TracyP Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 Wow! That is awesome... and inspiring... Congrats! :party: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyontheFarm Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 Great news! :party: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueTaelon Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 I haven't even bought my 1st house, would you be willing to share what you did to pay it off early? How early did you pay it off? Feel free to ignore me, I'm just trying to learn options before I buy my first home and have a plan before I leap:) I really don't want to spend 30 years paying off a home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 :hurray: :hurray: :hurray: it is a great feeling isn't it. :party: :party: :party: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 Congratulations!! :hurray: I would be ecstatic, too!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thescrappyhomeschooler Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 Congratulations! I'm happy for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
readinmom Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 How wonderful! Congratulations! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reya Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 WHOOP! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFM Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 :hurray: :party: WOOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!! Yay!!! Way to go!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OrdinaryTime Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 That is awesome! I remember my parents having a mortgage burning party, and it really helped me realize at a young age that a mortgage is not a given in life. You should have some type of celebration, at least for the family. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mazakaal Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 Congratulations! That is awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 Happy for you! My mom and dad moved around and always moved up, so they are 80 and 79 and still have a mortgage. I don't want to be in their shoes! I think ours will be paid off in about 8 more years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizzie in Ma Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 How fantastic for you!!! We are a long way from that but we did just complete a 5 year credit consolidation loan so we are debt free other than the mortgage. It's a great feeling isn't it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted January 8, 2013 Author Share Posted January 8, 2013 Thanks for all the well wishes and congratulations. It does feel absolutely wonderful. It is really still sinking in after dreaming about it for so long and then planning it out and waiting for something to go wrong. I told dh it is funny how there are some that feel sorry for us and think we are so bad off as we drive old cars, do without and buy used. But we couldn't be happier with our choices. We don't feel deprived but blessed. I wish you all well who are on the same path. It is soooo exciting to hear about others going on similar paths. I haven't even bought my 1st house, would you be willing to share what you did to pay it off early? How early did you pay it off? Feel free to ignore me, I'm just trying to learn options before I buy my first home and have a plan before I leap:) I really don't want to spend 30 years paying off a home. Our official loan was set to be paid off in 2023 and at 20 yrs. We immediately started paying it at a 15 yrs though and we are officially 5 yrs 3 months ahead of our 15 yr goal. Someone mentioned upthread about the kids. They do know the basics. We've talked to them all year about it. Thinking about that we really should do something at least to help them see the significance. We had already promised some kind of vacation to them. They are all really wanting to go to the beach. I don't know if that will happen but I do know we are *not* doing another staycation this year! They've been asking all year about it and ds will even say, well once the house gets paid off, we can do this or that. We had also set ourselves up good to start with. Our initial loan was for what most call a starter home. We borrowed enough to make the place livable and then finished up the rest as we could afford to cash flow it and did it ourselves. Then the house burned(almost 6 yrs ago now), we were massively underinsured however we were able to use the fire it to our advantage with some patience. We used nearly all of our money we received for our contents to go towards the house and lived with what we were gifted or could find used and bought just a little bit at a time. We made it bigger and put more money into upgrading some of the basics- insulation, hardwood floors. We shopped around big time and did a ton ourselves- saving a ton of money. So, we were able to upgrade the house at this point without taking out any larger loan. It stunk not to really be able to replace a lot of our belongings, it stunk to have to live with an unfinished house again but it was well worth it not to take on more debt and expand the house (which was already on the list to do as originally it was 1050 ft upstairs and unfinished basement). When we moved home we only had one bedroom(the others were construction zones and completely unusable) and half of a bathroom. Dh worked like a dog, getting in all the hrs he could at work to finance it and then coming home and spending every free moment towards finishing it up. It has just been in the last yr or 2 that it was really finished upstairs. So, as we had been used to living on less as we put so much towards the house it did make it easier to be able to squeeze out more money to put towards the house this last year. In Jan of last year dh's employment situation was looking very bleak. Their purposed schedule for the year was for about 20% reduction in full-time hrs and an even greater cut over his usual hrs. Dh was as stressed as could be, as he has no formal education and it looked like him losing his job wasn't that of a far-off possibility. Many people were laid off- about 20% of their work-force. Dh was protected due to his seniority but it was even more stress on him. Seeing him so worried about us, worried me. He didn't know how he would be able to support us all with no education and very little other job prospects in the area that pay what he makes (which isn't a lot but good for our area and his education). So, I purposed to him that we work to pay-off the house. For a good while he thought I was crazy. He thought it was impossible. The further we got the more he saw we could do it. He started getting excited, really excited. Seeing that goal getting closer and closer really helped both of us stay focused. We had some blessings a bit of inheritance from dh's grandma. That was used to build our emergency fund bigger, it makes it very nice that we have a more left in our accout than we planned after paying it off. We also had some bumps. As I said for 6 months of last year his pay was greatly reduced. We had close to $2k in car repairs last year, even with him doing the labor. I had about $4k in bills for the baby's birth. We'd be well on our way to having the van fund done without those but we just had to get resourceful. So, I'm so anxious now to be able to replace some of our beat up old furniture and really make the place look nicer. Our house isn't fancy but it is quite nice enough and