My wife is the hero in all this, as she has been pursuing the issue with a vengeance. With the crappy economy (at least for working shlubs like us), it made sense to make lump sum payments on the principle. We did a re-fi a couple of years ago and shortened the term to 15 years. That knocked about $100K off of the interest. Despite my whining every time she depleted the checking account, we are now completely debt-free.
We’re not burning anything, by the way. Unless you count heartburn from last night’s szechuan.
In a world where debt taken on seems to be permanent, you’ve done a great thing. Admiration all around for your discipline, and your good example!
Seriously, you gotta burn something in celebration–a nice photocopy of the documents? Ooh! I know—you could plant a tree on the property as a memento. Except it’s probably the wrong time of year for that.
OH, good for you. I’m so happy for you. The biggest stress in my life right now is our large debt, and I can only imagine how good it will feel to finally get out from under that. We are on an accelerated payment plan, too - we make 26 payments a year, so the total life of our mortgage if we do nothing else will be 17 years (on a 25 year mortgage - it makes a HUGE difference). Those two three-payment months a year are a pain, but it’s short-term pain for long-term gain.
Congrats - we paid ours off in May. I was going to wait until September - I turn 40 this month - but I was driving Brainiac4 NUTS so paid it off early.
We did a vengence plan as well - extra money = mortgage.
We had some small loans out after that - I was going to pay those off first (home equity) until we decided to get the feel good from the mortgage - those got paid off last month! - a little behind schedule since without a mortgage we lost focus for a bit.
Don’t think of them like that. Think of them as “free tax money”. This year will be the first full calendar year of mortgage payments and I expect to get most of mine back! If I’m smart I’ll put it back into the mortgage, and if I’m stupid I’ll spend it all on garden dirt again!
The unit next to us is for sale. 2100 sq. ft., 2-car garage, deck in back, wooded common area for privacy, right next to a bike path on a creek. Only about $250K.