This is a post that many of my readers have been asking for forever now. So here it is – how we’re attacking and working towards paying off our mortgage in the next year.
Now here’s the background info that’s super important so make sure you read this…
Our home was built in 1979 and it was a foreclosure. And when I tell you that it was bad, it was baaaaaaddddddd. As in we had rats living in the basement drop ceiling and all the drawers in our kitchen were completely missing or broken. The tile in the kitchen was broken in several places and the hardwood floors (which was real pine hardwood) were not installed correctly so there were HUGE gaps in the floor.
Sorry for the small picture – it’s the only one I got…
Also our living room look strange…like real strange. It was very boxed-in feeling and off-centered with there only being one window next to the fireplace.
Living Room Now: Okay in all honesty, this picture was taken right after the renovation – so before kids…when my house was clean. 🙂
There were even small “punch” holes where apparently the child that lived in our home before us just walked around punching the wall…
Not to mention that our roof is and still is badly damaged. It even leaks in some spots. And we have the original, completely inefficient windows from 1979.
Kitchen before:
Kitchen after: Once again, before kids…
Okay, so I say all of this so you understand that we didn’t purchase a brand-new home. We purchased a home that required a LOT of work before we could even move in.
In fact, we invested $30,000 of our savings (well, that was from my husband selling off his first business – so it was paid for in cash) to get the house ready for us to move in. Oh and did I mention that I was pregnant with our first child? So yeah, you know my paranoid first-time-mom-self wasn’t moving in a rat infested, no drawer kitchen.
Seriously though. My husband slept in his boat in our garage while him and his best friend remodeled our home for two weeks so we could move in. They’re amazing y’all.
Okay so now on to the financial stuff.
We purchased our home in May of 2011 for the price of $90,000 – tax, tag, and title as my Daddy used to say. We invested $30,000 cash to get the house looking a whole heck of a lot better. We also put down $8,000 so we only financed $82,000
The current amount of our mortgage (12/20/2016) is: $27,938.08 so we’ve paid off $54,061.92 in 5 1/2 years. How we’ve been able to do this is by throwing everything extra we ever received towards the mortgage.
Now I know that many of y’all have been following our journey and know that we’ve paid off over $55,000 of debt in two years – that does not include our mortgage. We didn’t include our mortgage in our debt plan of attack because our plan of attack (which included our credit cards, car loan, and my student loans) took precedent to paying off our mortgage.
We’ve stalled.
So this is me being real with y’all. We’ve stalled this year (2016) on getting our mortgage paid off. I hate admitting that because I’d love for you to think that I’ve got everything figured out and that I’m some amazing kill-off debt guru, but I’m not. Nope, not even by a long-shot.
Truthfully, this is what happens when you don’t make a plan and life sort of…well, happens. In 2016, my husband left his steady paycheck corporate job to once again start up his own business. And due to the “getting back into the swing of irregular income” way of life, we haven’t been able to apply as much money towards our mortgage.
Not to mention, that my business took a serious beating this year and I’ve had to pay a lot out of my business account (which before was mostly used to pay off debt) towards an attorney and other major expenses to shore up my business.
So what’s next?
Okay so I’ll be honest with you, this is a BIG goal that I don’t really know if we’ll be able to make happen but we’re going to try. We’re going to try to have our mortgage paid off by the end of the next year (2017). That’s just over $2,300 a month having to put in towards the principal of our mortgage.
Again, I’m not sure we’ll achieve this goal but I know that when we set goals, we tend to get super close to achieving them if not, surprising ourselves and completely checking that goal off our list.
After all, we started 2016 with $33,835.25 as our mortgage balance so we’ve managed to pay off nearly $6,000 on our mortgage.
Some other things you should know…
We finally got PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance) off our mortgage so that $60 that was going towards that is now going towards the actual principal. Granted that’s not going to make achieving our goal that much easier this year, but it’s something. 🙂 And I’ll be updating our goals post every month with the progress.
Okay so you tell me – have you paid off your mortgage? If so, how’d you do it? And if you haven’t paid off your mortgage yet, do you plan to do it in the next few years? If so, tell me your plan!
