I have been paying down our mortgage since we "bought"(I don't feel like it is our house until we own it without mortgage) the house in December 2009.  Went from 30 yr to 15 yr mortgage after a refinance in 2014.  Now following a plan with our extra savings in the following steps:
1. Keep emergency fund
2. Max 403B match(
3. Max Roth IRA for both of us(11K/year)
4. All additional to extra mortgage payments.

Our interest rate is only 2.9% so:
I know #4 could be to invest in a taxable account instead or put a little more towards 403B(could do 5k more per yr).  However, my 403B is not a great plan and has some additional fees.  It is also taxed where we live(NJ) since NJ does not recognize 403Bs like 401Ks.  With regard to taxable investments - I would rather get the guaranteed 2.9%, all investment accounts are in stocks so in my mind - the home is like a fixed income investment.  I have gone back and forth about this a few times and I always come back to the following question:  Would I take out a home equity loan at 2.9% interest to invest the money? or another way - Would I finance a car at 2.9% or pay cash?  The answer is no and cash for car every time...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Simpli-Fi on August 07, 2016, 05:56:06 AM
I'll join in. I have a 15 year mortgage, 3% rate, with a balance of 198147 on a home valued by Zillow to be 335000 so I calculate 115747 in equity. For various reasons, I am no longer able to itemize on my taxes so no mortage interest deduction benefit.

House payoff fund is at 126325 today.

Remaining balance to payoff the loan is then 198147-126325 = 71822.

I am saving up the payoff money in an after tax brokerage account with the intent of paying it off lump sum style. This, to me, sounds a lot better than dumping that money into the mortgage as I go which would lock those funds away but give me no relief on monthly cashflow requirements.

I expect to payoff the house when the house payoff fund exceeds the remaining balance by 20,000 or so. This for special income taxes and to keep the brokerage account in the "admiral" class. I see paying off the mortage the same way as I see having children. Not a wise financial move but with significant emotional value.

Love to read the success stories of you folks.

I struggle with this...I'm curious what the savings calculation is, you chop off the end of the mortgage interest but that's the lowest portion.  You earn money for low fees with admiral shares...but there seems to be a middle ground in there that should reduce interest and principle and earn money and still make the same pay off date; with just less liquidity.

Paying money for not having money is the one thing that kills me!  Money making me money doesn't offset that feeling for me since I don't have enough money to offset the interest in currently paying.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tightwaddy on August 08, 2016, 05:29:50 AM
$39,741

Payoff by year's end!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: boarder42 on August 08, 2016, 06:01:30 AM
I'll join in. I have a 15 year mortgage, 3% rate, with a balance of 198147 on a home valued by Zillow to be 335000 so I calculate 115747 in equity. For various reasons, I am no longer able to itemize on my taxes so no mortage interest deduction benefit.

House payoff fund is at 126325 today.

Remaining balance to payoff the loan is then 198147-126325 = 71822.

I am saving up the payoff money in an after tax brokerage account with the intent of paying it off lump sum style. This, to me, sounds a lot better than dumping that money into the mortgage as I go which would lock those funds away but give me no relief on monthly cashflow requirements.

I expect to payoff the house when the house payoff fund exceeds the remaining balance by 20,000 or so. This for special income taxes and to keep the brokerage account in the "admiral" class. I see paying off the mortage the same way as I see having children. Not a wise financial move but with significant emotional value.

Love to read the success stories of you folks.

I struggle with this...I'm curious what the savings calculation is, you chop off the end of the mortgage interest but that's the lowest portion.  You earn money for low fees with admiral shares...but there seems to be a middle ground in there that should reduce interest and principle and earn money and still make the same pay off date; with just less liquidity.

Paying money for not having money is the one thing that kills me!  Money making me money doesn't offset that feeling for me since I don't have enough money to offset the interest in currently paying.

the interest is the same throughout the mortgage its a percentage.  and if you're going to pay down your mortgage this is the lowest risk way to do it. making small payments over time and slowly decreasing it is a high risk decision in the event you lose your stream of income long enough that you have no way to pay your house and you get foreclosed on ... the bank doesnt care if you're paying down a 30 year loan at a 10 year pace.  if with 1 year left to pay down you lose all money and cant pay your mortgage you lose your house.  OTOH if you are doing as highbeam is doing and the same situation happens you have much more easily liquidable capital to continue paying your mortgage and living expenses for a longer time. If you really want to pay it down do it this way.  i know the math is lost on some about why you shouldnt, and i know some people understand it and choose to emotional paydown ... but the lowest risk way to pay down your mortgage is to lump sum pay it off not bit by bit.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mathjak107 on August 08, 2016, 06:26:13 AM
just don't leave yourself to low on cash by paying off the house .

it can be pretty miserable being house rich and cash poor . you can't spend the living room at the grocery .

once the money is in the house there really is no way to get it out without loans  . trying to access it is no different then taking any other kind of loan , you now need the money to make the payments .

even a reverse mortgage is still a loan you owe . you just agree to give them the house if you or your heirs can't pay off the loan .

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on August 08, 2016, 10:59:26 AM
Down to $49,900 from $57,500 last month.  We have about 6 months to go and honestly, I'm tired.  I'm hoping we can gut it out down the home stretch.  There's nothing giant that we want to buy but we've been hitting this hardcore for 5 years.  I'm just ready to move on to something else.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on August 08, 2016, 08:37:44 PM
I'll join in. I have a 15 year mortgage, 3% rate, with a balance of 198147 on a home valued by Zillow to be 335000 so I calculate 115747 in equity. For various reasons, I am no longer able to itemize on my taxes so no mortage interest deduction benefit.

House payoff fund is at 126325 today.

Remaining balance to payoff the loan is then 198147-126325 = 71822.

I am saving up the payoff money in an after tax brokerage account with the intent of paying it off lump sum style. This, to me, sounds a lot better than dumping that money into the mortgage as I go which would lock those funds away but give me no relief on monthly cashflow requirements.

I expect to payoff the house when the house payoff fund exceeds the remaining balance by 20,000 or so. This for special income taxes and to keep the brokerage account in the "admiral" class. I see paying off the mortage the same way as I see having children. Not a wise financial move but with significant emotional value.

Love to read the success stories of you folks.

I struggle with this...I'm curious what the savings calculation is, you chop off the end of the mortgage interest but that's the lowest portion.  You earn money for low fees with admiral shares...but there seems to be a middle ground in there that should reduce interest and principle and earn money and still make the same pay off date; with just less liquidity.

Paying money for not having money is the one thing that kills me!  Money making me money doesn't offset that feeling for me since I don't have enough money to offset the interest in currently paying.

the interest is the same throughout the mortgage its a percentage.  and if you're going to pay down your mortgage this is the lowest risk way to do it. making small payments over time and slowly decreasing it is a high risk decision in the event you lose your stream of income long enough that you have no way to pay your house and you get foreclosed on ... the bank doesnt care if you're paying down a 30 year loan at a 10 year pace.  if with 1 year left to pay down you lose all money and cant pay your mortgage you lose your house.  OTOH if you are doing as highbeam is doing and the same situation happens you have much more easily liquidable capital to continue paying your mortgage and living expenses for a longer time. If you really want to pay it down do it this way.  i know the math is lost on some about why you shouldnt, and i know some people understand it and choose to emotional paydown ... but the lowest risk way to pay down your mortgage is to lump sum pay it off not bit by bit.

This is true. If you get foreclosed on you still lose the whole house and have no say in the amount the house gets sold for. You COULD get some cash back from your equity, but it seems unlikely. I could lump sum the rest of mine right now if I wanted to liquidate some taxable investments, but I'm using income earned to pay it down. Worst case scenario when I didn't have the lump sum what I would have received in unemployment benefits would have more than covered my mortgage + utilities + taxes + car/home insurance + food. That would get me through half a year 26 weeks before I had to touch my emergency cash which would last me ~6 months or so. I'd very likely have a job long before then and that's assuming no changes to my food budget or turning the heat or a/c down even further to save money. Being a single earner I never want to be in a situation where required outflows would be greater than inflows even in the case I got laid off and I bought a house sized to meet that goal.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on August 09, 2016, 06:35:56 AM
This is true. If you get foreclosed on you still lose the whole house and have no say in the amount the house gets sold for. You COULD get some cash back from your equity, but it seems unlikely. I could lump sum the rest of mine right now if I wanted to liquidate some taxable investments, but I'm using income earned to pay it down. Worst case scenario when I didn't have the lump sum what I would have received in unemployment benefits would have more than covered my mortgage + utilities + taxes + car/home insurance + food. That would get me through half a year 26 weeks before I had to touch my emergency cash which would last me ~6 months or so. I'd very likely have a job long before then and that's assuming no changes to my food budget or turning the heat or a/c down even further to save money. Being a single earner I never want to be in a situation where required outflows would be greater than inflows even in the case I got laid off and I bought a house sized to meet that goal.


This is where we are, pretty much.  I already have some money saved up (80K), and we are adding 30K a year to that pile.  Unemployment for one of us would cover our mortgage/taxes/insurance plus utilities.  We would need to cover food and health insurance plus misc things.  We would be able to cover that with our savings, but more than likely, one of us would have a job and we both would not be unemployed at the same time.  Shoot, if we were both unemployed, then we'd probably be able to live off both unemployment benefits until one of us found a job.  Benefits would be around $2500 a month for us.  That's our practically our FIRE number anyways! I think we would have 20 weeks of benefits.   

Most people here, I hope, are saving a decent sum first and then paying down the mortgage with money that could be saved but they are choosing to use it for the mortgage.  Paying down the mortgage is higher risk, I'll grant that.  But having a large (to non-MMMer's) savings stash, and low expenses overall, we are in a better position to do it.  Also, my balance is so low (95K) that it's just not going to take us long to knock it out.  Especially if we sell our rental and get our equity out of that next spring (hopeful!). 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on August 10, 2016, 08:36:43 AM
I'm joining the club!!  I want to be out from under the crushing debt of my mortgage.
...  Goal is to pay the mortgage down to a point that I could afford payments [through a recast] even if I'm not employed.  That might be all the way to zero, or it might not.  ... I'm still a looooong way away from retiring this debt, so I'm trying to speed that up.  I still have a long time to figure out the end result.

I'm in a HCOL city in a big house.  I'll show progress in terms of % paid off against initial home value (equity against initial sale price).

Progress (%equity against initial sale price)

I'll be requesting the recast paperwork this month.  Principal balance dipped under 400k, and I feel much more comfortable with payments against that as a loan amount. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Simpli-Fi on August 11, 2016, 01:06:05 AM
I re-read a lot of arguments in this thread and since I have two mortgages I decided to stash one and pre-pay the other.  Could I have the best of both worlds, ha?! No, I'm a dumbass with two mortgages and in an industry where my friends are being laid off around me.  I will say I'm fortunate that I have renters in both properties and all my expenses in the US are FI each month.  I took a couple huge risks, refi primary home to an ARM (idea was to sell and dump equity into new home within 36 months) while self constracting my 2nd home which the construction loan converted to a 5 year balloon...then I was relocated out of the country.

ARM is five figures so I decided to dump the entire rental income on principle, and I'll stash the balloon and refi to a 30yr fixed while I still have a job!!  E-fund can cover both mortgages without renters for a year.  I'm still undecided if I'll sell or keep rental once I return to the states.  My plan has always been (since construction) to be mortgage free by 2020 and retire 2026 however I have a 2 year old and another one the way...time to read up on 529's.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: nora on August 11, 2016, 01:21:57 AM
I am in. Intending to pay it all off in four years or less. This one is a big $600000 and 5.2% interest.

Well we are done! Paid the last payment today. 3 years and 8ish months. I can thank our high incomes for the speed, and the high interest rate for the motivation. Now we just have to stash in Vanguard...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on August 11, 2016, 03:34:35 AM
I am in. Intending to pay it all off in four years or less. This one is a big $600000 and 5.2% interest.

Well we are done! Paid the last payment today. 3 years and 8ish months. I can thank our high incomes for the speed, and the high interest rate for the motivation. Now we just have to stash in Vanguard...

Great job! If it was a 30 year loan, 5.2% is almost usurious. I'm sure you probably saved several hundred thousand dollars paying it off early.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on August 11, 2016, 04:30:52 AM
I am in. Intending to pay it all off in four years or less. This one is a big $600000 and 5.2% interest.

Well we are done! Paid the last payment today. 3 years and 8ish months. I can thank our high incomes for the speed, and the high interest rate for the motivation. Now we just have to stash in Vanguard...
Holy cow Nora!  Great job.   I also had a big starting balance of $620k. I just made it down to below $400 after 4 years and was planning to ease off, but seeing your progress, I may have to step it up and try to make a bigger dent.
That is so impressive and must be hugely satisfying.  Any feedback from anyone you've shared with in real life?  What will you be doing to celebrate? 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: nora on August 12, 2016, 03:47:31 AM
The only people we can tell are my parents and one brother. My Dad thinks it's a huge achievement even despite our incomes so that is nice to hear. I guess we have choices, and could have chosen expensive holidays and consumer goods instead although we would have had make a serious effort  to use that kind of money. We celebrated with a glass of Lindauer Fraise which is a cheap ($10) sparkling NZ wine, strawberry flavoured. The house is in New Zealand so it seemed an appropriate choice. My husband has also 'retired' in the sense that he won't work again except as a homemaker and parent. It happened to coincide with the last payment, rather than being a planned ending. His contract was ended a month early by his employer and not extended as we had hoped it would be. So he has an extra reason ot celebrate too.

The original term was 25 years and the rate was variable but got as high as 6.5% at one stage. We could have fixed for a lower rate but I wanted to have flexibility in paying it. We were sending back Australian money to NZ so got a little kick from the currency exchange. Except at one stage when there was almost currency parity, but it didn't last long thank goodness.

The house has extra bedrooms and part of our early retirement plan when it happens, is to move into the house and have flatmates for the first few years for a bit of a buffer to our stash. Will see how it goes. It is on ten acres too so looking forward to having a big vege garden to keep me busy (one of my long lost hobbies).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on August 12, 2016, 11:27:19 AM
The only people we can tell are my parents and one brother. My Dad thinks it's a huge achievement even despite our incomes so that is nice to hear. I guess we have choices, and could have chosen expensive holidays and consumer goods instead although we would have had make a serious effort  to use that kind of money. We celebrated with a glass of Lindauer Fraise which is a cheap ($10) sparkling NZ wine, strawberry flavoured. The house is in New Zealand so it seemed an appropriate choice. My husband has also 'retired' in the sense that he won't work again except as a homemaker and parent. It happened to coincide with the last payment, rather than being a planned ending. His contract was ended a month early by his employer and not extended as we had hoped it would be. So he has an extra reason ot celebrate too.

The original term was 25 years and the rate was variable but got as high as 6.5% at one stage. We could have fixed for a lower rate but I wanted to have flexibility in paying it. We were sending back Australian money to NZ so got a little kick from the currency exchange. Except at one stage when there was almost currency parity, but it didn't last long thank goodness.

The house has extra bedrooms and part of our early retirement plan when it happens, is to move into the house and have flatmates for the first few years for a bit of a buffer to our stash. Will see how it goes. It is on ten acres too so looking forward to having a big vege garden to keep me busy (one of my long lost hobbies).
Gosh, that sounds even better now.  What a great story.  thank you for sharing.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: serious_pete on August 24, 2016, 01:33:46 PM
I'm in! £122,000 left to go on a £128,000 mortgage. Interest rate set at 4.99% So far made a grand total of £1000 overpayments so got quite a way to go. The plan is to overpay by £500 per month to start with and change mortgage deal in December.

Now down to £116,500 and interest rate is now down to 3.09% as of January. Still working on 500 overpay per month. Slow but steady!

As of right now mortgage is at £105, 082.

Not been on here for a while but we're now down to 5 figures! £99,500 😀
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on August 24, 2016, 08:58:30 PM
@serious_pete,   Excellent work getting to 5 figures!   Every "chunk" you pay just makes a bigger percentage impact from here.    No wonder the mortgage bankers focus on selling big mortgages...   human psychology of a big debt is "why even bother trying to pay it down"...    But small debt psychology is "I can and will totally kill this nuisance". 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Simpli-Fi on August 24, 2016, 10:01:04 PM
I think the term you were look for is face punch.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on August 25, 2016, 04:25:08 AM
We are at $8,900 now after i dropped 4k in from a sale yayayayayay!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on August 25, 2016, 07:23:50 AM
So close DandyPandys!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Simpli-Fi on August 25, 2016, 08:45:58 AM
So that was from almost 2 months ago...are you mortgage free dandypandys?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on August 25, 2016, 06:03:46 PM
So that was from almost 2 months ago...are you mortgage free dandypandys?

I sent the certified check in the other day.. just waiting to hear the good news!!! It's like it isn't done done, until it is done :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Mrs Brave on August 25, 2016, 08:06:38 PM
Joining in here......67,500 approx on the HELOC mortgage. 5.75% interest (before you all start, we do not live in America!)

We want to pay it off in 3 years before Mr Brave turns 60. So that is approx $62/day, not counting the interest.

We have one wage coming in, Mr Brave has a take home wage of 58,000/year.

Now there are just 2 of us at home we are cutting the expenses back as much as we can. We are also considering sending me out to work too, but that is not without its snags. In the meantime we are using me being at home to save as much money as we can....I can alter clothes from thrift shops to fit us, I can garden, and cook meals that are cheap but take a long time. I can buy food that is cheap or pick it for free and freeze it or bottle it. We are also cleaning and decorating a room with a door direct to the outside that used to be ours sons and I may do after school tutoring (I am a fully qualified teacher).

Right, off to make flatbreads to have with the leftover bean stew from last night. (Dried beans, pumpkin from the garden, potatoes carrots onions and herbs....also from the garden)

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on August 25, 2016, 10:25:53 PM
So that was from almost 2 months ago...are you mortgage free dandypandys?

I sent the certified check in the other day.. just waiting to hear the good news!!! It's like it isn't done done, until it is done :)
Woo hoo - congrats dandypants!!!

Side rant....OK - why is it that every other month your regular old check is just fine, but for the final check they require a certified one?  I didn't want to pay the certified check fee of $25, so I asked. They said it could take up to 7 days for your other check to clear, so you might have some interest. Hmmm. I owed like $10K at the time, and the 7 days of interest were going to be $10 max, so I technically could have written a regular check and added an additional $25 to be safe. They'd refund me a small check at the end.  I decided to play it safe and my bank actually waived the check fee when I asked. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on August 26, 2016, 05:47:31 AM
So that was from almost 2 months ago...are you mortgage free dandypandys?

I sent the certified check in the other day.. just waiting to hear the good news!!! It's like it isn't done done, until it is done :)
Woo hoo - congrats dandypants!!!

Side rant....OK - why is it that every other month your regular old check is just fine, but for the final check they require a certified one?  I didn't want to pay the certified check fee of $25, so I asked. They said it could take up to 7 days for your other check to clear, so you might have some interest. Hmmm. I owed like $10K at the time, and the 7 days of interest were going to be $10 max, so I technically could have written a regular check and added an additional $25 to be safe. They'd refund me a small check at the end.  I decided to play it safe and my bank actually waived the check fee when I asked.


I agree with your to the side rant! So annoying. Mine was wire for 25$ or do a certified/cashiers check.. which my credit union charged 3$ for.. so I went with the latter. Now I am waiting for them to get it and process. I had to google to see if sending a certified check was ok in regular mail- seemed to be a yes. (hope so)
My mortgage co had me choose a payoff date anyway.. Sept 1st, so they already calculated the interest up until that day.. not sure if i get interest back if it is a week early. All new to me!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Lmoot on August 26, 2016, 10:46:34 AM
I'll join in. I have a 15 year mortgage, 3% rate, with a balance of 198147 on a home valued by Zillow to be 335000 so I calculate 115747 in equity. For various reasons, I am no longer able to itemize on my taxes so no mortage interest deduction benefit.

House payoff fund is at 126325 today.

Remaining balance to payoff the loan is then 198147-126325 = 71822.

I am saving up the payoff money in an after tax brokerage account with the intent of paying it off lump sum style. This, to me, sounds a lot better than dumping that money into the mortgage as I go which would lock those funds away but give me no relief on monthly cashflow requirements.

I expect to payoff the house when the house payoff fund exceeds the remaining balance by 20,000 or so. This for special income taxes and to keep the brokerage account in the "admiral" class. I see paying off the mortage the same way as I see having children. Not a wise financial move but with significant emotional value.

Love to read the success stories of you folks.

I struggle with this...I'm curious what the savings calculation is, you chop off the end of the mortgage interest but that's the lowest portion.  You earn money for low fees with admiral shares...but there seems to be a middle ground in there that should reduce interest and principle and earn money and still make the same pay off date; with just less liquidity.

Paying money for not having money is the one thing that kills me!  Money making me money doesn't offset that feeling for me since I don't have enough money to offset the interest in currently paying.

the interest is the same throughout the mortgage its a percentage.  and if you're going to pay down your mortgage this is the lowest risk way to do it. making small payments over time and slowly decreasing it is a high risk decision in the event you lose your stream of income long enough that you have no way to pay your house and you get foreclosed on ... the bank doesnt care if you're paying down a 30 year loan at a 10 year pace.  if with 1 year left to pay down you lose all money and cant pay your mortgage you lose your house.  OTOH if you are doing as highbeam is doing and the same situation happens you have much more easily liquidable capital to continue paying your mortgage and living expenses for a longer time. If you really want to pay it down do it this way.  i know the math is lost on some about why you shouldnt, and i know some people understand it and choose to emotional paydown ... but the lowest risk way to pay down your mortgage is to lump sum pay it off not bit by bit.

I think it only becomes risky if you don't have adequate savings after the extra payment. It's just as risky if you keep the money in a brokerage account/stocks, for something you might need in a relatively short period of time (less than 5 years). It all just depends on how much you're paying it down, how much you have in savings/ where you're keeping the savings, and how long you expect to take. In my case I'm doing kind of a mix as I've been paying down my mortgage in $5k chunks. It's incredibly satisfying to know that with each chunk paid, I'm that much closer to my goal, not just b/c the principle is less, but because my monthly payments were working that much more against the principle. I agree that small amounts (or the famous "1 extra payment per year) is too slow for my style, and keeps me that much longer in limbo, which does increase risk IMO).

Yes it's true that you'll have less cash reserves while you're paying down that mortgage, but you're also actively reducing the length of time of that additional risk (which, if you plan things properly, it shouldn't even reach the "risk" level). I personally don't want to "risk" my cash not being there when I want it, by keeping it in stocks, and losing out on years of increasing principle directed payments. Granted my mortgage is fairly high by today's standard, at 5.375%, so I don't see me beating that by much, if any, in any other vehicle for the short term.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on August 29, 2016, 07:42:16 PM
Mrs. Indentured and I have the goal of payoff in 5 years on a $249k mortgage without gutting our current stash.   

Just mailed the December payment and the resulting balance as of 12/31/2015 will be (drum roll please):  $109,429.99!    Gonna be a challenge in 2016 to continue killing it due big ticket expenses coming, but will "git'r done" somehow.

Hi all...   Getting back on the wagon after dealing with other distractions...  Normal amortization has us at $107,814 as of July 1st.   Under $100K by end of 2016 is the new goal.

Reclaimed $600 for stuff on Craigslist that all just went to principal and that now pays us back $3 a month so as of 9/1, we'll be down to $106,750.    So without raiding the stash, need to find another $5,500 to get to 5 digits by year end.   Have a plan for 4K of it so far...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on August 30, 2016, 05:58:18 AM
So that was from almost 2 months ago...are you mortgage free dandypandys?

I sent the certified check in the other day.. just waiting to hear the good news!!! It's like it isn't done done, until it is done :)
Woo hoo - congrats dandypants!!!

Side rant....OK - why is it that every other month your regular old check is just fine, but for the final check they require a certified one?  I didn't want to pay the certified check fee of $25, so I asked. They said it could take up to 7 days for your other check to clear, so you might have some interest. Hmmm. I owed like $10K at the time, and the 7 days of interest were going to be $10 max, so I technically could have written a regular check and added an additional $25 to be safe. They'd refund me a small check at the end.  I decided to play it safe and my bank actually waived the check fee when I asked.


I agree with your to the side rant! So annoying. Mine was wire for 25$ or do a certified/cashiers check.. which my credit union charged 3$ for.. so I went with the latter. Now I am waiting for them to get it and process. I had to google to see if sending a certified check was ok in regular mail- seemed to be a yes. (hope so)
My mortgage co had me choose a payoff date anyway.. Sept 1st, so they already calculated the interest up until that day.. not sure if i get interest back if it is a week early. All new to me!


So no official news on the certified check or end of mortgage, BUT I looked on mint.com and it says ZERO for loans :-)
I might get a letter from them today.. will see.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on August 30, 2016, 06:45:37 AM
So that was from almost 2 months ago...are you mortgage free dandypandys?

I sent the certified check in the other day.. just waiting to hear the good news!!! It's like it isn't done done, until it is done :)
Woo hoo - congrats dandypants!!!

Side rant....OK - why is it that every other month your regular old check is just fine, but for the final check they require a certified one?  I didn't want to pay the certified check fee of $25, so I asked. They said it could take up to 7 days for your other check to clear, so you might have some interest. Hmmm. I owed like $10K at the time, and the 7 days of interest were going to be $10 max, so I technically could have written a regular check and added an additional $25 to be safe. They'd refund me a small check at the end.  I decided to play it safe and my bank actually waived the check fee when I asked.


I agree with your to the side rant! So annoying. Mine was wire for 25$ or do a certified/cashiers check.. which my credit union charged 3$ for.. so I went with the latter. Now I am waiting for them to get it and process. I had to google to see if sending a certified check was ok in regular mail- seemed to be a yes. (hope so)
My mortgage co had me choose a payoff date anyway.. Sept 1st, so they already calculated the interest up until that day.. not sure if i get interest back if it is a week early. All new to me!


So no official news on the certified check or end of mortgage, BUT I looked on mint.com and it says ZERO for loans :-)
I might get a letter from them today.. will see.
I didn't know they ask for certified. My strategy so far is to whittle it down and then wait for a final invoice from the bank. When it's payment in response to a bill, I hope they don't require that.
For some reason, I have it in my mind that I will enjoy a final "pay this" amount that is 100 or 200 dollars.

But that won't happen for a few more years yet :(.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on September 01, 2016, 07:45:20 AM
Principal paid off so far

2012 - $3415
2013 - $3994
2014 - $8483
2015 - $38412 (yup got rid of all the debt and $10 000 windfall not expected)
2016 - $48817  so far

3/1 Remaining balance $87322. Projected pay off date 09/09/2017 - SO 51st birthday.

4/1 Remaining balance $81837

4/30 Remaining balance $76952 (I owed the tax man!)

5/29 Remaining balance $73836

6/30 Remaining balance $65388

7/29 Remaining balance $60825

8/31 Remaining balance $55728

Excitement was brief, but for now I just wish it would end,

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on September 03, 2016, 04:54:05 AM
@SAfAmBit,  You're on an epic 'stach-ian quest and the successful end is in sight 12 months away at that rate...  steady as she goes!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks on September 03, 2016, 06:19:48 AM
Our mortgage is at $97,458.01.   Huzzah for being under $100k!

Our loan was sold to a new provider and they have difficulty with accepting principal payments.  I tried to make a larger payment in July but they took an additional payment out of it before applying the rest to the principal. 

So, we are skipping our September payment (was "paid" in July), and I will try making a large principal payment online for October.  Their online payment system has a box for extra principal.  It seems that I will only be able to add extra principal 1x a month, manually.  I could set it up for an automatic extra principal payment too, but I would like to max the number and do it every month.

Our income has been strong this year so I hope to pound out the mortgage.  Does it really feel different when the mortgage is entirely paid off?  $97k is still a lot of debt left.   I hope to put 10k+ on the mortgage in October.   If we could do 10k a month that would be amazing. (Edit: that is probably a big stretch.  I am sure we can do 5k+ a month, income is variable.)  It might be possible. We need to keep spending down to make that happen.

This month I considered buying a 2015 minivan for cash but decided to keep our old van instead.  I will try to wait to get a newer car until after the mortgage is done.   

My husband wants to spend some money and enjoy life, and I need to find out what he means exactly by that so he's feeling balanced and we can continue on this goal.  I think that paying off the mortgage scares him, as if we're missing out on something else by doing it, but I have more confidence that this is the right thing to do, right now.

Our other goals are to do things like -- replace some carpet in the living room.  I would like to update a bathroom but that can also wait until after our house is paid for.  I may also have a minor surgery this year.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Comar on September 06, 2016, 10:53:26 AM
Paid a pretty large sum this month 4200 dollars. Leaving my mortage at around 77k. I'm starting to see the endline somewhere on the horizon.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: t5inside on September 06, 2016, 11:56:43 AM
Just closed this morning on a refinance :).

Old: 30 year at 3.625%
New: 15 year at 2.5%, 0 points

Balance is $204k (house worth around  $285k). I know this is the payoff club thread, but I'm going to have a hard time justifying extra principal payments given 15 years isn't that long, and 2.5% is a crazy low rate.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Threshkin on September 06, 2016, 12:29:01 PM
Just closed this morning on a refinance :).

Old: 30 year at 3.625%
New: 15 year at 2.5%, 0 points

Balance is $204k (house worth around  $285k). I know this is the payoff club thread, but I'm going to have a hard time justifying extra principal payments given 15 years isn't that long, and 2.5% is a crazy low rate.

Yes, rates are amazingly low.  For comparison on my first home purchase I paid extra points at closing to bring my initial rate down to 13%...on an ARM!  After the first year the rate started climbing even though overall interest rates were declining.

This made me a firm and vocal supporter of fixed rate mortgages.

Disclaimers: 1) I could afford the payments and the increases, it just hurt to have it happen. I was never willing to buy more than I could afford.  2) I sold that place after a few years, moved to a different state and assumed a low-rate VA loan. 3) Way too many years later I finally wised up and finally paid off my mortgage, on the 5th home purchased.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on September 06, 2016, 06:57:51 PM
Jan. 2015 - ~100k
Oct. 2015 - ~$67500
Dec.3, 2015 - ~$60k
Feb. 5, 2016 - $52,108.53
March 7, 2016 - 49,774.21
April 11, 2016 - 48,700 to go. Had to pay taxes this month.
May - failed to report in
June - $42,853.69 to go.
July - $41,597.20

Lower payment month, but still above the minimum. Reeled in the final payoff @minimum payments date by 1 more month. November 2020 at the absolute latest now and in reality any date that I choose to drain money from my taxable investments. At present the rule is still early paydown can only be done with income earned that month.

After paying everything else I put another $475 towards things in early July. Today I made my August payment and its a pretty decent one.

August 2016 - $39,000 Revised -> 38,000. I put another $1000 to it later in the month.

September 2016 - $36,230.88
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: markbike528CBX on September 06, 2016, 08:29:46 PM
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 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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on September 07, 2016, 12:41:59 AM
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 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.

Yeah, my taxes will be increasing faster than general inflation down here for the foreseeable future. At some point I'm going to have to figure out how that factors into my FIRE numbers when I get closer. It's at least somewhat predictable as Oregon has a law that the taxable value can't go up more than 3% a year though, so it's limited to 3% value increase a year + whatever additional taxes get voted in. A couple years ago it went up 7%. 3% due to increase in value + a bunch of new bonds, etc. that got approved on the ballot. Even if the value of my house were to go down significantly my taxable value would still go up 3% because it's so far behind market value right now.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on September 07, 2016, 06:01:26 AM
I've still not had any paper work from the mortgage company after sending my final check.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: rjbf65 on September 07, 2016, 10:50:37 AM
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.


$38,922 -- $2,921 reduction this month.  More travel and eating out this month, as well as property taxes and insurance slowed us down a bit.  But we are at the goal of being under $40K balance!  It's going down at a pretty good pace that I'm happy with!  We will have some Christmas expenses coming up this month but it shouldn't be all that bad.  My target is to hope to be under $37K at the end of December.

$35,898 -- $3,024 reduction this month.  Received a small bonus from work to more or less cancel out Christmas spending.  Also had to replace the wife's windshield.  Would love to be down to under $33K after January is up.  Have quite a few things on the horizon.  We are expecting our first child in late May.  With that we are planning on upgrading the vehicle fleet some.  While going from 3 vehicles to 2.  Just looking for more room and reliability.  Need to have the ability of hauling a child, 2 dogs, and luggage for trips to see our parents.  We have been on the mustachian side of things when it comes to vehicles.  Our 3 vehicles combined might be worth about 9 or 10K.  My goal is to have a paid for house as well as having atleast 1 newer vehicle also paid for by the time the baby arrives.  We are now at the position of having more cash than mortgage balance.  Really looking forward to knocking it out asap!  Another thing about having it paid off by the end of May is I'll finally be eligible to contribute to my 401K starting in July.  Would be wonderful to max out a 401K in just the remaining half of the year!

$32,026 -- a $3,872 reduction this month.  I always have to wait until the 5th or 6th of each month to process my extra payment.  I'm one of those weird ones that pay things as soon as I get the notice instead of holding on to the money for as long as possible.  If all goes well February and March have the potential to be good debt reduction months.  Tax refund in February hopefully and a 3 paycheck month in March.  We will be doing some vehicle upgrading with a new baby on the way but I will do everything I can to keep that cost to a minimum.


$31,609 --  a $417 reduction... I only made the normal payment this month and putting the agressive paydown on hold.  Some big possible life changes on the horizon and I want to have as much cash in the bank as possible just in case.  After the dust settles is when I'll finish it off.


$31,190 -- $419 reduction .. Another minimum payment.  Will be spending about $15K out of pocket upgrading the worn down vehicle fleet and adding room for the new baby next month.  Hope to finish off the mortgage by the end of 2016 or before.  Looking forward to getting the baby home and healthy and pressing reset on the paydown plan that we were doing so well at before.

$30,770 -- $420 reduction.  Spent about $22K to upgrade vehicles. Facepunch worthy I guess.  Now we are just waiting for the arrival of the baby!  I also switched from maxing out 2 Roth's to doing 15% in my 401K since I just became eligible.  This will give us a couple hundred more per month to throw at the mortgage.  Hopefully its paid off at the end of the year.  If not, it may be by my 33rd birthday in March.

$30,349 -- $421 reduction in May -- Minimum Payment but our baby was born and is healthy!

$26,954 --- $3,395 reduction for June -- Back on the paydown train!  Feels good to throw a good chunk at it again!

$26,523 --- $431 reduction for July -- made the minimum payment only.  Had over $2100 in hospital related expenses due to the baby born in May.  We had $4 left over for the month and it's not worth logging in to the system to move that over.  Feel blessed to be able to absorb the hospital bills in our normal cash flow.  Hoping for a good August.  Then September should be good with 3 paychecks.  Have $14K sitting in a checking account at my old bank that I plan to use to finish it off.  So about $12K away from being able to do that.

$24,566 -- $1,957 reduction for August.  My annual life insurance premium took $900+ from the paydown.  September should be a good month with it being a 3 paycheck month. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on September 08, 2016, 06:00:02 AM
Principal paid off so far

2012 - $3415
2013 - $3994
2014 - $8483
2015 - $38412 (yup got rid of all the debt and $10 000 windfall not expected)
2016 - $48817  so far

3/1 Remaining balance $87322. Projected pay off date 09/09/2017 - SO 51st birthday.

4/1 Remaining balance $81837

4/30 Remaining balance $76952 (I owed the tax man!)

5/29 Remaining balance $73836

6/30 Remaining balance $65388

7/29 Remaining balance $60825

8/31 Remaining balance $55728

Excitement was brief, but for now I just wish it would end,
I feel you on that one!  We've been plugging away about the same amount of time you are and have a similar balance.  Just want it to be over now.  Hang in there!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on September 08, 2016, 08:11:59 PM
End of 2015 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

We are making some serious progress all while continuing to invest for retirement.  We are also considering a change in 2016 but it will depend on the housing market.  We are looking at downsizing yet again, but this time to a condo in order to pay off the mortgage quicker.  Very dependant on how much we can get for our house though - exciting times ahead!

Inspired by everyone's progress, and jealous too of everyone under the 6 figures mark!  We are getting there slow but sure:

Mortgage amount - June 2, 2016 - $253,568

We will be into the 100's by the end of 2016 and are still on track to have it paid off in Sept. 2018.

In the meantime - we have listed our house in hopes of getting our asking price and doing a major downsize to be mortgage free.  Unfortunately the market is crap right now and we've had 2 showings in 2 months.  We will stay listed until our contract runs out at the end of June and then maybe try again in the fall.  I get this obsession - I've been obsessed since day one of this challenge - can't wait to be in the 5 figure amounts!

September 8, 2016 update - $232,502 - we've paid off almost 50% of our $435,000 mortgage in 3 years.  Making great progress in the mortgage payoff, but our house won't sell.  Finally committed to make the downsize so it's disappointing to get no bites!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: K-ice on September 08, 2016, 08:15:33 PM
Spoke with someone today who paid off their home in 7years.

I've known him for about 2 decades & I always guessed he was frugal.

It was a good conversation.

 He was kind of surprised that a new press article said over 1/2 of people live paycheck to paycheck. And couldn't scrape up $2000 for an emergency.

He was like "how hard is the concept to not spend more than you earn?"

I concurred & said I've never had CC debt. He was happy to hear that. In kind of a fatherly way. It was sweet. I didn't have the heart to say our mortgage was paid off in 5.5 years.

I think that those of us on the right financial track kind of keep it a secret because we don't want to brag.

It's nice we can brag on this forum ;)

It was also fun to talk with someone in the flesh. I joked, "Why aren't you retired already?" He said his wife asks the same thing.


Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ACLR8R on September 13, 2016, 01:25:03 PM
Forgot to update mine. Paid the house off in March, about a week after my first child was born (I wanted to wait until after the birth to make sure there were no unexpected costs). Now I am working on our rental property, which feels a bit like starting over but it will end with a lot more positive cash flow each month!

Paid off $121k in less than 3 years on teachers salaries. Sold some toys as well.

Now trying to pay off $180k on our rental in under 3 years, we will see!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: boarder42 on September 13, 2016, 01:42:02 PM
Forgot to update mine. Paid the house off in March, about a week after my first child was born (I wanted to wait until after the birth to make sure there were no unexpected costs). Now I am working on our rental property, which feels a bit like starting over but it will end with a lot more positive cash flow each month!

Paid off $121k in less than 3 years on teachers salaries. Sold some toys as well.

Now trying to pay off $180k on our rental in under 3 years, we will see!

for your primary residence suboptimal but ok ... but the rental game is all about leverage.  you're doing youself no favors paying down a low fixed rate mortgage assuming your US
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Eilonwy on September 14, 2016, 01:15:01 AM
I want to join this club! We just got down below $80K, which is so exciting.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FireLane on September 14, 2016, 08:24:41 AM
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!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ACLR8R on September 15, 2016, 07:46:13 PM
Forgot to update mine. Paid the house off in March, about a week after my first child was born (I wanted to wait until after the birth to make sure there were no unexpected costs). Now I am working on our rental property, which feels a bit like starting over but it will end with a lot more positive cash flow each month!

Paid off $121k in less than 3 years on teachers salaries. Sold some toys as well.

Now trying to pay off $180k on our rental in under 3 years, we will see!

for your primary residence suboptimal but ok ... but the rental game is all about leverage.  you're doing youself no favors paying down a low fixed rate mortgage assuming your US

There really wasn't a question posed there, and I am ahead of schedule to my goal of FI. To each there own, and I will continue on my path, but thanks!

I love the guy in the mortgage payoff club thread, pissing on people who pay off their mortgage, lol!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on September 16, 2016, 05:05:25 PM
Forgot to update mine. Paid the house off in March, about a week after my first child was born (I wanted to wait until after the birth to make sure there were no unexpected costs). Now I am working on our rental property, which feels a bit like starting over but it will end with a lot more positive cash flow each month!

Paid off $121k in less than 3 years on teachers salaries. Sold some toys as well.

Now trying to pay off $180k on our rental in under 3 years, we will see!

for your primary residence suboptimal but ok ... but the rental game is all about leverage.  you're doing youself no favors paying down a low fixed rate mortgage assuming your US

There really wasn't a question posed there, and I am ahead of schedule to my goal of FI. To each there own, and I will continue on my path, but thanks!

I love the guy in the mortgage payoff club thread, pissing on people who pay off their mortgage, lol!

Excellent work!

We paid off our vacation house (pre MMM purchase we intend to use as our FIRE house), $241K to go on the main house at 2.6%...5 year plan for us....we are more about low cash flow than optimized returns. Plan to start renting the FIRE house next Summer for some extra cash flow too.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ACLR8R on September 22, 2016, 12:23:15 PM
Thanks!

2.6% is a really good interest rate!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cheddarpie on September 24, 2016, 11:51:31 AM
Great work everyone!

I haven't checked in here in a while but am excited to report I am down to 32k!

Last month my mortgage got sold for the fourth time in as many years! I think the lenders have realized they are not going to make any money of me. I am so annoyed with the transition -- the new company does not offer any amortization schedules or calculators on their website for your loan and they charge a fee for online payments (which apparently is going to change, but still W.T.F.) -- so I am even more inspired to knock this baby out as fast as possible.

My goal is by my birthday next summer -- it will be a stretch, but I am pretty sure I can do it. I have a decent AirBnB income now from my basement, so that will help, and tightening my belt in other places in the meantime . . . pretty freaking excited to be this close!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: MrsPotts on September 24, 2016, 09:38:24 PM
Just paid that sucker off.  Damn mortgage company can go jump in the lake.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on September 25, 2016, 07:12:46 AM
@MrsPotts,   Absolutely F-ing AWESOME!!!!!!    Welcome to freedom from indenture!  ;-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on September 25, 2016, 10:47:31 AM
i got my paperwork and a check reimbursement for escrow. YaY guess that is it then :) :)

We are going to redirect this mortgage payment straight into upping my contributions on the 403b next year. This year, I am on a paycut of 25% while taking the year off, (sabbatical) so this makes it up :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Eilonwy on September 25, 2016, 12:16:34 PM
Congratulations MrsPotts! I love your user name, btw. :-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on September 25, 2016, 08:11:39 PM
Only here could I confess that I just put a $10 roll of quarters aside plus my birthday present check from family to go towards principal this month.  :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on September 28, 2016, 07:27:06 AM
Just paid that sucker off.  Damn mortgage company can go jump in the lake.

Heck yeah!  Great job!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cheddarpie on September 28, 2016, 07:49:46 AM
Amazing!!!! Congratulations!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks on September 28, 2016, 04:08:48 PM
We paid down about $7k of principal this month, new balance approx $89,000.  My goal was to get under $90k.   My husband's variable paychecks are lower for the next trimester but I am thinking we might be able to knock this out in 18 months.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Nederstash on September 30, 2016, 01:00:56 PM
All of you are doing great! It's really inspiring to see. Always have a smile on my face when I visit this thread :) keep being awesome!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on September 30, 2016, 10:02:40 PM
Principal paid off so far

2012 - $3415
2013 - $3994
2014 - $8483
2015 - $38412 (yup got rid of all the debt and $10 000 windfall not expected)
2016 - $48817  so far

3/1 Remaining balance $87322. Projected pay off date 09/09/2017 - SO 51st birthday.

4/1 Remaining balance $81837

4/30 Remaining balance $76952 (I owed the tax man!)

5/29 Remaining balance $73836

6/30 Remaining balance $65388

7/29 Remaining balance $60825

8/31 Remaining balance $55728

9/30 Remaining balance $49696

Thank-you for all the encouragement - staying the course.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on September 30, 2016, 10:23:24 PM
Looks like you'll be passing me up pretty soon. Congrats!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: rjbf65 on October 03, 2016, 08:19:23 AM
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.


$38,922 -- $2,921 reduction this month.  More travel and eating out this month, as well as property taxes and insurance slowed us down a bit.  But we are at the goal of being under $40K balance!  It's going down at a pretty good pace that I'm happy with!  We will have some Christmas expenses coming up this month but it shouldn't be all that bad.  My target is to hope to be under $37K at the end of December.

$35,898 -- $3,024 reduction this month.  Received a small bonus from work to more or less cancel out Christmas spending.  Also had to replace the wife's windshield.  Would love to be down to under $33K after January is up.  Have quite a few things on the horizon.  We are expecting our first child in late May.  With that we are planning on upgrading the vehicle fleet some.  While going from 3 vehicles to 2.  Just looking for more room and reliability.  Need to have the ability of hauling a child, 2 dogs, and luggage for trips to see our parents.  We have been on the mustachian side of things when it comes to vehicles.  Our 3 vehicles combined might be worth about 9 or 10K.  My goal is to have a paid for house as well as having atleast 1 newer vehicle also paid for by the time the baby arrives.  We are now at the position of having more cash than mortgage balance.  Really looking forward to knocking it out asap!  Another thing about having it paid off by the end of May is I'll finally be eligible to contribute to my 401K starting in July.  Would be wonderful to max out a 401K in just the remaining half of the year!

$32,026 -- a $3,872 reduction this month.  I always have to wait until the 5th or 6th of each month to process my extra payment.  I'm one of those weird ones that pay things as soon as I get the notice instead of holding on to the money for as long as possible.  If all goes well February and March have the potential to be good debt reduction months.  Tax refund in February hopefully and a 3 paycheck month in March.  We will be doing some vehicle upgrading with a new baby on the way but I will do everything I can to keep that cost to a minimum.


$31,609 --  a $417 reduction... I only made the normal payment this month and putting the agressive paydown on hold.  Some big possible life changes on the horizon and I want to have as much cash in the bank as possible just in case.  After the dust settles is when I'll finish it off.


$31,190 -- $419 reduction .. Another minimum payment.  Will be spending about $15K out of pocket upgrading the worn down vehicle fleet and adding room for the new baby next month.  Hope to finish off the mortgage by the end of 2016 or before.  Looking forward to getting the baby home and healthy and pressing reset on the paydown plan that we were doing so well at before.

$30,770 -- $420 reduction.  Spent about $22K to upgrade vehicles. Facepunch worthy I guess.  Now we are just waiting for the arrival of the baby!  I also switched from maxing out 2 Roth's to doing 15% in my 401K since I just became eligible.  This will give us a couple hundred more per month to throw at the mortgage.  Hopefully its paid off at the end of the year.  If not, it may be by my 33rd birthday in March.

$30,349 -- $421 reduction in May -- Minimum Payment but our baby was born and is healthy!

$26,954 --- $3,395 reduction for June -- Back on the paydown train!  Feels good to throw a good chunk at it again!

$26,523 --- $431 reduction for July -- made the minimum payment only.  Had over $2100 in hospital related expenses due to the baby born in May.  We had $4 left over for the month and it's not worth logging in to the system to move that over.  Feel blessed to be able to absorb the hospital bills in our normal cash flow.  Hoping for a good August.  Then September should be good with 3 paychecks.  Have $14K sitting in a checking account at my old bank that I plan to use to finish it off.  So about $12K away from being able to do that.

$24,566 -- $1,957 reduction for August.  My annual life insurance premium took $900+ from the paydown.  September should be a good month with it being a 3 paycheck month.

$19,617 -- $4,949 reduction for September once I'm able to move the additional principal over in a couple days.  Getting close now! 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Eilonwy on October 04, 2016, 10:49:53 AM
Heh, that would drive me crazy too! I was actually very tempted to use our renovation savings to pay ours off -- we have just the right amount -- but then things started moving, finally, with the permitting process, so it's just as well I didn't.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on October 06, 2016, 06:43:42 AM
$9,445.44

I would pay it off today but the penalties for doing so would cost more than the interest charges I'll pay if I leave it until my renewal date. It's killing me, though, to leave a <$10k mortgage alone. I want to pick at it like a scab.

Soon!
Just think of the mortgage company and whomever reviews your renewal...   And then think of their unhappy scrunched up face when they realize the mortgage security your loan is in won't be getting the original interest "high margin period" in the loan's amortization that they want from a "young loan".    Enjoy your release from indenture!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on October 08, 2016, 06:01:50 AM
Annual bonus at work helped us drop the mortgage from $47600 to $36,500!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: stashja on October 08, 2016, 09:33:25 AM
Bought home in June 2014. Mortgage was $84K. Not including 20% down.
Have been overpaying principal every month, plus a few windfalls from extra pay. Trying to pay it off in 4-5 years (so, by 2018-9).
I make $49k.
Down to $48k balance left.
How am I doing?

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Nederstash on October 09, 2016, 03:15:11 AM
I used to be on Team Investing all the way but the more I think about it, the more I realize that I would be much happier with a paid for home. The borrower is slave to the lender, as they say... I never liked debt and I think that's winning over my rational/mathmatical investment mind. I think I've found a good middle ground between risk and safety:
- I won't cash out my investments
- I will still keep investing 10% of my take-home pay
- 6 months EF remains untouched of course
- Keep 10k separate to replace my car in a few months
- Anything extra goes to the mortgage

Wish me luck, I estimate it'll take about 8-10 years to knock out the mortgage.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on October 09, 2016, 04:37:34 AM
@stashja,  Doing well on pay down at that rate.   With $48K to go, there may be no tax benefit to the amortization table of that loan and the terms are important to see if there are better options to reduce interest.   What are terms of that loan and how much monthly is interest right now?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on October 09, 2016, 01:39:05 PM
Jan. 2015 - ~100k
Oct. 2015 - ~$67500
Dec.3, 2015 - ~$60k
Feb. 5, 2016 - $52,108.53
March 7, 2016 - 49,774.21
April 11, 2016 - 48,700 to go. Had to pay taxes this month.
May - failed to report in
June - $42,853.69 to go.
July - $41,597.20

Lower payment month, but still above the minimum. Reeled in the final payoff @minimum payments date by 1 more month. November 2020 at the absolute latest now and in reality any date that I choose to drain money from my taxable investments. At present the rule is still early paydown can only be done with income earned that month.

After paying everything else I put another $475 towards things in early July. Today I made my August payment and its a pretty decent one.

August 2016 - $39,000 Revised -> 38,000. I put another $1000 to it later in the month.

September 2016 - $36,230.88
October 2016 - $34,250. Now down to April 2020 at minimum payments.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks on October 14, 2016, 11:26:06 AM
We paid down about $7k of principal this month, new balance approx $89,000.  My goal was to get under $90k.   My husband's variable paychecks are lower for the next trimester but I am thinking we might be able to knock this out in 18 months.

$89,951
$ 3,750 extra principal paid (November)
======
$86,201 left to go

I'm anxious to go faster on this, but want to keep some reserve cash on hand going into the holidays.  If we pay $3,750 extra every time, our mortgage will be done in 24 months, so that is October 2018.   I was hoping to put an extra $5k a month and kill it in 18  months, but...  we'll see how it plays out over time.   

I was tempted to pull out extra money from investment accounts but for now I'm keeping the payments coming out of checking/savings cash flow.






Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks on October 14, 2016, 11:57:18 AM
I used to be on Team Investing all the way but the more I think about it, the more I realize that I would be much happier with a paid for home. The borrower is slave to the lender, as they say... I never liked debt and I think that's winning over my rational/mathmatical investment mind. I think I've found a good middle ground between risk and safety:
- I won't cash out my investments
- I will still keep investing 10% of my take-home pay
- 6 months EF remains untouched of course
- Keep 10k separate to replace my car in a few months
- Anything extra goes to the mortgage

Wish me luck, I estimate it'll take about 8-10 years to knock out the mortgage.

Good plan Nederstash, keep investing and an emergency fund alongside your paydown.  Good luck with it!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on October 17, 2016, 11:13:24 AM
Annual bonus at work helped us drop the mortgage from $47600 to $36,500!

Awesome - we had a surprise from hubbies pension this month too so our balance went down a bit extra. Still behind you, but hope you don't mind, still using your progress to keep me on track. Today we have $42,100 to go! Do you have a goal payoff month?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: rjbf65 on October 17, 2016, 02:56:45 PM
I used to be on Team Investing all the way but the more I think about it, the more I realize that I would be much happier with a paid for home. The borrower is slave to the lender, as they say... I never liked debt and I think that's winning over my rational/mathmatical investment mind. I think I've found a good middle ground between risk and safety:
- I won't cash out my investments
- I will still keep investing 10% of my take-home pay
- 6 months EF remains untouched of course
- Keep 10k separate to replace my car in a few months
- Anything extra goes to the mortgage


Wish me luck, I estimate it'll take about 8-10 years to knock out the mortgage.

Good plan Nederstash, keep investing and an emergency fund alongside your paydown.  Good luck with it!

My paydown journey/plan has been very similar to Nederstash.  I've been doing 15% into 401K and my wife is a public school teacher so she has about the same percentage taken out as well.  All extra dollars after the month is over gets moved to the principal reduction.  Not sure what I'll do exactly after the house is paid off.  Plans are to max out my 401K and our Roth IRA's and then save the the rest for an upgrade in house or possible buy some land down the road.  I'd be interested to hear what others are going to do with the extra cash flow after the home mortgage is gone.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on October 18, 2016, 05:24:08 PM

Quote

My paydown journey/plan has been very similar to Nederstash.  I've been doing 15% into 401K and my wife is a public school teacher so she has about the same percentage taken out as well.  All extra dollars after the month is over gets moved to the principal reduction.  Not sure what I'll do exactly after the house is paid off.  Plans are to max out my 401K and our Roth IRA's and then save the the rest for an upgrade in house or possible buy some land down the road.  I'd be interested to hear what others are going to do with the extra cash flow after the home mortgage is gone.   

Very similar situation here except I paid off last December.  I have considerable money going into retirement accounts but I also have quite a bit going into a plain old Ally savings account.  I frequently look for my "forever" house but I never see anything to get really excited about.  If and when the perfect house does come up, I hope to to put a huge down payment on it with savings from said account.  I really don't want to get into another mortgage that I can't knock down in ~5 years.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on October 19, 2016, 06:49:07 AM
Annual bonus at work helped us drop the mortgage from $47600 to $36,500!

Awesome - we had a surprise from hubbies pension this month too so our balance went down a bit extra. Still behind you, but hope you don't mind, still using your progress to keep me on track. Today we have $42,100 to go! Do you have a goal payoff month?

Great job!  Those surprises are definitely handy.  Yes, we hope to pay it off in Feb 2017 barring any catastrophes.  You?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: rjbf65 on October 19, 2016, 07:58:35 AM

Quote

My paydown journey/plan has been very similar to Nederstash.  I've been doing 15% into 401K and my wife is a public school teacher so she has about the same percentage taken out as well.  All extra dollars after the month is over gets moved to the principal reduction.  Not sure what I'll do exactly after the house is paid off.  Plans are to max out my 401K and our Roth IRA's and then save the the rest for an upgrade in house or possible buy some land down the road.  I'd be interested to hear what others are going to do with the extra cash flow after the home mortgage is gone.   

Very similar situation here except I paid off last December.  I have considerable money going into retirement accounts but I also have quite a bit going into a plain old Ally savings account.  I frequently look for my "forever" house but I never see anything to get really excited about.  If and when the perfect house does come up, I hope to to put a huge down payment on it with savings from said account.  I really don't want to get into another mortgage that I can't knock down in ~5 years.

I'm in my first home.  A 2 bed 1 bath.  Perfect home to start with but not our forever home.  It does fit our needs for now.  The forever home will probably cost over twice what our current one is.  My thoughts are if I'm going to drop that kind of money on a home then I better love every single thing about it.  So I plan to be very picky.  It's a good feeling to know that we are currently turning a 15 year mortgage into 3 or less.  I feel the same way as you about the next one, take a 15 yr loan out and hopefully knock it out in 5 or so.   


Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on October 19, 2016, 08:56:12 AM
Annual bonus at work helped us drop the mortgage from $47600 to $36,500!

Awesome - we had a surprise from hubbies pension this month too so our balance went down a bit extra. Still behind you, but hope you don't mind, still using your progress to keep me on track. Today we have $42,100 to go! Do you have a goal payoff month?

Great job!  Those surprises are definitely handy.  Yes, we hope to pay it off in Feb 2017 barring any catastrophes.  You?

We are aiming for June 2017 so long as the earth keeps spinning evenly - a little ways behind you, but that means we will have to raise a glass twice to toast!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mlbfan07 on October 21, 2016, 07:51:22 PM
Evening all!
Joining in on the mortgage payoff club!
Have been back and forth on the mortgage/invest battle and over the last few weeks I decided to go the route of the mortgage payoff.

Started 2016 at $149,900.
At this point I am at $113,374.
I have a few nice year end checks coming that should hopefully get me under $100k to end the year. to $99k to end the year. (that sounds so much better!)

Thank you all for the motivation!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Nederstash on October 22, 2016, 01:15:23 PM
Since my plan is going to take 8-10 years, I've developed some visual aid to help me stay motivated. I've divided my mortgage by the square meters (excuse the metric) of my house, so that I know what my house per square meter costs. I've taken the floor plan to my house and colored in the amount of space I've already paid for. At this point, I own half a kitchen :) looking forward to color more!

Anyone else using this kind of visual aid? Please share it, I'd love to see it!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Faraday on October 26, 2016, 07:43:41 PM
Since my plan is going to take 8-10 years, I've developed some visual aid to help me stay motivated. I've divided my mortgage by the square meters (excuse the metric) of my house, so that I know what my house per square meter costs. I've taken the floor plan to my house and colored in the amount of space I've already paid for. At this point, I own half a kitchen :) looking forward to color more!

Anyone else using this kind of visual aid? Please share it, I'd love to see it!

That's a beautiful idea, I hope you are flattered by my intent to copy it. :-) :-) :-)

I track the mortgage paydown and graph it - simple and quick in an excel spreadsheet. However, I make the numbers more interesting by correlating each mortgage debt milestone to an item that I DID NOT buy. Examples:

$200k point - house debt < modest yacht
$100k point - house debt < Tesla (approximately)
$80k point - house debt < Base Porsche Panamera
$70k point - house debt < Well Equipped BMW 5 series
$65k: At this point, my house debt is less than a new, modestly-equipped double-wide modular home

Full disclosure:
This is just a thought exercise to express debt in terms of things I can happily and easily do without.
I don't worry about comparing taxes and insurance between the house and the alternative imagined items.
And although the mortgage principal and interest goes to zero at payoff, I'm not naive enough to say the house is "free" at that point.
Maybe I'm off on the values of the items, but you get the drift.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: flowrider on October 26, 2016, 08:00:45 PM
Dec 2015 $30,237
May 2016  $20,777
Planning to pay off around July next year:)
Under $20k now $19,617
$14,400 to go now, looking at August 2017 now as target payoff date all going to plan.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Decoy1 on October 27, 2016, 03:12:56 PM
Longtime lurker here but decided to jump in on this thread for motivation

Original mortgage acquired in April 2013...375k at 3.9%. Paid the minimum for the first year but after seeing how little was going toward the principle my wife and decided we'd had it. As of October 1 the balance is 147k! Can't  wait to get under 100k.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: motiv8ed on October 27, 2016, 05:11:38 PM
Wow, after reading these posts, I had to join. Current Balance is: $119,781 Hopefully I will be able to stay motivated and join the club.

Still chucking along. Decided to go with a mixed approach to paying off the mortgage. Mainly because I'm not sure if we will be moving in the near future. Not sure if it's the best way to go, but it's what we are going with now.
1. Pretty much the plan is pay off the 30 yr mortgage like its a 15 yr.
2. Start a mortgage payoff fund in a brokerage account.

Current Mortgage Balance is: $116,828.23
Current Mortgage Payoff Fund Balance: $11,881.76
Balance Left: $104,946.47

Approaching the 5 figure mark, hopefully this provides some extra motivation.

Mortgage Balance:$115,225.42
Payoff Fund:$15,769.88
What's Left:$99,455.54

Finally joining the 5 figure club also. I'm very excited to enter this part of the journey. Im shooting for a balance of $85k at the end of the year, $80k would be even better.

[Rounded Numbers]
Mortgage Balance:$108,000
Payoff Fund:$32,000
What's Left:$76,000

Robbed some savings to help with the progress. Would be nice to get under $65k by 12/31.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tightwaddy on October 30, 2016, 03:30:41 PM
I joined this thread this year and haven't posted in a few months.  DH and I decided to pay off the whole thing tomorrow (~$25K) with much of our emergency savings fund.  We were at $100K last summer and having been paying $5K in principal each month.  It's going to bring us to just over $10K cash on hand, but without that mortgage payment we'll be able to get back to where we were quickly, if we decide that's what we want.

I can't tell anyone I know ... so I'm telling MMM strangers :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Decoy1 on October 30, 2016, 04:20:52 PM

I can't tell anyone I know ... so I'm telling MMM strangers :)

That's funny! Just told my wife the other day that once we get it paid off I'll only be able celebrate with complete strangers on the Internet!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks on October 30, 2016, 08:14:29 PM
Whatever happened to mortgage burning parties?  This used to be a thing in generations past but now I worry that it would come across badly or make people jealous.  Doh.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Decoy1 on October 30, 2016, 09:54:32 PM
Whatever happened to mortgage burning parties?  This used to be a thing in generations past but now I worry that it would come across badly or make people jealous.  Doh.


It's sad that we have to keep it a secret! Part of the reason we decided to pay ours off was because friends of ours told us they paid theirs off in 5 years. I didn't even know people really did that until they told us!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Lmoot on October 31, 2016, 05:08:38 AM
 I think it is because there are so many people in debt today, and paying the house off early is no longer an attainable goal for many, even if at their own fault. It's fun to  celebrate with people in similar positions, or even higher positions. But it's not so fun for you or the other party when celebrating with someone who can't even conceive of where you are.

I plan on paying my mortgage off early, and sadly the only people I plan on telling are  folks here, and my parents.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on October 31, 2016, 05:35:45 AM
I joined this thread this year and haven't posted in a few months.  DH and I decided to pay off the whole thing tomorrow (~$25K) with much of our emergency savings fund.  We were at $100K last summer and having been paying $5K in principal each month.  It's going to bring us to just over $10K cash on hand, but without that mortgage payment we'll be able to get back to where we were quickly, if we decide that's what we want.

I can't tell anyone I know ... so I'm telling MMM strangers :)
This makes me so excited for you. Congratulations!  Great job.

ETA :  and with no mortgage payment, you can reduce your emergency fund so it won't take long to replenish before you start killing the investments. Awesome! 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tightwaddy on October 31, 2016, 07:21:25 AM
Yes, great point!  With mortgage gone, 6 months living expenses is greatly reduced :) 

Thanks for the cheer for an internet stranger--we're grinning stupidly this morning as we prepare to head for the Credit Union!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Decoy1 on October 31, 2016, 07:37:30 AM
Yes, great point!  With mortgage gone, 6 months living expenses is greatly reduced :) 

Thanks for the cheer for an internet stranger--we're grinning stupidly this morning as we prepare to head for the Credit Union!

Congrats! Savor the feeling.

I'd never thought about the benefit of a smaller emergency fund once the mortgage is gone. Sweet!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on October 31, 2016, 08:13:46 AM
Whatever happened to mortgage burning parties?  This used to be a thing in generations past but now I worry that it would come across badly or make people jealous.  Doh.

I'm still having one, just inviting parents, though, as 1. they are the only ones who will be proud of us IRL, and 2. It will also be a 'thanks for the good start in life' party in honor of them, so I think that will make it more special, less braggy.    The only one in the group who MIGHT be a little jealous will be my husband's dad.  He has a weird competition thing going on with his son.  But the other three will be proud, I think. 

But I'm not posting on social media or anything. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on October 31, 2016, 08:21:54 AM
I joined this thread this year and haven't posted in a few months.  DH and I decided to pay off the whole thing tomorrow (~$25K) with much of our emergency savings fund.  We were at $100K last summer and having been paying $5K in principal each month.  It's going to bring us to just over $10K cash on hand, but without that mortgage payment we'll be able to get back to where we were quickly, if we decide that's what we want.

I can't tell anyone I know ... so I'm telling MMM strangers :)

Congrats!! Can't wait to join you!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on October 31, 2016, 01:32:28 PM
Principal paid off so far

2012 - $3415
2013 - $3994
2014 - $8483
2015 - $38412 (yup got rid of all the debt and $10 000 windfall not expected)
2016 - $63440  so far

3/1 Remaining balance $87322. Projected pay off date 09/09/2017 - SO 51st birthday.

4/1 Remaining balance $81837

4/30 Remaining balance $76952 (I owed the tax man!)

5/29 Remaining balance $73836

6/30 Remaining balance $65388

7/29 Remaining balance $60825

8/31 Remaining balance $55728

9/30 Remaining balance $49696

10/31 Remaining balance $39920

Good month due to an unexpected error by military pension people - thank-you. Paid some extra so I could get it in the 30's. Will not be putting much on it this month, cest la vie. Are we there yet..........
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: freeatlast on October 31, 2016, 08:28:01 PM
Since my plan is going to take 8-10 years, I've developed some visual aid to help me stay motivated. I've divided my mortgage by the square meters (excuse the metric) of my house, so that I know what my house per square meter costs. I've taken the floor plan to my house and colored in the amount of space I've already paid for. At this point, I own half a kitchen :) looking forward to color more!

Anyone else using this kind of visual aid? Please share it, I'd love to see it!

Hi - I have created a large graph so that I can visually see my progress.  I made a goal for 2016 and the bottom right of the chart is my goal number.  The top left is where I started. It keeps me motivated seeing the line going down towards that goal.  Some days that chart is the only thing getting me to work! It is so hard because it is a long term goal - but the chart keeps me going.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on November 01, 2016, 06:07:56 AM


Good month due to an unexpected error by military pension people - thank-you. Paid some extra so I could get it in the 30's. Will not be putting much on it this month, cest la vie. Are we there yet..........

Haven't we seen this in the news lately?  Some vets had the error amounts clawed back before sec carter put an end to the claw backs. But if this error just happened now, you know the consequences and should set that money aside in case they come for it later.   
(I'll leave the moral aspect of whether you should capitalize on an error on your shoulders).

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Lmoot on November 01, 2016, 08:32:36 AM
Hopefully they meant that the error was they didn't get paid enough originally.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on November 02, 2016, 12:02:15 AM
Hopefully they meant that the error was they didn't get paid enough originally.
The error was they forgot the dependent aspect - so it was paid. We waited 2 1/2 years for them to even start paying - despite a 24 year long active duty service. If they come back for it we have it - however after 9 of the 24 years in the desert - morally I think it was earned!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on November 02, 2016, 06:09:12 AM
Hopefully they meant that the error was they didn't get paid enough originally.
The error was they forgot the dependent aspect - so it was paid. We waited 2 1/2 years for them to even start paying - despite a 24 year long active duty service. If they come back for it we have it - however after 9 of the 24 years in the desert - morally I think it was earned!

Good to hear it!  And thank you for your service! 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Decoy1 on November 03, 2016, 12:36:17 PM
Longtime lurker here but decided to jump in on this thread for motivation

Original mortgage acquired in April 2013...375k at 3.9%. Paid the minimum for the first year but after seeing how little was going toward the principle my wife and decided we'd had it. As of October 1 the balance is 147k! Can't  wait to get under 100k.

october 2016 147k

November 2016 142k
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on November 03, 2016, 01:20:45 PM
HCOL city in a big house.  I'll show progress in terms of % paid off against initial home value (equity against initial sale price).

Progress (%equity against initial sale price)

I finally completed the recast!   The bank reamortized for free, and with previous additional principal payments made over the last 2 years, my P+I is reduced by $1000/month.  This gives me a feeling of relief because I definitely felt that I was "over-leveraged" before and I had a mortgage payment that was very scary to me.  What a weight off my shoulders. 

I doubt I'll stop though.  I really love the idea of being mortgage-free.  Love this thread and the inspiration I get from seeing others pay off their mortgages. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on November 03, 2016, 03:10:11 PM
Whoa!  Blue House - what a huge reduction with the recast!  That's great!  When we recast it won't be nearly as drastic - just like $300 lower than our current payment but it will make it so if I get a teaching job I can pay all of our bills on my salary alone.  Congrats!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on November 04, 2016, 04:32:01 AM
but it will make it so if I get a teaching job I can pay all of our bills on my salary alone. 

Yeah, there's definitely something to be said about freeing up cash flow and having a monthly payment you can stomach. Awesome news all around!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mlbfan07 on November 05, 2016, 09:12:00 AM
Evening all!
Joining in on the mortgage payoff club!
Have been back and forth on the mortgage/invest battle and over the last few weeks I decided to go the route of the mortgage payoff.

Started 2016 at $149,900.
At this point I am at $113,374.
I have a few nice year end checks coming that should hopefully get me under $100k to end the year. to $99k to end the year. (that sounds so much better!)

Thank you all for the motivation!

Updated for end of October:
New Balance is $107,992.00.
Almost $6k paid off for first month of new focus.
Thanks all!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: bzzzt on November 07, 2016, 04:20:47 PM
Well, it hasn't been quite a year since my payoff, but it's still awesome.

I'm on pace to make $30k/year less this year (joys of construction!..) than last year. Other than my savings rate not being what I had hoped and some pretty crappy investment returns, I haven't cared much.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on November 07, 2016, 07:59:34 PM
Well, it hasn't been quite a year since my payoff, but it's still awesome.

I'm on pace to make $30k/year less this year (joys of construction!..) than last year. Other than my savings rate not being what I had hoped and some pretty crappy investment returns, I haven't cared much.

Sounds pretty awesome being able to have high variability in your income and no longer care about it much.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: rjbf65 on November 08, 2016, 07:10:21 AM
October beg balance$19,617

November beg balance $17,803 -- $1,814 reduction for the month. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Eilonwy on November 14, 2016, 02:35:12 PM
Well, our payoff will be delayed. :-( Our remodel permits were approved, which will be a financial win long term because we'll have rental income -- quite possibly enough to cover our mortgage payment -- but for now, we need to concentrate on rebuilding some emergency savings, since it will all be going towards the construction. I'm going to continue paying a little extra, just for the psychological boost.

(Edited for punctuation.)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: AutoZealot on November 14, 2016, 03:27:11 PM
last year refi'd to go to a 10 year loan, thus far this year:
paid 15K on principal to get to a ~184K balance.

This isn't fast enough and still leaves me depressed, balance payoff is 2025 and I pushed pretty hard with my SO to get the refi done.

New strategy is more drastic, thinking of downsizing to burn off the mortgage or nearly so with a new right sized property.

Already verified we have the capital to buy the next one before we sell the current one so we can purchase something that needs some work and get it done before we move in.  Have buy-in from SO on the plan and have a realtor on the hook.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks on November 14, 2016, 05:40:07 PM
December payment might be tough to do a big one.  We're planning a little family trip out to Washington DC and there's the holidays.  I also want to do some home maintenance things.. but...  we'll keep trying and I will pay *something* extra.  Our current balance is $86,168.   I'd like to take $3k off that at a minimum this month, but it might not work out.   This still feels like a lot of debt, even though our home value is north of $200k. 

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: rpr on November 14, 2016, 11:38:16 PM
Just wanted to post in this thread to just admire you guys for having the dedication and commitment to pay off the mortgage early.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: motiv8ed on November 27, 2016, 10:45:15 PM
Wow, after reading these posts, I had to join. Current Balance is: $119,781 Hopefully I will be able to stay motivated and join the club.

Still chucking along. Decided to go with a mixed approach to paying off the mortgage. Mainly because I'm not sure if we will be moving in the near future. Not sure if it's the best way to go, but it's what we are going with now.
1. Pretty much the plan is pay off the 30 yr mortgage like its a 15 yr.
2. Start a mortgage payoff fund in a brokerage account.

Current Mortgage Balance is: $116,828.23
Current Mortgage Payoff Fund Balance: $11,881.76
Balance Left: $104,946.47

Approaching the 5 figure mark, hopefully this provides some extra motivation.

Mortgage Balance:$115,225.42
Payoff Fund:$15,769.88
What's Left:$99,455.54

Finally joining the 5 figure club also. I'm very excited to enter this part of the journey. Im shooting for a balance of $85k at the end of the year, $80k would be even better.

[Rounded Numbers]
Mortgage Balance:$108,000
Payoff Fund:$32,000
What's Left:$76,000

Robbed some savings to help with the progress. Would be nice to get under $65k by 12/31.
Nov 2016
Balance:$102,464
Fund:$33,000
Left:$69,464
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: motiv8ed on November 27, 2016, 10:49:07 PM
I finally completed the recast!   The bank reamortized for free, and with previous additional principal payments made over the last 2 years, my P+I is reduced by $1000/month.  This gives me a feeling of relief because I definitely felt that I was "over-leveraged" before and I had a mortgage payment that was very scary to me.  What a weight off my shoulders. 

Are there any cons to recasting? Was thinking about this as an option.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on November 27, 2016, 11:20:40 PM
Jan. 2015 - ~100k
Oct. 2015 - ~$67500
Dec.3, 2015 - ~$60k
Feb. 5, 2016 - $52,108.53
March 7, 2016 - 49,774.21
April 11, 2016 - 48,700 to go. Had to pay taxes this month.
May - failed to report in
June - $42,853.69
July - $41,597.20
August 2016 - 38,000
September 2016 - $36,230.88
October 2016 - $34,250. Now down to April 2020 at minimum payments.
November 2016 - $32,211 and some change.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on November 27, 2016, 11:21:49 PM
I finally completed the recast!   The bank reamortized for free, and with previous additional principal payments made over the last 2 years, my P+I is reduced by $1000/month.  This gives me a feeling of relief because I definitely felt that I was "over-leveraged" before and I had a mortgage payment that was very scary to me.  What a weight off my shoulders. 

Are there any cons to recasting? Was thinking about this as an option.

This is highly dependent on the terms of your mortgage. Some mortgages can't be recast at all, others you have to pay a fee. Some can be recast only once, etc.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on November 28, 2016, 11:50:56 AM
I finally completed the recast!   The bank reamortized for free, and with previous additional principal payments made over the last 2 years, my P+I is reduced by $1000/month.  This gives me a feeling of relief because I definitely felt that I was "over-leveraged" before and I had a mortgage payment that was very scary to me.  What a weight off my shoulders. 

Are there any cons to recasting? Was thinking about this as an option.

This is highly dependent on the terms of your mortgage. Some mortgages can't be recast at all, others you have to pay a fee. Some can be recast only once, etc.

No downside.  Nothing changed in my agreement.  Length of loan and interest rate stay the same.  It's just as if my original loan value was less than it was.  My bank allows one free recast or modification per life of mortgage.  I emailed them telling them that I wanted to recast, they checked to see that I had made pre-payments over 20k, they mailed me paperwork, I signed, notarized, mailed.  Done.   

Remember why recasts exist -- banks wanted home buyers to be able to close on new homes before their old homes sell/close.  So the banks tried to make it easy for them to get the equity from their old houses onto their new house.  Knowing that factoid made it easier for me to believe that sometimes things that look "too good to be true" really do exist. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks on November 29, 2016, 06:36:39 PM
We'll be going into 2017 with a balance of just under $84,500.  Only put $1k extra on principal this month because of the holidays.
Still making progress, little bit by little bit.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on December 01, 2016, 10:14:37 AM
Down to $23,400.  Hoping blast it some more during Dec and get it into the 19s by 2017!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: rjbf65 on December 02, 2016, 11:15:10 AM
October beg balance$19,617

November beg balance $17,803 -- $1,814 reduction for the month.


I'm planning to take some available cash and knock this puppy out in December and start the new year without a mortgage.  It will take a few days still before I'm able to process this but it's about to happen!   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on December 02, 2016, 09:34:49 PM
Principal paid off so far

2012 - $3415
2013 - $3994
2014 - $8483
2015 - $38412 (yup got rid of all the debt and $10 000 windfall not expected)
2016 - $66540  so far

3/1 Remaining balance $87322. Projected pay off date 09/09/2017 - SO 51st birthday.

4/1 Remaining balance $81837

4/30 Remaining balance $76952 (I owed the tax man!)

5/29 Remaining balance $73836

6/30 Remaining balance $65388

7/29 Remaining balance $60825

8/31 Remaining balance $55728

9/30 Remaining balance $49696

10/31 Remaining balance $39920

11/30 Remaining balance $36721

Unexpectedly have to travel this month so this is my projected start for 2017.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on December 02, 2016, 09:37:01 PM
Down to $23,400.  Hoping blast it some more during Dec and get it into the 19s by 2017!

Wow - it seems to be falling fast now, almost there!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Decoy1 on December 06, 2016, 08:07:05 AM
Longtime lurker here but decided to jump in on this thread for motivation

Original mortgage acquired in April 2013...375k at 3.9%. Paid the minimum for the first year but after seeing how little was going toward the principle my wife and decided we'd had it. As of October 1 the balance is 147k! Can't  wait to get under 100k.

october 2016 147k

November 2016 142k



November '16 142k
December '16 135k

Getting close!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: motiv8ed on December 11, 2016, 01:33:49 PM
October beg balance$19,617

November beg balance $17,803 -- $1,814 reduction for the month.


I'm planning to take some available cash and knock this puppy out in December and start the new year without a mortgage.  It will take a few days still before I'm able to process this but it's about to happen!   

Oh man, thats what im planning to do when I get close enough. Long way to go though. Congratulations!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: rjbf65 on December 12, 2016, 10:49:33 AM
October beg balance$19,617

November beg balance $17,803 -- $1,814 reduction for the month.


I'm planning to take some available cash and knock this puppy out in December and start the new year without a mortgage.  It will take a few days still before I'm able to process this but it's about to happen!   

Oh man, thats what im planning to do when I get close enough. Long way to go though. Congratulations!!

Thanks!  I wish I could say that we will be completely debt free once this happens. However, my wife and I just volunteered to take over her student loan payments from her divorced parents.  Her mother has many medical issues and we didn't feel right having her continue on with making the payments even though she said she would way back when.  But that will also be knocked out sometime in 2017.  THEN we will be debt free completely!  The reason I'm doing the mortgage first is we have to wait a few more months to be eligible for some student loan forgiveness.  Still investing 15% of our gross and we also still have a cash cushion.       


Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: rjbf65 on December 16, 2016, 02:09:39 PM
Payoff complete!  Took some money that was sitting around and knocked it out. 
Loan originated in June 2014 - $71,600 loan at 3.375%.  Paid off in December 2016.  A wedding, baby, 2 car upgrades, 15% of gross income investing all along the way.  As mentioned before we will knock out a student loan this year but are waiting for the loan forgiveness part of it to process.  After that we will keep saving.  Invest more of our income and also save up for our son's college and for an upgrade in house down the road.  This was scheduled to be a 180 month loan that was paid off in 30 months.  This group here has provided great motivation for this! 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on December 16, 2016, 02:31:16 PM
Payoff complete!  Took some money that was sitting around and knocked it out. 
Loan originated in June 2014 - $71,600 loan at 3.375%.  Paid off in December 2016.  A wedding, baby, 2 car upgrades, 15% of gross income investing all along the way.  As mentioned before we will knock out a student loan this year but are waiting for the loan forgiveness part of it to process.  After that we will keep saving.  Invest more of our income and also save up for our son's college and for an upgrade in house down the road.  This was scheduled to be a 180 month loan that was paid off in 30 months.  This group here has provided great motivation for this!

Nice job!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks on December 16, 2016, 03:28:22 PM
Congratulations!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on December 19, 2016, 04:39:58 PM
Got a side gig check and took the mortgage down to 19,900!  Thinking of using some savings (not all) to just knock this out in Jan.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: motiv8ed on December 30, 2016, 04:19:47 AM
Trying something new for the new years. Only going to count the mortgage balance from now on and not the mortgage payoff fund. Hopefully this will make me move faster. So here we go. Going to be a slow next few months at least. Hopefully we can get under $100k by Feb or March.

April 2016: $119,781
June 2016: $116,828.23
July 2016: $115,225.42
Oct 2016: $108,000
Nov 2016: $102,464
Dec 2016: $102,042.05
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: motiv8ed on December 30, 2016, 04:20:37 AM
Got a side gig check and took the mortgage down to 19,900!  Thinking of using some savings (not all) to just knock this out in Jan.

DO IT!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on December 30, 2016, 03:07:43 PM
Reclaimed $600 for stuff on Craigslist that all just went to principal and that now pays us back $3 a month so as of 9/1, we'll be down to $106,750.    So without raiding the stash, need to find another $5,500 to get to 5 digits by year end.   Have a plan for 4K of it so far...

Lots of goodness lately on the payoffs/paydowns...     Progress was slower than hoped after paying 2 semesters of college expenses the last 5 months plus annual 529 contributions instead of the mortgage...   Didn't make the 5-digit club, but feeling good about paying down to $105K.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on December 30, 2016, 08:59:56 PM
End of 2016 update:

Starting mortgage = $435,000, 5 year term @ 3.26% (starting Sept. 30, 2013)
Original Goal = Full Mortgage Payoff by end of 5 year term (Sept. 30, 2018)
Modified Goal = Extend Mortgage Payoff by one year (Sept. 30, 2019).  Add an additional $40,000 into TFSAs.

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

Into the $100's!!  Onward and upward to 2017!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: flowrider on January 03, 2017, 03:13:23 PM
Wow, $95k in 12 months that is killing it!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks on January 03, 2017, 05:28:06 PM
December payment might be tough to do a big one.  We're planning a little family trip out to Washington DC and there's the holidays.  I also want to do some home maintenance things.. but...  we'll keep trying and I will pay *something* extra.  Our current balance is $86,168.   I'd like to take $3k off that at a minimum this month, but it might not work out.   This still feels like a lot of debt, even though our home value is north of $200k.

$82,600 balance after January payment.  A little slow going over the holidays.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on January 06, 2017, 08:14:33 AM
December payment might be tough to do a big one.  We're planning a little family trip out to Washington DC and there's the holidays.  I also want to do some home maintenance things.. but...  we'll keep trying and I will pay *something* extra.  Our current balance is $86,168.   I'd like to take $3k off that at a minimum this month, but it might not work out.   This still feels like a lot of debt, even though our home value is north of $200k.

$82,600 balance after January payment.  A little slow going over the holidays.

Any movement is good!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on January 06, 2017, 04:56:40 PM
Principal paid off so far

2012 - $3415
2013 - $3994
2014 - $8483
2015 - $38412 (yup got rid of all the debt and $10 000 windfall not expected)
2016 - $66540  so far

3/1 Remaining balance $87322. Projected pay off date 09/09/2017 - SO 51st birthday.

4/1 Remaining balance $81837

4/30 Remaining balance $76952 (I owed the tax man!)

5/29 Remaining balance $73836

6/30 Remaining balance $65388

7/29 Remaining balance $60825

8/31 Remaining balance $55728

9/30 Remaining balance $49696

10/31 Remaining balance $39920

11/30 Remaining balance $36721

01/05 Remaining balance $34633

Knew it was going to be bad - but was hoping for better. To hit my target date I need $4250 every month. Here is to doing my best - I hate missing goals I set myself!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on January 07, 2017, 03:14:21 PM
Gonna start this back up again.  Current goal is to get to 90K by the end of 2016. 

Starting Mtg Sept 2013:  $123,500

Today (July 5th):  $98,504


It's fun to be back on this thread again!

8/1/2016:  $95,504


1/7/2016 $84,969.68

Not bad...still have to fill up DH's 2016 IRA but I can do that in March as it's a three paycheck month...cutting it close, I know. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on January 11, 2017, 07:28:37 AM
Did it! Took some available cash and paid off the mortgage!  Personal banker had no idea what to do.  She had never seen this before.  Can't wait to see our investments build like crazy now.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on January 11, 2017, 07:29:09 AM
Did it! Took some available cash and paid off the mortgage!  Personal banker had no idea what to do.  She had never seen this before.  Can't wait to see our investments build like crazy now.


Let me be the first to congratulate you!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks on January 11, 2017, 09:26:49 AM
Did it! Took some available cash and paid off the mortgage!  Personal banker had no idea what to do.  She had never seen this before.  Can't wait to see our investments build like crazy now.

Woo hoo!!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: motiv8ed on January 11, 2017, 10:57:04 AM
Did it! Took some available cash and paid off the mortgage!  Personal banker had no idea what to do.  She had never seen this before.  Can't wait to see our investments build like crazy now.

Congratulations.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on January 11, 2017, 11:44:23 AM
Did it! Took some available cash and paid off the mortgage!  Personal banker had no idea what to do.  She had never seen this before.  Can't wait to see our investments build like crazy now.

Congratulations!!! I love reading these posts. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on January 11, 2017, 03:28:47 PM
Thanks all!  I don't think it will really hit me until I don't have to pay in Feb.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tightwaddy on January 11, 2017, 06:11:59 PM
Did it! Took some available cash and paid off the mortgage!  Personal banker had no idea what to do.  She had never seen this before.  Can't wait to see our investments build like crazy now.

Congratulations!  I did the same at the end of October--nearly drained the emergency fund, but it's almost rebounded and I can't describe the feeling of being completely debt free.  I appreciate that there's dissenting opinion on the wisdom of this, but I don't regret paying that sucker off for one minute.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on January 12, 2017, 08:47:01 AM
Did it! Took some available cash and paid off the mortgage!  Personal banker had no idea what to do.  She had never seen this before.  Can't wait to see our investments build like crazy now.

Congratulation - can't wait to join you. Let me know when Feb rolls around and it feels real!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: plainjane on January 13, 2017, 08:44:24 AM
Did it! Took some available cash and paid off the mortgage!  Personal banker had no idea what to do.  She had never seen this before.  Can't wait to see our investments build like crazy now.
Congratulation - can't wait to join you. Let me know when Feb rolls around and it feels real!

FYI - I did this last year.  It still doesn't really feel real maybe?  But is is great to see the growth in our investments each month.  (Though that doesn't really feel real _either_, everything is still just numbers on a screen.)

Remember to tell your home insurance folks - they should give you a discount!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frugalkristen on January 16, 2017, 08:19:53 AM
I'm joining!  My balance is $84816.49.  It's my only debt.  I max my Roth every year and contribute quite a bit to my 401K.  I want the peace of mind from having this debt gone.  My property tax bill and homeowner's insurance will be about $285 per month which means I can live off less than $1000 per month. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on January 16, 2017, 08:39:22 AM
We are almost in exactly the same boat, frugalkristen!  Our property tax plus insurance is $285 a month, and we owe just under 85K.  I am in a family of four, though, so we are more like 2K for expenses once we pay off the mortgage.  Welcome!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: farmecologist on January 16, 2017, 08:51:37 AM
Glad to see so many others have the same outlook as we do about paying off the mortgage.  Reading some of the other posts..I was beginning to wonder.  Lots of contributors out there that believe NOT paying off the mortgage is 'better'.

We paid off our mortgage about 9 years ago ( just before the stock market crash ).  Was very lucky to have stock options that were just enough to pay it off.  Went against nearly everyone's recommendation that the windfall should be invested instead. 

Very glad we paid it off.  Awesome feeling to not have that debt hanging over our heads.  100% of cash previously used to pay the mortgage is now used to invest.  The only thing that sucks now is the property tax bill. :-)


So keep with it guys!     
 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frugalkristen on January 16, 2017, 09:30:08 AM
Neustache - I'm recently divorced (about 2 years ago) with 4 grown kids.  Right now it's just me but my boyfriend is probably going to move in soon.  We will keep our finances separate. I'm 47 and he's 52 - and wildly apart in net worth.  I'm about $440,000 and he's about $0.  He likes his job, has no plans to retire early and isn't very extravagant but also not very careful.  That has changed a lot since we've been together and he really likes how I handle money.  This issue used to make me nervous about our relationship but I'm learning that since we are older, we can have different goals and still be together.  Neither of us make a lot so sharing expenses makes a lot of sense and will help both of us (not the reason we're moving in together - just a perk).  A two person household will be more expensive - $1000 probably won't be realistic - but we can keep it low.  Our cars are paid off, we don't like to go out much (and it's mostly just family events) and neither of us like shopping.  Paying off my mortgage is a huge focus for me right now so I can move forward with plans to retire at 55.  :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tomsang on January 17, 2017, 10:52:19 AM
Glad to see so many others have the same outlook as we do about paying off the mortgage.  Reading some of the other posts..I was beginning to wonder.  Lots of contributors out there that believe NOT paying off the mortgage is 'better'.

We paid off our mortgage about 9 years ago ( just before the stock market crash ).  Was very lucky to have stock options that were just enough to pay it off.  Went against nearly everyone's recommendation that the windfall should be invested instead. 

Very glad we paid it off.  Awesome feeling to not have that debt hanging over our heads.  100% of cash previously used to pay the mortgage is now used to invest.  The only thing that sucks now is the property tax bill. :-)

So keep with it guys!     
 

There are many who believe that paying off a mortgage early is inherently and mathematically riskier than investing in thousands of diversified companies.  All of the mathematical models that we use to gain an understanding of when we can retire and our SWR use projected returns greater than 3% or what mortgages are paying right now.  You mention paying off your mortgage about 9 years ago.  As you probably know, the S&P 500 hundred is up 7.9% since then, which is significantly higher than the mortgage rate for a 30 year mortgage for those living in the US.  You paying off your mortgage nine years ago pushed back you retirement date vs. you investing in the S&P 500.  If you would like to see the math, logic, and discussion check out the discussion that we have had over the years.   http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/investor-alley/paying-off-mortgage-early-how-bad-is-it-for-your-fi-date/

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: farmecologist on January 17, 2017, 12:26:21 PM
Glad to see so many others have the same outlook as we do about paying off the mortgage.  Reading some of the other posts..I was beginning to wonder.  Lots of contributors out there that believe NOT paying off the mortgage is 'better'.

We paid off our mortgage about 9 years ago ( just before the stock market crash ).  Was very lucky to have stock options that were just enough to pay it off.  Went against nearly everyone's recommendation that the windfall should be invested instead. 

Very glad we paid it off.  Awesome feeling to not have that debt hanging over our heads.  100% of cash previously used to pay the mortgage is now used to invest.  The only thing that sucks now is the property tax bill. :-)

So keep with it guys!     
 

There are many who believe that paying off a mortgage early is inherently and mathematically riskier than investing in thousands of diversified companies.  All of the mathematical models that we use to gain an understanding of when we can retire and our SWR use projected returns greater than 3% or what mortgages are paying right now.  You mention paying off your mortgage about 9 years ago.  As you probably know, the S&P 500 hundred is up 7.9% since then, which is significantly higher than the mortgage rate for a 30 year mortgage for those living in the US.  You paying off your mortgage nine years ago pushed back you retirement date vs. you investing in the S&P 500.  If you would like to see the math, logic, and discussion check out the discussion that we have had over the years.   http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/investor-alley/paying-off-mortgage-early-how-bad-is-it-for-your-fi-date/


Yes..believe me, I am aware of the pros and cons.  Because my situation was 'extra' money..and we were already maxing out all tax-deferred accounts, the pain was quite a bit less than it could have been.  We were also lucky in that if we would have invested it, we would have lost a good chunk of it due to the crash ( on paper of course ). AND the money we would have put towards the mortgage payment went towards investing instead...and by blind luck we caught the period just after the crash so the returns on that money looked stellar.  However, I do agree this was blind luck.

I guess I am one of those 'weirdos' that like being debt free....even at the cost of MAYBE increasing the early retirement date.  Also trying to point out that 'the math' doesn't apply to every situation. 



Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks on January 17, 2017, 06:08:35 PM

There are many who believe that paying off a mortgage early is inherently and mathematically riskier than investing in thousands of diversified companies.  All of the mathematical models that we use to gain an understanding of when we can retire and our SWR use projected returns greater than 3% or what mortgages are paying right now.  You mention paying off your mortgage about 9 years ago.  As you probably know, the S&P 500 hundred is up 7.9% since then, which is significantly higher than the mortgage rate for a 30 year mortgage for those living in the US.  You paying off your mortgage nine years ago pushed back you retirement date vs. you investing in the S&P 500.  If you would like to see the math, logic, and discussion check out the discussion that we have had over the years.   http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/investor-alley/paying-off-mortgage-early-how-bad-is-it-for-your-fi-date/

This thread is for a group of people who have decided to pay off their mortgage and are working toward it.  Everyone can access the pros/cons threads if they want.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: daschtick on January 17, 2017, 08:09:35 PM
Glad to see so many others have the same outlook as we do about paying off the mortgage.  Reading some of the other posts..I was beginning to wonder.  Lots of contributors out there that believe NOT paying off the mortgage is 'better'.

We paid off our mortgage about 9 years ago ( just before the stock market crash ).  Was very lucky to have stock options that were just enough to pay it off.  Went against nearly everyone's recommendation that the windfall should be invested instead. 

Very glad we paid it off.  Awesome feeling to not have that debt hanging over our heads.  100% of cash previously used to pay the mortgage is now used to invest.  The only thing that sucks now is the property tax bill. :-)

So keep with it guys!     
 

There are many who believe that paying off a mortgage early is inherently and mathematically riskier than investing in thousands of diversified companies.  All of the mathematical models that we use to gain an understanding of when we can retire and our SWR use projected returns greater than 3% or what mortgages are paying right now.  You mention paying off your mortgage about 9 years ago.  As you probably know, the S&P 500 hundred is up 7.9% since then, which is significantly higher than the mortgage rate for a 30 year mortgage for those living in the US.  You paying off your mortgage nine years ago pushed back you retirement date vs. you investing in the S&P 500.  If you would like to see the math, logic, and discussion check out the discussion that we have had over the years.   http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/investor-alley/paying-off-mortgage-early-how-bad-is-it-for-your-fi-date/

But what if the market tanks, and your job and savings goes away with it?  I would much rather not owe $2000 /mo in this scenario.

We all realize that mathematically, investing comes out ahead, but you are completely ignoring the mental satisfaction of being debt free, along with everyone's personal risk tolerance.  You obviously have a higher risk tolerance, which works for you.  However, between myself and many others in this thread, there is no better night's sleep than living debt free.

Congratulations to all of you that have made it!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Captain and Mrs Slow on January 18, 2017, 01:45:02 AM
Neustache - I'm recently divorced (about 2 years ago) with 4 grown kids.

  I'm about $440,000

 Paying off my mortgage is a huge focus for me right now so I can move forward with plans to retire at 55.  :)

That's pretty impressive coming off a divorce, most people get wiped out and have to start over. I'm just about to make my first lump sum paymen, I held off for a long time as it was an investment property, but we just moved back in. Called the mortgage company and 4 years of lump sum payments plus 4 months and that baby is gone! After a decade of renting it feels so good to be owners again. Also accelerating our investment mortgages as I want those gone in 9 years when the wife retires, this will give us an extra 1200€ a month in income, nothing to sneeze at
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on January 18, 2017, 06:40:13 AM
Count me in!  We have a $89,900 balance, and the mortgage is our only debt.  Property tax and insurance is about $290 per month.  So we are pretty much where you are Frugalkristen and Neustache.  We are looking to kill ours by the end of next year -- December '18.  Will feel amazing!!!   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: minimalistgamer on January 18, 2017, 06:44:19 AM
I have the money to pay off the house...

I am not sure if I should go for it. It scares me for some reason...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on January 18, 2017, 06:45:27 AM
Trifele - I think KBecks is around that balance as well.  I'm shooting for sometime in 2018 as our payoff...maybe sooner if we sell our rental. 

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks on January 18, 2017, 07:05:30 AM
I have the money to pay off the house...

I am not sure if I should go for it. It scares me for some reason...

If you don't like having it paid off, you could take a HELOC. :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: minimalistgamer on January 19, 2017, 06:33:20 AM
I have the money to pay off the house...

I am not sure if I should go for it. It scares me for some reason...

If you don't like having it paid off, you could take a HELOC. :)

Haha! I definitely like having it paid off :p I have to break a CD to do so...I don't know why I am shying away from it. Perhaps someone needs to talk me into it. I don't know. I definitely do not want to make banks richer :p
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks on January 19, 2017, 07:46:02 AM
Trifele - I think KBecks is around that balance as well.  I'm shooting for sometime in 2018 as our payoff...maybe sooner if we sell our rental.

We're around $82, and working it down bit by bit.  I see a few people who are in the same general area, and that's fun!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: farmecologist on January 19, 2017, 08:11:44 AM
Did it! Took some available cash and paid off the mortgage!  Personal banker had no idea what to do.  She had never seen this before.  Can't wait to see our investments build like crazy now.

Congratulations!  I did the same at the end of October--nearly drained the emergency fund, but it's almost rebounded and I can't describe the feeling of being completely debt free.  I appreciate that there's dissenting opinion on the wisdom of this, but I don't regret paying that sucker off for one minute.

Congrats!

Dissenting opinion is an understatement.  There are many on the boards that will berate you in a patronizing manner if you even mention paying off the mortgage.  At least this thread is a somewhat 'safe' area to talk about it.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks on January 19, 2017, 12:46:32 PM
This month we're putting on an extra $1,800, not a ton but it's still progress.  It will move us into the 70s, with a new balance of roughly $79,960.

I find it motivating to try and get down to lower numbers, so getting out of the 80's was motivating.  Next I'll look at $75, how quick we can get that, etc. etc. etc.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on January 20, 2017, 10:47:47 AM
So we walked in to our CU on Saturday and sent off the death blow via wire transfer.  I still don't trust the mortgage company to acknowledge receipt of the transfer nor apply it correctly to our account as they have yet to do anything correctly in the two years since they bought our mortgage, so I'm waiting until Wednesday and then giving them a call. 

On the other hand, it feels awesomely freeing to have no debt to anyone in the world.

For those in a similar situation, wait a month or two and then check with your county register of deeds to make sure the mortgage lien has been cleared.

Oh, heck.  Everybody do it.  It's best to double-check.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frugalkristen on January 20, 2017, 06:19:51 PM
I won't be able to pay it of as fast as everyone else has here.  My income limits me but I have about $36,000 in cash right now.  I'm maxing my Roth then putting some money toward the mortgage.  I'll add a little extra every month.  I'm hoping to put about $15,000 extra toward paying it off each year.  I've never had much debt (only mortgages and car loans - my car is paid off now) but getting rid of this mortgage has become a main focus.  It's the reason I take extra shifts at work, pick up shifts with a second job, and earn money online every day.  It all adds up!  (Last year, that extra effort totaled about $7800!)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: minimalistgamer on January 20, 2017, 08:26:36 PM
I need advice here.

Here is my networth situation - http://imgur.com/a/BO23I

I am earning 2.30% on the CD, and 1% on the savings account. My mortgage interest rate is at 3%. I am thinking about closing the CD and paying off the house. Is this a good idea? Thanks for any insights into this.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on January 21, 2017, 03:17:40 AM
I need advice here.

Here is my networth situation - http://imgur.com/a/BO23I

I am earning 2.30% on the CD, and 1% on the savings account. My mortgage interest rate is at 3%. I am thinking about closing the CD and paying off the house. Is this a good idea? Thanks for any insights into this.

If it looks like you would save more in interest than you would earn by leaving it in the CD and savings account, it seems like a solid idea to me. That's partly how I rationalized draining my savings to pay off our house :D I was earning %0.95 interest in my savings account and paying %3.39 on the mortgage. I just made sure I left a few months worth of expenses in my savings account and used the rest to pay off the mortgage. It looks like even if you cash out your CD and liquidate your savings, you'll still have plenty left over.

Once you have that mortgage off your back, you can build your savings back up pretty quickly. After paying off my mortgage, I was able to double my 401(k) contributions and get my cash savings back up to a comfortable level pretty quickly. It's nice doing those net worth calculations when you are completely in the black :)

Good luck with whatever you decide to do! Also, yay for minimalism :) My user name alludes to minimalism in architecture.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: minimalistgamer on January 21, 2017, 08:31:30 AM

If it looks like you would save more in interest than you would earn by leaving it in the CD and savings account, it seems like a solid idea to me. That's partly how I rationalized draining my savings to pay off our house :D I was earning %0.95 interest in my savings account and paying %3.39 on the mortgage. I just made sure I left a few months worth of expenses in my savings account and used the rest to pay off the mortgage. It looks like even if you cash out your CD and liquidate your savings, you'll still have plenty left over.

Once you have that mortgage off your back, you can build your savings back up pretty quickly. After paying off my mortgage, I was able to double my 401(k) contributions and get my cash savings back up to a comfortable level pretty quickly. It's nice doing those net worth calculations when you are completely in the black :)

Good luck with whatever you decide to do! Also, yay for minimalism :) My user name alludes to minimalism in architecture.

I will definitely save more in interest if I were to pay off the house. I will lose 180 days worth of simple interest, but in the long run, its more profitable for me to not have a mortgage.

Thanks for your advice.

Quote
Good luck with whatever you decide to do! Also, yay for minimalism :) My user name alludes to minimalism in architecture.

Most definitely! The reason I am able to pay off the house so early is due to the fact that I have been a minimalist for a long time. I focused on the things that made me happy and I cut out the rest. Made my life a lot easier!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: sansimeon on January 22, 2017, 06:45:29 AM
Original Loan:  $226k in Feb 2013. 
discovered mustache at the end of that year and started on early payoff.
Current balance:  $79k.
Expected payoff:  Feb 2018.

One year to go!  Can start to taste the freedom.  Thanks to people on this thread for providing good examples and motivation.  I really cannot wait for this goal to be complete.  I'll feel a lot more comfortable leaving my high stress job once this is done.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BBub on January 25, 2017, 09:25:50 AM
Currently around $83k.  Paying $1,750/mo, which will eliminate it in about 4yrs.  Will probably freak out at some point between now & then, and just demolish it.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on January 25, 2017, 02:17:01 PM

So we walked in to our CU on Saturday and sent off the death blow via wire transfer. I still don't trust the mortgage company to acknowledge receipt of the transfer nor apply it correctly to our account as they have yet to do anything correctly in the two years since they bought our mortgage, so I'm waiting until Wednesday and then giving them a call. 

On the other hand, it feels awesomely freeing to have no debt to anyone in the world.

A Lot of people (me included) seem to have this same worry.  I've always thought that I would pay off the majority of my mortgage then watch my statements while the paperwork catches up to my payments.  If I make my final payment in response to a bank invoice, in the exact amount that they've requested, then I have some pretty good evidence that their records are up to date and that I've paid it off...even if I have to wait a few more months to see it in the county records.  But I have never seen anyone else discuss this as a plan.  Anyone? 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on January 25, 2017, 03:33:22 PM
I used to work at a title company, where we paid off mortgages on a daily basis...it's really not a big deal, you guys.  They get the check (with daily interest added to make sure it's above the balance), they cut the homeowner a check for the difference, then they send the Deed of Release to the county for recording.  Every once in a while, something was paid off and we needed a release.  So we'd call them, they would send us a release.  By all means, keep on eye on it, but in my experience this really isn't a thing to be overly worried about. 

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Lochi21 on January 25, 2017, 04:03:45 PM
I used to work at a title company, where we paid off mortgages on a daily basis...it's really not a big deal, you guys.  They get the check (with daily interest added to make sure it's above the balance), they cut the homeowner a check for the difference, then they send the Deed of Release to the county for recording.  Every once in a while, something was paid off and we needed a release.  So we'd call them, they would send us a release.  By all means, keep on eye on it, but in my experience this really isn't a thing to be overly worried about.

Thanks Neustache.  I was thinking it couldn't be that hard.  Later this year I plan to make a large lump sum payment of around 125K to completely pay off my mortgage balance. Do I contact the mortgage company (Wells Fargo) a day or two before to find out the payoff amount and then just show up to a local branch with a cashier's check from my personal bank (Chase)?  Do you foresee any issues with this large lump sum type of transaction?  I know there is no pre-payment penalty on my loan.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on January 25, 2017, 05:27:50 PM
The way we always did it (pre-2005, not sure what they do now) is we'd call the mortgage company for a payoff letter good thru X date (usually 5 days past closing date) and then they'd fax it to us (LOL...fax....I'm sure they e-mail it now). 

Then we'd follow the instructions on the payoff letter and either wire it or overnight a check.  BUT....title company checks are considered (or at least they were) almost like a certified check.  So unless you are wiring the amount I'd get a cashier's check. 

Now here's the bit I don't know - we'd always overnight our checks (and charge the seller or refinancer $15 to do so!) so that we'd know it was there on time or not, as we were guaranteeing a clear title and we didn't want the seller or person refinancing saying we held the check, so we wanted proof of receipt.  So I guess I don't know what it's like to just walk into a company with a check for payoff - I've never done it!

If you don't have a prepayment penalty, no, there shouldn't be an issue with your lump sum.  I'd just call your mortgage company because everyone is going have a different way of wanting you to do it.  I plan on paying mine off online....although taking a check there would be fun, too!

Think about it this way - every time someone sells a house there's a huge (usually) lump sum paid on the mortgage when the buyer's funds (or in the case of refinance, your new mortgage company's funds) gets processed by the title company or attorney's office. 

If you've ever refinanced but never worried about it getting the previous mortgage paid off...well...it's basically the same thing happening here.  I hope that helps!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: 4n6 on January 25, 2017, 06:08:26 PM
I do hope we can do this. So I will post: $148,771 left on a 12 year mortgage with 2.875% interest. No matter what this will be done actually in 10 years, but I am hoping to do it sooner to give us more room for FI and flexibility with our budget. I first need to pay off our car and then can use that extra money for savings AND the mortgage. Congrats to everyone on their success so far.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on January 29, 2017, 04:29:29 PM
Principal paid off so far

2012 - $3415
2013 - $3994
2014 - $8483
2015 - $38412 (yup got rid of all the debt and $10 000 windfall not expected)
2016 - $67650
2017 - $2700

3/1 Remaining balance $87322. Projected pay off date 09/09/2017 - SO 51st birthday.

4/1 Remaining balance $81837

4/30 Remaining balance $76952 (I owed the tax man!)

