How To Pay Off Your House In 3 Years

[jeffrey]

A pretty inspirational story out of Canada and although they sacrificed for three years, they have set themselves up to be financial secure for the rest of their lives.

<a href="http://ca.pfinance.yahoo.com/ca_finance_loans/11/how-we-paid-off-our-house-in-three-years">How We Paid Off Our House In Three Years</a>

[Elgin526]

Cool! I don't think DH and I could do the same, but it's amazing what you can do when you're determined!

[Ima saver]

That is a neat story. I am trying to pay off a mortgage we have on some property. We borrowed $64,000 in Jan. 2005. so far, I have the balance down to $25,000 by paying all the extra money that I can, on the property.

[sakigt]

Very inspirational!

It is interesting to run the numbers for paying your mortgage off early and saving in intrest! I found of that by paying an extra $70 a month I would save nearly $50,000 in intrest!

[Jewelfine]

Wow - this guy lives about 45 minutes from me! That is really cool!

I don't think everyone has that kind of discpline - I admire him and his wife and their communication skills! Could you imagine if one of them didn't agree with their lifestyle? I don't think that their marriage would have lasted.

Good for them! Their baby is being born into an amazing life with amazing parents! I just hope they aren't giving up on other parts of life - i.e. sacrificing on things they love to do today.

[Ima saver]

It is a wonderful feeling not to have a mortgage hanging over you head. When we moved here, we were able to live for almost a whole year on our savings cause we had no house or car payments.

[Broken Arrow]

Thank you for sharing this wonderful story! Considering that I face a similar debt load and financial goal, it gives me hope.

I will say this much though: There is no way I can do what he does. No days off? No problem. However, I NEED 8 hours of sleep. I really have tried to work more than 12 hours before, with my max being 20. However, I knew I needed to cut back when I started to consistently swerve off the highway when commuting back and forth from work....

Nevertheless, I completely agree with all of their tips, and this just makes me even more motivated to pay down my own debts! ROAR!

[pearlieq]

Thanks for posting this. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it all day.

I wonder what DH and I could do if we took a couple of really lean years...

Lots to think about!

[cschin4]

It's an interesting story but unrealistic for most people. He is fortunate that he didn't destroy his marriage in the process of the non-stop work/sleep cycle. There is only so much time in a day so other areas of your life have to suffer.
But, there is a point to made that sometimes we may need to work more and spend less now, so that we can work less and spend more later.

[Ima saver]

To me it is surprising how you can come up with extra money to pay things off early. The thing that motivated me was the amount of interest I was paying each month. I was paying almost $400 a month interest, over $13 a day. Now I am paying unde $200 a month in interest, more like $5 per day. It is still too much but I am determined to get it paid off early.
Funny thing is, after paying for a year and paying the land loan way down, the bank lowered my payment over $200 per month. I just keep on making the regular old payment plus some extra.

[cschin4]

Yes, we paid our home off very quickly after I printed out the amortization tables and realized I would pay 100,000+ just in interest if it took 30 years to pay off. So, we were highly motivated as well. And, any additional money went to pay down principal. We paid our house off last year.

[Ima saver]

cschin, that is great. The book, a Banker's Secret by Marc Eisenson, is a real motivational book to get that mortgage paid off early!!

[cschin4]

Yes, when I printed out the table I saw that $650 of the payment was interest and $130 was principal. I just can't see how paying $650 a month is of any benefit so I can "get back" 20% of that on my tax bill. If I would have paid over the full life of the loan, we would have paid $150,589 in interest IN ADDITION to the purchase price of the home.
After seeing this with my own eyes, we were highly motivated to pay the house off. And, in fact, we paid off the loan in 3.5 years. But, we didn't live like paupers, just put every extra dollar that came along onto the principal. And, as the we watched the principal go down, it was even more motivating to see it hit $0.

[ummabdullah]

I would love my husband to be able to do what he did.. but here in england they tax you by 40% of his gross pay. plus a further 8% for national insurance(medical insurance which is mandatory). So my husband and I felt that working that much was not worth the havoc on our life. Having said that the guy was in a great position and something all young people starting out should read. If me and my husband didn't have my elderly in laws to take care of.. shop for,, and our 2 little babies.. then it would make alot of sense to work a bit extra and save up as much as possible.

Gosh his wife must have been very lonely without her husband around..

[PrincessPerky]

I wish we had done something before kids,prolly not that extream, but something. Right now with kids I won't use up too much more of DHs time, his kids need him..my time on the other hand, I need some kid free time!

[Ima saver]

Well, we did not go to that extreme either, but when you look at the tables and realize how little of your money is going to principal, it gets you fired up. It is amazing how you can find money when you really need to. That is what is so fun about the $20 challenge.
I talk to people that say they can not save money.
I ask can they save $2 a day and they say yes! Heck $2 a day for 20 years is close to $15000, without any interest
Using the rule of 72, the money would be more than double that, $30,000/
Imagine, having $30,000 just by saving $2 a day. Maybe i should start s $2 a day challenge??

[LuxLiving]

Loved this story - reminded me of when I bought my little condo and drove a cheap Honda. I worked three jobs trying to pay down on my mortgage and I almost had it paid off by the time I married a few years later...we used the equity to make our down on the next place. I was always tired - but in a good way - there was always a place to go or something that needed doing. No time for depression or laziness to set in. AND, I really didn't do any extra shopping as there was no time -- which was also a savings. Good for them!!

[Fern]

Sounds great, and don't mean to be a party pooper, but working those incredible hours on so little sleep i doubt he was very effective at crisis intervention, which requires more than your average desk job.

[greedy4chips]

Good story!

He sounds like a dairy farmer when he talks about his consecutive days working, amount of working hours per day, and lack of sleep.

I have known many people who built homes themselves with the help of friends. Very little work was done by paid workers. More like the Amish do it. You help me and I help you attitude.

This allowed them to pay off their homes so much quicker and thus live well beyond their wages would lead you to believe was possible.

Problem is we are so busy working to pay our bills and quite honestly too lazy to help one another build homes.

Who has the time anymore or the desire to grow a garden full of vegetables and then can them to live off of for essentially free? Who has the desire to raise their own chickens, pigs, cows, etc to provide the family with close to free meat?

People don't want to work this hard. They would rather work and pay for all the stuff they could have for free. Yes you would have to have a little bit of land to pull it off, but I think most if given the choice would choose to do it the easier way.

It is funny when I go to school and listen to the kids there talk about how tough a day they had. My iPod battery died, I was up late playing playstation now I am tired, etc type problems.

I think every young couple has the ability to buy and pay for a home within 3 years, but only 1 in a million couples will have the desire to do it.

[Wealthizfreedom]

Nice!! You certainly need mental toughness and a lot of coffee!