Home Mortgage Loan - PAID IN FULL

I paid off the home mortgage - PAID IN FULL.

Called up my mortgage company, transferred the money from Escrow and its showing up as being paid off.

Am waiting for paperwork in the mail but this feels really good.

For those of you following my journey, you would know I still have about $30K left on my credit card which was a result of transferring some of my home mortgage for a low balance transfer rate.

I still have to pay it off in the next several months but having a paid off home does you wonders!!!!!!!!!

Mortgage balance down to $1000

Its been 6 long years and finally the 200K loan is down to 1k and its a fantastic feeling.

I cannot pay the $1k yet..still have to wait for the mortgage company to pay my property taxes from the escrow sometime in November but hopefully in another 2-3 weeks I would have paid off the mortgage.

I calculated that if I had stayed in the 30 year loan and just paid monthly payments, I would have paid a
'Total Interest' of $52,000 and my still have a 'Pending Mortgage Balance:' of $181,000. Ouch!!!

Its definitely worth it to pay down your mortgage as quickly as possible without jeopardizing your current situation.

what happens when your home mortgage is paid off?

I emailed my mortgage company and here is the response.


When a loan is paid off, a Lien Release is issued, accompanied by any additional required documents to be recorded and to reflect that the loan has been satisfied or paid in full. The Lien Release documents are processed and sent within the state time-frames allowed.

The lien release documents will be sent to the county recorder within 60 days of the payoff of your mortgage account.

The amount of time it takes to record the documents once they arrive at the Recorder's office can vary depending on the individual county's processes, and volume of mail the county handles.

We recommend keeping a copy of the 'Confirmation of Loan Payoff' letter that will be sent to you when your loan has been paid in full, as your personal confirmation for the payoff of your loan. If you wish to obtain a copy of the title transactions which have occurred on your property, your local County Recorder may be able to provide this information.

Escrow - Mortgage

I called up my Mortgage company to ask this question:

Would they automatically apply Escrow balance to Mortgage if the Escrow account holds more money?

Apparently, they don't.

I would have to satisfy the mortgage(fully have it paid off) and then they will write a check to me within 15 days if anything is left in my Escrow account(after paying off the property taxes and home insurance)

Mortgage Payoff Update

I intend to pay off the mortgage sometime mid-november. My property taxes is escrowed and mortgage company usually sends a check to the county sometime in November.

Am saving up all my paycheck this month(September) and the following month(October) and will pay off the mortgage with any residual balance coming from November's paycheck.

I need to re-search what documents to expect from the mortgage company and the county after the mortgage is paid off.

I already feel less stress thinking about being mortgage-free(except for my credit cards)

1.99% Balance Transfer Offer for 12 months - $75 capped fee

I called my credit card company couple times this week.

First, I spoke with the Customer Rep who offered me 1.99% rate good for 15 months with 3% transfer fee. I thanked the person and hung up.

Second,(after 10 min) spoke to a balance transfer specialist who offered the same but after telling this person am keen on doing a transfer and the 3% fee is a hindrance offered to cap the fee at $300. I thanked the person and hung up.

Third time is a charm. Spoke to another Customer Rep who played the same song but this time around she seemed eager to help me and transferred me to a balance transfer specialist who again played the same song but told him am looking to transfer x$ and can the credit card company offer me anything enticing..after going back and forth I was offered a 1.99% rate good for 12 months with a $75 capped fee.

This will go straight towards the mortgage payment next month and then the exciting part begins with trying to pay off this card in the next 11 months.
This will immediately bring down the balance on the mortgage but all extra payments would go towards the credit card and hence the mortgage balance would slowly decrease.

I believe the $75 fee is worth it since I would be saving much more than that with the mortgage interest am paying right now.

Mortgage Update

Sold all my ESPP(Employee Stock Purchase Plan) and ESOP(Employee Stock Option Plan).

This is my first time in a decade that I have been able to cash-in(about $500) from my ESOP. All the other times, stock was 'under-water'.

Note: If your are laid off or your employment terminated then you generally have 90 days to sell any of the shares that have become 'vested.

Selling my ESPP and ESOP will net me about $3000(but I would have to pay taxes on ESPP come year 2010)

Am putting all these into my Mortgage at the end of this month but the August 2010 payoff date looks unlikely(without a huge bonus from work and tax refund) so far.

With $3000 into my mortgage every month going forward, here is the pay-down scenario:

I would still be short by 10k at the end of 2010 and am counting on healthy bonus and a tax refund(if any) in early 2010.

10k into my mortgage

I have paid 10K in additional principal towards my mortgage.

Am trying to quicken the process of being mortgage-free sooner than later.

Here is what am doing.

