Mortgage Update!

I started blogging about my mortgage 5 years ago. Wow! To read about my journey, check out the following posts on:

• Where I was with my mortgage when I stared blogging. 
• How much I was paying on the principle, interest, taxes, and insurance.
• How sucky it is to have to pay so much interest on a mortgage. 
• The cost of my home, orignal and refinanced mortgage and some charts!
• My first time making a goal of paying extra.
• Having half the house paid off!
• Continuing to focus on the principle.
• How much we paid off in 5 years.
• Mistakingly paying the mortgage twice–oops!
• Seeing a mortgage differently–from a pain to a blessing.
• Going into deprevation mode while paying the mortgage.

I wrote the last post in this list about a year ago. I was trying to pay $555 extra towards the principle and finding it too difficult. I wrote that I would have to spend 6 months to a year longer to pay the mortgage, and I was ok with that.

Lately, though, I’ve been obsessing about paying off the mortgage. I think my obsessing has more to do with my anxiety about going back to work in about a month, knowing I have 4 years before I have the option of retiring, and not having a ton of extra cash due to my purchasing a year of service towards retirement. 

I think it’d be a good idea to deal with that work anxiety soon. This post is about my mortgage, though, so onto that.

Last July, my husband and I had $44,625 left on our principle for our home. Now, we are down to 34,092 and this month’s payment hasn’t gone through yet. So we’re on track to pay it off in 3.5 years.  

I had written that paying 555 extra per month was too much, so I have been paying about 420 extra and it’s keeping me on track, right? Let me check. 

Our regular mortgage payment of principle and interest is $540. Right now the interest is about 100 a month, so out of our regular payment, we are paying 440 a month. Just 440 x 12 = 5280 in principle a year. We want to pay 10K of principle a year. I have been paying 420 extra, so 440 + 420 = 860. Multiply that times 12 months = 10,320, so that keeps us on track. Plus, the interest will decrease over time, so in our 540 payment, we’ll be paying less and less interest and more and more principle per payment. 

Being on track “should” be satisfying, but I feel like I want to reach the end more quickly. I have thoughts about how my husband and I could use that 540 per month and how I could use the extra 420 per month. I need a balance, though, of where I’m putting my money or else I will worry about not having enough in case of an emergency or important purchases.

When I take  step back, I realize the amount I am putting towards the house is enough, and I need to be patient.  In the meantime, I guess I need to go back to dealing with going-back-to-work anxiety–ugh. It’s more fun to think about a mortgage. 

Peace Out (and In),

Julie