Debt Reduction, Mortgage

What Will It Take To Pay Off Our Mortgage Early?

February 17, 2010

In a few weeks, we will make our first mortgage payment.  Our mortgage is a fixed-rate 15 year mortgage.  Obviously, I’m not a fan of debt – and I’m going to work very, very hard to pay our mortgage off early.  Using a mortgage calculator I calculated the following the scenarios for paying the mortgage off early –

15 years and zero months = mortgage payment + $0 extra per month

12 years and 3 months = mortgage payment + $250 extra per month

9 years and 3 months = mortgage payment + $500 extra per month

7 years and 9 months = mortgage payment + $750 extra per month

6 years and 8 months = mortgage payment + $1000 extra per month

5 years and 10 months = mortgage payment + $1250 extra per month

Looking at our present financial situation, and keeping our retirement and education savings goals in mind, the $750 extra per month appears to be the most reasonable amount for which to shoot.

Here’s my current plan –

1.  I will make regular monthly mortgage payment each month.

2.  I will make an extra payment, each month, with a minimum goal of $750 extra per month.  Apply To Principal will be in the memo line of each check sent for extra payments.

3.  I will make additional extra payments, throughout the year, as I earn and / or save extra income, with a stretch goal of $1250 in total extra payments per month.

Hopefully, we’ll be able to turn our 15 year mortgage in to a (less than) 7 year mortgage.  Obviously, situations change, priorities shift, and life happens, but, as of today, this is our plan.

It’s been a long time since I typed this, so here goes – Debt Reduction Rocks!

12 thoughts on “What Will It Take To Pay Off Our Mortgage Early?”

  1. Go you! You can totally make this happen. We bought our first home in October of 2003 and we will have it paid off by October 2010! It will be so amazing to have no payments. We will be completely debt free!

  2. Fantastic approach for goals for your family. Good luck and keep us posted as your progress.

    I am currently under a 30 year mortgage but am looking to refi into a 15. From there I hope to apply add’l principle payments to knock it out.

    Thanks for sharing and best of luck as you progress…. congrats on the new home too.

    Dave

  3. Good luck ncn and congrats on your new home; we’re also paying extra on our mortgage with the hope of it all being gone by 2020, 10 years early.

    The thought of being mortgage free is very motivating!

  4. Paying $750 extra a months is very good. Do you plan to pay $750 extra, plus retirement, kids college, and discretary fun?

    If so, I admire your income

  5. Cautionary Note:
    Check your mortgage company’s statement carefully each month (or online if your mortgage company allows). Before our mortgage was paid off, I too would send in extra and I always included BOTH a note along with writing “apply to principle” in the memo line of the check. Inevitably, about 25% of the time, the mortgage company would mess up and put the money into our escrow account instead of applying it to principle. So watch out for this!!
    I have great confidence that in seven years you will have your mortgage paid off and be DEBT FREE ONCE AGAIN!!! Thanks for sharing with us!!

  6. Who is your lender? It’s probably smart to send a separate check for overpayments, though I was lazy and always added it to the main check. The various lenders that we dealt with (Wells Fargo most recently) always handled it properly without being told.

  7. Another thing to keep in mind is that, aside from property tax and insurance increases, your payment will remain level, but your income will (hopefully) increase. You should thus be able to get more aggressive with the overpayments as time goes by.

  8. nickel, our lender at that time was CountryWide. We have since paid off our mortgage. I always sent a separate check for the extra principle payments and they still would screw it up and put it in our escrow. That was over four years ago; maybe they’ve improved by now. But I would still caution everyone, no matter who your lender is, to keep a watchful eye on your account.

  10. I stumbled across your blog and I love it. I have a similar goal to pay off the mortgage in 5 years. Over a year and a half in and we are still on track.

    I would suggest that you grab a mortgage calculator from http://www.vertex42.com to track your payments & prepayments. Very motivating.

  11. You go!!! My partner and I paid off our home mortgage in January 2010. We moved in 5 1/2 years ago, took Dave Ramsey’s FPU in January 2008 and became Gazelle’s on steroids! Being totally debt free is amazing!! We do not owe a dime to ANYONE!

    Good luck!!

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