House Mortgage -- Countdown

[Randomsaver]

Focused Debt : $13K

Focused Debt : $12K

[JoeP]

We're at 18k now

Our monthly payment is $1607
Principal $983
Interest $69
Escrow $554 (taxes)

Insurance is on the side. After payoff, we will need to budget about 610 per month to cover taxes and insurance.

Now we're at $16k. Pretty much every month, we reduce principal by $1k, so we should be done around Jan 2018!

[Gailete]

Now we're at $16k. Pretty much every month, we reduce principal by $1k, so we should be done around Jan 2018!

Terrific!

I just paid an extra $50 on my mortgage and $500 each to three credit cards. Now to keep finding some extra funds each month to keep paying some extra on them each month. So much easier to see how things are going with my bank's website that they just revamped. They now have a page to specify that you are paying on your principle if you make an extra payment.

[greenskeeper]

Ballin' WITH a budget. Well done!

Wow!

worse case 10 years to go (if we made "regular" payments the rest of the way), best case 3 years if we continue to press.

[markr867]

Fantastic. Do you have an amortization table for your loan so you can see how much interest you just saved over the life of this loan? Checking that will help give you real motivation for making those extra payments.

I downloaded one the other day, actually. I put our info in, and the $345 extra payment that we made took a whole month off of our mortgage! $345 now saved us $1,518

[Gailete]

Hey, that is terrific and also a good come back for those who would like to cling to the theory that having a mortgage is a tax savings! If you do that every month for a year, you will have saved ~ $18,000 in one year! I doubt that your tax deduction would have netted you that much!

[Gailete]

Spent a few minutes today seeing how much I needed to pay monthly to

1. get one card paid off before it loses it's zero interest in November.

2. for a card that most of it is also zero interest, how much I need to pay currently to get it to zero in three years.

3. Two other cards which get active charges for hubbies business, and mine etc. and how much we need to pay to get them paid off in in three years as well.

As we are on a mostly flucuating income, it is hard to know how much extra we can pay so of course we want to get the minimums paid each month plus whatever extra we can pay. Just the fact that so far this year we haven't had to charge anything major is a plus (last year we had to charge taxes and estimated taxes, etc.) and hopefully sometime this year hubby will be able to finish a job and get paid for it, so another big chunck on the bills - hoping to get at least two of them gone.

[MooseBucks]

Mortgage Principal - 175,053
Payments Left - 185

Mortgage Principal - $174,027
Payments Left - 184

[Gailete]

We have a rental property that we got 14 years ago, where the tenant is habitually late with his payment as was the last set. We live in an area where we can't assess late fees. He will make small repairs himself and has no munchkins messing the place up so we put up with him. However now that I can see the difference in interest in paying two weeks earlier or paying right when the mortgage and the construction loan (that we got for the things that we had to do to the place which were necessary), I would love to see them getting paid earlier. Anyways, he paid his rent yesterday and so today I was able to pay on both those loans and was able to tack and extra $50 paid to the principal of both. So far this year I've been able to make extra payments combined of $275. The one loan is due exactly one year from this coming Tuesday. I'm hoping to get them paid off a lot sooner than that as it will then give us about $450 extra each month to put towards other bills and eventually savings and/or living expenses. We got it for the primary reason was to have more income in our 'retirement'.

I know that for some of you dumping an extra $1000+ monthly on loans, our extra is peanuts to you or a night out at a semi-fast food restaurant for the family, but for us it is a big deal to finally be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Once the rental properties are paid of as well as the house mortgage (13 years to go, but definitely want it paid off sooner) we will have $1100 more a month to live on! I need to see these numbers in black and white to keep spurring me on as at times I forget and it seems like the bills are just dragging on and won't ever quit.

[Guppy Tender]

Another little bit more

So I finally got around to making an extra payment on my mortgage. Reduced the time I will be owing by 9 weeks. Down to 16 years and 24 weeks. My goal is to have this number below 15 years by the beginning of 2018.

[Guppy Tender]

I'm hoping to get them paid off a lot sooner than that as it will then give us about $450 extra each month to put towards other bills and eventually savings and/or living expenses. We got it for the primary reason was to have more income in our 'retirement'.

I know that for some of you dumping an extra $1000+ monthly on loans, our extra is peanuts to you or a night out at a semi-fast food restaurant for the family, but for us it is a big deal to finally be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Once the rental properties are paid of as well as the house mortgage (13 years to go, but definitely want it paid off sooner) we will have $1100 more a month to live on! I need to see these numbers in black and white to keep spurring me on as at times I forget and it seems like the bills are just dragging on and won't ever quit.

Gailete,
We are proud of you, no matter what amount extra you are able to reduce the debt by. Yes, some of us have extra income that we are applying towards getting ourselves free of the debt, but that does not mean that we expect others to be able to do the same. The truth is we are blessed and are trying to use that blessing as wisely as possible.

Glad to see that you have calculated the extra that will be freed up when you get rid of the debt. That can be such an incentive, realizing there is a large amount of money that is currently being eaten up by debt payments, that one day will be a bonus amount towards living.

[Gailete]

Very good guppy. The sooner you start paying ahead, the bigger the decrease in mortgage time!

[Randomsaver]

64.8/75k 5/4/17.

First month of the +$500 plan in motion. Not bad at nearly a 1k reduction.

Scaling with income raises in future, I very possibly will be paid off in <60 months.

I downloaded one the other day, actually. I put our info in, and the $345 extra payment that we made took a whole month off of our mortgage! $345 now saved us $1,518

Mortgage Principal - $174,027
Payments Left - 184

We have a rental property that we got 14 years ago, where the tenant is habitually late with his payment as was the last set. We live in an area where we can't assess late fees. He will make small repairs himself and has no munchkins messing the place up so we put up with him. However now that I can see the difference in interest in paying two weeks earlier or paying right when the mortgage and the construction loan (that we got for the things that we had to do to the place which were necessary), I would love to see them getting paid earlier. Anyways, he paid his rent yesterday and so today I was able to pay on both those loans and was able to tack and extra $50 paid to the principal of both. So far this year I've been able to make extra payments combined of $275. The one loan is due exactly one year from this coming Tuesday. I'm hoping to get them paid off a lot sooner than that as it will then give us about $450 extra each month to put towards other bills and eventually savings and/or living expenses. We got it for the primary reason was to have more income in our 'retirement'.

So I finally got around to making an extra payment on my mortgage. Reduced the time I will be owing by 9 weeks. Down to 16 years and 24 weeks. My goal is to have this number below 15 years by the beginning of 2018.

Great updates by everyone. We're all on this together. Not competing with one another but supporting each other. Keep it down! (by now, you already know "it" means debt)

[Randomsaver]

Focused Debt : $12K

Focused Debt : $11K

[Gailete]

It is truly encouraging to see how people are doing. I don't see many people very often now that I don't go out to work, but I never used to hear of anyone working like a dog to pay things off except the one girl in my office at the last place I worked. She was frugal abut went a bit overboard at times. Boss one day asked if someone could run some mail to the big PO and she volunteer. Got there and didn't have parking quarters for the meter and so tried to sneak by and of course got a ticket. Then she approached the boss and asked her to reimburse her! Boss had to be blunt and tell it was her own fault and if she didn't have the money for parking, she shouldn't have volunteered. But she was tight with everything and was working hard to pay off her mortgage. Yet, another person in the office 'The Gambler' couldn't comprehend.

So it is good to hear of others successes. We see many posting for help in getting out of debt and so will participate with the thread a bit and then unless they are lurkers just seem to disappear, and this is such a good thread to encourage all the work it takes and the amounts going down. But I think for many, it is just too hard work to work themselves out of the misery. In the end families are broken up and it is even harder to get ahead. This is one of the most encouraging threads there is here! Should be 'required reading'.