Wow this is the highest we have ever been! I requested my Escrow be closed on Wednesday and got the check for it in the mail on Friday, so fast!

Current Focus = Home Improvements $6,360/$7,000
Current Focus = New Car $9,645/$10,000

Current Balance $25,445.00
+$788.33 Escrow Funds
+$11.67 Even Out Amount
New Balance $26,245.00

ING $23,120.00 ($4620.00 Bingo Money)
Home Improvements(cash)$1350.00
HSBC $1775.00
Total = $26,245.00

I emailed my mortgage lender and she is closing out the Escrow Account. She advised it will be about a week and we should receive a check for the funds (est $700). I changed the name of my Long Term Emergency Fund to Long Term EF/Escrow Account and will put the $700 in there once it is received and set up my autodeposit.

Our Federal Refund came in today! $1961!! YEAH! Can't wait to see how much of that we have to put towards the mortgage principle for March. We are going on our mini trip the weekend of Feb 15th, so will know by the 18th how much extra we have for the mortgage.

Thanks to some advise from Beawealthywarrior and mjrube94 for suggesting the closing of the Escrow Account. I called my mortgage company and they advised all I need to do is send them an email and they will close the Escrow account and send the funds to me.
They just made the payments from this account, so there is only about $400 in there now, and once I make my Feb mortgage payment there will be over $700. Once I make the payment for Feb then I will send the email and open a new savings account for the Escrow. The plan will be to do an automatic deposit of $350 per month.
So instead of my mortgage payment going up $100 a month, it will actually be going down $300 a month. SWEET!

Lets do good news first..

Taxes are done! Filed them last night and got a text (love that!) confirmation that they have been accepted by the IRS. $2076 is our total refund. This is a lot more then normal, so I was very surprised. I know many say to try to reduce your withholdings so that you are not giving the IRS an interest free loan, and I agree with that, but it is nice to get a couple grand back in one lump sum. I would prefer it to be less then $1500 though, $2K seems to be getting high, so I need to look into changing that a little.
This year DH is deciding what to do with the money. The plan is to put the $76 into savings. Then the $2000 we are taking on a mini get away for DH's BD in March, either going to MN or SD for a little casino time. We have a system when we gamble (penny machines! LOL) that we put in $10, and if we get that up to $20 or higher then we will cash out, and we won't play that specific money again. That wat we are guaranteed to not go home empty handed. This system works very well for us so that we can play a long time without losing a lot. Anything that we bring back we will put against the mortgage principle. Who knows maybe we will even come home ahead!

And now the bad news......

Got a notice from the mortgage company yesterday that our Escrow Account came out behind last year, and to make up the difference our monthly mortgage payment is going up $94.05 a month. So almost a $100 jump and no extra reduction of principle. YUCK. I am hoping whatever we bring home from the tax refund and put towards the house will help balance out the additional monthly amount. It's a bummer, but we will still make great headway this year.

February 2013 Mortgage Payment

Balance $115,700.00
+$265.15 Interest
+$319.07 Escrow
-$1537.95 Regular Payment
-$446.27 Principle Payment
New Balance $114,300.00

January 2013 Mortgage Payment

Balance $117,150.00
+$268.47 Interest
+$319.07 Escrow
-$1537.95 Regular Payment
-$499.59 Principle Payment
New Balance $115,700.00

$25 of the principle payment was from the change jar.

I always use this great spreadsheet from vertex.com to figure out my payments and see our progress. Back in October I wrote down our balance and the month and then made a little chart showing what we would need to pay down each month in order to get under $100K by the end of 2013. So far I have checked off the last 4 payments (Oct-Jan) and we are $300 ahead of where we need to be to meet the yearly goal! WHOOHOO! Excited to continue this progress!

December 2012 Mortgage Payment

Balance $118,650.00
+$271.91 Interest
+$319.07 Escrow
-$1537.95 Regular Payment
-$553.03 Principle Payment
New Balance $117,150.00

I used the $40 I won from the Biggest Loser plus $90 in change to add to the principle payment.

Can't wait to see the progress we will make on the mortgage in 2013!

November 2012 Mortgage Payment

Balance $119,995.00
+$274.99 Interest
+$319.07 Escrow
-$1537.95 Regular Payment
-$401.11 Principle Payment
New Balance $118,650.00

It's getting towards the end of the year, so have started thinking about savings and mortgage goals for next year. We did awesome on savings goals this year, met every goal by August! As for the mortgage we did not meet our goal of getting to $110K, this was due to refinancing, so the mortgage went up with closing costs, and also we didn't have to make any payment to the mortgage for 2 months.
I haven't worked out the exact numbers for next years savings yet, but I do know I want to get the mortgage under $100K. One of my steps to help achieve that is to make a goal of putting our entire tax refund towards the house. Every year we always put the tax refund in savings (usually about $1500), but I think savings is good enough this year that we could put it towards the house. That would feel soooo good!