5/29 Remaining balance $73836

6/30 Remaining balance $65388

7/29 Remaining balance $60825

8/31 Remaining balance $55728

9/30 Remaining balance $49696

10/31 Remaining balance $39920

11/30 Remaining balance $36721

01/05 Remaining balance $34633

01/29 Remaining balance $32965
 
Ugg - little movement. 8 months to hit my target 9/9 payoff. $4120 needed per month. Maybe getting in the $20's will re-motivate me - I think I have payoff blues!
[/quote]
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on January 30, 2017, 09:52:40 AM
I used to work at a title company, where we paid off mortgages on a daily basis...it's really not a big deal, you guys.  They get the check (with daily interest added to make sure it's above the balance), they cut the homeowner a check for the difference, then they send the Deed of Release to the county for recording.  Every once in a while, something was paid off and we needed a release.  So we'd call them, they would send us a release.  By all means, keep on eye on it, but in my experience this really isn't a thing to be overly worried about.

Thanks Neustache.  I was thinking it couldn't be that hard.  Later this year I plan to make a large lump sum payment of around 125K to completely pay off my mortgage balance. Do I contact the mortgage company (Wells Fargo) a day or two before to find out the payoff amount and then just show up to a local branch with a cashier's check from my personal bank (Chase)?  Do you foresee any issues with this large lump sum type of transaction?  I know there is no pre-payment penalty on my loan.
We just did a payoff last April with WF....you call and they give you a payoff amount good for a certain amount of time. They wanted a wire tranfer, not a check. Our personal bank is Chase as well, and they waived the wire fee as we are private clients. It was fairly painless.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: minimalistgamer on January 30, 2017, 10:14:19 AM
Paid it off last Friday! :)

Posted about it here - http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/i-did-it!-the-mortgage-is-gone!-its-paid-off!/

Yes, WF wanted a wire transfer. Not a huge hassle.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on January 30, 2017, 10:21:58 AM
Paid it off last Friday! :)

Posted about it here - http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/i-did-it!-the-mortgage-is-gone!-its-paid-off!/

Yes, WF wanted a wire transfer. Not a huge hassle.

Congratulations - time for the happy dance!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: minimalistgamer on January 30, 2017, 10:52:43 AM
Paid it off last Friday! :)

Posted about it here - http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/i-did-it!-the-mortgage-is-gone!-its-paid-off!/

Yes, WF wanted a wire transfer. Not a huge hassle.

Congratulations - time for the happy dance!

Thank you so much. Its an amazing feeling. I was very nervous about paying off the loan in one shot, but...man, its worth it!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on February 01, 2017, 10:15:48 AM
Paid it off last Friday! :)

Posted about it here - http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/i-did-it!-the-mortgage-is-gone!-its-paid-off!/

Yes, WF wanted a wire transfer. Not a huge hassle.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FrugalFan on February 01, 2017, 06:26:33 PM
Paid it off last Friday! :)

Posted about it here - http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/i-did-it!-the-mortgage-is-gone!-its-paid-off!/

Yes, WF wanted a wire transfer. Not a huge hassle.

Congrats!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FrugalFan on February 01, 2017, 06:35:18 PM
We paid off our mortgage today!!! We got the mortgage in fall 2009. We started out paying double each month, then slowed down to regular payments during parental leaves and when we realized that we would probably be better off investing. We'd often contemplated paying it down, but we were always in that strange position where we had too much left to pay it off quickly (I'm impatient!) and didn't want to be in a position where we started putting a lot of money into it but wouldn't have it paid off if one of us lost our jobs or something. But a couple of posts in this thread with rapidly declining balances that were as large as ours got me thinking. We used profits from selling our rental, put some idle cash to work, and sold off a few investments and paid it off in one fell swoop today! This means that we could comfortably live on just one of our salaries indefinitely if need be, and in the meantime we will be investing one salary and then some! Note that we did this after maxing out all tax advantaged accounts.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on February 01, 2017, 06:48:09 PM
We paid off our mortgage today!!! We got the mortgage in fall 2009. We started out paying double each month, then slowed down to regular payments during parental leaves and when we realized that we would probably be better off investing. We'd often contemplated paying it down, but we were always in that strange position where we had too much left to pay it off quickly (I'm impatient!) and didn't want to be in a position where we started putting a lot of money into it but wouldn't have it paid off if one of us lost our jobs or something. But a couple of posts in this thread with rapidly declining balances that were as large as ours got me thinking. We used profits from selling our rental, put some idle cash to work, and sold off a few investments and paid it off in one fell swoop today! This means that we could comfortably live on just one of our salaries indefinitely if need be, and in the meantime we will be investing one salary and then some! Note that we did this after maxing out all tax advantaged accounts.

FANTASTIC!!  I sometimes run cocktail napkin math about this very scenario....
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on February 01, 2017, 09:49:28 PM
We paid off our mortgage today!!! We got the mortgage in fall 2009. We started out paying double each month, then slowed down to regular payments during parental leaves and when we realized that we would probably be better off investing. We'd often contemplated paying it down, but we were always in that strange position where we had too much left to pay it off quickly (I'm impatient!) and didn't want to be in a position where we started putting a lot of money into it but wouldn't have it paid off if one of us lost our jobs or something. But a couple of posts in this thread with rapidly declining balances that were as large as ours got me thinking. We used profits from selling our rental, put some idle cash to work, and sold off a few investments and paid it off in one fell swoop today! This means that we could comfortably live on just one of our salaries indefinitely if need be, and in the meantime we will be investing one salary and then some! Note that we did this after maxing out all tax advantaged accounts.

Congratulations and Happy Dance ensues
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FrugalFan on February 02, 2017, 02:15:15 PM
Thanks, everyone! I feel kind of bad posting on this thread after paying off in one fell swoop when everyone is making such amazing steady progress, but there is no one else I can tell! Thanks for letting me indulge :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on February 02, 2017, 04:38:42 PM
Payoff complete!  Took some money that was sitting around and knocked it out. 
Loan originated in June 2014 - $71,600 loan at 3.375%.  Paid off in December 2016.  A wedding, baby, 2 car upgrades, 15% of gross income investing all along the way.  As mentioned before we will knock out a student loan this year but are waiting for the loan forgiveness part of it to process.  After that we will keep saving.  Invest more of our income and also save up for our son's college and for an upgrade in house down the road.  This was scheduled to be a 180 month loan that was paid off in 30 months.  This group here has provided great motivation for this!

Awesome job!  Congrats!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: farmecologist on February 02, 2017, 07:52:37 PM
Thanks, everyone! I feel kind of bad posting on this thread after paying off in one fell swoop when everyone is making such amazing steady progress, but there is no one else I can tell! Thanks for letting me indulge :)

Congrats!  I was in a similar situation.  Had stock options that were going to expire and used them to pay off the mortgage a few years ago.  Best thing I ever did..despite what "the math" ( i.e. - skeptics ) say.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FireLane on February 03, 2017, 04:58:17 AM
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. :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Lochi21 on February 03, 2017, 05:43:22 AM
We paid off our mortgage today!!! We got the mortgage in fall 2009. We started out paying double each month, then slowed down to regular payments during parental leaves and when we realized that we would probably be better off investing. We'd often contemplated paying it down, but we were always in that strange position where we had too much left to pay it off quickly (I'm impatient!) and didn't want to be in a position where we started putting a lot of money into it but wouldn't have it paid off if one of us lost our jobs or something. But a couple of posts in this thread with rapidly declining balances that were as large as ours got me thinking. We used profits from selling our rental, put some idle cash to work, and sold off a few investments and paid it off in one fell swoop today! This means that we could comfortably live on just one of our salaries indefinitely if need be, and in the meantime we will be investing one salary and then some! Note that we did this after maxing out all tax advantaged accounts.

Congratulations!!  That is an incredible amount of interest saved and a really impressive payoff timeline.  I'm assuming you are now 100% debt-free and will remain that way for the rest of your lives?  Think about how awesome that is!!  I'm a few months from joining you with my own mortgage and I'm really looking forward to removing the hyena's from my pocket forever!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: theadvicist on February 03, 2017, 05:54:57 AM
We're not going hardcore on the mortgage paying off, but being in the UK where rates are variable or only fixed for a few years, it's something I've been working towards, so I'd love to join in?

We've had really historic low rates here, yet I remember in the 90s my parents mortgage climbing to double digits! Something like 15%. Can you imagine paying 15% of your total loan value to the bank every year?

We started in 2009 borrowing £157,000. That mortgage was at 5.49% and we were paying about £24 A DAY interest. In the five years we had that mortgage we paid £39,000 in interest, and paid of £11,000 principle. Yikes!

Managed to get a much lower rate when that mortgage expired in 2014. I also chose an offset savings account, where you savings reduce the mortgage balance on which you pay interest, as even at 2.49% there were no savings accounts which could beat it, and we keep 6 months on hand in cash at all times.

Suddenly our interest payments were more like £5 a day, so we made huge inroad into the debt. In the two year life of that deal, we paid £3,340 interest, and £12,000 principle. Compare that to the first scenario - where in 5 years we only paid of £11k and paid TEN TIMES the interest!

This is when I got quite focussed because I realised that extra payment while rates were so low would have a huge impact on the principal. I got determined to pay it off before rates went up. Note, I was still investing for maximum tax relief (SIPP pension), but not taking advantage of all tax sheltered accounts (ISAs).

I paid off about £50k extra principal from saving our income in mid 2016, when we were again due a new mortgage deal. This also brought us to under 60% Loan To Value ratio, meaning we could get a rate of 1.5%. Currently we are paying £2.50 a day in interest - down from ten times that at the beginning. I also decided to shorten the amortization from 30 years to 15 years. Combined with another offset account, we are reducing the balance by about £450 a month.

I consider myself so lucky to live in this time of low interest rates. If the cycle repeats itself I should be piling up the savings as rates go higher as well.

2009 Original balance: £157,000
2017 Current balance: £81,850. I'm amazing to see £1k knocked off nearly every other month.

We can overpay by 10% per year without penalty. The deal expires in mid-2019, at which time we can pay it all off with a lump sum without penalty if we choose.

So my priorities are thus: maximum tax relief on Retirement account first and foremost. Then a split between ISAs (stocks and shares tax sheltered savings accounts) and paying off the mortgage. You guys are really inspiring! Thank you. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on February 10, 2017, 08:56:14 AM
I've really enjoyed the energy and excitement of this thread. Slaying that huge debt is commendable and worth celebrating. Congrats, guys!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Simpli-Fi on February 11, 2017, 05:07:06 AM
Under $20k
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: XLLaK7wsV on February 12, 2017, 11:46:08 AM
Been following this thread for a couple years and that got me to focus on getting it knocked out.  Finally got it paid off this month.  Here is the balance since I started logging it during the paydown:

01/8/2016    $40,100
02/5/2016    $37,200
03/4/2016    $34,200
04/2/2016    $31,100
05/1/2016    $28,900
06/1/2016    $25,400
07/1/2016    $22,800
08/1/2016    $19,300
09/1/2016    $16,300
10/1/2016    $11,600
11/1/2016    $11,000
12/1/2016    $10,500
01/1/2017    $  9,900
02/1/2017    $  4,600
02/9/2017    $       0

Probably won't feel different till next month when there is no payment to make.  Thanks for the inspiration in this thread!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: markbike528CBX on February 12, 2017, 09:26:34 PM
@XLLaK7wsV

Do tell
       a) how does it feel next month
       b) what you did with all that new cash (we hope it is in VTSAX or VXUS or similar :-)

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Decoy1 on February 15, 2017, 09:53:43 AM
Longtime lurker here but decided to jump in on this thread for motivation

Original mortgage acquired in April 2013...375k at 3.9%. Paid the minimum for the first year but after seeing how little was going toward the principle my wife and decided we'd had it. As of October 1 the balance is 147k! Can't  wait to get under 100k.

october 2016 147k

November 2016 142k



November '16 142k
December '16 135k

Getting close!
February '16  81k

Payoff will slow down a bit over the next few months but hoping to be free of it by the the end of 2017
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: runewell on February 15, 2017, 12:10:02 PM
I think paying off my mortgage would be a TERRIBLE idea.

My rate is 2.625% and by deducting my $3,430 of mortgage interest I saved $784 in taxes, making my effective borrowing rate 2.025%


2.625% x (3430-784)/3430 = 2.025%

I would expect to get a much higher return out of the stock market.  Everyone's situation is different, but by paying down your market you are merely guaranteeing a rate of return equal to your loan's interest rate.  Does that really make financial sense?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Decoy1 on February 15, 2017, 12:57:44 PM
Those are good points runewell and at that interest rate I'm not sure what I would do. For me I just don't want debt and without a mortgage monthly cash flow is significantly improved. We are already saving ~20% for retirement and without a mortgage will be able to bump that up to over 30% so we are not paying down the mortgage at the expense of saving.

 I've never understood the whole appeal of deducting mortgage interest unless I'm understanding it wrong . Say someone makes 150k a year and pays 30k a year towards their mortgage with 10k going toward interest. At the end of the year they will pay taxes on 140k instead of 150k...correct? So to get that 10k deduction they had to pay 30k. If that same person didn't have a mortgage couldn't they just take that 30k and put 20k in taxable investments and give 10k to charity and get a deduction?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on February 15, 2017, 01:11:20 PM
Current status: under 20k
Strech goal: Kill it in 2017

Major plus is that our interest dropped from 4% fixed to 2% variable (montly recalculation). My interest is now €30/month :D
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: runewell on February 15, 2017, 02:26:48 PM
I've never understood the whole appeal of deducting mortgage interest
Well I'm not borrowing money just so I can pay lower taxes - I want a house as well!  The relevant point is that about 1/4 of the amount I pay in interest comes back to me, so I am only paying 3/4 of the interest when all is said and done. 

What I don't understand is why people are celebrating the 2-4% rate of returns people are getting by prepaying their mortgages. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Decoy1 on February 15, 2017, 03:10:41 PM
I've never understood the whole appeal of deducting mortgage interest
Well I'm not borrowing money just so I can pay lower taxes - I want a house as well!

Hahaha

I really don't think there is a right or wrong answer when it comes to paying off debt vs investing. I imagine in the end it will all be a wash and we will both be fine. I guess I'm just glad we live in a time with amazingly low rates...who would've ever thought we'd have sub 3% rates.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: flowrider on February 15, 2017, 06:28:51 PM
I've never understood the whole appeal of deducting mortgage interest
Well I'm not borrowing money just so I can pay lower taxes - I want a house as well!  The relevant point is that about 1/4 of the amount I pay in interest comes back to me, so I am only paying 3/4 of the interest when all is said and done. 

What I don't understand is why people are celebrating the 2-4% rate of returns people are getting by prepaying their mortgages.
Here in NZ interest rates are creeping up with most terms now over 5% and there are no tax benefits for non investment properties here. For me having the mortgage paid off will be a weight off the shoulders. I am under $10k to go now.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: AcctgGuy on February 17, 2017, 02:15:03 PM
I am joining this crew. Ultimately, I want my wife to stay home with our future kids. A big step to accomplishing that will be killing this mortgage. I'm also looking forward to NEVER having a mortgage/rent payment outside of tax/insurance ever again once we tackle this!

Beginning Balance March 2016: $243,600 (20% Equity)

February 2017: $213,900 (30% Equity)

I'm happy with our progress so far but a long way to go. On to getting this thing under $200k.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on February 18, 2017, 09:35:38 AM
I've never understood the whole appeal of deducting mortgage interest
Well I'm not borrowing money just so I can pay lower taxes - I want a house as well!  The relevant point is that about 1/4 of the amount I pay in interest comes back to me, so I am only paying 3/4 of the interest when all is said and done. 

What I don't understand is why people are celebrating the 2-4% rate of returns people are getting by prepaying their mortgages.
Diversification. Paying the mortgage early is similar to buying a bond in many ways. I have zero bonds in my portfolio.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on February 21, 2017, 08:38:10 AM
Kinda shocked to see the pay off home versus invest debate in this thread. Indeed it is an interesting debate (i am personally on the slow-pay-off side), but I'd like to see this thread be a safe space for people who take the commendable step of living in a paid-for house.

The consumer-world celebrates people for buying things, even when some of those things may detract from over-all wealth. Why shouldn't we celebrate this triumph of anti-consumerism?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jordanread on February 21, 2017, 08:42:01 AM
Kinda shocked to see the pay off home versus invest debate in this thread. Indeed it is an interesting debate (i am personally on the slow-pay-off side), but I'd like to see this thread be a safe space for people who take the commendable step of living in a paid-for house.

The consumer-world celebrates people for buying things, even when some of those things may detract from over-all wealth. Why shouldn't we celebrate this triumph of anti-consumerism?

Don't be that shocked. It's 24 pages long, and I'd say that there is less than 2 pages of that. Otherwise, it's more like a celebration thread for those who go this route. Use it as such, and you'll be fine.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on February 21, 2017, 01:31:51 PM
Kinda shocked to see the pay off home versus invest debate in this thread. Indeed it is an interesting debate (i am personally on the slow-pay-off side), but I'd like to see this thread be a safe space for people who take the commendable step of living in a paid-for house.

The consumer-world celebrates people for buying things, even when some of those things may detract from over-all wealth. Why shouldn't we celebrate this triumph of anti-consumerism?

Don't be that shocked. It's 24 pages long, and I'd say that there is less than 2 pages of that. Otherwise, it's more like a celebration thread for those who go this route. Use it as such, and you'll be fine.

A big part of the choice is also what you feel comfortable with. Some people calculate risks and choose investment over paying off because it is the most profitable way within their scope of calculation. Personally, I chose that guaranteed with no risks result of wiping out the mortgage and will start investing after clearing it (only 19k to go!).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on February 21, 2017, 01:58:35 PM
Kinda shocked to see the pay off home versus invest debate in this thread. Indeed it is an interesting debate (i am personally on the slow-pay-off side), but I'd like to see this thread be a safe space for people who take the commendable step of living in a paid-for house.

The consumer-world celebrates people for buying things, even when some of those things may detract from over-all wealth. Why shouldn't we celebrate this triumph of anti-consumerism?

Don't be that shocked. It's 24 pages long, and I'd say that there is less than 2 pages of that. Otherwise, it's more like a celebration thread for those who go this route. Use it as such, and you'll be fine.

A big part of the choice is also what you feel comfortable with. Some people calculate risks and choose investment over paying off because it is the most profitable way within their scope of calculation. Personally, I chose that guaranteed with no risks result of wiping out the mortgage and will start investing after clearing it (only 19k to go!).

I have waffled on this one over and over.  Good job only having $19K to go! There's something intrinsicly satisfying in having a paid off home. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on February 21, 2017, 02:13:40 PM
Kinda shocked to see the pay off home versus invest debate in this thread. Indeed it is an interesting debate (i am personally on the slow-pay-off side), but I'd like to see this thread be a safe space for people who take the commendable step of living in a paid-for house.

The consumer-world celebrates people for buying things, even when some of those things may detract from over-all wealth. Why shouldn't we celebrate this triumph of anti-consumerism?

Don't be that shocked. It's 24 pages long, and I'd say that there is less than 2 pages of that. Otherwise, it's more like a celebration thread for those who go this route. Use it as such, and you'll be fine.

A big part of the choice is also what you feel comfortable with. Some people calculate risks and choose investment over paying off because it is the most profitable way within their scope of calculation. Personally, I chose that guaranteed with no risks result of wiping out the mortgage and will start investing after clearing it (only 19k to go!).

I have waffled on this one over and over.  Good job only having $19K to go! There's something intrinsicly satisfying in having a paid off home.
When in doubt, why not split between both?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on February 21, 2017, 02:40:09 PM
Kinda shocked to see the pay off home versus invest debate in this thread. Indeed it is an interesting debate (i am personally on the slow-pay-off side), but I'd like to see this thread be a safe space for people who take the commendable step of living in a paid-for house.

The consumer-world celebrates people for buying things, even when some of those things may detract from over-all wealth. Why shouldn't we celebrate this triumph of anti-consumerism?

Don't be that shocked. It's 24 pages long, and I'd say that there is less than 2 pages of that. Otherwise, it's more like a celebration thread for those who go this route. Use it as such, and you'll be fine.

A big part of the choice is also what you feel comfortable with. Some people calculate risks and choose investment over paying off because it is the most profitable way within their scope of calculation. Personally, I chose that guaranteed with no risks result of wiping out the mortgage and will start investing after clearing it (only 19k to go!).

I have waffled on this one over and over.  Good job only having $19K to go! There's something intrinsicly satisfying in having a paid off home.
When in doubt, why not split between both?
Ha...paid off one, and kept a mortgage 2.625% 15 yr. on the other....see, I waffle quite well.  I think when my invested assets hit $1.0M I will switch back to paying off the remaining main house mortgage. Currently up to paying off $1.5K in principal each month - would like to bump that to $2.0K in principal each month starting in April.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dreaming on February 22, 2017, 02:00:00 PM
I am in the group of paying off my mortgage early.  I don't like owing anyone anything and I will feel like this burden will be lifted.   With that said, we are in the straight stretch of paying it off.  I am looking to be done with it in June.  I just paid for March and so now the balance is $12,716.  It's so close I can taste it.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on February 23, 2017, 10:39:13 AM

Ha...paid off one, and kept a mortgage 2.625% 15 yr. on the other....see, I waffle quite well.  I think when my invested assets hit $1.0M I will switch back to paying off the remaining main house mortgage. Currently up to paying off $1.5K in principal each month - would like to bump that to $2.0K in principal each month starting in April.

I used 1.0M as the marker too, but then I kept doing both when I saw how fast the numbers grow .  I also reduced my monthly extra principal payment to just under my full mortgage payment amount.  If my extra payment is under the full monthly PITI amount due to the bank, the bank automatically applies it to principal.  If it is the same or over my monthly payment, then the bank automatically applies it to the next month's payment and then any extra money is applied to additional principal.  For whatever reason, there is no way to default to my preference, so I would have to call the bank every month right before they receive the payment to let them know.  I've never been successful at this, so the change always is made after the payment is made, and their bookkeeping of the change is always very confusing.  So now, I double my mortgage payment, minus $10 dollars.  I think when I want to make a big payment ($20k or more), I'll walk into the bank and make sure they apply it the way I want the first time.  Small sacrifices! 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks on February 23, 2017, 11:35:10 AM
Bluehouse, our mortgage company, Freedom Mortgage, is weird about taking extra payments.  I am doing old fashioned statement payments which have an area for -- extra principal -- but the opportunity to pay extra is only once a month, if I send in payments in another form, they were applying to the next payment.  This is a little putzy but it works.

For us:
Old balance 79, 950
New balance after March payment 76, 150

We may put some savings towards it and pay down bigger chunks but I want wait another month or two.   Last night my husband said he's willing to go on an AT hike when the mortgage is paid off and kids college is going well.  I say, bring it on!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on February 23, 2017, 11:20:17 PM
Principal paid off so far

2012 - $3415
2013 - $3994
2014 - $8483
2015 - $38412 (yup got rid of all the debt and $10 000 windfall not expected)
2016 - $67650
2017 - $8964

3/1 Remaining balance $87322. Projected pay off date 09/09/2017 - SO 51st birthday.

4/1 Remaining balance $81837

4/30 Remaining balance $76952 (I owed the tax man!)

5/29 Remaining balance $73836

6/30 Remaining balance $65388

7/29 Remaining balance $60825

8/31 Remaining balance $55728

9/30 Remaining balance $49696

10/31 Remaining balance $39920

11/30 Remaining balance $36721

01/05 Remaining balance $34633

01/29 Remaining balance $32965

02/23 Remaining balance $26692
 
Good month - in the 20's. I am definitely seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Simpli-Fi on February 25, 2017, 03:55:17 PM
Under $20k
4 figures
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dreaming on March 02, 2017, 09:37:51 AM
I am in the group of paying off my mortgage early.  I don't like owing anyone anything and I will feel like this burden will be lifted.   With that said, we are in the straight stretch of paying it off.  I am looking to be done with it in June.  I just paid for March and so now the balance is $12,716.  It's so close I can taste it.

I couldn't fight the urge anymore.  We paid off the house today!  It feels good, but I bet it will feel even better come the end of the month when I normally make a payment and won't have to!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Simpli-Fi on March 02, 2017, 11:50:36 AM
^same here.  Money wasn't in the market(wasn't going to jump in now), wasn't doing any good in my savings account.  Mortgage gone.  30 year loan paid off in 11.  Easily one hundred thousand saved in interest.  I never like paying money for not having money.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on March 02, 2017, 01:36:07 PM
I couldn't fight the urge anymore.  We paid off the house today!  It feels good, but I bet it will feel even better come the end of the month when I normally make a payment and won't have to!

Woo-hoo!  Good job!   

^same here.  Money wasn't in the market(wasn't going to jump in now), wasn't doing any good in my savings account.  Mortgage gone.  30 year loan paid off in 11.  Easily one hundred thousand saved in interest.  I never like paying money for not having money.
Man, this makes me want to make a big drop into my account.  I have a bunch of cash waiting to invest, but I can't bring myself to do it right now....so it's just sitting in cash doing nothing.  With those options, making a big payment is the better choice, but I'm still hoping for a big dip in the market so I can pile it there instead. I'm still so far away from paying off that even my "big bunches of cash" don't really make a big dent.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on March 02, 2017, 02:41:12 PM
I couldn't fight the urge anymore.  We paid off the house today!  It feels good, but I bet it will feel even better come the end of the month when I normally make a payment and won't have to!

Woo-hoo!  Good job!   

^same here.  Money wasn't in the market(wasn't going to jump in now), wasn't doing any good in my savings account.  Mortgage gone.  30 year loan paid off in 11.  Easily one hundred thousand saved in interest.  I never like paying money for not having money.
Man, this makes me want to make a big drop into my account.  I have a bunch of cash waiting to invest, but I can't bring myself to do it right now....so it's just sitting in cash doing nothing.  With those options, making a big payment is the better choice, but I'm still hoping for a big dip in the market so I can pile it there instead. I'm still so far away from paying off that even my "big bunches of cash" don't really make a big dent.

It's funny how those master plans to pay off the mortgage go out the window when you get super close to paying it off :D Congratulations to everybody that has killed a mortgage recently.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: nottoolatetostart on March 03, 2017, 03:31:45 AM
I am in the group of paying off my mortgage early.  I don't like owing anyone anything and I will feel like this burden will be lifted.   With that said, we are in the straight stretch of paying it off.  I am looking to be done with it in June.  I just paid for March and so now the balance is $12,716.  It's so close I can taste it.

I couldn't fight the urge anymore.  We paid off the house today!  It feels good, but I bet it will feel even better come the end of the month when I normally make a payment and won't have to!

Congrats. Please let us know how it is. Congrats on waking up knowing it is all YOURS
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: nottoolatetostart on March 03, 2017, 03:38:59 AM
^same here.  Money wasn't in the market(wasn't going to jump in now), wasn't doing any good in my savings account.  Mortgage gone.  30 year loan paid off in 11.  Easily one hundred thousand saved in interest.  I never like paying money for not having money.

Congrats! What an accomplishment.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cheddarpie on March 03, 2017, 07:32:59 PM
I am in the group of paying off my mortgage early.  I don't like owing anyone anything and I will feel like this burden will be lifted.   With that said, we are in the straight stretch of paying it off.  I am looking to be done with it in June.  I just paid for March and so now the balance is $12,716.  It's so close I can taste it.

I couldn't fight the urge anymore.  We paid off the house today!  It feels good, but I bet it will feel even better come the end of the month when I normally make a payment and won't have to!


Congratulations!! I was going to post to say, I'm in the same boat -- just over 10k with my March payment and planning to be  done by June. Not sure I'll make it that long now either!

Woohoo!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on March 05, 2017, 08:13:15 PM
I am in the group of paying off my mortgage early.  I don't like owing anyone anything and I will feel like this burden will be lifted.   With that said, we are in the straight stretch of paying it off.  I am looking to be done with it in June.  I just paid for March and so now the balance is $12,716.  It's so close I can taste it.

I couldn't fight the urge anymore.  We paid off the house today!  It feels good, but I bet it will feel even better come the end of the month when I normally make a payment and won't have to!
Congratulations
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on March 06, 2017, 06:54:50 PM
The renewal letter for my mortgage arrived! I owe $7,361.71. Renewal time means I can pay it off without penalty! Which is, of course, the point. I want to pay it off on April 1 (aka the earliest possible date) but that's on a weekend. Waiting for April 3 might kill me. The indignities I suffer!
There is a small part of me that wants to borrow a ton more on my mortgage, under today's very nice rates, and invest it. That would make sense, numbers-wise. But I'm embarking on a financially risky move (getting tenants in my current home and the new one, taking on a more expensive house) and having lower monthly payments reduces that risk, so I will pay it off. But 2.69% is tempting. Such a pretty interest rate.

IMMA PAY OFF MY MORTGAGE, BITCHEZ!!!!

You go girl!!! I am 2.625% and I think I would be a better payoff person if it were higher. I'm starting to think cash flow though....gotta pay for college next year for kid #1. Not knowing how much that is going to cost is TORTURE!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on March 06, 2017, 10:54:05 PM
Still making steady progress. I too am looking forward to having more flexible cash flow in the not too distant future.

Jan. 2015 - ~100k
Oct. 2015 - ~$67500
Dec.3, 2015 - ~$60k
Feb. 5, 2016 - $52,108.53
March 7, 2016 - 49,774.21
April 11, 2016 - 48,700 to go. Had to pay taxes this month.
May - failed to report in
June - $42,853.69
July - $41,597.20
August 2016 - 38,000
September 2016 - $36,230.88
October 2016 - $34,250. Now down to April 2020 at minimum payments.
November 2016 - $32,211 and some change.
December 2016 - $29,990 and change. Under 30k to end the year.
January 2017 - $28,200
February 2017 - $24800
March 2017 - $23k+ as of today. Going to push this down to a bit under $20k with the bulk of my tax refund.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: asauer on March 09, 2017, 06:09:18 AM
Still making steady progress. I too am looking forward to having more flexible cash flow in the not too distant future.

Jan. 2015 - ~100k
Oct. 2015 - ~$67500
Dec.3, 2015 - ~$60k
Feb. 5, 2016 - $52,108.53
March 7, 2016 - 49,774.21
April 11, 2016 - 48,700 to go. Had to pay taxes this month.
May - failed to report in
June - $42,853.69
July - $41,597.20
August 2016 - 38,000
September 2016 - $36,230.88
October 2016 - $34,250. Now down to April 2020 at minimum payments.
November 2016 - $32,211 and some change.
December 2016 - $29,990 and change. Under 30k to end the year.
January 2017 - $28,200
February 2017 - $24800
March 2017 - $23k+ as of today. Going to push this down to a bit under $20k with the bulk of my tax refund.
Great job!  Keep plugging!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on March 09, 2017, 08:19:56 AM
Could not resist - put a small payment in so i could be in the teens today. $19900. It is soooo close now.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: theadvicist on March 09, 2017, 09:41:42 AM
Could not resist - put a small payment in so i could be in the teens today. $19900. It is soooo close now.

That must feel so good! Not much to go now.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: plainjane on March 09, 2017, 10:35:44 AM
Could not resist - put a small payment in so i could be in the teens today. $19900. It is soooo close now.

I've said it before, and I will say it again, the great thing about paying down the mortgage is that when you get near the end, every little bit makes a visible difference.  You are so close.

When investing, after you hit a certain point, throwing an extra $100 in looks like just noise, so there is less positive reinforcement to do so.
Title: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: AustinHorn on March 09, 2017, 12:38:40 PM
Think I'm going to start paying off the mortgage this month.  Here's my stats:

Balance: $101,998.51
Term:  15 year fixed (10 years, 3 months left)
Rate:  2.875%

I think I could get it knocked out in 2 years (prior to my 41st birthday) if I'm diligent.  I'm maxing out my 401k, have no other debts and have cash for nearly 12 months of emergency living plus a $10k used car if mine happens to crap out on me (115k miles currently), which isn't likely.

I have a few thoughts on why I want to prepay the mortgage:

1. Being debt free trumps the math for me.  The math leans to invest, but I'd rather be debt free.
2.  Equity exposure - Currently I don't have any bonds, and by allocating this portion of my savings to my mortgage, that gives me a guaranteed 2.875% on my "fixed income" portfolio.  This is the equivalent of buying 4-5 year investment grade corporate bonds at today's rates.  I prefer the mortgage prepay guarantee.  I'm investing my 401k contributions entirely in the stock market.  I'm also one who is concerned about the market at these valuations, so I'm perfectly fine with allocating a larger portion of my savings to fixed income (mortgage payoff) than the stock market.
3.  Tax Deduction - This may have been stated on the thread already, but the tax deduction of a mortgage is not as beneficial as it's purported to be if you are making the "do I pay it down" decision.  If you are considering prepaying your mortgage, you are most likely going to be doing this with after-tax dollars (i.e. non-IRA/401k dollars).  If you don't prepay the mortgage and opt to invest those dollars, you are indeed getting a tax deduction for the mortgage interest.  But assuming you are investing the dollars that would go to mortgage prepayment into an after-tax account (my scenario since I'm maxing my 401k), then you will be taxed on any dividends/interest/capital gains realized from that investment.  So by not paying down the mortgage you are preserving the tax deduction but at the same time adding taxable investment income.  While you do have a limited amount of control over how those earnings are taxed, you are still generating incremental tax on those dollars when they are invested.  So the benefit of the mortgage interest deduction is muted, especially for my scenario.

So I'm going to put a little towards it this month and start with a prepayment plan in April.  Looking forward to being debt free!!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on March 11, 2017, 02:40:05 AM
Think I'm going to start paying off the mortgage this month.  Here's my stats:

Balance: $101,998.51
Term:  15 year fixed (10 years, 3 months left)
Rate:  2.875%

I think I could get it knocked out in 2 years (prior to my 41st birthday) if I'm diligent.  I'm maxing out my 401k, have no other debts and have cash for nearly 12 months of emergency living plus a $10k used car if mine happens to crap out on me (115k miles currently), which isn't likely.

I have a few thoughts on why I want to prepay the mortgage:

1. Being debt free trumps the math for me.  The math leans to invest, but I'd rather be debt free.
2.  Equity exposure - Currently I don't have any bonds, and by allocating this portion of my savings to my mortgage, that gives me a guaranteed 2.875% on my "fixed income" portfolio.  This is the equivalent of buying 4-5 year investment grade corporate bonds at today's rates.  I prefer the mortgage prepay guarantee.  I'm investing my 401k contributions entirely in the stock market.  I'm also one who is concerned about the market at these valuations, so I'm perfectly fine with allocating a larger portion of my savings to fixed income (mortgage payoff) than the stock market.
3.  Tax Deduction - This may have been stated on the thread already, but the tax deduction of a mortgage is not as beneficial as it's purported to be if you are making the "do I pay it down" decision.  If you are considering prepaying your mortgage, you are most likely going to be doing this with after-tax dollars (i.e. non-IRA/401k dollars).  If you don't prepay the mortgage and opt to invest those dollars, you are indeed getting a tax deduction for the mortgage interest.  But assuming you are investing the dollars that would go to mortgage prepayment into an after-tax account (my scenario since I'm maxing my 401k), then you will be taxed on any dividends/interest/capital gains realized from that investment.  So by not paying down the mortgage you are preserving the tax deduction but at the same time adding taxable investment income.  While you do have a limited amount of control over how those earnings are taxed, you are still generating incremental tax on those dollars when they are invested.  So the benefit of the mortgage interest deduction is muted, especially for my scenario.

So I'm going to put a little towards it this month and start with a prepayment plan in April.  Looking forward to being debt free!!!!

Awesome. It sounds like you have thought this through pretty well. It is a big relief being out of debt completely. If the markets take a dive or you lose your job, or both happen simultaneously, not having to worry about the burden of a mortgage payment is a huge relief. Plus, once the mortgage is paid, you can really double down on investing. The second we paid off our mortgage, I doubled my 401k contributions without breaking a sweat. I couldn't say that when we were still paying the mortgage.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frugalkristen on March 11, 2017, 05:34:48 AM
Think I'm going to start paying off the mortgage this month.  Here's my stats:

Balance: $101,998.51
Term:  15 year fixed (10 years, 3 months left)
Rate:  2.875%

I think I could get it knocked out in 2 years (prior to my 41st birthday) if I'm diligent.  I'm maxing out my 401k, have no other debts and have cash for nearly 12 months of emergency living plus a $10k used car if mine happens to crap out on me (115k miles currently), which isn't likely.


I have a few thoughts on why I want to prepay the mortgage:

1. Being debt free trumps the math for me.  The math leans to invest, but I'd rather be debt free.
2.  Equity exposure - Currently I don't have any bonds, and by allocating this portion of my savings to my mortgage, that gives me a guaranteed 2.875% on my "fixed income" portfolio.  This is the equivalent of buying 4-5 year investment grade corporate bonds at today's rates.  I prefer the mortgage prepay guarantee.  I'm investing my 401k contributions entirely in the stock market.  I'm also one who is concerned about the market at these valuations, so I'm perfectly fine with allocating a larger portion of my savings to fixed income (mortgage payoff) than the stock market.
3.  Tax Deduction - This may have been stated on the thread already, but the tax deduction of a mortgage is not as beneficial as it's purported to be if you are making the "do I pay it down" decision.  If you are considering prepaying your mortgage, you are most likely going to be doing this with after-tax dollars (i.e. non-IRA/401k dollars).  If you don't prepay the mortgage and opt to invest those dollars, you are indeed getting a tax deduction for the mortgage interest.  But assuming you are investing the dollars that would go to mortgage prepayment into an after-tax account (my scenario since I'm maxing my 401k), then you will be taxed on any dividends/interest/capital gains realized from that investment.  So by not paying down the mortgage you are preserving the tax deduction but at the same time adding taxable investment income.  While you do have a limited amount of control over how those earnings are taxed, you are still generating incremental tax on those dollars when they are invested.  So the benefit of the mortgage interest deduction is muted, especially for my scenario.

So I'm going to put a little towards it this month and start with a prepayment plan in April.  Looking forward to being debt free!!!!

Awesome. It sounds like you have thought this through pretty well. It is a big relief being out of debt completely. If the markets take a dive or you lose your job, or both happen simultaneously, not having to worry about the burden of a mortgage payment is a huge relief. Plus, once the mortgage is paid, you can really double down on investing. The second we paid off our mortgage, I doubled my 401k contributions without breaking a sweat. I couldn't say that when we were still paying the mortgage.

Love this!  I started paying it down last month (an extra $500).  Other pieces to the math that people don't think about -

I take the standard deduction so there is no benefit to paying mortgage interest.

I am not a high earner and I have 2 kids in college so those deductions bring my tax base to $0.  Even maxing my 401K isn't a huge benefit.

I have to fill out the FAFSA each year and my home equity does not count against me.

My mortgage is my only debt.  I also look at paying it off early as my 'bond' portion of my portfolio.

I have a decent 401K and Roth IRA balance (I am still contributing) and a large (larger than I should have but it helps me sleep at night) emergency fund.

I could pay it of in 2 years but I'm thinking I will take up to 5 yrs and add to my other investments also to give myself a little of both worlds.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cantgrowone on March 17, 2017, 10:00:40 AM
Hi there. Somehow I just stumbled across this thread. DW and I want to pay off our mortgage early. We have $52k & 27 years left at 3.75%. We have the cash to pay it off today but DW is skeptical of taking a 'chunk' out of our savings. After paying off we will have a 6 month EF.

Should we just pull the trigger and start putting our mortgage payment in a brokerage account?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on March 17, 2017, 02:49:37 PM
Hi there. Somehow I just stumbled across this thread. DW and I want to pay off our mortgage early. We have $52k & 27 years left at 3.75%. We have the cash to pay it off today but DW is skeptical of taking a 'chunk' out of our savings. After paying off we will have a 6 month EF.

Should we just pull the trigger and start putting our mortgage payment in a brokerage account?

If the money you have to pay off the mortgage is just sitting in a checking or savings account earning less interest than the mortgage is costing you in interest, I would just kill the mortgage. You have to respect your wife's wishes on the money too though and maybe come up with a plan to rebuild your emergency fund quickly if you want more than 6 months in the bank. Best of luck with whatever decision  you guys finally end up making.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Brother Esau on March 17, 2017, 06:11:59 PM
We started additional payments to the mortgage a few months ago. Figure we can do at least $1,000 or more extra each month by living a stache lifestyle. thank you MMM peeps!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on March 28, 2017, 07:34:20 PM
First Quarter 2017 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

Making some great progress and on track for 2018 payoff.  Still feels like a long haul though, I'm ready for it to be done.  Husband and I are thinking of pulling the plug on full time work once this mortgage is gone!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on March 29, 2017, 05:57:38 PM
Principal paid off so far

2012 - $3415
2013 - $3994
2014 - $8483
2015 - $38412 (yup got rid of all the debt and $10 000 windfall not expected)
2016 - $67650
2017 - $17664

3/1 Remaining balance $87322. Projected pay off date 09/09/2017 - SO 51st birthday.

4/1 Remaining balance $81837

4/30 Remaining balance $76952 (I owed the tax man!)

5/29 Remaining balance $73836

6/30 Remaining balance $65388

7/29 Remaining balance $60825

8/31 Remaining balance $55728

9/30 Remaining balance $49696

10/31 Remaining balance $39920

11/30 Remaining balance $36721

01/05 Remaining balance $34633

01/29 Remaining balance $32965

02/23 Remaining balance $26692

03/29 Remaining Balance $17963
 
So starting to get excited now - my mortgage is a teenager. Below $20000. I remember sitting at work thinking I would be 70 before the mortgage was done 5 years ago. I will be 45 should all go well! I fluttered with the idea of withdrawing my savings - but I want the satisfaction of staying the course.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks on March 29, 2017, 06:02:49 PM

Balance after March payment 76, 150

Putting an extra $5k on this month, so our balance after the April payment will be approx. $70,390.

We are making progress.  It feels slow!  It feels so slow, but...  we should be done in one year to 18 months.  Not bad!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on April 01, 2017, 10:40:54 AM
Still feels like a long haul though, I'm ready for it to be done.  Husband and I are thinking of pulling the plug on full time work once this mortgage is gone!
Us too :) Once we won't need such high cash flow each month, it will be easy to scale back on work. Just need to get through the next little while! Good luck.
You as well!  Sounds like we are on similiar time lines! 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Gardo on April 02, 2017, 10:21:08 AM
Curious how much is your total interest percentage paid on the life of the loan?  I'm thinking you could safely estimate it since you guys are close to paying off your mortgage. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Finallyunderstand on April 04, 2017, 08:14:58 PM
About two weeks ago my wife and I took the plunge and paid the last $78,900 on our mortgage and killed it!  Zero debts to anyone anywhere in life!  That  feeling is worth a lot and to me it beat the argument of saying the stock market is better in the long run.  Yes, it may be but this feeling is a rich feeling!

Focusing on investments now and FIRE by 40!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on April 05, 2017, 04:58:01 AM
Congrats FinallyUnderstand!  Awesome!

We are timing our mortgage payoff with our FIRE plans.  Current balance is $81,999, last payment will be December 2018 at the latest.   Target FIRE is August 1 of 2019.  It's feeling pretty close!  I am smelling the barn big time. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on April 05, 2017, 09:16:26 AM
As you might think from my username, I have some knowledge of farm things, but I've never heard the phrase "smelling the barn". It doesn't sound like something I want to be doing for very long.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on April 05, 2017, 10:15:11 AM
As you might think from my username, I have some knowledge of farm things, but I've never heard the phrase "smelling the barn". It doesn't sound like something I want to be doing for very long.

Haha, TallTexan!  It means getting your second wind, like a burst of energy as your goal is in sight.  Maybe it is a Midwestern-ism.  I guess it comes from the way a horse picks up the pace when the barn is in sight at the end of a journey (?)   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: theadvicist on April 06, 2017, 02:15:38 AM

Haha, TallTexan!  It means getting your second wind, like a burst of energy as your goal is in sight.  Maybe it is a Midwestern-ism.  I guess it comes from the way a horse picks up the pace when the barn is in sight at the end of a journey (?)   

I have never heard of this phrase, but I use Map my Run and I have noticed that after I turn a corner and can see 'home' about 1/2 a mile away, I do my best pace of the whole run (without thinking I am altering my pace at all). Sounds like I can 'smell the barn'!

Regular payment just took us under £81k. The 70s are so close!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Nederstash on April 06, 2017, 05:07:08 AM
As you might think from my username, I have some knowledge of farm things, but I've never heard the phrase "smelling the barn". It doesn't sound like something I want to be doing for very long.

Haha, TallTexan!  It means getting your second wind, like a burst of energy as your goal is in sight.  Maybe it is a Midwestern-ism.  I guess it comes from the way a horse picks up the pace when the barn is in sight at the end of a journey (?)

So fun to see this saying! In Dutch it's 'smelling the stable', means exactly the same thing! That being said, I'm still above the 200k mark so I definitely don't even have the faintest whiff of anything remotely rural.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: markbike528CBX on April 06, 2017, 09:28:05 AM
Since we travel far for work, at the end of the job, the phrase is "smelling the jet fuel".  I've been on the plane short hours after the Project Manager says go home.   However, it is a warning phrase, because people "smelling the jet fuel" can try to take shortcuts and screw up, delaying their leaving.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on April 25, 2017, 10:38:43 AM
As you might think from my username, I have some knowledge of farm things, but I've never heard the phrase "smelling the barn". It doesn't sound like something I want to be doing for very long.

Haha, TallTexan!  It means getting your second wind, like a burst of energy as your goal is in sight.  Maybe it is a Midwestern-ism.  I guess it comes from the way a horse picks up the pace when the barn is in sight at the end of a journey (?)

So fun to see this saying! In Dutch it's 'smelling the stable', means exactly the same thing! That being said, I'm still above the 200k mark so I definitely don't even have the faintest whiff of anything remotely rural.
We're with you....Over the $200K mark on the main house....hoping to finish in less than 7 years.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Indio on April 25, 2017, 12:02:00 PM
With tax refund and annual bonus put toward mortgage, I'm smelling the barn or the jet fuel. I'm very tempted to deduct from 8 month EF and make it a 6 mth EF so I can put another chunk toward it. I have a guaranteed 6 mth severance package so it doesn't seem too risky to me. Being the sole earner, I'm always cautious, probably too cautious.
Was so excited to see the balance drop, that I was in a great mood thinking about it for days!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on April 27, 2017, 08:34:54 AM
Principal paid off so far

2012 - $3415
2013 - $3994
2014 - $8483
2015 - $38412 (yup got rid of all the debt and $10 000 windfall not expected)
2016 - $67650
2017 - $22764

3/1 Remaining balance $87322. Projected pay off date 09/09/2017 - SO 51st birthday.

4/1 Remaining balance $81837

4/30 Remaining balance $76952 (I owed the tax man!)

5/29 Remaining balance $73836

6/30 Remaining balance $65388

7/29 Remaining balance $60825

8/31 Remaining balance $55728

9/30 Remaining balance $49696

10/31 Remaining balance $39920

11/30 Remaining balance $36721

01/05 Remaining balance $34633

01/29 Remaining balance $32965

02/23 Remaining balance $26692

03/29 Remaining Balance $17963

04/27 Remaining balance $12903
 
Jet fuel ever present! I will be in four figures next month - it is unbelievable!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: iluvzbeach on April 27, 2017, 08:47:27 AM
Nice work!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on April 28, 2017, 10:04:17 AM
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)

Current payments (payment + 1945 extra each month) feels like the right amount for my goals and circumstances and will let me meet my goal to pay the house off in 15 years instead of 30.   But when I see other people's progress, I really want to accelerate.  Unfortunately, that is not in sync with my Investment Policy & Asset Allocation goals. 

It's just so much more gratifying to see this number shrink! 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: runewell on April 28, 2017, 11:54:33 AM
1. Being debt free trumps the math for me.  The math leans to invest, but I'd rather be debt free.

So how much did you lose by not investing instead? 

3.  Tax Deduction - This may have been stated on the thread already, but the tax deduction of a mortgage is not as beneficial as it's purported to be if you are making the "do I pay it down" decision.  If you are considering prepaying your mortgage, you are most likely going to be doing this with after-tax dollars (i.e. non-IRA/401k dollars).  If you don't prepay the mortgage and opt to invest those dollars, you are indeed getting a tax deduction for the mortgage interest.  But assuming you are investing the dollars that would go to mortgage prepayment into an after-tax account (my scenario since I'm maxing my 401k), then you will be taxed on any dividends/interest/capital gains realized from that investment.  So by not paying down the mortgage you are preserving the tax deduction but at the same time adding taxable investment income.  While you do have a limited amount of control over how those earnings are taxed, you are still generating incremental tax on those dollars when they are invested.  So the benefit of the mortgage interest deduction is muted, especially for my scenario.

I'm not sure that makes any sense at all.
The long-term capital gains tax rate is 0% for someone who has a 15% ordinary income tax rate.  So you did lose a tax deduction but aren't necessarily paying more taxes is you are prudent.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: runewell on April 28, 2017, 11:55:44 AM
Still making steady progress. I too am looking forward to having more flexible cash flow in the not too distant future.

If you are paying down the mortgage that quickly, you really don't need "more flexible" cash flow. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on April 29, 2017, 09:48:52 AM
Still making steady progress. I too am looking forward to having more flexible cash flow in the not too distant future.

If you are paying down the mortgage that quickly, you really don't need "more flexible" cash flow.

This guy is like a vegetarian going to a steak house  to argue over if eating meat is wrong.

There are plenty of other posts (a few below) if you want to argue about whether to pay the mortgage off early or not. This, however, is not one of those threads.

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/mr-math-and-paying-off-your-mortgage/?topicseen

I agree! Maybe he thinks we are idiots just randomly just throwing money at our money at our house without a thought and is trying to save us from ourselves? I am vegetarian.......  Jetfuel!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: runewell on May 01, 2017, 07:07:15 AM
I agree! Maybe he thinks we are idiots

People on this forum will say just about anything to justify what they want to do. 

"The math trumps paying down my house, but I'm going to pay down my house anyway!"
Why shouldn't I ask how costly of a decision that is?  I suppose the reason I shouldn't ask it is maybe I wouldn't trust anyone to come up with a good estimate. 

In the last 5 years the SPY offered an 11.7% rate of return plus dividends that would have pushed the number up to at least 13%.  Anyone who spent five years throwing $1,000/mo at a 4% mortgage instead of investing it lost out on $16,700 of wealth.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Rowellen on May 01, 2017, 08:11:05 AM
I'm hoping to have my mortgage paid off in 2 to 3 years. Currently the balance is $151,412.
We're planning to sell an underperforming investment property within the next couple of months to get the balance under 100k. After that it will be a slow slog to the end.

Reducing expenses is a higher priority than investment for us at the moment due to the uncertainty of DH's work and the need for me to change jobs asap that will likely result in a pay cut.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on May 01, 2017, 12:02:35 PM
I agree! Maybe he thinks we are idiots

People on this forum will say just about anything to justify what they want to do. 
Why shouldn't I ask how costly of a decision that is?

Because you've entered an ongoing celebration for like-minded people who want the support and encouragement of other like-minded folks, and instead of offering a positive attitude, you're telling other adults that their decisions are stupid for no reason other than to hear yourself talk and to "win at the internet".  This isn't the appropriate place.

How about you pick another topic that exists for debate and go visit THAT group for a while? 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on May 01, 2017, 02:18:47 PM
I agree! Maybe he thinks we are idiots

People on this forum will say just about anything to justify what they want to do. 
Why shouldn't I ask how costly of a decision that is?

Because you've entered an ongoing celebration for like-minded people who want the support and encouragement of other like-minded folks, and instead of offering a positive attitude, you're telling other adults that their decisions are stupid for no reason other than to hear yourself talk and to "win at the internet".  This isn't the appropriate place.

How about you pick another topic that exists for debate and go visit THAT group for a while?

The poster is clearly a tool who hasn't read the entire thread. Do you think he tells people who user bonds or treasuries to diversify their portfolio the same thing? Paying your mortgage is not dis similar to purchasing a bond. If you have a sufficient amount going into equities already... And you want to have a person of your money go to something lower risk with a lower return paying the mortgage early is one option for that. I already have something like 60-70% of my post tax income going into equities. I really don't need all of it to go there
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: farmecologist on May 01, 2017, 03:07:50 PM
I agree! Maybe he thinks we are idiots

People on this forum will say just about anything to justify what they want to do. 
Why shouldn't I ask how costly of a decision that is?

Because you've entered an ongoing celebration for like-minded people who want the support and encouragement of other like-minded folks, and instead of offering a positive attitude, you're telling other adults that their decisions are stupid for no reason other than to hear yourself talk and to "win at the internet".  This isn't the appropriate place.

How about you pick another topic that exists for debate and go visit THAT group for a while?

The poster is clearly a tool who hasn't read the entire thread. Do you think he tells people who user bonds or treasuries to diversify their portfolio the same thing? Paying your mortgage is not dis similar to purchasing a bond. If you have a sufficient amount going into equities already... And you want to have a person of your money go to something lower risk with a lower return paying the mortgage early is one option for that. I already have something like 60-70% of my post tax income going into equities. I really don't need all of it to go there

Just a reminder...but if someone wants to hang out with the "anti-pay-off-your-mortage" crowd..there is a thread for that too!

    https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/dont-payoff-your-mortgage-club/


Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: runewell on May 02, 2017, 06:35:36 AM
Quote
Because you've entered an ongoing celebration for like-minded people who want the support and encouragement of other like-minded folks, and instead of offering a positive attitude, you're telling other adults that their decisions are stupid for no reason other than to hear yourself talk and to "win at the internet".  This isn't the appropriate place.

It's the perfect place for that reason, because some people should probably be lamenting their decision, not celebrating it.
I'm all for asset allocation and when my 15-yr mortgage is paid off in my late 50's I won't have any plans to remortgage or anything.
But when people say that being debt-free is more important than the math, I assume that they haven't done the math - and I wouldn't be surprised if many people were incapable of doing the math.  And I think it's important to say something because the failure to retain low-interest-rate auto and home loans is a real wealth killer around here.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: theadvicist on May 02, 2017, 07:36:22 AM
Quote
Because you've entered an ongoing celebration for like-minded people who want the support and encouragement of other like-minded folks, and instead of offering a positive attitude, you're telling other adults that their decisions are stupid for no reason other than to hear yourself talk and to "win at the internet".  This isn't the appropriate place.

It's the perfect place for that reason, because some people should probably be lamenting their decision, not celebrating it.
I'm all for asset allocation and when my 15-yr mortgage is paid off in my late 50's I won't have any plans to remortgage or anything.
But when people say that being debt-free is more important than the math, I assume that they haven't done the math - and I wouldn't be surprised if many people were incapable of doing the math.  And I think it's important to say something because the failure to retain low-interest-rate auto and home loans is a real wealth killer around here.

I think it's important to say something when people are being rude. Runewell, I am sure you are trying to help, but you are being rude. It's like you a butting in on a conversation to correct people, but you weren't in the conversation to start with. Yes, this is an open forum, anyone can comment, etc etc. But why not just be nice? Claiming people are 'incapable of maths' when you have already been politely told a couple of times that this thread is intended for celebrations seems very mean spirited to me.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on May 02, 2017, 08:59:25 AM
Quote
Because you've entered an ongoing celebration for like-minded people who want the support and encouragement of other like-minded folks, and instead of offering a positive attitude, you're telling other adults that their decisions are stupid for no reason other than to hear yourself talk and to "win at the internet".  This isn't the appropriate place.

It's the perfect place for that reason, because some people should probably be lamenting their decision, not celebrating it.
I'm all for asset allocation and when my 15-yr mortgage is paid off in my late 50's I won't have any plans to remortgage or anything.
But when people say that being debt-free is more important than the math, I assume that they haven't done the math - and I wouldn't be surprised if many people were incapable of doing the math.  And I think it's important to say something because the failure to retain low-interest-rate auto and home loans is a real wealth killer around here.


Now that I know your circumstances, perhaps you need to realize that you have NO IDEA of the circumstances of the other people here.  For instance, many of us have a goal of paying off a 30-year mortgage within 15 years -- the same as you!  But we may need more flexibility in the payment schedule.  So we call it paying off early.  There is literally no difference, other than we may pay a slightly higher interest rate in return for flexibility. 

Anyway, I don't want to argue as this is a space for celebration and encouragement and really no debate is necessary as the title of the thread says it all -- we've already decided a course of action that is appropriate for our circumstances, so no comment from you is necessary or desired. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: runewell on May 02, 2017, 11:22:02 AM

Anyway, I don't want to argue as this is a space for celebration and encouragement and really no debate is necessary as the title of the thread says it all

If you go back and read the original first page of this thread, you'll see there is a lot more to this thread than just celebration.  If this thread has turned into complete celebration, that means there probably aren't enough of us discouraging the accelerated paydown of a mortgage.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: runewell on May 02, 2017, 11:32:00 AM

Now that I know your circumstances, perhaps you need to realize that you have NO IDEA of the circumstances of the other people here.  For instance, many of us have a goal of paying off a 30-year mortgage within 15 years -- the same as you!  But we may need more flexibility in the payment schedule.  So we call it paying off early.  There is literally no difference, other than we may pay a slightly higher interest rate in return for flexibility. 


This isn't the same as me, I am paying down a 15-yr mortgage in 15 years.  If you need more flexibility in the payment schedule, then perhaps your emergency fund isn't big enough or you have too much house.  Nevertheless the same principle applies: if your 30-yr mortgage is anywhere near 4% or less you will probably come ahead long-term by not paying down your mortgage early and will probably lose out on wealth as a result. 

But you are right, I don't know everyone's circumstances.  A paydown could be sensible from a risk tolerance / asset allocation point of view.  But not knowing individual details, I certainly wouldn't jump to that conclusion.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on May 02, 2017, 05:35:29 PM
So... why didn't you get a 30 year mortgage and invest the difference in payment with a 15 year mortgage? Clearly you haven't done the math. Nobody should use a 15 year mortgage when a 30 year mortgage is available for just .25% higher. Let's say you took a 100000 15 year at 3.5% instead of 30 at 3.75%. the payment will be 715 instead of 463. If you put the 252 into equities every month with just an 8% return you would have 87,782.98 extra after 15 years. Why are you throwing this away? Compare this to the less than 10000 extra you would have paid in interest and your 15 year loan is clearly a bad decision.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on May 03, 2017, 10:46:47 AM
So... why didn't you get a 30 year mortgage and invest the difference in payment with a 15 year mortgage? Clearly you haven't done the math. Nobody should use a 15 year mortgage when a 30 year mortgage is available for just .25% higher. Let's say you took a 100000 15 year at 3.5% instead of 30 at 3.75%. the payment will be 715 instead of 463. If you put the 252 into equities every month with just an 8% return you would have 87,782.98 extra after 15 years. Why are you throwing this away? Compare this to the less than 10000 extra you would have paid in interest and your 15 year loan is clearly a bad decision.
Or better yet, why not an interest-only loan? 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on May 03, 2017, 12:03:57 PM
That 0.25% difference between 30-year and 15-year sounds low. Did you buy down points?

I'd expect a rate difference ofsomething more like 0.6%, perhaps even greater.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: DesireeD on May 03, 2017, 10:12:12 PM
Paid off our mortgage on the 25th of this month. Still feels like it's not real. That's been our goal for years. I've always told my husband he can't buy things until the mortgage is paid and now that it is, he doesn't want any of that stuff anymore. Mustashian people problems.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: theadvicist on May 04, 2017, 03:02:44 AM
Paid off our mortgage on the 25th of this month. Still feels like it's not real. That's been our goal for years. I've always told my husband he can't buy things until the mortgage is paid and now that it is, he doesn't want any of that stuff anymore. Mustashian people problems.

Amazing DesireeD, well done!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Rowellen on May 04, 2017, 04:17:29 AM
Paid off our mortgage on the 25th of this month. Still feels like it's not real. That's been our goal for years. I've always told my husband he can't buy things until the mortgage is paid and now that it is, he doesn't want any of that stuff anymore. Mustashian people problems.

Congratulations!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: runewell on May 05, 2017, 11:52:43 AM
So... why didn't you get a 30 year mortgage and invest the difference in payment with a 15 year mortgage? Clearly you haven't done the math. Nobody should use a 15 year mortgage when a 30 year mortgage is available for just .25% higher.

The difference is usually 1/2 or even 3/4 of a pt.  And I will be nearly 60 when the mortgage is paid off, at which time my risk tolerance will be lower than it was four years ago when I started the 15-yr countdown.  I was quite happy to borrow at 2.625% before any tax advantages.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on May 08, 2017, 06:58:31 AM
Didn't Dodd-Frank make negative amortization loans and Option loans illegal?

Asking for a friend.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on May 08, 2017, 09:32:52 AM
So... why didn't you get a 30 year mortgage and invest the difference in payment with a 15 year mortgage? Clearly you haven't done the math. Nobody should use a 15 year mortgage when a 30 year mortgage is available for just .25% higher.

The difference is usually 1/2 or even 3/4 of a pt.  And I will be nearly 60 when the mortgage is paid off, at which time my risk tolerance will be lower than it was four years ago when I started the 15-yr countdown.  I was quite happy to borrow at 2.625% before any tax advantages.

OMG, I can't believe I've wasted my time arguing with someone whose strategy is even more conservative than mine!  Runewell, you're not holding your mortgage, you're paying it off early! 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on May 11, 2017, 09:07:13 AM
Principal paid off so far

2012 - $3415
2013 - $3994
2014 - $8483
2015 - $38412 (yup got rid of all the debt and $10 000 windfall not expected)
2016 - $67650
2017 - $26674

3/1 Remaining balance $87322. Projected pay off date 09/09/2017 - SO 51st birthday.

4/1 Remaining balance $81837

4/30 Remaining balance $76952 (I owed the tax man!)

5/29 Remaining balance $73836

6/30 Remaining balance $65388

7/29 Remaining balance $60825

8/31 Remaining balance $55728

9/30 Remaining balance $49696

10/31 Remaining balance $39920

11/30 Remaining balance $36721

01/05 Remaining balance $34633

01/29 Remaining balance $32965

02/23 Remaining balance $26692

03/29 Remaining Balance $17963

04/27 Remaining balance $12903
 
Jet fuel ever present! I will be in four figures next month - it is unbelievable

5/11 - sorry couldn't wait - needed to share with people who understand - 4 figure party - $9000.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: iluvzbeach on May 11, 2017, 01:11:26 PM
Woo hoo! Nice work.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Rowellen on May 11, 2017, 03:24:27 PM
Fantastic. Great effort!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on May 15, 2017, 06:38:51 AM
Amazing!! You are right on target or ahead of your projections!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on May 15, 2017, 07:24:54 AM
Have an offer on our rental - for about 20K more than I thought I'd fetch.  Should it sell, will have about 55K to throw at our 83K mortgage on our residence.  Stay tuned...closing date set for 6/16. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on May 15, 2017, 12:42:22 PM
Neustache-
on your rental, how many months would it have taken to roll up the $20K through just rental profits?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on May 15, 2017, 02:28:10 PM
I have no idea.  LOL.  I became a landlord because when we moved the market was rough in my neighborhood and the realtor thought we'd maybe get 85K for the house.  So 3.5 years later it's selling for 35K more than that (and more importantly, I'm not a landlord anymore).  So as far as profit goes....the profit was in the waiting, but my numbers weren't great as a landlord.  I was renting it for too little because I started off too low (780 a month at the end) but I should have been charging at least 850.  I'm really not sure how to calculate that.  Let's just say I am super happy to be out (if we do in fact close!). 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Rowellen on May 15, 2017, 02:42:35 PM
Have an offer on our rental - for about 20K more than I thought I'd fetch.  Should it sell, will have about 55K to throw at our 83K mortgage on our residence.  Stay tuned...closing date set for 6/16.

Since I'm planning to do the same thing, I say sell. My rental is generally cash flow neutral or slightly negative. The capital gain is great though. I could use the equity to pay down my mortgage and save $300 a month in interest. YMMV.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on May 15, 2017, 04:14:45 PM
Oh, it's under contract.  I just used to work at a title company so I know a contract does not equal a sell.  Sorry for the awkward wording!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Rowellen on May 15, 2017, 06:56:47 PM
I see. I read it as a question. Silly me.
In any case, congrats and good luck on the sale.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: markbike528CBX on May 15, 2017, 07:25:30 PM
Just put in 31% of the small remaining principle balance.   New service agent website for the credit union.  Will check tomorrow to see if things went well.  I've never had a principle-only payment go right the first time, yet.   I don't think anyone can deal with the concept of paying debt off early.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Comar on May 16, 2017, 02:31:44 AM
74k left. Finished in the next 3 years if things go as planned.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on May 16, 2017, 05:00:49 AM
Just put in 31% of the small remaining principle balance.   New service agent website for the credit union.  Will check tomorrow to see if things went well.  I've never had a principle-only payment go right the first time, yet.   I don't think anyone can deal with the concept of paying debt off early.

Our credit union did a revamp on their site and now there's not even an option for a principal only payment.  Guess we'll have to go to the bank to make our large payments!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Rowellen on May 16, 2017, 06:45:55 AM
What does it go to if it doesn't go to principal? That seems really odd to me as any extra payment I make comes straight off the balance owing. I am in Australia if that makes a difference.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: markbike528CBX on May 16, 2017, 07:36:50 AM
Rowellen:
The payment some times is applied instead of a monthly payment, which screws up payment schedule
or is applied like a really big monthly payment, with proportional principle and interest
or is screwed up in some other fashion ( details forgotton) that I've had to correct at the bank in person.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on May 16, 2017, 12:53:00 PM
What does it go to if it doesn't go to principal? That seems really odd to me as any extra payment I make comes straight off the balance owing. I am in Australia if that makes a difference.
My bank (WF) applies 100% of extra payment to principal -- unless the "extra" exceeds the entire amount of the monthly payment.  Here are examples:

Assume monthly mortgage payment = $2000

ex1:  Pay $2001-$3999.  Bank uses $2000 toward PITI as usual, and uses the extra $1-$1999 toward Principal.
ex2:  Pay $4000.  Bank uses $2000 toward PITI as usual, and uses the extra $2000 toward the following month's payment.  No decrease in interest owed, you've just paid one month in advance.  You either have to NOT pay the next month, or call the bank to get them to correct it.
ex3:  Pay >$4000.  Bank uses $2000 toward PITI as usual, and uses the extra $2000 toward the following month's payment, and uses any amount over $4000 to go to principal.

For whatever reason, there is no way for me to tell my bank that I want ALL extra payments, EVERY time, to go straight to principal.  I have to call to tell them every month.  So I've given up on that.  Now I just pay $3999 automatically and if I want to make an extra payment, I save it up and walk into the bank when it's worth my while to do it. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: runewell on May 17, 2017, 12:01:24 PM
What does it go to if it doesn't go to principal? That seems really odd to me as any extra payment I make comes straight off the balance owing. I am in Australia if that makes a difference.
My bank (WF) applies 100% of extra payment to principal -- unless the "extra" exceeds the entire amount of the monthly payment.  Here are examples:

Assume monthly mortgage payment = $2000

ex1:  Pay $2001-$3999.  Bank uses $2000 toward PITI as usual, and uses the extra $1-$1999 toward Principal.
ex2:  Pay $4000.  Bank uses $2000 toward PITI as usual, and uses the extra $2000 toward the following month's payment.  No decrease in interest owed, you've just paid one month in advance.  You either have to NOT pay the next month, or call the bank to get them to correct it.
ex3:  Pay >$4000.  Bank uses $2000 toward PITI as usual, and uses the extra $2000 toward the following month's payment, and uses any amount over $4000 to go to principal.

For whatever reason, there is no way for me to tell my bank that I want ALL extra payments, EVERY time, to go straight to principal.  I have to call to tell them every month.  So I've given up on that.  Now I just pay $3999 automatically and if I want to make an extra payment, I save it up and walk into the bank when it's worth my while to do it.

It sounds like those payments are all going to principal, what you have to do is keep making payments every month rather than relying on the bank to do it for you?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on May 17, 2017, 01:38:53 PM
What does it go to if it doesn't go to principal? That seems really odd to me as any extra payment I make comes straight off the balance owing. I am in Australia if that makes a difference.
My bank (WF) applies 100% of extra payment to principal -- unless the "extra" exceeds the entire amount of the monthly payment.  Here are examples:

Assume monthly mortgage payment = $2000

ex1:  Pay $2001-$3999.  Bank uses $2000 toward PITI as usual, and uses the extra $1-$1999 toward Principal.
ex2:  Pay $4000.  Bank uses $2000 toward PITI as usual, and uses the extra $2000 toward the following month's payment.  No decrease in interest owed, you've just paid one month in advance.  You either have to NOT pay the next month, or call the bank to get them to correct it.
ex3:  Pay >$4000.  Bank uses $2000 toward PITI as usual, and uses the extra $2000 toward the following month's payment, and uses any amount over $4000 to go to principal.

For whatever reason, there is no way for me to tell my bank that I want ALL extra payments, EVERY time, to go straight to principal.  I have to call to tell them every month.  So I've given up on that.  Now I just pay $3999 automatically and if I want to make an extra payment, I save it up and walk into the bank when it's worth my while to do it.

It sounds like those payments are all going to principal, what you have to do is keep making payments every month rather than relying on the bank to do it for you?

Not sure I understand your last part.   As for the first part,  in examples #2 & #3, the bank essentially holds $2000 of the money until the following month, and then they apply the second $2000 as $700 to principal, and the rest to interest and escrow.  So I've loaned them $2000 for a month, and there is no interest reduction to me for paying early, because in the bank's eyes, I didn't pay early.
Yes, I make payments every month as is required. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Indio on May 17, 2017, 02:58:55 PM
My mortgage is held by wf too and they don't process it that way for me. When I make an additional principal payment it goes directly toward reducing principal that month. As a result, the following month shows a drop in interest and increase toward paying down the balance.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Rowellen on May 17, 2017, 04:11:51 PM
What does it go to if it doesn't go to principal? That seems really odd to me as any extra payment I make comes straight off the balance owing. I am in Australia if that makes a difference.
My bank (WF) applies 100% of extra payment to principal -- unless the "extra" exceeds the entire amount of the monthly payment.  Here are examples:

Assume monthly mortgage payment = $2000

ex1:  Pay $2001-$3999.  Bank uses $2000 toward PITI as usual, and uses the extra $1-$1999 toward Principal.
ex2:  Pay $4000.  Bank uses $2000 toward PITI as usual, and uses the extra $2000 toward the following month's payment.  No decrease in interest owed, you've just paid one month in advance.  You either have to NOT pay the next month, or call the bank to get them to correct it.
ex3:  Pay >$4000.  Bank uses $2000 toward PITI as usual, and uses the extra $2000 toward the following month's payment, and uses any amount over $4000 to go to principal.

For whatever reason, there is no way for me to tell my bank that I want ALL extra payments, EVERY time, to go straight to principal.  I have to call to tell them every month.  So I've given up on that.  Now I just pay $3999 automatically and if I want to make an extra payment, I save it up and walk into the bank when it's worth my while to do it.

That sounds like pure thievery to me.

Kind of confirms my opinion of banks as evil thieving criminal institutions that are unfortunately necessary.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on May 17, 2017, 04:33:10 PM
What does it go to if it doesn't go to principal? That seems really odd to me as any extra payment I make comes straight off the balance owing. I am in Australia if that makes a difference.
My bank (WF) applies 100% of extra payment to principal -- unless the "extra" exceeds the entire amount of the monthly payment.  Here are examples:

Assume monthly mortgage payment = $2000

ex1:  Pay $2001-$3999.  Bank uses $2000 toward PITI as usual, and uses the extra $1-$1999 toward Principal.
ex2:  Pay $4000.  Bank uses $2000 toward PITI as usual, and uses the extra $2000 toward the following month's payment.  No decrease in interest owed, you've just paid one month in advance.  You either have to NOT pay the next month, or call the bank to get them to correct it.
ex3:  Pay >$4000.  Bank uses $2000 toward PITI as usual, and uses the extra $2000 toward the following month's payment, and uses any amount over $4000 to go to principal.

For whatever reason, there is no way for me to tell my bank that I want ALL extra payments, EVERY time, to go straight to principal.  I have to call to tell them every month.  So I've given up on that.  Now I just pay $3999 automatically and if I want to make an extra payment, I save it up and walk into the bank when it's worth my while to do it.

That sounds like pure thievery to me.

Kind of confirms my opinion of banks as evil thieving criminal institutions that are unfortunately necessary.
Well, to be fair, they will adjust it if I call and ask them to.  And now that I understand how WF does it, I can follow the rules.  It's a pain, but think of it like any financial tool -- learn the rules and then learn how to navigate the system.  It does suck that the default stance of banks is to make things more difficult for their customers.  It seems as if most of the financial world is set up stop that there are only winners and losers and there are rarely win-win situations.  :(
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks on May 18, 2017, 07:47:50 AM
Our mortgage holder is the same as example #2, but, if I pay by check on the monthly statement, I can designate additional principal, just then -- once a month.  So I've gone to paper payments.  I haven't figured out how to make a larger payment automatically.

But this works, and since we're hacking away at the principal at a pretty steady pace,  it will only be another year or so of goofing around with it!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cheddarpie on May 18, 2017, 08:00:33 AM
My bank also defaults extra payments to be "early payments" (of P&I) instead of just additional principal -- you have to be careful to specify any extra payments are principal only.

In the meantime, I'm down to $5k ...! If I just do the regular automatic payments it will be done by the 5-year anniversary of the loan (my original goal) in the fall. But there's a good chance I'll just knock it out for my birthday in June. Woohoo!

And congrats to everyone else who's making such great progress!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: runewell on May 18, 2017, 10:42:41 AM
My bank also defaults extra payments to be "early payments" (of P&I) instead of just additional principal -- you have to be careful to specify any extra payments are principal only.

In the meantime, I'm down to $5k ...! If I just do the regular automatic payments it will be done by the 5-year anniversary of the loan (my original goal) in the fall. But there's a good chance I'll just knock it out for my birthday in June. Woohoo!

And congrats to everyone else who's making such great progress!

What is your interest rate?  And what do you plan to do once the mortgage is paid off?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks on May 20, 2017, 12:36:21 PM
Principal $65,500
Principal Payments $5,800
New Balance (June 2017)  $59,700

I really waffled on whether to keep whacking at it, but we will stick with the original idea and target the final payoff a little less than a year.


Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on May 26, 2017, 09:28:42 AM
Principal paid off so far

2012 - $3415
2013 - $3994
2014 - $8483
2015 - $38412 (yup got rid of all the debt and $10 000 windfall not expected)
2016 - $67650
2017 - $29974

3/1 Remaining balance $87322. Projected pay off date 09/09/2017 - SO 51st birthday.

4/1 Remaining balance $81837

4/30 Remaining balance $76952 (I owed the tax man!)

5/29 Remaining balance $73836

6/30 Remaining balance $65388

7/29 Remaining balance $60825

8/31 Remaining balance $55728

9/30 Remaining balance $49696

10/31 Remaining balance $39920

11/30 Remaining balance $36721

01/05 Remaining balance $34633

01/29 Remaining balance $32965

02/23 Remaining balance $26692

03/29 Remaining Balance $17963

04/27 Remaining balance $12903
 
05/26 Remaining balance $5700

Well I log on - look at it - laugh - log off - then look again. The worst part - I think I am short to pay it off in June - so expected date is 07/01. I really could smell the jet fuel a few days ago - my husband works for the air force and he was playing in the jet fuel tanks. It made me laugh! Thank-you for all the positive comments - I really appreciate them.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: iluvzbeach on June 09, 2017, 09:24:45 PM
I can barely contain my excitement and since I can't broadcast this on a billboard, FB or outloud with friends, I thought I'd let you MMMers know we paid off our mortgage today. We had a ridiculous amount in a cash account, so I convinced DH we should just bite the bullet and wire proceeds to pay it off. It's a bit surreal, but feels really good.

I feel like the doors are now wide open for me to post an Epic FU Money story, but I'll wait until I'm totally FIRE.

Hip Hip Hooray <hops off into sunset with glass o'wine>
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Indio on June 10, 2017, 04:42:18 AM
Way to go luvzbeach. I hope to join you in that feeling soon. The unbearable lightness of being mortgage free.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dreaming on June 11, 2017, 11:31:20 AM
Congrats iluvzbeach!  Looking forward to hearing your epic FU story one day.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on June 12, 2017, 04:24:16 PM
Congrats Iluvzbeach - hope to be drinking in the sunset with you very shortly.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: iluvzbeach on June 12, 2017, 09:27:06 PM
Thanks so much for the kind words, they are much appreciated. I checked the mortgage site over the weekend and loved seeing "Paid In Full."

I said to my DH this morning "Hey, we're the people with the paid off house!"

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: YoungGranny on June 13, 2017, 06:02:58 AM
Congratulations iluvzbeach!! That is awesome!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on June 13, 2017, 10:24:02 AM
Thanks so much for the kind words, they are much appreciated. I checked the mortgage site over the weekend and loved seeing "Paid In Full."

I said to my DH this morning "Hey, we're the people with the paid off house!"
I luv reading these stories because they inspire me!  Congratulations!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: AnswerIs42 on June 13, 2017, 10:44:29 AM
Thanks so much for the kind words, they are much appreciated. I checked the mortgage site over the weekend and loved seeing "Paid In Full."
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e1/RakimPIF.jpg/220px-RakimPIF.jpg)
Alright!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Rowellen on June 13, 2017, 03:17:43 PM
Thanks so much for the kind words, they are much appreciated. I checked the mortgage site over the weekend and loved seeing "Paid In Full."

I said to my DH this morning "Hey, we're the people with the paid off house!"

Love it. You rock! Very inspiring.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: theadvicist on June 19, 2017, 07:08:12 AM
Made our last payment in the 80Ks, balance now £80,256. Next payment will take us into the 70s, yay!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on June 20, 2017, 12:10:46 PM
Down to one million two hundred thirty thousand cents.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on June 20, 2017, 02:00:31 PM
Our rental house sold and the check has been deposited.  Not actually putting it all down at once, but the amount in our bank vs. our mortgage balance is now at 58K vs. 83K.  25K to go!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on June 20, 2017, 08:11:19 PM
Our rental house sold and the check has been deposited.  Not actually putting it all down at once, but the amount in our bank vs. our mortgage balance is now at 58K vs. 83K.  25K to go!

Woohoo!!!! Congratulations- you are almost free!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on June 22, 2017, 08:08:14 AM
Principal paid off so far

2012 - $3415
2013 - $3994
2014 - $8483
2015 - $38412 (yup got rid of all the debt and $10 000 windfall not expected)
2016 - $67650
2017 - $36000

3/1 Remaining balance $87322. Projected pay off date 09/09/2017 - SO 51st birthday.

4/1 Remaining balance $81837

4/30 Remaining balance $76952 (I owed the tax man!)

5/29 Remaining balance $73836

6/30 Remaining balance $65388

7/29 Remaining balance $60825

8/31 Remaining balance $55728

9/30 Remaining balance $49696

10/31 Remaining balance $39920

11/30 Remaining balance $36721

01/05 Remaining balance $34633

01/29 Remaining balance $32965

02/23 Remaining balance $26692

03/29 Remaining Balance $17963

04/27 Remaining balance $12903
 
05/26 Remaining balance $5700

06/22/2017 Remaining balance $0

Oh my goodness - it is done = it is paid off. Thank-you to everyone - especially assauer - who has encouraged me over the last few years. Waiting to see the $0 paid off in full to show.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: iluvzbeach on June 22, 2017, 08:18:41 AM
Huge congrats, SAfAmBrit. We did the same earlier this month so I'm pretty certain we understand your joy at having paid it off. PIF is my new favorite acronym. It will feel a bit surreal for a while, I'm sure. Congrats again.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Rowellen on June 22, 2017, 03:52:25 PM
Congrats  SAfAmBrit. Looks like you beat your target date by several months. Well done.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: justaguy on June 22, 2017, 04:11:02 PM
Congratulations SAfAmBrit - very inspiring! 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FireLane on June 22, 2017, 05:51:12 PM
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!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on June 26, 2017, 03:58:02 AM
Reclaimed $600 for stuff on Craigslist that all just went to principal and that now pays us back $3 a month so as of 9/1, we'll be down to $106,750.    So without raiding the stash, need to find another $5,500 to get to 5 digits by year end.   Have a plan for 4K of it so far...

Lots of goodness lately on the payoffs/paydowns...     Progress was slower than hoped after paying 2 semesters of college expenses the last 5 months plus annual 529 contributions instead of the mortgage...   Didn't make the 5-digit club, but feeling good about paying down to $105K.

Keeping on, keeping on...  Down to a bit over 101K after most recent payment.   The bad news is the 5 digit club is being delayed by college expenses and home maintenance costs... the good news is we will sell and downsize in the spring!   Gonna get this sucka paid-off one way or t'other!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on June 27, 2017, 01:25:46 AM
Alrighty, we're down to 12K. Had a few financial setbacks as well as some unmustachian purchases (new 2nd hand car, curtains fell apart etc.). Goal was to finish up the mortgage this year which won't be doable but we'll probably finish up around 8 or 9k at the end of the year :)
So, we're aiming for next year! Current montly mortgage was € 85 before the last update so we'll end up paying around € 55-60  per month :D
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on June 27, 2017, 05:48:55 AM
Our rental house sold and the check has been deposited.  Not actually putting it all down at once, but the amount in our bank vs. our mortgage balance is now at 58K vs. 83K.  25K to go!

Woohoo!!!! Congratulations- you are almost free!!!

I know!  So close.  When I sell my extra car I should be about 6K closer!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on June 30, 2017, 08:31:59 AM
is anyone on this thread taking the approach of stuffing all the money he/she can into an SP500 fund, and then--when the balance is equal to the mortgage--selling to pay off the mortgage?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Indio on June 30, 2017, 09:48:16 AM
I have been an observer and cheerleader of this thread for a few years, but this week I officially ended my mortgage. I wish I could say it was exceptionally early, but it wasn't. It involved 3 refinances, 1 recast in Sept 2016, 1 consolidation of HELOC (needed for divorce) into 1 of those refinances in June 2013. I was throwing $500 here and and $1000 there monthly at the mortgage over time, but the big impact didn't happen until I switched jobs in June 2015. Took the big leap after 21 yrs at "ideal" job and it led to a 45% bump in salary. Every month I was now able to put more toward payoff and the balance declined quickly. When my options vested at new company, due to buyout, I put that money toward mortgage. When bond payout happened, I put that money toward mortgage. Had ESPP from previous company and that stock started to move upward with the recent market growth. Once that stock reached a point where I had enough to payoff mortgage and associated long term capital gains taxes, I decided to sell it and close out the mortgage. Fully recognize that was a conservative move, but still have plenty of investments in stock market.

In June 2015, when I started new job, the mortgage was $205,000. Today it is $0. I notified the town about property taxes and I notified by insurance company. Once I get the final title transfer and recorded by the county, the mortgage will be a piece of history. Logging into mint, I keep checking the debt trend report because it's such eye candy to see that the debt shackles are officially gone.

A little aside that I learned about property taxes when speaking to the town, is that the bank didn't pay the taxes until end of month it was due, even though they pulled the escrow funds out of my account on July 1st. They hung on to the funds without paying me interest and not paying the town right away.

While the mortgage was a priority, it was secondary to maxing out 401K, IRA, family HSA, and kids Roth IRAs (which are their college funds). It is a great feeling to know that no matter what happens now, I only need to worry about paying property taxes and insurance on our home. I'm suffering from "one more year" syndrome before I decide to fully FIRE.

I don't smell the jet fuel or the barn any more but I'm still going to cheer all of you on.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on June 30, 2017, 10:16:58 AM
Congrats, Indio!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: iluvzbeach on June 30, 2017, 10:48:18 AM
Congrats, Indio. Really enjoyed reading your story and the determination you had to make it happen.

It really is a great feeling, isn't it?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on June 30, 2017, 10:49:07 AM
is anyone on this thread taking the approach of stuffing all the money he/she can into an SP500 fund, and then--when the balance is equal to the mortgage--selling to pay off the mortgage?

That's a great plan as long as you can wait a few years longer than you wanted, in case the market is down big time for a few years.  Go for it!

Or just use it to pay the  mortgage payments and continue to make more in earnings than you are paying in interest. :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on June 30, 2017, 12:09:44 PM
is anyone on this thread taking the approach of stuffing all the money he/she can into an SP500 fund, and then--when the balance is equal to the mortgage--selling to pay off the mortgage?
Yes I did this (partial).  I was informed that this is called a "sinking fund".   I had one account earmarked just for this purpose and two years ago took out $100k and paid down my mortgage just prior to a re-cast (but didn't pay it all off).  Fast-forward a few years, and I have enough money in my accounts to pay off both of my properties.  I don't pay them off because I like watching the investment account grow more than I want to see the loan drop.  The investment account has been growing at a faster rate, which is expected over the long run, but not always in the short-term.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Indio on June 30, 2017, 12:26:02 PM
Congrats, Indio. Really enjoyed reading your story and the determination you had to make it happen.

It really is a great feeling, isn't it?

Why, yes, it absolutely, fantastically does feel good. Your post a few weeks ago and the 4th of July were my inspiration. Was listening to Hamilton soundtrack and decided that I was going to break the tyranny of debt by this holiday. LOL.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Rowellen on June 30, 2017, 06:12:32 PM
I have been an observer and cheerleader of this thread for a few years, but this week I officially ended my mortgage. I wish I could say it was exceptionally early, but it wasn't. It involved 3 refinances, 1 recast in Sept 2016, 1 consolidation of HELOC (needed for divorce) into 1 of those refinances in June 2013. I was throwing $500 here and and $1000 there monthly at the mortgage over time, but the big impact didn't happen until I switched jobs in June 2015. Took the big leap after 21 yrs at "ideal" job and it led to a 45% bump in salary. Every month I was now able to put more toward payoff and the balance declined quickly. When my options vested at new company, due to buyout, I put that money toward mortgage. When bond payout happened, I put that money toward mortgage. Had ESPP from previous company and that stock started to move upward with the recent market growth. Once that stock reached a point where I had enough to payoff mortgage and associated long term capital gains taxes, I decided to sell it and close out the mortgage. Fully recognize that was a conservative move, but still have plenty of investments in stock market.

In June 2015, when I started new job, the mortgage was $205,000. Today it is $0. I notified the town about property taxes and I notified by insurance company. Once I get the final title transfer and recorded by the county, the mortgage will be a piece of history. Logging into mint, I keep checking the debt trend report because it's such eye candy to see that the debt shackles are officially gone.

A little aside that I learned about property taxes when speaking to the town, is that the bank didn't pay the taxes until end of month it was due, even though they pulled the escrow funds out of my account on July 1st. They hung on to the funds without paying me interest and not paying the town right away.

While the mortgage was a priority, it was secondary to maxing out 401K, IRA, family HSA, and kids Roth IRAs (which are their college funds). It is a great feeling to know that no matter what happens now, I only need to worry about paying property taxes and insurance on our home. I'm suffering from "one more year" syndrome before I decide to fully FIRE.

I don't smell the jet fuel or the barn any more but I'm still going to cheer all of you on.

Congrats!

Bloody thieving banks. Unfortunately a necessary evil.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Rowellen on June 30, 2017, 11:30:55 PM
June 16 $200,813

Apr 17 $151,412
May 17 $144,681
June 17 $139,075

Loving these numbers.  Rental is going on the market next week.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: birdman2003 on July 10, 2017, 10:23:41 AM
Congratulations Indio
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on July 10, 2017, 11:18:09 AM
Gonna start this back up again.  Current goal is to get to 90K by the end of 2016. 

Starting Mtg Sept 2013:  $123,500

Today (July 5th):  $98,504


It's fun to be back on this thread again!

8/1/2016:  $95,504


1/7/2016 $84,969.68

Not bad...still have to fill up DH's 2016 IRA but I can do that in March as it's a three paycheck month...cutting it close, I know.


Been throwing cash from the sale of my rental at my mortgage so it's time for an update:

$33,021.54

Hope to have that sucker gone by the end of 2017.  I have about 20K in my checking/savings leftover from the sale of the rental and so I'll slowly whittle that down plus add in about 3K per month from our paychecks. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on July 16, 2017, 10:35:25 AM
Second Quarter 2017 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

Getting closer :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on July 20, 2017, 08:10:42 PM
@Frizzywhiskers...   $250K in less than 3 years is simply KILLING IT.

End of July indentured update... Sold some stuff on craigslist and chipped in to principal a full 1% this month to just over 100K.   The 5 digit club is squarely in my gunsights!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on July 22, 2017, 09:33:37 AM
@Frizzywhiskers...   $250K in less than 3 years is simply KILLING IT.

End of July indentured update... Sold some stuff on craigslist and chipped in to principal a full 1% this month to just over 100K.   The 5 digit club is squarely in my gunsights!

Thanks - it's the mission for sure! :-)  Nice work getting so close to the 5 digit club - keep on keeping on, I hope to join you there by the end of this year!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: iluvzbeach on July 22, 2017, 09:59:42 AM
I was looking on citi's website for info on payoff requests and I see there is mention about some fee included in the payoff amount.  It wasn't clear what that is - is it a county recording fee?  Should be very cheap (maybe $50), right?  Any other fees I should expect?

Is it better to request a payoff and pay that amount or just send in most of it and make regular payments to kill the last few thousand?

bender, do whatever makes you most comfortable. There is no right or wrong or best way, IMO.

We received the original Note for our mortgage in the mail last week with a big red PAID stamp on it. Best feeling ever. Still a bit surreal, but we are starting to grasp the magnitude of the accomplishment. I read a link that arebelspy posted about retirement inevibility (I forget the exact phrase) and I realized we are there. Can't wait to actually FIRE.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Harper on July 23, 2017, 06:25:43 AM
Hi!  New to this thread.  Would love to pay off the mortgage by end of 2018.  Can anyone point me to a great calculator for paying down the mortgage?  I've found a few but they don't seem quite right.

Started at 220K 3 years ago.  We are at 111K now.

It's a psychological thing for us.  We are also investing, blah blah blah but this is important.

Everyone here is doing great!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ender on July 23, 2017, 08:41:52 PM
Bloody thieving banks. Unfortunately a necessary evil.

We asked when we got our mortgage if we could not do escrow and the bank let us.

So, we pay our taxes when we want to and don't have to worry about the bank screwing up escrow ;-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Rowellen on August 01, 2017, 08:02:58 PM
June 16 $200,813

Apr 17 $151,412
May 17 $144,681
June 17 $139,075
July 17 $136,332

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: K-ice on August 10, 2017, 03:49:27 PM
So I have been playing around with some mortgage HELOC calculations.

Our mortgage on our rental property in actually in a Line of Credit that we use as a checking account.
As the rent checks come in they go straight towards paying down the HELOC.

I can't find the exact article that helped persuade me to drop the mortgage and get a full HELOC but this one is close.

http://www.claytonmorris.com/blog/2015/7/20/how-to-pay-off-your-house-within-5-years-using-these-awesome-ninja-tricks


I was curious to compare 3 options.  Mortgage, LOC, LOC + extra

We have also been making some seriously large extra payments

                    MORTGAGE   HELOC        HELOC + extra
March 2016   $320,600     $320,600      $320,600
July 2016       $317,000    $314,000      $314,000
November 2016  $313,000   $306,000   $306,000
March 2017    $309,000      $299,000    $218,000  (Made some huge extra pmts)
July 2017       $305,000     $295,000     $213,000

So If we had been following a regular mortgage we would still owe $305,000. 
The HELOC method saved $10,000 without really even trying.

Coupled with the extra payments, one of which was basically putting all my emergency fund against the HELOC, and we are down to $213,000.

Anyway, if you are not already using some HELOC tricks to help pay your mortgage faster you may what to add that technique. 




Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: firescape on August 10, 2017, 07:53:57 PM
So I have been playing around with some mortgage HELOC calculations.

Our mortgage on our rental property in actually in a Line of Credit that we use as a checking account.
As the rent checks come in they go straight towards paying down the HELOC.

I can't find the exact article that helped persuade me to drop the mortgage and get a full HELOC but this one is close.

http://www.claytonmorris.com/blog/2015/7/20/how-to-pay-off-your-house-within-5-years-using-these-awesome-ninja-tricks


I was curious to compare 3 options.  Mortgage, LOC, LOC + extra

We have also been making some seriously large extra payments

                    MORTGAGE   HELOC        HELOC + extra
March 2016   $320,600     $320,600      $320,600
July 2016       $317,000    $314,000      $314,000
November 2016  $313,000   $306,000   $306,000
March 2017    $309,000      $299,000    $218,000  (Made some huge extra pmts)
July 2017       $305,000     $295,000     $213,000

So If we had been following a regular mortgage we would still owe $305,000. 
The HELOC method saved $10,000 without really even trying.

Coupled with the extra payments, one of which was basically putting all my emergency fund against the HELOC, and we are down to $213,000.

Anyway, if you are not already using some HELOC tricks to help pay your mortgage faster you may what to add that technique.

Not sure I understand. I read the article you mentioned but maybe you could expand on where the actual savings occur.
With the HELOC method are you actually saving interest on you home mortgage? Or are you just more disciplined when having the HELOC balance up high, and having more of your income go to paying off the home loan?

Thanks.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: K-ice on August 10, 2017, 11:05:20 PM
Sorry, I'll try & explain more.

Yes I am actually saving interest. You do need to be disciplined but I find it very automatic because rent goes in and only taxes & insurance come automatically out.

Here is the original pod cast I heard.

https://www.listenmoneymatters.com/how-to-actually-save-thousands-on-your-mortgage/

A few things are necessary for this to work.

You MUST make more than you spend & NEVER use the HELOC for stupid consumer purchases.
But we did use it to pay the plumber when necessary.

There are a few reasons for the $10,000 savings I saw in about 18 months.

First, my HELOC interest rate was a bit lower. 3.2% vs 3.5%.

Next the big thing is that every rent check went directly against the mortgage at the beginning of the month. This timing helps save.

The total rents were more than the standard mortgage payments were, so automatically a little bit more was being paid every month.

Finally, this property used to have its own checking account where we maintained a $2500 balance & there was sometimes the odd fee. My HELOC has no fees and that checking account was closed so we could throw another $2500 at the HELOC/mortgage.

I've seen the interest payment out of the HELOC drop from over $800 to $600 so now another $200 per month is going to the principal.

All those little things add up and I feel like we are just on autopilot because I no longer need to stash a lump sum payment in a savings account and then transfer it.

I find this really works for us. Has anyone else tried?

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Hadilly on August 11, 2017, 04:56:50 AM
Phew, just finished reading this entire thread and now feel qualified to jump in. We just made the decision to pay off our mortgage early, going from 28 years to 15. We owe $598k at 3.75%. I know all the maths about investing, but if we stick with the current term, we will pay it off when I am 75! That seems way too old. The sum we owe seems huge to me, but I will focus on making extra payments and whittling away on it with extra cash/side hustle money/ etc.  If the stock market crashes, we'll take the extra money and buy stocks.

We are maxing Roths, 401k, etc., so not forgoing investing in the mean time.

I expect to be participating here for a long long time, but shorter than 28 years!

Congrats to everyone here, your stories are inspiring.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on August 11, 2017, 08:46:22 AM
Phew, just finished reading this entire thread and now feel qualified to jump in. We just made the decision to pay off our mortgage early, going from 28 years to 15. We owe $598k at 3.75%. I know all the maths about investing, but if we stick with the current term, we will pay it off when I am 75! That seems way too old. The sum we owe seems huge to me, but I will focus on making extra payments and whittling away on it with extra cash/side hustle money/ etc.  If the stock market crashes, we'll take the extra money and buy stocks.

We are maxing Roths, 401k, etc., so not forgoing investing in the mean time.

I expect to be participating here for a long long time, but shorter than 28 years!

Congrats to everyone here, your stories are inspiring.

Very similar in all aspects to my situation.  Doing same thing here.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Hadilly on August 12, 2017, 05:12:40 AM
BlueHouse: glad to know I'm not the only person with an enormous mortgage!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: firescape on August 12, 2017, 07:39:39 AM
Thanks K-ice for the information.
I think I understand better now. I looked quickly at HELOC rates in my area and can't find anything close to what my interest rate on mortgage is, 2.75. Most HELOC rates are 4.5 and up. It sounds like the HELOC rate has to be lower than mortgage for this to work.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: K-ice on August 12, 2017, 10:43:50 PM
Thanks K-ice for the information.
I think I understand better now. I looked quickly at HELOC rates in my area and can't find anything close to what my interest rate on mortgage is, 2.75. Most HELOC rates are 4.5 and up. It sounds like the HELOC rate has to be lower than mortgage for this to work.

Of course the lower the HELOC interest rate the better but actually I tested it with $100,000 borrowed at 2.75% for 30y and a $10,000 HELOC at 4.5% paid off at $1,000/month and it still works.

How? Because the $10,000 immediately changes the mortgage principal to $90,000. And you pay the HELOC off in a very short period of time, not amortized over 30y.

I tested 2 scenarios plugging numbers into this calculator:
https://www.vertex42.com/Calculators/home-mortgage-calculator.html

Option 1,
Regular mortgage $100,000 borrowed at 2.75% for 30y.
The interest paid on the first year in the mortgage is $2723.

Option 2,
 If you can borrow $10,000 from your HELOC and immediately pay it towards your mortgage
The interest paid on the first year in the mortgage is $2468.
You also save a total of  11,430.48 and 4.5years off the life of your mortgage.
Of course you still have a $10,000 HELOC to pay down at 4.5%. So your quick calculation may say this is $450 in interest.  However, remember, your monthly surplus, assuming $1000 goes to pay this off so the total interest is only $211.  Add that to the mortgage interest and $2679 is still < $2723.

It is still surprisingly better even with the different interest rates. Is it worth the hassle when the difference is now less than $100 per year?


When you repeat this process every year, your 30y loan will be paid off in only 7 years-1 month. With a total interest savings of $37,000 compared to no early payments.

Option 3 is also quite good and what many people on this thread are doing.  That is stash the money and pay $10,000 every year at the end of the year.  You will pay off your loan in 8y with a total savings of $35,000.   

So the Numbers are better with the HELOC method even with the mortgage at 2.75% and the HELOC at 4.5%.  It is now a question of psychology.   I am pretty disciplined and had a regular checking account, savings account and my HELOC just sitting there unused for a few years.  But my savings would build up and I hated it not working for me.  I also feel like my HELOC is “hair on fire” debt and I feel I pay it off faster than I would save $10,000.   

As they said in the podcast.  They just started with $5000 and paid that off in a few months. Their income is admittedly high. If it takes you 2 stressful years to pay down the $5000 stay away from the HELOC. However, if you can easily pay back the $5000, rinse and repeat a few times and you will really start to see your HELOC working for you.


Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on August 13, 2017, 09:48:25 AM
Thanks K-ice for the information.
I think I understand better now. I looked quickly at HELOC rates in my area and can't find anything close to what my interest rate on mortgage is, 2.75. Most HELOC rates are 4.5 and up. It sounds like the HELOC rate has to be lower than mortgage for this to work.

Of course the lower the HELOC interest rate the better but actually I tested it with $100,000 borrowed at 2.75% for 30y and a $10,000 HELOC at 4.5% paid off at $1,000/month and it still works.

How? Because the $10,000 immediately changes the mortgage principal to $90,000. And you pay the HELOC off in a very short period of time, not amortized over 30y.

I tested 2 scenarios plugging numbers into this calculator:
https://www.vertex42.com/Calculators/home-mortgage-calculator.html

Option 1,
Regular mortgage $100,000 borrowed at 2.75% for 30y.
The interest paid on the first year in the mortgage is $2723.

Option 2,
 If you can borrow $10,000 from your HELOC and immediately pay it towards your mortgage
The interest paid on the first year in the mortgage is $2468.
You also save a total of  11,430.48 and 4.5years off the life of your mortgage.
Of course you still have a $10,000 HELOC to pay down at 4.5%. So your quick calculation may say this is $450 in interest.  However, remember, your monthly surplus, assuming $1000 goes to pay this off so the total interest is only $211.  Add that to the mortgage interest and $2679 is still < $2723.

It is still surprisingly better even with the different interest rates. Is it worth the hassle when the difference is now less than $100 per year?


When you repeat this process every year, your 30y loan will be paid off in only 7 years-1 month. With a total interest savings of $37,000 compared to no early payments.

Option 3 is also quite good and what many people on this thread are doing.  That is stash the money and pay $10,000 every year at the end of the year.  You will pay off your loan in 8y with a total savings of $35,000.   

So the Numbers are better with the HELOC method even with the mortgage at 2.75% and the HELOC at 4.5%.  It is now a question of psychology.   I am pretty disciplined and had a regular checking account, savings account and my HELOC just sitting there unused for a few years.  But my savings would build up and I hated it not working for me.  I also feel like my HELOC is “hair on fire” debt and I feel I pay it off faster than I would save $10,000.   

As they said in the podcast.  They just started with $5000 and paid that off in a few months. Their income is admittedly high. If it takes you 2 stressful years to pay down the $5000 stay away from the HELOC. However, if you can easily pay back the $5000, rinse and repeat a few times and you will really start to see your HELOC working for you.
Taking money out on a 4.5% heloc to pay a 2.75% mortgage is dumb. You could just as easily pay the monthly surplus each month on the mortgage without waiting to do an annual lump sum and pay even less interest.

Having a heloc available in case of emergency might be a good idea, you could then stop keeping an emergency fund while keeping the heloc balance at 0 allowing you to put all your money to work pasting the mortgage, but the moment you take out anything from the heloc you are paying more interest until it's back to zero. Only do so in a true emergency. If you can pay it off the next month even your credit card is a better option as if you have a zero monthly balance (and you shouldn't be pre paying mortgage if you don't) you will pay NO interest.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cheddarpie on August 15, 2017, 02:03:05 PM
I did it!! Paid off about a month ago. At first a little anti-climactic, but now feels Pretty Darn Good as I just got the official documentation. I came in just under 5 years. My focus now will be building up more of a stash -- and I'm pretty close to FI at this point with rental and side gig income, woohoo!! Still likely many years from retirement because I love my job, but it feels SO GOOD to know the job is not the absolute necessity it once once.

This forum is the only place I've told -- so nice to have a place to celebrate! Thanks for all the support and encouragement over the years. I don't give a flying rat about the maths, freedom is what it's all about!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on August 15, 2017, 09:51:57 PM
I did it!! Paid off about a month ago. At first a little anti-climactic, but now feels Pretty Darn Good as I just got the official documentation. I came in just under 5 years. My focus now will be building up more of a stash -- and I'm pretty close to FI at this point with rental and side gig income, woohoo!! Still likely many years from retirement because I love my job, but it feels SO GOOD to know the job is not the absolute necessity it once once.

This forum is the only place I've told -- so nice to have a place to celebrate! Thanks for all the support and encouragement over the years. I don't give a flying rat about the maths, freedom is what it's all about!

Congratulations!! Super exciting news!  I am about one year behind you in this journey!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: iluvzbeach on August 15, 2017, 09:55:58 PM
Congrats, cheddarpie!! Getting that paperwork in the mail sure is an awesome feeling. Relish the moment.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on August 15, 2017, 10:47:19 PM
I did it!! Paid off about a month ago. At first a little anti-climactic, but now feels Pretty Darn Good as I just got the official documentation. I came in just under 5 years. My focus now will be building up more of a stash -- and I'm pretty close to FI at this point with rental and side gig income, woohoo!! Still likely many years from retirement because I love my job, but it feels SO GOOD to know the job is not the absolute necessity it once once.

This forum is the only place I've told -- so nice to have a place to celebrate! Thanks for all the support and encouragement over the years. I don't give a flying rat about the maths, freedom is what it's all about!
I have to agree it is very anti climatic and I keep thinking I have missed paying something because of the mortgage payment + extra not coming out! I do struggle sometimes when work gets annoying not to walk away because I could technically leave now.

I agree on the freedom too! As long as I want it I have a home - if I don't I can sell. Love it!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: theadvicist on August 17, 2017, 07:36:48 AM
Congrats Cheddarpie!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: LittleTree on August 20, 2017, 12:35:41 PM
To the comment about using your HELOC as an emergency fund I wouldn't recommend it. Remember what happened in 2008 when we got letters from our HELOC banks saying our accounts were being frozen. I learned from that experience to have an emergency fund.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on August 20, 2017, 01:10:34 PM
Thanks K-ice for the information.
I think I understand better now. I looked quickly at HELOC rates in my area and can't find anything close to what my interest rate on mortgage is, 2.75. Most HELOC rates are 4.5 and up. It sounds like the HELOC rate has to be lower than mortgage for this to work.

Of course the lower the HELOC interest rate the better but actually I tested it with $100,000 borrowed at 2.75% for 30y and a $10,000 HELOC at 4.5% paid off at $1,000/month and it still works.

How? Because the $10,000 immediately changes the mortgage principal to $90,000. And you pay the HELOC off in a very short period of time, not amortized over 30y.

I tested 2 scenarios plugging numbers into this calculator:
https://www.vertex42.com/Calculators/home-mortgage-calculator.html

Option 1,
Regular mortgage $100,000 borrowed at 2.75% for 30y.
The interest paid on the first year in the mortgage is $2723.

Option 2,
 If you can borrow $10,000 from your HELOC and immediately pay it towards your mortgage
The interest paid on the first year in the mortgage is $2468.
You also save a total of  11,430.48 and 4.5years off the life of your mortgage.
Of course you still have a $10,000 HELOC to pay down at 4.5%. So your quick calculation may say this is $450 in interest.  However, remember, your monthly surplus, assuming $1000 goes to pay this off so the total interest is only $211.  Add that to the mortgage interest and $2679 is still < $2723.

