Comments on: Operation Mortgage Payoff is Starting to BLOW…

By: J. Money

J. Money — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 13:33:25 +0000

Haha I KNOW!!! I have a mental list of the same thing but unfortunately I already fell for it! Haha… but at least I’ll know better for next time ;)

By: slinky

slinky — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 15:42:47 +0000

Glad that helped! I noticed that this post was all about what you were doing, but never touched on the why, which meant you probably needed a reminder. :)

its worked so well for me i’ve had to come up with an anti house list of all the reasons I cannot yet buy a house. It mostly consists of I will not end up in so and so’s position. So many examples of how and when NOT to buy a house!

By: J. Money

J. Money — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 14:00:55 +0000

I like it!!

I want to pay off our 2nd mortgage so I can get closer to paying off the 1st one.
And so we can refi the 1st one.
And so we can have one less worry in the future
And so we don’t need to work as much down the road so we can spend more time with family and other things that are important to us :)

My ultimate goal is to have zero large expenses forever so we can spend our time exactly how we like it without any worry at all about money… perhaps I need to print this out and put it on my wall as a reminder! :)

By: slinky

slinky — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 21:51:32 +0000

When I have trouble keeping focused on something like this, I focus on the why. are you doing this because you “should” or because it gets you something you want? I’m saving for a house so that we can have our own place and my husband can start his business and do what he loves. So we have more room. So we can have a garden. So we can have quiet. So we can paint. So we can get a dog. So I can have a craft room. So I can play my piano at three in the morning if I want. A million reasons why that money needs to go where it goes. Why do you need to pay of that second mortgage? So you can refi and move and rent it out and get passive income? So you can move and have room for future children? To lower your expenses and spend more time with you’re kids? To refi and lower your expenses to go on a fabulous vacation?

By: J. Money

J. Money — Mon, 28 May 2012 17:22:35 +0000

i like that!!! a lot!!!! and for some reason I kinda *thought* I was doing that already, but obviously not, haha… my “number” kept shifting around in my head ;) I’m gonna think about this for a bit and see if we want to go this route – thanks for the idea! I really REALLY like it. And if I end up blogging about it, I’m totally giving you a good shout out ;) Happy Memorial day!

By: bobbi

bobbi — Sat, 26 May 2012 18:01:21 +0000

Maybe an idea is to come up with a set level of savings… For example… say 65K…. and you commit to keeping it at that level. That way you have a ‘plan’. You continue to pay for repairs and pay down mortgage and whatever while your savings remain at that level. If it dips below that you stop the mortgage plan and throw everything back in savings until you get back to your original 70K. This way you have a PLAN. When x happens you do y. You know how you are going to deal with it. That may give you peace of mind. My opinion is that you could have a million dollars in the bank and all the ‘what ifs’ would still float thru your head freaking you out. No matter how much you have in the bank there is always some weird thing that can happen and wipe you out. All that being said I advocate planning and responsibility to a large degree – but not at the expense of paralyzing you from moving forward with other goals. If you push thru and pay off the smaller mortgage than that is a lot of cash flow you free up and will be amazing on its own.

Good Luck! Trying to figure out where to put an extra 2K a month is a wonderful problem to have!

By: J. Money

J. Money — Sat, 26 May 2012 17:14:16 +0000

@Long – Thanks man :) I’m not gonna lie, it’s hard sometimes! But what I do is tap my “reserves” of ideas in a draft email so anytime I’m clueless as to what to write about, usually looking in there for an idea to stand out helps. As well as checking out what other bloggers are writing about lately too. I’m sure you’ll find a way that works well for you over time :) Oh, and I agree that there’s no harm taking a break too from paying debt off in your situation, esp if you can stay motivated afterwards. We’ll see how our new babies treat us!

@Bobbi – You’re totally right :) We do have a lot of savings stashed away, which I’m personally pretty comfortable with, but the concoction of my wife’s worries, as well as having an incredibly unstable “job” here with making money online, def. gets us to slow down some times and keep making sure we’re on the right track. If I could look in a crystal ball and see that we wouldn’t need to tap our cash reserves that often over the next 10 years, then I’d gladly keep pushing forward to Operation No Mortgage land. There’s just too many things that can stop us on a dime that we have to be aware of.

All that being said though, I do agree with the entire outlook of financial freedom :) And I agree it’s better to just rip off the bandaid and keep on going so we can reach that point a lot sooner than later – just a matter of staying motivated and aware of everything at all times, so we’ll see.

