The maturity date on my mortgage is 2042.
2042.
2
0
4
2.
It’s a pretty depressing number if you let that fully sink in. My kid will be done with college. My teaching career will be coming to a close. My car will most assuredly fly a la The Jetsons.
2042 is a long ways away.
As I tooled around more on our mortgage dashboard, though, I decided to run the amortization schedule. January 2031. If we never even put another cent extra toward our mortgage, we are done in 2031. Ten years sooner. We have already shaved 10 years off the life of our loan.
While there are plenty of people who argue (quite literally on the dumpster fire that is now Twitter) that this is an ineffective use of extra income, I cannot tell you how good it feels. Childcare expenses could go up. Our incomes could go down. No matter how life changes, we’ve already made tremendous progress. Mortgages aren’t just math problems; nothing in personal finance is.
So for me, this is a win. This is a huge money win.
In the spirit of money victories, I’ve rounded up three more money wins for you…plus I have the winners of the Work Optional book giveaway. Drumroll, please!
Cait
What is your money win?
My promotion is finally official!
Why are you pumped?
This has been a loooong process. I asked for a raise in January of 2016 (which I was fortunate enough to receive!), but it started a larger conversation about my career growth within my department, and my boss was actually the one who mentioned the possibility of a promotion. This would be the first step in a two step process, and if all goes as planned, I will have almost doubled my salary in just two years!
What can others learn from it?
As long as your performance backs it up, it doesn’t hurt to open the door for these sorts of conversations.
Margot from Mortgage Burning Party
What is your money win?
Since October 2018 when I decided to pay off my mortgage, I have paid off 6.5% of my mortgage debt.
Why are you pumped?
I feel like the more I pay off on my mortgage, the more momentum I build! I’m getting closer to being completely debt-free every day.
What can others learn?
I think Dave Ramsey is right about targeting one financial goal at a time with gazelle-like intensity. While I still automatically contribute to retirement accounts and have an emergency fund, all of my extra money and mental money space is dedicated to paying off my mortgage and that helps me stay focused and motivated.
Mr. Flexcents
What is your money win?
I paid off over 100K in student loans.
Why are you pumped?
I now have a positive net worth!
What can others learn from it?
Insight into the difficulty, yet possibility, of digging yourself out of debt.
[Penny’s note: I love that Mr. Flexcents has done something amazing and acknowledges how challenging it is. Too often, we forget to talk about the challenges and the struggles when we share our successes.)
The Work Optional Book Giveaway
In the interest of transparency, here’s how I did this. I numbered the blog comments and the Instagram post comments. And then I used a random number generator to spit out two magic numbers.
Without further ado, the winners are…
- Caroline – via blog comments
- mnmomma – via Instagram
I’ll reach out today using the contact info that I have, so I can get you your book! One copy is coming from Tanja’s publisher (fancy!) and one copy is coming from my Amazon account. I’ll send specific details via email once we connect. Congrats!
And also? Book giveaways are really fun! Random number generators to give things away are way much interesting than using them to make seating charts. I’m definitely going to figure out how I can make this a regular thing around here. So if you like free and you like books, stop back!
Final Thoughts on Money Wins
No matter where you are on your journey, keep chipping away at it. (Hear that, Self?) Sometimes, the journey feels slow. Sometimes, the journey is slow. But progress is sneaky like that. Unless you really stop to crunch the numbers, you might not realize how far you’ve already come.
And if you do have a money win sitting under your very nose, make sure you share it and celebrate!
If you’d like to join the money win party, fill out this survey. Whether you are a blogger or a reader or both, you are welcome to party here!
Also, don’t miss any of our past money wins:
Volume 1 – Kate, Revanche, Melody
Volume 2 – Jody, Aitza, Little Miss Fire
Volume 4 – Zero, Kat, Mystery Money Man
Volume 5 – Anna, Debra, Claudia
Volume 6 – Kate, Are We Adults Yet, Money Saved is Money Earned
Volume 7 – Leigh, $76K Project, Josh
Volume 8 – Jill, Verokina, Mr. Green
Volume 9 – Budget Epicurean, Felicity, Erin
Volume 10 – Kris, Revanche, Aaron
Volume 11 – My Plutus Nod & Jo-Anne
Volume 12 – Amanda, Kudy, Laura
So Tell Me…How are you winning with money lately?
Thank you for your “final thoughts” paragraph. It really resonated with me in my goal towards decluttering my house. There’s still a long way to go, but if I stop to think about it, I realize I have already made a lot of progress.
Also, I learned about Poshmark from reading your blog. After cleaning out my clothes a la Marie Kondo, I realized I didn’t like much of my clothing. Poshmark is a cheaper and more Earth-friendly way to replace the stuff I didn’t like than buying new stuff. I know you use it mostly for selling, but if you are going to shop, it’s a good way to do it.
You just made my Monday, Emily! Thank you!
Well done to everyone on their money wins!! Including yourself. I’ve managed to knock off 2 whole years from my mortgage just by putting 1/2 my yearly raises towards the mortgage! I love seeing these money wins they are so motivational.
I’m now committed to paying off my mortgage within the next decade. I think I can do it without too much of a stretch, especially if I can keep my guest house rented out since I can throw that money in each month. Depending on how things go, I could pay it off in as little as (just over) 5 years, which would be pretty exciting (if still something that feels awfully far away).
We go back and forth on the mortgage payoff. We paid off our first house and it felt great! For like two years…then we leveraged up again.
Now that we have a bigger mortgage, we feel like maybe we should pay it off.
As you said, it’s more than just a math problem. And since our feelings change over time, our strategies unfortunately do, too.
Shaving ten years off is a big money win already and I think that’s rad. You must be getting close to the point where more of the payment goes to principle, right?
I <3 my mortgage spreadsheet. I have one tab that shows the original 30 year term – and every month I put in what my actual (bigger) payment is – and the end date moves closer and closer.
My original payoff date was March 2043 – I would have been 68 years old when I finally paid off my mortgage!
My current date – if I did nothing but pay the required amount from now forward is – 7/2023 – nearly 20 years shaved off already!
But if I continue my planned payments, I will be done somewhere around 9/20 – it's not only the 23 years that I will have taken off my mortgage, but the nearly 80,000$ in interest that I will NOT be paying to the bank!