It is still surprisingly better even with the different interest rates. Is it worth the hassle when the difference is now less than $100 per year?


When you repeat this process every year, your 30y loan will be paid off in only 7 years-1 month. With a total interest savings of $37,000 compared to no early payments.

Option 3 is also quite good and what many people on this thread are doing.  That is stash the money and pay $10,000 every year at the end of the year.  You will pay off your loan in 8y with a total savings of $35,000.   

So the Numbers are better with the HELOC method even with the mortgage at 2.75% and the HELOC at 4.5%.  It is now a question of psychology.   I am pretty disciplined and had a regular checking account, savings account and my HELOC just sitting there unused for a few years.  But my savings would build up and I hated it not working for me.  I also feel like my HELOC is “hair on fire” debt and I feel I pay it off faster than I would save $10,000.   

As they said in the podcast.  They just started with $5000 and paid that off in a few months. Their income is admittedly high. If it takes you 2 stressful years to pay down the $5000 stay away from the HELOC. However, if you can easily pay back the $5000, rinse and repeat a few times and you will really start to see your HELOC working for you.
Taking money out on a 4.5% heloc to pay a 2.75% mortgage is dumb. You could just as easily pay the monthly surplus each month on the mortgage without waiting to do an annual lump sum and pay even less interest.

Having a heloc available in case of emergency might be a good idea, you could then stop keeping an emergency fund while keeping the heloc balance at 0 allowing you to put all your money to work pasting the mortgage, but the moment you take out anything from the heloc you are paying more interest until it's back to zero. Only do so in a true emergency. If you can pay it off the next month even your credit card is a better option as if you have a zero monthly balance (and you shouldn't be pre paying mortgage if you don't) you will pay NO interest.

I think I understand the method as involving using the emergency fund to pay down the mortgage immediately, while having the POTENTIAL to use the HELOC if you need funds at the higher rate. So the spread isn't 1.75%, it's discounted by the chance of needing to use the funds.

If the chance of such an emergency is only 10%/year, then you're really at a spread of just 0.175%, which could easily be covered by the one month lag in interest amortization.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on August 27, 2017, 08:37:18 PM
End of July indentured update... Sold some stuff on craigslist and chipped in to principal a full 1% this month to just over 100K.   The 5 digit club is squarely in my gunsights!

End of August...  5 digit club at last!   $99.9K.   After trimming recurring bills and shifting some things around, the goal is to pay down 1% or more a month on average from here...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on August 28, 2017, 06:59:23 PM
End of July indentured update... Sold some stuff on craigslist and chipped in to principal a full 1% this month to just over 100K.   The 5 digit club is squarely in my gunsights!

End of August...  5 digit club at last!   $99.9K.   After trimming recurring bills and shifting some things around, the goal is to pay down 1% or more a month on average from here...

Nice work! :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Indio on August 28, 2017, 07:09:07 PM
When you break down the barrier into the 5 digits, it's a great psychological boost that reinforces that paying it off really is possible.

When I got under 100k, I was still very motivated but started to feel discouraged around 80k or when another expense came up and I couldn't put as much toward it as I would like. Just kept plodding along. When I was paying more in principal than interest, that was another motivation to keep going.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on August 28, 2017, 10:44:52 PM
End of July indentured update... Sold some stuff on craigslist and chipped in to principal a full 1% this month to just over 100K.   The 5 digit club is squarely in my gunsights!

End of August...  5 digit club at last!   $99.9K.   After trimming recurring bills and shifting some things around, the goal is to pay down 1% or more a month on average from here...
Congrats and keep going - it is worth it in the end.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Rowellen on August 31, 2017, 10:15:58 PM
June 16 $200,813

Apr 17 $151,412
May 17 $144,681
June 17 $139,075
July 17 $136,332
Aug 17 $131,585

We decided to take our rental unit off the market so it's unlikely well have this paid off within 2 years as planned so thinking it will be time to start investing elsewhere for a while.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on September 11, 2017, 07:27:16 PM
Still making steady progress. I too am looking forward to having more flexible cash flow in the not too distant future.

Jan. 2015 - ~100k
Oct. 2015 - ~$67500
Dec.3, 2015 - ~$60k
Feb. 5, 2016 - $52,108.53
March 7, 2016 - 49,774.21
April 11, 2016 - 48,700 to go. Had to pay taxes this month.
May - failed to report in
June - $42,853.69
July - $41,597.20
August 2016 - 38,000
September 2016 - $36,230.88
October 2016 - $34,250. Now down to April 2020 at minimum payments.
November 2016 - $32,211 and some change.
December 2016 - $29,990 and change. Under 30k to end the year.
January 2017 - $28,200
February 2017 - $24800
March 2017 - $23k+ as of today. Going to push this down to a bit under $20k with the bulk of my tax refund.

Lets fill in some recent history:

April - ??
May - $16,551
June - $13,335 , then $12,300 after second payment
July - $10,629.47
August - $6733
September - $3187.88

As I get closer to the end I've been drawing down the CASH emergency fund a bit to accelerate the payoff as I could now easily complete the remaining mortgage payments even on unemployment insurance. Plus I've built up a fairly sizeable taxable account that could be tapped in an emergency as well making me more comfortable with a smaller CASH emergency fund.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: iluvzbeach on September 11, 2017, 08:43:22 PM
You are so close! Great job.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SAfAmBrit on September 11, 2017, 09:13:52 PM
Still making steady progress. I too am looking forward to having more flexible cash flow in the not too distant future.

Jan. 2015 - ~100k
Oct. 2015 - ~$67500
Dec.3, 2015 - ~$60k
Feb. 5, 2016 - $52,108.53
March 7, 2016 - 49,774.21
April 11, 2016 - 48,700 to go. Had to pay taxes this month.
May - failed to report in
June - $42,853.69
July - $41,597.20
August 2016 - 38,000
September 2016 - $36,230.88
October 2016 - $34,250. Now down to April 2020 at minimum payments.
November 2016 - $32,211 and some change.
December 2016 - $29,990 and change. Under 30k to end the year.
January 2017 - $28,200
February 2017 - $24800
March 2017 - $23k+ as of today. Going to push this down to a bit under $20k with the bulk of my tax refund.

Lets fill in some recent history:

April - ??
May - $16,551
June - $13,335 , then $12,300 after second payment
July - $10,629.47
August - $6733
September - $3187.88

As I get closer to the end I've been drawing down the CASH emergency fund a bit to accelerate the payoff as I could now easily complete the remaining mortgage payments even on unemployment insurance. Plus I've built up a fairly sizeable taxable account that could be tapped in an emergency as well making me more comfortable with a smaller CASH emergency fund.
All most done - congrats
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: channtheman on September 15, 2017, 05:17:00 AM
After reading/skimming through the entire thread I'd like to post my situation as well and officially join the club!

My wife and I bought our first (and hopefully last) home for 267k.
10% down and 4.875% rate. 

Rate is high because I went with lender credits to pay for the closing costs.  The plan has been to pay down as much as possible and refinance somewhere around 200k in January at hopefully a 4% or less rate.  I want my income to easily cover all of our expenses as my wife will be going part time when our first child is born in April 2018. 

We are currently at 213k owed and putting about 3k extra per month.  Factor in the "bonus" 3rd checks we both get in October this year and another bonus check I have from getting a certification at work and we should easily be sub 200k when we refinance.  After we refi, I hope we can continue to put about $1000 extra per month with a final payoff in July 2027 when I turn 36.  I think we will be able to find ways to do it faster, but that's the plan. 

Now, why pay off mortgage instead of invest?  Easy answer.  DW has to be on board with the plan and she is very risk averse.  Probably more than most people.  She's not particularly happy about the 401k but understands the company match is free money.  In this situation, paying down the mortgage is the best possible use of our money and it is also risk free savings on interest.  My wife is happy, and I'm happy that she's happy.  Is it the most optimal, no.  But not everything is about the most optimal case.  Emotions and "sleeping at night" play a large role in everyone's decisions.  It's funny how investment advice always says to use an investment strategy that plays to your individual risk tolerance but then automatically ignores it when it comes to paying down a mortgage.   In our situation, when the house is paid off, my wife will not have to work at all if we don't want her to.  We plan an having 4-5 children and will value her being at home raising them.

Also, a note about the mortgage interest deduction.  For us it doesn't do a dang thing.  Even if we calculate the years interest at the highest amount we ever paid (appx $900 in one month), our yearly total is only $10800 (it's actually lower than this, and after the refinance will be even less in subsequent years).  The standard deduction for us as a married couple is $12,600.  So, unless we have a couple thousand more dollars to itemize, we're better off taking the standard deduction.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on September 18, 2017, 06:09:35 PM
End of August...  5 digit club at last!   $99.9K.   

Yay!! Congrats! It feels like it shrinks very quickly after this point, in my experience.

Thanks @allsummerlong and everyone for the kind words!   Let it be written... so let it be done!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: channtheman on September 21, 2017, 10:00:09 AM
...

Also, a note about the mortgage interest deduction.  For us it doesn't do a dang thing.  Even if we calculate the years interest at the highest amount we ever paid (appx $900 in one month), our yearly total is only $10800 (it's actually lower than this, and after the refinance will be even less in subsequent years).  The standard deduction for us as a married couple is $12,600.  So, unless we have a couple thousand more dollars to itemize, we're better off taking the standard deduction.

You get to deduct your property taxes as well.  In most places that will have you itemizing based on the stated home value.

Good to know.  Ours are pretty cheap (about 1300 this year), but maybe with our charitable giving we can itemize for a couple of years.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: farmecologist on September 21, 2017, 02:21:39 PM
...

Also, a note about the mortgage interest deduction.  For us it doesn't do a dang thing.  Even if we calculate the years interest at the highest amount we ever paid (appx $900 in one month), our yearly total is only $10800 (it's actually lower than this, and after the refinance will be even less in subsequent years).  The standard deduction for us as a married couple is $12,600.  So, unless we have a couple thousand more dollars to itemize, we're better off taking the standard deduction.

You get to deduct your property taxes as well.  In most places that will have you itemizing based on the stated home value.

Good to know.  Ours are pretty cheap (about 1300 this year), but maybe with our charitable giving we can itemize for a couple of years.


I kind of chuckle when people get excited about the mortgage interest deduction.  Yes, you 'get to' deduct it.  However, most folks that 'get to' deduct it are also paying staggering amounts of interest to the bank...only receive a small chunk back in the form of a deduction.  That's not exactly 'good' in my book. 

I found this article to be interesting :  http://www.thetruthaboutmortgage.com/why-are-mortgage-payments-mostly-interest/

If you plan to keep your loan full term...then the math does work.  However, for the general population, that's usually not how it works.  People tend to move, etc..and a new loan 'resets the clock'....and you are back to continually paying staggering amounts of interest to the bank.  And continually thinking the mortgage interest deduction is a 'good thing'.

Now I have good faith that the population here knows better.  However, it is really quite disturbing the number of people that fall into this loop...and never end up paying down their mortgage.  Yet another reason why paying it down *can* be a good thing, depending on your situation.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on September 21, 2017, 04:22:49 PM
People also pretend they get the whole deduction as a discount when only the difference between the standard deduction and the itemized deductions matters. $13000 in deduction vs $12300 standard. Great you just got 700 in extras deductions. In the 25% bracket you just spent $13k on taxes and interest to save yourself $175...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on September 21, 2017, 04:53:50 PM
People also pretend they get the whole deduction as a discount when only the difference between the standard deduction and the itemized deductions matters. $13000 in deduction vs $12300 standard. Great you just got 700 in extras deductions. In the 25% bracket you just spent $13k on taxes and interest to save yourself $175...

LOL, so true!  I occasionally talk to people who don't do their own taxes (or otherwise don't understand them) and they think the "write off" for their mortgage interest is equal to a tax credit.  Think again!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: farmecologist on September 22, 2017, 09:27:42 AM
People also pretend they get the whole deduction as a discount when only the difference between the standard deduction and the itemized deductions matters. $13000 in deduction vs $12300 standard. Great you just got 700 in extras deductions. In the 25% bracket you just spent $13k on taxes and interest to save yourself $175...

LOL, so true!  I occasionally talk to people who don't do their own taxes (or otherwise don't understand them) and they think the "write off" for their mortgage interest is equal to a tax credit.  Think again!


Yep, that is spot on...I forgot to add that tidbit.   It is just funny to me when people ( mostly coworkers ) excitedly tell me how much they 'saved' by deducting mortgage interest.  These are obviously people with obscene mortgages.  It goes to show you that even people that are smart and successful in other areas are not necessarily smart with taxes/finances.

Again, I think the crowd here is smarter financially than the 'average joe'...so I hope we all know better....but who knows.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: plainjane on September 22, 2017, 09:28:36 AM
DW has to be on board with the plan and she is very risk averse.  Probably more than most people.  She's not particularly happy about the 401k but understands the company match is free money.  In this situation, paying down the mortgage is the best possible use of our money and it is also risk free savings on interest.  My wife is happy, and I'm happy that she's happy.  Is it the most optimal, no.  But not everything is about the most optimal case.  Emotions and "sleeping at night" play a large role in everyone's decisions.

I think I've mentioned here that my SO was also pretty risk averse. But once we had paid down more of the house, investing felt less risky, because regardless of what happened, we had our home. Now that the house is paid off, all that money plus some is going into investments.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: farmecologist on September 22, 2017, 09:30:27 AM
DW has to be on board with the plan and she is very risk averse.  Probably more than most people.  She's not particularly happy about the 401k but understands the company match is free money.  In this situation, paying down the mortgage is the best possible use of our money and it is also risk free savings on interest.  My wife is happy, and I'm happy that she's happy.  Is it the most optimal, no.  But not everything is about the most optimal case.  Emotions and "sleeping at night" play a large role in everyone's decisions.

I think I've mentioned here that my SO was also pretty risk averse. But once we had paid down more of the house, investing felt less risky, because regardless of what happened, we had our home. Now that the house is paid off, all that money plus some is going into investments.

That is exactly what we did...and it has turned out great!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: crispy on September 22, 2017, 12:50:22 PM
Mine will be paid officially paid off on October 1st!  I am ridiculous excited!  As a very risk averse person, my mortgage has felt like an albatross around my neck for years.  It feels good to be free!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: iluvzbeach on September 23, 2017, 07:22:18 AM
Crispy, it's stuff like paying off the mortgage that helps put you in the position to stand up to the office bully. Nicely done!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: crispy on September 23, 2017, 12:57:05 PM
Crispy, it's stuff like paying off the mortgage that helps put you in the position to stand up to the office bully. Nicely done!

Exactly right!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on October 05, 2017, 07:31:50 PM
Down to....one cent. Super annoying. I can't pay it off through their site because they require certified funds for the last cent + the fees.

You know....probably so the interest doesn't accrue/get out of whack on my 1 cent during the delay to confirm my non-certified cent has cleared.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: birdman2003 on October 06, 2017, 10:36:08 AM
Down to....one cent. Super annoying. I can't pay it off through their site because they require certified funds for the last cent + the fees.

You know....probably so the interest doesn't accrue/get out of whack on my 1 cent during the delay to confirm my non-certified cent has cleared.

I just had a visual of somebody at the payment processing company opening an envelope to find a penny inside.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on October 09, 2017, 07:03:14 AM
You could let that one cent grow and compound until...your original mortgage has completely regenerated!

Zombie mortgage ftw!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on October 10, 2017, 07:24:34 PM
Too late for that. It is DONE!

Next month will be there first month with no payment at which point I'll get to celebrate again. And at some point before or after I'll get the paperwork.  2 celebrations to go.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Blindsquirrel on October 10, 2017, 07:53:13 PM
  Good for you! Losing debt is freeing!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on October 12, 2017, 12:21:22 PM
11k plus legt, bank is being annoying by requiring me to contact them every time I want to pay down extra in stead of the tried and true method of sending them extra by regular bank transfer.
So I called them this week and asked them to shorten the remaining term to 15 months. This means we are done by January 2019 unless we pay down more (which we will definitely do!).

Our mortgage started in 2012, being done next year was a bit later than planned but surely better than the full 27 years!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on October 14, 2017, 05:20:20 AM
@wauske,  Stay strong.   I'd imagine that Dutch bankers would have some quirks to say the least in the banking rules from hundreds of years of being fierce lenders.   The United States is still paying on Dutch loans and/or bonds issued from the 1700s!   

Use their annoying nature to motivate you both to save more... Then smile sweetly when you pay off those parasites.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: boarder42 on October 14, 2017, 05:47:18 AM
People also pretend they get the whole deduction as a discount when only the difference between the standard deduction and the itemized deductions matters. $13000 in deduction vs $12300 standard. Great you just got 700 in extras deductions. In the 25% bracket you just spent $13k on taxes and interest to save yourself $175...

LOL, so true!  I occasionally talk to people who don't do their own taxes (or otherwise don't understand them) and they think the "write off" for their mortgage interest is equal to a tax credit.  Think again!


Yep, that is spot on...I forgot to add that tidbit.   It is just funny to me when people ( mostly coworkers ) excitedly tell me how much they 'saved' by deducting mortgage interest.  These are obviously people with obscene mortgages.  It goes to show you that even people that are smart and successful in other areas are not necessarily smart with taxes/finances.

Again, I think the crowd here is smarter financially than the 'average joe'...so I hope we all know better....but who knows.

It's staggering to me that you think you're making the best financial decision paying down a low fixed interest loan when it's not the best way to use your dollars. Now your coworkers are likely normal people and spending their extra but not paying down a mortgage and investing the extra capital shows a true understanding of finances.

My property and state taxes max out the standard deduction and all of our mortgage interest is then tax deductible. But the size of the interest paid is not relevant. It's the return that money could be making vs the interest rate on your loan.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks on October 14, 2017, 07:18:46 AM
I have been losing some momentum on the pay down, just putting a couple hundred extra the last few months.  My husband's summer income was on the low side, but now in the Fall it's high.  We have some home improvements that we would like to do and so we may funnel some cash into making our home a little nicer.  I am reluctant to spend money but it's OK when there is good value for what we spend.

Our balance is about $56k, so soon we should graduate into the balances under $50k club.  That's something too look forward to.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on October 15, 2017, 01:13:57 PM
People also pretend they get the whole deduction as a discount when only the difference between the standard deduction and the itemized deductions matters. $13000 in deduction vs $12300 standard. Great you just got 700 in extras deductions. In the 25% bracket you just spent $13k on taxes and interest to save yourself $175...

LOL, so true!  I occasionally talk to people who don't do their own taxes (or otherwise don't understand them) and they think the "write off" for their mortgage interest is equal to a tax credit.  Think again!


Yep, that is spot on...I forgot to add that tidbit.   It is just funny to me when people ( mostly coworkers ) excitedly tell me how much they 'saved' by deducting mortgage interest.  These are obviously people with obscene mortgages.  It goes to show you that even people that are smart and successful in other areas are not necessarily smart with taxes/finances.

Again, I think the crowd here is smarter financially than the 'average joe'...so I hope we all know better....but who knows.

It's staggering to me that you think you're making the best financial decision paying down a low fixed interest loan when it's not the best way to use your dollars. Now your coworkers are likely normal people and spending their extra but not paying down a mortgage and investing the extra capital shows a true understanding of finances.

My property and state taxes max out the standard deduction and all of our mortgage interest is then tax deductible. But the size of the interest paid is not relevant. It's the return that money could be making vs the interest rate on your loan.

It's staggering to me that you think you will never have to face unemployment and/or have to keep a large emergency fund to keep making mtg payments the event of unemployment. 

I paid off my mtg in about a year.  I wake up everyday with a more confident future.  That mortgage payment now goes into tax advantaged retirement accounts.  Zero regrets.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: farmecologist on October 16, 2017, 10:01:49 AM
People also pretend they get the whole deduction as a discount when only the difference between the standard deduction and the itemized deductions matters. $13000 in deduction vs $12300 standard. Great you just got 700 in extras deductions. In the 25% bracket you just spent $13k on taxes and interest to save yourself $175...

LOL, so true!  I occasionally talk to people who don't do their own taxes (or otherwise don't understand them) and they think the "write off" for their mortgage interest is equal to a tax credit.  Think again!


Yep, that is spot on...I forgot to add that tidbit.   It is just funny to me when people ( mostly coworkers ) excitedly tell me how much they 'saved' by deducting mortgage interest.  These are obviously people with obscene mortgages.  It goes to show you that even people that are smart and successful in other areas are not necessarily smart with taxes/finances.

Again, I think the crowd here is smarter financially than the 'average joe'...so I hope we all know better....but who knows.

It's staggering to me that you think you're making the best financial decision paying down a low fixed interest loan when it's not the best way to use your dollars. Now your coworkers are likely normal people and spending their extra but not paying down a mortgage and investing the extra capital shows a true understanding of finances.

My property and state taxes max out the standard deduction and all of our mortgage interest is then tax deductible. But the size of the interest paid is not relevant. It's the return that money could be making vs the interest rate on your loan.

It's staggering to me that you think you will never have to face unemployment and/or have to keep a large emergency fund to keep making mtg payments the event of unemployment. 

I paid off my mtg in about a year.  I wake up everyday with a more confident future.  That mortgage payment now goes into tax advantaged retirement accounts.  Zero regrets.

Dang..I knew 'boarder' would eventually infest this thread.  Just ignore the guy..he obviously thinks he is the supreme authority on 'finances'.  It's no use arguing with him.

Boarder...look, I think we all understand your points...but do not agree with them.  Just let the mortgage payoff crowd have this ONE thread of peace from your condescending attitude...ok?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on October 16, 2017, 10:13:09 AM
Yeah, we definitely all get the math behind it.  There is however more to life than just the math.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: boarder42 on October 16, 2017, 10:40:00 AM
Yeah, we definitely all get the math behind it.  There is however more to life than just the math.

i dont agree that everyone here understands the math behind it. i think some do but for the most part i think many just see this giant thread here dedicated to it and fail to understand the math, b/c MMM paid his down - which made sense at the time b/c of a different lending environment than we currently have.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Quint on October 16, 2017, 11:32:28 AM
It's a little presumptuous to say that people in this thread don't understand the math.  There are countless threads on the forum and elsewhere that explain it if they'd like to investigate.  They don't have to spend their money the way you believe is best.  Maybe just be happy they are paying down their mortgage instead of being consumer clowns.  We're all here on the forums for the same reason and there are many paths to take to the finish line.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on October 16, 2017, 11:39:50 AM
Yeah, we definitely all get the math behind it.  There is however more to life than just the math.

i dont agree that everyone here understands the math behind it. i think some do but for the most part i think many just see this giant thread here dedicated to it and fail to understand the math, b/c MMM paid his down - which made sense at the time b/c of a different lending environment than we currently have.
Boarder42, I thought you had already agreed to stay out of this thread?  You set up your own thread elsewhere and you've been doing a great job dismissively patronizing people who have risk tolerance different from yours.  Go enjoy your own superiority in your own thread, but please let people who are making very sound financial decisions rejoice in their accomplishments.  Stop trying to rain on everyone's parade. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on October 17, 2017, 06:05:14 PM
People also pretend they get the whole deduction as a discount when only the difference between the standard deduction and the itemized deductions matters. $13000 in deduction vs $12300 standard. Great you just got 700 in extras deductions. In the 25% bracket you just spent $13k on taxes and interest to save yourself $175...

LOL, so true!  I occasionally talk to people who don't do their own taxes (or otherwise don't understand them) and they think the "write off" for their mortgage interest is equal to a tax credit.  Think again!


Yep, that is spot on...I forgot to add that tidbit.   It is just funny to me when people ( mostly coworkers ) excitedly tell me how much they 'saved' by deducting mortgage interest.  These are obviously people with obscene mortgages.  It goes to show you that even people that are smart and successful in other areas are not necessarily smart with taxes/finances.

Again, I think the crowd here is smarter financially than the 'average joe'...so I hope we all know better....but who knows.

It's staggering to me that you think you're making the best financial decision paying down a low fixed interest loan when it's not the best way to use your dollars. Now your coworkers are likely normal people and spending their extra but not paying down a mortgage and investing the extra capital shows a true understanding of finances.

My property and state taxes max out the standard deduction and all of our mortgage interest is then tax deductible. But the size of the interest paid is not relevant. It's the return that money could be making vs the interest rate on your loan.

It's staggering what a 🍆 you are and how you pay without reading my prior comments in the thread which recognize the fact the mathematical best option in theory/statistically is not paying things down. It's also staggering that you aren't 100% in Bitcoin given its statistical history.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: K-ice on October 22, 2017, 01:33:20 PM
Yeah, we definitely all get the math behind it.  There is however more to life than just the math.

I get the math too. But my partner is so risk adverse they will only save in a savings account or pay down the mortgage. I have put a relatively small amount aside in index funds, but the best way for us to "invest" together is to throw our extra stash at the mortgage.

Once the mortgage is paid in full I hope I can convince them that index funds are the next best way.

In the mean time, I don't think anyone will argue a huge savings account is better than paying your mortgage.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Lmoot on October 25, 2017, 05:02:40 AM
@boarder42

Reasons why people pay off/down their mortgage:

1) Simplicity - believe it or not, not everyone wants to have a bunch of investment balls in the air; an IRA/ROTH and 401K, HSA, a few bonds, etc....is sufficient for them.

2) More options. When you have a mortgage, you are still bound by rules from the lender, for what you can and cannot do with your own property. Some lenders force you to have a certain amount of insurance coverage (even if it's more than what you want/need...I'm not talking about PMI...I was forced to pay for higher insurance b/c my bank didn't feel "safe" enough with the original option I chose). By definition, a mortgage is a LIEN on a property. Want to bulid an addition? Or otherwise alter the space or function? You need to clear it through your lien-holder.

3) You (and your ilk) give big talk about being above emotional decisions. What's more emotional than chasing maximum return...just because. If someone has determined that they have enough in investments to support their chosen lifestyle and future, and this is a preference they can afford to make...you still cannot let it go. The concept of someone having "enough" seems inconceivable. Yes, the math may show possibility of more, but that's all it records...less or more. It's not going to say if it's a enough; that's a highly personal decision that can only be made by a sentient being. Who's the boss? You or the math?

4) We all have different goals. There is nothing wrong with chasing max returns, but it's just simply not important for some people. This website espouses retiring early...not making the most money. And yes, there is a distinction. If that were the case, then we'd all just work until our 70's. After a certain point, more money doesn't mean you can retire any earlier...it just means you may have more money later in life, and after death.

5) Sometimes paying off a mortgage fits their life goals better. They might see that paying off a mortgage could affect their quality of life sooner than putting it all in the market and waiting and watching. Maybe they want to reduce how much they have to work, sooner rather than later, and perhaps the balance on their mortgage may be low enough that it wouldn't pay out enough in dividends to allow one to make decisions like quitting a job....but but paying off a mortgage balance would increase their cash flow instantaneously, and predictably.

6) To get you in a waddle
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: smileyface on October 25, 2017, 07:52:05 AM
I'm new to the MMM forums, but I wanted to share our mortgage payoff story.  We are a somewhat Mustachian family of four in a HCOL area, and we paid ours off nearly five years ago.  I CAN'T TELL YOU what a game-changer it has been for us.  Life is different when you don't have this major expense hanging over you.  We didn't inflate our lifestyle at all-- we just funnel the extra money into savings and investments.  But when your expenses don't include a hefty mortgage or rent payment, you have a freedom and flexibility that most people simply don't.  I stayed home with our kids for years, and I only work part-time now--  honestly, we really don't need my part-time income, but to me it's a great way to optimize my time when the kids are both at school.  We don't worry about what we'd do if DH lost his job and was out of work for a while, or if he had to take a pay cut--  without the mortgage, these situations are totally manageable. 

Was paying off the mortgage the best investment of our money?  From a rate-of-return perspective, probably not.  From a psychological-freedom perspective, it's been the greatest money move we ever made.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on October 25, 2017, 08:15:27 AM
The debate with Boarder42 means I should reveal myself as an active participant in the "DON'T Pay off Your Mortgage" board as well. Although I personally follow a path more like that one, I follow this thread because of the energy here and to help celebrate the achievement of you badass folks who are working toward a mortgage-free life.

I'm posting because I believe LMoot's list requires one additional item: many of us have to coordinate financial goals with a spouse, and it is often easier to convince that spouse to devote extra effort to clearing debt--like a mortgage--than it is to a vague goal like "Stuff the 401K".

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: farmecologist on October 25, 2017, 09:49:10 AM
I'm posting because I believe LMoot's list requires one additional item: many of us have to coordinate financial goals with a spouse, and it is often easier to convince that spouse to devote extra effort to clearing debt--like a mortgage--than it is to a vague goal like "Stuff the 401K".

Absolutely true.  Thanks for the input.  There is often more to life then 'the math'. 

I feel a bit bad for instigating some of the debate here.  However, I really do feel like THIS thread exists to celebrate those that have made the decision to pay down their mortgage...even though that may be 'bad' in some peoples view.  Seems silly to be constantly arguing about it when most here have already made the decision.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on October 25, 2017, 05:10:53 PM
DW has to be on board with the plan and she is very risk averse.  Probably more than most people.  She's not particularly happy about the 401k but understands the company match is free money.  In this situation, paying down the mortgage is the best possible use of our money and it is also risk free savings on interest.  My wife is happy, and I'm happy that she's happy.  Is it the most optimal, no.  But not everything is about the most optimal case.  Emotions and "sleeping at night" play a large role in everyone's decisions.

I **really** get wanting to have the mortgage paid off.    I've done it once before.  I'll be glad when we pay off our HELOC in the next few months and even more glad when the mortgage on our new house is paid for, too.

So, first of all, congrats to everyone who has already paid off their mortgage!   Bravo!

All the comments by all the posters in this thread about how much better off one's financial situation is once the mortgage is fully paid off are spot on correct.

But...

About that safety issue...

That's where a lot of folks seem to get it wrong.

It's absolutely true that a house that's fully paid for improves one's financial situation compared to one with a mortgage.

What can go wrong between the decision to pay off a mortgage early and **actually** paying it off?

What can go wrong is exactly what you fear.  An extended job loss.  Inability to work due to illness or injury.   The house foreclosed on and taken away from you by the bank and the courts.

Having your house foreclosed on and having to move out are terrible things to have happen.

Everyone is **completely right** in wanting to avoid that scenario!

But is paying extra money on your mortgage every month until it's paid off early the best way to go about it?   That's the question I raise and, obviously, I think it's not the best path.

Let's say I have a 30 year fixed rate mortgage that costs me $1000 a month in principal and interest.  (Taxes and insurance will be with us regardless so we'll ignore them.)

If I had paid on the regular amortization schedule I might owe $170,000, but I've been very aggressive in paying it down quickly and only owe $140,000.  We put in an extra $30,000.

Bad stuff happens.  We lose our jobs and can't find a new one for a goodly while.  It's part of a general economic malaise and home prices have dropped by 30%.   We exhaust our emergency fund.

We can't pay the mortgage payments and bank forecloses.   We have just lost $60,000 that we had invested in the house.   The bank, by the way, is  very happy we paid the house down so quickly.  That will make it much easier for them to sell the house at a break-even point.   It was certainly nice of us to look after the bank's interests so well.

Now, let's instead suppose that we put that extra $30,000 worth of money in the stock market instead of the mortgage.   The stock has grown at the historical average rate of 10% per year for the last 2 years and we reinvested the dividends.   So we have $30,000 + $3,000 + $3,300 or $36,300 in stock when the economy tanks.   Stocks drop 50% and stay that way for a goodly while.  Our $30,000 investment is now worth $18,150 and stays that way for the duration of the depression.  We sell it off at the rate of $1,000 a month.  We're able to hang onto our home for an extra 18 months before it gets foreclosed on.   We have an extra 18 months to land a job that will cover the mortgage.  So, in this horrible scenario we lost $11,850 of the $30,000 we invested but we saved the other $30,000 we had already put into the house, for a net gain of a keeping a roof over our heads and $22,150 over the pay-into-the-mortgage scenario.

Of course, if we lost our jobs due to illness instead of an economic collapse, our stock would not have lost value.  In that case, we would have had over 36 months worth of payments out of our stock investment before the house was foreclosed on.  And, since we're only pulling it out at the rate of $1000 a month, the remainder will keep growing in value.  It turns out we would have about 44 months of safety margin, not 36!

Now, once the stock value is high enough to pay off the mortgage, then we can sell the stock and pay off the mortgage early, if that's what we value.   If the market happens to be down at that point in time, we wait a bit until the market recovers, then sell.  Either way, we pay off the mortgage and get that freedom form it that we want.

Now, it turns out that the Australians have come up with a banking product that's an awesome compromise between the pay-extra-as-you-go and the invest-up-until-full-payoff-possible scenarios.
They have what's called an "offset account" at the bank with the mortgage.  If they pay extra into the offset account, it offsets (reduces) the principal balance when the amount of interest is due.  However, they can withdraw that cash at any time.   This has the benefit of reducing the amount of interest due but also preserving the flexibility to keep that cash available in true emergencies.

I bring up this example to all the bankers I talk to, hoping they'll introduce this product in the US.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on October 25, 2017, 06:34:33 PM
That is why you have an emergency fund before you start paying off your mortgage.  I don't think anyone on this forum is worried about foreclosure.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on October 25, 2017, 07:32:17 PM
That is why you have an emergency fund before you start paying off your mortgage.  I don't think anyone on this forum is worried about foreclosure.

Then why do so many people worry about paying down the mortgage quickly, as they go, as being safer?  Safer than what?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on October 25, 2017, 07:46:29 PM
And speaking of challenges, our HELOC on our old house (our primary home when we got it) was $55,000 24 months ago.   We're down to $15,500 now.  In a week or so, it will be down to $7,500.

After that, progress will be a bit slower, but we'll be done within 6 months!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on October 25, 2017, 07:56:48 PM
That is why you have an emergency fund before you start paying off your mortgage.  I don't think anyone on this forum is worried about foreclosure.

Then why do so many people worry about paying down the mortgage quickly, as they go, as being safer?  Safer than what?

Safer than a 100% equities portfolio similar to the way people say adding bonds makes things safer. Paying off a mortgage is not unlike buying a bond...and bond rates are currently lower than mortgage rates. And while maybe not entirely as liquid as a bond you CAN get your equity back out via HELOC...moving... or other mechanism if you really really for some reason want the money.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: channtheman on October 27, 2017, 12:50:27 AM
DW has to be on board with the plan and she is very risk averse.  Probably more than most people.  She's not particularly happy about the 401k but understands the company match is free money.  In this situation, paying down the mortgage is the best possible use of our money and it is also risk free savings on interest.  My wife is happy, and I'm happy that she's happy.  Is it the most optimal, no.  But not everything is about the most optimal case.  Emotions and "sleeping at night" play a large role in everyone's decisions.

I **really** get wanting to have the mortgage paid off.    I've done it once before.  I'll be glad when we pay off our HELOC in the next few months and even more glad when the mortgage on our new house is paid for, too.


I've often pondered "paying" that money towards the mortgage into another account and then when the balance is enough to pay the mortgage off, doing so in one final sweep.  Perhaps, I can swing that idea by DW and we can agree on something.  Some of the high yield bank accounts offer $200 bonuses for depositing $10,000 and then 1.3% interest or so.  Not great, but better than nothing.   I'm not sure how the math works out to if the 1.3% interest balances out the loss on not paying down the balance sooner.    In other words, does the interest I gain from the bank account cancel out the extra interest I will have paid on the mortgage due to not paying down the balance faster? 

Anyone know of an easy way to figure this? 

Regardless, at least for the next couple of months, we are still paying down aggressively so we can refinance at the end of December.   After that, I need to decide what is best for us.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: birdman2003 on October 27, 2017, 03:05:29 PM
In other words, does the interest I gain from the bank account cancel out the extra interest I will have paid on the mortgage due to not paying down the balance faster? 

Anyone know of an easy way to figure this?

You need to compare interest rates.  If your bank pays 1.5% and you are paying 3% to the mortgage holder, you should pay extra towards the principal balance on your mortgage instead of putting it in a savings account.

Here's an example:

If your mortgage is $100k and you got a 15 year mortgage at 2.5% interest:

Paying nothing extra, your mortgage costs you $20k in interest over 15 years
Paying an extra $100 a month, your mortgage costs you $16.8k in interest over 12 years and 8 months (savings of $3.2k)
Paying an extra $200 a month, your mortgage costs you $14.5k in interest over 11 years and 0 months (savings of $5.5k)
Paying an extra $300 a month, your mortgage costs you $12.7k in interest over 9 years and 8 months (savings of $7.3k)

If you put those extra amounts into a savings account paying you 1.5% interest and wait until you have enough to pay off the remaining balance:
$100 a month: your mortgage costs you $17.8k in interest over 12 years and 10 months (savings of $2.2k)
$200 a month: your mortgage costs you $16.0k in interest over 11 years and 2 months (savings of $4.0k)
$300 a month: your mortgage costs you $14.4k in interest over 9 years and 11 months (savings of $5.6k)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: crispy on October 27, 2017, 08:30:07 PM
DW has to be on board with the plan and she is very risk averse.  Probably more than most people.  She's not particularly happy about the 401k but understands the company match is free money.  In this situation, paying down the mortgage is the best possible use of our money and it is also risk free savings on interest.  My wife is happy, and I'm happy that she's happy.  Is it the most optimal, no.  But not everything is about the most optimal case.  Emotions and "sleeping at night" play a large role in everyone's decisions.

I **really** get wanting to have the mortgage paid off.    I've done it once before.  I'll be glad when we pay off our HELOC in the next few months and even more glad when the mortgage on our new house is paid for, too.


I've often pondered "paying" that money towards the mortgage into another account and then when the balance is enough to pay the mortgage off, doing so in one final sweep.  Perhaps, I can swing that idea by DW and we can agree on something.  Some of the high yield bank accounts offer $200 bonuses for depositing $10,000 and then 1.3% interest or so.  Not great, but better than nothing.   I'm not sure how the math works out to if the 1.3% interest balances out the loss on not paying down the balance sooner.    In other words, does the interest I gain from the bank account cancel out the extra interest I will have paid on the mortgage due to not paying down the balance faster? 

Anyone know of an easy way to figure this? 

Regardless, at least for the next couple of months, we are still paying down aggressively so we can refinance at the end of December.   After that, I need to decide what is best for us.

That's what we did. When we downsized we had a small mortgage.    We stashed the extra payments and a car acciident settlement into a savings account and just did one big payment. I wouldn't do this for years, but we only had to save for about 18 months.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BeautifulDay on October 29, 2017, 09:09:33 AM
Posting to follow and be inspired by your stories. 

Bought a home in April and owe $135,000 on a 30 year loan.  My plan is to decrease this and pay off in 15 years timed to match our retirement schedule. My priority right now is rebuilding the EF, throwing money at investments and paying off a little remaining consumer debt.  Once EF funded and consumer debt are gone I'll make some extra payments to the house.

Long way to go, but I'll get there.  Thanks for the inspiration.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on October 30, 2017, 07:16:02 PM
End of August...  5 digit club at last!   $99.9K.   

OK gang, the overly-analytical odyssey continues...  After digesting Dave Ramsey's "Baby Steps" program and further validation and courage re-reading Ron Blue's "Mastering Your Money" book (that explains how free monthly cash flow is so key to building real wealth), we're going to take some money out of the stache from the frothy stock market to pay down half the mortgage and pay off a car note as well.   

The free cash flow will accelerate pay-off of the remainder of the mortgage balance.   Then once the mortgage is gone, that free cash flow goes back to pay ourselves back on the investments dollar cost-averaged pay back into investments.   If the missus and I hadn't changed behavior the past few months, gotten budgeting really seriously and talked this out to focus on this goal, it wouldn't work.   $48K left to remove debt from our life is the goal!   Till then, keepin' on, keepin' on!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on November 01, 2017, 08:11:35 AM
@wauske,  Stay strong.   I'd imagine that Dutch bankers would have some quirks to say the least in the banking rules from hundreds of years of being fierce lenders.   The United States is still paying on Dutch loans and/or bonds issued from the 1700s!   

Use their annoying nature to motivate you both to save more... Then smile sweetly when you pay off those parasites.
Oh, not to worry. 15 months and I'm done based on the new agreement with the bank. Everything I pay off extra only shortens the time left!

The fools even sent me a message that my life insurance could be changed to lower my monthly payment on it. I pay around 8 euro per month and since it is linked to the mortgage I can quit it when the mortgage is done. They offered to update the contract but I'd have to pay a one-time fee of € 75 and a yearly recurring € 25 for "maintenance" but since my mortgage is done in 15 months my total cost without changing is guaranteed to be lower if I don't change it :D

That is why you have an emergency fund before you start paying off your mortgage.  I don't think anyone on this forum is worried about foreclosure.

Then why do so many people worry about paying down the mortgage quickly, as they go, as being safer?  Safer than what?
Paying down the mortgage can be seen as fixed return on investment because it lowers the loan owed and thus the fixed monthly costs. Our €550,- reduction (of the original 600) is a very palpable result. Any other form of savings of investments caries at least some risk, even a savings account at the bank. Should my bank go bankrupt their first step would to be subtract my savings from the remaining mortgage balance and then try to sell off my mortgage ASAP.

And yes, having a house is also some form of risk but if you you have a mortgage you have the same risk regardless.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: channtheman on November 03, 2017, 04:13:03 AM
In other words, does the interest I gain from the bank account cancel out the extra interest I will have paid on the mortgage due to not paying down the balance faster? 

Anyone know of an easy way to figure this?

You need to compare interest rates.  If your bank pays 1.5% and you are paying 3% to the mortgage holder, you should pay extra towards the principal balance on your mortgage instead of putting it in a savings account.

Here's an example:

If your mortgage is $100k and you got a 15 year mortgage at 2.5% interest:

Paying nothing extra, your mortgage costs you $20k in interest over 15 years
Paying an extra $100 a month, your mortgage costs you $16.8k in interest over 12 years and 8 months (savings of $3.2k)
Paying an extra $200 a month, your mortgage costs you $14.5k in interest over 11 years and 0 months (savings of $5.5k)
Paying an extra $300 a month, your mortgage costs you $12.7k in interest over 9 years and 8 months (savings of $7.3k)

If you put those extra amounts into a savings account paying you 1.5% interest and wait until you have enough to pay off the remaining balance:
$100 a month: your mortgage costs you $17.8k in interest over 12 years and 10 months (savings of $2.2k)
$200 a month: your mortgage costs you $16.0k in interest over 11 years and 2 months (savings of $4.0k)
$300 a month: your mortgage costs you $14.4k in interest over 9 years and 11 months (savings of $5.6k)

Thanks for simplifying it for me.  Seems obvious how you did the math now that I see it, but it was escaping me before.  We would most definitely come out ahead paying down the mortgage as opposed to saving it and making one lump payment at the end.  We already have sizeable emergency funds in place so I think actively paying down the mortgage is the way to go.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ACyclist on November 04, 2017, 09:46:41 AM
Less than 10K on our primary residence.  4.75% 30 yr loan taken in 08.  Will be paid off in about 10 months, if nothing bad happens. 

We have a rental too. It's been paid off for several years.  That was a 15 yr loan that we paid off in about 10 as well.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Blindsquirrel on November 05, 2017, 07:36:23 PM
  Good for you to pay off the rental!  I will not say "Oh another case of math vs. sleeping well at night" as that is the incorrect comparison.  The real estate investors often correctly say to borrow the absolute maximum to get the best leveraged returns. Leverage magnifies returns but it magnifies risk also. See real estate bubble and foreclosures for the nasty consequences at the other end of that leverage "Lever".
Paid off rental property is a very nice way to provide another source income at relatively low risk. Diversifying your income stream away from your job lowers risk greatly.

   Also, the stock return rate vs. mortgage rate is not the correct comparison at all. The correct comparison is mortgage rate vs. risk free return rate. Many of the folks on this thread know this at least in their hearts but there is actually solid math behind it. Once you have a well funded start on your stash there is nothing wrong with reducing your amount of risk. If you are at or near FI it is not necessary to take that risk when you have already won the game. It is not needed and having a mortgage increases your vulnerability to sequence of return risk.  This is a post that sums it up very well and I have no relation to the astute fellow who wrote it.
 
https://saveinvestbecomefree.com/2016/06/09/pay-off-the-mortgage-or-invest-in-stocks-wrong-question/#more-352
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: birdman2003 on November 05, 2017, 08:20:36 PM
In other words, does the interest I gain from the bank account cancel out the extra interest I will have paid on the mortgage due to not paying down the balance faster? 

Anyone know of an easy way to figure this?

You need to compare interest rates.  If your bank pays 1.5% and you are paying 3% to the mortgage holder, you should pay extra towards the principal balance on your mortgage instead of putting it in a savings account.

Here's an example:

If your mortgage is $100k and you got a 15 year mortgage at 2.5% interest:

Paying nothing extra, your mortgage costs you $20k in interest over 15 years
Paying an extra $100 a month, your mortgage costs you $16.8k in interest over 12 years and 8 months (savings of $3.2k)
Paying an extra $200 a month, your mortgage costs you $14.5k in interest over 11 years and 0 months (savings of $5.5k)
Paying an extra $300 a month, your mortgage costs you $12.7k in interest over 9 years and 8 months (savings of $7.3k)

If you put those extra amounts into a savings account paying you 1.5% interest and wait until you have enough to pay off the remaining balance:
$100 a month: your mortgage costs you $17.8k in interest over 12 years and 10 months (savings of $2.2k)
$200 a month: your mortgage costs you $16.0k in interest over 11 years and 2 months (savings of $4.0k)
$300 a month: your mortgage costs you $14.4k in interest over 9 years and 11 months (savings of $5.6k)

Thanks for simplifying it for me.  Seems obvious how you did the math now that I see it, but it was escaping me before.  We would most definitely come out ahead paying down the mortgage as opposed to saving it and making one lump payment at the end.  We already have sizeable emergency funds in place so I think actively paying down the mortgage is the way to go.

You are welcome!  You are right - by putting your monthly amounts directly at the principal instead of waiting to pay it off in one lump sum, you will not only save extra money, you will pay off your mortgage a few months earlier in each of the three scenarios I calculated out with Excel.

We are going to focus on our mortgage (2.5%) once we finish paying student loans (6.8%).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Eilonwy on November 05, 2017, 08:29:23 PM
That's a really useful article; thanks for sharing.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: honeyfill on November 05, 2017, 08:42:13 PM
https://earlyretirementnow.com/2017/10/11/the-ultimate-guide-to-safe-withdrawal-rates-part-21-mortgage-in-retirement/

Another article about the benefits of paying off your mortgage.  This article  expands on the the "cash flow" advantages of having your mortgage paid off.  Specifically, it argues that By not having to withdraw extra taxable income to make a mortgage payment, it makes it easier to stay under the ACA income limits for subsidies, the income limits for taxable capital gains , etc. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on November 05, 2017, 09:09:17 PM
In other words, does the interest I gain from the bank account cancel out the extra interest I will have paid on the mortgage due to not paying down the balance faster? 

Anyone know of an easy way to figure this?

You need to compare interest rates.  If your bank pays 1.5% and you are paying 3% to the mortgage holder, you should pay extra towards the principal balance on your mortgage instead of putting it in a savings account.

Here's an example:

If your mortgage is $100k and you got a 15 year mortgage at 2.5% interest:

Paying nothing extra, your mortgage costs you $20k in interest over 15 years
Paying an extra $100 a month, your mortgage costs you $16.8k in interest over 12 years and 8 months (savings of $3.2k)
Paying an extra $200 a month, your mortgage costs you $14.5k in interest over 11 years and 0 months (savings of $5.5k)
Paying an extra $300 a month, your mortgage costs you $12.7k in interest over 9 years and 8 months (savings of $7.3k)

If you put those extra amounts into a savings account paying you 1.5% interest and wait until you have enough to pay off the remaining balance:
$100 a month: your mortgage costs you $17.8k in interest over 12 years and 10 months (savings of $2.2k)
$200 a month: your mortgage costs you $16.0k in interest over 11 years and 2 months (savings of $4.0k)
$300 a month: your mortgage costs you $14.4k in interest over 9 years and 11 months (savings of $5.6k)

Thanks for simplifying it for me.  Seems obvious how you did the math now that I see it, but it was escaping me before.  We would most definitely come out ahead paying down the mortgage as opposed to saving it and making one lump payment at the end.  We already have sizeable emergency funds in place so I think actively paying down the mortgage is the way to go.

You are welcome!  You are right - by putting your monthly amounts directly at the principal instead of waiting to pay it off in one lump sum, you will not only save extra money, you will pay off your mortgage a few months earlier in each of the three scenarios I calculated out with Excel.

We are going to focus on our mortgage (2.5%) once we finish paying student loans (6.8%).

That, of course, assumes two things:

1) You invest your money in a savings account that pays less interest than your mortgage (instead of bonds or stocks, for example), and

2) You don't have a long bout of unemployment due to market forces or illness/injury so you don't lose your house.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Eilonwy on November 06, 2017, 04:22:21 PM
After reading the piece mentioned above, I got curious and checked out my bond investment. The earnings have been considerably less than my mortgage interest rate. :-(
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Blindsquirrel on November 06, 2017, 04:39:45 PM
   Welp, you live and learn! When I came across the post I had a grand chunk of cash sitting in a checking account earning 0.01% interest.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on November 06, 2017, 08:24:47 PM
After reading the piece mentioned above, I got curious and checked out my bond investment. The earnings have been considerably less than my mortgage interest rate. :-(

And here's an even better idea (if you're a banker)... lock mortgage holders into a premium over government bond rates that already demand a premium over the rate of inflation (ie, 10 year Treasuries).    And oh yeah, also allow bond holders to lose principal on said bonds each time interest rates go up in a steady pace the next 2 years or so until they reach "normal" market level.   Oh yeah, and remember the stock market has been juiced up to all time highs by low or negative bond interest rates the past 8+ years, so it will likely have a "below historical" return in the same interval or longer.    Google search "Jack Bogle Aspen Institute from 2015" for an eye-opening explanation from an investing sage.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on November 10, 2017, 05:51:28 AM
We owe 10,258 on the mortgage and I have 13K in checking and savings!  Waiting for my mortgage company to pay the year end property taxes out of escrow then I'm paying it off!  Just seems easier for them to send in the check for the real estate taxes.  After that, I guess I need to save about 3500 a year myself for taxes and insurance.  At least I'll make a tiny bit of interest on it!

So...not officially paid off yet, but close!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on November 10, 2017, 07:03:07 AM
Congrats on being so close Neustache!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on November 11, 2017, 04:09:29 AM
Way to go Neustache!  Maybe call and ask them to pay the taxes now, then pay it off this month to avoid the Dec interest payment?   Probably just $30 bucks, but it's something.   Either way, you've killed it... Awesome!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: never give up on November 11, 2017, 05:41:08 AM
Wow what a great thread. I only signed up to the site a few weeks back. I paid off my mortgage earlier this year but would have enjoyed the encouragement on here over the years while I was overpaying. Wish I'd found it earlier.

I am extremely risk averse and overpaying the mortgage just felt right to me and I couldn't have found any better way of using my money than the goal of being completely debt free. It is a great feeling to be mortgage/debt free and I would just like to extend my encouragement to everyone in here. It doesn't matter what anyone else says or what the maths looks like, if paying your mortgage off early makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside then go for it.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: never give up on November 11, 2017, 09:56:40 AM
allsummerlong - as I mentioned I am extremely risk averse but since being mortgage free I feel much more confident about piling into index funds so I’m sure your DH will see this too.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on November 12, 2017, 04:22:52 PM
Just put the check in the mail tonight to pay off the HELOC on our old house.   We had originally planned to pay it off by 09/01/2018, but we did better than that. :)   $55K in 2 years and 2 months.

Now we just have the mortgage on our new house to pay off, though at 2.75% I'm tempted to invest instead of hurry to pay it off.  We'll make our choice on that in a year or two, when we sell the house we're flipping.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Zola. on November 13, 2017, 10:06:05 AM
June 2015 - £131,000
November 2017 - £120,000

We have just started over paying in October, plan to overpay by £1000 every few months. Hoping to shave the time down considerably.

We are 2.5 years into a 25 year mortgage. I want it paid off in as few years as possible.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on November 14, 2017, 08:51:52 AM
Just put the check in the mail tonight to pay off the HELOC on our old house.   We had originally planned to pay it off by 09/01/2018, but we did better than that. :)   $55K in 2 years and 2 months.

Now we just have the mortgage on our new house to pay off, though at 2.75% I'm tempted to invest instead of hurry to pay it off.  We'll make our choice on that in a year or two, when we sell the house we're flipping.

Heresy! You need to be banished to join the heathens in the Do NOT Pay off your mortgage club... (disclosure: I am also on that thread)

Seriously, Congrats for making such good progress on the HELOC. I wish you continued momentum in achieving your financial goals! (whatever you may choose)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: TheWifeHalf on November 14, 2017, 09:53:34 AM
Oh how things change!
We bought our house in 1980 when interest rates were 12% and were still going up. We came across a house that was perfect for us and paid 20% down (to not have mortgage ins)
TheHusbandHalf lost his job in 1990 or so but 6 mos later got a better one, that he has now. Interest rates were still 10-11, he got a severance pay from the old, so we just paid off the mortgage.  I'll be honest and say that doing so was the most satisfying, liberating thing we have done. We have not borrowed money since except for a couple of vehicles when we took advantage of the 0% interest rate on car loans.

I suppose I keep that feeling in mind when my oldest son talks about the double payments he makes on his house. We've explained, ONCE, why that might not be the best financially smart thing to do, but he of course is free to do as he pleases. He has his Dd's diy interest and abilities, but also his sticking to his ideas no matter what I say!
His payments are half of what ours were, he makes 4 times what we made then, so I can see him doing this.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on November 15, 2017, 07:06:31 AM
Is he doubling the total payment amount or just doubling the principal?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BBub on November 17, 2017, 08:49:13 AM
Currently around $83k.  Paying $1,750/mo, which will eliminate it in about 4yrs.  Will probably freak out at some point between now & then, and just demolish it.

Ok I had my freakout as predicted.  The mortgage is gone.  We are now 100% debt free.  Woot.

Since the beginning of the year, I had paid it down from $83 to $68.  I've also amassed about $40k cash since then, and I had $25k in CD's at low rates as a sort of emergency buffer.  So I cashed those in earlier this week, added a little extra, requested the payoff quote & wired the funds this morning.

100% debt free at 32 & 30 for DW.  Pretty nice.

And to all the haters, I'm not worried about the compound value over 30 years. Just not.  I paid it off in 4 years and also managed to amass $500k liquid on top of the mortgage payoff, using many of the principles and techniques learned on this site.  I just don't think that $100k +/- in debt payoff vs. opportunity cost of investing is going to move the needle for me in a meaningful way over the lifetime.  It's just not a significant enough chunk of cash relative to my earning/savings rate.  The house is now appraised around $250k because we bought it low and made some improvements.  So we've gone from pretty close to $0NW to $750k debt free in about 4-5 years.  Give it another 5 & we should have a solid 7 figure net worth with no debt in our mid 30's.  I'll take that deal every time. 

On the other hand, maybe I'll turn 62 & regret the payoff at 32.  Look back over those last 30 years with a few hundred grand extra & think 'those 30 years of pesky mortgage payments would have been totally worth it.  I wish I wouldn't have had a serene, debt-free existence in my 30's, 40's and 50's raising kids, enjoying vacations and not constantly calculating amortization in my head.'  Doubtful.  The good news is that they're still selling mortgages, so I can always walk down to the bank & get another one if I change my mind!

Anyway, not to make this a negative rant.  It's exciting.  I just wanted to throw up two preemptive middle fingers & offer perspective to the demagogues who advocate against paying off mortgages in all circumstances.  Yes, the spreadsheet may show a larger number in row 30 by carrying the debt, but there's value in living those 30 years without debt too.  And if the debt is small enough relative to the overall financial profile, then the opportunity cost of payoff can actually be worth it.  Kind of like paying for a vacation or experience.  It's not the most optimal allocation of financial resources from an IRR perspective, but it is by no means a foolish thing to do if a person has done the math and decided the opportunity cost is worth the benefit.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: never give up on November 17, 2017, 09:53:17 AM
Congrats that's great news. I did a similar freak out myself even though my mortgage was less than 2% at the time. All I could think was just get rid of it and move on with my life! You've plenty of time now to invest with the knowledge during any downturns that you own the roof over your head.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on November 17, 2017, 10:12:41 AM
Dear BBub,
Congratulations on your succes!

However, your use of the word "haters" is most troubling...

Would you believe there are people who focus on "killing" the mortgage at the expense of retirement saving? Some don't even save enough to get their employer's full match! The years they choose not to fund every retirement option available to them can never be regained. Some people don't realize the magic of compound interest, understand the power of inflation or the concept of using leverage to create wealth.

At the very heart of Mustachianism is the concept of deploying every green soldier optimally.
The earlier one stocks up the investment accounts, the fewer actual dollars it will take to FIRE. The later one starts, the more soldiers are required. Prioritizing repaying a low-interest, fixed rate mortgage before other savings/investments is sub optimal.

People who endeavor to teach this message are LOVERS, not haters. They want to see all of their fellow mustachians reach their dreams as efficiently as possible. They seek for all to understand that sequencing has a huge impact on FIRE dates, and help them make optimal choices. For some, their COLA-to-income-ratio is low enough that the impact of sub-optimal prioritization is less significant. For others, the effect is far more pronounced. We would consider our work a complete success if people just understood the tradeoffs.

Most people will not really feel the impact of their choices until many years hence. How sad to be old, trapped in a paid-off house, yet live in fear of taxes, utilities and the need for a new roof. Better to assure there is enough to provide well for one's future self now, while the ability to earn, learn and invest is comparatively effortless.

BBub, it looks like you are one of the smart and lucky ones who was able to do both, and for that, you are to be heartily and sincerely congratulated. To the people who think the elation of paying off a mortgage lasts forever, I propose that there is an even better, more lasting love out there. Just wait until you experience the thrill of your investments earning more than you ever did in your career! Imagine getting a paycheck with no effort! That's the everlasting miracle of compound interest.

It can happen for everyone who saves a relatively small amount of money, the earlier the better, investing it well and watching it compound astronomically with time. That, my friends, is the opposite of hate. It is called spreading the Love. We will keep doggedly sharing the message until its benefits are common knowledge to all. ♡♡♡♡♡

Kudos to you, BBub, and everyone else who is willing to learn how to make the best choices on the path to FIRE.
Kindest regards,
Dicey

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BBub on November 17, 2017, 12:13:41 PM
Thanks Dicey, i am feeling the love in your post. 

I guess my main point is there is an entirely different perspective that challenges the Dogma of: buy house, get 30yr mortgage, invest the difference.  The "30yr leverage" logic can be applied to buying cars or anything else on long term fixed debt, and I think it enables many people to justify facepunch worthy housing consumption by looking at the future value of their mortgage balance then feeling really smart.

I'd suggest to those with a high COL to Income ratio that they focus on changing that ratio, rather than leveraging up on an expensive house for 30 years then feeling brilliant because of compound interest.   Of course one should not foolishly forego free match money or the many benefits of maxing out qualified accounts.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BBub on November 17, 2017, 12:17:26 PM
Congrats that's great news. I did a similar freak out myself even though my mortgage was less than 2% at the time. All I could think was just get rid of it and move on with my life! You've plenty of time now to invest with the knowledge during any downturns that you own the roof over your head.

Thanks never give up!  Good for you - I can relate to being ready to move on.  I am looking forward to the additional cash flow going forward to take advantage of any small dips or large canyons that may appear in the markets!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: farmecologist on November 19, 2017, 10:17:44 AM
Thanks Dicey, i am feeling the love in your post. 

I guess my main point is there is an entirely different perspective that challenges the Dogma of: buy house, get 30yr mortgage, invest the difference.  The "30yr leverage" logic can be applied to buying cars or anything else on long term fixed debt, and I think it enables many people to justify facepunch worthy housing consumption by looking at the future value of their mortgage balance then feeling really smart.

I'd suggest to those with a high COL to Income ratio that they focus on changing that ratio, rather than leveraging up on an expensive house for 30 years then feeling brilliant because of compound interest.   Of course one should not foolishly forego free match money or the many benefits of maxing out qualified accounts.

Congrats Bbub!  Your views certainly mirror my own ( as we have discussed in this thread may times in the past ).  That is, there is no 'one size fits all' when it comes to the world of finances.  Some abide by 'the math' and some by 'the gut' but I'm happy that we all have the same ultimate goal...to eventually FIRE.

 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on November 20, 2017, 08:11:57 AM
Thanks Dicey, i am feeling the love in your post. 

I guess my main point is there is an entirely different perspective that challenges the Dogma of: buy house, get 30yr mortgage, invest the difference.  The "30yr leverage" logic can be applied to buying cars or anything else on long term fixed debt, and I think it enables many people to justify facepunch worthy housing consumption by looking at the future value of their mortgage balance then feeling really smart.

I'd suggest to those with a high COL to Income ratio that they focus on changing that ratio, rather than leveraging up on an expensive house for 30 years then feeling brilliant because of compound interest.   Of course one should not foolishly forego free match money or the many benefits of maxing out qualified accounts.

I've appreciated you guys engaging in this debate...I've begun to appreciate that there are two kinds of financial decision-makers:

1. Monthly payment people, and
2. Lump Sum people.

I suspect that most spendy-pants people are monthly-payment people. (disclosure: I probably am, as well)

I think that monthly payment people can be more easily seduced by the "leverage the house for long-term investing" plan, because I think they are more willing to take on debt, in general. But I totally accept the argument of the lump sum people out there that...when you try to perceive a deal in lump sum terms, you will spend less.

I have actively worked on myself by trying to train myself to think of every transaction in lump sum terms. While this didn't stop me from financing a vehicle, it has kept me from committing to some other extravagances that are frequently sold to us as being "not that much when you make payments".
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: protostache on November 20, 2017, 11:57:42 AM
is anyone on this thread taking the approach of stuffing all the money he/she can into an SP500 fund, and then--when the balance is equal to the mortgage--selling to pay off the mortgage?

I'd like to revisit this because it doesn't seem to be talked about much (I haven't read the entire thread, though). We're finally going to be at a point early next year where we can take some action on the mortgage and we're weighing our options.

Our plan has been to save up half of the principal and do a recast, but it turns out our mortgage company doesn't allow recasts. It still seems less risky (where "risk" = "risk of ruin", not "volatility") to me to save up the cash and do one big lump at the end, rather than pay extra principal every month.

The only problem is that we probably are not going to want to invest this money. It's going to be building up for about four years while we amass enough to do one lump and I guess I'm conflicted about building up that much cash in a money market account earning a max of 1.5%.

What about brokered CDs? Building up a set of CDs that all mature right before we're projecting mortgage payoff is somewhat attractive and the average interest rate will probably end up being higher than a money market account.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BBub on November 20, 2017, 01:03:48 PM
Protostache - this is basically what I did.  Paying the mortgage off this year wasn't really premeditated, but I ended up with adequate cash then just paid it off.  Having the full amount saved/invested is definitely the lowest risk approach.  If you just pay down a large portion but leave a remaining balance, you are still on the hook for the full payment amount if you fall on lean times.

Here's how our payoff worked out:

Mortgage payoff balance was ($68k).

I bought $25k in CD's a few years ago as an emergency buffer.  5yr ladder of $5k each.  The rates were abysmal (weighted average around 1.4% I think).  At the time, I just wanted a little safe money in the portfolio since the overall allocation was very heavily weighted to equities.  My logic was that even if all hell broke loose and we lost jobs & income, we could manage for quite some time on $25k plus oddjob income.  That was just a comfortable number for me.

After maxing retirement accts this year, I started accumulating cash for a promising real estate deal.  The deal didn't pan out, but I had amassed about $40k.

Before then, the finances had just been on autopilot with any surplus taxable money going straight into the equity portfolio established several years back.  It was a great disciplined approach, but i broke the momentum when the real estate thing came up then fell through.  So I was just kind of staring at the cash & waiting around for who knows what.. when I just decided now was the time for the mortgage payoff.  I already had an accelerated payment schedule to pay off the mortgage in 3.5 more years.  So I figured what the hell, bird in hand, let's kill the thing & be done with it.  I requested a payoff quote last Wednesday, cashed in the CD's, combined all the cash & wired it over to the mortgage company on Friday.

As mentioned, we still have just over $500k liquid & a solid savings rate.  Our FI goal is $1.25M plus a paid off house.  At this point, I can just have a single minded focus on increasing the liquid stache.  It will also feel pretty good to know, if we go into a market downturn or my income decreases, that I paid everything off when times were fat.  I can envision my future self being happy with the decision in lean times, but I can't see a future where I am pissed about the missed spread.  The potential sigh of relief outweighs the little bit of extra greed for me.  Don't get me wrong, I can be a greedy bastard too, this payoff just felt like the right thing to do at the right time.

So, that's pretty much it. Starting next month I'll start investing the surplus straight into equity portfolio again.  Hoping the path to FI is straight, short & simple from here on out!  I'm sure we'll still hit a few bumps or curves along the way, but we'll deal with those as they come.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: birdman2003 on November 20, 2017, 02:18:52 PM
It will also feel pretty good to know, if we go into a market downturn or my income decreases, that I paid everything off when times were fat.  I can envision my future self being happy with the decision in lean times, but I can't see a future where I am pissed about the missed spread.  The potential sigh of relief outweighs the little bit of extra greed for me.  Don't get me wrong, I can be a greedy bastard too, this payoff just felt like the right thing to do at the right time.

This is my line of thinking too.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on November 26, 2017, 06:37:51 AM

I'm here!!

Starting Mortgage:  123K
Current Balance: 122K

Mortgage is at 4.25% with PMI, so while I may switch up strategies at some point, right now the goal is to get the PMI off as quickly as possible, hopefully by August 2015 (we only had 5% down).  If we don't switch strategies, goal is to pay this off in the next 3 or 4 years. 


PMI is on my mind as well - pay off all other debt first and then get rid of that pointless $118 fee that goes to waste every month.  I plan to get rid of it by December 2015.  Good luck to you :)

I love seeing everyone else's progress on this thread.
[/quote]


Current principle:  $103,457.43 - PMI is OFF

Now I switch gears to max out IRAs for 2015, then in 2016 we will have to payoff our foundation repairs (currently at 0%), max out IRA's and pay for school for me...so not a lot of progress will happen on the mortgage front.  I'll see you all again sometime in 2017.  I'll still watch and read others make progress towards their goals.  Good luck, everyone!!
[/quote]


It's paid off!  I started this journey in June 2014 and three and a half years later we are done.  We took a selfie and I told my parents and one close friend who is on a similar journey and we are honest about this stuff.  Selling the rental helped us achieve this goal this year, otherwise we would still be a year or two away from it.  Feels good but also kind of anti-climatic.  Next goal is 500K saved in the next 5 years.  We are 37 and 36 now. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Prairie Gal on November 26, 2017, 07:10:58 AM
Quote
It's paid off!  I started this journey in June 2014 and three and a half years later we are done.  We took a selfie and I told my parents and one close friend who is on a similar journey and we are honest about this stuff.  Selling the rental helped us achieve this goal this year, otherwise we would still be a year or two away from it.  Feels good but also kind of anti-climatic.  Next goal is 500K saved in the next 5 years.  We are 37 and 36 now. 

Congratulations! It's a great feeling, isn't it?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: iluvzbeach on November 26, 2017, 07:20:53 AM
Congrats, Neustache! Welcome to the club.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: farmecologist on November 26, 2017, 07:46:15 AM
It's paid off!  I started this journey in June 2014 and three and a half years later we are done.  We took a selfie and I told my parents and one close friend who is on a similar journey and we are honest about this stuff.  Selling the rental helped us achieve this goal this year, otherwise we would still be a year or two away from it.  Feels good but also kind of anti-climatic.  Next goal is 500K saved in the next 5 years. We are 37 and 36 now.


I'm sure you will see your savings accelerate tremendously now.  Just remember to invest all of the money you were using to  pay off the mortgage!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Apple_Tango on November 26, 2017, 08:30:09 AM
On the other hand, maybe I'll turn 62 & regret the payoff at 32.  Look back over those last 30 years with a few hundred grand extra & think 'those 30 years of pesky mortgage payments would have been totally worth it.  I wish I wouldn't have had a serene, debt-free existence in my 30's, 40's and 50's raising kids, enjoying vacations and not constantly calculating amortization in my head.'  Doubtful.  The good news is that they're still selling mortgages, so I can always walk down to the bank & get another one if I change my mind!

The good news is that if you HATE being debt free and want to pull out equity to play the market(as the DO NOT PAY camp recommends), you can do that. You can always go back into debt if you hate how debt free feels....
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: boarder42 on November 26, 2017, 02:36:12 PM
On the other hand, maybe I'll turn 62 & regret the payoff at 32.  Look back over those last 30 years with a few hundred grand extra & think 'those 30 years of pesky mortgage payments would have been totally worth it.  I wish I wouldn't have had a serene, debt-free existence in my 30's, 40's and 50's raising kids, enjoying vacations and not constantly calculating amortization in my head.'  Doubtful.  The good news is that they're still selling mortgages, so I can always walk down to the bank & get another one if I change my mind!

The good news is that if you HATE being debt free and want to pull out equity to play the market(as the DO NOT PAY camp recommends), you can do that. You can always go back into debt if you hate how debt free feels....

This is wildly incorrect. Mortgage rates fluctuate there is a chance you'll never see the rate you have at the start again. So paying down a 4% or less mortgage now may mean if you find the light and the greatness of the low fixed rate mortgages of our current climate but it's 5 years from now and rates are back around the avg 5-7% it no longer may make sense to leverage a mortgage. We are at a very interesting time in mortgage rate history that we may not see again.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Apple_Tango on November 26, 2017, 02:50:32 PM
You can certainly take on debt regardless of the interest rate. If you hate having a paid off house, get another mortgage on it. It really is that simple. I get your point that you think a sub 4% interest rate is the bees knees...but to me it just sounds crazy. I don't want to pay it! I would be as likely to acquire debt by taking out a second mortgage at 4% as I am at 15%...which is to say not likely at all. But if you love to be in debt, then go right ahead.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: boarder42 on November 26, 2017, 02:59:51 PM
You can certainly take on debt regardless of the interest rate. If you hate having a paid off house, get another mortgage on it. It really is that simple. I get your point that you think a sub 4% interest rate is the bees knees...but to me it just sounds crazy. I don't want to pay it! I would be as likely to acquire debt by taking out a second mortgage at 4% as I am at 15%...which is to say not likely at all. But if you love to be in debt, then go right ahead.

Not one of the people in the don't pay off your mortgage thread is there because they love debt. It's a math equation. You need to learn alot because you have posted incorrectly in both of those threads and show a clear lack of open mindedness to learn anything against what you Believe or feel. Not a single one of us would advocate for a mortgage at 10% let alone 15. And it's likely closer to 7-8% or less depending on some factors.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: protostache on November 26, 2017, 06:36:53 PM
You can certainly take on debt regardless of the interest rate. If you hate having a paid off house, get another mortgage on it. It really is that simple. I get your point that you think a sub 4% interest rate is the bees knees...but to me it just sounds crazy. I don't want to pay it! I would be as likely to acquire debt by taking out a second mortgage at 4% as I am at 15%...which is to say not likely at all. But if you love to be in debt, then go right ahead.

Not one of the people in the don't pay off your mortgage thread is there because they love debt. It's a math equation. You need to learn alot because you have posted incorrectly in both of those threads and show a clear lack of open mindedness to learn anything against what you Believe or feel. Not a single one of us would advocate for a mortgage at 10% let alone 15. And it's likely closer to 7-8% or less depending on some factors.

You’ve made your point in this thread over and over and still, people are paying off their mortgages! What’s wrong with them?! Could it be that they fully understand the math and just don’t care? That they weigh their peace of mind more heavily than an interest arbitrage play?

No, they must not have heard your preaching. That must be it.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on November 26, 2017, 06:55:30 PM
@Neustache,   Congratulations on paying it off and winning your freedom!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on November 26, 2017, 08:16:36 PM
@Neustache,   Congratulations on paying it off and winning your freedom!

Thank you everyone!  I already feel the freedom.  Daughter is sick, normally I'd fret about calling in tomorrow.  Nope!  Did find a sub, though, so I feel good about not being there.  :D
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on November 26, 2017, 09:42:24 PM
There is not now, nor will there ever be, freedom from property taxes, maintenance, or utilities. If you pay off your mortgage, the bank can't foreclose on your house, 'tis true. If you fail to pay your taxes, your county tax assessor can auction it right out from under you. Can't pay your utilities? Good luck with that. The utility companies reserve the right to shut off your water, gas, and power. What? You say your roof is caving in, your heater went out, the plumbing leaks and you don't have the money for repairs? So sad...

If you save/invest your money first, THEN pay off your mortgage, the odds are much more in your favor. If you don't understand why,  pleeeeease don't prepay another penny on your mortgage until you do.

Personally, people like b42 and I (and more every day) are grateful someone taught us this math and we were open minded enough to embrace it. We want to help others as we have been helped. If you understand this concept and are stuffing your investment accounts full to bursting first, then hooray for you! If you're just doing it without a clear understanding of the math, then  just know that it's gonna cost you more and take you longer to reach FIRE. That's fine for a lot of people, but we're not spending time on this forum seeking the longer path to FIRE, are we?

BTW, to those who say you can remortgage later, there are catches to that strategy.

1. The best rates and terms are typically for original acquisition loans. i.e. when you first buy the house.
2. It's easier to qualify for a mortgage when you're still drawing a steady paycheck.
3. I'm not a CPA, but I am aware that there limits to the deductibility of money borrowed on a home beyond original home acquisition cost. I believe it's generally $100k if  married or $50k if single. Should you decide to pull say, $250k out of your house for living expenses at a later date, it's going to cost you more because only part of it will be deductible. Consult a tax professional for further detalis.
4. These historically low mortgage rates will not last forever.
5. In the years to come, when rates normalize, people who still have cheap-ass mortgage loans are going to be laughing all the way to the bank. Try to be one of them.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Askel on November 27, 2017, 07:41:47 AM
Sure, I did have some well thought out reasons for paying off my mortgage early.

But now I think I'm going to pay off my mortgage just because it makes the DO NOT PAY club so comically angry. 

I'm looking forward to another 6 posts detailing how dumb I am. 

FWIW: I'm in the final count down. 12 months to go and I'm free. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: boarder42 on November 27, 2017, 07:56:09 AM
You can certainly take on debt regardless of the interest rate. If you hate having a paid off house, get another mortgage on it. It really is that simple. I get your point that you think a sub 4% interest rate is the bees knees...but to me it just sounds crazy. I don't want to pay it! I would be as likely to acquire debt by taking out a second mortgage at 4% as I am at 15%...which is to say not likely at all. But if you love to be in debt, then go right ahead.

Not one of the people in the don't pay off your mortgage thread is there because they love debt. It's a math equation. You need to learn alot because you have posted incorrectly in both of those threads and show a clear lack of open mindedness to learn anything against what you Believe or feel. Not a single one of us would advocate for a mortgage at 10% let alone 15. And it's likely closer to 7-8% or less depending on some factors.

You’ve made your point in this thread over and over and still, people are paying off their mortgages! What’s wrong with them?! Could it be that they fully understand the math and just don’t care? That they weigh their peace of mind more heavily than an interest arbitrage play?

No, they must not have heard your preaching. That must be it.

there is a new poster in this thread who is trying to determine what is best for them.  Its quite easy to get locked into a group think mentality and join other "like minded" people with out truly weighing or understanding all the real options and how they impact you.  Which can be seen from the multiple posts made by this poster in both threads.   sure there are many here who thought this thru.  But you all should be telling people to understand it all before you just include them in the group b/c they must have thought it thru.  I'd be the first to question someone with a 7% mortgage in the dont pay off your mortgage club as to what their mentality was behind it.  But this thread is doing a disservice to the community at large if they react in the way you did to my comments above which did not indicate you shouldnt pay down your mortage it in fact gave a scenario in which i would pay down my mortgage. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: protostache on November 27, 2017, 08:08:37 AM
You can certainly take on debt regardless of the interest rate. If you hate having a paid off house, get another mortgage on it. It really is that simple. I get your point that you think a sub 4% interest rate is the bees knees...but to me it just sounds crazy. I don't want to pay it! I would be as likely to acquire debt by taking out a second mortgage at 4% as I am at 15%...which is to say not likely at all. But if you love to be in debt, then go right ahead.

Not one of the people in the don't pay off your mortgage thread is there because they love debt. It's a math equation. You need to learn alot because you have posted incorrectly in both of those threads and show a clear lack of open mindedness to learn anything against what you Believe or feel. Not a single one of us would advocate for a mortgage at 10% let alone 15. And it's likely closer to 7-8% or less depending on some factors.

You’ve made your point in this thread over and over and still, people are paying off their mortgages! What’s wrong with them?! Could it be that they fully understand the math and just don’t care? That they weigh their peace of mind more heavily than an interest arbitrage play?

No, they must not have heard your preaching. That must be it.

there is a new poster in this thread who is trying to determine what is best for them.  Its quite easy to get locked into a group think mentality and join other "like minded" people with out truly weighing or understanding all the real options and how they impact you.  Which can be seen from the multiple posts made by this poster in both threads.   sure there are many here who thought this thru.  But you all should be telling people to understand it all before you just include them in the group b/c they must have thought it thru.  I'd be the first to question someone with a 7% mortgage in the dont pay off your mortgage club as to what their mentality was behind it.  But this thread is doing a disservice to the community at large if they react in the way you did to my comments above which did not indicate you shouldnt pay down your mortage it in fact gave a scenario in which i would pay down my mortgage.

I 100% agree with you that people should think it through entirely before making a decision. I'm suggesting, perhaps more causticly than necessary since I just read every post in the thread including your basic message half a dozen times, that a 29 page thread full of people tracking their progress toward and eventually celebrating their accomplishment of one branch of that decision tree isn't the place to be mounting a campaign for the other branch.

I think the most appropriate course of action would be a sticky thread that links to this thread, the various "starting balance" payoff threads, as well as the "don't pay off your mortgage" club and all of the other super long, incredibly detailed "should I or shouldn't I, how bad is it?" conversations that have happened in the past. That way we could have one place to point people when they ask "should I or shouldn't I" instead of posting the same things repeatedly and having conversations that span multiple concurrent threads. If, after reading all of the material linked from that sticky, people still have questions, they can make a case study.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: boarder42 on November 27, 2017, 08:13:28 AM
You can certainly take on debt regardless of the interest rate. If you hate having a paid off house, get another mortgage on it. It really is that simple. I get your point that you think a sub 4% interest rate is the bees knees...but to me it just sounds crazy. I don't want to pay it! I would be as likely to acquire debt by taking out a second mortgage at 4% as I am at 15%...which is to say not likely at all. But if you love to be in debt, then go right ahead.

Not one of the people in the don't pay off your mortgage thread is there because they love debt. It's a math equation. You need to learn alot because you have posted incorrectly in both of those threads and show a clear lack of open mindedness to learn anything against what you Believe or feel. Not a single one of us would advocate for a mortgage at 10% let alone 15. And it's likely closer to 7-8% or less depending on some factors.

You’ve made your point in this thread over and over and still, people are paying off their mortgages! What’s wrong with them?! Could it be that they fully understand the math and just don’t care? That they weigh their peace of mind more heavily than an interest arbitrage play?

No, they must not have heard your preaching. That must be it.

there is a new poster in this thread who is trying to determine what is best for them.  Its quite easy to get locked into a group think mentality and join other "like minded" people with out truly weighing or understanding all the real options and how they impact you.  Which can be seen from the multiple posts made by this poster in both threads.   sure there are many here who thought this thru.  But you all should be telling people to understand it all before you just include them in the group b/c they must have thought it thru.  I'd be the first to question someone with a 7% mortgage in the dont pay off your mortgage club as to what their mentality was behind it.  But this thread is doing a disservice to the community at large if they react in the way you did to my comments above which did not indicate you shouldnt pay down your mortage it in fact gave a scenario in which i would pay down my mortgage.

I 100% agree with you that people should think it through entirely before making a decision. I'm suggesting, perhaps more causticly than necessary since I just read every post in the thread including your basic message half a dozen times, that a 29 page thread full of people tracking their progress toward and eventually celebrating their accomplishment of one branch of that decision tree isn't the place to be mounting a campaign for the other branch.

I think the most appropriate course of action would be a sticky thread that links to this thread, the various "starting balance" payoff threads, as well as the "don't pay off your mortgage" club and all of the other super long, incredibly detailed "should I or shouldn't I, how bad is it?" conversations that have happened in the past. That way we could have one place to point people when they ask "should I or shouldn't I" instead of posting the same things repeatedly and having conversations that span multiple concurrent threads. If, after reading all of the material linked from that sticky, people still have questions, they can make a case study.

this is what i've recommended to that poster - b/c i'm sure you can see just from the post made here there is a lack of understanding.  Then go check out their post in the Dont pay off your mortgage thread and you will see an even greater distance from understanding even some of the most basic FIRE principals not even regarding carrying a mortgage or otherwise. 

that being said i bit my tongue on bbubs original post about being able to get a mortgage whenever - but could not when a new person bit on that like it was a reality.  The reality in all likelihood is we will not see these rates again in 30 years time and that this is a bottom.  But if it isnt a bottom those with or without mortgage could dip back in and get the rates again.  IF it is and you've paid off your low fixed debt then you've cut off a possible insane deal and that statement should not be proliferated as the truth.  b/c no one knows what rates will do but in paying down a mortgage you have cut off your flexiblity should they rise.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: farmecologist on November 27, 2017, 09:44:48 AM

Frankly, the intent of this thread is a support group for those that have already made the decision to pay off their mortgage...regardless of the reasoning.  I think we have went over this before...many times.  The arguments for or against just don't seem to belong here.

Perhaps we need a thread for those that are thinking about paying it off....but have not made a decision yet??
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: protostache on November 27, 2017, 09:50:07 AM

Frankly, the intent of this thread is a support group for those that have already made the decision to pay off their mortgage...regardless of the reasoning.  I think we have went over this before...many times.  The arguments for or against just don't seem to belong here.

Perhaps we need a thread for those that are thinking about paying it off....but have not made a decision yet??

Yes, this is my suggestion also. This is a common enough topic that a sticky thread is warranted, even if it just links out to the various on-going threads.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on November 27, 2017, 10:07:39 AM
I feel like I've commented before, but my 2 cents is that once mortgage is below $50K, the mental peace of mind and ability to change the property insurance deductible to a higher minimum makes it financially worth it to prepay. (i.e. a $10K deductible on a $500K house costs approximately $750 less per year than a $1K deductible in my area.) Also, for US FAFSA college financial aid purposes, assets are assessed at a 5-7% rate for college, whereas the equity in your home is not included as an asset available for college funding. So if you have excess after-tax assets (not in a 401(k)/403(b) etc.), and you might qualify for financial aid otherwise, it can make sense to move that $ into your home equity. During the college years, our plan is to only contribute to the 401(k) up to the match and any extra after tuition costs will go into prepaying the mortgage. We're at $219K. We're also holding payoffs until we see how much college will be costing and are sitting on $70K in liquid assets which could be used for mortgage payoffs.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on November 27, 2017, 07:31:50 PM
Sure, I did have some well thought out reasons for paying off my mortgage early.

But now I think I'm going to pay off my mortgage just because it makes the DO NOT PAY club so comically angry. 

I'm looking forward to another 6 posts detailing how dumb I am. 

FWIW: I'm in the final count down. 12 months to go and I'm free.

Or maybe a re-make of the Miller Lite ads of old... Instead of "Tastes Great!  Less Filling!"    It'll be...  "DUMB!   FREE!   DUMB!!  FREE!!   DUMB!!!   FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Askel on November 28, 2017, 05:09:37 AM
It's a floor wax, AND a dessert topping! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPO8PqHGWFU
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: theadvicist on November 28, 2017, 06:53:36 AM
I too am so sick of the endless, “do the math!” posts. Why do you need to come and ruins people’s fun? We are not stupid little people who need you to come and educate us, thank you. We have made our decisions and do not need rescuing from them.

For me, the main issue is that in many countries (mine included) it does make financial sense to pay off your mortgage. Did you know that? Shall I wade into the “don’t pay off your mortgage thread” and educate people?

There is not now, nor will there ever be, freedom from property taxes, maintenance, or utilities. If you pay off your mortgage, the bank can't foreclose on your house, 'tis true. If you fail to pay your taxes, your county tax assessor can auction it right out from under you. Can't pay your utilities? Good luck with that. The utility companies reserve the right to shut off your water, gas, and power. What? You say your roof is caving in, your heater went out, the plumbing leaks and you don't have the money for repairs? So sad...
Not true in the UK. Once the bank has no claim on your home, no one does. Technically you could go to prison for non payment of a small tax called Council Tax (£118 a month for us), but only if you refuse to pay it. If you can’t pay it through financial difficulty you are exempted. The test is based on income, so if times really were that lean, you would qualify for the exemption. If times were so bad you couldn’t afford utilities, you certainly won’t be able to pay rent, so that’s kind of moot. And again, in the UK, you would qualify for help if things were that bad.

The rest of my responses are in bold below.

BTW, to those who say you can remortgage later, there are catches to that strategy.

1. The best rates and terms are typically for original acquisition loans. i.e. when you first buy the house. again, not true in the UK. The best rates are for those with a small loan to value ratio. By paying my mortgage down to 50% of the appraised value my rate went from 5.49% to 1.99%

2. It's easier to qualify for a mortgage when you're still drawing a steady paycheck. this i agree with

3. I'm not a CPA, but I am aware that there limits to the deductibility of money borrowed on a home beyond original home acquisition cost. I believe it's generally $100k if  married or $50k if single. Should you decide to pull say, $250k out of your house for living expenses at a later date, it's going to cost you more because only part of it will be deductible. Consult a tax professional for further detalis. tax relief on mortgage interest was abolished here about 30 years ago

4. These historically low mortgage rates will not last forever. very true. And here in the UK you don’t fix for 30 years - your rate goes up and down with prevailing interest rates. In the early 90s my parents were paying 17% interest. Can you imagine spending 17% of your home’s loan value A YEAR just to the bank? That’s no principal payment at all. You are able to fix for a shorter duration, usually between 3 - 5 years. Interest rates here have only one way to go, and the Bank of England’s has been warning that they will start to rise. I intend to only borrow money at the current low rates, which means I need to have a strategy for paying it off once rates start to rise. At that point, I need to be a lender, not a borrower

5. In the years to come, when rates normalize, people who still have cheap-ass mortgage loans are going to be laughing all the way to the bank. Try to be one of them.rates will normalise. And my friends with £300k houses on 95% loans who are already stretched to the max and living paycheck to paycheck will not be laughing at all. The banks will increase rates, and then what will they do? I’ve asked a few, none seem to have a plan. I want to be one of the ones who is never in peril of losing my home because interest rates have done the only predictable thing.

ETA: missing word.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on November 28, 2017, 07:29:49 AM
I feel like I've commented before, but my 2 cents is that once mortgage is below $50K, the mental peace of mind and ability to change the property insurance deductible to a higher minimum makes it financially worth it to prepay. (i.e. a $10K deductible on a $500K house costs approximately $750 less per year than a $1K deductible in my area.) Also, for US FAFSA college financial aid purposes, assets are assessed at a 5-7% rate for college, whereas the equity in your home is not included as an asset available for college funding. So if you have excess after-tax assets (not in a 401(k)/403(b) etc.), and you might qualify for financial aid otherwise, it can make sense to move that $ into your home equity. During the college years, our plan is to only contribute to the 401(k) up to the match and any extra after tuition costs will go into prepaying the mortgage. We're at $219K. We're also holding payoffs until we see how much college will be costing and are sitting on $70K in liquid assets which could be used for mortgage payoffs.

The tax reform bills that are floating in Congress right now will also be quite a bit less favorable to the mortgage interest deduction, although it's subtle in that it comes from raising the standard deduction so much.

The House version of the bill also cuts the upper limit of mortgage balance the interest on which is deductible from $1,000,000 to $500,000.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on November 28, 2017, 08:52:51 AM
I too am so sick of the endless, “do the math!” posts. Why do you need to come and ruins people’s fun? We are not stupid little people who need you to come and educate us, thank you. We have made our decisions and do not need rescuing from them.

For me, the main issue is that in many countries (mine included) it does make financial sense to pay off your mortgage. Did you know that? Shall I wade into the “don’t pay off your mortgage thread” and educate people?

There is not now, nor will there ever be, freedom from property taxes, maintenance, or utilities. If you pay off your mortgage, the bank can't foreclose on your house, 'tis true. If you fail to pay your taxes, your county tax assessor can auction it right out from under you. Can't pay your utilities? Good luck with that. The utility companies reserve the right to shut off your water, gas, and power. What? You say your roof is caving in, your heater went out, the plumbing leaks and you don't have the money for repairs? So sad...
Not true in the UK. Once the bank has no claim on your home, no one does. Technically you could go to prison for non payment of a small tax called Council Tax (£118 a month for us), but only if you refuse to pay it. If you can’t pay it through financial difficulty you are exempted. The test is based on income, so if times really were that lean, you would qualify for the exemption. If times were so bad you couldn’t afford utilities, you certainly won’t be able to pay rent, so that’s kind of moot. And again, in the UK, you would qualify for help if things were that bad.

The rest of my responses are in bold below.

BTW, to those who say you can remortgage later, there are catches to that strategy.

1. The best rates and terms are typically for original acquisition loans. i.e. when you first buy the house. again, not true in the UK. The best rates are for those with a small loan to value ratio. By paying my mortgage down to 50% of the appraised value my rate went from 5.49% to 1.99%

2. It's easier to qualify for a mortgage when you're still drawing a steady paycheck. this i agree with

3. I'm not a CPA, but I am aware that there limits to the deductibility of money borrowed on a home beyond original home acquisition cost. I believe it's generally $100k if  married or $50k if single. Should you decide to pull say, $250k out of your house for living expenses at a later date, it's going to cost you more because only part of it will be deductible. Consult a tax professional for further detalis. tax relief on mortgage interest was abolished here about 30 years ago

4. These historically low mortgage rates will not last forever. very true. And here in the UK you don’t fix for 30 years - your rate goes up and down with prevailing interest rates. In the early 90s my parents were paying 17% interest. Can you imagine spending 17% of your home’s value A YEAR just to the bank? That’s no principal payment at all. You are able to fix for a shorter duration, usually between 3 - 5 years. Interest rates here have only one way to go, and the Bank of England’s has been warning that they will start to rise. I intend to only borrow money at the current low rates, which means I need to have a strategy for paying it off once rates start to rise. At that point, I need to be a lender, not a borrower

5. In the years to come, when rates normalize, people who still have cheap-ass mortgage loans are going to be laughing all the way to the bank. Try to be one of them.rates will normalise. And my friends with £300k houses on 95% loans who are already stretched to the max and living paycheck to paycheck will not be laughing at all. The banks will increase rates, and then what will they do? I’ve asked a few, none seem to have a plan. I want to be one of the ones who is never in peril of losing my home because interest rates have done the only predictable thing.
1. The point is that people make decisions without understanding the math.

2. We are always, always talking about fixed rate, low interest mortgages, which are commonly available throughout the US. Adjustable rate mortgages are a crapshoot.  Point #1 includes anyone who cannot clearly explain why.

3. This blog and forum originate in the Untied States. I live in the United States. All of my many real estate transactions have occurred and will continue to occur in the Untied States. Therefore, my points are anything but "moot", they are perfectly applicable to all who own real estate in the United States. When I read a recipe from anywhere that uses the Metric System, I do not expect it to be translated for me. I do it myself without complaint, because I can math.

4. Here in the United States, those of us who understand the math generally feel quite sorry for those who cannot get fixed rate mortgages and/or deduct mortgage interest on their taxes. (The consolation is possibly that your healthcare systems are much less fucked up more humane than ours.)

5. Mortgage interest deductibility does not negate the math. Leverage, inflation and the time value of money invested are the biggest needle movers.

6. The concepts mentioned in #5 probably apply globally, and are well worth researching and understanding in any country. They are part of the math we should all be striving to understand before making mortgage prepayment decisions.

7. We are not shouting, we are sharing, in hopes of teaching. Sorry if that ruins your "fun".

8. Bonus Point: Forums exist for discussion. To say that only one side can be espoused on any thread herein is stupid ridiculous silly unclear on the concept.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: theadvicist on November 28, 2017, 09:55:11 AM

2. We are always, always talking about fixed rate, low interest mortgages


See, this is my point. No we are not. This forum is open to anyone who registers and when I say “I have paid x off my mortgage!” I do not mean a fixed rate, low interest mortgage. I just mean my mortgage.

You do not have the right to define what the words “we” use mean. Especially when they are being used perfectly accurately.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on November 29, 2017, 10:51:46 AM
Dicey and Boarder42:

I appreciate that you want to be helpful, but as others have mentioned, this is a celebratory and inspirational thread.  Boarder42's counter-thread is a perfect place to suggest to newbies to get a counter-view for decision making.  But since you've both already stated your reasons for not paying off the mortgage so, so, so many times, in the future when you see a newbie and fear they may make "the wrong decision", why don't you just PM them to let them know about your other thread? 

You guys are like the preacher dudes at the baseball games.  Dude, if I want to be preached at, I'll go to church.  But right now, I'm at baseball and I want to hear about baseball, so F Off

Edited (to strike the "F Off")
And to add:

My sincerest apologies....I didn't mean to direct that at any forum members.  I was (in my mind) speaking to the preacher dude at the baseball game. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on November 29, 2017, 12:14:49 PM
Let's try to keep it civil, BH. PM sent, per your suggestion.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: boarder42 on November 29, 2017, 06:54:32 PM
I'll start by saying I respect the thread for it's value in providing a place for members who have decided to pay off their mortgage as a place to congregate. And share enthusiasm.

But in the real world that we live in. In the good ole us of a. This is completely detrimental to most  if not all participants.  And encourages people who do not understand that this is something they should partake in.

This very thread is worse financially in the United States than
1 hiring a lawn mower
2 owning a washing machine and dryer
3 eating out daily
4 hiring a house cleaner
5 owning a brand new Escalade.

Many here have admitted that they understand that it's not financially the best decision but makes them feel better. Well to that I ask what personal feeling are we not to have conversations about here. If someone started a thread about buying a new Escalade because " it feels so good". People would show up in droves to help that person out. There is a reason people aren't constantly posting about why you should pay off your mortgage and why dicey and I post in many places about this. It's not to shame or ridicule those who do but to try to help people understand the other side and how much better it is in the long run.

General Americans mentality is go into debt and buy things. This site helps people understand how to mitigate that but there is currently a gift from the govt in front of us and people should exploit that.

If you make so much money like BH it really doesn't matter so be it. But the lower income people who may come here thinking debt us bad see this thread and join in the fun of a very poor financial decision when optimization would cut multiple years off a job they don't want to be in at 60
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Rowellen on November 29, 2017, 08:01:01 PM
I for one appreciate the input of boarder42 and dicey etc. I'm convinced that if I were American I would have changed my mind. As it is, I have looked at my maths and challenged my assumptions. I have come to the conclusion that there is very minimal difference between paying or not paying my mortgage. The differences between Australia and America that produce this result include:

Higher interest rates  (mine is approx 4.5%)

Shorter fixed term then has to be renegotiated or the rate becomes variable. (I have 1 year left of a 3year fixed rate term)

Redraw facilities (any extra I pay off my mortgage automatically reduces principal and is available to redraw whenever I want. This is a tax free 4.5% return without even having to lock the money away like a term deposit)

Australia doesn't allow income tax deductions for interest on property you are living in.  On the flip side income from investments is generally taxed at my marginal rate (currently 36%). This brings the expected return much closer to my interest rate. I worked out less than 1% difference on an 8% return. To me, that isn't worth the extra risk.

Instead, I have compromised. I have increased our super savings (tax reduced to 15% so much better return) and slowed down the mortgage payoff.  Super is locked away until age 60 so I'm hesitant to save too much there but will definitely increase contributions for the next few years.

I believe it is a good thing to revisit decisions and see if your initial conclusion still holds true when new information is available or even if circumstances have changed.  Changes can happen so gradually that you don't notice that what might have worked in the past no longer does.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on November 29, 2017, 08:29:19 PM
For 3+ years, this thread has been a community of like-minded people working hard to change their behavior and become free of debt.   It's a way of becoming FI espoused by world renowned personal finance coaches including Dave Ramsey, Ron Blue and multiple others.    And FWIW, I come back here to encourage and be encouraged because it's important someone hear your success when the rest of the world are sukkas spending every shekel they earn monthly as slaves serving their loans.     It's sad a few smarter-than-thou killjoys want to miss the point and discuss leverage and any excuses to continue being slave to a lender.   Behavior change and wisdom to free up your cash flow to grow wealth even faster while sleeping better is the point here.   If you aren't a fan of such behavior change, then don't let the virtual door hit your @$$ on the way out of this like minded community.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on November 29, 2017, 10:00:03 PM
For 3+ years, this thread has been a community of like-minded people working hard to change their behavior and become free of debt.   It's a way of becoming FI espoused by world renowned personal finance coaches including Dave Ramsey, Ron Blue and multiple others.    And FWIW, I come back here to encourage and be encouraged because it's important someone hear your success when the rest of the world are sukkas spending every shekel they earn monthly as slaves serving their loans.     It's sad a few smarter-than-thou killjoys want to miss the point and discuss leverage and any excuses to continue being slave to a lender.   Behavior change and wisdom to free up your cash flow to grow wealth even faster while sleeping better is the point here.   If you aren't a fan of such behavior change, then don't let the virtual door hit your @$$ on the way out of this like minded community.
It's sad that some people are so unwilling to learn that they consider the teachers "killjoys".

The people you reference so reverently deal primarily with people trying to dig themselves out of debt, and for that, they are to be applauded. Are you aware the guys you named aren't universally regarded here?

The purpose of this site is primarily about how to buy back your life by hitting FIRE as efficiently as possible. This is a completely different goal than clawing your way out of indentured servitude. It's probably pretty accurate to say the majority of mustachians are not in sukka consumer debt up to their eyeballs. The fact that we discuss different things reflects that.

Your last sentence is so preposterous, all I can do is laugh, shake my head ruefully and wish you all the best.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Hadilly on November 29, 2017, 10:43:03 PM
Well, I am out of the club. We just decided to allocate the extra money to a 457b. Time, low fixed interest rate and inflation, do your thing!

Wishing you all well on the paydowns.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: channtheman on November 30, 2017, 12:10:14 AM
A little update since my first post detailing my situation.

My wife and I are in the process of refinancing right now (30 yr fixed, 3.875% with essentially $205 in closing costs through Consumer Direct Mortgage).  We had planned to refi $200,000, but are ahead of schedule and will ref $195,000!

I have run the numbers and if it was completely up to me, after the refi would most likely dedicate my extra dollars towards investments.  However, I've brought this up to my wife on at least 2 different occasions and she is not in favor of it at all.  She does not want to be in debt and is very conservative with investments.  I have finally got her on board with maxing retirement accounts after the mortgage is gone, so we've made some progress.  I don't fault her for wanting to be debt free and paying down the mortgage is definitely better than just blowing our money. 

So, for now the plan is to eliminate the mortgage in about 9.5 years when I am 36 and she is 34.  We'll get where we need to be, albeit a little slower.  I've got a plan to go part time when I'm around 46 that we will probably still be on track for.  Of course, life happens and you can only plan so many details for 20 years ahead.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on November 30, 2017, 05:26:28 AM
A little update since my first post detailing my situation.

My wife and I are in the process of refinancing right now (30 yr fixed, 3.875% with essentially $205 in closing costs through Consumer Direct Mortgage).  We had planned to refi $200,000, but are ahead of schedule and will ref $195,000!

I have run the numbers and if it was completely up to me, after the refi would most likely dedicate my extra dollars towards investments.  However, I've brought this up to my wife on at least 2 different occasions and she is not in favor of it at all.  She does not want to be in debt and is very conservative with investments.  I have finally got her on board with maxing retirement accounts after the mortgage is gone, so we've made some progress.  I don't fault her for wanting to be debt free and paying down the mortgage is definitely better than just blowing our money. 

So, for now the plan is to eliminate the mortgage in about 9.5 years when I am 36 and she is 34.  We'll get where we need to be, albeit a little slower.  I've got a plan to go part time when I'm around 46 that we will probably still be on track for.  Of course, life happens and you can only plan so many details for 20 years ahead.

You sound like us but 9 years ago and the husband was the one who wanted to pay off the mortgage (and he makes the bulk of our money, if that's how he wants to spend it, I'm fine with it!). 

Good luck!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: GnomeErcy on November 30, 2017, 09:52:33 AM
Mortgage Payment 1 tomorrow, planning on paying extra.

$387k mortgage
3.875% interest
Paying $845 extra/mo for this next year as of right now

We can still...

- Max out 401(k), about $8-9k in another 401(k)
- Max out IRA's
- Max out HSA
- Save for other goals

Our main thing right now is wanting to get rid of PMI.

I'm always torn. My wife HATES debt which is why we're paying extra. It keeps her up at night. The thought of paying off a house for 30 years is terrifying to be honest so I'm cool with it too.

I think that we can still save sufficiently to meet our main goals but I also know that $800/mo is nothing to shake a stick at, and we could be maxing both 401(k)'s if we didn't pay extra toward the mortgage.

Realistically I don't think there's a way I could convince my wife that not paying the mortgage quicker is a good way to go. She is too emotional about the debt and even though she understands the math she also values a sure thing and getting rid of this mortgage sooner rather than later. I think our compromise here isn't too bad...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on November 30, 2017, 07:48:18 PM
Canadian Mortgage, interest rates are rising!

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

We are on track to be in the 5 digit club by the end of the year with full payoff September 2018. As well, my husband has been laid off with severance that will end February 2019.  This is the reason why we are paying off the mortgage, to have the freedom to live on one salary if we choose.  Our RRSPs are maxed, the timing is perfect, we are blessed!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on December 01, 2017, 12:47:29 PM
Congrats, frizzy!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on December 02, 2017, 01:17:14 PM
Congrats, frizzy!
Ditto! If I lived in a land of non-fixed rate mortgages, the uncertainly would get to me, too. If I lived in the land Down Under, where I understand that you can prepay and then withdraw without penalty as needed, I'd dump every extra dime in it, including most of the EF.

Well done!


Edited for wonky spacing.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Plina on December 02, 2017, 03:15:47 PM
Congrats, frizzy!
Ditto! If I lived in a land of non-fixed rate mortgages, the uncertainly would get to me, too. If I lived in the land Down Under, where I understand that you can prepay and then withdraw without penalty as needed, I'd dump every extra
dime in it, including most of the EF.
Well done!

I am following the thread with some envy. I live in the land of non fixed rate mortages.. The longest period you can fix it is 10 years for 3,29 %, 5 year for 2,36 and 3 months for 1,59 %. You can fix it anytime but if you want to sell and move with a fixed rate you have to pay the difference in interest for the rest of the period. My is fixed for 3 months. You can also make tax deductions with 30 percent so it not uncommon to have and actual rate under 1 %. So I can’t justify it to myself to pay it off faster at the current rates or to fixe it for several years.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: arebelspy on December 03, 2017, 02:17:41 AM
MOD NOTE:

This thread is for celebrating mortgage payoffs.

Not for debating if one should pay off a mortgage, or not.

All posts regarding the merits of paying off a mortgage are off topic. Please find another, more appropriate thread to post these arguments in.

Cheers!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: channtheman on December 03, 2017, 03:42:19 AM
A little update since my first post detailing my situation.

My wife and I are in the process of refinancing right now (30 yr fixed, 3.875% with essentially $205 in closing costs through Consumer Direct Mortgage).  We had planned to refi $200,000, but are ahead of schedule and will ref $195,000!

I have run the numbers and if it was completely up to me, after the refi would most likely dedicate my extra dollars towards investments.  However, I've brought this up to my wife on at least 2 different occasions and she is not in favor of it at all.  She does not want to be in debt and is very conservative with investments.  I have finally got her on board with maxing retirement accounts after the mortgage is gone, so we've made some progress.  I don't fault her for wanting to be debt free and paying down the mortgage is definitely better than just blowing our money. 

So, for now the plan is to eliminate the mortgage in about 9.5 years when I am 36 and she is 34.  We'll get where we need to be, albeit a little slower.  I've got a plan to go part time when I'm around 46 that we will probably still be on track for.  Of course, life happens and you can only plan so many details for 20 years ahead.

You sound like us but 9 years ago and the husband was the one who wanted to pay off the mortgage (and he makes the bulk of our money, if that's how he wants to spend it, I'm fine with it!). 

Good luck!

Thanks!   The cool thing about our expected payoff date is that it is basically a "worst case" scenario.  If I get raises or work OT or my wife works more than we think it should all happen sooner and than we can decide where to put the bulk of our savings - either index funds or real estate at this point. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bee21 on December 03, 2017, 03:53:34 AM
Thanks ARS. i keep away from these arguments because there are some forum members always on the warpath to educate the masses, and their style is always khm, abrasive to put it mildly. I was given double facepunches for paying off my mortgage, and I find the attitude of the mathletes despicable.  If I spent my money on luxury goods and boob jobs I would have been treated better 😁.  But paying off the mortgage is worse than going wild at Prada. Meh.

Carry on people. Having a paid off house is awsome. We have no regrets.



Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: farmecologist on December 03, 2017, 09:11:28 AM
MOD NOTE:

This thread is for celebrating mortgage payoffs.

Not for debating if one should pay off a mortgage, or not.

All posts regarding the merits of paying off a mortgage are off topic. Please find another, more appropriate thread to post these arguments in.

Cheers!

Glad to see you guys listened to our plea to leave the debating out of this thread!  Thanks! 

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FireLane on December 03, 2017, 11:49:06 AM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on December 03, 2017, 03:28:21 PM
@FireLane - Awesome job knocking two thirds or more this year alone all the way down to @ $13K.   At this stage, it's like dieting and all the easy pounds are already gone (ie, using spare cashflow, selling stuff, adding quick income).    Stay with it!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Teachstache on December 06, 2017, 05:03:36 PM
Spouse and I paid off our mortgage today. $160,000 purchase price in August 2012. Paid in full December 6, 2017. 20% down payment, standard 30 year mortgage at 3.625%.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on December 06, 2017, 05:50:13 PM
Spouse and I paid off our mortgage today. $160,000 purchase price in August 2012. Paid in full December 6, 2017. 20% down payment, standard 30 year mortgage at 3.625%.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: palerider1858 on December 06, 2017, 06:43:48 PM
Spouse and I paid off our mortgage today. $160,000 purchase price in August 2012. Paid in full December 6, 2017. 20% down payment, standard 30 year mortgage at 3.625%.
Awesome! Great work!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Neustache on December 06, 2017, 06:49:04 PM
Spouse and I paid off our mortgage today. $160,000 purchase price in August 2012. Paid in full December 6, 2017. 20% down payment, standard 30 year mortgage at 3.625%.

Congrats!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: iluvzbeach on December 06, 2017, 07:27:48 PM
That is awesome! Congratulations.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on December 06, 2017, 08:18:52 PM
@Teachstache,   Congratulations!   You're now paid in full and officially weird (and will love it ;-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Rowellen on December 06, 2017, 08:42:20 PM
Spouse and I paid off our mortgage today. $160,000 purchase price in August 2012. Paid in full December 6, 2017. 20% down payment, standard 30 year mortgage at 3.625%.

Congrats! Wow I wish it were possible to find a house that cheap in Australia.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Teachstache on December 07, 2017, 02:41:18 AM
Thanks, all. At 35 & 36 with $0 debt (except a credit card which we pay in full each month), it feels good.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: farmecologist on December 07, 2017, 08:47:47 AM
Thanks, all. At 35 & 36 with $0 debt (except a credit card which we pay in full each month), it feels good.

Congrats!  Our situation was similar.   Just remember to invest all of the cash you were putting towards the mortgage!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Teachstache on December 08, 2017, 04:32:30 PM
Thanks, all. At 35 & 36 with $0 debt (except a credit card which we pay in full each month), it feels good.

Congrats!  Our situation was similar.   Just remember to invest all of the cash you were putting towards the mortgage!

Yep. We are maxing out 2 403bs & 1 457 (while we're able to). Plus my 10% that goes toward my pension. That's 50% of our pre-tax income. Spouse and I also receive 18.5% matching on our retirement contributions.

Should we count retirement matching as part of our savings rate?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: plainjane on December 09, 2017, 05:47:57 AM
Thanks, all. At 35 & 36 with $0 debt (except a credit card which we pay in full each month), it feels good.
Congrats!  Our situation was similar.   Just remember to invest all of the cash you were putting towards the mortgage!
Yep. We are maxing out 2 403bs & 1 457 (while we're able to). Plus my 10% that goes toward my pension. That's 50% of our pre-tax income. Spouse and I also receive 18.5% matching on our retirement contributions.

Should we count retirement matching as part of our savings rate?

Congratulations! Yes, you should count the matching in both the numerator and the denominator for your savings rate calculation.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ScottsdaleSaver on December 11, 2017, 09:49:43 AM
Jumping over here from a different mortgage payoff thread that never took off. We started the path to early payoff in earnest this June with a (free) refinance. We're on a 15-year mortgage at 3.25%, but I want to knock this thing out in 5.

Big picture - I want to time the mortgage payoff with my escape from corporate life. Our investments are where I'd like it to be at this point. We'll continue to max out our tax advantaged accounts, but everything after that is going towards this.

June 2017 - $254K
July 2017 - $251K
August 2017 - $248K
Sept 2017 - $245K
Oct 2017 - $244K
Nov 2017 - $241K
Dec - 2017 - $237K
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on December 11, 2017, 09:56:52 AM
Jumping over here from a different mortgage payoff thread that never took off. We started the path to early payoff in earnest this June with a (free) refinance. We're on a 15-year mortgage at 3.25%, but I want to knock this thing out in 5.

Big picture - I want to time the mortgage payoff with my escape from corporate life. Our investments are where I'd like it to be at this point. We'll continue to max out our tax advantaged accounts, but everything after that is going towards this.

June 2017 - $254K
July 2017 - $251K
August 2017 - $248K
Sept 2017 - $245K
Oct 2017 - $244K
Nov 2017 - $241K
Dec - 2017 - $237K
Love ^this^. Congratulations, SS!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on December 11, 2017, 07:17:02 PM
Jumping over here from a different mortgage payoff thread that never took off. We started the path to early payoff in earnest this June with a (free) refinance. We're on a 15-year mortgage at 3.25%, but I want to knock this thing out in 5.

Big picture - I want to time the mortgage payoff with my escape from corporate life. Our investments are where I'd like it to be at this point. We'll continue to max out our tax advantaged accounts, but everything after that is going towards this.

June 2017 - $254K
July 2017 - $251K
August 2017 - $248K
Sept 2017 - $245K
Oct 2017 - $244K
Nov 2017 - $241K
Dec - 2017 - $237K

Nice work!  We are on similar paths!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Comar on December 15, 2017, 01:41:52 AM
64k left but the MATH. You can not escape the MAAAAATH.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: littlelykke on December 23, 2017, 03:25:34 AM
Just did an extra payment. We paid off almost 15k in 19 months! That's our regular payments included.
Not as impressive as some here, but for us quite an accomplishment. I'm really proud of us ^^
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Suzanne on December 23, 2017, 03:54:27 AM
I started a quest to pay off my mortgage! I even created a blog to document my journey.

http://mortgage-payoff-club.com/ (http://mortgage-payoff-club.com/)

Who's with me?

Paying off our mortgages would certainly be badass. (I hope you enjoy the blog too)

I am always against these banking system they pay interest to us for one month and they  bang  interest for every month on mortgage,  Home loans etc.
There is no strict plan in their system that is questioning them.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Teachstache on December 23, 2017, 04:44:29 AM
Great job, Teachstache! Happy for you!

Thanks for the positive wishes, everyone! We only shared the news with spouse's dad and stepmom. Felt that it wouldn't be appropriate news to share with any other family members.

We made the last extra payment of $500 as our Christmas present to each other. When people ask what we bought each other for Christmas, we can honestly say "we made a big purchase for our family."

Thanks again for the positive wishes and congrats. Much appreciated & best wishes for those in the mortgage payoff club!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: never give up on December 23, 2017, 06:08:46 AM
What a great way to finish it off. It’s such a joyful thread this one. Keep going everyone!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on December 28, 2017, 04:27:13 AM
Checking in -- mortgage balance is at $38k.  Goal is to have it paid off by September, stretch goal would be July.  Very excited!  Paying off the mortgage is a key gatekeeper for our FIRE plans for 2019.  Will feel gooood to check that box.  Great job everyone!  Happy New Year. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: gypsy79 on December 28, 2017, 07:45:53 AM
I paid off the mortgage a couple of days ago. It is now starting to feel real and I am calmer and more at peace.

Long-term FI saving and investing is going well. Assuming all continues to go well, I will "retire" in 2018. My spouse has no desire to RE.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on December 28, 2017, 08:28:22 AM
64k left but the MATH. You can not escape the MAAAAATH.
Comar, are you whining?

It can be just fine to pay off a mortgage, as long as one understands the math. One does not necessarily preclude the other.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on December 30, 2017, 08:37:01 PM
End of August...  5 digit club at last!   $99.9K.   
$48K left to remove debt from our life is the goal!   Till then, keepin' on, keepin' on!

OK all, trying to emulate TeachStache and other recent debt-killers.   End of 2017 year result is $47K.    Respectable since we started 2017 at roughly $110K.    And paid off a car loan and put first kid through year 2 of college.   Goal is to kill this thing in 2018 before kid 2 starts college in the fall.   Stay tuned for further news, weather and sports updates until victory!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on December 30, 2017, 09:32:32 PM
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 :-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Teachstache on December 31, 2017, 07:00:58 AM
End of August...  5 digit club at last!   $99.9K.   
$48K left to remove debt from our life is the goal!   Till then, keepin' on, keepin' on!

OK all, trying to emulate TeachStache and other recent debt-killers.   End of 2017 year result is $47K.    Respectable since we started 2017 at roughly $110K.    And paid off a car loan and put first kid through year 2 of college.   Goal is to kill this thing in 2018 before kid 2 starts college in the fall.   Stay tuned for further news, weather and sports updates until victory!

Nice work on debt pay down in 2017! I predict that you'll eliminate your remaining debt by June 2018 at that rate!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Zola. on January 02, 2018, 05:39:21 AM
Another £1100 overpaid this morning.

Balance down to £119,300.

I have only managed two overpayments in recent times since getting married. But I have already saved 7 months of future payments. :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tightwaddy on January 02, 2018, 09:18:03 AM
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!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: birdman2003 on January 03, 2018, 08:43:50 AM
Thanks tightwaddy!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on January 03, 2018, 08:46:30 AM
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!
Congratulations on the new job!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tightwaddy on January 03, 2018, 12:06:01 PM
Congratulations on the new job!

Thanks!  I'm sure the motto isn't just about being mortgage free, but being brave enough to say goodbye to something that's hurting you. However, I could afford to be brave without a $1700 mortgage on my back :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Zola. on January 04, 2018, 06:36:52 AM
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!

Lovely story and result!

I am a long way off this...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FireLane on January 04, 2018, 07:43:14 AM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: wannabe-stache on January 04, 2018, 03:06:27 PM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on January 04, 2018, 07:49:32 PM
@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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Eilonwy on January 08, 2018, 03:11:08 PM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: honeyfill on January 08, 2018, 07:32:08 PM
Hit a major milestone last week,  only 29 years to go on my fixed rate 3.5% mortgage.  Wish me luck!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on January 09, 2018, 09:30:41 PM
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!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: honeyfill on January 10, 2018, 09:09:29 AM
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.     
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: markbike528CBX on January 10, 2018, 09:56:34 PM
The money wire is in progress to the final payoff.   Now waiting for the county to record it.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on January 10, 2018, 10:42:13 PM
The money wire is in progress to the final payoff.   Now waiting for the county to record it.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on January 11, 2018, 03:57:40 AM
The money wire is in progress to the final payoff.   Now waiting for the county to record it.

Congratulations MarkBike!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on January 11, 2018, 04:23:41 AM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bird In Hand on January 11, 2018, 07:03:18 AM
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?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: birdman2003 on January 11, 2018, 09:19:44 AM
The money wire is in progress to the final payoff.   Now waiting for the county to record it.

Nice work markbike!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: markbike528CBX on January 11, 2018, 09:24:33 AM
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" :-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on January 11, 2018, 09:36:29 PM
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).   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on January 11, 2018, 10:02:08 PM
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."
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Eilonwy on January 12, 2018, 02:53:08 PM
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?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: MrMoneySaver on January 12, 2018, 02:57:34 PM
Quote
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 ..."
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: thedigitalone on January 12, 2018, 03:36:12 PM
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 (https://www.calculator.net/mortgage-payoff-calculator.html)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Eilonwy on January 12, 2018, 05:14:45 PM
Thanks, but that one isn't really right for my needs, because we've been overpaying all along.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: NoraLenderbee on January 12, 2018, 06:48:29 PM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Eilonwy on January 12, 2018, 09:22:17 PM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on January 13, 2018, 05:23:06 AM
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!  ;-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on January 13, 2018, 05:43:16 AM
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!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Debts_of_Despair on January 19, 2018, 09:31:34 AM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Highbeam on January 19, 2018, 10:33:24 AM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Murr on January 19, 2018, 12:01:38 PM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bird In Hand on January 19, 2018, 02:17:06 PM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on January 19, 2018, 07:31:12 PM
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. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Eilonwy on January 22, 2018, 02:26:17 PM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: birdman2003 on January 23, 2018, 09:18:07 AM
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 . . .*
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on February 02, 2018, 10:07:50 AM
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!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: never give up on February 02, 2018, 10:24:06 AM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on February 02, 2018, 10:28:48 AM
Our balance is now at $29,999. Very exciting to know it will be gone soon!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: wannabe-stache on February 02, 2018, 12:20:13 PM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: markbike528CBX on February 02, 2018, 06:58:57 PM
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 #)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on February 02, 2018, 10:58:01 PM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: birdman2003 on February 05, 2018, 11:21:32 AM
Huge congrats to wannabe-stache and markbike528CBX for finishing those mortgages off!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on February 06, 2018, 07:06:38 PM
Way to go wannabe-stache and markbike528CBX.    And to Trifele preparing to take a bow soon!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: robtown on February 07, 2018, 09:56:40 PM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cheddarpie on February 08, 2018, 11:30:11 AM
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!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on February 21, 2018, 09:51:11 AM
Balance is $9,999 as of today.  Not long now!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Livethedream on February 21, 2018, 03:17:10 PM
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!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on February 21, 2018, 11:50:40 PM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on February 27, 2018, 07:58:01 PM
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 :-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cribby1531 on February 28, 2018, 08:25:03 AM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on February 28, 2018, 12:25:27 PM
putting more than $30,000/month toward the mortgage is pretty badass. Best of luck!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on February 28, 2018, 05:04:27 PM
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)

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!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frost7777 on March 01, 2018, 09:21:16 AM
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.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on March 01, 2018, 08:34:31 PM
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!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Rowellen on March 02, 2018, 05:30:49 AM
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.

Meh close enough. Congrats :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on March 02, 2018, 09:14:31 PM
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!

@indentured4now - Race on! :-)  Nice work!  Cheers to Mortgage Free in 2018!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on March 03, 2018, 02:12:03 AM
Congrats everyone on your progress! Looks like we will have a bunch of graduates this year.

I am almost there!  Paying it off next Friday.   It'll give me something to look forward to all week. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: markbike528CBX on March 03, 2018, 03:47:14 AM
Congrats everyone on your progress! Looks like we will have a bunch of graduates this year.

I am almost there!  Paying it off next Friday.   It'll give me something to look forward to all week.

@Trifele I see by the time stamp on your last post that you are "burning the midnight oil" to pay off your mortgage ;-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on March 03, 2018, 04:14:49 AM
Congrats everyone on your progress! Looks like we will have a bunch of graduates this year.

I am almost there!  Paying it off next Friday.   It'll give me something to look forward to all week.

@Trifele I see by the time stamp on your last post that you are "burning the midnight oil" to pay off your mortgage ;-)

Haha Mark!!  Actually, it's the other way round -- I'm up for the day, just an early bird .  :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cheddarpie on March 03, 2018, 10:49:54 AM
Great work, everybody, and congratulations @Rowellen and @Trifele!!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FireLane on March 06, 2018, 06:22:47 PM
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.

And I'm free! I wired in my last mortgage payment yesterday, and when I logged on to check the balance this morning, it said something beautiful: "PAID IN FULL".

For those who are still slogging away, keep at it! I'm glad I went this route. I might've had a slightly bigger net-worth number in my spreadsheet if I'd put those extra payments into investments, but you can't put a value on the peace of mind that comes with freedom.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cheddarpie on March 06, 2018, 07:19:54 PM

And I'm free! I wired in my last mortgage payment yesterday, and when I logged on to check the balance this morning, it said something beautiful: "PAID IN FULL".

For those who are still slogging away, keep at it! I'm glad I went this route. I might've had a slightly bigger net-worth number in my spreadsheet if I'd put those extra payments into investments, but you can't put a value on the peace of mind that comes with freedom.

Congratulations, Firelane! Enjoy the feeling of accomplishment and freedom!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on March 06, 2018, 07:30:54 PM
Congrats @FireLane! Oh what a feeling :-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on March 07, 2018, 06:35:11 AM
Great job Firelane!  Enjoy putting all that free cash flow to work for you now!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: birdman2003 on March 07, 2018, 08:58:06 AM
Just dropped another $5k on the mortgage!  I tried to pay it through their website but I had to call them for a principal only payment.  They don't make it easy, but at least it worked.  Balance is now $101k!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Zola. on March 09, 2018, 08:45:16 AM
Happy to say I made an overpayment on the mortgage today, another £1500 shipped off. Balance is now down to £116,000.  I have saved a year off the standard mortgage time now too, since I began overpaying last October.

I am itching to get into the 5 figure club, but its a while away yet...

£1500 also sent to car debt - grand total now down to £4000, I am targeting for under a 1 year payoff (was originally a 3 year loan)

£800 topped up to S&S ISA this month also (usually £300), its been a good month!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on March 09, 2018, 09:41:11 AM
And . . . it's gone!  Just got back from the bank -- paid it off.  Woo hooooooo!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: markbike528CBX on March 09, 2018, 10:36:02 AM
And . . . it's gone!  Just got back from the bank -- paid it off.  Woo hooooooo!!


Woo hooooooo!!     
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on March 09, 2018, 12:25:00 PM
And . . . it's gone!  Just got back from the bank -- paid it off.  Woo hooooooo!!


Woo hooooooo!!     

Congratulations!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on March 09, 2018, 12:40:59 PM
And . . . it's gone!  Just got back from the bank -- paid it off.  Woo hooooooo!!


Woo hooooooo!!     

Congratulations!!!

Thanks CouponVan and MarkBike!  Very happy.  It's one more milestone passed on the FIRE journey.  Not long now!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Scubanewbie on March 10, 2018, 04:43:54 PM
Not a very frequent poster but so excited I just have to share!  Bonus posted yesterday and so excited to put all $8K straight to the mortgage (same as last year).  Only $32K to go and even with regular payments we're at the 2.5 year mark. I'm not as extreme as others on here but aim to shorten that to 1 year so my entire 30 year is paid off in 15.

Now that we're getting close though I'm wondering what to do with the extra $1K per month.  Obviously need to start looking into taxable investing as right now we've maxxed our 2 401ks, IRAs, and HSA.  Time to find someplace for another $13K/year.  Our main motivation is the flexibility to be a one income family if needbe so hadn't really wrapped my head around what to do with the extra if we are still dual income.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on March 10, 2018, 04:48:57 PM
Not a very frequent poster but so excited I just have to share!  Bonus posted yesterday and so excited to put all $8K straight to the mortgage (same as last year).  Only $32K to go and even with regular payments we're at the 2.5 year mark. I'm not as extreme as others on here but aim to shorten that to 1 year so my entire 30 year is paid off in 15.

Now that we're getting close though I'm wondering what to do with the extra $1K per month.  Obviously need to start looking into taxable investing as right now we've maxxed our 2 401ks, IRAs, and HSA.  Time to find someplace for another $13K/year.  Our main motivation is the flexibility to be a one income family if needbe so hadn't really wrapped my head around what to do with the extra if we are still dual income.
Ahhhh!  close enough that you can start picturing what to do with the remainder.  Love it!  Only thing left is really taxable account - do you already have one with Vanguard? 

Congratulations, your story is motivating.  I'm also only on track to reduce a 30 year to a 15 year.  But that's huge to me.  It makes it so I'll have a paid off house before I retire. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: JD_ on March 15, 2018, 12:00:10 PM
FINALLY DID IT!

Sent the final payment in via wire transfer yesterday.  Took us 5 years and 6 months to kill it. 

This forum has been very helpful and encouraging.  Thank you all!

-Joe
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on March 15, 2018, 12:02:10 PM
FINALLY DID IT!

Sent the final payment in via wire transfer yesterday.  Took us 5 year and 6 months to kill it. 

This forum has been very helpful and encouraging.  Thank you all!

-Joe

Congrats!!!!!! 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on March 16, 2018, 10:16:10 AM
Congrats to all of you who have recently paid off your mortgages!

Ditto to those of you making good progress!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on March 17, 2018, 10:51:38 AM

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 :-)

March update after applying tax return - $66,342.  Things are moving fast!  Congrats to all making such great progress to date.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on March 27, 2018, 10:54:47 AM
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)

With this latest payment and if I continue to pay 1945 extra each month, I'll be paid off at 15 year mark and I'll be 57.  It still seems too long and I'd like to have this paid off when I'm 53/54 to coincide with when I plan to reduce my income/FIRE. 

Typing those words just made me extremely excited and makes me realize that this is actually possible!  I may increase my extra principal, or I may keep stashing a little each month and then make another big dent in a year or two if all else continues to grow. 

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: MangoAtPlay on March 28, 2018, 01:03:58 PM
Hi All -
 We have $16,285.13 left on our mortgage!
 Planning to be free by August 1!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on March 28, 2018, 07:40:24 PM
Go @Frizzy @blue @mango!    Sounds like a good (debt free) cocktail in the making actually!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Goldy on March 29, 2018, 04:10:28 PM
I used to be firmly in the pay off the mortgage camp and then did a 180 and found myself in the invest camp.  Now I find myself in the middle where I contribute an extra 350/mo and just plunked a third of my bonus on the mortgage and two thirds into investments.  Having the mortgage gone will help me reduce my retirement cash flow needs and I have 3 years left on my 2.5% arm before it starts slowly increasing.  181k left
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on March 30, 2018, 11:34:22 AM
Having the mortgage gone will help me reduce my retirement cash flow needs

This is my main reason for wanting to pay off the mortgage early.  (And of course, because it will feel so good)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Nederstash on March 30, 2018, 01:08:36 PM
Hi All -
 We have $16,285.13 left on our mortgage!
 Planning to be free by August 1!

That's so cool, congratulations! How much was the original mortgage and how long ago was that? What was your strategy?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: birdman2003 on April 02, 2018, 07:18:56 AM
Got the mortgage balance to under $100k! 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ScottsdaleSaver on April 02, 2018, 10:03:17 AM
March 2018 - $227K  We made some good headway over the last quarter thanks to my bonus. We anticipate a couple more windfalls in the next quarter - grant work for my husband - & perhaps even a large promotion which would really speed things up. Send some good juju our way!

Jumping over here from a different mortgage payoff thread that never took off. We started the path to early payoff in earnest this June with a (free) refinance. We're on a 15-year mortgage at 3.25%, but I want to knock this thing out in 5.

Big picture - I want to time the mortgage payoff with my escape from corporate life. Our investments are where I'd like it to be at this point. We'll continue to max out our tax advantaged accounts, but everything after that is going towards this.

June 2017 - $254K
July 2017 - $251K
August 2017 - $248K
Sept 2017 - $245K
Oct 2017 - $244K
Nov 2017 - $241K
Dec - 2017 - $237K
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ScottsdaleSaver on April 02, 2018, 10:05:16 AM
Having the mortgage gone will help me reduce my retirement cash flow needs

This is my main reason for wanting to pay off the mortgage early.  (And of course, because it will feel so good)

Same here. I tend conservative, so I wouldn't be comfortable ditching work until the mortgage is gone.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: robtown on April 02, 2018, 07:28:22 PM
Five years ago we refinanced to a 5/1 adjustable at 2.25%   Next month it goes to 4.25%.   We have paid 3x the required payment for that time and are used to the extra cost.

Today my lovely wife went to the credit union and paid the final payment.   It has not sunk in yet.  Next month when our bank account is $3500 richer, the impact will be real.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: iluvzbeach on April 02, 2018, 08:33:34 PM
Five years ago we refinanced to a 5/1 adjustable at 2.25%   Next month it goes to 4.25%.   We have paid 3x the required payment for that time and are used to the extra cost.

Today my lovely wife went to the credit union and paid the final payment.   It has not sunk in yet.  Next month when our bank account is $3500 richer, the impact will be real.

Congratulations! What a great feeling. I bet people thought you were crazy for getting that 5/1 ARM, right? The best part is that you paid it off within those 5 years and used that 2.25% to your advantage. Congrats, again.

We paid ours off almost 10 months ago and haven’t regretted it for a moment.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on April 03, 2018, 07:57:22 AM
It’s so inspirational to read all of these stories!  I would love to pay off my mortgage before my oldest son enters college. We save in a 529 for his college expenses but it would be great to bankroll his rent and living expenses by having our own mortgage paid off.  That gives us a little over 9 years to pay off our mortgage. We started at $720k at 4.125% a year ago and are at 497k right now. The majority of the decrease was from proceeds of the sale of another property but we do pay extra every month. We always pay an extra $650 a month but if there is any extra money left after our other bills and automatic investments I have been putting it to the mortgage.  My husband gets a large bonus every year and I would love to put half of it towards the mortgage but he’s not convinced that is the best thing to do with it.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on April 03, 2018, 07:39:15 PM
Just so no one ever thinks it's all rainbows and unicorns...    Just took 2 major hits with a tax bill and some expenses to fix up our house.   It's a minor set back of a month, maybe two.   We could have easily covered the latter expenses if there wasn't a mortgage payment...  Grrrr.   Just goes to show how expectations towards the end can get ahead of cash flow though.   Staying the course despite the headwinds...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Maverick1 on April 04, 2018, 04:51:39 PM
The credit union I deal with allows annual prepayments up to 20% of the original mortgage balance.  As of today I've prepaid 20% for 3 straight years.  I'm kind of sad I won't be able to do that again because the mortgage balance is now less than 20% of the original balance.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on April 11, 2018, 01:15:02 AM
Just so no one ever thinks it's all rainbows and unicorns...    Just took 2 major hits with a tax bill and some expenses to fix up our house.   It's a minor set back of a month, maybe two.   We could have easily covered the latter expenses if there wasn't a mortgage payment...  Grrrr.   Just goes to show how expectations towards the end can get ahead of cash flow though.   Staying the course despite the headwinds...
Do you mean you don't have enough savings or a healthy enough emergency fund to cover homeownership's inevitabilities? Taxes and repair bills never go away, mortgage or no mortgage.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Rowellen on April 11, 2018, 05:43:20 AM
June 16 $200,813

Apr 17 $151,412
May 17 $144,681
June 17 $139,075
July 17 $136,332
Aug 17 $131,585

Apr 18 $110,747
We've slowed down the mortgage payoff in order to contribute more to super (retirement accounts).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: boarder42 on April 12, 2018, 09:32:11 AM
Just so no one ever thinks it's all rainbows and unicorns...    Just took 2 major hits with a tax bill and some expenses to fix up our house.   It's a minor set back of a month, maybe two.   We could have easily covered the latter expenses if there wasn't a mortgage payment...  Grrrr.   Just goes to show how expectations towards the end can get ahead of cash flow though.   Staying the course despite the headwinds...
Do you mean you don't have enough savings or a healthy enough emergency fund to cover homeownership's inevitabilities? Taxes and repair bills never go away, mortgage or no mortgage.

sounds like the latter expense could have easily been covered with capital invested in equities as well.  one of the many issues over looked by the pay down your mortgage crowd.  having to keep an overly large E - Fund - in this case it appears that wasnt enough.  and then having non tax advantaged capital to fund un expected costs be them home related or not.  you should throw down the full story to educate your bretheren on this thread of the short comings of pumping money into an illiquid asset and the risks that entails. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: plainjane on April 13, 2018, 08:47:28 AM
Just so no one ever thinks it's all rainbows and unicorns...    Just took 2 major hits with a tax bill and some expenses to fix up our house.   It's a minor set back of a month, maybe two.   We could have easily covered the latter expenses if there wasn't a mortgage payment...  Grrrr.   Just goes to show how expectations towards the end can get ahead of cash flow though.   Staying the course despite the headwinds...
Do you mean you don't have enough savings or a healthy enough emergency fund to cover homeownership's inevitabilities? Taxes and repair bills never go away, mortgage or no mortgage.
sounds like the latter expense could have easily been covered with capital invested in equities as well.  one of the many issues over looked by the pay down your mortgage crowd.  having to keep an overly large E - Fund - in this case it appears that wasnt enough.  and then having non tax advantaged capital to fund un expected costs be them home related or not.  you should throw down the full story to educate your bretheren on this thread of the short comings of pumping money into an illiquid asset and the risks that entails.

Thank you Boarder. Your comments have been noted and this page of the thread now has a person or two saying that it is not a good idea. Now we can wait until there are enough other posters in the thread to have a page where your concerns aren't showing, and you can post this point again.

FWIW, I don't think the OP meant that they didn't have a big enough E fund. I think they meant that the things meant that they weren't able to throw more money at their mortgage this month because of those things. Perhaps it was too optimistic a reading, but it certainly was how I would have described that sort of thing when I was in the later stages.

(Note, I am a person who prepaid their mortgage because I am in Canada where things generally reset every 5 years, and I made many mistakes with that mortgage, but on the plus side now I have lots of money to throw into my retirement investments and hindsight is 20/20)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on April 13, 2018, 09:55:35 AM
Just so no one ever thinks it's all rainbows and unicorns...    Just took 2 major hits with a tax bill and some expenses to fix up our house.   It's a minor set back of a month, maybe two.   We could have easily covered the latter expenses if there wasn't a mortgage payment...  Grrrr.   Just goes to show how expectations towards the end can get ahead of cash flow though.   Staying the course despite the headwinds...
Do you mean you don't have enough savings or a healthy enough emergency fund to cover homeownership's inevitabilities? Taxes and repair bills never go away, mortgage or no mortgage.
sounds like the latter expense could have easily been covered with capital invested in equities as well.  one of the many issues over looked by the pay down your mortgage crowd.  having to keep an overly large E - Fund - in this case it appears that wasnt enough.  and then having non tax advantaged capital to fund un expected costs be them home related or not.  you should throw down the full story to educate your bretheren on this thread of the short comings of pumping money into an illiquid asset and the risks that entails.

Thank you Boarder. Your comments have been noted and this page of the thread now has a person or two saying that it is not a good idea. Now we can wait until there are enough other posters in the thread to have a page where your concerns aren't showing, and you can post this point again.

FWIW, I don't think the OP meant that they didn't have a big enough E fund. I think they meant that the things meant that they weren't able to throw more money at their mortgage this month because of those things. Perhaps it was too optimistic a reading, but it certainly was how I would have described that sort of thing when I was in the later stages.

(Note, I am a person who prepaid their mortgage because I am in Canada where things generally reset every 5 years, and I made many mistakes with that mortgage, but on the plus side now I have lots of money to throw into my retirement investments and hindsight is 20/20)
@plainjane, let's be honest here. Everyone in the "Don't" Club is perfectly clear that we are advocating holding onto affordable, low fixed-rate mortgages, that are most likely tax deductible. For those of you who are not lucky enough to have these advantages, we offer no advice whatsoever.  Frankly, the way other countries handle mortgages scares the bejeebers out of me. This is a US-based site, so we are endeavoring to help the majority of readers make the most optimal decisions to reach FIRE faster. And yes, the message bears repeating, every few pages or so. Thanks for noticing.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: boarder42 on April 14, 2018, 03:05:35 AM
Just so no one ever thinks it's all rainbows and unicorns...    Just took 2 major hits with a tax bill and some expenses to fix up our house.   It's a minor set back of a month, maybe two.   We could have easily covered the latter expenses if there wasn't a mortgage payment...  Grrrr.   Just goes to show how expectations towards the end can get ahead of cash flow though.   Staying the course despite the headwinds...
Do you mean you don't have enough savings or a healthy enough emergency fund to cover homeownership's inevitabilities? Taxes and repair bills never go away, mortgage or no mortgage.
sounds like the latter expense could have easily been covered with capital invested in equities as well.  one of the many issues over looked by the pay down your mortgage crowd.  having to keep an overly large E - Fund - in this case it appears that wasnt enough.  and then having non tax advantaged capital to fund un expected costs be them home related or not.  you should throw down the full story to educate your bretheren on this thread of the short comings of pumping money into an illiquid asset and the risks that entails.

Thank you Boarder. Your comments have been noted and this page of the thread now has a person or two saying that it is not a good idea. Now we can wait until there are enough other posters in the thread to have a page where your concerns aren't showing, and you can post this point again.

FWIW, I don't think the OP meant that they didn't have a big enough E fund. I think they meant that the things meant that they weren't able to throw more money at their mortgage this month because of those things. Perhaps it was too optimistic a reading, but it certainly was how I would have described that sort of thing when I was in the later stages.

(Note, I am a person who prepaid their mortgage because I am in Canada where things generally reset every 5 years, and I made many mistakes with that mortgage, but on the plus side now I have lots of money to throw into my retirement investments and hindsight is 20/20)

You have a different market but your plus side is flawed thinking regardless of the market. Money is fungible.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: birdman2003 on April 17, 2018, 07:43:32 PM
Another $5k slam to the principal.  Down to $94k remaining...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on April 17, 2018, 08:38:49 PM
dicey and boarder42, thank you for the (bit presumptive) comments, but all's well and the plan to kill the mortgage is firmly intact.   Your counter-arguments to remain indebted add to my inspiration to kill the mortgage this year.   It has had almost zero tax benefit the past 2 years and will have zero tax benefit with the new tax law and standard deductions in 2018 tax year as well.    And thanks to plainjane for the comments that were indeed correct.   The house expenses didn't touch emergency funds and the tax bill payment was planned/saved in advance.   Just a large chunk to drop in a particular month out of normal cash flow (and the small side account for taxes) leaving little to pay down the mortgage is all.   Still on track to be free in July (and looking forward to figuring out how to change my username to something like... "free4ever"! ;-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on April 17, 2018, 09:53:49 PM
dicey and boarder42, thank you for the (bit presumptive) comments, but all's well and the plan to kill the mortgage is firmly intact.   Your counter-arguments to remain indebted add to my inspiration to kill the mortgage this year.   It has had almost zero tax benefit the past 2 years and will have zero tax benefit with the new tax law and standard deductions in 2018 tax year as well.    And thanks to plainjane for the comments that were indeed correct.   The house expenses didn't touch emergency funds and the tax bill payment was planned/saved in advance.   Just a large chunk to drop in a particular month out of normal cash flow (and the small side account for taxes) leaving little to pay down the mortgage is all.   Still on track to be free in July (and looking forward to figuring out how to change my username to something like... "free4ever"! ;-)

Yes!  Cheers to Freedom 2018! :-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on April 18, 2018, 01:53:14 AM
dicey and boarder42, thank you for the (bit presumptive) comments, but all's well and the plan to kill the mortgage is firmly intact.   Your counter-arguments to remain indebted add to my inspiration to kill the mortgage this year.   It has had almost zero tax benefit the past 2 years and will have zero tax benefit with the new tax law and standard deductions in 2018 tax year as well.    And thanks to plainjane for the comments that were indeed correct.   The house expenses didn't touch emergency funds and the tax bill payment was planned/saved in advance.   Just a large chunk to drop in a particular month out of normal cash flow (and the small side account for taxes) leaving little to pay down the mortgage is all.   Still on track to be free in July (and looking forward to figuring out how to change my username to something like... "free4ever"! ;-)
Speaking only for myself, congratulations! At least the discussion got you to think about it, which is a good thing.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Blindsquirrel on April 18, 2018, 03:04:10 PM
    I wrote a check for the final balance on our mortgage last week. It is a very, very good feeling to have that expense gone. Will not carry that monthly expense in retirement.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on April 18, 2018, 05:32:13 PM
    I wrote a check for the final balance on our mortgage last week. It is a very, very good feeling to have that expense gone. Will not carry that monthly expense in retirement.

Congrats Blindsquirrel! 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: DreamFIRE on April 18, 2018, 07:14:20 PM
    I wrote a check for the final balance on our mortgage last week. It is a very, very good feeling to have that expense gone. Will not carry that monthly expense in retirement.

Congratulations!  I've paid off two mortgages over my career.  Both were quite a long time ago when rates were in the 7 to 9% range, and I was still better off sticking with the standard deduction, so there was no tax deduction, either.  It's definitely a great feeling getting those paid off.  My savings rate has been quite high almost every year since paying off my house.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on April 19, 2018, 06:29:38 AM
Way to go Blindsquirrel!!   Well on your way to Handlebar ‘stache level savings and investing now.  ;-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Blindsquirrel on April 20, 2018, 02:51:46 PM
    Thanks a ton for the nice thoughts and very warm feels. For me it is the financially sound thing to do as it freed up $1265 a month in mandatory spending. This pay off is to reduce tail end risk. The Big Ern who is a very astute fellow makes quite good cases for my deed of paying off my mortgage. Not only that, we have gone crazy and paid off our rental properties as well! The horror! The Angst? The sleeping like a baby feeling is pretty damn good.

https://earlyretirementnow.com/2017/10/11/the-ultimate-guide-to-safe-withdrawal-rates-part-21-mortgage-in-retirement/

Also, I was definitely awoken by the mortgage vs bonds argument  which I found a great read.

 https://earlyretirementnow.com/2016/11/02/why-would-anyone-have-a-mortgage-and-a-bond-portfolio/

Thanks again and keep on trucking, interest is what you should receive, not pay!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bateaux on April 21, 2018, 06:55:51 AM
It's as if you drove a wooden stake into B42's heart.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on April 21, 2018, 07:03:54 AM
It's as if you drove a wooden stake into B42's heart.
WTF? If this statement came from someone less respected, it might be face punch worthy. Care to elaborate, Bateaux?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tomsang on April 21, 2018, 09:23:43 AM
    Thanks a ton for the nice thoughts and very warm feels. For me it is the financially sound thing to do as it freed up $1265 a month in mandatory spending. This pay off is to reduce tail end risk. The Big Ern who is a very astute fellow makes quite good cases for my deed of paying off my mortgage. Not only that, we have gone crazy and paid off our rental properties as well! The horror! The Angst? The sleeping like a baby feeling is pretty damn good.

https://earlyretirementnow.com/2017/10/11/the-ultimate-guide-to-safe-withdrawal-rates-part-21-mortgage-in-retirement/

Also, I was definitely awoken by the mortgage vs bonds argument  which I found a great read.

 https://earlyretirementnow.com/2016/11/02/why-would-anyone-have-a-mortgage-and-a-bond-portfolio/

Thanks again and keep on trucking, interest is what you should receive, not pay!

Have you calculated how many extra years you have added to your FIRE date?  Would you be retired if you invested vs. paid off your low interest fixed rate mortgages?  Anyone paying down their mortgage early over the past decade has taken a large financial hit. Everyone who is accumulating wealth over the US history has been better off investing vs paying off a sub 4% mortgage.

Did you read the article that was imbedded in the link that you posted?  https://earlyretirementnow.com/2016/12/28/seven-reasons-in-defense-of-debt-and-leverage/
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Blindsquirrel on April 21, 2018, 09:26:34 AM
     I was not trying to wee in any ones Wheaties with the post but a mortgage can make Sequence of Return Risk (SoRR) a pretty scary risk that you really do need to consider and hedge against. When you have good sized mandatory withdrawals from a declining portfolio, the process is has been termed Dollar Cost Ravaging :) and not something that you want. Markets will always recover but it may not happen quickly enough to fix your mauled stash.

  There can also be solid reasons to keep fixed rate debt in retirement. If real estate craters, and you can't pay the mortgage, go to foreclosure,  the bank eats 80% of the loss and you only eat 20% of the loss at 80% LTV. A "win" for you.  Also, a big fixed rate mortgage can also serve as a giant synthetic short position on the US $. If inflation gets very high, you can pay off your crib in future dollars that are worth a heck of a lot less than the big fat pre-inflation $ the bank initially leant you. To each his own I say but leverage has caused an awful lot more bankruptcy and strife than a paid off house has ever caused a family. Peace
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Blindsquirrel on April 21, 2018, 12:14:38 PM
  Yep I read the link and agree with quite a bit of it, like I said to each his own. It is purely a risk management decision.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on April 21, 2018, 12:55:31 PM
  Yep I read the link and agree with quite a bit of it, like I said to each his own. It is purely a risk management decision.
Respectfully disagree again, Bs. It is purely an emotional decision if one makes it without fully understanding what they are giving up in the long run. Don't understand inflation, leverage, or sequence of returns? Leaving money on the table in terms of employer match or tax-advantaged savings? Then you do not understand risk management. Don't prepay a cent on your cheap-ass, affordable, fixed-rate mortgage until you do. Simple. Educate yourself. Don't make important decisions based on "feelings". Or do. Just know it will take longer and require more hard-earned green soldiers to get to FI if you do. Who wants that?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: boarder42 on April 21, 2018, 01:06:31 PM
  Yep I read the link and agree with quite a bit of it, like I said to each his own. It is purely a risk management decision.

And until the day you paid it off fully you were at a higher state of risk than having invested vs paying down. So you looked at the risk. Were emotionally afraid of being in a riskier financial spot and actively chose the riskier path.  I mean that's if it was even evaluated from a risk standpoint
 
I mean the only semi risk of a non paid off house is sequence of returns. (hyper deflation also but this destroys the current economy so it's highly improbable). When acruing wealth sequence of returns is not a risk with an real weight. Post FIRE it carries more weight but is more a product of your life expectancy than anything else. Anyone retiring sub 50 easily needs to curb logevity risk instead of sequence of return based on historical metrics.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Blindsquirrel on April 21, 2018, 03:41:54 PM
 I am 50 years old so I meet the requirement to pay off the dadgum house. :).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: boarder42 on April 21, 2018, 04:16:00 PM
I am 50 years old so I meet the requirement to pay off the dadgum house. :).

Betting on a shorter life. To each their own I guess.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: tomsang on April 21, 2018, 06:31:38 PM
If you want to calculate how much it has hurt you, by paying off your mortgage, you can use this calculator.

Here is the S&P 500 calculator with dividends:
https://dqydj.com/sp-500-return-calculator/
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bateaux on April 21, 2018, 08:16:31 PM
It's as if you drove a wooden stake into B42's heart.
WTF? If this statement came from someone less respected, it might be face punch worthy. Care to elaborate, Bateaux?

He's going to come out and prove mathematically that it's less profitable to pay off the mortgage.     I mean no malice to the spreadsheet gurus.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on April 21, 2018, 11:12:54 PM
It's as if you drove a wooden stake into B42's heart.
WTF? If this statement came from someone less respected, it might be face punch worthy. Care to elaborate, Bateaux?

He's going to come out and prove mathematically that it's less profitable to pay off the mortgage.     I mean no malice to the spreadsheet gurus.
And how does that drive a stake through his heart, exactly? If you didn't mean malice, what did you mean, please?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jedsbud on April 22, 2018, 02:13:19 PM
Tomorrow is going to be a glorious day.  The wire instructions for my mortgage payoff are all set.  I have/had a 5/1 ARM 30 Year that has served me well as interest rates crashed and remained low for the last 13 years.  A couple of years ago I got serious about paying down my mortgage or not paying it down.  Did all the math on refinancing to a fixed rate mortgage and investing the extra I was paying or just paying it off and the end difference was nothing more than a rounding error.  Therefore, paying it off became the goal.
 
I was tracking my debt and enjoyed watching the number drop every month.  Then Harvey happened and basically everything was lost.  There are multiple things that helped me recover and to be at this point today.  First, I had flood insurance, many people I knew didn’t but I am thankful I made that decision years ago.  Second, I already had a decent savings rate so I was in a better position than most of my neighbors.  Third, I had a great amount of support from family and friends primarily from church and my faith never waivered even when I finally succumbed to the reality about two weeks after the water receded.   Fourth, I have been blessed with a great job and the highest paid bonus of my life, which has put me in this position today.
 
It’s time to put that mortgage money to work.  I will invest some, but I also need to give back more.  This freedom is hard to calculate on a spreadsheet and it can’t be measured on an expected investment return for the future. 

Aug 2016 - $192K in Mortgage Debt
Aug 2017 - $88K in Mortgage Debt
Sep 2017 - Harvey
May 2018 – Freedom
Full disclosure: I had a home for my oldest son to live in for college that was sold in May of 2017 reducing $71K in debt. 

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bateaux on April 22, 2018, 08:08:39 PM
It's as if you drove a wooden stake into B42's heart.
WTF? If this statement came from someone less respected, it might be face punch worthy. Care to elaborate, Bateaux?

He's going to come out and prove mathematically that it's less profitable to pay off the mortgage.     I mean no malice to the spreadsheet gurus.
And how does that drive a stake through his heart, exactly? If you didn't mean malice, what did you mean, please?

Dicey I was just being an asshole.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on April 22, 2018, 09:37:02 PM
It's as if you drove a wooden stake into B42's heart.
WTF? If this statement came from someone less respected, it might be face punch worthy. Care to elaborate, Bateaux?

He's going to come out and prove mathematically that it's less profitable to pay off the mortgage.     I mean no malice to the spreadsheet gurus.
And how does that drive a stake through his heart, exactly? If you didn't mean malice, what did you mean, please?

Dicey I was just being an asshole.
Oh, Bateaux, I totally call bullshit on that! You're never an asshole. I also do not keep up with anything Vampire, so I really didn't understand. The consequences of a low televised entertainment diet, I guess.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on April 27, 2018, 02:08:00 PM
It's as if you drove a wooden stake into B42's heart.
WTF? If this statement came from someone less respected, it might be face punch worthy. Care to elaborate, Bateaux?

He's going to come out and prove mathematically that it's less profitable to pay off the mortgage.     I mean no malice to the spreadsheet gurus.
And how does that drive a stake through his heart, exactly? If you didn't mean malice, what did you mean, please?

oh FFS, Dicey, boarder42, others who don't want to pay off the mortgage, can you please just leave this thread?  You've been asked multiple times and you always come back with the same reason:  people don't understand the numbers.  Yes, WE UNDERSTAND.  WE ARE NOT FUCKING MORONS.   Seriously?  Someone pays off their largest expense and the response is to put them down?  Please allow people to make choices even if they are not the choices you would make.  STOP with all of your unsolicited advice.  This is a celebration thread and you're throwing cold water on all of us.   

I'm so tired of people being having to be polite to you guys even after you tell them how stupid they are.  There are perfectly good financial reasons to pay off a mortgage and we've explained it to you over and over and over again.  And you think that any emotional reason is not as important as a financial reason.  But you know what's so interesting to me?  you two (Boarder and Dicey) both have no fear of losing your homes because Dicey's is paid off and Boarder has rich parents that will loan him money such that sequence of returns doesn't impact him as much as it would others who still have that risk.  Lucky for you two!  Now get off the backs of everyone else while we try to get to a spot where we feel comfortable with our level of risk.   

I know I'm being somewhat harsh and Dicey will probably turn me in to the internet police (again), but I'm sick and tired of you guys condescending to everyone over here.  You've been asked to leave previously, so why won't you just go?  It's really gotten under my skin.  BTW, an appropriate response to this is to keep quiet and leave, not to lecture me about risk. 

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: DS on April 27, 2018, 02:43:08 PM
MOD NOTE:

This thread is for celebrating mortgage payoffs.

Not for debating if one should pay off a mortgage, or not.

All posts regarding the merits of paying off a mortgage are off topic. Please find another, more appropriate thread to post these arguments in.

Cheers!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Livethedream on April 28, 2018, 08:06:43 PM
Back on topic!

We just paid $45k towards our loan, new balance of $93k! Just got some other good news that my wife’s family business is sitting on some extra cash and looking to distribute it, might scrape up some cash and try to pay it off next month.

Started 10/24/16 @ 187k.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: boarder42 on April 29, 2018, 05:59:13 AM
It's as if you drove a wooden stake into B42's heart.
WTF? If this statement came from someone less respected, it might be face punch worthy. Care to elaborate, Bateaux?

He's going to come out and prove mathematically that it's less profitable to pay off the mortgage.     I mean no malice to the spreadsheet gurus.
And how does that drive a stake through his heart, exactly? If you didn't mean malice, what did you mean, please?

oh FFS, Dicey, boarder42, others who don't want to pay off the mortgage, can you please just leave this thread?  You've been asked multiple times and you always come back with the same reason:  people don't understand the numbers.  Yes, WE UNDERSTAND.  WE ARE NOT FUCKING MORONS.   Seriously?  Someone pays off their largest expense and the response is to put them down?  Please allow people to make choices even if they are not the choices you would make.  STOP with all of your unsolicited advice.  This is a celebration thread and you're throwing cold water on all of us.   

I'm so tired of people being having to be polite to you guys even after you tell them how stupid they are.  There are perfectly good financial reasons to pay off a mortgage and we've explained it to you over and over and over again.  And you think that any emotional reason is not as important as a financial reason.  But you know what's so interesting to me?  you two (Boarder and Dicey) both have no fear of losing your homes because Dicey's is paid off and Boarder has rich parents that will loan him money such that sequence of returns doesn't impact him as much as it would others who still have that risk.  Lucky for you two!  Now get off the backs of everyone else while we try to get to a spot where we feel comfortable with our level of risk.   

I know I'm being somewhat harsh and Dicey will probably turn me in to the internet police (again), but I'm sick and tired of you guys condescending to everyone over here.  You've been asked to leave previously, so why won't you just go?  It's really gotten under my skin.  BTW, an appropriate response to this is to keep quiet and leave, not to lecture me about risk.

You probably should stop referncing my name and referencing my posts here if you just want it to be celebratory. And for the record not everyone gets the math as you say. You can finds multiple posts in here where people are giving their reason for paying down their mortgage and the reason clearly indicates they do not understand and the paying down of a mortgage actually increases the risk they are claiming to mitigate. 

And you clearly do not understand the math bc the contingency of my parents possibly helping out is a reason that would mitigate risk when payi g down a mortgage over investing. Those not paying down a mortgage are at much lower risk of financial failure which you clearly do not grasp.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on April 29, 2018, 08:47:19 PM
I'm not going to quote BH's comments directly. Rather, here are excerpts from my last few posts on this thread. Can we bury the hatchet, please?

Congrats, frizzy!
Ditto [snip]
Well done!
[snip]
Love ^this^. Congratulations, SS!

Today our mortgage is $54,960. Below $55k! [snip]
Congratulations!

just wired in the final $48K today to reduce the mortgage balance to...$0...
Holy cow, that's a lot of money! Good for you! FIRE must not be far away.


 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on April 30, 2018, 04:55:08 AM
I'm not going to quote BH's comments directly. Rather, here are excerpts from my last few posts on this thread. Can we bury the hatchet, please?

Congrats, frizzy!
Ditto [snip]
Well done!
[snip]
Love ^this^. Congratulations, SS!

Today our mortgage is $54,960. Below $55k! [snip]
Congratulations!

just wired in the final $48K today to reduce the mortgage balance to...$0...
Holy cow, that's a lot of money! Good for you! FIRE must not be far away.

Good job saving anywhere everyone! It’s a personal decision even MMM has made to payoff the mortgage. There’s shockingly simple math, and then there’s reality, laziness,  and foresight/hindsight and lots of guessing and second guessing because “past returns are not guaranteed”. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on April 30, 2018, 04:56:13 AM
Dicey, you are being very disingenous.  You are cherry picking some congratulations comments to try to disguise your true intentions:

This is a US-based site, so we are endeavoring to help the majority of readers make the most optimal decisions to reach FIRE faster. And yes, the message bears repeating, every few pages or so. Thanks for noticing.

This is a celebration thread, period.  Your 'message' is not wanted on this thread, so please -- just take it elsewhere.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: boarder42 on April 30, 2018, 07:05:21 AM
Dicey, you are being very disingenous.  You are cherry picking some congratulations comments to try to disguise your true intentions:

This is a US-based site, so we are endeavoring to help the majority of readers make the most optimal decisions to reach FIRE faster. And yes, the message bears repeating, every few pages or so. Thanks for noticing.

This is a celebration thread, period.  Your 'message' is not wanted on this thread, so please -- just take it elsewhere.

so if there was a celebration thread about eating lunch out every day b/c you know it makes sense b/c of the time it saves me - no one should comment there when people make blatantly incorrect statements - got it.. man has this site gone soft!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on April 30, 2018, 07:07:15 AM
Dicey, you are being very disingenous.  You are cherry picking some congratulations comments to try to disguise your true intentions:

This is a US-based site, so we are endeavoring to help the majority of readers make the most optimal decisions to reach FIRE faster. And yes, the message bears repeating, every few pages or so. Thanks for noticing.

This is a celebration thread, period.  Your 'message' is not wanted on this thread, so please -- just take it elsewhere.
Did you notice the comments quoted were made after ARS' mod note?

Curious that having supposed "true intentions" is somehow being negative. Isn't the whole damn point of MMM how to muster one's green soldiers for maximum effect? MMM is all about using a different approach to achieve the goal of FIRE.

This thread is in the General Discussion section. If someone started a topic crowing about their purchase of a brand new Tesla Model X, do you really believe the same "This is a celebration thread, period" warning would apply? I heard the mod's comment, and responded, but let's not forget we're all still on the MMM Forum.

Finally, I have mostly kept a low profile on this thread since the mid note, a calm which was shattered by BlueHouse.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: iluvzbeach on April 30, 2018, 08:05:04 AM
@arebelspy Can a mod please ask Dicey & boarder42 to, once again, stop posting in this thread? Their insistence at posting in it, even after being told not to, is getting really, really old.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: birdman2003 on April 30, 2018, 08:16:11 AM
Another $4k hit to the principal balance, now under $90k!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frost7777 on April 30, 2018, 08:23:43 AM
To keep the celebration going, and to make sure our newest club members don't get lost in the noise...

Congratulations @jedsbud!  Enjoy your new found freedom and enjoy the possibilities that you now know are within reach.

@Livethedream, Great job getting your balance down to 5 digits.  Sounds like you have some big decisions to make if you are looking at potentially paying that mortgage off next month!

@birdman2003, you are flying through that principal.  (nothing like a bad pun to lighten things up)

Have a great day everyone.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: verfrugal on April 30, 2018, 09:23:25 AM
Woot!  I joined the club twice in the last three years!

For full disclosure, I own both of my houses outright.  One I bought in cash, the other I bought with a mortgage and paid off in just over a year.  I was lucky enough to sell a startup, so this was not a hardship nor did it require the kind of long-term dedication and perseverance that others have shown here.

When I was a teen, my family had our house foreclosed on.  This certainly makes the entire notion of owning a house an emotional issue for me, and I did NOT approach it in terms of optimizing financial outcomes, or the return I could have gotten from that money.  The first house is the one I live in with my wife.  The second one is a house I bought for my mother, and the family, in our hometown.  I was optimizing for peace of mind, and minimizing my monthly expenses -- aka health, resilience and security.

I knew the math -- I can guess how much I would have made had I put it into the market over the last couple years, WAY more than the 3.X interest rate on the two loans would have cost me in that time.  Would have recovered a chunk of the taxes I paid on that income, and it would still be growing now, faster than the market value of the two houses.

I knew it would add a year or two to my FIRE savings schedule.  But, I was planning working for a several more years anyways to ensure my team was established in the new company, and apparently to also build a new team and a new product!  Lastly, the golden handcuffs made it worthwhile to stick around.

It also made financial sense to diversify into real-estate, since all of my deferred compensation would be in stock.  Really tho, I don't consider the houses an investment.  I do consider it a diversification and risk mitigation -- and it comes with a pool!  Had I kept that money in the market, I would not get the diversification of assets.  The risk it mitigates is losing my income, our monthly nut, with both houses, is now smaller than DWs educator earnings.

I don't get the same satisfaction from looking at my VSTAX balance as I do from waking up in a house I own outright, and seeing my mother's face when she knows that she has a home for the rest of her life to enjoy with the grandkids, and that it can be passed down to them without a bank involved, and with only property tax and insurance to keep up with.  I'm going to set up a trust to handle that soon.

I know that the value of that to me is significantly higher than the opportunity cost.  That's why I did it.

There is also the value of not having debt, in terms of flexibility in how I live, where I live, and how I spend my time and mental energy.  Those are very valuable to me, and directly relate to my mental health, and thus my physical health.  My sensitivity to that may well be a result of the childhood trauma of losing a house, but it is part of who I am.  Hah! I guess I'm doing some exposure therapy for that, with the short mortgage I had, and now I am opening a HELOC as a supplemental emergency fund.

Anyways, that's why I was so happy to join the club, twice 8^)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on April 30, 2018, 09:58:12 AM
Woot!  I joined the club twice in the last three years!

For full disclosure, I own both of my houses outright.  One I bought in cash, the other I bought with a mortgage and paid off in just over a year.  I was lucky enough to sell a startup, so this was not a hardship nor did it require the kind of long-term dedication and perseverance that others have shown here.

When I was a teen, my family had our house foreclosed on.  This certainly makes the entire notion of owning a house an emotional issue for me, and I did NOT approach it in terms of optimizing financial outcomes, or the return I could have gotten from that money.  The first house is the one I live in with my wife.  The second one is a house I bought for my mother, and the family, in our hometown.  I was optimizing for peace of mind, and minimizing my monthly expenses -- aka health, resilience and security.

I knew the math -- I can guess how much I would have made had I put it into the market over the last couple years, WAY more than the 3.X interest rate on the two loans would have cost me in that time.  Would have recovered a chunk of the taxes I paid on that income, and it would still be growing now, faster than the market value of the two houses.

I knew it would add a year or two to my FIRE savings schedule.  But, I was planning working for a several more years anyways to ensure my team was established in the new company, and apparently to also build a new team and a new product!  Lastly, the golden handcuffs made it worthwhile to stick around.

It also made financial sense to diversify into real-estate, since all of my deferred compensation would be in stock.  Really tho, I don't consider the houses an investment.  I do consider it a diversification and risk mitigation -- and it comes with a pool!  Had I kept that money in the market, I would not get the diversification of assets.  The risk it mitigates is losing my income, our monthly nut, with both houses, is now smaller than DWs educator earnings.

I don't get the same satisfaction from looking at my VSTAX balance as I do from waking up in a house I own outright, and seeing my mother's face when she knows that she has a home for the rest of her life to enjoy with the grandkids, and that it can be passed down to them without a bank involved, and with only property tax and insurance to keep up with.  I'm going to set up a trust to handle that soon.

I know that the value of that to me is significantly higher than the opportunity cost.  That's why I did it.

There is also the value of not having debt, in terms of flexibility in how I live, where I live, and how I spend my time and mental energy.  Those are very valuable to me, and directly relate to my mental health, and thus my physical health.  My sensitivity to that may well be a result of the childhood trauma of losing a house, but it is part of who I am.  Hah! I guess I'm doing some exposure therapy for that, with the short mortgage I had, and now I am opening a HELOC as a supplemental emergency fund.

Anyways, that's why I was so happy to join the club, twice 8^)
Congratulations,verfrugal! I think your reasoning is very sound, given your circumstances. In fact, double congratulations!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: arebelspy on April 30, 2018, 10:27:06 AM
MOD NOTE:

This thread is for celebrating mortgage payoffs.

Not for debating if one should pay off a mortgage, or not.

All posts regarding the merits of paying off a mortgage are off topic. Please find another, more appropriate thread to post these arguments in.

Cheers!


The above remains the case. Posts made arguing about whether or not you should pay off a mortgage will henceforth be deleted and result in temporary bans.

Feel free to post in other threads about why paying off the mortgage is mathematically sub-optimal. This thread one is for people who understand it may be sub-optimal, but are doing it anyways, and celebrating their paying down debt.

Please report any such posts violating this. Cheers!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on April 30, 2018, 12:07:38 PM
Woot!  I joined the club twice in the last three years!

...

There is also the value of not having debt, in terms of flexibility in how I live, where I live, and how I spend my time and mental energy.  Those are very valuable to me, and directly relate to my mental health, and thus my physical health.  My sensitivity to that may well be a result of the childhood trauma of losing a house, but it is part of who I am.  Hah! I guess I'm doing some exposure therapy for that, with the short mortgage I had, and now I am opening a HELOC as a supplemental emergency fund.

...

Anyways, that's why I was so happy to join the club, twice 8^)

Congratulations @verfrugal!  That is extremely motivating to me.  I, too, am using my personal and rental residence as a way to diversify.  I don't invest in REITs, so my vast property holdings (all one and a half of them) represent that portion of my portfolio.  I'm also trying to reduce expenses post-FIRE, so I can avoid capital gains taxes in some years (I know it won't be possible every year).

On a personal note, congratulations on being able to take care of your mom.  Great karma right there!  :) 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on April 30, 2018, 12:21:47 PM
Another $4k hit to the principal balance, now under $90k!

Great job! It's in the sub $100K now where things start to pick up speed.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on May 01, 2018, 04:40:04 AM
Another $4k hit to the principal balance, now under $90k!

Great job! It's in the sub $100K now where things start to pick up speed.

Yep!  And when the balance gets lower you start to find ways to pay it off even quicker!  Great job Birdman!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: birdman2003 on May 01, 2018, 07:53:38 AM
Thanks for the encouragement.  It would be awesome to pay it off in 2018 but we definitely want it gone by this time next year.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: littlelykke on May 01, 2018, 08:49:37 AM
We collected our change for the last 4 months in an old jam jar. When I counted it today, it was 300 euros. Used it to make an extra payment on our mortgage. The result: 30 euros off our monthly payments. Permanently. Yeah! Small steps. But we'll get there.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on May 03, 2018, 08:51:53 PM
May update.....$59,575.... waiting patiently for husbands bonus to come in.  21 more weeks at max until payoff - hopefully less. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on May 03, 2018, 09:13:56 PM
Way to go @frizzy and carry on!   Our situation sounds similar (now down to $44K as of 5/1 and hoping for a good bonus late June to really accelerate towards the goal line).   It's GO time!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on May 04, 2018, 04:32:26 PM
For those of you who stared with larger mortgage balances, how did you stay motivated in the beginning?  Our current balance is 493k so even if I pay an extra 2,000 a month I am still 10 years away from paying it off.  Did you set mini goals or just put a set amount towards it every month and forget about it? 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on May 04, 2018, 04:59:27 PM
For those of you who stared with larger mortgage balances, how did you stay motivated in the beginning?  Our current balance is 493k so even if I pay an extra 2,000 a month I am still 10 years away from paying it off.  Did you set mini goals or just put a set amount towards it every month and forget about it?

Mostly we did a set amount extra each month that would take us to 10 years max (with a 30 year mortgage), and then as our EFund grew over $5K more than our planned amounts we moved chunks over at a time.  Bonus payments were the main mortgage kicker for us. I think it took a little over 5 years to pay off the mortgage. 

We don't include bonuses in our monthly spending/saving budget, so when they come we can put all of them to goals. DH's bonus can be 30-60% of his salary, so it's a big chunk that varies from year to year. Big enough of a chunk that I don't want an EMERGENCY just because he didn't get a bonus that we got used to spending.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on May 04, 2018, 05:56:59 PM
For those of you who stared with larger mortgage balances, how did you stay motivated in the beginning?  Our current balance is 493k so even if I pay an extra 2,000 a month I am still 10 years away from paying it off.  Did you set mini goals or just put a set amount towards it every month and forget about it?
I put $2k extra toward my loan too and it seems too slow too.  And every once in a while I get a big distribution from my company (I think of it like a bonus) and rather than putting it into my investments, I put it toward the house.  Better than spending it on furniture or a car though.  I am really aiming to get under $130k, then I'll forget about it.  But until then, I'm itching to get it paid. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on May 04, 2018, 07:10:18 PM
@Megs193,  I remember the "the debt is too big, so why bother" early days...   The banks rely on this psychological response to keep you a slave paying them to stay in business for doing nothing other than letting you borrow someone else's equity.   Like BlueHouse said, it's a combination of discipline "chipping away" and then those chances to put "big chunks".    While the math remains constant, the change really happens once you reach 50% through the debt...  At that point, psychology kicks in and you just believe and find ways to kill the mortgage.   Selling things, reducing expenses to pay principal, increasing income, you name it.  It's not a number, it's believing... every blessed day.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on May 05, 2018, 05:58:52 AM
@Megs193 -- I used a strategy similar to the others.  I set a minimum number each month for the extra payment, and then also threw any extra chunks/windfalls/bonuses at it.  The third thing I did was play mental games with myself, trying to get below a certain number. So say if my balance was 193k, and my monthly minimum extra payment would have gotten me to $190,800, I would find a little extra to throw at it to get it below 190k, just so I could see that 8 on my balance. Then when I chewed it down to say $184k, I would find some way to throw a little extra at it, so I could get below $180, and see that delicious 7

It was kind of like the strategy long distance runners use when they are struggling -- looking for shorter-term goals, rather than the far goal.  "I don't feel great right now, and I don't know if I can run another 10 miles.  But I know I can run one more mile, so I'll just do that and then see how I feel."  Rinse and repeat.

Good luck! You will get there.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: aperture on May 05, 2018, 06:19:23 AM
@Megs193
...It was kind of like the strategy long distance runners use when they are struggling -- looking for shorter-term goals, rather than the far goal.  "I don't feel great right now, and I don't know if I can run another 10 miles.  But I know I can run one more mile, so I'll just do that and then see how I feel."  Rinse and repeat.

Yes - I love this advice.  An unfortunate side effect of understanding how to plan, and use a spreadsheet is that you can make life look super predictable and the monthly or q2 week deposits into the mortgage can seem like they have no impact at all.  I would encourage you to not look at the end - you will burn yourself out. Look at 3 months or 6 months or a year and make it a game. Maybe your minimum payments would get you to $480K this year and your expected extra payments will get you to $460K.  Make it a personal challenge to find a way to get to $450.  Look for the proverbial nickels in the couch, side hustle, room mate, bike to work, skip the lunch the coffee, sell it on eBay - do something to shake a few extra $s loose to throw at the mortgage.

If that does not appeal, then I would find a way to execute your mortgage plan on auto-pilot without ever having to look at a statement again. Again - the bottom line is refocus your attention away from the date 10 years from now when you are out from under that loan.  You have to live now and cannot defer living until then. 

BTW - I have done a bad job of following my own advice.  In the last three years, I have had a calendar spreadsheet at work where I counted down the days, weeks, mondays, mortgage payments, 403b contributions, pension accumulation, etc etc etc ad nauseam until June 29, 2018 when I FIRE. Best weeks of that time has been when I never looked at the calendar and just put my head into the work. Worst weeks were surprisingly last Fall when the last 5% of my working life seemed to stretch out like a WW1 battlefield - ready to sink me in mire and crush me.  It was a slog and I counted down to Thanksgiving, then counted down to Christmas then to a Spring vacation, then 25 day increments (almost to 50 days now...). Still counting, but THE DAY grows near. 

Best wishes, aperture.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: K-ice on May 05, 2018, 10:22:17 AM
I’m not sure if this belongs here or in relatives who just don’t get it.

Anyway, I found out a relative has about $9000 remaining on a rental property & over $100,000 on their own personal home.

They have been making extra payments to the rental property & will have it paid off within a year or 14years total.

I know that a paid off home is usually cause for celebration around here, but the extra payments were directed at the wrong property.

Unfortunately, in Canada, you can only deduct mortgage interest on rental properties. They will have about $6000 more in taxable income next year.

They should have dragged out the rental mortgage as long as possible and paid off the personal home first.

Just a warning, for Canadians in the « mortgage payoff club » with more than one property. Be sure you are focusing your extra payments correctly.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Threshkin on May 05, 2018, 11:24:41 PM
Paying off your mortgage before FIRE is very mustachian IMO.  Especially for aggressive early retirees.

If you are looking at a long retirement, potentially 60+ years you need to maximize your investment returns.  A common to do this is heavy equity exposure.  Unfortunately this exposes you to a larger sequence of returns risk.  Having a mortgage in the early years of FIRE increases the impact of sequence of returns risk because you have a large fixed expense, the mortgage payment.  You can cut discretionary expenses but it is harder to cut a mortgage payment.

FIRE smart and pay of your mortgage early!

For reference (and lots of math)  check out this ERN blog post on the subject:  https://earlyretirementnow.com/2017/10/11/the-ultimate-guide-to-safe-withdrawal-rates-part-21-mortgage-in-retirement/
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Rowellen on May 06, 2018, 01:34:53 AM
I’m not sure if this belongs here or in relatives who just don’t get it.

Anyway, I found out a relative has about $9000 remaining on a rental property & over $100,000 on their own personal home.

They have been making extra payments to the rental property & will have it paid off within a year or 14years total.

I know that a paid off home is usually cause for celebration around here, but the extra payments were directed at the wrong property.

Unfortunately, in Canada, you can only deduct mortgage interest on rental properties. They will have about $6000 more in taxable income next year.

They should have dragged out the rental mortgage as long as possible and paid off the personal home first.

Just a warning, for Canadians in the « mortgage payoff club » with more than one property. Be sure you are focusing your extra payments correctly.

It works the same way in Australia.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: QuillScroll on May 15, 2018, 09:43:45 AM
For those of you who stared with larger mortgage balances, how did you stay motivated in the beginning?  Our current balance is 493k so even if I pay an extra 2,000 a month I am still 10 years away from paying it off.  Did you set mini goals or just put a set amount towards it every month and forget about it?

I so much identify with it. Our balance is around 395K (we just purchased home about 6 months ago), I have no motivation to make additional payments because the number just seems so large. Let alone a dent, I feel like not even scratching the surface by making any additional payments.

But at the same time, I want to see this mortgage melt away. So I have made up my mind that no matter how I feel, I'm going to make some additional payments in the range of $500- $1000 each month.

Any bonus or unexpected cash returns get divided 50-50 between investments and mortgage.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: littlelykke on May 15, 2018, 11:22:38 AM
For those of you who stared with larger mortgage balances, how did you stay motivated in the beginning?  [...] Did you set mini goals or just put a set amount towards it every month and forget about it?

I so much identify with it. [...]

But at the same time, I want to see this mortgage melt away. So I have made up my mind that no matter how I feel, I'm going to make some additional payments in the range of $500- $1000 each month.

Any bonus or unexpected cash returns get divided 50-50 between investments and mortgage.

Our mortgage is not as high as yours, but I still feel the same way. The other day I made an extra payment of 300 euros, but that's just so little. Unfortunately, we can't pay down an additional 1000 euros each month. But we do what we can. Any bonuses also get divided 50-50 :)

However I made a spreadsheet, which is highly motivating for me. I wrote down our leftover amount of mortgage on the 31st December of each year for the next 30 years. My goal for this year is to beat this years number by October.
I'd like to beat next years number in June, etc. So I'm just making yearly goals, this way it feels do-able. Also makes me feel like I'm competing against myself, which works really well for me. This year we have a lot of renovating to do, so we can't make huge additional payments. Hopefully next year we'll be able to pay down some more.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on May 15, 2018, 12:10:05 PM


However I made a spreadsheet, which is highly motivating for me. I wrote down our leftover amount of mortgage on the 31st December of each year for the next 30 years. My goal for this year is to beat this years number by October.
I'd like to beat next years number in June, etc. So I'm just making yearly goals, this way it feels do-able. Also makes me feel like I'm competing against myself, which works really well for me. This year we have a lot of renovating to do, so we can't make huge additional payments. Hopefully next year we'll be able to pay down some more.

I like this approach.  This can work for so many other things too.  !!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on May 15, 2018, 07:53:35 PM
For those of you who stared with larger mortgage balances, how did you stay motivated in the beginning?  Our current balance is 493k so even if I pay an extra 2,000 a month I am still 10 years away from paying it off.  Did you set mini goals or just put a set amount towards it every month and forget about it?

I so much identify with it. Our balance is around 395K (we just purchased home about 6 months ago), I have no motivation to make additional payments because the number just seems so large. Let alone a dent, I feel like not even scratching the surface by making any additional payments.

But at the same time, I want to see this mortgage melt away. So I have made up my mind that no matter how I feel, I'm going to make some additional payments in the range of $500- $1000 each month.

Any bonus or unexpected cash returns get divided 50-50 between investments and mortgage.

We bought a new house in September 2013 and our starting mortgage balance was $435,000.  We made a plan to pay it off in 5 years, stuck with it and our mortgage balance is now at $57,000 and will be paid off by September 2018.  We used all the options the bank allowed us to, regular weekly payments, increased our weekly amount once a year and added top ups as frequently as we could - including bonuses, tax returns etc.  Stick with it, it can be done!  And even if it takes 10 years, its better than 25 years! Your future self will thank you! :-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: QuillScroll on May 16, 2018, 08:37:21 AM
@frizzywhiskers  that's incredible!!! Can you provide more input on how did you manage investment during this period? I'm not sure if I could pay off my mortgage in 5 years even after throwing all my spare money at it. Although, I would never do that as I'm just starting my investing life and am probably doing 70%-30% investment vs additional mortgage payment.

Paying $435000 in five years is stellar achievement in my opinion. Congrats!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on May 16, 2018, 08:25:06 PM
@frizzywhiskers  that's incredible!!! Can you provide more input on how did you manage investment during this period? I'm not sure if I could pay off my mortgage in 5 years even after throwing all my spare money at it. Although, I would never do that as I'm just starting my investing life and am probably doing 70%-30% investment vs additional mortgage payment.

Paying $435000 in five years is stellar achievement in my opinion. Congrats!!!

Thanks @QuillScroll , it's been a long haul but we are excited for the finish line!  We waffled back and forth many times over the years but my husband ended up getting laid off this year so it just feels right to know we can afford life on one salary.  We are in Canada, but investment wise we both maxed out our work pensions during this time to achieve full company match as well as contributed an additional 15% into RRSP's.  We were investing/paying down mortgage with 70% of our income and living off the 30%.  Once the mortgage is fully paid off that full 70% will go into investments for a few years and we should be able to FIRE in 2021.

Your approach sounds like a great start!  Best of luck to you!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on May 17, 2018, 08:29:54 AM
For those of you who stared with larger mortgage balances, how did you stay motivated in the beginning?  [...] Did you set mini goals or just put a set amount towards it every month and forget about it?

I so much identify with it. [...]

But at the same time, I want to see this mortgage melt away. So I have made up my mind that no matter how I feel, I'm going to make some additional payments in the range of $500- $1000 each month.

Any bonus or unexpected cash returns get divided 50-50 between investments and mortgage.

Our mortgage is not as high as yours, but I still feel the same way. The other day I made an extra payment of 300 euros, but that's just so little. Unfortunately, we can't pay down an additional 1000 euros each month. But we do what we can. Any bonuses also get divided 50-50 :)

However I made a spreadsheet, which is highly motivating for me. I wrote down our leftover amount of mortgage on the 31st December of each year for the next 30 years. My goal for this year is to beat this years number by October.
I'd like to beat next years number in June, etc. So I'm just making yearly goals, this way it feels do-able. Also makes me feel like I'm competing against myself, which works really well for me. This year we have a lot of renovating to do, so we can't make huge additional payments. Hopefully next year we'll be able to pay down some more.

I love this idea!  I would find this highly motivating too and I am definitely making a spreadsheet tonight.  I just made an extra $3,000 payment on my mortgage today but since the balance is $491k it still feels like a very small change. If I had a yearly goal to meet I think these payments would be a lot more motivating.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Threshkin on May 17, 2018, 10:49:21 PM
The way I looked at it when my mortgage principal was high was to think in terms of how many extra months of principal payments I had just made.  For back of the envelope calculation I reduced the number of months remaining on my mortgage by the extra principal I was paying.

Example (totally made up):

Balanced owed: $300K
Amount of regular payment applied to principal: $300
Extra payment: $3,000

Extra principal pay down: 1%  (Ho hum)
Months of mortgage term reduced: 10 (Whoot!)

I knew this was not totally accurate because the amount of principal paid increases every month but it was enough to get me motivated to make those extra payments.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on May 18, 2018, 04:17:51 AM
The way I looked at it when my mortgage principal was high was to think in terms of how many extra months of principal payments I had just made.  For back of the envelope calculation I reduced the number of months remaining on my mortgage by the extra principal I was paying.

Example (totally made up):

Balanced owed: $300K
Amount of regular payment applied to principal: $300
Extra payment: $3,000

Extra principal pay down: 1%  (Ho hum)
Months of mortgage term reduced: 10 (Whoot!)

I knew this was not totally accurate because the amount of principal paid increases every month but it was enough to get me motivated to make those extra payments.

Love this Threshkin!  I also did that.  Another thing that motivated me was seeing the monthly interest amount drop.  Sometimes it was a really small number -- but it seemed special somehow, because that was real, hard money that I got to keep this month.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on May 18, 2018, 08:39:41 AM
FYI, if you forgot some of the math surrounding calculating these payments, go to http://wolframalpha.com (http://wolframalpha.com) and their mortgage tool (under "Finance") will show you the annual amortization table, so you can quickly see how far ahead you are on your mortgage, time-wise.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Need2Save on May 18, 2018, 10:16:38 AM
I have been partial to this excel mortgage calculator that I found over ten years ago and have used for several refinances to track original loan amount, interest rate, and the effect of extra payments I made along the way (or planned to make for modeling purposes).  To keep me motivated (and our last loan started around $443k) was to focus on the total amount of interest saved over the life of the loan and also the number of years to pay off.  We refinanced to a 15 year loan, planned to pay it off in ten, but now are aiming for just under 8 years. Watching the monthly interest paid go down over time has been motivating as someone mentioned above. It started over $1k a month, and now is under $400 a month.  PLUS, since we won't be deducting this interest from federal taxes now - I'm really glad it's more than half of what it once was.

Also, modeling the what if I throw xxx$ at the loan now? (using the extra payments column)  How much will I save in interest overall if I do that is quite fun. Most calculators only allow you to put in limited inputs that remain static over the life of the loan, but I can change the monthly 'extra payments' for each and every month if I so choose to match perhaps growing income, anticipated bonuses, or other fluctuations to see what that looks like.

https://www.vertex42.com/Calculators/mortgage-calculators.html (ftp://www.vertex42.com/Calculators/mortgage-calculators.html)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: littlelykke on May 18, 2018, 01:02:58 PM
I have been partial to this excel mortgage calculator that I found over ten years ago and have used for several refinances to track original loan amount, interest rate, and the effect of extra payments I made along the way (or planned to make for modeling purposes).  [...]

Also, modeling the what if I throw xxx$ at the loan now? (using the extra payments column)  How much will I save in interest overall if I do that is quite fun. Most calculators only allow you to put in limited inputs that remain static over the life of the loan, but I can change the monthly 'extra payments' for each and every month if I so choose to match perhaps growing income, anticipated bonuses, or other fluctuations to see what that looks like.

https://www.vertex42.com/Calculators/mortgage-calculators.html (ftp://www.vertex42.com/Calculators/mortgage-calculators.html)

Oh yes, how could I forget this! I also do this, such fun. If I can pay an extra 3000 this year, what does it do? Hours of fun are to be had with this tool :P
I used this one btw: https://www.daveramsey.com/mortgage-payoff-calculator But i'm gonna check yours out as well.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cdub on May 18, 2018, 02:14:49 PM
The Mortgage Payoff Club has been relaunched and it is now at http://mortgagepayoff.club/ (http://mortgagepayoff.club/).

We also had our first member pay off his house! :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Irishtache on May 18, 2018, 04:32:29 PM
Hi All,
This post ejected from the 'Don't Payoff....' thread!

We paid off our mortgage a few months early last Tuesday. We did that as my wife has 'pre-tired' and her income has halved so it is a debit we didn't need coming out of our account on the 1st of each month. Also, although the interest is very low, the mortgage protection is a lot higher and we are saving that. It was, in fairness, a small enough amount left to pay. Just wanted to tell someone. It's a bit anticlimactic and, this week, our beloved cat died, the fridge freezer packed in same day  and a rad in the rental house has been leaking(unknown to us) for 2 months and those are all extra expenses this week! I miss the cat. All else is just stuff! IT
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Blindsquirrel on May 18, 2018, 05:01:37 PM
   Sorry for the loss of your cat. Love the little buggers. Remember, a problem is something you can't write a check to solve. If you can solve it with a check, it is not a true problem.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on May 18, 2018, 06:25:37 PM
Hi All,
This post ejected from the 'Don't Payoff....' thread!

We paid off our mortgage a few months early last Tuesday. We did that as my wife has 'pre-tired' and her income has halved so it is a debit we didn't need coming out of our account on the 1st of each month. Also, although the interest is very low, the mortgage protection is a lot higher and we are saving that. It was, in fairness, a small enough amount left to pay. Just wanted to tell someone. It's a bit anticlimactic and, this week, our beloved cat died, the fridge freezer packed in same day  and a rad in the rental house has been leaking(unknown to us) for 2 months and those are all extra expenses this week! I miss the cat. All else is just stuff! IT

Congratulations on the payment- I am truly sorry the cat passed away.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: K-ice on May 18, 2018, 08:51:19 PM

https://www.vertex42.com/Calculators/mortgage-calculators.html (ftp://www.vertex42.com/Calculators/mortgage-calculators.html)

I’ve had so much fun with that spread sheet too. I actually find the start the most exciting because your payments make such a big dent.

I’m struggling with the final stretch.

For example $10,000 at the start of a big mortgage can save you over 10K in interest.

It’s a few years later when I see that $10K is only saving $6K that it’s sometimes hard to keep motivated.

Our max total mortgage debt was over $650K for our primary residence & 2 rentals. Now we’re down to $75K on one rental.

We could be done in under 2 years. But now I want to stretch it out & stop neglecting other investments. My partner is firmly in the mortgage payoff club but I’m struggling. 

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Irishtache on May 19, 2018, 01:39:53 PM
Hi All,
This post ejected from the 'Don't Payoff....' thread!

We paid off our mortgage a few months early last Tuesday. We did that as my wife has 'pre-tired' and her income has halved so it is a debit we didn't need coming out of our account on the 1st of each month. Also, although the interest is very low, the mortgage protection is a lot higher and we are saving that. It was, in fairness, a small enough amount left to pay. Just wanted to tell someone. It's a bit anticlimactic and, this week, our beloved cat died, the fridge freezer packed in same day  and a rad in the rental house has been leaking(unknown to us) for 2 months and those are all extra expenses this week! I miss the cat. All else is just stuff! IT

Congratulations on the payment- I am truly sorry the cat passed away.
   Sorry for the loss of your cat. Love the little buggers. Remember, a problem is something you can't write a check to solve. If you can solve it with a check, it is not a true problem.

Thank you for your condolences. You're right, the other 'problems' were solved with money!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks on May 20, 2018, 08:49:27 AM
Our balance is at $48,300.  I just looked at our liquid assets and we could write a check and pay it off, but it would mean selling some stocks and taking short term gains, which I'm not sure of.  I will discuss it with my spouse and we'll see.  If we go slow, it could take 3 - 5 years, if we go fast, we could pay it off at the end of this year.  I will probably wait for some of the short term cap gains to age into long term cap gains and if we go for it it would be more toward the end of the year.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: plainjane on May 21, 2018, 03:25:36 PM
I don't think it's fair to describe their motivations in that way on a thread they've been told not to post on.

I think of this like a weight loss forum where a group of people decided to walk for 15 minutes every day, and other folks kept on pointing out that running would burn more calories. Or the ongoing argument about those who go for a snowball debt repayment vs. the mathematically proper 'highest interest rate first'. Mathematically one is better the majority of the time. But maybe doing the other way helps create great habits and pretty good outcomes.

I love that we have a bunch of people here who are aiming for a financial goal that excites them and that they have a lot of control over. Let's focus on that.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on May 28, 2018, 06:45:23 AM
@plainjane,   Love the walking vs running analogy...   The life change in behavior is more likely by walking...  even for those who say they “love” running.

@KBecks,  We are mulling the same sort of decision at the low-40s level FWIW...   Basically taking the approach that all cash on hand (minus 6 month emergency fund) plus any new income “chunks” go to debt payoff given the age of the bull market and interest rate upward pressure versus equities)...  Perhaps a Dave Ramsey moment will help in the mental calculus... Would you borrow money today to put in the market if your house were paid off?   In 2009, such risk usually made sense for depressed real estate purchase (if a bank would even lend)...  but today, seems not so much.   Best of luck either way!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on May 29, 2018, 11:55:48 AM
I was able to pay an extra $7,000 towards the mortgage this month!  We still owe 486k so i’ve set a goal of paying an extra 50k towards the mortgage each year to keep myself motivated.  Even that seems like it will take forever but we have only owned the house for 1 year so if we can pay it off in 10 years I will be happy.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Finntastic on May 30, 2018, 04:10:05 AM
Ok im in. Got about 120,000$ to pay and goal is to pay that off in 3 years
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: shinn497 on June 04, 2018, 10:43:29 AM
Hey I have a question for you guys. Does "pay for your house in cash" fall under this group? I don't see that anywhere. I'm not saying I'm going ot do this. I mean I want to. But I'm just curious.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bird In Hand on June 04, 2018, 03:42:17 PM
For those of you who stared with larger mortgage balances, how did you stay motivated in the beginning?  Our current balance is 493k so even if I pay an extra 2,000 a month I am still 10 years away from paying it off.  Did you set mini goals or just put a set amount towards it every month and forget about it?

I calculated the extra amount we'd have to pay every month to cut the mortgage in half.  You can do this by doubling the principal payment each month, but that way the extra payments start off tiny and end up huge.  We wanted consistent payments, which would eventually feel smaller over time due to increased salaries.

We set up our auto payments to include this fixed extra amount, and it's been hands-off since.

Well, kind of hands off.  I also spent a bunch of my free time writing increasingly sophisticated mortgage calculators, and I still use them to compare what-if scenarios.

One mental hack early on in the mortgage is to pretend that each extra multiple of the current principal payment knocks off that many months from the end of the mortgage.  This is a fun game to play early on because the principal payment is lowest at the beginning.  It's awesome to be able to say "I just paid $1,500 extra on my $2,350 P&I mortgage and knocked 2 months off the end of it!"
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: plainjane on June 04, 2018, 04:31:21 PM
Hey I have a question for you guys. Does "pay for your house in cash" fall under this group? I don't see that anywhere. I'm not saying I'm going ot do this. I mean I want to. But I'm just curious.

It would fall into this group probably, but it is by its nature a one-time thing, so would be many fewer posts compared to the people who are updating milestones or emotions over a period of time.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: shinn497 on June 04, 2018, 06:58:34 PM
Hey I have a question for you guys. Does "pay for your house in cash" fall under this group? I don't see that anywhere. I'm not saying I'm going ot do this. I mean I want to. But I'm just curious.

It would fall into this group probably, but it is by its nature a one-time thing, so would be many fewer posts compared to the people who are updating milestones or emotions over a period of time.

Good point! So what is your story. How did you do it?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on June 04, 2018, 08:34:00 PM
For those of you who stared with larger mortgage balances, how did you stay motivated in the beginning?  Our current balance is 493k so even if I pay an extra 2,000 a month I am still 10 years away from paying it off.  Did you set mini goals or just put a set amount towards it every month and forget about it?

I calculated the extra amount we'd have to pay every month to cut the mortgage in half.  You can do this by doubling the principal payment each month, but that way the extra payments start off tiny and end up huge.  We wanted consistent payments, which would eventually feel smaller over time due to increased salaries.

We set up our auto payments to include this fixed extra amount, and it's been hands-off since.

Well, kind of hands off.  I also spent a bunch of my free time writing increasingly sophisticated mortgage calculators, and I still use them to compare what-if scenarios.

One mental hack early on in the mortgage is to pretend that each extra multiple of the current principal payment knocks off that many months from the end of the mortgage.  This is a fun game to play early on because the principal payment is lowest at the beginning.  It's awesome to be able to say "I just paid $1,500 extra on my $2,350 P&I mortgage and knocked 2 months off the end of it!"

I like this idea!  I am working on a spreadsheet that will tell me how many months of payments I have left.  It will be exciting to see how many months it decreases by with each payment.  I just paid an extra 5k towards the mortgage and calculated that it took an extra 3 months off the end of my mortgage!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Lmoot on June 05, 2018, 03:30:55 AM
Congratulations everyone! I only have $40k left on my mortgage (just under 9 years in), but I took myself out of the prepay game after prepaying a few chunks several years ago, in order to focus on real estate investing, which requires a lot of capital. After I get my second property (hopefully by end of next year), I'll go back to paying it off. It's very tempting to just pay it off in a year, but I'll be patient just a while longer and in the meantime live vicariously through this thread.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: plainjane on June 05, 2018, 07:51:20 AM
Good point! So what is your story. How did you do it?

To put everything in context, I live in Canada, where 5 year term mortgages with a 25 year amortization to start was the default - these are also known as balloon mortgages in the US. We put down 25% to avoid mortgage insurance, plus 5k because the lender was concerned we had overpaid. Our first mortgage was 5 year fixed (5.25%) on a 25 year amortization, and our second mortgage was a 5 year variable (tended to be around 2.25%) with maybe a 10 year amortization (perhaps 15?).

TLDR: we bought the house with a mortgage payment that we knew we could carry with our existing lifestyle: it was what we'd been paying in rent + amount we'd been saving for the downpayment. We ended up with better cash flow because of raises, and then had some helpful bonuses in the 10-20k range, most of which got redirected to the house instead of lifestyle inflation. I had internalized the script about paying down the mortgage from my parents who did that in the 80s, and at some point I decided I didn't want to have a mortgage when I was 40.

The long story:
To start out, all we did was to pay our mortgage biweekly because we received pay checks biweekly. So 26 payments a year instead of 24. We were also paying back the 40k we had borrowed from RRSPs quite aggressively. I am pretty sure we paid back ourselves before we started prepaying the mortgage beyond the biweekly payments.

IIRC that mortgage provider allowed for a single lump sum payment every year, so after we paid back the RSP Homebuyer's withdrawal, we would send them my bonus or the tax refund as a physical cheque, and eventually through a phone call. We were also putting in the maximum of my annual RSP room for retirement investing, but not the SO's (because they are at a lower marginal tax bracket, so I'd do a spousal contribution). My documentation is on another computer, but think in the range of 5k-15k a year.

After 5 years of kicking ourselves for having a 5%+ fixed rate mortgage when everyone else was seeing interest rates drop like a stone after 2008, we got a 5 year variable mortgage after the first term was done and dropped down the amortization to 10 or 15 years (which was basically the same base payment thanks to the lower interest rate). This one was with a much more modern institution, and we could make lump sum payments or increase the amount of our payment really easily online. My pay switched to semi-monthly around then, so we changed our payments to semi-monthly too, but at a higher amount, so we didn't lose the advantage of that 'extra month' payment that we had been doing. I think the rule was that we could prepay up to 25% annually and/or increase the amount of the regular payments by 25%.

Because it was so easy to do online, we did a mix of big lump sum payments (tax refunds, bonuses, skimming off the top of emergency funds when it felt like we were carrying too much cash), and smaller 200-500 passes when we had more money in our chequing account than needed to cover that month's bills. By that time we were maxxed out on the tax advantaged investments, and putting money into the mortgage was a delay tactic to figuring out what to do with the excess cash.

Now that we don't have mortgage payments, the lower earner puts that cash into non-registered investments. Looking back, we could have made a number of better decisions, but they were the decisions we made at the time, and we didn't end up in a bad place.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on June 09, 2018, 05:25:00 AM
@plainjane,  I share that “kicking myself” feeling... It’s our current smarter self realizing how dumb our past self was.   If everyone were smart, you wouldnt be winning now with a paid off house and wealth accumulation.  The economy thrives on consumption but FIRE comes from your focus on accumulation.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on June 09, 2018, 05:35:41 AM
OK, a small but good dilemma...  The bonus has come in and we can pay off the house with it +20K from the stache...  But we are also putting the house on the market to downsize this month... AT LAST!  Do we pay to simplify closing and to mainly finish the journey (saves a few $100s in interest) or just sit...  We have plenty in the stache to cover earnest money and moving either way...  and will pay cash for the smaller place.

Pro’s and Con’s of paying the note?   Even interested in how this plays in real
estate transactions in other countries?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: iluvzbeach on June 09, 2018, 08:01:10 AM
I would just hang on to the money. We paid our house off one year ago today (yay us!) and it took about 6-8 weeks for everything to be processed with the lender as far as getting the note back marked paid and the lien released with the county. If your place were to go under contract quickly, you could end up causing more headache and confusion by having the payoff piece in process, than to just let it ride and go through the normal sales process cycle. Just my two cents.

Edit: typo correction
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: iluvzbeach on June 09, 2018, 08:08:11 AM
Today we celebrate one year since we wired the proceeds to payoff our house. We have no regrets about our decision and love knowing that even a sudden long-term job loss would not put us at risk of losing our house. There’s something cool about knowing we fully own every little bit of flooring, sheetrock, granite, roofing, etc. in this structure we call home.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on June 09, 2018, 09:00:16 AM
Today we celebrate one year since we wired the proceeds to payoff our house. We have no regrets about our decision and love knowing that even a sudden long-term job loss would not put us at risk of losing our house. There’s something cool about knowing we fully own every little bit of flooring, sheetrock, granite, roofing, etc. in this structure we call home.

I love this!  This is exactly how I feel. I know we could make more money in the market but knowing we have zero debt and everything we own is 100% ours is worth it to me. Our mortgage makes up a large percentage of our expenses as well so a drastic decrease in our expenses prior to our children going to colllege is also appealing.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mrmoonymartian on June 10, 2018, 04:02:39 AM
I'm in. $100k left and aiming to get it near zero by early 2020, while continuing to max out my tax-advantaged account.

Have had moments of temptation to divert more from the mortgage towards a full-tax account, but being in Australia means paying it down makes more sense for various reasons.

I'm not planning to make the final payment until I have to though. If the markets crash I can redraw and take advantage with some low cost, no doc, un-callable leverage.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on June 10, 2018, 06:33:55 AM
@iluvsbeach,   Congrats on paying yours off!  And great point about the closing drama I might cause.   After 3+ yrs of testifying on this board, saving and encouraging to get to this point and the emotional desire to just be done, I’m going to be pragmatic and save the bonus and call the mortgage payoff goal met as soon as we sign at the closing table.

Still gonna be nice to get 90+% of the proceeds back in that check.  The last paid-off house we sold, 2  bankers came out of their offices when I deposited it to sell me financial products and so called “Premium Banking” (with “premium fees” that come with such financial garbage).   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on June 10, 2018, 01:50:56 PM
Yoo-hoo, one mortgage paid off. 120k in just over 6 years! Only downside is that we opened a second mortgage to fund some improvements (changing the boiler for an electronic geyser, replacing the central heating with a heatpump).
On the plus side the new mortgage is at 1.65 percent with only one year fixed. Target payoff date is end 2019, this way I don't have to withdraw from my investments.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Zola. on June 14, 2018, 05:29:55 AM
We are 3 years into a 25 year term, started at £130,050 after a large deposit, and now down to £115,000. A long way to go, but once we get that number into the five figure club, oh baby...

I could go harder at the overpayments but I am putting in a fair amount into investments. We have our first child who will be born imminently, which will definitely pause the overpayments as my wife will be off work for a year!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on June 14, 2018, 08:54:05 AM
So far for the month of June we have managed to put an extra 7k towards the mortgage. My first post in this thread was April 3rd of this year and my mortgage balance was $497k.  Today it is $477k so we have paid of 20k in 3 months. My goal by the end of the 2018 is to be at 440k.  My oldest child will start college in 2027 so my original goal was to pay it off by then but I think we will beat that goal by a few years.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on June 14, 2018, 09:51:31 AM
Interest rates ticked up another .25%. I am bummed because I may be in the getting a mortgage club again soon.  My current mortgage is at 2.625%.  I'm not looking forward to higher rates. I guess it would make the payoff decision easier.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Livethedream on June 15, 2018, 07:56:35 AM
Wanted to say keep up the good work everyone! Excited to announce our final payment cleared this morning!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on June 15, 2018, 08:00:21 AM
Wooo Hooo!!!  Congrats @Livethedream !
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: iluvzbeach on June 15, 2018, 08:21:23 AM
Congratulations, @Livethedream

What a great feeling!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on June 16, 2018, 05:12:14 AM
@Livethedream,   Awesomeness!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on June 16, 2018, 10:28:48 AM
Congrats @Livethedream   That's Awesome!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on June 17, 2018, 09:45:47 AM
Congrats
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on June 22, 2018, 12:35:33 PM
@Livethedream , you are living MY dream!  Good on you and congratulations.  Did you post how fast you did it? 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on June 22, 2018, 01:50:39 PM
I would just hang on to the money. We paid our house off one year ago today (yay us!) and it took about 6-8 weeks for everything to be processed with the lender as far as getting the note back marked paid and the lien released with the county. If your place were to go under contract quickly, you could end up causing more headache and confusion by having the payoff piece in process, than to just let it ride and go through the normal sales process cycle. Just my two cents.

Edit: typo correction


Doesn't much matter which way you go, the loan processor will be in rush-rush, last minute mode regardless.    If they aren't a forgetful pain-in-the-ass about this topic they'll find another one to screw up.

Unless you figure there will be a cash offer with a closing in a few weeks, it's not going to affect things.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Livethedream on June 22, 2018, 07:50:30 PM
@Livethedream , you are living MY dream!  Good on you and congratulations.  Did you post how fast you did it?

Just under 2 years, started at $187k. This includes paid for solar system as well. So all utilities water, sewer, power, garbage, and home owners insurance comes out to $1500 yearly + property taxes. This was part of our plan, building an efficient home with low maintenance, operating, and insurance costs.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bird In Hand on June 27, 2018, 06:34:07 AM
Just under 2 years, started at $187k. This includes paid for solar system as well. So all utilities water, sewer, power, garbage, and home owners insurance comes out to $1500 yearly + property taxes. This was part of our plan, building an efficient home with low maintenance, operating, and insurance costs.

Wow, the $1,500 figure is impressive!  Our electric alone runs about $1,800, though the northeast does have crazy high electricity rates.  I'm envious of your tiny home maintenance/utility nut!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on June 27, 2018, 06:41:25 AM
@Livethedream , you are living MY dream!  Good on you and congratulations.  Did you post how fast you did it?

Just under 2 years, started at $187k. This includes paid for solar system as well. So all utilities water, sewer, power, garbage, and home owners insurance comes out to $1500 yearly + property taxes. This was part of our plan, building an efficient home with low maintenance, operating, and insurance costs.

woohoo well done!
We are about the same maybe-- how much is your property tax a year? ours is 200-- which is rad!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bird In Hand on June 27, 2018, 06:56:32 AM
woohoo well done!
We are about the same maybe-- how much is your property tax a year? ours is 200-- which is rad!

What the WHAT?  There is an ancient, beat-up trailer down the road from me, and its property taxes are around 10x what you pay.  :D
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dandypandys on June 27, 2018, 07:14:12 AM
In 2005 when i bought the condo for 140k it was 2000 taxes a year.
Then the crash came- it went allllllllll the way down.
My Real Estate Agent said that they cannot put it up more than 3% a year now until someone else buys it again. Didn't know that.
My condo is still only worth $100k though. Decided not to sell again phew- every 2 years It seems I get the moving bug and revisit the option.
I am excited to keep saving for early retirement.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on June 28, 2018, 07:03:02 AM
@Livethedream , you are living MY dream!  Good on you and congratulations.  Did you post how fast you did it?

Just under 2 years, started at $187k. This includes paid for solar system as well. So all utilities water, sewer, power, garbage, and home owners insurance comes out to $1500 yearly + property taxes. This was part of our plan, building an efficient home with low maintenance, operating, and insurance costs.

Please don't judge me, but my first thought when I read this is "what kind of mustachian feels like zhe needs to own the whole solar system?!?"
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on June 28, 2018, 08:08:55 AM
Just under 2 years, started at $187k. This includes paid for solar system as well. So all utilities water, sewer, power, garbage, and home owners insurance comes out to $1500 yearly + property taxes. This was part of our plan, building an efficient home with low maintenance, operating, and insurance costs.

Wow, the $1,500 figure is impressive!  Our electric alone runs about $1,800, though the northeast does have crazy high electricity rates.  I'm envious of your tiny home maintenance/utility nut!

Wait - WHAT....$1,800 for electric??? I am moving to the VA area - please tell me that is per year and not per month or I am going to have an apoplectic fit.....
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Car Jack on June 28, 2018, 08:15:55 AM
Virginia is not the Northeast.  I lived in Virginia for grad school and electricity was half the rate we pay in Massachusetts.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on June 28, 2018, 12:15:59 PM
Virginia is not the Northeast.  I lived in Virginia for grad school and electricity was half the rate we pay in Massachusetts.

Nice.  You're right it's more East than Northeast.  I will be happy paying the same rates as IL when the property taxes are less by 2/3.  If they were just going to get it back in the utilities, I was going to be really annoyed.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bird In Hand on June 28, 2018, 12:34:53 PM
Virginia is not the Northeast.  I lived in Virginia for grad school and electricity was half the rate we pay in Massachusetts.

Nice.  You're right it's more East than Northeast.  I will be happy paying the same rates as IL when the property taxes are less by 2/3.  If they were just going to get it back in the utilities, I was going to be really annoyed.

VA is part of the mid-Atlantic region, and nearly part of the Southeast!  :D

But yeah, the electricity rates in New England are obscene.  On par with Alaska, higher than CA in many cases, and really only Hawaii is worse.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Livethedream on June 28, 2018, 12:48:14 PM
@Livethedream , you are living MY dream!  Good on you and congratulations.  Did you post how fast you did it?

Just under 2 years, started at $187k. This includes paid for solar system as well. So all utilities water, sewer, power, garbage, and home owners insurance comes out to $1500 yearly + property taxes. This was part of our plan, building an efficient home with low maintenance, operating, and insurance costs.

woohoo well done!
We are about the same maybe-- how much is your property tax a year? ours is 200-- which is rad!

$200!? That’s crazy.

Ours is about $3800 a year.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on June 28, 2018, 01:25:29 PM
My husband got paid 3 times in June so I was able to put an extra 10k towards the mortgage this month so the balance is at 474k.  I’m guessing we won’t be able to pay any extra towards the mortgage next month because I just paid 6k for summer camp and purchased flights to see family in February but at least I made a nice payment this month.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Plina on June 30, 2018, 02:55:16 AM
My husband got paid 3 times in June so I was able to put an extra 10k towards the mortgage this month so the balance is at 474k.  I’m guessing we won’t be able to pay any extra towards the mortgage next month because I just paid 6k for summer camp and purchased flights to see family in February but at least I made a nice payment this month.

Out of curiosity, what kind of camp costs 6k?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on June 30, 2018, 07:01:19 AM
My husband got paid 3 times in June so I was able to put an extra 10k towards the mortgage this month so the balance is at 474k.  I’m guessing we won’t be able to pay any extra towards the mortgage next month because I just paid 6k for summer camp and purchased flights to see family in February but at least I made a nice payment this month.

Out of curiosity, what kind of camp costs 6k?

It’s for 2 kids so it’s 3k per kid but that was my reaction when I first found out how much camp cost. Unfortunately that is the going rate for camp in our area.  I actually wanted to hire a sitter on days I work over the summer and save some money but my husband went to camp and feels like it is worth it. My husband is not mustachian so I pick my battles.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mrmoonymartian on July 03, 2018, 02:27:50 AM
@Livethedream , you are living MY dream!  Good on you and congratulations.  Did you post how fast you did it?

Just under 2 years, started at $187k. This includes paid for solar system as well. So all utilities water, sewer, power, garbage, and home owners insurance comes out to $1500 yearly + property taxes. This was part of our plan, building an efficient home with low maintenance, operating, and insurance costs.

Please don't judge me, but my first thought when I read this is "what kind of mustachian feels like she needs to own the whole solar system?!?"
Ahahaha! Love this.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ScottsdaleSaver on July 03, 2018, 01:32:51 PM
June 2018 - $217K and I'm writing another check to principal for $5K tonight. The pay for grant work isn't in yet and the promotion happened and the higher pay rate kicks in this week (yay!). We're hoping to break the $200K mark by the end of the summer.

March 2018 - $227K  We made some good headway over the last quarter thanks to my bonus. We anticipate a couple more windfalls in the next quarter - grant work for my husband - & perhaps even a large promotion which would really speed things up. Send some good juju our way!

Jumping over here from a different mortgage payoff thread that never took off. We started the path to early payoff in earnest this June with a (free) refinance. We're on a 15-year mortgage at 3.25%, but I want to knock this thing out in 5.

Big picture - I want to time the mortgage payoff with my escape from corporate life. Our investments are where I'd like it to be at this point. We'll continue to max out our tax advantaged accounts, but everything after that is going towards this.

June 2017 - $254K
July 2017 - $251K
August 2017 - $248K
Sept 2017 - $245K
Oct 2017 - $244K
Nov 2017 - $241K
Dec - 2017 - $237K
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: CheapScholar on July 04, 2018, 06:07:33 PM
We just had a small windfall ($7,500 from in-laws) and put it towards the principal.  Brings us to $92,500. 

Somewhat amusing, the $7,500 gift was given to us by DW’s parents because my BIL got married, moved out and finally bought a house at 33.  In-laws could tell he needed the cash infusion and so my wife got an equal gift.  BIL purchased a 450K house and they only put down about 10%.  So they’re paying PMI, too.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they tapped equity at some point.  Meanwhile, we are on track to own our 215K (we purchased for 169K four years ago) home within a few years.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on July 04, 2018, 06:45:38 PM
May update.....$59,575.... waiting patiently for husbands bonus to come in.  21 more weeks at max until payoff - hopefully less.

This week's payment puts us at $48,969, finally broke free of the $50's!  The most exciting news is that my husbands bonus this year is going to be his best ever....right around the $35,000 for take home $$.  This means our plan is 100% on track.  This additional bonus payment will drop the mortgage to the $12,000 mark and then we will see if we decide to wipe it out, or let it zero out by Sept. 30.  Either way, feeling very grateful to be almost done!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on July 05, 2018, 05:30:14 AM
May update.....$59,575.... waiting patiently for husbands bonus to come in.  21 more weeks at max until payoff - hopefully less.

