Update on 2025 Goals

 

1. Pay mortgage down to under $120k. I currently owe just over $135k

I am paying an extra $500 a month on my mortgage. I also hope to get a bigger year end bonus and apply a portion of that to the mortgage this year. 

I am now down to $124,000 and something (need to find the exact number) on my mortgage.

2. Increase contribution to 401k to 10% from 8%

I currently am contributing 8% of my $168k salary. I expect a 5% raise to $176k. I will increase my 401k contribution to 10% of my new salary. 

My raise was to $175K. I increased my 401k contributions to 10%.

3. Increase savings account (Marcus) to $50k, currently at approximately $40k 

I've always had anxiety over job loss. I hope to keep a $50k savings account for my emergency fund and household expenses. 

My savings account is over $50k now.

4. Max out Back door Roth Contributions

Complete!

5. Lose 30lbs

Ugh!

6. Read 12 books

I need to get a count on books read.

7. Take one trip

Done! My friend paid for everything! 

8. Exercise and move more.

Definitely better than last year!

Net Worth Update April 2024

 

I haven't done one of these since July of 2019!

Here's where the numbers stand.

Savings
$18,499.26 Ally Savings Account (Saved for Roof Replacement)

$45,774.85 Marcus Savings Account 

 $66,213.02 Retirement- Roth IRA
 $85,219.88 Taxable Brokerage (Retirement)

$20,147.23 Former Employer 401k

$3,900.32 Current Employer 401k

$31,831.52 Bank Account 


Home-
$437,500-per zillow

              Total (not including home): $271,586.08
              Total (including home): $709,086.08

Liabilities-
Mortgage $144,563.81


             
                   Total (not including mortgage): $0
                    Total (including mortgage): -$144,563.81
 


        Total Net Worth(not including mortgage/home): $271,586.08                                      
        Total Net Worth(including mortgage/home): $564,522.27

Net worth, not including mortgage, increased by $197,023.08  from July 2019(last net worth update)
Net worth, including mortgage, increased by $388,219.27 from July 2019 (last net worth update)

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to all those that celebrate.  I have been out of town, but hopefully will make it back home in time to hand out Halloween candy. Otherwise, I do not have any spooky plans for Halloween. I have been eating a lot of candy leading up to the holiday so I'll be happy to get the candy out of my house!!  However, I did manage to get a work out in while traveling this week (way to go hotel fitness center) so that should ;) balance out the Halloween candy consumption. Truly, I can't want to get back home and sleep in my own bed.

I submitted my November mortgage payment and it was the first one in quite some time that did not include an extra principal payment. :(  I am currently cutting back on my extra payments to rebuild my emergency fund (thanks new hvac unit). The mortgage is down to $189,107.  It didn't even drop down to the next $1000 (face palm).  Hopefully, it won't be long until my EF is back where it should be.  I loved making payments where over $1,000 would go to principal.

I gotta run to get ready for my first appointment of the day!

PMI is Gone!!

I finally reached 78%LTV (loan to value) on my home.  That means no more private mortgage insurance (PMI) and I cannot be more excited!!! My PMI payments were $115.37 a month.  My first payment on this mortgage was on July 1, 2013 and it took me 6 years to reach 78%.  I plan to use that $115 a month to save for expected home repairs such as a new AC unit (pretty much a necessity in Florida).  I am already paying an extra $448 a month extra in principal each month. 

The crazy part is that I reached 78% early.  I reached 80% LTV at the end of January 2019.  According to my mortgage payment, I was not supposed to reach 80% until September of 2020.  . I've already paid thousands for PMI since 2013. Imagine if I followed the schedule put forth by the mortgage company. 

The process for reaching 78% LTV was simple.  I just paid extra principal payments on my mortgage each month.  At the beginning of February I received a letter from my mortgage company advising me that I had reached 80% LTV and giving me options for how to have the PMI removed.  Once of which was to pay almost $5,000 to reduce the principal to 78%LTV.  I declined to do that and just kept making my extra payments each month.   I paid my mortgage as usual at the end of June and got my regular statement.  A couple of days later I received a revised statement with the PMI payment removed.  I have not yet received any refunds or pro rata refund for my last pmi payment.  It appears that it was cancelled by the mortgage company on 7/2.  The next premium would have been paid around 7/15.  I don't expect any refunds from my escrow account until maybe next year when the escrow analysis is complete.

