Morgage - How intense were/are you???

**TheRootedNomad** · 07-24-2007, 08:08 AM

Here's where we're at.
~Baby EF completed

~All debt but morgage gone

~Aprox. 4 month EF (but building toward 6 just not aggressively)

~Aproximately 10% of income going into 401k/403bs (Looking to invest in something else as Well)

~Many major renovations going on but VERY SLOWLY as we are doing these ourselves and always saving money from things like pocket change for them
~Throwing money at the morgage before we can spend it on anything else

We've been at here for about a year. And even though the morgage amount is dropping it's going very, very slowlyeven though we're staying intense. I'm not planning on changing anything but am always keeping am open mind and wondering ....... Once you've paid off all you're debt but the morgage how big of a priority do/did you make it. Did you stay as intense or did/do you losen up some on you're intensity???

**Jaded** · 07-24-2007, 08:18 AM

That's great! Can't wait until I can be where you are. Right now, I'm lucky to be able to make my mortgage payments at all. I'm thinking of paying just $10 extra each month, but can't do that until I can get a couple of other things paid off or caught up. I'm aggressively saving toward back taxes right now. Should have them paid by the end of the year, then next year I'll start with some other stuff. Slowly but surely, right?

I'm looking into ways to make extra money, so things may change. If they do, all extra money will go into emergency fund first, then toward mortgage.

**frugalfarmwife** · 07-24-2007, 09:47 AM

When I hit 40 it was a major slap in the face to realize how much we owed and how old I'd be IF and when we got everything paid off, that was a BUMMER! Now at that time hubby was only 36 and still had the "more, more, more" attitude, made for a rocky few years! Now he's almost 40 and reality hit him, lol, was kinda fun to watch from the outsite!!!

So we have no CC debt, a small truck payment and I'm aggressively attacking the farm loan. We also contribute to his 401k, have a 6 month EF(WHEW, that REALLY helps you sleep at night!) And are putting away spare change for a 20th anniversary trip (have 6 years to go yet, lol).

I WILL defeat this loan, it will NOT outlive me!

Of course it also motivates us to look at all the financial ruin the rest of hubbies family has caused, we're the ONLY ones in good shape, ALL the rest have filed or are about to file bankruptcy in the last year, sigh.

kj

**Amanda W** · 07-24-2007, 10:46 AM

We still need to build up a full EF and start saving for a bunch of other expenses (roof, another car, etc.) but right now we're putting $250 extra towards the mortgage each month. Once we finish our EF (sometime next year?), I'd like to refinance to a 10-year mortgage if the rates haven't gone up too much. We'll have 20% equity by then, so we'll finally be able to get rid of the PMI we've been paying, and the payments on a 10-year mortgage will only be $200 more than what we're paying now.

**ladykemma2** · 08-15-2007, 08:15 PM

Originally Posted by TheRootedNomad

Here's where we're at.
~Baby EF completed

~All debt but morgage gone

~Aprox. 4 month EF (but building toward 6 just not aggressively)

~Aproximately 10% of income going into 401k/403bs (Looking to invest in something else as Well)

~Many major renovations going on but VERY SLOWLY as we are doing these ourselves and always saving money from things like pocket change for them
~Throwing money at the morgage before we can spend it on anything else

We've been at here for about a year. And even though the morgage amount is dropping it's going very, very slowlyeven though we're staying intense. I'm not planning on changing anything but am always keeping am open mind and wondering ....... Once you've paid off all you're debt but the morgage how big of a priority do/did you make it. Did you stay as intense or did/do you losen up some on you're intensity???

get 6 months into EF, then i would bump retirement to the max for both if you, then hammer at the mortgage. we threw 500-1000 extra each month on a 15 year mortgage.

**ConnieD** · 08-18-2007, 04:50 PM

We're in the same position as you.

We just have our mortgage, but we only have 2 mos. put in the EF and the goal is 6 months. We're attacking both really. We only have 7 years left on our mortgage and that's with just making the regular payments.

We are concerned about the future of hubby's job, so we're really trying to pull it all together. I have a small home based business and I also work 3 other small p/t jobs (deliver newspapers, noon aide at son's school & school crossing guard) I took on these other little jobs when we realized about his job and all the money I make from them goes right onto the mortgage, trying to get it as low as possible so that if he's out of a job for any period of time it won't be a hardship with a big payment.

My plan is to have our EF fully funded for 6 mos. by Dec '08 (or hopefully sooner 'cause I'm wanting $24,000 in there) and then we're REALLY attack the mortgage.

I guess it all depends on what your personal situation is. If we knew hubby would for sure have a job in a few years we'd probably split our concentration between the mortgage and RRSP's (retirement).

Keep up the great work!!

**Judi Dial** · 08-27-2007, 08:24 AM

Okay, well, we're first getting started.

The cc I have the ticker for is the first step, it's easily do-able and costs us the earth in interest.

FYI: I have 2 cc stories to tell. We paid off our Sears card and when we got the last payment made they sent us a bill for $10.xx ? WTF?

Well it was interest to the day we'd paid it off. You can't (or we couldn't) pay more than you owed, the computer wouldn't let you. So, DH made a payment of an extra $10 as just a random payment on our bill payer. Then we got a check from them, but of course, we had to ask for it!

The other one is Discover. We have stopped using the card. They keep calling us and asking why we haven't used the card. We tell them the same thing, the interest. Well, they lowered it all right, on NEW PURCHASES... which of course was not what we wanted.

We're still not using the card....

So, how do I decide what to do next?

JD

**Ani** · 08-27-2007, 01:31 PM

I'm here too, and I'm ashamed to say that our intensity is really lackluster. We make the equivalent of a few extra payments a year, but I don't see it amounting to much. We're thinking of selling the house ($100,000 equity) and putting that down on a smaller house as a 50% downpayment. Not sure yet though. It's so hard to stay focussed when it seems like it's not such a "big deal" at all to have a mortgage.

**monkeywrangler71** · 08-27-2007, 05:04 PM

We are not aggressively paying our mortgage. Our top financial priority is retirement savings, because of our tax bracket. After our RRSPs are maxed for the year, everything goes into non-registered savings until after tax time, then I will skim any excess off the savings account and make a lump sum payment on the mortgage.

Our savings account is only half a point lower than the rate on our mortgage, and all our other investments are earning much more than our mortgage is costing. So it doesn't make sense right now to pay more on the mortgage at the expense of the savings. It the rates go up significantly at our next renewal, we will reassess.