A little behind on the mortgage postings......

Mortgage for July

Balance $132,370.00
+$537.75 Interest
+$345.57 Escrow
-$1286.00 Regular Payment
-$117.32 Principle Payment
New Balance $131,850.00

Additional Principle Payments 2010 = $3412.08
Current Position on Mortgage Amortization Schedule....October 2015...5 years and 3 months ahead of schedule!

We locked in at 3.75% today! We shopped around and were quoted $3100 in closing costs from another local bank, so we locked in for 15 years at 3.75%. We will also have to pay the prepaids (escrow and insurance, prob about $2K) but will get a check back from our current bank for about $2200 once we close and we will put that straight onto the new loan. My bank was back up to 4% today, so I am glad that I shopped around. Our payment will go from $1286 to $1316, so a $30 increase. The loan officer pulled our credit scores, 787 for me and 794 for my husband! Don't mind bragging about that cause we are very proud of them. So the ball is rolling on the whole thing and we have a meeting Wednesday. Should be all wrapped up in a nice little bow by 9/1/2010 at the latest. I feel sooooo happy and relieved that even if we were not able to make any additional payments (due to medical or kids or something) the longest we would be paying on our mortgage is until I am 41 and DH is 43. We hope to continue to pay extra every month, but you never know what the future will bring so I am glad to be locked in at a shorter term. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

OK so I crunched some numbers......I estimated the mortgage at $131,000.00 even though we are at $131,850.00 right now, I figured that would be easiest to estimate.

Scenario #1
-Paying off the current mortgage without any additional payments.
-Monthly payment $940
-19 years left on 20 year mortgage at 4.8%
-Payoff date 08/2029
-$68,936.29 paid in interest from now till payoff

Scenario #2
-Paying off the current mortgage and paying $200 extra per month
-Monthly payment $940 + $200
-19 years on 20 year mortgage would be paid off in 15
-Payoff date 07/2024
-$48,840.12 paid in interest from now till payoff

Scenario #3
-Refinance to 15 year mortgage at 3.75%, no extra payments
-Monthly payment of $952 (only increases $12!)
-15 years
-Payoff date 09/2025
-$40,479.18 paid in interest from now till payoff

Scenario #4
-Refinance to 15 yr and pay $200 extra per month
-Monthly payment of $952 + $200
-15 years would be paid off in 12 years
-Payoff date 04/2022
-$31,085.88 paid in interest from now till payoff

So the winner is Scenario #4!! The payment will only go up $12 and we would save $28K in interest if we compare the regular payment scenarios and $17K if we compare the extra payment scenarios plus the benefit of automatically taking 4 years off. I am going to apply to our bank online tomorrow and also fish around and see if I can find a similar rate for less closing costs too. I am not interested in going out of the local area so hopefully I can find something good. But I do really like the bank we are using, they always apply my principle payments correctly, have good internet bank, great customer service, and the BEST free cookies in their lobby! But even if the costs were about $5K we are still saving so much it would be a wash on the closing costs.

Refinance.....Again? - We bought our house in 2007, $160K purchase price (Appraised at $160K), put $10K down (Original loan was $151K), 5.75% 30 year fixed loan. We refinanced in 2009, $140K was the balance on the loan and the house was appraised at $164K, 4.80%, 20 year loan. We paid the closing costs for the refinance out of our savings account. Now it has only been a year since we refinanced and interest has gone down a lot again and we are thinking of refinancing again. Looking at my banks website it looks like we could get a 15 year loan at 3.75%, so we would be going down another full point in interest which is huge. Our loan balance is currently at $131,850.00. We could easily afford the slightly higher payment since we are already paying extra every month and with the drop in interest the actual amount of the payment would not change very much. The only part I am struggling with is the $4K - $5K we would have to pay in fees. We only have about $7K in savings right now, so we would not want to take that money out of savings. We would need to add the closing costs to the loan or possible borrow the money from my Mom, I know she would be cool with giving us a 0% loan for a year or 2 if that is what we really wanted to do. Hmmmm....any thoughts or suggestions????

Mortgage for June

Balance $133,400.00
+$541.94 Interest
+$345.57 Escrow
-$1286.00 Regular Payment
-$631.51 Principle Payment
New Balance $132,370.00

Additional Principle Payments 2010 = $3294.76
Current Position on Mortgage Amortization Schedule....September 2015...5 years and 3 months ahead of schedule!

Whoo hoo this was our biggest principle payment yet!
We paid our reg $500 extra, plus our "mortgage pig" had almost $100 in change in it....AND we took in our aluminum cans and made $38 off of that which we threw at the mortgage too! Party! The next 2 months will be tough to make any extra payments since DH will be on summer pay, but we are hoping to at least pay down to the next $100 mark.

Mortgage for May

Balance $134,300.00
+$545.59 Interest
+$345.57 Escrow
-$1286.00 Regular Payment
-$505.16 Principle Payment
New Balance $133,400.00

Additional Principle Payments 2010 = $2663.25
Current Position on Mortgage Amortization Schedule....April 2015...4 years and 11 months ahead of schedule!

Mortgage for April

Balance $135,275.00
+$549.55 Interest
+$345.57 Escrow
-$1286.00 Regular Payment
-$584.12 Principle Payment
New Balance $134,300.00

Additional Principle Payments 2010 = $2158.09
Current Position on Mortgage Amortization Schedule....January 2015...4 years and 9 months ahead of schedule!

