When we bought our first house in April of 2017, we knew that we wanted to pay it off fast!
We didn’t have any other debt and this was a huge financial burden, to us.
The idea of carrying a mortgage around for 30 years sounded crazy to us. I know, I know, almost everyone does it but we’re weird and we wanted to be different!
Everyone told us “you’ll always have debt, it’s part of life!”
But what if it’s not? What if it’s possible to live TOTALLY debt free? Other people have done it, why couldn’t we?
We want to find out what that’s like and we’re bringing you along for the journey!
Destroying Our Debt
We haven’t always been good with money, seriously, we weren’t. At one point we had over $33,000 in debt with an annual income that matched it.
But you know what?? We made some drastic changes in our lives and we started prioritizing money management.
We got super focused on budgeting our money and paying off our debt.
We crushed that $33,000 in debt in just over 2 years!!
That was almost a decade ago and there’s been a lot more debt we’ve acquired since then. Every time we find ourselves in debt, we get focused and pay it off fast!
Here’s what I mean:
> Bought our first house in April 2017 for $206,500. Paid the mortgage down $40,000 in the first 2.5 years!
> Bought a truck in May 2017 for $19,000. Paid it off in 1 year!
> Bought a camper for $16,500 in 2018. Paid it off in just 1 year!
> Bought an SUV in February 2019. Paid for it in CASH!
Do you see a theme there? Any time we have any sort of debt, we tackle it fast. We address it head on and we create a plan to get rid of it.
We have been out of consumer debt for 10 months now and this time we aren’t going back.
Our Secret To Paying Off Debt Fast
We’ve had a lot of people ask us what our secret to paying off debt quickly is. It’s not a secret, we’re happy to share it with you!
We create a monthly budget and we find unique ways to increase our income every month!
Each month we sit down and create a plan for our money. We use this Budget Binder to keep everything organized.
Whether it’s paying off debt, saving money, building an emergency fund, or planning for vacation, our Budget Binder has something to help with all of that.
It helps us manage all aspects of our finances.
It’s sort of a one stop shop for money management and that’s why we created it. We wanted something that we could use for all aspects of our finances, not just saving money.
Back to how our budget helps us rock our finances. Once we have our budget set, we look for anywhere we can cut back on spending.
If you’re dealing with debt, there’s always something you can cut out to save a little more money.
That was the first thing we noticed when we started budgeting. There was a lot of things we were spending money on that we really didn’t need to.
Maybe it’s time to cut the cable cord. Can you reduce your utility bill? How much are you spending on groceries every month?
I guarantee there is room to trim your budget so you have a little money left over.
Any extra money you have needs to go towards your debt.
Got a Christmas card with money in it? Put it towards debt!
Got some cash back when you bought something online through Rakuten? Put it towards debt!
That tax return money, put it towards debt!
Do you get the point here? Any extra money, even a tiny bit, needs to go towards your debt.
That’s how we have been able to pay off our debt quickly and that’s going to be how you do it too!
Grab Your FREE Budget Binder Here
Our Financial Freedom Goal
Everybody talks about this dream of reaching financial freedom. But what does that mean?
It might mean something different to everyone. For us, it means being totally debt free so we can live our life on our own terms.
Once the house is paid off and we don’t owe anybody a penny, do I really need to keep working at my normal day job?
We’ve got this blog that makes enough money for us to live off of and now my day job is just a bonus income! Once the debt is gone, I can work as long as I want without the fear of losing my job.
I personally like my job a lot so I plan to work it for a while, but I wouldn’t necessarily need to and that’s the biggest selling point of becoming totally debt free!
So here we are. Our goal is to pay off our house in 2 years. We’ve only owned the thing for 2.5 years so we’re talking about paying it off about 25 years early!
The bank probably hates us because we’re robbing them of all that juicy interest they were counting on getting.
I know it sounds crazy to pay off a house that fast, but hear me out. Let’s walk through what we stand to gain if we pay it off this fast!
Here are some numbers to show you how much we stand to save with this plan:
- Purchase Price: $206,500
- Mortgage Term: 30 Years
- Monthly Mortgage Payment: $1,250
- Interest Paid Over 30 Years: $143,000!!
- Total Amount Paid For House: $349,500
Here’s what it looks like on our current plan to pay it off in 5 years:
- Purchase Price: $206,500
- Time To Pay Off: 5 years
- Interest Paid In 5 Years: ~$30,000
- Total Amount Paid For House: $236,500
That means we would save around $110,000 in interest if we pay it off early! That’s a huge savings!
Here’s a good visual display of the differences. Check out those mass savings!
How Are We Going To Reach Our Goal?
Over the last two and a half years, we’ve managed to pay down our mortgage by $40,000. We’ve been putting tax returns, work bonuses, and extra monthly payments down from the start. Any extra money we have goes towards our house.
Here’s what our journey looks like as of December 1st, 2019.
Now, I’m sure you’re sitting there running numbers and asking yourself how we’re going to pay off the rest of our mortgage in just 2 years…
We’ll be sharing how we make it happen with our email Tribe. Make sure you sign up below so you don’t miss out. As an added bonus, you’ll also get our FREE printable Budget Binder!
Grab Your FREE Budget Binder Here
Here’s the steps we’re going to take to pay off our house!
Make Extra Mortgage Payments
We plan to continue making extra payments on the house every month. Our goal is to pay an extra $1,000 per month on our house.
Making extra payments is awesome because it goes directly towards the loan principle.
Work Bonuses Go Towards The House
Each year I get a bonus from my day job. We will continue to put that towards the house and it helps expedite our payoff schedule.
Make Extra Money
This is the big one! We’re constantly looking for ways to make extra money so we can put more money down on the house.
Our blog has become the secret weapon for helping us pay off our house fast. Last month was a huge month for us, our blogging income crossed the $20,000 mark! You can see our November Income Report here.
That’s a huge amount of money to make in a single month and after we set aside some of it for taxes, the rest is going towards the house.
Starting a blog was the best decision we ever made, and it’s accelerating our path to financial freedom!
If you want to start your own blog, here are two resources to get you started:
- How To Start A Successful Blog: Part 1
- Blogging With A Day Job – Our Private Facebook Group for Bloggers
So here we are, $166,000 away from financial freedom. It sounds like a lot but we’ve got a plan and we’re going to make it happen!
If you want to follow along on as we race towards our goal of Financial Freedom, sign up below to join our Tribe! We’ll be sending out monthly updates on the status of paying off our house.
You’ll also get our Free Mini-Budget Binder when you do!
Grab Your FREE Budget Binder Here
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