House Mortgage -- Countdown

[disneysteve]

Mortgage balance: $33,648.27.
By the end of the year, we'll be under 30K.

If not for college expenses, we'd be attacking this but that will have to wait.

On the college side, our PLUS loan is at $8,645. Original principal was $15,000 in August 2016 so we're doing pretty well chipping away at that. We're consistently paying $1,000/month now so it should be gone either in December or January at the latest. There will be another loan for next school year, though, but we'll attack that one as soon as the first one is gone.

[Gailete]

Got our state tax return yesterday. Cashed it today and then divided it into payments on 4 credit cards. All rounded up and with the largest cc owing amount getting the biggest payment. All the payments were more than the monthly payment and so that part is paid and any extra I can pay on them this month is all principle payments. I should be able to put some extra on the mortgage as well, but since it has the lowest rate, I'm leaving it more or less last.

Also paid property taxes on our house and our rental porperty with the money I had set aside all year towards taxes. So nice to just write a check and know that I'm not borrowing it on a credit card. And then get ting those credit cards paid on today. Our income isn't much better than last year's but last year was a lot of hard work saving when so many things were demanding money of the very little we got in, but I did not want to borrow one more time for the property tax money!

[Randomsaver]

Focused Debt : $14K

Happy April Fool's!

Focused Debt : $13K

[amarowsky]

66k/75K 3/3/17

65.6k/75K 4/10/17

Now that the wife and I's income are united in one account, we can set our new goals in motion for saving.

We decided a 50/50 split for debt pay off and invest. I kept looking at the numbers and it just seemed a bit more wise to go this route instead of 100% invest or debt pay off. So as of now an extra $500 to principle of mortgage a month and $500 to taxable investing account a month.

It looks like I'll be getting a raise in July (estimated 5%). 1% of that will go to raising the 401K contribution. The other 4% will go towards upping these numbers. After tax it'll bump each of these up roughly $85 (mite round up to the even 100 for both).

I've also officially decided to start using all of my bonus every year to fund the wife's Roth. I max mine out now, but have only maxed her's out when I started it last year. I haven't really made a solid plan on how to fund hers. I think this is a fair enough idea, even if it falls short of full funding.

[Gailete]

I learned the rounding up game after finishing nursing school. I had about a $2000 loan and just paying it rounded up saved me several months worth of payments. It is money you generally don't miss at all. However if things are really super tight, just rounding up to the nearest dollar helps and gets you into the mind set to keep rounding up higher as you are able.

Markr - hope all goes well with that mortgage, I'm not sure I could sleep at night with that kind of mortgage. Ours is bad enough with only around $67000 owing at this point.

[greenskeeper]

Our mortgage payment is $1,815 a month, but we are planning to pay an even $2,000 and let the lender know that the extra is going towards principal.

We plan to increase that payment by at least $200 each January (to coincide with our yearly pay raises) to hopefully pay this off way sooner than 30 years.

Sounds great. There are calculators out there that you can plug in extra payments to re-amortize the mortgage and get the "new" payoff date.

[disneysteve]

Our mortgage payment is $1,815 a month, but we are planning to pay an even $2,000 and let the lender know that the extra is going towards principal.

Generally, the payment slip or online interface has a separate line for additional principal payments. Do that and you'll save a bundle.

[markr867]

Thanks for the advice, snafu and Gailete!

Our mortgage payment is $1,815 a month, but we are planning to pay an even $2,000 and let the lender know that the extra is going towards principal.

We plan to increase that payment by at least $200 each January (to coincide with our yearly pay raises) to hopefully pay this off way sooner than 30 years.

[Gailete]

Markr - starting with that first payment round up your total to the nearest $1-5-10-25 that you can afford. and be sure it is applied to the principle. Even really small amounts add up over time and the more principle you pay sooner than later, the less interest you will owe over time.

[snafu]

markr, since you are just starting your mortgage payments, I suggest paying attention to how your money is allocated. How much goes to principal, how much to interest, taxes and other costs. If you can eek out a small extra amount to apply directly to principal regularly, it makes a difference long term.

[markr867]

Our first mortgage payment is due next month... yikes!

So... $304,000 and 360 payments to go

[Gailete]

tTanks folks! It is nice to be able to share with people that understand! For much of his last 14-15 years he has worked FT plus PT besides being heavily involved in church, a city wide young adult group, and helping me with groceries, etc. Doesn't own a credit card, so his whole life is cash paid. He has been influenced by reading the Dave Ramsey books and even though the SL and his car are the only loans he has made, he still wanted to get out from under them ASAP! So proud of that boy. For those that don't understand what it is like to raise an autistic child - they come in all shapes and sizes and abilitites. It took him till he was 10 to be able to tie his shoes, 'kindof'. I was never sure he would even be able to get a job and I might have him at home (or his dad would) forever! So to me he is a living, breathing miracle.

[snafu]

Gailete, thank you for sharing these details with the SA community. You certainly started my day on an uplifting positive note that I sorely need. Please pass along my congratulations to son when he get's SL paid off.

[disneysteve]

That's awesome, Gailete!

[Gailete]

Good for you with knocking out the student loans!

Last night my son called up sobbing into the phone. He is my autistic son for whom the path has rarely been smooth or easy. He has been working like a dog for years now to get his student loans paid off. Turns out he was getting down to the last year or so of payments and with our financial difficulties, I haven't been able to help, but my mom and step dad sent him a check yesterday for what was left owing on his student loans. I didn't even ask how much it was, but I remember hearing her ask him a few weeks ago how much he owed. I cried too. Not something that happens everyday and it certainly isn't because they are wealthy--no way at all could they do the same for ALL their grandkids, but my son has impressed them big time over the last few years. He asked me one thing as he wanted to be sure that they could afford to do this and I knew if I didn't answer right, he would give them the check back no matter how much he wanted to keep it. Just so thankful for this. His paying back his student loans has kept him from having enough cash to move out of his current low cost apartment into one that is a lot closer to his current job and would save big on gas thus of course helping his whole budget.

I know this a thread on mortgage countdowns, but for sure a school loan count down is every bit as important. I'm so happy