Happy Friday!!

Mid-month Check In

It's January 18, we are half way through the month!! I figured I would do a mid- month check in on some of my goals. 

I am plugging away at the retirement funds, I added $1,000 to retirement from my 1/15 paycheck and it felt good. Only, $10,000 more to go for the year.   I love putting money away for the future and I know that I am extremely fortunate to be able to do so.  I feel so much for the federal workers who are not getting paid right now, due to the government shutdown. 

I have contributed $100 to charity this year.  I gave $50 to my law school and $50 to St. Jude's.  My goal is to give $400 this year, I am already a quarter of the way there!!  I hope to be able to make a charitable contribution every month. Even if it is only $1.  I should probably try to take some clothes to goodwill every month too.   

My escrow review statement arrived via email this morning and, of course, there is a almost $200 shortage.  The payment is also going up by $11 a month.  Face palm.  Mortgages are the worst. I have read horror stories on the internet about people having thousands of dollar shortages.  I take that as a reminder to be thankful that mine is only $200.  Also, my PMI should drop off this year so that will make my escrow and total mortgage payment drop.  I'm certain it won't be long before my payment creeps back up though. 

Alright, that's all I have time for this morning!  Have a great Friday everyone!

The Mortgage is Under $200k!!!!

I made my December mortgage payment last week and my mortgage balance finally dropped under $200,000!! The current balance is $199,275!! I was beginning to think it would never get out of the $200,000s.  I am ahead of my amortization schedule by about a year and a half.  I'm at 80.7% LTV.  SOoo close to 80% and so close (relatively) to dropping PMI. 

I have one more mortgage payment to make before the end of the year (my 12/31 payment), so the balance should drop down to the $198,000s. My mortgage at the beginning of the year was at 208,908.  So about a $10,000 drop in principal for the year!

My Largest Mortgage Payment to Date!!

At the end of October, I made my mortgage payment for November. The total payment was $2,120.  This is the largest payment I have ever made on this mortgage in the 5 plus years that I have had it.  My mortgage payment is normally $1,481, so this payment constituted an extra $639 towards the principal!!!  My goal is to pay off enough of the mortgage so that I can drop the pmi premiums next year.  I should reach 80% LTV in February of next year, but I won't be at 78% until August.  (Based on the original mortgage schedule, I was going to reach 80% LTV in September of 2020).  I'm so excited!! The pmi premium is $115  month, so by August of 2019, I will be able to add an extra $115 towards principal.  This is even more exciting because by August of 2019, I should have about $1,000 a month going towards principal (if I keep the extra $400 principal payments, the 115 additional principal payment and my required principal payment).  

ALSO, my mortgage balance is at $200,152.  SO with my December payment it will finally fall into the $100,000s!!!!!!!!

How I bought my house

I bought my house in 2013 for $247,000 on a conventional mortgage for 3.375%.  I put down 5% ($12,350) and ther fore my mortgage was for $234,650.  Today my mortgage balance is $209, 645. 

In 2012 I started saving pretty aggressive for a mortgage.  I had started a new job in 2011 making $70,000 (up from my previous salary of $62,500).  By the end of 2011 I had paid off my car, all credit card debt and a student loan.  For Christmas that year, we received a bonus of approximately $2000. I saved the majority of that bonus for a down payment on a house. By the beginning of 2012, the only debt that I had left was student loans.  I stopped making big extra payments on my student loans and started saving every dime that I could towards a down payment. We received a few small bonuses throughout the year (less than $400) and I saved those towards my down payment.  Also, I was careful not to spend all of my allotted spending categories and all of the extra went towards my down payment fund.  I already had several thousand dollars saved by the time that I started saving for my down payment.  I wish I could provide more detail, but I did not keep records of the exact amount that I had saved. 

In approximately November of 2012, my boss announced that I would receive a raise beginning in 2013.  In December of 2012, we received another $2000 Christmas bonus.  I saved the majority of that bonus towards my down payment fund.  I ended up having approximately $14,000 saved by the end of 2012. 