This week's payment puts us at $48,969, finally broke free of the $50's!  The most exciting news is that my husbands bonus this year is going to be his best ever....right around the $35,000 for take home $$.  This means our plan is 100% on track.  This additional bonus payment will drop the mortgage to the $12,000 mark and then we will see if we decide to wipe it out, or let it zero out by Sept. 30.  Either way, feeling very grateful to be almost done!

Congrats @frizzywhiskers ! You are in the home stretch!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on July 05, 2018, 12:41:38 PM
End of June update...   Just around $43K.   And pitching in another ~$1K this next pay period just to hopefully be "sub-40K" at the closing table (which is likely to be higher than the car loan balance of whomever buys our place)...  Strange how the mental game works at this stage... Crossing each $10K interval is such a win!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Finntastic on July 05, 2018, 09:06:22 PM
5/2018: $105,297
6/2018: $97,842

Interest rate 6.25%

Goal to be paid by: 10/10/2020
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: abpa on July 09, 2018, 07:11:34 AM
Our current balance is $126,885 with 4% interest.  Today I adjusted my 403b contribution to max it out, am maxing out my IRA and throwing everything else at the mortgage.  I'd love to pay it all off by my 50th birthday in Dec 2020.  This means I'll need to take on some sort of side gig (ER shifts, maybe?) in order to kill the mortgage. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on July 09, 2018, 07:17:27 PM
My husband and I have had too much cash on hand for awhile. After doing a case study we decided to put $45,000 towards the mortgage.  I made the transfer but am still waiting for the transaction to go through. Our new balance will be just under $427k.  Our original plan was to pay off the mortgage by the time my oldest starts college which would be a little over 9 years but now I’m hoping we can do it even sooner.  Our mortgage makes up over half of our monthly spending so reducing that to taxes and insurance only would make a huge difference in how much income we need per month after retirement.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on July 10, 2018, 08:57:48 AM
That is a lot of house.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FIreDrill on July 13, 2018, 03:05:57 PM
My husband and I have had too much cash on hand for awhile. After doing a case study we decided to put $45,000 towards the mortgage.  I made the transfer but am still waiting for the transaction to go through. Our new balance will be just under $427k.  Our original plan was to pay off the mortgage by the time my oldest starts college which would be a little over 9 years but now I’m hoping we can do it even sooner.  Our mortgage makes up over half of our monthly spending so reducing that to taxes and insurance only would make a huge difference in how much income we need per month after retirement.

I'm in a similar situation as you.  Just move to a HCOL area and our mortgage accounts for about 50-60% of our monthly expenses.  Although I'm not in the payoff club it's interesting to see someone in a very similar situation as mine attacking the mortgage.  Maybe someday we will pay it off early but for now, putting the money in investments makes us feel more comfortable.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FIreDrill on July 13, 2018, 03:21:12 PM
That is a lot of house debt.

Fixed that for you ;)

Depending on where they live that could be a very modest house or even a decent apartment/condo.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on July 13, 2018, 10:35:44 PM
Virginia is not the Northeast. 

Basic rule for US Geography -- if the state contained the capital of the Confederacy, it is not "Northern".   Or, for that matter, if it joined the Confederacy or wanted to.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on July 14, 2018, 05:32:10 AM
That is a lot of house.

We live in a HCOL area but it is a lot of house. I discovered MMM while it was in the process of being built. We hated moving and we love the house because we designed every part of it so our plan is to pay it off as quickly as possible.  We plan on moving to a LCOL area for retirement but unfortunately my DH has no interest in retiring so that won’t be for another 20+ years.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on July 14, 2018, 11:38:08 AM
May update.....$59,575.... waiting patiently for husbands bonus to come in.  21 more weeks at max until payoff - hopefully less.

This week's payment puts us at $48,969, finally broke free of the $50's!  The most exciting news is that my husbands bonus this year is going to be his best ever....right around the $35,000 for take home $$.  This means our plan is 100% on track.  This additional bonus payment will drop the mortgage to the $12,000 mark and then we will see if we decide to wipe it out, or let it zero out by Sept. 30.  Either way, feeling very grateful to be almost done!

Bonus came in as expected!  Whoop!  Down to $12,100 this week once the payment goes through.  The end is near.......
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: redbirdfan on July 14, 2018, 04:54:24 PM
I'm officially pledging to stop going back and forth between investing and paying off my mortgage.  I'm committing to paying off my mortgage.  I know that market returns may be higher, but I want the freedom of being debt free and I want to free up space for eventual Roth conversion ladders.  I'm using a HELOC to help me.  The HELOC cost me $175 for the condo questionnaire, but there were no closing costs, appraisal fees or any other fees.   This process starts Monday!  The plan is to apply most of the HELOC amount to the mortgage, deposit all extra funds and income into the HELOC and repeat when the balance gets back to the original amount.  When I make the lump sum payments to the mortgage, I will recast the mortgage.  This will reduce my required monthly payments so the difference will go back to the HELOC.  There is a $100 fee per recast with no limits on the amount of recasts possible.  I did not pay for any software to set anything up.  It's just me my spreadsheets, Mint and Personal Capital.  We'll see how this goes.     

Starting Mortgage Balance: $182,515
Starting HELOC funds available: $56,000
HELOC intro rate for the next 12 months: 2.74%
Mortgage Interest rate: 3.99%
HELOC rate after 12 months = Prime rate -.25 with a green energy purchase
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on July 14, 2018, 08:41:42 PM
@Frizzy...   GO, PAYOFF, WIN!!    Then enjoy every dollar working for you instead of for the bank!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on July 14, 2018, 09:41:23 PM
@Frizzy...   GO, PAYOFF, WIN!!    Then enjoy every dollar working for you instead of for the bank!

Yes - thank you! :-) It's very exciting!  We will likely pay off the final balance within the next month or so.  Need to inquire if there is any penalty involved in paying off the balance 2 months before the term is up! 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on July 16, 2018, 09:22:34 AM
I'm officially pledging to stop going back and forth between investing and paying off my mortgage.  I'm committing to paying off my mortgage.  I know that market returns may be higher, but I want the freedom of being debt free and I want to free up space for eventual Roth conversion ladders.  I'm using a HELOC to help me.  The HELOC cost me $175 for the condo questionnaire, but there were no closing costs, appraisal fees or any other fees.   This process starts Monday!  The plan is to apply most of the HELOC amount to the mortgage, deposit all extra funds and income into the HELOC and repeat when the balance gets back to the original amount.  When I make the lump sum payments to the mortgage, I will recast the mortgage.  This will reduce my required monthly payments so the difference will go back to the HELOC.  There is a $100 fee per recast with no limits on the amount of recasts possible.  I did not pay for any software to set anything up.  It's just me my spreadsheets, Mint and Personal Capital.  We'll see how this goes.     

Starting Mortgage Balance: $182,515
Starting HELOC funds available: $56,000
HELOC intro rate for the next 12 months: 2.74%
Mortgage Interest rate: 3.99%
HELOC rate after 12 months = Prime rate -.25 with a green energy purchase

That's a nice intro rate on your HELOC. I had heard about this HELOC method of paying down your mortgage, but I didn't consider it seriously because my mortgage APR was 3.0%. The float of the HELOC should help you make some progress, especially with that low teaser rate.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Telecaster on July 16, 2018, 05:14:10 PM
I'm officially pledging to stop going back and forth between investing and paying off my mortgage.  I'm committing to paying off my mortgage.  I know that market returns may be higher, but I want the freedom of being debt free and I want to free up space for eventual Roth conversion ladders.  I'm using a HELOC to help me.  The HELOC cost me $175 for the condo questionnaire, but there were no closing costs, appraisal fees or any other fees.   This process starts Monday!  The plan is to apply most of the HELOC amount to the mortgage, deposit all extra funds and income into the HELOC and repeat when the balance gets back to the original amount.  When I make the lump sum payments to the mortgage, I will recast the mortgage.  This will reduce my required monthly payments so the difference will go back to the HELOC.  There is a $100 fee per recast with no limits on the amount of recasts possible.  I did not pay for any software to set anything up.  It's just me my spreadsheets, Mint and Personal Capital.  We'll see how this goes.     

Starting Mortgage Balance: $182,515
Starting HELOC funds available: $56,000
HELOC intro rate for the next 12 months: 2.74%
Mortgage Interest rate: 3.99%
HELOC rate after 12 months = Prime rate -.25 with a green energy purchase

Someone mentioned this a while back, so I looked into and I flat don't see how it speeds up paying off the mortgage any more than simply making additional payments.   Is there something I'm missing?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: redbirdfan on July 16, 2018, 08:25:23 PM
Quote
Someone mentioned this a while back, so I looked into and I flat don't see how it speeds up paying off the mortgage any more than simply making additional payments.   Is there something I'm missing?

There's nothing that you're missing for the most part.  The HELOC just allows for large lump sum payments that put you further down the amortization schedule so more of your subsequent payments is applied to the principal.  There is also no way I would put all disposable income towards my mortgage without the safety net of the HELOC for liquidity.  The HELOC allowed me to pay a large amount (for me) towards the principal at once.  I wouldn't hit that amount of principal in extra payments anywhere near as quickly.  The HELOC method works as a self-inflicted hair on fire debt that forces to me to focus on paying off the mortgage as soon as possible.  Left to my own devices my analysis paralysis caused me to end up with funds just sitting in checking and savings accounts waiting for investment options on which I never pulled the trigger.  I finally decided to get off the fence.  The HELOC makes financial sense, provides a liquidity buffer and most importantly forces me to concentrate on paying off the mortgage.  For me it's more of a personal behavioral finance crutch than a magic bullet. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on July 17, 2018, 08:01:30 AM
I'm officially pledging to stop going back and forth between investing and paying off my mortgage.  I'm committing to paying off my mortgage.  I know that market returns may be higher, but I want the freedom of being debt free and I want to free up space for eventual Roth conversion ladders.  I'm using a HELOC to help me.  The HELOC cost me $175 for the condo questionnaire, but there were no closing costs, appraisal fees or any other fees.   This process starts Monday!  The plan is to apply most of the HELOC amount to the mortgage, deposit all extra funds and income into the HELOC and repeat when the balance gets back to the original amount.  When I make the lump sum payments to the mortgage, I will recast the mortgage.  This will reduce my required monthly payments so the difference will go back to the HELOC.  There is a $100 fee per recast with no limits on the amount of recasts possible.  I did not pay for any software to set anything up.  It's just me my spreadsheets, Mint and Personal Capital.  We'll see how this goes.     

Starting Mortgage Balance: $182,515
Starting HELOC funds available: $56,000
HELOC intro rate for the next 12 months: 2.74%
Mortgage Interest rate: 3.99%
HELOC rate after 12 months = Prime rate -.25 with a green energy purchase

Someone mentioned this a while back, so I looked into and I flat don't see how it speeds up paying off the mortgage any more than simply making additional payments.   Is there something I'm missing?

When I first learned about the HELOC method, I was skeptical, but I spent all afternoon making a spreadsheet. The reason it works is that you immediately put the money toward your mortgage, but time your bills that you pay from your HELOC for the end of the month, so there's actually a decent amount of float in your favor. Redbirdfan's HELOC has the added advantage of the lower interest rate.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: AccidentalMiser on July 18, 2018, 08:35:01 PM
So, I’m going to start posting here since paying off the mortgages is the next thing in line for us.  We have three mortgages:

53k at 4% which I am currently sitting on the cash for the payoff and will be completed by the end of the month.
246k at 4% on the house that we are renting to our son with a purchase agreement to be completed by November.
107k at 3.5% on our home property of 17 acres which has two houses, one with a finished apartment in the basement.

I should note that we collect about 4000 per month in rent from these properties and live in one of them so they’re all producing for us.  I have mixed feelings about paying them off but I don’t want to carry debt into early retirement.

Mortgage total on 7/1/18 = 406k
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: MangoAtPlay on July 19, 2018, 11:27:43 AM
 Hi All -
 Just checking in to announce we paid off our mortgage July 1st!!!  We won't really notice a difference until the next paycheck though!  So glad to have the freedom to spend/save that money elsewhere!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: markbike528CBX on July 19, 2018, 02:37:47 PM
Hi All -
 Just checking in to announce we paid off our mortgage July 1st!!!  We won't really notice a difference until the next paycheck though!  So glad to have the freedom to spend/save that money elsewhere!
It will be a surreal moment when you check your accounts and you don't have that expense.
Congrats!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on July 19, 2018, 06:42:03 PM
Hi All -
 Just checking in to announce we paid off our mortgage July 1st!!!  We won't really notice a difference until the next paycheck though!  So glad to have the freedom to spend/save that money elsewhere!

Congratulations!  That will be an amazing feeling!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on July 19, 2018, 06:52:40 PM
Hi All -
 Just checking in to announce we paid off our mortgage July 1st!!!  We won't really notice a difference until the next paycheck though!  So glad to have the freedom to spend/save that money elsewhere!

Congrats!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on July 19, 2018, 08:13:49 PM
Congratulations.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: MaybeBabyMustache on July 20, 2018, 08:49:12 AM
We have a vacation house & I'm actively trying to pay off the mortgage. Starting balance was $330K, and we're down to $217K. I'm super excited to get below $200K, and am trying to hit that in 2018. I only use extra funding (e.g. money that was unexpected, side hustle, random rebates/checks, etc) for this, so it will be tricky. But, I'm doing it! It would be great to free up the $1K or month a so of mortgage payments as we get closer to FIRE
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: AccidentalMiser on July 24, 2018, 04:11:06 PM
So, I’m going to start posting here since paying off the mortgages is the next thing in line for us.  We have three mortgages:

53k at 4% which I am currently sitting on the cash for the payoff and will be completed by the end of the month.
246k at 4% on the house that we are renting to our son with a purchase agreement to be completed by November.
107k at 3.5% on our home property of 17 acres which has two houses, one with a finished apartment in the basement.

I should note that we collect about 4000 per month in rent from these properties and live in one of them so they’re all producing for us.  I have mixed feelings about paying them off but I don’t want to carry debt into early retirement.

Mortgage total on 7/1/18 = 406k

53k mortgage paid off today.  353k left to go! 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on July 24, 2018, 07:24:22 PM
So, I’m going to start posting here since paying off the mortgages is the next thing in line for us.  We have three mortgages:

53k at 4% which I am currently sitting on the cash for the payoff and will be completed by the end of the month.
246k at 4% on the house that we are renting to our son with a purchase agreement to be completed by November.
107k at 3.5% on our home property of 17 acres which has two houses, one with a finished apartment in the basement.

I should note that we collect about 4000 per month in rent from these properties and live in one of them so they’re all producing for us.  I have mixed feelings about paying them off but I don’t want to carry debt into early retirement.

Mortgage total on 7/1/18 = 406k

53k mortgage paid off today.  353k left to go! 

Wahoo!  Nice work! :-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on July 24, 2018, 07:45:29 PM
Way to go MangoAtPlay...  Big step on the way to FI!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: red_pill on July 28, 2018, 02:35:07 PM
I think I just joined the mortgage free club!!!!  Well, the last lump sum payment won't clear until Thursday, but I just made the call and it's locked in.  I'll believe it when I see the zero, and for now it seems too good to be true.

I wish I had better records, and I wasn't always paying attention to it, but I have several data points over the past five years.  Starting balance was $250K, so average pay down was about $50K per year, but really accelerated over the past year when we had a few little windfalls and we actually started focusing on it.

Nov 2013 - $250,000
Dec, 2014 - $188,000
April 2015 - $148,000
Aug 2016 - $115,000  (2015 and 2016 my wife was ill, and life took us for a roller coaster ride from hell, hence the slowedown)
April, 2018 - $48,000
July, 2018 - $20,000
Aug 2, 2018 - ZERO!

Now, next challenge is to immediately reallocate the mortgage payment amounts into investments.

This is such a strange feeling....

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on July 28, 2018, 03:36:56 PM
I think I just joined the mortgage free club!!!! 
...
This is such a strange feeling....

Congrats @red_pill!  Good for you!! 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on July 29, 2018, 08:58:21 AM
I think I just joined the mortgage free club!!!!  Well, the last lump sum payment won't clear until Thursday, but I just made the call and it's locked in.  I'll believe it when I see the zero, and for now it seems too good to be true.

I wish I had better records, and I wasn't always paying attention to it, but I have several data points over the past five years.  Starting balance was $250K, so average pay down was about $50K per year, but really accelerated over the past year when we had a few little windfalls and we actually started focusing on it.

Nov 2013 - $250,000
Dec, 2014 - $188,000
April 2015 - $148,000
Aug 2016 - $115,000  (2015 and 2016 my wife was ill, and life took us for a roller coaster ride from hell, hence the slowedown)
April, 2018 - $48,000
July, 2018 - $20,000
Aug 2, 2018 - ZERO!

Now, next challenge is to immediately reallocate the mortgage payment amounts into investments.

This is such a strange feeling....

Congratulations!  That's awesome!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: birdman2003 on July 30, 2018, 07:10:13 AM
$10k to the principal, balance now under $80k!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ender on July 30, 2018, 07:59:04 AM
$10k to the principal, balance now under $80k!

Niiiiiice. :D
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on August 02, 2018, 02:57:00 PM
5 years and $435,000 later . . . the mortgage is finally gone.
It's done ... it's over….terminated, mutiliated, mission accomplished!
It feels amazing and unreal all at the same time.
Our savings rate is about to triple…..we are 2 years from FI…..
shit is about to get real...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bird In Hand on August 02, 2018, 03:38:10 PM
5 years and $435,000 later . . . the mortgage is finally gone.
It's done ... it's over….terminated, mutiliated, mission accomplished!
It feels amazing and unreal all at the same time.
Our savings rate is about to triple…..we are 2 years from FI…..
shit is about to get real...

Wow.  An average of $87k/yr toward your mortgage -- that is a seriously impressive payoff rate.  Congrats on your accomplishment, and may you attack the rest of your financial goals with equal verve!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on August 02, 2018, 07:23:54 PM
5 years and $435,000 later . . . the mortgage is finally gone.
It's done ... it's over….terminated, mutiliated, mission accomplished!
It feels amazing and unreal all at the same time.
Our savings rate is about to triple…..we are 2 years from FI…..
shit is about to get real...

Wow!  Congrats @frizzywhiskers !
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on August 03, 2018, 08:44:12 AM
Frizzywhiskers-
congratulations on knocking on a gigantic mortgage. I would argue that principal paid to the mortgage would already count as savings. But this difference of opinion is so minor that it should not take away from me acknowledging you as a Bad-ass!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bird In Hand on August 03, 2018, 09:44:31 AM
I would argue that principal paid to the mortgage would already count as savings.

Indeed!  I often include principal payments (whether part of P&I or additional) when assessing our yearly savings.  We are relatively late in our mortgage schedule, so the principal payments are rather large and make our savings rate look a lot more impressive.  :D
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on August 08, 2018, 06:01:13 PM
5 years and $435,000 later . . . the mortgage is finally gone.
It's done ... it's over….terminated, mutiliated, mission accomplished!
It feels amazing and unreal all at the same time.
Our savings rate is about to triple…..we are 2 years from FI…..
shit is about to get real...

Oh, just Hell yeah to this!!    Frizzy-on-FI-yah!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on August 08, 2018, 06:47:45 PM
Thanks everyone - it is pretty exciting to have it done!  I'll be here to cheer on the next group of graduates!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: JustInStarting on August 08, 2018, 08:32:54 PM
5 years and $435,000 later . . . the mortgage is finally gone.
It's done ... it's over….terminated, mutiliated, mission accomplished!
It feels amazing and unreal all at the same time.
Our savings rate is about to triple…..we are 2 years from FI…..
shit is about to get real...

Congratulations frizzywhiskers! That's a huge accomplishment.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: K-ice on August 09, 2018, 01:32:02 PM
My SO just put a large enough payment to cut our mortgage (HELOC) in HALF. I'm supposed to match them.

But ... I'm not completely convinced in a super fast payoff as it is on a rental property and we can deduct the interest. 

Also, our tax advantaged investments are not maxed. (TFSA & RRSP)

My SO agreed I can invest the money in our joint account, then we will split it into our tax advantaged accounts. So the pressure is on. (pressure in a fun rivalry sense)   I don't have all the cash on hand, but I have about 60% and should be caught up by Christmas.






 



Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ender on August 10, 2018, 07:26:11 AM
We started our mortgage payoff savings account recently. :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: MaybeBabyMustache on August 16, 2018, 10:23:40 AM
We have a vacation house & I'm actively trying to pay off the mortgage. Starting balance was $330K, and we're down to $217K. I'm super excited to get below $200K, and am trying to hit that in 2018. I only use extra funding (e.g. money that was unexpected, side hustle, random rebates/checks, etc) for this, so it will be tricky. But, I'm doing it! It would be great to free up the $1K or month a so of mortgage payments as we get closer to FIRE

I decided to put a month of stock vests into the mortgage, and now have it down below $200K. We are at $199K! Woohoo. I'm excited to think about how quickly we can pay this down, now that we crossed below the $200K mark.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on August 27, 2018, 08:10:36 PM
End of June update...   Just around $43K.   And pitching in another ~$1K this next pay period just to hopefully be "sub-40K" at the closing table (which is likely to be higher than the car loan balance of whomever buys our place)...  Strange how the mental game works at this stage... Crossing each $10K interval is such a win!

End of August update... $41K and some change as we stay the course...   House still on the market so we'll break the $40K level by the time we move.   I hate houses and especially mortgages with a zeal not seen since... well... the Spanish Inquisition...   Wait for it...   

"And nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Comar on September 04, 2018, 02:52:30 AM
56k left!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on September 04, 2018, 10:40:31 AM
I’m so jealous of these low balances!  Our payment for September just hit and we are down to $419,000.  My husband is expecting a bonus on a Friday so I am planning on putting that towards the mortgage and getting it below 400k. I set a new goal to pay off the mortgage in 5 years which is definitely possible as long as we stay focused.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on September 04, 2018, 09:32:43 PM
@Megs193,   Keep the faith and actively keep on the same page with your S.O. on the interim goals you guys agree to, the required lifestyle trade-offs and how to handle windfalls (and setbacks) along the way...  $400K in 5 years is totally doable with teamwork!   Celebrating annual milestones along the way helps as well.   And depending on cost of living in the area and stage of life, a "rightsize" in house at some point might make you feel like you won the lottery...   It's an interesting emotional/near-spiritual journey through the stages towards FI for sure!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dacalo on September 05, 2018, 12:18:48 PM
I’m so jealous of these low balances!  Our payment for September just hit and we are down to $419,000.  My husband is expecting a bonus on a Friday so I am planning on putting that towards the mortgage and getting it below 400k. I set a new goal to pay off the mortgage in 5 years which is definitely possible as long as we stay focused.

Keep going! We have $619k at the moment and it looks insurmountable.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on September 10, 2018, 09:32:08 AM
My husband got his bonus this month and we decided to put most of it towards the mortgage. We put $50,000 toward the mortgage and our new balance is $369,000. I would love to get the balance below $350,000 by the end of the year but that is definitely going to be a major stretch. My spending has been at an al time low though. Even my husband has commented on how few amazon packages have come and my target bill has been below $50 for 3 months in a row.  I got one pedicure all summer and then just repainted my toe nails, I’ve stopped going to Starbucks unless I’m meeting a friend to sit and chat and I’m actually cooking the food I buy. These all sound so basic but for years I didn’t really think about the money I spent because our HHI is high and I didn’t think I needed to. I’m starting to see how much changing my habits is making a difference.  My original plan was to pay off our mortgage in 5 years and I think we will likely get it paid off in 4!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on September 10, 2018, 10:40:20 AM
My husband got his bonus this month and we decided to put most of it towards the mortgage. We put $50,000 toward the mortgage and our new balance is $369,000. I would love to get the balance below $350,000 by the end of the year but that is definitely going to be a major stretch. My spending has been at an al time low though. Even my husband has commented on how few amazon packages have come and my target bill has been below $50 for 3 months in a row.  I got one pedicure all summer and then just repainted my toe nails, I’ve stopped going to Starbucks unless I’m meeting a friend to sit and chat and I’m actually cooking the food I buy. These all sound so basic but for years I didn’t really think about the money I spent because our HHI is high and I didn’t think I needed to. I’m starting to see how much changing my habits is making a difference.  My original plan was to pay off our mortgage in 5 years and I think we will likely get it paid off in 4!

You're doing great!  Making loads of positive changes.  Keep up the good work!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: twistedfirestarter on September 11, 2018, 05:48:33 AM
We only have a small mortgage as we moved from a HCOL area to a much lower one 20 miles down the road. I wasn’t too fussed about rushing to pay off the remaining mortgage but it turns out this is what it took to get Mrs Twisted 100% behind living frugally and squirrelling our money away for the future.

Although she understood the FIRE methodology it was an abstract concept which only lead to numbers changing on the computer, paying off the mortgage is much more tangible. It’s also ingrained into the British psyche that “bricks and mortar is the best investment”.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on September 28, 2018, 08:45:28 PM
End of September update, sold more stuff and saved more shekels and added more equity...   Balance under $40K.    House hasn't sold so looks like we're camping for awhile.   Money badger don't care.   Marching onward till the mortgage is DONE!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bird In Hand on September 29, 2018, 08:17:57 AM
We only have a small mortgage as we moved from a HCOL area to a much lower one 20 miles down the road. I wasn’t too fussed about rushing to pay off the remaining mortgage but it turns out this is what it took to get Mrs Twisted 100% behind living frugally and squirrelling our money away for the future.

Although she understood the FIRE methodology it was an abstract concept which only lead to numbers changing on the computer, paying off the mortgage is much more tangible. It’s also ingrained into the British psyche that “bricks and mortar is the best investment”.

I can certainly relate to this.  My wife is far less interested in the ins-and-outs of savings/investment/FIRE than I am.  She's on board with FI and maybe RE, but the savings/spending discipline required to get there was left mostly to me.

It was always a tough sell to build up after-tax investments, since she would view that as a potential kitchen renovation, landscaping fund, fancy vacation, etc.  She's also a bit more risk-averse than I am.  The FI strategy that we are both comfortable with was a combination pre-tax contributions and paying down the mortgage.  We've done a ton of the former and a bit of the latter.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bird In Hand on September 29, 2018, 08:21:50 AM
End of September update, sold more stuff and saved more shekels and added more equity...   Balance under $40K.    House hasn't sold so looks like we're camping for awhile.   Money badger don't care.   Marching onward till the mortgage is DONE!

lol @ Money badger.

Sounds like you're going to camp/rent until your house is sold?  Are you downsizing to FIRE, already FIREd, starting a nomadic expedition, or other?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on September 30, 2018, 07:46:53 PM
@bird...   Yep, camping in the current "big house" till it's sold which will eliminate debt.  Then will  put the net equity after closing to work for us at last to generate further passive income.  Thinking I'll change my handle from "Indentured..." to "Money Badger" at that point?    The goal is FIRE in 2021 linked to when youngest kid finishes her bachelors.   At that point, shift to the "in it for the benefits" job till age 65 along with some sustainable athletic/cardo regimen...   Already developing an MMM "biking habit" as a start... Easy access to greenways with biking and walking trails is an objective to stay fit and happy in FIRE.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on October 01, 2018, 03:53:26 AM
@bird...   Thinking I'll change my handle from "Indentured..." to "Money Badger" at that point?   

@indentured4now, I think you should change your name now -- that's the best handle on the forum.   :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on October 01, 2018, 06:51:14 AM
I like the title money badger.

MB don't care; money badger just takes what it wants!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ChesterT on October 01, 2018, 08:52:30 PM
This is my first post in here, but it won't be my last! :)

I recently purchased a home and then sold one, so today I was able to put an extra $83,017 on to my principal. They will do a recast on my new mortgage for me for a $300 charge, and then my payment goes to less than half. I'll keep paying a bit extra each month, but also build up a bit of cash, add an IRA, and start taxable accounts because of the low payment. I already max out 401k.

I really wanted to buy a house debt free, but a guy high on meth broke through my dining room window one beautiful Saturday morning while I was asleep and I decided to head for the low crime rate area instead. I'm so happy I did, and my payment will be low enough to give me much more freedom. Woot!

Also, I know I'm new, but - Money Badger is definitely a title I hope to hold someday. Badassity at it's finest!

(I've been reading this thread for months, so happy I get to post today!)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on October 02, 2018, 03:11:55 AM
This is my first post in here, but it won't be my last! :)

I recently purchased a home and then sold one, so today I was able to put an extra $83,017 on to my principal. They will do a recast on my new mortgage for me for a $300 charge, and then my payment goes to less than half. I'll keep paying a bit extra each month, but also build up a bit of cash, add an IRA, and start taxable accounts because of the low payment. I already max out 401k.

I really wanted to buy a house debt free, but a guy high on meth broke through my dining room window one beautiful Saturday morning while I was asleep and I decided to head for the low crime rate area instead. I'm so happy I did, and my payment will be low enough to give me much more freedom. Woot!

Also, I know I'm new, but - Money Badger is definitely a title I hope to hold someday. Badassity at it's finest!

(I've been reading this thread for months, so happy I get to post today!)

Welcome @ChesterT !  Sounds like you're doing great.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ScottsdaleSaver on October 02, 2018, 09:10:45 AM
September 2018 - $196K! We met our goal of breaking $200K by the end of summer. Fighting lifestyle inflation and kicking my husband's raise into savings and/or mortgage payoff, so hopefully we start really picking up speed now...

June 2018 - $217K and I'm writing another check to principal for $5K tonight. The pay for grant work isn't in yet and the promotion happened and the higher pay rate kicks in this week (yay!). We're hoping to break the $200K mark by the end of the summer.

March 2018 - $227K  We made some good headway over the last quarter thanks to my bonus. We anticipate a couple more windfalls in the next quarter - grant work for my husband - & perhaps even a large promotion which would really speed things up. Send some good juju our way!

Jumping over here from a different mortgage payoff thread that never took off. We started the path to early payoff in earnest this June with a (free) refinance. We're on a 15-year mortgage at 3.25%, but I want to knock this thing out in 5.

Big picture - I want to time the mortgage payoff with my escape from corporate life. Our investments are where I'd like it to be at this point. We'll continue to max out our tax advantaged accounts, but everything after that is going towards this.

June 2017 - $254K
July 2017 - $251K
August 2017 - $248K
Sept 2017 - $245K
Oct 2017 - $244K
Nov 2017 - $241K
Dec - 2017 - $237K
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ChesterT on October 02, 2018, 02:20:32 PM
Thank you, @Trifele!

Nice work, @ScottsdaleSaver! The lifestyle creep is so sneaky sometimes.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: paulkots on October 04, 2018, 09:59:27 AM
Finally made a decision to really start trying to pay off the house. With my calculations, I am going from a 15 year mortgage to a 6 year, I will try do it in 5.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on October 04, 2018, 07:34:52 PM
@Trifele and TallTexan,   Thanks for the encouragement.   And y'all talked me into it...   As of this Friday, after 3 or so years of blood, sweat, recasting and principal payments, I'm sitting on liquid assets that we could use to pay off the last bit of our mortgage (ie, the last debt) if or when we want.   So goodbye Indentured4Now...   

Money Badger lives!  And you guessed it... He don't care!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on October 05, 2018, 01:26:04 AM
@Trifele and TallTexan,   Thanks for the encouragement.   And y'all talked me into it...   As of this Friday, after 3 or so years of blood, sweat, recasting and principal payments, I'm sitting on liquid assets that we could use to pay off the last bit of our mortgage (ie, the last debt) if or when we want.   So goodbye Indentured4Now...   

Money Badger lives!  And you guessed it... He don't care!

Hahaha -- Awesome!!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on October 05, 2018, 04:31:01 PM
We put $10,000 extra towards the mortgage in September so we are down to $358,000.  My goal was to be under $400,000 by the end of 2018 so we are way ahead of our goal. My original goal was to pay off the mortgage before our oldest went to college. He turned 9 this week so we should have it paid off before he is in high school!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on October 05, 2018, 08:20:51 PM
@Megs193,  You guys are killing it!  Down from high 400’s earlier this year in May or so?   Now high 300s...    9 years is totally doable assuming a 6-figure family income and some grace (or windfall help) always along the way...    Just hang in there as the easy wins are used up... and keep the faith till it’s done.  It’s amazing (and yet just normal) to live FI afterwards.   Go!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on October 06, 2018, 08:56:44 AM
@Megs193,  You guys are killing it!  Down from high 400’s earlier this year in May or so?   Now high 300s...    9 years is totally doable assuming a 6-figure family income and some grace (or windfall help) always along the way...    Just hang in there as the easy wins are used up... and keep the faith till it’s done.  It’s amazing (and yet just normal) to live FI afterwards.   Go!

Thanks!  It is amazing how much having a goal of being mortgage free has changed the way I spend money. I have no interest in accumulating stuff anymore. I am proud of my 10 year old car and can’t wait to see how long I can drive it!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Threshkin on October 11, 2018, 12:54:00 PM
@Megs193,  You guys are killing it!  Down from high 400’s earlier this year in May or so?   Now high 300s...    9 years is totally doable assuming a 6-figure family income and some grace (or windfall help) always along the way...    Just hang in there as the easy wins are used up... and keep the faith till it’s done.  It’s amazing (and yet just normal) to live FI afterwards.   Go!

Thanks!  It is amazing how much having a goal of being mortgage free has changed the way I spend money. I have no interest in accumulating stuff anymore. I am proud of my 10 year old car and can’t wait to see how long I can drive it!

Being mortgage free was the single most mentally liberating financial move I made.  All the maths said don't do it.  Keep the low interest rate loan and invest the money instead.......NOPE.

By paying off the house I was able to instantly become stress free about income.  Without that large monthly obligation I no longer needed to worry about keeping my job which removed massive amounts of stress which wound up making me better at my job.  Reduced fixed expenses also moved my FI date up significantly and lowered my sequence of returns risk.

One cautionary note:  Don't rob from your retirement to pay off your house!  I only used after tax money for the payoff.  All tax exempt/deferred retirement accounts were fully funded first and not touched to make the payoff.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: TomSelleckJR on October 11, 2018, 02:25:52 PM

We're down to 87k.
It was a MAJOR mental boost to see the balance drop below 6 figures.

We are targeting payoff right around the end of 2019.


Best of luck to everyone pursuing this goal.  :-)


Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on October 12, 2018, 07:06:13 PM

We're down to 87k.
It was a MAJOR mental boost to see the balance drop below 6 figures.

We are targeting payoff right around the end of 2019.


Best of luck to everyone pursuing this goal.  :-)

That must feel amazing. Congrats on getting it to 5 figures!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Askel on October 13, 2018, 02:24:53 AM
$2700 left this morning.  I'm planning my mortgage bonfire party already. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ozmickey on October 24, 2018, 07:34:08 PM
I have been following on this thread for a while but not posting.

I have just returned from the bank and made the final payment on my mortgage!

Back story - bought the house in June 2014 and within a few years both my DH and I had been retrenched (with payouts).

Thank you former corporate overlords for paying off our house.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on October 24, 2018, 08:13:21 PM
Congratulations @ozmickey !  Nice work!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ender on October 26, 2018, 07:09:08 AM
I realized the other day that between our current balance and mortgage payoff-fund, we're about 13% of the way to paying off our mortgage :-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Askel on October 26, 2018, 07:14:59 AM
Just made the second to last payment. Barring any surprises over the next two weeks, I'll be done on 11/9 (which is- oddly enough, my birthday).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Askel on November 10, 2018, 06:29:36 AM
And done (I think), although not really feeling the high. My mortgage was pretty small, so it was more an annoyance just having that around every month more than a significant impact on the finances. 

Anyway, mortgage payoff scenarios are clearly not test cases for my mortgage company's web developers.  I was in no rush to get this done, so rather than incur any fees in getting a payoff quote, I just went to pay whatever was left on the principal and let everything sort itself out in the next billing cycle. 

Except apparently you can't pay more than 95% of your remaining principal through the web.  OK, I'll just do that. I'll owe them $40 instead of $4 next month.   (I did consider being a jerk and paying 95% over and over until I got it down to 1 cent though.)

Log in later that afternoon to see it applied as a "partial payment" and a balance due next month of -$510. Uh... OK. Call customer service, they say they'll re-apply as a principal payment and it'll need supervisor approval which takes 24-48 hours. 

Supervisor must've figured it out. Logged in this morning to a "Congratulations, your loan is fully paid off." So I guess I'm done, although my payment history is now a warzone of small, inexplicable "partial payments" and "escrow payments".  Somebody probably gets to sort that mess out on Monday. 

Happy birthday to me. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on November 10, 2018, 06:47:14 AM
Happy birthday!! Our mortgage will be paid off on Monday because we moved states and DH got a promotion. But don’t go congratulating me just yet because I have my eye on a shiny new one that would have a mortgage payment.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: MaybeBabyMustache on November 13, 2018, 07:01:11 AM
Congrats @couponvan & @Askel ! (And, happy birthday :-))

We paid off our vacation house last Friday. (Double facepunches!) It was quite a surreal feeling to walk into the bank & make that happen. The wire happened quickly & by the time I got home, logging into our mortgage website showed a "balance paid in full" screen, which was pretty great.

We considered paying down our primary mortgage (very small rate advantage), but paying off our other loan freed up cash flow that we can now apply to our primary mortgage. Additionally, it was really motivating to seeing a balance of zero,and knowing we own the asset free & clear. Versus our primary residence, where adding the same amount would have barely moved the needle. (We're in the bay area, and real estate is outrageous).

We celebrated with a bottle of champagne & leftovers. As you do! :-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Angelhair on November 13, 2018, 09:13:45 AM
Just requested a payoff letter yesterday.  Our last payment will be $421.18.  Should have the letter in the next few days and I can go to the bank and transfer the money.  Then the house will be all ours!!!!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: K-ice on November 13, 2018, 01:08:47 PM
Someone I don't know well but who rents made a comment to me the other day.
"You probably own your own house."

Shrugged and lied, "Well the bank does."  I wouldn't comment to most people that our place is paid off.

We technically still have a HELOC with balance approaching zero but that is all for a rental property. I am also playing in the Don't pay off your mortgage club with that loan. 

We were able to pay off our primary residence in about 6y. You Mustacian's are really the only people we can talk to about this.  ;) 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on November 13, 2018, 06:16:56 PM
Paid off via sale $250k is now in investments. Rent is high though at $2,500+ for a fancypants corporate apartment in VA. Our lake FIRE house in IL is paid off for when we FIRE in 4 years.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on November 15, 2018, 11:36:03 AM
We made another $10,000 principal payment in addition to our regular monthly payment so our balance is down $333k. I would love to get it below $300k for a nice mental boost and I’m considering taking it out of our savings which is probably about 2 years of expenses right now. Does anyone see a downside to this?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Nederstash on November 16, 2018, 07:51:41 AM
We made another $10,000 principal payment in addition to our regular monthly payment so our balance is down $333k. I would love to get it below $300k for a nice mental boost and I’m considering taking it out of our savings which is probably about 2 years of expenses right now. Does anyone see a downside to this?

Keep 6 months emergency fund in savings, otherwise, go nuts!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on November 16, 2018, 09:17:27 PM
+1!   Every dollar you sit on in the bank beyond a 6 month emergency fund, they are loaning to some other sukka at ~5% for a 30 year ankle iron.   Either put it on the mortgage with very low risk or invest it.   Otherwise, straddling the cash financial fence is painful.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: K-ice on November 19, 2018, 11:33:58 AM
We made another $10,000 principal payment in addition to our regular monthly payment so our balance is down $333k. I would love to get it below $300k for a nice mental boost and I’m considering taking it out of our savings which is probably about 2 years of expenses right now. Does anyone see a downside to this?

Keep 6 months emergency fund in savings, otherwise, go nuts!

Agreed! Or if you have a HELOC and can easily use your house as "springy debt" and a 1-2 month emergency fund might even be enough.

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/04/22/springy-debt-instead-of-a-cash-cushion/

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: paulkots on November 27, 2018, 08:32:09 AM
Decided to really go for it with house payments. Emergency fund won't be touched and Roth IRA will always be maxed but everything else is going towards the house. More principal was paid off in the last 2 months then the previous 18 months. Feels good seeing the number go down, stretch goal is 5 digit loan by end of 2019.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on November 27, 2018, 09:26:09 AM
We made another $10,000 principal payment in addition to our regular monthly payment so our balance is down $333k. I would love to get it below $300k for a nice mental boost and I’m considering taking it out of our savings which is probably about 2 years of expenses right now. Does anyone see a downside to this?

I agree with others that when you're sitting on that much cash, and aren't going to invest it otherwise, then paying off the mortgage is better than letting it sit in the bank. 
The one thing I will recommend is this:  See if your mortgage company allows for a free recast.  If so, pay down as much as you want, then have the bank re-amortize.  It will lower the required payments, but spread it out over the remaining term of the loan.  This way, you can choose to keep prepaying, or you can choose to have a payment that doesn't scare you.

I had a >$600K loan and paid it down and recast so that now my payments are small enough that I can afford them even if I only have a "regular" job (I'm currently overpaid).  Once I did that, I stopped worrying about the amount of the outstanding balance.  I have about $200k left on the loan now and I'm not in a big rush to pay it off (although I am still working to pay it off prior to retirement so that I can keep retirement expenses lower). 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: dollarchaser on November 27, 2018, 06:07:55 PM
Congrats to everyone on their journey. The outside world just doesn't understand.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on November 27, 2018, 08:06:29 PM
Our mortgage was paid off in August of this year.  The last few months have been stress free and it’s been great fun to be able to put more money into investments.  The unexpected has happened though where I actually miss the mortgage payoff?! Wtf!?  Ha ha!  I did not expect that, but it was our main focus for five years, so to have it just gone still feels very strange!  I’m trying to shift the excitement to reaching our FI number so hopefully that will give us a new mission to focus on! 😁. Anyway!  Interesting side effect!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on November 27, 2018, 09:05:05 PM
@Frizzy...  Guess "It's the journey, not the destination" or such some psychological BS of having unmet goals... 

So onward and upward... What's the number and should we look for you in the FIRE 20XX thread of choice?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on November 28, 2018, 08:50:09 PM
Something like that @Money Badger!  😁 I am currently hanging out in the 2021 fire cohort with ambitions to make it one less year!  We will see how it goes! Onward and upward!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on December 07, 2018, 08:17:53 PM
Go Frizzy, awesome to be with you in the same 2021 and done plan!   News flash is that our house closing date is set and we're through due diligence.   So God willing, the mortgage is officially gone Jan 17th PLUS we walk away with a nice check at closing for the FIRE plan.   We've also found a perfect, smaller place with a nice country farmhouse vibe, but also with biking trails literally 2 driveways down the street with easy access to the grocery stores and restaurants we like less than 1/3rd mile either way.   So if we don't grow it ourselves, we can buy it or have it served as well ;-)   Wish us luck on the usual drama of closing(s), but had to share it with you all after years working toward this!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on December 08, 2018, 02:28:58 AM
Go Frizzy, awesome to be with you in the same 2021 and done plan!   News flash is that our house closing date is set and we're through due diligence.   So God willing, the mortgage is officially gone Jan 17th PLUS we walk away with a nice check at closing for the FIRE plan.   We've also found a perfect, smaller place with a nice country farmhouse vibe, but also with biking trails literally 2 driveways down the street with easy access to the grocery stores and restaurants we like less than 1/3rd mile either way.   So if we don't grow it ourselves, we can buy it or have it served as well ;-)   Wish us luck on the usual drama of closing(s), but had to share it with you all after years working toward this!

Congratulations @Money Badger !  Your new place sounds perfect.  What a way to celebrate the new year!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Nederstash on December 08, 2018, 02:44:28 AM
Go Frizzy, awesome to be with you in the same 2021 and done plan!   News flash is that our house closing date is set and we're through due diligence.   So God willing, the mortgage is officially gone Jan 17th PLUS we walk away with a nice check at closing for the FIRE plan.   We've also found a perfect, smaller place with a nice country farmhouse vibe, but also with biking trails literally 2 driveways down the street with easy access to the grocery stores and restaurants we like less than 1/3rd mile either way.   So if we don't grow it ourselves, we can buy it or have it served as well ;-)   Wish us luck on the usual drama of closing(s), but had to share it with you all after years working toward this!

Oh my god, that sounds perfect! And not a payment in the world... congratulations, you've done exceptionally well! Any ideas/dreams what your new life is going to look like?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on December 08, 2018, 08:40:17 AM
Congrats @Money Badger!  Mortgage free in a great new place!  Well deserved!  Look forward to hitting the home stretch with you!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: AlexMar on December 08, 2018, 10:32:41 AM
Go Frizzy, awesome to be with you in the same 2021 and done plan!   News flash is that our house closing date is set and we're through due diligence.   So God willing, the mortgage is officially gone Jan 17th PLUS we walk away with a nice check at closing for the FIRE plan.   We've also found a perfect, smaller place with a nice country farmhouse vibe, but also with biking trails literally 2 driveways down the street with easy access to the grocery stores and restaurants we like less than 1/3rd mile either way.   So if we don't grow it ourselves, we can buy it or have it served as well ;-)   Wish us luck on the usual drama of closing(s), but had to share it with you all after years working toward this!

This is awesome.  Great job!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on December 08, 2018, 06:56:36 PM
Thanks y'all!!   We certainly received an interesting mix of comments...  A few totally supportive from friends we respect...  But more than a few snarky remarks, particularly amusing ones from the self-absorbed spendy type neighbors (usually with 2 or more exotic cars and lots of flashy lifestyle choices) that would be worthy of the "Anti-Mustachian Hall of Fame" threads...   

Glad this contrarian MMM community exists that "Get's it" to motivate folks to follow the fiscal debt and spending discipline over time it takes to FIRE when there's so much temptation otherwise out there!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Comar on December 10, 2018, 02:52:39 AM
40k left!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Askel on December 10, 2018, 07:36:09 PM
Escrow surplus check received. 

And a tax bill for roughly the same amount. :/ 

It's kinda starting to feel paid off. :D 

Just need a lien release now. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on December 18, 2018, 08:59:21 AM
My major stretch goal was to get my mortgage under $300,000 this year and I just made an extra payment to get it to $299,841. I would love to be mortgage free in 2 years which is definitely possible if I keep up our current pace. We bought our house before discovering fire so our payment is $5,600 a month which makes up over 50% of our expenses so this would be an incredible mental boost.

   My husband isn’t currently interested in retiring early but I’m hopeful that once the mortgage is paid off it may change his mind set. I work per diem and was recently talking about switching to a higher paying job and he told me he didn’t see how a more stressful job would be worth it considering we won’t have a mortgage in 2 years.  Now I just need him to apply the same logic to his own life.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on December 18, 2018, 12:52:32 PM
Megs-
is there some asset you'd sell to knock out your mortgage that quickly? Two years to slay $300,000 wouild require something like $13,000/monthly.

If your monthly expenses are truly in the neighborhood of $6,000, I cannot imagine why you don't think your husband is on-board with early retirement, it seems as though you've already geared your household towards a 65% savings rate.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on December 18, 2018, 02:09:26 PM
Megs-
is there some asset you'd sell to knock out your mortgage that quickly? Two years to slay $300,000 wouild require something like $13,000/monthly.

If your monthly expenses are truly in the neighborhood of $6,000, I cannot imagine why you don't think your husband is on-board with early retirement, it seems as though you've already geared your household towards a 65% savings rate.

We do have too much money in the bank but we plan on putting about $50,000-$60,000 as a one time payment when my DH gets his bonus. We put about $8,000 extra each month. My DH has a high income but he enjoys his job and thinks he would be crazy to walk away from it. I spend a lot of time alone with our 2 kids because of his work travel and I would love to convince him to retire early.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on December 19, 2018, 05:58:22 PM
Just updating for the end of 2018.. Down to $32,000!

New goal is to pay off by end of 2019, if not a little sooner. So overall, we've only been thrown off course by a few months.

Way to go!  At the $32K point, you just find ways to get it done.   Then strangely, life just doesn't throw you off-course as much.   Get 'er done!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Spoon on December 29, 2018, 03:38:23 PM
Our emergency fund is in the offset account of the mortgage, we are looking to do a tree change, and build a forever home after finding the right property but am aiming to get the remaining $52K down to $0 by this time next year if we don't make any changes between now and then.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on January 02, 2019, 06:43:50 PM
@Spoon,  If you can pay off the $52K now from the emergency fund, you will be more motivated and successful saving to accomplish both goals by 100% focus on one goal, then the next.   We only held off due to a timing issue < 90 days from sale of our home to avoid issues with closing, but your time horizon seems longer to complete both goals.   How quickly could you replenish $52K saving with 100% focus while not paying a mortgage every month?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Threshkin on January 03, 2019, 10:54:38 AM
@Spoon,  If you can pay off the $52K now from the emergency fund, you will be more motivated and successful saving to accomplish both goals by 100% focus on one goal, then the next.   We only held off due to a timing issue < 90 days from sale of our home to avoid issues with closing, but your time horizon seems longer to complete both goals.   How quickly could you replenish $52K saving with 100% focus while not paying a mortgage every month?

I agree.  I drew down my emergency fund significantly to pay off my mortgage (~$75K).  It was so liberating to eliminate the monthly expense it was worth it.  I was in a stable position at work at the time and were able to rebuild it in a few months. 

Everyone: After you pay off your mortgage, don't forget to pay your property tax! 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ScottsdaleSaver on January 04, 2019, 08:49:58 AM
December 2018 - $187K. We met our goal of paying off $35K in principal this year. We're hoping 2019 is a massive year. I've set a stretch goal of breaking into 5 figures on this thing by the end of the year. Fingers crossed!

September 2018 - $196K! We met our goal of breaking $200K by the end of summer. Fighting lifestyle inflation and kicking my husband's raise into savings and/or mortgage payoff, so hopefully we start really picking up speed now...

June 2018 - $217K and I'm writing another check to principal for $5K tonight. The pay for grant work isn't in yet and the promotion happened and the higher pay rate kicks in this week (yay!). We're hoping to break the $200K mark by the end of the summer.

March 2018 - $227K  We made some good headway over the last quarter thanks to my bonus. We anticipate a couple more windfalls in the next quarter - grant work for my husband - & perhaps even a large promotion which would really speed things up. Send some good juju our way!

Jumping over here from a different mortgage payoff thread that never took off. We started the path to early payoff in earnest this June with a (free) refinance. We're on a 15-year mortgage at 3.25%, but I want to knock this thing out in 5.

Big picture - I want to time the mortgage payoff with my escape from corporate life. Our investments are where I'd like it to be at this point. We'll continue to max out our tax advantaged accounts, but everything after that is going towards this.

June 2017 - $254K
July 2017 - $251K
August 2017 - $248K
Sept 2017 - $245K
Oct 2017 - $244K
Nov 2017 - $241K
Dec - 2017 - $237K
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mrmoonymartian on January 04, 2019, 09:31:41 AM
@Spoon,  If you can pay off the $52K now from the emergency fund, you will be more motivated and successful saving to accomplish both goals by 100% focus on one goal, then the next.   We only held off due to a timing issue < 90 days from sale of our home to avoid issues with closing, but your time horizon seems longer to complete both goals.   How quickly could you replenish $52K saving with 100% focus while not paying a mortgage every month?
The offset account is already counting against the mortgage (offsetting it) and reducing the interest as if the mortgage was reduced by the amount in that account. It's an Australian thing. I don't have one, but I can redraw from my mortgage which amounts to the same thing. Our mortgage-based emergency funds are a variant of the spongy debt method suggested by MMM.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Spoon on January 04, 2019, 03:49:04 PM
Thanks for the replys

mrmooneymartain is right, the money is reducing the interest on my loan. So I have a loan of 181K, with 129K offset (no interest) and 52K being charged interest. Anytime my spending account has over 1K in it, I transfer the excess over to my loan to pay less interest. If I have an unexpected cost, the money can be in my spending account the next day.   

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on January 04, 2019, 03:55:14 PM
I want one of those offset things! Boo. I am planning to do a CD ladder with extra payments when we have a mortgage again.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on January 04, 2019, 08:43:36 PM
To both Oz posters Spoon and MrMoony…  very creative concept by the bankers in Oz to lull you into perceived safety.   It seems to be a love child of the "first mortgage / second mortgage" of the US rolled into one loan "product".  Such comfort is a trap.

At the end of the day, your debt is an emergency as MMM says.   Kill it, now.   No banker "offsets".    Be on edge with a low emergency fund for a short period, stay motivated to kill it.    Perhaps a short while saving up on a side account is a reasonably safe way to build a payoff sum... But otherwise, insist that the rest of your days people pay only YOU rent/interest on your money forever afterwards whether it be in stocks, bonds, land-lording or other ventures you start with your free cashflow after eliminating debt.   Be free!   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mrmoonymartian on January 04, 2019, 11:07:20 PM
To both Oz posters Spoon and MrMoony…  very creative concept by the bankers in Oz to lull you into perceived safety.   It seems to be a love child of the "first mortgage / second mortgage" of the US rolled into one loan "product".  Such comfort is a trap.

At the end of the day, your debt is an emergency as MMM says.   Kill it, now.   No banker "offsets".    Be on edge with a low emergency fund for a short period, stay motivated to kill it.    Perhaps a short while saving up on a side account is a reasonably safe way to build a payoff sum... But otherwise, insist that the rest of your days people pay only YOU rent/interest on your money forever afterwards whether it be in stocks, bonds, land-lording or other ventures you start with your free cashflow after eliminating debt.   Be free!
I'm sure there is plenty of 'make it easier for people to consume and stay in debt for longer' sentiment from the banks. But there is a tax benefit of offset accounts if you intend to turn it into an investment property at some later point, since you can claim the mortgage interest against rental income. I have no intention to turn mine into an investment property so had no need to set up an offset account and am simply paying the mortgage down directly.

Actually MMM specifically excludes low-interest mortgages from his 'debt is an emergency' observation. That said, I'm on track to pay mine off by the end of this year because there are a lot more benefits to pay it off in Australia than in the US. With the exception of salary sacrifice into superannuation up to the concessional limit (like maxing out your employer match on 401k), I have paid it off as fast as possible... so you are preaching to the choir here. However, if I had been in a country where 3% fixed 30 year loans were a thing it might have been a different story. The fastest way to freedom is to arm yourself with knowledge and work the numbers to optimise for your own situation.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on January 10, 2019, 09:27:02 AM
Soon those of us in the US will start calculating our final income tax returns for 2018, and we'll be able to see whether our mortgages led to tax deductions or not. That may change the incentives for some of us.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jps on January 14, 2019, 05:05:02 PM
Hey all, I'm new here!

DW and I closed on our house in Sep '18 and borrowed $85K for it on a 15-year note. Our first mortgage payment was Nov '18 and in 3 months we have already shaved an entire year off of amortization and are under $80K in principal balance. Hoping to crush the rest of the principal in the next few years while we save for some massive projects and contribute to our retirement accts.

Can't really talk about this to anyone in person, but excited to share here and get the excitement off my chest!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on January 14, 2019, 05:47:59 PM
I just paid an extra $7,000 towards the mortgage for December so our balance is just under $290,000. I have already taken some money from our savings to pay a large chunk of it off but I I considering doing it again. Our original emergency fund was based on how much we spent monthly before we discovered MMM. Now we have cut our expenses drastically and I’m tempted to take it down to a years worth of our current spending but I’m not sure I can get my DH on board.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on January 14, 2019, 08:35:39 PM
@Megs193 , From $497K to $290 in less than a year is crushing it!   Now time to get
tough and grind out the rest of it!   All the little decisions add up and it just gets faster as the principal ratio goes in your favor about 2/3rds through the loan amortization schedule.   A smaller six months expense emergency cash fund would add a lot more equity in your pockets every month as well FWIW.   Think if it this way... Would you both agree to borrow a bank’s cash against your house and just let it sit?   You guys have got this!


Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on January 15, 2019, 03:13:10 AM
Hey all, I'm new here!

DW and I closed on our house in Sep '18 and borrowed $85K for it on a 15-year note. Our first mortgage payment was Nov '18 and in 3 months we have already shaved an entire year off of amortization and are under $80K in principal balance. Hoping to crush the rest of the principal in the next few years while we save for some massive projects and contribute to our retirement accts.

Can't really talk about this to anyone in person, but excited to share here and get the excitement off my chest!

Welcome @jps  !   Great job -- sounds like you are on a mission.  Go get 'em!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: AlexMar on January 15, 2019, 06:00:26 AM
I just paid an extra $7,000 towards the mortgage for December so our balance is just under $290,000. I have already taken some money from our savings to pay a large chunk of it off but I I considering doing it again. Our original emergency fund was based on how much we spent monthly before we discovered MMM. Now we have cut our expenses drastically and I’m tempted to take it down to a years worth of our current spending but I’m not sure I can get my DH on board.

What worked for me was to invest the mortgage payoff money.  Build up a sizable amount, then whack a HUGE portion of the mortgage or the whole thing at once.  Unless you plan on paying off super quickly and don't want a down market to ruin your plans, of course.  Making a $7k payment on a $290k mortgage would be depressing for me, lol.  But when the market was up and I had some solid gains on my investments, I had a bunch of extra money to throw at the mortgage and whacked the whole thing.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on January 15, 2019, 01:23:19 PM
I just paid an extra $7,000 towards the mortgage for December so our balance is just under $290,000. I have already taken some money from our savings to pay a large chunk of it off but I I considering doing it again. Our original emergency fund was based on how much we spent monthly before we discovered MMM. Now we have cut our expenses drastically and I’m tempted to take it down to a years worth of our current spending but I’m not sure I can get my DH on board.

What worked for me was to invest the mortgage payoff money.  Build up a sizable amount, then whack a HUGE portion of the mortgage or the whole thing at once.  Unless you plan on paying off super quickly and don't want a down market to ruin your plans, of course.  Making a $7k payment on a $290k mortgage would be depressing for me, lol.  But when the market was up and I had some solid gains on my investments, I had a bunch of extra money to throw at the mortgage and whacked the whole thing.

Our plan is to pay it off by the end of 2020 so I’m nervous about putting it in the market. I apply whatever money we didn’t spend or automatically save that month so it becomes a game to see how little I can spend in a month so my payment is as high as possible.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on January 15, 2019, 01:30:16 PM
@Megs193 , From $497K to $290 in less than a year is crushing it!   Now time to get
tough and grind out the rest of it!   All the little decisions add up and it just gets faster as the principal ratio goes in your favor about 2/3rds through the loan amortization schedule.   A smaller six months expense emergency cash fund would add a lot more equity in your pockets every month as well FWIW.   Think if it this way... Would you both agree to borrow a bank’s cash against your house and just let it sit?   You guys have got this!

Wow!  I didn’t realize how much we had paid off. The crazier thing is that at least $100,000 of that was from cutting our expenses. Before I discovered MMM we were wasting so much money without even realizing it!  And I never thought of it that way but we would never borrow money from the mortgage to sit in a savings account. I would have to keep it at a year because that is what my husband needs to feel comfortable due to some rough times in his childhood but now that our expenses are lower we have more than that.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Car Jack on January 15, 2019, 01:59:24 PM
I just paid an extra $7,000 towards the mortgage for December so our balance is just under $290,000. I have already taken some money from our savings to pay a large chunk of it off but I I considering doing it again. Our original emergency fund was based on how much we spent monthly before we discovered MMM. Now we have cut our expenses drastically and I’m tempted to take it down to a years worth of our current spending but I’m not sure I can get my DH on board.

What worked for me was to invest the mortgage payoff money.  Build up a sizable amount, then whack a HUGE portion of the mortgage or the whole thing at once.  Unless you plan on paying off super quickly and don't want a down market to ruin your plans, of course.  Making a $7k payment on a $290k mortgage would be depressing for me, lol.  But when the market was up and I had some solid gains on my investments, I had a bunch of extra money to throw at the mortgage and whacked the whole thing.

It's all what you're comfortable with.  I can still remember in our first house, sending in the extra $10.23 we had to spare at the end of the month.  No, it didn't do much, but it did chip away.  I'd be depressed if I put $7k into the market in July, and today it was worth $6k.  I did do one big chunk, but it was at the end, when I got a windfall from the sale of stock options and could pay off the rest of the mortgage ($70k-ish, if I remember right).  I did it in 2 steps without calling to get a payoff number.  I paid $70k, which was almost all of it.  Then the next bill came with a balance of like $5.  I wanted to be sure, so I immediately sent them $10.  They sent me a check for the overpayment and the payoff notice.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on January 15, 2019, 02:54:59 PM
No joke, one of the best parts of paying down debt aggressively is doing it in a down market and being smug that you threw that $$ at the debt instead of into over-priced investments :-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: TexasRunner on January 15, 2019, 03:53:11 PM
Hey all, I'm new here!

DW and I closed on our house in Sep '18 and borrowed $85K for it on a 15-year note. Our first mortgage payment was Nov '18 and in 3 months we have already shaved an entire year off of amortization and are under $80K in principal balance. Hoping to crush the rest of the principal in the next few years while we save for some massive projects and contribute to our retirement accts.

Can't really talk about this to anyone in person, but excited to share here and get the excitement off my chest!

Welcome @jps  !   Great job -- sounds like you are on a mission.  Go get 'em!

Glad you're asking them about the basics and making sure this is a wise financial decision!  Oh... wait...

@jps What's your interest rate and are you maxing out your tax-deferred accounts?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jps on January 15, 2019, 05:21:24 PM
Hey all, I'm new here!

DW and I closed on our house in Sep '18 and borrowed $85K for it on a 15-year note. Our first mortgage payment was Nov '18 and in 3 months we have already shaved an entire year off of amortization and are under $80K in principal balance. Hoping to crush the rest of the principal in the next few years while we save for some massive projects and contribute to our retirement accts.

Can't really talk about this to anyone in person, but excited to share here and get the excitement off my chest!


Welcome @jps  !   Great job -- sounds like you are on a mission.  Go get 'em!

Glad you're asking them about the basics and making sure this is a wise financial decision!  Oh... wait...

@jps What's your interest rate and are you maxing out your tax-deferred accounts?

@TexasRunner 4.5%, halfway to maxing out both tax-deferred accounts. Planning on a permanent ~50% cut to income in two years, and would like to have the mortgage out of the way to improve cash flow. On only one income, would be able to max out tax-deferred accounts if we didn't have a mortgage.

Obviously, I am still new to this so I welcome input, but my thinking is this if we leverage a big income right now, we'd have significantly more ability to max our tax-deferred accounts for 10+ years, rather than just for 2 years before income is cut.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: TexasRunner on January 16, 2019, 08:14:51 AM
Hey all, I'm new here!

DW and I closed on our house in Sep '18 and borrowed $85K for it on a 15-year note. Our first mortgage payment was Nov '18 and in 3 months we have already shaved an entire year off of amortization and are under $80K in principal balance. Hoping to crush the rest of the principal in the next few years while we save for some massive projects and contribute to our retirement accts.

Can't really talk about this to anyone in person, but excited to share here and get the excitement off my chest!


Welcome @jps  !   Great job -- sounds like you are on a mission.  Go get 'em!

Glad you're asking them about the basics and making sure this is a wise financial decision!  Oh... wait...

@jps What's your interest rate and are you maxing out your tax-deferred accounts?

@TexasRunner 4.5%, halfway to maxing out both tax-deferred accounts. Planning on a permanent ~50% cut to income in two years, and would like to have the mortgage out of the way to improve cash flow. On only one income, would be able to max out tax-deferred accounts if we didn't have a mortgage.

Obviously, I am still new to this so I welcome input, but my thinking is this if we leverage a big income right now, we'd have significantly more ability to max our tax-deferred accounts for 10+ years, rather than just for 2 years before income is cut.

In your case this makes sense (mostly) as you have a known reduction in income coming up.  In that case its similar to someone about to FIRE, and you want to reduce sequence of return risk, or in this case maximize savings at a future point to continue to fill tax buckets.

The math says that if you are filling 50% of your tax buckets now (1/2 of $50,000 in 2 401ks and 2 IRAs), and are essentially forgoing 25k in tax savings now and next year, you have to max out the tax accounts for at least 3 years before you break even BUT that is only if you could not deposit anything towards your 401k while still paying the mortgage.  What is the maximum you could pay to your 401k in two years if you still had the mortgage, and how quickly to you both plan to FIRE after that?

By skipping out on 25k each year this year and next, you are losing out on $97,000 of tax free deposits and growth by the end of 10 years- and that's without even calculating the tax savings.  It is very likely that 97k is more that the entire interest on your loan.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Boofinator on January 16, 2019, 08:35:06 AM
Hey all, I'm new here!

DW and I closed on our house in Sep '18 and borrowed $85K for it on a 15-year note. Our first mortgage payment was Nov '18 and in 3 months we have already shaved an entire year off of amortization and are under $80K in principal balance. Hoping to crush the rest of the principal in the next few years while we save for some massive projects and contribute to our retirement accts.

Can't really talk about this to anyone in person, but excited to share here and get the excitement off my chest!


Welcome @jps  !   Great job -- sounds like you are on a mission.  Go get 'em!

Glad you're asking them about the basics and making sure this is a wise financial decision!  Oh... wait...

@jps What's your interest rate and are you maxing out your tax-deferred accounts?

@TexasRunner 4.5%, halfway to maxing out both tax-deferred accounts. Planning on a permanent ~50% cut to income in two years, and would like to have the mortgage out of the way to improve cash flow. On only one income, would be able to max out tax-deferred accounts if we didn't have a mortgage.

Obviously, I am still new to this so I welcome input, but my thinking is this if we leverage a big income right now, we'd have significantly more ability to max our tax-deferred accounts for 10+ years, rather than just for 2 years before income is cut.

In your case this makes sense (mostly) as you have a known reduction in income coming up.  In that case its similar to someone about to FIRE, and you want to reduce sequence of return risk, or in this case maximize savings at a future point to continue to fill tax buckets.

The math says that if you are filling 50% of your tax buckets now (1/2 of $50,000 in 2 401ks and 2 IRAs), and are essentially forgoing 25k in tax savings now and next year, you have to max out the tax accounts for at least 3 years before you break even BUT that is only if you could not deposit anything towards your 401k while still paying the mortgage.  What is the maximum you could pay to your 401k in two years if you still had the mortgage, and how quickly to you both plan to FIRE after that?

By skipping out on 25k each year this year and next, you are losing out on $97,000 of tax free deposits and growth by the end of 10 years- and that's without even calculating the tax savings.  It is very likely that 97k is more that the entire interest on your loan.

I agree with TexasRunner: Do not pay off that mortgage, but rather invest in the 401k. As TexasRunner elegantly pointed out, the tax savings alone more than cover your interest (not even getting into return on investment). After you max tax-deferred accounts, you may want to consider paying off the mortgage, but even then you might want to consider investing in taxable (or Roth IRA) if you are a long way from full retirement.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FIreDrill on January 19, 2019, 10:43:31 PM


No joke, one of the best parts of paying down debt aggressively is doing it in a down market and being smug that you threw that $$ at the debt instead of into over-priced investments :-)

Investing through a bear/down market is the exact time you should be thrilled about throwing extra money into stocks. Purchasing stocks while they are on "sale" will just increase your holdings quicker and prep your portfolio for a massive rise come the next bull run.

Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on January 20, 2019, 03:55:12 AM
Hey all, I'm new here!

DW and I closed on our house in Sep '18 and borrowed $85K for it on a 15-year note. Our first mortgage payment was Nov '18 and in 3 months we have already shaved an entire year off of amortization and are under $80K in principal balance. Hoping to crush the rest of the principal in the next few years while we save for some massive projects and contribute to our retirement accts.

Can't really talk about this to anyone in person, but excited to share here and get the excitement off my chest!


Welcome @jps  !   Great job -- sounds like you are on a mission.  Go get 'em!

Glad you're asking them about the basics and making sure this is a wise financial decision!  Oh... wait...

@jps What's your interest rate and are you maxing out your tax-deferred accounts?

@TexasRunner 4.5%, halfway to maxing out both tax-deferred accounts. Planning on a permanent ~50% cut to income in two years, and would like to have the mortgage out of the way to improve cash flow. On only one income, would be able to max out tax-deferred accounts if we didn't have a mortgage.

Obviously, I am still new to this so I welcome input, but my thinking is this if we leverage a big income right now, we'd have significantly more ability to max our tax-deferred accounts for 10+ years, rather than just for 2 years before income is cut.

In your case this makes sense (mostly) as you have a known reduction in income coming up.  In that case its similar to someone about to FIRE, and you want to reduce sequence of return risk, or in this case maximize savings at a future point to continue to fill tax buckets.

The math says that if you are filling 50% of your tax buckets now (1/2 of $50,000 in 2 401ks and 2 IRAs), and are essentially forgoing 25k in tax savings now and next year, you have to max out the tax accounts for at least 3 years before you break even BUT that is only if you could not deposit anything towards your 401k while still paying the mortgage.  What is the maximum you could pay to your 401k in two years if you still had the mortgage, and how quickly to you both plan to FIRE after that?

By skipping out on 25k each year this year and next, you are losing out on $97,000 of tax free deposits and growth by the end of 10 years- and that's without even calculating the tax savings.  It is very likely that 97k is more that the entire interest on your loan.

I agree with TexasRunner: Do not pay off that mortgage, but rather invest in the 401k. As TexasRunner elegantly pointed out, the tax savings alone more than cover your interest (not even getting into return on investment). After you max tax-deferred accounts, you may want to consider paying off the mortgage, but even then you might want to consider investing in taxable (or Roth IRA) if you are a long way from full retirement.

Careful folks . . . This is a celebration and support thread, not a thread where we try to persuade people to not pay off their mortgage.  (Those threads are elsewhere on the forum -- we can direct people to them).  Definitely appreciate the intent of the last couple comments and applaud your desire to educate, but the mods have stepped in on this thread several times in the past to draw that line.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on January 20, 2019, 08:15:45 PM
And right on cue, here's one to celebrate...   After ~4 years on this thread, as of last week, it's DONE!   ;-)

The mortgage is paid in full, we unlocked a nice bit of equity already put it to work in our stash and our "right size" move to our smaller digs is done.  This accelerates free cash flow for us every month by reduced expenses every month to focus on FIRE.   The incidental savings of downsizing (reduced property taxes, no HOA dues, less utilities, etc.) were greater than our previous mortgage payment in our case for example.

And for even better timing, just received an "Important Notice" from our former lender that the variable rate on our previous ARM was going to reset soon to just over double the initial term's interest rate.   HA!   So sweet to tear that letter up and just laugh out loud about it.    For folks who may be worried or distracted, focus on freedom from debt and you'll get there!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: iluvzbeach on January 20, 2019, 08:26:47 PM
And right on cue, here's one to celebrate...   After ~4 years on this thread, as of last week, it's DONE!   ;-)

The mortgage is paid in full, we unlocked a nice bit of equity already put it to work in our stash and our "right size" move to our smaller digs is done.  This accelerates free cash flow for us every month by reduced expenses every month to focus on FIRE.   The incidental savings of downsizing (reduced property taxes, no HOA dues, less utilities, etc.) were greater than our previous mortgage payment in our case for example.

And for even better timing, just received an "Important Notice" from our former lender that the variable rate on our previous ARM was going to reset soon to just over double the initial term's interest rate.   HA!   So sweet to tear that letter up and just laugh out loud about it.    For folks who may be worried or distracted, focus on freedom from debt and you'll get there!

Huge congrats! It’s such a great feeling on so many levels.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on January 21, 2019, 03:09:35 AM
And right on cue, here's one to celebrate...   After ~4 years on this thread, as of last week, it's DONE!   ;-)

The mortgage is paid in full, we unlocked a nice bit of equity already put it to work in our stash and our "right size" move to our smaller digs is done.  This accelerates free cash flow for us every month by reduced expenses every month to focus on FIRE.   The incidental savings of downsizing (reduced property taxes, no HOA dues, less utilities, etc.) were greater than our previous mortgage payment in our case for example.

And for even better timing, just received an "Important Notice" from our former lender that the variable rate on our previous ARM was going to reset soon to just over double the initial term's interest rate.   HA!   So sweet to tear that letter up and just laugh out loud about it.    For folks who may be worried or distracted, focus on freedom from debt and you'll get there!

Congratulations @Money Badger !!!   Your "right size" move sounds perfect on multiple levels -- you've unlocked some tremendous power.  That feeling of freedom is pretty damn sweet.  Enjoy!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on January 21, 2019, 07:33:20 PM
And right on cue, here's one to celebrate...   After ~4 years on this thread, as of last week, it's DONE!   ;-)

The mortgage is paid in full, we unlocked a nice bit of equity already put it to work in our stash and our "right size" move to our smaller digs is done.  This accelerates free cash flow for us every month by reduced expenses every month to focus on FIRE.   The incidental savings of downsizing (reduced property taxes, no HOA dues, less utilities, etc.) were greater than our previous mortgage payment in our case for example.

And for even better timing, just received an "Important Notice" from our former lender that the variable rate on our previous ARM was going to reset soon to just over double the initial term's interest rate.   HA!   So sweet to tear that letter up and just laugh out loud about it.    For folks who may be worried or distracted, focus on freedom from debt and you'll get there!

A big huge congratulations to you!  That’s simply fantastic!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on January 22, 2019, 08:47:50 PM
Thanks y'all!   After 7 years of mortgage, still feels surreal like we were just released from the gates of debtors prison... but it's a really GOOD surreal feeling!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on January 23, 2019, 06:59:09 AM
Thanks y'all!   After 7 years of mortgage, still feels surreal like we were just released from the gates of debtors prison... but it's a really GOOD surreal feeling!

Congrats!  I can’t even imagine what an amazing feeling that is!  Reading posts like this keep the rest of us motivated to get there!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: birdman2003 on January 23, 2019, 07:32:57 AM
Congrats Money Badger!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on January 27, 2019, 05:01:38 AM
Thanks @megs and birdman!   You've got this and look forward to your victory laps here soon!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on January 27, 2019, 10:29:26 AM
Congratulations. Welcome to the club.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: arob54600 on February 01, 2019, 03:24:31 PM
Hey y'all!
I'm new to the thread.
We have had our mortgage for a year and a half and it currently has a balance of 129900.
Looking forward to being aggressive!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: TexasRunner on February 01, 2019, 03:51:58 PM
Hey y'all!
I'm new to the thread.
We have had our mortgage for a year and a half and it currently has a balance of 129900.
Looking forward to being aggressive!

Whats the current interest rate?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: arob54600 on February 06, 2019, 12:27:59 PM
Hey y'all!
I'm new to the thread.
We have had our mortgage for a year and a half and it currently has a balance of 129900.
Looking forward to being aggressive!

Whats the current interest rate?

Hey Texas,
Our interest rate is 4.5%. This is a purely emotional decision. I am well aware of the math behind keeping a mortgage for as long as possible and investing as much as possible instead of making extra payments. A year ago Boarder42 really convinced me that it's the way to go. But at the end of the day, we will have soo much more peace of mind, paying off our home. Even if we pay hard and get aggressive until PMI is gone and switch right back over to building our investments. Right now, we are focused on building net worth and there is more than one way to get it done :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: TexasRunner on February 06, 2019, 12:32:59 PM
Hey y'all!
I'm new to the thread.
We have had our mortgage for a year and a half and it currently has a balance of 129900.
Looking forward to being aggressive!

Whats the current interest rate?

Hey Texas,
Our interest rate is 4.5%. This is a purely emotional decision. I am well aware of the math behind keeping a mortgage for as long as possible and investing as much as possible instead of making extra payments. A year ago Boarder42 really convinced me that it's the way to go. But at the end of the day, we will have soo much more peace of mind, paying off our home. Even if we pay hard and get aggressive until PMI is gone and switch right back over to building our investments. Right now, we are focused on building net worth and there is more than one way to get it done :)

As long as you understand the choice and *potential* consequences, you'll get no problems out of me.  ;)

Congrats on getting rich slightly differently, lol.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on February 09, 2019, 04:44:36 AM
Welcome @arob...   And "aggressive" debt reduction is good...   But laser-focused, make your friends question your sanity at dinner parties, "I dug out my change including the nasty bits in the sofa and sent it all in a box to the mortgage company towards principal" focus is even better!   :)

Seriously, it helps to lay out your goals and planned number of months to kill $129K here.   There's no shame if life intervenes, but holding yourself interim goals that your significant other is on board with and that you put in writing will get ya there.   And some support from this forum will help through the rough spots along the way.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on February 10, 2019, 03:13:10 AM
Now at $29,600. Have resumed extra payments now that I am working a little more again after a difficult last half of 2018. Little by little :)

I have found that trying to pay off the mortgage motivates me to scrimp and save far more than just "adding to the stash." We have a high NW and no debt aside from this mortgage.

We don't plan to fully RE as we both like our jobs, but would like to reduce our monthly cash requirements. Getting rid of our mortgage payments would help a lot with that. Also the security of knowing that it is 100% ours.

Goal is still end of 2019. Will have to push, but I am motivated!


Welcome back @allsummerlong !  2019 is going to be one fine year for you. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on February 13, 2019, 02:04:06 AM
Just to toot my own horn because nobody in my friends and family circle is even remotely interested: Just paid down the mortgage to the last €0,01. Took us 7 years and 1 month, with 2 kids born and a 17k increase last year to replace our heating with an environmentally friendly heatpump :)
The 17k increase was effectively a new (HOLE type) mortgage but because of the lower interest (1.65%) we chose that route with the agreement between ourselves to have both mortgages payed off within the year, which we did with 2 months to spare!

Now, I can sleep easy and rebuild my stache to an acceptable level :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Nederstash on February 13, 2019, 11:38:59 AM
Just to toot my own horn because nobody in my friends and family circle is even remotely interested: Just paid down the mortgage to the last €0,01. Took us 7 years and 1 month, with 2 kids born and a 17k increase last year to replace our heating with an environmentally friendly heatpump :)
The 17k increase was effectively a new (HOLE type) mortgage but because of the lower interest (1.65%) we chose that route with the agreement between ourselves to have both mortgages payed off within the year, which we did with 2 months to spare!

Now, I can sleep easy and rebuild my stache to an acceptable level :)

That's super cool!!! Well done! Are there certain advantages to keeping the mortgage at 1 cent? As a fellow Dutchie with similar aspirations I'm wondering about that.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on February 13, 2019, 12:08:11 PM
Just to toot my own horn because nobody in my friends and family circle is even remotely interested: Just paid down the mortgage to the last €0,01. Took us 7 years and 1 month, with 2 kids born and a 17k increase last year to replace our heating with an environmentally friendly heatpump :)
The 17k increase was effectively a new (HOLE type) mortgage but because of the lower interest (1.65%) we chose that route with the agreement between ourselves to have both mortgages payed off within the year, which we did with 2 months to spare!

Now, I can sleep easy and rebuild my stache to an acceptable level :)

That's super cool!!! Well done! Are there certain advantages to keeping the mortgage at 1 cent? As a fellow Dutchie with similar aspirations I'm wondering about that.
No, Just that I could pay via Ideal rather than wait for a letter. The next  monthly patent will finish off the rest and they will return the excess.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: TomSelleckJR on February 28, 2019, 01:43:18 PM

We're down to 87k.

We are targeting payoff right around the end of 2019.


UPDATE - 02/28/19
We are down to 65k.  Barring anything unforeseen, I see no reason why we won't meet our 2019 mortgage payoff goal.  :-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Car Jack on March 01, 2019, 08:39:01 AM
March first.  My 33rd anniversary.  I was thinking on my way to work how I had to write no check to the mortgage company and could use that $1500 or so to prop up my Ally account in prep for upcoming tuition payments.  Funny how every month, I no longer have this payment to make and can use the money for investing or getting ready for a big expense or fix the furnace or do whatever I want.

This is the post payment preview for you all.  I have plenty of investments as well, mostly having been made post payment.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Askel on March 01, 2019, 11:03:03 AM
My name is Askel and it's been 4 months since I last made a mortgage payment. 

At first I felt kind of ambivalent about it, but 4 months out now I'm incredibly glad I paid that thing off. 

There's a lot of very vocal advocates on this forum for keeping low interest rate mortgages as long as possible. You should definitely run the numbers for your situation and consider their points. 

But I'm glad I didn't go that route.  I've had an investment portfolio balance greater than my mortgage balance for many years.  It's just not the same as having a paid off mortgage. 

It's more than a warm fuzzy feeling of comfort- having that chunk of cash freed up every month and a place to hang your hat no matter what opens up a world of opportunity.  I'm now free to consider career and personal goals that might have risked my home before. 

Keep plugging along folks.  I hope you get out of it what I have. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on March 03, 2019, 04:00:08 PM
2019 started off with some unexpected expenses so in January I wasn’t able to put any extra money toward the mortgage. Thankfully in February I was able to pay an extra $5,000. We are down to $279,000 and still on track to pay it off by the end of 2020 assuming we don’t miss any other months!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on March 04, 2019, 03:56:01 AM
March first.  My 33rd anniversary.  I was thinking on my way to work how I had to write no check to the mortgage company and could use that $1500 or so to prop up my Ally account in prep for upcoming tuition payments.  Funny how every month, I no longer have this payment to make and can use the money for investing or getting ready for a big expense or fix the furnace or do whatever I want.

This is the post payment preview for you all.  I have plenty of investments as well, mostly having been made post payment.

This feels so good, since my monthly payment had dwindled with each extra payment I already know the feeling.

Also sent the required details to the notary office to scrap the mortgage from the public registry. In a few days I'll officially and administratively mortgage free!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on March 08, 2019, 11:54:13 AM
March first.  My 33rd anniversary.  I was thinking on my way to work how I had to write no check to the mortgage company and could use that $1500 or so to prop up my Ally account in prep for upcoming tuition payments.  Funny how every month, I no longer have this payment to make and can use the money for investing or getting ready for a big expense or fix the furnace or do whatever I want.

This is the post payment preview for you all.  I have plenty of investments as well, mostly having been made post payment.

This feels so good, since my monthly payment had dwindled with each extra payment I already know the feeling.

Also sent the required details to the notary office to scrap the mortgage from the public registry. In a few days I'll officially and administratively mortgage free!

What do you have to do after the mortgage is paid?  I'm still a few years away, but I'm wondering if I should schedule my last payment for a time when I'm not busy with other things?  Jan - May are always super-busy for me, so should I schedule a final payment for mid-year or later?  Or is it simply sending in a notice somewhere?

I know I'll still have to pay taxes, but those will be auto payments.  No prob there.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on March 08, 2019, 02:03:43 PM
March first.  My 33rd anniversary.  I was thinking on my way to work how I had to write no check to the mortgage company and could use that $1500 or so to prop up my Ally account in prep for upcoming tuition payments.  Funny how every month, I no longer have this payment to make and can use the money for investing or getting ready for a big expense or fix the furnace or do whatever I want.

This is the post payment preview for you all.  I have plenty of investments as well, mostly having been made post payment.

This feels so good, since my monthly payment had dwindled with each extra payment I already know the feeling.

Also sent the required details to the notary office to scrap the mortgage from the public registry. In a few days I'll officially and administratively mortgage free!

What do you have to do after the mortgage is paid?  I'm still a few years away, but I'm wondering if I should schedule my last payment for a time when I'm not busy with other things?  Jan - May are always super-busy for me, so should I schedule a final payment for mid-year or later?  Or is it simply sending in a notice somewhere?

I know I'll still have to pay taxes, but those will be auto payments.  No prob there.

Where I live, most people don't have to do anything when they pay a mortgage off.  It's customary for the banks to send a Notice of Satisfaction to the county Register of Deeds, and the borrower doesn't need to do anything.  You can probably check the procedure on your county's website, and/or ask your bank if they're going to send the paperwork in.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on March 08, 2019, 11:33:48 PM
March first.  My 33rd anniversary.  I was thinking on my way to work how I had to write no check to the mortgage company and could use that $1500 or so to prop up my Ally account in prep for upcoming tuition payments.  Funny how every month, I no longer have this payment to make and can use the money for investing or getting ready for a big expense or fix the furnace or do whatever I want.

This is the post payment preview for you all.  I have plenty of investments as well, mostly having been made post payment.

This feels so good, since my monthly payment had dwindled with each extra payment I already know the feeling.

Also sent the required details to the notary office to scrap the mortgage from the public registry. In a few days I'll officially and administratively mortgage free!

What do you have to do after the mortgage is paid?  I'm still a few years away, but I'm wondering if I should schedule my last payment for a time when I'm not busy with other things?  Jan - May are always super-busy for me, so should I schedule a final payment for mid-year or later?  Or is it simply sending in a notice somewhere?

I know I'll still have to pay taxes, but those will be auto payments.  No prob there.

In the Netherlands both the ownership and the mortgage  are registered by the notary office. In the past it appearently happened that one owner sold to several parties while also still having a mortgage. Interesting way toake money :P

Scrapping the mortgage at the notary has the advantage that I can now buy a second house more easily because I don't have to explain or include the first mortgage which means less risk for the bank.
Taxes are also same as before, no difference there unfortunately.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ScottsdaleSaver on April 01, 2019, 09:52:30 AM
A larger than expected work bonus helped us knock a big chunk off this quarter. Our goal for this year is to get below $100K and it looks like that is well within reach based on our budget.

We just crossed $600K in investments, so when we get this bad boy paid off, we'll be lean FI based on our spending on essentials. We're not looking to completely drop out of the workforce, but I want to go part time, plus having that peace of mind will be huge.

3/2019 - $153K
12/2018 - $187K
9/2018 - $196K
6/2018 - $217K
3/2018 - $227K
12/2017 - $237K
9/2017 - $245K
6/2017 - $245K
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on April 01, 2019, 04:04:24 PM
A larger than expected work bonus helped us knock a big chunk off this quarter. Our goal for this year is to get below $100K and it looks like that is well within reach based on our budget.

We just crossed $600K in investments, so when we get this bad boy paid off, we'll be lean FI based on our spending on essentials. We're not looking to completely drop out of the workforce, but I want to go part time, plus having that peace of mind will be huge.

Niiiice!!!   Your numbers are very similar to what ours were, @ScottsdaleSaver -- we were investing and paying off the mortgage at the same time, and we timed the mortgage payoff for shortly before I FIREd.   It's awesome to have options.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ScottsdaleSaver on April 01, 2019, 04:30:32 PM
A larger than expected work bonus helped us knock a big chunk off this quarter. Our goal for this year is to get below $100K and it looks like that is well within reach based on our budget.

We just crossed $600K in investments, so when we get this bad boy paid off, we'll be lean FI based on our spending on essentials. We're not looking to completely drop out of the workforce, but I want to go part time, plus having that peace of mind will be huge.

Niiiice!!!   Your numbers are very similar to what ours were, @ScottsdaleSaver -- we were investing and paying off the mortgage at the same time, and we timed the mortgage payoff for shortly before I FIREd.   It's awesome to have options.   

That's great to hear, Trifele! I know all the arguments for keeping the mortgage, but I want it gone before we make any big moves. We're still maxing out tax-advantaged accounts, but everything else is going towards the mortgage. How long have you been FIREd now?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on April 01, 2019, 04:58:30 PM
How long have you been FIREd now?

Originally I was planning for 2018, but it was pushed back to January 31 2019.  So it's been exactly two months, and it is even better than I dreamed.   Fabulous!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on April 02, 2019, 05:36:36 PM
I can’t tell anyone in real life so I had to come on here and share. My husband and I just made a payment of $140,000 to our mortgage!  We have had way too much in saving for years. We decided to either put it towards the mortgage or invest it since it wasn’t helping us sitting in a savings account.  We eventually made the decision to put it towards the mortgage because with that money we will hopefully be mortgage free by the end of 2019.  Our balance as of today is $130,000. Our original mortgage was for $720,000 so this feels so close!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: iluvzbeach on April 02, 2019, 06:01:13 PM
I can’t tell anyone in real life so I had to come on here and share. My husband and I just made a payment of $140,000 to our mortgage!  We have had way too much in saving for years. We decided to either put it towards the mortgage or invest it since it wasn’t helping us sitting in a savings account.  We eventually made the decision to put it towards the mortgage because with that money we will hopefully be mortgage free by the end of 2019.  Our balance as of today is $130,000. Our original mortgage was for $720,000 so this feels so close!

@Megs193 This is awesome. I’ve been reading your updates over time and it’s been great to see your progress. Can’t wait to see your “paid in full” update!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on April 03, 2019, 08:35:43 PM
@Megs193,   Way to go!   We're pulling for you guys to remove debt from your lives and WIN!   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on April 04, 2019, 12:45:36 AM
Wow @Megs193!  Very impressive!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on April 07, 2019, 05:34:23 PM
Thanks everyone!  I can’t wait for the day I can finally post that we are mortgage free!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: nnls on April 08, 2019, 12:41:38 AM
Mines not paid off, but I just sold about 20k worth of shares to put on my mortgage (shares purchased at around $60 each, sold for $100 each)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on April 08, 2019, 04:29:40 AM
Mines not paid off, but I just sold about 20k worth of shares to put on my mortgage (shares purchased at around $60 each, sold for $100 each)

All the little bits help, and in the end you'll have nothing left :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on April 08, 2019, 04:40:52 AM
Mines not paid off, but I just sold about 20k worth of shares to put on my mortgage (shares purchased at around $60 each, sold for $100 each)

Niiice @nnls!  I used to love when I could put a big chunk like that toward the mortgage -- very satisfying.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on April 08, 2019, 02:43:17 PM
Mines not paid off, but I just sold about 20k worth of shares to put on my mortgage (shares purchased at around $60 each, sold for $100 each)

Not sure how capital gains taxes work in AU, but in the US, we would caution to be very careful to watch for taxes on those earnings -- especially short term capital gains. 

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: nnls on April 09, 2019, 01:19:38 AM
Mines not paid off, but I just sold about 20k worth of shares to put on my mortgage (shares purchased at around $60 each, sold for $100 each)

Not sure how capital gains taxes work in AU, but in the US, we would caution to be very careful to watch for taxes on those earnings -- especially short term capital gains.

I've held the shares for over three years and I worked out how much tax and it will be about $1500

Mines not paid off, but I just sold about 20k worth of shares to put on my mortgage (shares purchased at around $60 each, sold for $100 each)

Niiice @nnls!  I used to love when I could put a big chunk like that toward the mortgage -- very satisfying.

Thanks, it will feel good. I know a lot of people on this forum will think I am stupid for selling shares to put on my mortgage but in Australia mortgage interest rates arent fixed, so while mine is low I want to try and put as much on so I have a head start for when they eventually rise

Mines not paid off, but I just sold about 20k worth of shares to put on my mortgage (shares purchased at around $60 each, sold for $100 each)

All the little bits help, and in the end you'll have nothing left :)

And I cant wait!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on April 10, 2019, 10:42:35 AM
I know a lot of people on this forum will think I am stupid for selling shares to put on my mortgage but in Australia mortgage interest rates arent fixed, so while mine is low I want to try and put as much on so I have a head start for when they eventually rise


I think most people here know the pros and cons and this thread is focused on celebrating the accomplishments of those who put more weight on the pros.  Is it the most optimal strategy?  Usually not.  But is it stupid? Never! 

Congratulations!  It's good to feel in control of our biggest liabilities and no one can take that away.  :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Steveray7071 on April 10, 2019, 02:30:19 PM
I've had my current mortgage since 6/1/2013 - $235K

1/1/2019 - 191K
4/1/2019 - 178K

Goal is to pay off by 8/1/2020.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on April 11, 2019, 09:11:53 AM
What are you plans for accelerating, Steveray? Bump in income, or a change in how you're handling other financial goals?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Steveray7071 on April 11, 2019, 10:52:33 AM
What are you plans for accelerating, Steveray? Bump in income, or a change in how you're handling other financial goals?

Actually a little bit of all.. I've recently got a nice bump in income, I'm going to sell some rentals (market is really high in my area, also I don't particularly like managing them), and save a little less in my taxable accounts (currently max out my 401k & IRA).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: TomSelleckJR on April 11, 2019, 03:33:33 PM

We're down to 87k.

We are targeting payoff right around the end of 2019.


UPDATE - 02/28/19
We are down to 65k.  Barring anything unforeseen, I see no reason why we won't meet our 2019 mortgage payoff goal.  :-)

Update - 4/11/19
Big progress.  We are now down to just under 37k.  It won't be long now.  :-)

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on April 12, 2019, 06:44:13 PM
@SelleckJR,  Just save or sell anything you have to in order to be free!  It just gets better.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: TomSelleckJR on April 15, 2019, 11:04:47 AM
@SelleckJR,  Just save or sell anything you have to in order to be free!  It just gets better.

Thanks for the encouragement!   We are pushing hard and are selling things as we speak.

I can't wait to join the club!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: esmith2039 on April 21, 2019, 08:20:55 PM
Working towards the payoff club... As of tomorrow when the payment clears we'll owe $38.9k on the mortgage. Started out this year owing $47k.. after I calculated the $2k in interest could of paid the taxes and most of the insurance we started knocking it down. Our house is fairly cheap compared to most. Looking to be paid off at the end of 2020 but could be sooner. While the discussions on reasons not to pay off your mortgage is intriguing we'd want that state of mind it brings.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Buffaloski Boris on April 22, 2019, 05:36:24 AM
The stories here are really cool. Still haven’t dived in, but dipping toes in the water. Still have some more optimal investments to make with cash other than equities right now, but maybe later in the year?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Blindsquirrel on May 05, 2019, 01:07:06 PM
     Has been a bit over a year since I paid mine off. It is a great feeling whether it is the mathematically optimal thing or not. A paid off crib definitely reduces risk and cash flow needs. :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on May 06, 2019, 11:24:42 AM
Jippie!!!

Just got word from the Notary office, the mortgage has been scrapped and I am officially, totally mortgage free!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on May 06, 2019, 01:40:59 PM
Jippie!!!

Just got word from the Notary office, the mortgage has been scrapped and I am officially, totally mortgage free!
Congratulations!!  You are done with payments, and now have some mental breathing room!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on May 06, 2019, 02:08:22 PM
Jippie!!!

Just got word from the Notary office, the mortgage has been scrapped and I am officially, totally mortgage free!
Congratulations!!  You are done with payments, and now have some mental breathing room!!
Thank you!!

We were already done for a bit but this is just the paperwork. It could have waited until we sell the house, but it's just a lot more fun to have it done and be able to brag about it ;)

It even took a bit more time than expected because the bank's automated system didn't process the paperwork correctly so the notary office didn't get informed (they also didn't actively monitor it). I gave them a ping, received profuse apologies and it was done 6 weeks later than planned. But, done is done :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: 2sk22 on May 10, 2019, 01:24:12 PM
We just paid off the last few thousand dollars on our mortgage. We bought the house in 1996 at the trough of the market and now 23 years and 2 refinancings later, it's fully paid off. Retirement funds are more than adequate so we decided to just get rid of this - mainly for symbolic value :-) )
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: RSG89 on May 13, 2019, 10:50:25 AM
@2sk22 Congrats! We hope to join the club later this month!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on May 13, 2019, 12:42:30 PM
We just paid off the last few thousand dollars on our mortgage. We bought the house in 1996 at the trough of the market and now 23 years and 2 refinancings later, it's fully paid off. Retirement funds are more than adequate so we decided to just get rid of this - mainly for symbolic value :-) )
Well done, nothing feels better than sleeping in a house without a mortgage :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: TomSelleckJR on May 13, 2019, 03:45:41 PM
@2sk22 Congrats! We hope to join the club later this month!

X2!
Nice job 2sk22!

And RSG89, I hope to be joining the club this month myself.  We're so close to freedom that I can taste it!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: 2sk22 on May 14, 2019, 06:25:53 AM
We just paid off the last few thousand dollars on our mortgage. We bought the house in 1996 at the trough of the market and now 23 years and 2 refinancings later, it's fully paid off. Retirement funds are more than adequate so we decided to just get rid of this - mainly for symbolic value :-) )
Well done, nothing feels better than sleeping in a house without a mortgage :)

Exactly - I know this may not make a lot of financial sense but it does give us peace of mind. I plan to RE next year so simply knowing the mortgage is paid off makes it a bit easier.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on May 14, 2019, 09:01:02 AM
We just paid off the last few thousand dollars on our mortgage. We bought the house in 1996 at the trough of the market and now 23 years and 2 refinancings later, it's fully paid off. Retirement funds are more than adequate so we decided to just get rid of this - mainly for symbolic value :-) )
Well done, nothing feels better than sleeping in a house without a mortgage :)

Exactly - I know this may not make a lot of financial sense but it does give us peace of mind. I plan to RE next year so simply knowing the mortgage is paid off makes it a bit easier.

The financial sense is debatable on the amount of risk you want to take.

Paying of early is as much an emotional decision as a financial one. It is not bad as such, but it is always better than doing nothing at all and putting the cash in a regular savings account :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: arob54600 on May 24, 2019, 08:55:16 AM
Just checking in to keep my husband and me accountable!

Principal Balance
02/01/2019- $129900
05/24/2019- $127946 (-1954)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on May 24, 2019, 06:15:49 PM
@arob... Testify!   You are in the house of freedom here!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: EngineerOurFI on May 26, 2019, 12:59:11 PM
This is a resource I’ve found very useful when running through mortgage payoff options, timeframes, etc.:

Karl’s Mortgage Calculator

https://m.drcalculator.com/mortgage/

Just wanted to share in case others in this chain found it useful.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on May 27, 2019, 10:44:10 AM
This is a resource I’ve found very useful when running through mortgage payoff options, timeframes, etc.:

Karl’s Mortgage Calculator

https://m.drcalculator.com/mortgage/

Just wanted to share in case others in this chain found it useful.

Great tool!   I've been using it for years!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: TomSelleckJR on May 29, 2019, 07:54:01 AM

We're down to 87k.

We are targeting payoff right around the end of 2019.


UPDATE - 02/28/19
We are down to 65k.  Barring anything unforeseen, I see no reason why we won't meet our 2019 mortgage payoff goal.  :-)

Update - 4/11/19
Big progress.  We are now down to just under 37k.  It won't be long now.  :-)


I'm (extremely) happy to report, that we received confirmation yesterday.  We have joined the no mortgage club!!!
Some of the sweetest words I've ever read came in the mail yesterday and simply read "The above referenced loan was paid in full".

It hasn't really hit me yet, but I'm sure as months come and go and we no longer have to send that payment... it'll sink in.
As of this morning though, I can confirm that I do feel a huge weight off of my shoulders.
There's also the satisfaction in knowing that I'll never pay another dime in interest.







Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: PowerStache on May 29, 2019, 08:18:01 AM
I just called the bank and transferred the money to pay off our mortgage!  I FIRE'd in April and without the mortgage, we will be almost completely living off DH's salary so the stash can continue to grow.  While I understand we could make more in the market, I feel so much better. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on May 29, 2019, 08:27:30 AM
Congratulations @TomSelleckJR and @PowerStache!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: RSG89 on May 29, 2019, 10:55:14 AM
@TomSelleckJR / @PowerStache - congrats! Friday for us! Nice way to end the month!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: TomSelleckJR on May 30, 2019, 07:29:57 AM

3 of us in a week!  Is this a new MMM-MPC record? 

Thanks for all of the kind words and encouragement,   and congrats @RSG89 and @PowerStache!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on May 30, 2019, 07:39:25 AM
Congrats to everyone who paid off their mortgage!

Hint: Wait a month and then verify with the county registrar of deeds that the lien has been removed from the property.

It's not fun to discover at the last minute while you're trying to sell the house that some goober didn't do their job.   I know this from personal experience.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on June 04, 2019, 06:19:31 AM
We are still chugging away and trying to pay off the mortgage but today we hit an exciting milestone. We are under 6 figures!  We have $95,000 left to pay and we still have a goal of paying it off by the end of the year!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: RSG89 on June 04, 2019, 03:06:41 PM
Woo hoo! We are officially mortgage free. Our payments from Friday finally posted online and we are zeroed out. Congrats to the others and best of luck to those currently on the journey. You can do it!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on June 04, 2019, 04:15:20 PM
Woo hoo! We are officially mortgage free. Our payments from Friday finally posted online and we are zeroed out. Congrats to the others and best of luck to those currently on the journey. You can do it!

Congratulations!!  That is fantastic.

And congrats @Megs193 on your progress!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: TomSelleckJR on June 06, 2019, 04:09:42 PM
We are still chugging away and trying to pay off the mortgage but today we hit an exciting milestone. We are under 6 figures!  We have $95,000 left to pay and we still have a goal of paying it off by the end of the year!

Nice!  Keep it up!!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on June 06, 2019, 07:55:28 PM
I'm sure that most of you know this, but I just learned it and it was really handy, so...

I just found out that the version of Excel I use has a template that can be picked when creating a new spreadsheet.  The template is for a Loan Amortization Schedule.   It works for fixed rate loans.   What makes it nicer than the mortgage calculators is that it will remember any extra payments I enter into it.  That way, I can know exactly when I'll pay off the mortgage based on exactly what I've already paid (which might be irregular) and what I expect to pay extra from now on.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on June 06, 2019, 07:58:27 PM
Awesome @Megs193 , @TomSelleckJR, @RSG89!    Just walk around the house and the yard barefoot once it's paid off... everything you touch is yours and the world just seems a little nicer place to be ever-after!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on June 06, 2019, 10:35:04 PM
I'm sure that most of you know this, but I just learned it and it was really handy, so...

I'm fairly adept at excel but I didn't know this template...

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: TomSelleckJR on June 07, 2019, 07:49:02 AM
I'm sure that most of you know this, but I just learned it and it was really handy, so....

Microsoft has a bunch of free excel templates (including investment calculator, retirement calculator, budgeting, credit card tracker, etc).  Many of them are pretty good tools.  I chose to create my own spreadsheet to track my early mortgage payoff though, for the following reasons:
- it allowed me to truly understand the mechanics of mortgage amortization, and see how additional payments impacted the balance at different points throughout the loan. This might be an easy concept for others, but without going through the exercise of building the spreadsheet myself, I don't know how well I would have understood the "nuts and bolts" of it all.
- it allowed me to build in some features that I wanted, that weren't included in standard templates, like charting the payoff balance, charting the interest savings, comparing std payoff against early payoff, etc.
- it allowed me to see just how far ahead we were. For example, I could look at our current balance, and see that with a "normal" payoff routine, we wouldn't be at that point until say, 2035. This helped keep me motivated.

Having a spreadsheet for early mortgage payoff was an invaluable tool for me.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: TarHeelinTX on June 26, 2019, 08:49:08 AM
So awesome to see so many people complete their mortgage payoff journey! We just started ours (current balance: 195k) but definitely encouraging to see folks at the finish line!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: iluvzbeach on June 26, 2019, 05:27:20 PM
So awesome to see so many people complete their mortgage payoff journey! We just started ours (current balance: 195k) but definitely encouraging to see folks at the finish line!

@TarHeelinTX Good for you, you can definitely do this! We paid ours off two years ago on 6/9/17 and haven’t regretted it for a moment.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: TomSelleckJR on June 27, 2019, 11:16:00 AM
So awesome to see so many people complete their mortgage payoff journey! We just started ours (current balance: 195k) but definitely encouraging to see folks at the finish line!

Congrats on starting your journey!

It really doesn't seem like it was THAT long ago that my wife and I stood in our kitchen reviewing our mortgage statement, which for the first time showed a balance of less than 200k.  We were so excited to see the progress we had made at that point.  Stay focused and dedicated, and the time will go by in a blur.  The next thing you'll know.. you'll be reporting back to this thread saying that you've joined the club.   :-)

Crossing the finish line is SO sweet.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ScottsdaleSaver on June 30, 2019, 01:33:12 PM
Wow - I am so motivated by all the payoff action since my last visit! Congratulations!

We're really starting to pick up steam and think we could have this thing knocked out in a year or so. Anyone else in the Q3 2020 payoff cohort? ;)

6/2019 - $127K
3/2019 - $153K
12/2018 - $187K
9/2018 - $196K
6/2018 - $217K
3/2018 - $227K
12/2017 - $237K
9/2017 - $245K
6/2017 - $245K

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on August 28, 2019, 06:58:02 PM
Bumping this thread to note that this has splintered into more focused target threads on mortgage reduction ($100-150K, etc.)...  Meanwhile the Dont pay off mortgage thread is about to pass the total pages of posts on this most mustachiam of threads!   Long live debt freedom!   Show the world you wont quit until zero debt freedom!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on August 29, 2019, 03:36:26 AM
Bumping this thread to note that this has splintered into more focused target threads on mortgage reduction ($100-150K, etc.)...  Meanwhile the Dont pay off mortgage thread is about to pass the total pages of posts on this most mustachiam of threads!   Long live debt freedom!   Show the world you wont quit until zero debt freedom!
I already showed the world and where did it get me? At a place of leasure where I can request a demotion while DW quits altogether to recuperate and find a job that actually suits her :P
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Megs193 on September 08, 2019, 08:30:51 AM
As of Friday we are officially mortgage free!!!  My husband got his bonus and we realized it we put all of it towards the mortgage plus 8k from our savings we could pay it off completely. Our liquid saving account had been creeping up again anyway so we decided it was worth it. I don’t think it’s really hit us yet. I think on October 1st when the mortgage payment doesn’t come out of the account it will feel real.

 For those of you who have paid off your mortgage - did you do anything other than call your insurance company and tax office to have the bills come directly to you?  The bank told us we would get a letter of satisfaction and a check from our escrow balance within 10 days.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: iluvzbeach on September 08, 2019, 08:40:29 AM
Congratulations, @Megs193!!! Huge accomplishment you’ve made, especially considering how quickly you did it and the high balance you started with.

We did not do anything else when ours was paid off except to watch for the original deed with filed lien release to be returned to us in the mail - this took about six weeks. It’s great to see the “Paid In Full” stamp on those docs.

