AND THEN THERE WERE TWELVE - REVISITED

In my blog post last May I wrote about our decision to accelerate the payoff of our mortgage. We had experienced a couple of financial close calls with our jobs and wanted to position ourselves in a less vulnerable place. We looked at the remaining balance of our mortgage and decided to throw everything we could scrape together at the principal balance of our mortgage. In May our goal was to pay off our mortgage by June 1, 2011.

Here is our update: We are nearing the end of 2010; we have revisited our goals and adjusted the date we think we can make the final payment. Our loan balance has been reduced to $26,250 and our revised goal is to cut it down to $20,500 by the end of the year. This will exceed our original goal by $4,500!

We are now looking at our last mortgage payment being May 1, 2011. This is a mere six months away and it will continue to require a significant sacrifice on our part. There is no guarantee that we won't have a setback that may require an adjustment but Lord willing we'll be celebrating with our last payment on May 1, 2011!

Closing the Escrow Account

We continue to move closer to paying off our mortgage; see my post, "And Then There Were Twelve!," last week we contacted our mortgage company and closed our escrow account. We would have to do our own escrow after we kill the mortgage anyway and I wanted to take this step now. The advantage of this is that we can have the money in our account drawing interest instead of giving that interest away to the mortgage company. Granted the interest income is very small right now but I'd rather have it in my pocket than theirs!

I was surprised by the speed in which we received our escrow check, I expected it to take a couple of weeks but it was in our mailbox three days later! The next step is to open another sub-account with ING and have the money automatically drafted from our checking account each month. By doing this when taxes and insurance bills are due we'll have the funds to pay the bills and we'll have earned some interest on the money as well.

AND THEN THERE WERE TWELVE!

In January of 2009 after my wife and I experienced a couple of close calls with budget cuts and staff reductions we decided to take charge of our financial future and get serious about paying off the mortgage on our home. We looked at the balance owed on our mortgage ($106,755) and the remaining term (23 years) and decided to take as much of my salary and any "extra" money we could find and throw it at the principal balance of our mortgage. Our goal was to pay it off by the end of 2013.



We wanted our goal to be significant, manageable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.



Significant - Paying off 106k in 5 years is a significant debt reduction.

Manageable - We felt that earmarking much of my salary was manageable.

Achievable - 5 years would be a major commitment but something that was achievable.

Realistic - No matter how you look at things on paper there are going to have to be adjustments and setbacks, so we planned for the "unexpected".

Time-Bound - We set a deadline to help us remain focused on our goal.



The first three months we struggled to find an extra $700 but then things began clicking! A bonus, a tax refund and another nice check had us on our way! By the end of 2009 we were fortunate to pay an extra $36,184 toward the principal! This left us with a balance of $65,000 at the beginning of 2010.



Regarding our goals; we felt we had met each one and significantly exceeded our expectations for the principal reduction. One really exciting thing was when the amount of principal became greater than the amount of interest paid with the regular payment each month.



So here we are nearing the middle of 2010; we have revisited our goals and adjusted the date we think we can make the final payment. Our balance has been reduced to $45,194.16 and our goal is to cut it down to $25,000 by the end of the year.



We are now looking at our last mortgage payment being June 1, 2011. that's still twelve months away and will continue to require a significant sacrifice on our part. There is no guarantee that we won't have a setback that may require an adjustment but Lord willing we'll be celebrating with our June 1, 2011 payment!

Spring has Sprung

The weather has warmed and the plants that surround our property are springing to life once again. Five years ago my wife and I set out to convert our yard, which was comprised almost totally in grass, to something more of an oasis for retreat and enjoyment. First came a small rose garden then A small area was converted to a vegetable garden. Slowly we have converted almost half of our lawn into gardens. We enjoy shade from our pear trees and fresh herbs from our herb garden. Last year we had a bumper crop of basil and plenty of rosemary to use over the winter. Our freezer still contains the bounty from a bumper crop of bell and banana peppers.

We recycled Easter Lilies from church a couple of years ago and they continue to multiply and bloom, alas never at Easter. Theresa, our next door neighbor, has shared from her Iris bounty and we have passed them along to others as well. We have a lovely Chinese rose given by friends in Arkansas and we have shipped cuttings of it across the street and across town.

This weekend we (my lovely wife) mowed the grass for the first time and this week I finished painting the porch that now provides shade and a cool refuge from the summer heat.

Yesterday we enjoyed putting out our hummingbird feeder and were delighted to find a tiny "scout" hummingbird enjoying some sweet nectar! Soon the garden will be in full bloom with Tiger and Day Lilies, hydrangeas, roses and so many other flowers that make our back yard a place where we can enjoy God's beauty and share it with others.

Roses & Thorns

Friday I was trimming our rose bushes and at one point a thorn went deep into the flesh of a finger. I gently removed the thorn and went on trimming but the tenderness continued for a couple of days.

I remembered that Jesus had been given a crown of thorns so I looked up the passage (Matthew 27:27-31). When Jesus had been sentenced to death the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They then took a staff and struck him on the head again and again.

Can you imagine the agony of those long thorns piercing his flesh not once but again and again as they were driven deeper by the relentless hammering of the staff.

This was only one of the terrible acts precipitated upon Jesus, the worst, of course was his actual death by crucifixion.

It makes one random thorn in my flesh seem pretty benign.

Thank you Jesus for sacrificing your life to reconcile me to God and enduring what should have been my fate.

Good Friday

Today at church we consumed the reserve sacrament, and at the end of the service the priest blew out the candle that was burning on the altar. At that moment what washed over me was the thought that this was just like the life of Christ being snuffed out on the cross for my sins.

How humbling it is to know that someone loved me so much to die for me and to reconcile me with God!