Boxhead
Member
I am odd man out preferring to earn over the years an average of 4 times my tax adjusted 15 year home loan. I can but won't pay off the remaining 10 years.
Paid The Mortgage Off Early! ADDENDUM
- Thread starter quikdraw67
- Start date
Would be nice to not have to pay the bloody taxes and insurance till we take a dirt nap.
wilkoi
Member
Nicely done.
Cdog
Member
CONGRATULATIONS!
I know that feeling, enjoy it!
I've done it twice. Seems I'm one of those that can't stand being mortgage free for a long period.
My wife and I were mortgage free again for about three years when we found our current home in 2019.
We took out a 15 year mortgage financing about 50% of the value. I always pay extra principal, so I'm looking at another 8 years at my current pace. Lord willing we'll pay it off sooner.
Again, Congratulations on your achievement!
I know that feeling, enjoy it!
I've done it twice. Seems I'm one of those that can't stand being mortgage free for a long period.
My wife and I were mortgage free again for about three years when we found our current home in 2019.
We took out a 15 year mortgage financing about 50% of the value. I always pay extra principal, so I'm looking at another 8 years at my current pace. Lord willing we'll pay it off sooner.
Again, Congratulations on your achievement!
Well done!
We paid ours off years ago and it is a good feeling.
Making extra payments is one way to pay off a mortgage early, but you can also choose to make bi-weekly payments. It's a little more than half of the monthly payments and you make 26 payments instead of 12 per year, but the interest saved is substantial.
We paid ours off years ago and it is a good feeling.
Making extra payments is one way to pay off a mortgage early, but you can also choose to make bi-weekly payments. It's a little more than half of the monthly payments and you make 26 payments instead of 12 per year, but the interest saved is substantial.
Now that you have been working on paying off your house, why not make it work for you? When we paid off out house 12 years ago, I went and sent up an equity loan on the house for a quarter of a million dollars. This loan is like an "ace in the hole" because it doesn't cost a cent until you use it. It is my emergency source of a large sum of money if it is needed. Having all of the approvals done and in place so a large amount of money can be accessed in a day if needed, is a big piece of mind. If and when you decided to sell the house, just cancel the equity loan. You've had the ability to access a large amount of money for all those years and not a cent was paid for it. Just my $0.02.
The mortgage may be paid off but the County still owns the home. Try not paying the property taxes and see what happens.
We are doing just the opposite. Refinanced and are doing a major room addition and overall improvements. As it stands at the moment we have added $150,000 in equity and we are not done remodeling.
As uncertain things are we decided to spend the kids inheritance and enjoy being in debt.
Congratulations, quickdraw67! I (we) paid our house off this past January 12 years early. The interest wasn't high enough to claim it on tax filing, so that argument is non-existent here. With the stupid high prices people are paying for houses, it's worth 2 1/2 to 3 times what we paid. Anyhow, that's one of the best feelings in the world that I never dreamed of being able to do many years ago. (Just living this long is a suprise to me!)
Many, many congratulations to you & yours! I see down below my post from January in the "Similar Threads" section. I guess I'll read it for old time's sake!
So now, what's it gonna be: a new in box Mercedes, BMW, or how about the 750+ HP Camaro??? I heard a Prius will top out at 27 MPH!
Edit: I did the math wrong in that post from January. Today I did it right!
Many, many congratulations to you & yours! I see down below my post from January in the "Similar Threads" section. I guess I'll read it for old time's sake!
So now, what's it gonna be: a new in box Mercedes, BMW, or how about the 750+ HP Camaro??? I heard a Prius will top out at 27 MPH!
Edit: I did the math wrong in that post from January. Today I did it right!
Last edited:
OP
Nah, no toys, although the Camaro is on the bucket list.
Remodel the kitchen, new paint and carpeting.
But, that's a few years down the road. Price and availability are in the realm of stupid right now.
Hopefully things will level off in a few years.
My wife and I have always thought that paying interest for something that we really didn't need was throwing money away. When we got married we only bought just what we had to have. No vacations, eating out. Very, very frugal. When we built our first house and the man drove the last nail we paid him off. Instead of paying interest we have used that money for nice vacations and hobbies. We think we made the correct choice. Larry
Our first house was bought with the proceeds from selling 68 collectble Winchesters. My wife and I got a small mortgage to upgradethe ol place. It was built in the mid 1800s. It took us 12 years to pay off that mortgage while my wife went to nursing school and I bought a small farm. 4 months after paying all off...bought another farm. Did all we could..paid the 2nd farm off in 4 years. Mortgage free since we were 40. We didn't do vacations etc etc while paying all off...but it is a feeling to be mortgage free. We use CCs to buy much of our expenditures...but pay the bills when they come in. No debt to speak of. Not even a car payment.