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Carrie Willard says
Such an awesome goal! Hubby and I are way behind you. We’re just now buying our first home together, should be closing next month. We got a 30-year fixed because we have zero retirement savings yet, and wanted to keep our mortgage low so we can invest more. However, we want to pay off the mortgage in 15 years by throwing every additional penny towards it. As our expenses decrease (my husband won’t be paying $800 a month in child support soon, for example), we’ll put all the extra towards it. Our income has also gone up each year and I don’t see that changing soon, so hopefully our “stretch” goal will happen. 🙂
Liz S says
Oh Jessi, I KNOW you and Pat have GOT this. You two are amazing and I have faith in you! Loved seeing the pictures of your now beautiful home, and I’m excited to go on this journey with you. I hope you will give us monthly updates on your progress. And maybe even a post about Pat’s new job/new business once it’s underway? Can’t wait to see your progress! I’ll send you an email soon with my financial goals for the year, once I’ve finished figuring them out. XOXO Liz
Jessi Fearon says
Girl, I was literally just writing you an email! You know I can’t wait to scream in joy over your progress!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 And I’m hoping to get ol’hubby hub on camera to do a video with me…I’d love for y’all to hear his side of things. So fingers crossed that I can convince him! 🙂
Lindsey says
We don’t have a mortgage (we’re apartment dwellers) But I can’t lie, I have been obsessing over the idea of having 50% or more down on our home when we do go to buy it :).
Jessi Fearon says
That is an AMAZING goal Lindsey!!!! Seriously – do it! You won’t regret it! 🙂
Jayleen says
How exciting to be in the home stretch of paying off your mortgage! I LOVE your living room BTW!
We actually just sold our home and are living debt free in an apartment until we find our new home closer to my husbands new job! Amazingly enough, our rent is more than our mortgage was but it’s kind of fun owing no one nothing!
We are rooting for you to get your home paid off! Can you imagine no monthly rent or mortgage? Whew! What a feeling!
Sarah says
AWESOME goal, Jessi!!! I have a feeling you will do it!! And like you said, if not, you’ll come super super close which is also amazing. That’s why I like setting goals — even if I don’t hit them, I come close 🙂
What’s your hubby’s business?!?! We are about to be in the same boat you are in. My husband is putting his notice in in a week!! He’s worked for himself in the past, then worked for a company, then worked for himself again, and is now working for a company that he’s about to leave. Our husband’s seem like they would get along lol!!
Wishing you the best of luck this year!!! 🙂
Jessi Fearon says
Thank you so much Sarah! And Congratulations to your husband! 🙂 🙂 Sending prayers y’all’s way! My husband is doing remodel work – specifically bathrooms, kitchens, and basements but can and probably do everything. 🙂
L bryant says
The hardest money goal I have ever had was to pay off over $100k in medical bills that insurance did not cover for our daughters cancer treatment. Due to her illness I was unable to work and my husband was laid off 13 months into her treatment (which lasted 7 years). In addition we had a 9 month old son. We had $127 in the bank and unemployment was $134 dollars a week. We had to pay for our daughters insurance through the cobra plan and at the time her cost was a $400 per month premium. We took out a hospital only plan for the rest of us for $60 a month and we prayed to stay healthy. During the 13 weeks of unemployment checks he received we did any work we could find. Mowed yards, babysat, did repair jobs around houses, made deliveries with our pickup truck, I wallpapered houses. In spite of the fact that my husband and I were college graduates with work experience and great references we realized that no one would hire either of us due to the medical premiums that would come in due to the chemo treatments. My husbands long term dream of starting his own business became our reality overnight. My husband worked constantly. I spent every available daylight hour from home or in the hospital calling friends, business contacts, church members and any service agencies looking for jobs and any help I could find. We grew a garden and we accepted many free meals and grocery certificates. I asked EVERYONE where they shopped for food and household supplies. I discovered so many cost saving tips this way. We contacted our utilities and found out that we could be put on a billing plan due to our circumstances. Our pharmacist requested our prescriptions from the companies for free and reduced rates due to humanitarian circumstances. I scoured every bill, found mistakes that I quickly corrected. We drove our cars for more than 200k miles each. Any clothes, all our children’s Christmas and birthdays and anything needed for our household was bought at garage sales and thrift stores. We gladly accepted any donated clothes for the family. I used a 40 year old zig zag sewing machine to alter clothes and make repairs. Our “vacations” which were 3 weeks going as an outpatient and not at the hospital included any free event in town, popcorn nights with borrowed movies, camping in the back yard, swimming at friends houses and cookouts with friends and family..
We examined every penny that we made and we paid all necessary bills first (mortgage, insurance, utility, and then we sent in our medical payments. This often left us with $20 for gasoline and nothing for groceries. We lived out of our pantry. Nothing went to waste. We hauled our own garbage and recycled anything of value to the metal recycler. We often asked if we could glean fruit trees and clean up under them for the fruit. We froze and canned these for winter. There were so many small ways we would just chisel away at costs.
All of these cost cutting ways allowed us over a 9 1/2 year period to pay back the full balance to the hospital. We now have a family of 1 daughter who is healthy and a college graduate. We also have 4 boys who have completed college and/ or are in college. We paid off our 30 year mortgage in 20 years.
Today our kids realize how hard we saved and today they enjoy many of the simple things that we did to save money as great fun!
