Mortgage Payoff Club!!

[BlueHouse]

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)

• 06/2012 - 25%  (downpayment & first monthly payment)
• 06/2013 - 27%  (now paying a few hundred extra monthly)
• 06/2014 - 30%  (now paying 1000 extra each month)
• 06/2015 - 33%  (still paying 1000 extra each month)
• 08/2015 - 46%  (big fat payment in preparation for a requested recast next quarter)
• 03/2016 - 48%  (now paying 1400 extra each month)
• 08/2016 - 53%  (now paying 6400 extra each month)

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. 

[Simpli-Fi]

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.

[nora]

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...

[Monocle Money Mouth]

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.

[BlueHouse]

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? 

[nora]

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).

[BlueHouse]

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.

[serious_pete]

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 😀

[Money Badger]

@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". 

[Simpli-Fi]

I think the term you were look for is face punch.

[dandypandys]

We are at $8,900 now after i dropped 4k in from a sale yayayayayay!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Neustache]

So close DandyPandys!

[Simpli-Fi]

So that was from almost 2 months ago...are you mortgage free dandypandys?

[dandypandys]

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 :)

[Mrs Brave]

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)

[couponvan]

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. 

[dandypandys]

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!

[Lmoot]

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.

[Money Badger]

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...

[dandypandys]

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.

[BlueHouse]

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 :(.

[SAfAmBrit]

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,

[Money Badger]

@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!!

[KBecks]

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.

[Comar]

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.

[t5inside]

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.

[Threshkin]

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.

[pdxmonkey]

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

[markbike528CBX]

We're in:

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

[pdxmonkey]

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.

[dandypandys]

I've still not had any paper work from the mortgage company after sending my final check.

[rjbf65]

I'll join.

Started June 2014 at 71k.

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

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

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

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

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

$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. 

[asauer]

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!

[frizzywhiskers]

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!

[K-ice]

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.

[ACLR8R]

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!

[boarder42]

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

[Eilonwy]

I want to join this club! We just got down below $80K, which is so exciting.

[FireLane]

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

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

[ACLR8R]

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!

[couponvan]

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.

[ACLR8R]

Thanks!

2.6% is a really good interest rate!

[cheddarpie]

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!

[MrsPotts]

Just paid that sucker off.  Damn mortgage company can go jump in the lake.

[Money Badger]

@MrsPotts,   Absolutely F-ing AWESOME!!!!!!    Welcome to freedom from indenture!  ;-)

[dandypandys]

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 :)

[Eilonwy]

Congratulations MrsPotts! I love your user name, btw. :-)

[Money Badger]

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.  :)

[asauer]

Just paid that sucker off.  Damn mortgage company can go jump in the lake.

Heck yeah!  Great job!!!

[cheddarpie]

Amazing!!!! Congratulations!!