October 2012 Mortgage Payment

Balance $122,000.00
+$279.58 Interest
+$319.07 Escrow
-$1537.95 Regular Payment
-$1065.70 Principle Payment($40 change)
New Balance $119,995.00

Principle payment was made up of:
$345.00 OT Pay
$15.00 Change
$380.00 Regular Principle Payment
$325.00 Random extra amount to get balance down under $120K!

I probably shouldn't pay this much extra to the mortgage, but I couldn't leave the balance so close to $120K! I just had to get under the barrier! So we may have to take some out of savings to cover this, but I am ok with that, savings is doing good for now so taking out a few hundred will be fine.

September 2012 Mortgage Payment

Balance $124,000.00
+$284.17 Interest
+$319.07 Escrow
-$1537.95 Regular Payment
-$1065.29 Principle Payment($40 change)
New Balance $122,000.00

Principle payment was made up of:
$425.00 OT Pay
$15.00 Change
$380.00 Regular Principle Payment
$130.00 Mortgage Money I had saved
$115.00 Random extra amount to get balance down an even $2000!!

This definitely won't be the norm, but what an awesome extra payment! Never had one this big before and will keep putting OT towards the mortgage to make some good progress.

So September is the first month I will be putting all of my OT pay towards the mortgage...I am so excited about it!

I saved all my OT pay in August:
8/3/12 $135.00
8/17/12 $90.00
8/30/12 $200.00
Total $425.00!!

WOW! That's a lot! So I will add all of that plus our normal principle payment, plus our change...gonna be a whopper of a principle payment!

I decided to put my OT pay towards the mortgage balance. I will keep putting any other extra monies into savings as normal. Then put our normal principle payment plus any OT pay to the house. I get paid tomorrow and have $135.00 in OT pay, so I will save that plus the next paychecks OT pay and put it towards Septembers principle payment.

Balance $125,300.00
+$287.15 Interest
+$319.07 Escrow
-$1537.95 Regular Payment
-$368.27 Principle Payment($40 change)
New Balance $124,000.00

Yeah back under $125K!! I'm going to try to increase my principle reducuction each month by $10. Last month we went down $1250. This month our principle reduction is $1300, so next month I will try for $1310, then $1320 etc. That way I will feel like I am getting to go down a little more without taking funds from savings.

Last week I asked for opinions on if I should keep saving or put more towards the mortgage. I appreciate everyone's opinions so I could make a good decision. For now I decided to keep savings, mostly because my car has been acting up (taking it in on Wed) and we have so many home improvements/repairs that will need to be done in the next year or two. I will keep paying about $300 extra on the mortgage each month and maybe throw some extra now and then. But will mostly be focusing on savings still. Someday I will be comfortable putting all the extra towards the mortgage, just not there yet.

OK please weigh in and let me know what you think.

We have met all of our goals for the year (see left side of screen). It shows the cushion still not met, but I put $10 a week towards that and only have about $40 left, so it will be met very soon.

So my question is now that we have met all of the goals for the year...Should we:

A) Set some new/additional goals
-Beefing up the EF
-Beefing up the new car fund
-Saving for specific home improvements (We NEED a new patio door, new garage door...we WANT to put in a sprinkler system...and our AC is on the fritz)

or

B) Since we've met all the goals for the year, put all extra funds to the mortgage, and use the existing savings for the above projects as needed. Then make new savings goals for 2013 and start saving again then.

The reason I want to even look at option B is because as many of you may know....there is ALWAYS something to save for! And now seemed like a good time to break from savings and make a dent in the mortgage since we surpassed the $20K challenge and are nearly to $25K (not counting retirement or our HSA).

Please let me know any thoughts you have as any extra input or suggestions would be appreciated.
Thank you!

July 2012 Mortgage Payment

Balance $126,550.00
+$290.01 Interest
+$319.07 Escrow
-$1537.95 Regular Payment
-$321.13 Principle Payment($30 change)
New Balance $125,300.00

June 2012 Mortgage Payment

Balance $127,750.00
+$292.76 Interest
+$319.07 Escrow
-$1537.95 Regular Payment
-$273.88 Principle Payment($150 change, $15 recycling)
New Balance $126,550.00

We didn't have to pay the mortgage in April or May due to the refinance. April's $1500 I put in savings for a new car. May's $1500 I have saved for a trip we are taking at the end of June, and anything we bring back from that $1500 will go into the EF.