On the hardest side we were not able to save anything for emergencies or retirement during this time. But the tough days taught us self reliance and now we look forward to the good times, good health and a paid for retirement.
Jessi Fearon says
Oh God Bless y’all! Y’all are a true inspiration and I’m so happy to hear that your daughter is a healthy grown girl now! And can I just say that is incredible that you wallpapered houses for extra money! That is awesome and takes quite the skill and patience. Thank you so much for sharing your story with me!
L Bryant says
Thanks Jessi. Despite some serious fears throughout the entire ordeal with her cancer we were blessed with meeting some of the BEST people in this world. We live in Georgia too!!
Your husbands sleeping in the boat reminded me that my husband often slept in the foreclosure houses he worked on. He avoided theft and could cut down on mileage and this expedited the work schedule. I do not miss the separation our family had to live with but it was a real lesson in working hard and believing in your dreams.
Keep up the good work. Make memories not stuff!!!
Tammy says
L. Bryant
I can’t thank you enough for taking the time to share such a detailed reply! It gives me hope and encouragement. I was diagnosed last year with cancer. Sparing the details I’m a single mom with four adults and a 9 y.o.now living with me. The astronomical cost of treatment and meds along with health insurance premiums has me feeling defeated many days. Fortunately I am still able to work and pay what I can towards the numerous medical bills that flood my mailbox. Knowing you did it encourages me. Thank you and God bless your family!!
XOXO
Tammy says
PS I forgot to add that I appreciate all the ideas you shared too! There is help/assistance out there if we search for it!
Amy says
Jessi, I’m super confident that you’ll achieve this goal, and I look forward to reading about your progress.
We still have a mortgage, but no PMI. It’s such a drag to have to pay extra for absolutely no benefit…
Happy New Year!
Jessi Fearon says
Thank you so much Amy for your encouragement! And yes, PMI is a drag and pain.
Darla says
Hi there, we paid off our mortgage two years ago. We started with $115,000 loan (with $182,000 equity) and paid it off in eight years. We took longer than I wanted but ultimately it was fast. We had a 15 year mortgage with payments every two weeks, so that helped a lot. Then three years ago we paid $50k add’l toward the principle (thanks to our business doing well during the Christmas/holiday season) and then $26k last year (again, thanks to our business).
It’s amazing how much faster we can save with no house payment. Dave Ramsey says that the grass feels different once you own the house, but it didn’t for us until a full year had passed, that’s when we noticed how much easier it was to save, save, save and just how different that grass felt.
Great article! Love your site.
Jessi Fearon says
Oh that is amazing Darla!!!! Congratulations on being debt-free!! And thank you for the inspiration and motivation!
Raelene says
Good luck! Your family’s debt repayment journey has been a huge inspiration to me. It seems we have/had similar income/debt levels/family size so it has been interesting to watch you guys power through this!
Jessi Fearon says
Thank you so much Raelene for your encouragement!
Sarah@TheOrthodoxMama says
I’m super impressed that your husband slept in his boat for two weeks! That’s some serious commitment. 🙂 I’ll be rooting for you and your family as you work toward your goal this year!
Jessi Fearon says
Hahhahaha! I know right?! He teases that was when he was younger and could do those kinds of things. lol 🙂
Misty says
This is an awesome, smart, goal and I can’t wait to follow your progress! We refinanced for a crazy-low interest rate and pay enough more each month so that it’s like making one extra payment. As soon as we get my student loans paid off (21 months left) then we’ll apply that to the mortgage to be totally debt free as soon as we can. The renovations to your home look great and good luck to your husband with the new business!
Jessi Fearon says
Thank you so much Misty! And I can’t wait to hear of your debt-off success with your student loans!
Sarah @ The Teacher's Wife says
This is an awesome goal! Once our income increases, I really hope to be able to pour any extra money into our mortgage. It’s always been a big goal to have it all paid off way early! You got this!! –Sarah 🙂
Jessi Fearon says
Thank you so much Sarah for the encouragement!
Julie says
What an awesome goal! Congrats on being so close. We bought our house in foreclosure and it too was a wreck. They took everything including the kitchen sink. We are trying to put all the extra cash we have toward the mortgage. I am hoping we can get it paid off in the next 4 years before our kiddo starts college.
Maisie says
Hi Jessi,
Based on your previous track record of getting rid of debt, I am sure that you and your husband will crush this goal. It will be exciting to follow your progress during the year because we are trying to pay our mortgage off this year also. In our circle of friends, paying off a mortgage is met with a lot of questions or “helpful advice” on why that’s not the best idea. Many are in the installment plan/ debt cycle, so I am happy that I can follow along with online blogs for encouragement to stay the course. Looking forward to celebrating with you come 12/31/17.
Jessi Fearon says
Thank you so much Maisie for your encouragement! 🙂