Paid off another one.

[Baconator]

Yes! No credit card debt and no more car payments. The house is next on my list. That will probably take more than 2 1/2 years, but it's still a goal.

[Noahs ARK]

Excellent!

We have our house and Pathfider paid off, but are still working on the credit card bills. Can't wait to get those out from under us, but figure it'll be about 3 years. :angry:

[Baconator]

We have our house and Pathfider paid off, but are still working on the credit card bills. Can't wait to get those out from under us, but figure it'll be about 3 years. :angry:

Nice! That's serious progress! I started with the smallest balances. Unfortunately, the house isn't one of them.

[mirkwood]

Still working on our house. That will take about seven more years. We also have the other half of a set of braces to pay, but they don't charge interest so I'm not in any hurry.

[mgriffith]

Paid off the second mortgage we took out 6 years ago for a new roof and new A/C unit. The only thing left is the $8,000 I owe on the house. That should be paid off by the end of the year.

Whew! It took me just a few months to get into debt way back when I was 18, and now I'll be out of debt just before I turn 60. What a long road. 42 years of debt payments!

Mark

[DMGNUT]

One car (actually truck) payment and one signature loan with about 18 months left on each.
As a gift to the son on a mission, we're making the payments for that and will have his funds waiting for him on his return (in 3 weeks he will hit the one year mark).
Even though that goes away in a year... I think I'd rather have the Lord's blessings for doing what we can, then to have the extra $ in the budget.
Just saying...
Anyway... in about a 1 1/2 years the budget will loosen a lot, and that will leave us with just the house payment.
Still have a good ways to go on it (about 13.5 years).
Once that is done, retirement could be a reality... if we wanted it to.

[prairiemom]

It's so great to hear how everyone is doing with paying off debt. Congrats, everyone!

We have one more car payment and should have the house paid for by year's end. Yeah!

[Earthling]

We're out of debt so now we spend our money on remodeling. It has increased our home value a lot. Homes are definite money pits. In a year or so we will save like crazy for retirement. . . if TEOTWAWKI hasn't happened.

[Baconator]

I'm going to refinance to a 15-year fixed rate. The interest rate will drop from 5% to 3% and the monthly payment is my current amount plus my old car payment.
I got a quote around lunchtime morning and am going to start the application process tonight.

[thomasusa]

We starting with a 14% mortgage in the early 80s.
(Today when I hear people cry that they can't pay the 3.75% loan, they get no sympathy from me.)
After several years we refinanced to a 9.5% and then later to a 7.5%.
Many of the monthly payments were made when I was unemployed.

In the last refinance I told the banker I wanted a 7 year - not the 10 year he was offering.
7 years was when my oldest would be turning 19 and I figured the missions would easily cost the same as a house payment.

Anyway, that was my version of Family Planning. :l0 (22):

I know very little about finance, but I remember hearing somewhere that we only borrow for school, business and a home.
(The house was obvious. I worked to put myself through school and started a business on shoestring from savings.)
All other loans in my book are evil.

[mirkwood]

I'm going to refinance to a 15-year fixed rate. The interest rate will drop from 5% to 3% and the monthly payment is my current amount plus my old car payment.
I got a quote around lunchtime morning and am going to start the application process tonight.


Consider this before you go with a 15 year loan. You might take out the 30 again, and take the smaller house payment. You then take the difference and pay against the principle EVERY month. It may take you less time to pay off the loan. It also gives you a financial buffer for EMERGENCIES, not new cars, trips etc., but a legitimate emergency.

This is how we did it. Our 30 year loan started about 10 years ago. I have about 6-7 years left by doing the above. We have never used that extra principle payment for anything else. This was done on my income alone (mrs. mirkwood is a stay home mom). If mrs mirkwood returned to work, we have already discussed doubling or tripling that principle payment. If we could do that, we would be down to about 3 years or so to pay the house off.

[Baconator]

Considered, but....
Child support payments go away next month. Car payment is already gone. The car payment makes up the difference between our current mortgage payment and the new one.
Plus, I'd be right-side-up on interest vs. principle from day one.
If I put the money from that and child support toward a 15-year loan, I can own the house in less than 10 years.
In case of emergency, I don't have to send all the extra.
Tunnel vision toward debt has served me well so far.

[Earthling]

I think you are doing the right thing. I advised my daughter to refinance last fall and she went from a 5.25% on a 30 yr loan to a 3.25% on a 15 yr loan and got rid of PMI insurance. Now her payment is not much higher than before. A 15 yr loan has substantially less interest. Another daughter is buying a home (tomorrow!!) and there isn't a discount for a 20 yr loan (which she is getting) but there is a large difference on a 15 yr loan.

That said - put some money aside in an emergency fund in case you need it to take care of at least 6 months worth of house payments.

[faif2d]

I got a 15 year loan and paid what ever I could each month on the principal. Some times that was $50 and sometimes it was $500 ( I got a bonus once a year) I managed to pay it off in just under 10 years. It was hard but I now owe no one anything! What a feeling of relief.

[Mariam40]

That is great! We bought the house we are in about five years ago and this year I have been adding extra to the principal. We have been also adding to our storage and trying to be more prepared. Next month I want to raise the amount I have been adding to the principal and hopefully we can have our house paid off between 6-9 years depending if I can keep the additional amount as high as possible but also knowing things may come up.