In January 2013 I received a 10% raise which brought my salary up to $77,000.  I saved all of the extra towards my down payment fund.  In March, I decided to start looking at houses.  I found a house I liked and put an offer that was accepted in April.  By that time I had approximately $19,000 saved for the mortgage.  We closed by the end of May and I was so sad to see my down payment fund dwindle to basically nothing.  I had separate amounts of money saved for moving expenses and a small budget for cleaning and minor improvements.  After I got into the new house, I again aggressively saved to beef up my EF savings.  Of course, that meant the many of the bigger projects did not get taken care of as the majority of my savings went to building my EF Fund.  We received another $2000 bonus for Christmas of 2013 and the majority of that went to savings. 

I basically scrimped and saved to make sure that I could afford a down payment.  I also cleaned up my credit score in 2011 by paying off debts and in 2012 by keeping my accounts current.  If I could do it differently, I probably would have waited to buy the house and saved more money for a down payment to avoid PMI. 

The mortgage numbers

I purchased my home in 2013 for $247,000 on a 30 year mortgage.  The mortgage was for $234,650, meaning I put down just 5% in order to purchase the home.  I am trying desperately to get rid of the PMI on my mortgage which is $115  per month.  I have been paying an extra $290 per month on the principal since approximately August or September of this year when I got my $5,000 raise.  Prior to that I was only paying an extra $150 per month on the mortgage.

 A sort of secret goal that I had for this year was to pay more in principal than I did in interest on the mortgage.  As of this month (maybe last month, I didn't do the math) I have accomplished that goal.  That is mostly thanks to the raise that I received (half of the net amount of the raise has been going to the mortgage).

Year-to-Date Totals
Principal	$6,283.81
Interest	$6,018.77

The current balance of the mortgage is $210,382.  I should easily make my goal of getting the mortgage under $210,000 by the end of the year.  My goal is to get rid of the PMI by the end of next year.  However, if I can get just get the mortgage under $200,000 I will still be quite pleased. 

Mortgage Updates

Welcome to Tuesday! Monday actually went by so quickly and that actually was nice.  I know I often complain about time flying, but a Monday going by quickly was pleasant. 

On to the important things! As I have previously blogged I have been making extra principal payments on the mortgage this year.  Finally, as of the end of September/beginning of October, I have paid more in principal payments than in interest payments! The numbers are as follows:
  

Principal	$5,549.78
Interest	$5,425.01

Yay!! It sucks that so much has gone towards interest, but I keep thinking of all of the interest I am saving by paying extra on the principal. I have to keep this post short as a I have to get on the road (the travel never ends!).  Have a wonderful day!

Mortgage Payments

Thanks for all of your helpful posts on retirement savings.  It provides some comfort to know that most people feel that if you just keep saving it will work out in the end!

In other news, I am excited to announce that for the first time since I obtained a mortgage I paid more in principal payments than I did in escrow payments (without counting my normal extra $150 payment to principal only)! My principal payment was $437.85 ($587.85 including my additional $150 principal payment), my escrow payment was $437.21. Additionally, my interest payment fell to below $600.  I "only" paid $599.53 in interest this month!

My real goal for the year is to pay more into principal (including extra payments) than interest for the year.  My year to date totals are as follows:

Principal $4,087.89
Interest $4,231.32

I'm getting so close!  I suspect I will have to make a slightly larger, principal only payment at the end of the year to make sure that I pay more in principal than interest, 

Extra mortgage payment

I was able to put an extra $195 principal payment on the mortgage for my March payment!  My mortgage balance is now down to $215, 503 (from $216, 127)!   My goal is to have the balance into the $214,000s with my end of March payment (for the first of April).

I am slowly but surely chipping away at the mortgage.  I can't wait until the balance falls down into the $100,000s.  I'm pretty sure this house is not my forever home, but I want to make a nice profit when I sell (instead of writing a check).

I can get rid of the PMI when the balance is down to approximately $197,000 so I have quite a long way to go.  I pay off approximately $6,000 of principal a year, so I have about 3 years to go (roughly).   I think I can get the balance down to $197,000 in about 2 years from now because I intend to dump as much extra as I can onto the mortgage this year.

