December 2009 Mortgage Reduction Report
2009 is pretty much behind us now and we can reflect on the past 12 months. Looking back I am impressed with the goal we have set to pay off our $316,000 mortgage in 5 years but wonder if we will be able to make it happen. Shoot for the stars and if you hit the moon you have still done very well.
Our additional payment in December was limited to $2,800. Although this is short of our $4,700 monthly goal it does bring our mortgage balance under $250K which is quite the accomplishment considering that we started at $316K in August 2008.
In 2009 we made a total of $71,675.86 in mortgage payments. There were bi-weekly payments of $760.61 totaling $19,775.86 and additional mortgage payments of $51,900.00. In 17 months of payments we have brought our original mortgage balance down 21%. If we compare this to our original amortization period of 40 years we have a projected savings of $150K in interest and a new amortization period of 21.4 years if we do not make any more additional payments. I am very impressed with our progress.
I look forward to 2010 although I know we will have challenges meeting our monthly goal of an additional $4,700 put down against the mortgage. There are areas in our financial lives that can be improved. We should be able to save some money by reducing our restaurant meals. I also be car pooling to and from work for a majority of 2010 and that should save me $100 a month.
We look forward to sharing our progress with you in 2010.
Nice blog, impressive goal. You were correct that our mortgage payoff projects sound very similar. Here’s to your continued success.
Does your mortgage have any limitations on (or penalties for) prepayments? I understand from other Canadian bloggers (I live in the US myself) that many Canadian mortgages have such limitations. I was wondering what terms you are operating under.
Thanks for your comment!
Some mortgage do have limitations ranging from 5% – 25% on payment increases and lump sum payments. Some mortgages also have restrictions on when lump sums can be applied, such as just on the anniversary date.
Naturally that did not work for us. We are allowed to put down up to 20% of the original mortgage amount per year. Our only limitation is that we have to put down a minimum of $100. This works very well for us as I don’t think we will ever get to the point where we are putting down an additional $63,000 a year. Would be nice though.