$1,024.03
June 30, 2007
Dear gentle reader, this is Jeff. One thousand and twenty four dollars and 03/100 -----. That is how you 'write out' the amount of the last mortgage check you (I) write on your house. I have bought property, built one house, and bought two homes, but this is the first one I have owned in 'toto'!
We all live the dream of owning your own home but with that dream comes a mortgage. I don't know about you but all the journey is saving and making sacrifices and sometimes struggling to make that payment each month. Well, it was with me. I have never made a huge amount of money but being of scottish descent, I have been frugile in my spending and always paid my bills in the right priority, rarely, or almost never being late with my payments and in most cases paying early.
June 29, yesterday, I got that treat of making the last payment on 3281. I moved here originally over 30 years ago with my wife and 2 boys with plans to pay this off before I retired. But putting two boys through college and college loans I handled as 2nd mortgages on the house, it took just a little longer. Plus my first wife decided she wanted to be alone in life and took a lot of money out of the marriage before she left. Unfortunately she was successful in hiding this squirreling away cash assets 15 to 18 months before she left, it really put me in a hole digging my way out of this financial disaster.
Now as I saw then, I wanted to save my home and live here so I assumed all the financial liabilities on the house to keep from losing it. Now 31 year after moving here, well, one month short of 31 years, everything here is mine. I use the work mine, collectively, as my wife Karen was beside me and supported my wishes in everyway.
Next week we celebrate our Independence Day. It will be Jeff and Karen's independence of another manner. July 4, 2007 is our independence of over a $1,000/month mortgage payment. I looked at our annual taxes and insurance and they total about $225.00/month, so that means a $775.00/month increase in cash flow. Look in your wallet or pocket book and now image almost $200.00 appearing every week, if magically. You now have 2-$100.00 bills or 10-$20.00 bills, or 20-$10.00 bills or even 200-$1.00 bills but how bulky that would be to manage.
Now what do J and K plan to do with this what looks like a windfall. First, we are going to just get use to seeing a more substancial balance in our checking and savings accounts. Then when our normal living standards allow us see this, we are picking out some specific things to buy that have been delayed or not even on our list.
I want a new car for Karen but in her selfish ways, she wants to keep her 1991 Civic she bought new and it has less than 100,000 miles on it. There is nothing wrong with it except the A/C just quit working and it is July in Alabama. I am first taking this car to my favorite garage and getting this fixed. Her radio needs new speakers and I can do that. The last thing will be a paint job and all this hinges on her current desire to keep her little Civic. It is so economical to drive and she only drives about 10 miles round trip each day to work and buys gas once a month. She has not had a car payment in a thousand years and does not want one. So much for a new car for her right now.
I would like to buy a new AC and furnace with a central air filtering system as she and I both suffer from allergies. I am not big on replacing something that is working and working well and our Bryant furance and York 4 ton central AC is working great. I have compared power and heating bills with friends and they are amazed ours is so low? The question I have, will the newer system be as good and work so economically? The board is still out on this one too. Nothing is glowing in our hands to go out and buy now but she loves the idea of a state of the art 37" to 42" high definition 1080 pixel Sony or Toshiba. We have a home theatre sound system so now it is just deciding how to rearrange our living/family room or den to accomodate this. Sounds like a toughie doesn't it!
Help us celebate our Independence Day when you are eating that BBQ or shooting those fireworks or watching ceremories from Washington DC or NY. Just say a prayer for Jeff and Karen and thank Him for seeing us through this journey. Thanks to all my readers and wishing your the greatest of fortune!!! J and K in Birmingham, Al, USA
Happy Independence Day indeed!
A post script you my story above. I began this journey, beginning in 1990 when I refinaced my home the first time. Then Karen entered my life and she observed what I was doing and looked at how to improve my finances.
A mortgage banker has access to many things and with her knowledge and history in the business, we refinanced again, rolling the 25 year original mortgage into a 15 year one. Interest rates had fallen plus my credit score had improved, so she was capable of something short of a miracle.
Through her friends in then Amsouth and their affiliates, we refinced with "NO CLOSING COST". Her years with Amsouth gave her this huge savings. Then when we went to closing, their was virtually "NO ATTORNEY FEES". Again, relationships and history with this attorney, he chose to forgo his normal $600 to $800 closing fee.
What was our final cost in rolling this over to a lower percentage rate and now 15 year mortgage. All we had to pay was $99.00 to pay for the documentation fee and pay his secretary to do this paper work for only real expenses filing all the paperwork.
You can only do this once every 5 years and interest rate never fell more than 1.5 than the interest we had. Over the years, the mortgage company allowed me to add dollar$ solely on the principal. The beauty of this is you can reduce the principal on the back end, truly making the mortgage payoff reachable in an even shorter period.
With these endeavours, we paid the 15 year mortgage off in just a few months short of 13 years. Wow!
Now I get a note from Wells Fargo in the mail, that I will soon get a check from them for $1,608.31, which is interest I paid but this would have been on the additonal payments I made on the principal.
Let me here from my gentle reader of how to spend or is it to save this windfall. I just got the letter, so what do I tell my wife when she gets home tonight. I have been hoping she would let me buy her a new Honda Civic, but only time will tell.
I hope you have enjoyed this post and our good fortune. I have found as a saleman for 47 years, that luck is when "preparation meets opportunity!" What a nice piece of "LUCK". Now just call me LUCK(Y)....Jeff in Bham, Al USA