Congrats again!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on September 08, 2019, 08:43:56 AM
As of Friday we are officially mortgage free!!!  My husband got his bonus and we realized it we put all of it towards the mortgage plus 8k from our savings we could pay it off completely. Our liquid saving account had been creeping up again anyway so we decided it was worth it. I don’t think it’s really hit us yet. I think on October 1st when the mortgage payment doesn’t come out of the account it will feel real.

 For those of you who have paid off your mortgage - did you do anything other than call your insurance company and tax office to have the bills come directly to you?  The bank told us we would get a letter of satisfaction and a check from our escrow balance within 10 days.

In the US, wait about 30 days and verify with your county registrar of deeds that the mortgage lien was removed.    I suspect other countries have a similar setup.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on September 08, 2019, 09:59:57 AM
Congratulations @Megs193 !!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on September 08, 2019, 01:10:05 PM
As of Friday we are officially mortgage free!!!  My husband got his bonus and we realized it we put all of it towards the mortgage plus 8k from our savings we could pay it off completely. Our liquid saving account had been creeping up again anyway so we decided it was worth it. I don’t think it’s really hit us yet. I think on October 1st when the mortgage payment doesn’t come out of the account it will feel real.

Wahoo!  Super huge congratulations!!  Nicely done!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: TomSelleckJR on September 09, 2019, 05:01:52 PM

Congrats @Megs193

Sounds like he got an awesome bonus!

It's been a few months for us and it's still sinking in.  I can say that it's SUCH a great feeling to walk around the house and think "we don't owe anyone a dime".  I've never experienced anything quite like it. 

Best of luck with your newfound freedom!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Gail2000 on September 09, 2019, 06:49:28 PM
$138,250.00 to pay off. Only paying $40.00 extra a month but am knocking extra out with bi weekly payment schedule and ocational 500$ payments. Pay off currently scheduled 2040 but we are whittling away. More substantial plan to be established this week. Working with an anti mustacian. Progress though. Don’t give up on him. Yet.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on September 09, 2019, 07:02:53 PM
$138,250.00 to pay off. Only paying $40.00 extra a month but am knocking extra out with bi weekly payment schedule and ocational 500$ payments. Pay off currently scheduled 2040 but we are whittling away. More substantial plan to be established this week. Working with an anti mustacian. Progress though. Don’t give up on him. Yet.
So you're paying about 1 1/3 to 1 1/2 extra payments a year?   That will cut a number of years off a 30 year mortgage!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Gail2000 on September 10, 2019, 02:13:35 AM
$138,250.00 to pay off. Only paying $40.00 extra a month but am knocking extra out with bi weekly payment schedule and ocational 500$ payments. Pay off currently scheduled 2040 but we are whittling away. More substantial plan to be established this week. Working with an anti mustacian. Progress though. Don’t give up on him. Yet.
So you're paying about 1 1/3 to 1 1/2 extra payments a year?   That will cut a number of years off a 30 year mortgage!

Just in time for normal retirement of course (58) but we are on our way. This forum has certainly been a good influence. =)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on September 16, 2019, 06:53:15 AM
I actually think getting an anti-mustachian on board with an early mortgage payoff would be a sneakier way to bring zher on board than, "Let's just save extra into this random investment account". Keep us posted.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on September 16, 2019, 06:58:49 AM
I actually think getting an anti-mustachian on board with an early mortgage payoff would be a sneakier way to bring zher on board than, "Let's just save extra into this random investment account". Keep us posted.

I have a friend who got his wife to cut back on her spending by showing how much interest they were going to pay on the mortgage and how much they could save if they paid on it early.

Of course, that was back when mortgage rates were in the 10% range for a 30 year fixed rate.   

My first mortgage was 9 3/8ths, such a deal!

At those rates it's easy to get some real motivation to pay that damn mortgage down!



Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Car Jack on September 17, 2019, 01:24:13 PM
I was sitting at a red light today, staring off at a building across the street and thinking about the last time I was in there.  It's a Verizon store now, but back in 2002, it was a Tweeter etc. 

"So what, Jack?"

Well, in 2002, I received a small windfall from stock options and one of the things I did right after paying off our mortgage was to go buy an HDTV.  Back then, it was a $10k plasma or a $6k HDTV....37" sony CRT.  Being cheap, I noticed a last year's model right next to this year's model.  It was $2500 and the biggest difference was that the tuner was a huge box outside the TV.  The new one's picture looked much nicer, but I suspected shenanigans.  And indeed, I was right.  I picked up the remotes and went through the settings on both TVs.  As suspected, the older one was all messed up.  I corrected them so both TVs had identical settings.  They looked identical.  I went to buy one.  The price had just been dropped in the system to $1900. 

"Cool story, bro"

Yah......
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on September 18, 2019, 06:55:11 PM

 For those of you who have paid off your mortgage - did you do anything other than call your insurance company and tax office to have the bills come directly to you?  The bank told us we would get a letter of satisfaction and a check from our escrow balance within 10 days.
Awesome Megs!   A huge debt is done!  Tell insurance to remove lender from payees of policy... Reduce limits on homeowners policy if related to the debt... Ensure you have county and city tax bills for the next payable period coming to you (big deal) and JUST ENJOY THE HELL OUT OF FREEDOM!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on September 18, 2019, 07:15:57 PM
$138,250.00 to pay off. Only paying $40.00 extra a month but am knocking extra out with bi weekly payment schedule and ocational 500$ payments. Pay off currently scheduled 2040 but we are whittling away. More substantial plan to be established this week. Working with an anti mustacian. Progress though. Don’t give up on him. Yet.
@Gail2000,   2040?  Sorry... But PLEASE get your S.O. to Dave Ramsey FPU or just mental counseling...  Amother 21 years of bank slavery really???   Every nickel in the sofa cushions goes to kill that debt.   No new cars.   No other toys... No $hit.    More than anything, the cash flow habits you build solving this $138K damned debt emergency set you on the path to independence...   “Occasional” paydowns are just band aids on a bleeding debt!   It’s that serious.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on September 19, 2019, 07:41:00 AM
$138,250.00 to pay off. Only paying $40.00 extra a month but am knocking extra out with bi weekly payment schedule and ocational 500$ payments. Pay off currently scheduled 2040 but we are whittling away. More substantial plan to be established this week. Working with an anti mustacian. Progress though. Don’t give up on him. Yet.
@Gail2000,   2040?  Sorry... But PLEASE get your S.O. to Dave Ramsey FPU or just mental counseling...  Amother 21 years of bank slavery really???   Every nickel in the sofa cushions goes to kill that debt.   No new cars.   No other toys... No $hit.    More than anything, the cash flow habits you build solving this $138K damned debt emergency set you on the path to independence...   “Occasional” paydowns are just band aids on a bleeding debt!   It’s that serious.
whoa...what's the emergency?  Gail, what is the interest rate?  If it's low enough, it's really not an emergency and paying off your mortgage is a nice-to-have in the overall view.  It's what most of us look at AFTER we've taken care of other savings goals, and definitely after other types of debt. 
It sounds as if you're doing okay and you have a plan to get ahead of the scheduled payoff, but that it's not overly aggressive. 

 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Gail2000 on September 21, 2019, 10:19:39 AM
$138,250.00 to pay off. Only paying $40.00 extra a month but am knocking extra out with bi weekly payment schedule and ocational 500$ payments. Pay off currently scheduled 2040 but we are whittling away. More substantial plan to be established this week. Working with an anti mustacian. Progress though. Don’t give up on him. Yet.
@Gail2000,   2040?  Sorry... But PLEASE get your S.O. to Dave Ramsey FPU or just mental counseling...  Amother 21 years of bank slavery really???   Every nickel in the sofa cushions goes to kill that debt.   No new cars.   No other toys... No $hit.    More than anything, the cash flow habits you build solving this $138K damned debt emergency set you on the path to independence...   “Occasional” paydowns are just band aids on a bleeding debt!   It’s that serious.
whoa...what's the emergency?  Gail, what is the interest rate?  If it's low enough, it's really not an emergency and paying off your mortgage is a nice-to-have in the overall view.  It's what most of us look at AFTER we've taken care of other savings goals, and definitely after other types of debt. 
It sounds as if you're doing okay and you have a plan to get ahead of the scheduled payoff, but that it's not overly aggressive.

Hi there,
the  interest rare I have until 2021 is 2.24. granted this was an employee rate and will never happen again since I left that employment. So the emergency as Honey Badger says would be to pay it off before the renewal that will certainly have a higher rate. We currently put away 15% for retirement (yes, could do much better), some for college and to balance it out the extra on the mortgage. We bout the house in 2016 and have reduced the amortization from 2046 to 2040 since then. Minor victory but employment has not been stable for me so really we aren't doing too bad. Not Mustacian bad ass level but better then the norm. A fire that was trying to be lit could be what we need but as I said getting the boyfriend on board has been difficult.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: MaybeBabyMustache on September 22, 2019, 07:57:37 PM
We were just able to refinance to a 2.625% rate, and are very excited about the potential to have the mortgage paid off in seven years. We've paid off $217k since we bought the house a couple of years ago, but it's going to be a LONG slog. (Bay area prices.)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: AO1FireTo on September 22, 2019, 08:02:15 PM
Threw off the chains on September 20th, mortgage is gone.  100% debt free, it's a sweet place.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on September 22, 2019, 08:20:47 PM
Threw off the chains on September 20th, mortgage is gone.  100% debt free, it's a sweet place.
Congrats!  It's a good feeling!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on September 23, 2019, 07:30:45 AM
Can I just take a quick survey among you people who are slaying the mortgage:

What kind of mortgage did you get? I'm trying to decide between a 30-year fixed and a 15-year fixed right now.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: MaybeBabyMustache on September 23, 2019, 09:01:40 AM
@talltexan - we went for a 7/1 ARM, because our goal is to have the house paid off in 7 years. Also, the next seven are our big income producing years, and after that, the kids will be out of the house. Our mortgage is quite large (bay area) so the difference in interest rate we could get with the 7/1 ARM vs a 30 year was crazy. We have a lot of flexibility, but plan to pay off the house on a very accelerated schedule.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Photograph 51 on September 23, 2019, 10:38:43 AM
Threw off the chains on September 20th, mortgage is gone.  100% debt free, it's a sweet place.
Congrats!  It's a good feeling!

Good for you.  A paid off mortgage is something you will be thankful for over and over.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on September 23, 2019, 12:12:46 PM
@talltexan - we went for a 7/1 ARM, because our goal is to have the house paid off in 7 years. Also, the next seven are our big income producing years, and after that, the kids will be out of the house. Our mortgage is quite large (bay area) so the difference in interest rate we could get with the 7/1 ARM vs a 30 year was crazy. We have a lot of flexibility, but plan to pay off the house on a very accelerated schedule.

Thank you for this response. I asked my lender, and she said the ARM's are actually higher than 30-year fixed right now, which suggests to me that the banks expect rates to be quite low even 6-8 years from now.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on September 24, 2019, 05:28:13 AM
@talltexan,   More than the money, it's about motivation.   I paid off a 7 year ARM that had an interest rate advantage over fixed loans at the time back in 2011.  Then the motivation to avoid the rate adjustment or refi expenses at 7 years was key.    All the talk about yield curve inversion means ARMs are a bit less attractive now though as you noted.   It's all about the fees up front in the mortgage origination game, so shop around like mad and avoid brick and mortar banks that give the whole greased sales pitch about mortgage/"Premium Banking"/"Free Checking"...   We found $3,000 or more in savings by shopping hard and going with a pure mortgage originating firm that sold our loan off in less than 60 days after closing to a mortgage servicer (who fed the monthly payments to either Fanny or Freddie every month) just like the big bank would have.   I remember the loan officer [aka, commissioned sales person] at SunTrust and Wells Fargo both crying "there's no way they can meet those [originating firm] numbers they gave you." so beware of what big banker mortgage sales person tells you!   Then all the parasitic middle men earning fees off your hard earned income every month.   If possible, swing the new house with higher equity up front and just a HELOC?   That avoids the big up front origination fees, and the higher rates sure as heck motivates to pay off the HELOC to avoid interest rate adjustments and note of course it's a full recourse loan (meaning if you don't pay, they can come after your income, not just the house)... but at a smaller balance, you will have less interest in total each month, more control and it will motivate you to get you to freedom faster.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Huskerfan on October 02, 2019, 06:37:47 PM
Threw off the chains on September 20th, mortgage is gone.  100% debt free, it's a sweet place.

Congrats!!!! Gotta be a great feeling
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Huskerfan on October 02, 2019, 06:43:47 PM
As of Friday we are officially mortgage free!!!  My husband got his bonus and we realized it we put all of it towards the mortgage plus 8k from our savings we could pay it off completely. Our liquid saving account had been creeping up again anyway so we decided it was worth it. I don’t think it’s really hit us yet. I think on October 1st when the mortgage payment doesn’t come out of the account it will feel real.

 For those of you who have paid off your mortgage - did you do anything other than call your insurance company and tax office to have the bills come directly to you?  The bank told us we would get a letter of satisfaction and a check from our escrow balance within 10 days.

 Congrats!!! Amazing achievement!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Gail2000 on October 03, 2019, 06:37:10 PM
Threw off the chains on September 20th, mortgage is gone.  100% debt free, it's a sweet place.

Amazing! Congrates!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: TomSelleckJR on October 11, 2019, 12:51:30 PM
Can I just take a quick survey among you people who are slaying the mortgage:

What kind of mortgage did you get? I'm trying to decide between a 30-year fixed and a 15-year fixed right now.


We had a 30 year fixed, but paid it off in 11 years.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on October 18, 2019, 04:24:58 PM
Can I just take a quick survey among you people who are slaying the mortgage:

What kind of mortgage did you get? I'm trying to decide between a 30-year fixed and a 15-year fixed right now.


We had a 30 year fixed, but paid it off in 11 years.
I have a 30 year fixed.  I'm aiming to get the principal down below $100K and then pay just what I owe.  Either that or pay it off in under 15 years.  I am an independent consultant and cash flow is never guaranteed and that makes me nervous
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Vashy on October 19, 2019, 01:58:04 AM
We just re-mortgaged from a lifetime tracker at 2.49% to a fixed tracker at 1.34% - our LTV is just below 20% now, but similar deals became available at LTVs of 60% and less. The rate, BTW, gives me extreme pleasure - inflation stands at 1.7%, and I think the rate could arguably go down - in the case of a hard Brexit (and the one we're seeing is not soft) or no deal, the Bank of England will start the money printing press and keep rates low, ie likely higher inflation and lower rates, both of which are fine for me.

We had £91,300 outstanding on a £200k loan, so going from LTV 50% to <20% is all due to the house doubling in value over the past 8.5 years since we bought it.

The 1.34% rate breaks down into 0.75% Band of England rate and the rest is HSBC's take. HSBC charged £999 and added that money onto the mortgage. After two years, that rate increases to 4.3% unless we remortgage again. Our monthly payments dropped from circa £550 to circa £426, and we plan to pay £1,800 a month, which should about halve the mortgage in those two years. That's about 50% of our disposable income after food and commute. We could probably kill it completely, but we need to build up some accessible savings to get us to the point when we can access our private pensions.

I'm just astonished at how we started paying off the same house for £1,200/month at a 90% mortgage 8.5 years ago, and since then, the low bank rates, house appreciation, and vigilance and smart decisions about the mortgage products have shaved off 70% from our payments. In our area, we'd pay £1,600 to rent the same type of property, so buying was the right choice. Plus, it's an attractive commuter town, very green and wealthy outside London, so I'm not even worried about a crash or not finding a buyer for it.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bigjones on October 21, 2019, 10:18:22 AM
What would you do

I owe roughly $67k on my HELOC (no first mortgage). The heloc used to be about 3% but is now pushing 6.5%.   Combined salary is about $155k and i really would love to be debt free, this HELOC is all we have left.

It would take a huge sacrifice to pay it off in 14-16months but im interested and serious about paying this off.   

Im 49yrs old and have roughly 165k in 401k and IRAS (i know i have a ways to go) but mortgage free would be a huge burden off my shoulders in a job market thats not in a great place where i live.

Looking forward to your thoughts
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Boofinator on October 21, 2019, 10:23:36 AM
What would you do

I owe roughly $67k on my HELOC (no first mortgage). The heloc used to be about 3% but is now pushing 6.5%.   Combined salary is about $155k and i really would love to be debt free, this HELOC is all we have left.

It would take a huge sacrifice to pay it off in 14-16months but im interested and serious about paying this off.   

Im 49yrs old and have roughly 165k in 401k and IRAS (i know i have a ways to go) but mortgage free would be a huge burden off my shoulders in a job market thats not in a great place where i live.

Looking forward to your thoughts

I think I'm just confirming what you're thinking, but pay that sucker off as fast as you can manage.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on October 21, 2019, 01:54:06 PM
Focus on that debt, and you could be completely debt-free at age 50. See that in your mind.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Telecaster on October 21, 2019, 04:10:25 PM
What would you do

I owe roughly $67k on my HELOC (no first mortgage). The heloc used to be about 3% but is now pushing 6.5%.   Combined salary is about $155k and i really would love to be debt free, this HELOC is all we have left.

It would take a huge sacrifice to pay it off in 14-16months but im interested and serious about paying this off.   

Im 49yrs old and have roughly 165k in 401k and IRAS (i know i have a ways to go) but mortgage free would be a huge burden off my shoulders in a job market thats not in a great place where i live.

Looking forward to your thoughts

I'd kill it.  Variable interest rate loans are kind of like walking through a mine field.  You might be okay, but you might blow a leg off, too. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on October 26, 2019, 07:21:10 PM
@Bigjones,   You'll get lots of sympathy to pay off the HELOC on this thread...   If you're going to commit to it in 14 or so months, then what is the monthly budgeting discipline to pay it down from operating income?   What after tax investments can you draw down in part to cover the rest?    The combination of these 2 things give you the realistic timeline to freedom (plus maybe a windfall or bonus along the way... or a setback due to life event or other unexpected expense).   We certainly had our share of success and issues along the way as do most.   C'est la vie!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FinanceFreaky on October 27, 2019, 08:19:02 AM
What an amazing topic with dito achievements!! :) Would like to join the club.

Initial mortgage 2015: 150k
Mortgage today: 108k

In January we can pay off another 10% (15k), penalty free. Then we will go below the 100k. Really can't wait!

If we continue like this, we can be rid of the mortgage in 2025.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on October 28, 2019, 06:22:32 AM
What an amazing topic with dito achievements!! :) Would like to join the club.

Initial mortgage 2015: 150k
Mortgage today: 108k

In January we can pay off another 10% (15k), penalty free. Then we will go below the 100k. Really can't wait!

If we continue like this, we can be rid of the mortgage in 2025.

Welcome @Tdem!  Sounds like a solid plan.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FinanceFreaky on October 28, 2019, 06:42:00 AM
Thanks for the warm welcome! 😍
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Steveray7071 on October 28, 2019, 08:22:54 AM
I've had my current mortgage since 6/1/2013 - $235K

1/1/2019 - 191K
4/1/2019 - 178K

Goal is to pay off by 8/1/2020.

Currently at $168K

Putting $30K on this week (sale of a property).

EOW: $138K
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on October 28, 2019, 08:30:34 AM
I've had my current mortgage since 6/1/2013 - $235K

1/1/2019 - 191K
4/1/2019 - 178K

Goal is to pay off by 8/1/2020.

Currently at $168K

Putting $30K on this week (sale of a property).

EOW: $138K

In 10 months?  That's about $15K per month?   That's a mighty good clip!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks on November 08, 2019, 01:06:48 PM
We're killing the mortgage soon... sent a $28K payment and have about $985.00 left, I've requested the final payoff paperwork and we'll need to get everything settled and final in the next week or two.  It's been 20 years in our house, so 20 instead of 30, not amazingly fast but we've made it.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: frizzywhiskers on November 08, 2019, 01:18:22 PM
We're killing the mortgage soon... sent a $28K payment and have about $985.00 left, I've requested the final payoff paperwork and we'll need to get everything settled and final in the next week or two.  It's been 20 years in our house, so 20 instead of 30, not amazingly fast but we've made it.

 Congrats!  Very exciting news!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on November 08, 2019, 06:02:07 PM
@KBecks,  The point is making it so congrats on freedom!   Put that free cash flow to great use!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on November 08, 2019, 06:07:09 PM
We're killing the mortgage soon... sent a $28K payment and have about $985.00 left, I've requested the final payoff paperwork and we'll need to get everything settled and final in the next week or two.  It's been 20 years in our house, so 20 instead of 30, not amazingly fast but we've made it.

Congrats!

I suspect that moved the needle a bit closer to FIRE!

Let us know how far along you are at https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/race-to-100-fi!/ (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/race-to-100-fi!/)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks on November 09, 2019, 02:29:27 PM
Thank you, everybody!  We have three kiddos and the oldest will be college-bound and hopefully college-ready in about 3.5 years.  I think the plan is to go into savings beast-mode (again) to ramp up for education and/or early retirement.  The education thing is freaking me out because I still like the idea of a private college for my oldest (a small pond with small class sizes), but our kids' paths might be something like commuting to community college for 2 years and then transferring to a bigger or more personalized school.  We have some money saved for them, but the task seems large and scary.  We will get there one step at a time.

I'll let everyone know when our papers are settled and the house is all ours!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: paulkots on November 19, 2019, 06:33:38 PM
If everything goes well, I should be making my final house payment in middle of December. Yes, I will dip into savings a bit(month worth of income) but I just want the house paid off by 2020. Goal was to have house paid off by 35, I am a year ahead of schedule. To celebrate, I am already planning a 2 month roadtrip to Alaska, part of which I want to drive my personal car to Arctic Ocean(Tuktoyaktuk).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks on November 20, 2019, 06:09:15 AM
It is finished!  Bank wire arrived on Monday and we are mortgage-free!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on November 20, 2019, 06:19:56 AM
It is finished!  Bank wire arrived on Monday and we are mortgage-free!

Great news!

PS - Wait about 2 months and then check with your county registrar of deeds.   Verify that the lien on your house from the mortgage has been removed.   That way, if you ever sell, you don't a last-minute delay while they deal with the surprise lien.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: TomSelleckJR on November 21, 2019, 02:14:44 PM
Congrats @KBecks  and @paulkots !!!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: paulkots on December 07, 2019, 07:46:47 AM
Made my last online payment today, will be heading into the local bank branch on Friday to finish off paying the house. Last online payment paid the house down to $7.38! Will be calling the bank Monday to see what I need to bring in and the total needed for me to do the final payment.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: pdxmonkey on December 08, 2019, 10:02:30 AM
Congratulations to everyone that has made a final payment recently.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: AnxietyFly on December 08, 2019, 10:08:16 AM
Congrats @KBecks  and @paulkots !!!

Great job!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FIRE Artist on December 10, 2019, 09:36:00 AM
I am in the end game for FIRE, so am switching my focus from accumulation to paying down my mortgage.  In 2020, my goal is to double up my regular mortgage payments for the year, and also make the maximum annual lump sum.  This will see my amortization reduced from 12.5 years at the end of 2019 to a conservative 8.5 years at the end of 2020.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: paulkots on December 10, 2019, 11:51:41 AM
Who thought that final payment is such a hassle. Went to the bank that holds my mortgage loan, asked for a final payoff letter, waited for 30 minutes, nothing. Came up again, teller called the mortgage department again only to figure out that she gave them the wrong fax number, papers came in. Took the papers and went to my bank(where checking account is) to get the wire transfer done, banker went through the paperwork and said it wasn't complete, the teller from mortgage bank only gave me 2 pages out of 6. Went back to mortgage bank, teller apologized and found the other 4 missing pages, went back to my bank, sat on the phone with mortgage bank while the wire transfer was being done since some instructions were not completely clear, finally sent the wire transfer.. House is now paid off but it took hours!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: gaja on December 15, 2019, 09:24:59 AM
I'm in! The last student loan died this week, and the mortgage is the only debt left. It is a type of HELOC, so there is no minimum or maximum payment. If we get an insurance payout in 2020, this could go fast. If not, the goal is 2025.

Starting: $165 000
December 2019: $158 000
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bigjones on December 16, 2019, 08:33:38 AM
@Bigjones,   You'll get lots of sympathy to pay off the HELOC on this thread...   If you're going to commit to it in 14 or so months, then what is the monthly budgeting discipline to pay it down from operating income?   What after tax investments can you draw down in part to cover the rest?    The combination of these 2 things give you the realistic timeline to freedom (plus maybe a windfall or bonus along the way... or a setback due to life event or other unexpected expense).   We certainly had our share of success and issues along the way as do most.   C'est la vie!

We both got Xmas bonus of 1k and we threw that at it.  So far are living off one salary and throwing roughly $2200 biweekly at the mortgage.  We are also in line for a one time company bonus of $11k this coming July that i want to throw at it as well.

So far we have been able to do this for 3 bi weekly pay periods so far.  All is well.  I believe we have it down to roughly $61k right now. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mrmoonymartian on January 09, 2020, 02:11:10 AM
And done. In my country I'm basically too big to fail now, thanks to the welfare state. Feels good.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on January 09, 2020, 03:14:07 AM
And done. In my country I'm basically too big to fail now, thanks to the welfare state. Feels good.

Haha!  Congratulations!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on January 09, 2020, 06:45:35 AM
@Bigjones,   You'll get lots of sympathy to pay off the HELOC on this thread...   If you're going to commit to it in 14 or so months, then what is the monthly budgeting discipline to pay it down from operating income?   What after tax investments can you draw down in part to cover the rest?    The combination of these 2 things give you the realistic timeline to freedom (plus maybe a windfall or bonus along the way... or a setback due to life event or other unexpected expense).   We certainly had our share of success and issues along the way as do most.   C'est la vie!

We both got Xmas bonus of 1k and we threw that at it.  So far are living off one salary and throwing roughly $2200 biweekly at the mortgage.  We are also in line for a one time company bonus of $11k this coming July that i want to throw at it as well.

So far we have been able to do this for 3 bi weekly pay periods so far.  All is well.  I believe we have it down to roughly $61k right now.

$2200 every two weeks will melt that balance down pronto!   Keep it up!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: moneypitfeeder on January 12, 2020, 08:36:25 AM
I'm in, we refi'd our remaining $243104.00 30 yr mort to a 15 yr @ 2.875 in 2013 and have been paying almost double every month, with a few extra lump payments. We're down to what I think will be 7 more payments. We originally bought in 2009, wish we had been aggressive with the payments for the first couple of years with the 30yr, but just over 11 years from the first loan is still a great feeling. Got a little over $22k left to go. As my name suggests, she still needs some work, but the location is great!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on January 12, 2020, 10:58:21 AM
I'm in, we refi'd our remaining $243104.00 30 yr mort to a 15 yr @ 2.875 in 2013 and have been paying almost double every month, with a few extra lump payments. We're down to what I think will be 7 more payments. We originally bought in 2009, wish we had been aggressive with the payments for the first couple of years with the 30yr, but just over 11 years from the first loan is still a great feeling. Got a little over $22k left to go. As my name suggests, she still needs some work, but the location is great!

Only 7 more payments!   That's awesome!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on January 12, 2020, 11:45:07 AM
I'm in, we refi'd our remaining $243104.00 30 yr mort to a 15 yr @ 2.875 in 2013 and have been paying almost double every month, with a few extra lump payments. We're down to what I think will be 7 more payments. We originally bought in 2009, wish we had been aggressive with the payments for the first couple of years with the 30yr, but just over 11 years from the first loan is still a great feeling. Got a little over $22k left to go. As my name suggests, she still needs some work, but the location is great!
Great discipline = Total FI Awesomeness!   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: moneypitfeeder on January 12, 2020, 04:17:34 PM
Thanks @Money Badger & @SwordGuy! We'll have it paid off 1 month before my 43rd b-day. Best present ever!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on January 12, 2020, 04:44:55 PM
We're buying a new house in a few days to a couple of weeks.  We'll be selling three houses (our current one and two others for cost to friends) sometime this year.

Our intent is to be mortgage free (and debt free) in 25 payments or less.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: paulkots on January 13, 2020, 08:45:27 AM
How life can change. Went online to check that lien was released from the house. In 08/03/2009 I was foreclosed on, on 01/06/2020 Deed of Trust Satisfaction came through for my paid off house. One of the biggest lessons I learned is not to stick your head in the sand when times get hard, by sticking your head in the sand, you are only going to get the worst outcome.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: markbike528CBX on January 13, 2020, 08:59:15 AM
How life can change. Went online to check that lien was released from the house. In 08/03/2009 I was foreclosed on, on 01/06/2020 Deed of Trust Satisfaction came through for my paid off house. One of the biggest lessons I learned is not to stick your head in the sand when times get hard, by sticking your head in the sand, you are only going to get the worst outcome.
That little paragraph is the most compact, awe inspiring thing I've read in years. 
A "WOOHOOO!" seems like inadequate praise, but it is what I've got on hand. WOOHOOO!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on January 13, 2020, 10:08:20 AM
Congrats @paulkots !!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on January 13, 2020, 10:41:47 AM
@paulkots that is truly amazing.  You learned the tough real estate lesson, and never ever wanted a repeat of it. Bravo!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: moneypitfeeder on January 13, 2020, 03:03:47 PM
That's great @paulkots !!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: gaja on February 01, 2020, 03:42:14 PM
Starting: $165 000
1/12/2019: $158 000
1/01/2020: $157 000
1/02/2020: $155 000
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Steveray7071 on February 04, 2020, 01:21:17 PM
I've had my current mortgage since 6/1/2013 - $235K

1/1/2019 - 191K
4/1/2019 - 178K

Goal is to pay off by 8/1/2020.

Currently at $168K

Putting $30K on this week (sale of a property).

EOW: $138K

Down to $75K!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: moneypitfeeder on February 05, 2020, 03:46:46 PM

Down to $75K!

Awesome job! Crossing under the 6-digit threshold feels great!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Askel on February 05, 2020, 04:15:08 PM
And done (I think), although not really feeling the high. My mortgage was pretty small, so it was more an annoyance just having that around every month more than a significant impact on the finances. 

Anyway, mortgage payoff scenarios are clearly not test cases for my mortgage company's web developers.  I was in no rush to get this done, so rather than incur any fees in getting a payoff quote, I just went to pay whatever was left on the principal and let everything sort itself out in the next billing cycle. 

Except apparently you can't pay more than 95% of your remaining principal through the web.  OK, I'll just do that. I'll owe them $40 instead of $4 next month.   (I did consider being a jerk and paying 95% over and over until I got it down to 1 cent though.)

Log in later that afternoon to see it applied as a "partial payment" and a balance due next month of -$510. Uh... OK. Call customer service, they say they'll re-apply as a principal payment and it'll need supervisor approval which takes 24-48 hours. 

Supervisor must've figured it out. Logged in this morning to a "Congratulations, your loan is fully paid off." So I guess I'm done, although my payment history is now a warzone of small, inexplicable "partial payments" and "escrow payments".  Somebody probably gets to sort that mess out on Monday. 

Happy birthday to me.

Well that didn't take long. I'm back in the club. :D 

It was a nice year mortgage free, but I had to do what any good American does when they pay off a loan- go get another one. And bigger!

But hopefully 2/3 will be wiped out when the old house is sold.

Even though my net worth is still very much in the black, having that big negative number on my balance sheet brought back all kinds of debt related anxiety. 

Got a good rate, so there's no mathematical reason to pay it off right away, but I'll probably do so anyway. 

Keep plugging away everybody. Having no mortgage gave us the freedom to buy a really weird house in a great location. No way I would have done this and tried to balance two mortgages. 

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49213996451_bbb7a89b61_b.jpg)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on February 05, 2020, 04:43:49 PM
Made the first of what I hope will be no more than 25 payments to pay off our new mortgage.

Depends on what we sell our old home for and how quickly.    Might take 36 payments, might take 18.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bird In Hand on February 05, 2020, 07:17:34 PM
It was a nice year mortgage free, but I had to do what any good American does when they pay off a loan- go get another one. And bigger!

Hahah...my antitote to this phenomenon is to immediately scale back my work hours so my salary reduction is commensurate with the lack of mortgage payment.  This way we can't really afford to move somewhere bigger/nicer even if we get tempted.  Plus downshifting -- however minor -- is another baby step toward RE.

Anyway, congrats (or condolences?) on the cool new place.  Good luck plowing ;)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks on February 06, 2020, 06:43:45 AM
I think it's a very common temptation to think about getting a bigger property (or a 2nd property) after the mortgage is paid off.

Our lives are so wrapped up in our local area that it would be difficult to move, plus, there's still so much stuff!  And real estate agent fees.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on February 06, 2020, 07:36:18 AM
Made the first of what I hope will be no more than 25 payments to pay off our new mortgage.

Depends on what we sell our old home for and how quickly.    Might take 36 payments, might take 18.

All the data suggest that the housing market is strong in the SE. I also am trying to sell a property in Charlotte. Good luck!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bird In Hand on February 08, 2020, 08:54:08 AM
Our principal balance got down to < $14k this month, and we impulsively decided to wipe it out yesterday afternoon.  Having never done a wire transfer before, I figured it would take several days to go through, get processed, and applied to our mortgage.  To my surprise, I logged into our mortgage account online this morning and it says our loan is paid in full.  w00t!

With ~$2,900 coming off the books (P&I) each month, I can now switch to a PT schedule if I so desire.  We'll probably build up our cash buffer a little more before I do so, but I'm thrilled that I've reached this milestone in our FI(RE?) journey.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on February 08, 2020, 09:13:32 AM
Our principal balance got down to < $14k this month, and we impulsively decided to wipe it out yesterday afternoon.  Having never done a wire transfer before, I figured it would take several days to go through, get processed, and applied to our mortgage.  To my surprise, I logged into our mortgage account online this morning and it says our loan is paid in full.  w00t!

With ~$2,900 coming off the books (P&I) each month, I can now switch to a PT schedule if I so desire.  We'll probably build up our cash buffer a little more before I do so, but I'm thrilled that I've reached this milestone in our FI(RE?) journey.

Congratulations!  Being mortgage free really simplifies your life.

We paid off our house on whim like that too :D the balance was too low to not just end it.

We had to jump through more hoops for our final payment though. I had to call the bank to get a specific payoff amount and drop off the check. Our lender was local so I could just go to our local bank branch and make the final payment.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bird In Hand on February 08, 2020, 09:38:01 AM
Congratulations!  Being mortgage free really simplifies your life.

We paid off our house on whim like that too :D the balance was too low to not just end it.

We had to jump through more hoops for our final payment though. I had to call the bank to get a specific payoff amount and drop off the check. Our lender was local so I could just go to our local bank branch and make the final payment.

Thank you!  Yeah, once we realized we had enough in our slush fund to knock it out, I got very antsy and did what I needed to make it happen.

Despite the payoff processing quickly, we did encounter a few kinks in the process.  The lender side (Quicken Loans) was great.  I did have to call to request the official payoff figure, but I was only on the phone for 5 minutes or so.  I logged onto my mortgage account after I hung up the phone, and the payoff letter had already been uploaded with everything I needed.

On the payment side (Discover bank online), it was a little less smooth.  After I initiated the wire transfer online, the system said I had to call and authorize the transfer.  On the phone it took Discover about a half hour to verify my identity.  It was really a comedy of ridiculous technical errors on their part, but finally they accepted an uploaded picture of my driver's license as proof.

Big picture, I was pleased that I started the payoff process after lunch yesterday, and by this morning everything was processed.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on February 10, 2020, 12:41:55 PM
congratulations, guys!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: moneypitfeeder on February 10, 2020, 03:27:30 PM
Congrats all! I'm antsy to pull the plug sooner too, but SO thinks we should just stay with the plan I set up. $19,000-ish left to go. Should be able to join you in 5 months!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bird In Hand on February 11, 2020, 08:39:25 AM
Thanks @talltexan and @moneypitfeeder

Congrats all! I'm antsy to pull the plug sooner too, but SO thinks we should just stay with the plan I set up. $19,000-ish left to go. Should be able to join you in 5 months!

I'd say that it's probably more important to respect SO than to cut 5 months down to 1-4 months.  :)

I was lucky that my wife was fine with just killing our mortgage ~5 months early once it was sub $14k.  If she hadn't been, I probably would have been a bit antsy too.  But 6 months flies by.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Eilonwy on February 26, 2020, 04:05:02 PM
Well, please welcome me to the club! Or have I already left it? We just paid off our mortgage, twenty years practically to the day after we got our first 30 year loan. We have no debt at all now!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bird In Hand on February 27, 2020, 07:43:49 AM
Well, please welcome me to the club! Or have I already left it? We just paid off our mortgage, twenty years practically to the day after we got our first 30 year loan. We have no debt at all now!

Congratulations!  Now, if you could only find that bauble... ;)

What are you planning on doing with the $$ that was previously going to P&I?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Eilonwy on February 27, 2020, 05:15:24 PM
I'm sure it'll turn up sometime. :-)

We don't really have a plan, though there are always lots of home improvements we want to make. We've vaguely considered buying a rental property, but we're not good candidates for that, personality-wise.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Askel on February 27, 2020, 08:36:56 PM
Well, please welcome me to the club! Or have I already left it? We just paid off our mortgage, twenty years practically to the day after we got our first 30 year loan. We have no debt at all now!

Congrats! Enjoy that fuzzy debt free glow.  It's pretty nice knowing that no matter what happens, nobody from the bank will ever be pounding on your door some morning for that mortgage payment.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: gaja on March 01, 2020, 12:24:30 PM
Starting: $165 000
1/12/2019: $158 000
1/01/2020: $157 000
1/02/2020: $155 000

Pausing for a few months to pay for some house upgrades: solar panels, EV charger, and a stronger roof.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on March 02, 2020, 08:19:57 AM
I guess I will join this thread!

At the end of last year, I really struggled with the decision to pay my mortgage off with one big pile of cash or invest it all. I chose to pay it off, mostly to keep my wife happy.

I always kind of regretted it thinking I was missing out on gains. I also thought I would have a better stomach for market crashes ( having never been through a major one)  but after this week, I think I am destined to just leave my mortgage paid off forever!!!

It is mostly emotional, but its a nice feeling to know we could be headed for a recession and we will be safe in our home no matter what happens.
Congratulations!  I know we're not supposed to time the market, but you couldn't have wished for better timing.  Enjoy your peace of mind! 
( It's a tremendous achievement no matter when it happens)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on March 03, 2020, 06:19:09 AM
I guess I will join this thread!

At the end of last year, I really struggled with the decision to pay my mortgage off with one big pile of cash or invest it all. I chose to pay it off, mostly to keep my wife happy.

I always kind of regretted it thinking I was missing out on gains. I also thought I would have a better stomach for market crashes ( having never been through a major one)  but after this week, I think I am destined to just leave my mortgage paid off forever!!!

It is mostly emotional, but its a nice feeling to know we could be headed for a recession and we will be safe in our home no matter what happens.

Outstanding!   The margin of safety now lets you invest that free cash flow to have all future income working for you, not the bank!   Great times for dollar cost averaging the market volatility in recessions.   Buying other hard assets as both stock market and inflation hedges is now an option as well with free cash flow.   Enjoy these new diversification options and your freedom!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Eilonwy on March 04, 2020, 03:32:42 PM
It's really starting to sink in emotionally that the mortgage is gone. I feel free of money stress for the first time since I can remember. And we've been perfectly comfortable for a long time; it's just some psychological thing I couldn't get over.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: AK on March 04, 2020, 05:01:33 PM
I'm considering paying off my mortgage this year but feel like it'll be meh. I paid off my student loans in 2018 in advance and it was very anti-climactic. It felt like onto the next goal and the next. Anyone else feel like that?

Mentally I've committed to paying it off this year but am reconsidering because I like having a sizable cash cushion despite knowing the opportunity cost of not investing it.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: gaja on March 07, 2020, 04:20:27 PM
Starting: $165 000
1/12/2019: $158 000
1/01/2020: $157 000
1/02/2020: $155 000

Pausing for a few months to pay for some house upgrades: solar panels, EV charger, and a stronger roof.

That was a short break. Got a windfall this week, and now we are below 100'.
Starting:    $165 000
1/12/2019: $158 000
1/01/2020: $157 000
1/02/2020: $155 000
8/03/2020: $ 75 000
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on March 07, 2020, 04:31:20 PM
Starting: $165 000
1/12/2019: $158 000
1/01/2020: $157 000
1/02/2020: $155 000

Pausing for a few months to pay for some house upgrades: solar panels, EV charger, and a stronger roof.

That was a short break. Got a windfall this week, and now we are below 100'.
Starting:    $165 000
1/12/2019: $158 000
1/01/2020: $157 000
1/02/2020: $155 000
8/03/2020: $ 75 000

That was a nice sized windfall!   I hope it was for fun reasons, otherwise, my condolences.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: gaja on March 07, 2020, 04:34:36 PM
Starting: $165 000
1/12/2019: $158 000
1/01/2020: $157 000
1/02/2020: $155 000

Pausing for a few months to pay for some house upgrades: solar panels, EV charger, and a stronger roof.

That was a short break. Got a windfall this week, and now we are below 100'.
Starting:    $165 000
1/12/2019: $158 000
1/01/2020: $157 000
1/02/2020: $155 000
8/03/2020: $ 75 000

That was a nice sized windfall!   I hope it was for fun reasons, otherwise, my condolences.

Thank you, but I would say neither. An old insurance claim that finally got through 8 years of investigations and paperwork. A big relief to have finally have that worry out of the way.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on March 10, 2020, 06:39:57 PM
I'm considering paying off my mortgage this year but feel like it'll be meh. I paid off my student loans in 2018 in advance and it was very anti-climactic. It felt like onto the next goal and the next. Anyone else feel like that?

Mentally I've committed to paying it off this year but am reconsidering because I like having a sizable cash cushion despite knowing the opportunity cost of not investing it.
AK,  That anti-climactic feeling is normal.   Only you really know the discipline and sacrifices you made to pay off loans usually.  But being 100% debt free is something else... That cash
is all working for you in many ways then.   It’s more than the ~3% mortgage savings...   It’s how you breathe.  Its how you react to future situations.   It’s how you can invest like crazy with free cash flow after.    It’s how you can relax even after job or other setbacks.   It’s damn good!  ;)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on March 12, 2020, 01:03:53 PM
I read that one policy being considered to help economic is suspending mortgage payments for the next few months. I'd feel pretty annoyed if I thought banks were being propped up by this while I'd paid off my mortgage a while ago and didn't get the economic relief others were receiving.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on March 12, 2020, 01:21:22 PM
I read that one policy being considered to help economic is suspending mortgage payments for the next few months. I'd feel pretty annoyed if I thought banks were being propped up by this while I'd paid off my mortgage a while ago and didn't get the economic relief others were receiving.

Suspending mortgage payments -- unless the government is paying the interest during the suspension -- isn't propping up the banks.   It's propping up those with mortgages.    If it's paying the interest, it's propping up both.

You had a mortgage at one time that wasn't paid off.   If you're like most people there's even a time before you had earned enough to have big savings or pay off the mortgage early.   It would have helped you if the action had happened then.

The above is a polite way of saying, "don't be a selfish dick".  I mention that not to attack, but to express my first thought and feelings upon reading what you said.   You might not have meant it quite that way and would want to know you had inadvertently communicated that.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on March 12, 2020, 01:46:41 PM
I read that one policy being considered to help economic is suspending mortgage payments for the next few months. I'd feel pretty annoyed if I thought banks were being propped up by this while I'd paid off my mortgage a while ago and didn't get the economic relief others were receiving.

I admit I sometimes have this feeling of not wanting someone else to benefit if you're also not benefiting.  But when I think about it logically, I cannot find a way that it hurts me.  How would this hurt you specifically?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Eilonwy on March 12, 2020, 02:50:32 PM
My mortgage is paid off and I'm nothing but happy at the thought that others who weren't as lucky can get the help they need in this time of crisis. I don't need help, why should I grudge those who do?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: paulkots on March 12, 2020, 05:39:36 PM
Paid off my mortgage in December 2019 and in light of the current problems, I couldn't be happier. If the current problem progresses the way it seems to be heading, people will need help and I hope they get it. There are people that are losing it right now because of the virus plus the 25%+ stock market meltdown, its a major peace of mind knowing that your bills are minimal.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on March 12, 2020, 08:02:03 PM
In a lot of ways, MMM is about the people who "get it" about achieving financial independence share their skills with those who didn't.  So, I am not begrudging people who may get assistance on paying bills for a short period.  A lot of the people are hourly and being put under water by mandatory "personal separation" policies, travel restrictions, etc..    May many of those same people with time on their hands find this Forum and learn and live the lessons that the FI folks in this community already have.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on March 16, 2020, 08:01:40 AM
Agreed that I see how appealing the reduced risk of the mortgage payoff path is at times like this.

We are selling a property that should close on Mar. 27. Ready to do whatever it takes to get to the finish line on that.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Askel on March 18, 2020, 08:09:47 PM
Well a couple more of these -10% days and I might give some credence to those "YOU SHOULD INVEST NOT PAY DOWN YOUR MORTGAGE" folks.  But really though, I fell very bad about being so goddam smug about having a paid of house right now.  :D
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks on March 19, 2020, 08:10:01 AM
Very thankful that we paid off our mortgage last year.  I just wrote our first home insurance check directly to the insurance company.  A new experience.  We also invest and I am waiting for some good buys in the stock market as we move forward. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: moneypitfeeder on March 19, 2020, 05:19:01 PM
Balance as of today: $11,956.69, payoff 4 months to go:) I realize I should be buying stocks like mad right now, but I'm more happy to secure our house as paid off!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ender on March 19, 2020, 08:19:13 PM
This month has certainly made me think that I want to pay down a mortgage fast, once we buy our house, heh.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on March 19, 2020, 08:40:34 PM
This month has certainly made me think that I want to pay down a mortgage fast, once we buy our house, heh.

It's really important to distinguish between "a paid off mortgage" and "a NON-paid-off mortgage that has been partly prepaid".

The former gives you extra "safety" in that you need much less cash to get by with.

The latter gives you LESS "safety" in that you still need more cash to get by with and you have lower reserves to pay the mortgage with.  The bank will foreclose because you didn't make current payments, it could care less that you made extra payments in the past.   In fact, you're just making it easier for the bank not to lose money if you pre-pay but don't pay off the mortgage.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ender on March 19, 2020, 08:59:11 PM
This month has certainly made me think that I want to pay down a mortgage fast, once we buy our house, heh.

It's really important to distinguish between "a paid off mortgage" and "a NON-paid-off mortgage that has been partly prepaid".

The former gives you extra "safety" in that you need much less cash to get by with.

The latter gives you LESS "safety" in that you still need more cash to get by with and you have lower reserves to pay the mortgage with.  The bank will foreclose because you didn't make current payments, it could care less that you made extra payments in the past.   In fact, you're just making it easier for the bank not to lose money if you pre-pay but don't pay off the mortgage.

Which is why I plan on generously recasting if we pay down early ;-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mrmoonymartian on March 20, 2020, 03:34:52 AM
The bank will foreclose because you didn't make current payments, it could care less that you made extra payments in the past.
Well that's good then since it must care to some extent if it could care less.

Or did you mean it could not care less, meaning it doesn't care at all?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Askel on March 20, 2020, 05:23:30 AM

It's really important to distinguish between "a paid off mortgage" and "a NON-paid-off mortgage that has been partly prepaid".

The former gives you extra "safety" in that you need much less cash to get by with.

The latter gives you LESS "safety" in that you still need more cash to get by with and you have lower reserves to pay the mortgage with.  The bank will foreclose because you didn't make current payments, it could care less that you made extra payments in the past.   In fact, you're just making it easier for the bank not to lose money if you pre-pay but don't pay off the mortgage.

This is true, but hopefully if you're in a position to pay down your mortgage, you're also in good enough shape to avoid missing a bunch of mortgage payments.

Also, paying down your mortgage gives you more equity which also gives you lots more options. Home values tank and you need to sell? No worries about being underwater. Financial emergency and you need some extra cash? Hello HELOC.  Sure, a fat investment account can also bring these same benefits, but a home sale is not subject to taxes.  Lots of trade-offs to consider for your given situation.

For those of us who live in areas with relatively stable real estate prices, keep a significant chunk of our portfolio in home equity can be a good bet. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on March 20, 2020, 12:55:09 PM

It's really important to distinguish between "a paid off mortgage" and "a NON-paid-off mortgage that has been partly prepaid".

The former gives you extra "safety" in that you need much less cash to get by with.

The latter gives you LESS "safety" in that you still need more cash to get by with and you have lower reserves to pay the mortgage with.  The bank will foreclose because you didn't make current payments, it could care less that you made extra payments in the past.   In fact, you're just making it easier for the bank not to lose money if you pre-pay but don't pay off the mortgage.

This is true, but hopefully if you're in a position to pay down your mortgage, you're also in good enough shape to avoid missing a bunch of mortgage payments.

Also, paying down your mortgage gives you more equity which also gives you lots more options. Home values tank and you need to sell? No worries about being underwater. Financial emergency and you need some extra cash? Hello HELOC.  Sure, a fat investment account can also bring these same benefits, but a home sale is not subject to taxes.  Lots of trade-offs to consider for your given situation.

For those of us who live in areas with relatively stable real estate prices, keep a significant chunk of our portfolio in home equity can be a good bet.

After 2008, I had lost so much in the market and was just starting to rake in the big bucks.  I bought a large house in a HCOL area specifically because I wanted an asset that couldn't just go "poof" up in smoke.  That was before I found MMM so I really didn't feel confident with my investments "strategy".  I wanted a tangible asset.  I've paid the house down enough (and recast) that my payments are now the equivalent of a 1 bedroom apartment in my HCOL area.  I have a lot of equity and I'm pretty confident the house will continue to appreciate in value due to its location.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on March 20, 2020, 05:39:38 PM
@BlueHouse,  Always enjoy your posts and good work on paydowns.   This Corona-virus situation is what makes the paid off home so key... The likes of Warren Buffett still teach that the irrational fear market event makes the intelligent (ie, home debt free) investor able to win when others are worried about their debts and other obligations.    The Intelligent Investor by Ben Graham
is playing out 1970s lessons today!  It just changes EVERYthing to be able to be agressive when others are fearful.   Warren has $120B to now go for deals... The mortgage free need to
be agressive now.  Nuff said.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: MissNancyPryor on March 20, 2020, 06:56:38 PM
Popping in to add my voice to the "yes" pay off your mortgage chorus and offer encouragement. 

I went around the barn with B42 myself on the topic and realized there is no convincing some.  I am sure if B42 was still on the boards he would simply be doubling down right now that we are all fools because < reasons >.  The simple fact is that money is emotions, not just math, and these days of stock market panic prove that once again. 

I have to say that my debt free home and life is the #1 reason I am sleeping at all these days.  I can crank my spending down to 1% of my net worth in the days of corona-geddon and this would not have been possible if I was still sending my money to a mortgage lender. 

Rock on with your bad selves, mortgage burners!  Way to go.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ender on March 21, 2020, 10:58:37 AM
Popping in to add my voice to the "yes" pay off your mortgage chorus and offer encouragement. 

I went around the barn with B42 myself on the topic and realized there is no convincing some.  I am sure if B42 was still on the boards he would simply be doubling down right now that we are all fools because < reasons >.  The simple fact is that money is emotions, not just math, and these days of stock market panic prove that once again. 

I have to say that my debt free home and life is the #1 reason I am sleeping at all these days.  I can crank my spending down to 1% of my net worth in the days of corona-geddon and this would not have been possible if I was still sending my money to a mortgage lender. 

Rock on with your bad selves, mortgage burners!  Way to go.

People also have different risk tolerances. Some people can legitimately not be bothered by having a mortgage. I am not one of them ;-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Monocle Money Mouth on March 21, 2020, 11:00:04 AM
Popping in to add my voice to the "yes" pay off your mortgage chorus and offer encouragement. 

I went around the barn with B42 myself on the topic and realized there is no convincing some.  I am sure if B42 was still on the boards he would simply be doubling down right now that we are all fools because < reasons >.  The simple fact is that money is emotions, not just math, and these days of stock market panic prove that once again. 

I have to say that my debt free home and life is the #1 reason I am sleeping at all these days.  I can crank my spending down to 1% of my net worth in the days of corona-geddon and this would not have been possible if I was still sending my money to a mortgage lender. 

Rock on with your bad selves, mortgage burners!  Way to go.

I concur with MissNancy. Perfect is the enemy of the good when it comes to money. My wife and I paid off our house about 4 years ago and I'm glad we did. I wasn't anticipating a decline of this magnitude, but I knew at some point the economy would slow down. If shit gets real and one or both of us gets laid off, we'll be fine. Since our house is paid off, our expenses are super low and we can afford to live off of our emergency funds for well over a year. We're not stressing about any of this. In the meantime, I can afford to keep adding to my investments while the stock market is in the toilet. I wouldn't have been able to afford to do that when we had a mortgage.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on March 24, 2020, 08:52:17 AM
Polite DNPYMer here: I raised the issue with the other side about how they were all feeling right now. If you have no mortgage, you are obviously insulated from much of the market risk that is making people so cautious at the moment. But for those of you who are overpaying, do you plan to modify those large overpayment plans in the short term? Sincere question...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Askel on March 24, 2020, 09:09:53 AM
Nope. I'm a firm believer in never trying to time the market- up or down. 

But then again, I locked myself into an "overpayment plan" with a 15 year mortgage, so the bank would be kind of upset with me if I changed my mind. ;) 

If I lived in the lands of expensive real estate, I might be tempted to include home equity into some kind of portfolio rebalancing strategy, but given my home's value- the benefits of such greatly outweigh the ease and simplicity of just pressing the rebalance button on my investment accounts. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Car Jack on March 24, 2020, 09:14:44 AM
This is where "investments" should be well separated from money needed to live, to pay bills, to pay mortgage, for emergencies.

If you have done this and still have the same amount of money coming in from a job, there's no reason to vary from extra payments.  In my case, I don't have a mortgage so the money coming in is being used as usual....extra 1% on top of normal rate at Ally, savings bonds ($5k coming in paper bonds from the feds), paying car expenses (son crashed one, so paying deductible), doing some normal manufactured spend, so paying the CC off.  Our taxes have been completed, so some of our money and our refunds will go into Roths, thus converted to the investment side of the wall.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Need2Save on March 24, 2020, 09:18:40 AM
I'm coming over from the MPC $50+ thread to officially join this one with a remaining balance of around $43,333.

To answer the question above, our plan will still be to pay off the mortgage this year. Our original target was November of this year, but we were able to move it up to July of this year just by shuffling around some cash flow priorities and our healthy annual bonuses. In the end, I'm not sure if we'll still pay it off by July or keep to the original November target, but given that we are roughly two years from pulling the plug - I feel confident we will stick to paying off in 2020.  I don't see a major difference between July and November but we may just see how we feel after the next few weeks of up and downs go.

For the time being, we both feel pretty good about job security. I know that is not true for others so if you are feeling like you may be facing a possible furlough or layoff, I could see dropping down to just the amount required each month and assessing as it developes.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: paulkots on March 24, 2020, 09:19:21 AM
In times like these, I would definitely make sure I have a 3-6 month EF, more like the 6 month EF.

On market timing, I would/will/did buy at certain levels but because we don't know when the knife will stop falling, I wouldn't jump all in. After this initial panic, we will have a reality that market is just not the same. Businesses have already suffered and they will not snap back as quickly as they went down.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FinanceFreaky on April 01, 2020, 09:23:09 AM
Great to read all your mortgage stories! :-)

I have a question for you and am curious to hear your opinion. With our mortgage we are allowed to pay off 10% extra every year. If we want to pay off more than the 10%, we have to pay a penalty.

If we continue like this and pay off 10% extra every year, we can be rid of the mortgage in 5 years. Otherwise it will be 4 years.

What would you do? Pay, next to the buffer, as much extra as possible? Or only the 10% extra per year?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on April 01, 2020, 10:52:54 AM
Great to read all your mortgage stories! :-)

I have a question for you and am curious to hear your opinion. With our mortgage we are allowed to pay off 10% extra every year. If we want to pay off more than the 10%, we have to pay a penalty.

If we continue like this and pay off 10% extra every year, we can be rid of the mortgage in 5 years. Otherwise it will be 4 years.

What would you do? Pay, next to the buffer, as much extra as possible? Or only the 10% extra per year?

It will take you longer if you pay extra?   I'm assuming that's a typo and you mean 14 years with no extra payments?

As long as you've got a solid cash reserve to get you thru bad times for a couple of years, paying early on the mortgage isn't a bad idea.  Just remember, you can be foreclosed on if you can't make payments whether you've paid extra in the past or not.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FinanceFreaky on April 01, 2020, 11:28:26 AM
Great to read all your mortgage stories! :-)

I have a question for you and am curious to hear your opinion. With our mortgage we are allowed to pay off 10% extra every year. If we want to pay off more than the 10%, we have to pay a penalty.

If we continue like this and pay off 10% extra every year, we can be rid of the mortgage in 5 years. Otherwise it will be 4 years.

What would you do? Pay, next to the buffer, as much extra as possible? Or only the 10% extra per year?

It will take you longer if you pay extra?   I'm assuming that's a typo and you mean 14 years with no extra payments?

As long as you've got a solid cash reserve to get you thru bad times for a couple of years, paying early on the mortgage isn't a bad idea.  Just remember, you can be foreclosed on if you can't make payments whether you've paid extra in the past or not.
Oops, sorry if I was not clear. There are three options:

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on April 02, 2020, 06:02:24 PM
@Tdem,  Not knowing your financial status or the reason for the prepaymemt penalty, will suggest what I know works in the US mortgage industry...

See what equity level and credit worthiness you need to refinance eventually to avoid a prepay penalty.   Save like mad to get there outside the mortgage.   Debt is an emergency.   Killing debt frees up options in your life.
Either pay off the mortgage with those savings if the math works for you... Or worst case, Refinance to a lower balance with a non-predatory lender that doesn’t penalize you for seeking early payment freedom from debt.   You may find your current lender amazingly waives the penalty when you ask for the payoff quote and tell them why by the way!   Happened to me long ago with PMI fees at least.
Do this payoff in 4 years or less.   Again, Debt is an emergency (now and waiting to happen in future)!    FWIW, I paid off $270K USD in 4 years from diverting my liquid, non-investment savings and lifestyle all towards the debt.   It simply saved my family from financial strain now that we are debt free and this downturn is upon us.   It changes your mindset vs others who panic at the downturn.   This wont be the last downturn in then world either by a long shot!   Be fearless.   Be relentless about payoff.   Get it done!   ✅
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Askel on April 03, 2020, 05:10:41 AM
I found this interesting and a good argument for having a paid of mortgage:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-the-hard-truth-about-the-mortgage-markets-that-isnt-being-told-2020-04-02
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on April 03, 2020, 07:33:08 AM
I found this interesting and a good argument for having a paid of mortgage:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-the-hard-truth-about-the-mortgage-markets-that-isnt-being-told-2020-04-02

I don't see any logical connection between your statement and the contents of that article.

Could you explain your train of thought?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FinanceFreaky on April 03, 2020, 08:30:54 AM
Thank you very much for thinking with me and sharing your thoughts. This helps!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Gardo on April 03, 2020, 08:37:41 AM
Polite DNPYMer here: I raised the issue with the other side about how they were all feeling right now. If you have no mortgage, you are obviously insulated from much of the market risk that is making people so cautious at the moment. But for those of you who are overpaying, do you plan to modify those large overpayment plans in the short term? Sincere question...

I will stay the course but only because I pay an extra on principal reduction that to me is not big enough to warrant any changes.  My mortgage is $600 a month and I pay $1,200 a month.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on April 08, 2020, 09:00:50 AM
Thank you!

And--if I may ask--how does your $600 overpayment compare to the amount you're putting into retirement investments?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Need2Save on April 26, 2020, 06:25:48 AM
Before April Payment $43,333
Principle Paid this month: $5,197
New Balance: $38,123
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on April 26, 2020, 07:37:34 AM
Received a written offer for our old house late last night.   That's one mortgage that will be paid off in about 40 days.   :)

Depends on what the market's doing as to whether we take the proceeds and put it on the new mortgage or buy stocks.   If stocks are cheap enough, we'll buy and then pay off the new mortgage in a couple years with the recovered value.    If not, we'll knock 44% off our new mortgage. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on April 29, 2020, 06:36:58 AM

Polite DNPYMer here: I raised the issue with the other side about how they were all feeling right now. If you have no mortgage, you are obviously insulated from much of the market risk that is making people so cautious at the moment. But for those of you who are overpaying, do you plan to modify those large overpayment plans in the short term? Sincere question...

I've only been paying a little bit over (because I like round numbers).  I'm very happy that I paid a lot down early and recast because now my payment doesn't scare the crap out of me. 
I did actually reduce the amount of overpayment even more though, mainly because I have always kept a (way too high) cash reserve and I FINALLY put it in the market in January.  Now I'm reeling from that and I want to build up my e-fund again.  I'm super cautious and I like to have a lot of cash on hand. I'm still maxing out all tax-advantaged accounts, and I've also pledged that anything over my tax-advantaged accounts will go to charitable causes this year - not all will be tax deductible or even traceable, but in addition to outright donations, I'm being super-generous with buying things from local businesses and tipping, etc.  I still save a shit-ton in 401K, so it's really just icing on the cake that goes to others. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on April 29, 2020, 08:05:04 AM
Thanks for answering.

There was a nice post on Financial Samurai about how being mortgage free makes him feel like he can invest in riskier stuff.

Link: https://www.financialsamurai.com/no-mortgage-more-courage-pay-off-all-debt-before-retiring/ (https://www.financialsamurai.com/no-mortgage-more-courage-pay-off-all-debt-before-retiring/)

It may seem annoying now, but your January investment won't look too different from a march investment by the time you reach the finish line. My wife and I put $6,000 into her Roth as one shot every year (backdoor), but we delayed that contribution from January to April because of other needs for the cash early in the year. It's just one year worth of contributions out of her (so far) thirteen.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on April 29, 2020, 08:37:33 AM
Thanks for answering.

There was a nice post on Financial Samurai about how being mortgage free makes him feel like he can invest in riskier stuff.

Link: https://www.financialsamurai.com/no-mortgage-more-courage-pay-off-all-debt-before-retiring/ (https://www.financialsamurai.com/no-mortgage-more-courage-pay-off-all-debt-before-retiring/)

It may seem annoying now, but your January investment won't look too different from a march investment by the time you reach the finish line. My wife and I put $6,000 into her Roth as one shot every year (backdoor), but we delayed that contribution from January to April because of other needs for the cash early in the year. It's just one year worth of contributions out of her (so far) thirteen.

I think that guy has turned into a click-bait whore and a whiny one at that.     
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on April 29, 2020, 09:25:33 AM
It may seem annoying now, but your January investment won't look too different from a march investment by the time you reach the finish line.

I don't think that's quite true in my case.   In January, I dropped over $90K into investments ($50K was a payback from a loan, $40K was last year's max profit share into 401K and $7K into Roth.  In Feb, I tipped into the $2M liquid club and was seriously considering pulling the plug this year ahead of schedule.  So I was really really close to the finish line.   Still, if I don't change anything, I could prob still retire in 2 years (2022 is my goal) and by then if the market recovers AT ALL, I should have more than I will need -- assuming the insurance quandary becomes more settled. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: nereo on April 29, 2020, 09:53:46 AM
Thanks for answering.

There was a nice post on Financial Samurai about how being mortgage free makes him feel like he can invest in riskier stuff.

Link: https://www.financialsamurai.com/no-mortgage-more-courage-pay-off-all-debt-before-retiring/ (https://www.financialsamurai.com/no-mortgage-more-courage-pay-off-all-debt-before-retiring/)

It may seem annoying now, but your January investment won't look too different from a march investment by the time you reach the finish line. My wife and I put $6,000 into her Roth as one shot every year (backdoor), but we delayed that contribution from January to April because of other needs for the cash early in the year. It's just one year worth of contributions out of her (so far) thirteen.

I think that guy has turned into a click-bait whore and a whiny one at that.   

you beat me to it @SwordGuy - once upon a time he had good financial information backed up with comprehensive math.  That was kind of his whole schtick... showing how various financial decisions panned out with realistic numbers.
Lately he's put out several click-bait articles which were so flawed with their assumptions as to be completely ludicrous. He's also discussed his efforts to monetize his blog more, and it appears this is how he is doing it.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: moneypitfeeder on May 11, 2020, 06:03:08 PM
So I just made my second to last mortgage payment (woot woot), I've found I have very few people that I can share this info with. Most of my friends/co-workers are all stuck feeding the mortgage beast and never have a paid-off house. I realize that many here feel it is better to invest than payoff a home, but all my stocks are in the crapper right now, and I feel great that next month we can request our payoff. Hope you all "in the club" are doing well and that the CV hasn't put a damper on your plans to payoff!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Buffaloski Boris on May 11, 2020, 07:13:41 PM
So I just made my second to last mortgage payment (woot woot), I've found I have very few people that I can share this info with. Most of my friends/co-workers are all stuck feeding the mortgage beast and never have a paid-off house. I realize that many here feel it is better to invest than payoff a home, but all my stocks are in the crapper right now, and I feel great that next month we can request our payoff. Hope you all "in the club" are doing well and that the CV hasn't put a damper on your plans to payoff!

Congrats! Given the fairly low expected returns for stocks going forward, mortgage payoff may well become more fashionable.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: moneypitfeeder on May 11, 2020, 08:54:00 PM
Thanks Boris! I hope you and your family are doing well, and are still on your planned track!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on May 12, 2020, 06:36:36 AM
So I just made my second to last mortgage payment (woot woot), I've found I have very few people that I can share this info with. Most of my friends/co-workers are all stuck feeding the mortgage beast and never have a paid-off house. I realize that many here feel it is better to invest than payoff a home, but all my stocks are in the crapper right now, and I feel great that next month we can request our payoff. Hope you all "in the club" are doing well and that the CV hasn't put a damper on your plans to payoff!

Congrats @moneypitfeeder!  Nearly there!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Steveray7071 on May 14, 2020, 02:06:13 PM
I've had my current mortgage since 6/1/2013 - $235K

1/1/2019 - 191K
4/1/2019 - 178K

Goal is to pay off by 8/1/2020.

Currently at $168K

Putting $30K on this week (sale of a property).

EOW: $138K

Down to $75K!


Down to $13K!

8/1 is going to be tight, I should be able to do it, if not it'll be later in the month
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on May 14, 2020, 03:10:14 PM
Had my old home under contract for sale on 6/8/2020.    Buyer backed out. :(

I was so close to paying off the old mortgage and cutting the balance on my new house mortgage by 40%.   

Damn.

Still hoping to get it sold this year and the new mortgage paid off by 12/31/2021.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: moneypitfeeder on May 14, 2020, 06:21:43 PM
@Steveray7071 that's awesome, hope you meet your goals, and to @SwordGuy I'm sorry your buyer backed out, hopefully you'll get a new stronger offer!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Buffaloski Boris on May 17, 2020, 08:33:06 AM
Thanks Boris! I hope you and your family are doing well, and are still on your planned track!

We're doing well, thanks.  I almost hate to admit it given the amount of suffering out there, but we're doing pretty darn well under lockdown.

Now I've got to chuckle about the planned track: it implies that I have one.  I do have a planned track, but it's sort of like the "Pirate Code" in Pirates of the Caribbean. And always subject to change.  Part of the reason I've been sniffing around POYM of late.  I don't like debt, hard stop.  But with a locked in 30 year mortgage that's in the mid-threes, it's been tough for me to justify attacking it. 

Happily, sacred cow is back on the menu!  Lessee.  We're looking at forward PEs for the SP 5+495 above 20.  We're also looking at short term deflation, not inflation.  Oh, and the tax law has rendered mortgage interest mostly or entirely nondeductible for most/some of us. The stars seem to be aligning pretty well for a POYM strategy. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Need2Save on May 31, 2020, 12:33:17 PM
Before May Payment $38,123
Principle Paid this month: $5,209
New Balance: $32,914
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on May 31, 2020, 01:28:52 PM
Before May Payment $38,123
Principle Paid this month: $5,209
New Balance: $32,914

Getting Close!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Need2Save on June 01, 2020, 05:19:44 PM
Before May Payment $38,123
Principle Paid this month: $5,209
New Balance: $32,914

Getting Close!!!

Don't I know it!  We were going to pay it all off in July, but it looks like November now.  Just six more payments to go!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on June 01, 2020, 05:35:30 PM
Received a written offer for our old house late last night.   That's one mortgage that will be paid off in about 40 days.   :)

Depends on what the market's doing as to whether we take the proceeds and put it on the new mortgage or buy stocks.   If stocks are cheap enough, we'll buy and then pay off the new mortgage in a couple years with the recovered value.    If not, we'll knock 44% off our new mortgage.

Buyer backed out.   They got scared off by a badly written home inspection report.   

We're a couple of weeks away from officially putting it on the market at a higher price (after having spent sweat and money to prissify it for picky buyers).

Our realtor says there's a shortage of homes on the market for sale and there's still a good demand for them, so that's good.

I was so hoping to have paid off our old mortgage next week and knocking 44% off the new one.    Oh, well.

We'll be closing on a couple of non-profit flip houses, one in about a week and the other in a month and a half.   One's owner financing and we won't get our full capital back on it for a few years.   Hoping the other will be bought using bank mortgage so we get our capital back and can put it on our new mortgage.  If so, that will enable us to pay 27% off our new mortgage.  (Plan is to be done with all mortgages in December of 2021 or earlier.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: moneypitfeeder on June 08, 2020, 05:28:23 PM
Just got my pay-off statement, calling the bank tomorrow for an appt. to get a certified check (slight PITA, the girl I spoke to on the phone said a regular check would be fine) our credit union is only open for appointments. Happy to finally own my moneypit outright :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on June 09, 2020, 05:16:21 AM
Just got my pay-off statement, calling the bank tomorrow for an appt. to get a certified check (slight PITA, the girl I spoke to on the phone said a regular check would be fine) our credit union is only open for appointments. Happy to finally own my moneypit outright :)


Congratulations -- Enjoy your pay-off appointment!   Any celebration planned for after?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: iluvzbeach on June 09, 2020, 08:35:25 AM
Today marks the three year anniversary since our payoff and we’ve never once doubted our decision to go mortgage-free! It’s really incredible how low monthly expenses are without a mortgage payment and how much our stash has grown, now that we plow so much more into investments.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: LetItGrow on June 09, 2020, 12:42:30 PM
Today marks the three year anniversary since our payoff and we’ve never once doubted our decision to go mortgage-free! It’s really incredible how low monthly expenses are without a mortgage payment and how much our stash has grown, now that we plow so much more into investments.

I think we are also right at three years. Though we did just move and took a mortgage as we went through the relocation process, we should get the buyout money from our old place later this week and we already have the mortgage payoff statement so will Be back to officially mortgage free by the end of the month.

We are right at twenty years out of school, so even though we have moved six times since then, we kept paying and paying and staying somewhat even in house value, so it makes sense that we would be pretty close to zero balance. We actually will make a bit on this recent one so it will also go right into VTSAX. It’s crazy to see what that account has grown to in three years.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: moneypitfeeder on June 13, 2020, 04:22:36 PM
Just sent my last payment in, bought in 2009 on a 30-yr, re-fi'd in 2013 to a 15-yr, been overpaying since. Spreadsheets and math be dammed, the peace of mind is priceless. We are now able to test our RE plan, since my income was really only needed to foot the mortgage bill, SO's pension by all calculations will be enough for the 2 of us, and our investments are cushion for later. We are starting our "trial" RE now before I officially hang my hat. With that large of a monthly bill gone, we have much more freedom with what we bring in, and the pension stretches much farther.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on June 14, 2020, 05:02:12 AM
Just sent my last payment in

Congratulations!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: moneypitfeeder on June 14, 2020, 08:30:07 AM
Thanks!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Buffaloski Boris on June 14, 2020, 08:53:10 AM
Just sent my last payment in, bought in 2009 on a 30-yr, re-fi'd in 2013 to a 15-yr, been overpaying since. Spreadsheets and math be dammed, the peace of mind is priceless. We are now able to test our RE plan, since my income was really only needed to foot the mortgage bill, SO's pension by all calculations will be enough for the 2 of us, and our investments are cushion for later. We are starting our "trial" RE now before I officially hang my hat. With that large of a monthly bill gone, we have much more freedom with what we bring in, and the pension stretches much farther.

WooHooo!  Congratulations!!!! I bet it’s a great feeling.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on June 14, 2020, 08:21:24 PM
Way to go moneypitfeeder NO-LONGER!   Awesome!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Need2Save on June 23, 2020, 06:30:01 AM
Just sent my last payment in

Congratulations!!!

Awesome! So happy for you. 

Before June Payment $32,914
Principle Paid this month: $5,222
New Balance: $27,692

Hoping for five more months here.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: moneypitfeeder on June 26, 2020, 05:35:37 PM
Stick with it @Need2Save, you don't have that much more to go :) (and thank you!)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: K-ice on June 27, 2020, 08:22:23 PM
Oops, sorry if I was not clear. There are three options:

  • The mortgage will be paid off in 25 years (if we don't take any other actions).
  • If we pay off 10% extra per year, it will take us 5 years to kill the mortgage
  • If we pay off more than 10% extra per year, it will take us 4 years to kill the mortgage. Then we also have to pay a fine for every extra payment above the 10%. The good thing is that we are rid of the mortgage sooner.

I would pick option 2 without the hassle of fees.

Also, double check. My friends CIBC mortgage allows for double payments per month as well as once a year 10%. That might help you get paid off faster.

Also be sure you don’t have mortgage Payoff blinders on. I wish I had taken it a bit slower & maxed my TFSA & RRSP along the way.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Steveray7071 on July 14, 2020, 12:41:14 PM
I've had my current mortgage since 6/1/2013 - $235K

1/1/2019 - 191K
4/1/2019 - 178K

Goal is to pay off by 8/1/2020.

Currently at $168K

Putting $30K on this week (sale of a property).

EOW: $138K

Down to $75K!


Down to $13K!

8/1 is going to be tight, I should be able to do it, if not it'll be later in the month


DONE!!!  Officially paid off the house!!!!!!!  WOOT WOOT!!!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: iluvzbeach on July 14, 2020, 12:47:19 PM
Woo hoo!! Congratulations!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Buffaloski Boris on July 14, 2020, 02:19:52 PM
I've had my current mortgage since 6/1/2013 - $235K

1/1/2019 - 191K
4/1/2019 - 178K

Goal is to pay off by 8/1/2020.

Currently at $168K

Putting $30K on this week (sale of a property).

EOW: $138K

Down to $75K!


Down to $13K!

8/1 is going to be tight, I should be able to do it, if not it'll be later in the month


DONE!!!  Officially paid off the house!!!!!!!  WOOT WOOT!!!!!

YESSSSS! One less debt-slave. Congratulations!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on July 14, 2020, 04:18:24 PM
That is some impressive payoff timeline!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on July 15, 2020, 04:32:46 AM
Congratulations @Steveray7071 !!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Need2Save on July 15, 2020, 05:40:47 AM
All Right! Yippee! @Steveray7071 !
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: honeyfill on July 31, 2020, 07:19:14 AM


I paid off my HELOC yesterday.  I went to the bank and paid the last $818 to take the balance down to zero.
I'm  not sure if this counts as a mortgage payoff but it still feels pretty good!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on July 31, 2020, 07:20:19 AM
Congrats!

My bank won't even let me in the door. Probably because they think I'm there to take money out ;-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on July 31, 2020, 12:37:40 PM
My bank won't even let me in the door. Probably because they think I'm there to take money out ;-)

Too funny, @talltexan !

=======================

I'm hoping to pay off our two mortgages within a month or three.

Just sold one house today, proceeds will cover 27% of our current new home mortgage balance.

Scheduled to sell our old home on the 17th.  (Knock on wood.)   That will pay off it's mortgage and pay off 49% of the current new home mortgage balance.

We had gotten a home to set up as a charitable house but we just don't want to volunteer to risk working with tradesmen who won't wear a @#@%$%#&@ mask and do social distancing and hand washing.   Got a verbal offer on it today with the expectation of a written offer on Monday.   That will cover the remaining 24% of the current home mortgage balance.  It should be a cash sale so it should go thru pretty quickly.

So, potentially by the end of the August we might actually be mortgage free.

Keep your fingers crossed the next two sales actually happen and on time.

So excited!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Need2Save on August 01, 2020, 04:25:24 AM
Before July Payment $27,692
Principle Paid this month: $7,734
New Balance: $19,958

We had an extra check each this month which we diverted some to the mortgage per our plan.  Only 4 more payments to go!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bird In Hand on August 01, 2020, 08:45:50 AM
@SwordGuy -- wow, unloading three properties (and using the proceeds to eliminate what I imagine is probably your biggest monthly expense) sounds like a fantastic simplification of your finances, and indeed your life.  Congrats all around, and I hope your next two sales proceed smoothly and quickly.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Zamboni on August 01, 2020, 09:43:40 AM
@SwordGuy Wow! that's great! I hope this final sale goes through as planned.

Mostly I am joining this gauntlet because I paid off my HELOC recently. Yay! Good grief please God don't let me do anything that stupid again! We have some remodel work we would like to do, but these must be paid off in cash this time!

My next project is to look at refi rates for our existing home's first mortgage around October. I've got about one more year of holding pattern and just regular mortgage payments, and then hopefully next year at around this time we may double down to get rid of that debt as fast as possible. We'll see. Really it depends upon our jobs. Other half just watched his boss and a manager parallel to him in his group get sacked this past month, so now he is worried. Unless things get more secure and settle down, we might just stockpile cash instead in case we need to make a sudden move due to a job transition.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on August 01, 2020, 09:57:20 AM
@SwordGuy Wow! that's great! I hope this final sale goes through as planned.

Mostly I am joining this gauntlet because I paid off my HELOC recently. Yay! Good grief please God don't let me do anything that stupid again! We have some remodel work we would like to do, but these must be paid off in cash this time!

My next project is to look at refi rates for our existing home's first mortgage around October. I've got about one more year of holding pattern and just regular mortgage payments, and then hopefully next year at around this time we may double down to get rid of that debt as fast as possible. We'll see. Really it depends upon our jobs. Other half just watched his boss and a manager parallel to him in his group get sacked this past month, so now he is worried. Unless things get more secure and settle down, we might just stockpile cash instead in case we need to make a sudden move due to a job transition.
   

@Zamboni, I wouldn't blame anyone who depends upon wage income for stashing away cash at this point in time.   These are unsettled times.

If we were still working for a living we wouldn't be paying extra on the mortgage, we would be looking to cut expenses (refinance 'cause rates are cheap!) and stock up on cash.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bird In Hand on August 01, 2020, 01:41:00 PM
Before July Payment $27,692
Principle Paid this month: $7,734
New Balance: $19,958

We had an extra check each this month which we diverted some to the mortgage per our plan.  Only 4 more payments to go!

~$20k and 4 payments to go -- is your mortgage payment (P&I + T&I) $5k/mo, or is that your planned monthly outlay including extra principal payments?  Either way, it will be awesome to have that huge monthly chunk off the books.

Do you have a T&I escrow account with your mortgage company?  If so, is there a lot in there?  Once we got < $20k on our mortgage, I closed the escrow account and received ~$3,000 escrow refund in a couple weeks.  We combined the escrow refund with some spare change from under the sofa cushions and just paid the thing off when the balance got to ~$14k (about 6 months ahead of our original plan).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Comar on August 04, 2020, 06:08:51 AM
I'm finally done. Feels like a million years ago, when I used to come here every day. Strange how things have changed. Good luck to the rest of you.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on August 04, 2020, 07:25:42 AM
Congratulations, @Comar, if you miss us too much, I guess you can refinance at today's super-low rates. ;-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bird In Hand on August 04, 2020, 08:05:32 AM
@Comar - congrats!  I'm not sure where you are in your FIRE journey, but I imagine it helps to not have that monthly P&I payment.  I know we don't miss ours!

@talltexan - I haven't delved too deeply in this, but you can't really refinance a mortgage that doesn't exist.  You could do a new mortgage with a large cash-out, but the terms are probably not going to be as good as a regular refinance.  In fact, once our balance got below $100k, I discovered that the number of potential lenders dropped significantly, and the rates were higher.  Below $50k and I couldn't find any lenders (though I didn't look very hard).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on August 04, 2020, 08:35:02 AM
Sold a flip house on last Friday and picked up the proceeds check yesterday.   Plan was to put that $61,000 on the mortgage.

As far as I can tell, every single Bank of America branch in a hundred miles is shut down "temporarily".

No explanation.   No expectation of when they will reopen.   Just closed.

#BankingFail!!!!

I'm off to open a checking account at a credit union.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: paulkots on August 04, 2020, 08:51:34 AM
Well done everyone! Just checking in after paying off my house in late 2019.

Still loving the feeling of most of my check being left over since I have no payments, this allows me to travel more.(except for this year..)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on August 04, 2020, 09:11:26 AM
@Comar - congrats!  I'm not sure where you are in your FIRE journey, but I imagine it helps to not have that monthly P&I payment.  I know we don't miss ours!

@talltexan - I haven't delved too deeply in this, but you can't really refinance a mortgage that doesn't exist.  You could do a new mortgage with a large cash-out, but the terms are probably not going to be as good as a regular refinance.  In fact, once our balance got below $100k, I discovered that the number of potential lenders dropped significantly, and the rates were higher.  Below $50k and I couldn't find any lenders (though I didn't look very hard).

That's good info. I should have been more careful with this teasing. Based on my limited mortgage experience, it's pretty clear that purchase > refinance > cash-out refinance
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks on August 05, 2020, 05:17:10 AM
Sold a flip house on last Friday and picked up the proceeds check yesterday.   Plan was to put that $61,000 on the mortgage.

As far as I can tell, every single Bank of America branch in a hundred miles is shut down "temporarily".

No explanation.   No expectation of when they will reopen.   Just closed.

#BankingFail!!!!

I'm off to open a checking account at a credit union.

Do you have electronic banking?  We bank with a regional bank headquartered in our state.  Credit unions seem very wise too. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on August 05, 2020, 05:24:15 AM
Sold a flip house on last Friday and picked up the proceeds check yesterday.   Plan was to put that $61,000 on the mortgage.

As far as I can tell, every single Bank of America branch in a hundred miles is shut down "temporarily".

No explanation.   No expectation of when they will reopen.   Just closed.

#BankingFail!!!!

I'm off to open a checking account at a credit union.

Do you have electronic banking?  We bank with a regional bank headquartered in our state.  Credit unions seem very wise too.

I use the online features but have resisted using banking on my phone.   Phones just aren't very secure.     There are limits to the size of the check you can cash via the phone and, as I mentioned, this was proceeds from a house sale, so it's well over those limits.

Given I don't know why all those bank branches have been shuttered I really don't feel like wiring large sums of money into what might turn out to be a void.   Why take that chance?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: KBecks on August 05, 2020, 05:26:16 AM
That is very weird, and -- they aren't offering drive up, either? 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on August 05, 2020, 06:23:18 AM
That is very weird, and -- they aren't offering drive up, either?
No!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Need2Save on August 07, 2020, 05:33:15 AM
@Bird In Hand  - Yes that is our planned payment, not the required P&I&T&I. That would only be around $3,200.  We have slowly raised the extra principal we pay each month about $100 at a time until we got where we are now. I could pay the whole thing off now but we decided to just allow the next few months to play out, although many days I'm still very tempted.

We have U.S. Bank and I have found that they don't get many things right when dealing with them and we have a tax payment due in September from Escrow. So I'm just letting them pay that and then shortly thereafter we will pay it off in full and get the remaining Escrow back in time to make the 2nd tax payment in December.  Thereafter, we will just set aside a monthly equivalent for the taxes so we have it come time to pay next year. Then we'll be retired with no mortgage payment. yay!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on August 07, 2020, 08:04:29 AM
@Need2Save,  Awesome job!   From September onwards, enjoy becoming the bank.  From then forever more, people pay you rent for borrowing your money.

Been free for 18 months, and it has completely flipped the tables in our favor this way.   Make it so!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: esmith2039 on August 11, 2020, 11:04:12 AM
Paid ours off a few weeks ago. Did the nuclear option and used a little savings to just get it done. Finally got the we're sending you the escrow letter two weeks later from US Bank. I'm glad to get rid of them for good.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on August 11, 2020, 04:30:34 PM
Sold a flip house we bought to help out family and put the proceeds on our new home mortgage.   Was $223k and now $173k.  :)

Hoping to sell our old home next week and put another $110k on the new home mortgage. :)   Keeping my fingers crossed!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: MaybeBabyMustache on August 11, 2020, 05:53:54 PM
Our goal is to pay off half of our mortgage (leaving us with a mortgage that is 1/3 of the home's value). We are 75% of the way to that goal. (Numbers are huge, bay area mortgage.) I set monthly progress goals, & funnel all of my side hustle into this. (This is typically small eBay sales, but I love seeing the progress.)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: moneypitfeeder on August 12, 2020, 05:54:39 PM
That's great MaybeBaby, our numbers weren't huge by Bay Area standards, but it was a huge amount of debt per my families standards. Feels great to not carry that monkey on my back and I'm sure you'll feel the same when you get there :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bird In Hand on August 12, 2020, 08:28:03 PM
Paid ours off a few weeks ago. Did the nuclear option and used a little savings to just get it done. Finally got the we're sending you the escrow letter two weeks later from US Bank. I'm glad to get rid of them for good.

Congrats!  We did the same -- used a bit of savings to finish it off a few months earlier than planned.  What are your plans for the money no longer going to the mortgage?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: soily on August 13, 2020, 10:16:05 AM
I just inherited 30k and I want to use it for a house down payment in about a year. Would it be safe to pay down my mortgage with it or would it be better to put it in a money market fund? I owe 80k at 4.4%. The only other debt I have is some 2ish% student loans (~7k).

Sorry if this is out of place in this thread but I didn't want to pollute the forum with another thread that's probably been answered.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on August 13, 2020, 03:21:49 PM
I just inherited 30k and I want to use it for a house down payment in about a year. Would it be safe to pay down my mortgage with it or would it be better to put it in a money market fund? I owe 80k at 4.4%. The only other debt I have is some 2ish% student loans (~7k).

Sorry if this is out of place in this thread but I didn't want to pollute the forum with another thread that's probably been answered.

Paying down your current mortgage is a horrible place to put that money if you need it for a new house in a year.   That means you either won't have a down payment for a new house until you sell the old one or you'll have to pay a bank to borrow your own money back via a HELOC.    Both are crazy options.

Put it someplace where it will earn a bit of interest and won't lose value (other than to inflation).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: soily on August 13, 2020, 04:25:06 PM
I just inherited 30k and I want to use it for a house down payment in about a year. Would it be safe to pay down my mortgage with it or would it be better to put it in a money market fund? I owe 80k at 4.4%. The only other debt I have is some 2ish% student loans (~7k).

Sorry if this is out of place in this thread but I didn't want to pollute the forum with another thread that's probably been answered.

Paying down your current mortgage is a horrible place to put that money if you need it for a new house in a year.   That means you either won't have a down payment for a new house until you sell the old one or you'll have to pay a bank to borrow your own money back via a HELOC.    Both are crazy options.

Put it someplace where it will earn a bit of interest and won't lose value (other than to inflation).
Thanks for the reply. I'm in my first home right now so I'm unfamiliar with the process of using the proceeds from the first house to pay for the next. I assumed it was common.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on August 13, 2020, 05:24:56 PM
I just inherited 30k and I want to use it for a house down payment in about a year. Would it be safe to pay down my mortgage with it or would it be better to put it in a money market fund? I owe 80k at 4.4%. The only other debt I have is some 2ish% student loans (~7k).

Sorry if this is out of place in this thread but I didn't want to pollute the forum with another thread that's probably been answered.

Paying down your current mortgage is a horrible place to put that money if you need it for a new house in a year.   That means you either won't have a down payment for a new house until you sell the old one or you'll have to pay a bank to borrow your own money back via a HELOC.    Both are crazy options.

Put it someplace where it will earn a bit of interest and won't lose value (other than to inflation).
Thanks for the reply. I'm in my first home right now so I'm unfamiliar with the process of using the proceeds from the first house to pay for the next. I assumed it was common.

The problem is that there are no proceeds until the first house is sold.   Unless you get a HELOC to pull funds out of the old house equity, you either need to get a seller to accept a contingency clause on your offer that they have to wait until you sell your old house or find a house deal that requires no down payment.   The first option will cost you money to borrow your own money and the remaining two are much harder to make work.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on August 14, 2020, 07:47:49 PM
Well, our old home for sale won't be closing on Monday as scheduled.   The VA appraiser took too long to turn in his report (3 business days before closing) and we won't be able to address all his concerns until tomorrow morning.   Hopefully we'll still close sometime next week. 

Looking forward to putting the $110k proceeds and another $7k in escrow against our new mortgage, which will cut our mortgage down to 25% of the original mortgage balance.   

If we can sell our remaining flip house by the end of the year we'll be mortgage free.  So close I can almost taste it!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on August 20, 2020, 07:41:38 PM
@soily,   The way you framed a great question, it seems you want to use the full $30K windfall for a down payment, but you have a home with $80K-ish mortgage at a relatively high 4.4%.   So assuming you have some equity already; and to really get out of debt for life, you may be best off by not buying the bigger house for now.  Instead, kill the student loans TODAY...   PLUS pay down $23K of current mortgage debt... PLUS save hard to move up once you've paid off the current place.   Then you'll have a smaller future mortgage and more cash flow from zero other debts to hammer the new mortgage that way.    With feeling, you do this as in every shekel you can scrounge or dig out of the sofa cushion goes to kill that debt!   One caveat to keep in mind is mortgage originators aren't dumb to borrowers trying to break the debt shackles so they will offer best rates & fees to 1st mortgages big enough that you won't pay them off too quickly (as a lot of their compensation is on how well their loan originations pay long-term so the mortgage backed securities continue to pay coupons to people who invest so their money pays them which is where you want to be ASAFP).    They actually call people who pay mortgages early "dead beats"!   It's the dark side of the "American dream of home ownership".

Or another way to look at this if you can't wait to pay off the current place, if you are trying to avoid PMI buying a bigger house, why do you want to burden yourself with a bigger house PLUS student loan debt around your neck?    It just sells your freedom back to 2 banks again.  How quickly can you pay back the $7K with free cash flow THEN throw an entire $30K or more to get where you want to be after you really get after it?   Save hard and WIN!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on August 20, 2020, 08:49:20 PM
Old home got closing rescheduled for 5pm tomorrow.  So, about 19 hours until it's out of our life.

As soon as the funds become available we'll be able to pay down our new home mortgage to less than 25% of the original loan balance.

Looks like the possible buyer of the other house wandered off, so we're still in a holding pattern on it.   With luck it will sell a month and we'll soon have no mortgage.

We're getting close!

Even if it doesn't ever sell we'll be able to pay it off by December of next year.   A 2 year long mortgage isn't as great as a 10 month one, but it'll do in a pinch.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: esmith2039 on August 21, 2020, 12:00:19 PM
Paid ours off a few weeks ago. Did the nuclear option and used a little savings to just get it done. Finally got the we're sending you the escrow letter two weeks later from US Bank. I'm glad to get rid of them for good.

Congrats!  We did the same -- used a bit of savings to finish it off a few months earlier than planned.  What are your plans for the money no longer going to the mortgage?

Thanks and congrats also! Going to keep it simple... Going to build up our checking and savings up to comfortable level then bump our 401k contributions up to the 19,500 max. Anything extra will get thrown in VFIAX and VTSAX.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on August 26, 2020, 02:48:44 PM
Bought a new home last January.   Sold our old home last Friday, new home mortgage is now only 26% of what it started out at.

And we'll be at 22% in a few weeks when the escrow account gets refunded. :)

PS -- the quicken loans online payment site can't handle more than $99,999 in extra principal in one transaction...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on August 27, 2020, 01:39:40 PM
Bought a new home last January.   Sold our old home last Friday, new home mortgage is now only 26% of what it started out at.

And we'll be at 22% in a few weeks when the escrow account gets refunded. :)

PS -- the quicken loans online payment site can't handle more than $99,999 in extra principal in one transaction...

That seems like a great twitter post, but then all your friends would know.....and come after you for money.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on August 27, 2020, 02:35:48 PM
Bought a new home last January.   Sold our old home last Friday, new home mortgage is now only 26% of what it started out at.

And we'll be at 22% in a few weeks when the escrow account gets refunded. :)

PS -- the quicken loans online payment site can't handle more than $99,999 in extra principal in one transaction...

That seems like a great twitter post, but then all your friends would know.....and come after you for money.

We paid off our 2-homes-ago residence back around 2010-11.    None of our friends or relations hit us up for money.

Either we have a better class of friends or they just know better.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Need2Save on August 29, 2020, 03:54:58 PM
Before August Payment $19,958
Principle Paid this month: $5,252
New Balance: $14,706
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: CharlesBronzee on September 04, 2020, 08:57:37 PM
Paid off our mortgage today (after 21 years)!  And boy it inexplicably feels good!  :)

Will pay off also our car loan this month and will just have a $200/mo car lease on our second car left.

Now we can focus all our resources on getting to FI!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on September 04, 2020, 09:05:05 PM
Mortgage balance on our new home is now down to $59,999.00.   Getting close!   Should be getting over $7,100 in refunded escrow in a couple of weeks and I'm looking forward to putting it against  the mortgage balance.
   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on September 07, 2020, 08:13:54 PM
Go SwordGuy Go!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on September 07, 2020, 08:46:52 PM
Thanks!   It will be below $50k by December 1st.  :)

$7100+ from escrow and $1000+ for refunded insurance.   Circa $1400 to principal for Dec payment (next one due, I'm a bit ahead).   So I need to come up with about an extra $500 by then to break that mark.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on September 08, 2020, 05:33:21 AM
Mortgage balance on our new home is now down to $59,999.00.   Getting close!   Should be getting over $7,100 in refunded escrow in a couple of weeks and I'm looking forward to putting it against  the mortgage balance.
 

Congrats @SwordGuy!  I used to do that same thing when paying down the mortgage haha -- try to get below the next milestone, even if it was just by a penny.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Need2Save on September 08, 2020, 10:45:56 AM
Paid off our mortgage today (after 21 years)!  And boy it inexplicably feels good!  :)

Will pay off also our car loan this month and will just have a $200/mo car lease on our second car left.

Now we can focus all our resources on getting to FI!

@CharlesBronzee - way to go!  I'm on your tail. Enjoy the moment.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on September 10, 2020, 11:05:23 PM
Down to $58,999 from $230,000 back in January.     Will be below $50,000 before the month ends.  (Waiting on that escrow money!!!)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: CheapScholar on September 22, 2020, 12:41:30 PM
Paid off the last 47k on the mortgage a few days ago. Just called the credit union to confirm that the wire transfer went through. It did and the balance is $0. 

Feels great. Paid off the house just one week before my 40th birthday. I get the reasons for NOT paying off the mortgage, but I strongly feel the psychological benefit of having the house paid off is worth it. This is probably partly because I was raised by grandparents who could recall the Great Depression, but probably more so because I was totally fucked having to enter the job market after law school during the Great Recession. I remember having no options and not knowing where my young family would live. Fuck that shit, I’ll never have to worry about that again.

Looking forward to this weekend and burning the mortgage and all the monthly statements I’ve been saving for seven years. It will be a fun Saturday night with great food off the grill and a warm fire in the backyard.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on September 23, 2020, 07:29:13 AM
Down to $49,999 from $230,000.    When the last house we're selling closes at the end of the month, we'll be down to about $5,000.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: LetItGrow on September 23, 2020, 07:33:44 AM
Paid off the last 47k on the mortgage a few days ago. Just called the credit union to confirm that the wire transfer went through. It did and the balance is $0. 

Feels great. Paid off the house just one week before my 40th birthday. I get the reasons for NOT paying off the mortgage, but I strongly feel the psychological benefit of having the house paid off is worth it. This is probably partly because I was raised by grandparents who could recall the Great Depression, but probably more so because I was totally fucked having to enter the job market after law school during the Great Recession. I remember having no options and not knowing where my young family would live. Fuck that shit, I’ll never have to worry about that again.

Looking forward to this weekend and burning the mortgage and all the monthly statements I’ve been saving for seven years. It will be a fun Saturday night with great food off the grill and a warm fire in the backyard.

Congrats! I agree with your reasoning (I also agree with all the counter arguments also) so it’s nice that we get to choose.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on September 23, 2020, 12:06:19 PM
Paid off the last 47k on the mortgage a few days ago.

Congratulations!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on September 27, 2020, 06:18:22 PM
Down to $48,999!    It's getting close!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on September 28, 2020, 08:59:35 PM
We're selling an un-refurbished house we bought.  Buyer's closing attorney didn't get their work done on time so closing has been delayed from 9/30 until next week.    Grrr.

We're expecting to clear about $43,000 from the sale, which will cut our $48,999 mortgage balance down by a goodly percentage.

So tired of waiting!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on September 29, 2020, 06:24:08 PM
Received the insurance refund from our old home plus my state tax refund.   Straight to the mortgage balance! 
Down to $47,318.

Closing on the other house is delayed, probably until next week.   That will remove  about $43,000 from the balance.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Need2Save on September 30, 2020, 11:20:59 AM
Before August Payment $19,958
Principle Paid this month: $5,252
New Balance: $14,706

Down to $9444.  Will call for payoff balance next week! Almost there.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on September 30, 2020, 01:29:38 PM
Before August Payment $19,958
Principle Paid this month: $5,252
New Balance: $14,706

Down to $9444.  Will call for payoff balance next week! Almost there.

Congrats!   

We should be down to < $4,000 next week when a house sells.   We'll be paying it off within a week afterwards, so I have a pretty good idea how good you're feeling about your situation!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on October 06, 2020, 12:02:40 PM
Sold a house, picked up the check and deposited it today.   We'll be sending the final payment in tomorrow.     We'll be mortgage free again!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: moneypitfeeder on October 06, 2020, 04:13:06 PM
Congrats!! Such a great feeling!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on October 07, 2020, 09:40:06 AM
It is done.   We are free!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on October 07, 2020, 10:21:18 AM
Congrats @SwordGuy!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Zamboni on October 09, 2020, 10:06:22 PM
Belated Congrats, @SwordGuy!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on October 09, 2020, 10:12:12 PM
Thanks everyone!    It feels so good to be free of those payments!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Finntastic on October 10, 2020, 01:05:56 AM
Mortgage finally paid off. First time since 1994 I'm debt free!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: moneypitfeeder on October 10, 2020, 12:37:05 PM
Congrats @Finntastic ! Woohoo:)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on October 10, 2020, 02:36:12 PM
Mortgage finally paid off. First time since 1994 I'm debt free!

Congrats @Finntastic !
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on October 12, 2020, 11:29:05 AM
Mortgage finally paid off. First time since 1994 I'm debt free!

Congrats @Finntastic !

Congratulations!  It must feel amazing!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Need2Save on October 17, 2020, 06:35:55 PM
I can't believe it took me almost a week to post this news.....we are also done, done, done!  Paid in Full.  Mortgage free for the first time since 1995 (granted that was two houses ago).

Just waiting for our little paid off letter to arrive and return of our Escrow funds to seal the deal.

F E E L S   A M A Z I N G!

Congrats to @SwordGuy and @Finntastic
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on October 17, 2020, 07:47:47 PM
I can't believe it took me almost a week to post this news.....we are also done, done, done!  Paid in Full.  Mortgage free for the first time since 1995 (granted that was two houses ago).

Just waiting for our little paid off letter to arrive and return of our Escrow funds to seal the deal.

F E E L S   A M A Z I N G!

Congrats to @SwordGuy and @Finntastic

@Congrats right back at you, @Need2Save !

I'm setting up my accounts in Quicken so (hopefully) I'll be more organized with my finances. 

Everytime I added an asset (our home, 4 rental properties, 2 cars, and parts of 2 farms), I got to answer "Nope!!!!" to the question, "Is there a loan associated with this asset?"

Damn, but that was a good feeling!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on October 18, 2020, 02:22:27 AM
I can't believe it took me almost a week to post this news.....we are also done, done, done!  Paid in Full.  Mortgage free for the first time since 1995 (granted that was two houses ago).

Just waiting for our little paid off letter to arrive and return of our Escrow funds to seal the deal.

F E E L S   A M A Z I N G!


Congratulations @Need2Save!   Well done!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jordanfromcanada on October 19, 2020, 02:33:58 PM
Kicking off my first post here (long time lurker) with an official 'We've Officially Paid Off Our Mortgage!'.

Purchased our house in 2015 with my SO and set out on a mission to clear the mortgage. We consciously directed more % of our funds to the mortgage vs. investing. It was a choice we made and are happy with the result. We still have a good chunk in the market and will amp up the allocation going forward. We are both 30 years old, engineers, working in the Energy sector.

Coles Notes ($CAD)

Start
House Purchase Date: August 2015
House Purchase Amount: $650k
Downpayment: $225k
Mortgage Owing: $425k
Payments: $2,880 Bi-Weekly Accelerated (initially 5 Year Fixed @ 2.54%)

End Result
Mortgage Owing: $0
Time Elapsed: 5 Years 2 Months
Paid to Lender: $425k Principal + $40.2k Interest = 465.2k Total
Lender Annual Return: 1.79% (lower than original rate - we hit the mortgage with big lump sum payments)

It feels great to finally say we actually own our house. We made a rule that we'd do zero renos until the house was paid off - a little bit of delayed gratification. Time to paint!

-jordan
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on October 20, 2020, 03:09:31 AM
Kicking off my first post here (long time lurker) with an official 'We've Officially Paid Off Our Mortgage!'.

Welcome to the forum @jordanfromcanada!  And huge congratulations on the milestone.  You two are killing it!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on October 22, 2020, 05:53:19 PM
Wow, 4 paid off mortgages on one page!   Where have I been?

CONGRATS on killing those mortgages @SwordGuy, @Need2Save, @Finntastic, and @jordanfromcanada !!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Need2Save on October 24, 2020, 10:52:47 AM
Wow, 4 paid off mortgages on one page!   Where have I been?

CONGRATS on killing those mortgages @SwordGuy, @Need2Save, @Finntastic, and @jordanfromcanada !!!!

Thank you!  Yeah I like to see so many forum members joining in all at once.  It really has me considering knocking off about 10-12 months from my RE date.  I'm still cheering for the rest of you though!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Segare on October 28, 2020, 06:59:55 AM
Hello all, we only owe on our house. We bought it in 2016. We are more than half way done, less than two years to go.  Recently we decided to put more into investments while still keeping the same extra principle payment. So here we are staying the course.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on November 03, 2020, 02:38:26 PM
Refinanced last month. Just got a notice in the mail that the lien on my old loan had been removed.

No notice about my escrow balance, surely they're not going to think I've forgotten it?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on November 03, 2020, 05:26:27 PM
Refinanced last month. Just got a notice in the mail that the lien on my old loan had been removed.

No notice about my escrow balance, surely they're not going to think I've forgotten it?

My understanding is they wait about 20 days from the pay off of the loan before disbursing the escrow amount to the consumer.  That way, they account for payments received after closing, etc.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: moneypitfeeder on November 08, 2020, 03:18:52 PM
Congrats, @Need2Save and @jordanfromcanada ! Enjoy being unburdened by a looming mortgage :) @Segare sounds like you'll be paid off soon enough, good on you for allocating your funds where they work best for you.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on November 10, 2020, 08:24:55 AM
Got a nice, phat check in the mail that was our escrow account...will be satisfying to deposit that sucker!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on November 10, 2020, 08:29:17 AM
Got a nice, phat check in the mail that was our escrow account...will be satisfying to deposit that sucker!

Yeah, just got one of those too!    But the property tax is due now and the home insurance is due in December, so it's easy come, easy go!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on November 12, 2020, 09:19:54 AM
Update: deposited it, had my mother call and tell me all sorts of bad things about the bank that took that check. I replied that they "cheat the other guy and pass the savings on to me!"
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: alcon835 on November 14, 2020, 09:32:18 AM
Joining the thread to keep me motivated! While I 100% understand the financial benefits of paying the minimum on the mortgage and investing everything else, there's something so emotionally satisfying about not having a house payment. The freedom that brings is...other worldly. Plus, I'd like to be debt free!

Right now I've got 32% equity in my home. There are a few potential windfalls in about 3 years  that I'm hoping to use to pay off my house, but if that doesn't work I should have it done in the next 7 years.

Here's to celebrating with you all as you pay off your mortgages and looking forward to that glorious day when mortgage payments will be part of my past!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on November 16, 2020, 07:40:58 AM
Joining the thread to keep me motivated! While I 100% understand the financial benefits of paying the minimum on the mortgage and investing everything else, there's something so emotionally satisfying about not having a house payment. The freedom that brings is...other worldly. Plus, I'd like to be debt free!

Right now I've got 32% equity in my home. There are a few potential windfalls in about 3 years  that I'm hoping to use to pay off my house, but if that doesn't work I should have it done in the next 7 years.

Here's to celebrating with you all as you pay off your mortgages and looking forward to that glorious day when mortgage payments will be part of my past!

I recommend you pay the minimum, while adding the maximum to a separate investment account that is the "house account". Once it has at least enough to payoff the mortgage, you can decided whether you want to actually do that.  You have the "house payoff" on the side you can look at whenever you want.  Just don't spend it on cars and vacations! This is what we'll be doing once we refi our current house.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: paulkots on November 16, 2020, 08:29:37 PM
Coming close to celebrating  1 year of paid-off mortgage. It is still one of the best things I have done.

