Thursday, April 10, 2008

More Mortgage Musings

When my job is slow and boring I like to scheme different ways to pay off my mortgage so that I can have job freedom. Today I was adding up anything that I could sell or cash-in to add to the principle. If I sold my misc. stocks worth about $5,000 (they were worth that last year, this year is another story), and sold my RV worth around $8,000, and sold anything that I didn't need anymore...I'm estimating $4,000, plus borrowed $5,000 from my emergency fund (without a mortgage I could pay it back quickly, right?), it would STILL take 2 and a half years to pay off my mortgage with renters. As tempting as 2 1/2 years is I couldn't do it. That is still too long to live in my icky, drafty, leaky, electrically questionable mobile home. And that is too long to go with such a low emergency fund. If I could sell all of that stuff and pay off my mortgage tomorrow I would do it. The only way I could do that is to sell a piece of my property but I am not willing to part with it. I want to sell the HOUSE not the property. Maybe in 2 1/2 years the housing market will be better and I can sell the house. Then I will be rid of the mortgage and I won't have to sell my RV, stocks, extra stuff or borrow from my emergency fund.

I bought the house for $131,000, 3 1/2 years ago. Houses like it were selling for $185,000 at the peak of the market. Now the Zillow estimate is $171,000. That's not too bad. I wouldn't want to sell it for that right now but a lot of houses have lost a lot more value than mine. I would be happy to sell it for $180,000 in 2 years but that is probably unrealistic. I might just have to keep it as a rental for a few more years.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am also always thinking about ways to my mortgage off more quickly. At my current rate it will be about five years. If the stock market improves drastically it will be sooner. I am working hard at finding extra sources of income and thinking hard of sources of passive income so that debt free day can come along more quickly. I can't wait!

Daizy said...

Good luck with your plan! My realistic goal is 5 years too. It seems far away to me but it's not as far away as 13 years with the minimum payment.