DEBT FREE!!!

My dad used to ask us to "help" him with stuff but that generally entailed standing there and holding tools for him, which got boring quickly.

 

A lot of good advice in the previous posts, but I don't remember anyone asking you about your current interest rate. You might want to check into refinancing, then continuing with the same payments you're making now. The decreased interest rate will result in you paying off the mortgage more quickly. Also, if moving is an option, you might want to think about either downsizing or moving to another state. Your property tax alone is eating up almost $600/month.

 

WEEKLY mortgage payments.

That is a huge savings too, if your finances and mortgage allows it.

It will save you thousands in interest and months of payments. Most people will likely not even notice a difference in financial lifestyle of making the accelerated payments.

 

Interest rate is 3.75% which is fine for me, I understand the property taxes are $600 a month but for what I have here I think it’s a steal , I’ve got an acre and a half with a older Frank Lloyd Wright prairie style house and have been here for 20 years, Been married almost 44 years and never had any kids so that was an expense I never had to deal with

 

Copper roof? nice.

 

Yes it has a copper roof, along with 61 windows, each window has 9 separate glazed in pieces of glass

 

For how much of a money pit our trucks can be it's refreshing to see so many on this forum making sound financial decisions!

I'm pretty far into the "debt free/personal finance/financial independence/retire early" rabbit hole as well. I see where Dave Ramsey is coming from on debt except primary residence mortgage with sub 4% interest rate. That extra pay-down-quickly-money is better invested elsewhere first. So I keep the small mortgage kicking and instead follow this phenomenal flow chart maintained by a user on reddit to manage income. It makes it simple to work your way through the steps. Find yourself with a little extra pocket change or not making it to your goals fast enough? Start back at square one and continue optimizing.

I also started writing about it recently as another way to internalize the concepts at www.frugalfill.com

Here's some of my other top resources referenced over the years.


https://u.cubeupload.com/demonlesondledon/FIREFlowChart.png

 

Dave Ramsey is not so much about maximizing your money, more like risk mitigation.

 

Dave Ramsey is targeting mostly those who do not know how to manage their money, and getting out of debt, not so much maximizing money.
That would be more of a phase 2, investments.

 

I have been looking into this. Downside to the wife and I's current finances... is we both get paid bi-monthly, not bi-weekly. Now, if we used a joint account it could work, but we don't. Hers is hers and mine is ours.

 

It's hard to get serious with aggressive debt reduction with separate accounts. As long as you have separate accounts the Team goals are hard to accomplish.

 

Yup.

Joint bank account and shared everything since the day we got married 20y ago

 

We're the same way - next year is 25th. If you can't trust each other with your finances, you're not as close as the Lord meant for husband and wife to be.

 

That's the monthly trap most people live in. When you go to a car dealer they sometimes don't even show a vehicle price anymore! Just ask what you can afford per month.

The only reason to finance stuff like that is if you have the cash on hand but want to build credit or use credit cards for the points and payoff in full each month for 0 interest.

 

Try to do 15 year mortgage on home , rather than 30 years. You would be amazed how soon you can be debt free.

 

Does anyone have any good spreadsheets?

Here is one I use:
https://www.spreadsheetman.com/shop/p/mortgage-amortization-payments-and-paydown-analysis

It makes it pretty easy to throw extra $ at the house when you can see what it saves.