By: Bobbi

Bobbi — Sat, 26 May 2012 03:40:14 +0000

I must be misunderstanding something…don’t you have 70k in savings….9k in e fund plus all your investments and retirement accounts? The way you are talking it sounds like you have 5k in the bank instead of almost 100k….. I went back and double necked your may update and my numbers seem correct. Sure you have had a few house repairs but those honestly seem pretty normal to me and nothing to panic over. Hello home ownership. I understand the baby freak out as we have a two year old.. My advice isntomkeep plugging until the smaller mortgage is gone at least. Yes…babies are expensive but they don’t have to break the bank. A lot of that depend on you… Eventually your baby will be 5 and you will still owe on the mortgage….or a second one will be on the way and you will still owe on the mortgage. That is the time when you will be very happy to have the freedom. To me what is more important is freedom to make choices… And no debt gives you that freedom.

also, I am curious as to what level of savings you feel comfortable with? Almost 80k in cash and no other debt is pretty comforting to me.

By: Long

Long — Thu, 24 May 2012 18:02:15 +0000

Sorry I’m kind of late to the game, but I’m sort of in the same shoes as you. We have a baby on the way and were in the process of paying down our debt. We recently paid off a car loan and were about to pay off one of my wife’s student loans in full. However, after having a discussion about the debt, reserves, and the upcoming delivery, we decided that it would be a good thing to keep that extra cash around for a couple of months. It’s just to make sure we’ll be solvent in case she needs to stay home a little longer than expected or if there is an unforeseen emergency with the newborn. I think you’re going to be fine if you skip a few months and have the discipline to restart later.

On a side note, I think it’s pretty awesome that you haven’t missed a day of blogging over the past few years. I’m just getting started and it is tough to find the motivation some days, so I really do applaud your drive.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Tue, 22 May 2012 17:32:02 +0000

@Ron @ Fringe Village – I am “all in,” but I also admit it’s not always the best route to take… I may end up tweaking it down the road, like you mentioned, if my motivation continues to wane.
@stephanie – I don’t like to automate it cuz then I don’t “feel” it enough ;) The goods, or the bads (ie savings or paying off debt). I like to xfer the money myself so I am fully invested, if that makes sense? I’m jealous of those who CAN do it though so smoothly, tha’s awesome!
@SavvyFinancialLatina – I’m trying!! :)
@Michelle M. – Hmm.. yes, more progress as far as interest saved, but less on the overall “chunk” I’m trying to pay off :( One of the reasons it took me so many years to start paying it off was I couldn’t imagine trying to knock away $290,000. But $70,000 was more manageable. So I think I still have to stay w/ the emotional route here, as the latter just deflates me entirely :( Good idea though! I’m impressed you remember all that :)
@Andrea @ Smart Step Personal Finance – That’s true! Instead of cold turkey one month, just split in half and then get right back out there? I could probably do that :)
@Brian – Haha, thanks bro.
@Call Me What You Want Even Cheap – I like that! $25k chunks is much better than $60k chunks – bleh.
@Edward Antrobus III – I think you’re right there. At least every now and then to maybe do that?
@MoneySmartGuides – Haha.. yes, in theory I do :)
@Lance@MoneyLife&More – Me too. I guess the risk is just trying to skip ONE, and then going right back into it and seeing if I indeed do that. I’d never try to skip more than one cuz then I KNOW I’d be a lost cause, haha…
@Fifi – Yeah, for sure. That idea is def. a cool one :) Although I guess you *do* end up paying more in interest in the long run I feel like? Rather than paying it down every month? Guess that’s the trade off.
@DC – Well, usually I agree with you, but that’s what I’d been doing for over 4 years and it got me to *never* pay down the mortgage ;) So I made the conscious choice to start diverting the money from savings to mortgage so I could work on it once and for all. But I will say the only way it makes me comfortable still doing that, even w/out the motivation, is because I DO have a nice stockpile of cash around in case any new opportunities arise. So unless that part dwindles a lot over time, it’s probably not enough to switch my mindset over completely. I do agree with that thinking overall though :)
@Emily – Wow!!! That’s so cool!!! And now you don’t even *need* that much income any more cuz you’ve got rid of the #1 expense – woohoo! Good for you guys :) I am thoroughly impressed, and a tad bit more motivated now – THANK YOU!
@Erik/b> – True true, though I do still like manually paying it off cuz it does put things in better perspective for me :) I probably will stick with this route for a little longer though unless I REALLY get pissed off, haha…
@Evan – Cuz that’s how my mind works :( Sometimes it works well, and others not so much. I’ll agree it’s not the best mentality to have though, so we’ll see what happens.
@Shannon-ReadyForZero – Thanks! I’m trying not to! :)
@KS – Not an option – too underwater to be able to refi :( BUT, I did last year off a fluke (in my opinion) which got my rates down from 6.875% to 5.5% on that 1st mortgage! But it was from the same bank I had – which I guess is why I was able to do it? – and can’t do it again anytime soon…. if I can nix that 2nd mortgage completely though I can THEN go for a refi! Which is def. in the game plan :)