House Mortgage -- Countdown

[Gailete]

Just paid an extra $25 on each of the two small mortgages for our rental property, an extra car payment, and paid $175 extra on the credit cards. I want to get the smallest loans paid off first so I don't have to divide any extra money or payments between so many cards. All these payments by the way courtesy of my on line sales the past few weeks. Won't necessarily be able to do it every month, but doing it when I can will help those balances go down faster.

[Randomsaver]

Focused Debt : $20K

Focused Debt : $19K

[Randomsaver]

Focused Debt : $19K

Focused Debt : $18K

[Gailete]

Terrific!

[Gailete]

I'm focusing on credit card bills first plus the car payment. Even with things being fairly tough, I've been able to make several $25 extra payments on different bills. Funny, I can finally see the end in sight even though we still have a long ways to go!

[Gailete]

Just made another extra car payment which leaves us with just a bit less than 4 payments to go. Instead of the last payment being due at the end of August, it should be paid off sooner. I'm hoping when a check clears our bank, that we can pay off the car and our smallest cc bill in full within the next week or so. That will free up $121 towards the next smallest bill. While I know that it isn't attacking the highest interest payments (even though I am paying some extra on all of them) to get those bills paid off feels good and a weight off my shoulders.

[Gailete]

My husband completed a big job that got a decent chunk of money at one time so after squirrelling away 30% of it towards taxes (it is so much fun to be self-employed) I had enough money to accomplish a couple of financial goals.

I was able to PAY OFF the CAR. The last payment was due at the end of July so it was paid off about 5 months early. I know it wasn't a huge savings on interest, but it is one less thing off my mind, and give me the courage to think I can get the big bills paid off.

I also was able to pay off our smallest credit card bill of $339. Even though it was a zero interest account currently, I also wanted that one out of my hair just like the car payment.

Those two payments gone, plus what I had been paying extra when I could, can now go towards our next bigger bills including our house loan. My husband got a 20 year term life insurance policy about 14 1/2 years ago. So I always knew we had that cushion if anything happened to him. His health has deteriorated too much for them to renew it when the time comes. However with me not having any life insurance since I didn't have a policy through a job anymore, one of our goals is getting the mortgage paid off in 5 1/2 years as well as the other bills. Belt tightening as well as looking at how we can earn more to pay and also save. That is the hard part, saving some while getting bills paid off. Which becomes most important when I'm already more or less at retirement age and he will be in around 10 years.

Oh yeah, I didn't spend all the money on paying off bills, I have money tucked away for helping to pay for routine bills when needed. the greatest thing is one of the reasons for the big credit card bills was such a low income last year that even getting groceries, etc. was a struggle to a few months later getting a couple of bills paid off.

[disneysteve]

Gailete, great job knocking things out. I'm sure you'll find that with each debt you get rid of, you give yourself some breathing room. One thing to consider, if appropriate, is that you don't have to snowball the entire freed up money into the next payment. You can skim off a little to boost the savings fund. So let's say between the car and the credit card you were paying $250/month (just making up a number), maybe you snowball $225 toward the next bill on the list and put $25/month into savings.

No matter what, congrats on working the plan and getting things paid off.

[Gailete]

Thanks Steve, that is a good idea. One of the things I have found that seems to work with us is my disability check gets to pay off as much as possible like the mortgage, health insurance, utilities and then, the online pattern store covers groceries, etc. plus savings/investments and payments on things, then the money from hubbies work gets set aside (as it comes in sporadically) pays off bigger things as well as is set aside for those bigger bills that come in during the year. My hubby can't keep it all straight in his head, but I sure need to otherwise, I wouldn't get the money handled very well at all.

One crazy goal for my money is I get a small, just barely less than $100, pension from my ex husband. As he was a tightwad that only wanted to spend money on himself, I had decided long ago that when I got that in each month, it would be so-called FUN money. Well I have never been able to get to that point as he retired a few months before I had to go on disability. But I hope to someday get the bills paid off and eventually have my monthly fun money, even if only to invest it each month.

[MooseBucks]

Mortgage Principal - 177,324
Payments Left - 187

Mortgage Principal - 176,303

[snafu]

Gailete, kudos for doing so well. KO both car loan and CC way early is a big achievement ! I hope you reward yourself, celebrate and mark the occasion. Other than SA participants...the percentage of Americans with a paid off car is shrinking. Car loans are written for 6 & 7 years! People with good credit are adding old car debt to new car loans. I think Experian said leased cars are 37% of the market; all those new cars we see on the road are really just rentals.

[Gailete]

Thanks Snafu! We have always driven our cars for years. Our last one my parents sold us for $1 when my step dad found he couldn't get anything decent in the trade in. So that car eventually was costing more to keep on the road than buying something else. We got a used car with only one owner almost 5 years ago. This was my first time ever getting a car loan paid off though before having to trade in for a better car and it is a great feeling. I can only easily get into Chrysler/Dodge mini-vans so that doesn't leave us much in the way of options when car shopping/prices.

And we are working on those other bills as well. Last year was a sucker punch to the gut when we through 9 months of hubby not being able to see well enough to earn much of anything, so this makes it even more great for me!

[disneysteve]

Other than SA participants...the percentage of Americans with a paid off car is shrinking. Car loans are written for 6 & 7 years! People with good credit are adding old car debt to new car loans. I think Experian said leased cars are 37% of the market; all those new cars we see on the road are really just rentals.

You are so right. As always, most people have the mindset that if they can afford the monthly payment, they can afford the purchase, even if that monthly payment is just to rent a car for 3 years or to buy a car over 7 years. Then most people who do buy don't keep the car for as long as the loan term so they trade it in after maybe 5 years and roll over those last 2 years of payments into the next loan.

On the flip side, we have taken out 6-year loans because of the favorable terms. Of course, we didn't take that long to pay them off. I paid mine off in 1 year and paid DW's off in about 3 years. It was just more advantageous at the time to go with the longer term.

[breathemusic]

Oh man... I'm about to start my first mortgage countdown from scratch. Currently in the process of closing on a house for $630k. Only putting down 5%, but not to fear, my lender doesn't require PMI as long as I put down at least 5%. I opted to only put that down because I wanted more cash free for renovations that we want to do on the home (some immediately and some in the next year or so as we save up more money).

Meanwhile, the plan will be to pay the house off faster than the 30 year mortgage anyway, and the house payment is well within my means, so I'm happy with the deal. As a bonus, my b/f and I are renting out part of the house to a good friend of his that currently is his roomie in b/f's townhouse (that he will subsequently rent out now that they're all moving in with me). So the money we get from our roomie will just make paying down mortgage debt (and rebuilding savings) that much easier!

While I'm not thrilled to take on a mortgage, I'm thrilled to now own a house where the monthly mortgage (plus taxes, etc) is still significantly cheaper than the rent I pay for my 1 bedroom apartment. And while my commute to work will be a bit longer, I can still walk to public transportation so I'm not suddenly driving to work and I can just continue to read on the metro like I do now.... just for a bit longer.

[greenskeeper]

$2,350 additional principal payment this month