Mini Dave's Quest to be mortgage free!

RedRover16

Dave,

I'm in the same boat (and also in the US.) I have an internet business and while sales are good and have been pretty stable I have no assurance that they will continue or how long they will last. Also my income varies and I never know how much I will make any given month. I think your 12 month emergency fund is fine given that you are in sales and it's one of the easiest fields to find a job in with this economy.

I have $239,000 left on my mortgage. What I'm doing is putting an extra $1k/month to my mortgage principle and then putting whatever extra I have that month into a separate savings account that I don't touch. It works out to be about the same time to be MF if I do it this way than if I put it all directly on the principle but this way I have the flexibility to access the money if I need to if my business or the economy totally tanks and I need the money back. My goal is to be MF in 3 years.

I can't post links b/c I'm new but a good prepayment calculator that I use can be found at decisionaide(.)com. It's the Extra Payments Calculator one. It lets you put in a bunch of different prepayments not just one like most calculators.
Best of luck on your journey to MF success. :beer:
To everyone on this forum - THANK YOU. I'm a long time lurker and hearing everyone's stories of their journeys and successes is very motivating and encouraging.

Wanna_Be_Mini_Dave

That's a pretty good idea RedRover, I might want to discuss that with my OH.

So I just paid my July payment and thought I'd do another update. Unfortunately my pickup broke down twice on me since my last update. My original plan was to buy a new pickup (used of course, just new to me) in the beginning of 2010. However it looks like I might need to move that date up. Which of course throws off my budgeting

My pickup is actually in the shop right now, and it could be another $1,000 or more to get it running. It's getting close to the point of not even being worth it to fix it

With that said, I decided to only overpay $500. The combination of a not so great last month and pickup breakdown has me too scared to overpay my full $2,300. To be honest I'm a little discouraged with my performance in July's payment, but it has motivated me enough to buy some books about sales, and focus even harder on improving myself as a salesmen. After all, the better I do the more I make.

Outstanding Principal: $189K

StuartGMC

Dave
Things like this do come along, is your underlying plan a little to aggressive or is it just a combination of factors in (unfortunate) conjunction? Regarding the truck, I hope it runs ok from now on, but I can sympathise having had major car issues myself this year which led me to considering possible replacement and it would mean not getting the Jaguar XF I hope to get in 2011 if I had to do so. Fingers crossed for both of us transport wise!

Keep a positive outlook, and don't be afraid to revise your plans if necessary; far better to have a realistic plan which can be achieved than one that is very ambitious but leads to stress.

setmefree2

RedRover - with your MF journey:D

setmefree2

Mini Dave - a big fat to all motor vehicles:D Well done on the OP - keep going:T:T

Wanna_Be_Mini_Dave

WOW...what a difference 2 weeks can make.

First off, got my pickup up and running and everything with it is going great now. It is an older pickup, but I've always been the type that drives an older pickup so I don't mind. Got all new wiring, a new oil sensor, fixed a couple oil leaks, a new muffler and exhaust system (and a few other things I can't remember off the top of my head).

I also worked my butt off since my last post (only paying $500 did really motivate me) and I had a very good two weeks

I did so good in fact that I already paid my August payment and paid the full $2,300 extra (I'm also part of the July 4th challenge so I hope to overpay even more )


I also signed up for online banking with my mortgage company. They have a cool calculator where you can put the date you want to pay off your mortgage by, and tell you exactly how much you have to overpay monthly. Right now to be MF before age 30 I have to overpay $2,160.30.

I think that calculator of theirs is super cool. This way if in the future I get behind, I know exactly how much I need to pay to catch up

Special thanks to Stuart: your post helped me a lot (I was getting very stressed out). After all, if I don't hit my goal, it's not like the world is over. hehehe

StuartGMC

Wanna_Be_Mini_Dave wrote: »

I did so good in fact that I already paid my August payment and paid the full $2,300 extra (I'm also part of the July 4th challenge so I hope to overpay even more )

Special thanks to Stuart: your post helped me a lot (I was getting very stressed out). After all, if I don't hit my goal, it's not like the world is over. hehehe

Dave
Great to hear things are now more positive in many ways!

4th July - how appropriate for you in the USA on (mortgage) independence day? :rotfl::rotfl:
Maybe that way we can celebrate that date with our ex-colonies?

setmefree2

well done on that OP :T:T

Wanna_Be_Mini_Dave

I wanted to update this thread again because I made September's payment today I've been doing really well at work lately and when I hit a streak like I have; I like to get ahead of the game After all, I know hot streaks don't last forever

I overpayed by $3,000 this month That's $700 more then my "goal of a $2,300 overpayment" so I'm feeling great Not to mention I don't have to stress about another payment until October. Life is good :beer:

Current Mortgage: $181K

uzubairu

Well done Dave! :beer: