If you have ever heard the phrase “A day late and a dollar short,” it applies to me. After spending six years looking forward to the day when I could burn my mortgage, my final lump sum payment was $1 short of paying off the $1,979 balance.

So instead of being mortgage-free on Oct 31 which had been our goal, the final $1 came out on November 1, which was the date for my next regular payment.

Rhea and I had been working hard to be mortgage-free by on Oct. 31. We had a well-defined plan over the last three years with a strong focus on reducing our debts and the discipline to stick to the plan, while coping with what life threw our way. A related goal was to save enough money to be able to retire by my 42nd birthday in another eight years.  Read More…

7 Comments

  1. I enjoyed reading this post very inspiring. Good luck on the 750K retirment fund, that will be a bigger challenge.

  2. Well not eveyrone has the luxury of paying their mortgage off when they are sitting on a pile of credit card debt.

    Hey, i know i can use the kiting method to just pay down my mortgage by puttin it on my credit card. yea, yea that will work! 🙂

  3. Oh wopdy-doo! Throwing a party to celebrate? There are more important issues than fetishizing about paying off mortgages. Sheesh!

  4. Very inspiring article. Me and my husband bought our first home with a great rate. Our home cost a little of $620,000 in a very nice neighborhood.

    At first after closing we were feeling a bit over our head in wondering if we would ever pay it off. We started doing things in similar ways discussed and its been feeling a lot better about our situation.

  5. I think most people can pay down their mortgage if they want to. The problem is most people don’t save and think ahead.

  6. Here’s a solution: Rent.

  7. In short its saying not to blow your whad on frivolous things. The older you get before you realize this the better. Most friends of mine are clueless and although we are young I doubt we will be anywhere near these folks mentioned in this piece by the time i hit 40.

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