Happy Birthday to Me!

Normally about this time of the month I post a mortgage update giving all the details of how much progress we’ve made, how much longer we’ve got, etc. Since it’s my birthday month, I decided to take a slightly different approach. We recently celebrated my birthday, and as a gift to our entire family, we…

May 2018 – Mortgage Payoff Update

At the end of May, our remaining payoff balance was at 12.78% of our original mortgage that we took out in 2007. That is a reduction of 1.57%. How much longer until the mortgage payoff? Once all of May’s payments were applied, we’ll have reduced our mortgage balance by about $2138 this month. That brings our balance to almost…

April 2018 – Mortgage Payoff Update

At the end of April, our remaining payoff balance is at 14.35% of our original mortgage that we took out in 2007. That is a reduction of 3.38%. How much longer until the mortgage payoff? Once all of April’s payments were applied, we’ll have reduced our mortgage balance by about $4590 this month. That brings our balance below $20k….

220k and counting

No, that’s not our current net worth. That’s how many miles we have on our 2006 Toyota Prius, and we have no plans on replacing it. We could replace it if we wanted to and go buy a newer vehicle with all the bells and whistles… …but we won’t When you start to look at a…

March 2018 – Mortgage Payoff Update

At the end of March, our remaining payoff balance is at 17.73% of our original mortgage that we took out in 2007. That’s a reduction of 2.19%. How much longer until the mortgage payoff? Once all of February’s payments are applied, we’ll have reduced our mortgage balance by about $2971 this month. That brings our balance to just…

February 2018 – Mortgage Payoff Update

At the end of February, our remaining payoff balance is at 19.92% of our original mortgage that we took out in 2007. That’s a reduction of 3.46%. How much longer until the mortgage payoff? Once all of February’s payments are applied, we’ll have reduced our mortgage balance by about $4713 this month. That brings our balance to just…

January 2018 – Mortgage Payoff Update

At the end of January, our remaining payoff balance is at 23.39% of our original mortgage that we took out in 2007. That’s a reduction of 3.01%. How much longer until the mortgage payoff? Once all of January’s payments are applied, we’ll have reduced our mortgage balance by about $4086 this month. That brings our balance just below…

Is your bank or credit union for or against you?

Back around Christmas time I wrote a post about the holiday loan offered by our local credit union. I gave plenty of reasons at that time why you shouldn’t get one of these loans. But then they came back to surprise me with a vacation loan advertised on their digital sign. Seriously? A loan to go on…

When is it time to slow down or take a break?

If you’ve been paying off debt or on a savings spree, at some point you’ll probably get tired and just wish you were done. You will just want to take a break or slow down a bit. But when is it okay to slow down and spend some of the money you’ve set aside? There are a…

Life without credit cards

Can it be done? Can someone really live without credit cards? I mean, you need one to build credit right? What about when you’re in an emergency? Let me start by telling you that credit cards are not your friend. Even though we ALWAYS paid them off on time and never paid interest, we decided…