Tag Archives: Mortgage

Anything to do with mortgages

My Mortgage Countdown #2, Then There Was 1…

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We just paid the 2nd to the last payment on our mortgage!     

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It’s an odd feeling.  Now that I’m so close I’m actually feeling a bit anxious about what comes next after we do pay off the mortgage.  At this point, we’ll be totally debt-free.  We don’t have any car loans (I paid off my car loan last year), nor do we have any credit cards with balances on them.   I’m excited but intimidated by the fact that I will be starting at ground zero with my next financial path which is financial asset accumulation. 

So what does my house look like?    

Our house is similar to this one.

Well, it’s a colonial-style house that is a 4 bedroom house, it measures about 2,100 square feet and is about 10 years old.  We only have about 1/4 of an acre, so our lawn is pretty small.  Luckily we live relatively close to a park (it’s only a few houses down the street).  We have a kitchen, recreation room, media room (computer/library), 4 bedrooms, kitchen, laundry room.  We didn’t finish your basement yet, but if we did, it would add at least another 600+ square feet.    

To me, our house is just a house, but to my kids and wife, it’s the perfect house.  I often throughout a “let’s looks for a new house” speel, but both my kids and wife are content where we are.  Financially, it makes sense for us to stay too, but I get antsy sometimes.  

It will have taken us a little over 10 years to pay off our mortgage.  Initially, we started with a 30-year mortgage.  But through extra payment and few refinances (we switched to a 15-year mortgage), we whittled it down.

My next payment will be a little more expensive for me, it will be $1,581.  But then that’s it!

Mortgage Free Idea #1

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What is my next move after I’m mortgage free?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot, I’ve had a lot of different ideas pop in my head.  My latest idea, the one I keep coming back too is going to sounds a bit crazy…  I’m seriously thinking about moving into a larger house and taking on a bigger mortgage.  I was a little hesitant to post this article, but since a reader asked in a comment recently, I figured why not share some of my thoughts…

Do I need a bigger house, technically no, our house is a little over 2,100 sq ft.  Then why do I want to do what I describe above?

My thoughts:

If I buy a larger house, perhaps around 2,500 to 3,000  sq ft., then I get to deduct the interest payment from taxes all over again.  When I get my current house sold, I’ll be able to keep all of the money from the sale, tax-free (another legal tax loophole up to $250,000 for a single to $500,000 for married jointly,  if they have lived in their house as their primary residence for a least 3 out of 5 years.).  I would then put the money in some type of investment mix that would produce a decent return that could either be invested or help with the new mortgage payment.

Sounds crazy, especially considering the big stock market crash we just experienced, but this might be the optimal strategy.

I’ll keep you posted on my final decision…

Mortgage Milestones, My Mortgage Countdown #4

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This month I’ve finally broke thru the $5,000 dollar mortgage barrier!

I still have about $4,989 left to go.  That’s almost the cost of our upcoming Disney vacation (ouch.. thinking about it still hurts a bit)!

With my mortgage, I created “Mortgage Milestones“, each time I cleared one, we would go out to a nice restaurant to celebrate.  You can see from the list below, I increased the number of milestones as I get closer to $0 owed.  This added a bit of incentive to stick to the schedule, and reward the family for their patience and sacrifices.

  • $75,000
  • $50,000
  • $25,000
  • $10,000
  • $5,000
  • $0

Once we get to $0, We’re going to go to the nicest place I can think of in my area.  I’m expecting the freedom from a mortgage payment to be a huge change in my life.  Already, I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with the money saved from the mortgage.

If you plan on making extra payments on your mortgage as I did, I’d definitely recommend making “Mortgage Milestones” as I did.  If I had to do it all over again, I think I’d make the earlier milestones $10,000 increments instead of $25,000.  Keeping the $5,000 decrement amounts once you hit $10,000 in the end just to spice it up a bit.  This also keeps your whole family focused on the goal of paying off your house early.

So a better revised “Mortgage Milestone” configuration would be:

  • $100,000
  • $90,000
  • $80,000
  • $70,000
  • $60,000
  • $50,000
  • $40,000
  • $30,000
  • $20,000
  • $10,000
  • $5,000
  • $0

Mortgage Free Countdown

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Early next year (around February or March 2010), I’ll soon be making my last mortgage payment on my primary house.  I’ve been make extra payments for the past 11 years, and finally, I’m almost there.

After I pay off my mortgage, I’ll be able to increase my cash flow by $12,000.  I don’t know what I’m going to do that extra money yet.  I’ve been playing around with some ideas…  I do know that in some way, it will go into investments of some sort.  I’m not sure if I’m going to go with stocks, bond, rental property, gold or what yet… but it should be an exciting time and decision!

In some ways, I’ve been fortunate with my “paying off the house” decision.  The anxiety this year of companies laying off workers, and stock market losses in general, has definitely been lessened.  By knowing that I could pay off my house at any time, if I needed to, was a great relief.  Have the basic need of shelter checked off on the “to do” list is always a plus.

Initially, I had a hard time deciding whether to pay of the mortgage early or invest the additional money in stocks or other investments.   And to be honest, my choice wasn’t the best for everybody.  I decided to go the “pay off the mortgage early” decision because I didn’t think I had the will power to invest the difference in stocks, and the fact that I hate to be in so much debt.

So anyhow, that’s my current financial position.

I feel like I’ve completed a large step towards financial independence.  Unfortunately, there appears to be 3 or 4 more steps to go.  But I do think this 1st step was the hardest.  I now have a “I can do it” attitude.