Category Archives: mortgage

12 months debt reduction progress

Posted on by
Reply

This morning I posted my progress report to my thread at the Simple Savings forum. It’s a year since I started tracking this financial goal to retire at the end of 2022, and when I added up my progress over the last year I was pleasantly surprised!

12 month debt reduction progress:

  • credit card debt reduced by $7,010
  • mortgage redraw reduced by $70,343
  • mortgage reduced by $17,661
  • Total debt reduction: $94,014

About half of that was money that my father left me unexpectedly. That means that we have been able to pay one whole wage towards debt over the last year!

My calculations tell me that we could retire reasonably comfortably on about $40-$45,000 a year, That would still allow us to travel and live life pretty much as we do now. Seeing that we have lived on about that amount of money without feeling deprived is really encouraging.

Well its back to work now after four days off over Easter.  Went for an hours walk earlier which was great and I’m feeling very motivated after seeing these numbers.  Just gotta keep plodding along towards that goal!

Chicken Soup & Mortgage Progress

Posted on by
Reply

Well at the moment I’m off work sick, feeling pretty second hand at the moment but at least I can rest up at home. DD made a lovely big pot of chicken soup and we’ve been eating that – its the perfect comfort food when we’re all sick with the latest bug thats doing the rounds.

I love making soup and I love eating soup! This recipe had lemongrass and ginger in it which gave it a lovely warm feeling on my sore throat. Its a recipe we’ll make again.

Here is the recipe she used: Chicken Stock & Soup Recipe.

On the mortgage front today I made some extra payments to bring the balance down to $158,975.  Thats takes us to the end of Year 10 on the original amortisation schedule.  It means we’ve paid 5% off the mortgage since we started this blog.  The next goal balance is $155,123 which will take us to end of year 11 balance.

To reach my end of year goal of <$100,000 we will need to pay $1475/week. A big goal but I’m going to just keep believing I can get there somehow. My extra work starts next week which will help but I still need to work on reducing expenses further.

Tomorrow I’m off to see my doctor for an annual checkup and then back home for the day to curl up on the lounge and rest.

Mortgage interest under $500.

Posted on by
2

The interest for the mortgage just got withdrawn for the month – $498.62.  I’m finally under $500 a month! I’ve put the monthly interest in the sidebar so I can track it.

I just paid $500 into the account to cover the interest. For a few months now I’ve been paying the monthly mortgage interest like a bill, to keep that balance moving downwards asap. Currently its $160,881.

I’ve also added another page with the amortisation schedule for the original mortgage – $200,000 over 30 years. We are almost at the balance for the end of Year 10.

To reach my 2018 goal of < $100,000 is not going to be easy, but I just keep focusing on that number and believing we can do it. I know I’ll have a nice big tax return to use and I have a meeting this week about extra work. All that income will go off the mortgage.

DH has had some hassles at his workplace over the last few weeks.Not sure how its going to turn out – wether it will settle down or wether they will offer him a payout. Hopefully it settles down and we can just keep on plodding along towards retirement!

* I added some photos to the post about our retirement unit: