Life Free at last, free at last, thank god almighty, I ...

**Rain Man** · 01-14-2013, 12:04 AM

... no longer have a mortgage, as of yesterday.

Yes, that's right, R8ers. I'm just like you but without the big rig skills. I'm debt free in the big One Three. I owe nothing to no man, and the flag planted in my soil is now my own, and my little empire is no longer claimed by foreign banking powers. From now on, I have a roof over my head as long as I keep current on my taxes and the government doesn't decide that they can make a profit by seizing it via the absolutely insane Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. City of New London

Yessirree, I'm part of the landed gentry now.

Please pardon me if any of this sounds boastful, but hey, I'm the landed gentry. If this was 1790 I could actually vote in an election, so I hope you'll patiently let me revel in it for a few moments.

As a little back story, I was always a responsible sort, and when I got out of college I had a plan to buy a home as quickly as possible and pay it off as quickly as possible so I could retire as quickly as possible. At the time, you could only get a 30-year mortgage, so I thought I'd buy a humble home and pay it off as quickly as possible, and live humbly to help afford the Delorean that I planned to buy as my splurge. So my goal was to pay the house off at 53 and have 12 good earning years until retirement.

For various reasons, that never worked out. I didn't buy my first property (a condo) until I was 31, and I was almost 33 when we bought this house. It was a fixer-upper, and over 12 years the rehab cost more than 1.5 times what the original house purchase cost. But we paid extra here and there, refinanced a few times as interest rates went down, and either paid cash for the rehab work or hammered the home equity loan payments to keep that debt under control. We got the home equity loan paid off eventually, and this year we hammered the payments pretty hard with extra payments.

So at the end of the day, despite a ten-year life detour, I sit here a month before my 50th birthday with a paid-for home and no debt at all, three years ahead of my original schedule. I am happy. I am smug. I carry within me an air of self-satisfaction that few men can match on this particular day unless they're Atlanta Falcons.

Anyone got a lead on a nice Delorean?

01-14-2013, 12:04 AM	Topic Starter
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3328491 VARSITY	Free at last, free at last, thank god almighty, I ... ... no longer have a mortgage, as of yesterday. Yes, that's right, R8ers. I'm just like you but without the big rig skills. I'm debt free in the big One Three. I owe nothing to no man, and the flag planted in my soil is now my own, and my little empire is no longer claimed by foreign banking powers. From now on, I have a roof over my head as long as I keep current on my taxes and the government doesn't decide that they can make a profit by seizing it via the absolutely insane Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. City of New London Yessirree, I'm part of the landed gentry now. Please pardon me if any of this sounds boastful, but hey, I'm the landed gentry. If this was 1790 I could actually vote in an election, so I hope you'll patiently let me revel in it for a few moments. As a little back story, I was always a responsible sort, and when I got out of college I had a plan to buy a home as quickly as possible and pay it off as quickly as possible so I could retire as quickly as possible. At the time, you could only get a 30-year mortgage, so I thought I'd buy a humble home and pay it off as quickly as possible, and live humbly to help afford the Delorean that I planned to buy as my splurge. So my goal was to pay the house off at 53 and have 12 good earning years until retirement. For various reasons, that never worked out. I didn't buy my first property (a condo) until I was 31, and I was almost 33 when we bought this house. It was a fixer-upper, and over 12 years the rehab cost more than 1.5 times what the original house purchase cost. But we paid extra here and there, refinanced a few times as interest rates went down, and either paid cash for the rehab work or hammered the home equity loan payments to keep that debt under control. We got the home equity loan paid off eventually, and this year we hammered the payments pretty hard with extra payments. So at the end of the day, despite a ten-year life detour, I sit here a month before my 50th birthday with a paid-for home and no debt at all, three years ahead of my original schedule. I am happy. I am smug. I carry within me an air of self-satisfaction that few men can match on this particular day unless they're Atlanta Falcons. Anyone got a lead on a nice Delorean?
Posts: 141,425