1. Am budgeting every month.
2. Any savings at the end of the month goes toward the mortgage.

I can't wait to be mortgage free by 2010.

Severance Payments going to Mortgage

I'll be using the proceeds from the severance payment(from being laid off) towards the mortgage and this should bring the mortgage amount down in the next 2 months.

Mortgage Payoff

Am revising 'Mortgage Payoff' target date from December 2009 to August 2010.

Basically, I was counting on year-end bonuses and stock options(that would vest in Dec 2009 with the current firm) to get me towards the ZERO balance and since I've been laid off I won't be able to meet that goal.

My new goal of August 2010 is not unrealistic but it is a very optimistic goal.
I could probably 'widdled down' my mortgage into the low teens but its good to have a bit challenging task ahead!

Update - Job Offer

The firm did not warm up to my counter proposal but instead agreed to raise their offer slightly...
This means I would be accepting a position that pays me about 20% less than what I made like 2 weeks ago but hey, glad to have a job in this recession.

I hope to recharge my batteries in the next 2-3 weeks and get back to paying down my mortgage.

Being debt-free(completely) has even more greater priority on my list after being laid off...

Initial thoughts after being laid-off:

1. How am I gonna pay all the bills?
2. How am I gonna continue to pay down my mortgage?
3. NOT, how am I gonna contribute to my 401K or Roth IRA or otherwise...

Mortgage Balance under 75k

Finally, after several years my home mortgage balance is under 75K..

I borrowed about ~210k in 2004 and looks like my earlier goal of paying off my mortgage completely by end of this year looks highly improbable.

The other downside is the value of my home is probably down 15-20% since I purchased it in 2004...such is life!!!

Here is the year ending balances since day 1:

Early Mortgage Payoff Calculator

Did you know that the amount of interest paid on a 30 year mortgage would be close to the amount of money you borrowed now?

I used this calculator to obtain my numbers.

Put an Early Mortgage Payoff Calculator on your site!

If you borrowed $200k for 30 yrs with 5% fixed interest rate, the total interest alone paid would be about $185k(without any additional principal payment).

4 months mortgage pre-paid

I sent my Mortgage firm a check for 4 months of mortgage payments. This will allow me to allocate my income for the next 4 months towards retirement savings(aka increased 401k contribution etc)

Also, sent the mortgage firm a check for 2000.00 dollars as additional principal...yay!

Mortgage Payoff Scenario

I anticipate my mortgage balance at the end of this year to be 84k.

Beginning January 2009, I intend to make additional principal payments every month going forward to payoff my mortgage as much as possible...

Inspite of whatever the so called benefits of having a long term mortgage and not paying them off sooner, the following play a very crucial role in my decisions.

1. I have been laid off thrice in the last 10 years and I don't anticipate holding a full-time position forever...
   
2. My ARM will re-adjust within the next few years but even with the readjustment the mortgage rates will be lower since they have a cap and rates cannot increase past it...
3. Paying down will provide me the necessary freedom in pursuing other career opportunities.

Paying 1k in additional principal every month reduces mortgage to 63k by Dec 2009.

Paying 2k in additional principal every month reduces mortgage to 51k by Dec 2009.

Paying 3k in additional principal every month reduces mortgage to 39k by Dec 2009.

I anticipate I'll be able to make about 20-30k selling stock options(they vest in Dec 2009) and if am lucky enough will be mortgage free by then..

Made additional payment towards mortgage

One of the drawbacks of using online bill payment to pay your mortgage is you cannot write a memo to state how the funds needs to be used - as in should the payment go towards paying the current bill or towards principal or towards escrow.

I contributed $8500 towards the principal this month and hopefully am closer to my goal of having the house paid off end of next year!

Wells Fargo : Mortgage Company

Banks and Mortgage companies can hide useful/helpful information from you.

Wells Fargo is discontinuing one of the websites which provides more useful information to customers than the new website which has barebone information.

Click the links below to visit the websites:-

• Old Website
• New Website

Here is the screen shot of the old site:

Here is the screen shot of the new site:

Mortgage Payoff

I have been seriously considering paying off my mortgage and several online bloggers have paid off their mortgage or close to paying them off. Why not join their ranks?

Am not concerned with tax savings or lost arbitrage opportunities investing the money in something else that returns a higher yield. My focus has been to gain financial freedom and have as little debt as possible..

For the last few years, any 0% credit card offers lasting more than 12 months have gone straight to my mortgage and this has helped me payoff my mortgage(and those 0% offers) in half in about 4 years and am looking to completely pay it off in the next 2 years.

To motivate me, I have included the Mortgage payoff info in the blog so it serves as a daily reminder to me...Wish me well!