Took 1 month off this year since expenses are lower with no mortgage. Even with 2020 being the whirlwind that it is, I can sit back and relax.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: alcon835 on November 17, 2020, 08:44:13 AM
Joining the thread to keep me motivated! While I 100% understand the financial benefits of paying the minimum on the mortgage and investing everything else, there's something so emotionally satisfying about not having a house payment. The freedom that brings is...other worldly. Plus, I'd like to be debt free!

Right now I've got 32% equity in my home. There are a few potential windfalls in about 3 years  that I'm hoping to use to pay off my house, but if that doesn't work I should have it done in the next 7 years.

Here's to celebrating with you all as you pay off your mortgages and looking forward to that glorious day when mortgage payments will be part of my past!

I recommend you pay the minimum, while adding the maximum to a separate investment account that is the "house account". Once it has at least enough to payoff the mortgage, you can decided whether you want to actually do that.  You have the "house payoff" on the side you can look at whenever you want.  Just don't spend it on cars and vacations! This is what we'll be doing once we refi our current house.

Hrm, that's something I hadn't considered. I need to think through what would make me happier and what the meaningful financial benefits are of contributing my current extra payments into the market for the next few years.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: moneypitfeeder on December 04, 2020, 03:59:13 PM
Awesome @paulkots, glad you got to take some time off! To @alcon835, this probably is already understood, but if you do decide to set money aside in an investment account, I would make sure that it at least will make enough in interest to equal what you would have saved accounting for compounding interest on your mortgage.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Calvin on December 06, 2020, 09:34:29 AM
I didn't join this earlier, but I paid off my mortgage a couple months ago! It's so nice to not have any monthly mortgage payment.

Congrats to everyone who's paid it off!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Lilium on December 06, 2020, 04:39:19 PM
In the process of refinancing at the moment - but am trying to get this paid off as fast as I can (which won't be crazy fast, but much better than the 25yr refinance).

Bought in 2016 for 196k.  Loan was for 186k and currently owe 158400.  Earlier this year I was able to start putting extra money to it with the thought that I'd try hard to at least get the PMI off. 

Right now, if I keep going like this, I think it should take about 10 years to pay it off but I'm not sure I'll be able to continue with the pace of overtime I'm currently in.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on December 29, 2020, 05:46:55 PM
Rock on @Calvin for killing that sucka debt!   

@Lilium,  How'd it go with the refi?   It's nice to kill the PMI to get the loan holder to stop charging you for the honor of doing business with them...    Instead of OT, look at how to build monthly cash flow margin... 10 years is too long... you can do it in 7.    Or less.    Work the plan for the win!   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: swaneesr on December 30, 2020, 06:01:20 AM
Great job those who are in this club. DW and I have been hammering away at our mortgage and have celebrated each $10k drop with a bottle of sparkling wine.

I understand the math of investing versus paying off the mortgage debt. We do both. Getting finished with this mortgage will give us an even bigger $$$ stream for saving up for a few upgrades we want to make before retirement.

My wife’s spreadsheet says we may be done in THREE payments......

Swanee


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Need2Save on December 30, 2020, 12:12:35 PM
We paid off our balance in October as you can tell upthread.  Still really, really enjoying this very much even with crazy low interest rates available right now.

In November we anxiously awaited our confirmation letter that our title was ours free and clear, and wouldn't you know it.....they misspelled our names!  Now we have to wait another six weeks for them to fix this and refile with our county.  A little annoying that neither the bank who has serviced our loan for 8 years or the county could tell our last name was spelled wrong.  Really?

For those anticipating paying off soon, the bank told us up to 6 weeks for our Escrow to be returned to us but it was closer to 3 weeks.  We got it in plenty of time to pay taxes and insurance in December. 

GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: HPstache on January 01, 2021, 10:15:54 AM
Dropped a substantial amount of money (for us) and paid our rental duplex off before the new year!  Hello additional income!  Units rent out for $1250 a side and expenses are about $600/more now the the mortgage is gone.  So happy, never thought this day would actually come!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Lilium on January 01, 2021, 04:54:35 PM
@Money Badger,  I think the refi finally closed on Dec 28th, it seemed like it took a really long time.  168,090 at 2.875%.  I haven't received any bills or anything just yet.  The first payment has to be by check in the mail.  The last time I paid through USPS, it took 20 days to get there.  So I'm thinking of just using the money I have for the Jan and Feb payment at first.  After that, I think I can pay online and I'm planning on putting back in whatever extra funds come back (1908 so far and at least 4200 from the old escrow acct).

I didn't realize there were different threads for mortgage payoff - I'll head over to the proper thread and come back when I'm under 50$!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on January 06, 2021, 05:44:01 PM
@Lilium,  Nice!   That $168K is now $162K with that escrow kicker.   While the threads for various amounts are nice, the method is the same all the way to zero...   Treat every item in your budget like an employee that needs to "re-interview" for it's job to stay there OR put that money each month to the debt.   Do the math, make the choices and kill $162K in 7 years with this mindset and make it mathematically certain.   Once it is done, the whole game of work and investing changes and you are in control to a FAR greater level than you'd imagine.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: AK on January 09, 2021, 06:31:04 AM
After months of deciding between investing or paying off the mortgage, I have decided to pay it off this coming week. The cash was sitting in a rental property fund but none have come up yet and it kept growing.

I hope it feels better than the meh / indifference after paying off my student loans. Anyone else feel like that?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bird In Hand on January 10, 2021, 09:49:11 AM
I hope it feels better than the meh / indifference after paying off my student loans. Anyone else feel like that?

I wasn't super pumped in the last year or so leading up to paying ours off.  What made it exciting for me was when I realized we could scrounge up enough cash to pay it off about 6 months ahead of schedule.  That spontaneous decision, and the series of transactions immediately afterward (requesting the payoff letter, scheduling the wire transfer from our bank, seeing the $0 balance on the mortgage) was quite a rush.

We basked in the afterglow of that excitement for quite some time.  Naturally it fades after a while, but 11 months later it's still a very pleasant memory to relive.  Not having the mortgage during all the fear and uncertainty during the early days of COVID did give us palpable peace of mind.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: paulkots on January 12, 2021, 07:48:59 PM
I hope it feels better than the meh / indifference after paying off my student loans. Anyone else feel like that?

Paying off the mortgage felt like an achievement and it was a reason to celebrate.

The real bonus for me kicked in a few months later, it felt like I received a raise. Then covid happened and nobody knew what the future would bring, having no payments gave me a peace of mind. Now I see businesses closing down around me and I have worries about my own but I know that if necessary I can take less profits from the business to help it weather the storm, paid off house allows me to do this.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on January 14, 2021, 07:38:02 PM
It'll be 2 years to the day Jan 19th that I paid the mortgage off AND we downsized.   It's completely changed the pace of net worth growth (skyrocketing with cashflow investment vs. the old mortgage days).  And during a pandemic and my job loss, our net worth increased because I didn't have to raid our investments to live AND could take risks when the market tanked last March instead of hiding in cash to be safe and liquid.   Best thing we ever did.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on January 14, 2021, 07:46:16 PM
It'll be 2 years to the day Jan 19th that I paid the mortgage off AND we downsized.   It's completely changed the pace of net worth growth (skyrocketing with cashflow investment vs. the old mortgage days).  And during a pandemic and my job loss, our net worth increased because I didn't have to raid our investments to live AND could take risks when the market tanked last March instead of hiding in cash to be safe and liquid.   Best thing we ever did.

I love it when a plan comes together!

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mastrr on January 14, 2021, 07:55:05 PM
after listening to Dave Ramsey for a week I decided to pay off my mortgage and did it today.  Purchased residence Jan 2015 so it was a large amount relative to the original principal on the loan.

before I was all about creating positive leverage with debt
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: alcon835 on January 15, 2021, 06:43:58 AM
after listening to Dave Ramsey for a week I decided to pay off my mortgage and did it today.  Purchased residence Jan 2015 so it was a large amount relative to the original principal on the loan.

before I was all about creating positive leverage with debt

Congratulations!!!!!

How does it feel knowing you'll never have another mortgage payment?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on January 15, 2021, 08:37:14 AM
after listening to Dave Ramsey for a week I decided to pay off my mortgage and did it today.  Purchased residence Jan 2015 so it was a large amount relative to the original principal on the loan.

before I was all about creating positive leverage with debt

Congratulations!!!!!

How does it feel knowing you'll never have another mortgage payment?

Congrats!  Dave must really work if in a week you could already pay off the mortgage! LOL.   I've read one of his books and listened to him off and on.  We've been "debt free" except the house, and then went back on the optimize investible assets until retirement bandwagon.  Frankly the "debt free" life is way more relaxing.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mastrr on January 15, 2021, 08:55:55 AM
after listening to Dave Ramsey for a week I decided to pay off my mortgage and did it today.  Purchased residence Jan 2015 so it was a large amount relative to the original principal on the loan.

before I was all about creating positive leverage with debt

Congratulations!!!!!

How does it feel knowing you'll never have another mortgage payment?

Thank you, feels good!  That is my goal, no more debt
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mastrr on January 15, 2021, 09:05:50 AM
after listening to Dave Ramsey for a week I decided to pay off my mortgage and did it today.  Purchased residence Jan 2015 so it was a large amount relative to the original principal on the loan.

before I was all about creating positive leverage with debt

Congratulations!!!!!

How does it feel knowing you'll never have another mortgage payment?

Congrats!  Dave must really work if in a week you could already pay off the mortgage! LOL.   I've read one of his books and listened to him off and on.  We've been "debt free" except the house, and then went back on the optimize investible assets until retirement bandwagon.  Frankly the "debt free" life is way more relaxing.

It did work quick and had just enough liquid in savings + non-retirement investments to cover the mortgage (not including emergency fund).  I've always heard of Dave Ramsey but dismissed him because I saw the critics.  I liked his points about lessening the risk especially in times like these.  I've always had the thought the back of my mind to work on paying off the mortgage but always wanted as much invested as possible which stopped me from sinking cash into equity.  It's like listening to him validated some thoughts I had and gave me the "green light" to make it happen.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: alcon835 on January 15, 2021, 11:10:03 AM
after listening to Dave Ramsey for a week I decided to pay off my mortgage and did it today.  Purchased residence Jan 2015 so it was a large amount relative to the original principal on the loan.

before I was all about creating positive leverage with debt

Congratulations!!!!!

How does it feel knowing you'll never have another mortgage payment?

Congrats!  Dave must really work if in a week you could already pay off the mortgage! LOL.   I've read one of his books and listened to him off and on.  We've been "debt free" except the house, and then went back on the optimize investible assets until retirement bandwagon.  Frankly the "debt free" life is way more relaxing.

It did work quick and had just enough liquid in savings + non-retirement investments to cover the mortgage (not including emergency fund).  I've always heard of Dave Ramsey but dismissed him because I saw the critics.  I liked his points about lessening the risk especially in times like these.  I've always had the thought the back of my mind to work on paying off the mortgage but always wanted as much invested as possible which stopped me from sinking cash into equity.  It's like listening to him validated some thoughts I had and gave me the "green light" to make it happen.

Dave is significantly more solid than folks around here give him credit for. Eat the meat, spit out the bones.

Congrats again on paying off your mortgage! I'm jealous...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on January 15, 2021, 11:34:36 AM
Dave is significantly more solid than folks around here give him credit for.

I think he's awesome at connecting with his audience and convincing them to change their behavior for the better.
He gives great advice for getting out of debt, particularly for people who have had problems controlling their spending.

His investing advice seems suspect and designed to funnel people to high fee investments.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: alcon835 on January 15, 2021, 12:33:43 PM
Dave is significantly more solid than folks around here give him credit for.

I think he's awesome at connecting with his audience and convincing them to change their behavior for the better.
He gives great advice for getting out of debt, particularly for people who have had problems controlling their spending.

His investing advice seems suspect and designed to funnel people to high fee investments.

Agreed. Eat the meat: Budgeting, Insurance, Getting out of debt, understanding real risk.

Spit out the bones: Anything and everything he says about investing.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: AK on January 16, 2021, 06:17:54 AM
after listening to Dave Ramsey for a week I decided to pay off my mortgage and did it today.  Purchased residence Jan 2015 so it was a large amount relative to the original principal on the loan.

before I was all about creating positive leverage with debt

Congrats!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: swaneesr on January 16, 2021, 06:25:33 AM
after listening to Dave Ramsey for a week I decided to pay off my mortgage and did it today.  Purchased residence Jan 2015 so it was a large amount relative to the original principal on the loan.

before I was all about creating positive leverage with debt
Great job. You truly own every square foot of your home. Every 2x4 and electrical outlet. Must be amazing.

DW and I are working hard to get to the same place.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: AK on January 16, 2021, 06:50:51 AM
The mortgage is officially paid. I now feel excited for the future opportunities it brings such as



I hope it feels better than the meh / indifference after paying off my student loans. Anyone else feel like that?

I wasn't super pumped in the last year or so leading up to paying ours off.  What made it exciting for me was when I realized we could scrounge up enough cash to pay it off about 6 months ahead of schedule.  That spontaneous decision, and the series of transactions immediately afterward (requesting the payoff letter, scheduling the wire transfer from our bank, seeing the $0 balance on the mortgage) was quite a rush.

We basked in the afterglow of that excitement for quite some time.  Naturally it fades after a while, but 11 months later it's still a very pleasant memory to relive.  Not having the mortgage during all the fear and uncertainty during the early days of COVID did give us palpable peace of mind.

It was a little unnerving for me this week. The payment was done electronically on Wednesday and showed as "unapplied" for two days. Friday it finally showed as paid in full. However, seeing that is Awesome. The timing may be poor though since my school taxes were due Friday and I have to check if the bank paid them from escrow or I have to now. Little things...


I hope it feels better than the meh / indifference after paying off my student loans. Anyone else feel like that?

Paying off the mortgage felt like an achievement and it was a reason to celebrate.

The real bonus for me kicked in a few months later, it felt like I received a raise. Then covid happened and nobody knew what the future would bring, having no payments gave me a peace of mind. Now I see businesses closing down around me and I have worries about my own but I know that if necessary I can take less profits from the business to help it weather the storm, paid off house allows me to do this.

I hope to have the same feeling come first of the month.

It'll be 2 years to the day Jan 19th that I paid the mortgage off AND we downsized.   It's completely changed the pace of net worth growth (skyrocketing with cashflow investment vs. the old mortgage days).  And during a pandemic and my job loss, our net worth increased because I didn't have to raid our investments to live AND could take risks when the market tanked last March instead of hiding in cash to be safe and liquid.   Best thing we ever did.

Congrats on downsizing and the net worth skyrocketing! I also feel like I could take on riskier things that could pay off even better such as starting a YouTube channel or releasing some informational product.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Spoon on January 18, 2021, 03:52:01 AM
We managed to hit mortgage payoff in 2020, and then turned around and did the least mustachian thing possible, loaded up on debt! We are upgrading our life and I can't wait. We have been looking to get out of suburbia for years and are moving to 25 acres this weekend.

At this stage there is no plan for paying off the debt, just lots of spending. From here the rough plan is
Clean and lightly renovate the existing house
Buy the wife a 4WD, there is a creek at the bottom of the property that crosses the road in/out that occasionally floods and the extra height is needed to get through
Fix the run down farm machinery, buy livestock and get planting
Adjust the driveway into a loop, clear 2 new building envelopes
Build a tiny/shipping container house to airbnb
Start airbnb -ing
Build another portable place to rent
Sell one/both/as many as necessary
Use the money from the sales to build something bigger and more permanent for holiday renting and live in when required
Knock down the existing house and build from scratch

I’m a builder (contractor to US folks) and I would rather work more years and build myself a new house than retire earlier. Once the new build is complete it will be time to smash the debt once again. Hopefully I remember how :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on January 21, 2021, 07:21:18 AM
@Spoon congrats on the property.  I called my husband's newfound desire for "land" a midlife crisis, but we're about 12 years older than you, and the idea of farming in old age does NOT sound appealing to me.  12 years ago it would have been awesome!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: nereo on January 21, 2021, 08:52:46 AM
Dave is significantly more solid than folks around here give him credit for.

I think he's awesome at connecting with his audience and convincing them to change their behavior for the better.
He gives great advice for getting out of debt, particularly for people who have had problems controlling their spending.

His investing advice seems suspect and designed to funnel people to high fee investments.

As is being discussed in another thread, DR is also an anti-masker and workplace tyrant who fires people who do things he doesn't approve of in their private lives. He browbeats employees and callers who don't agree with him... I could go on...

So it's not just the message, but also the messenger.

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/off-topic/dave-ramsey-is-an-anti-masker/ (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/off-topic/dave-ramsey-is-an-anti-masker/)
https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/pith-in-the-wind/article/21145502/get-a-load-of-this-unhinged-email-from-dave-ramsey-and-co (https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/pith-in-the-wind/article/21145502/get-a-load-of-this-unhinged-email-from-dave-ramsey-and-co)
https://religionnews.com/2021/01/15/dave-ramsey-is-tired-of-being-called-a-jerk-for-his-stands-on-sex-and-covid/ (https://religionnews.com/2021/01/15/dave-ramsey-is-tired-of-being-called-a-jerk-for-his-stands-on-sex-and-covid/)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on January 21, 2021, 09:23:40 AM
Dave is significantly more solid than folks around here give him credit for.

I think he's awesome at connecting with his audience and convincing them to change their behavior for the better.
He gives great advice for getting out of debt, particularly for people who have had problems controlling their spending.

His investing advice seems suspect and designed to funnel people to high fee investments.

As is being discussed in another thread, DR is also an anti-masker and workplace tyrant who fires people who do things he doesn't approve of in their private lives. He browbeats employees and callers who don't agree with him... I could go on...

So it's not just the message, but also the messenger.

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/off-topic/dave-ramsey-is-an-anti-masker/ (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/off-topic/dave-ramsey-is-an-anti-masker/)
https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/pith-in-the-wind/article/21145502/get-a-load-of-this-unhinged-email-from-dave-ramsey-and-co (https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/pith-in-the-wind/article/21145502/get-a-load-of-this-unhinged-email-from-dave-ramsey-and-co)
https://religionnews.com/2021/01/15/dave-ramsey-is-tired-of-being-called-a-jerk-for-his-stands-on-sex-and-covid/ (https://religionnews.com/2021/01/15/dave-ramsey-is-tired-of-being-called-a-jerk-for-his-stands-on-sex-and-covid/)

Fully agree.   Was limiting my comments to financial advice matters.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: HPstache on January 22, 2021, 08:13:27 AM
So now that we have our duplex paid off (1/1/2021) we are using a portion of the new cashflow to target our main residence to be paid off by our FI Date 4/19/2035 (my 50th birthday).  It's going to take an extra $300/mo so now we are throwing a total $600/mo at the mortgage to have it done by our target date.  Can't wait!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on January 24, 2021, 07:08:35 PM
So now that we have our duplex paid off (1/1/2021) we are using a portion of the new cashflow to target our main residence to be paid off by our FI Date 4/19/2035 (my 50th birthday).  It's going to take an extra $300/mo so now we are throwing a total $600/mo at the mortgage to have it done by our target date.  Can't wait!

Congrats on knocking out the duplex!   Celebrate the moment!    Next, we conspire on how to accelerate or downsize the main residence (or do both) to be free and clear in less than half that time.   Bwah, ha, ha!   ;-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on January 28, 2021, 12:16:11 PM
I can't say that I understand paying off an investment property.  The expenses directly offset the income.  I would think that you'd want the expenses on a rental to be as high as possible. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on January 28, 2021, 01:05:50 PM
I can't say that I understand paying off an investment property.  The expenses directly offset the income.  I would think that you'd want the expenses on a rental to be as high as possible.

You want the paper expenses to be as high as possible, not the cash out of pocket expenses. :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Segare on January 29, 2021, 04:56:05 AM
I can't say that I understand paying off an investment property.  The expenses directly offset the income.  I would think that you'd want the expenses on a rental to be as high as possible.
Expenses are still just that, an expense. You get a portion of that taken off your tax liability, but not the whole thing or more than the whole thing. If your place is paid off you still get expenses to deduct, just not the mortgage interest one, and that is only a portion of the interest paid.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Lilium on February 04, 2021, 04:07:02 PM
First payment post re-finance has been made.  Did not have the escrow from the previous lender yet, but I did have the whole Jan and extra payment to put toward the February bill.  2924 total extra.

Start: 168,090
New: 164,788.99

March will include the escrow from the old lender and the extra(?) from the new lender. Should be a bit over 6k.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: swaneesr on February 04, 2021, 06:52:14 PM
Do you ladies and gentlemen know what tomorrow is?

February 5th, 2021.

Our mortgage payment will come out of our checking account.

We have been accelerating the payments (x3) all of 2020.

We have also been saving in a separate account in addition to the mortgage. I guess we were worried about COVID and job losses. Decided to save up extra cash.

The payoff amount and the extra account may cross each other allowing us to make the final payment. Around $35k.

If the spreadsheet is correct, we can submit the final payment and cross the finish line. I still can not imagine having ZERO debt.

Following all you others has been inspiring.

So I wait until tomorrow to see if we made it.

Swanee.

PS I know this is not a big deal for some. Me 54, DW 52. Not real early.....


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Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on February 04, 2021, 08:26:57 PM
First payment post re-finance has been made.  Did not have the escrow from the previous lender yet, but I did have the whole Jan and extra payment to put toward the February bill.  2924 total extra.

Start: 168,090
New: 164,788.99

March will include the escrow from the old lender and the extra(?) from the new lender. Should be a bit over 6k.
That'll get your indenture down ~20% if I interpreted it right...  You're killing it!   Keep focused because it's how you kill this debt and win!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on February 05, 2021, 02:41:15 AM
Do you ladies and gentlemen know what tomorrow is?

February 5th, 2021.

Our mortgage payment will come out of our checking account.

We have been accelerating the payments (x3) all of 2020.

We have also been saving in a separate account in addition to the mortgage. I guess we were worried about COVID and job losses. Decided to save up extra cash.

The payoff amount and the extra account may cross each other allowing us to make the final payment. Around $35k.

If the spreadsheet is correct, we can submit the final payment and cross the finish line. I still can not imagine having ZERO debt.

Following all you others has been inspiring.

So I wait until tomorrow to see if we made it.

Swanee.

PS I know this is not a big deal for some. Me 54, DW 52. Not real early.....


That's a huge deal @swaneesr!  Congratulations!  :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: alcon835 on February 05, 2021, 09:54:31 AM
Do you ladies and gentlemen know what tomorrow is?

February 5th, 2021.

Our mortgage payment will come out of our checking account.

We have been accelerating the payments (x3) all of 2020.

We have also been saving in a separate account in addition to the mortgage. I guess we were worried about COVID and job losses. Decided to save up extra cash.

The payoff amount and the extra account may cross each other allowing us to make the final payment. Around $35k.

If the spreadsheet is correct, we can submit the final payment and cross the finish line. I still can not imagine having ZERO debt.

Following all you others has been inspiring.

So I wait until tomorrow to see if we made it.

Swanee.

PS I know this is not a big deal for some. Me 54, DW 52. Not real early.....


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This is awesome @swaneesr !!!!!!!!!!!

You gotta come back here and celebrate once you fully and completely own your home!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on February 05, 2021, 12:10:21 PM
Go do the barefoot lawn dance on your very own ground.  Or the barefoot snow dance....just don't get frostbite.  Congratulations!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: swaneesr on February 09, 2021, 04:51:06 PM
It is done.

DW and I dropped off the cashiers check this morning and we are mortgage and debt free.

It is a fantastic feeling. I updated my online account just now and the loans category now displays ZERO.

What a great feeling. This is a great club to be in, nice when a long term goal is met, even if is was expected.

I hope everything is going well with you others. Set goals and keep moving forward!

Swanee and the Mrs. Swanee


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Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: markbike528CBX on February 09, 2021, 06:37:27 PM
Hey @swaneesr , could not have said the quote below better.
Go do the barefoot lawn dance on your very own ground.  Or the barefoot snow dance....just don't get frostbite.  Congratulations!!!
  I concur.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on February 10, 2021, 02:04:48 AM
It is done.

DW and I dropped off the cashiers check this morning and we are mortgage and debt free.

It is a fantastic feeling. I updated my online account just now and the loans category now displays ZERO.

What a great feeling. This is a great club to be in, nice when a long term goal is met, even if is was expected.

I hope everything is going well with you others. Set goals and keep moving forward!

Swanee and the Mrs. Swanee


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Woo hoo!!!  Congrats!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: alcon835 on February 10, 2021, 06:29:49 AM
It is done.

DW and I dropped off the cashiers check this morning and we are mortgage and debt free.

It is a fantastic feeling. I updated my online account just now and the loans category now displays ZERO.

What a great feeling. This is a great club to be in, nice when a long term goal is met, even if is was expected.

I hope everything is going well with you others. Set goals and keep moving forward!

Swanee and the Mrs. Swanee


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

YEAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!! Congratulations!!! What a HUGE accomplishment!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on February 10, 2021, 08:24:59 PM
It is done.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

And yet, freedom is just beginning!   Congrats!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: swaneesr on February 11, 2021, 05:26:50 AM
Thank you all!

Who’s up next?


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Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Lilium on February 20, 2021, 04:41:28 PM
So envious of all of you that are done with this journey!

Put all the returned from the mortgage companies back into it.  Will have some tax return money to put to it next month, but after that, it'll be the long slog.

Start: 168,090
Extra payment March: 6979

New balance: 157,411
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on February 23, 2021, 09:04:05 PM
@Lilium,  About 10% off the top in a couple of months is awesome!  It's amazing what you can put towards it quicker than you think following MMM methods you learn from the forums here to change budgets, savings rate and setting milestone goals and rewarding you (and yours who buy-in) along the way...   And think about cash and other after-tax equity accounts in the market...   How quickly will you use those assets to kill that debt (leaving a 3-6 month emergency fund aside is plenty) AND then save to get back to those after tax balances with the right discipline...  Be brave, kill the debt, be free.   Accelerate wealth building from there.  IT WORKS!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: CheapScholar on February 27, 2021, 07:40:08 AM
Haven’t visited this thread in a while, as I paid off my mortgage exactly 5 months ago right before my 40th birthday. Two things I’ll say:

(1) It was the best thing I’ve done on my FIRE journey so far. I absolutely love owning my home, it’s a peace of mind like nothing else. I totally get the math and arguments for not paying off the house, but for me it was the right decision. I should mention that both my spouse and I max out all retirement accounts - not maxing out and paying down mortgages is foolish IMO. Also worth noting that I’m scheduled to hit my minimum FIRE number within 12-24 months.

(2) You’d think this would be obvious, but once the mortgage is paid off your money just starts piling up on you. Of course, I knew we’d have more cash but I was kind of unprepared for just how fast it started accumulating. Part of this was COVID, as we haven’t booked any travel and haven’t really spent much money locally. Our mortgage payment/taxes/insurance was about 1K, and we were using another 1K per month to attack the mortgage principal. So basically we now have an extra 2k per month that we need to invest or spend, which means brokerage accounts and 529 plan.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on March 12, 2021, 06:17:46 PM
Well said @CheapScholar!   For anyone else reading this, the difference in your behavior after paying off ALL debt including mortgage is the most amazing thing you can do finan-tellectually IMO...   You realize you're at another level.   Who's next??
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: MaybeBabyMustache on March 13, 2021, 07:54:20 AM
Congrats, @CheapScholar !

We're not done, but we did make some huge progress on our mortgage this week, so I'll share. Please note, we live in a VHCOL in the bay area, and despite the way the numbers sound, we do not own even close to a fancy house. It's fine, but this is all about location.

-Bought a house for $2.65M in February of 2017
-Put $650k down, mortgage for $2M
-It's been our goal to hit the half way mortgage point in four years
-We squeezed in just a month over that, and are sitting at a mortgage of $820k, as of yesterday
-We've also done substantial remodeling (cash) in the house. House is now worth $3.2M+, and we plan to live here for the next four years or so, until the kids are out of high school
-The next goal is to get the mortgage to $500k, and recast it, so we can comfortably live off of my husband's salary. I expect this to take 12-18 months
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on March 16, 2021, 06:25:22 AM
@MaybeBabyMustache , I'd be curious to know your reaction to Sam's claim that a jump up in Tech share pricess will lead to a jump up in Bay Area real estate:

https://www.financialsamurai.com/2021-financial-samurai-outlook-stocks-real-estate/ (https://www.financialsamurai.com/2021-financial-samurai-outlook-stocks-real-estate/)

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: MaybeBabyMustache on March 16, 2021, 07:56:50 AM
@MaybeBabyMustache , I'd be curious to know your reaction to Sam's claim that a jump up in Tech share pricess will lead to a jump up in Bay Area real estate:

https://www.financialsamurai.com/2021-financial-samurai-outlook-stocks-real-estate/ (https://www.financialsamurai.com/2021-financial-samurai-outlook-stocks-real-estate/)

I disagree. Pre-COVID, there are correlations, but the CA exit (both at a company & individual level) is real. Post-COVID, many employers have said they will be granting significant WFH/remote flex. That has a couple of options. For companies offering full flex, I highly doubt the majority of their employees will continue to live in the bay area. For a company who, for example, wants you to come to the office a couple of times/month, I'm expecting that to make outer area communities that are currently too far for a daily commute, much more attractive. That will help spread people around a bit more than they are now. Personally, I think post-COVID, the market here will cool down quite a bit, as people figure out where they want to be long-term.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on March 22, 2021, 07:10:07 PM
@Maybe...   Geez, what a high stakes real estate market that's like nothing else so best of luck on the next 4 years.   Don't be shocked the MoneyBadger is saying this but, if you plan to really sell it in <5 years, it should be better to put the money to work growing income now (first eliminating all other monthly debts like autos, etc. that effectively create tax free monthly $ flow) than recast.   The recast then subsequent higher monthly paydown is good if you want to stay to kill the mortgage, but you're talking about being able to RETIRE in 4 years from playing the game with over $2M in cash in hand (or whatever is left in a LCOL home area as those remote workers are doing).   Or if you really stay put, the best bet would be to keep at it, then refinance from a Jumbo loan to a conventional loan with better rate...    It's a jumbo pivot point you're approaching literally and figuratively.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: MaybeBabyMustache on March 23, 2021, 08:26:32 AM
@Maybe...   Geez, what a high stakes real estate market that's like nothing else so best of luck on the next 4 years.   Don't be shocked the MoneyBadger is saying this but, if you plan to really sell it in <5 years, it should be better to put the money to work growing income now (first eliminating all other monthly debts like autos, etc. that effectively create tax free monthly $ flow) than recast.   The recast then subsequent higher monthly paydown is good if you want to stay to kill the mortgage, but you're talking about being able to RETIRE in 4 years from playing the game with over $2M in cash in hand (or whatever is left in a LCOL home area as those remote workers are doing).   Or if you really stay put, the best bet would be to keep at it, then refinance from a Jumbo loan to a conventional loan with better rate...    It's a jumbo pivot point you're approaching literally and figuratively.

Not shocked, & always welcome feedback. :-) We have no other debt, and have $2M+ in retirement accounts, separate from the house. Yes, the market is crazy here.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Nederstash on April 17, 2021, 05:55:07 AM
So jealous of everyone here! Well done to everyone who's paid off their mortgage!

This week I paid off an extra 10,000. I kept debating whether I'd put it towards a new kitchen (nothing wrong with it, just cosmetics) or even a new home altogether, but I decided to stick around here for a few more years. Feels good!

Original mortgage: 223k
Current mortgage: 162k
Current home value: around 400k (market's crazy here too)

I'm planning to throw another 12k at the mortgage this year and then 22k a year after that. I'm currently 34 and a half years old... think I can knock it out before I'm 40? My interest rate is 3,6% and it's deductable (37,1% tax rate, so effective rate is 2,26%). Refi is too expensive, would take another 15 years to earn back the penalty.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on April 24, 2021, 06:28:23 AM
@Nederstash,   Nicely done so far!   Of course, the badger has gotta ask how we kill that debt in 3 years or less... If you can put $22K /yr in free cash flow, then you're well under $100K in 3 years.   So how much is in after tax investments at moment and/or bonuses or other windfalls you'd expect (or in the sofa cushions or stuff you could sell) that can kill this the next 3 years?  Make that the goal. 

The point is that you will have enormous free cash flow once mortgage freedom occurs.  This isn't about the old debate of "invest" vs. "payoff mortgage"...   It's about accelerating your freedom...  It allows maxing the retirement plans with increased tax efficiencies far more than the mortgage deduction AND it enables a level of freedom and more confident mindset that's HUGE when the other little challenges of life come along.  Map out a 3 year plan even if you don't have the funds today... amazingly, they will appear if you stay with it.  ;-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Lilium on April 26, 2021, 05:03:19 PM
Looks like I missed updating April...

Start: 168,090
Extra April: 2256
Extra May: 856

New Balance: 153,474

8.5% (?) paid off this year, so far.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Nederstash on April 27, 2021, 12:23:22 PM
@Nederstash,   Nicely done so far!   Of course, the badger has gotta ask how we kill that debt in 3 years or less... If you can put $22K /yr in free cash flow, then you're well under $100K in 3 years.   So how much is in after tax investments at moment and/or bonuses or other windfalls you'd expect (or in the sofa cushions or stuff you could sell) that can kill this the next 3 years?  Make that the goal. 

The point is that you will have enormous free cash flow once mortgage freedom occurs.  This isn't about the old debate of "invest" vs. "payoff mortgage"...   It's about accelerating your freedom...  It allows maxing the retirement plans with increased tax efficiencies far more than the mortgage deduction AND it enables a level of freedom and more confident mindset that's HUGE when the other little challenges of life come along.  Map out a 3 year plan even if you don't have the funds today... amazingly, they will appear if you stay with it.  ;-)

Hey badger, thanks for the reply! 22.3k a year is what I can pay off extra without penalty (10% of the original mortgage). The penalty is based on the difference between the current interest rate and my interest rate and the remaining term I locked in the interest rate. I'd be looking at a 20% penalty... I'm sticking with the penalty free maximum and investing the (meager) leftovers. Should be able to knock it out before I turn 40!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Sargemo on May 10, 2021, 09:09:57 AM
Dave is significantly more solid than folks around here give him credit for.

I think he's awesome at connecting with his audience and convincing them to change their behavior for the better.
He gives great advice for getting out of debt, particularly for people who have had problems controlling their spending.

His investing advice seems suspect and designed to funnel people to high fee investments.

As is being discussed in another thread, DR is also an anti-masker and workplace tyrant who fires people who do things he doesn't approve of in their private lives. He browbeats employees and callers who don't agree with him... I could go on...

So it's not just the message, but also the messenger.

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/off-topic/dave-ramsey-is-an-anti-masker/ (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/off-topic/dave-ramsey-is-an-anti-masker/)
https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/pith-in-the-wind/article/21145502/get-a-load-of-this-unhinged-email-from-dave-ramsey-and-co (https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/pith-in-the-wind/article/21145502/get-a-load-of-this-unhinged-email-from-dave-ramsey-and-co)
https://religionnews.com/2021/01/15/dave-ramsey-is-tired-of-being-called-a-jerk-for-his-stands-on-sex-and-covid/ (https://religionnews.com/2021/01/15/dave-ramsey-is-tired-of-being-called-a-jerk-for-his-stands-on-sex-and-covid/)

Fully agree.   Was limiting my comments to financial advice matters.

Dave gives very good debt and risk advice and has helped many compartmentalize and manage their debt loads.  Agreement on all topics is not so important.  People are as complex as their financial plans.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Huskerfan on May 11, 2021, 10:03:47 PM
Just graduated from
The $75k-50k club.  Starting Mortgage Debt (July 2019) :  $90,835.26
(Not total mortgage... that was around $179k)

Beginning Mortgage Debt This Month: $52282
Paid Mortgage Debt This Month :  $3211
Ending Mortgage Debt : $49646

****Descriptive Text *****
$2636 off of principle

Well... I did it. 
I graduated and went below the $50k mark.
I’ll spend the next 2.5 years here as we countdown towards no more mortgage.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dutch Comfort on May 21, 2021, 01:49:17 AM
Hope I can join in here as well.
We're in Dutchieland where the housing market is ABSOLUTELY crazy.

House: bought in 2003 fully mortgaged to EUR 490K
Refinanced in 2013 - Mortgage EUR 390K
Did a few repayments and current mortgage is split in two parts:
Mortgage 1: EUR 254K, max yearly repayment is EUR 27K, but no repayment obligation since house value is around EUR 650K, financed at 2.62%
Mortgage 2: EUR 71K, max yearly repayment is EUR 12K, payment obligation is EUR 6K per year, financed at 2.59%

Our goal: to kill Mortgage 2 ASAP which will leave us with the relatively low monthly payment obligation of interest on Mortgage 1.
With the maximum yearly payment it will take us 6 years from now (contract is 12 years from now with the regular payments, so we try to get this to 6!). Any additional funds will be either in Mortgage 1 or invested.

Here we go
dateM1M2repayment date M2
Original270,000120,00006/01/33
May2021254,00071,00003/01/33


Goal: M2 repayment in May 2027?


@Nederstash: same country I think...... can you try to even out the interest ("rentemiddeling" in Dutch)? This will result in lower monthly payments, while you can still get to the maximum yearly repayments.


Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: alcon835 on May 21, 2021, 06:53:00 AM
Hope I can join in here as well.

Of course you can join! Welcome to the race!!! Here's hoping you blow your projected date out of the water!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on May 28, 2021, 08:58:12 AM
It takes money to join. Send it to your lender, and they'll forward it to the moderators.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: crowinghen on May 28, 2021, 11:51:23 AM
New member of the club!!
 Sold our long time home yesterday, (we had a small mortgage still left on it)  moved to our downsized retirement home that is owned free and clear.
- Bittersweet, but great to be absolutely  totally debt free!
:)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on June 01, 2021, 06:20:54 AM
@Nederstash and @Dutch Comfort   Thanks for sharing your interesting scenarios in Holland!  Seems continental banking practices are all about keeping mortgage holders in debt by using prepayment penalties to reduce early prepayment of loans (presumably to keep the banks mortgage backed securities from losing value from balance reductions that reduce interest payments to their bond holders?)  And seems your bankers tend to favor the option to simply fully refinance loans instead of monthly prepayments (presumably to earn more loan origination fees, make mortgage bondholders more likely to earn your new loan's interest payments and keep the whole debt cycle going as long as the bank can?)  If so, the above seems to favor Neder's approach of a side account to grow to ultimately be able to write a check to pay off when ready to minimize penalties.    Curious how much in %age terms does it cost to simply payoff an ENTIRE loan in prepayment penalties there?   Does it vary by credit level or total mortgage balance for example?   And how much can be deducted from income taxes for mortgage interest?     
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: swaneesr on June 01, 2021, 07:02:06 PM
New member of the club!!
 Sold our long time home yesterday, (we had a small mortgage still left on it)  moved to our downsized retirement home that is owned free and clear.
- Bittersweet, but great to be absolutely  totally debt free!
:)
Congratulations!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dutch Comfort on June 02, 2021, 08:04:12 AM
@Nederstash and @Dutch Comfort   Thanks for sharing your interesting scenarios in Holland!  Seems continental banking practices are all about keeping mortgage holders in debt by using prepayment penalties to reduce early prepayment of loans (presumably to keep the banks mortgage backed securities from losing value from balance reductions that reduce interest payments to their bond holders?)  And seems your bankers tend to favor the option to simply fully refinance loans instead of monthly prepayments (presumably to earn more loan origination fees, make mortgage bondholders more likely to earn your new loan's interest payments and keep the whole debt cycle going as long as the bank can?)  If so, the above seems to favor Neder's approach of a side account to grow to ultimately be able to write a check to pay off when ready to minimize penalties.    Curious how much in %age terms does it cost to simply payoff an ENTIRE loan in prepayment penalties there?   Does it vary by credit level or total mortgage balance for example?   And how much can be deducted from income taxes for mortgage interest?   

Mortgages here are interesting! A mortgage can be for no more than 100% of the house value (which can be lower than your purchase price, especially is these crazy housing market, so the rest is a obligatory downpayment). A mortgage of 50% or more of the house value (which, again, is not the purchase price) should be repayable on a straight line basis or as an annuity, the other part (max 50% of the house value) can be taken as a non-repayable loan. For the straight line /annuity part, you can get a tax deduction on the interest paid. For the non-repayable part, no tax deduction on the interest.
Usually, for the straight line / annuity part, you can repay 10% extra (sometimes 20%) without any penalty. If you pay more, the penalty is equal to the interest missed by the bank. For the non-repayable part, you can usually repay on a voluntary basis somewhere between 10-20% without any penalty. Again, the penalty is equal to the interest missed by the bank.
The above is the general structure since around 2010 because before that, mortgages could be on a fully non-repayable basis. So when you signed a contract for 30 years, you only paid interest, no repayment of principal. This changed after the financial crisis to the structure above, because a lot of people who had 100% non-repayable mortgages did not have the discipline to save for the repayment (which is due in 30 years in 1 go, or you had to refinance).

If you see our structure we have M1 which is non repayable for EUR 254K. I do not worry about that, since we're planning on selling the house in the future (house value is currently EUR 650K) and move to a smaller house once the kids are on their own.
M2 is repayable on a straight line basis in 20 years (currently 12 years and EUR 71K left). I want to get that part out of the way ASAP, since this will decrease our monthly expenses and then we can start repaying M1 if we want (or setup an account to grow, that is to be decided.....).

So, this is a little insight in the Dutch mortgage maze..... it is not as straight-line (pun intended) as you would think......
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on June 03, 2021, 08:29:18 PM
@Dutch Comfort   Wow!   Talk about a system of endless indenture!    Good luck paying off the 71K and hope the downsize works out soon enough.  Time to get you out of that socialized, banker-lobby-induced mess...  Take care!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: MaybeBabyMustache on June 06, 2021, 09:03:15 AM
Congrats, @CheapScholar !

We're not done, but we did make some huge progress on our mortgage this week, so I'll share. Please note, we live in a VHCOL in the bay area, and despite the way the numbers sound, we do not own even close to a fancy house. It's fine, but this is all about location.

-Bought a house for $2.65M in February of 2017
-Put $650k down, mortgage for $2M
-It's been our goal to hit the half way mortgage point in four years
-We squeezed in just a month over that, and are sitting at a mortgage of $820k, as of yesterday
-We've also done substantial remodeling (cash) in the house. House is now worth $3.2M+, and we plan to live here for the next four years or so, until the kids are out of high school
-The next goal is to get the mortgage to $500k, and recast it, so we can comfortably live off of my husband's salary. I expect this to take 12-18 months

Okay, so chiming in with an update. Our mortgage is now at $700k, so another $120k paid off since my last update a few months ago. We're trying to sell our vacation house (the buyers are...a challenge). If that happens, it may be in scope to have our ridiculously expensive house paid off within the next year. Fingers crossed! What a milestone that would be.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on June 08, 2021, 08:35:07 AM
That is some impressive downward movement, @MaybeBabyMustache . Net decrease per year on the principal balance exceeds many of our annual incomes!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: MaybeBabyMustache on June 08, 2021, 10:19:14 AM
@talltexan - it's a double edge sword. For us, HCOL has translated into very high salaries & is worth the additional expenses in housing. I always feel the need to add the disclaimer that our house, while completely acceptable & nice, is by no stretch of any kind a palace. I dream of one day having a bath tub. ;-)  Location is everything.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Huskerfan on July 05, 2021, 04:11:59 PM
Just graduated from
The $75k-50k club.  Starting Mortgage Debt (July 2019) :  $90,835.26
(Not total mortgage... that was around $179k)

Beginning Mortgage Debt This Month: $47201
Paid Mortgage Debt This Month :  $2711
Ending Mortgage Debt : $45049

****Descriptive Text *****
$2152 off of principle

Well, I see this as being a December 2023 payoff, if my calculations stay the same. This will remain our goal; even if I have to submit for my retirement a bit early due to medical stuff.  Hopefully that doesn’t take place though.  I’d like a few years of good earnings beyond having a mortgage.


Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Nederstash on July 10, 2021, 11:46:25 AM
I put 5000 into the mortgage last week and another 10,000 a few weeks before that. Honestly feels great! Now at 156k. Home is valued at 400k. I'd love to sell and get something with a garden but alas... can't buy a house for a normal price around here!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dutch Comfort on July 12, 2021, 05:39:31 AM
@Dutch Comfort   Wow!   Talk about a system of endless indenture!    Good luck paying off the 71K and hope the downsize works out soon enough.  Time to get you out of that socialized, banker-lobby-induced mess...  Take care!
Definitely a system of endless indebtness..... I totally want to decrease the amount I need to pay to the bank (I hate the obligation to pay money to anyone.....especially banks).

We redirected some refunds (tax and insurance) to our mortgage. Shaved another 3 months off!

Update on our mortgage:
   
Original: 120,000 repayment date 06/01/33
May2021: 71,000 repayment date 03/01/33
June2021: 69,000 repayment date 12/01/32

Goal: repayment in May 2027?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on July 28, 2021, 07:14:27 PM
@Dutch,   Good progress.   To pay 69K Euro in 2 years, what savings rate would you have to have?    What if a relatively small contribution from investment accounts that are at all-time highs or relatively "toppy" prices?   A trick that worked for us...   The debt has to have a name to make it personal and it needs to leave your house!   At our house, we called it "Kill Bill!"
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dutch Comfort on July 29, 2021, 12:40:37 AM
@Money Badger, we're using tax refunds to do additional repayments. Our post-tax investment accounts are not high enough to repay. And when we pay it in full in two years, we have to pay a penalty to the bank (I definitely do not want that.....).
So currently, we're funding our pre-tax investment (retirement) fund with after tax funds. This way, we get a tax refund and use the refund to repay the mortgage (example: we put 1000 in the pre-tax investment fund (which we can only access once retired), we get a tax refund of EUR 500 and we put this towards the mortgage, leaving us with a 1000 investment fund and a 500 less mortgage). We can only fund till a max of EUR 5,000 this year, so I'm first doing this pre-tax investment fund, so I have a nice refund next year!
I just calculated the savings rate that I should have (just for fun) to pay it in 2 years..... this would be >90%..... not a real opportunity at this moment! But we stick to our plan and try to direct as much funds as possible towards the mortgage. Let's kill it!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on August 03, 2021, 08:15:48 PM
Wow... 50% tax refund on investment funds?   Gives new meaning to the old cliche phrase "Go Dutch!"  ;-)    Sounds like you have a great plan and agree that 50% return on money is better than mortgage interest!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dutch Comfort on August 04, 2021, 06:01:04 AM
Wow... 50% tax refund on investment funds?   Gives new meaning to the old cliche phrase "Go Dutch!"  ;-)    Sounds like you have a great plan and agree that 50% return on money is better than mortgage interest!

There is a maximum to this tax refund. But I can add appr. EUR 2-3K per year to this investment fund (it is depending on the amount which is added to your Company pension scheme and maxed to around EUR 5K per year, but you can have a backlog of around 5 years..... very sophisticated tax rules...... but in any case, when you dig into the rules and comply, you can have a great refund!) and you can only access the fund from your "government retirement date", which is currently around 67 years. But anyway, the funds stay in my own account, so this is my first "investment of choice" and it will give a great retirement plus in 20 years time!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: MaybeBabyMustache on August 04, 2021, 12:00:08 PM
Congrats, @CheapScholar !

We're not done, but we did make some huge progress on our mortgage this week, so I'll share. Please note, we live in a VHCOL in the bay area, and despite the way the numbers sound, we do not own even close to a fancy house. It's fine, but this is all about location.

-Bought a house for $2.65M in February of 2017
-Put $650k down, mortgage for $2M
-It's been our goal to hit the half way mortgage point in four years
-We squeezed in just a month over that, and are sitting at a mortgage of $820k, as of yesterday
-We've also done substantial remodeling (cash) in the house. House is now worth $3.2M+, and we plan to live here for the next four years or so, until the kids are out of high school
-The next goal is to get the mortgage to $500k, and recast it, so we can comfortably live off of my husband's salary. I expect this to take 12-18 months

So much has changed since I posted last! We sold our vacation home (unexpectedly, due to a huge COVID price surge) & I made the last mortgage payment today! We've paid off $2.65M in 4.5 years. I'm so happy! Can't wait to see the official mortgage balance hit zero. We will definitely be going out to eat, and opening champagne.

Other updates. Zillow currently has our house at the ~$3.9M mark, which continues to be crazy nuts. And, we may decide to stay in the area. We've explored a few other places, and while we may want smaller over time, prices have gone up to the point that even smaller may be expensive enough to re-set our tax base to something that makes it not worth while, if we stay in the area. In California, your property tax point is set at the time you buy, and capped until you sell/die. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on August 24, 2021, 09:27:31 AM
Congrats, @CheapScholar !

We're not done, but we did make some huge progress on our mortgage this week, so I'll share. Please note, we live in a VHCOL in the bay area, and despite the way the numbers sound, we do not own even close to a fancy house. It's fine, but this is all about location.

-Bought a house for $2.65M in February of 2017
-Put $650k down, mortgage for $2M
-It's been our goal to hit the half way mortgage point in four years
-We squeezed in just a month over that, and are sitting at a mortgage of $820k, as of yesterday
-We've also done substantial remodeling (cash) in the house. House is now worth $3.2M+, and we plan to live here for the next four years or so, until the kids are out of high school
-The next goal is to get the mortgage to $500k, and recast it, so we can comfortably live off of my husband's salary. I expect this to take 12-18 months

So much has changed since I posted last! We sold our vacation home (unexpectedly, due to a huge COVID price surge) & I made the last mortgage payment today! We've paid off $2.65M in 4.5 years. I'm so happy! Can't wait to see the official mortgage balance hit zero. We will definitely be going out to eat, and opening champagne.

Other updates. Zillow currently has our house at the ~$3.9M mark, which continues to be crazy nuts. And, we may decide to stay in the area. We've explored a few other places, and while we may want smaller over time, prices have gone up to the point that even smaller may be expensive enough to re-set our tax base to something that makes it not worth while, if we stay in the area. In California, your property tax point is set at the time you buy, and capped until you sell/die.
But when you turn 55 you can roll over your tax base into the next property, so it won't hurt at all to downsize then.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on September 02, 2021, 08:12:18 PM
Another day, another day debt free!   After almost 3 full years, it NEVER gets old.   C'mon, guys, who else is close or considering it?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: swaneesr on September 02, 2021, 08:53:33 PM
6 months for us.

No debt, watching the extra cash pile up.

No worries.

SwaneeSR


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on September 04, 2021, 03:07:28 AM
@Nederstash: same country I think...... can you try to even out the interest ("rentemiddeling" in Dutch)? This will result in lower monthly payments, while you can still get to the maximum yearly repayments.
I never tried to get a lower interest, I just paid off full steam (was done in 7 years). After 5 years the fixed interest was done and so we could pay off however much we wanted.

You can always go up to Kifid with a claim that the sum calculated as fine is not actually the amount they are losing profit on. I've seen some messages on another forum that the bank simply said that the current interest is 1% and the old one is 4% so the differing 3% is smeared out over the new fixed interest period. Iirc this isn't allowed.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Huskerfan on September 05, 2021, 06:27:39 AM
Recently graduated from
The $75k-50k club.  Starting Mortgage Debt (July 2019) :  $90,835.26
(Not total mortgage... that was around $179k)

Beginning Mortgage Debt This Month: $42891
Paid Mortgage Debt This Month :  $2711
Ending Mortgage Debt : $40725

****Descriptive Text *****
$2166 off of principle

Well, I see this as being a December 2023 payoff, if my calculations stay the same. This will remain our goal; even if I have to submit for my retirement a bit early due to medical stuff.  Hopefully that doesn’t take place though.  I’d like a few years of good earnings beyond having a mortgage.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on September 05, 2021, 09:55:20 PM
You can always go up to Kifid with a claim that the sum calculated as fine is not actually the amount they are losing profit on. I've seen some messages on another forum that the bank simply said that the current interest is 1% and the old one is 4% so the differing 3% is smeared out over the new fixed interest period. Iirc this isn't allowed.

Are refinancing with lenders in other EU countries allowed?  It's amazing that the Danish system attempts to lock you into servitude if you're fortunate enough to pay early or refinance the loan.  It's such an easy computer transaction and such an easy change to whatever financial bond/security instrument has the loan to "market adjust"to the reality.   Think about it, the same bonds/security instruments have to adjust every day to interest rate normal fluctuations... why could they not adjust to principal debt amounts behind the securities as well?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on September 06, 2021, 08:10:23 AM
You can always go up to Kifid with a claim that the sum calculated as fine is not actually the amount they are losing profit on. I've seen some messages on another forum that the bank simply said that the current interest is 1% and the old one is 4% so the differing 3% is smeared out over the new fixed interest period. Iirc this isn't allowed.

Are refinancing with lenders in other EU countries allowed?  It's amazing that the Danish system attempts to lock you into servitude if you're fortunate enough to pay early or refinance the loan.  It's such an easy computer transaction and such an easy change to whatever financial bond/security instrument has the loan to "market adjust"to the reality.   Think about it, the same bonds/security instruments have to adjust every day to interest rate normal fluctuations... why could they not adjust to principal debt amounts behind the securities as well?
Don't know in the rest of the EU but in the Netherlands the bank basically holds you to your contracted interest period. Quit faster? Pay a fine.

It's the bank's win either way though the fine should not be higher than the actual loss of the broken contract. Some banks basically calculate the differens of contracted interest vs current interest x remaining contract period = fine.

However, when the interest rate is higher than the fixed interest you are usually let go without a fuss because the bank can re-loan the same amount for a higher interest.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dagnab1t on September 15, 2021, 11:14:28 AM
We paid off our mortgage last month choosing to go the route of no debt. It feels amazing to have no debt. Financially speaking, investing that money may have been a better choice in the long run. Mental health speaking, I have never felt this free. I can not wait to hit FI.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: swaneesr on September 15, 2021, 11:28:18 AM
We paid off our mortgage last month choosing to go the route of no debt. It feels amazing to have no debt. Financially speaking, investing that money may have been a better choice in the long run. Mental health speaking, I have never felt this free. I can not wait to hit FI.
Congratulations! 

We felt the same way.

SwaneeSR


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on September 15, 2021, 01:23:24 PM
We paid off our mortgage last month choosing to go the route of no debt. It feels amazing to have no debt. Financially speaking, investing that money may have been a better choice in the long run. Mental health speaking, I have never felt this free. I can not wait to hit FI.

Congratulations!  We felt the same way too.  It never gets old either. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: MaybeBabyMustache on September 28, 2021, 02:52:53 PM
Congrats, @CheapScholar !

We're not done, but we did make some huge progress on our mortgage this week, so I'll share. Please note, we live in a VHCOL in the bay area, and despite the way the numbers sound, we do not own even close to a fancy house. It's fine, but this is all about location.

-Bought a house for $2.65M in February of 2017
-Put $650k down, mortgage for $2M
-It's been our goal to hit the half way mortgage point in four years
-We squeezed in just a month over that, and are sitting at a mortgage of $820k, as of yesterday
-We've also done substantial remodeling (cash) in the house. House is now worth $3.2M+, and we plan to live here for the next four years or so, until the kids are out of high school
-The next goal is to get the mortgage to $500k, and recast it, so we can comfortably live off of my husband's salary. I expect this to take 12-18 months

So much has changed since I posted last! We sold our vacation home (unexpectedly, due to a huge COVID price surge) & I made the last mortgage payment today! We've paid off $2.65M in 4.5 years. I'm so happy! Can't wait to see the official mortgage balance hit zero. We will definitely be going out to eat, and opening champagne.

Other updates. Zillow currently has our house at the ~$3.9M mark, which continues to be crazy nuts. And, we may decide to stay in the area. We've explored a few other places, and while we may want smaller over time, prices have gone up to the point that even smaller may be expensive enough to re-set our tax base to something that makes it not worth while, if we stay in the area. In California, your property tax point is set at the time you buy, and capped until you sell/die.
But when you turn 55 you can roll over your tax base into the next property, so it won't hurt at all to downsize then.

@couponvan - the ability to roll over the tax base at 55 was really interesting. Our current county does offer this (only 10 counties in California currently offer this, it looks like), and this would definitely influence where we might move
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on September 28, 2021, 04:23:58 PM
Congrats, @CheapScholar !

We're not done, but we did make some huge progress on our mortgage this week, so I'll share. Please note, we live in a VHCOL in the bay area, and despite the way the numbers sound, we do not own even close to a fancy house. It's fine, but this is all about location.

-Bought a house for $2.65M in February of 2017
-Put $650k down, mortgage for $2M
-It's been our goal to hit the half way mortgage point in four years
-We squeezed in just a month over that, and are sitting at a mortgage of $820k, as of yesterday
-We've also done substantial remodeling (cash) in the house. House is now worth $3.2M+, and we plan to live here for the next four years or so, until the kids are out of high school
-The next goal is to get the mortgage to $500k, and recast it, so we can comfortably live off of my husband's salary. I expect this to take 12-18 months

So much has changed since I posted last! We sold our vacation home (unexpectedly, due to a huge COVID price surge) & I made the last mortgage payment today! We've paid off $2.65M in 4.5 years. I'm so happy! Can't wait to see the official mortgage balance hit zero. We will definitely be going out to eat, and opening champagne.

Other updates. Zillow currently has our house at the ~$3.9M mark, which continues to be crazy nuts. And, we may decide to stay in the area. We've explored a few other places, and while we may want smaller over time, prices have gone up to the point that even smaller may be expensive enough to re-set our tax base to something that makes it not worth while, if we stay in the area. In California, your property tax point is set at the time you buy, and capped until you sell/die.
But when you turn 55 you can roll over your tax base into the next property, so it won't hurt at all to downsize then.

@couponvan - the ability to roll over the tax base at 55 was really interesting. Our current county does offer this (only 10 counties in California currently offer this, it looks like), and this would definitely influence where we might move
The new rule expanded this benefit to ALL of CA, not just those 10. So even more interesting.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: MaybeBabyMustache on September 28, 2021, 04:34:15 PM
@couponvan - oooh, even better! Thanks for sharing. We are checking out a few different potential retirement locations, and my husband is close to being able to use this benefit, so it's great to know.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on September 29, 2021, 12:10:13 PM
@MaybeBabyMustache — I just realized I missed your payoff announcement. Huge congratulations!  How are you feeling, almost two months afterward now?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: MaybeBabyMustache on September 29, 2021, 12:36:18 PM
 @Trifele  - thanks for asking! It's definitely so freeing & reduces a bunch of mental stress/overhead. That said, we opted to pay off our mortgage when we sold our vacation house, & didn't save for taxes. This was an intentional strategy, to save the interest on the mortgage. We're currently in the process of saving for the tax payment, so we've diverted our previous mortgage payments to tax savings. Once that's "done", it will be crazy to see the difference in our budget, and how much we're able to save.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dutch Comfort on October 05, 2021, 02:54:02 AM
Update on our mortgage:
   
Original: 120,000 repayment date 06/01/33
May2021: 71,000 repayment date 03/01/33
June2021: 69,000 repayment date 12/01/32
October 2021: 67,000 repayment date 12/01/32

Goal: repayment in May 2027?

No additional payments (just the standard ones) done in this quarter. Still funding my pre-tax pension with post-tax funds for a nice refund next year. I can still add around EUR 2K this year, so I'm working on that first! When there is anything left or if I get a bonus (fingers crossed), I can still decide on an additional payment.


Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on October 05, 2021, 07:33:44 PM
@Dutch Comfort,   Only 67K Euro left?   You've educated us on the various penalties of early payoff on the primary and secondary loan balances in Holland BUT....   Please just kill this debt with some other equity you have at hand... Just for emotional benefit of us all!   If it costs a bit extra, think of the value of your freedom from another 12 years of interest payments on such a small balance in the grander scheme of life (hopefully!).   Good fortune!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on October 05, 2021, 10:40:58 PM
We paid our mortgage off about a year ago and it's awesome.   Reduced our retirement living costs by about $18k a year.  That's a lot of fun money that we freed up!

I'm glad we held off on paying it off early until after we were retired because those invested dollars made paying off the mortgage a whole lot easier.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Vashy on October 11, 2021, 03:55:36 AM
Graduated from the 50-75k mortgage payoff club and joining this thread.

We took the original 90% mortgage for a 220k house back in 2010. Initial monthly payments were about 1,100, but we (I) aggressively re-mortgaged, plus the base rate kept plunging and the house appreciated in value after the "crash", and is now worth about 550k. Just the remortgaging left us with a nice chunk of leftover change, and we both had solid pay rises during the period (Mr Vashy's salary doubled and mine tripled). I had always overpaid a bit - sometimes I just wanted "round numbers", but with the excess cash sloshing around, we've made a bit more of an effort. Current monthly payments are sub-300.

At the November 2019 remortgage, we had just under 100k in principal outstanding, and we've now down to 50k. The goal is to kill the mortgage over the next two years. We can do 20k a year fairly comfortable, and I think we can stretch to 25k/year. We could do it faster but we also need to pad our cash savings (i.e. Vanguard S&S ISAs). We might also have to take on some debt again because we need a new roof and while we're at it, a loft conversion (would be a wise investment and also improve our quality of life, especially if we continue to work from home), because the house is very small.

Also, I have a freelancer side gig and have been eyeing the possibility to do that full time, but I'm not super comfortable with having a variable income while we still have debt, so the mortgage payoff day opens up a definite chance that I stop doing that 8-to-5 and do something else.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on October 12, 2021, 08:09:55 PM
@Vashy,  Both Congrats so far and Welcome to the danger zone!   It's so easy to take the foot off the gas or "treat" yourself at this point and end up going backwards.   I did it after paying off our home and kicked myself 7 years trying to pay off the big spendypants house.  Instead, we downsized, paid for a new place cash and put the remainder in the market that pays us every month.   Think about the lifestyle that's crept up as your salaries increased so dramatically.    Why not save for that new roof to pay cash?   Put off the lifestyle add from the loft and kill that debt in 1 year next instead?   Be "naughty" and take a bit of your stash to pay off the debt so your cash flow goes up dramatically in a year to dollar cost average back into the market with the cash flow or pay cash for that loft upgrade in a year.  Seriously, never, ever, never go backwards.   It's an amazing place to be free.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: alcon835 on October 13, 2021, 07:01:11 AM
Wow!!!! You are so close!

If you're only two years away you can act like it's a kid and start counting down in month! Only 24ish left to go?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Vashy on October 14, 2021, 10:20:44 AM
@Money Badger - Thank you! That's true about "treating yourself" - I was looking at cars (small, electric), and getting a driver's license (my old one has lapsed and is from a different country), but we've managed without for the past 16 years or so, so that would  be a little self-indulgent, even though it would massively increase my sense of freedom, ie being able to just just into a car and visit friends or go to the beach without having to navigate the many issues of public transport.

I did consider moving into a larger house, but luckily there's nothing on on the market in this area after the massive real estate bonanza of the past year, so there wasn't even anything to look at (or pine for) online. Ultimately, our tiny size works, but getting the loft done would again very much improve overall quality of life. And there's the bathroom/kitchen - both could use upgrades - they are 20-30 years old, and the shower is kind of crap. It would be so nice to be able to stand up straight while showering (the shower is installed under the eaves and the previous owner was a lot shorter than either of us). So yeah, there's at least 3-4 things I could spend a lot of money on right now, but we'll take that one at a time and after the mortgage. Hopefully the roof will be fine for those next two years...

The main lifestyle creep I see is really spending on food, but I've already rolled back a lot of eating out (pandemic helped, but so did working out just how much money we were spending in the local coffee shops). I might need to adjust again, this time in terms of food deliveries, but a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation still puts us at two years to payoff - mostly because we need to save up for the gap between desired retirement (at 50) and the time we can draw our private (pre-tax) pensions (55-57), and that money needs some time in the market. Mr Vashy is already doing a good job putting money into his Vanguard account, and every six months or so I get him to put some money he has just sitting in his account into the mortgage or into investments (let's say he's not the proactive money manager in the team). So mostly about finding the right balance. That said, once we have the work on the loft agreed, I do hope to pay as much cash as possible.

I do motivate Mr Vashy by telling him just how much cash we'll have left over once those two years of overpayments will be done. We both sleep easier without debt.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Vashy on October 14, 2021, 10:22:10 AM
Wow!!!! You are so close!

If you're only two years away you can act like it's a kid and start counting down in month! Only 24ish left to go?

I think that would make me too anxious - but I have the "remaining" amount written down on the whiteboard in the kitchen where we see it at all times. I might add a "freedom date" to it. :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: marcus_aurelius on October 14, 2021, 11:00:57 PM
In July 2019, we owed almost $400K on our mortgage (SF Bay Area, bought the house for $980K in 2011). We paid it off last month (used bonuses from my + wife’s jobs, plus some RSUs that had vested). I was in two minds for a long time about arbitrage (borrowing at 2.5% interest and investing in the stock market) and people told me I would regret it, but I’m super happy to be 100% mortgage free. In fact, we can FIRE today if we wanted!

For all those who're on the accelerated path to paying off the mortgage, stick with it and all the best! The grass on the lawn does feel different under your feet, and let me tell you it's totally worth it.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Vashy on October 15, 2021, 01:51:36 AM
In July 2019, we owed almost $400K on our mortgage (SF Bay Area, bought the house for $980K in 2011). We paid it off last month (used bonuses from my + wife’s jobs, plus some RSUs that had vested). I was in two minds for a long time about arbitrage (borrowing at 2.5% interest and investing in the stock market) and people told me I would regret it, but I’m super happy to be 100% mortgage free. In fact, we can FIRE today if we wanted!

For all those who're on the accelerated path to paying off the mortgage, stick with it and all the best! The grass on the lawn does feel different under your feet, and let me tell you it's totally worth it.

Congrats! How wonderful! Just the inspiring post I needed this morning. :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Huskerfan on October 15, 2021, 03:59:52 AM
Recently graduated from
The $75k-50k club.  Starting Mortgage Debt (July 2019) :  $90,835.26
(Not total mortgage... that was around $179k)

Beginning Mortgage Debt This Month: $40725
Paid Mortgage Debt This Month :  $2411
Ending Mortgage Debt : $38850

****Descriptive Text *****
$1875 off of principle

Well, I see this as being a December 2023 payoff, if my calculations stay the same. This will remain our goal; even if I have to submit for my retirement a bit early due to medical stuff.  Hopefully that doesn’t take place though.  I’d like a few years of good earnings beyond having a mortgage.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on October 15, 2021, 06:22:42 AM
@Huskerfan , if you can keep up $2,400 per month, you could be done by Dec. of 2022; are you planning to downshift?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Huskerfan on October 17, 2021, 07:26:06 PM
@Huskerfan , if you can keep up $2,400 per month, you could be done by Dec. of 2022; are you planning to downshift?

I was just thinking my DEC 2023 seemed off. 
We are planning to stay on that $2400 clip, as I have a large pay raise coming within the next 6 months so it makes sense to keep it going. 
I calculate around 20 months left; but that’s just back of the napkin math and not really figuring in the smaller amounts of interest towards the end of the loan. 

But the $2400 a month; which will drop $1875 or so off of principle is the likely scenario for the rest of our loan. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Vashy on October 21, 2021, 10:30:56 AM
Goal: Pay off mortgage completely by end-2023

Original mortgage: 200,000 (May 2010)
November 2019: c100,000
Most recent re-mortgaging (@1.04%, tracker, early October 2021): 51,000
Current: 45,500

Put lump sum of company profits/dividends into the mortgage and was happy to kill 10% of the outstanding balance. Current goal is to get much closer to 40,000 by end-2021, maybe even hit that number before the year is up. I might drop in some cash savings, but I'm loathe to sacrifice my emergency fund.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: twistedfirestarter on November 03, 2021, 03:41:14 PM
Just paid off the remaining balance on our mortgage, I know it's not the most efficient use of funds but it feels great!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: swaneesr on November 03, 2021, 08:17:07 PM
Just paid off the remaining balance on our mortgage, I know it's not the most efficient use of funds but it feels great!
Congratulations!

Maybe not the most efficient, but a wonderful feeling and risk reducer.

SwaneeSR


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Askel on November 05, 2021, 12:46:17 PM
Hi folks!

I've been a big proponent of mortgage payoff and paid off my last one early so definitely don't want to open the don't pay off your mortgage early can of worms in this thread. But I do want to make you all aware of this: The I bond rate just hit 7.12% https://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/research/indepth/ibonds/res_ibonds_ifaq.htm

I consider this safe enough to use as part of a strategy in paying down my current mortgage while making a little extra interest on the side.   

Best of luck! Having done it before I can say paying off that mortgage early is worth it, keep plugging away- and maybe this will help you find a couple extra bucks in your pocket when you do.   

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on November 12, 2021, 06:28:37 AM
Thanks for sharing this. A lot of people I know first learn about I-Bonds from Larry Kotlikoff's retirement discussions (he has several books), and Prof. Kotlikoff would certainly be in the "Mortgage Payoff Club".
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Huskerfan on December 26, 2021, 10:58:47 PM
Starting Mortgage Debt (July 2019) :  $90,835.26
(Not total mortgage... that was around $179k)

Beginning Mortgage Debt This Month: $37175
Paid Mortgage Debt This Month :  $2211
Ending Mortgage Debt : $35492

****Descriptive Text *****
$1683 off of principle


Goal is to continue at the current pace; but it may ramp up to paying an additional $500 a month for principal. As of right now, quick numbers show around a 20 month payoff.  Ultimately with an extra $500… that may bump it to 15 months.  We may shoot for 12 months but that means taking a few hard looks at the numbers.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Anon-E-Mouze on December 28, 2021, 09:38:39 AM
We aren't firmly in the "don't pay off your mortgage" club, but our very large mortgage has been a source of some anxiety in the past two years, especially since we're aiming to Fat FIRE around 2024-2025.

We live in a very HCOL area and our original mortgage (when we bought the house in the spring of 2018) was 940K on a 1.3M house.

2021 has been a good year. Among other things, I managed to renew our mortgage at the beginning of the year for a 4-year term at 1.69%, compared to the 3.29% rate we'd paid for the first 3 years of the mortgage.

(This is Canada, where shorter mortgage terms are normal. Our standard fixed-rate mortgage also gives us the option of paying down 15% of the original principal (15% of $940K) every year plus doubling each mortgage payment, if we want to.)

As of the end of 2021, the outstanding principal is about $648K - my goal had been to get the mortgage below 50% of the original purchase price and we achieved that in December.

For the next few years, we'll throw some tax return money at the principal but otherwise only make our scheduled payments. (However, those scheduled payments are for a mortgage with a 12-year amortization, with accelerated bi-weekly payments.) That should get the mortgage down to about $575K by year-end 2022, 500K by the end of 2023 and 425K by the end of 2024.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ZsaZsa on December 28, 2021, 10:32:44 AM
I see where the bank cleared the check for the mortgage. House is paid off after 24 years, six years early. Last month paid off 2020 chevy equinox, 5 years early on 6 year loan. I feel so relieved...like the weight of the world has been lifted from my shoulders. We owe nothing to nobody.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: alcon835 on December 28, 2021, 04:39:08 PM
I see where the bank cleared the check for the mortgage. House is paid off after 24 years, six years early. Last month paid off 2020 chevy equinox, 5 years early on 6 year loan. I feel so relieved...like the weight of the world has been lifted from my shoulders. We owe nothing to nobody.

Congratulations @ZsaZsa that is amazing!!! I love your "we owe nothing to nobody", I can't wait until I can say the same. Between now and then I'll live vicariously through you! Please post again in a few month once the fruits of no mortgage, no debts really starts to hit you!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mastrr on December 28, 2021, 07:46:51 PM
I see where the bank cleared the check for the mortgage. House is paid off after 24 years, six years early. Last month paid off 2020 chevy equinox, 5 years early on 6 year loan. I feel so relieved...like the weight of the world has been lifted from my shoulders. We owe nothing to nobody.

Nice job!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Vashy on December 29, 2021, 08:36:39 AM
Goal: Pay off mortgage completely by end-2023

Original mortgage: 200,000 (May 2010)
November 2019: c100,000
Most recent re-mortgaging (@1.04%, tracker, early October 2021): 51,000
Current: 45,500

Put lump sum of company profits/dividends into the mortgage and was happy to kill 10% of the outstanding balance. Current goal is to get much closer to 40,000 by end-2021, maybe even hit that number before the year is up. I might drop in some cash savings, but I'm loathe to sacrifice my emergency fund.

I'm adjusting the goal somewhat because I need to build my Vanguard balance, and I'm now the only one paying off the mortgage because Mr Vashy needs to build his pre-tax pension. We're now at 41,000 and aim to be done by end-2025, ie our FI/RE date.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Duke03 on January 18, 2022, 03:21:20 PM
First time posting in here.  I currently owe 45k on my house but want to pay it off before my birthday later this year.  Current plan is to continue making payments that knock the principal down by $1300 each month.  If I reduced my emergency fund by 80%, I could pay it off today and I go back and forth with myself each month if maybe I should do this and just get rid of the mortgage now....
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on January 18, 2022, 06:48:00 PM
First time posting in here.  I currently owe 45k on my house but want to pay it off before my birthday later this year.  Current plan is to continue making payments that knock the principal down by $1300 each month.  If I reduced my emergency fund by 80%, I could pay it off today and I go back and forth with myself each month if maybe I should do this and just get rid of the mortgage now....

@Duke03 , when making a major decision like this, I plan to succeed and I also plan to fail.

Planning to succeed in this case is easy.  How much will paying it off early save you in interest?   How much in earnings in your spent emergency fund will you have to forego?  Net $ effect of this choice?  Does paying off your mortgage earlier help you reach an important life goal you can't achieve whilst paying the mortgage?      If the answers are favorable, the plan is workable and reasonable.

Planning to fail takes a bit more mental effort.  What could go wrong?    Since it's your emergency fund and you know why you have it, i.e., you know the kinds of things that could go wrong, how would you fare if they did?

So, let's look at a triple-whammy.   You just lost your job thru sickness, injury or the economy tanks.   You can't get another one at a vaguely decent income for six months to a year.   Maybe you have to move hundreds of miles away when you do find that job.

Can you weather that triple-whammy with your reduced emergency fund and reduced monthly expenses?   If not, can you accept that and move on, or will it drag down your ability to prosper for years afterwards?   If I can't handle that, is there something in the plan I can change to mitigate those bad effects down to a level I can live with?

Hope that helps.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: swaneesr on January 18, 2022, 07:40:16 PM
I see where the bank cleared the check for the mortgage. House is paid off after 24 years, six years early. Last month paid off 2020 chevy equinox, 5 years early on 6 year loan. I feel so relieved...like the weight of the world has been lifted from my shoulders. We owe nothing to nobody.
Wow. Congratulations!  You owe no one. 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dutch Comfort on February 01, 2022, 03:19:48 AM
Update on our mortgage#1 (we have 2 mortgages, but want to get rid of this one ASAP!):
   
Original: 120,000 repayment date 06/01/33
October 2021: 67,000 repayment date 12/01/32
January 2022: 64,000 repayment date 10/01/32

Goal: repayment in May 2027?
With our modest salaries, we shaved another 2 months off! Feeling so relieved every time we saved enough and we can do an extra month prepayment so our repayment date comes forward. As soon as we hit the repayment date, this will free so much monthly money, which we can then either dedicate to mortgage #2 or to our stash! I'm so much looking forward to this day...... this is a huge thing to look forward to. Only 64K to go (and no, we do not have that kind of money readily available at our combined savings, unfortunately.....).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: alcon835 on February 01, 2022, 07:28:23 AM
Congratulations on the awesome progress, @Dutch Comfort !!! I love watching mortgages go down, down, down!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Nederstash on February 01, 2022, 12:00:08 PM
I put 5000 into the mortgage last week and another 10,000 a few weeks before that. Honestly feels great! Now at 156k. Home is valued at 400k. I'd love to sell and get something with a garden but alas... can't buy a house for a normal price around here!

Mortgage is now sitting at a comfy 145k and home value shot up to 450k. Unfortunately, the houses I'd like to buy shot up in price as well...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Vashy on February 02, 2022, 03:08:27 AM
Goal: Pay off mortgage completely by end-2023

Original mortgage: 200,000 (May 2010)
November 2019: c100,000
Most recent re-mortgaging (@1.04%, tracker, early October 2021): 51,000
Current: 45,500

Put lump sum of company profits/dividends into the mortgage and was happy to kill 10% of the outstanding balance. Current goal is to get much closer to 40,000 by end-2021, maybe even hit that number before the year is up. I might drop in some cash savings, but I'm loathe to sacrifice my emergency fund.

I'm adjusting the goal somewhat because I need to build my Vanguard balance, and I'm now the only one paying off the mortgage because Mr Vashy needs to build his pre-tax pension. We're now at 41,000 and aim to be done by end-2025, ie our FI/RE date.

Sub-£40k!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on February 04, 2022, 04:26:23 AM
Goal: Pay off mortgage completely by end-2023

Original mortgage: 200,000 (May 2010)
November 2019: c100,000
Most recent re-mortgaging (@1.04%, tracker, early October 2021): 51,000
Current: 45,500

Put lump sum of company profits/dividends into the mortgage and was happy to kill 10% of the outstanding balance. Current goal is to get much closer to 40,000 by end-2021, maybe even hit that number before the year is up. I might drop in some cash savings, but I'm loathe to sacrifice my emergency fund.

I'm adjusting the goal somewhat because I need to build my Vanguard balance, and I'm now the only one paying off the mortgage because Mr Vashy needs to build his pre-tax pension. We're now at 41,000 and aim to be done by end-2025, ie our FI/RE date.

Sub-£40k!

You're in the home stretch now!  We did this too -- coincided our mortgage payoff to (more or less) match our FIRE date.  That was the intent, but then as we got closer it became irresistible to just kill the damn mortgage as quickly as we could.  If you're like me you'll start setting more goals, trying to scratch up extra money to get below 39k, then 35k . . . it snowballs. 

Good luck and congrats @Vashy
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Vashy on February 04, 2022, 09:21:32 AM
Goal: Pay off mortgage completely by end-2023

Original mortgage: 200,000 (May 2010)
November 2019: c100,000
Most recent re-mortgaging (@1.04%, tracker, early October 2021): 51,000
Current: 45,500

Put lump sum of company profits/dividends into the mortgage and was happy to kill 10% of the outstanding balance. Current goal is to get much closer to 40,000 by end-2021, maybe even hit that number before the year is up. I might drop in some cash savings, but I'm loathe to sacrifice my emergency fund.

I'm adjusting the goal somewhat because I need to build my Vanguard balance, and I'm now the only one paying off the mortgage because Mr Vashy needs to build his pre-tax pension. We're now at 41,000 and aim to be done by end-2025, ie our FI/RE date.

Sub-£40k!

You're in the home stretch now!  We did this too -- coincided our mortgage payoff to (more or less) match our FIRE date.  That was the intent, but then as we got closer it became irresistible to just kill the damn mortgage as quickly as we could.  If you're like me you'll start setting more goals, trying to scratch up extra money to get below 39k, then 35k . . . it snowballs. 

Good luck and congrats @Vashy !

Thank you! It's really exciting to see the balance shrink and the 25bp increase in the base rate should be less than £10 a month. I don't believe the Bank of England can go crazy anytime soon on the base rate (I don't see it returning to the 4-5% long-term average anytime soon), but even absolute worst-case scenarios really can't slow us down at this point. I actually have small goals written on the whiteboard in the kitchen that I get to tick off - the next one is at about £35k, and overall killing the mortgage is one of the "do by FI/RE date" goals - while I expect to do side hustle work after I retire, one way to cope with the lower income and higher volatility is to get the bigger expenses out of the way.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on February 05, 2022, 05:41:12 AM
I actually have small goals written on the whiteboard in the kitchen that I get to tick off - the next one is at about £35k, and overall killing the mortgage is one of the "do by FI/RE date" goals - while I expect to do side hustle work after I retire, one way to cope with the lower income and higher volatility is to get the bigger expenses out of the way.

Those are my sentiments exactly.  For me it felt much simpler to manage FIRE finances with the biggest thing (the mortgage) gone. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: swaneesr on February 05, 2022, 07:44:58 AM
I actually have small goals written on the whiteboard in the kitchen that I get to tick off - the next one is at about £35k, and overall killing the mortgage is one of the "do by FI/RE date" goals - while I expect to do side hustle work after I retire, one way to cope with the lower income and higher volatility is to get the bigger expenses out of the way.

Those are my sentiments exactly.  For me it felt much simpler to manage FIRE finances with the biggest thing (the mortgage) gone.
Totally agree.

When you get the big payments out of the way, the smaller ones are easy to manage. A certain amount of stress is lifted forever.

5 days from now is our one year anniversary of paying off the mortgage.

Swanee


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Duke03 on February 15, 2022, 10:13:09 AM
Well, it's official!!! My wife and I went to our local credit union and paid our house off this morning!!!  I don't think it will really set in until next month when we don't have to make a payment.  We built our house 7 years ago next month, so we are really excited to get it paid off this early.  The best part is we love our house, we love our neighbors, and couldn't ask for better schools so no need to move for a very long time!!!  Our plan moving forward is to invest our old house payment each month and continue building generation wealth.

On a side note, I also paid my truck off yesterday.  It was funny this morning because the branch manager was concerned that the credit union had done something to upset us and asked if we were paying everything off, so we didn't have to deal with them anymore. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jnw on February 15, 2022, 10:50:54 AM
Well, it's official!!! My wife and I went to our local credit union and paid our house off this morning!!!  I don't think it will really set in until next month when we don't have to make a payment.  We built our house 7 years ago next month, so we are really excited to get it paid off this early.  The best part is we love our house, we love our neighbors, and couldn't ask for better schools so no need to move for a very long time!!!  Our plan moving forward is to invest our old house payment each month and continue building generation wealth.

On a side note, I also paid my truck off yesterday.  It was funny this morning because the branch manager was concerned that the credit union had done something to upset us and asked if we were paying everything off, so we didn't have to deal with them anymore.

Congratulations!  DOUBLE AWESOMENESS!  I can't wait for that feeling when I get this mortgage paid off in about 2.5 years!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Askel on February 15, 2022, 11:49:04 AM

On a side note, I also paid my truck off yesterday.  It was funny this morning because the branch manager was concerned that the credit union had done something to upset us and asked if we were paying everything off, so we didn't have to deal with them anymore.

haha "Clearly it's not possible for somebody to eliminate all of their debts, the only possible explanation is they don't like us personally!"   

I hope you got a higher interest rate out of your savings account or something. My credit union is pretty uncompetitive at every banking service except loaning money.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: LeftA on February 16, 2022, 08:55:54 PM
Congratulations @Duke03 ! Must feel amazing. Can’t wait to join you, sometime next summer.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on February 20, 2022, 07:58:47 PM
Update on our mortgage#1 (we have 2 mortgages, but want to get rid of this one ASAP!):
   
Original: 120,000 repayment date 06/01/33
October 2021: 67,000 repayment date 12/01/32
January 2022: 64,000 repayment date 10/01/32

.. this is a huge thing to look forward to. Only 64K to go (and no, we do not have that kind of money readily available at our combined savings, unfortunately.....).

Great discipline and great progress @Dutch Comfort!  Good luck favors those who stay focused just as you both obviously are!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on February 21, 2022, 11:17:48 AM
I like your tracking of the repayment date. In order to project it, are you taking the estimates of payments you plan to make, or are you taking the estimate of your minimum remaining payments?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Jon_Snow on February 27, 2022, 02:38:33 PM
Let’s see…haven’t had a mortgage for….over a decade now! Paid it off a couple of years before I FIRE’d. The simplicity and streamlining of one’s finances without that mortgage line item in there cannot be properly measured. The feeling of being mortgage free, and the flexibility of funnelling that capital elsewhere is….fun!

Have not checked into this thread for quite a while but sure nice to see the mortgages fall one by one. Keep going folks! 👍
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dutch Comfort on March 01, 2022, 02:28:13 AM
Update on our mortgage#1 (we have 2 mortgages, but want to get rid of this one ASAP!):
   
Original: 120,000 repayment date 06/01/33
October 2021: 67,000 repayment date 12/01/32
January 2022: 64,000 repayment date 10/01/32
March 2022: 60,500 repayment date 04/01/32

Got DH on board to do an additional repayment from our savings. This will bring us to almost halfway! Feels good!!!!

For the projected repayment date, I take the minimum remaining payments. All the additional payments will only bring it forward and gives me the motivation to save for an additional payment. Every 500 euro will bring it forward 1 month! Now we first need to refund our savings account (as was my promise to DH) before we do any additional payments to the mortgage. This will be my goal for the next couple of months. As soon as the savings account is refunded, I will check whether we can do further additional payments for this year........ But for now, I'm happy with the progress so far.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jnw on March 02, 2022, 10:27:38 PM
Mortage payment of $1250 today.  Minimum due was $541 :)   Gotta love guaranteed 4.63% return.  (I am personally terrified of the stock market right now, with all the buy backs and very high P/E ratios.)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Duke03 on March 03, 2022, 07:08:45 PM
I received the deed to my house in the mail today!!!  I paid it off two weeks ago so was surprised it came that quickly...
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jnw on March 03, 2022, 07:12:52 PM
I received the deed to my house in the mail today!!!  I paid it off two weeks ago so was surprised it came that quickly...

Congrats!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: SwordGuy on March 03, 2022, 10:28:50 PM
I received the deed to my house in the mail today!!!  I paid it off two weeks ago so was surprised it came that quickly...

That's great!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on March 04, 2022, 04:27:43 AM
I received the deed to my house in the mail today!!!  I paid it off two weeks ago so was surprised it came that quickly...

Feels awesome, doesn't it?  Congrats!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jnw on March 07, 2022, 04:17:08 PM
I had planned to pay off my mortage first but if VTI is this inexpensive (or better) on the first of the month next month, I am gonna put money into it instead.   Anytime there are bargains, I am just gonna have to put the money in the market for that month instead.

What do you think?  To me it makes sense.  I figure there are bargains, might as well at least capitalize on them.

I actually took a grand out of my large emergency fund and put into VTI today.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Askel on March 07, 2022, 05:41:44 PM

What do you think? 

It all depends on your risk tolerance, asset allocation, personal values, and maybe a whole load of other factors.  There's a whole crowd of folks up in the DON'T payoff your mortgage thread that will tell you this is a great idea.

It's not for me though. This would be trying to time the market which I don't do. 

Paying down my mortgage also buys me a lot of security the market can't offer. I've got a lot of work into my place, more than selling it could ever realize. I don't want to risk losing it over a 5 figure mortgage.   

One thing that's helpful to do is sit down and calculate out exactly how much paying down the mortgage vs investing will actually pay.  If you have a tiny mortgage like me, it ends up being a couple of grand either way. Not really too much to get excited about.   

However, I do put money in I bonds over paying down my mortgage as that is acceptable risk vs reward for me.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: alcon835 on March 09, 2022, 07:10:59 PM
I received the deed to my house in the mail today!!!  I paid it off two weeks ago so was surprised it came that quickly...

Heck yeah!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on March 12, 2022, 08:41:18 PM
I had planned to pay off my mortage first but if VTI is this inexpensive (or better) on the first of the month next month, I am gonna put money into it instead.   Anytime there are bargains, I am just gonna have to put the money in the market for that month instead.

What do you think?  To me it makes sense.  I figure there are bargains, might as well at least capitalize on them.

I actually took a grand out of my large emergency fund and put into VTI today.
Being mortgage free first, before changing plans to put more into the market, is the priority for folks in this thread.  No sense debating is it a "good time" or not in the market as there are counter arguments to every argument.   But it is NEVER a bad time to be mortgage free both spiritually and financially   Financial decisions became more rational once the mortgage is gone... And  acceleration of wealth (once payments are eliminated so you can drive cash averaged purchases of various assets classes such as stocks, gold, short term bonds is amazingly profitable.   )"Be the bank" instead of being "owned by the bank".
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on March 13, 2022, 09:07:11 AM
I received the deed to my house in the mail today!!!  I paid it off two weeks ago so was surprised it came that quickly...
Congratulations on freedom Duke03!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on March 14, 2022, 03:06:03 PM
I had planned to pay off my mortage first but if VTI is this inexpensive (or better) on the first of the month next month, I am gonna put money into it instead.   Anytime there are bargains, I am just gonna have to put the money in the market for that month instead.

What do you think?  To me it makes sense.  I figure there are bargains, might as well at least capitalize on them.

I actually took a grand out of my large emergency fund and put into VTI today.
Being mortgage free first, before changing plans to put more into the market, is the priority for folks in this thread.  No sense debating is it a "good time" or not in the market as there are counter arguments to every argument.   But it is NEVER a bad time to be mortgage free both spiritually and financially   Financial decisions became more rational once the mortgage is gone... And  acceleration of wealth (once payments are eliminated so you can drive cash averaged purchases of various assets classes such as stocks, gold, short term bonds is amazingly profitable.   )"Be the bank" instead of being "owned by the bank".
I disagree, and think all discussion is good.  Most of us agree that it is almost always financially advantageous to invest in the market rather than paying off a fixed-rate, low-interest rate loan. 
I don't agree when people just keep arguing the same points, even when it's clear the person fully understands the pros and cons, but for someone asking this question, this is a great place to share the advantages of both sides of the coin. 

OP - yes, it's a great time.  Decide what your motivations are.  If you are unsure which way you want to go, I suggest a "sinking fund" to save up for paying off the mortgage.  Then you can decide whether or not to pay it off (or down).  If you want to make a big hit to the mortgage, but not pay it all off, I suggest re-amortizing the mortgage (free at most mortgage lenders).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jnw on March 14, 2022, 07:03:49 PM
I disagree, and think all discussion is good.  Most of us agree that it is almost always financially advantageous to invest in the market rather than paying off a fixed-rate, low-interest rate loan. 
I don't agree when people just keep arguing the same points, even when it's clear the person fully understands the pros and cons, but for someone asking this question, this is a great place to share the advantages of both sides of the coin. 

OP - yes, it's a great time.  Decide what your motivations are.  If you are unsure which way you want to go, I suggest a "sinking fund" to save up for paying off the mortgage.  Then you can decide whether or not to pay it off (or down).  If you want to make a big hit to the mortgage, but not pay it all off, I suggest re-amortizing the mortgage (free at most mortgage lenders).

Thanks for the reply, rather than clutter this thread, I made a new thread with my idea for a mortgage sinking fund / emergency fund (combo).  Let me know what ya think.  I might invest half into VTI each month at current market rate and setup the other half of cash as limit buy orders dollar cost averaged down all the way to say $120 per share of VTI.. to take advantage of any dips, while most likely preserving a very large emergency fund since the market probably won't drop that low.. $40k is my mortgage payoff, so a lot of potential for a large emergency fund as well since the market probably wont' dip that badly.  (But if it does dip badly then that's only advantageous for me since I don't yet have much in my retirement fund and would enjoy the lower cost average.)

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/investor-alley/mortgage-payoff-emergency-fund-brokerage-account/
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Askel on March 15, 2022, 06:12:42 AM

I disagree, and think all discussion is good. 

Careful, we've had problems with people showing up in this thread before intent on telling us why we're all dead wrong.  If you want to debate whether or not to pay off your mortgage, we're here to tell you the reasons we want to pay off ours also, and celebrate with you when you do. 

There's plenty of places to evangelize keeping a low rate mortgage around on this site. We know all the arguments for it. We don't care. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jnw on March 15, 2022, 06:41:19 AM
Which is why I mentioned my other thread out of respect for this thread.  And I still haven't made my mind up; I might just continue to pay off my mortgage like I have been. I've been part of this club for a while now, although I haven't posted here until recently.  (I also recently got into trouble on the "don't pay your mortgage off" thread as well.)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on March 15, 2022, 06:53:21 AM
@JenniferW , I hope what I said to you over in that other thread was received in the good humor it was intended!

I'll admit that market downturns like what we're living through now are a reminder that reducing risk in your life--say by paying ahead on your mortgage--is a good thing.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jnw on March 15, 2022, 06:54:57 AM
@JenniferW , I hope what I said to you over in that other thread was received in the good humor it was intended!

I'll admit that market downturns like what we're living through now are a reminder that reducing risk in your life--say by paying ahead on your mortgage--is a good thing.

Yeah but how far does the market have to go down before you feel it's too good to turn down ? :)  That's my dilemma.  I agree with you.. I've faired well overall the past year paying off mortgage rather than put into VTI.

Oops, sorry guys I just did it again.  Maybe we can about it more in my thread I created and mentioned a couple posts back :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on March 17, 2022, 01:45:37 PM

I disagree, and think all discussion is good. 

Careful, we've had problems with people showing up in this thread before intent on telling us why we're all dead wrong.  If you want to debate whether or not to pay off your mortgage, we're here to tell you the reasons we want to pay off ours also, and celebrate with you when you do. 

There's plenty of places to evangelize keeping a low rate mortgage around on this site. We know all the arguments for it. We don't care.

I completely understand. 
I think there are TONS of great reasons to pay off a mortgage and I love coming to this thread to celebrate with those who have made it to the club.  I will definitely pay mine off before I hit the 15-year mark, but not right now.  I've also been a strong advocate for recasting loans when a big chunk is paid down but payoff is a distant wish. 

That's why I hang around this thread -- I know the arguments and STILL am usually an advocate for many people paying off their mortgage.  I just don't think there's a one-size fits all answer for everyone, and it's helpful to teach people why it may or may not be favorable for them. 

I was pretty vocal in the past when a few people harped on and on and on (and on and on) about the financial reasons for NOT paying off the mortgage.  I do think this thread can have honest and open discussions with the pros and cons and point people in the direction that will work best for their situation.  This isn't a cult and we're not trying to recruit members, rather we want to support and celebrate with those who have chosen this path. 

Basically, I'm an advocate for people voicing their opinions, answering questions, and then moving on.  The few people who previously kept arguing were trying to change the minds of people who had already made their choice and they alienated many people until starting another thread.  I hate that the two threads are positioned as two teams against one another.  They should just be informational threads to help people decide what works for their unique mix of financial, emotional, and peace of mind reasons.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on March 19, 2022, 06:15:11 PM
@BlueHouse  You're welcome to disagree.   So we will have to agree to disagree in this thread and stay on topic to help those who want to pay theirs off to be free of their mortgage.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: farmecologist on March 22, 2022, 04:21:07 PM

I disagree, and think all discussion is good. 

Careful, we've had problems with people showing up in this thread before intent on telling us why we're all dead wrong.  If you want to debate whether or not to pay off your mortgage, we're here to tell you the reasons we want to pay off ours also, and celebrate with you when you do. 

There's plenty of places to evangelize keeping a low rate mortgage around on this site. We know all the arguments for it. We don't care.

I completely understand. 
I think there are TONS of great reasons to pay off a mortgage and I love coming to this thread to celebrate with those who have made it to the club.  I will definitely pay mine off before I hit the 15-year mark, but not right now.  I've also been a strong advocate for recasting loans when a big chunk is paid down but payoff is a distant wish. 

That's why I hang around this thread -- I know the arguments and STILL am usually an advocate for many people paying off their mortgage.  I just don't think there's a one-size fits all answer for everyone, and it's helpful to teach people why it may or may not be favorable for them. 

I was pretty vocal in the past when a few people harped on and on and on (and on and on) about the financial reasons for NOT paying off the mortgage.  I do think this thread can have honest and open discussions with the pros and cons and point people in the direction that will work best for their situation.  This isn't a cult and we're not trying to recruit members, rather we want to support and celebrate with those who have chosen this path. 

Basically, I'm an advocate for people voicing their opinions, answering questions, and then moving on.  The few people who previously kept arguing were trying to change the minds of people who had already made their choice and they alienated many people until starting another thread.  I hate that the two threads are positioned as two teams against one another.  They should just be informational threads to help people decide what works for their unique mix of financial, emotional, and peace of mind reasons.

Paying off the mortgage was the best thing we ever did...and that was over 14 years ago!  I'm not sure people really realize how much having debt hanging over your head is a stressor....until you don't have it.  Being debt free absolutely changes your outlook on life.

People always told me to 'put the money to work in the markets instead'.  Well...if I would have done that, I would have invested in the markets *just* before the 2008-2009 crash...and that would have been a disaster.  So the timing of our mortgage payoff worked out great for us.  Of course, like anything, it can go both ways. 




Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Ambergris on March 28, 2022, 11:38:31 AM
So, after some years of being the "Don't pay off the mortgage" person, I've decided I am now the "do pay off the mortgage" person. There are some really good reasons for the change:

1) I'm approaching FI rapidly (July 2024) and need to reduce risk. Since bonds are crap right now, I don't want to invest too much into them and need another way to do this.

2) I'm already maxing out (a lot of) tax advantaged space, so this applies to money that is in addition to this.

3) The market is very high and interest rates are incredibly low, so everything looks like bad value. My mortgage interest rate, however, is higher than the bond rates on everything pretty much right now (3.25%). Getting a risk free, tax free return at that level is a no-brainer.

Because this is going to be done with "remainder" or "extra" money, this is going to be sloooooow. But what is this thread for if not for that? I had a recent pay raise with some backdated pay to Jan 1, so the extra money I got this month is going on to the mortgage.

Previous balance:75319.42
Reg. payment principle: 493.66
Add. principle payment: 1300.00
New balance:73525.76

Original payoff date: Dec 2032
New projected payoff date: Aug 2032
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: LeftA on March 28, 2022, 05:10:50 PM
@Ambergris , come join us in the $50-75K left thread!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: srad on April 01, 2022, 05:10:59 PM
I'll add to this thread.

As our wealth has grown over the years via steady investing in the stock market, rentals and live in flips.  The stash finally got big enough to pay cash for our current live in flip.  The plan was after we fixed it up we'll do the cashout refi and go back to the, I have a mortgage club.  Well, house is finally fixed and financeable, but we just can't see going back to a mortgage.  The last several months of no house payments have been great.  Our mortgage payment over the last several years had been around $2,500. No mortgage means DW doesn't need to work if she doesn't want to.  So she's fire now.   

The current house numbers: paid 360k for it, will end up putting close to 200k into it (still have exterior to work on), its worth over 700k now.  Got a year and a half to go till we can start looking for the next project.  Which we will most likely pay for with cash again.

fyi - I also have one rental paid off, we had some money left over after a previous live in flip decided to deleverage a bit.  I tell you what, its nice keeping the majority of the rent.

Don't worry all the DPOYM's out there, I still have over a million in debt on my other rentals.  However as I transition to fire over the next few years I may pay a few of them off for the additional cash flow, seeing how principal paydown doesn't pay for travel..





Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mistymoney on April 02, 2022, 11:26:49 AM
So, after some years of being the "Don't pay off the mortgage" person, I've decided I am now the "do pay off the mortgage" person. There are some really good reasons for the change:

1) I'm approaching FI rapidly (July 2024) and need to reduce risk. Since bonds are crap right now, I don't want to invest too much into them and need another way to do this.

2) I'm already maxing out (a lot of) tax advantaged space, so this applies to money that is in addition to this.

3) The market is very high and interest rates are incredibly low, so everything looks like bad value. My mortgage interest rate, however, is higher than the bond rates on everything pretty much right now (3.25%). Getting a risk free, tax free return at that level is a no-brainer.

Because this is going to be done with "remainder" or "extra" money, this is going to be sloooooow. But what is this thread for if not for that? I had a recent pay raise with some backdated pay to Jan 1, so the extra money I got this month is going on to the mortgage.

Previous balance:75319.42
Reg. payment principle: 493.66
Add. principle payment: 1300.00
New balance:73525.76

Original payoff date: Dec 2032
New projected payoff date: Aug 2032


I'm kind of on the same trajectory of thought, and same precipitatory influence - thinking about actually retiring and uncertain world/economic issues - the war, inflation, markets, etc.

But I'm really struggling with how to make any progress. My mortgage is about 350k, so even if I dedicate an extra 25k a year to it, I am not going to be able to pay it off in any reasonable way to give myself additional security entering fire. I'm also trying to shore up cash/cash equivalents/fixed income components to my AA with new monies, and that at least provides some immediate security.

so on some level, it seems I should just give up - wave and acknowledge that ship has sailed - but as I look into a retirement budget, some things are pretty startling once you dig into it.

To support my 350k mortgage, I need an addition 29k/year income. That 29k a year is likely going to take me out of the game for things like ACA subsidies, and at some point senior freeze on prop taxes, and I just keep uncovering more and more ways that supporting that extra spend is going to cost a lot of money. so then I need even more money/year and then pay even more taxes, father away from any taxable income based benefits.

And hitting early negatives in the SORR with the higher mandatory spend is concerning!

So it can be pretty frustrating, but I don't see a way to come out of this - unless at some point I pull an extra 350k out of retirment funds (maybe 450k to pay all those taxes on it!) and pay off the mortgage.

It seems pretty drastic! Has anyone on this thread done something like that? I don't think I can read the whole thing, but what I have looked at is people paying slowing over time with new money.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: MoseyingAlong on April 02, 2022, 06:25:07 PM

I'm kind of on the same trajectory of thought, and same precipitatory influence - thinking about actually retiring and uncertain world/economic issues - the war, inflation, markets, etc.

But I'm really struggling with how to make any progress. My mortgage is about 350k, so even if I dedicate an extra 25k a year to it, I am not going to be able to pay it off in any reasonable way to give myself additional security entering fire. I'm also trying to shore up cash/cash equivalents/fixed income components to my AA with new monies, and that at least provides some immediate security.

so on some level, it seems I should just give up - wave and acknowledge that ship has sailed - but as I look into a retirement budget, some things are pretty startling once you dig into it.

To support my 350k mortgage, I need an addition 29k/year income. That 29k a year is likely going to take me out of the game for things like ACA subsidies, and at some point senior freeze on prop taxes, and I just keep uncovering more and more ways that supporting that extra spend is going to cost a lot of money. so then I need even more money/year and then pay even more taxes, father away from any taxable income based benefits.

And hitting early negatives in the SORR with the higher mandatory spend is concerning!

So it can be pretty frustrating, but I don't see a way to come out of this - unless at some point I pull an extra 350k out of retirment funds (maybe 450k to pay all those taxes on it!) and pay off the mortgage.

It seems pretty drastic! Has anyone on this thread done something like that? I don't think I can read the whole thing, but what I have looked at is people paying slowing over time with new money.

@mistymoney One approach would be to plan to refinance the remaining balance of your mortgage before quitting your job. If you refinance to a 30-year loan for the remaining balance, your payments will be lower which might help with all those income-related expenses. The change in interest rates will affect the change in payments.

I would not recommend making additional payments without planning to refinance. Reducing the balance of the mortgage does not usually result in recalculated payments. So you would still have to generate the payments for them, you would just pay it off sooner. Wouldn't help with the SORR.

HTH
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Askel on April 03, 2022, 05:32:30 AM


@mistymoney One approach would be to plan to refinance the remaining balance of your mortgage before quitting your job. If you refinance to a 30-year loan for the remaining balance, your payments will be lower which might help with all those income-related expenses. The change in interest rates will affect the change in payments.

Might not even need to refinance. Depending on how much you knock off your mortgage, and how many years left you have on it- a recast alone might get your payment down enough. 

And yeah, staring down a $350k mortgage has got to be rough.  But hopefully you've got the income to support it. An extra $25k year is barely past $2k a month and I could push that if I had down down here in the bush leagues of a $97k mortgage.   

$75k to go.... 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Askel on April 03, 2022, 05:39:03 AM
I found this article interesting:

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4498666-us-housing-is-a-dead-man-walking

There's some hard data in there that seems to fly in the face of the conventional narrative that there aren't enough houses and we can't build new ones fast enough so prices will keep going up and up. 

A paid off or even paid down mortgage can be a comfort when those home equity numbers fly off a cliff. Or even a necessity if life circumstances dictate.

(My mortgage company greets me with a click through every time I log into their web site claiming that my house is worth $300k and I should cash in on that $225k of equity. LOL)   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on April 07, 2022, 07:41:31 PM
@mistymoney  That $350K will need a combination of a determined plan per year from income + a chunk of equity to recast the loan to accelerate the principal balance paid each month + faith that life will improve the ability to put chunks or more cash flow into it.   Lived this situation quite well with a mortgage and it was amazing what life sent out way to kill that debt.   Put it on a website or spreadsheet and look at it EVERY month to think of ways to accelerate payoff that debt.   It WILL work out.  If it's just you, that's easier to make the choices.  If you have an S.O., ensure they are aware of how important this is to you and your future together and ensure they don't undermine the choices made along the way to drop the balance.   Celebrate the 200K and 100K milestones.   They'll happen faster than you imagine.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mistymoney on April 08, 2022, 03:27:10 PM
@mistymoney  That $350K will need a combination of a determined plan per year from income + a chunk of equity to recast the loan to accelerate the principal balance paid each month + faith that life will improve the ability to put chunks or more cash flow into it.   Lived this situation quite well with a mortgage and it was amazing what life sent out way to kill that debt.   Put it on a website or spreadsheet and look at it EVERY month to think of ways to accelerate payoff that debt.   It WILL work out.  If it's just you, that's easier to make the choices.  If you have an S.O., ensure they are aware of how important this is to you and your future together and ensure they don't undermine the choices made along the way to drop the balance.   Celebrate the 200K and 100K milestones.   They'll happen faster than you imagine.