I am thinking for the summer we will just be paying an extra $100 to principle, plus any change we have. Money is just too tight in the summer to put too much extra to the house. Glad to be going back down again!

We finished our refinance! We are officially in our loan for 10 years, 2.75%! We don't have to pay the mortgage for April or May, so that is $1500 each month that we can use for what we need. I put Aprils $1500 in savings for a new car. We may use some of Mays for fun, and then the rest into the new car savings...we will see closer to the end of April. We also got $1700 back from closing costs being over estimated. For now I have left that in checking because DH is going on a little trip in May, and we make significantly less in the summer, so it will be good to go into the summer with some extra cushion in checking.
We didn't pay the closing costs this time, just rolled them into the mortgage so our new balance is $127,550.00. Can't wait till June 1, so we can start taking that baby DOWN!

Our refi papers were supposed to be signed and finished on March 23rd, but when we got back from Vegas we found out that the appraisor had been sick, so our appraisal had been delayed. So now our closing date was moved back to March 29th.
But we did get our appraisal numbers.....our house appraised at $195K! Last time we refinanced it was at $175K, and when we bought our house in 2007 it appraised at $160K. So it went up $35K in less then 5 years! AWESOME! That was some great and surprising news. Now to just wait a few more days to finally get this done. We won't have to make any payment for April and then in May we will start on our new 10 year loan.

March 2012 Mortgage Payment

Balance $120,870.00
+$377.72 Interest
+$319.71 Escrow
-$1323.28 Regular Payment
-$254.15 Principle Payment
New Balance $119,990.00


$119K = 119 months left = 9.92 years left!


Yeah we are under $120K! I didn't put much extra towards the mortgage principle this much since we are in the process of refinancing.

We got our date set for closing on our refinance. March 23rd which is right after we come back from Vegas. Can't wait!!!!!!!
So just a few more weeks and everything will be wrapped up in a nice little 10 year bow.

Yup you read that right!! 2.75%!!! So excited! We were not planning on refinancing again....but couldn't say no to that rate! We will not be done with all the paper work and appraisal until closer to the end of March. So the longest we could have our mortgage, even if we don't pay any extra would be 2022, and I would be 37. It feels amazing to know we will FOR SURE be mortgage free before I'm 40...hopefully by the time I'm 35!

Posting this a little early cause I have some time to get it done right now.

February 2012 Mortgage Payment

Balance $122,100.00
+$381.56 Interest
+$319.71 Escrow
-$1323.28 Regular Payment
-$607.99 Principle Payment
New Balance $120,870.00


$120K = 120 months left = 10 years left!

We got our annual mortgage statement from our mortgage company.

Summary of payments for 2011:
Principal $13,500.00
Interest $4905.23
Property Taxes $2248.60
Late Charges $0

Our goal on the mortgage is to go down at least $1000 a month, so we beat our goal for the year by $3,500!!

January 2012 Mortgage Payment

Balance $123,300.00
+$385.31 Interest
+$319.71 Escrow
-$1323.28 Regular Payment
-$581.74 Principle Payment
New Balance $122,100.00


$122K = 122 months left = 10.17 years left!

Our escrow went up about $15 for this new year, so our payment breakdown is just a little different. I can't wait for March's payment when we get under $120k!

2011 Debt Summary
-Started the year with a few 0% loans that we were not racing since we had the money in savings. Paid them all off before any of the interest hit. Now back to only the mortgage in debt.

Mortgage
-Jan 2011 $135,740.00
-Dec 2011 $123,300.00
Total reduced in 2011 = $12,440.00
Additional Principle Payments = $6,362.39
So we more then doubled our paydown for the year by making principle payments!
Now the yucky numbers.....our mortgage rate is 3.75%......we paid $4,905.23 in interest this year.

December 2011 Mortgage Payment

Balance $124,500.00
+$389.06 Interest
+$307.59 Escrow
-$1311.16 Regular Payment
-$585.49 Principle Payment
New Balance $123,300.00


$123K = 123 months left = 10.25 years left!

Had $55 in change this month to add to our principle payment - Every little bit helps!!

November 2011 Mortgage Payment

Balance $125,665.00
+$392.70 Interest
+$307.59 Escrow
-$1311.16 Regular Payment
-$554.13 Principle Payment
New Balance $124,500.00


$124K = 124 months left = 10.33 years left!!!!!

Soooooooooooooo excited to be under $125K! That was our goal for the year and we made it one month early! So proud of us for passing this milestone!