House Accomplishment
On June 15, I walked into the bank that holds my mortgage and paid off the balance in full. A timeline:
- On January 27, 2007, my bid on my future house was accepted.
- On March 14, 2007, I closed on my house. My initial mortgage was for 30 years at 6+%.
- In 2011, I refinanced to a 15-year mortgage at 4.125%. My payments stayed about the same, with a higher percentage going to principal.
- On May 9, 2015, I refinanced again to a 10-year mortgage at 2.85%. My payments dropped substantially. I kept paying the same amount for a while, but given how low the interest rate was I quickly opted to put that extra money into hopefully higher yielding investments.
Due to those early over payments I was already expecting to pay off my mortgage in November 2024, but in the aftermath of being laid off, I had the option to sell some of my stock in the company. I opted to sell just enough stock to pay off the mortgage and the capital gains taxes on said stock. I figure that either I will find another job soon and then I'll have some extra money on hand, or if I don't find another job before my severance runs out our monthly costs will have gone down a whole bunch, which will make things easier.
Either way, I now own a house all by myself, without any bank involvement, and it only took 16 years. Let's hear it for a long adulthood of historically low interest rates!
I had long joked that when I paid off my mortgage I was going to take one month of Principal & Interest and throw a big party. Given my job situation, that's not happening right now, but if I do find one soon I may change my mind.
- On January 27, 2007, my bid on my future house was accepted.
- On March 14, 2007, I closed on my house. My initial mortgage was for 30 years at 6+%.
- In 2011, I refinanced to a 15-year mortgage at 4.125%. My payments stayed about the same, with a higher percentage going to principal.
- On May 9, 2015, I refinanced again to a 10-year mortgage at 2.85%. My payments dropped substantially. I kept paying the same amount for a while, but given how low the interest rate was I quickly opted to put that extra money into hopefully higher yielding investments.
Due to those early over payments I was already expecting to pay off my mortgage in November 2024, but in the aftermath of being laid off, I had the option to sell some of my stock in the company. I opted to sell just enough stock to pay off the mortgage and the capital gains taxes on said stock. I figure that either I will find another job soon and then I'll have some extra money on hand, or if I don't find another job before my severance runs out our monthly costs will have gone down a whole bunch, which will make things easier.
Either way, I now own a house all by myself, without any bank involvement, and it only took 16 years. Let's hear it for a long adulthood of historically low interest rates!
I had long joked that when I paid off my mortgage I was going to take one month of Principal & Interest and throw a big party. Given my job situation, that's not happening right now, but if I do find one soon I may change my mind.