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I love paying extra on our mortgage


Dirtyhip

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We were paying down our mortgage an extra $400 a month. Then last year we noticed that we had more than enough in savings to just pay the thing off. That felt good.

 

Next we paid off WoJSTLs car much the same way: an extra $150 a month.

 

Congrats.  I look forward to not owing any more interest.  Our interest is low, but I want it gone.  

 

Trying to max out our investments as well.  It's such a better place than when K was in school.  We were so broke during those years.

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Not to gloat, but I haven't had a house or car payment for the past 15 years.  It has allowed me to be pretty much financially care free for some time.  Sending my son to college for six years was a breeze.  I had saved for his college, but didn't need to touch it.  It's amazing the difference that no house payment makes.   :)

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Not to gloat, but I haven't had a house or car payment for the past 15 years.  It has allowed me to be pretty much financially care free for some time.  Sending my son to college for six years was a breeze.  I had saved for his college, but didn't need to touch it.  It's amazing the difference that no house payment makes.   :)

Fantastic.  I look forward to joining you in that free feeling.

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There are many drawbacks to owning a home.  Inability to be mobile and maintenance are two big negatives in my mind with home ownership.  

 

As long as rents stay affordable, renting is great with less hassle.

 

I guess my rent is a good deal, but I would love to own again someday

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There are many drawbacks to owning a home.  Inability to be mobile and maintenance are two big negatives in my mind with home ownership.  

 

As long as rents stay affordable, renting is great with less hassle.

 

I agree.  It depends on the individual, I suppose, but the freedom of care and movement is worth a lot in some cases.  I would love to not have to always be worrying about maintenance issues which are especially rampant on a 50 year old house.

 

In the past four years, I have had to replace the roof, all the windows, the gutters, the hot water heater, the bathroom and kitchen fixtures, and the entire HVAC system.  I also restored the kitchen cabinets, interior doors and did much interior painting.  Plus a whole lot of other crap too numerous to mention.

 

As DH says, owning has its drawbacks.   :(

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We gutted this old house.  Should be problem free for quite some time.  It's really small, but the payment is so incredibly low.  I am thankful that we don't live in a giant house.  Our other house is quite large.  Cleaning it took a lot of time.  I can clean our current home very quickly.  Heating costs are nice and cheap too.

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I agree.  It depends on the individual, I suppose, but the freedom of care and movement is worth a lot in some cases.  I would love to not have to always be worrying about maintenance issues which are especially rampant on a 50 year old house.

 

In the past four years, I have had to replace the roof, all the windows, the gutters, the hot water heater, the bathroom and kitchen fixtures, and the entire HVAC system.  I also restored the kitchen cabinets, interior doors and did much interior painting.  Plus a whole lot of other crap too numerous to mention.

 

As DH says, owning has its drawbacks.   :(

 

I agree.  It depends on the individual, I suppose, but the freedom of care and movement is worth a lot in some cases.  I would love to not have to always be worrying about maintenance issues which are especially rampant on a 50 year old house.

 

In the past four years, I have had to replace the roof, all the windows, the gutters, the hot water heater, the bathroom and kitchen fixtures, and the entire HVAC system.  I also restored the kitchen cabinets, interior doors and did much interior painting.  Plus a whole lot of other crap too numerous to mention.

 

As DH says, owning has its drawbacks.   :(

 

Idle hands, my friend. All those chores kept ya from getting into trouble.   :)

 

 

Edit: How the hell did that happen? I'm cursed!

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I agree.  It depends on the individual, I suppose, but the freedom of care and movement is worth a lot in some cases.  I would love to not have to always be worrying about maintenance issues which are especially rampant on a 50 year old house.

 

In the past four years, I have had to replace the roof, all the windows, the gutters, the hot water heater, the bathroom and kitchen fixtures, and the entire HVAC system.  I also restored the kitchen cabinets, interior doors and did much interior painting.  Plus a whole lot of other crap too numerous to mention.

 

As DH says, owning has its drawbacks.   :(

I watched The Money Pit right as I was buying a house and dang, it was scary!

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The problem as you get old(er) is that you typically no longer have an earning wage coming in.  While there are other options out there, your choices are really to rent or own.  You can own a house, own a condo, own a motor home, or own a tent on a beach somewhere.  While the last option sounds ideal, it's more likely you are going to rent, buy a house, or buy a condo.  If you own, you want those suckers paid of so that you are just using your fixed income for living expenses.  The whole idea of not renting when you retire is that your prices never go up.  But owning a house is a b*tch too as there are huge maintenance fees that go into it and owning a condo sucks arse because of the HOA dues that always go up and seemingly end up almost as high as your original mortgage payments.

 

What's the answer here, folks?

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What's the answer here, folks?

 

I don't claim to be an expert at anything, but I think that only owing taxes and insurance is a good option.  I like the idea of paying off a home, and having very low overhead costs.  If my mortgage is paid off, I can essentially live on very low monthly income.  I don't intent on relying only on Social security, but I could afford to do that with a paid off home.  In two years I can put all these extra payments right back into my investment portfolio.  

 

Rents will continue to climb.  I do know that much.

 

Oh, and I would never want to own a condo or anyplace that has an HOA.  It is too expensive to maintain those costs.

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When and if I get too old and decrepit to be able to do regular maintenance on my house, I want to move to some sort of rent or new condo situation where I am basically maintenance free.  No yard work and no worries about crap like the roof leaking and such.  But that's just me.

 

Many older people around here in my neighborhood just stay in their houses as long as possible and pay people to do everything for them.

 

One advantage that I have is that I am essentially free of financial worries for the rest of my life, so I can do pretty much whatever seems best for me.

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Oh, and I would never want to own a condo or anyplace that has an HOA.  It is too expensive to maintain those costs.

 

I struggle with this as owning a home in Seattle is damn expensive outside of SF.  It makes sense to move outside the area and cash in on the sale.  But you have to own the damn thing first and it's hard to do unless I'm willing to commute into work 60 miles.

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