.38SuperMan
Member
Just try not paying any of your taxes.
I think it's been 15 years now since paying the house off and we've saved and invested that money ever since. As mentioned above we buy pretty much what we want with cash including the last 8 cars and over the last two years we did a major renovation of our kitchen, large deck and exterior of our home, all with cash.
Doug M.
Member
At our house, the freedom and lack of stress from having sold the other house and paid off this one, then paying off the cars, is worth it. We paid extra each month on both houses as we could, and got the principal down as fast as possible. Some months we paid $1K over. My wife able to retire when she got a buy out offer and take so little of her pension each month that the total is still going up.
Even with having to get some stuff done to this house this summer, we are good shape and have a decent sized savings account.
Even with having to get some stuff done to this house this summer, we are good shape and have a decent sized savings account.
We don't use our cash to buy higher priced items such as cars. Rather than spend savings we have gotten loans at the credit union using our money as collatteral. The last we borrowed cost us 1.25% and the payment was taken out of our checking. We would rather pay the low rate of interest than spending the money out of savings accounts...and we were still getting some interest on our money...not much ...but some
It would be nice, but remember there is no free lunch. I just looked it up. One county in Maryland allows senior citizens to put off paying increases in property taxes. The county just slaps a lien on their house.
OP
Addendum -
Took a 1/2 day and paid off both both car loans.
That's it. No more debt. Only the monthly power/garbage/tv/phone and yearly taxes.
Feels liberating. I've never been debt free since college.
Took a 1/2 day and paid off both both car loans.
That's it. No more debt. Only the monthly power/garbage/tv/phone and yearly taxes.
Feels liberating. I've never been debt free since college.
Ivan the Butcher
Member
Now you will get 30 calls a week wanting or even demanding you sell your home!
I won't answer a number I don't have in the phone's memory! Seems robots have no problem leaving lengthy voice mails!
Ivan
I won't answer a number I don't have in the phone's memory! Seems robots have no problem leaving lengthy voice mails!
Ivan
I use credit cards for most of my purchases. I pay them off completely as they are due and actually get cash reward from the issuer. I am debt free including my home and it is a great feeling. I bought my last car with cash and the dealer tried to sell me all kinds of financing plans so I borrowed his calculator to show him how much more it would cost me and declined. A tip, never tell a dealer if you will pay cash or finance! Negotiate first the price of the vehicle and once that is settled engage in a separate transaction regarding the payment for the vehicle and also any trade-in value should be another transaction. The first question most dealers ask is what can you pay per month and the financing will go from 48 to 84 months to suit your budget with correspondingly increasing cost.
One poster mentioned taking an auto loan at 1.25% rather than paying cash. A great rate but if your savings account was paying less than that it cost you money. Interest is something to be earned and not paid if feasible.
Now a bit of a story as usual. I mentioned I use credit card almost exclusively, I went to the pharmacy recently to pick up a prescription and the total price was 15 cents, I had no cash on me and was embarrassed to charge it but did so, I have to wonder what the transaction cost was on that!
One poster mentioned taking an auto loan at 1.25% rather than paying cash. A great rate but if your savings account was paying less than that it cost you money. Interest is something to be earned and not paid if feasible.
Now a bit of a story as usual. I mentioned I use credit card almost exclusively, I went to the pharmacy recently to pick up a prescription and the total price was 15 cents, I had no cash on me and was embarrassed to charge it but did so, I have to wonder what the transaction cost was on that!
That's why I carry my Crown Royal bag with Golden Dollars and $2 bills in it. The cashiers at the pharmacy are now getting to recognize me as the guy who pays small prescription prices with Golden Dollars.
OP
The credit cards get paid off every month. We saved 15k in interest paying off a 20 year note @ 3% interest 8 years early.
Think what the interest would be on a typical credit card @18% if not paid off in full every month
The best cards are the ones like Best Buy, where if I need a new washer, I can charge it and pay it off over 12 month with no interest.
Ditto with the VW Service cards. Great when I need tires, plus I get a $25 dollar Visa gift card for using it.
The catch is, if you DON'T pay the balance off within the allotted time period, the ACCRUED interest gets charged to the card.
Responsible use of credit cards is a must.
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