Mortgage for March

Balance $136,150.00
+$553.11 Interest
+$345.57 Escrow
-$1286.00 Regular Payment
-$487.68 Principle Payment
New Balance $135,275.00

Additional Principle Payments 2010 = $1573.97
Current Position on Mortgage Amortization Schedule....September 2014...4 years and 6 months ahead of schedule!

We are getting very close to getting the PMI removed from our mortgage, which would give us an extra $67.20 a month to throw at the mortgage principle. I am trying to decide the best way to remove the PMI, here are the options:

1) LTV 80% - Estimated date we will reach is 9/1/10. We will have to send a request letter to our mortgage lender, and then pay for a new appraisal showing the value of the home has not gone down. Last time we had our home appraised for our refinance we had to pay $400 for the appraisal, so I would estimate the same cost for that.

2) LTV 78% - Estimated date we will reach is 01/1/11. If we wait till this date the PMI is supposed to automatically come off and so then we will not need to pay for the appraisal. But we would have to pay the $67.20 for 4 extra months ($268.80), and would lose a little ground on the mortage going down since we would not have the $67.20 to put towards principle for that 4 months.

I know it probably seems no brainer......#2 would save us about $130 since we wouldn't have to pay for the appraisal.....I think it is just a mental thing that I want that PMI gone asap! We will probabaly go with #2, but just seeing if there are any other thoughts out there. Also for anyone that is past the PMI, did it really come off automatically or did you have to call and make sure they got it done. Just thinking of past history, nothing seems to be as automatic as it is supposed to be..

Once the PMI is gone our "normal" extra payment will be over $500! It is so fun to watch it go down!

Mortgage for February

Balance $136,990.00
+$556.52 Interest
+$381.65 Escrow
-$1322.08 Regular Payment
-$456.09 Principle Payment
New Balance $136,150.00

Additional Principle Payments 2010 = $1086.29
Current Position on Mortgage Amortization Schedule....May 2014...4 years and 3 months ahead of schedule!

Got some exciting surprise mail today! We got our Annual Escrow Statement. We just bought our house at the end of 2007, so this is only the 2nd one we have gotten. Last year we got about $100 back at the end of the year, because we had overpaid. This year we are getting $528 back! Whoo hoo! I know it is just our money anyways, but it is money I had already "spent" so I am so pumped! I have not decided for sure what I am going to do with it yet.....but I am thinking some to mortgage principle and the rest to savings......probably mostly to savings. Also our monthly mortgage payment is going down $36 a month starting 3/1/10. So I will continuing paying the same amount and adding that extra $40 (adding $4 to get to an even number) to the principle payment every month. That's an extra $480 per year to the mortgage principle! Whoo hoo! YEAHHHH!

Mortgage for January

Balance $138,000.00
+$560.63 Interest
+$381.65 Escrow
-$1322.08 Regular Payment
-$630.20 Principle Payment
New Balance $136,990.00

Additional Principle Payments 2010 = $630.20
Current Position on Mortgage Amortization Schedule....January 2014...4 years ahead of schedule!

This is our biggest principle payment to date!

Mortgage for December

Balance $138,970.00
+$564.57 Interest
+$381.65 Escrow
-$1322.08 Regular Payment
-$594.14 Principle Payment
New Balance $138,000.00

Additional Principle Payments 2009 = $3806.10
Current Position on Mortgage Amortization Schedule....September 2013...3 years + 9 months ahead of schedule!

Mortgage for November

Balance $139,670.00
+$567.41 Interest
+$381.65 Escrow
-$1322.08 Regular Payment
-$326.98 Principle Payment
New Balance $138,970.00

Additional Principle Payments 2009 = $3211.96
Current Position on Mortgage Amortization Schedule....April 2013...3 years + 5 months ahead of schedule!

Hi! My husband and I are trying our darndest to pay off our mortgage as fast as we can without dramatically altering our quality of life. Right now I am 25 and DH is 27, we would LOVE LOVE LOVE to be mortgage free by the time DH is 40.
Current Time Line
September 2007 - Took out $160K mortgage, 30 years at 5.75%
November 2007 - First Payment due
April 2009 - Refinanced $144K balance to 20 year, 4.80%
Here are the extra principle payments we have made so far:
November 2007 - $217.99
December 2007 - $217.99
January 2008 - $217.99
February 2008 - $217.99
March 2008 - $251.60
April 2008 - $391.10
May 2008 - $258.44
June 2008 - $396.40
July 2008 - $273.69
August 2008 - $371.55
September 2008 -$318.94
October 2008 - $416.57
November 2008 - $313.72
December 2008 - $411.34
January 2009 - $408.49
February 2009 - $5.64
March 2009 - $313.69
April 2009 No payment due to refinance
May 2009 - $344.57
June 2009 - $341.73
July 2009 - $38.88
August 2009 - $387.26
September 2009 -$544.21
October 2009 - $500.51

Originally I was figuring the extra payments to make our total payment an even number.....but I quickly changed that to making exta payments that bring our balance to an even amount (I am an even number FANATIC).
I use a spreadsheet I found online at vertex42.com it is amazing and lets me easily see how much we need to pay to get to the next milestone, plus has a seperate column for my principle payments so it is always up to date.
2010 is looking like it may bring hefty medical bills (UGH!)so I am planning on a flat principle payment of $350, then the couple extra dollars down to the next even amount, and then our change bucket each month, usually $10-$20 bucks a month.
If we don't have to pay as much as expected for medical maybe we can throw some more at it near the end of 2010.