ours. We are on 5 acres on top of a hill and have a beautiful view. So many things to be thankful for, really and truly. I'm copying and pasting info from another thread I posted about some of the things we did. Really it was just about saving as much as we could and living on as little as we could and starting off with the smallest loan we could. I wanted to say as far as what we did, it was more about what we didn't do. I'd prefer not to give a lot of specifics but we lived on less than $2k a month (take home pay less what we saved each month). We did without unless we could also make our savings goals. We took it one month at a time as I knew if we got behind one month it would be even harder than the next. I patched things that shouldn't be patched. We didn't really do b-days this year, well not in the big gift sense. For entertainment I listened to the radio to win free tickets to local events, nothing far away though due to gas money. We cut a lot of driving period due to the money, especially last winter when it was really tight. I only purchased curriculum that I could afford by selling off the old I had. I exclusively shopped at Aldis(except meat) and we ate whatever veggies were the cheapest and very basic meals, no snacks (except fruits and veggies and no drinks except water). We both helped butcher a cow to save and have grassfed beef- I did it all day at 3 months pregnant and the toddler on my back- it sucked tbh. I helped butcher chickens as well. I didn't have much luck growing things this year and our rabbits died due to the heat, although that would have been a big help. We kept cutting the temp in the house in the winter and upping it in the summer, I got our bill down by $40 a month and it was already lower than any other family I know and we also had a 10% price hike. We did the old trick that grandma did as far as baths, we used the small tub and not a lot of water and they would all cycle through or bath at one time. I think we only ended up using the a/c about 6 wks maybe, when the temps and humidity was 90+ and it wasn't cooling off at night. All of those things are not permanent but you can make do for awhile, or at least most of us can. This fall it really got much better as dh's work increased so we've been able to let up some, it is nice to have some splurges back. However, it was well worth it and really not that bad as it wasn't all that long. I'd rather be hardcore for a shorter period and be done with it then drag it out. We are still looking at ways to decrease our bills, which at this point are mainly food, gas and electric (we of course have taxes and insurance- I cannot decrease taxes but I did up our deductible on our insurance). Dh had bought a Civic for commuting the year before and that saves a ton on gas. For electricity we've been replacing our door seals and dh is planning on building diy solar water heating(+solar heating) this year. I'd like to eventually go all solar or wind or such but we are doing one thing at a time, as he has time and we can cash flow. We are hoping to do bigger and better on the garden this year and add animals as well to decrease our need for food but we will have start-up costs as we have no place to put them right now- we built on virgin lands. Anyway, it is a process. It is nice to know though that if dh loses his job we should be ok. Even if he cannot hardly find anything but McDonald's we don't require much to live on now. It wouldn't be great but we could make it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runningmom80 Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 Congrats! As someone who is just about to get into a 30 year mortgage, I envy you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvnlattes Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 WOW, how exciting! I can't even imagine. Congratulations! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SBMama Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 :party: I think you should celebrate! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarlett Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 Congrats! As someone who is just about to get into a 30 year mortgage, I envy you! Noooo!!! Don't do it! :w00t: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarlett Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 Thanks for all the well wishes and congratulations. It does feel absolutely wonderful. It is really still sinking in after dreaming about it for so long and then planning it out and waiting for something to go wrong. I told dh it is funny how there are some that feel sorry for us and think we are so bad off as we drive old cars, do without and buy used. But we couldn't be happier with our choices. We don't feel deprived but blessed. I wish you all well who are on the same path. It is soooo exciting to hear about others going on similar paths. Our official loan was set to be paid off in 2023 and at 20 yrs. We immediately started paying it at a 15 yrs though and we are officially 5 yrs 3 months ahead of our 15 yr goal. This was an awesome post. Thanks for sharing. And congrats! A celebration is in order. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenL Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 You MUST celebrate this! It's such an accomplishment! Congratulations!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommee & Baba Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 Congratulations!!! :) Such a HUGE accomplishment! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie12345 Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 Congratulations! So happy for you!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tutor Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 Congratulations! That's fantastic! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swimmermom3 Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 Thank you for sharing your success and your process for getting there. Joy and Peace to you and your family at this most exciting of times. What a rocking start to 2013! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiniBlondes Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 That's amazing! Congratulations! I still have 19 years and 4 months to go. How inspiring! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted January 9, 2013 Author Share Posted January 9, 2013 Thanks for the congrats, you guys really made my day and helped me get excited. I talked to dh last night about a celebration and asked him if he'd rather just do something with the two of us or a party of some sorts. He picked something for just us, so next Friday we are going to the city to stay the night and then do some shopping the next day (we'll just be taking the baby with us- so we will be sort of alone!). I'll be looking to get some things for the living room. There will also be some stores for dh to go shopping for some of his wishlist as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canadianmumof5 Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 Wow!! Congratulations!! That is amazing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparrow Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 I'm so excited for you! Congratulations! Dh and I dream about the day ours is paid off. 13 years (OR LESS!!) to go :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laughing lioness Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 Sooo happy for you! :party: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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