I received a comment via email  (I rarely check my email guys, I'm sorry) from Emily about ways to get rid of the PMI.  Emily suggested refinancing in order to get rid of the PMI if the value of my house had increased enough.  While I hate paying PMI, I don't think refinancing is a good option in my case right now.  I have a very low interest rate and I don't want to lose that just to get rid of PMI. I also think zillow has over inflated the value of my home by about $15,000.  Nevertheless, I wanted to put Emily's suggestion out there, just in case anyone is looking for suggestions about how to get rid of PMI prematurely.

Happy first day of March! It will be Spring soon.

Escrow Shortage

Once again Wells Fargo has decided that I have an escrow shortage.  Not only do I have an escrow shortage, but my mortgage payment is also going up by $5 a month even if I pay the shortage.  (I already paid the $79.40 shortage).  Having a mortgage sucks. 

I would really like to have enough money to pay off the entire mortgage, however, for now all I can go is pay an extra $110 a month on the principal. I have a 87.7% loan to value ratio.  My PMI is scheduled to drop off on 9/1/20.  I hoping to get under 80% by sometime next year. 

Mortgage Update and Emergency Fund to the Rescue...Again!

I apologize for my absence, but I have been so busy lately! It's insane, I still have tons of stuff to do (work wise and personally). 

Anyways, I just wanted to announce that my mortgage balance has dropped to $219,998!! I have paid it off from $234,650 to the teens! This month $417 went to principal, $432 to escrow and the rest (over $600 if you did the math) to interest.  I also made an extra $91 principal only payment. Once I get my emergency back up to $15,000, I plan to start directing "found money" towards the mortgage balance.  I really want to get rid of the PMI payments, that will be an extra $115 that can go towards principal once I get the balance down to 80%! 

On to the emergency fund issue.  The A/C broke again this year.  The house is almost 14 years old and the unit is the same age. It looks like I may have to replace it soon.  I will likely wait another year or two before I replace it.  I need time to get my savings account back up to where it needs to be. Anyways, the cost was $275 to have the unit repaired.   Luckily, I had the cash available to pay for the repair.  No outstanding credit card bills for me!

Extra Principal Payment on the Mortgage

Today, for the first time in almost 2.5 years, I made a payment on my mortgage that had an extra $141 towards principal!  I have been wishing and hoping that I could put extra payments on my mortgage for some time now.  It meant more to me than paying off my last student loan.   I have not felt such elation in a long time.  I know it's not much and that I still have a long way to go, but it felt good. 

Uncertainty

So now that I am debt free (except for my mortgage), I have been struggling with where to focus my money.  I have a lot of goals and dreams: I want to pay down my mortgage to get rid of the PMI, I want to pay down the mortgage as much as possible, I want to save about $30,000 in my emergency fund, I want to put money in retirement, I want to start investing, I want to save up for new furniture and I want to save up for a new car, etc. 

When I was paying off debt, I focused all of my money towards getting rid of the debt.  So every extra dime when to the debt.  Now I feel like I no longer have that power of focus.  I have so many different goals now and each month each goal gets a little money.  I miss those $2,000+ payments a month.  I'm not sure where to go with my goals.  Should I cancel all of my other goals and save up the $5,500 for my roth ira?  Then once I get the $5,500 saved up for the year, move on to the next goal?

The problem is everything feels immediate to me now.  I stayed out of retirement savings for so long to pay off debt, I didn't save for a new car to pay off debt, etc.  So now I feel like I have to do everything at once.  It's very frustrating.  I thought everything would be soooo easy now that all of the debt has been paid off.

Unfortunately, I am a believer in diligence and I know that with time and patience good things can come to fruition. I know as long as I keep pecking away, I will meet my goals.  I'm just so impatient!!

Mortgage Payments

So when I arrived home from work yesterday I checked the mail and my yearly escrow analysis for my mortgage arrived.   The statement predicted a $182 shortage which means I can pay that $182 now or spread out during the course of the year. 

Sounds like Wells Fargo found out I paid off my student loans. 

Of course I will pay the $182 now.  I don't want my mortgage payment to go up.  In case hard times ever fall upon me, the smaller the mortgage payment the better.  I hate how it seems that the universe can sense a little extra money in your pocket. Oh well.

Now I just have to wait for the homeowner's association dues invoice to arrive...