Thanks, good advice.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dutch Comfort on April 12, 2022, 03:40:40 AM
Update on our mortgage#1 (we have 2 mortgages, but want to get rid of this one ASAP!):
   
Original: 120,000 repayment date 06/01/33
October 2021: 67,000 repayment date 12/01/32
January 2022: 64,000 repayment date 10/01/32
March 2022: 60,500 repayment date 04/01/32
April 2022: 60,000 repayment date 04/01/32 - HALFWAY MARK!!!!!

Now this is a motivating timestamp! We hit the halfway mark 14 months earlier than expected.
Let's see if we can do the 2nd half sooner......
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on April 13, 2022, 08:58:35 PM
@Dutch Comfort,   Time to engage mustachian savings mode and debt paydown...  LUDICROUS SPEED!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: monarda on May 04, 2022, 06:20:21 PM
We have 3 mortgages.
Two won't be paid off for a while, (one is at 2.25%, one is at 3%)
but one... now the balance is now $49,435.

Less than 5 years to go. :-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on May 06, 2022, 05:24:24 AM
Hmmmm, ya know the $-Badger can't resist killing 49K, right?   If you took everything out of savings accounts or CDs on hand, AND put at least 25% of your next 2 years "take-home" income towards it, could you pay that 3rd one off?   If you took just 10% off the table in the investment side, could you pay it within 12 months?    Then buy another property (about the time the next real estate "bust" cycle makes things attractive again)?    Fortune will favor those with low debt to equity.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: monarda on May 06, 2022, 12:01:18 PM
I thought about that- we have 25K of credit card debt (0%, but with 3% balance transfer fee ~once a year) to knock down, too. (the remaining debt from a remodel)
I was going to pay the 49K mortgage more aggressively once the CC debt is down a little (should be down within a year).

This mortgage loan is 4%, and interest is a rental tax writeoff, so it's kind of a wash which we pay down first- this loan or the CCs.

But I hear you. I don't have anything in savings accounts or CDs. I'm buying those I-bonds and draining down the savings.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on May 08, 2022, 08:50:02 PM
Gotcha.   Totally agree on killing the credit card debt first (as does the Dave Ramsey "debt snowball" approach to meaningful wealth creation through removal of consumer and most single family homeowner's homeplace mortgage debt).  Map out a 12 month "burndown" chart and hang it the home office as we did and just go at those cards till they're zero!  With short term rates going up, there's too high a risk of those 0% rates being pulled and ratcheting up such that suddenly that card rate effectively becomes 8 or 10%.   Happened to me on cards in the early 2000s... They just "cancelled" the low % rate and high reward cards and said "tough, here's your new 7% interest card "product" or you can go elsewhere!"  History doesn't repeat, but I certainly hear a lot of rhyming with rates and banks and stag-flation talk lately...   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: monarda on May 09, 2022, 08:19:32 AM
There's also the HELOC option. Those have 1% or 2% promo rates for the first year, then they go to whatever the going variable rates are. I thought I could engage that option if what you are suggesting with the CCs actually happens.

I probably don't need more than an extra year. We'll see where things stand in the fall, when one of the 0% cards' promo period ends. Another card gets paid off this month.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on May 09, 2022, 08:21:06 PM
Awesome on paying off the card(s) one at a time.    Been the HELOC route too... Absolute minefield of "start up fees", "minimum HELOC balance requirements" and then high monthly payback amounts of 1% of the balance or more, plus a nice ding on credit ratings to drive up any future financing terms on other real estate purchases or refinances.   And heaven forbid you forget to pay 1 month so they hit you with late fees anywhere from $50 to $100 for ONE month's late payment.    F the usurious banks that will screw you when it suits them to pay their dividends to shareholders.   Kill the debt.   Then become your own bank so "they" pay you instead.   

Sorry, the road to eliminate debt was a hard time.   And yes, it left a mark.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: AnxietyFly on May 30, 2022, 10:52:22 AM
Hey guys! It's been a couple years now since I paid the house off. The sense of accomplishment still resonates in my daily thoughts. The amount of money I was paying towards my house is now being invested towards my retirement.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: LeftA on June 01, 2022, 08:18:13 AM
@AnxietyFly , thanks for dropping by and that feedback!

I can’t wait until I’m in the same situation. It will be in 2023!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: swaneesr on June 13, 2022, 12:04:47 AM
It has been 16 months since we paid off the mortgage.

With the cost of everything going up, everything is much easier without that big payment.

Less stress. Less worry. It’s not just the money math thing.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on June 16, 2022, 08:47:43 PM
It has been 16 months since we paid off the mortgage.

With the cost of everything going up, everything is much easier without that big payment.

Less stress. Less worry. It’s not just the money math thing.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
This plus a gajillion!   It turns the game around to be without payments... Worry about whether home values are up or down evaporates... interest rate worries evaporate.   Just save more with the free cash flow, earn more dollar averaged investment returns, live and give!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ATtiny85 on June 17, 2022, 09:40:19 AM
It has been 16 months since we paid off the mortgage.

With the cost of everything going up, everything is much easier without that big payment.

Less stress. Less worry. It’s not just the money math thing.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I’ve had mortgages and I’ve had paid off houses. Depending on how you do it, I’ll take the paid off house most of the time. We rolled equity forward into larger down payments (corporate relos every few years).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on June 17, 2022, 11:07:05 AM
All of the refinance activity has dropped off (why wouldn't it?). My wife and I both received % pay raises larger than our nominal mortgage rate this year.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FLBiker on June 20, 2022, 12:46:11 PM
After many years in the "don't pay off your mortgage club" I think we're turning in our membership.  I'm hoping to RE in a couple of years, and I like the idea of paying off our house at around the same time.  We moved to Canada and bought a house up here in July 2020.  Mortgages are very different up here -- they're typically amortized for 25 years, but you only lock in the terms for 5, 7 or 10 years at a time (most typically 5 or 7).  We got a 5 year fixed 2.44% mortgage.  If we pay it off early, we actually have to pay a penalty, but we can pay it off when it comes to term (in July of 2025).  So that's my goal. 

We should have a balance of $171,775.34 CAD at that time (or approximately $132315 in USD, as of today).  We've got ~$40,000 USD in I-bonds that I'm planning to put towards it, plus $23,000 USD in "high" interest savings accounts.  I don't have a ton of tax advantaged space available to me here in Canada, but I'm trying to max it out.  The rest we'll likely keep in cash with an eye towards paying off the mortgage.  I'm thinking we should accumulate around another $50K by then, but that's a really rough estimate (I'm still getting my head around our taxes and expenses up here as we have yet to have a truly "normal" year).  And we have a decent-sized taxable account (~$200K USD) that we could take whatever else we need from.  Instead of doing that, though, I might just pay down the mortgage with whatever we have between the I-bonds and the cash, and carry a small 5 year mortgage forward.  It depends on 1) how terrible the rates are in 3 years and 2) how successful I am at resisting putting our available cash into the market over the next 3 years.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: iluvzbeach on June 20, 2022, 05:03:00 PM
I’m pretty sure I posted here 5 years ago this month when we paid off our house. Despite the market gains in that time, we have never regretted for one minute our decision to payoff the place. The sense of freedom it has provided is priceless, and our monthly expenses are so low it is incredible. We were long term savers anyway, but we’ve ratcheted the savings way up since the payoff. It’s like a firehose of cash going into savings each month & year. So glad we paid off the mortgage when we did.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on June 22, 2022, 07:42:03 AM
Market down like it is, this is a good time to celebrate the lower stresses of mortgage-free life.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Askel on June 22, 2022, 04:37:01 PM
Yes, but for those of us who aspire to the mortgage free life, a down market is the cause for much soul searching.   

With I bonds at 9.whatever% and the potential for massive discounts in the stock market, letting that 3.5% mortgage ride looks a lot more enticing.   

I'm still happy to split the difference at a 15 year mortgage and enough investments to pay it off if things get weird. If those investments drop to anywhere near the mortgage balance though, I'll be getting a nice nervous sweat going. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on June 23, 2022, 07:46:04 AM
I think the purpose of this discussion thread is to celebrate the paydown of debt, there are other places where using discretionary money to add risk rather than reduce debt is better explored.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: wkumtrider on June 23, 2022, 01:06:41 PM
My house will be paid off in October - just a little over 14 yrs.  Can't wait!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: alcon835 on June 23, 2022, 06:16:08 PM
My house will be paid off in October - just a little over 14 yrs.  Can't wait!

Oh wow!!! Keep us updated on the countdown!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on June 23, 2022, 08:53:49 PM
Yes, but for those of us who aspire to the mortgage free life, a down market is the cause for much soul searching.   

With I bonds at 9.whatever% and the potential for massive discounts in the stock market, letting that 3.5% mortgage ride looks a lot more enticing.   

I'm still happy to split the difference at a 15 year mortgage and enough investments to pay it off if things get weird. If those investments drop to anywhere near the mortgage balance though, I'll be getting a nice nervous sweat going.

Yes, I've been doing the soul -searching myself.  I've paid down my mortgage, and will pay off early and have the cash now to pay it all off, but there's too much uncertainty right now for me to do that.  I cannot wait to have this off my mind, but right now isn't the right time for me.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on July 04, 2022, 04:42:06 AM
We should have a balance of $171,775.34 CAD at that time (or approximately $132315 in USD, as of today).  We've got ~$40,000 USD in I-bonds that I'm planning to put towards it, plus $23,000 USD in "high" interest savings accounts.  I don't have a ton of tax advantaged space available to me here in Canada, but I'm trying to max it out.  The rest we'll likely keep in cash with an eye towards paying off the mortgage.  I'm thinking we should accumulate around another $50K by then, but that's a really rough estimate (I'm still getting my head around our taxes and expenses up here as we have yet to have a truly "normal" year).  And we have a decent-sized taxable account (~$200K USD) that we could take whatever else we need from.  Instead of doing that, though, I might just pay down the mortgage with whatever we have between the I-bonds and the cash, and carry a small 5 year mortgage forward.  It depends on 1) how terrible the rates are in 3 years and 2) how successful I am at resisting putting our available cash into the market over the next 3 years.

Here's the Badger-ian way to think about it...   More coming in than going out wins.   Between the taxable account and that high interest account, you can kill that mortgage tomorrow.  Remove the stress, and change your mindset to 100% "I am the F-ing bank, hear me roar!" mode so you grow that roughly $700/month you free up plus the cash flow you were planning to throw at it dollar cost averaged into the market or other favorable investments to build up far more than your current loan balance w/in 5 years.  It will be FAR more under your control, and not the whims of the Fed or a mortgage company or other financial parasites.   The change in one's mindset and investing behavior when there's no debt hanging overhead and having a very clear goal is simply amazing.   Best of luck on the journey to freedom!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on July 18, 2022, 01:19:46 PM
@FLBiker , it sounds like you have a major debt in one currency, and a lot of assets in a different currency. Do your long-term plans include moving back to US? That may affect the desirability of keeping those asset balances higher.

If you don't expect to be returning to the US within a few years, the US dollar is particularly strong lately because of our FRB's aggressiveness in raising rates.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Kiwistash on July 21, 2022, 09:45:55 PM
Hello there fellow mortgage pay off club members, I’m coming to join you!
We live in New Zealand where house prices are reeeeeediculously high but we are on a mission to pay off our home. It’s great to be able to discuss and share on here with all you excited like minded people so thanks everyone.

We currently owe $356,912.44.
The interest rate is 2.49% on a fixed term. That expires on August 1st 2023. I reckon one more year after that and we will have, as they say in NZ “knocked the bugger off.”
So, all things going to plan, on the first of August this year, the 2 year countdown will begin to pay this thing off.

Info:
- as it’s a fixed term we can’t make additional payments without incurring fees, so we save an extra $5500 a month and don’t touch it, ready to dump it on the principal when the term expires. The fixed term saved us from rapidly increasing interest rates that would kick on a floating rate.
- we pay over what the bank requires in our monthly payment.
- interest rates here are going up and up, so the sooner we get rid of this thing the better, in our humble opinion.

So it’s great to be here and thanks again!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on July 22, 2022, 02:33:04 PM
Hello there fellow mortgage pay off club members, I’m coming to join you!
We live in New Zealand where house prices are reeeeeediculously high but we are on a mission to pay off our home. It’s great to be able to discuss and share on here with all you excited like minded people so thanks everyone.

We currently owe $356,912.44.
The interest rate is 2.49% on a fixed term. That expires on August 1st 2023. I reckon one more year after that and we will have, as they say in NZ “knocked the bugger off.”
So, all things going to plan, on the first of August this year, the 2 year countdown will begin to pay this thing off.

Info:
- as it’s a fixed term we can’t make additional payments without incurring fees, so we save an extra $5500 a month and don’t touch it, ready to dump it on the principal when the term expires. The fixed term saved us from rapidly increasing interest rates that would kick on a floating rate.
- we pay over what the bank requires in our monthly payment.
- interest rates here are going up and up, so the sooner we get rid of this thing the better, in our humble opinion.

So it’s great to be here and thanks again!

That's such great news Kiwistash!  Tell me, do many Kiwis pay off their mortgages early?  Stay in there houses long or move around a lot?  Is it just an american thing to think of homes as "starter" and "moving up" homes?  I feel as if this is one of the things that really screws with our minds;
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Kiwistash on July 23, 2022, 05:59:17 AM
Hello there fellow mortgage pay off club members, I’m coming to join you!
We live in New Zealand where house prices are reeeeeediculously high but we are on a mission to pay off our home. It’s great to be able to discuss and share on here with all you excited like minded people so thanks everyone.

We currently owe $356,912.44.
The interest rate is 2.49% on a fixed term. That expires on August 1st 2023. I reckon one more year after that and we will have, as they say in NZ “knocked the bugger off.”
So, all things going to plan, on the first of August this year, the 2 year countdown will begin to pay this thing off.

Info:
- as it’s a fixed term we can’t make additional payments without incurring fees, so we save an extra $5500 a month and don’t touch it, ready to dump it on the principal when the term expires. The fixed term saved us from rapidly increasing interest rates that would kick on a floating rate.
- we pay over what the bank requires in our monthly payment.
- interest rates here are going up and up, so the sooner we get rid of this thing the better, in our humble opinion.

So it’s great to be here and thanks again!

That's such great news Kiwistash!  Tell me, do many Kiwis pay off their mortgages early?  Stay in there houses long or move around a lot?  Is it just an american thing to think of homes as "starter" and "moving up" homes?  I feel as if this is one of the things that really screws with our minds;

Thanks Blue House!
I’d say paying your mortgage off early is about as uncommon in NZ as it is in America. The difference I think is in the general perception of home ownership. Unless people have to move they generally won’t.  If they outgrow the house as the family grows or if they have to move for work then yes, people will move, but there’s much more a sense of settling down to your long term home. People move houses, sure, but many people buy with the intention of being there a good long while, putting roots down. That said, property is a popular way to invest here (being made progressively more difficult with the recent introduction of capital gains tax- by another name) and these houses do sell more but that’s a profit thing.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on July 23, 2022, 08:26:12 PM
@Kiwistash,  Welcome to the “Race to $356,912 thread but don’t prepay my mortgage, instead to kill it in 2023 thread”!   Set quarterly goals amd expect setbacks… But full
focus on that mortgage wins!  As in EVERYTHING else.  Seriously.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Kiwistash on July 24, 2022, 04:37:05 AM
@Kiwistash,  Welcome to the “Race to $356,912 thread but don’t prepay my mortgage, instead to kill it in 2023 thread”!   Set quarterly goals amd expect setbacks… But full
focus on that mortgage wins!  As in EVERYTHING else.  Seriously.

Thanks for the vote of support Money Badger! I can assure you, I could not be more focused if I tried! Watch out mortgage, we’re comin’ to get ya!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on July 24, 2022, 06:50:09 AM

That's fantastic @Kiwistash -- congrats and another welcome to the thread!  So interesting to hear the details about NZ mortgages. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Kiwistash on July 25, 2022, 12:52:09 AM

That's fantastic @Kiwistash -- congrats and another welcome to the thread!  So interesting to hear the details about NZ mortgages.

Hi Trifele, thanks so much. It’s great to be on board with all of you cool cats!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: FLBiker on July 26, 2022, 09:34:02 AM
@FLBiker , it sounds like you have a major debt in one currency, and a lot of assets in a different currency. Do your long-term plans include moving back to US? That may affect the desirability of keeping those asset balances higher.

If you don't expect to be returning to the US within a few years, the US dollar is particularly strong lately because of our FRB's aggressiveness in raising rates.

Yep, that's true.  I don't *think* our long term plans are to move back to the US, but who knows.  I've thought about trying to convert more of our investments to CAD, but it's complicated (and I don't want to derail this thread).  It's true that paying off the mortgage is one way to do this, but (like Kiwistash) Canadian mortgages are structured to penalize you if you pay them off early, so I'm waiting until it matures in 3 years (at which point there would still be 20 years left of amortization, but the interest rate would be reset).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Nick_Miller on August 29, 2022, 01:16:18 PM
What method do people prefer to pay down the mortgage?

1) Do you automatically pay extra each month?
2) Or do you fund an investment account hoping to earn gains and then pay off your mortgage when the balance gets high enough?

I can see pros and cons to each; I didn't know if there was a consensus.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: alcon835 on August 29, 2022, 02:45:23 PM
What method do people prefer to pay down the mortgage?

1) Do you automatically pay extra each month?
2) Or do you fund an investment account hoping to earn gains and then pay off your mortgage when the balance gets high enough?

I can see pros and cons to each; I didn't know if there was a consensus.

I had to slow down paying down my mortgage when DW and I decided we want to move, but before then I was paying a set amount each month extra towards my bill. For me it was 2,000 drawn monthly when I only owe 1,200 monthly. Then, near year end, I would make a one-time extra payment with any extra money we had saved up.

I also have a taxable investment account that I've been building up. My original goal for that fund was to use it to pay off the house once it has more money in it than I owe on my house. I am actually pretty close, but again we switched to paying the minimum once we decided we wanted to move.

So...both? The benefits of paying extra every month is it really does take a HUGE bite out of compounding interest. The advantage of putting money into the market is that I can make the decision 'on the day' when the funds are high enough to pay off the mortgage - does it make more sense to pay it all off in one swoop or to keep that cash in the market?

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Vashy on August 29, 2022, 05:19:12 PM
What method do people prefer to pay down the mortgage?

1) Do you automatically pay extra each month?
2) Or do you fund an investment account hoping to earn gains and then pay off your mortgage when the balance gets high enough?

I can see pros and cons to each; I didn't know if there was a consensus.

I overpay and used to overpay aggressively - roughly 2x-3x of what the usual payment would be like. I'll see if I can maintain that while my finance re-adjust to more lumpy and unpredictable pure freelancer income.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: hdatontodo on August 30, 2022, 05:36:29 AM
What method do people prefer to pay down the mortgage?

1) Do you automatically pay extra each month?
2) Or do you fund an investment account hoping to earn gains and then pay off your mortgage when the balance gets high enough?

I can see pros and cons to each; I didn't know if there was a consensus.
I had read that a young couple that invested money growing 7% a year for 30 years would come out $1M ahead of another couple who put the money toward extra principal payments on a 3% mortgage.

Sent from my SM-G991U1 using Tapatalk

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Askel on August 30, 2022, 05:38:36 AM
What method do people prefer to pay down the mortgage?

1) Do you automatically pay extra each month?
2) Or do you fund an investment account hoping to earn gains and then pay off your mortgage when the balance gets high enough?

I can see pros and cons to each; I didn't know if there was a consensus.

A little of both. I tend to let some cash pile up some safe. low return liquid investments and then withdraw a chunk every couple of months to toss at the mortgage. 

It's nice to be able to hit a nice round number on the mortgage balance to feel like you're making progress. I usually aim for $5k intervals.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Nick_Miller on August 30, 2022, 07:12:39 AM
Thanks for sharing your approaches, everyone!

We still have 12.5 years left our on mortgage but I really don't want to be...60ish?...before it's paid off. And my wife and I can't really downshift until the mortgage goes away.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Vashy on August 30, 2022, 11:18:02 AM
Thanks for sharing your approaches, everyone!

We still have 12.5 years left our on mortgage but I really don't want to be...60ish?...before it's paid off. And my wife and I can't really downshift until the mortgage goes away.

We felt the same - we pushed down the mortgage from £150k to now <£40k over the past 7 years, and the current interest payment of still below <£250/month is no longer a real burden, so we've been focussing on building out our post-tax investment accounts over the past year or so. For us there was a moment when the monthly payment dropped so much that we felt we could always manage to earn/pay that much, especially as the post-tax investment accounts grew to a point where we could pay this off if needed. That switch has allowed me to not freak out when I got "right-sized" at work.

Maybe reverse-engineer this and say when you want to be rid of it and assign resources accordingly?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: LeftA on August 30, 2022, 02:30:16 PM
Hello!

I’ll officially be in this thread in a couple of days when our most recent payment will put us under the $50K mark (somewhere around $48K to be more precise). At most, we’ll then have about 10 months of payments left!

@Nick_Miller , we did a combo of increasing our mortgage payments over time and paying A LOT of smaller lump sum payments. Most of our savings are invested in tax sheltered or tax advantaged accounts, so doesn’t make sense to use that to pay it off.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: sisto on September 01, 2022, 10:48:05 AM
It's official, I jumped ship. I was formally part of the DON'T payoff club, but my circumstances changed. My FIRE fixed income dropped and I had cash. It made more sense to payoff the mortgage with the cash instead of having to pull from assets to make up the difference. Completely debt free now and it feels great!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Kiwistash on September 03, 2022, 06:08:09 AM
Congratulations sisto on your new debt free life! Woohoo!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on September 03, 2022, 06:47:45 AM
Congratulations sisto on the payoff! The mental relief in turbulent financial times of a paid off house is eliminating some risk sequences in your retirement plans.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on September 03, 2022, 08:57:18 AM
It's official, I jumped ship. I was formally part of the DON'T payoff club, but my circumstances changed. My FIRE fixed income dropped and I had cash. It made more sense to payoff the mortgage with the cash instead of having to pull from assets to make up the difference. Completely debt free now and it feels great!
I'm less of an always-have-a-mortgage person than I am a fill-up-all-the-other-savings-buckets-first advocate. Therefore, don't be shocked that I wish you a hearty congratulations, sisto!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Nick_Miller on September 06, 2022, 08:04:38 AM
It's official, I jumped ship. I was formally part of the DON'T payoff club, but my circumstances changed. My FIRE fixed income dropped and I had cash. It made more sense to payoff the mortgage with the cash instead of having to pull from assets to make up the difference. Completely debt free now and it feels great!

Congrats! I'm glad you made your life simpler.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueSkyGreenEarth on September 06, 2022, 08:33:14 AM
We're buying a house and have found ourselves needing to make a difficult decision. We have the 20% down on a $400,000 house ($80,000), plus an additional $60,000 that we could put towards the mortgage to lower the monthly payment. The monthly payment would be a high percentage of our income if we only put 20% down, up to 40% of take home pay (P & I, insurance, taxes, does not include maintenance). If we put the additional $60,000 towards the down payment (total of $140,000) we would lower the mortgage payment to about 28 - 30% of our take home pay, depending on the house. I'd like to get some opinions on both options

1) put only 20% down, have high monthly mortgage payment, invest the $60,000 in VTSAX

2) put a $140,000 downpayment, lower the monthly payment, miss out on investment opportunity.

I know mathematically it makes more sense to do option 1, but we value paying off the mortgage early. Opinions appreciated!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Askel on September 06, 2022, 08:43:05 AM
I'd do:

3) Put 20% down, hold onto that extra 60k just in case the house has a surprise or two for you that requires an upgrade or repair. Once you're comfortable in the house- put that 60k towards the mortgage and rebalance to bring down your payment.  (make sure your mortgage allows you to rebalance for free).

I would definitely not do option 1 at 40% of my take home pay.  But I'd also never get into the 28-30% range either, but that's just me and my weird local housing market.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueSkyGreenEarth on September 07, 2022, 08:20:03 AM
Thank you for the reply! Unfortunately the housing market in my area is crazy expensive, so it's been a challenge to find something more affordable. We may consider just renting for a while longer if we can't find something that keeps us under that 30%.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on September 07, 2022, 09:16:02 AM
Thank you for the reply! Unfortunately the housing market in my area is crazy expensive, so it's been a challenge to find something more affordable. We may consider just renting for a while longer if we can't find something that keeps us under that 30%.
Meh. I've had a mortgage that was half my take home pay before and survived (and continued to save) just fine on the rest, thanks to badass frugality skills. In my case, the property was a small 2+1 condo in the Bay Area that I bought on a short sale. It sold for more than double what I paid just four years later, so it was worth the sacrifice, IMO, but it wasn't easy.

There's the crucial difference in your case. In the current market, prices are expected to fall. There is growing evidence it's already happening. Buying too much mortgage in this environment is not wise. 

Recent data set of one from the East Bay: we bought a 1+1 condo in April in a complex of identical units that were built as condos but operated as rentals for decades. After a small bidding war we paid $425k. Next identical unit sold for $440k. Next one was $427k. Most recent one was $390k. There's another on the market for the same asking price. It's been held open eight times (!) and is finally pending. We're not expecting to see even $390k for that one. Does it bother us? Nah. We're FatFIRE and we're never going to sell it. In fact, we're putting another $25k into it to bring it up to date. We absolutely do not care and it doesn't affect our overall finances.

If this scenario would freak you out, consider mine another vote to WAIT.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: trc4897 on September 07, 2022, 01:32:45 PM
Just wanted to throw out a tip to anyone who may be interested. I used to pay an extra $400 or so per month on my mortgage, but then covid hit and I lost about 20% of my take home pay due to scaled back hours. I then decided to stop paying extra in case my wife or I lost our jobs, and looked into ways to reduce the required payment even more (besides refinancing as we already had a good rate at 3.25%).

I learned over the last few years we had paid an extra $10k in principal, and we could use that to "recast" our mortgage. Essentially this recalculates your payment so that you pay off the mortgage at your original time (30 years) instead of your reduced time (ex. 22 years due to additional principal payments). This dropped my required payment by $105 per month. You can of course continue to make additional payments if you desire. Chase told me I can recast as many times as I want and there is never a fee.

Just thought this could be a helpful tool if you've paid a lot extra on your mortgage and you or your spouse ends up losing a job and want to lower your payment easily!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Askel on September 07, 2022, 02:21:11 PM
Ah, that's the word I mean- recast, not rebalance! Thanks!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: solon on September 07, 2022, 03:32:26 PM
I just checked the recast option with my lender. They require a $5,000 principle payment, and a recast fee of $250, and it can only be done once per loan! Looks like Chase has a pretty sweet option.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on September 12, 2022, 07:36:25 AM
It's official, I jumped ship. I was formally part of the DON'T payoff club, but my circumstances changed. My FIRE fixed income dropped and I had cash. It made more sense to payoff the mortgage with the cash instead of having to pull from assets to make up the difference. Completely debt free now and it feels great!

@sisto , congratulations on achieving your goal!

What is causing the income to drop? Is it something that requires additional planning to protect yourself further?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on September 18, 2022, 12:35:24 PM
What method do people prefer to pay down the mortgage?

1) Do you automatically pay extra each month?
2) Or do you fund an investment account hoping to earn gains and then pay off your mortgage when the balance gets high enough?

I can see pros and cons to each; I didn't know if there was a consensus.
I had a automatic transfer every month and did an additional transfer if there was anything left. Then the bank required us to call in for a request to pay extra on the principal. We still made regular transfers but not quite every month.
Some extra here and there were enough to get the principal down quickly and also what killed it in the end. We were done in about 7.5 years (end of 2018 iirc).

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: sisto on September 18, 2022, 01:28:05 PM
Thank you all for the kind words. Sorry for the late reply, my FIL lives with us and he broke his hip. We have been in a frenzy to remodel our bathrooms to make them easier for him to use with a walker and/or wheelchair if necessary. I'm pretty handy and doing much of the work myself so I have had very little downtime to check the forum. This was something we had planned to do anyway and thankfully had allocated money for it. It really does feel great to be completely debt free.

@talltexan I had always planned to retire around 55 and take withdrawals from my 401K which would have had plenty of money, too much actually. The mortgage would have had 5 more years left and I would have likely just kept it. The I found MMM and realized I could pull that date in 52 (2021) and would have done a SEPP 72T. In 2018 I was on a business trip and involved in an auto accident. Someone unsafely turned across traffic in front of me. I got a concussion that never fully resolved and left me with debilitating migraines and some vision issues. I ended up on disability. I tried to go back to work a few times, but was not able to perform at the level I had before at megacorp. When it became apparent I would likely not ever be able to I separated. Thankfully I had met the rule of 75 and officially retired and it actually ended up coinciding within a month of what I had planned for some time. My income was all over the place for about 3 years and I also hadn't been able to put much into my 401K during that time either, but I did receive disability. I finally settled my claim, but part of it meant a reduction in my benefit amount. They wanted to just take a lump sum, but I preferred them to reduce my monthly amount instead. That gave me much more control to invest some of it and use some to payoff the mortgage thus also offsetting the monthly loss. The income will remain stable now until Social Security age unless I miraculously get better. Sorry for the long winded reply.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on September 20, 2022, 07:49:38 AM
Thanks for the reply, indeed it sounds like you've been meeting these challenges with wise decisions over the past few years!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ChpBstrd on September 22, 2022, 12:04:52 PM
I added a poll:

How high/low does a mortgage rate need to be to pay off principal early?

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/what-is-your-threshold-for-making-pre-payments-to-your-mortgage/ (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/what-is-your-threshold-for-making-pre-payments-to-your-mortgage/)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on September 23, 2022, 11:50:57 AM
Thank you all for the kind words. Sorry for the late reply, my FIL lives with us and he broke his hip. We have been in a frenzy to remodel our bathrooms to make them easier for him to use with a walker and/or wheelchair if necessary. I'm pretty handy and doing much of the work myself so I have had very little downtime to check the forum. This was something we had planned to do anyway and thankfully had allocated money for it. It really does feel great to be completely debt free.

@talltexan I had always planned to retire around 55 and take withdrawals from my 401K which would have had plenty of money, too much actually. The mortgage would have had 5 more years left and I would have likely just kept it. The I found MMM and realized I could pull that date in 52 (2021) and would have done a SEPP 72T. In 2018 I was on a business trip and involved in an auto accident. Someone unsafely turned across traffic in front of me. I got a concussion that never fully resolved and left me with debilitating migraines and some vision issues. I ended up on disability. I tried to go back to work a few times, but was not able to perform at the level I had before at megacorp. When it became apparent I would likely not ever be able to I separated. Thankfully I had met the rule of 75 and officially retired and it actually ended up coinciding within a month of what I had planned for some time. My income was all over the place for about 3 years and I also hadn't been able to put much into my 401K during that time either, but I did receive disability. I finally settled my claim, but part of it meant a reduction in my benefit amount. They wanted to just take a lump sum, but I preferred them to reduce my monthly amount instead. That gave me much more control to invest some of it and use some to payoff the mortgage thus also offsetting the monthly loss. The income will remain stable now until Social Security age unless I miraculously get better. Sorry for the long winded reply.
Wow, that is a LOT to cope with. Fingers crossed for the miracle and barring that, effective meds.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: LeftA on October 01, 2022, 11:28:53 AM
I joined this thread just a month ago, as this is where you post when you get under $50K owed. With today’s payment, we’re at just over $43K! The end of our mortgage is nearing fast!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Vashy on October 01, 2022, 12:16:31 PM
Dropped a chunk of my annual company profits into the mortgage and now at £33k. Our mortgage deal runs out this month, which would get us from a 2.5% tracker mortgage to the bank's "standard rate" (currently around 5%).

At this point, it makes no sense to get another two-year mortgage for a £1k fee - worst case, we'll pay this off in three years, best case I feel we could crush it in in 12 months' time. I'm getting a severance package from my ex-employer that would take care of the whole remaining debt, though I'm loath to reduce my financial flexibility that much, so I'll likely just drop in £10k or so at the end of the year and carry the rest of it for another year. With the UK capital markets in turmoil because we have a bunch of lunatics in charge of the asylum, I'm planning for every contigency.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on October 15, 2022, 08:19:48 PM
@LeftA and @Vashy   This thread AFAIK was the original for any mortgage going way back, but over time, the "bracket threads" popped up to share experiences with others in the same stages.    All good to post here anyway...   You're both close on the mortgages, so great job!   

With an economy heading towards recession as we're all being led to believe anyway, can you use all available cash and open a HELOC for the emergency back up just in case?    Saving guaranteed 5% interest (which is after tax money you're paying more like 7% or more) by paying off now, then keeping the flexibility of the HELOC for job change "gaps" and other dramas of life is a good way to get to debt free NOW with some hedge just in case for the future...   Think of it this way... Would you take out a new mortgage for that amount right now just to put cash in the stock market or a savings account for the next couple of years?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dutch Comfort on October 24, 2022, 08:41:06 AM
Update on our mortgage#1 (we have 2 mortgages, but want to get rid of this one ASAP!):
   
Original: 120,000 repayment date 06/01/33
October 2021: 67,000 repayment date 12/01/32
January 2022: 64,000 repayment date 10/01/32
March 2022: 60,500 repayment date 04/01/32
April 2022: 60,000 repayment date 04/01/32 - HALFWAY MARK!!!!!
October 2022: 56,000 repayment date 02/01/32

Yes...... another 2 months shaved off...... The outstanding amount is starting to look smaller and more manageable every month.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dicey on October 24, 2022, 11:22:40 AM
@LeftA and @Vashy   This thread AFAIK was the original for any mortgage going way back, but over time, the "bracket threads" popped up to share experiences with others in the same stages.    All good to post here anyway...   You're both close on the mortgages, so great job!   

With an economy heading towards recession as we're all being led to believe anyway, can you use all available cash and open a HELOC for the emergency back up just in case?    Saving guaranteed 5% interest (which is after tax money you're paying more like 7% or more) by paying off now, then keeping the flexibility of the HELOC for job change "gaps" and other dramas of life is a good way to get to debt free NOW with some hedge just in case for the future...   Think of it this way... Would you take out a new mortgage for that amount right now just to put cash in the stock market or a savings account for the next couple of years?
People forget that during the Great Recession, banks closed and/or froze HELOC's for thousands of customers. They also slashed credit limits. During a No Spend Month, B of A cut my limit by 60%, based on nothing but my "spending patterns". Needless to say, they no longer have my business. Just a friendly reminder that it could happen again.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: alcon835 on October 25, 2022, 07:05:52 AM
@LeftA and @Vashy   This thread AFAIK was the original for any mortgage going way back, but over time, the "bracket threads" popped up to share experiences with others in the same stages.    All good to post here anyway...   You're both close on the mortgages, so great job!   

With an economy heading towards recession as we're all being led to believe anyway, can you use all available cash and open a HELOC for the emergency back up just in case?    Saving guaranteed 5% interest (which is after tax money you're paying more like 7% or more) by paying off now, then keeping the flexibility of the HELOC for job change "gaps" and other dramas of life is a good way to get to debt free NOW with some hedge just in case for the future...   Think of it this way... Would you take out a new mortgage for that amount right now just to put cash in the stock market or a savings account for the next couple of years?
People forget that during the Great Recession, banks closed and/or froze HELOC's for thousands of customers. They also slashed credit limits. During a No Spend Month, B of A cut my limit by 60%, based on nothing but my "spending patterns". Needless to say, they no longer have my business. Just a friendly reminder that it could happen again.

This is such a good point and a big reason why a HELOC is not part of my emergency fund.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on November 11, 2022, 07:14:21 PM
2008/9 was the worst since the 1930s and life is all about risk vs. reward.   Having a mortgage overhead you can eliminate is worth the risk of eliminating it.    If HELOCs that are in place already are restricted, then time for a side hustle.   Control your destiny.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Lilium on November 12, 2022, 05:13:57 AM
Looks like I missed updating April...

Start: 168,090
Extra April: 2256
Extra May: 856

New Balance: 153,474

8.5% (?) paid off this year, so far.

It's been a hot minute since I've updated here.  Some progress has been made but not as much as I had hoped for. 

Start 168,090

Extra 2021 - 18,246.18
Extra 2022 - 2585.47

End 2022 137,294.50

Between regularly scheduled payments and extra principal, the balance has been brought down by 30,795.50 in just about 2 years. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Vashy on November 15, 2022, 06:25:43 AM
Dropped a chunk of my annual company profits into the mortgage and now at £33k. Our mortgage deal runs out this month, which would get us from a 2.5% tracker mortgage to the bank's "standard rate" (currently around 5%).

At this point, it makes no sense to get another two-year mortgage for a £1k fee - worst case, we'll pay this off in three years, best case I feel we could crush it in in 12 months' time. I'm getting a severance package from my ex-employer that would take care of the whole remaining debt, though I'm loath to reduce my financial flexibility that much, so I'll likely just drop in £10k or so at the end of the year and carry the rest of it for another year. With the UK capital markets in turmoil because we have a bunch of lunatics in charge of the asylum, I'm planning for every contigency.

Meh, checked again and the mortgage runs out next year (October 2023). I've set that as the goal for paying it off completely, though my income situation is somewhat in flux right now so hard to forecast cash flow.

Down to £32,700 in the meantime. Currently paying c£86 in interest per month on that.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: wkumtrider on December 02, 2022, 01:23:18 PM
Made my last mortgage payment at the end of October.  100% debt free, can't believe it. 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: alcon835 on December 02, 2022, 04:47:56 PM
Made my last mortgage payment at the end of October.  100% debt free, can't believe it.

Heck yeah!!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!! That is so awesome!!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ATtiny85 on December 02, 2022, 07:13:25 PM
Made my last mortgage payment at the end of October.  100% debt free, can't believe it.

Nice, congrats. It affords a different type of flexibility. We paid off ours several years ago, but due to an ill-timed corporate move we have a small mortgage now. It is at an insanely low interest rate, but we will still likely pay it off before long. We fill all other investment buckets we need to in order to reach our targets on time.

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on December 02, 2022, 08:32:39 PM
Made my last mortgage payment at the end of October.  100% debt free, can't believe it.
This is great work!   Go walk barefoot on the floor and the yard and enjoy the moment.   Rarely does anyone notice unless you brag about it though.   No music plays.   No award bell sounds.   But now you are ready to CRUSH it with your investments of that free cash flow.  All your  money works 24x7x365 for you 100% now.   Awesome!   
Title: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: rmorris50 on December 03, 2022, 07:58:42 PM
@LeftA and @Vashy   This thread AFAIK was the original for any mortgage going way back, but over time, the "bracket threads" popped up to share experiences with others in the same stages.    All good to post here anyway...   You're both close on the mortgages, so great job!   

With an economy heading towards recession as we're all being led to believe anyway, can you use all available cash and open a HELOC for the emergency back up just in case?    Saving guaranteed 5% interest (which is after tax money you're paying more like 7% or more) by paying off now, then keeping the flexibility of the HELOC for job change "gaps" and other dramas of life is a good way to get to debt free NOW with some hedge just in case for the future...   Think of it this way... Would you take out a new mortgage for that amount right now just to put cash in the stock market or a savings account for the next couple of years?
People forget that during the Great Recession, banks closed and/or froze HELOC's for thousands of customers. They also slashed credit limits. During a No Spend Month, B of A cut my limit by 60%, based on nothing but my "spending patterns". Needless to say, they no longer have my business. Just a friendly reminder that it could happen again.

This is such a good point and a big reason why a HELOC is not part of my emergency fund.
This is always a risk with a line of credit as an emergency fund. In a major crisis you may not have access to it especially if everyone is running to the institution at the same time.

Guess if one is truly worried about a HELOC shutting down you’d have to draw the money out and put in another account and then pay the HELOC interest. Expensive cost to ensure liquidity tho.

Why am I reading this thread? I love my 2.5 percent fixed rate mortgage, and inflation is making it cheaper every day.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Vashy on December 04, 2022, 05:20:02 AM
Meh, checked again and the mortgage runs out next year (October 2023). I've set that as the goal for paying it off completely, though my income situation is somewhat in flux right now so hard to forecast cash flow.

Down to £32,700 in the meantime. Currently paying c£86 in interest per month on that.

Mr Vashy put some excess cash in that he had sitting in his account. We're now at £29,000; latest interest payment was >£100. We'll try and kill the mortgage by end-2023, maybe end-2024, depends on whether I score that high-paying 12-month contract or not (will know this month, I hope). 
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on December 09, 2022, 08:02:40 PM
@Vashy   Way to go!

To the folks who worried about HELOCs being "taken away from them" above... The extents people will go to in order to hold a mortgage over their head to avoid a tiny risk of liquidity issues are the result of a debtor culture since the post-WWII years that assumes it's OK to have "good debt".   The risk of having liquidity issues is far higher when you HAVE to pay the bank every month to keep the roof over your head, particularly when times are bad.   Instead, being debt free freeing up cash flow and building one's own cash emergency reserves and investments that pay you interest when times are good or mediocre is controlling your destiny.  (Adding a HELOC if necessary as a backstop for those who need a safety net just in case of the chance they need more liquidity).   Far better to be debt free than to talk one's self into inaction and letting a mortgage hinder your mood, decisions and financial opportunities just because of the risk of HELOC liquidity issues when times are bad once every 50 years or so.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: rmorris50 on December 15, 2022, 05:04:15 AM
@Vashy   Way to go!

To the folks who worried about HELOCs being "taken away from them" above... The extents people will go to in order to hold a mortgage over their head to avoid a tiny risk of liquidity issues are the result of a debtor culture since the post-WWII years that assumes it's OK to have "good debt".   The risk of having liquidity issues is far higher when you HAVE to pay the bank every month to keep the roof over your head, particularly when times are bad.   Instead, being debt free freeing up cash flow and building one's own cash emergency reserves and investments that pay you interest when times are good or mediocre is controlling your destiny.  (Adding a HELOC if necessary as a backstop for those who need a safety net just in case of the chance they need more liquidity).   Far better to be debt free than to talk one's self into inaction and letting a mortgage hinder your mood, decisions and financial opportunities just because of the risk of HELOC liquidity issues when times are bad once every 50 years or so.
And the faster you pay off your mortgage, the higher the liquidity risk, and thus why having a HELOC open can be a good idea. Hard for most people to both pay the mortgage early and build a substantial liquid savings. PAlso, individuals will face several times of financial stress in there life time, regardless of how the economy is doing.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dutch Comfort on December 20, 2022, 01:59:27 PM
Update on our mortgage#1 (we have 2 mortgages, but want to get rid of this one ASAP!):
   
Original: 120,000 repayment date 06/01/33
October 2021: 67,000 repayment date 12/01/32
January 2022: 64,000 repayment date 10/01/32
March 2022: 60,500 repayment date 04/01/32
April 2022: 60,000 repayment date 04/01/32 - HALFWAY MARK!!!!!
October 2022: 56,000 repayment date 02/01/32
December 2022: 53,000 repayment date 10/01/31

Used big part of my bonus to do an extra payment on the mortgage. 4 months closer to full repayment!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on December 26, 2022, 08:06:51 PM
Way to go @Dutch Comfort!   The end date seems different from US mortgage amortizations though...  You've paid more than half the balance, but the end date only shortens a couple years (from 2033 to 31)   In the US, the payments would stay the same and more principal prepayment would reduce the balance each month (most US mortgages do so anyway as long as the payment forms online specify where to apply such "overpayment" of the monthly amount)... Do they only remove interest from the payments schedule as you reduce the balance and leave the principal payments for the entire term?  or something else different?   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Alfred J Quack on December 31, 2022, 04:21:05 AM
Way to go @Dutch Comfort!   The end date seems different from US mortgage amortizations though...  You've paid more than half the balance, but the end date only shortens a couple years (from 2033 to 31)   In the US, the payments would stay the same and more principal prepayment would reduce the balance each month (most US mortgages do so anyway as long as the payment forms online specify where to apply such "overpayment" of the monthly amount)... Do they only remove interest from the payments schedule as you reduce the balance and leave the principal payments for the entire term?  or something else different?
With my bank (also Dutch) they defaulted to shortening the run time but I specifically asked them to reduce the monthly payment in stead. My reasoning at the time was that if I came into financial distress, the lower monthly payment would be beneficial whereas the shorter run time of the mortgage would not.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: LeftA on December 31, 2022, 09:05:19 AM
With tomorrow’s payment, we will be at $29K something owed! We now have less than 6 months to go.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on December 31, 2022, 09:19:07 AM
With tomorrow’s payment, we will be at $29K something owed! We now have less than 6 months to go.

Fantastic -- great job @LeftA! That will be here before you know it.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Purple_Crayon on December 31, 2022, 11:06:05 AM
Paying down the mortgage was a focus of 2022, in the hopes that it would increase cashflows needed for planned FIRE in the next few years. Here's how it panned out:

Jan: $60,234.83
Feb: $59,288.26
Mar: $58,339.23
Apr: $57,387.73
May: $56,433.75
Jun: $55,477.28
Jul: $54,518.32
Aug: $8,439.68 (switched jobs in April and had to exercise all stock options within 90 days -- dropped the proceeds on the house)
Sep: $4,350.42 ($3,000 extra payment)
Oct: $0 (Called when I noticed the escrow balance would cover the rest of the house, and had them pay it off)

I made it! Stoked to see everyone kicking butt on their respective journies!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on December 31, 2022, 11:12:53 AM
Huge congratulations @lilkidjesus !  How does it feel?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Purple_Crayon on January 01, 2023, 01:30:59 PM
@Trifele It definitely makes expense planning for FIRE scenarios a lot more real. I will say, though, I didn't realize my property taxes were due in November. I was all stoked to have my first ever month without a mortgage payment, and then I ended up owing more than a normal payment to pay my taxes. I was like: "Come on, really!?"

But yeah, it's great. Definitely more peace of mind and cashflow flexibility in my planning.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: alcon835 on January 01, 2023, 01:53:41 PM
Whoa, it has been quite awhile since I updated my numbers! 2022 was an interesting year. Due to some life uncertainty we dropped our mortgage payments down to the minimum and poured those funds into other things. Nothing wrong with that, but it did slow down our mortgage payoff quite a bit.

1/1/21 Balance:   $161,448
1/1/22 Balance:   $142,583
1/1/23 Balance:   $130,075

We'll be deciding over the next few days how much we want to put into our mortgage this year. In 2022 it was the minimum, but I think we'll want to increase that for 2022. Not nearly as aggressive at it as we were in 2021, but it is still important to me that I pay off my mortgage by end of 2026. Lots of progress needs to be made if I'm going to pull that off. But I think its realistic if I can hit some of my other financial goals.

Here's to another year inching ever closer to being mortgage free!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dutch Comfort on January 01, 2023, 02:27:44 PM
Way to go @Dutch Comfort!   The end date seems different from US mortgage amortizations though...  You've paid more than half the balance, but the end date only shortens a couple years (from 2033 to 31)   In the US, the payments would stay the same and more principal prepayment would reduce the balance each month (most US mortgages do so anyway as long as the payment forms online specify where to apply such "overpayment" of the monthly amount)... Do they only remove interest from the payments schedule as you reduce the balance and leave the principal payments for the entire term?  or something else different?
With my bank (also Dutch) they defaulted to shortening the run time but I specifically asked them to reduce the monthly payment in stead. My reasoning at the time was that if I came into financial distress, the lower monthly payment would be beneficial whereas the shorter run time of the mortgage would not.

Yes, the default here is to shorten the run time, but I can opt for reduction of the monthly payment. For now, we’re in the position that we do not expect any financial distress soon, so we’re shortening the run time as much as possible.
We only started the extra repayments about 2 years ago when we finally came into a more financially secure situation and had the option to decide what to do with extras. Before that, it was a more paycheck-to-paycheck situation. But then I found a couple of likewise minded people and discovered MMM and here we are now……
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: grantmeaname on January 01, 2023, 05:19:37 PM
Hi gang! Looking forward to joining the club!

I bought a house (yay!) and got a mortgage (boo!)

Home value $465k
Equity $105k ($93k down payment, $1400 amortization plus $10k overpayment the first month,)
Mortgage balance $360k
4.99% 15-year mortgage (locked in September, closed in November)

My annual bonus is a big part of my yearly income and comes in February. I'll be making $2400 overpayments every month, and hopefully with that and three big February lump sums I'll be able to kill the mortgage in February '25. This year's bonus will have competing spending priorities in home efficiency/carbon projects - a ground source heat pump and solar panels.

My investments are at around $500k and that pace of payoff should leave room to get them in the $800k-1m range by February '25 and then I'm done with the rat race (probably?)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on January 02, 2023, 03:19:45 AM
Sorry you haven't gotten to enjoy the feeling yet @lilkidjesus -- you will in the next few months. 

Nice, aggressive plan @grantmeaname -- love it.  I did the same thing.  Super aggressive payoff coinciding with FIRE.  Good luck to you!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: grantmeaname on January 02, 2023, 06:19:52 AM
Do you ever lie awake at night thinking "I wish I owed JP Morgan money still and had tens more shares of VTSAX?"
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on January 02, 2023, 06:42:20 AM
Do you ever lie awake at night thinking "I wish I owed JP Morgan money still and had tens more shares of VTSAX?"

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: alcon835 on January 02, 2023, 12:16:58 PM
Do you ever lie awake at night thinking "I wish I owed JP Morgan money still and had tens more shares of VTSAX?"


LOL!!!!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: TyGuy on January 02, 2023, 12:44:28 PM
Happy New Year Everyone! I am joining this thread to track my mortgage pay down. I currently have a 15 year loan with ~13 years remaining at 1.75%. Due to the super low interest rate, I typically don't make large additional payments towards principle, but I may in the future depending on market conditions and/or personal finance conditions (I would like to have my mortgage payed in full before my future retirement).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on January 02, 2023, 06:17:12 PM
Do you ever lie awake at night thinking "I wish I owed JP Morgan money still and had tens more shares of VTSAX?"
ROFL!  NEVER!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dutch Comfort on January 03, 2023, 02:34:20 AM
Do you ever lie awake at night thinking "I wish I owed JP Morgan money still and had tens more shares of VTSAX?"

LOL!!!!
Happy 2023 and happy (early) repayments!

Just did the budget for 2023 and hoping to make another big dent into the mortgage this year (from 53 to 43 is a stretch goal, but this is the challenge for this year with our modest salaries)!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on January 08, 2023, 06:36:37 PM
@Dutch Comfort,  This is awesome!   Great discipline to stay focused on eliminating that debt so you open up so many other good financial options with that new free-cash flow soon!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Just Joe on January 12, 2023, 12:03:05 PM
Watching the news recently with all the layoffs just reinforces our resolve to get our place paid off. We have several years left but making progress.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: LeftA on January 16, 2023, 08:36:39 AM
Down to $25.3K as of today! Our days of having a mortgage are numbered.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on January 17, 2023, 03:56:25 AM
Down to $25.3K as of today! Our days of having a mortgage are numbered.

Awesome @LeftA
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cdub on January 19, 2023, 01:55:36 PM
Down to $25.3K as of today! Our days of having a mortgage are numbered.

That's awesome!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cdub on January 19, 2023, 02:02:40 PM
I started a quest to pay off my mortgage! I even created a blog to document my journey.

https://mortgagepayoff.club/ (https://mortgagepayoff.club/)

Who's with me?

Paying off our mortgages would certainly be badass. (I hope you enjoy the blog too)

EDIT - updated URL with new domain for the site :)

Haven't been to these forums in a while. Glad to see this thread took off!

I updated the above link because the original link doesn't work anymore (link above works)

Murphy hit big time for me in 2014 (medical emergency) so my payoff journey got sidetracked. Looking to start it up big time soon as soon as my EF gets fully funded in March.

We've had 10 members of our site fully pay off their mortgage. :) Hopefully I'll finally join their ranks in a couple of years.

https://mortgagepayoff.club/
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on January 19, 2023, 02:11:38 PM
Welcome back OP!  Thanks for starting this thread, 10 long years ago!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: cdub on January 19, 2023, 02:39:27 PM
Welcome back OP!  Thanks for starting this thread, 10 long years ago!

Yeah time really flies! Glad to get back on track again. Financially I'm fine but haven't made much progress in the mortgage and of course would love to have more squirreled away for retirement. Seemed like I had a ton invested but lost* a bunch with this most recent big drop in the market.

I'm really looking forward to attacking the mortgage again. If my wife's on board I'm thinking of just living off of my salary and throwing her entire salary at the mortgage. I know it's doable as we went a year already on my salary alone recently.

*haven't sold a penny so haven't really lost anything yet.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ProxyRetired on January 21, 2023, 06:19:01 AM
Paid off our solar panel loan (hey, they're on the house!) - saved $13K in interest. Four year ROI on panels expected (if power costs don't go up, haha).

Turning our sights on the mortgage next, three years to go!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: grantmeaname on January 21, 2023, 06:20:19 AM
That's awesome! What part of the country? I'm looking at 12-13 year payback - really poor.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ProxyRetired on January 21, 2023, 06:23:49 AM
That's awesome! What part of the country? I'm looking at 12-13 year payback - really poor.

Midwest. Our state has nice grant programs, SRECS, and we fully captured the 30% federal tax credit. It might end up being more like 8 years, since we also made some investments in insulation and appliances. Kind of a wash; ultimately, I can blast my A/C in the summer and not feel guilty. :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: grantmeaname on January 22, 2023, 06:39:36 AM
Yesterday DW and I made a mortgage payoff thermometer on poster board to give us something tangible to look at, so the next couple years of saving isn't just bits on a computer screen. Each square is $5k, and if we do the level of overpayments I'm hoping for we can get a square every other month plus a big burst of progress each February in bonus month.

(https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/mortgage-payoff-club!!/?action=dlattach;attach=83512;image)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on January 22, 2023, 07:05:23 AM

I love the thermometer @grantmeaname

In my last 100-day lead up to FIRE I had a coloring page (a lovely beach scene) with 100 sections.  I colored one section in every day after work, starting with the sand and seashells and working my way up to the sun.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: grantmeaname on January 22, 2023, 07:53:30 AM
wow, I love that!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ProxyRetired on January 31, 2023, 10:05:03 AM
Going half in for the year. We had planned to snowball our mortgage since we paid off a couple things, but given the looming recession, and a likely war over the debt limit in Congress, we're going to split in half what we we're going to put in, and save the rest in cash. We'll only lose a couple hundred in interest long term, but it'll beef up our war chest incase things get wonky this summer and fall.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: LeftA on February 04, 2023, 09:59:59 AM
@grantmeaname , that’s a fun way to track progress!

We started not too far away from you at $475K, about 10 years ago. We’re now at just over $22K owed.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on February 15, 2023, 08:59:41 PM
Going half in for the year. We had planned to snowball our mortgage since we paid off a couple things, but given the looming recession, and a likely war over the debt limit in Congress, we're going to split in half what we we're going to put in, and save the rest in cash. We'll only lose a couple hundred in interest long term, but it'll beef up our war chest incase things get wonky this summer and fall.

Once you guys have saved a full 6 months of cash for all living expenses, there's no "half way" to killing a mortgage debt every year as long as your health is good so you can make a living.   The inertia factor is just too hard to resist as life nags you for that "half" sitting on the sidelines.   Killing that debt is a 24 hour a day, find any legal way, every day passion to kill the mortgage and get that sweet release letter from the mortgage service.   It's amazing what you can find to accelerate this... Renegotiate cable/cellular/home/auto insurance/security services and ANYTHING that depreciates.  Heck, search under your sofa cushions and the ones at your friends house to find shekhels that drop that principal balance!   The point is it has to be a passion to be free of debt or you simply likely won't be.   Short term sacrifice results in free cash flow, then long-term wealth acceleration as you apply that free cash flow to build a far larger nest egg with a confidence that simply isn't there with a large mortgage overhead.    Don't just be an animal about this... Be a friggin' Money Badger about it!  ;-)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: TomTX on February 18, 2023, 09:13:11 AM
Do you ever lie awake at night thinking "I wish I owed JP Morgan money still and had tens more shares of VTSAX?"
I'm perfectly happy having an additional $150k invested instead of paying down a ~3%, 30 year mortgage early. I certainly don't worry about it, much less lie awake at night.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: grantmeaname on February 18, 2023, 09:17:51 AM
Congrats?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on February 21, 2023, 09:05:04 PM
ROFL!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: talltexan on March 03, 2023, 11:45:35 AM
Going half in for the year. We had planned to snowball our mortgage since we paid off a couple things, but given the looming recession, and a likely war over the debt limit in Congress, we're going to split in half what we we're going to put in, and save the rest in cash. We'll only lose a couple hundred in interest long term, but it'll beef up our war chest incase things get wonky this summer and fall.

 Heck, search under your sofa cushions and the ones at your friends house to find shekhels that drop that principal balance!   

I know you were saying this in the spirit of exaggeration, but taking money out of your friends' furniture may have legal consequences that offset the benefits of a paid-off mortgage.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: nereo on March 03, 2023, 11:52:03 AM
Going half in for the year. We had planned to snowball our mortgage since we paid off a couple things, but given the looming recession, and a likely war over the debt limit in Congress, we're going to split in half what we we're going to put in, and save the rest in cash. We'll only lose a couple hundred in interest long term, but it'll beef up our war chest incase things get wonky this summer and fall.

 Heck, search under your sofa cushions and the ones at your friends house to find shekhels that drop that principal balance!   

I know you were saying this in the spirit of exaggeration, but taking money out of your friends' furniture may have legal consequences that offset the benefits of a paid-off mortgage.
the amount of overlap with antisemitic tropes here makes me uncomfortable.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on March 17, 2023, 07:58:06 PM
My mother's last name was Karesh.  I wish you peace.

Back to the point of the comment to Proxy, whatever the currency, thinking in terms of years to pay off a mortgage or setting aside sidepots of funds is not a successful mindset to becoming debt free.   As any windfall comes through (incuding the sofa cushions ;-), applying that cash to the debt earlier in the amortization period to avoid paying interest on those early years is key.  Eliminating debt has to be intentional every day.  Doing so will be called "weird" to others who think "some debt is good" who will challenge you.   But it transforms your life to accumulate personal assets that pay you returns every month instead of being  psychologically influenced by debt over one's head and financially "owned" by one's lender.   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Must_ache on March 28, 2023, 11:38:46 AM
Happy New Year Everyone! I am joining this thread to track my mortgage pay down. I currently have a 15 year loan with ~13 years remaining at 1.75%. Due to the super low interest rate, I typically don't make large additional payments towards principle, but I may in the future depending on market conditions and/or personal finance conditions (I would like to have my mortgage payed in full before my future retirement).

The most recent 52-week T-bill yielded 4.617%.  Suppose you start the year with $1,000 and have a $1,000 mortgage balance.

1) Put $1,000 toward 1.75% mortgage immediately = finish with $0
2) Buy T-bill, end the year with $1,046.17, pay taxes on the interest (let's say 12% fed, exempt from state) so $5.54, left with $1,040.63.  Pay down mortgage balance of $1,017.50, have $23.13 left over.

So under these assumptions you lose $23.13 for every $1,000 prepayment vs investing in something risk free for a year.

To be fair, interest rates are 3.875% for 2-yr, 3.625% for 5-yr, 3.500% for 10-yr so if you wanted something risk-free, there is more benefit to delaying now and taking a 17-week or 26-week bill, those are north of 4.8%.  Longer-term the benefit is less but it obviously still exists - and compounds.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: grantmeaname on March 28, 2023, 02:08:55 PM
Edit: paying off your mortgage early compounds at whatever rate the debt you are paying off carries (4.99% in my case, or a much less attractive 1.75% for TyGuy who you quote above). That's the whole reason that paying extra in month one brings the mortgage final payoff date in from the original mortgage term. In fact, the mortgage compounds at a certain rate, while the reinvestment rate you will get on a short-term treasury is uncertain and in this case forecasted to drop by the bond market participants.

It does still seem like if you've got a much lower rate than the post-tax 1y treasury rate, it's a no-brainer to take a free year at 4.617% while you can get it and pocket the spread between that and your rate, but it's not like compounding only helps you on interest income and not interest expense.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Must_ache on March 30, 2023, 06:41:51 PM
Your point is well taken.  I wasn't about to make the case that you can outdo paying down a 5% mortgage without significant risk, but 1.75% seems sure enough.
In my youth I would probably expect to do better long term, but in my 50's I would certain not turn away a certain 5% rate of return in this murky environment.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: TyGuy on April 02, 2023, 02:56:48 PM
Currently, with the high interest rates (4.2% for a savings account), I am keeping any extra money I may want to contribute to the mortgage invested there for the foreseeable future. Once I get a sizeable amount of money in the savings account (i.e. >$5,000) I will make a decision as to how to proceed with it. There are a lot of moving pieces to think about, but I definitely lean towards having a portfolio with a lower risk profile.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dutch Comfort on April 12, 2023, 02:38:25 AM
Update on our mortgage#1 (we have 2 mortgages, but want to get rid of this one ASAP!):
   
Original: 120,000 repayment date 06/01/33
October 2021: 67,000 repayment date 12/01/32
January 2022: 64,000 repayment date 10/01/32
March 2022: 60,500 repayment date 04/01/32
April 2022: 60,000 repayment date 04/01/32 - HALFWAY MARK!!!!!
October 2022: 56,000 repayment date 02/01/32
December 2022: EUR 53,000 repayment date 10/01/31
April 2023: EUR 49,000 repayment date 06/01/31

2 milestones! Below EUR 50K AND we managed to get the repayment date to 2 years earlier than the original mortgage.
Now waiting for the tax refund to take some more months off.......

Also did some calculations and our stretch goal is to have it repaid before end of 2027 (which is 5.5 years ahead of the original schedule)! This is a goal that needs a lot of dedicated savings, no major life events, keeping our jobs and it a stretch, but a nice one to work towards! There, I said it....... now, let's go!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jnw on April 12, 2023, 02:43:12 AM
Currently, with the high interest rates (4.2% for a savings account), I am keeping any extra money I may want to contribute to the mortgage invested there for the foreseeable future. Once I get a sizeable amount of money in the savings account (i.e. >$5,000) I will make a decision as to how to proceed with it. There are a lot of moving pieces to think about, but I definitely lean towards having a portfolio with a lower risk profile.

Doing similar thing but with Vanguard personal brokerage account.  The settlement account is Federal Money Market and I'm earning currently 4.75% APR, which beats my mortgage APR.  Rather have lots of cash vs. tied up in equity if I am not losing any interest.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: monarda on April 12, 2023, 12:01:06 PM
We have 3 mortgages.
Two won't be paid off for a while, (one is at 2.25%, one is at 3%)
but one... now the balance is now $49,435.

Less than 5 years to go. :-)

Almost a year later, mortgage balance for the rental is $43,515  (at 4%)
and the credit card balance we're holding is $45,917  ("0% credit cards"- balance transfer 3% for an additional 18 months, so basically 2% for year).  We'll pay both down, but not so aggressively, ... like the last couple of posts say, we will hold some in savings and stay steady paying the minimum or a bit more now and then.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dutch Comfort on May 10, 2023, 12:09:37 AM
Update on our mortgage#1 (we have 2 mortgages, but want to get rid of this one ASAP!):
   
Original: 120,000 repayment date 06/01/33
October 2021: 67,000 repayment date 12/01/32
January 2022: 64,000 repayment date 10/01/32
March 2022: 60,500 repayment date 04/01/32
April 2022: 60,000 repayment date 04/01/32 - HALFWAY MARK!!!!!
October 2022: 56,000 repayment date 02/01/32
December 2022: EUR 53,000 repayment date 10/01/31
April 2023: EUR 49,000 repayment date 06/01/31
May 2023: EUR 45,500 repayment date 12/01/30

Stretch goal: full repayment in 2027!

Tax refund came in and was directly put against the mortgage. 6 months shaved off! Next milestone: under EUR 40K......
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Vashy on May 10, 2023, 01:15:21 AM
Mr Vashy put some excess cash in that he had sitting in his account. We're now at £29,000; latest interest payment was >£100. We'll try and kill the mortgage by end-2023, maybe end-2024, depends on whether I score that high-paying 12-month contract or not (will know this month, I hope).

Dropped in more cash when we renewed the mortgage - now standing at £17,200, with a goal to kill it by end-2024 or earlier.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: LeftA on May 16, 2023, 09:43:32 PM
I haven’t posted here in a few months. As of today, we have $4,947 left to go on our mortgage.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jnw on May 16, 2023, 11:48:47 PM
I haven’t posted here in a few months. As of today, we have $4,947 left to go on our mortgage.

Wewt! That's pretty sweet :)  $37.5k for me.  Which I guess I'll pay off all at once (in about a year) since I am saving the money in federal money market & t-bills for now.  In about 3.5 months, the sum of my liquid assets will be just greater than my debt -- which includes mortgage and about $6000 on 0% APR credit cards.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dutch Comfort on June 02, 2023, 01:03:54 AM
pdate on our mortgage#1 (we have 2 mortgages, but want to get rid of this one ASAP!):
   
Original: 120,000 repayment date 06/01/33
October 2021: 67,000 repayment date 12/01/32
January 2022: 64,000 repayment date 10/01/32
March 2022: 60,500 repayment date 04/01/32
April 2022: 60,000 repayment date 04/01/32 - HALFWAY MARK!!!!!
October 2022: 56,000 repayment date 02/01/32
December 2022: EUR 53,000 repayment date 10/01/31
April 2023: EUR 49,000 repayment date 06/01/31
May 2023: EUR 45,500 repayment date 12/01/30
June 2023: EUR 44,500 repayment date 11/01/30

Stretch goal: full repayment in 2027!

Got a nice refund from our insurance and could shave another month off! It feels so good throwing windfalls to our goal. We're getting closer and closer.......
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: LeftA on June 02, 2023, 07:30:48 AM
Thanks @jnw !

We now have less than 1 payment to go - I paid enough so the last mortgage payment EVER, will be less than our usual payment amount.

Have been working on this financial goal for years, and the day is so close now!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: jnw on June 02, 2023, 09:43:02 AM
Thanks @jnw !

We now have less than 1 payment to go - I paid enough so the last mortgage payment EVER, will be less than our usual payment amount.

Have been working on this financial goal for years, and the day is so close now!
I am SO happy for you!  So exciting! Look forward to your reply to this thread next month :) It will be a great feeling to be 100% debt free :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: LeftA on June 09, 2023, 09:32:37 PM
@jnw , thank you for sharing in my excitement! Well, you don’t have to wait until next month.

TODAY was the day!!! I called my bank and arranged the last payment. They took it within an hour, and closed the mortgage account. Now, when I log in all I see is assets!!

Oh happy day!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: iluvzbeach on June 09, 2023, 09:42:36 PM
It was six years ago this week that we paid off the mortgage on our home. Our TNW has increased significantly since that time; of course market gains play a large part in this increase, but our ability to save ratcheted up significantly once we no longer had a house payment. No regrets at all in paying it off.

On the other hand, we bought a second home (that a close family member lives in) in 2021 and we will not pay off that one early. It has a 2.375% rate for 30 years, so we make the minimum payment on it each month while earning more on a savings account at today’s rates. That said, I’m still a fan of paying off a mortgage as quickly as possible.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on June 12, 2023, 03:27:20 AM
@jnw , thank you for sharing in my excitement! Well, you don’t have to wait until next month.

TODAY was the day!!! I called my bank and arranged the last payment. They took it within an hour, and closed the mortgage account. Now, when I log in all I see is assets!!

Oh happy day!

Huge congratulations @LeftA!!!!  You did it!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dutch Comfort on June 12, 2023, 04:07:59 AM
@jnw , thank you for sharing in my excitement! Well, you don’t have to wait until next month.

TODAY was the day!!! I called my bank and arranged the last payment. They took it within an hour, and closed the mortgage account. Now, when I log in all I see is assets!!

Oh happy day!

VERY HAPPY DAY!!!!!! Congratulations on this HUGE milestone!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: LeftA on June 12, 2023, 11:39:47 AM
Thanks so much @Dutch Comfort !
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: alcon835 on June 22, 2023, 07:06:02 AM
@jnw , thank you for sharing in my excitement! Well, you don’t have to wait until next month.

TODAY was the day!!! I called my bank and arranged the last payment. They took it within an hour, and closed the mortgage account. Now, when I log in all I see is assets!!

Oh happy day!

Let's gooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!

Congratulations! That's HUGE!!!! Come back in a month or two when it really starts to sink in and let us know how it feels!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Vashy on August 02, 2023, 09:18:05 AM
Mr Vashy put some excess cash in that he had sitting in his account. We're now at £29,000; latest interest payment was >£100. We'll try and kill the mortgage by end-2023, maybe end-2024, depends on whether I score that high-paying 12-month contract or not (will know this month, I hope).

Dropped in more cash when we renewed the mortgage - now standing at £17,200, with a goal to kill it by end-2024 or earlier.

Now at £13,200 - still on track to kill it by end next year.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: alcon835 on August 03, 2023, 06:18:23 AM
Mr Vashy put some excess cash in that he had sitting in his account. We're now at £29,000; latest interest payment was >£100. We'll try and kill the mortgage by end-2023, maybe end-2024, depends on whether I score that high-paying 12-month contract or not (will know this month, I hope).

Dropped in more cash when we renewed the mortgage - now standing at £17,200, with a goal to kill it by end-2024 or earlier.

Now at £13,200 - still on track to kill it by end next year.

That's huge!!!! Good luck!!!!!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: alcon835 on August 03, 2023, 06:22:15 AM
As an update, DW and I decided we are going to move next year. Where we end up is still a bit undecided but I've pivoted hard from paying off the house quickly to saving up a down payment. Most likely we will buy a house, move, clean up our current house a little (some half-done projects need to be completed) and then drop the house on the market. All of this will probably go down next summer.

Which means, I won't be paying off our house any time soon. The new house is going to be more expensive than the current one, but the current one likely has $200k in equity, so once I do it sell it, I have a significant chunk of money to either invest or put towards my house. Interest rates don't seem to be dropping (nor house prices) but ideally the market will be in a better state next year.

It's somewhat of a bummer to stop racing towards this goal, but I'm ultimately happier this way. This house just doesn't meet our needs anymore.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: grantmeaname on August 03, 2023, 07:00:36 AM
That makes good sense.

For my part, I'm about to get laid off and it was well signposted, so after filling the 401k with my $60k for the year I am piling up cash until I have my next gig lined up. I have a HELOC that covers ~18 months of expenses and expect a big severance, so this is ultra conservative, and I expect no gap in employment that would let me push this whole pile into my mortgage when the next job is lined up.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Vashy on August 03, 2023, 08:50:59 AM
Mr Vashy put some excess cash in that he had sitting in his account. We're now at £29,000; latest interest payment was >£100. We'll try and kill the mortgage by end-2023, maybe end-2024, depends on whether I score that high-paying 12-month contract or not (will know this month, I hope).

Dropped in more cash when we renewed the mortgage - now standing at £17,200, with a goal to kill it by end-2024 or earlier.

Now at £13,200 - still on track to kill it by end next year.

That's huge!!!! Good luck!!!!!!!

Thank you & same to you. :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Vashy on September 15, 2023, 06:13:51 AM
Mr Vashy put some excess cash in that he had sitting in his account. We're now at £29,000; latest interest payment was >£100. We'll try and kill the mortgage by end-2023, maybe end-2024, depends on whether I score that high-paying 12-month contract or not (will know this month, I hope).

Dropped in more cash when we renewed the mortgage - now standing at £17,200, with a goal to kill it by end-2024 or earlier.

Now at £13,200 - still on track to kill it by end next year.

Am on a relatively low-paid 6-month contract, so the big swings at the mortgage didn't happen. That said, I've just wrapped my taxes for my side hustle company and put most of the profits/dividends into the mortgage. We're now at £8,000. I may land a highly paid 6-month contract in today's job interview, at which point we'll kill the rest by end of the year. The end is very much in sight. We may take on a small (i.e. 50-60k or 10% of the value of the house) loan against the house to get the loft converted (which should very much increase the value of the house and also have a huge benefit in terms of quality of life), but all of that depends on how the chips fall.

For the moment, I can smell mortgage freedom.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Vashy on October 13, 2023, 03:37:07 AM
Mr Vashy put some excess cash in that he had sitting in his account. We're now at £29,000; latest interest payment was >£100. We'll try and kill the mortgage by end-2023, maybe end-2024, depends on whether I score that high-paying 12-month contract or not (will know this month, I hope).

Dropped in more cash when we renewed the mortgage - now standing at £17,200, with a goal to kill it by end-2024 or earlier.

Now at £13,200 - still on track to kill it by end next year.

Am on a relatively low-paid 6-month contract, so the big swings at the mortgage didn't happen. That said, I've just wrapped my taxes for my side hustle company and put most of the profits/dividends into the mortgage. We're now at £8,000. I may land a highly paid 6-month contract in today's job interview, at which point we'll kill the rest by end of the year. The end is very much in sight. We may take on a small (i.e. 50-60k or 10% of the value of the house) loan against the house to get the loft converted (which should very much increase the value of the house and also have a huge benefit in terms of quality of life), but all of that depends on how the chips fall.

For the moment, I can smell mortgage freedom.

I did land the highly paid contractor role and we're now at £7,000 balance outstanding. Definitely killing the rest by year-end.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on October 13, 2023, 04:01:11 AM
That's fantastic @Vashy!   The end is sooooo close.   

Say, what's the "Mercenary FI/RE" in your signature line?   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Vashy on October 13, 2023, 04:32:27 AM
That's fantastic @Vashy!   The end is sooooo close.   

Say, what's the "Mercenary FI/RE" in your signature line?   

I’m currently working a contract, but the work/schedule is too intense to call it “Barista” FI/RE. I think I’m made for short, intense gigs, and I’m finally over my unfortunate tendency to feel “loyalty” to any corporate, so “mercenary” hits that note for me. Also, it’s badass. :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on October 13, 2023, 05:06:29 AM
That's fantastic @Vashy!   The end is sooooo close.   

Say, what's the "Mercenary FI/RE" in your signature line?   

I’m currently working a contract, but the work/schedule is too intense to call it “Barista” FI/RE. I think I’m made for short, intense gigs, and I’m finally over my unfortunate tendency to feel “loyalty” to any corporate, so “mercenary” hits that note for me. Also, it’s badass. :)

Love it!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on October 13, 2023, 08:47:13 PM
Mercenary - I like that idea.  I sadly have too much loyalty and not enough mercenary.  I can practice though!  @Vashy color me impressed.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: markbike528CBX on October 14, 2023, 12:04:10 AM
That's fantastic @Vashy!   The end is sooooo close.   

Say, what's the "Mercenary FI/RE" in your signature line?   

I’m currently working a contract, but the work/schedule is too intense to call it “Barista” FI/RE. I think I’m made for short, intense gigs, and I’m finally over my unfortunate tendency to feel “loyalty” to any corporate, so “mercenary” hits that note for me. Also, it’s badass. :)
To further your mercenary endeavors, I present to you :  https://schlockmercenary.fandom.com/wiki/The_Seventy_Maxims_of_Maximally_Effective_Mercenaries
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Vashy on October 14, 2023, 04:45:22 AM
That's fantastic @Vashy!   The end is sooooo close.   

Say, what's the "Mercenary FI/RE" in your signature line?   

I’m currently working a contract, but the work/schedule is too intense to call it “Barista” FI/RE. I think I’m made for short, intense gigs, and I’m finally over my unfortunate tendency to feel “loyalty” to any corporate, so “mercenary” hits that note for me. Also, it’s badass. :)
To further your mercenary endeavors, I present to you :  https://schlockmercenary.fandom.com/wiki/The_Seventy_Maxims_of_Maximally_Effective_Mercenaries

They're great, thanks for sharing. :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: grantmeaname on October 14, 2023, 06:06:09 AM
I had a bit of employment instability that's cleared up so I got to throw a decently sized lump sum I had been holding in my savings account at the mortgage this month. We're at a $324k principal balance now, $33k ahead of where the scheduled payments alone would have gotten us, and I'm hoping I can hit $300k on Jan 1st. Not bad for a 10 month old mortgage :).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on October 14, 2023, 06:19:06 AM
I had a bit of employment instability that's cleared up so I got to throw a decently sized lump sum I had been holding in my savings account at the mortgage this month. We're at a $324k principal balance now, $33k ahead of where the scheduled payments alone would have gotten us, and I'm hoping I can hit $300k on Jan 1st. Not bad for a 10 month old mortgage :).

That's fantastic work @grantmeaname!  I love those dollar milestones.  Excellent for motivation.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: grantmeaname on October 14, 2023, 06:30:51 AM
Thank you. The markets been bad enough that it's taken away all my net worth gains for ~3.5 months now so it was really a nice reassurance when I went to look at just the mortgage balance.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: channtheman on October 26, 2023, 04:12:11 PM
A little update since my first post detailing my situation.

My wife and I are in the process of refinancing right now (30 yr fixed, 3.875% with essentially $205 in closing costs through Consumer Direct Mortgage).  We had planned to refi $200,000, but are ahead of schedule and will ref $195,000!

I have run the numbers and if it was completely up to me, after the refi would most likely dedicate my extra dollars towards investments.  However, I've brought this up to my wife on at least 2 different occasions and she is not in favor of it at all.  She does not want to be in debt and is very conservative with investments.  I have finally got her on board with maxing retirement accounts after the mortgage is gone, so we've made some progress.  I don't fault her for wanting to be debt free and paying down the mortgage is definitely better than just blowing our money. 

So, for now the plan is to eliminate the mortgage in about 9.5 years when I am 36 and she is 34.  We'll get where we need to be, albeit a little slower.  I've got a plan to go part time when I'm around 46 that we will probably still be on track for.  Of course, life happens and you can only plan so many details for 20 years ahead.

You sound like us but 9 years ago and the husband was the one who wanted to pay off the mortgage (and he makes the bulk of our money, if that's how he wants to spend it, I'm fine with it!). 

Good luck!

Thanks!   The cool thing about our expected payoff date is that it is basically a "worst case" scenario.  If I get raises or work OT or my wife works more than we think it should all happen sooner and than we can decide where to put the bulk of our savings - either index funds or real estate at this point.

It's kind of fun to go back and look at my old post in this thread.  My wife and I are officially mortgage free as of 9/30/23, finishing years ahead of my estimated pace almost 6 years ago!

Every raise, bonus, extra shift, bank bonus, etc. for the last many years has basically gone towards our mortgage.  My wife and I briefly paused to invest more a few years ago but she was so unhappy with that arrangement that I agreed we could go hard at the mortgage instead.

Early this year my workplace had an abundance of extra shifts and my wife and I decided we would do our best to knock out the mortgage before she turns 30 next year.  We paid over $50,000 this year towards the mortgage on a single RN salary (who also dabbles in bank bonuses to the tune of ~$8-10k per year).  It's hard to believe how much quicker we paid off our mortgage sometimes, but it definitely feels great!

My wife and I are Christians and will give our mortgage payment + the extra amount we put towards the mortgage each month as an offering to our church for this first month with no mortgage payment.  We really have felt God's blessings in our lives in allowing us to do this so quickly.   December 1st will be a fun month when we finally get to decide what to do with all the extra income.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: grantmeaname on October 26, 2023, 04:21:28 PM
great work :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on October 27, 2023, 04:59:42 AM
Congratulations @channtheman!     
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on October 27, 2023, 07:31:20 PM
@channtheman  Total commitment and done by 30 with being owned by a banker.   Intensity and focus means freedom.  You killed it literally and figuratively... AWESOME!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Vashy on October 28, 2023, 05:41:16 AM
Mr Vashy put some excess cash in that he had sitting in his account. We're now at £29,000; latest interest payment was >£100. We'll try and kill the mortgage by end-2023, maybe end-2024, depends on whether I score that high-paying 12-month contract or not (will know this month, I hope).

Dropped in more cash when we renewed the mortgage - now standing at £17,200, with a goal to kill it by end-2024 or earlier.

Now at £13,200 - still on track to kill it by end next year.

Am on a relatively low-paid 6-month contract, so the big swings at the mortgage didn't happen. That said, I've just wrapped my taxes for my side hustle company and put most of the profits/dividends into the mortgage. We're now at £8,000. I may land a highly paid 6-month contract in today's job interview, at which point we'll kill the rest by end of the year. The end is very much in sight. We may take on a small (i.e. 50-60k or 10% of the value of the house) loan against the house to get the loft converted (which should very much increase the value of the house and also have a huge benefit in terms of quality of life), but all of that depends on how the chips fall.

For the moment, I can smell mortgage freedom.

I did land the highly paid contractor role and we're now at £7,000 balance outstanding. Definitely killing the rest by year-end.

Now at £6,500 left. Sat down with Mr Vashy and decided we'll gift ourselves mortgage freedom for Xmas. At that point, we'll have paid down £200,000 in 13 years.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on October 28, 2023, 06:36:46 AM
Now at £6,500 left. Sat down with Mr Vashy and decided we'll gift ourselves mortgage freedom for Xmas. At that point, we'll have paid down £200,000 in 13 years.

Fantastic!   Best Xmas ever!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dutch Comfort on November 08, 2023, 02:26:57 AM
Update on our mortgage#1 (we have 2 mortgages, but want to get rid of this one ASAP!):
   
Original: 120,000 repayment date 06/01/33
October 2021: 67,000 repayment date 12/01/32
January 2022: 64,000 repayment date 10/01/32
March 2022: 60,500 repayment date 04/01/32
April 2022: 60,000 repayment date 04/01/32 - HALFWAY MARK!!!!!
October 2022: 56,000 repayment date 02/01/32
December 2022: EUR 53,000 repayment date 10/01/31
April 2023: EUR 49,000 repayment date 06/01/31
May 2023: EUR 45,500 repayment date 12/01/30
June 2023: EUR 44,500 repayment date 11/01/30
November 2023: EUR 41,500 repayment date 10/01/30

Stretch goal: full repayment in 2027!

Another month shaved off! With our modest salaries, every month feels like a major accomplishment. I'm not expecting any additional payments, besides the regulars, this year. But to see the balance shrinking is quite a nice view. Now first the EF needs some fattening, after that we will start shaving off again!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mastrr on November 08, 2023, 08:08:03 AM
I love this thread and it makes me think about how I paid off my mortgage and the benefits I have received as a result.

I payed off my rather small mortgage of ~$90k March 2021 (31 months ago) when I had a NW of $499k.  Took me around 6 years since the day I closed on my property.  I went intense and used all of of my cash (aside from $10k emergency fund) + all index funds in my taxable brokerage account to pay off my mortgage.

Now in November of 2023 my NW is over $900k which is a $400k gain since I paid it off under 3 years ago. My taxable brokerage account to $125k, and have around $80k in cash.  This doesn't include my gains from being about to max out my 401k every year.

I love opting out of these silly games people play to keep debt around.  I think there is so much value in just keeping it simple.

Good luck to everyone in their journey to pay off their mortgage!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: channtheman on November 08, 2023, 03:57:34 PM
I love this thread and it makes me think about how I paid off my mortgage and the benefits I have received as a result.

I payed off my rather small mortgage of ~$90k March 2021 (31 months ago) when I had a NW of $499k.  Took me around 6 years since the day I closed on my property.  I went intense and used all of of my cash (aside from $10k emergency fund) + all index funds in my taxable brokerage account to pay off my mortgage.

Now in November of 2023 my NW is over $900k which is a $400k gain since I paid it off under 3 years ago. My taxable brokerage account to $125k, and have around $80k in cash.  This doesn't include my gains from being about to max out my 401k every year.

I love opting out of these silly games people play to keep debt around.  I think there is so much value in just keeping it simple.

Good luck to everyone in their journey to pay off their mortgage!

The most surprising thing for me was how much more money we made because of this goal.  If my goal was simply to stash as much cash into index funds as possible, I never would have worked like a dog this year working 50-60 hours a week.  That kind of sacrifice for me and my family would not feel worth it to simply put another 30k into retirement funds.  But, with the reward of being mortgage free, my wife and I could mentally get behind working that much and as a result we have made significantly more money this year than we ever would have if that wasn't the goal.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: mastrr on November 08, 2023, 10:38:24 PM
I love this thread and it makes me think about how I paid off my mortgage and the benefits I have received as a result.

I payed off my rather small mortgage of ~$90k March 2021 (31 months ago) when I had a NW of $499k.  Took me around 6 years since the day I closed on my property.  I went intense and used all of of my cash (aside from $10k emergency fund) + all index funds in my taxable brokerage account to pay off my mortgage.

Now in November of 2023 my NW is over $900k which is a $400k gain since I paid it off under 3 years ago. My taxable brokerage account to $125k, and have around $80k in cash.  This doesn't include my gains from being about to max out my 401k every year.

I love opting out of these silly games people play to keep debt around.  I think there is so much value in just keeping it simple.

Good luck to everyone in their journey to pay off their mortgage!

The most surprising thing for me was how much more money we made because of this goal.  If my goal was simply to stash as much cash into index funds as possible, I never would have worked like a dog this year working 50-60 hours a week.  That kind of sacrifice for me and my family would not feel worth it to simply put another 30k into retirement funds.  But, with the reward of being mortgage free, my wife and I could mentally get behind working that much and as a result we have made significantly more money this year than we ever would have if that wasn't the goal.

Very good point and love it!  Paying off your mortgage is an awfully big and rewarding carrot to dangle in front of yourself.  It creates a sense of urgency that wouldn't be there otherwise.  The return on having this goal is huge.
 I'm always looking for angles like this to more effectively manage myself, thank you for sharing.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on November 09, 2023, 02:07:26 AM
I love this thread and it makes me think about how I paid off my mortgage and the benefits I have received as a result.

I payed off my rather small mortgage of ~$90k March 2021 (31 months ago) when I had a NW of $499k.  Took me around 6 years since the day I closed on my property.  I went intense and used all of of my cash (aside from $10k emergency fund) + all index funds in my taxable brokerage account to pay off my mortgage.

Now in November of 2023 my NW is over $900k which is a $400k gain since I paid it off under 3 years ago. My taxable brokerage account to $125k, and have around $80k in cash.  This doesn't include my gains from being about to max out my 401k every year.

I love opting out of these silly games people play to keep debt around.  I think there is so much value in just keeping it simple.

Good luck to everyone in their journey to pay off their mortgage!

The most surprising thing for me was how much more money we made because of this goal.  If my goal was simply to stash as much cash into index funds as possible, I never would have worked like a dog this year working 50-60 hours a week.  That kind of sacrifice for me and my family would not feel worth it to simply put another 30k into retirement funds.  But, with the reward of being mortgage free, my wife and I could mentally get behind working that much and as a result we have made significantly more money this year than we ever would have if that wasn't the goal.

This. ^   Paying off a mortgage is so much more than "the math."     
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on November 12, 2023, 09:02:05 PM
Totally agree @Trifle...    Free cash flow from debt elimination and the mental toughness to avoid taking on new debt it usually brings simply changes the personal finance situation and gives you FAR greater control of your destiny.  The mental perspective changes from "hunted" to "hunter" as you hunt rates of return on your money without worrying about being "hunted".   Leveraging to buy property seems like smart money to some of course if it works in upward real estate markets and if you're mobile and/or lucky on timing...   Those who were so proud of themselves just 2 years ago for being "smart with good debt" are now being "hunted" by their lender with each tick upward of the 10 year bond rates and corresponding mortgage "adjustments".   
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: AFrugalGuy on December 03, 2023, 07:57:51 PM
OK, I'm in. Currently at $501,116.37 at 6.2%. Amortization at our current payment is 8 years, 35 weeks. Paying ~$30k lump sum on principal as of January 1st. We hope to be done in 5 years.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on December 04, 2023, 02:55:06 AM
OK, I'm in. Currently at $501,116.37 at 6.2%. Amortization at our current payment is 8 years, 35 weeks. Paying ~$30k lump sum on principal as of January 1st. We hope to be done in 5 years.

That's a nice round-number/round-date challenge.  Go @AFrugalGuy
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Davids on December 10, 2023, 11:49:06 AM
I paid mine off a few days ago. I don't think I will really start feeling it until next month when there is no monthly mortgage payment taken out of my bank account. But heck yeah it feels good to have a fully paid off home!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: grantmeaname on December 10, 2023, 05:52:22 PM
Fuck yeah! Congrats!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on December 11, 2023, 02:32:19 AM
Huge congrats @Davids!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dutch Comfort on December 11, 2023, 09:13:47 AM
I paid mine off a few days ago. I don't think I will really start feeling it until next month when there is no monthly mortgage payment taken out of my bank account. But heck yeah it feels good to have a fully paid off home!!

YEAH!!!!! Congrats!!!!! You ended 2023 with a big bang!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on December 11, 2023, 09:18:42 PM
I paid mine off a few days ago. I don't think I will really start feeling it until next month when there is no monthly mortgage payment taken out of my bank account. But heck yeah it feels good to have a fully paid off home!!
It smells like... VICTORY!   It feels even better about a year later when you compare your net worth after putting all that free cash flow to work.  And NW accelerates year over year after that if you reinvest the divvys and avoid lifestyle creep.    Way to GO!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dutch Comfort on December 12, 2023, 12:52:12 AM
Update on our mortgage#1 (we have 2 mortgages, but want to get rid of this one ASAP!):
   
Original: 120,000 repayment date 06/01/33
October 2021: 67,000 repayment date 12/01/32
January 2022: 64,000 repayment date 10/01/32
March 2022: 60,500 repayment date 04/01/32
April 2022: 60,000 repayment date 04/01/32 - HALFWAY MARK!!!!!
October 2022: 56,000 repayment date 02/01/32
December 2022: EUR 53,000 repayment date 10/01/31
April 2023: EUR 49,000 repayment date 06/01/31
May 2023: EUR 45,500 repayment date 12/01/30
June 2023: EUR 44,500 repayment date 11/01/30
November 2023: EUR 41,500 repayment date 10/01/30
December 2023: EUR 41,000 repayment date 10/01/30

Stretch goal: full repayment in 2027!

Proud that we managed to do 2 years worth of regular repayments in 1 year! If we continue this pace, we can be finished in 2027 and have a huge monthly cashflow increase (which I'm really looking forward to...... just the freedom of being able to decide for myself what to do with MY MONEY)!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dogastrophe on December 14, 2023, 05:15:24 AM
Hi all, we are at the point where our tax advantaged accounts (RRSP, TFSA) are fully funded and, rather than open taxable accounts, we've decided to divert extra $$ toward our mortgage.

Jun 2018: $243K (original balance; initial 5-yr term, 20-yr amortization)
Jan 2019: $237K
Jan 2020: $227K
Jan 2021: $211K
Jan 2022: $205K
Jan 2023: $194K (math made sense for an early renewal mid-Jan for a 4-yr term)

Current balance is $182K
3 yrs 1 mos left on the current term @ 5.73%
9yr 10mos amortization remaining
Weekly mortgage payments

Our mortgage allows us to pre-pay up to $36K during each term year, increase our regular payment by up to 15% each term year, and or make a full extra payment on any / all regular payment dates.

We're going to take advantage of the first two options and see how it goes for the first year. For the last month of the current 'term year' we have increased our payment by 15% ($50 per week) and will increase it by another 15% (additional $70/wk) in mid-Jan. We applied a lump sum of $1500 a couple days ago and plan to direct an additional lump sums against it through out the year.

Our goal is to have a sub-$75K balance by the time our renewal comes due, a reduction of ~$72K from the do-nothing balance

Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: IrishEngineer on December 14, 2023, 05:46:17 AM
I just got off the phone from the bank, where I requested a letter with a redemption value. I could be mortgage free within weeks. Shaking a little thinking about it, want to scream from the rooftops, but that's not really the done thing. So I thought I'd post it here instead if that is OK!

My wife and I have had help from family and were very fortunate to receive inheritances from much missed relatives. But we also worked hard, saved a lot and have overpayed since day one! I might crack open a can of beer tonight.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on December 14, 2023, 06:26:16 AM
I just got off the phone from the bank, where I requested a letter with a redemption value. I could be mortgage free within weeks. Shaking a little thinking about it, want to scream from the rooftops, but that's not really the done thing. So I thought I'd post it here instead if that is OK!

YES!!!  Epic first post @IrishEngineer.  Welcome, Congratulations! and enjoy that beer!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: grantmeaname on December 14, 2023, 07:32:54 AM
It's your rooftop, soon to be unencumbered. Scream away :)
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Vashy on December 23, 2023, 11:57:08 AM
Mr Vashy put some excess cash in that he had sitting in his account. We're now at £29,000; latest interest payment was >£100. We'll try and kill the mortgage by end-2023, maybe end-2024, depends on whether I score that high-paying 12-month contract or not (will know this month, I hope).

Dropped in more cash when we renewed the mortgage - now standing at £17,200, with a goal to kill it by end-2024 or earlier.

Now at £13,200 - still on track to kill it by end next year.


Am on a relatively low-paid 6-month contract, so the big swings at the mortgage didn't happen. That said, I've just wrapped my taxes for my side hustle company and put most of the profits/dividends into the mortgage. We're now at £8,000. I may land a highly paid 6-month contract in today's job interview, at which point we'll kill the rest by end of the year. The end is very much in sight. We may take on a small (i.e. 50-60k or 10% of the value of the house) loan against the house to get the loft converted (which should very much increase the value of the house and also have a huge benefit in terms of quality of life), but all of that depends on how the chips fall.

For the moment, I can smell mortgage freedom.

I did land the highly paid contractor role and we're now at £7,000 balance outstanding. Definitely killing the rest by year-end.

Now at £6,500 left. Sat down with Mr Vashy and decided we'll gift ourselves mortgage freedom for Xmas. At that point, we'll have paid down £200,000 in 13 years.

Mr Vashy had some free cash (£1,500), I pulled the rest from a savings account. As at yesterday, we're mortgage-free and own our house outright. It's a very different feeling.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: grantmeaname on December 23, 2023, 01:40:50 PM
Congrats, Vashys, great work!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on December 24, 2023, 10:40:19 AM
Congrats @Vashy !!!  What a great gift to yourselves.  Enjoy that feeling!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Vashy on December 26, 2023, 06:16:35 AM
Thank you both, @Trifle and @grantmeaname! Now waiting for paperwork/a letter to arrive, but generally happy that the mortgage won't figure in any further financial planning.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: IrishEngineer on December 29, 2023, 01:30:34 PM
Thanks, and I’m happy to confirm that as of today my mortgage is paid off. Just under 9 years since we bought the house, and we are both 42. So what’s next?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: grantmeaname on December 29, 2023, 02:54:04 PM
Fuck yeah! Congrats Irish Engineer!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: grantmeaname on December 31, 2023, 03:50:59 AM
I had a bit of employment instability that's cleared up so I got to throw a decently sized lump sum I had been holding in my savings account at the mortgage this month. We're at a $324k principal balance now, $33k ahead of where the scheduled payments alone would have gotten us, and I'm hoping I can hit $300k on Jan 1st. Not bad for a 10 month old mortgage :).
Well, we did it! My mortgage is down to $294k, vs $353k without the extra payments. We'll see how my bonus is this year, but the goal is to get under $1k in monthly interest midyear and under $200k mortgage balance at year end 2024. I think this loan has just about two years left to live, unless we get a stock market crash that calls my dollars away.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on December 31, 2023, 05:44:41 AM
Fantastically badass @grantmeaname !!  Great job!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: grantmeaname on December 31, 2023, 08:42:27 AM
Thank you. It's been very motivational to have a goal that's not bouncing around from outside events far more than I can affect it.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: alcon835 on December 31, 2023, 09:32:28 AM
I'm a bit behind with the holidays, but y'all are AMAZING!!!!!

Congratulations @Vashy !!!! You are a rock star!!!!

Congratulations @IrishEngineer !!!! I am so excited for you!!! LETS GOOOO!!!

Congratulations @grantmeaname !!! That's some AMAZING progress!!!!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: AFrugalGuy on January 01, 2024, 03:00:48 PM
Ended the year at $497,758.27. Paid off a total of $121,084.22 in principal this year (maximized annual pre-payment and increased maximum payment and payment schedule (accelerated weekly)).

Aiming to be under $400k by December 31, 2024.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: grantmeaname on January 01, 2024, 04:37:28 PM
Nice work!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dutch Comfort on January 03, 2024, 01:34:55 AM

Original: 120,000 repayment date 06/01/33
October 2021: 67,000 repayment date 12/01/32 - started the additional payments
April 2022: 60,000 repayment date 04/01/32 - HALFWAY MARK!!!!!
December 2022: EUR 53,000 repayment date 10/01/31
December 2023: EUR 41,000 repayment date 10/01/30
January 2023: EUR 39,500 repayment date 08/01/30

Goal for 2024: get to EUR 29K, repayment 10/01/29
Stretch goal: full repayment in 2027!

We did the budget for 2024 yesterday and noted that one of our savings account had a bigger balance than needed. Therefore we could do another repayment already and shaved another 2 months of the repayment date. That is a good start of the year. Goal for this year is to get the balance at EUR 29K (which is equal to doubling our mortgage payments every month).
Happy 2024 everyone!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on January 03, 2024, 02:04:43 AM
Awesome progress @Dutch Comfort !  You are laser focused.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on January 04, 2024, 07:02:42 PM
@Dutch Comfort,  I remember the beginning of your journey and it's great progress thus far.   I predict that you will shift funds from risk-assets and trim lifestyle and liquidate other assets and cash flow as well to end this 12/31/2024 by writing a check to pay off the remainder of that balance.   It's time to end this debt and begin dramatically faster wealth creation with the cash flow you will free up.   We look forward to your freedom!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: alcon835 on January 05, 2024, 07:09:30 AM
Another yearly update. 2023 was messy, but not terrible. Another year of NOT paying extra on the mortgage. Originally the plan was to move in early 2024, so we were saving all that extra money for a down payment on the next house, but now we're going to take that extra savings so I can quit my job and go on a sabbatical. Anyway, still made good progress on my 15-year loan.

1/1/21 Balance:   $161,448
1/1/22 Balance:   $142,583
1/1/23 Balance:   $130,075
1/1/24 Balance:   $119,512

I think we'll still end up selling this house before we pay it off, but if 2023 taught me anything it's that plans change.

Here's to another year inching ever closer to being mortgage free!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Money Badger on January 08, 2024, 07:39:53 PM
@alcon835,   Perhaps use that 2023 stashing for a smaller new place and rent-out the one you're in now to avoid losing that hard won equity and likely lower rate mortgage as well?   Every "sale" of a house puts you in the equity hole whatever real estate agent and other moving expenses are AND jacks up interest rates on the next place of course lately.   

Live cheaper, use that debt wisely and be on FIRE sooner (the "permanent sabbatical").    I know, this is Money Badger saying this, right ;-)?   But the relatively low balance on that loan and the sabbatical desire seems a fit for income property from what's on the table here...   Assuming at least 1% of the total value in rent each month (depending on location, condition, etc. of course) could make your new job collecting rent payments?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dogastrophe on January 19, 2024, 05:14:31 AM

Current balance is $182K
3 yrs 1 mos left on the current term @ 5.73%
9yr 10mos amortization remaining
Weekly mortgage payments


Today is the end of the first year of our new term. We've applied an additional $2500 on the mortgage ($4K for the mortgage year) and have a couple of regular payments that we increased by 15%.

Current balance: $178
3 yrs left on current term
9yr 7mos amortization remaining




Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: AFrugalGuy on February 01, 2024, 08:08:19 PM
December 31, 2023: $497,758.27
January 31, 2024: $463,437.96

Dropped a significant pre-payment on the mortgage this month
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: alcon835 on February 02, 2024, 09:38:30 PM
@alcon835,   Perhaps use that 2023 stashing for a smaller new place and rent-out the one you're in now to avoid losing that hard won equity and likely lower rate mortgage as well?   Every "sale" of a house puts you in the equity hole whatever real estate agent and other moving expenses are AND jacks up interest rates on the next place of course lately.   

Live cheaper, use that debt wisely and be on FIRE sooner (the "permanent sabbatical").    I know, this is Money Badger saying this, right ;-)?   But the relatively low balance on that loan and the sabbatical desire seems a fit for income property from what's on the table here...   Assuming at least 1% of the total value in rent each month (depending on location, condition, etc. of course) could make your new job collecting rent payments?

Sorry I missed this! That was my original plan for this house - turn it into a rental. Financially...that's a pretty solid decision. I just don't know that I have the time to be a land lord. But that's definitely an option on the table depending on where life takes us in the next couple of years.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Bartie Musa on March 02, 2024, 10:43:38 PM
Bartie Musa - This thread is fascinating I am very proud of you all who are making strides in your mortgage. Quick question if your mortgage is say 2k and you did a pre-payment of 12k would that count as 6 months of payments and you wouldn't have to pay any new payments for half a year, or would it just pay down interest/principle?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Trifle on March 03, 2024, 04:51:53 AM
Bartie Musa - This thread is fascinating I am very proud of you all who are making strides in your mortgage. Quick question if your mortgage is say 2k and you did a pre-payment of 12k would that count as 6 months of payments and you wouldn't have to pay any new payments for half a year, or would it just pay down interest/principle?

As I recall, our bank allowed us to tell them how to apply the prepayment -- i.e. whether we were prepaying monthly payments (both principal and interest) or whether we wanted it all to go toward principal.  That's in the U.S..  I don't know how that works in other countries.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: grantmeaname on March 03, 2024, 05:05:01 AM
Ours is the same way. You either make your next payment early, which is a mix of principal and interest and pushes out your next due date, or make an additional prepayment allocated only to principal which speeds up your paydown but does not count for months of regularly scheduled payments.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: Dutch Comfort on March 05, 2024, 05:34:03 AM
Here in the Netherlands, we can choose: either do extra payments on the principal and speed up the repayment date or the extra payment is allocated to the principal and your future principal repayments will decrease (no speed up, but lower expenses every month).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: BlueHouse on March 05, 2024, 08:16:40 AM
Ours is the same way. You either make your next payment early, which is a mix of principal and interest and pushes out your next due date, or make an additional prepayment allocated only to principal which speeds up your paydown but does not count for months of regularly scheduled payments.

Mine works like this:  Unless you call and tell the bank exactly how you want the money applied, they use this formula:

1.  If the extra payment is less than the full amount of a payment (your payment is >2x what you owe monthly), then they apply the extra to principal.
2.  If the extra payment is Equal to or MORE than a full monthly payment ( =>2x), then the apply the extra to a future month. 

Unwinding it afterwards always was a pain, so I kept any extra payments under the 2x amount, unless I was going in person with a recast agreement.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: innkeeper77 on March 05, 2024, 08:22:57 AM
Ours is the same way. You either make your next payment early, which is a mix of principal and interest and pushes out your next due date, or make an additional prepayment allocated only to principal which speeds up your paydown but does not count for months of regularly scheduled payments.

Mine works like this:  Unless you call and tell the bank exactly how you want the money applied, they use this formula:

1.  If the extra payment is less than the full amount of a payment (your payment is >2x what you owe monthly), then they apply the extra to principal.
2.  If the extra payment is Equal to or MORE than a full monthly payment ( =>2x), then the apply the extra to a future month. 

Unwinding it afterwards always was a pain, so I kept any extra payments under the 2x amount, unless I was going in person with a recast agreement.

But if the future due dates are pushed out, isn't the principal still reduced, and therefore the interest charged?

Theoretically pushed out due dates and avoiding them being pushed out result in exactly the same end result, IF you continue to make payments every month. The benefit of letting the due date get pushed out is free insurance in case something awful happens. I don't see a benefit to intentionally keeping the due date from advancing. Am I wrong?
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: grantmeaname on March 05, 2024, 10:14:54 AM
Your principal isn't reduced by more than the scheduled next month's principal amortization if you make an early payment rather than a principal only payment, and your interest isn't reduced at all.

If you paid the entire mortage off tomorrow using a principal only payment, the amount would be the total principal balance. if you paid it off the other way, you'd be paying the entire gross value of all of the interest and principal over the remaining life of the loan (depending on the life left in the loan, this could be more than 2x the principal amount).
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: ChpBstrd on March 05, 2024, 10:32:08 AM
$92,000 to go on a 3.25% 15 year mortgage with 10 years remaining.

I wonder if this thread and this site will be around in 10 years for me to celebrate here - because I'm damn sure not paying a penny early!
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: iluvzbeach on March 06, 2024, 11:08:53 AM
@ChpBstrd we have ~$195K and 27 years to go on a 2.375% mortgage for a house that we bought for an elderly family member to live in.  We sure as hell aren't escalating payments on that mortgage, unless or until that family member can no longer live in the home.  At that point we'll sell, but until then we love that 2.375% interest rate.
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: LinneaH on March 09, 2024, 11:23:09 AM
Joining, I have two loans, but need to proritize and attack one of them first, as they have very different conditions.
Loan S: balance appr $169 000, interest rate 4,84%. This is a proper mortgage loan. Interest rate will be the same for rest of 2024, and will continue on this level also coming years.
Loan M: balance appr $24 300, interest rate 4,19%. Same rate until mid-January 2025, the rate will most likely increase a lot then.

I need/want to get rid of loan M before mid-January 2025. Regular payments until then will be $1 385, meaning I need to find $22 915 extra. I do have this money saved/invested, but that's really 'other money' (travel, retirement and regular safety buffer)  and I don't want to use it, or at least use as little as possible for this.

Started by adding some petty savings
Balance is now $24 212
Need to find extra $22 826


Difference between balance and 'need to find extra' will decrease over year as there are less and less regular payments left.
My math does not always add up perfectly, as I convert from SEK at a rather arbitrary rate.


Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: AFrugalGuy on March 17, 2024, 05:31:23 PM
December 31, 2023: $497,758.27
January 31, 2024: $463,437.96
February 28, 2024: $458,759.94
Title: Re: Mortgage Payoff Club!!
Post by: couponvan on March 18, 2024, 08:02:10 AM
December 31, 2023: $497,758.27
January 31, 2024: $463,437.96
February 28, 2024: $458,759.94
Impressive!