Wednesday, November 28, 2007

My Incredible Shrinking Mortgage

I know that yesterday I said I was going to think about paying down my mortgage for 2 weeks before I actually did it but I couldn't wait. I threw all $25,000 at my mortgage. As of tomorrow I should only owe $75,000 on this house.

There were two things that made me want to start right away. One was finding this nifty mortgage amortization chart amortization article and calculator from getrichslowly.org It is much better than Bankrate's calculator because I can put in my lump sum on a specific month and then put in extra monthly payments whenever I want. Too bad I can only use it at work because my home computer doesn't have Excel. If I keep to my schedule my last payment should be November of 2011. That only gives me one month of wiggle room, December 2011, but hopefully I can do it.

The other reason was that I remembered that if I want to start building a house on my property the bank will use my property as the down payment, so I don't have to have a large stash of cash. Then I started thinking about the interest that I wasn't earning on that money in my checking account (about $3.40 a day) while I tried to make up my mind. And I was thinking about the mortgage interest that was accruing every day (about $4) and I decided that I wanted to get that money in to my mortgage account as soon as possible.

I didn't want to write a check and mail it because I worry about a $25,000 check sitting in my mail box for half a day. I could have dropped it in a box if I knew where one was but that still takes too long. I tried doing an on-line transfer but the bank said that I didn't have an account set up. Well, where have they been getting there monthly mortgage payment from? My checking account I assume. So I set up my checking account for transfer but they said it would take 2 days. By then it would be Friday and then the actually transfer takes a day or so which means Monday. I wanted it done before Dec. 1st. I called my mortgage company and they said I could go to a local branch and write a check and the amount would be posted the next day. I ran home at lunch, grabbed my checkbook, wrote a very big check and headed to the bank. The teller informed me that I could only pay off $15,000. Then the manager had to call the main office and they told her that I could write 2 checks, one for $10,000 and one for $15,000 which I did and after some more waiting the transaction was completed.

After I went back to the office I found this article The Thrill of Paying Off the Mortgage which is pretty much how I feel, or how I want to feel. I still have 4 years to go and that is if everything goes well. My house has to be rented out full time, my car has to keep running, I can't get any more skin cancers. Well, I will try my best to stick with my 4 year plan. Hopefully I will get a raise every year and I can sell some things on ebay and I still plan to find a craft to sell at the farmer's market. The most important thing is keeping the house rented. That is the key.

2 comments:

Jennifer said...

I am impressed! Way to go! I wish we could pay off our mortgage sooner, however so far, not much luck. You are doing great.

Daizy said...

Thanks for the encouragement. I hope I can stay focused.